Chapter 8: The Perilous Pantyhose Predicament

Su Mian was in a predicament: he was secretly cross-dressing in the dorm, and his roommate had just returned. What was he to do?

“Damn it, who locked the door from the inside? Open up, I need to use the bathroom!”

Lu Yang’s booming voice, accompanied by a frantic ‘bang, bang, bang’ against the door, exploded like a clap of thunder just outside.

Inside, Su Mian’s soul instantly fled his body.

“I-I’m coming!” he squeaked, attempting to make his voice sound normal. Yet, his extreme nervousness laced it with an oddly high-pitched tremor.

He shot up from the floor like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his eyes frantically scanning the ‘crime scene.’

‘The wig! The wig was still on his head!’

He ripped it off, shoving it haphazardly into the deepest recesses of his wardrobe.

Used makeup wipes, discarded packaging, and other incriminating odds and ends were all hastily swept into the trash bin beside his desk. The bin instantly overflowed, creating a chaotic mess.

Finally, he splashed some cold water onto his face in a desperate attempt to clean up.

‘But the worst part was the black stockings on his legs!’

Lu Yang’s pounding grew more insistent with each passing second, sounding as if he were about to break the door down. There was no time to strip them off!

With a desperate resolve, Su Mian snatched the loose men’s sweatpants from his chair and fumbled to pull them on over the stockings.

The cool, silky fabric of the stockings clung to his skin, rubbing against the coarse material of the sweatpants. It created an undeniably distinct and utterly mortifying sensation of something alien.

He rushed to the door, took a deep breath, and tried to calm his wildly pounding heart. Then, with a sudden jerk, he pulled the door open.

“What the hell, Mianzi! Why are you locking the door in the dorm…” Lu Yang complained, clutching his stomach with an anxious expression, already turning to dash towards the bathroom.

Yet, in that fleeting, electrifying moment, Lu Yang’s steps abruptly halted. He uttered a puzzled “Hm?” and turned his head to look at Su Mian.

“What’s wrong with your face?” he asked, frowning as he scrutinized Su Mian’s features. “Why is it so pale? And your eyes… they look a bit strange too?”

‘Su Mian’s heart nearly stopped! It was the foundation and eyeliner he hadn’t fully removed!’

“N-nothing!” he stammered, instinctively turning his face away and rubbing his cheek with the back of his hand, attempting to conceal it. “I just… just washed my face, and didn’t rinse off all the cleanser!”

Lu Yang remained skeptical, but the urgent call of nature in his abdomen quickly overrode any lingering suspicion.

“Forget it, we’ll talk when I get out!” He didn’t press further, instead bolting into the bathroom as if his backside were on fire.

Su Mian leaned against the door, his legs so weak he could barely stand. Listening to the sounds of water splashing from the bathroom, he quickly scanned his surroundings, hoping to destroy more evidence before his ‘judgment’ arrived.

However, the more he rushed, the more chaotic things became. A black stocking package, emblazoned with the words ‘Translucent Ultra-Thin,’ lay brazenly by the leg of the desk.

Just as he was about to bend down to pick it up, the bathroom door clicked open.

Lu Yang emerged with a look of profound relief. His gaze casually swept across the floor, landing squarely on the conspicuous packaging bag.

The air instantly froze.

The relaxed expression vanished from Lu Yang’s face. He glanced at the packaging bag, then up at the overflowing trash bin in the dorm, filled with a suspicious amount of tissues, and finally at Su Mian’s evasive gaze.

His eyes then slowly descended, settling on Su Mian’s legs, which were incongruously clad in sweatpants.

An utterly preposterous, yet seemingly the only possible, conjecture began to form in his mind.

A deathly silence descended upon the dorm room.

Su Mian felt his blood turn to ice, his mind a complete blank.

“Su Mian,” Lu Yang began, his voice tinged with a rare seriousness and hesitation. He pointed at the bag on the floor, then at Su Mian’s legs. “You… what you have on under there… surely not…”

“No! Absolutely not! Don’t talk nonsense!” Su Mian blurted out a triple denial, his cheeks flushing so crimson they looked as if they might bleed.

