May 10th, Friday.
Nothing happened during the night. The early-rising girls busied themselves silently inside and outside the rental apartment—making breakfast, hanging clothes, cleaning, and tidying up the room. Both were busy in an awkward way, seemingly avoiding the contentious topic from the early morning hours.
"Number 303, express delivery! There are quite a few boxes, come down and get them yourself!"
Downstairs, a small delivery truck slowly stopped, followed by the delivery person's loud shout.
Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao exchanged glances and hurried downstairs. Several boxes of various sizes required two trips to move them all into the rental apartment.
"Hmm? A computer? A small medical constant-temperature blood refrigerator? And phones? This anniversary customer appreciation event is a bit too extravagant..."
Opening the boxes one by one, various items with refined contours appeared before their eyes—all necessities for future life. But to Jiang Yan, the young man named Zhong Jing seemed increasingly unfathomable.
Perhaps all of this was included in that fee? Jiang Yan could only find this reason to explain it.
"Clear the desk in the bedroom, I'll set up the computer. You put the constant-temperature refrigerator in the living room and plug it in. Oh, and this afternoon we'll go to the telecom office to buy phone cards. Tonight we'll go find that underground shop together."
Jiang Yan's hands didn't stop moving as she organized things methodically. Jiang Yao agreed softly.
As modern living items were put in place one by one, seeing the room tidied up anew inside and out, the two shared a knowing smile and reconciled.
Soon, the two were sitting side by side in front of the computer, connected to broadband internet.
Jiang Yan operated while Jiang Yao held their ID cards, reading out the identity information.
The email registration process progressed step by step. When a routine greeting system email appeared, both clenched their fists simultaneously, very happy.
The new identities were indeed legal and usable!
Immediately after, a series of account registrations unfolded one by one. Jiang Yao was even fantasizing about the freedom of surfing the internet unrestrainedly once she could use her phone again.
After registration was complete, Jiang Yan immediately sent a confirmation email to Zhong Jing using the new email address.
In less than five minutes, a reply arrived with just a sly smile emoji, but it included a substantial attachment—a video file.
Downloading the attachment with confusion and clicking to open the video, both were slightly stunned.
The video showed the scene of Jiang Yan's first visit to Zhong Jing's company. Except for the lack of sound, every move of the girl was clearly visible, edited from different angles and time segments.
"What does he mean? Secretly filming brother?"
Jiang Yao was completely puzzled, while Jiang Yan frowned slightly.
It seemed the other party really wasn't joking at the time—every move from the moment she entered that room had been recorded.
But why did he send it to me? To show off? To warn? Or to hint at something?
Only after watching the video twice did Jiang Yan suddenly understand, standing up and pacing around the bedroom, while Jiang Yao beside her still looked completely bewildered.
The black-haired girl in the video had steady mannerisms, walking and sitting with precision, exuding a sense of discord and rigidity that didn't match her tall, youthful figure.
Although the anatomical characteristics of female bones naturally determined some physical movement differences from males, many of Jiang Yan's behaviors in the footage clearly didn't conform to the identity definition of a young girl.
The other party was obviously hinting that she was different from ordinary women! And it was a visibly discordant bearing and demeanor.
A few minutes later, Jiang Yan stopped thinking and, with a serious expression, pulled Jiang Yao to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Xiao Yao, have you gotten used to it these past few days?"
Jiang Yan's serious expression and calm tone gradually made the room's atmosphere strange.
"It's... it's okay, I guess..." Jiang Yao moved her lips a few times, her eyes somewhat uncomfortable.
Probably starting from the night they infiltrated the small villa in the D City countryside, the two had entered a state of deliberate avoidance.
Except for the blood thirst problem hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles, neither had expressed specific opinions about the changes to themselves. As for what explorations each might have done regarding their own bodies during bathing, that was tacitly understood silence.
Even their clothing was taken from the small villa, and except for frequent washing, they had never changed.
"Brother, actually... how should I put it, no one will laugh at my mouth and hands anymore."
After a few seconds of silence, Jiang Yao turned to look at the dressing mirror on one side of the bedroom, extending her left palm and forcing a smile.
Her delicate, fair face, rosy lips—the traces of cleft lip repair surgery that had once seemed so discordant in others' eyes were nowhere to be seen. The hand that had undergone finger separation surgery had also become slender, flawless jade-like fingers.
Following Jiang Yao's gaze, Jiang Yan also began to notice details about them both: her own light blue T-shirt, though clean, was wrinkled; Jiang Yao's originally smooth and striking light blonde long hair was now somewhat messily scattered at the back of her head, the strands no longer smooth.
A few seconds later, with a hint of determination, Jiang Yan firmly patted the other's back: "Come on, let's go buy clothes!"
"Huh? Early in the morning, buying clothes? I wanted to play computer games..."
"Stop talking nonsense, hurry up!"
"We can shop online!"
"There's not a penny in the bank cards, how would you shop online?"
"..."
...
...
