While awaiting the start of class, Huang Xiu discreetly observed her three new competitors.
They were the kind of academic overachievers who had arrived even earlier than she had, making it imperative to understand her competition.
Though the final assessment for this elective course did not count towards her academic GPA, it offered a substantial fifty practical credits.
That was the equivalent of five Soldier-rank Dragon Abominations!
In the absence of any adorable Dragon Abominations to ‘fish’ for, every single credit was exceptionally precious to Huang Xiu.
As she observed them, a subtle unease began to prick at Huang Xiu.
First, there was the boy. He kept his head bowed, remaining silent, exuding the air of someone deeply introverted. Yet, every movement he made possessed an indescribable grace.
Such innate elegance was rarely cultivated without significant upbringing from a young age. Huang Xiu instantly surmised that this boy’s family background was far from ordinary; he was either a scion of wealth or a descendant of an Awakened individual.
However, this very elegance struck Huang Xiu as incongruous, as if it didn’t quite belong to him.
Next were the two girls, both vibrant and beautiful.
One, whose identity mirrored Huang Xiu’s, wore the same short-sleeved, short-trousered school uniform. She completed her look with a white bucket hat adorned with a cat motif.
The other girl wore a plaid skirt uniform, her long hair cascading elegantly.
Huang Xiu was certain she had never encountered either of them before. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, their mannerisms and expressions felt strangely familiar.
Perhaps feeling Huang Xiu’s undisguised gaze, the girl in the plaid skirt shyly turned her face away, taking a sip from the bottled water on the table.
As she raised her arm, a faint blue object shimmered subtly on the inner side of her bicep.
‘What was that?’
It was merely a fleeting glimpse, and Huang Xiu hadn’t seen it clearly, but she was certain it wasn’t a mere pendant.
“Class is about to start, and there are only three of us. Are the others truly so unconcerned?”
Even for an elective that didn’t affect her GPA, the fifty credits awarded for achieving an excellent grade should have commanded more attention.
Huang Xiu waited, expecting more students to enter the conference room.
Oddly, however, not a single additional student arrived, even after the class bell rang.
‘Could it be that only the four of us are in this class?!’
At this realization, Huang Xiu’s gaze shifted to the other three occupants of the room, her eyes now filled with a different kind of scrutiny. These three, having distinguished themselves from so many others, would undoubtedly be strong contenders for her scholarship.
Crunch!
The conference room door opened, admitting a beautiful female teacher in jeans and a crop top.
The teacher closed the door, the click of the lock echoing as she secured it.
“Thank you for waiting, everyone,” the teacher said with a gentle smile.
She quickly walked past the four students and took a seat at the short end of the rectangular conference table, gesturing for them to draw closer.
“Please, everyone, move a little closer. For a class of just four, it feels quite empty if we’re so spread out.”
The four students exchanged glances before two by two, they moved to sit on either side of her. The girl in the plaid skirt settled beside Huang Xiu.
“I apologize for encroaching upon your Wednesday evening rest, but the school, considering your unique circumstances, deemed this elective course absolutely essential. Hence, this unavoidable arrangement,” the female teacher explained with a smile.
‘Unique circumstances? Isn’t this a reinforcement course?’ A sudden, unsettling premonition stirred within Huang Xiu.
She turned to observe her three classmates.
The boy and the girl in the bucket hat seemed to have anticipated the course, showing no surprise whatsoever. Only the girl in the plaid skirt had a flicker of confusion and bewilderment cross her face.
Clearly, she was as clueless as Huang Xiu herself.
At that moment, Huang Xiu desperately wanted to nudge the girl beside her and ask a question. However, with five people seated so closely, any whispered conversation would be impossible.
“Let me introduce myself. My name is Nanmen Xiu. I am a psychology teacher, and also the instructor for this psychological counseling class.”
Huang Xiu: “???” ‘What in the world is a psychology teacher?!’
She couldn’t help but speak up. “Isn’t this a reinforcement course? And I don’t think I need any extra psychological classes.”
She was a perfectly normal university student; even online, she’d only be deemed ‘naively innocent.’ Why would she need psychological counseling?
The girl in the plaid skirt nodded vigorously in agreement.
“Of course this isn’t a reinforcement course,” Nanmen Xiu said with a helpless sigh.
“The classes you attend during the day are more than enough for you to process. Why would we schedule another one like this?”
