The long corridor was lit by only a few scattered lamps, making it dim and eerie. The two of them shuffled along, and in the blink of an eye they reached Room 330. Wang Ping had done his part, so he headed back to his own dorm room.
"Wang Ping's a pretty thoughtful guy." Watching him walk away, Su Yuan shook her head, pulled a key from her pocket, and unlocked the door.
Being drunk felt awful. Su Yuan was still fairly clearheaded, but wave after wave of exhaustion washed over her, and she seemed to reek of alcohol. She raised a hand and sniffed it, then took her toiletries and a change of underwear from the cupboard and went into the bathroom to wash up.
In the room, Ji Yehao and Gao Jun were already asleep. Going to bed at eleven was a good routine their dorm had established.
The sound of running water filled the bathroom as warm droplets fell over her body. A wave of comfort seemed to seep through every pore. As she rubbed herself clean, Su Yuan no longer felt the bashful, fragile shyness of a water lily unable to withstand the slightest breeze that she had experienced the previous times. Growing up was a process of getting used to things. Whether she accepted it naturally or gave up resisting, she had to come to terms with it.
But as the changes to her body became more obvious, her increasingly sensitive touch had become impossible to ignore. Every time she showered, the problem became painfully apparent, troubling her endlessly.
Her body was like a tender bamboo shoot breaking through the soil, changing dramatically with each passing day. As she gently rubbed her skin, the delicacy and softness beneath her fingertips sent a clear sensation through her nerves. Su Yuan could feel some of the flesh on her limbs and waist shifting toward her hips and chest. Her frame had already been on the petite side, and this subtle redistribution made her figure even more alluring.
In short, the changes had made her hands more slender and her legs prettier, while her hips and chest had become shapelier and more supple.
The changes were happening too fast, and at this stage, they were not a good thing for Su Yuan. She did not want her body exposed to everyone before she had figured out what to do.
But more often than not, she could not control reality. As a living creature in the natural world, all she could do was adapt.
The jade pendant had a "breast-enhancing" effect. Although she still had no idea how to activate it, Su Yuan had locked it away in a drawer with great care. She no longer carried it around, in case it unknowingly "modified" her further.
As she washed, her body, already battered by the alcohol, finally gave in to the growing drowsiness. This time, she had used warm water, and its gentle heat soothed her skin. Her arms, which had been rubbing her body, gradually slowed, their movements growing softer and softer. Her eyelids grew heavy.
Leaning against the tiled wall, Su Yuan drifted halfway to sleep.
The showerhead kept spraying warm water, while the person beneath it slowly slid down the wall. At last, she landed on the tiled floor, where a shallow layer of water had collected, and fell asleep against the wall, naked.
The steady patter of water continued in the quiet, cramped space. Droplets fell on her delicate skin and slid along her curves to the floor, while others struck the hard tiles directly, splashing up in little bursts.
As luck would have it, Gao Jun woke in the middle of the night with a full bladder. Still groggy and half-asleep, he pushed open the bathroom door to relieve himself.
It turned out that the drunk Su Yuan had been so careless she had forgotten to lock the bathroom door.
As he relieved himself, Gao Jun murmured, "Huh?" He suddenly noticed the sound of running water coming from behind the curtain. The bathroom was small, and the curtain was only an arm's length away. Fortunately, Gao Jun was still barely awake. He pulled the curtain aside and turned off the tap. As for the beautiful naked woman sitting on the floor, he only gave her a cursory glance, assuming he was dreaming.
"How could there be a girl in a men's dorm? She's got a pretty good figure, though." Noticing her shapely legs and the chest partly hidden behind her arms, he chuckled.
The girl was beautiful and sleeping peacefully. Judging from the small portion of her "sideboob" he could see, though, she didn't seem very well-endowed.
Gao Jun liked women with big breasts!
Still, it was a nice dream to have.
He flushed the toilet, left, turned off the light, and wandered back to bed like a sleepwalker.
"Hm?" The sound of the toilet flushing woke Su Yuan. She then felt a chill on her bottom, which was touching the floor, and on her back, which was leaning against the wall. Wait, that sound just now—and the curtain was open! A cold shiver ran through her, and she jolted fully awake in fright.