The streets near the residential area were lively and noisy, with breakfast vendors, vegetable sellers, and fruit vendors arranged chaotically, with elderly men and women coming and going.
Unlike the elegant prosperity of the golden CBD district in the city center, there were no fashionable men and women strolling about, nor leisurely urban white-collar workers. This place was more filled with down-to-earth daily life atmosphere.
Perhaps because it was a weekday, or more likely because online shopping had changed most young people's consumption habits, the increasingly declining offline physical stores were having a harder time doing business.
Except for fruit shops, pastry stores, and noodle restaurants that still had some popularity, clothing stores and shoe stores were deserted, barely surviving, with clearance sale signs visible everywhere.
Shirt dresses, pleated skirts, one-piece dresses, umbrella skirts, A-line skirts, spaghetti strap dresses, denim skirts...
Chiffon, printed, floral, polka dot, slit, half-length...
European style, Korean style, Chinese style, modern, classic, casual, professional...
The above was just the skirt category alone, and it had already dazzled Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao, making them dizzy from trying things on. However, more than half were still denim items that both liked—durable and washable.
They were all unknown civilian brands, focusing on being cheap and abundant, with shopping bags of various colors and sizes filling every finger of the two women. As for quality, who knows.
Gradually, the packaging bags in Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao's hands had reached near-maximum capacity. Clothes, skirts, shoes, socks... all together, even with affordable prices and big discounts, they had spent several thousand yuan.
Through the overly enthusiastic reception and interaction with shop owners, the two finally determined their various body measurements.
For example: Jiang Yan, height 171 cm, weight 53 kg, tall and elegant; Jiang Yao, height 166 cm, weight 49 kg, delicate and beautiful.
Leaving another clearance sale shoe store, the shop owner behind them smiled particularly brightly. Jiang Yan walked in front with an unchanged expression, while Jiang Yao followed behind, already looking somewhat pale.
"Brother... let's go to that noodle restaurant. We haven't had lunch yet... my feet are about to break."
Jiang Yao rubbed her stomach, showing a pained expression.
Another beautifully decorated store appeared ahead. Jiang Yan hesitated, and after an internal struggle, still walked over with her head down.
"Brother, what else do we need to buy? Isn't this enough?"
Jiang Yao suppressed her increasingly uncontrollable impatience, her tone somewhat sharp.
"Underwear!"
Jiang Yan's expression didn't change as she walked straight through the door.
Taking out her recently activated phone to check the time, noon had long passed, and waves of weakness washed over Jiang Yao.
...
6 PM, in the rental apartment.
In the living room, on the sofa, Jiang Yan was biting into a piece of bread while browsing various news and trending topics on her phone, watching Jiang Yao emerge from the bedroom wearing a shirt dress.
"We clearly tried it on in the store, but you still made me wear it... wait, why does it seem a bit too big?"
Jiang Yao frowned, tugging at certain details of the dress and muttering.
"Mm, this light blue one is mine." Jiang Yan chewed her bread with a calm expression. "Go change into the floral dress from the white shopping bag, that's also mine."
"What... Ah?! Brother, so for the whole hour, I've been trying on clothes for you?"
Jiang Yao finally realized what had happened and was almost in tears.
Jiang Yan lowered her head slightly and touched her nose to hide the embarrassment on her face: "Forget it, take them all out, cut off the tags, wash them and wear them tomorrow. Oh, and pay attention to color separation, or they'll bleed color."
Countless shopping bags were thrown in the corner, cut-off tags scattered on the floor, and a small mountain of various colored clothing piled up on the sofa.
Picking up a cute-style bra, Jiang Yan's face turned slightly red in an imperceptible way.
As if recalling a few hours earlier, when she had used the excuse of an injured hand and shoulder being inconvenient, specifically asking the middle-aged female shop owner to give her a hands-on demonstration.
Through observation and experience, Jiang Yan finally understood why, since the day they took someone else's underwear from the small villa, she had been feeling uncomfortable in her chest, ribs, and back—it turned out she hadn't been wearing the right fit, even the size and cup type were wrong.
"Hey, brother, look at this one... am I really bigger than you?"
Jiang Yao grabbed a lace-heavy bra and came over, deliberately bumping Xia Yan with her shoulder, looking mysterious: "That female shop manager said I'm a C, and brother, you're only a B."
"What, think you've finally surpassed me in one thing? Are you a pervert?"
Jiang Yan grumpily set aside the bra in her hands and picked up a cute, delicate pair of panties to unwrap.
"Say, Brother, with so little material, it still costs two or three hundred per set? More expensive than outer wear combined! And with all those fancy lace decorations—since they're worn inside where others can't see them, is it necessary?"
Jiang Yao held up the bra in front of her, turning it over and over, even touching and kneading it.
"That's because... because..."
Jiang Yan turned to look at Gu Yao, whose behavior was becoming increasingly perverted, but couldn't come up with a "because" after a long time.
More than ten seconds later, unrestrained laughter from two girls echoed through the living room, and the atmosphere in the shabby rental apartment became much warmer.