The third day at school, Sunday.
Due to staying up all night, the dormitory was as quiet as if empty throughout the day.
It wasn't until after three in the afternoon that Lin Nan was woken by his roommate's movements.
Still groggy, he propped himself up to look down and saw Tu Junhui had woken up early and was now washing up on the balcony.
Although he'd been woken up, Lin Nan had no intention of getting out of bed. He wrapped himself in his blanket, curled up his feet, and lay facing the wall while playing with his phone.
His movement woke up Chen Yao, who was sleeping opposite him. Chen Yao got up confused, looked around the dorm, immediately came to his senses, and then craned his neck to look at Lin Nan's phone.
"What are you looking at?" he glanced at the screen and feigned surprise. " How can I be more masculine?"
Lin Nan couldn't be bothered to respond and continued searching related topics.
"Grow your hair long and put on makeup. That'll definitely make you manly," Chen Yao teased, then consoled him. "It's fine. You looked more like a girl in middle school, but I never saw you this anxious about it then."
"That was just because I was shorter back then."
"You're not tall now either."
"......"
The conversation immediately died. Lin Nan remained silent, and Chen Yao laughed awkwardly, feeling that Lin Nan had been somewhat off lately, getting angry and worked up at the slightest thing. So he quickly climbed down from the bed, preparing to wash up and play computer games.
Classes would officially start tomorrow, and the school had already returned to its usual liveliness today. Lying in bed, Lin Nan could clearly hear the sounds of people walking back and forth in the corridor outside.
But his mood wasn't good. Yesterday at the internet café, Dong An had said he looked like a girl, and although he tried hard not to care about such comments, they still left a thorn in his heart.
Maybe I should just shave my head?
Lin Nan was muttering to himself when he suddenly heard Tu Junhui ask him:
"Weren't you supposed to deliver takeout? Did you go at noon?"
"!!!" Lin Nan was suddenly stunned. No wonder he felt like he'd forgotten something.
He quickly got up from bed, intending to go down, but thinking carefully, he also forgot about the takeout job last night because he had gone to the internet café, and now...
He flopped back down limply: "Forget it, I won't go. What's the point of delivering takeout? I might as well find a waiter job. Standing all day is more comfortable than running up and down stairs."
"Besides, the manager hasn't called me, they probably forgot about me too." Once Lin Nan said this, he immediately felt at ease. If even the manager had forgotten, then there was nothing wrong with him forgetting too, right?
He rolled over, lying face down with his face against the pillow, when he suddenly felt two points of pain in his chest.
This pain once again reminded him of his recent nightmares, and his face instantly paled slightly. He quickly touched the area with his hand under the blanket.
It seemed... there was more flesh?
It had only been one day! If this continued, wouldn't he become... in just a month?
The more Lin Nan thought about it, the more panicked he became. If he really grew a pair in the future...
He had to suppress this situation early.
He immediately searched related topics online again and found that quite a few men actually developed chest tissue, including his dormmate Tu Junhui, who, due to being overweight, had at least a C cup.
Treatment options... for cases like Tu Junhui's, the chest would naturally flatten with weight loss, but for developmental cases like Lin Nan's, surgery was the only option.
His mouth twitched, and he immediately dismissed this solution.
Temporarily putting aside this unsolvable problem, Lin Nan came down from bed to wash up.
For Lin Nan and Chen Yao, living in the dormitory was more comfortable than living at home. After all, both their parents were busy, and at home, they basically lived alone and had to take care of household chores. Meanwhile, at school, there were many people around and always something to do, so they were rarely bored.
"Anyone want to go running and exercise tonight?" Lin Nan stood on the balcony with a toothbrush in his mouth, asking the others somewhat unclearly.
Yesterday's takeout delivery made Lin Nan realize his declining physical condition. He had thought about trying magic, but it seemed to have too many side effects. Moreover, each spell had unacceptable unlock restrictions. So he might as well exercise directly.
"No," Chen Yao answered without looking up from his computer.
"Are games not fun anymore, or are midnight snacks not tasty?" Tu Junhui sneered from his bed. "After working out last semester, I figured it out—I'd rather spend that time playing games than exercising."
This guy had lost twenty or thirty jin last semester, but after gaining it all back over summer break, he'd lost confidence in working out.
Xiong Da was still sleeping and didn't respond, though this guy was such a shut-in that Lin Nan suspected he wouldn't leave the dorm all semester if attendance wasn't required for classes.
Seeing no one willing to exercise with him, Lin Nan wavered.
He checked magic spells for increasing stamina and muscle but found most had major restrictions, so he had to give up.
So he grumbled, somewhat dissatisfied: "Then I'll go running by myself."
"Oh, right. The school's Top Ten Singers competition will have preliminaries soon. Do you want to join, Lin Nan?" Tu Junhui suddenly asked.
"Not interested."
"There's prize money, and I thought you needed money for a computer? Even making the top ten gets you a hundred yuan consolation prize. First, place is supposedly a thousand this year."
Prize money...
Lin Nan wavered, but thinking of his terrible voice, he ultimately shook his head in refusal. Besides, he didn't dare to sing in public.
"Then how about the e-sports tournament?" Mentioning competitions reminded Chen Yao of the annual school tournament, and he turned in his seat to ask, "Preliminaries start in November. I heard first place gets a set of championship skins and five thousand yuan, which comes to about a thousand per person."
This wasn't bad. Although it meant playing games in public, once you got into it, the surroundings didn't matter.
"Didn't you see how terrible I was last night?" Lin Nan hesitated.
"Maybe you were just off your game?"
No, he had simply become worse...
Lin Nan spat out his toothpaste foam, feeling nothing but a headache. If it had been before, earning money for a computer wouldn't have been difficult—he could boost accounts, deliver takeout, and enter competitions. But now, with his decreased stamina and reactions, it seemed he couldn't do any money-making work.
"Why not give it a try?" Chen Yao encouraged, "Take half a month to get back in form, then sign up when you're better?"
Although Lin Nan had played so badly yesterday that Chen Yao wanted to smash his keyboard, they had been bot lane partners since middle school, climbing to Diamond I. They could even hold their own against Master-tier bot lanes. If he suddenly had to change partners, Chen Yao worried he wouldn't adapt.
As long as Lin Nan returned to his previous level, they might not be invincible. Nonetheless, they could at least dominate any bot lane combination at this school.
"Maybe I'll try?" Lin Nan was very tempted by that thousand yuan—it would be enough for a computer that could run League of Legends on low settings.
If it really came down to it, he could try to unlock a magic spell to improve his reactions and hand speed?
Unfortunately, Lin Nan's memory didn't contain any spells like turning stone to gold. Otherwise, he wouldn't need to put so much effort into earning money.