On the way to the buffet restaurant, Lin Nan used WeChat to ask his mother about the situation.
His father's condition wasn't serious—mostly multiple bone fractures and such. Medical expenses would only be tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan, but the problem was that his parents had just paid the down payment for a house in the provincial capital the month before. The family finances were already completely depleted, and now with his father down and his mother needing to care for him, there was no income while they still had to pay the mortgage, so they could only ask Lin Nan to bear with it for now.
No wonder his mother's emotions had sounded so stable. Also, why didn't he know anything about such a big matter as buying a house?
This completely put Lin Nan's mind at ease. Although it takes a hundred days to heal bones and tendons, according to his mother's description of the situation, he should be able to receive living expenses again in about two months.
While chatting with his mother on WeChat, Lin Nan felt an impulse to tell her everything that had been happening to him during this period.
Otherwise, when he went home for winter break and his parents had no preparation, they might not even recognize him.
"What's wrong?" Chen Yao was walking shoulder-to-shoulder with Lin Nan. When he turned his head, he saw Lin Nan's expression looked somewhat hesitant.
"I'm wondering whether I should tell my family about my situation..." Lin Nan looked down, pursing his lips, extremely conflicted.
Chen Yao said without thinking: "You definitely have to tell your family about this kind of thing. You can't keep hiding it forever, right? Otherwise, when you get married and can't have children, how will you explain that?"
Lin Nan froze for a moment, but still didn't take Chen Yao's advice. He just handed his phone to him and said: "Help me take a photo. I'll send it over to give her some preparation."
Besides being afraid his parents wouldn't recognize him, Lin Nan was also worried that after becoming their daughter, he'd get a mixed doubles beating from both parents.
The main issue was that he couldn't think of a reason that would convince his parents.
He couldn't very well say he had a male body but female heart, so he'd specifically saved money for a trip to Thailand, could he? Or tell his parents under these circumstances that he was intersex? After Chen Yao's reminder, he felt his parents probably weren't the type to be careless enough to have a child without medical examinations.
It wasn't that he couldn't use magic to influence his parents' perception, but the unlock conditions for that type of magic were quite difficult.
Lilith had probably anticipated that he would use magic to solve this problem, so she'd made unlocking this type of magic rather difficult.
It was roughly things like having children, bedding seven men in one night, and such. Lin Nan felt that if he actually did those things, he wouldn't be far from becoming Lilith.
After the photo was sent, his mother didn't have much of a reaction. She thought it was simply a beauty-filtered selfie that Lin Nan had taken from a good angle, only replying: "Don't use such strong beauty filters. You look like a girl. Your hair should be cut too—I can barely recognize you."
"I didn't use any beauty filters..."
"Then what skincare products are you using? Recommend some to Mom?"
Lin Nan didn't know what to say anymore. As his mother, she actually hadn't noticed that Lin Nan's posture in the photo was no different from a female's.
Even that dorm supervisor uncle could tell! Maybe static photos didn't look as feminine?
While pondering his mother's thoughts, by the time the three of them leisurely strolled to the shop entrance, it was already 1 PM.
This shop was on the street behind the school's back gate. Lin Nan was so hungry his head was getting dizzy—he'd always had some hypoglycemia issues.
"Welcome! Three people?"
"Three people." Tu Junhui walked at the front, nodding to the server. "The drinks are also all-you-can-drink, right?"
"Drinks are over there, help yourselves."
Actually, Lin Nan felt you shouldn't drink beverages at buffets. It looked like they provided various drinks and even alcohol, but it was actually just meant to trick customers into filling their stomachs.
Just after 1 PM, the buffet still had most of its customers. The three of them were guided by the server to a four-person table in the center of the restaurant.
Lin Nan rarely ate at buffets and sat there at a loss, not knowing what to do. Tu Junhui and Chen Yao, however, confirmed their seats and directly ran to get meat.
He rested his chin on his hand worriedly, his head full of various schemes for how to fool his parents.
Soon Chen Yao and Tu Junhui returned to their seats with large quantities of meat. The server also brushed oil on the electric grill, put down oil-absorbing paper, and turned on the exhaust fan.
Chen Yao set up his phone to the side, aimed at the grill. This guy had already become half a food content creator—almost every time they went out for a good meal, he had to film it for recording. After all, he couldn't do voiceovers for gaming videos in the dorm, so he could only use food videos to maintain some presence.
Over the past month, his follower count had also grown by 100,000, with 70,000 to 80,000 of them attracted by Lin Nan's crossdressing from before.
"When will Lin Nan crossdress again to get me some more followers?" Chen Yao asked with a grin, looking up.
"Absolutely not."
The dorm usually didn't watch Chen Yao's videos at all and didn't know that Lin Nan had once crossdressed for filming. Hearing this, Tu Junhui immediately got excited: "I'll contribute a pair of black stockings! Ordering right now!"
Lin Nan's mouth twitched as he refused again: "Absolutely not!"
Chen Yao felt a bit hurt. He'd been first, yet Lin Nan would rather crossdress in front of some unfamiliar girls than crossdress for him to see again.
Ever since seeing Lin Nan's medical examination report, he no longer suspected he'd been single too long or wondered if he was a hidden gay like before.
"You'd definitely look good crossdressing," Tu Junhui teased with a laugh. "You're already so feminine—crossdressing would definitely be completely natural."
"Get lost!" Lin Nan gave him the middle finger. "I think you crossdressing would definitely amaze everyone!"
"More like a heavy tank," Tu Junhui was quite self-aware.
If not for the need to unlock magic, Lin Nan felt he would never crossdress in this lifetime. After all, even with makeup and beauty filters, his former self probably wouldn't have been watchable.
Among those present, only Lin Nan had cooking experience. He'd been making his own meals since around elementary school, and when he first went to the county town in middle school, he often cooked for himself. Although he later became increasingly lazy and chose takeout and fast food, at least when grilling meat he wouldn't undercook it.
The other two were the type who had clothes handed to them and food placed in their mouths. If they grilled the meat, Lin Nan suspected he'd get diarrhea when he got back.
So he took on the role of temporary chef, while Chen Yao and Tu Junhui were responsible for fetching and eating.
But these two weren't satisfied with just eating—they had to keep chattering away.
"Nan Nan, are you really not planning to find a boyfriend? Even Xiong Da found a girlfriend," Tu Junhui said, watching the meat gradually change color on the grill.
"Then I'll find a girlfriend too."
"You don't have money to support a girlfriend. Finding a boyfriend could provide for your food, drinks, and entertainment."
That seemed... to make some sense?
Lin Nan was momentarily tempted, but still shook his head with a cold laugh: "You don't get any of this meat."
Hearing Tu Junhui's wails, Lin Nan immediately felt physically and mentally comfortable and pleased.
Hearing this, Chen Yao suddenly worried again. Since Lin Nan had been male for eighteen years, even if he changed back to female, could he find a boyfriend and get married like a normal woman?
Even though he already saw Lin Nan as a girl, it was hard to imagine Lin Nan marrying a man.