When Lin Nan and his mother returned home, the atmosphere was somewhat stiff.
Lin Nan lowered his head expressionlessly, occasionally observing his mother from the corner of his eye. He appeared calm as a dog, but was actually panicking terribly.
His mother's face was also expressionless. She held her phone, trying to borrow money from relatives and friends.
Female hermaphroditism wasn't as simple as Lin Nan had imagined. The ultrasound examination could only prove that he had developing female organs inside his body. According to the doctor, if surgery was needed, more specialized examinations would be required. The examination costs plus surgery were conservatively estimated at around 100,000 yuan.
His mother was now worrying about this sum of money, while Lin Nan was thinking about how to persuade his mother not to spend that wasted money.
He only needed to use more magic to completely become female. Now that Lin Nan had revealed everything, he wasn't in the mood to think about having the chance to change back to male in the future. Otherwise, if he returned home with his former male appearance in two months, his mother would probably be scared into having a heart attack.
The atmosphere was very heavy. 100,000 yuan was a number his mother could have easily produced two months ago, but when buying the house, she had already borrowed from relatives and friends for the down payment and still hadn't paid much back. Lin Nan's situation also couldn't be explained in detail to outsiders, making it almost equivalent to borrowing money again without reason.
His mother's face looked very anxious. After five or six phone calls, only Wu Guodong—Lin Nan's maternal uncle—was willing to lend 50,000 yuan.
Although his uncle's life seemed good now, he was also burdened with a mortgage. Combined with his lavish spending habits, he hadn't saved much money. His willingness to lend money now was already very good.
Watching his mother continuously thank his uncle, Lin Nan's heart ached even more.
"Why don't we just forget it?" Lin Nan tried to dissuade his mother. "It's not that urgent. I've lived for eighteen years..."
"Listen to me carefully. As soon as we get enough money, we'll immediately go to the best hospital for surgery!" His mother stubbornly interrupted Lin Nan's words.
Lin Nan was startled. His emotionally anxious mother's tone was also very harsh, scaring him into being submissive.
But after a moment, he still unwillingly mustered the courage to say: "The family doesn't have enough money. Wouldn't it be better for me to save money for surgery myself after graduation?"
"Didn't you hear the risks the doctor mentioned?"
The risks the doctor mentioned were roughly things like menstrual blood accumulation, but Lin Nan occasionally cast purification magic on himself. Counting it up, he could almost be considered the cleanest person on Earth.
This condition mostly involved having female organs internally, but externally having a male-like appendage due to deformity. Essentially, it was just a complicated cosmetic surgery.
At least that's what Lin Nan had originally thought. Who knew there would be more precise professional examinations needed, and that examination alone was said to cost 50,000 to 60,000 yuan.
"It should be fine..." he said guiltily.
"This is fine?!" His mother's voice suddenly rose an octave, sounding almost like a scream that hurt his ears.
Lin Nan realized things were developing in the worst direction. If he continued to let his mother develop things according to her own ideas, then next he would face tens of thousands in debt for surgery, and being carried onto the operating table.
But his currently panicked mother couldn't communicate at all.
He was getting a bit panicked. Seeing that his mother was completely unwilling to listen to him, his thinking subconsciously tried to rely on those unlocked magic spells.
Was there magic that could increase his speaking authority? There was no need to brainwash his mother—just letting her listen to his words would be enough.
But magic...
The current situation was caused by magic, yet solving this situation also required magic.
What a vicious cycle.
Seeing his mother about to continue making calls to borrow money from people, Lin Nan rubbed his temples in distress, then closed his eyes, trying to find magic that could deal with the current situation.
He had already checked brainwashing magic before. The conditions were too harsh and completely outside his consideration.
He carefully recalled Lilith's memories, skipping over those scenes of nightly revelry and seducing men. Finally, he discovered that Lilith seemed to have really learned quite a few magic spells that could be used for the current situation.
For example, charm magic—making someone infatuated for a short time. Since they were infatuated, during that time no matter what was said, they would just keep nodding. Though they might question their life afterward, it lasted about an hour and could only be used once per person.
However, at the end of the day, you’re still intruding into their life. After the matter passed, the charmed target would only feel that their thought process at the time was very strange, inexplicably agreeing to various requests.
If it was his mother, she probably wouldn't go back on what she agreed to, right?
But this wasn't really suitable for use on his mother, was it?
When Lin Nan saw the word "charm," he thought of little sluts and felt very repulsed.
He had already experienced various cross-dressing scenarios and was always treated as a girl on the street. His shame threshold had already broken through who knows how many levels downward. But when he saw the unlock conditions, his face still darkened.
"Swimsuit for half an hour..."
"What?" His mother heard his muttering.
"Nothing, I said I want to go play at the beach..." Lin Nan quickly explained.
He was already getting desperate, but trying would only be shameful for half an hour. If he didn't try, it would be spending 100,000 yuan on surgery.
Swimsuit... it didn't specify what style needed to be worn, or even require a distinction between men's and women's wear. But Lin Nan just imagining himself wearing swim trunks made his face flush red.
After all, his chest had developed more and more maturely. He couldn't run around shirtless like Tu Junhui anymore.
But even women's swimsuits that were completely modest, Lin Nan couldn't accept at all, even if just at home, in the bedroom where no one could see. As for those swimsuits commonly worn by Western girls, that was even more out of the question—in Lin Nan's view, they were no different from just wearing underwear.
Moreover, this required him to go to the beach, which would inevitably mean being seen by people.
Looking down again at little Lin Nan, which though much smaller now would definitely be extremely obvious if wearing a women's swimsuit... this could be solved with transformation magic. The time limit for the magic to become female was also half an hour, just enough.
"Going to the beach..." His mother temporarily put down her phone and after thinking for a moment, unexpectedly remembered that when Lin Nan was about three or four years old, she had once taken Lin Nan to camp in a tent at the beach.
Later, when Lin Nan was little, he often mentioned going to the beach again to play, but her work became busier and busier. Even though they lived in a coastal city, she never took Lin Nan there again.
"Should we go camping at the beach?" His mother squeezed out a smile. "We could also barbecue by the beach, but..."
She looked down at Lin Nan's chest: "You probably can't go in the water."
Lin Nan was made to blush by this gaze lingering on his chest, awkwardly scooting backward, trying to avoid his mother's eyes.
"I..." Lin Nan lowered his head, not daring to look at his mother's expression. He opened his mouth several times but couldn't get the words out.
"What?"
"I can wear the kind of swimsuit that girls wear!"
Saying such words in front of his mother, he only felt that the suppressed shame of this period rushed to his brain in an instant, stimulating Lin Nan until his whole body flushed red and his head immediately went blank.