Chapter 1: Rift
A strange twisting pain came from deep in his lower abdomen.
Xiahou Ming opened his eyes amid a sticky sweat.
The sky wasn’t fully bright yet, and outside the window was the unique morning of Wu Port County in the 1990s, mixed with coal ash and moisture.
His room was small and cramped, with yellowed newspapers pasted on the walls, covering the peeling plaster.
Everything was the same as usual, except for himself.
His body felt wrong.
He cursed, but the sound got stuck in his throat, turning into a groan muffled in his nose.
‘What the fck is going on?’
The summer night was stuffy and hot, and he was used to sleeping in just his underwear.
He propped himself up, and the thin sheet slid down to his waist.
A strange swaying and drooping sensation came from his chest.
He looked down in confusion.
Two lumps of flesh that didn’t belong to him were attached to his chest.
His breathing stopped.
He reached out, trembling, and touched them.
Soft, warm.
It was his own skin, his own body temperature.
This realization made his blood seem to freeze all over.
His stomach churned violently.
He threw off the blanket and looked down.
Between his legs… that weight and outline that had accompanied him for sixteen years was gone.
Empty.
Time seemed to freeze for three seconds.
Then, like an enraged beast, he sprang from the bed and rushed into the bathroom.
In the mirror stood a monster.
That face, he recognized it, yet he didn’t.
It was his own face, but everything was wrong.
The originally sharp jawline had become soft and rounded.
The eyes were still those eyes, but on the new face shape, they appeared larger and more moist.
The violent flames burning inside were washed away by this innocent appearance, making them seem ridiculous and pitiful.
This was the face of a delicate girl.
What he couldn’t tolerate the most was that messy black long hair hanging down to his shoulder blades.
He had no idea how this stuff had grown out.
“Xiao Ya…? My Xiao Ya… you’ve come back?”
A dreamlike voice came from the doorway.
His mother stood there with disheveled hair, her eyes not filled with fear, but with a kind of ecstasy.
That joy was almost manic.
She reached out her withered hand, wanting to touch Xiahou Ming’s face.
Xiao Ya? Who is Xiao Ya?
Xiahou Ming froze in place, his whole body cold.
“Mom… I…”
“My daughter… my poor daughter… you’ve finally come back…”
His mother hugged him tightly, her strength surprisingly great, repeating that unfamiliar name over and over in her mouth.
Xiahou Ming’s heart, at that moment, became even colder than his body.
He broke free from his mother.
In the midst of the chaos, he made only one decision: he had to go to school as usual.
He had to go; the fifty yuan he extorted from Zhang Tao yesterday hadn’t been collected yet.
That was his mother’s medicine money for next week.
He roughly grabbed that blue-and-white male sports jacket school uniform and forced it on.
The cuffs of the jacket were already worn white, the shoulders hung loosely, while the chest was stretched tight by that eerie bulge.
“So uncomfortable.”
This outfit now felt like a costume full of ironic meaning, but he had to wear it.
In the classroom of Senior Two Class Three, the clamor before morning reading was as usual.
When Xiahou Ming stepped through the back door of the classroom, the noise stopped abruptly.
Everyone seemed to have been paused, dozens of gazes shooting over uniformly, converging on this stranger girl in an ill-fitting male school uniform, with a pale face and disheveled long hair.
Fear spread rapidly in the air.
Not directed at her, but at the position she was walking toward.
The last row of the class, by the window—that “throne” was Xiahou Ming’s seat.
Xiahou Ming ignored those gazes; his mind was a mess, with only one thought supporting him—sit in his own seat, and everything would return to normal.
He pulled out the chair and sat down in the dead silence.
As usual, he spread his legs apart, propped his elbows on the desk, assuming the most oppressive posture.
But under this new body, the action seemed so strange and uncoordinated.
His lackey Lin Xiaomei and a few boys exchanged looks, their faces pale, none daring to approach.
Finally, a clear voice broke the silence.
“Classmate?”
Ling Yicai walked over, her face showing a trace of concern and a polite smile.
“Excuse me… did you walk into the wrong classroom? This is Xiao Ming’s seat, are you perhaps…”
Ling Yicai’s voice was gentle like a spring breeze, but at this moment, it sounded extremely grating to Xiahou Ming’s ears.
She was Xiahou Ming’s childhood sweetheart from young to old, the only one in the class who dared to call him by such an intimate nickname.
With her movement, those lackeys seemed to find their backbone and immediately gained confidence.
“Yeah!” Lin Xiaomei immediately stepped forward, putting on airs as she echoed, “This is our Brother Ming’s seat! Who are you? Get lost, or when Brother Ming comes, you’ll be in for it!”
