Wu Guodong was, after all, a single guy.
Most of his housekeeping was just surface-level work. While things looked clean enough at first glance, the corners and windows were actually quite dirty.
Moreover, due to his long-term smoking habit, the apartment was perpetually filled with a lingering smoke smell, especially the bedroom. With windows closed and air conditioning on, he chain-smoked one cigarette after another, turning the entire room into a misty realm. After half an hour, Lin Nan couldn’t stand it anymore.
"I need some fresh air," Lin Nan said, his nose irritated by the smoke as he opened the bedroom door and complained from the doorway. "Uncle, can’t you stop smoking? Are you trying to make preserved meat?"
"Work pressure is too high, I’m just used to it." Wu Guodong felt helpless. He usually worked 996 hours, with occasional overtime, facing unimaginable work pressure that he could only relieve through smoking.
"No matter how high the pressure is, you shouldn’t smoke every ten minutes, right? What pressure could you have at home?" Lin Nan asked curiously. "Is Grandpa pressuring you about marriage again?"
At the mention of marriage pressure, Wu Guodong’s face turned coal-black, and he could only sigh deeply: "They’ve been pressuring me for years, but where would I find the time?"
Being a homebody with a busy job, it was normal that he couldn’t find a girlfriend, especially since programming work rarely involved meeting women.
Looking at his uncle’s melancholic face, Lin Nan accidentally thought about his own future.
His personality was quite similar to his uncle’s - not keen on interacting with girls, preferring to stay at home. If his future work environment didn’t include women, he’d probably also be the type to stay single and face marriage pressure for years.
But now he didn’t need to worry about that. What he needed to worry about was whether, even if his parents and relatives accepted his changes and he truly became a girl, he could accept marrying a man.
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
Lin Nan’s mouth twitched. Though only a month had passed, even with Lilith’s interference, he still couldn’t completely shift his mindset toward that of a girl.
Moreover, if his mindset did change, he’d probably just become another Lilith.
Now he also had this "Naruto" chasing after Lilith around him. Compared to him and Lilith, Lina would rather see Lilith return to life through his body than see him return to normal.
After standing dazed in the doorway for a long while, Lin Nan suddenly felt his pressure might be even greater than Wu Guodong’s.
Wu Guodong’s pressure came from work and marriage - realistic problems that many people faced. But his pressure came from supernatural issues that he had no idea how to handle.
"What’s wrong with you?" Wu Guodong noticed Lin Nan’s long silence and looked up between gaming sessions to ask.
"Just feeling stressed~"
"What stress could a student have? Is your family pressuring you to find a girlfriend?"
"Just being poor..."
Lin Nan couldn’t tell the truth, so he brushed it off casually, closing the bedroom door to let the smoke continue "preserving meat" inside while he went to the balcony for fresh air.
This was the city center, surrounded by high-rises. Though Wu Guodong’s rented apartment seemed expensive to Lin Nan, the surrounding environment wasn’t great. Even in broad daylight, sunlight barely filtered through between the opposing buildings, and the balcony got no breeze, hemmed in by towers on all sides.
Presumably, only apartments facing the street would get morning sun, but those would be noisy.
Leaning against the washing machine on the balcony, Lin Nan worried alone about the future.
But he didn’t worry for long before Wu Guodong came to the balcony with Lin Nan’s changed clothes: "Don’t you know to put your clothes in the washing machine?"
He hadn’t planned to wash clothes here, thinking they might not dry.
Lin Nan was stunned, but before he could speak, his uncle continued: "Let’s go out tonight and buy you two sets of clothes. Looking at what you’re wearing, you only have three t-shirts?"
Lin Nan’s clothes were left on the sofa, so Wu Guodong naturally knew without having to search through them.
Though it was true he only had three sets, Lin Nan didn’t want to admit it: "I have two more sets in my dorm, okay? Why would I bring everything for just two or three days?"
"Let’s buy two sets, so you don’t have to waste money buying cheap stuff online."
He noticed Wu Guodong finally acting like a proper uncle - aren’t uncles supposed to spend money on their nephews? Not just stay home together being hermits?
Though he didn’t like shopping, that was just an excuse for not having money. Who wouldn’t be happy about someone else treating them to a shopping spree?
They played games until evening, with Lin Nan skipping meals. After quickly fixing his hair, he went out with Wu Guodong.
As soon as they left, Lin Nan started fretting about his hair.
His hair hadn’t been cut for about two months - his bangs covered his eyebrows and touched his eyes, while the sides covered his ears. When not styled, it looked like a bird’s nest; when styled, it looked like a girl’s short haircut.
But haircuts here were too expensive.
Even the cheapest barbershop near school charged thirty yuan, enough for Lin Nan’s daily food. Plus, after every haircut, he always felt ugly and needed a week to get used to his appearance.
"Should we find a barbershop to cut your hair first?" Lin Nan suggested to Wu Guodong beside him.
"Your hair looks pretty good longer." Though he said this, Wu Guodong also felt that Lin Nan was already feminine enough, and growing his hair out might not be appropriate. He added, "There’s a barbershop ahead, fifty yuan per person."
"Would I look good with long hair?" Lin Nan touched the hair by his ears, his mood immediately brightening. "Then I won’t cut it!"
He looked fine with his current hair anyway, and the feminine issue wasn’t really about the hair. Without a haircut, he might be mistaken for a girl on the street, but with a haircut, looking ambiguously neither male nor female might attract more attention.
Wu Guodong didn’t understand why his nephew suddenly became happier, but he led Lin Nan around a corner to the clothing street near his home.
Lin Nan looked around curiously, and after following Wu Guodong into a clothing store, his gaze was quickly drawn to the women’s clothing on the wall.
He’d never imagined women’s clothing could attract his attention so much.
Finally forcing his gaze to the men’s section, the thought "men’s clothes are so ugly" appeared in his mind.
Having his aesthetic preferences twisted was to be expected.
Then his eyes kept drifting toward a handsome guy in the store.
But was it really this serious?
"How about this one?" Wu Guodong held up a t-shirt to ask Lin Nan, but noticed his gaze fixed on a guy in the distance. He paused, then leaned in to ask quietly, "You’re not planning to ask for his WeChat, are you?"
"How could I possibly!" Lin Nan protested with a red face. "I just thought the piece in his hands looked nice!"
"That’s women’s clothing..."