“Also,”
She looked at Huang Xiu, smiling with narrowed eyes, her voice soft and soothing, like someone calming a startled cat.
“Huang Xiu, please don’t be hasty. Whether you need a psychology class or not is an assessment the school has made for you. You can at least listen first.”
Nanmen Xiu blinked. “Moreover, this class is worth fifty credits! Just by listening, you can earn fifty credits. Isn’t that a worthwhile deal?”
Ultimately, swayed by the prospect of fifty credits, Huang Xiu, who preferred gentle persuasion over forceful demands, was reluctantly appeased.
She was determined to see what this ‘psychology class’ was truly about.
“All of you who have been chosen share a common issue, one that our school hopes to help you overcome.”
Nanmen Xiu’s lips parted slightly.
“Some of you may already know: it’s the issue of a mismatch between psychological gender and biological s*x.”
Even with a vague suspicion already stirring in her heart, hearing the answer materialize into reality was still too soon for Huang Xiu.
The secret she had carefully guarded was now exposed before strangers, and a potent wave of shame, coupled with an inexplicable sense of inferiority, surged through her.
She almost instinctively rose to flee the classroom.
But before she could stand, her gaze swept over the other three people in the room.
Another thought abruptly surfaced: ‘Are they my kind? How did they cope? What is their current mindset?’
These questions gnawed at Huang Xiu’s heart like a cat’s claws, compelling her to forcefully suppress her urge to escape.
Huang Xiu’s face was cold, a clear manifestation of her displeasure.
This time, as her gaze once again swept over her three classmates, all the previous anomalies found their answers.
The elegant aura about the delicate-looking boy felt incongruous precisely because his demeanor, rather than being gentlemanly, resembled that of a young lady.
As for the mannerisms and expressions of the two girls…
They were not unlike her own after her transformation, still retaining a strong masculine style. That was why they felt so strangely familiar!
Huang Xiu realized she wasn’t seeing two girls, but two other men in the world, trapped in female bodies just like her!
“Damn!” Huang Xiu cursed under her breath.
Her gaze towards the three no longer held the competitiveness of a rival, but gradually softened.
“Are you trying to make us align our psychological and biological genders?” she asked Nanmen Xiu.
“That is our objective,” Nanmen Xiu nodded openly. “But rest assured, we will not force you to ‘correct’ yourselves. You are who you believe yourselves to be.”
She looked at the other three, her gaze sincere.
“We are merely providing a platform for you to communicate with each other, to find your own reasons for unifying your mind and body.”
“But I think this is pointless,” Huang Xiu stated coldly.
“Communicate? Pour out my heart and soul? Impossible!”
While her reaction might have seemed overly intense, she had already decided to forfeit these fifty credits and simply skip the next class. After all, what were fifty credits? With a single touchpoint, she could easily earn that much.
“Communicate?” The girl in the bucket hat pressed down on the brim of her hat with both hands, her tone laced with confusion.
Evidently, while she understood the course’s purpose, she was unaware of its specific teaching methods.
“Yes, you can share anything you wish in this conference room. You are kindred spirits and friends.”
Nanmen Xiu gestured downwards with both hands. “You don’t need to worry; nothing discussed in this room will ever leave it.”
“We often say that shared joy doubles, and shared sorrow halves. If you have any reservations, perhaps you can start by sharing something joyful.”
Seeing that no one was willing to be the first to speak, Nanmen Xiu tilted her head and smiled. “How about I start the sharing?”
The others remained noncommittal, simply observing in silence. Even the most naive person, having experienced something as profound as a transformation, would tend towards caution and seclusion.
“I’m pregnant recently.”
Nanmen Xiu touched her belly, her face beaming with happiness.
“Congratulations,” Huang Xiu murmured softly.
“I was a boy in my first year of high school!” Nanmen Xiu dropped a bombshell.
Even the boy with his head bowed looked up, staring at her in surprise.
Huang Xiu swallowed, her voice somewhat strained. “Are you saying you transformed, found a husband, and now have a child?”
“Otherwise, why do you think I’m teaching this class? Because I’m one of you, too!” Nanmen Xiu retorted with a playful smile.
Accepting the reality of transformation, finding a husband, and having a child—these were feats Huang Xiu believed she couldn’t achieve even with a decade or more. What an incredibly strong mindset!
She struggled for a long moment before finally managing to say, “Teacher… your mindset is truly admirable.”
