Xia Keneng woke up.
She opened her eyes and stared at the pristine white ceiling, which seemed unusually far away. She was still groggy from sleep.
Subconsciously raising an arm, Xia Keneng measured the distance between herself and the ceiling. Her pupils suddenly constricted as she sensed that something was wrong.
"I was definitely sleeping on the top bunk, so why is the ceiling so far away?" she thought. "How strange..."
Realizing there was a problem, Xia Keneng turned her head to check her surroundings. The next second, she shot up in bed, staring in horror at the unfamiliar environment. Her entire body stiffened.
"Where... is this?" she wondered. "This room is huge."
Soft, milk-tea-colored curtains were drawn tightly, blocking out every sliver of sunlight. In the dim room, a desk sat by the window, while a nightstand stood on the other side. A row of floor-to-ceiling light gray wardrobes lined the wall.
Xia Keneng carefully got out of bed, slipped on the slippers, and subconsciously covered her chest. A moment later, she gasped. With a look of absolute shock, she clutched her chest and groped it up and down.
"Holy crap! Where are my boobs?!" she thought frantically. "Is this what it feels like to have a flat chest? I haven’t felt this way in years. But... this doesn’t seem to be my own body..."
Xia Keneng finally grasped the gravity of the situation. She immediately snapped her head around, glancing at the desk in hopes of finding a mirror. Unfortunately, there wasn’t one. However, she noticed that her line of sight was exceptionally high, giving her a much wider field of vision than usual.
And...
Xia Keneng blinked. She looked down at the bulging underwear she was wearing and fell into deep thought.
"Did I actually... become a man?" she thought. "This... feels so weird... Why is it so swollen? Is this the legendary transmigration? Have I crossed over to a parallel universe where I’m about to trigger an exclusive cheat, become a novel protagonist, and reach the pinnacle of life?"
Xia Keneng forced her eyes and physical sensations away from the underwear. Her brain spun rapidly as she recalled the novel plots her desk mate often read. Finally, her gaze landed on the phone sitting on the nightstand.
"The phone has a camera," she reasoned.
With that in mind, Xia Keneng reached out and picked it up. Fortunately, it supported fingerprint unlocking. After using her thumb on the side sensor, the home screen appeared before her. She opened the camera app and flipped to the front-facing lens.
The next second, a familiar and handsome face burst into her view.
"Th-This is..." she stammered in her mind. "Song Yunshen?! The landlord’s son!"
They had just bumped into each other at the convenience store by the neighborhood entrance last Sunday. He had even helped her buy a cup, and they had added each other on WeChat along the way. Naturally, Xia Keneng still remembered him. In almost an instant, she recognized the identity of this body.
"But why did this happen?" she wondered. "If I’ve become Song Yunshen, does that mean... Song Yunshen is currently controlling my body???"
At the thought of this, panic washed over Xia Keneng.
"That guy better not do anything weird to my body!" she fretted. "If he messes around, what will happen to my innocence?!"
Xia Keneng paced back and forth anxiously, clutching the phone and completely at a loss for what to do. But as she walked, she realized just how large the room really was. If she were in her dorm or her own home, she would have hit the wall after two steps.
Realizing this, a sudden thought popped into Xia Keneng’s head.
"If we can never switch back, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing? Song Yunshen’s family is definitely rich. Could I take this money and give it to Mom and the others? That way, Mom wouldn’t have to work so hard. But... looking like this, how would I get Mom to accept the money?
"No, wait!" She shook her head. "What if Song Yunshen uses my body to come find me? If we confront each other, I don’t know anything about his family situation, so I’d probably be exposed immediately. Plus, if Mom found out, she definitely wouldn’t let me touch someone else’s money anyway.
"Argh! What on earth am I thinking?!" she mentally scolded herself. "I need to figure out what to do first!"
Xia Keneng was fraught with anxiety. Just then, the phone in her hand suddenly vibrated.
—WeChat Video Call Request
Caller ID: Xia Keneng.
When she saw the WeChat contact name displayed on the screen, a look of sudden realization washed over her face.
"Right! We added each other on WeChat before, so we can just call and talk!"
Upon realizing this, Xia Keneng hastily answered the call. Immediately, she heard a voice that was both familiar and slightly foreign.
"Hello?" the person on the other end answered, followed by a long silence.
After a good while, the voice asked again, "...Xia Keneng?"
Hearing her own voice over the phone was an incredibly bizarre sensation. Xia Keneng blinked and subconsciously hummed in acknowledgment. When she heard a deep, magnetic voice—far rougher than her own—rumble from her throat, it startled her. She felt entirely unaccustomed to it.
"Are... are you Song Yunshen?" Xia Keneng asked tentatively.
"Yes, it’s me," Song Yunshen replied in a very solemn tone on the other end. "You should have a rough idea of what happened by now, right?"
Xia Keneng gulped. "Did we... did we swap bodies?"
"Exactly," Song Yunshen continued. "The cause is currently unknown, but since it has already happened, I need you to stay rational and listen to what I have to say next. Can you do that?"
Xia Keneng’s mind was completely blank. She had no idea what to do, but hearing Song Yunshen speak so calmly instantly gave her a sense of security. She obediently nodded. "Okay, go ahead."
"Okay." On the other end, Song Yunshen cleared his throat and gathered his thoughts before speaking with absolute seriousness. "First, I want to apologize to you."
"Huh?"
"When I first woke up, I didn’t realize what had happened and accidentally touched your breasts."
"...You don’t need to say things like that out loud!" Xia Keneng shouted, her face flushing bright red.
"Ahem... could you not talk like that? And please don’t make such a shy expression," Song Yunshen said from the other side, covering his cheek with a slightly nauseated tone. "I really can’t stand seeing my own face make that kind of expression."
"It’s not like I can control it," Xia Keneng retorted, puffing out her cheeks.
"Don’t puff your cheeks out either."
"You’re so demanding!"
"Anyway." Song Yunshen cleared his throat again. "Our current situation doesn’t allow me to hide anything from you, otherwise it will only deepen our mutual suspicion.
"So I can promise you right now that apart from accidentally touching them when I first woke up, I haven’t directly touched your body since."
"I-I get it..." Xia Keneng replied softly.
Even though she still felt that bringing up something like that right off the bat was a bit absurd, for some reason, she felt a sudden sense of relief. Her panicked heart settled down a little.
"So, how exactly do you put on a bra?" Song Yunshen asked next.
Xia Keneng was speechless. "...?"
Well, she didn’t feel reassured in the slightest anymore!