Something's not right.
The mattress feels different than Ming'er's special mattress. It isn't as soft or as comfortable as it usually is.
Ming'er grumbles in his half-asleep state and rolls over to his side. It doesn't ease the strange discomfort that he's feeling.
He finds himself coming face to face with something brown and fluffy.
He immediately opens his half-closed eyes and furrows his brows.
/What's this weird-looking animal?/
Ming'er immediately reaches out and grabs the stuffed Alpaca plush toy beside his pillow. He's wide awake now.
He pinches the adorable plush toy over and over again, fascinated by just how soft and fluffy it is.
Ming'er doesn't know what animal this weird but also kind of cute-looking thing is, but he knows one thing for sure.
/This isn't my bed./
Just then, Ming'er notices his fingers. They look daintier and more feminine than usual.
Ming'er furrows his brows in confusion.
/Since when did my fingers look like that...?/
/Last time that I checked, I'm a guy.../
As Ming'er sets the Alpaca plush toy down and studies his fingers, he notices his arms. They're not covered by the long sleeves that he was used to and looked much skinnier than usual.
He was also dressed in a big, oversized black shirt that had a patchwork of a cloud embroided to its side.
Ming'er touches the surface of the patchwork and the material of the clothes with the tip of his fingers and grimaces.
/Why am I dressed in such poor-quality clothes?/
Speaking of poor-quality, Ming'er notices that his legs were being covered by a cheap-looking blanket. It's much thinner than his special blanket and has patterns of the same weird-looking animal on it.
Ming'er throws the blanket off by reflex. He's not used to touching such poor-quality materials.
Just then, he widens his eyes.
His legs were completely bare as he was clad in nothing but the shortest pair of pants in the history of pants.
Ming'er widens his eyes at the pair of long, slender legs before him. He doesn't know why, but he's flushing so hard that the tip of his ears were turning red.
/This is absolutely scandalous...!/
Ming'er immediately reaches over and picks the blanket with the weird-looking animal pattern up from the floor so that he could cover up and maintain his decency.
That's when Ming'er realizes that he isn't alone.
There was another bed across his bed.
There's a girl sleeping on it.
Ming'er couldn't hold his confusion back any longer.
"Ah!" he shouts and retreats back before he could stop himself. Ming'er's back hits the wall with a thud.
"Ugh, Yuying," the girl in the bed groans as she rolls over to her side such that she was facing the wall, "Please, not too loud."
/Yuying?!/
/Who the fuck is that?!/
/And why is she speaking in English?! Isn't she Chinese?!/
/English is my weakest subject!/
/I don't even know what she just said!/
Feeling the need to respond still, Ming'er runs through his very limited knowledge of English to find an appropriate response.
He's so flustered and confused that he can only think of one word.
"Yes," Ming'er replies.
His eyes shoot open at his voice, which is much higher-pitched than usual.
/What the fuck...?/
Just then, Ming'er widens his eyes in horror.
/No, it can't be...the dainty-looking fingers...the slender arms and legs...the squeaky voice.../
Ming'er is in utter disbelief and confusion.
He decides to confirm his suspicions by checking a body part that he hadn't noticed before.
The tip of Ming'er's ears turn even redder than before. He's so red now that he looks like a tomato that's about to burst right open.
After hesitating for a while, Ming'er squeezes his eyes shut and slides his hands under the loose piece of black fabric that he was wearing.
Ming'er opens his eyes so wide that they look like they're about to burst at any moment along with his head.
He becomes increasingly aware of the little squishy ball-like appendages in his palms and the fact that his chest feels heavier than usual.
They were so small that Ming'er hadn't noticed them at first. The piece of loose black fabric that he was wearing didn't help.
Ming'er clasps a hand over his mouth to hold back another shout of surprise that nearly escaped his lips. He doesn't want to wake the sleeping girl in the bed up again.
Ming'er throws a sideways glance to make sure that the girl is asleep. Upon seeing that she wasn't moving a muscle, he gently pushed his blanket to the side and stepped onto the floor.
He notices that he is barefoot, and that his feet look almost as dainty as his fingers. The floor is also of some sort of mysterious brown wood. Although Ming'er has no idea what it is, he's certain that it's nothing compared to the marble tiles he has back at his room in the Imperial Palace.
Ming'er steps onto the floor and starts walking. He notices that his steps feel lighter than usual.
Ming'er goes to what looks like the front door. He opens it, not before noticing how the door didn't look as high-quality and expensive as the one that he has for his room.
When Ming'er steps out of the room, he finds himself in a corridor with other similar-looking doors. It reminds him a little of the hallway of the dormitory at Qilin Academy.
Just then, he passes a place that looks like the shared toilet back at the academy. Ming'er steps into it without any hesitation.
The first thing that he sees is a row of stalls. There are weird, white bowl-like things in some of them, and a long, grey thing that extended upwards and down again in the others.
Ming'er has no idea what they are.
He steps into a stall with the strange white bowl-like thing and frowns down at it. There's water inside. It doesn't look too clean.
/Is this where we're supposed to wash up...?/
Ming'er thinks about it for a moment before he gets down on his knees. He grows aware of his hair, which feels shorter than usual, as he does so.
/I guess this is where we're supposed to wash up. It's not like I haven't already seen just how poor-quality this place is.../
And so, Ming'er dips his hands into the weird white bowl-like thing.
He's about to close his eyes and splash it onto his face when he hears a shriek from behind.
"What the fuck are you doing!" a high-pitched voice that was even higher than his yells from behind.
This startles Ming'er so much that he immediately gets up and spins around.
Ming'er catches his reflection in the mirror at this exact moment.
He has medium-length brown hair that went just slightly past his shoulders, big and dark doe eyes, and was significantly shorter than usual.
Ming'er couldn't believe his eyes.
Yes, he had his suspicions, but he couldn't believe that now that he was actually seeing what he looks like.
/I'm a girl./
/A girl./
Ming'er joins the girl in her shrieking.