Chapter 8: The Morning After: A Shrinking Problem

The next day, early morning.

The first ray of sunlight, cast by the diligent Sun King, brought a touch of brightness to the world.

Inside dormitory 503, Ye Yu, clad in his pajamas, blinked his large, panda-like eyes and slowly climbed out of bed.

Ever since last night, when he had shed the female attire in the bathroom and tucked it into his small backpack, a profound change had occurred in his body—specifically, in the most crucial part of a man.

Throughout the entire night that followed, Ye Yu hadn’t slept a wink. If his gaze could emit light, the ceiling would undoubtedly bear two gaping holes.

Upon closer reflection, this was entirely normal. Putting himself in anyone else’s shoes, who could truly accept discovering a few centimeters missing from their most cherished spot?

Ye Yu’s early rise today stemmed from two reasons. Firstly, he was genuinely too distraught to find any sleep.

Secondly, he was eager to visit the academy’s library as soon as possible, hoping to find remedies for the side effects of his so-called ‘Forbidden Ability’.

After all, in just four days, it would be Ye Yu’s birthday, marking his official transition into a grown man.

His eighteenth birthday was also the day he and Tang Yue had promised to register their marriage.

He recalled Tang Yue’s words in the small grove yesterday, where she suggested he could wear a ‘little kitty’ outfit and let him do some intimate things only a married couple could.

Just yesterday afternoon, Ye Yu had been incredibly excited by the prospect.

But now, seeing his ‘cute little brother’ — the treasured blade that was meant to be unsheathed and brandished in four days — shrink, Ye Yu’s delicate, dark brows furrowed involuntarily.

A deep gloom shadowed his peach blossom eyes.

As a boy, a fondness for lewdness was innate, and Ye Yu was certainly no exception. In his private moments, when no one was around, he would occasionally indulge in thrilling little H-games or browse interesting *beep-beep* comics.

Now, gazing at his shrunken little brother, Ye Yu couldn’t help but recall certain cuckolding scenarios from many H-games and comics.

He pictured a deeply affectionate female protagonist, declaring at the outset, ‘Kenta and I are true love, even if he’s small, I still love him!’ only to eventually fall and become a mere plush toy.

While Ye Yu believed that, given their eighteen years together, his wife, Tang Yue, would never betray him like the NTR plots in comics, as a man, who wouldn’t want their beloved to be happy?

Thus, for his and Tang Yue’s future happiness, Ye Yu’s sole desire was to rush to the library immediately, search for books on forbidden abilities, and find a way to restore himself.

Ye Yu was a man of action; he decided and he acted.

After climbing down from his upper bunk, he initially thought to casually put on his school uniform. However, the moment his hand touched the uniform, he remembered it was this very outfit that had concealed the ‘be your kitty’ clothes last night.

Recalling his little brother’s tragic ordeal, Ye Yu ultimately withdrew his hand. He turned, opened his wardrobe, and chose a plain white hoodie instead.

Yet, as he fully pulled the hoodie over himself, an ominous premonition suddenly seized Ye Yu.

The white hoodie, which normally fit him perfectly, now seemed to have sleeves that had lengthened, extending all the way to his hands. The hem, which usually reached his waist, had also dropped slightly, now brushing his underwear.

It was well known that clothes were inanimate objects; they neither grew nor changed. So, who had changed? The answer was painfully obvious.

Seeing his body transform once more, and in a way that affected his height—the second most important factor to Ye Yu, who dreamed of becoming a muscular man—his desire to understand his Forbidden Ability reached its peak.

No longer bothering with the issue of his ‘loose’ shoes, he simply pulled on a pair of excessively ‘loose’ summer shorts. He brushed his teeth in a minute, splashed water on his face in a second, and then bolted out of the dormitory.

However, just as Ye Yu was about to run out, before he could even open the door, it swung open from the outside.

The person who opened it was someone Ye Yu knew intimately: Huang Bowen, his roommate for five years, who shared the dorm with him and Jiecheng. Huang Bowen was renowned for his countless triumphs in various bathhouses, earning him the esteemed title ‘Jade Emperor’ in the bathing world.

Huang Bowen, at this moment, appeared utterly drained, perhaps from his fervent ‘battles’ last night.

Having expended an unknown amount of energy, his eyes betrayed profound fatigue, and his steps were unsteady, like a wilted cucumber, his body utterly hollowed out.

