Pain Is Normal

The school bell rang.

Chen De sprang up from his seat like a spring.

He snatched up his backpack.

Then turned and ran.

He was so fast that he was practically the first person in the class to rush out of the classroom.

Jiang Ping was sitting near the door and did not even have time to reach out a hand.

"Hey!"

He only managed to shout one word.

Chen De had already completely vanished into the stream of students in the hallway.

Gone.

Clean and decisive.

As if someone had hit his acceleration button.

Jiang Ping froze for two seconds, then slowly lowered his outstretched hand.

Then he sniffed.

A faint, elusive scent still lingered in the air.

"It really does smell pretty nice."

He muttered to himself and scratched his chin.

"Next time, I have to get Dezi to tell me what brand of shampoo he uses."

A classmate beside him glanced at him.

"Jiang Ping, what are you smelling?"

"That smell on Dezi. Didn't you notice it?"

"...No."

"Is there something wrong with your nose? It smells so good, and you can't smell it?"

The look in the classmate's eyes changed.

It turned into the kind of expression that said, "Get a grip."

Jiang Ping ignored him, slung on his backpack, and headed out as well.

In his mind, he had already typed "what shampoo smells good for boys" into a search engine.

Chen De sprinted all the way home.

It was a little over a kilometer from school to his house.

It normally took twelve minutes to walk.

Today, he ran it in six.

But the price was brutal.

His knees said they were going on strike.

His ankles said they were quitting.

His spine directly submitted a sick leave request.

Chen De gritted his teeth, charged upstairs, and shoved open the front door.

Bang.

He threw himself straight onto the sofa.

The sofa let out a muffled thud and nearly fell apart.

"Hiss—"

Chen De's face twisted with pain.

The aftereffects of that mad dash all came crashing in.

His calves were cramping, his thighs were aching, his lower back hurt, and his shoulders were stiff.

Even his fingers were numb.

He lay sprawled on the sofa like a dead fish slapped onto shore.

Qubi jumped from the coffee table onto the armrest, its emerald-green eyes looking down at him from above.

"How was it?"

"...I'm dead."

"Dead people don't talk."

"Then I'm a reanimated corpse."

Qubi's tail swayed.

"Want to buy some painkillers?"

Chen De gritted his teeth.

He had been forcing himself to endure it all day.

Four classes in the morning, three in the afternoon.

There had been several moments when the pain was so bad that he wanted to punch the desk, but he forcibly held it in.

Mainly because he was poor.

No, mainly because he was frugal.

But that run had burned through every last bit of his patience.

Now the pain had sunk into his bones.

"Buy them."

Chen De forced out a single word through clenched back teeth.

"Oral ones."

Qubi blinked.

"Not topical? The topical kind only costs a hundred more."

"No. I can barely open a bottle cap like this, and you want me to apply medicine?"

"But the oral kind tastes like traditional medicine mixed with expired yogurt, vinegar, and mustard—"

"I'm not afraid."

Chen De cut it off.

He was in so much pain right now that he would chug a glass of toilet water if someone gave him one.

"Okay, placing the order."

The phone screen lit up.

His Magic Coins balance dropped from 34500 to 34300.

A speck of light floated out from the screen and landed on the coffee table.

It turned into a black pill the size of a thumbnail.

Its surface had a suspicious oily sheen.

It did not look like anything good.

Chen De propped himself up, picked up the pill, and sniffed it beneath his nose.

His expression underwent a violent tectonic shift.

First he frowned. Then he pressed his lips together. Next he dry-heaved. Finally, his face went blank.

"Qubi."

"Yeah?"

"This thing smells like someone soaked a stinky sock in a jar of vinegar for three days."

"That is a very accurate description."

"Are you sure this is medicine and not a biological weapon?"

"It works very well. It takes effect in ten minutes."

"That's not what I care about right now."

"Then what do you care about?"

"I care about whether I can swallow it and survive."

Qubi's tail swayed again.

"Do you need me to pour you a glass of water?"

