A Morning’s Unveiling and a Bento Surprise

The starlit night gave way to the nascent dawn.

A gentle warmth from the morning sun kissed Li Chunsheng’s face, a ticklish sensation that gradually roused him from slumber.

“Ah—what a wonderfully deep sleep,” Li Chunsheng murmured, rubbing his eyes as he sat up from the bed.

He had to admit, a workout before bed truly did wonders for one’s sleep.

“Speaking of which…” Li Chunsheng’s gaze slowly drifted, settling upon the floor.

However, the sight he anticipated was nowhere to be found.

“I distinctly remember tossing the tissue here last night…”

Any lingering drowsiness vanished from Li Chunsheng’s face, replaced by a sudden surge of alertness as he shot upright.

“No, this can’t be! Where’s my tissue? The tissue holding my precious treasure?” He frantically dropped to his hands and knees, scouring the floor for the crumpled wad.

It wasn’t under the bed, nor beneath the desk.

This was utterly wrong! He had thrown it right beside the bed just yesterday!

“M-my… where is my tissue, a tissue of such significance?” Li Chunsheng couldn’t help but exclaim.

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” From outside the bedroom, Liuxia, having heard Li Chunsheng’s stirrings, pushed the door open and peered in, her face alight with curiosity as she observed him sprawled on the floor.

“Chunsheng, what are you doing? Why are you on the floor so early in the morning?” the girl inquired, her head tilted, dressed in an ill-fitting shirt and apron.

Li Chunsheng’s face tightened in alarm as he noticed Liuxia entering. ‘Oh no,’ he thought, ‘I’m so used to living alone, I forgot to lock the door!’

Though he was truly sweating profusely, he feigned nonchalance, letting out a hearty laugh. “Hahaha—good morning, Senior! Actually, I, Li Chunsheng, have a habit of morning exercise!”

“That’s right, morning exercise!” he declared, then dropped to the floor and performed several push-ups with impeccable form.

“Is that so… Chunsheng is certainly disciplined,” Liuxia remarked, showing no hint of suspicion. As she observed Li Chunsheng’s well-defined physique—muscular yet neither bulky nor bloated—a flicker of envy touched her eyes.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other so openly; Chunsheng has truly become this strong,” the girl mused, a touch of envy in her tone. She understood perfectly well the immense effort and resources required to achieve such a physique.

After all, Liuxia, when she was still a man, had poured considerable effort and money into physical training to gain the approval of a girl she liked.

However… in the end, it had not turned out as she had hoped.

Now, having become a goblin, she no longer had any reason to strive in that regard.

“Never mind, I won’t dwell on sad things,” Liuxia sighed inwardly, then offered Li Chunsheng a warm smile. “You must be hungry, right? Senior has prepared breakfast; come out and eat!”

Though he still wished to search further for his ’tissue-chan,’ Li Chunsheng felt too awkward to continue with his senior present.

“Oh, by the way, Senior woke up early this morning and gave the apartment a thorough cleaning,” Liuxia casually mentioned as they made their way to the dining room, as if it were an idle thought.

“?!?!”

Li Chunsheng’s expression froze, and his voice quivered slightly as he stammered, “Y-you… Senior, you woke up early to clean?”

“Indeed,” Liuxia replied, a triumphant smile gracing her lips. “I even went into your room to tidy up, Chunsheng! Weren’t you completely undisturbed? That’s Senior’s housekeeping skill, honed over many years, you know?”

“Wow—that’s truly amazing,” Li Chunsheng uttered, his face ashen, his tone almost a flat recitation.

‘This is bad, this is bad, this is terrible! Given the circumstances, my tissue, which I tossed in the room, must have been discovered!’

Li Chunsheng covertly scrutinized Liuxia’s expression, desperate to discern any tell-tale signs, trying to gauge whether his senior—this girl—had indeed uncovered his secret.

‘Please let it have merely been swept away as ordinary trash, please let it have merely been swept away as ordinary trash…’ he prayed silently in his heart.

Yet, fate had other plans. Liuxia, as if struck by a sudden thought, a faint blush dusting her cheeks, cleared her throat and began, “However, Chunsheng, even if you are a boy, it’s still better not to be too… casual in your personal habits…”

“What do you mean?” Li Chunsheng suddenly noticed his senior seemed to instinctively glance towards his pants.

The instant he realized this, Li Chunsheng felt as if he’d been struck by lightning, his entire being drained of color.

Liuxia watched her junior’s pitiable appearance, a pang of reluctance in her heart. The girl hadn’t originally intended to bring up such a topic. After all, she had once been a man and naturally understood the male psyche. Young men, in particular, were brimming with energy and occasionally needed to engage in some ‘pulping’ civil engineering work.

