Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Assessment Countdown

The next morning.

In his sleep, Nangong Yuchen seemed to hear someone calling his name, but the past two days had left him far too exhausted to open his eyes.

Then a pillow flew straight at the back of his head, followed by Nangong Kexin’s voice, magnified to several times its usual volume: “Nangong Yuchen!”

“Ah!” Startled, Nangong Yuchen scrambled upright, not understanding what had happened. Seeing his sister’s flushed cheeks, he asked in confusion, “What is it, Kexin?”

“You... you need to take me to the bathroom right now!” Tears of strain had welled in the corners of Nangong Kexin’s eyes. Yesterday she had only gone twice while in the hospital, and after returning here she had not used the restroom at all. She had been jolted awake that morning by a desperate urge to urinate, but no matter how long she called, Nangong Yuchen gave no response. At last, with no more room to hold it in, she hurled the pillow.

“Oh, oh!” Still half-asleep, Nangong Yuchen climbed out of bed, scooped up Nangong Kexin’s slight, delicate body, and hurried toward the bathroom. Being so close, he could clearly see the change in her complexion.

But then another problem arose. The bathroom in the apartment he rented was already extremely cramped, and Nangong Kexin’s legs had just undergone surgery; she could not stand at all. The two of them were squeezed together in the narrow space, and the atmosphere immediately turned awkward.

“Yuchen, hurry up, I... I can’t hold it anymore!” Nangong Kexin’s voice trembled with tears. She watched her brother still lifting the toilet lid while the pressure in her lower abdomen had already reached its limit. She felt she might go mad.

“Kexin, hold on a little longer!” Nangong Yuchen hurriedly lifted the lid, then carefully turned her half around in his arms. The bathroom was simply too small; to keep Nangong Kexin’s legs from striking the wall, he could not move quickly.

“Nang... Yuchen, I’m begging you, put me down already!” Nangong Kexin’s face went from red to purple as she looked at her brother’s sluggish movements. She had a desperate urge to die. The pressure in her lower abdomen was truly about to burst through.

“Okay!” Nangong Yuchen was even more anxious than she was. When had he ever encountered anything so awkward? Yesterday, when she used the bathroom at the hospital, a nurse had taken her there, not him. In his panic, he set his sister onto the toilet in a flurry of motion.

Tap, tap.

But before he could withdraw his arm from beneath Nangong Kexin’s thighs, he felt a warmth spread, followed by the sound of dripping water.

In that instant, it was as if time itself had stopped. Nangong Kexin’s lovely face turned from purple back to red, though this time the blush swept all the way down her neck. The torment in her lower abdomen, held back for so long, was finally released, and with it came a growing sense of relief—but her heart...

“Uh... K-Kexin...” Nangong Yuchen stiffly lifted his head. Looking at his sister’s face, red as if it might bleed, he did not know what to say.

Listening to the clear, dripping sound, he truly had not expected her to be this quick.

“Nangong Yuchen! I’m going to kill you!” At that moment, Nangong Kexin really did feel the urge to kill Nangong Yuchen first and then herself. She was nearly seventeen, and she had just wet herself.

And in front of her little brother, no less.

She had never even dared imagine such a thing.

Nangong Yuchen’s arm was still under Nangong Kexin’s thighs, and the warm wetness soaked through his entire right forearm. Yet he did not immediately pull away in disgust; instead, he tried awkwardly to comfort her. “It... it’s fine. We can change it later...”

“Ah! Go to hell!” At those words, Nangong Kexin let out a piercing scream. Her beautiful eyes reddened, and she burst into tears. As a girl who had never even been in love, how could she endure such humiliation?

“Waaah... Nangong Yuchen, I hate you!”

“Get out of here!”

“I’m going to kill you!”

Nangong Yuchen could only laugh and cry at once. Watching his sister cry and pound at him, he waited until Nangong Kexin had calmed down a minute later before pulling his arm free. Stammering, he said, “Kexin, um... I’ll go get you some clothes...”

He searched the wardrobe for a long while and finally found only a loose white shirt. There was no other choice; there were no clothes of Nangong Kexin’s here, so he had to take that for her.

...

Half an hour later, Nangong Yuchen returned to the bathroom. Looking at Nangong Kexin’s slightly swollen eyes, he could not help rubbing his nose. Truthfully, he felt a little like laughing inside. After all, his sister, so pure and beautiful, had wet herself too...

“Hmph! Carry me back!” Nangong Kexin had already steadied her emotions, though her lovely face remained hot and red, and she did not dare look up at Nangong Yuchen.

Walking over to her, he saw that she was wearing the loose white shirt, and beneath it were her bare, slender legs. Nangong Yuchen could not help but laugh.

“Hmph! What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing...”

“Ah! Nangong Yuchen, lower your arm!” Nangong Kexin’s little face was bright red. Her lower half was completely exposed; if she had not reacted quickly and grabbed the hem of the shirt, she would likely have been uncovered entirely.

“Oh, oh!”

After placing his sister back on the bed, Nangong Yuchen finally let out a breath of relief. Thank goodness it was over.

Before he could lie down and sleep a little longer, he heard Nangong Kexin say softly, “Y... Yuchen!”

“What is it?”

“I... my period is coming in the next two days...”

“What?” Nangong Yuchen nearly pitched headfirst to the floor. How could so many things happen all at once? It had already been troublesome enough for Kexin to use the bathroom; if this too...

“And also, what am I supposed to do about clothes?”

An hour later, Nangong Yuchen stood in the women’s goods section of a convenience store, his face dark with a storm of lines.

Two hours later, he appeared in a women’s underwear shop, head bowed.

...

By afternoon, when he came back carrying large and small bags, he was scolded again by Nangong Kexin.

“How am I supposed to wear this underwear? It’s so... little!”

“And this color...”

“You actually bought this too? Pervert!”

Nangong Kexin held up one tiny piece after another in various colors, her face flushed scarlet as she shouted at Nangong Yuchen.

She found all these undergarments far too daring and could hardly accept them, being as conservative as she was.

Nangong Yuchen, meanwhile, looked utterly speechless. How was he supposed to know any of this? In the afternoon, it had simply been the shop assistants recommending things to him; he thought they looked fine and bought them. Who could have known it would turn out like this?

The only thing he resolved was that, no matter what his sister said, he was never going there a second time.

And so, before they knew it, a week had passed. In those days, the two of them recovered from their injuries one after the other, and during that time Nangong Yuchen and Nangong Kexin went through who knew how many awkward incidents like the last one.

The one bright point was that their relationship did not sour because of it. On the contrary, they grew much closer.

December 10th, Monday.

In the morning, after breakfast, Nangong Yuchen and Nangong Kexin took a car together to Star Academy. As soon as they entered the gates, they saw notice boards standing all over the campus, with the top line displaying: “Fantasy Isle Countdown: 5 Days!”

Beneath it were more than a hundred names.

Curious, the two walked over and discovered that after a week away from school, all the candidates selected for the elite student assessment had already been confirmed.

One hundred and eight names, in red, along with brief information, were clearly displayed on the screen below.

There were thirty-six students from each of the three grades. Among the twelve first-year classes, aside from the twenty-four students who already held recommendation slots, there were twelve additional names.

“First Year, Class 1: Ye Feng!”

“First Year, Class 2: Lin Wan”

...

“First Year, Class 12: Lu Ling!”