Lishan’s awake? Huo Tong was overjoyed. She slipped on her shoes and crossed to the bed opposite in just a couple of steps.
She reached for the curtain, paused for a moment, then Huo Tong pulled aside the flimsy screen separating them.
The woman’s pale, delicate hand rested on her ample chest. She looked dazed, her willow-leaf brows furrowed and her eyes full of confusion, with a hint of cool detachment.
Mm… That absentminded boob-groping technique is textbook. And that icy, uninterested look checks out too. This is definitely Mu Dameili Snow Mountain’s very own main peak.
“Lishan?”
Huo Tong called softly. The words sounded like a question, but her voice was certain.
The icy woman on the bed touched her hair again. At the sound of Huo Tong’s voice, she raised her wary eyes and met Huo Tong’s gaze.
“I… Why am I here? What happened? Did you bring me here?”
It wasn’t that she was being paranoid. Anyone who woke up after getting drunk to find herself lying in a hospital, with a distinctly feminine body, would get suspicious if a stranger suddenly acted like she knew her and called her by name.
“I’m not that powerful. Feel your chest, then take a look at what you’ve got down there. You’ll figure out what happened.”
Huo Tong shook her head without hesitation. Then, unconcerned, she sat on the edge of the other woman’s bed and added,
Huo Tong wasn’t surprised by her reaction. When she’d first woken up, she’d been just as lost. Lishan had blacked out that night, too. She probably didn’t even know she’d been hit by a car and killed.
Huo Tong watched Mu Lishan touch her face and neck, then stare at her skin for a long time. At last, she lifted the blanket a little, her brows drawing together.
“You know what happened to you now? You’ve turned into a girl. I had a hard time believing it at first, too, but try to look on the bright side—you’ve been one from the start.”
Huo Tong gave Mu Lishan’s shoulder a supposedly comforting pat. Seeing her still wearing that cold expression, she teased her,
“Look at you now. What an ice beauty.”
With a grin, Huo Tong picked up the little round mirror from the bedside cabinet, held it in her palm, and angled it toward Mu Lishan.
The woman in the mirror had an icy, distant air about her, with a fine nose, red lips, pearly teeth, and stern eyes.
“Are you a patient here too? I’m curious what kind of hospital performs gender-reassignment surgery on someone without their consent.” Mu Lishan’s emotions were all over the place. She sighed and turned to Huo Tong with the question.
Seeing that she’d gotten the wrong idea, Huo Tong could barely keep it together. She stifled a laugh and said,
“I am a patient, but there’s no conspiracy here like you’re imagining. This isn’t America. I’m Huo Tong.”
Huo Tong? Mu Lishan didn’t believe her at all. She fell silent for a long while, seemingly sorting through her questions and piecing together what had happened.
After getting nowhere, she looked again at the strange girl in front of her, who claimed to be Huo Tong, and asked softly:
“You say you’re Huo Tong. What proof do you have?”
“You’re adjusting pretty fast…” Huo Tong knew when to be serious. She stopped joking, sat up straight, and said, “How do you want me to answer? Should you ask me questions to test me?”
“I’ll ask two questions. If you answer both correctly, I’ll believe you.” Mu Lishan thought it over for a moment, then said it, though she still wasn’t entirely sure.
At least Huo Tong knew she’d been hit by a car and transmigrated. Mu Lishan only knew she’d had a drink and woken up looking like this.
Now a woman half a head shorter than Huo Tong was standing beside her, claiming, “I’m Huo Tong.” Mu Lishan had no reason to believe her. She could only think she’d been sent to Thailand or Korea.
“Sure, go ahead.” Huo Tong looked perfectly cool and collected.
“What caused the severe fracture in his left hand?” Mu Lishan asked.
“He was fighting alongside you. One night in our sophomore year, Guan Changjie from the bioengineering department couldn’t stand how cold and distant you always were. The department beauty was interested in you and turned him down, so he gathered more than a dozen people and ambushed you in an alley.”
Huo Tong shrugged and recounted it casually, as if it were nothing.
“Old Wang and I had been waiting for you, but when you didn’t show up, we doubled back to look for you. That bastard didn’t hold back. I took a hard swing of an iron rod meant for your head, and ended up in the hospital for half the summer.”
“Wang Shengyu broke a rib, too.” Mu Lishan picked up where Huo Tong left off. She lowered her eyes, and some of the coolness had faded from her voice.
“But he broke the bones of nearly ten people, too. He spent a year at military school, and when he fights, he’s nothing like when he’s chatting with women. He’s never backed down.” Huo Tong made a little fist and gave it a punch, then went on.
“Do you believe me now?”
“There’s still one more question.” Mu Lishan’s thoughts were churning, but her voice remained calm.
She believed her a little now. When Guan Changjie tried to sue him over that incident, Mu Lishan’s father had suppressed the matter. Only a handful of people involved knew about it.
“Where did he and I go in our senior year, only to get lost?”
“Haiquan Mountain. You rode your usual motorcycle, and borrowed me a white one. We drove north, deep into the mountains. We got lost, and there was no GPS signal. We thought we’d die out there, but luckily we ran into some hikers.”
“A Honda CB1300 and a Suzuki Hayabusa. Do you remember the sunset that person showed us? What did I say to you then?” Mu Lishan supplied the names of the bikes. Her gaze softened.
“Of course. We looked down from the cliff, and the waterfall was like a painting. The sunset and red clouds made the maple leaves in the forest even redder. You said you didn’t want to spend your whole life following a plan—letting the leaves turn yellow and fall naturally. You said that was the only way to live.”
Huo Tong gazed out the window, looking a little wistful.
She turned back to Mu Lishan. The coldness she usually wore had faded, replaced by some of the easy familiarity she showed when the two of them were together.
“Believe me now?” she asked.
“How could I not? Wang Shengyu is my childhood friend, and even he doesn’t know about that last part.” Mu Lishan smiled faintly, a trace of sadness in her expression. On that ice beauty, it made her strangely easy to pity.
The trip had taken place the day before her father demanded that she take over the company. She and Huo Tong had traveled a long way to vent the pressure she’d been under. It had been the most beautiful sunset, and only Huo Tong knew what she’d said that day.
“So what’s going on with us now? We had a few drinks, and somehow ended up in Thailand looking like half-women?”
Huo Tong saw that she was asking about the real issue, and that her imagination had run wild. She shook her head and said,
“It’s not Thailand. I already told you—we’re the real deal, genuine women, the kind who can have children.”
Huo Tong seriously explained what had happened: how she’d blacked out, been hit and killed by a car, transmigrated, and found herself in a different world.
Mu Lishan was clearly surprised by what she heard, but it wasn’t all that hard for her to accept.
After all, her life had always been set in stone. She could take this change in stride.
Becoming a woman left her a little speechless, but compared with the result of a trip to the neighboring country, this was easier to accept.
“So your name now uses the Tong from ‘wutong tree’?” Mu Lishan noticed the character in her name.
“That’s right, Miss Mu Lishan.”
Huo Tong chuckled and put extra emphasis on her new name. But seeing how uncomfortable she was with it, Huo Tong decided not to tease her any further.
“All right, you know what’s going on now, right? I’m going to find a doctor. Stay put in your room, and don’t go getting your face messed up.”
Huo Tong let her know, then got up and headed for the door. At the same time, her phone rang.
She closed the door and checked her phone. Mm… Chongqing Forest had finally replied.
