My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 83
by Little PandaIntuition
Ren Chenxi rolled her eyes with exasperation. She pointed at the somewhat blurry profile on the screen—the result of low pixel count—and declared righteously, “This is obviously not me! It’s Ren Muhui! Now you can confirm it, right? Ren Muhui is a man!”
At Ren Chenxi’s words, Mu Ning stared somewhat dazedly at the photo again. After a long moment, she suddenly shook her head. “No… that’s wrong! He… he isn’t Ren Muhui either…” Ren Muhui was clearly supposed to be the Ren Chenxi standing right in front of her!
“Hey, hey, hey! Yang Xiangrui already said the person he secretly photographed was Ren Muhui! If that’s not Ren Muhui, then who is it?” Ren Chenxi spoke as she snatched the phone from Mu Ning’s hand and tossed it to Tang Ying and the others. “Youxuemei1 should help take a look too. The person in this photo is my older brother, right?”
Asking a group of girls to look at a half-naked photo of a man was still a bit embarrassing for them. But embarrassment couldn’t overcome their curiosity, so not only Tang Ying and her companions, but even Jian Dan and Song Xin crowded around to look at the photo.
“Huh? That’sRen-xuezhang2!”
“That’s right,Mu-xuejie3. Isn’t that exactly what Ren Muhui looks like?”
Hearing Tang Ying and the others confirm it, Mu Ning’s expression grew increasingly grim. No, this shouldn’t be happening! The Ren Muhui in the photo… and the Ren Chenxi before her eyes… they really weren’t the same person!!! Had she really misidentified someone?
Ren Chenxi paid no attention to Mu Ning’s increasingly darkening expression or her increasingly sharp gaze. She simply returned the phone to Yang Xiangrui, then turned around with a flourish and smiled triumphantly at Mu Ning. “Remember this—from now on, I am me, and Ren Muhui is Ren Muhui. Don’t get it wrong again!”
At Ren Chenxi’s words, Mu Ning felt as if she’d suffered a heavy blow. Her body swayed involuntarily, but she quickly steadied herself. Still, her eyes remained fixed on Ren Chenxi with unyielding intensity.
Compared to Mu Ning’s defeated expression, Tang Ying’s face was clearly excited. Anyone else hearing Ren Chenxi’s final statement would have found it baffling, but Tang Ying had already mentally composed a 500,000-word stand-in tragic romanceGL novel4 in her head. And after long exposure to Tang Ying’s brainwashing, Song Xin and Chang Ling also looked at Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning with meaningful gazes.
Though they didn’t dare say it aloud, they were all screaming internally: So that’s it! So Mu-jie5 really has been treating Xi-jie6 as a stand-in for her boyfriend all along!
Back inside the house, Mu Ning’s gaze remained fixed on Ren Chenxi. That blatant stare seemed determined to pierce through Ren Chenxi’s clothes and determine once and for all whether the body beneath was male or female.
Faced with such scrutiny, Ren Chenxi wasn’t afraid—instead, she raised an eyebrow at Mu Ning provocatively. “What are you looking at? Still doubting my gender? I’m nothing like Ren Muhui. He’s all brawn and no brains—he used to work out at home all the time. You saw the photo just now, didn’t you? His pecs, his abs. I’m nothing like Ren Muhui. I’m lazy—I could never have eight-pack abs like he did…”
As she spoke, Ren Chenxi lifted the hem of her shirt. A flash of pale, flat stomach appeared. Though it was only for a brief instant, Mu Ning didn’t miss that slender waist.
It was completely different from the rugged, powerful torso she’d just seen in Ren Muhui’s photo. That waist was soft and delicate, as if one hand could encircle it entirely. Mu Ning had felt nothing looking at Ren Muhui’s half-naked photo, but just glimpsing Ren Chenxi’s slender waist sent ripple after ripple through her heart.
Many times, Mu Ning trusted her intuition. Throughout these two years of apocalypse, she’d relied on her intuition to dodge countless crises and avoid countless dangers. So now, she chose to trust her intuition again.
