Volume 1 / Chapter 19: Skirt Measurements
The classroom gradually filled until every chair was occupiedâsignaling all Class 2, Grade 10 students had arrived. Â
LÇ HĂłngrÇn, tall and burly, stood by the doorway shouting with arm raised: "All guys- follow me to move stuff"Â
Mò XuÄyĂĄo instinctively stood up. Â
"Whatâre you doing?" WĂĄng JiÄlè asked, puzzled. Â
"Ah... me...?" XuÄyĂĄo froze. Sheâd almost blurted Isnât he calling guys to work? before jolting back to reality: Iâm a girl now. Her mind raced. "Just... going to the bathroom..."Â Â
"Oh..." JiÄlè still eyed her suspiciously but stepped aside, watching her walk into the hallway. Â
XuÄyĂĄo had zero need for the toilet. But since she'd said it, she had to at least put on the act. She stopped by the sink to wash her hands and wet her fingers to smooth down her slightly messy hair.
A crowd of boys passed by in a noisy huddle, heading downstairs.
"Whatâs the big deal, HĂłngrÇn? Do we really need this many people to carry stuff?" Chubby GÄo YuĂĄn groaned. Â
"It's good for your health to walk a little. Don't be so lazy," HĂłngrÄn rolled his eyes. "Look at ZhĂľu Yong- always helping out with the water jugs."
"Come on, he's just got energy to burn."
"And whereâs yours going?" ZhĹu YÇng shot back. Â
"I use my energy on important stuff, thank you. You know, like deep thinking and solving problems?"
"With that pig brain of yours, how much energy do you really need?" said skinny and sly LiĂş XiÄowÄi, mercilessly roasting him-but it was all in good fun between buddies.
"Wanna die?!" GÄo YuĂĄn laughed and tackled XiÇowÄi, in a playful chokehold.. Â
Amid the roughhousing, the group descended. XuÄyĂĄo unconsciously trailed them. Â
Only XuÄ XiÄnshÄngâwalking alone at the rearânoticed her. Â
"Going downstairs too?" Hands in pockets, he smiled. Â
XuÄyĂĄo suddenly realized he was quite tallâa full head taller than her? Probably 170cm... Of course, it wasnât that he was tall; at 158cm, she was just short. Â
"Ah... I just... figured I'd take a look. Is that not allowed?" she deflected. Â
"Didnât say you couldnât." He looked genuinely baffled, his bookish aura peeking through. Â
"Mr. XuÄ , whyâd your parents name you XiÄnshÄng âMisterâ (ĺ ç)?"Â Â
"Because I was the firstborn among all my parents' siblings' kids. So they named me 'Xiansheng'-as in, 'born first." He answered seriously.
XuÄyĂĄoâs lips twitched, suppressing a laugh. Not the honorific "Mister" but the temporal "First-Born." His parents must be fun peopleâsurely noticed the double meaning?
The boys ahead finally registered the petite beauty following them. Â
"ZhĹu YÇng! Your crush is here!"Â Â
"Shut it!" ZhĹu YÇng shoved XiÇowÄiâs leering face toward GÄo YuĂĄn. "Go be creepy with someone your own level!"Â Â
"Whatâs there to say to that fatso?"Â Â
"Whoâre you calling fatso?!" GÄo YuĂĄn seized XiÇowÄi again, staging a "fierce" wrestling match on the stairs. Â
The atmosphere grew... heated. Â
They tussled their way to a vacant first-floor classroomâthe schoolâs permanent storage dump. Today it held piles of clothing: new winter uniforms. Â
"Which class?" asked the discipline officer lounging with her legs crossed, wearing sheer black stockings and eyed the latest batch of boys. Â
"Class 2, Grade 10, teacher."Â Â
"That pile over there's yours. Just a few bags-why'd so many of you come?"
"The More hands, The merrier work!" HĂłngrÇn stated without blinking. Â
"Damn, HĂłngrÇn dragged us out for nothing!"Â Â
"Seriously, four people would've been enough!"Â Â
"Relaxâtwo bags each actually lightens the load." Practical perspectives prevailed. Â
Grumbles were good-natured. Each boy hoisted two bundles back upstairs. Â
"Mò XuÄyĂĄo! Think this oneâs yours!" ZhĹu YÇng called out, shaking a girlsâ uniform bag. Â
"Mine?" She took it. The tag confirmed: Mò XuÄyĂĄoâ160cm.Â
"160cm!" GÄo YuĂĄn gloated at the tag. "Heh, shorter than me!"Â Â
"And youâre proud of that? Pathetic." XiÇowÄi rolled his eyes. Â
"Youâre no taller!" Thus GÄo YuĂĄn and XiÇowÄi resumed hostilities. Â
XuÄyĂĄo knew she wasnât 160cmâ uniforms werenât that precise. Just slotted into that size range. Hers was Medium. Â
The neatly folded uniforms felt thick. Two sets bound togetherâprobably for rotation. Â
She glanced at other piles: color variations likely denoted grades. Ours had charcoal-and-gray plaid skirts with red lace trim, paired with strawberry-red tops. If it got too cold, layering a down coat on top should be enough.
