At that moment,
Luo Shaotian’s mind went completely blank.
The question was too tricky.
So tricky that it left him nowhere to escape, nowhere to hide.
Was it because they were brothers?
If they were just brothers, would he have rushed to her door out of worry?
Would he have been thrown into chaos at the sight of those sanitary pads?
Would he have boiled brown sugar water like some nanny?
But if it was for Lulu…
“Uh… I…”
He opened his mouth, only to realize he couldn’t find a suitable answer at all.
Not a single word would come out.
Suddenly, Lin Yu on the opposite side shook her head.
“Tsk… what kind of stupid question was that?”
It was as if she had suddenly come back to her senses, and she smacked her forehead in annoyance.
“Forget it, forget it! Pretend I never asked! I retract that! Retract it!”
She waved her hand, as though trying to disperse the awkward atmosphere.
Then, as if attempting to patch things up, she added,
“Well… it’s not like I meant anything by it.”
“I just feel like… lately, the way you care about me seems a bit… overly enthusiastic.”
“So enthusiastic that… it kind of gives me goosebumps, you know?”
“Phew…”
Luo Shaotian secretly let out a sigh of relief and replied with a wry smile.
“Is it… so bad to be enthusiastic?”
“It’s not exactly bad…”
Lin Yu absentmindedly played with the strand of long hair hanging beside her ear, twirling it around her fingers.
“It’s just… you know how I am. I’ve always been pretty solitary.”
“Ever since I was little, the distance between me and other people has always been… far away. A safe distance.”
“Even with so-called friends, it’s the kind where we don’t talk normally, and only occasionally meet up for a meal or a drink before going our separate ways.”
She lifted her eyelids and glanced at Luo Shaotian, her gaze somewhat complicated.
“But you… you’re probably the closest person I’ve ever had in my life.”
“So close that… I almost feel like you’re haunting me.”
“Haunting you?”
Luo Shaotian shook his head helplessly.
“Using that kind of word for your lifesaver is a bit hurtful, don’t you think?”
“Hmph—who told you to always appear when you’re not supposed to?”
Lin Yu snorted softly.
She looked at him quietly for a moment, then tilted her head back and stared at the chandelier on the ceiling, letting out a long sigh.
“Sigh…”
“Alright, alright. No matter what, thanks for your hard work today.”
“This cup of brown sugar water… I’ll consider it a favor I owe you.”
“When I finish handling the business I’m dealing with… I’ll treat you to a proper meal.”
“This time we definitely won’t eat street food.”
“Business?”
Luo Shaotian immediately caught the keyword.
“What business?”
“Oh, it’s not something I can explain clearly right now.”
Lin Yu shrugged vaguely.
“Anyway, it’s about finding some… mysterious metaphysical thing or something like that…”
“In short, it’s my business, so don’t worry about it.”
She stood up, stretched lazily, and yawned.
“Alright, it’s getting late.”
“A lone man and a lone wo—well… anyway, it’s not exactly convenient.”
“I’m going to cancel my transformation and go to sleep.”
As she spoke, she pointed toward the door, clearly giving him the hint to leave.
“It might be a little… eye-searing.”
“So for the sake of your eyesight, Officer Luo, why don’t you step outside for a moment?”
Luo Shaotian nodded.
He obediently closed his eyes, preparing to leave once the flash of light passed.
Lin Yu took out the gray crystal brooch from the cabinet and took a deep breath.
“Transformation… release.”
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
The air remained eerily silent.
There was no flash of light.
No sign of spiritual energy fluctuations.
“Hm?”
“Transformation… release.”
Lin Yu’s voice carried a hint of confusion as she repeated it.
Still no response.
“Huh? Release… release! Release! Hurry up and release already!”
Her voice started to grow panicked.
Luo Shaotian opened his eyes.
Lin Yu was standing beside the dining table, staring at her own hands with a face full of terror.
Those hands were still slender and pale.
There was absolutely no sign of them reverting back into a man’s larger hands.
“W-what’s going on?”
Before Luo Shaotian could ask, Lin Yu’s pale little face turned toward him.
“I… I think… I can’t change back anymore!!!”
“Can’t change back?”
For some reason, the moment he heard those words, Luo Shaotian’s heartbeat skipped a beat.
He forcibly suppressed that strange flutter in his chest.
Resting one hand against his chin, he frowned slightly and tried his best to look serious and thoughtful.
“How… how could that happen?”
“Has something similar ever happened before? For example, spiritual energy exhaustion… or something else?”
“Ah… about that…”
Lin Yu frowned, trying to recall the orientation training lecture she had treated like a lullaby.