The photo in Yang Xiangrui’s phone—the one everyone insisted was “Ren Muhui”—didn’t stir the slightest feeling in her heart. But for the suddenly appearing “Ren Chenxi,” she could clearly feel that all her emotions were deeply affected by this person. This feeling was exactly the same as what she’d felt for the “Ren Muhui” from before the apocalypse!
Mu Ning trusted her intuition. So something had to be wrong!
With this thought, the chaotic knot of emotions in her heart loosened considerably. Her tightly furrowed brows relaxed as well.
Involuntarily, she glanced again at Ren Chenxi’s waist, now covered by clothing, and began to miss that fleeting glimpse of slender waist. It had been too brief—she couldn’t see enough no matter how she tried. How wonderful would it be if she could look whenever she wanted, as long as she wanted, whenever she pleased?
Ren Chenxi didn’t notice Mu Ning’s distraction. Right now she was feeling quite pleased with herself—after all, she had that photo of Ren Muhui as ironclad evidence. Now, no matter how suspicious Mu Ning got, she couldn’t keep accusing Ren Chenxi of being the same person as Ren Muhui~
“Ren Muhui is a man~ If you’re still doubtful, go ask Yang Xiangrui for the photo and examine every detail thoroughly~” Not wanting Mu Ning to renege, Ren Chenxi deliberately offered another “helpful” reminder: “Think of it as the last photo of Ren Muhui you’ll ever see. I specifically told Yang Xiangrui to guard that photo with his life—don’t you dare accidentally delete it~”
Hearing Ren Chenxi’s insufferably smug tone, coupled with her gloating expression, Mu Ning felt both exasperated and amused. She decided this woman needed to be taught a lesson. She nodded directly. “I now know that Ren Muhui is a man.”
“Good! Now that you know he’s a man, from now on…” Don’t go saying Ren Muhui is a woman, or that I am Ren Muhui, or any such nonsense!
Before Ren Chenxi could finish her sentence, Mu Ning continued: “But now I have a new question.”
“…What are you questioning now?!” This person was so suspicious! It was infuriating!!!
“It’s not really a new question. It’s something I’ve suspected from the very beginning…”
Mu Ning looked at Ren Chenxi and deliberately paused. At the same time, a sense of foreboding rose in Ren Chenxi’s heart. Sure enough…
Mu Ning continued at her leisurely pace: “Ren Muhui is male, that’s correct. But how do you prove that Ren Muhui never had gender reassignment surgery? Do you have evidence? I’m not asking for much—a photo as proof would suffice~”
“…” This woman! Ren Chenxi glared at Mu Ning, gritting her teeth as she said word by word: “You’re just suspecting that I’m Ren Muhui after surgery!”
“Mmhmm~ That’s right~” Mu Ning admitted without hesitation.
“But! You already confirmed that I’m a woman!!!” Ren Chenxi’s eyes practically shot fire at Mu Ning.
“Eh? When was that?” Mu Ning widened her eyes with feigned surprise, asking shamelessly.
When? You’re asking when?! You fucking groped my chest the moment we met! And you have the nerve to ask when?! Ren Chenxi took a deep breath. Under the burning, gossip-filled gazes of the surrounding girls, she could only offer a veiled reminder: “When you were bandaging my shoulder…”
“Eh? When I was bandaging your shoulder? But I was so focused on your injury then, I didn’t carefully verify your gender… or check whether you had any surgical scars~” Mu Ning looked at Ren Chenxi with an innocent expression. “How about this—I don’t need photo evidence. You just let me examine you thoroughly from head to toe, from outside to inside. How does that sound?”
“…” Examine your fucking—! Meeting Mu Ning’s smiling eyes, Ren Chenxi confirmed it: this woman was messing with her!
But before Ren Chenxi could explode, an extremely excited female voice came from beside her: “Xi-jie! Say yes! To prove you’re not anyone’s stand-in, just let Mu-xuejie examine you!”
