Though he finally got away from the dorm manager and retrieved his student ID, Lin Nan felt the manager still didn't believe he was male.
"That can't be right?"
He muttered to himself. Although the uncle had said his face still looked masculine, was his body language really identical to a girl's?
Lin Nan knew he sometimes displayed feminine gestures, but he'd been trying his best to suppress them during his time in the dorm. After more than a week, he thought he'd stopped doing things like furrowing his brows in that feminine, coquettish way like he did at first. However, in reality, these mannerisms seemed to have gradually become integrated into his being, becoming part of his body.
Mentally exhausted, he arrived at the cafeteria and tried pushing the glass door, but just as the dorm manager had said, it wasn't open yet.
So he could only find a bench outside the cafeteria to sit on, resting his chin on his hand dejectedly while staring at the huge banyan tree in the distance.
"So hungry..." He rubbed his belly - he hadn't eaten all day yesterday, and now breakfast was so close yet still out of reach with the cafeteria closed.
He leaned back weakly against the bench, gazing absently at the clouds in the sky.
Various strange thoughts gradually surfaced in his mind during this quiet moment.
How would he face his parents and relatives during winter break? If magic really turned him into a woman, would he have to find a boyfriend in the future? If more pursuers came after him, wouldn't he be helpless?
Various questions swirled in his mind, but Lin Nan had no answers. He could only let out a long sigh and decide to take things as they came.
He had thought his life would be simple - get through college quietly, find an ordinary job and start paying off car and house loans, find a wife through arranged dates at his parents' urging, then repeat the whole cycle with the next generation... Before all this, he had felt such a predictable life offered little hope, and had wanted change.
But this was way too much change, wasn't it?
Suddenly, Lin Nan keenly sensed someone's gaze on him.
Following the gaze, he found it was Lina, whom he had met the night before last.
"Up so early?" Lin Nan waved listlessly in greeting, then ignored her presence and continued spacing out.
Lina walked up to him expressionlessly, looking down at the young man who was so troubled by his physical changes.
"Come back with me. Being locked up for life is still better than being unable to return home, stuck as an ordinary person in this world without magic," she suddenly said. "I have a way to take you back. I just hope you won't do evil things after returning."
Lin Nan couldn't be bothered to explain - explanations would be useless anyway.
"You've changed a lot in this world." Lina sat down beside him, her tone gradually softening. "Since finding you, I've been observing for a long time. Perhaps there's still a way back for you."
"You're crazy," Lin Nan couldn't help but retort. "I told you. Lilith is dead."
"Yes! That witch is dead! After you return, you can hide your identity and spend the rest of your life with me!"
Lina suddenly became excited, grabbing Lin Nan's hand. He tried to pull away in fright, but this girl's strength was surprisingly powerful, gripping him like a vise. Having no choice, he gave up struggling and decided to hear what else Lina had to say.
"When we were young, you promised me we'd be together forever..."
"Um... let me interrupt." Lin Nan awkwardly tried to pull his hand away again, and when that failed, he asked, "This 'rest of our life' you mentioned - how long is that?"
"Over two thousand years."
I'd be lucky to live peacefully until retirement at sixty, and you're talking about two thousand years?
If their lifespan was two thousand years, then both Lilith and Lina were only three hundred years old - weren't they basically still minors? No wonder Lina's face looked so young.
Lin Nan felt quite nervous. This crazy woman had pulled out a knife during their last meeting - if she had dared to be so bold at the crowded but dimly lit sports field, what about now? It was barely dawn, with no school staff or students around. If he was taken hostage again, no one would hear him cry for help.
Seeing Lin Nan trembling in apparent fear, the young woman gently moved closer, pressing her body against his.
Despite feeling the young woman's graceful figure against him, Lin Nan had no romantic thoughts at all - he was just wondering where the fruit knife was pressed against him this time, out of his sight.
"Lilith..." Lina called the dead person's name tenderly.
"Um..." Lin Nan suddenly noticed the cafeteria had opened at some point and quickly stood up. "I need to eat breakfast."
"Together."
He was helplessly grabbed by the arm and walked stiffly into the cafeteria.
Lin Nan had imagined countless times what his first intimate contact with a girl would be like, but he had never imagined it would feel like being a skewered piece of meat on a grill.
Time passed excruciatingly slowly for Lin Nan, while Lina kept whispering puzzling things in his ear.
"Lilith, you've changed so much. You used to push me away."
"Lilith, let's take a bath together tonight?"
"When will you change back to your old self?"
"Lilith, you haven't found a boyfriend here, have you?"
Most of the words went in one ear and out the other, with Lin Nan reflexively responding "Mm-hmm," but when he sat down with his breakfast, he suddenly realized something.
Could it be that Lina was in love with Lilith?
"By the way, Lilith, what's your name in this world?"
"Lin Nan."
"Nan Nan? Such a nice name."
What's nice about it? Why are you calling me Nan Nan like Tu Junhui? Since when are we that close?
Lin Nan's mouth twitched, but he noticed something.
Could the witch and the holy maiden really have been in a lesbian relationship? He frowned, looking at Lina in disbelief.
It wasn't that there was nothing about it in Lilith's memories, but those memories spanned over three hundred years - too vast to recall clearly. He wasn't a computer that could search by keywords.
After all, he had forgotten so much of his own eighteen years of memories; trying to recall someone else's three hundred years of memories was even more overwhelming.
"What's wrong?" Lina looked down at her clothes. "Isn't this what everyone wears in this world?"
"Nothing. Weren't you trying to kill me yesterday?"
"The harsh approach was just to scare you. If you still had magic and tried to resist, I would have killed you then - that way, when you reincarnated into another body, you'd need time to recover. If that didn't work, I'd have to use gentler methods," Lina said matter-of-factly. "I don't have much magic to use in this world either. Most of my magic has to be saved for returning home, so I need to conserve what little I have. Besides, I've observed that you've changed quite a bit, so perhaps you'll listen to reason."
So I almost got killed?
The young woman before Lin Nan's eyes was absolutely a time bomb!