Chapter 2: The Mirror’s Revelation

“Uh… huh?!”

Feeling the waterfall-like cascade of long hair incredibly smooth beneath his hand, Zhou Ruoyu jolted awake in fright. For a fleeting moment, he had actually believed he’d brought Gu Xue to bed last night!

However, Zhou Ruoyu quickly calmed himself. Taking two deep breaths, he finally let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, there wasn’t a soul in the bed beside him. On second thought, how could it have been Gu Xue, ha…

Throughout their four years of university, she had barely allowed him to touch her, let alone share a bed. Despite being in a relationship for four years, he remained a virgin. In fact, if he had ever dared to force himself upon her, she would undoubtedly have called the police the very next day and had him locked away.

Phew~ Thank goodness it wasn’t, thank goodness it wasn’t…

Wait, hold on?

After a moment of simmering resentment, Zhou Ruoyu suddenly gasped, drawing in a sharp breath. ‘That’s not right,’ he thought. ‘There’s nothing in the bed, so then… then this long hair, what is it?!’

It was then that the suddenly aware Zhou Ruoyu realized: this cascade of black hair, reaching all the way to his waist, appeared… appeared to be growing directly from his own head.

Startled, Zhou Ruoyu leaped from the bed and raced to the mirror. For some inexplicable reason, the mirror seemed a little higher than usual. No… that wasn’t right. His line of sight was lower.

Standing before the mirror above the washbasin, Zhou Ruoyu nervously squeezed his eyes shut. He was terrified that the moment he opened them, he might see some Miss Sadako riding on his back.

After a long moment, she took a deep breath, then abruptly opened her eyes to look!

Reflected in the mirror was none other than… a petite girl, appearing to be around sixteen or seventeen years old.

The girl possessed a delicate, adorable doll-like face and a diminutive stature of 1.55 meters. Her slender waist seemed so fragile it might sway in a breeze. With willow-leaf eyebrows, pearly white teeth, rosy lips, and fair skin, her round blue eyes stared blankly at ‘herself’ in the mirror. A cascade of waist-length black hair flowed as smoothly as a waterfall.

She was clad only in a dirty white shirt, stained with spilled beer. Her soft breasts, though not substantial, still held a modest fullness. Below, she wore nothing but men’s briefs. Thankfully, the shirt had become significantly oversized, barely concealing her pristine little bottom and revealing a pair of slender, fair thighs and delicate, adorable feet.

Zhou Ruoyu fell silent for a moment. After a long pause, she widened her eyes in disbelief. As the girl in the mirror mirrored her action, also opening her adorable eyes wide, Zhou Ruoyu was utterly… bewildered.

This was… her?!

She had transformed into a 1.55-meter tall, black-haired loli?!

“No, no, no, oh yes, yes, yes, ah no, no, no!”

“What the hell was going on?!”

How was this possible? Normally, if a delicate, easily-toppled loli in a ‘boyfriend shirt’ stood before her, she would likely be too flustered to even look. But this… why was this loli *her*?! How… how had she become like this?!

“Ah ha… it, it must be a dream. She must be so devastated by her breakup with Gu Xue that she’s having a nightmare, ha… haha…”

The black-haired loli immediately raised a hand and punched herself, successfully bringing herself to tears.

Hiss—

It, it hurts so much!

Ugh, wait, why does it hurt?!

Just as Zhou Ruoyu found herself utterly bewildered, suddenly… the black-haired loli slowly lifted her head. She noticed… it seemed, in the upper right corner of her vision, something had abruptly appeared.

It was a… lightbulb, resembling the kind found in a shoddy puzzle app game, where watching a sixty-second ad would grant you a hint to pass the level.

The girl, utterly perplexed, slowly turned her head. Yet, the lightbulb remained fixed in the upper right corner of her vision, unmoving.

Zhou Ruoyu’s eyes instantly widened. Immediately after, the lightbulb suddenly flickered, and then an arrogant, impish voice echoed through the air.

[Deng deng deng deng deng~ Hehe, you pathetic host, you finally noticed this hint~ What, did your eyes stop working after you turned into a girl~ Pffft, pathetic, pathetic~]

“Huh?!”

Zhou Ruoyu frantically glanced around, but saw no one. The black-haired loli’s heart suddenly lurched, and she cried out into the empty air:

“Is… is that just my imagination? No, wait, who are you, speaking like some impudent brat? Was… was it you who turned me into a girl?”

[Hoo hoo, the pathetic one is getting angry now~ Pffft, alright, since you’ve finally discovered me, I’ll introduce myself. *Cough cough*~ Ding dong! Congratulations, pathetic darling, you’ve received the ‘Successful Person’s Little Hint’! I am the personification of the Little Hint, Little Ti-chan. This hint is dedicated to helping all pathetic darlings who are unhappy with their lives transform themselves and become successful! From now on, this hint will periodically issue life advice to the host. Following this advice will earn you generous rewards and lead you to the pinnacle of life. Wuwu~ But if the pathetic darling doesn’t listen to me, Little Ti will have no choice but to quietly give the pathetic darling a little punishment~ This includes, but is not limited to, turning into a trash can, a little piggy, or even a ‘welfare princess’ debut, and so on~]

“Hiss—Wait, stop that—!”

Zhou Ruoyu felt cold sweat break out on her back. She never imagined that a protagonist-like experience from a novel would one day befall her. What should have been immense fortune now felt… well, this impish hint didn’t seem very friendly at all!

The black-haired loli shivered as she stood before the washbasin. At this moment, she desperately wished to believe in science, but alas… it seemed she had no choice but to believe everything.

“W-wait a minute! Even if I’m bound to a hint system, why did you have to turn me into a girl?!”

Zhou Ruoyu couldn’t hold back her outburst. While her current appearance was quite cute, suddenly transforming into someone completely unrelated to her former self in modern society… this was far too troublesome! It was practically social death!

[Hmm… because… last night, when the pathetic host was hungover, this hint gave its first piece of advice: to take a cold shower to sober up. But who would have thought the pathetic host would just go straight to sleep? So… I listened to the pathetic host’s wish, and the first punishment was to turn the pathetic host into a beautiful girl~]

Listening to the impish hint’s words, Zhou Ruoyu felt as though she was about to cry. ‘No… when did I ever want to become a beautiful—’

“Ah, wait… hiss—”

The girl suddenly slapped her forehead, remembering her words from before falling asleep last night… But, but she had said she wanted a gentle and kind girlfriend, not to *become* a beautiful girl!

Zhou Ruoyu, in a panic, immediately wanted to protest and appeal to the impish system. However, just then, her phone suddenly vibrated.

The girl, still dazed, turned her head to see a text message displayed on her phone screen.

[Mr. Zhou, please do not forget your scheduled second-round online interview today. Your boss has been waiting for five minutes. Please open Penguin Meeting, conference ID 151681, and enter the meeting with your camera and microphone on…]

“An interview!”