The moment she realized how cute the girl in the mirror was, an overwhelming confusion followed.

“I...?! ”

The girl opened her mouth without thinking. But just as she was about to make a sound, her throat suddenly tightened, and the words that had reached her lips were swallowed back down.

What was that just now?!

Her throat felt raw and unfamiliar.

Ding—

“System bound.”

Huh? A system?

There was no need to doubt it. The voice had sounded inside her head—there was no way it could be a trick.

Besides, she’d already turned into a girl. Having a system on top of that wasn’t all that strange.

As she gazed at the girl in the mirror, lovely as a flower at dawn, Mo Yuchuan’s expression slowly turned delighted.

Nice!

A girl! A soft, squishy girl!

Her brief confusion gave way to overwhelming joy.

Humans are creatures who seek excitement. When you’re tired of your identity, your life, or even your gender, and you spend all day with nothing to do, who wouldn’t be tempted by an opportunity to turn your old life upside down?

If you wouldn’t, then you’re simply not tired of your current life.

“Ahem—no, no, that’s not right. Calm down... I need to calm down...”

As a seasoned anime nerd, Mo Yuchuan was thrilled by the changes to her body. Keeping her thoughts clear, she set her sights on the system.

“System, system. Answer a few questions for me.”

“Come on, answer me! Hello?”

She called out softly several times in a row, but got no response.

“Damn it, useless system! Could you at least respond?”

“Ding—”

A rather sci-fi-looking virtual panel appeared in front of Mo Yuchuan, displaying all kinds of stats.

—Host Information

Name: Mo Zhiyuan

Gender: A soft, squishy girl~~

Age: Forever 17!

Height/Weight: 1.52 m / 42 kg

......

Below that was a string of stats—health, fullness, body temperature, and so on. Mo Yuchuan couldn’t spare them a glance. Her attention lingered on the name field.

“Mo Zhiyuan...”

The girl’s eyes dimmed slightly, as if some unpleasant memory had come back to her.

—Was it fate? Or some kind of entanglement?

—Why... did it have to be this name?

After a long moment, a spark returned to the girl’s eyes. Some nameless emotion stirred within her—sadness, pain, perhaps even guilt......

“Fine... From now on, I’ll be Mo Zhiyuan.”

“If it’s this name...”

Mo Yu... No. She should be called Mo Zhiyuan now.

After talking herself through it several times, she understood that she couldn’t go on using her old name. And for certain special reasons, she accepted this one.

But what she really ought to be worrying about right now was the fact that she’d turned into a cute girl, wasn’t it?

Novelty took up most of her thoughts. As for losing “little Yuchuan”...... She’d heard that, for girls, that sort of thing felt dozens, even hundreds of times more intense than it did for boys?

Ehehehe~~

She was truly living in this body now. It didn’t quite feel real yet, but it was a fact, and there was nothing she could do about it, whether she accepted it or not.

There’s a saying: If you can’t fight it, you might as well enjoy it!

Mo Zhiyuan skimmed further down. One line caught her eye and drew all her attention.

—Ability: Word Spirit

“An ability?”

Mo Zhiyuan was secretly astonished. This was a thing?

In this world, people with special abilities weren’t hidden from the public like they were in novels. Everyone knew they existed.

After all, there were quite a lot of ability users. With the internet as widespread as it was now, there was no way to keep them hidden.

These days, ability users lived in the same society as ordinary people. Most were registered, though a small number lived in the gray areas without ever registering.

Still...... Word Spirit sounded pretty cool.

Mo Zhiyuan kept reading. The farther down she went, the more her features twisted.

“The Word Spirit ability is activated through spoken words and follows the principle of equivalent exchange. One hundred yuan is deducted per character, with the amount appropriately increased depending on the effect?!”

What the hell!

How many characters had I just said?

Mo Zhiyuan counted on her fingers. Halfway through, she stopped because her heart hurt too much, then rolled around on the bed in despair.

She’d spent around nine thousand yuan. Her entire savings amounted to just over twenty-five thousand, and nearly half of it had vanished in one go!

[No, no, this has to be a scam. Let me check my account.]

Mo Zhiyuan hurriedly took out her phone and checked her account balance.

“Dear customer, the balance of your **** Bank account ending in **** is 16,417.38.”

Holy crap!!!

How could this be? What payment method had it used? Could she get the money back by filing a complaint with the bank?

Mo Zhiyuan quickly tapped through her phone again, checking what she’d bought to make the balance drop. The result read:

“On August 26, 2020, at 10:43 a.m., you spent 9,400 yuan at the Taobao store ‘Songbirds in Flight Adult Toys.’ You are now a valued member of this store.”

The hell I did! Am I that desperate? I spent over nine thousand yuan on your so-called adult toys?!