Normally, upon seeing his roommate, Boss Huang, in such a state, Ye Yu—being a fellow male—would likely have the leisure to tease him, asking trivial questions like, ‘How many times last night?’

After all, colorful bathhouse anecdotes were a sensitive topic among boys.

But with so many changes happening to him, and adhering to the principle of early treatment, Ye Yu feared that if too much time passed, he might never recover. He truly had no mood for teasing.

After politely telling Huang Bowen, “I’m leaving!” he paid the other man no mind, striding away downstairs with rapid footsteps.

Huang Bowen, who had just returned from the bathhouse with three portions of breakfast and was still slow to react, stared blankly at Ye Yu’s retreating figure as he ran out of the dorm.

He watched Ye Yu’s exquisite profile, like crystal, stained by a few playful drops of water as he ran, the delicate curve of his slender waist inadvertently outlined beneath the hoodie, and the two sections of his tender, straight white calves beneath the shorts.

His right hand, holding three cups of soy milk, *splat*—they fell to the ground.

‘Isn’t this a male dorm building?’

‘Why does it seem like there’s a girl in my dorm?’

‘Emmmmm, I must have contributed too much last night. It’s an illusion, it must be an illusion!’

‘I just felt like I woke up too abruptly this morning!’

‘But why does it feel so real?’

‘Damn it, why did my sleepiness suddenly vanish?!’

Ye Yu, having fled the dorm, was unaware that his hasty departure had plunged his roommate into a sleepless chaos between dream and reality.

His legs, beneath his shorts, moved with rapid frequency as he sprinted towards Yunqi Academy’s library.

The morning sunlight enveloped Ye Yu’s delicate features and the fair legs beneath his hot pants, like a faint halo, making his entire being radiate the unique vitality and beauty of youth.

However, if one were to describe this beauty precisely, it was the beauty of a young girl.

Male students, who were performing their morning ability exercises, all turned their heads to watch Ye Yu run. While enjoying the sight, a flicker of doubt arose in their hearts.

‘This short-haired beauty, why haven’t we seen her before? Could she be a transfer student?’

‘This is good news!’

Ye Yu, running at full speed, was oblivious to the thoughts of his male peers who had once envied his childhood fiancée. Now, standing before the library’s grand entrance, he experienced a craving for knowledge for the very first time.

Desperate to find a way to recover in every sense, Ye Yu disregarded his ragged breathing from the intense run and rushed into the library in a flurry.

Yunqi Library was vast, occupying four entire floors and housing millions of books. Although it was not yet six o’clock, in a world of abilities and demons, the library already held a considerable number of diligent early readers.

As Ye Yu stood before the library hall, examining the book classifications to locate forbidden texts, an aged, kindly figure slowly approached his side.

Feeling someone approach from behind, Ye Yu instinctively turned, only to see Elder Gu, the librarian who had held his position even before Ye Yu began studying at Yunqi Academy.

The reason he was called Elder Gu was simple: physically, he was quite old, appearing to be a man of seventy years.

It seemed Elder Gu had noticed Ye Yu’s urgency and had proactively come to inquire.

“Young student, you’ve come to the library so early this morning in such a rush. Is something urgent?”

Seeing this kind elder, who was even older than his own parents, voluntarily question him, the somewhat anxious Ye Yu subconsciously replied,

“Elder Gu, I just want to find forbidden…”

However, the words died on his lips before he could finish. In this world where abilities and demons coexisted, abilities were a crucial trump card for survival. As an ability user, one had no obligation to proactively inform others.

Recklessly exposing one’s ability could not only lead to exploitation, but rare ability users might even be captured for research by the notorious evil organization ‘The Fools’, who claimed to be abandoned by gods.

By all accounts, his current Forbidden Cross-dressing Ability fell into the category of unspeakable secrets. Thinking of this, Ye Yu, prioritizing caution, changed his words mid-sentence to: “…I want to find some basic ability training books.”

Upon hearing Ye Yu’s fragmented answer, Elder Gu’s benevolent face remained unchanged, still radiating a friendly demeanor. However, after pointing Ye Yu towards the ‘basic books’ section and watching him walk away, a sinister, excited red glint subtly flashed in Elder Gu’s kindly eyes.

‘Heh heh, old friend, I might just have found you?’