Chapter 230 227. Plotting with Mom
“Sis? What’s wrong?”
Her little sister noticed that An Han had suddenly gone blank, her eyes staring unfocused at the space ahead.
Following An Han’s gaze, she saw only the small decorative sapling in the house.
“Sis?” she waved her hand in front of An Han’s face.
“Nothing, nothing.”
An Han shook her head and curled up on the sofa. “I’m a bit sleepy, I’ll lie down for a while. You go upstairs and watch TV.”
“Why don’t you just sleep if you’re sleepy?”
“I’m waiting for Mom to bring me a midnight snack!”
“Then remember to call me when it’s ready!”
She had eaten three small bowls at dinner and could still eat more?
An Han glanced at her sister sideways, surprised that her small frame could be such a competent eater. At home, she usually needed Mom to coax her to eat—clearly she hadn’t been hungry enough.
Not paying much attention to her sister, An Han curled up just right to fit on the sofa, her gaze fixed on the three lines of text marked by the system, thinking about the meaning behind each task and what situations might arise.
The simplest, Task Three, was straightforward honesty—just like when she had faced her mother before.
But with her father…
She had little memory of him when leaving home. He only came back once a year. Although each visit was kind, giving her allowance in high school and covering all her college expenses, she didn’t trust him the way she trusted her mother. She had fondness for him, but it was all based on money. There was even a bit of resentment, since he’d been arguing with her mother recently. She and her father were almost like familiar strangers.
“An Han, I bought you stinky tofu and a hand-grabbed pancake.” The door opened, and her mother brought two bags of snacks to the sofa. She glanced at An Han’s curled-up figure and, smiling, pulled down the skirt hem that had ridden up. “Your skirt’s all up.”
“It’s fine, I’ve got shorts under it.”
Even without the shorts, the leggings she wore could pass for outerwear; they just clung too tightly to reveal her figure, so she had no intention of wearing them outside.
Her mother put down the snacks with a smile and, seeing her worried expression, asked, “What’s got you worried?”
“What if Dad finds out about me? How would he react?”
An Han needed a strategist; she didn’t know her father’s personality well.
“Like when I told you the truth back then… if I told him, would it—”
Her mother didn’t expect this question. After a moment’s thought, she replied, “He’d probably have a hard time accepting it, right?”
“Could even trigger him to say something extreme… better not be too direct with him. Even my heart races a bit when I tell you.”
“Oh~”
Option Three! Cross it out!
An Han knew her own little heart couldn’t handle her father saying something extreme.
“But no matter how hard it is for him, after a few days he’ll calm down and accept it,” her mother said, smiling. “After all, you’re his daughter.”
“I know.”
An Han shifted her gaze to Task One: completely hiding her gender.
Choosing to hide it would extend the task to a lifetime—not just hiding it from her father, but also from any reward of a wife… which basically sounded like the “co-wife” situation most of which ended badly.
“So, gradually reveal it to Dad?” An Han looked up at her mother, who had settled at the old computer to play Mahjong.
“That should be okay, right? Gradual, not too shocking, though it would be tedious.”
Her mother offered advice: “Maybe you could slowly instill in your dad… that raising a daughter is good, a son is just a money sink, that sort of thing?”
“Mom, that sounds unreliable,” An Han said, picking up stinky tofu with a skewer and teasing her mother. “You didn’t think I was a money sink before, right?”
Having been ‘persecuted’ by the system so long, her mental resilience had grown strong, and she could even laugh at this moment. Her morals and shame thresholds had plummeted, yet even the strongest mind couldn’t face her father’s anger…
Plotting with her mother made An Han feel closer to her, easing her tension a bit.
She glanced at the task timer—three hours this time. Probably because her father wouldn’t return for two more days, and the task wouldn’t start until then. No rush at all. Time to think it through carefully…
Task Two’s reward was crucial for her now: a legitimate reason for her transformation.
Her mother hadn’t probed the reason she became a girl. Relatives might question it, but she could brush them off. Su Peng had also wondered, but she managed to deflect him. It was needed, but not desperately so.
“Mom, then let’s do it gradually?” An Han leaned toward Task Two. “I’ll wear male clothes for a few days first. Don’t reveal it.”
“Okay, your call.”
“Then you and my sister help me keep this a secret from Dad. If he discovers it himself, he might accept it better when the truth comes out.”
“Really? Hard to say.” Her mother was skeptical of the plan.
An Han also wasn’t satisfied with such a rough plan; she couldn’t predict her father’s thoughts.
“I’ll just say I’m intersex… that disease, what’s it called…” She searched her phone and confirmed, “pseudohermaphroditism!”
She thought the term would baffle her mother, but she just nodded calmly: “Isn’t that the reason?”
“This… is…”
This disease would shift the blame to the hospital, not an unexplained system, and wouldn’t be mistaken for a voluntary sex change. The problem was how to make her father accept it.
Suddenly, she remembered mind-reading.
The ability worked both ways: after using it on her father, she could hear his thoughts randomly, and he could hear hers. If she silently repeated “An Han is a girl” while using it, her father would definitely hear it. Since he didn’t know about the mind-reading, her thoughts would seem like a sudden, strange idea—or a premonition. Su Peng and Ren Chi had both accepted her being female easily under this method.
Excited by her own genius, An Han slapped her thigh.
I really am a clever one!
“But even in winter, you can’t cover up completely in front of Dad,” her mother turned to raise the biggest concern. “Even if you bundle up, that face of yours will give it away. Too pretty; anyone can tell you’re a girl.”
“This…”
Looks like the chest binder and makeup would finally have to come into play.
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