“Huh… this place feels good, like a breeze lifting paint dust.”

Yue Liuyi pushed the wheelchair carrying Little Rose and rolled into the Flame Ruins Gang’s workshop, the wheels whispering like swallows skimming a pond.

They called it a workshop, but it breathed like a studio—tables crowded with brushes and spray cans like a bamboo grove, and walls hung with battered cardboard, each sheet splashed with wild, laughing shapes.

This was street art—Yue Liuyi had heard the name—and their work ran free like a river after rain; motorbike-tanks, warship-guns, iron beasts clustering like storm clouds.

“Wow, this looks so fun,” she said, voice bright as sparklers in dusk.

“Little miss, you flatter us… it’s all quick scrawls, just roadside smoke.” Luyao scratched his hair, fingers combing a crimson thicket.

“Mmm… the air’s calm here, like a quiet pond. Let’s talk business.”

She looked around; the studio felt hushed as snowfall, with a table that invited conversation like tea steaming between friends.

“Business?”

“I know the cause of the terror attack. And Luyao, you took in three men in black, right? I should tell you where they’re from.”

“Oh… sorry, I didn’t mean to doubt you… it’s just…”

“Just that it’s important, right? I get it, like a sealed letter you open with care.”

She paused; a few gang lads were inside, stacking cardboard like bricks in a sunlit alley.

“Red-hair Bro! My Angel Sis needs to talk serious. Can you clear your guys out?”

“Is it that important?”

“Yeah. What I’m about to say is a tight-kept secret, like a lantern hidden under cloth. Luyao, please don’t tell anyone.”

Yue Liuyi nodded, gaze steady as a blue sky after rain; her eyes were clean lakes that made Luyao’s heart loosen like frost melting.

“Got it. I won’t tell a soul,” he said, waving his hand like a flag. The lads whooshed off like sparrows startled from a branch.

“Go ahead, little miss.”

“Mmm… I…”

She met Luyao’s eyes, then words snagged like silk on thorns; her white teeth flashed, cherry lips soft as spring petals.

“Don’t worry. I swear on my life—I won’t breathe a word.”

“It’s not that I doubt you… it’s just…”

She hesitated, then shook her head, jaw tightening like a blade sheathed hard, and dropped the killing line:

“Uh… Luyao! I’m actually… a boy!!!!!!!!!!!!”

…

…

…

Yue Liuyi didn’t lie to her companions; that was a line in the sand, like a temple bell that won’t ring false.

Since she chose to work with Luyao, the blue-haired maiden laid it bare like moonlight on water: she was a boy.

Even if the impact on Luyao landed like thunder on a clear day.

“A b—boy…?”

The red-haired youth froze, mouth gaping like you could plug an apple right in.

“Yup. That kind of boy. Literally.”

She nodded, fist pressed to her chest like a vow carved on wood.

“L-little miss, you’re joking… how could you be… a boy…”

“Right now I’m a girl. But I grew up as a boy. Those sketchbooks of anime girls, those cute-girl shows? I watched ’em all.”

It felt hard to say this as a “girl,” like walking barefoot on cold stone, but facing someone “like her,” Yue Liuyi let her guard down like a window opened to night air.

She didn’t notice how her fringe fell like silk, how her face was soft as jade, how her round bust curved like ripe fruit—all of it made the claim wobble like a paper kite in wind.

So Luyao only shook his head, denying the tide.

“No. I don’t buy it… you’re too cute. No way you’re a boy.”

“Uu… then I’ll tell you a secret only boys know.”

Yue Liuyi leaned in, whispering beside him like rain tapping beneath an eave.

…

…

…

“Waa! Angel Sis is mean! You won’t tell Little Rose what you said!”

The red-haired loli tugged Yue Liuyi’s skirt like a kitten clutching a ribbon, eyes glittering with nosy starlight.

“Mmm… not for maidens, okay? Let it rest like a sealed teacup.”

She shook her head; even as the World Tree Maiden, her mind tilted a bit male, like a willow bending toward wind.

Otherwise she wouldn’t love LittleSnow; she’d be led off by some handsome guy like a crane lured by a mirror—except Gong Linxun, never that one.

While the two girls chirped bright as morning birds, the fearsome leader of the Flame Ruins Gang, Luyao, had gone completely limp; he sprawled in a chair, breathing, but his eyes were dusk—no light, like a husk.

“…”

“Luyao…”

“…”

“Are… are you still alive?”

“…”

“Uu…”

With no reply, Yue Liuyi leaned closer, worry like a cloud filling her chest. She was just a boy, right? Could that shake him like an earthquake?

She didn’t expect that a small wave of her hand would snap him awake like a bell struck.

“Luyao!?”

“I get it!”

Luyao’s eyes flew wide, fixed straight ahead like a blade finding its line.

“Y-you get it?”

“Yeah! You grew up as a boy, but something changed and made you a girl, right?”

“Mmm… you could… say that.”

“Haha! Now I get it! So that’s why I…”

Luyao sprang from the chair like a spark leaping from steel.

“Huh?”

“I, Luyao, hate petty, small-hearted women—like vinegar spilled on silk. But you’ve got a boy’s spine and a face that’s stunning as moon on water. That’s perfect. That’s an angel.”

“Huh?”

“A real man should be like this, little brother! I like you, a lot. Not weird at all.”

(How did it turn into this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Watching Luyao stride into a new world like a door blown open, Yue Liuyi collapsed into the chair, stunned, like a kite cut loose.