She looked up to find ZhĹu YÇng still watching her. That gave her a headache. If he saw her as a buddy, That would have been fine. But Clearly he isn't. Â
âWhat is it?â so Mò XuĂŠyĂĄo had to pretend to be somewhat cold and ask..
But... wouldn't a cold person not ask?
âAhânothing, nothingâŚâ he laughed awkwardly and quickly melted back into the group. The awkwardness evaporated instantly.
At the very back, it was still just her and Mr. Xue. Of all the boys, it was Mr. Xue who made her feel the most at ease. Maybe because he didnât treat her as a boy or a girlâjust as a classmate.
She almost slung an arm over his shoulderâbro-styleâbefore catching herself. Â
"Ahem".... She aborted the motion, walking on as if nothing happened. Although it had been more than a month, she still wasn't used to life as a girl. Unconsciously, she would forget her identity as a girl and think she was still a boy.
But this was very normal-after all, sixteen years of habit couldn't be changed just like that.. Â
"You really like reading, huh?"Â Â
"Mn." He adjusted black-framed glasses. "No need for âXuÄ XiÄnshÄng.â Just âXiÇo XuÄâ is fine."Â Â
"Huh?" Not milking the honorific? Surprising. Â
"Feels odd otherwise." He smiled. "Classmates should be casual."Â Â
"Oh... then call me XuÄyĂĄo." She touched her chinâShe had once thought that when she grew a beard, she could stroke her chin nicely while talking, but she never expected... she would never be able to grow a beard.
"Okay." He nodded, examining his uniform. Everyone grabbed randomly; distribution happened in class. Â
"Whose did you get?"Â Â
"GÄo YuĂĄn and LÇ WÇnyĂĄnâs."Â Â
"Those two happen to be deskmates."Â Â
"That's convenient."Â Â
Their sporadic chat continued back to class. With half the boys mobilized, distribution was swift. Â
"XuÄyĂĄo, whyâd you go down too?" JiÄlè asked, already tearing open her bag. Â
"Just happened to be passing by." XuÄyĂĄo stashed hers in her bagâawkward to unpack here...
"Whoa! The winter uniform's thick! This skirt though... even if it's thick, it's still not warm enough. Gotta wear fleece-lined leggings. The jacket's thick too... and actually pretty cute." Wang Jiale unfolded the clothes, evaluating them aloud.
As she spoke, the charcoal-gray plaid skirt slipped from her hands and fell to the floor. Before she could bend down, a chubby hand swooped in.
"Damn, this skirtâs tiny!" GÄo YuĂĄnâof courseâheld it aloft dramatically, then yanked it over his head. "Holyâdoesnât even cover my head?!"Â Â
"Youâyouâ!" JiÄlè flushed crimson. "Pervert!" Â
Ahem! ZhĹu YÇng and HĂłngrÇn coughed in unisonâ signaling that he the crossed a line. JiÄlè wasn't great at talking to boys to begin with. Playing around with her skirt like that-it was really crossing the line.
You could see it in her eyes-tears welling up, her adorable little face scrunched up.
"Your head being a whole size bigger than a girl's waist is perfectly normal, isn't it? After all, Wang Jiale is so petite and cute." As her deskmate, Mo Xueyao instinctively stood up for her. "Alright, alright, stop playing with other people's skirts. If you really like it that much, you can apply to the teacher to wear a skirt to school every day."Â Â
The mental image of GÄo YuĂĄn in a skirt made tearful JiÄlè snort-laugh. Â
Crisis averted. Â
GÄo YuĂĄn shot XuÄyĂĄo a grateful look and seized the outâ Â
He gingerly placed the skirt back on the desk and fled like the hounds were after him: "N-no thanks! Donât wanna get arrested!"
---
[Note : In 1990s China, men wearing women's clothing in public could be detained for "disturbing social order".]
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