Chapter 4: The Replacement ID Arrived? Even the Household Register Turned Female!

On the other side, on the top floor of a private club in the capital.

Behind a rosewood desk, a white-haired old man flipped through a thick DNA comparison report.

“Old Master, the nanny from back then did take the young miss to a welfare institution in a southern province.”

A trusted aide reported in a low voice.

“It’s just that the orphanage flooded that year. Most of the paper files were destroyed. We’re checking them one by one.”

The old man’s hand stopped on the documents.

His eyes reddened.

“Find her.”

His voice was hoarse, carrying a weight of authority.

“Pull the files of every twenty-year-old orphan in that province. Even if you have to turn the entire city upside down, bring the young miss home.”

The aides answered in unison and withdrew from the room.

Around the corner of the corridor outside the door, Gu family cousin Gu Tiancheng leaned against the wall, toying with a metal lighter.

“Search away. Search as hard as you want.”

The corner of his mouth hooked into a sneer.

“Best if you never find her in this lifetime.”

…

Early the next morning, in a lecture hall at Jiangcheng University.

Today was a combined sophomore-and-senior Western Literature Appreciation class.

The instant Lin Ci pushed open the back door, the noisy back rows suddenly went quiet.

More than ten guys’ gazes snapped over in unison.

Lin Ci had gotten up late today and casually thrown on a basic pure-white short T-shirt and light-blue jeans.

But those cheap clothes on his current body still carved out an eye-catching waist-to-hip ratio.

His long, straight legs took big strides.

Black long hair swayed with them.

His features were clean and cold.

Porcelain-white skin was dazzling under the daylight.

Lin Ci pulled out a chair in the last row and sat down in a wide, unrestrained sprawl.

A few guys in the front could not help whispering among themselves.

“Holy shit, which department is this goddess from?”

“New student or a transfer? That waist is insane.”

“I want all her contact info within five minutes.”

Lin Ci leaned back in the chair, flipped open the textbook with a blank face, and had already rolled his eyes more than ten times in his heart.

This is exactly how I used to sit in the back row staring at the department beauty.

Heaven really spares no one. Karma came fast.

On his first day attending class as a girl, he deeply understood what it meant to sit on pins and needles.

This body not only had a good foundation.

It also constantly gave off a faint milky fragrance.

Even when he deliberately wore a dead-person face, he still could not block those greening gazes around him.

The break bell had barely rung.

A guy in a trendy-brand hoodie walked over carrying two cups of hot coffee.

Chen Jia, a junior from the finance department, relied on his family’s money and had a playboy reputation in the department.

Chen Jia sat in the empty seat beside Lin Ci and pushed a latte over.

“Senior, I heard you just transferred to our campus?”

He put on a smile he thought was charming.

Lin Ci did not even lift his eyelids.

He badly wanted to smack the guy across the face.

This pickup routine was one he had worn out himself freshman year.

“I don’t drink coffee.”

Lin Ci spat out five hard words.

Chen Jia’s smile stiffened for a second, then he adjusted at once.

“Then I’ll buy milk tea? Senior, full sugar or half?”

“I don’t drink it.”

“Juice then? There’s fresh-squeezed orange juice downstairs.”

“I only drink plain water.”

Lin Ci turned a page.

His tone had no rise or fall at all.

Chen Jia was losing face from the shutdown, but looking at that flawless side profile he still forced himself to keep going.

“This professor grades pretty strict. I’ve got review materials from past years. Senior, add me on WeChat and I’ll send them to you?”

“No need.”

“Don’t be so cold, Senior. Let’s be friends.”

Chen Jia reached out, wanting to touch the edge of Lin Ci’s textbook.

Lin Ci’s eyes turned cold.

He was just about to teach this brat a lesson with pure-man strength.

A thin, small figure suddenly appeared at the back doorway of the classroom.

Gu Mianmian was standing there at some unknown point.

She wore a washed-pale hoodie, both hands in her pockets.

Heavy bangs covered most of her face.

Only those pitch-black eyes showed.

Gu Mianmian stood in the shadow of the back door.