“Exactly! If you don’t want to get beaten, scram!”
The sentences of expulsion and threats buzzed in Xiahou Ming’s ears.
He looked at Ling Yicai’s face in front of him, that familiar yet strange face full of concern.
A surge of rage and despair broke through his taut nerves.
He slammed the table hard and stood up.
“Shut up!”
He used all his strength, wanting to let out the roar that used to make everyone shut up.
But what burst from his throat was a sharp and hoarse girl’s voice that even he found unfamiliar.
The entire classroom fell into a second round of dead silence.
The smile on Ling Yicai’s face froze; she looked puzzled at this emotionally agitated girl in front of her.
“You…”
Xiahou Ming’s brain could no longer think; he only knew that his world was being denied by this group of people he used to see as ants.
He had to prove himself, right now, immediately.
He glared fiercely at Ling Yicai, grinding out word by word through his teeth the sentence that could shatter the entire world:
“I’m Xiahou Ming!”
As the words fell, time seemed to freeze.
Then came an uproar like a landslide and tsunami.
“What?”
“Is she crazy?”
Laughter, discussions, incredulous exclamations.
These sounds were like countless hands tearing Xiahou Ming to pieces.
Ling Yicai’s face turned deathly pale as she stepped back, her eyes full of shock.
Lin Xiaomei laughed even more exaggeratedly: “You? You’re Xiahou Ming? Then I’m Yilian Huolaisi!”
“Shut the fck up, all of you!” Xiahou Ming grabbed the collar of the nearest Lin Xiaomei, wanting to lift her up like before.
But his hand had no strength.
Lin Xiaomei easily broke free with a shake.
“What are you doing!”
Lin Xiaomei was startled by him, then reacted.
An expression appeared on her face that Xiahou Ming had never seen before, a cruel mix of satisfaction and contempt.
“Crazy b*tch! You still want to hit someone?”
Seeing Xiahou Ming about to pounce again, Ling Yicai finally snapped out of her shock.
Her first reaction was that she couldn’t let things escalate; she couldn’t let Xiao Ming’s reputation be ruined by this crazy girl.
She immediately stepped forward and grabbed Xiahou Ming’s arm from the side.
“Classmate, calm down! Don’t do this!”
A pair of soft but firm hands grabbed him; this sensation made Xiahou Ming’s whole body stiffen.
He turned his head and saw Ling Yicai’s face full of anxiety and confusion.
She wasn’t helping him.
She was stopping him, this lunatic.
This realization hurt him more than Lin Xiaomei’s mockery.
“Let go!”
The classroom had completely descended into chaos.
A few boys who enjoyed the spectacle even started whistling.
Just then, a thunderous roar came from the doorway.
“What are you all doing! Starting a rebellion?!”
Class advisor Teacher Wang stood at the door with a livid face; his gaze swept over the chaotic classroom and finally fixed dead on the center of the chaos—that strange girl entangled with Ling Yicai and Lin Xiaomei.
“You!” He pointed at Xiahou Ming, his voice full of anger, “Come to my office!”
“And you! You come too!” Teacher Wang pointed at Lin Xiaomei, who was laughing the most exaggeratedly.
Xiahou Ming heard this voice and subconsciously loosened his hand.
He even impatiently clicked his tongue.
The same old lines again.
But Teacher Wang’s face was darker than ever before; some unknown little girl dared to act tough in front of him?
He was already frustrated by these troublemaking students in the class, and now he didn’t care about his teacher image.
He strode over and unceremoniously grabbed Xiahou Ming’s back collar.
An unprecedented sense of humiliation instantly overwhelmed Xiahou Ming’s brain.
He wanted to resist, to break free, but this body was weak and powerless.
He was effortlessly dragged by the teacher, his feet stumbling on the ground, like dragging a dead dog.
He, Xiahou Ming, was so easily subdued by Teacher Wang, this middle-aged man he never took seriously.
Ling Yicai’s heart jumped fiercely.
She watched this disheveled girl being roughly dragged away by the teacher.
Reason told her this was just a mentally unstable transfer student or lunatic.
But… but when she shouted “Xiahou Ming” just now, the flames burning in those eyes, that desperate demeanor, why… why did it resemble Xiao Ming so much?
An absurd notion, like the seed of a poisonous weed, quietly sprouted in her heart.
No, she had to go see.
She gave a look to the classmate beside her, then quietly and quickly followed, her figure disappearing outside the classroom door.
Her movements were light.
But they were fully noticed by the person in the last row of the classroom, in the corner by the corridor.
That girl’s gaze crossed the noisy crowd, looking toward the empty front door, the corners of her mouth curving into an unnoticed, faint arc.
Things seemed to have become interesting.