"How would you pour it? You can't even pick up a cup."

"I can carry it in my mouth."

"I'm not drinking from a cup you carried in your mouth."

"You're disgusted by me?"

"Don't you know yourself? You licked my bowl yesterday."

Qubi quietly turned its head away.

Chen De took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes.

And tossed the pill into his mouth.

The instant it entered his mouth, his brain shut down for 0.3 seconds.

His taste buds were suffering an unprecedented terrorist attack.

Bitter, sour, spicy, and fishy.

The four most unbearable flavors exploded at once.

They exploded on his tongue. They exploded in his throat. They exploded in his esophagus.

Chen De grabbed the bottle of mineral water on the coffee table, his hand shaking as he twisted the cap.

He gulped down half the bottle.

His face turned green.

"How does it feel?"

Qubi's voice came from far away.

Why far away?

Because it had sensibly jumped onto a table three meters away.

"If you ever make me eat this again..."

Chen De's voice was hoarse.

"I'll eat you too."

"I probably wouldn't taste very good."

"Better than this pill."

Qubi chose silence again.

Chen De leaned back against the sofa and caught his breath.

The taste in his mouth lingered for a long time.

But after about five or six minutes, the pain in his body began to fade.

It did not gradually disappear. It retreated layer by layer.

First, his ankles stopped hurting. Then his knees loosened up. Next, the soreness in his lower back vanished. The stiffness in his shoulders began to melt away too.

Chen De tried standing up.

His knees did not crack.

He took two steps.

He no longer walked like a penguin.

"It works."

Chen De rolled his neck and let out a comfortable sigh.

"It really works."

"Of course it works. Would something that costs two hundred not work?"

"You make two hundred sound expensive."

"Isn't it expensive for you?"

Chen De thought about it.

Two hundred Magic Coins was two thousand in cash.

Before, that would have been enough to feed him instant noodles for several months.

Now, it was one pill so disgusting it made him want to die.

"Not expensive."

He said it without changing expression.

Inside, he was bleeding.

Chen De sat back down on the sofa and stared at the ceiling.

"Qubi."

"Yeah?"

"Tell me, do those other magical girls suffer this much too?"

Qubi thought for a moment.

"Most of them do not have as many additional burdens as you."

"Because they don't need patches?"

"Right. They are girls to begin with, so they do not need to hide changes in their appearance."

"What about pain relief?"

"For them, it is already an enhancement. Usually, they only get sore muscles; their bones do not hurt."

"What about me?"

"Your situation is special. The changes are more drastic than theirs—even your skeleton is changing."

"But don't worry. The pain is normal. It means you're growing muscle."

"But it'll probably only get worse. Still, it won't hurt for many more days."

"Why?"

"Because it means things are about to stabilize. Your body is making its final adjustments."

Chen De rubbed his temples.

Final adjustments.

It sounded like a phone system update stuck at 99%.

It looked like it was almost done, but that last 1% could hold you up forever.

"So these next few days will be the most painful?"

"Yes."

"How painful?"

"Twice what you experienced today."

Chen De closed his eyes.

He was silent for five seconds.

Then he said very calmly,

"Is there a discount if I buy ten at once?"

"No."

"Your store doesn't even offer bulk discounts?"

"We're not Pinduoduo."

"Even Pinduoduo has more of a conscience than you."

"...Then buy nine."

Qubi's ears twitched, but it didn't argue.

Chen De picked up his phone and ordered nine pills.

His Magic Coin balance dropped from 34,300 to 32,500.

Nine motes of light drifted out of the screen.

They landed on the coffee table and lined up in a row.

Nine black pills, perfectly arranged.

They looked like a row of landmines.

Chen De stared at them for two seconds.

"Qubi."

"Yeah."

"Help me calculate my daily fixed expenses now."

"Five hundred for patches, two hundred for painkillers. Seven hundred total."

"Twenty-one thousand a month."

"Two hundred and ten thousand in cash."

"I have four hundred thousand in my bank account."

"That won't last two months."

Chen De's mouth twitched.