If she could, Liuxia would have preferred to turn a blind eye to it.

“However…” the girl couldn’t help but recall the scene from that morning when she had entered her junior’s bedroom to clean.

A rich, floral scent had assailed her, a fragrance that ordinarily would be off-putting, yet now—it was utterly delightful.

Having transformed into a goblin, the girl’s senses had been magnified countless times over. Scents that might go unnoticed by ordinary people were overwhelmingly apparent to her.

Had it not been for her junior, who, while experimenting with his abilities just last night, had fed Liuxia some of his blood, significantly curbing her appetite, even then, upon seeing those traces…

At this thought, Liuxia vigorously shook her head, striving to banish the rising hunger from her mind.

Fortunately, the girl possessed enough rationality to flush all of it down the drain; otherwise, Liuxia’s last shred of male dignity would have been irrevocably lost that very morning.

‘But… as long as Chunsheng remains a boy, such incidents… will be unavoidable, bound to recur sooner or later,’ the girl mused.

However, a certain philosopher once said that the best way to overcome a temptation is not to learn to endure it, but to prevent it from ever appearing in one’s life in the first place.

Liuxia wholeheartedly agreed, and thus decided to offer Li Chunsheng a reminder—at the very least, to encourage him to manage his personal hygiene better.

Or perhaps, when engaging in ‘pulping’ work, he could simply use the bathroom…

And so, the two ‘brothers’—one utterly distracted, the other burdened by heavy thoughts—sat in the dining room, partaking in their modest breakfast: two bowls of egg noodles.

“Oh, Senior,” Li Chunsheng suddenly recalled an important matter while slurping his noodles, “I’m planning to find a way to get you an identity later…”

“…” Liuxia’s heart tightened, and she offered a forced smile. “This matter… actually… there’s no real rush.”

“If you do that, Chunsheng, you’ll likely come into contact with various forces, both legitimate and illicit, won’t you? It’s quite dangerous,” the girl cautioned.

For some reason, Liuxia was disinclined to hear Li Chunsheng speak of such things, even though regaining an identity should undoubtedly be a beneficial prospect for the girl.

“Senior, I will be careful.”

“…All right then. Just… please be very careful,” Liuxia conceded, having no valid reason to refuse, and simply nodded in agreement.

After finishing breakfast, Li Chunsheng tidied himself up, preparing to leave for work as he always did.

However, just as he opened the apartment door, Liuxia suddenly called out from behind him. “Wait, Chunsheng, take this…” she said, extending an object in her hand.

“This is…” Li Chunsheng caught the object, and upon closer inspection, saw it was a black box.

The small box, wrapped in a white cloth, felt surprisingly heavy—it was unmistakably a bento box.

Li Chunsheng’s pupils constricted, and his hands began to tremble.

“This… could this be, the legendary love-wife bento!”

Having lived two lives, this was the first time Li Chunsheng had ever received something so mythical, and from a ‘woman’ at that.

Even though it was made by his senior… but! His senior now possessed the appearance of a beautiful girl! Li Chunsheng found he could, just slightly, deceive himself.

“Truly, thank you so much… Senior!” Li Chunsheng exclaimed, his eyes welling with tears, as he bowed his head in gratitude to Liuxia.

“You’re being far too dramatic,” Liuxia chuckled, half-amused and half-exasperated, as she straightened Li Chunsheng’s slightly disheveled collar. “All right, hurry off to work.”

“If you leave any later, you’ll miss the bus.”

“Understood!” Li Chunsheng snapped to attention, saluted Liuxia, and then swiftly dashed away, his jubilant demeanor entirely dispelling the earlier gloom of his morning embarrassment being discovered.

“That boy…” Liuxia chuckled softly, watching her junior depart until he was out of sight, before slowly returning inside the apartment.

Surveying the small apartment she had just finished cleaning, Liuxia lightly tapped her forehead.

“Oh dear… I was so energetic earlier, I left nothing for myself to do.”

“Now that Chunsheng is gone, what am I supposed to do?”

Liuxia gently settled onto the sofa, as an immense silence enveloped the entire apartment, pressing in on the girl who had only just escaped her predicament.

“A house without my junior… feels a little… lonely,” Liuxia mused. Before she realized it, she had wandered into Li Chunsheng’s room and lay down on his still-warm bed.

“Chunsheng’s scent…” Enveloped by her junior’s aroma, an inexplicable sense of peace settled over the girl. “It smells wonderful, yet it doesn’t make me want to eat him; it’s comforting…”

Truth be told, sleeping on the sofa had not been comfortable, especially with her mind so preoccupied.

“Perhaps I should just get a little sleep? I only need to wake up before Chunsheng returns…”