That bizarre, world-class operatic shriek lasted for about thirty seconds.

After the bathroom fell silent, several more minutes passed before the door finally creaked open from the inside.

Shu Yuxin stood in the doorway, one hand gripping the frame, the other hovering protectively over her lower abdomen. Her expression was storm-dark.

Seeing this, Jiang Zixuan grew genuinely worried. “What the hell happened to you?”

“I told you… I’m fine,” Shu Yuxin ground out through clenched teeth, slowly shuffling toward the living room.

Her gait was painfully unnatural—legs slightly splayed, each step hesitant and stiff. Her facial muscles twitched involuntarily from the lingering agony.

Jiang Zixuan hurried over to support her. “This is ‘fine’?! It’s 17 degrees in here with the AC on, and you’re sweating! Did you fall or something?”

Shu Yuxin remained silent for a moment. Reaching the sofa, she grabbed a pack of sanitary pads from the shopping bag and headed toward one of the empty bedrooms. “…I’m really okay. I just did something stupid. Can I borrow a room?”

Only after she disappeared inside and closed the door did Jiang Zixuan finally let his conflicted expression relax.

After a brief hesitation, he rubbed his nose, turned, and walked into the bathroom.

Nothing inside appeared damaged. The toilet was refilling with water—everything seemed perfectly normal at first glance.

But as Jiang Zixuan scanned the room, his eyes landed on the trash bin beside the toilet. Since he’d only just moved in, the bin held very little used toilet paper. What caught his attention wasn’t the paper, though—it was the sanitary pad sitting right in the center. Streaked with dark red blood, it looked unpleasant enough, but what truly stood out were the clumps of curly black hair stuck to it.

In an instant, he understood.

This idiot hadn’t even known how to use a sanitary pad correctly…

When Shu Yuxin emerged from the bedroom, she immediately noticed the faint trace of pity in Jiang Zixuan’s gaze.

“That hurt like hell, didn’t it?” he asked gently.

Shu Yuxin froze—then flushed crimson.

“Please tell me you didn’t stick it on backward again this time?” Jiang Zixuan said, then added as if suddenly remembering something, “If you need to remove hair, there are other painless methods. You really didn’t have to torture yourself like that.”

“…Jiang Zixuan,” Shu Yuxin narrowed her eyes dangerously, her gaze drifting pointedly toward his crotch, “do you want to help me share the pain?”

Jiang Zixuan instantly leapt backward several steps. “Whoa, whoa—don’t get any ideas! Getting kicked in the balls hurts way worse than ripped pubes!”

Gritting her teeth, Shu Yuxin strode to the sofa, scowling. “Damn that stupid sanitary pad.”

Behind her, Jiang Zixuan pinched his own thigh hard to suppress the urge to burst out laughing.

Thanks to that horrifying, wake-up-call sanitary pad, Shu Yuxin was now wide awake—painfully so. She flung herself onto the sofa, sprawling across most of it. Jiang Zixuan had no choice but to perch awkwardly at the very edge. “Wanna play PS?” he offered.

“You play. I’ll watch,” Shu Yuxin replied, lifting both legs and spreading them slightly as she turned her head toward the TV.

She either didn’t realize how dangerously inviting that pose was for a guy—or she simply didn’t care. Right now, even the slightest touch down there sent jolts of pain through her. Keeping her legs together was out of the question.

Truth was, Shu Yuxin had always been extremely sensitive to pain. As a kid, just hearing the word “injection” would send her into full-blown tantrums: crying, screaming, even threatening to climb onto the roof. In her view, the whole “real men don’t fear pain” mentality was utter nonsense. If you could avoid suffering, why wouldn’t you?—except maybe for masochists. And anyway, she wasn’t exactly “a man” anymore… She’d already shown remarkable fortitude just ripping off that damn pad. You couldn’t expect her to endure unnecessary agony now just to preserve some meaningless sense of dignity.

Jiang Zixuan glanced at her, his breathing growing slightly heavier. “Uh… hey. Could you not spread your legs right toward me like that?”

“Huh? What’s wrong? You still got urges or something?” she teased.

“Of course I do! I’m not gay!”

“But wait—you’re not gay, yet you’re getting turned on by me? I used to be a guy, you know.”

“But you’re a girl now!” Jiang Zixuan grabbed the foot she’d just waved in front of his face. “If my self-control were any weaker, I might’ve just taken you right here, you know that?!”

Shu Yuxin grinned. “Oh? So you really wanna ‘take’ me, huh?”

Jiang Zixuan gently moved her foot aside and said nothing.

She poked his shoulder with her other foot. “Shame, really. If it weren’t for my period, I might’ve actually let you have some fun.”

“Stop—stop it already,” Jiang Zixuan turned his head away, flustered, and stood up to power on the PS console. “Let’s just play a game, okay? Please, I’m begging you.”

He had to admit—he’d genuinely felt a flicker of desire just now. Shu Yuxin’s comment was clearly a joke, and they both knew it. But knowing something intellectually didn’t stop your heart from reacting.

Damn it. This was his best friend.

“What do you wanna play?” he asked, returning to the sofa with a controller, doing his best to sound calm.

“Whatever. I said I’d just watch you.”

Jiang Zixuan scrolled through the menu for a moment before selecting *Uncharted 4*.

They’d bought *Uncharted 4* together back in their second year of high school. Every night after evening study sessions, they’d rush home and huddle on the sofa, taking turns—one life each, switching whenever someone died. They’d turned a premium AAA console game into something resembling an old-school Famicom session—but they’d had a blast doing it.

The game’s story followed two brothers on a treasure-hunting adventure, unfolding like an interactive movie. For many ordinary young people, heroic dreams and quests for adventure could only be lived through video games—and they were no exception. To them, they *were* those brothers—though they both insisted they were the younger sibling (the one with the house, car, and wife), and both insisted the other was the older one (broke, unlucky, and perpetually troubled).

Now, watching Jiang Zixuan play again, Shu Yuxin felt a strange emotion swell inside her—part nostalgia, part something else she couldn’t quite name.

Time always flew when you were gaming.

Shu Yuxin didn’t notice when the pain faded, nor when she started actively playing alongside him again. That afternoon, they fell into their old rhythm—taking turns, one life each—just like in high school. For a while, the whole world narrowed to the screen, to the game, and to the simple joy they shared.

By the time they finished a major chapter, dusk had already settled outside.

Shu Yuxin stretched luxuriously. “Whew! We’ve been playing all afternoon!”

“Isn’t that always how it goes when you’re gaming?” Jiang Zixuan exited the game and set the controller aside. “Hungry? Wanna grab dinner?”

Shu Yuxin stood up, moved her limbs around, and smiled. “Nah, I should head back to the dorm. I’ll come find you again tomorrow.”

Seeing her pick up the shopping bag from the coffee table and move toward the door, Jiang Zixuan quickly called out, “Wait!”

She turned. “Hmm?”

“How about… you just move out and live here?” He stood up too, facing her earnestly. “It’s way more comfortable than your dorm, right?”

Shu Yuxin was quiet for a moment, then shook her head. “I’d love to, but you know my family’s situation. My dad won’t give me that kind of money.”

“You wouldn’t have to pay,” Jiang Zixuan said, then added the solution he’d already thought through carefully, “Look—how about this? I can’t stand eating at those restaurants outside campus. You come cook my three meals a day. Consider that your rent. Deal?”