Chapter 5: Bro Calls Me Sister Ci? The Whole World’s Memories Have Been Rewritten!

Lin Ci stood at the bottom of the dorm building, the phone burning hot in his palm.

The government-system review notice hung glaringly at the top of the screen.

He paid no attention to Gu Mianmian behind him, rushed up the stairs, and ran all the way back to the third floor in one breath.

Lin Ci pushed open the dorm door, locked it behind him, and sat down at the desk.

He opened the personal file in the government app.

The page finished loading.

A high-definition ID photo popped up.

The girl on the screen had jet-black long hair, coldly beautiful features, and downturned outer corners of the eyes.

It was clearly the face he had now.

Name: Lin Ci.

Sex: Female.

Ethnicity: Han.

Date of birth, home address, ID number—every digit matched.

Lin Ci’s fingertips trembled as he opened the cloud album.

The album held more than a thousand photos from four years of university.

In the freshman military-training group photo, the buzz-cut guy standing dead center in the last row was gone.

In his place was a tall girl with a high ponytail, wearing the same camouflage uniform.

In the sophomore basketball championship photo, he had become a long-legged female teammate in an oversized jersey.

Even the high-school graduation photo and the black-and-white junior-high file photo with a red scarf had all been swapped for a girl’s appearance.

Lin Ci’s throat went dry.

He backed out to WeChat and flipped to the pinned avatar of his bro.

That was Zhang Yue, his closest brother in university.

The two of them had been close enough to share a pair of pants.

Lin Ci typed: [You there? Gotta ask you something.]

In less than five seconds, Zhang Yue instantly sent back a voice message.

Lin Ci tapped it.

Zhang Yue’s voice came out of the speaker.

“Aiyo, Sister Ci! Did the sun rise in the west? You actually messaged me first!”

“Last elective class you saved me a seat and I still haven’t treated you to a meal. Second cafeteria tonight?”

Sister Ci.

Those two words entered his ears with perfect clarity.

Lin Ci stared at the chat box.

His brain buzzed.

He tapped into the four-person dorm gaming group.

The group name had somehow become [Foreign Languages Department Four-Person Chat].

The chat history was all daily talk between him and a few girls—asking someone to bring milk tea, borrowing blush, copying homework.

Not a single person remembered that a STEM guy named Lin Ci had ever existed.

Lin Ci opened the contacts list.

His finger hovered over the number labeled “Her Majesty Mom.”

After a pause, he pressed the call button.

The call connected, and a familiar loud voice followed at once.

“Hello? Cici? Why are you calling Mom at this hour?”

The sound of stir-frying and oil smoke came from the background.

“Mom.”

Lin Ci’s voice shook a little.

“What’s wrong? Not enough living expenses? I’ll have your dad transfer you two thousand in a bit.”

Lin Ci gripped the phone tight, held his breath, and kept asking.

“Mom, I want to ask you. Am I a guy or a girl?”

The other end went silent for three seconds, then a burst of laughter came through.

“What nonsense are you talking in broad daylight? Did you not wake up yet?”

“Of course you’re a girl! You’ve been Mom’s little cotton-padded jacket since you were small. What, now that you’re grown you want to be a leather jacket?”

Lin Ci endured the wild pounding of his heart and kept asking.

“Mom, I never cut a buzz cut? Never got into a fight with Little Fatty next door?”

“What buzz cut? You’ve loved keeping long hair since you were little. Whoever cut your hair, you’d lose it at them. All right, there’s fish stewing in the pot. I’m hanging up!”

Beep beep beep.

Lin Ci set the phone back on the desk.

His back was soaked through with cold sweat.

His palms were sticky.

Crazy.

This whole world had gone crazy.

Every file, every record, every relative’s and friend’s memory had been rewritten.

The only person left in this world who remembered that “male Lin Ci” had ever existed was himself.

Lin Ci leaned back in the chair and covered his face.

What a sin!!!

