After hearing Shen Hao’s words, Guo Zhengde didn’t answer right away. Instead, he rubbed his chin with his hand and examined Shen Hao carefully. Shen Hao also straightened his posture and let the other man look him over.

After a moment, Guo Zhengde finally spoke.
“…Haozi, to be honest, the way you look now, you’re starting to resemble that Cai-someone who can sing, dance, rap, and play basketball—and you’re even more delicate-looking than him.”

What does that mean?! Are you saying I’m even more effeminate than that Cai guy?! Shen Hao widened his eyes and was about to retort, but when he recalled how he looked the last time he checked the mirror, the confidence behind his rebuttal immediately vanished, and he shrank back a little.

“Maybe… it’s because I’m developing again?” Shen Hao said helplessly.

“Developing again? That’s even possible?!” Guo Zhengde’s eyes widened in disbelief as he pressed on. “Is it because of medication?”

Shen Hao shrugged, neither confirming nor denying it.

In truth, he had already stopped taking the medicine long ago. The changes in his body were entirely caused by his cultivation practice.

Moreover, he suspected that even if medication could cause a second development, it wouldn’t happen as fast as what he was experiencing now—not to mention changes even to his facial structure.

“I actually think this is a good thing,” Guo Zhengde said with a smile after the initial surprise. “There’s really nothing to it! You’ve been a man for over twenty years—turning into a woman and experiencing a different kind of life sounds great, doesn’t it?”

“Then why don’t you go get the surgery yourself and try it?” Shen Hao replied irritably.

“Uh! No thanks, I don’t need that. I don’t have ambiguous genitalia,” Guo Zhengde was immediately choked by the remark and hurriedly said, “Everyone’s situation is different! I’m doing just fine as a man—plus I’ve got a charming fiancée at home. We’re already engaged, just waiting to get married. Why would I go get surgery out of sheer boredom?”

So I’m the one who’s bored out of my mind, then?

Shen Hao really wanted to shoot back like that, but after thinking it over, he decided to let it go.

Aside from being more handsome than Guo Zhengde, he couldn’t compare to him in any other way.

Not only was Guo Zhengde a rich second-generation heir, he also had a beautiful, obedient girlfriend and was already engaged—just waiting for the wedding. No matter how you looked at it, he was a true winner in life, and Shen Hao simply couldn’t measure up.

“I suddenly remembered something,” Guo Zhengde said leisurely as he lit a cigarette, took a drag, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. Through the hazy, swirling smoke, he looked at Shen Hao across from him.

“What is it?” Shen Hao asked casually, chewing on a skewer of barbecue.

“Logically speaking, if someone in the same dorm turns into a girl, then the first thing they should—”

Before he could finish, he was cut off.

“Get lost!!”

With a furious roar, Shen Hao raised a beer bottle as if to smash it. Guo Zhengde was so frightened that he scrambled away in a panic. People at several nearby tables were startled by the sudden shout and turned to look.

The stall owner also glanced over, wiping his hands on his apron as he told one of his helpers to call the police if things started to look bad, then walked over himself.

…After a long bout of commotion, with the stall owner stepping in to mediate, Guo Zhengde apologized profusely before Shen Hao finally calmed down, put the bottle down, and continued eating his skewers.

Guo Zhengde cautiously returned to his seat and forced a dry laugh. “Haha, I was just joking, just joking… Think about it—stuff that only happens on the internet actually happening in real life. I just couldn’t help myself, right? I mean, I don’t believe that if it were—”

“Still talking?” Shen Hao narrowed his eyes. The cold glint in them made Guo Zhengde shiver involuntarily.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop, I’ll stop,” Guo Zhengde quickly surrendered.

Shen Hao ignored him. He was genuinely disgusted by what Guo Zhengde had just said.

Of course he knew that joke—he had even joked about it himself in the past. But once something like that actually happened—and happened to him—the joke stopped being funny. Before Guo Zhengde had even finished his sentence, Shen Hao had already felt goosebumps rise all over his body, accompanied by a faint wave of nausea.

The more he thought about it, the more disgusted he felt; the more disgusted he felt, the angrier he became. He stood up directly and said, “I’m leaving! Take your time eating!” Without waiting for Guo Zhengde to react, he turned and left.

“Hey, hey! …” Guo Zhengde raised his hand and called out a few times, but Shen Hao didn’t even look back.

Watching that now slightly slender figure retreating from behind, Guo Zhengde could only lower his hand in frustration. He looked back at the table full of empty plates and beer bottles and sighed as he finished the sentence he hadn’t had the chance to say earlier: “…You haven’t paid yet.”

There were still a few skewers left on the table, but with no one to keep him company, he had no interest in eating alone. He called out, “Boss, pack it up!”

The owner responded and soon came over with disposable containers. While packing up the remaining skewers, he said to Guo Zhengde, “Your girlfriend still not done being mad?”

“Huh?” Guo Zhengde was momentarily confused.

“Go back and coax her properly. She’ll cool down soon enough,” the owner said with a smile, handing over the packed skewers.

