Click.

She slipped the key back into her pocket, opened the front door, and stepped inside.

The apartment was about a hundred square meters—not huge, but not small, either. In the capital of China, it was already an incredibly spacious home.

How many young people could work their whole lives and still not afford even a bathroom in this city?

And this place was near the city center, too. With an apartment like this, was Mo Zhiyuan some kind of rich girl after all?

Not necessarily.

She was so broke that this apartment was all she had left.

Once inside, Mo Zhiyuan tapped a metal plate hanging on the wall four times with her knuckles, in a steady rhythm. It roughly meant: “I’m home.”

Thump, thump, thump...

Light footsteps came from a bedroom around the corner. Mo Zhiyuan had just taken off her shoes when someone appeared in front of her.

Long, sleek silver hair. Eyes as blue as the sea. About the same height as Mo Zhiyuan, with a delicate, doll-like face.

The girl held a piece of cardboard in front of her chest. It read: “Success? Failure?”

Ah... That’s what she asks me as soon as I get home...?

Mo Zhiyuan flashed a bright smile and gave her a “yeah” sign. Her youthful face was brimming with a sweet, carefree energy.

The girl in front of her barely changed expression, but her blue eyes glimmered like rippling water.

Noticing how sweaty Mo Zhiyuan was, she reached out and smoothed the damp strands of hair stuck to the side of her face. Then she flipped the cardboard over. “How about a shower first?”

“Mm.”

Mo Zhiyuan made a faint, wordless sound. She agreed that it was about time for a shower, so she wrote on the board:

“Xiaoxiao, could you get me some clothes?”

The girl Mo Zhiyuan called “Xiaoxiao” nodded and turned to go into the bedroom.

The bathroom was just off the hallway. Mo Zhiyuan opened the door and began unbuttoning her shirt. Then, almost without thinking, she glanced up at the mirror—and suddenly felt uneasy.

Gulp...

The sound of her swallowing.

A week had passed since it happened, but she still found it hard to look directly at her new body.

After all, even when viewed with the most critical eye, the girl in the mirror was a flawless existence, her skin as smooth as cream with a faint, luminous sheen. Her chest rose and fell with roughly a C-cup fullness, and her two sleek, smooth legs were pressed tightly together in tension, so close that not even a sheet of paper could slip between them.

So pretty...

Is this... me?

I could just keep admiring myself...

【As expected of me!】

Mo Zhiyuan gave herself a thoroughly narcissistic compliment, quickly peeled off her sweat-soaked clothes, and put them in the washing machine. Then she started washing up.

Ohhh! So this is the refreshing feeling you get after a hard day’s work? I’m going to sleep so well tonight~~

That was all just wishful thinking. What she really thought was:

—Ah... I’m exhausted... Who knew finding a job would be this hard?

—Yikes, this is seriously bad... I’m doomed...

My hair... It’s tangled again. Never mind, I’ll just wash it like this.

Mo Zhiyuan knelt on the floor with her head tipped back, enjoying the spray of the shower. It felt as if the water were washing away her exhaustion, little by little, and her vision grew hazy.

Tap, tap, tap...

The bathroom door opened. Mo Zhiyuan turned and saw Xiaoxiao come in and set a fresh change of clothes on the table.

Mo Zhiyuan thought that was all, but Xiaoxiao raised her sign again. It read: “I’ll help you.”

Then she came closer, not minding the wet floor, and knelt behind Mo Zhiyuan to wash her waist-length hair.

Warmth spread through Mo Zhiyuan’s heart.

She really wasn’t very good at washing all that long hair. After all, she’d only been a girl for a few days. Having someone help was more than welcome.

Still, she was a grown woman. Having her daughter wash her hair for her made her feel a little guilty...

Mo Xiaoxiao—her daughter.

Of course, Mo Zhiyuan wasn’t her biological mother.

Even so, the two of them were more like siblings. Judging by their looks alone, they were only six or seven years apart.

Though now... Mo Zhiyuan looked about the same age as Mo Xiaoxiao—and was even shorter than her.

As far as Mo Zhiyuan knew, her daughter couldn’t speak, so the two of them usually communicated with a piece of cardboard. But, well...

Now Mo Zhiyuan had to use one, too.

Some time ago, she’d made an ill-advised remark because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. When she woke up after that, everything had changed.

Not only had she lost her little buddy, she’d turned into a girl. Well, becoming a girl might’ve been fine if she at least looked good, but...

It was going to be hard for her to speak ever again.

That was the one thing she just couldn’t accept!

It wasn’t that Mo Zhiyuan couldn’t speak at all. She could, if she really wanted to—it just came at a price...

And Mo Zhiyuan couldn’t afford that price.

For now, she had to live by the principle of “making every word count.”

The first step was getting used to communicating with a piece of cardboard, just like her daughter, Mo Xiaoxiao.

Why not use sign language?

Because sign language wasn’t very practical in this society. Ask people on the street, and 99.9 percent of them wouldn’t understand it. Mo Zhiyuan didn’t have the time or energy to learn.

Splash...

A large basin of hot water poured over her head, rinsing the foam from Mo Zhiyuan’s body and leaving her skin with a soft sheen.

“Mmm, mmm, mmm...”

Mo Zhiyuan shook her head, flicking away the droplets. Her silver-white hair clung to her back, like wings unfurling across fresh snow.

Turning around, she saw that Mo Xiaoxiao was soaked through, the faint outline of her figure vaguely visible beneath the white shirt.

—Thanks for your hard work.

Mo Zhiyuan’s eyes made the meaning clear. Mo Xiaoxiao nodded softly, then began changing out of her own wet clothes...

Mo Zhiyuan had already gotten dressed and left the bathroom before Mo Xiaoxiao had finished changing.

Looking at herself was one thing. Looking at someone else was completely different.

She went back to the bedroom and flopped face-first onto the bed. She’d spent all day running around, and after her shower the exhaustion hit even harder. Her body was at its limit. It was hard to imagine how she’d managed to hold the household together with such frail shoulders.

“Tomorrow... I still have... work...”

She murmured a few words with her little mouth before sleep claimed her. The girl drifted off, still groggy.

Her face was flushed, and her eyes were gently closed. Even asleep, she had a striking, hard-to-describe loveliness.

A little over ten minutes later, Mo Xiaoxiao quietly came to the bedside in her light pajamas. She reached out tenderly and brushed Mo Zhiyuan’s cheek, then slipped under the covers.

Night fell so suddenly, without a sound or a sign.

In the bustling city, only silence remained—everlasting within this little home...