With Fang Chang anxiously working up the nerve, the little girl named Chen Xiaoqian led her to the rental house.
It was a large, detached house with a small yard of its own. The lot was fairly spacious, and the place had the feel of a traditional home.
The yard was spotless, with no mud or debris lying around. Two bicycles were parked beneath the lean-to beside it, both pink.
In an instant, the image of a harem-loving guy in Fang Chang’s mind dropped by ten percent.
Hmph! What kind of decent guy likes pink?
The front door stood open, and the smell of food wafted from the kitchen. Judging by the time, it really was mealtime. Chen Xiaoqian bounced inside and shouted, “Big bro! Come out and greet the guest!”
Fang Chang: “……”
Why could this little brat never say anything nice?!
At her call, the clatter of a spatula in the kitchen paused. Then a pretty, short-haired girl about 165 centimeters tall came out, wearing an apron printed with little Bears.
Fang Chang was sure she was a girl.
Because her chest didn’t look like it could be explained by pecs.
A younger sister, a house, and dead parents…
Fang Chang felt that things weren’t quite how she’d imagined. Chen Xiaoqian had built things up so much that Fang Chang had already given up on the possibility of some wildly inappropriate scenario. And now, just when she thought it was hopeless, everything had taken a sudden turn?
The short-haired girl gave Chen Xiaoqian a commanding tap on the head, then smiled at Fang Chang. But the moment their eyes met, Fang Chang saw something change abruptly around the girl.
A spirit was dwelling inside her.
A woman with bat wings growing from her back, nailed to a cross… A vampire!
The short-haired girl also saw that Fang Chang was different.
Sunk in shadow was the colossal Mother of Origin Poison, embodying motherhood and propagation.
They sensed that something was different about each other—and felt the reactions that stirred within themselves.
The same thought surfaced in both their minds.
Had the other person… seen right through them?
Then what about the other one…?
Fang Chang held out a hand and gave her ID. “0972.”
The short-haired girl understood at once. “1234.”
“That was quick.”
“Yeah. It went very smoothly!”
Chen Xiaoqian blinked, completely lost. “Big bro, do you know that big sis?”
Before Fang Chang could object, the short-haired girl answered, “We’ve met once or twice before. Why don’t you sit down first?”
Fang Chang sat on the couch, smoothed her skirt, and crossed her legs. Then she asked curiously, “Why does she call you ‘big bro’?”
Chen Xiaoqian pouted. “Because she doesn’t look like a big sis at all!”
The short-haired girl glared at her, and she immediately fell silent.
“Are you sure you want to rent a room? How long for?”
Seeing how casually she changed the subject, Fang Chang decided not to press her. Instead, she went along with it. “Something came up recently, so I’d like to rent for a month to start. Would that be okay?”
The short-haired girl had the air of the head of the household as she worked out the terms. “Five hundred for one month, utilities included. If you want to eat with us, give me another three hundred for food. And you know about the other conditions, right?”
Fang Chang nodded. But she felt bad about one thing. “I know all that, but I eat quite a lot. I’m worried you’ll lose money if I only pay three hundred.”
Chen Xiaoqian found an opening to butt in and bounced over at once. She patted Fang Chang’s little belly. Luckily, after Lu Nongxi had put her through the wringer, Fang Chang had gotten used to this sort of thing and managed not to let out an awkward yelp.
The little girl waved it off. “With a body that tiny, how much could you possibly eat? My big bro can put away five bowls of rice in one meal—eats more than a pig! At school, she’s—Ow! I’m sorry, don’t hit me!”
The short-haired girl dragged Chen Xiaoqian away, still smiling as she said, “Don’t worry about the food. I said three hundred, so it’s three hundred. Watch some TV for now. You can have lunch here, and afterward I’ll take you to pick a room. Oh, and about… we can talk about it another time.”
Fang Chang held back her questions and nodded. “Okay.”
Chen Xiaoqian’s bizarre voice rang out from the kitchen. “Big bro, did she confess to you before, too? It really feels like there’s something going on between you two—Ow, don’t—”
The food was ready before long.
Fang Chang also learned the short-haired girl’s name. It was very ordinary: Chen Xiaotan.
She’d cooked a lot, and judging by the time, she must’ve started before Fang Chang arrived. That proved Chen Xiaoqian hadn’t been exaggerating: Chen Xiaotan really was a bottomless pit.
But once Fang Chang started eating, all of that went out the window.
What had Fang Chang been eating before?
Nutrient solution!
High in nutrients! High quality!
And now?
Plain white rice!
Could the two even compare?
In the end, Fang Chang ate more than half the last pot of rice.
And at last, she felt full for the first time in ages.
Chen Xiaoqian poked Chen Xiaotan in the arm with the end of her chopsticks, then asked cautiously, “Big bro, are you full?”
“I…” Chen Xiaotan twisted her chopsticks in her small hands, looking embarrassed. “Um, I think I’ll have to raise the food fee to four hundred…”
Fang Chang awkwardly set down her chopsticks. At first, she really had tried to eat politely and hold back. But her stomach was empty, and the more she ate, the hungrier she got. In the end, she just couldn’t control herself.
“I’ll give you five hundred a month for food!”
After lunch, Fang Chang picked a room. Chen Xiaotan’s parents had left behind quite a lot, including bedding that was ready to use. There was even a TV in every room. It turned out her parents had rented the place too, so all this counted as their inheritance.
Fang Chang chose the room by the stairs on the second floor. Its one window faced a distant hillside where farmland had been returned to forest, which made it more convenient for her to move around.
“What a shame. If there weren’t any restrictions on renting here, I could keep living here even after I got my male body back. Dorms really aren’t safe.”
She transferred a thousand yuan to Chen Xiaotan by phone. Chen Xiaotan gave her three keys in return: one for the yard gate, one for the front door, and one for her room. After that, Fang Chang claimed she needed to unpack, shut the door, and began getting familiar with her own power and creating a walking substitute.
Shadowy power flooded the entire room. A sudden idea struck Fang Chang: she opened her inventory space and kept drawing on the power left in the other half of the Mother Nest’s corpse. Her little-girl body began to grow, showing signs of returning to the mature figure she’d had before.
“No. Creating a walking substitute is the priority. I can put restoring my body aside for now.”
Her body stopped changing.
A Void Space bubble appeared behind her. The power devoured from the Mother Nest’s corpse reacted inside it, and slowly, a male body took shape.
It was Fang Chang’s former body, but her careful sculpting had made it completely different. For instance, it had been a little chubby before, but now it was all muscle. Even its features had changed slightly. Under the influence of her main body’s bewitching power, even its once-ordinary appearance now held a touch of alluring charm.
The Void Space bubble turned inside out, wrapped around her main body, and concealed it within the walking substitute.
