“Beep beep beep beep beep!”
The shrill alarm pierced her eardrums, yanking White Li out of a deep slumber.
“Ugh… so loud…”
She fumbled sleepily on the nightstand, only to swat her phone onto the floor with a slap.
“Oh no, oh no, what time is it?!”
She bolted upright, her silver-white hair cascading over her shoulders, her fox ears standing straight up.
She looked at the clock on the wall; the hands were already pointing to 7:20.
First period started at eight. It took at least half an hour to bike there from this rundown neighborhood.
“Crap, crap, crap—”
Her tail puffed up, and she bounced out of bed like a rubber ball, scrambling frantically toward the bathroom.
Splashing cold water on her face dispelled some of the drowsiness. She grabbed the school uniform Madam had given her last night and hurriedly put it on.
The shirt and jacket were a bit loose, but the pants were the right length, and the sneakers fit well.
She haphazardly tied her long hair into a ponytail and stuffed a few books into her backpack.
“Keys, keys… ah, here they are.”
Grabbing the rusty security door key from the table, she pulled open the door and rushed out. The musty smell of the old stairwell mixed with the scent of fried food from the breakfast stall next door flooded her nostrils.
White Li took the stairs two at a time. It wasn’t until she burst out of the building entrance and the crisp morning breeze hit her face that she suddenly felt something was off.
“Wait, my ears feel… a bit cold?”
She instinctively reached up and touched the top of her head.
A furry sensation.
“Oh no!”
White Li froze solid, coming to an abrupt stop.
She hurriedly looked around. Thankfully, it was still early. There were only a few elderly men and women in the courtyard, and no one seemed to have noticed her.
She scrambled back into the shadows of the stairwell, her heart pounding.
Leaning against the cold wall, she frantically opened her backpack and felt around in the inner pocket for the cool metal bracelet.
“I almost forgot…” she muttered in annoyance, quickly putting the bracelet on. “If someone saw me like that, it’d be a huge problem.”
The bracelet activated. An invisible film spread out from it, sweeping over her entire body.
A subtle shrinking sensation came from the ears on her head and the tail behind her, then vanished.
She took out her phone and used the front camera as a mirror. What she saw was a completely unfamiliar face.
Messy black short hair, pupils that had turned a deep gray, losing their original azure blue.
The facial features still vaguely resembled her original ones, but the overall look had become slightly more angular, shedding that breathtakingly exquisite quality and turning into the face of an ordinary high school boy.
Only her height and the slight curves could not be completely concealed.
“This should work…” she murmured, stepping out of the stairwell again.
—
Red Sand High School, Class Four.
Morning reading had just ended, and a drowsy atmosphere hung over the classroom.
The homeroom teacher, a bespectacled middle-aged man, led White Li into the classroom. Only a few students near the front door lazily looked up.
“Hey, hey, wake up. What are you sleeping for so early in the morning?” The homeroom teacher slapped the lectern forcefully and beckoned to White Li. “Classmates, this is a new transfer student joining our class. Starting today, they will be studying with us. Go ahead, introduce yourself.”
Standing beside the lectern, White Li could feel dozens of pairs of eyes on her.
Some were curious, others were appraising.
She cleared her throat, trying to make her voice sound steady and natural.
“Hello everyone, my name is White Li. ‘White’ as in the color, ‘Li’ as in glass. I look forward to getting along with you all.”
After she finished, a few scattered “ohs” and polite applause sounded in the classroom.
But soon, some of the gazes changed. A few boys in the back rows began whispering to each other, their eyes roaming over her. With the sensitive hearing of a foxkin, White Li could easily hear what they were saying:
“Hey, is that transfer student a guy or a girl? I can’t tell.”
“Such a cute face, fair and clean skin, probably a girl, right?”
“Get outta here. Look how flat they are, like a steel plate. I think it’s a guy.”
For some reason, a surge of inexplicable anger rose in White Li’s heart.
“Also,” she raised her voice, cutting off the whispers, “although my name and appearance might cause misunderstanding, I am a boy. Just clarifying.”
The classroom fell silent for a second.
“Eh—?!”
A moment later, a collective gasp of surprise rang out. Dozens of pairs of eyes became utterly astonished.
“A guy? Really?”
“No way… how can that be…”
“The name too, the looks too…”
“Isn’t that even better? I’m suddenly a bit excited…”
Some strange comment seemed to have slipped in. White Li suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and walked off the lectern expressionlessly. Following the homeroom teacher’s direction, she headed toward an empty seat.
Her deskmate was a round-faced girl who was buried in catching up on homework. Seeing White Li approach, she also looked up and gave her several puzzled glances.
As she sat down, White Li could feel those gazes still prickling her back like needles.
She sighed inwardly, remembering what Martha had told her last night in the safe house when she handed her the identity documents.
“Madam’s orders. The ‘Flame Knight’ has seen your original appearance. Even though it was just a brief encounter, there’s still a risk of being recognized. The cognitive distortion field from the bracelet will change your appearance, but its ability to modify height and physique is limited. Therefore, you need to play the role of a ‘male high school student’ well to avoid suspicion.”
What a joke. What did she mean, ‘play the role of a boy’?
Not long ago, she was a genuine male college student.
White Li shook her head, pulling her attention back to reality.
Fortunately, with the ringing of the class bell, the math teacher walked in carrying a set square and lesson plans.
The surroundings quieted down, and those burning gazes gradually faded away.
The math teacher skillfully derived function formulas on the blackboard, the chalk making a regular tap-tap sound against the board.
The classroom layout, the sound of chalk on the blackboard, the whistle drifting in from the sports field outside the window—all of it overlapped with her memories of high school life from her previous life.
An indescribable emotion quietly welled up in her heart. She looked at the unfamiliar publisher logo on the textbook, yet felt the content inside was somehow familiar. The days of scrambling to finish homework seemed both very distant and as if they were just yesterday.
“Um…”
A soft voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
Her deskmate was sneaking glances at her. The moment their eyes met, the girl quickly looked down like a startled rabbit, the tips of her ears turning slightly red.
“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” White Li instinctively touched her cheek.
“N-no, nothing!” The girl shook her head hurriedly. “I was just a bit curious… I really can’t tell you’re a boy…”
“Oh.” White Li responded flatly and turned her gaze back to the blackboard.
It was normal for a teenage girl to be curious about a good-looking peer.
The early spring chill was still sharp. The morning breeze blowing in through the window carried a coolness.
Pulling her jacket tighter, White Li finally realized what was wrong.
No wonder she had felt like she’d forgotten something very important since leaving the house this morning, her body always feeling a bit uncomfortable.
The identity she was playing now was indeed that of an “ordinary male high school student.”
But her body was the genuine article—a teenage girl in the prime of her youth.
According to common sense, before putting on a jacket and shirt, there should be an additional layer of foundational undergarments.
But right now… she wasn’t wearing any.
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