After napping for several hours, when Lin Nan woke up, it was already evening.
The temperature had dropped considerably since noon. Lin Nan shivered when he emerged from under the blanket, but quickly returned to normal. Although he had passive magic protecting him, Lin Nan's skin could still perceive temperature changes—otherwise, even if he were scalded by boiling water and got blisters, he'd probably remain obliviously unaware.
His uncle wasn't in the living room, but looking toward the bedroom door, he could faintly smell cigarette smoke drifting from the crack under the door.
Lin Nan had known before his last visit that Wu Guodong was a heavy smoker. Even though he'd been mentally prepared, Lin Nan was still choked by the smoke smell and kept coughing.
Lin Nan covered his nose and mouth, too lazy to go to the bedroom to call Wu Guodong. He picked up the controller he'd been holding and continued playing games.
Being at Wu Guodong's house was when Lin Nan felt most comfortable. After all, here he could play games all day without needing to attend classes, and someone would treat him to meals... mainly the latter made him feel comfortable.
Having slept too long, Lin Nan didn't feel hungry at all. But after playing games for a while, he inevitably felt somewhat bored and tired—he wasn't the type of person with passionate enthusiasm for gaming.
Lin Nan rubbed his still somewhat dazed eyes, yawned, and picked up the mineral water from the coffee table.
Wu Guodong in the bedroom probably heard his movement. He turned off the air conditioning and returned to the living room. Just as he was about to sit down next to Lin Nan, he saw Lin Nan move to the very edge of the sofa with a disgusted expression.
"Uncle, you smell so strongly of cigarettes..." Lin Nan said while pinching his nose.
"I smoked all afternoon, so it's normal for the smell to be strong." Wu Guodong felt no guilt whatsoever, even lowering his head to smell his own clothes. "I don't smell any cigarette smoke."
You've been in a meat-smoking room for so long, of course you can't smell cigarette smoke.
Lin Nan really couldn't understand why some people liked to smoke when stressed. He couldn't see any connection between smoking and stress relief . He felt eating a lollipop would be better, letting the sweetness stimulate more dopamine production.
Even harder to understand were those elementary, middle, and high school students who smoked to look cool. He couldn't comprehend how anyone would think smoking was cool.
Look at Chen Yao—although he also smoked, it was mostly in social chatting situations. According to him, when meeting unfamiliar people, opening with "Do you smoke?" was more natural than "Have you eaten?" But normally Chen Yao rarely smoked proactively.
"What do you want for dinner? And late-night snacks?"
"You decide." Lin Nan had a so-called choice paralysis about this, especially when ordering takeout.
"Then let's get fast food, and if you're hungry for late-night snacks, we'll have some barbecue?"
"Either's fine."
Lin Nan, just woken up, was still somewhat listless. He yawned and got up to go to the bathroom to wash his face, which finally made his eyes stop feeling sore and blurry.
"Tonight you sleep in my room, I'll sleep on the sofa." Wu Guodong followed to outside the bathroom door, looking at Lin Nan's blurred silhouette through the frosted glass. "Always making you sleep on the sofa isn't good. I've opened the windows in my room to air out the cigarette smell, so it shouldn't be that strong by tonight."
Lin Nan inside suddenly remembered the pillow printed with anime girl characters he'd seen before, and subconsciously teased: "What about your wife?"
"Wife... don't go randomly rummaging through my closet." Wu Guodong's face reddened. Even though he was nearly thirty, having such embarrassing items seen by his nephew still made him panic uncontrollably. "And don't go telling people about this."
Lin Nan, having washed his face, pushed open the door and looked up at his uncle outside, extending one hand with a smile: "Hush money."
"After your surgery, you'll probably chase after rich people when you see them."
Wu Guodong complained.
I'm not materialistic, okay? I'm just short on money.
Lin Nan pouted, too lazy to argue about this. He just asked: "Your computer shouldn't have any weird stuff on it, right? Don't let me accidentally find something when I'm browsing around."
"Definitely not!" Wu Guodong suddenly felt grateful for his foresight. All that stuff was stored on an external hard drive.
He watched Lin Nan run off to play games after washing his face, always feeling it wasn't quite right to keep his nephew staying indoors with him.
Moreover, a man and woman alone together... although his nephew's current social status was still male, if what Lin Nan said was true, then actually he should be a girl.
This always made Wu Guodong's mind wander to certain manga plotlines, even though he knew such things were impossible.
"Want to go out for a walk? Go to the supermarket and buy you some snacks?" Wu Guodong suggested.
"Can I bring them back?"
"Up to you."
Lin Nan immediately became excited. The last time he'd enjoyed snacks was during the typhoon, when Chen Yao bought a big bag of snacks that he basically devoured entirely by himself.
"But can you really promise me you'll definitely go back for surgery during winter break?" Wu Guodong still doubted Lin Nan's words.
Lin Nan paused, hesitantly nodding.
"What if you feel unwell during that time?"
"Then I'll just go home..."
Wu Guodong was exasperated into laughter. His face darkened as he patted Lin Nan's head. Seeing Lin Nan look up at him with an aggrieved expression, he scolded unhappily: "Why not just call me directly to take you to the hospital? Who knows, maybe you’ll die while waiting for a taxi.”
"It's not that easy to die." Lin Nan looked away from him with a wronged expression, feeling his uncle was making too big a deal of things.
He was someone who knew magic, after all. Especially that purification magic - while it couldn't eliminate harmful bacteria and viruses from his body, it could at least keep his body clean enough that theoretically he'd rarely get sick.
Wu Guodong felt Lin Nan's attitude wasn't quite right, but as his uncle, he really couldn't say anything too harsh.
Mainly because he kept subconsciously treating Lin Nan as a girl...
He sighed helplessly. Seeing Lin Nan still with that carefree attitude, completely uncaring about his own body, gave him a headache.
"By the way, Uncle, I need to buy shoes." Even at Wu Guodong's house, Lin Nan always wore his sun protection jacket. He felt that as a man being stared at his chest was simply humiliating.
"What's wrong? Are your shoes broken?"
"They're too big, my heels keep slipping out..." Lin Nan didn't know how to explain, so he made up a random excuse. "Maybe they got stretched out in the wash?"
We Guodong only heard that stuff shrink in the wash—is there such a thing as them getting bigger?
Wu Guodong's face darkened. If you want to buy shoes, just say so directly. Is it necessary to make up such excuses?
Lin Nan was really full of nonsense, but seeing his uneasy appearance when feeling guilty, he actually found this guy quite cute when telling lies.
I'm really bewitched.
Wu Guodong sighed helplessly: "Let's go, same street as last time."
Just as they reached the door, Wu Guodong's hand was already on the door handle, but he suddenly turned back and asked: "Say, do you want to buy some women's clothing?"
"Huh?"
"You already look pretty much like a girl anyway, and you'll need surgery soon..." Wu Guodong suddenly had the illusion he was playing some kind of crossdressing cultivation game. "Might as well adapt in advance?"
Lin Nan was stunned. His uncle, who he'd thought was fairly proper, was actually advising him to crossdress?
"No way!"