Her deep gaze landed directly on the hand Chen Jia had stretched out.

Chen Jia only felt a chill at the back of his neck.

He turned his head on instinct and crashed straight into Gu Mianmian’s icy stare.

His whole body shuddered.

The hand he had reached out snapped back as if shocked.

Where did this freak come from?

Why did her eyes look like she wanted to eat someone?

“Senior, I’ll talk with you next time then.”

Chen Jia forced two dry laughs, picked up his coffee, and fled in defeat.

Gu Mianmian walked over with light, slow steps and sat in the empty seat.

She set her faded backpack on the desk, completely blocking the path Chen Jia had used to strike up conversation.

After doing that, she turned to look at Lin Ci.

“Senior, was he annoying?”

She asked in a small voice.

Lin Ci rubbed his brow.

“It’s fine. Just talks too much. Like a fly.”

Gu Mianmian lowered her eyes.

Her hands quietly tightened inside her sleeves.

“People who talk too much aren’t good.”

Her tone was very light, carrying a gloom that was hard to pin down.

Lin Ci paused, then laughed despite himself.

This little girl always talked in that eerie way.

But just now she had saved him some trouble.

The elective class ended.

Lin Ci packed his bag and went to the restroom at the end of the corridor.

Coming out of the women’s restroom, he still felt awkward everywhere.

Especially since he was used to standing to pee.

Now he could only squat in humiliation.

What a sin!!!

He had just stepped out of the restroom door when he saw Gu Mianmian standing by the sinks.

She leaned against the tile wall, head down, looking like she wanted no strangers near.

“Gu Mianmian, are you following me?”

Lin Ci walked over and asked, not in a good mood.

“Senior, I… I was just on the way.”

Gu Mianmian looked up.

Her voice was very small.

Lin Ci tugged at the corner of his mouth.

On the way?

On the way my ass.

The foreign-languages building and the finance building were in opposite directions.

Who are you trying to fool here?

Gu Mianmian did not keep arguing.

She dug around in her oversized pocket for a long time and fished out a strawberry hard candy wrapped in pink plastic paper.

The wrapper was wrinkled.

It had clearly been sitting there a long time.

She held the candy out in front of Lin Ci.

Her palm was a little pale.

“Senior, for you.”

Lin Ci raised a brow.

“Why are you suddenly giving me candy?”

Gu Mianmian pressed her lips together and said nothing, stubbornly holding her hand up.

Lin Ci sighed, took the candy, peeled it, and tossed it into his mouth.

A strong artificial-flavor taste melted on his tongue, so sweet it was cloying.

Gu Mianmian’s gaze fell on Lin Ci’s lips as he held the candy.

That pale lip color, stained with sugar, took on a moist sheen.

She stared at that softness for a full three seconds.

Lin Ci found the staring baffling.

“What are you looking at? Never seen someone eat candy?”

Gu Mianmian quickly looked away.

The roots of her ears quietly turned red.

“Is it good?”

“Sweet enough to kill. Makes your teeth ache.”

Lin Ci complained with his mouth, but his steps slowed a little.

He walked ahead.

Gu Mianmian followed half a step behind like a little tail, obediently.

Sunlight poured down through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Gu Mianmian looked at the two overlapping shadows on the ground.

The corner of her mouth lifted in an extremely faint curve.

Back at the bottom of the dorm building.

The phone in Lin Ci’s pocket suddenly buzzed twice.

He pulled it out and swiped the screen.

A government-system review notice popped up.

[Your submitted ID replacement application has passed review.]

Lin Ci’s heart skipped.

He kept reading down.

At the end, a line of red explanatory text stood out:

[Household register facial and biometric verification result: Information fully consistent. No need for the person to be recaptured. The physical document will be mailed to the designated address within three working days.]

Lin Ci stood in place.

A chill ran up his back.

Information fully consistent?

How had this woman’s body that had appeared out of nowhere lined up with the full-on guy on the public-security household register?!

This ridiculous feeling that even reality had been silently rewritten made his scalp go numb.

This damn life really couldn’t go on!