After finishing the honey water, Minghai leaned back on the sofa, closed her eyes, and rested.

The room fell silent again.

I sat carefully on the sofa—

Minghai had been gone a full three days this time. At first, I thought she’d gone home to explain… well, the whole thing about becoming a woman. If she’d truly sorted it out with her family, she wouldn’t have needed to come back here…

But now? She didn’t look like she’d just visited home. More like she’d been on a long trip, handling something urgent—

Honestly, her vanishing like this isn’t okay. Sure, she probably won’t run into danger… but biologically, she’s a woman now. Society isn’t that safe. What if someone had ill intentions? It’s possible.

After a quiet moment, I murmured, “Uh… Minghai?”

Still reclined, she didn’t move—only slightly opened her eyes, her gaze drifting toward me.

I smiled. “Next time, don’t just disappear without a word. Where were you these three days? I thought you’d gone missing… almost called the police. Even if you had business, a heads-up would’ve been nice, right?”

She stayed slumped back, her dark, non-reflective eyes tilting down to meet mine.

I held the smile, met her stare a beat, then rubbed my nose and looked away—her face was deathly pale, zero color. Without glasses, the shadows under her eyes stood out starkly. For a second, she looked like a ghost.

After a long pause, she whispered, “Programming.”

I blinked. “…Huh?”

She pushed herself up with effort, grabbed her glasses from the table, wiped the lenses on her shirt, and put them on. Eyes locked on the screen, she jerked the mouse wheel—*scratch, scratch*—scanning upward repeatedly before sighing softly:

“The campus attendance app for X University… a freelance gig. Needs full development and testing in two weeks. My quote was low, so I got it. Racing the deadline now…”

“Also handled some identity stuff. My case is… sensitive. Took serious effort to enroll in a self-study university program. Tuition and dorm fees? Problem. Regular part-time won’t cut it. So I’m chasing higher-paying short-term coding gigs.”

I listened closely. Every word made sense alone—but strung together? Confusing.

After thinking it over, I asked, “Uh… do you need money?”

Her eyes stayed glued to the screen. A faint twitch at the corner of her mouth—almost a smile.

Rare for her. She turned, held my gaze, voice calm: “Funny… Did you think for the past month and a half I’ve just been eating, sleeping, lazing in bed like a pig?”

“Money? Of course I need money.”

“Lu Ren. Remember that day? A month and a half ago. When I came to your place. The day I became a woman—do you know what I wanted to do? *Do you?*”

As she spoke, she leaned closer, that faint, ambiguous smile fixed on her lips.

A chill ran down my spine. I sank deeper into the sofa, swallowed hard. “What? Blow up the Pentagon?”

She froze mid-lean, eyes locked on mine, voice barely a whisper: “I wanted to kill someone.”

I swallowed again.

She leaned back, slumping lazily into the cushions, eyes shut, motionless.

Softly: “Picture this… There was once a guy named Chu Minghai. Since high school, he taught himself economics. Swallowed his pride, begged his dad for business advice. Borrowed his first capital—with a five-year promise…”

“Painful process, but he launched a small company under his dad’s name—*without* messing up school.”

I nodded. Yeah, I knew. Minghai ran a company in high school—*Wow*. A high schooler with his own business… Outcome wasn’t great, and I think only I knew. Back then, I thought he was insane-level impressive.

“You know the rest. Dragged down by fools. Company collapsed. Dad disappointed. Cut off support. Told to fend for himself. So he realized: too early to start up. Used his last savings to return to school. Got admitted early with solid grades…”

“He barely scraped by. Then—just as he’d mastered his major, spent big on textbooks, prepping for a finance master’s degree, planning his comeback… *Boom*.” Eyes still closed, she placed hands on her chest, mimed an explosion outward.

I stayed quiet, face serious, staring at the floor—but inside, I muttered:

*So… went from zero cup size to an A-cup?*

“Lu Ren… then I became a woman.”

“To you, it’s just a gender change. I’m still Chu Minghai. My mind, my attitude, my drive—unchanged. But another way? The day I became a woman… *Chu Minghai the man died*. Everything he built vanished. His identity. Savings saved to prove himself. Degree. Every effort. Every asset under his name—all void.”

“And now? This Chu Minghai… *she* has nothing. Appeared from nowhere. Doesn’t even have an elementary school diploma. Everything resets. Scrapped. Rebuilt.”

“Put it your way: Imagine grinding an RPG for over ten years. Plot hits climax. You gear up for the final challenge… then—*poof*—the console deletes your save.

You try everything. Save’s gone. No recovery. Desperate, you restart… only to find the difficulty dial locked. *Hell Mode only*. How would you feel?”

I had no words.