SBAB Chapter 2

Lin Xin saw the constant “+1” notifications on her phone and thought that today’s situation might have passed without incident. However, if she continued to be hounded by her friends about this baseless weight loss method, it wouldn’t take long for this group of witches to uncover all her secrets—especially the ones her body couldn’t hide.

To be cautious, Lin Xin headed to the school’s north gate village to buy some cross-bridge noodles, but first, she made a quick detour to the counselor’s office at the south gate to request three days off. University professors were generally understanding. Upon hearing that Lin Xin wasn’t feeling well and needed a full medical checkup, they didn’t ask for further details. They granted the leave without any trouble, which saved Lin Xin from unnecessary complications.

As Lin Xin walked away with her leave pass, she pondered over her current situation and what could have triggered this change. Was it a deep-seated desire to become a boy that her body responded to? She recalled how she had always thought her small chest was strange when it started growing in elementary school and told herself it didn’t need to get any bigger. And it didn’t.

But even though she was still secretly in love with a senior boy, that didn’t necessarily mean she wanted to become a boy.

So, was she destined to become a hero, like in that recent anime “My Life as a Teenage Boy”? The protagonist was a girl who turned into a muscle-bound superhero to save the world and her crush. Could that be the reason?

Lin Xin looked at her still slender, muscle-free arms and clenched her fist, striking a campus cherry tree in frustration. The tree remained unscathed, but Lin Xin crouched down, holding her bruised hand, and started to sob. There were no magic powers, no spells; she realized the power of nature was sacred and unchangeable.

Flipping through her mental “encyclopedia” of gender-swapped stories, Lin Xin couldn’t find any clear cause for this transformation—no scientific explanation or special gender setting, just like hers, which seemed to be a random joke from the universe.

Feeling uneasy about confiding in anyone, Lin Xin knew that discussing this with anyone would only make her look like she was losing her mind over a comic book. If she went to the hospital, the doctor would have no trouble diagnosing her as mentally ill, since she looked perfectly healthy and had no visible symptoms.

After much contemplation, Lin Xin decided to create a small anonymous account and post on Weibo: “What should I do if I suddenly turn into a boy overnight?” She even spent money to promote the post for an hour.

As Lin Xin was about to check for any helpful replies, the cross-bridge noodle shop owner interrupted her: “Hey, young lady, you haven’t paid for your four portions yet!”

“Oh, sorry, sorry,” Lin Xin hurriedly paid with WeChat, but her hands were full with the two large bags of noodles, so she couldn’t check her phone right away.

Well, she’d have to look later.

Cross-bridge noodles were a great solution, not only tasty but also enough to silence her ravenous roommates for at least half an hour, giving Lin Xin enough time to pack and escape.

Lin Xin couldn’t go home, and couldn’t return to her dorm. So she decided to find a small hotel in the village to stay for three days without leaving. During this time, she could properly assess her current body structure and better conceal her changes.

She didn’t want to face the consequences of being exposed, whether it was the headline “Young girl suddenly changes sex” or “Weird boy dresses as a girl in a girls’ dorm,” which could become a major city scandal.

It’s easier to hide one’s “gender” than to run away to another city and live incognito.

Saying it was easy was one thing; doing it was quite another.

First, she took a shower. Just that one task drove Lin Xin nearly mad; she had greatly overestimated her tolerance.

Lin Xin smoothly and efficiently stripped off her shirt without much thought, feeling almost as if she had returned to elementary school—plus, she saved on buying bras, which wasn’t all bad. Then she removed her denim shorts. Today, they had rubbed her thighs uncomfortably, so she decided to bid farewell to them forever.

But once she took off her pants, Lin Xin’s calm vanished. It wasn’t the sight of an unfamiliar organ that troubled her; it was the shape of that organ tightly enclosed by her triangle underwear.

At that moment, she truly felt like she had become him.

But… it was so ugly. Ugly enough to cry. This “Armstrong rotary accelerator jet Armstrong cannon” replica was ridiculously high fidelity, but it clashed terribly with her blue-white striped triangle panties!

Lin Xin placed her hand over her flat chest, listening to her heartbeat from such proximity, then took a deep breath—huff. But as she continued, tears filled her eyes.

At least, she could still bear it; it was just a small soft “thing” lying in the grass. Who would be scared of a tiny adorable creature?

But if that were the case, why was it scaring her in the morning? Lin Xin lay back in the bathtub, reflecting on what had happened that morning, thinking about naked Zhang Yun.

Boom!

A fiery sensation burned inside her, and when Lin Xin looked down, that tiny “thing” quickly swelled up and stood erect with a pop. Well, maybe she should take back the “tiny” comment, Lin Xin thought.

Except for her occasional eye-wandering, Lin Xin largely ignored its existence. She checked if there were any other changes in her body; thankfully, aside from the Adam’s apple on her neck, there were no other visible secondary sexual characteristics, no extra leg hair, and no sign of a beard wanting to grow.

This new self was still acceptable.

After getting dressed, Lin Xin finally remembered to check her Weibo.

• “First comment is an idiot.”
• “No picture, no truth.”
• “Who’s so bored to ask these meaningless questions?”
• “Let your roommates have a taste, haha.”

Not a single serious reply.