Seeing Su Mian’s mortified, almost dying expression, Lu Yang suddenly chuckled. “It’s alright, Mianzi, we’re all men here. Your Brother Lu understands.”

He casually patted Su Mian’s shoulder. “Young people, it’s perfectly normal to have those needs. Next time, just shout ‘I’m busy,’ don’t stay silent and make me think something’s wrong.”

“Huh?” Su Mian was slow to react.

“Still trying to play innocent with me, kid?” Lu Yang chuckled, a knowing glint in his eyes. “I never would’ve guessed it from your usual demeanor, but you’re quite adventurous in private.”

To ease Su Mian’s embarrassment, he teased, “But honestly, with a little help from ‘props,’ it really is different, isn’t it? Maybe I’ll grab a pair next time and give it a try. Might be surprisingly comfortable!”

In that moment, Su Mian finally understood the full extent of Lu Yang’s wild assumptions.

Instantly, his face burned even hotter. Lu Yang actually thought he was…!!!

‘Still, never mind. This misunderstanding was a thousand times better than the truth being revealed.’

“Then, Brother Lu, about this matter…” Su Mian stammered, trailing off.

Before he could finish, Lu Yang thumped his chest, assuring him, “I’m not some blabbermouth. Why would I go spreading something like this around?”

“Relax!” Lu Yang declared, thumping his chest with a righteous air. “Am I the kind of guy who can’t keep a secret? This will stay buried with me, absolutely!”

He chuckled, nudging Su Mian with his shoulder. “Just remember, kid, if you stumble upon any new ‘discoveries’ in the future, be sure to share your insights with your brother here.”

Su Mian’s face was beet red, and he had no idea how to respond.

He genuinely had no experience with such matters. He wasn’t even sure if his still-unstable body truly possessed those worldly desires…

Somehow, he suddenly recalled the scene a few nights ago when he video-called Xiao Moyuan and showed him his legs… At that moment, he seemed to have…

“No, no, no! That was definitely just pure embarrassment!” he accidentally mumbled his thoughts aloud.

Lu Yang, assuming Su Mian was still embarrassed about his ‘private activities,’ burst into laughter. “It’s normal to feel shy! If I were caught, I wouldn’t be much better off than you!”

Su Mian ceased his attempts at explanation. This was fine.

‘Let him misunderstand. Su Mian truly couldn’t conjure a better excuse; this was already the best possible outcome.’

Lu Yang suddenly remembered something and asked curiously, “But Mianzi, are you going to keep wearing that thing?”

Only then did Su Mian realize, with a jolt, that the cursed stockings were still on him!

He flushed crimson again and darted back into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, he emerged holding the stockings, now crumpled into a ball, and tossed them precisely into the overflowing trash bin.

Lu Yang’s gaze unconsciously followed the arc of the discarded stockings, then settled on Su Mian’s bare feet.

He hadn’t noticed before, but his roommate’s feet were surprisingly small, so fair, and incredibly delicate, with perfectly rounded toes.

As an athlete, all his buddies had large, rough feet. He had never seen such clean and attractive feet before. Even many girls’ feet probably couldn’t compare…

His gaze drifted back to the stockings in the trash bin, and an image, utterly beyond his control, formed in his mind: black stockings encasing those fair, tender feet…

“Brother Lu, what are you looking at?” Su Mian asked, bewildered.

“Ah? Oh! N-nothing!” Lu Yang snapped back to attention, awkwardly rubbing his nose.

He instinctively turned and grabbed his pink dumbbell, attempting to prove his unwavering masculinity through action. He felt as if he had been possessed just now.

To cover his embarrassment, he forced a topic. “Ahem… Mianzi, weren’t these just bought? You’re throwing them away after one wear?”

Su Mian explained, “These ultra-thin ones are disposable. They’ll snag if you wash them, making them unwearable.”

Lu Yang ‘oh’ed, his gaze involuntarily darting back to the trash bin. As if by some ghostly impulse, he muttered under his breath,

“…Tsk, just throwing them away like that seems… quite a waste. I feel like… they could still… be put to good use?”

Su Mian: ‘???’