Chapter 12: The Bra Standoff

The wind outside brushed softly against the off-white curtains.

Lin Ci turned over in a daze. The hard wooden bedboard pressed into her back until it ached.

She rubbed her eyes and slowly sat up from under the blanket.

Long hair slid down her shoulders, blocking half her vision.

Lin Ci scratched at her tangled hair and instinctively looked down at the metal bunk across from her.

Gu Mianmian was leaning against the headboard. Those deep, dark eyes rested quietly on her.

Her pale face still held the weakness of someone just recovering from illness.

Lin Ci cleared her throat and rubbed her neck as she stepped down from the bed.

“Awake? Is your forehead still hot? Has the fever come back?”

She strode over to Gu Mianmian’s bed and reached out to feel her forehead.

The cool back of her hand touched Gu Mianmian’s smooth skin.

A warm touch met her skin. The fever had mostly gone.

Gu Mianmian trembled slightly, lowered her eyes, and did not pull away.

“It’s not burning anymore. It’s not hot now, Senior.”

Her voice was hoarse, with a slight nasal tone.

“Guess you’re lucky. A fever of thirty-nine point four and you brought it down yourself. I really don’t get why you push yourself so hard.”

Lin Ci pulled her hand back and walked to the desk to pour a cup of warm water.

She stretched, and the loose gray hoodie rode up a little.

The fabric was thin. It clung to her shape and outlined the curves underneath.

Without that layer of restraint in front, the oddness showed clearly through the cloth.

Gu Mianmian held the warm water cup. Her gaze stopped on Lin Ci’s chest.

Her eyelashes trembled slightly.

Lin Ci pulled out a chair and sat down, then picked up her own cup and drank in big gulps.

“Senior.”

Gu Mianmian called softly.

“Hm? What is it? Does your throat still hurt?”

Lin Ci turned to look at her.

Gu Mianmian pressed her pale lips together and gripped the glass with both hands.

“Senior… um… you… today… are you not wearing a bra under your clothes?”

Lin Ci choked on the warm water she had just swallowed and coughed it everywhere.

She coughed violently, her fair cheeks flushing red.

“Cough, cough… what are you looking at?”

Lin Ci hurriedly pressed a hand over the front of her clothes, her back going stiff.

Twenty-two years of straight-guy brain went blank on the spot.

After more than twenty years as a man, how was she supposed to deal with those two burdens that had appeared out of nowhere?

“Senior’s clothes are very thin. It’s obvious when you walk.”

Gu Mianmian’s voice was soft, but her tone was unusually serious.

Lin Ci grabbed her collar and pulled it up. Her ears reddened visibly.

“I like it this way. I’m in the dorm trying to stay cool. Is that a problem?”

She retorted, neck stiff, eyes darting everywhere.

“But Senior… when you go to class, it seems… you don’t wear one either.”

Gu Mianmian mercilessly poked through her excuse.

Lin Ci froze in the chair, feeling as if even her underwear had been seen through.

She really had not worn one.

That day, she had forced herself to buy two bras from the supermarket. One had its tag removed. The other still had the tag on.

She had meant to wash one and try it, but the thing was ridiculously complicated. All those hooks were enough to make her scalp numb.

As a straight guy in the sciences, she had tried to fasten it twice and failed to line up the hooks both times. Annoyed, she had thrown it deep into the wardrobe.

“Gu Mianmian, you’re sticking your nose in pretty far.”

Lin Ci forced on a cold face, trying to salvage some dignity.

“Not wearing one will make them sag, and walking will hurt.”

Gu Mianmian put the cup on the desk and slowly climbed out of bed, supporting her weak body.

She got out of bed barefoot and stepped into her slippers, then walked to Lin Ci’s wardrobe.

“Hey! Why are you going through someone else’s closet?”

Lin Ci jumped up to stop her.

Gu Mianmian had already pulled the wardrobe door open.

In the bottom corner, two pink boxes printed with bra patterns lay quietly.

The plastic wrap was intact. A thin layer of dust had even settled on top.

Gu Mianmian took out both boxes and picked up the one with the removed tag.

Then she turned around, her dark eyes fixed straight on Lin Ci.

“After Senior bought them, you haven’t worn them even once, have you?”

It was not a question, but a firm statement.

Lin Ci felt her straight-guy dignity being rubbed against the floor.

“I… I just forgot to open them! And I’ve never had the habit of wearing this kind of thing!!! I never wear them!!!”

She reached out to snatch the box back.

Gu Mianmian stepped back half a step and shielded the box in her arms.

“Senior doesn’t know how to wear it, right?”

That sentence hit Lin Ci’s weak spot dead center.

Lin Ci’s outstretched hand froze in midair. The corner of her mouth twitched violently.

“Who says I don’t know how? If I can solve advanced math problems, how can I not handle a piece of cloth? qwq!”

She shouted in fury.

Gu Mianmian was not frightened off by her temper.