Without stopping to think, she hurriedly locked the bathroom door, turned on the light, and dried herself off. Then she wrapped herself in her clothes and tried to work out what had happened.
She had actually forgotten to lock the door while showering!
Someone had definitely come in just now!
Who had come in? Ye Hao or Gao Jun?
Had that person discovered her secret?
"Ugh, alcohol really does get you into trouble!" After a flurry of panicked thoughts, Su Yuan realized someone might have seen her naked. She muttered a complaint, then pinched her arm hard, as if hoping it would help her remember next time.
About ten minutes later, she opened the bathroom door and crept back to her bed.
Su Yuan slept poorly that night. She kept dreaming that her identity had been exposed. One moment, Ji Yehao had discovered her and forced her to be his girlfriend; the next, Gao Jun had found out and wanted her to dress as a maid and serve him...
Later, everyone found out. They whispered behind her back, calling her a pervert who had secretly undergone sex reassignment surgery.
Su Yuan was unable to defend herself. She had no idea how to explain things to everyone.
Dreams were absurd. People had all kinds of interpretations for them, but dreams were like water stains on a mirror, blown onto the smooth glass by the gale on a stormy night. You woke from a nightmare in a cold sweat.
Some dreams were so absurd they defied imagination; others were mysterious and seemed to foretell an unbelievable future. But when dawn broke, it all vanished without a trace.
Many people believed dreams had to be more absurd than reality because they did not have to follow the fixed rules of nature. Su Yuan used to agree completely. Why did some people like to dream? And why did some even call it "daydreaming"? Because dreams were not bound by reality.
But that was before. Now she thought reality could be absurd, too. Take her transformation, for example. How could common sense explain that?
And who had entered the bathroom yesterday? Had they recognized her?
People were born free, yet everywhere they were trapped by conventions. Damn, that was so true.
Su Yuan's worry was entirely misplaced. Gao Jun had been barely awake when he went in. In his dazed state, he had seen a naked girl, but he hadn't thought much of it. After waking properly, even he had wondered, "Why would I dream of a naked beauty out of nowhere?"
The next day, when he recalled the dream, a leering smile still crossed his face. Shaking his head, he murmured, "Winter's here. Spring can't be far behind."
He blamed it all on spring being just around the corner and figured it was time he started thinking about women. It never occurred to him that it was still the turn of summer and autumn—or that humans did not have a fixed mating season.
After his musings, Gao Jun glanced at Su Yuan, who stood beside him in a white lab coat, holding a round-bottom flask and a spatula. Seeing her zone out now and then, sighing and frowning by turns, he could not help asking, "Su Yuan, what's wrong today? You've seemed distracted since this morning. Is something on your mind?"
They were in the organic chemistry lab. How could anyone afford to be distracted during an experiment?
"Huh?" Su Yuan snapped back to attention and shook her head. "It's nothing, it's nothing!" She handed Gao Jun the round-bottom flask. "I've added the salicylic acid and acetic anhydride. You can add the concentrated sulfuric acid drop by drop."
Gao Jun did not press her after that. He added ten drops of concentrated sulfuric acid to the flask, then said with a grin, "You got back so late yesterday. Don't tell me you've got a girlfriend now."
"No, I don't. I was eating barbecue with Wang Ping yesterday. Lin Jun treated us."
"Lin Jun? Doesn't he have a grudge against you? Why would he treat you to barbecue?"
Su Yuan could not help smiling proudly. "That was before. Lin Jun and I have made up."
At that, Ji Yehao chimed in, "That Lin Jun's quite a guy. He was able to let go of losing the woman he loved. Not bad!"
Su Yuan laughed helplessly, took the round-bottom flask from Gao Jun, and promptly handed it to Ji Yehao. "There's no rivalry over a woman between us!"
Ji Yehao took the flask and swirled it before securing it in the water bath. "Wasn't there a rumor going around that you and Xiao Yiyan were involved? I heard Lin Jun was pursuing Xiao Yiyan pretty seriously. Tell me, Su Yuan, what exactly is going on between you and Xiao Yiyan? You owe us an explanation."
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