Perhaps to ease the awkwardness, Olivia coughed a couple times.
“Anyway, the measurements are done. Should I ask the clerk for a few to try on?”
“Please, if it’s no trouble.”
After a while, Olivia came back with the clerk, who was carrying several ladies’ undergarments.
Qiao Anni let out a sigh of relief after just one glance.
Thank goodness. They were all plain black and white styles.
If they’d had patterns, she might have just banged her head against the wall and died on the spot.
“Do you need help?” the clerk asked Qiao Anni with a smile.
Help?
Qiao Anni’s brain began automatically generating images that made her want to crawl into a hole.
“N-no, I don’t need any!”
Qiao Anni felt her face flush for a moment.
She snatched the underwear and darted into the fitting room like a fish.
“My, what a shy young lady.”
“She’s probably embarrassed in front of strangers.”
Olivia watched Qiao Anni’s retreating back, unable to keep the smile off her face.
“Your child is really adorable, much better behaved than mine,” the clerk said with a chuckle behind her hand.
“Me-me-me-me-me? Me?”
Olivia’s face turned as red as a ripe tomato in an instant.
“No, she’s a friend’s child…”
“Oh, my apologies…”
“No, no…”
This cycle wouldn’t stop anytime soon.
Shutting out the noise from outside with the curtain, Qiao Anni breathed a sigh of relief.
But then she realized a major problem.
There was no mirror in the fitting room?
Just as that thought crossed her mind.
“Huh?”
The wall, originally textured with wood grain, began to warp, and then Qiao Anni’s reflection appeared on it.
“What a high-end mirror.”
Without realizing it, Qiao Anni started staring at herself in the mirror.
When washing up at the office, she’d tried her best not to look at her reflection.
In a way, this was only the second time she’d seriously looked in a mirror since waking up.
The mirror showed a dark-haired young girl—familiar yet strange.
Qiao Anni smiled, and the girl smiled back.
Qiao Anni’s expression darkened, and the girl’s mood seemed to drop too.
She pressed her hand gently against the mirror, and the girl did the same.
In an instant, ripples spread across the mirror’s surface, and the girl’s figure blurred along with them.
Maybe this was just an illusion—though it was ridiculous, that thought did linger in Qiao Anni’s mind for a few seconds.
The ripples faded, and the dark-haired girl’s figure remained as before, calmly watching the world outside the mirror, a trace of disappointment in her eyes.
Yeah, this was the “reality” now.
She couldn’t keep clinging to pointless fantasies.
She picked up the underwear she’d just been handed.
‘I’m really going to wear this…’
It wasn’t that she was the type to stubbornly insist, “I’ll never wear something like this!”—after all, she was already in this body now.
But when it actually came down to putting it on, her feelings were a bit complicated.
She stroked the black fabric, feeling the texture against her fingertips.
…It did feel nice.
No, what was she thinking?
Taking off her clothes one by one, Qiao Anni closed her eyes like a death row inmate heading to the execution ground and pressed the underwear against herself.
…
Then she remembered a question she’d never considered before.
“How… do you put this on?”
Which row of hooks are those back clasps supposed to fasten to?
The commotion from the fitting room interrupted Olivia and the clerk’s small talk.
“Qiao Anni? Done trying?”
A small head poked out from between the curtains.
“There’s a bit of—a situation.”
“Need some help, miss?”
“Yes…”
Five minutes later, Qiao Anni stood before Olivia with a face ashen as death.
“How does it feel?”
Qiao Anni didn’t want to recall that experience.
“Pretty good.”
The clerk lady was indeed very patient.
But having someone else help her get dressed was something she hadn’t done since elementary school, let alone with a stranger.
“Good. Then I’ll pay in advance? Wrapping yourself in cloth all the time isn’t good for your health.”
“Thank you…”
Olivia tapped a few times on the tablet, and a payment success chime sounded.
“Alright, let’s head to the next stop?”
“Next stop?”
“You need new clothes too, right? You can’t keep wearing that old man Bres’s hand-me-downs.”
Indeed, Qiao Anni had felt that keenly when she saw herself in the mirror just now.
Wearing loose, ill-fitting clothes made her look like a kid who’d stolen her parents’ garments.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
She just didn’t know what she was in for next.
“Here, try this shirt?”
“Okay.”
“It suits you. Now how about this one? Slip it on.”
“Alright…”
“This one, this one! The color really works for you!”
“…”
Olivia seemed a bit hyper.
Within five minutes of entering the store, she’d grabbed a huge pile of clothes for Qiao Anni to try.
At first, Qiao Anni was curious about the novel fabrics and styles, but after trying on a few, she started to lose it.
Help…
She shot Bres a silent pleading look, but he was currently lounging in the rest area, enjoying the rare air conditioning and iced drinks.
Bres looked up and met Qiao Anni’s earnest gaze.
He made a “cheers” gesture.
She’d get him back for this someday.
Qiao Anni silently added it to her mental list, then was dragged away by Olivia again.
“Try this one?”
Olivia handed over another garment.
Qiao Anni took it and mumbled a response, then froze on the spot.
It was a skirt.
“This is?”
“We’ve finished all the blouses, so of course it’s time for skirts!”
Olivia said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Which, of course, it was.
Natural.
But natural and accepting were two different things.
Underwear worn inside was one thing.
But actually wearing this kind of thing out in public? The impact was too much.
She’d rather go beat up a few gang members.
“Miss Olivia, do I have to try this on? I still prefer pants…”
“…”
Olivia didn’t say anything, but a deep disappointment showed in her eyes.
“I see…”
“Miss Olivia?”
“I’m sorry, Qiao Anni. I think I got a little too excited and didn’t consider how you feel.”
“…”
Olivia wore a somewhat melancholy expression.
“Ever since I can remember, my parents managed my life almost like a military boot camp.”
Where was this coming from, so suddenly?
“Sit up straight at meals, fold your blanket neatly, do physical training every day… I never even had long hair until I became an adult.”
She stroked her own long hair, looking genuinely sorrowful.
“…”
“I think… maybe I was projecting a part of my past self onto you. I wanted to reclaim some of the childhood I lost through you…”
“…”
Why did she have to make that face?
“I’m so sorry, Qiao Anni. I didn’t consider your feelings.”
Damn it.
“…I’ll try it on.”
“Let’s go back—what?”
“I… I’ll try it.”
Qiao Anni lowered her head, her voice barely a whisper.
“Really?”
Olivia was stunned too.
“But let’s be clear. Just this once. I’m absolutely not wearing it outside!”
Qiao Anni raised her head, only to be grabbed by Olivia again.
“Thank you!”
Olivia was so happy she spun Qiao Anni in the air again and again, until Qiao Anni pounded her on the back like last time, making her let go.
“I’ll grab them right now!”
Before the clerk could even move, Olivia had dashed off like the wind.
‘Did I just get tricked?’
But her joy did seem genuine—I could really feel that.
Watching Olivia’s retreating figure, Qiao Anni thought silently.
A few minutes later, Olivia came back carrying a huge pile of skirts.
“I’m back!”
“I take back what I said.”
It seemed too late.