Lin Nan was feeling a bit nervous and timid.
Someone from another world had followed him all the way to Earth and recognized him as the witch Lilith... Although this Lina he'd encountered was relatively reasonable and hadn't immediately blasted him with magic out of consideration for their past relationship, what if there were other pursuers?
On Sunday, Lin Nan wasn't in the mood to play games.
It wasn't just because of the pursuers from another world - more importantly, his lower abdomen had been aching since last night for some unknown reason. The pain came and went in waves; while not particularly intense, it had been enough to keep him awake all night.
It was already noon, but he remained curled up in his blanket, occasionally shivering from the pain and clutching his lower abdomen tightly, as if that might somehow ease the discomfort.
Chen Yao was already awake, and upon noticing the bed shaking several times, he looked at Lin Nan with confusion and asked in his post-sleep raspy voice, "Not feeling well?"
"Stomach hurts..."
"Then go to the bathroom." Chen Yao yawned, leaning back against the wall while playing with his phone. "Don't tell me you've been in pain all night? I could tell you weren't feeling well last night."
"It's not that kind of pain..."
Lin Nan's voice carried both despair and the weakness of a sleepless night.
"Stomach ache?"
"Not that either."
"Should we go see a doctor?"
"Probably not necessary?" Lin Nan disliked going to the hospital - just the smell of disinfectant made him nauseous. Apart from his previous fainting episode, he hadn't been to the hospital for illness in the past few years.
Knowing Lin Nan's habits, Chen Yao didn't push the matter, but asked, "Then should I go buy you some medicine for stomach pain?"
"I guess..."
"'I guess' my foot! How am I supposed to know what medicine to buy when you won't even tell me where it hurts?" Chen Yao scolded. "If you're sick, see a doctor. What's the point of enduring it?"
After receiving no response from Lin Nan for a while, he grumbled as he got out of bed: "Fine, I give up. Wait until you can't stand it anymore."
"Mm."
Only Chen Yao was up in the dorm. After washing up, he went straight to gaming, though he kept glancing worriedly at the upper bunk. But Lin Nan had pulled the blanket over his head, and Chen Yao could only occasionally feel the bed frame shaking.
Thinking back over the years, only Lin Nan's previous fever and fainting from getting caught in the rain had been serious. Most other ailments would resolve themselves after a day of rest and sleep. Although Lin Nan was occasionally shaking from pain this time, it probably wasn't anything major.
If it were really serious, he would have been begging to go to the hospital, right?
Not long after, Xiong Da woke up too.
On weekends, they weren't in a hurry to wash up, preferring to order takeout and play on their phones in bed first, only getting up when the food arrived.
"Lin Nan's still sleeping today?" Xiong Da was surprised to find Lin Nan still wrapped in his blanket.
Lin Nan was usually the first to sleep and first to wake in the dorm, since he was the only one without a computer. At night, he would just play on his phone and watch videos in bed until he dozed off.
"Seems like his stomach's been hurting all night."
"Want to go to the campus clinic?" Xiong Da got up from his bed, his words showing concern despite his familiar cold tone. "I have medicine in my drawer - is it stomach pain or gastric pain?"
"Not sure." Chen Yao got up to check his drawer, indeed finding medicines like Ban Lan Gen and Huoxiang Zhengqi Shui, but after looking through everything, he still wasn't sure which would be suitable for Lin Nan. (TN: Traditional Chinese medicines basically.)
After all, he didn't even know exactly where Lin Nan was hurting.
"Lin Nan, where exactly does it hurt?"
"I don't know either."
"Could it be your period?" Tu Junhui, who had woken up at some point, teased from his bed.
Lin Nan, still curled up in his blanket, tensed up and quickly retorted, "How is that possible?"
Period?
True, he was becoming more feminine, but he still had his little brother, right? How could he possibly have a period in this situation... The more he thought about it, the more uncertain he became.
Previous pains had either been from eating something bad or skipping breakfast, occasionally getting gastrointestinal spasms from running too fast, but in his nearly twenty years of life, this was the first time he'd experienced this kind of pain.
Thinking about his developing chest and hips, and his increasingly fair skin...
Could it really be a period?
"Then, could I get some hot water?" Lin Nan poked his head out from under the blanket and asked, "With some brown sugar?"
"You're really treating it like a period?" Chen Yao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "If you think brown sugar water will help, I'll go buy some brown sugar."
Noticing Lin Nan's head was covered in sweat, he handed over Lin Nan's towel: "Wipe off your sweat. Does it hurt that much? Your hair is all wet."
"It comes in waves. It's mainly because I'm sweating from being under the covers." Lin Nan weakly took the towel, roughly wiped himself off, and hung it on the bed railing before quickly curling back under the blanket.
Even the slightest bit of air conditioning now made his lower abdomen hurt more intensely.
He wondered if there was any magic that could cure illness...
After searching through Lilith's memories, Lin Nan couldn't find any healing magic - despite being a witch, healing wasn't in her repertoire.
He did find several spells that could temporarily ignore pain, but the conditions for casting them were too demanding, and Lin Nan, currently collapsed in bed, couldn't use them at all.
Tu Junhui got up from his bed too, shirtless as he went to boil water. As he went in and out of the balcony, he continued teasing: "Nan Nan, you sure you don't want Chen Yao to buy some sanitary pads while he's at it?"
"Don't need any." Lin Nan groaned his refusal from under the blanket.
Even if it really was a period, it was still internal - at least he still had his little brother, so there wouldn't be any menstrual blood flowing out.
But if this guess was true, the implications were terrifying.
Could it be that after using magic, not only had his chest developed, but a complete set of female organs was developing inside him too?
Lin Nan quickly made up his mind, planning to get a full body checkup at the hospital when he had time. This wasn't the time to be bothered by the hospital smell.
But could it just be because of Lilith? Or because of meeting someone from another world? In other words, it might be related to magic, in which case a medical examination wouldn't reveal anything.
The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became, ignoring Tu Junhui's continued teasing.
Soon Chen Yao returned with the brown sugar. Having never made brown sugar water before, he didn't know if there were any special considerations, so he just dissolved it in boiling water and placed the cup at Lin Nan's bedside.
"Be careful, don't knock it over," he advised worriedly. "If you can't take it anymore, just say something. If we really need to go to the hospital, we'll go. I'll do all the running around, so don't worry about the trouble."
"I know." Lin Nan slightly lifted the blanket to show his face and pursed his lips. "Why are you even more nagging than my dad?"
Chen Yao didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "I'm just worried you'll die here and affect the dorm's feng shui!"
"Hmph!"