“Let me think… I think they mentioned something like this…”
“If someone suffers severe injuries, or is in an intense combat state, the spiritual energy circuits might lock themselves to protect the body. That would prevent the phase spirit body from being canceled…”
As she spoke, she suddenly lifted her head, her eyes widening.
“Wait—no! I remember now!”
“That damned foreign doctor! She said it in the video!”
Lin Yu pointed at the medicine container, her voice trembling.
“She said… one side effect of this drug might cause the time it takes to cancel the transformation… to become unpredictably extended…”
“Damn it—!!! So that’s why?!”
Lin Yu stomped the floor angrily.
“Ugh—!”
But that violent movement didn’t release her anger.
Instead, it pulled at her still-unrecovered abdomen.
The cramping pain returned instantly.
She bared her teeth in pain as tears welled up, and the crystal brooch slipped from her hand onto the floor.
“Calm down, calm down, A-Yu!”
Luo Shaotian was startled and quickly reached out to support her swaying body.
“Don’t get angry! Your health comes first! Deep breath… inhale…”
“Ah…”
Lin Yu collapsed weakly into Luo Shaotian’s arms, breathing heavily.
“Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down?”
Her voice trembled like a taut string, thick with tears.
“Do you even know what date it is today? In a few days… it’ll be New Year’s Eve!”
“It’s almost the New Year!”
“What about it?”
Luo Shaotian didn’t immediately understand.
“What about it?!”
“My parents are coming to Xinhai City!”
Lin Yu cried out in despair.
“The two of them already booked their tickets early! They said this year they definitely wanted to come to the big city for a reunion New Year—see me and see my sister!”
“My sister even booked the New Year’s Eve dinner already! At that ridiculously expensive restaurant in District F—Deyue Tower!”
“She even pre-ordered my dad’s favorite sweet-and-sour squirrel fish!”
“Originally… I planned to wear a suit and tie and pretend to be a successful person when I picked them up…”
“So I could make them proud…”
She pointed at herself.
Her petite body.
The obvious curves.
Her gray long hair.
And the biological cycle that was still ongoing…
“And now what?!”
“You expect me to meet them like this?!”
“What am I supposed to tell them? ‘Mom, Dad, actually your son turned into a magical girl?’”
The more Lin Yu spoke, the more hopeless she became.
Finally, she covered her face and began to cry quietly.
“Don’t panic… don’t panic…”
Luo Shaotian subconsciously tightened his grip on her hand and gently pulled her into his arms.
“It’s not a dead end yet. It really isn’t.”
“If it’s caused by the medicine, then there must be a solution.”
“That doctor who made the drug must have some contingency plan.”
“Tomorrow… first thing tomorrow morning, I’ll go with you.”
“We’ll ask that doctor together. We’ll ask Manager Qian. We’ll ask the company.”
He whispered softly beside her ear, his voice steady and reassuring.
“It’ll be alright.”
Everything would be alright.
In that warm and broad embrace, Lin Yu’s emotions—which had been on the verge of collapse—miraculously began to calm down.
She cried for a moment before suddenly realizing…
Wasn’t this position… a bit too intimate?
Their bodies were pressed tightly together.
Through the thin fabric of her pajamas—and through the soft layer in between—she could feel the warmth of his chest and the powerful beating of his heart.
“Mm!”
Lin Yu’s body suddenly trembled, and she pushed him away as if shocked by electricity.
“Th-that’s enough…”
She turned her face aside, feeling her cheeks burn as if they were on fire.
So embarrassing…
She had actually cried in his arms like a little girl…
“Sigh…”
Luo Shaotian also realized the awkwardness of the moment.
He withdrew his hands awkwardly and coughed lightly to cover it up.
His face… seemed to be slightly red as well.
“Well… it really is getting late.”
He glanced at the wall clock, his voice sounding a little dry.
“You’ve had a long day. Get some rest.”
“I… I’ll head out now.”
But the hand holding Lin Yu’s still hadn’t let go.
In fact… it unconsciously tightened a little more.
“Tomorrow morning, I’ll come pick you up.”
“I have a car. It’ll be more convenient.”
…
“Okay.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Lin Yu looked at the hand gripping hers tightly.
Then she looked at the tall man in front of her.
The words of refusal circled on her lips before she finally swallowed them.
She bit her lip and nodded slightly.
“Mm.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Luo Shaotian finally released her hand and walked out the door.
Click.
The security door closed.
The room returned to silence.
Lin Yu sat there on the floor for a long time without moving.
She lifted the hand he had been holding and looked at the faint red mark left by his grip.
‘So this is… a man’s strength?’
She gently rubbed the mark and murmured to herself.
“…I couldn’t break free at all.”
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