“Go ahead, open it.”

Immediately, I felt a sense of foreboding. With this girl, it usually meant trouble.

“A gift? What kind of gift?”

The package was wrapped in a dull gray plastic bag. Whatever was inside felt soft, and the seal was taped down tight. I ended up tearing it open by force.

Through the rip, a red-and-black plaid fabric peeked out. I pulled it free—yep, a girls’ school uniform skirt. Underneath were a white blouse, a blazer, and even a pair of black thigh-high socks.

Looking at the full uniform spread out on the table, I had a pretty good idea what Rinka was getting at.

Still, I played dumb.

“What… is this supposed to mean?”

“Kai-chan, don’t you already have a girl’s ID? I snapped a couple photos of it while you were changing last time. Used those to get your records entered into the girls’ school database.”

That was shockingly efficient. She faked an entire school file in one day?

“And then?”

“Well, ever since you broke your leg, you’ve been able to turn into a girl, right?”

“So?”

“So! Come to the girls’ school with me! Just as a little field trip!”

“No.”

Instant reply.

“Why not? I already set up your identity and everything! All you have to do is show up in uniform. It’s totally hassle-free!”

She even pulled out a student ID from behind her back—stiff cover, embossed gold school crest and all.

She opened it on the table. Inside, it had the name “Chang Lingmeng,” and yep, my photo, too. The class was the same as at the boys’ school—2-B.

Rinka’s offer was kind of tempting. If this had been last semester, I might’ve agreed to tag along just for fun.

But this year’s girls’ school? It’s a dungeon. A death trap.

You’ve got the “Iron-Fisted Idol,” the “Empress-President,” and Rinka herself—the sly little fox. That’s a lineup even a hundred extra lives wouldn’t save me from.

“No way. If someone recognizes me, I’m screwed.”

Being Rinka, she only needed a blink or two before she guessed what I was really worried about.

“Ohhh, you’re scared Meow Meow will find out you’re a girl now? Then you’re overthinking it—”

She paused, then grinned.

“—Because I already told her the day before yesterday!”

“What!?”

I shot up in shock. “Why the hell would you blab about something like that!?”

“Hey, don’t blame us. Come on, how many times have you tricked us already? We victims had every right to create a fraud-prevention group chat, don’t you think?”

Fei held up her phone, waving it apologetically. “Sorry, Kai. I’m in the group too.”

Great. Then that means Sis Xi is probably in it as well.

“What are you, neighborhood watch?! ‘Victims’? That’s harsh! When have I ever harmed you guys?!”

I was fuming, but all I could do was sputter. With Rinka’s thick skin, my outrage didn’t even register.

“But what about Haitang? She knows what I look like. And she’s never heard of the ‘Church of Bishoujo’.”

Rinka tilted her head. “Are you sure she doesn’t know?”

“I told her about my gender situation, yes. But I didn’t say anything about you or the divine emissary. Still, she was strangely calm about it. Didn’t even blink. She even asked if I wanted to join the student council.”

I broke into a cold sweat. Could it be that Cangyu gave her that recording?

“And honestly, you don’t need to worry about the student council president either. The first and second-year classrooms are in different buildings. Worst-case scenario, just say you’re a guy in drag with breast forms~”

“That’s still a one-way ticket to social suicide!”

“So you’re really not interested?”

“Nope.” I shook my head firmly.

“If you’re a girl, you don’t need the wheelchair, you know.”

Another shake. “The wheelchair’s comfy. Plus, people push me around.”

“The girls’ campus has air-conditioning in every building. Lunch is a buffet. There are only three classes in the afternoon. And I have an even bigger secret base over there!”

Even with her dream-sell, I didn’t budge.

“Geez… I wouldn’t hurt you, you know!”

She finally gave up, tossing the student ID into my lap with a sigh. “I just want to go to school with you, that’s all. Why are you so stubborn? Fine, keep the ID and uniform. Maybe you’ll need them someday.”

“Two roast lattes. Enjoy.”

Right then, the waiter arrived with our drinks. To avoid any awkward misunderstandings, I quickly scooped up the uniform and changed the subject.

“Let’s… shelve that discussion until after Fei’s situation is sorted.”

I was talking, of course, about her meeting with her daughter this Sunday.

The moment I brought it up, Fei’s expression darkened again—like her coffee: bitter and heavy.

Realizing I’d struck a nerve, I tried to comfort her.

“Sis Fei, don’t take what she said too much to heart. When a kid says they hate their dad, they don’t always mean it. Thirteen-year-olds are naturally rebellious. Denying everything is their way of asserting individuality.”

There are all kinds of ways rebellion shows up. Take Scarlet-chan’s chronic case of chuunibyou—it’s rebellion with flair. But once you grow out of that, the rebellious phase usually ends too. That’s how it went for me, anyway.

“She likes that teddy bear. She loves ‘Huangfu Fei.’ She adores Huaying. And yet she just hates her dad—hates ‘Feng Jingsheng.’ Is that rebellion too?”

Fei’s voice had grown so faint I could barely hear her.

Rinka gave me a sharp glare. She’d been carefully avoiding Fei’s scars, and here I’d gone and ripped them right open.

Trying to change the mood, I started chatting with Rinka about random stuff to distract Fei. But the gloomy atmosphere lingered as we awkwardly finished our coffee.

By the time we left, the sky was already turning dark. People bustled past on the street. Fei needed to go home first to prepare dinner, and Rinka teased me the whole way back as she wheeled me home.

We got back relatively early. Miss Wu hadn’t left yet, so the three of us had dinner together.

Dad was getting more and more trusting of Wu Qinglan—he even gave her a copy of the house key.

She hadn’t pulled any new miracle treatments lately, probably planning to max out her approval rating before making her move. Her plan, clearly, was to use affection itself as the cure for my dad’s gynophobia.

It was a huge gamble. If she won, she’d officially become my stepmom. If she lost—game over, no retries.

I did want my birth mom back. But Wu Qinglan wasn’t exactly someone I could hate, either. It was complicated. What, was I supposed to let Dad build a harem or something?

After she left, the house fell quiet again. Dad and I had never been talkative. Having him sit across from me just made things awkward. In that sense, Wu Qinglan’s chatty nature was actually helpful for the household vibe…

Back in my room by 7:30. The neighbor girl from the Zhu family didn’t show up, but I got a call from Xiao Lei.

“Commander, we’re done shopping. Senior just went into a bathroom stall. You can turn her back now.”

“What about you?”

“I’m coming over, remember? You want senior to find out I’m Zhao Zhao? Idiot.”

Ah. Right. That was a dumb slip on my part.

I wiped “Li Jianlian” off the notebook. Once I confirmed it was safe, I ended the call.

Then I sat at my desk and dove into homework.

…Yeah. I’m the main character, and I still have to do homework. Life is unfair.

But I couldn’t stop glancing at the gray plastic bag sitting nearby. That uniform—it had a weirdly magnetic pull.

I opened the notebook and reached for my bookmark.

As I scribbled my name in, I muttered to myself, “Just trying it on. For curiosity’s sake. It’s purely educational. I won’t get distracted by it after this.”

Right. All in the name of learning. Nothing at all to do with wanting to see what I’d look like in a JK uniform…

Yup. If there is a first time crossdressing, the second time’s easier. Then the third. And before you know it—it’s just a part of daily life.