Chapter 17: Unsettling Transformations

Lu Yang’s words were purely teasing, and he even chuckled after saying them.

However, to Su Mian’s ears, these words were nothing short of a thunderclap!

Su Mian snapped back to reality, realizing he had unconsciously slipped into his ‘learning state’ once more. The shock made his hand tremble, nearly dropping his pen.

Like a startled rabbit, his tightly pressed legs instantly sprang apart as if jolted by electricity. His pinky finger, which had been daintily cocked, abruptly retracted. His entire face flushed crimson, even the tips of his ears dyed scarlet.

“Lu-Lu Boss! Wh-what nonsense are you spouting?!” He hastily tore off his headphones, his voice rising with guilt and evident panic. “I-I was just thinking! What’s wrong with being a man? Can’t a man… can’t a man sit properly?!”

He stammered out a jumbled defense, his eyes darting away. He dared not look at Lu Yang, much less the other person in the dorm room.

Qin Xuan, who had been quietly reading nearby, had already noticed Su Mian’s unusual posture long before Lu Yang spoke.

Behind his glasses, his gaze remained placid, like the still waters of a deep pool. He observed Su Mian’s series of fluid, almost feminine gestures, and his subsequent panic upon being exposed, taking it all in.

Faced with Su Mian’s transparently guilty denial, Qin Xuan didn’t even twitch an eyebrow.

He neither pressed the issue boisterously like Lu Yang nor offered any words of comfort. Instead, he simply adjusted the golden-rimmed glasses on his nose with practiced ease, his gaze returning to the pages of his book.

It was as if everything that had just transpired was nothing more than irrelevant background noise.

Yet, deep within him, a long-lingering question had finally found its confirmation.

Su Mian’s recent demeanor had indeed been subtly shifting in a most intriguing direction. These changes were far from accidental; rather, they were the telltale signs of… deliberate practice.

This silent observer, like a detached chess player, calmly watched the shifting tides on the board.

He chose to observe without speaking, perhaps awaiting more clues to surface naturally, or perhaps simply finding this increasingly bizarre drama more engrossing than any novel.

Lu Yang was momentarily stunned by Su Mian’s intense reaction. Seeing his face flushed so deeply it looked as if it might bleed, Lu Yang assumed he had pushed his joke too far, perhaps offending some peculiar male pride.

He quickly waved his hands dismissively, laughing awkwardly. “Oh, come on, it was just a joke! Why are you getting so worked up? Alright, alright, my bad, I spoke out of turn. You go on and keep ‘proper’!”

However, his thoughtless jest, like a stone cast into a tranquil lake, stirred up a tempest within Su Mian’s heart.

Su Mian lowered his head, his heart pounding wildly, a layer of cold sweat beading on his back.

‘Had his secret practice already been discovered?’

The full moon, at some unknown point, had ascended to the window frame, casting its cool, clear light into the room.

The moonlight illuminated the various figures running on their respective paths of destiny:

The demon hunters pursuing their prey, the nascent bloodkin grappling with the price of immortality, the lost soul precariously wandering between illusion and reality, on the verge of exposure—and, the discerning eye hidden behind the curtain, calmly observing the unfolding drama.

The threads of fate, after a single thoughtless laugh, subtly tightened by an inch.

***

Lu Yang’s unwitting remark lodged itself in Su Mian’s heart like a thorn, leaving him unsettled for days.

He became even more meticulously cautious, striving to control himself in the dorm room, terrified of revealing any further “feminine” traits.

Yet, some transformations lay beyond the complete dominion of will.

He placed his hand over his chest. The tenderness and dull ache, far from subsiding with time, seemed only to intensify.

Initially, the sharp pain only manifested upon touch. Now, even with a loose, soft cotton T-shirt, the slightest friction from movement brought a distinct sensation of something amiss.

It was an uncomfortable mix of aching and itching, like a wound scabbing over, creating an almost irresistible urge to scratch.

This ineffable change filled him with panic, yet he had nowhere to confide, left to silently stew in his anxiety.

That afternoon, as the specialized class concluded, students filed out in a steady stream.

