Chapter 44: The Chair Is Innocent
In the bathroom.
Yi Ning was carefully tending to her hair while sitting on a small plastic stool.
Back in the headquarters, she had only done a quick rinse to change her clothes and hadn’t had time to deal with the blood in her hair.
Now that some time had passed, the blood had started to coagulate in her hair.
Strands clumped together with congealed blood stuck them tight—just tugging slightly sent sharp pain through her scalp.
She felt increasingly irritable.
If it were invented, she could spend all day immersed in it.
But tending to her hair?
She’d rather spend a day listening to Xia An and Ji Ping drone on.
At least with the latter, she could vent her frustration with a beating, whereas the former just made her head hurt more.
Yi Ning began to miss her old short hair.
Washing it was quick and efficient—less than ten minutes.
Not like now, where it took at least half an hour and loads of shampoo.
She had only just bought this bottle, and it was nearly empty already!
“Sigh—”
Yi Ning sighed and continued cleaning her hair.
Complaining wouldn’t solve anything.
She couldn’t just leave it like that.
Beyond the sticky discomfort, the lingering smell of blood on her body alone would make her miserable for quite a while.
Her mood continued to sink.
Yi Ning made another mental note in her internal grievance book against Xia An and Ji Ping.
All this trouble—because of those two mutts!
Spraying blood even while being beaten—leaving her to clean up afterward in the bathroom.
Couldn’t they have some consideration for the person doing the beating?
Did they not realize their blood spatter was deeply repulsive?
Unforgivable.
After feeling around to make sure there were no obvious blood clumps left, Yi Ning grabbed a wide-toothed comb from the counter and began combing from the ends upward, straightening everything out.
Then she pumped some shampoo into her hand and lathered it evenly through her hair.
Sure, long hair looked nice and aligned with her XP, but it was way too much hassle.
Yi Ning began to consider cutting it short.
This wasn’t the first time she had this thought since becoming a girl.
But every time she stood in front of the hair salon, she would hesitate.
Wasn’t it too much of a waste to cut such pretty hair?
And every time, she’d be persuaded by herself, wandering in circles outside before going home again.
Well, that’s just the kind of person she was.
Yi Ning turned on the shower, lowered her head, and stuck it under the stream.
The strong, even spray landed on her hair, and the perfect water pressure made her squint in contentment. The irritation from dealing with her hair eased a bit.
“Hm~ hm~”
She hummed a tune as she rinsed the shampoo out.
After a few cycles, once she confirmed there were no more foreign substances left in her hair, she kicked the stool aside and started washing her body.
Though she had already done a quick rinse back at headquarters, she didn’t mind washing again.
Since becoming a girl, she had noticeably become more fond of cleanliness.
Her emotional fluctuations were also far more intense than before—sometimes even overwhelming her reason.
If it were her old self, she might’ve realized something was off when those two tried to mess with her by pretending to fire her.
Bath time really was perfect for thinking.
“Hm…”
Yi Ning fell into thought, feeling a little helpless about the physical and psychological changes.
At first, she thought becoming a girl might be a good thing.
After all, she was never into romance, had no family pressure to continue the bloodline, and only cared about inventing stuff she liked.
After her transformation, all those urges like excessive sexual fantasies or arousal brought on by male hormonal maturity had significantly decreased. That was good news to her.
She could now use that freed-up mental energy on more meaningful things.
But it brought issues, too.
She was starting to lean more toward emotional thinking than rational.
Yi Ning rubbed body wash across herself.
She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
She had even considered using a machine to reset her thinking patterns to their original state—but she couldn’t make up her mind.
Would altering her thoughts with a machine really be okay?
But this current body had also been changed by a machine—couldn’t the change in thinking be attributed to that too?
So complicated.
Maybe she was cut out for philosophy, too.
Yi Ning sighed and turned the shower back on.
The strong stream of water made her shiver.
Her thoughts returned to the present.
The temperature she had originally set was now a bit too cold.
Since becoming a girl, she had also preferred hotter water when bathing.
At first, she wasn’t used to the change and often misadjusted the temperature.
Irritated, Yi Ning impatiently cranked the water to the hottest setting.
And the scalding water immediately taught her a lesson.
“Ah—!”
Yi Ning leapt and scrambled out of the water stream.
She suddenly remembered—her latest evil invention for temperature control hadn’t been brought home yet.
All Lu Zheng’s fault—because of him, she hadn’t been able to execute her evil plan today and thus couldn’t bring back the invention.
Now she couldn’t even shower properly.
Furious, she kicked the innocent plastic stool nearby.
Wait a minute.
Yi Ning suddenly felt something was wrong.
She was showering, and Lu Zheng was sitting outside…
Wasn’t this situation a little bad?
The realization hit her.
Due to her short transformation time, Yi Ning still hadn’t fully adapted to her female identity, so she hadn’t even considered this.
But just because she didn’t realize it didn’t mean Lu Zheng wouldn’t.
Now that she thought about it—she hadn’t heard the TV on in the living room at all.
Yi Ning started to get a bad feeling.
Was Lu Zheng going to have the bed made by the time she got out?
All those… colorful mental images she had collected as a man sprang to life.
Scenes from countless erotic scenarios played in her mind—faces of the female leads replaced by hers, male leads substituted by Lu Zheng.
NO!!!
Yi Ning clutched her head.
The pristine white tiles faintly reflected an image reminiscent of Munch’s The Scream.
Calm down.
Yi Ning slapped her face.
Lu Zheng was a proper hero—he wouldn’t do something like that.
Besides, just a few days ago, she was still a man—his XP shouldn’t be that chaotic… probably?
“Thunk!”
She kicked the poor stool again to vent.
“What’s wrong?”
Hearing the sudden noise from the bathroom, Lu Zheng—who had been daydreaming on the sofa—snapped back to reality, turned toward the bathroom, and called out loudly.
“N-nothing… Just play your game!”
Yi Ning responded from inside.
Though for some reason, her voice sounded oddly soft.