She looked down and took a light beige seamless bra from the box.

The soft fabric unfolded, with thin straps and a double row of hooks at the back.

Holding the bra, Gu Mianmian walked to Lin Ci with unsteady steps.

“I… I can teach you how to wear it, Senior.”

She lifted her head. Her pale face was full of stubbornness.

The distance between them was only half a step.

Lin Ci could even smell the faint medicine scent on Gu Mianmian.

“Stop meddling! Whether I wear one is my business!”

Lin Ci stepped back and her back hit the edge of the desk.

Gu Mianmian reached out and grabbed the hem of Lin Ci’s hoodie.

She was sick, so her strength was not great, but her fingers gripped very tightly.

“Senior, you have to take off the hoodie first.”

Gu Mianmian’s voice was very soft. Her expression was so focused it made Lin Ci’s back go cold.

Lin Ci looked down at the hand reaching toward her, her heart pounding hard.

‘Take off her clothes?’

‘In front of a girl, bare her upper body, and have that girl teach her how to put on a bra?’

‘She might as well be killed.’

‘This was absolutely a public execution!!!’

“No!!! Like hell I’m taking anything off!”

Lin Ci slapped Gu Mianmian’s wrist away.

She turned, grabbed her phone and course textbook from the desk, moving fast enough to stir up wind.

“I still have Western Literary History this afternoon! I’m going to be late!”

Lin Ci pulled open the dorm door and rushed out without looking back.

“Senior!”

Gu Mianmian was pushed and swayed. She had to grab the desk edge to steady herself.

She hurried to the corridor doorway.

Her weak legs ached. She could not take big steps at all.

Lin Ci’s long legs moved fast. In a few blinks, she disappeared around the stair corner.

Only her panicked footsteps were left in the corridor.

Gu Mianmian leaned against the cold doorframe and looked down at the beige bra in her hand.

The fabric still carried the cool smell of the wardrobe.

Her fingertips slowly tightened, crumpling the soft cloth into a ball.

Senior was afraid.

Senior was running away.

Gu Mianmian leaned on the door panel. A faint curve slowly rose at the corner of her pale mouth.

‘It’s okay.’

‘Senior had to come back to this dorm sooner or later.’

‘She had plenty of patience to wait here.’

At two thirty in the afternoon, Room 301 of the Liberal Arts Building.

Lin Ci slipped in through the back door, panting, and chose the corner seat by the window.

She slapped her textbook onto the desk. Her chest rose and fell violently.

After running all the way here, the two heavy foreign objects on her chest bounced with each step, bringing an uncomfortable dragging ache.

Lin Ci rubbed her tight chest, her expression awful.

‘Damn it.’

‘That dead girl had actually been telling the truth.’

Running without a bra really was heavy and uncomfortable.

Lin Ci gritted her teeth and opened the textbook, her mind a complete mess.

The old professor on the podium was talking about the Homeric epics. She did not hear a single word.

Several guys in the front row kept turning back to look at her.

Lin Ci was wearing a loose hoodie today. The wind had messed up her long hair, giving her a lazy, cold beauty instead.

Irritated, she pulled up her hood to block the curious stares around her.

‘This life was really unbearable.’

Back when she had been one of the guys, she had thought women’s clothing was troublesome.

Now that it was her turn, she understood it was practically torture.

The lecture lasted ninety minutes. Lin Ci could not sit still.

She finally endured until the end-of-class bell rang.

Lin Ci slowly packed her bag, worry starting to build in her heart.

‘Go back to the dorm?’

Gu Mianmian was definitely still waiting at the door with that bra.

‘Not go back?’

That girl had just gotten over a fever. She had not even eaten a hot meal at noon.

Lin Ci scratched her hair and let out a heavy sigh.

“I must have owed you in a past life.”

She put on her backpack and walked out of the teaching building. Her steps turned toward the second cafeteria.

The clay pot soup stall on the first floor of the second cafeteria was steaming.

Lin Ci lined up and bought a light century egg and lean pork congee, plus a portion of steamed dumplings.

Passing the campus pharmacy, she went in and bought fever patches and a box of throat lozenges.

Carrying the heavy plastic bag, Lin Ci slowly walked back to Dormitory Building Three.

At the door of 302, Lin Ci stopped.

She took a deep breath and pushed open the unlatched dorm door.

The curtains inside were drawn. The light was dim.

Gu Mianmian was sitting at the desk, holding a soft measuring tape.

On the desk lay the two bras neatly, along with a cup of freshly poured warm water.

Hearing the door open, Gu Mianmian turned her head.

Those deep black eyes cut through the dim air and landed precisely on Lin Ci.

“Senior, you’re back.”

Her voice was soft and gentle, but it carried an invisible pressure.

Lin Ci’s hand holding the hot congee froze in midair.

She looked at the measuring tape and bras on the desk. The corner of her mouth twitched uncontrollably.

‘No way?’

‘With this setup, you’re practically backing me into a corner!!!!’

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