Su Mian gathered his books and stood, his gaze immediately falling upon Shen Zhixia, who was once again clinging to Xiao Moyuan like sticky toffee, charmingly chattering about something.

What truly ignited a blaze in his heart, however, was that while Xiao Moyuan remained expressionless, he no longer outright ignored her or walked away as he usually did. Instead, he had slowed his pace, appearing… to be listening?

A potent wave of jealousy, mingled with the accumulated grievances and panic of recent days, instantly overwhelmed Su Mian’s rationality.

He rushed over in a few swift strides, abandoning all pretense. Grabbing Shen Zhixia’s arm, his voice grew sharp with agitation. “Zhixia! We need to talk!”

Shen Zhixia stumbled, her delicate brows furrowing in displeasure. “A’Mian! What’s gotten into you now?!”

Xiao Moyuan’s steps halted. His icy gaze fell upon Su Mian’s hand gripping Shen Zhixia, then slowly ascended, settling on his face, which was flushed crimson with anger and jealousy.

In that look, there was undisguised annoyance.

“Let go.” Xiao Moyuan’s voice was low, yet it carried an undeniable tone of command.

“I won’t!” Su Mian retorted, his neck stiff, like a cornered beast. He snarled at Xiao Moyuan, his words tumbling out recklessly. “You clearly know she… Why are you accepting her closeness?! Don’t you hate it when people cling to you?!”

The question was both childish and utterly baffling, leaving even Shen Zhixia momentarily stunned.

Xiao Moyuan’s patience had clearly run its course.

Too disinclined to engage in a verbal spat with Su Mian, he simply reached out, intending to pry away Su Mian’s grip on Shen Zhixia’s arm. His movement was swift and decisive, carrying the resolve of a martial artist.

Seeing his hand extend, Su Mian instinctively tried to pull away.

As their arms tangled, Xiao Moyuan’s elbow, due to Su Mian’s evasive movement, accidentally struck Su Mian’s chest with a moderate force—precisely in that ‘injured’ area.

“Gah—!”

A sharp, excruciating pain, far beyond anything he had anticipated, exploded within him! Su Mian was caught completely off guard, a cry of agony tearing from his throat, his voice distorted.

He instantly released Shen Zhixia, curling into a fetal position like a shrimp, his hands instinctively clutching his chest. His face went ghastly pale, and a fine sheen of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

This reaction was far too extreme, completely surpassing what a simple collision should warrant.

Xiao Moyuan’s hand froze mid-air, his brows tightly furrowed. He observed his “love rival” before him, who was curled almost into a ball from pain, tears welling in his eyes. A faint flicker of doubt crossed Xiao Moyuan’s gaze.

‘Just a touch, and such an intense reaction?’

Shen Zhixia, too, was startled. Forgetting her anger, she instinctively asked, “A’Mian, what… what’s wrong? Where did you get hit?”

At that moment, Su Mian could no longer concern himself with anything else.

The piercing pain persisted, but what terrified him more was its source and overwhelming intensity.

‘This was absolutely not how a normal male should react!’

“N-nothing… I’m fine!” He gritted out the words through clenched teeth, forcing himself to endure the pain.

He dared not meet Xiao Moyuan’s scrutinizing gaze, nor could he respond to Shen Zhixia’s concern. Head bowed, he practically fled, vanishing quickly down the corridor.

Returning to the empty dorm room, Su Mian entered the bathroom and locked the door. He slid down, his back against the door panel, onto the floor, his heart still hammering wildly.

With trembling hands, he gently pulled open his collar and looked down to examine himself.

‘Something’s wrong… This is truly, deeply wrong!’

A terrifying thought uncontrollably burrowed into his mind: ‘Was there truly something seriously wrong with his body? Could it be… some dreadful illness?’

Panic, like a cold tide, instantly engulfed him. All his previous self-consolation, all his complacent thoughts of “it’s just a minor issue,” were shattered by this intense pain.

He could no longer procrastinate.

Taking a deep breath, Su Mian picked up his phone with still-trembling hands and opened the appointment booking app.

The soft glow of the screen reflected on his still-frightened face.

‘He had to go to the hospital, immediately, right now! He needed to get this damned chest checked out—what on earth was happening to it?!’