Chapter 8: The First Ache

Before dawn, Su Xinxin awoke to a strange, dull ache.

She curled up on the bed, her body involuntarily arching like a shrimp. Her forehead pressed against her knees, and her fingers clutched desperately at the fabric over her abdomen.

The pain was utterly unfamiliar. It wasn’t the widespread, chronic ache of an elderly person.

Instead, it was concentrated deep in her lower abdomen, a series of wrenching, downward-pulling spasms, sharp and distinct, characteristic of a youthful body.

“Hiss…”

She gasped, her consciousness drifting between agony and confusion. The first thought that surfaced in her mind was: ‘Had she been invaded by the ‘Erosion’? Had it come to this, only days after becoming a girl?’

The thought was so absurd that she almost wanted to let out a bitter laugh. Truly, she had barely changed skins before encountering trouble. The old saying went, ‘Even a newly built outhouse smells fresh for three days,’ yet her luck was quite the opposite.

“Ugh… what’s wrong?” The fluffy ball beside her pillow stirred. Xiao Ming lifted its head, its ruby eyes still hazy with sleep. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“It hurts…” Su Xinxin squeezed the words through clenched teeth.

Xiao Ming fully awoke, floating before her. “Where does it hurt? Is it still the spot where you were injured?”

“My stomach…” She buried her face in the pillow, her voice muffled and trembling. “It feels like something inside… twisting.”

Xiao Ming froze for two seconds, its ears twitching subtly, before suddenly understanding.

“You haven’t really left the house these past few days, Master, so it’s impossible for you to have encountered the ‘Erosion’.” It floated closer, its tone becoming somewhat complex. “Hmm… it should be your period.”

Her period.

These three words were like a key, clicking open a realization that had been blocked by the pain.

Su Xinxin stiffened completely.

She, of course, knew what this was. In the past, when her daughters had their first periods, she had even brewed brown sugar water and prepared sanitary products for them. Yet, in her memory, her daughters, apart from their initial bewilderment, rarely seemed to experience anything like this—

Wait.

An idea slowly dawned on her: ‘Could this body… be experiencing it for the first time?’

She almost instinctively shifted her legs. A strange, slightly damp and sticky sensation came from beneath her. Her heart gave a jolt.

“I…” She lifted her face, her expression bewildered. “Is this body experiencing its first time?”

“Of course,” Xiao Ming said as if it were obvious. “Did you think this was recycled? I told you it was newly generated based on your transformed template. I even suggested starting with a twelve-year-old body to adapt, but you insisted on the maximum age setting—eighteen. So, what’s due naturally arrives now.”

Su Xinxin remained silent for a few seconds, unconsciously pressing her hand to her chest, a hint of confusion on her face. “But… isn’t everything here already fully developed?”

“That’s an external setting!” Xiao Ming’s ears twitched, its tone a little helpless. “What you’re feeling now is the internal system starting up for the first time. They are two entirely different matters.”

“This…” Su Xinxin buried her face back into the pillow, her voice even more muffled and deep. “The training… isn’t it starting soon? In this state…”

“No rush.” Xiao Ming floated to her pillow, gently touching her sweat-dampened hair with its fluffy forepaws. “There are still a few days of adaptation period. For now, you just need to get familiar with your body as quickly as possible. The specific schedule hasn’t even been announced yet.”

Another wave of cramping pain assaulted her. Su Xinxin curled up even tighter, her finger joints turning white from how hard she clenched them.

Seeing her like this, Xiao Ming hesitated. “How about… I use magic to help relieve it?”

“No, no need…” Su Xinxin gasped for breath. “Didn’t we agree I needed to adapt…”

“Then I’ll go buy painkillers?”

“Yes!”

Her quick agreement even surprised herself.

Xiao Ming was also taken aback. “That quick?”

“What else am I supposed to do…” Su Xinxin weakly lifted her eyes to look at it, then suddenly remembered something. “Wait, how are you going to go out like that?”

