Rounding the corner, Aya Tone froze, realizing she had stumbled into Li Jia’s room. Immediately, she scrambled off the bed, her limbs flailing in a panicked attempt to escape. ‘Gods, if Li Jia finds me here, she’ll surely carve me into eighteen pieces.’ In the past, she wouldn’t have been so flustered, but times had changed! Li Jia knew her true form was male! ‘You bastard, brother, you’re going to be the death of me!’ Aya Tone mumbled to herself, her hands working ceaselessly as she plotted her escape before Li Jia could discover her presence.
Just as she reached the corner, a dark silhouette enveloped her.
“What the fu— Li!”
Before she could finish, a silver-white streak of magic struck her squarely on the head.
‘Jia…?’ Confusion still clouded Aya Tone’s eyes as her body went limp, collapsing directly onto the floor. Fortunately, the hotel had thoughtfully provided carpets in every room, sparing her from any further bumps or bruises as she fell.
“Aya Tone!!!”
Upon recognizing the fallen figure, Li Jia found her wand already cast, too late to retract. Watching Aya Tone collapse, she hastily discarded her wand and frantically scooped up the petite body. Aya Tone was incredibly light, making it effortless to lift her. Li Jia tenderly carried her to the bed. ‘I messed up again…’
Li Jia gently stroked Aya Tone’s forehead, which was red and swollen from her own misjudgment. However… moments later… her delicate hands began to stray, tracing the youthful contours of Aya Tone’s small face. Intermittent sounds of swallowing and strange gasps escaped Li Jia’s lips.
A normal person, after knocking someone unconscious, would first panic, then check on the victim, and finally make decisions based on their condition. Evidently, Li Jia was far from normal, neither in her mind nor her actions.
****
Early the next morning.
The young woman stirred, emerging from the covers with a soft groan. Her disheveled hair, like tangled seaweed, fanned across her shoulders, her eyes still heavy with sleep, a lingering languor in their depths. She shuffled in her fuzzy slippers, her steps unsteady as she made her way to the window. Sunlight, filtering through the sheer curtains, softly bathed her form, casting a hazy silhouette on the floor. She raised a hand to rub her eyes, then slowly drew back the curtains, allowing bright light to instantly flood the entire room.
Stretching languidly, she let out a contented sigh. ‘I slept, but why does my body feel so weary?’
“Hmm?”
In her drowsy state, Aya Tone accidentally brushed against the bump on her head. Instantly! A sharp, agonizing pain ripped through her, dispelling all traces of sleep from her eyes. ‘W-what the hell! My head hurts so much! What happened?!’
She turned towards the washbasin, observing her slightly haggard reflection in the mirror—a look that suggested a night of wild abandon—and couldn’t help but pout. Yet, that wasn’t what she truly sought to examine. There, on her forehead, a large bump protruded, glowing with an unnatural reddish-purple hue. She cautiously raised a hand, and the moment her fingertip grazed the swelling, a piercing agony shot through her entire body, making her gasp sharply. Tears welled in her eyes.
‘When did I hit my head?!’ Aya Tone looked utterly bewildered, unable to recall any memory of the large bump on her forehead. ‘Could it have been aliens? Erasing my memories?’ Lost in such random thoughts, a wisp of healing light already manifested in her hand, which she gently pressed against the swelling.
“Hmm… huh?” Her small head tilted. ‘??? Why am I in my transformed state? I’m screwed…’
****
After agonizing in the washroom for half an hour, Aya Tone finally mustered the courage to step out of her respawn point. ‘The ugly daughter-in-law must eventually face the in-laws. Might as well die! What if things aren’t as… dire… as I imagine? Maybe I just opened another room for myself, right? It must be!’ Subconsciously, Aya Tone dismissed the two most undesirable answers, fabricating a third possibility to deceive herself. ‘What if…’
But upon seeing the figure lying on the bed, ‘Oh no, ‘what if’ is gone.’
‘No!’ Aya Tone squeezed her eyes shut in agony, refusing to accept this reality. ‘A lone man and a woman, together in one room… It’s over, everything’s over.’ Filled with indignation and despair, she fled, as if escaping a nightmare, straight to the hotel’s rooftop.
As she dazedly departed the room, Li Jia slowly opened her eyes from the bed, alluringly trailing her tongue across her lips, savoring the lingering taste. ‘One day, Aya Tone will belong entirely to her, and her alone!’
****
On the rooftop, the space beside Aya Tone abruptly fractured, and Ao Yu stepped out.
“What do you want with me so early in the morning?” He surveyed the surrounding scenery, a hint of surprise in his voice. “One step forward and it’s a hundred meters down. Playing such a dangerous game? You’re not contemplating anything rash, are you? This height isn’t enough to die from.” He mused, “A rooftop only a few hundred meters high—how could anyone successfully commit suicide? It’s like a swimmer trying to drown themselves in a river; their body’s survival instinct would instinctively make them float.”
“It’s not that…” Aya Tone recounted the events of waking up in Li Jia’s room that morning. “What am I supposed to do?”
“That’s all?” Ao Yu’s expression turned peculiar after hearing the story’s genesis.
“Ah—” Aya Tone’s face crumpled, and she burst into a torrent of mournful sobs, weeping with truly wretched despair. ‘Decades of being single, only to suddenly lose my purity in one night. If Li Jia demands I take responsibility… that won’t do. I have no money, and I’m a single father. Those two would never let their daughter marry me. The only possibility is becoming a live-in son-in-law…’ She already envisioned herself as the son-in-law, being insulted by Xiao Ming and scorned by Li Jia’s parents.
Ao Yu’s mouth twitched. He considered not offering any comfort. After all, watching his little brother squirm was quite amusing. ‘Eh…’
“Little brother,” he began, “aren’t you in a female body right now? For girls to sleep together, isn’t that perfectly normal?”
“Huh?” Her tears instantly ceased. “‘You’re right, it is.’ Aya Tone suddenly realized that not a single part of her current body was male. Take responsibility for what? Girls cuddling together was a perfectly normal thing. ‘Why didn’t I think of that? It seems my brain hasn’t been working properly since this morning. Could it be because I hit my head?'”
“Brother, do you know why I have this big bump on my head?” As she spoke, Aya Tone lifted her hair, revealing her still slightly red and swollen forehead. Although she had attempted healing magic, her panic midway through had interrupted the treatment. Now, the large bump had subsided by more than half, leaving only a slight ripple on her otherwise smooth forehead, yet it remained distinctly visible.
“Little brother! You went too far!” Ao Yu exclaimed in surprise. “To make the higher-ups believe the monsters bred in the dungeon are truly troublesome, you actually banged yourself up like this. That truly moves me.”
“Is that so?” Aya Tone looked skeptical. She had a nagging feeling that things weren’t as Ao Yu described. ‘It was something I did to myself.’
“Truly, believe me.”
This, of course, was a lie. A faint trace of spatial magic still lingered on the bump, clearly indicating that the girl named Li Jia was responsible. However, it was a matter between the young couple, and it was best not to meddle. Ao Yu’s sincere gaze successfully dispelled the doubts in Aya Tone’s heart.