Gu Xue

Huaya Country, Gu Family.

Early morning.

Gu Rou gently placed the miso soup she was holding onto the dining table, then walked over to a room on the second floor with cute stickers on the door and knocked.

"Xiao Xue, time to eat."

No sound came from inside the room.

Gu Rou sighed and turned the doorknob; as expected, it was locked.

"Xiao Xue!" Gu Rou raised her voice slightly.

"Leave me alone!" A voice finally came from inside. Like Gu Rou's, it was melodious and pleasant, carrying the soft, sweet tone unique to a young girl, though the tone itself was unfriendly and fierce.

Gu Rou said softly, "Xiao Xue, you've been in your room for three days now. What exactly happened? Can you tell your sister?"

"I said! Leave me alone!"

Gu Rou gripped the doorknob, feeling helpless. She didn't know what was wrong with her younger sister; logically, her rebellious phase should have already passed...

"Xiao Xue, is there a problem at work? If you're really having trouble, just tell me. If you're truly unhappy, it's fine to quit... But then again, Xiao Xue, I told you long ago that a 19-year-old girl like you isn't suited for an animation studio with such irregular hours and no job security. That place is no place for you. Ever since you started, you've been coming home late every night, looking exhausted, and your skin has even gotten worse. And when I try to talk to you, you keep babbling about 'following your dreams'..."

Gu Rou thought it over, racking her brain. No matter how she looked at it, there was only one possible reason for her sister's sudden personality change: her job. She began to try and persuade her sister, but as she spoke, it turned into a rambling vent of her own dissatisfaction...

A "thud" came from inside the room. To express her impatience, the person inside seemed to have slammed a fist against the floor.

Gu Rou immediately stopped her rambling and sighed. Having lived together for so many years, she knew her sister's personality well. Although she looked very cute, she was stubborn. Once she made up her mind, she was as obstinate as a bull; no one could persuade her, just like her decision not to pursue higher education after graduating high school.

"I'm heading to the office. Make sure you eat properly after I leave."

Gu Rou knew that standing at the door trying to persuade her was completely useless, so she stopped talking, gave a gentle reminder, and headed downstairs.

Hearing the footsteps gradually fade away.

In the dim room.

A girl wearing shorts and a T-shirt, with a graceful body, woke up her phone screen again. With the light from the screen, one could see the girl's appearance: her shoulder-length hair was a mess, as if it hadn't been groomed in a long time. Her entire being radiated a sense of decadence. This disheveled look really ruined a girl's image, but the girl sitting in the corner of the room was so stunningly beautiful that one wouldn't even care about her current state of disarray.

How to describe her appearance? The first impression would probably be—is this a JK (high school girl)?

Although, strictly speaking, this girl wasn't a JK, she had indeed just graduated from high school not long ago, only a year...

She was in the prime of her youth, her figure just fully matured.

Click.

The loud sound of the front door locking echoed into the room. Gu Yu... no, Gu Xue finally put down her phone, stood up, threw herself onto the bed, buried her face in the quilt, and shouted.

"What even is this."

Yeah.

As you can all see.

The soul inside this JK skin was not the original one... at least, not a pure one.

Gu Yu, from Xia Country, a veteran key animator at an animation studio in the island nation, male!

He had suddenly felt dizzy and lost consciousness on his way home from work, and when he woke up, he found he had switched bodies and gained a set of memories, for reasons unknown.

And the predecessor of this body was also surnamed Gu, but named Gu Xue, 19 years old. She graduated from high school the year before last and didn't choose to continue her education. Instead, for the sake of so-called dreams, she forced her sister to use her connections and influence to shove her into an animation studio.

What a damn twisted fate.

Gu Yu... now Gu Xue, sorted through the memories and almost cried when she thought of this scene.

Working in animation is a dead end.

This was the deepest lesson Gu Xue had learned after struggling for over a decade in another world.

Why would anyone want to jump into a fire pit like this...

While sorting through the predecessor's memories, she studied this world carefully. This world was different from the one she used to live in; it was similar to a parallel world. The planet wasn't called Earth, but Weilan. The general historical trajectory was similar, but compared to Earth, it wasn't without differences. The biggest difference was the map of the major countries.

The territory of the largest country, Huaya Country, was a full third larger.

And the Yinghua Province of Huaya Country was similar to a certain place on Earth; it was a gathering spot for shut-ins, famous for its anime and manga, and was one of the provinces with the strongest cultural industry development in Huaya Country.

The animation industry in Yinghua Province had the same advantages as a certain island nation on Earth, and even the disadvantages and current state of development were about the same.

Although it wasn't as severe, people in the industry generally felt it was doomed. A famous supervisor—that is, an animation director—had even said things like: "Animation only has five years of life left."

This was, of course, a joke.

But it was an undeniable fact that while the market scale continued to expand and massive amounts of capital poured in, leading to more and more projects, animation production had fallen into a bottleneck.

This was mainly a problem with the production system.

The industry had extremely low pay and intense work pressure, especially in the animation drawing phase, making it extremely difficult to cultivate talent.

There were more and more new anime every season, and more and more "crap" works produced with a sloppy attitude or simply because the schedule was too tight to do anything else.

The issue of low pay had been somewhat alleviated in recent years because the industry had started to pay attention to it, but unfortunately, it treated the symptoms rather than the root cause, and no good solutions could be found for the other problems.

Doing animation under these circumstances was truly "generating electricity with love."

When she first sorted through the memories and thought about how her predecessor had resolutely chosen not to pursue higher education and instead entered an animation studio, Gu Xue wanted to slap herself. If your skill level is only average, don't do animation; just go to college properly...

The decision made by her predecessor dealt her such a massive shock that even the fact that she had turned into a girl became trivial by comparison...

On the first day, she hid in her room, dazed and agonizing, questioning everything.

On the second day, she hid in her room and spent the entire day scrolling through her phone.

By the third day, she had basically accepted the reality of the situation.

As her memories gradually sorted themselves out and merged, Gu Xue (Gu Yu) would sometimes even forget that she had transmigrated, because the predecessor's memories remained and exerted more or less of an influence; it was no wonder she would forget in certain moments.

Of course, this situation vanished without a trace whenever she took a shower...

After all, she had only basically accepted the fact that she was Gu Xue; fully adapting would still require a process.

Fortunately, she had worked in the animation industry back on Earth and was someone deeply influenced by all sorts of ACG culture, so her capacity for acceptance was quite strong; otherwise, let alone basically accepting the fact that she had turned into a girl, she would have jumped off a building that very day just to show you.

As for why, after basically accepting the fact that she had transformed and was now Gu Xue, she was still unwilling to face Gu Rou—that is, her own... sister—it was because Gu Xue was afraid, though as for what she was afraid of, she couldn't quite figure it out.