But one thing was different: this time, Lin MuMu didn't pass out again.
She was still awake, though the injection had hurt.
"What's going on?" Lin MuMu frowned. "Did you stick me in the wrong spot on purpose to get back at me?"
"Honest to heaven, I didn't!" Ivankov looked baffled too. "I really didn't. This is strange. Why on earth..."
Seeing that Ivankov genuinely had no idea, Lin MuMu didn't know what to do either.
Ivankov watched her brood for a moment, then said, "Maybe it's fate."
"Hm?" Lin MuMu looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
Ivankov waved a hand and smiled. "I don't know why this happened, but isn't the result pretty good? You seem to like yourself as a woman. So stay this way and do what you want."
"I can't." Lin MuMu shook her head. "I'm not supposed to be like this."
"Why not? What's wrong with doing what you love and becoming who you want to be?"
"There's nothing wrong with that. Anyone else can do it, but I can't."
"Why?"
"There are things I can't tell you."
"You're killing me with suspense!" Ivankov cried. "Now I'm curious! Tell me! Hurry up and tell me! If you don't, I'll... I'll kill myself!"
He wrapped his hands around his own throat. "I'm going to strangle myself. I really mean it. Ugh, I can't breathe. I'm dying."
Lin MuMu simply watched him perform.
Ivankov even fell to the floor with a thud, looking for all the world as though he were dying.
A few seconds later, he sprang up, threw both hands into the air, and laughed. "Hee-haw-haw! As if I'd ever kill myself! I'd never do that! Hee-haw!"
Lin MuMu looked at him as if he were an idiot and even gave him a