“Oh, no, not at all,” Nanmen Xiu said, shaking her head.
“I remember I resisted it even more than you do now. I even tried dating girls, but it didn’t work out in the end.”
“Of course, all that is in the past now.”
At this moment, she spoke of her past without reservation, not at all like a teacher, but more like a senior female student chatting with them.
Nanmen Xiu mischievously asked, “By the way, does anyone want to see photos of me when I was a boy, or pictures of my current husband?”
Upon hearing this, all four students stiffened, their eyes instantly alight with eager curiosity.
“Yes, please!” Huang Xiu nodded earnestly.
“Me too!” the girl in the plaid skirt raised her hand, and the other two also nodded, expressing their desire to see.
“Then let’s start with introductions first.”
Nanmen Xiu took out her phone, flipped through it, then placed it face down on the conference table.
“Introductions are fine, right? I’ll show you after you’ve introduced yourselves.”
Who would go first? The four looked at each other, and finally, the somewhat effeminate boy stood up.
“I’ll go first. My name is Li Yurou… from Class Eight.”
Even though he only stated his name, everyone gleaned something from it. ‘This person was probably a girl who became a boy,’ Huang Xiu surmised.
Following the clockwise order, it was the bucket hat girl’s turn. She pressed down on her hat, stood up, and said, “My name is Jiang Qing. I’m a student from Class Four.”
“My name is Chen Molian… from Class Two,” the girl in the plaid skirt to Huang Xiu’s right announced as she stood up.
This time, taking advantage of her standing, Huang Xiu specifically observed the inner side of her right arm. Beneath the sleeve of her short-sleeved top, on the fair bicep near the elbow crease, a small, blue, diamond-shaped object was faintly visible. The incandescent light shone upon it, casting a blue halo.
‘It looks a bit like scales… or fish scales?’
Huang Xiu stroked her chin, then stood up. “My name is Huang Xiu, a student from Class One.”
As soon as she sat down, Nanmen Xiu smiled and said, “Oh, I know you! The strongest freshman in a decade, the only S-rank! Your reputation precedes you, even for a humble teacher like me.”
“Is that so…” Huang Xiu demurely twirled a strand of hair.
Upon hearing Nanmen Xiu’s words, Li Yurou and Jiang Qing, who hadn’t known Huang Xiu previously, instantly understood her identity. Both looked at Huang Xiu with a touch of surprise.
Li Yurou even spoke up, “So… you’re the one who defeated my cousin.”
“Your cousin?” Huang Xiu pondered, unable to recall ever defeating someone with the surname Ji.
“It’s nothing,” Li Yurou waved her hand, indicating she had no intention of elaborating.
“Since the introductions are done, let me show you photos of me from when I was a boy,” Nanmen Xiu interjected, smoothly taking over the conversation.
She picked up her phone and opened it.
Immediately, four small heads clustered around.
Huang Xiu was certain that even if a hundred-yuan bill lay on the floor, no one would spare it a glance.
On the phone screen was a refined-looking boy in a school uniform, holding a basketball in a shooting stance.
“Wow, is that really what you looked like before, Teacher?” Chen Molian asked, surprised.
Nanmen Xiu smiled. “Yes, that’s me. Now that you’ve seen that, let me show you pictures of my husband.”
With a gentle swipe, the next photo pushed the previous one to the left. It was an engagement photo.
Nanmen Xiu, radiant in a pristine white wedding dress, leaned against the tall, suit-clad Xu Gaoxuan. Both wore beaming smiles, their eyes filled with profound affection for each other.
At this sight, Huang Xiu was utterly stunned. Nanmen Xiu’s husband was none other than Teacher Xu Gaoxuan, who had intervened in the Void Realm that very day! Was the world truly so small?
However, upon closer thought, she realized it made perfect sense. Both were exceptional students who had remained at the school, making their paths very likely to cross.
“Ah, you know my husband! He’s wonderful!”
Watching Nanmen Xiu’s face, her happiness more difficult to suppress than an AK-47’s recoil as she spoke of Xu Gaoxuan, Huang Xiu felt an inexplicable mouthful of ‘dog food’ force-fed to her.
For a moment, she even wondered if this class wasn’t for discussion and exchange, but rather for Nanmen Xiu to flaunt her affection!
“Would you like me to tell you how I met your Teacher Xu, and how I changed my mindset?” Nanmen Xiu asked, her eyes sparkling with mirth.