“I can briefly assume a human form,” Xiao Ming said. “But it consumes a lot of energy, so I don’t usually do it.”

“Oh…” Su Xinxin’s mind was numb with pain, yet her thoughts inexplicably wandered. “Speaking of which, Xiao Ming, are you a boy or a girl?”

Xiao Ming froze in mid-air.

“Can’t I… not belong to such a classification?” Its voice sounded a little awkward.

“Then what exactly are you?” Su Xinxin, unusually, felt a surge of curiosity at such a moment. “Male or female? Masculine or feminine?”

“Can I be neither?” Xiao Ming whispered.

“Huh?”

“How about you guess?”

Su Xinxin gasped in pain, yet she still tried to think. “I remember, the news said that in the West, there seem to be… many gender classifications? Could you be…”

“Female!” Xiao Ming suddenly said, as if giving up. “If we use human classifications, then I am female. Otherwise, how could I serve a magical girl? Although magical girls aren’t necessarily girls before transformation, they definitely are after! Master, you really… didn’t even think of that?”

“Wait,” Su Xinxin caught a certain word. “What did you just call me?”

Xiao Ming fell silent for two seconds, its ears drooping slightly. “Master. It’s been days; it’s time to change my address… anyway, I might not be able to call you that for much longer.”

A moment of silence fell over the room.

Su Xinxin didn’t respond to that, merely burying her face further into the pillow, her voice muffled. “Then why aren’t you hurrying to buy me medicine…”

“Eh?” Xiao Ming snapped back. “I thought you were chatting quite energetically with me, and imagined ‘talk therapy’ was effective.”

“Hurry…” Su Xinxin’s voice was already laced with pleading. “I feel like I’m going to die…”

Xiao Ming looked at her pale, sweating profile and finally stopped joking.

“Understood,” it said softly, the hint of mischief gone from its tone, replaced by something gentle. “I wonder if it’s an old person’s stubbornness, or if Miss Su is just being coy? Ah… I’ll be back soon.”

It floated to the door—the previously damaged door had already been repaired—its form blurred in the air for a moment, transforming into a human girl appearing to be in her early teens, wearing a simple white dress. It glanced back at the bed, then pulled open the door and went out.

In the intervals of pain, Su Xinxin vaguely thought: ‘So that’s what assuming human form looks like…’

‘Quite cute.’

****

By noon, the sunlight outside the window was already brightly streaming in.

With the help of medication, Su Xinxin finally recovered her strength and slowly sat up in bed.

She also fumbled around and found some sanitary products, of all types, with their packaging still intact. The organization had been quite thoughtful in this regard.

However, her handling of them was somewhat clumsy. An eighteen-year-old body with a seventy-year-old soul meant a subtle sense of displacement in these actions. Nevertheless, she managed to complete the task and quickly took a hot shower.

As the warm water rained down on her body, she carefully avoided her abdomen, moving much faster than usual—in the elderly’s mindset, one must not catch a chill at such a time.

After changing into clean clothes, she felt a little more alive and decided to make something to eat in the kitchen.

Before heading to the kitchen, she saw Xiao Ming still looking listless, sprawled on the living room sofa. The entire Spirit seemed a full circle more haggard than it had been that morning. Its ears were softly drooped, and its fluffy tail lay limply by the sofa, gently rising and falling with its breathing.

“Assuming human form… is it that exhausting?” Su Xinxin walked over, reaching out to gently stroke its head.

Xiao Ming weakly lifted its eyelids. “Exhausting isn’t even the word… it felt like being completely hollowed out. Maintaining human form constantly consumes magic, and I also have to simulate human physiological activities—walking, talking, even adjusting my breathing rhythm. If it weren’t to buy you medicine, I wouldn’t have transformed…”

As it spoke, its voice grew softer and softer, almost drifting off to sleep again.

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