Xia Yan knew that face all too well.
He knew it even better than Lance did.
Because he saw that face almost every day, and more than once a day at that.
Anna!
The receptionist at the Silph Pokémon Battle Club!
He had never imagined that he would see Anna's face here.
Then he understood.
Why Tom Ruoqi had looked thinner than Loto in the photo Lance had given him, and why her hair had noticeably been a little longer. (Did anyone notice that?)
Xia Yan had not thought much of it at first. After all, Tom Ruoqi had been away from the Pokémon League for quite some time, so changing her appearance a little would not have been difficult.
But he had never imagined that Tom Ruoqi was actually a woman!
It was just that she had always appeared before everyone in masculine clothing, and over time, people had subconsciously started treating her as a man.
In the photo, Tom Ruoqi had concealed every feature that could reveal her gender very well.
At the very least, there had been no visible Adam's apple.
Rather than looking surprised upon seeing Xia Yan, Anna revealed a sweet smile and said softly, "Xia Yan, why aren't you training properly today?"
Xia Yan: "..."
That familiar conversational tone sent chills through Xia Yan's entire body.
The Reserve Elite Four member who had betrayed the Pokémon League had been right beside him all along, and he had even directed her to do quite a few things for him every day.
That belated realization, as though he had been repeatedly dancing along the edge of death, made him deeply uncomfortable.
So he had been constantly courting death all this time?
Anna had hidden herself that well.
Yet it was precisely this experience—realizing that the person