Only then did Guo Zhengde realize that the owner thought Shen Hao was his girlfriend!

After a brief thought, Guo Zhengde didn’t bother to correct him. He just smiled, exchanged a few words, paid the bill, and carried the bag toward his car.

“Tsk, tsk. He keeps saying people can tell at a glance that he’s a man, that he wants to keep his current appearance… Isn’t Haozi a bit too confident in himself?” Guo Zhengde muttered to himself, shaking his head as he got into the car. He set the packed barbecue aside and was just about to start the engine when he suddenly stopped, his expression turning uncertain.

If Haozi really became a woman, shouldn’t his nickname change too? After all, calling a girl “Haozi” (Rat) really wasn’t very elegant.

But if not Haozi, then what?

A-Hao? Haohao? Little Hao? …

A string of nicknames flashed through his mind, but none of them felt quite right.

In the end, he could only shake his head helplessly, start the engine, and drive away.

…………

After the walk home, the sense of nausea in Shen Hao’s chest gradually faded, and his mood finally calmed down.

He knew Guo Zhengde had only been joking, but his reaction at the time had been unusually intense—very unlike his usual self. It seemed that this topic had almost become a taboo in his heart.

Still, he wasn’t someone who couldn’t take a joke. Now that he had cooled down, he didn’t dwell on it anymore.

Back home, he followed his old routine: first taking a shower to wash away the day’s fatigue and dust. Then, wearing only his underwear, bare-chested, he returned to the bedroom, sat cross-legged on the yoga mat, regulated his breathing, and circulated his internal energy.

This had become a daily practice for him after work. He understood clearly that only through steady accumulation and ten years of unwavering persistence could he achieve anything.

After the initial novelty and excitement had passed, practicing cultivation had undoubtedly become somewhat dull and monotonous. But feeling the internal energy flow like a river through his meridians, his dantian full and robust, still gave him a strong sense of accomplishment—and that, too, became one of the motivations that kept him going.

As for the side effects of cultivation, he deliberately chose not to pay attention to them. If it hadn’t been for today’s frank conversation with Guo Zhengde, he might have almost forgotten that his appearance was quietly changing—he hadn’t looked in a mirror for quite some time.

Still, he was satisfied with how things turned out today. He had successfully come clean to his best friend, who hadn’t rejected him or cut ties. At the very least, he had managed to keep his one and only close friend, which was already quite good and brought him a measure of comfort.

As for other people… he would continue to keep his secret hidden and not let more people know.

After all, this wasn’t something suitable for public display.

…………

He slept until dawn and woke up feeling refreshed.

Pulling open the curtains, he saw clear weather outside.

After washing up as usual and changing clothes, he went to the forest park for a morning run, then practiced his boxing.

On the way back, he stopped by his regular breakfast stall for a bowl of rice noodles, then returned home to read books on traditional Chinese medicine, meridians, and acupoints. When bored, he exercised a bit—doing push-ups, frog jumps, practicing splits, and so on. Most of the morning passed like this at home.

In the afternoon, he would normally regulate his breathing and practice cultivation again, then study the Sunflower Manual, trying to puzzle things out on his own.

But today was different.

After lunch and a short nap, around four in the afternoon, when the temperature wasn’t too high, he took his phone and keys and went out.

He followed the same old road he took during his morning runs toward the forest park, but his destination wasn’t the park. Instead, it was a shortcut he always passed through on the way there—Fujia Residential Area.

This was an open villa community, without strict security or enclosing walls—just a cluster of villa-style houses.

There was a main entrance, with four gilded characters on it: Fujia Residential Area.

The reason Shen Hao came here was naturally because he had overheard someone on the phone in the restroom last night saying that Bai Mudan lived in this community.

While he wasn’t worried about those small-time thugs being able to deal with Bai Mudan, he himself also wanted to meet her, because he had many questions he wanted to ask.

Unfortunately, that person hadn’t mentioned which specific house she lived in—only the name of the community. Fujia Residential Area was quite large, so after arriving, all he could do was wander along the crisscrossing concrete paths, casually strolling and looking around, hoping to find Bai Mudan by sheer luck.

The houses here were all detached, each with its own courtyard. This was nothing like the Baisha District where Shen Hao lived—that was an old area. This, on the other hand, was Huihai District, a new development. Land here wasn’t cheap. Even if it couldn’t compare to first-tier cities, prices in a new district certainly wouldn’t be low. If a family wasn’t sufficiently well-off, just the down payment alone would stop many people in their tracks.

With a yard, there was much more you could do.

Here, most courtyards were planted with trees—osmanthus, maples, ginkgoes, and the like—lush and leafy, their branches stretching over the walls.

Shen Hao felt that as long as he knew Bai Mudan’s general location, he would have plenty of time to find her. So after arriving, he wasn’t in a hurry to search. Instead, he walked leisurely, admiring the scenery around him.

Yet perhaps it was fate at work—without intending it at all, the two of them met.