On the last day of National Day holiday, when Lin Nan woke up from catching up on sleep, Tu Junhui and Xiong Da had already returned to the dormitory.
Tu Junhui had been home for seven or eight days and looked considerably more solid—his family's cooking was clearly excellent. Meanwhile, Xiong Da's dark circles still hadn't faded; he'd probably been staying up all night grinding mobile game events even at home.
Lin Nan sat up in bed, glanced at Chen Yao who was still fast asleep by his bedside, and asked Tu Junhui below with a yawn, "Tu Tu, when did you guys get back?"
"We returned over two hours ago." Tu Junhui looked up at him with a bewildered expression. "We haven't seen each other for a week—Nan Nan, how did you get even prettier?"
"Maybe he got plastic surgery?" Xiong Da had apparently just returned to the dorm and still wore a baseball cap covering his hair loss. He stretched lazily and unusually teased Lin Nan, "Did you get double eyelid surgery?"
"Huh?" Lin Nan was puzzled but quickly explained, "I probably just didn't sleep well?"
He had naturally occurring inner double eyelids that were usually hard to see, but became visible when he stayed up late or didn't sleep well.
Though he should have slept well after catching up on rest.
It seemed the new magic had feminized him once again, and this time the focus was probably on his appearance.
Lin Nan slowly climbed down from bed and examined himself up and down in the mirror on the wardrobe.
He couldn't pinpoint exactly what had changed, but overall his facial features and face shape looked more harmonious, the overall effect was indeed prettier, and his double eyelids were much more prominent as Xiong Da had noted.
He pulled out his phone and took a selfie using the front camera.
He'd done this before, only to be devastated by discovering asymmetrical sides of his face, different sized cheeks, a crooked nose and slanted mouth—so ugly it was unbearable to look at. This had made him question his very existence, thinking that's how hideous he must appear to others.
But now in this photo, his cheeks had become symmetrical and balanced. Even after Apple's mirror-flip processing, the image didn't look awkward to him.
They say the first requirement for celebrities is facial symmetry—otherwise, no matter how beautiful they look in daily life, they'll drop several levels on camera.
Hmm... the external changes shouldn't be too dramatic. He just wondered if his internal organs had developed further.
After staring at the mirror for a long time, Lin Nan finally straightened up, satisfied.
"Must be crazy, staring at the mirror for ages." Tu Junhui continued being mouthy—this guy's mouth basically never stopped, constantly babbling. "Nan Nan, I brought beef jerky. Want some?"
"Put it over there."
Lin Nan pushed open the back door and entered the bathroom. In the past few days, due to his period, he'd been urinating blood every time he went to the toilet, which had terrified him and made him think he was dying. But after using purification magic...
He couldn't go anymore.
He'd lost the pleasure of playing on his phone while using the toilet.
"I really need to get used to this..." Lin Nan went in for barely a minute, then flushed the toilet for show and returned to the balcony.
Normally he had to use the bathroom every time he woke up, but now with purification magic, he only needed to go every two or three hours to become a "little fairy" who didn't partake of earthly needs.
This magic was an essential household tool for Lilith, so naturally it wasn't too complicated to use. Following the usage method from his memories, he could basically use it easily.
He washed his face with water on the balcony to clear his mind before returning to the dorm.
He had to admit that university dorms should be noisy and bustling to feel reassuring. Previously when Lin Nan was alone in the dorm, it had felt empty, lonely, and cold. Now listening to Tu Junhui's clamorous voice, he unexpectedly found it quite nice.
The problem was Chen Yao wasn't too pleased.
Awakened by the noise, he sat up groggily, and after identifying the source of sound, immediately started cursing without hesitation: "What the hell! Can't you be quiet!"
"It's already 2 PM!" Tu Junhui continued displaying his thick-skinned advantage, feeling no shame about waking someone up. Instead, he reproached Chen Yao: "You stayed out all night, didn't you! Not sleeping at night and insisting on sleeping during the day! I'm not your dad—I don't have to indulge you!"
That... actually made some sense.
So the two began hurling profanities at each other, spewing fragrant language, their mouths like they'd been coated with honey.
Lin Nan and Xiong Da, who was preparing to wipe down his "wife" (figure), stood by the back door, watching their verbal sparring in bewilderment.
"Aren't you going to break it up?" Lin Nan asked him quietly.
"They won't actually fight anyway," Xiong Da said expressionlessly.
True, these two had good verbal skills, but they were roommates for a year after all—as long as they didn't come to blows.
"Even if they did fight, it'd be fine. I'd help call the police," Xiong Da added. "Men's friendship is forged through fighting. You're a girl, so you wouldn't understand."
"You're the girl!"
While they were talking, Tu Junhui started playing suona music on his phone. Chen Yao immediately responded by playing funeral music, then placed Tu Junhui's photo on his phone screen, held the phone with both hands, took a cigarette and placed it upright, looking mournful.
Lin Nan was both amused and exasperated. These two had gone from verbal sparring to a battle of songs, filling the entire dorm with chaos, while the atmosphere gradually twisted toward comedy.
He returned to his seat, his head aching from the music, and had to put on headphones to block out external sounds as much as possible.
The computer Tu Junhui had given him had decent specs—at least recent games could run smoothly on low settings. Lin Nan originally hadn't been very interested in single-player games, but after his uncle's influence, he'd started specifically looking for interesting single-player titles.
It's just that he was too poor. Playing pirated games when everyone else in the dorm had legitimate copies felt embarrassing, so he simply borrowed Chen Yao's Steam account to play games Chen Yao had purchased.
"Alright, we have a competition in a week. Instead of wasting time arguing, we should practice with a five-man team." Chen Yao gave up first. After all that commotion, he'd lost his sleepiness, so he flipped over and jumped straight down from bed, glaring at Tu Junhui with dissatisfaction. "If you drag us down in the five-man team, I'll definitely flame you into submission!"
"I have a good temper—flame me all you want!" Tu Junhui immediately forgot who had been arguing just moments ago.
The dorm returned to its usual liveliness, and Lin Nan felt much more at ease, swaying his legs while propping his chin with one hand as he looked for games to play on the computer.
But Chen Yao, who was about to go wash up, seemed to notice something strange and approached with curiosity: "You weren't this pretty when I went to sleep this morning, were you?"
"..."
Lin Nan froze. He found this matter very troubling and had no idea how to explain it.
If his facial changes had occurred over a longer period, that would be easier to explain—like Tu Junhui and Xiong Da, they'd just tease him a bit. But the problem was, he and Chen Yao had last seen each other this very morning.
"Maybe I slept well?" Lin Nan gave a vague, evasive answer.
Chen Yao rolled his eyes at him and walked toward the back door with his toothbrush and cup. He felt Lin Nan was getting increasingly skilled at brushing people off.