Ren Chenxi turned her head to see Tang Ying, whose entire face was flushed with excitement. She said coldly, “Plug your nosebleed first. If you don’t, I’m afraid you’ll bleed out…”
As soon as Ren Chenxi finished speaking, the girls who had been eagerly listening to the gossip hurriedly dragged the frantically gesticulating Tang Ying toward the bathroom.
With the gossip-loving girls sensibly gone, Ren Chenxi shot Mu Ning a glare, snorted coldly, and turned to head upstairs. Mu Ning smiled and shook her head, following behind Ren Chenxi. She couldn’t resist teasing her again: “So when are you coming to my room for that full-body examination?”
“Examine your fucking—!!!”
The response was a string of crude profanity from Ren Chenxi.
After that night, Mu Ning stopped fixating on Ren Chenxi’s gender and didn’t bring up anything related to Ren Muhui again. On the surface, it seemed like the matter had been dropped, but Ren Chenxi could tell from Mu Ning’s still-maxed favorability rating that the issue hadn’t actually passed.
Still, since Mu Ning wasn’t bringing it up, Ren Chenxi was happy to pretend nothing had happened. She continued going to the beach with everyone daily to gather seafood, then returning home to enjoy various seafood feasts.
Because of the mid-tier mutated seafood attacks—and the casualties that had occurred—the number of survivors coming to the beach to gather seafood had noticeably decreased over the past few days. But those mid-tier mutated seafood creatures that terrified ordinary survivors posed no threat whatsoever to Mu Ning’s team. With Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning present, the ones who needed to be careful were the mid-tier mutated seafood themselves. And thanks to Mu Ning’s insanely obsessive fishing over these past few days, the population of mid-tier seafood that would attack survivors had actually thinned out considerably.
Also, thanks to Mu Ning’s insane fishing, she had finally gathered fifty Level 6 crystal cores—enough to trade for the Level 8 crystal core in Ren Chenxi’s inventory. Of course, since Mu Ning couldn’t currently absorb Level 8 crystal cores, Ren Chenxi continued to hold it for her.
Originally, now that Mu Ning had finally gathered the crystal cores, that crazy fishing drive should have eased up, right? But no—while Ren Chenxi said that Mu Ning returning fifty Level 6 cores to her was already enough, Mu Ning felt she still needed to give Ren Chenxi more crystal cores. After all, it was Ren Chenxi who had first severely wounded the mutated octopus, giving Mu Ning the opportunity to kill the dying beast. So Mu Ning continued gathering another ten Level 6 crystal cores for Ren Chenxi—and she herself needed Level 6 crystal cores to continue advancing her own level!
Ren Chenxi now had sixty Level 6 crystal cores. Mu Ning didn’t know how many cards Ren Chenxi had synthesized, or how powerful she had become. The gap between herself and Ren Chenxi… was it growing wider and wider…
The author has something to say:
Wood: Come on, now that you’re in my room, let me examine you thoroughly from head to toe, from outside to inside, bit by bit, inch by inch~
Xixi: You’re so annoying~ I don’t want to~
Wood: No can do! You need to show me the evidence that you haven’t had gender reassignment surgery~
Xixi: Fine then! To prove my innocence, I’ll let you examine me!
Wood: Then I’ll begin~ Here… mmm… soft, doesn’t feel like there are implants. Here, smooth and flat, doesn’t look like anything was cut… here, here, and here all check out. Now… let me examine inside~
(The following 30,000 words of indescribable content have been omitted)
PS: This mini-theater was ghostwritten by CP Chief Tang Ying
Footnotes
- A Chinese term (xué mèi) for a junior female student, used here by Ren Chenxi addressing Tang Ying and the other girls.
- A Chinese term (xué zhǎng) for a senior male student, used here by Tang Ying referring to Ren Muhui.
- A Chinese term (xué jiě) for a senior female student, used here by the girls addressing Mu Ning.
- A niche webnovel genre combining 'stand-in' love interests, tragic/angsty romance, and 'GL' (girls' love/yuri).
- A Chinese term (jiě) for older sister, used here by the girls addressing Mu Ning affectionately.
- A Chinese term (jiě) for older sister, used here by the girls addressing Ren Chenxi affectionately.
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