How am I supposed to ask for a refund now? What if they think I’m some kind of creep?!

Mo Zhiyuan had a whole string of curses on the tip of her tongue. Should she say them and lose more money, or keep quiet and stew? The more she thought about it, the more unfair it felt!

Damn it!

Who could let money get the better of them? Instead of paying to run her mouth and getting nothing out of it, she’d better think of a plan first.

First of all, one hundred yuan per character, with an appropriate increase depending on the effect. What exactly did “appropriate” mean?

“Mmmmmm.......” Mo Zhiyuan nodded as if she knew exactly what she was doing.

Then she suddenly froze.

[Did I... just make a sound?]

She immediately picked up her phone. Thankfully, there was no charge notification. A minute passed, and still nothing happened.

“Phew.......” Mo Zhiyuan let out a long breath. It seemed simple sounds didn’t count as a charge. Her ability to speak hadn’t been completely taken away.

But after thinking it over, Mo Zhiyuan started to feel something was off.

—What was this supposed to mean?

—Was it so I could make “mmhmm and ahh~” sounds without paying?

—Well, thank you so damn much! How thoughtful of you to look out for my wallet.

“Mmm... ahh~~”

With a cute little hum, the blanket in her arms suddenly shifted. A small silver-haired head poked out from underneath. The blanket rose, then slid down, revealing a girl about the same size as Mo Zhiyuan.

Like Mo Zhiyuan, she had long silver hair that fell to her waist, though hers leaned more toward silver-gray, as if it shimmered with stardust. Her clear, bright eyes sparkled even more beautifully than the clearest blue sapphires. Long lashes trembled faintly, as though holding droplets of dew, above softly parted, rosy lips......

Her skin was as pure and white as fresh-fallen snow, so smooth it looked like it might break at a touch. It was even softer and fairer than a freshly peeled egg.

This was Mo Zhiyuan’s daughter, Mo Xiaoxiao.

They’d been together for nearly seven years. When Mo Zhiyuan first met her, she was only a little over twelve, while Mo Zhiyuan had just started her first year of high school. The money her parents had left behind was what had kept her going all this time.

“Ah, sor—”

Mo Zhiyuan managed to choke back the word “ry” in her throat.

One character cost one hundred yuan. She’d just lost another two hundred.

Mo Zhiyuan’s eyes drooped in utter despair. She had no idea how to explain who she was to the daughter standing in front of her.

Like a little cat, Mo Xiaoxiao raised both arms above her head and stretched, her body curving into an arch. She radiated utter laziness from head to toe. After letting out a comfortable sigh through her slightly parted lips, she picked up a piece of cardboard beside her and scrawled a line on it.

“Big brother was so noisy last night. Talking in his sleep.”

Then she rubbed her eyes and fixed her gaze on Mo Zhiyuan.

“......”

After a brief silence, it felt as if the air itself had frozen in place.

Suddenly, Mo Xiaoxiao leaned forward and pressed herself against Mo Zhiyuan, carefully sniffing all over her.

A little while later, the girl sat up straight and looked her over from side to side. She picked up the cardboard from beside the bed, scribbled on it, then held it against her chest and tilted her little head as she looked at her.

“Big brother?”

Mo Zhiyuan nodded, blushing. She felt a little embarrassed that Mo Xiaoxiao was still calling her “big brother.”

She’d always called her that before, and that was why their relationship felt more like brother and sister. But could she still claim that title now?

She took the girl’s cardboard and, after a moment’s thought, wrote: “Xiaoxiao, how did you recognize me?”

“Your smell.”

“......”

Mo Zhiyuan couldn’t help sniffing her own arm. All she could smell was something sweet and creamy. What about her resembled the old her, who’d practically reeked of manliness?

“Um, Xiaoxiao—”

Mo Zhiyuan wanted to slap herself.

Why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut?

There went another few hundred yuan.

With no other option, Mo Zhiyuan took Mo Xiaoxiao’s cardboard again. She thought for a long time, but had no idea where to start explaining, so she simply tossed the question back to Xiaoxiao.

“Anything you want to ask?”

“Big brother, how did you turn into this?”

Mo Zhiyuan felt there was far too much to explain. Even a few hundred words wouldn’t be enough. Thinking of how good Mo Xiaoxiao was at understanding things, she wrote a very concise answer:

“I woke up. Transformed. System. Get it?”

Mo Xiaoxiao: “???”

By family relationship, Xiaoxiao is Zhiyuan’s daughter, and Zhiyuan is her parent (father/mother). Emotionally, they’re like siblings.

Zhiyuan sees Xiaoxiao as her daughter; Xiaoxiao just happens to be used to calling Zhiyuan “big brother.”