But looking at it from another angle, since he had become female in the government register, facial-recognition entry would definitely pass.

This life-threatening inspection crisis had actually been resolved in this absurd way.

Was his twenty-two years of full-on guy life really just some ridiculous hallucination?

At that moment the lock turned.

Gu Mianmian pushed the door open.

She was carrying a thermos full of hot water and saw Lin Ci sitting at the desk in a daze at a glance.

Lin Ci’s long hair was messy.

The rims of his eyes were red.

Gu Mianmian stopped.

She said nothing, set the thermos down, and poured more than half a cup of warm water.

She walked over and gently placed it beside Lin Ci’s hand.

Lin Ci came back to himself and wiped the corners of his eyes.

“For me?”

Gu Mianmian gave a slight nod.

“Senior, drink some warm water.”

Her voice was very soft.

Lin Ci picked up the cup and took a sip.

The warm water slid down his esophagus and drove out the chill in his body.

“Thanks.”

Hearing those two words, Gu Mianmian’s tight shoulders finally relaxed.

She stood beside Lin Ci.

Her nostrils moved slightly.

Her gaze landed on Lin Ci’s long, snow-white neck.

Lin Ci’s collar was pulled open, showing a clear collarbone.

That faint milky fragrance drifted over.

Gu Mianmian’s fingers clenched inside her sleeves.

She wanted to reach out and smooth Lin Ci’s long hair, but she did not dare move randomly.

“Senior, were you… unhappy just now?”

She asked in a small voice.

Lin Ci rubbed his temples, a bitter smile on his face.

“Happy. I’m so happy. Happy enough to fly to the sky.”

He turned around and looked at the thin little junior in front of him.

That straight-guy urge to roast rose up again.

“Mianmian, let me ask you something. If one day you found out everyone around you was putting on an act with you, even your own parents were lying to you, what would you do?”

Gu Mianmian lifted her head.

Those obsidian-like eyes locked on Lin Ci.

Without half a second of hesitation, she quietly spat out a sentence.

“Then treat them all as dead.”

The warm water Lin Ci had just swallowed nearly went down the wrong pipe.

He coughed several times in a row, his eyes turning red from holding it in.

“Cough cough cough… You little girl, why do you talk so creepy!”

Lin Ci patted his chest and shot her a look.

Gu Mianmian hurriedly, flusteredly held out a tissue.

“Don’t be mad, Senior. I was talking nonsense.”

She lowered her head, awkwardly pinching the corner of her clothes.

“In my whole life, besides Senior being this good to me, there hasn’t been anyone else. As long as Senior doesn’t lie to me, I don’t care what anyone else is like.”

The words were very light.

The second half was all muffled in her throat.

Lin Ci did not hear it clearly.

He took the tissue and wiped the corner of his mouth.

“Forget it. Pretend I didn’t ask. Hurry up and do homework. Don’t overthink.”

Gu Mianmian answered obediently, hugged her major textbook, and climbed onto the metal bunk.

She sat at the head of the bed flipping pages, but her gaze passed through a gap in the mosquito net and landed on Lin Ci below.

Lin Ci finished the water.

His mood settled.

Since he could not change this ridiculous reality, he could only grit his teeth and take it one step at a time.

At least the household-register system matched.

Friday’s hurdle could be considered saved.

He was just about to stretch and go wash his face.

The phone on the desk suddenly vibrated.

A pinned announcement from the counselor popped up in the class WeChat group.

[Notice: Per notification from campus security and academic affairs, this Friday at 3:00 PM, each class counselor will bring school leadership to uniformly inspect original ID cards and conduct a dorm check. Temporary substitute proofs are strictly forbidden. Everyone must present the original physical ID card. Anyone who does not show up will be treated as cutting class and publicly criticized.]

Lin Ci stared at that line of bold text.

His face went wooden.

The original physical ID card?

The replacement document he had just applied for was still in the mail.

This Friday afternoon, what was he supposed to show the counselor—his head?!