Four Split Personalities

Chapter 2563: Chapter 1210: The Secret of Heavenly Dao (II)

Tian Xingdao shook his head hard, spread his hands and said, "It’s written right there in the club rules: members are not allowed to interfere in each other’s lives, so even if I know Alpha is actually a repeat exam taker, I still won’t do anything about it."

Cholera hurriedly took the step down he was offered, grinning as he said, "Exactly, I knew Brother Xingdao is a reasonable man. That brat Alpha was just overthinking it before, he..."

"He’s already been drowned by Black Mud, so let’s drop him for now."

Tian Xingdao shook his head with what could only be called an icy attitude, then very ’nonchalantly’ asked, "By the way, Cholera, you’re not also actually..."

"I’m a grad student!"

Cholera’s face froze, and he immediately flailed his arms and shouted, "A grad student! A grad student in a top lab at a prestigious university, with grades at the top of the class!"

"Heh, I was just asking casually, why so nervous."

Tian Xingdao put away the ferocity in his eyes and patted Cholera’s shoulder kindly. "What about Little Qing then? What’s up with her?"

Cholera’s expression turned solemn. "She was attacked while relaying information to the Hidden Cult..."

"Talk like a normal person."

Tian Xingdao cut him off, smiling. "We’re not in the club right now."

"Oh."

The latter nodded, then said very breezily, "Apparently it was the first day of her period and she didn’t realize it, so she had a big meal of spicy boiled fish and then downed two big tubs of ice cream. She’s been bedridden for three days now and says she’s bleeding like crazy."

"Two big tubs..."

Tian Xingdao’s mouth twitched. He decided not to think about that Sage of Blue any further, and then turned to Cholera with a serious look. "Right, I’ve been meaning to say, isn’t your current look a bit too... pretty-boy?"

Cholera rolled his eyes, very displeased. "What, so Brother Xingdao, you’re allowed to be tall and handsome in real life, but I, a damn fat otaku, can’t make myself look good in-game?"

Because they had met in real life before, Tian Xingdao, who knew exactly what the guy in front of him really looked like, gave an awkward laugh. "No no, as long as you’re happy."

"Besides, my character in The Realm of Innocence looks just like me."

Cholera curled his lip, sounding a bit deflated. "The system only lets you tweak your face a tiny bit. I can’t even show off my character-creation genius."

Tian Xingdao merely nodded noncommittally and gave an especially half-hearted "mm."

...

At this point, a lot of people probably get what’s going on, and a lot of people are probably totally lost, so let’s do a quick explanation.

First of all, leaving Tian Xingdao—this character who’s been popping up a lot lately—aside for a second, the Cholera showing up here is exactly that STEM prodigy who’s been living in Kaiwo Manor in the City of Freedom for quite a long time, devoted to researching Happy Water. He’s the core figure of that deal between Motan and Fyari.

Secondly, these two have known each other for quite a while now, and they’ve met outside the game too, so from a certain angle, their relationship is actually pretty good.

To elaborate a bit, thanks to a certain shared trait, both Cholera and Tian Xingdao are members of a certain private club in City B. Fine, let’s just say it straight: they’re both what you would typically call "second-year syndrome" patients in the usual sense of the term. The difference is that Cholera is fairly chunni on a daily basis, while Tian Xingdao is a deeply hidden! Deeply hidden! Deeply hidden! chunni!

And the club they belong to is called—the Club of Second-year Syndrome!

On the surface, Tian Xingdao is a model among teachers, an elite in the workplace. He’s young and promising, successful in his career, elegant in demeanor, highly educated, well-mannered, with high IQ and EQ. His conduct is impeccably upright, his worldview, values, and outlook on life are all perfectly proper. He’s been the textbook "other people’s Child" since he was little, and on top of that, he’s tall and handsome. You could say he’s a three-hundred-and-sixty-degrees-no-dead-angle high-quality specimen of the human male, the ultimate super-invincible diamond bachelor that countless young girls dream of!

But!

As the saying goes, no one is perfect. This high-quality human male named Tian Xingdao has had a secret nobody knows about since he was a kid—he’s chunni!

No need to belabor the point: that ten-character stage name [Primordial Snake Galloping Across Thunder Heaven], which has accompanied Tian Xingdao for over twenty years, already says everything.

Of course, chunni isn’t really some kind of flaw. As the saying goes, men are boys until they die. It’s actually quite understandable that the late-teen-in-a-middle-aged-body Tian Xingdao has a little hobby like that.

However, "understandable" is one thing. Unlike stuff like smoking, drinking, or getting a perm, "chunni" is the sort of thing that’s really hard to find resonance for among the people around you.

Can we say it’s wrong for men to crossdress?

Of course not. As a highly sophisticated intelligent species at the top of this planet’s food chain, we absolutely have the freedom to decide what we wear. That doesn’t violate any law.

But "not wrong" and "not illegal" doesn’t mean the vast number of crossdressing enthusiasts can just casually put on a cute little dress and go out shopping.

Twenty-something years ago, even young girls had to be extra careful wearing hanfu outside, afraid of being pointed at and condemned endlessly by those feudal fossils of society.

Fast forward twenty years to today, and although our social structure has made huge progress, a man walking the streets in a little dress can still generate tons of clickbait.

It’s not wrong, but the strange looks from strangers, the strange looks from family, the strange looks from classmates, colleagues, relatives, and friends will keep squeezing the living Space of these "non-mainstream" folks.

The law won’t punish you, but social Death is by no means off the table.

Your family will treat you coldly, your friends will keep you at arm’s length, your workplace will fire you, and you’ll lose a lot over something that can’t really be called a mistake.

So, in conclusion, please stop forcing group admins, authors, streamers, authors, friends, authors, authors, and authors to crossdress every holiday.

Ahem, back to the point.

In Tian Xingdao’s eyes, while chunni hasn’t yet reached the "crossdressing" difficulty level, it’s still a hobby that seriously clashes with his public persona and absolutely cannot see the light of day. So he’s always been very careful to hide it. Forget friends, colleagues, and Leadership—his own family doesn’t know.

But humans are social animals after all, and one person’s chunni has its limits. So a long time ago, a smurf account with the ID [Primordial Snake Galloping Across Thunder Heaven] appeared on the internet.

On major related forums, groups, and social platforms, Tian Xingdao found a world where he could unleash his chunni side to his heart’s content. Chatting about everything under the sun with his "own kind" every day was a very happy thing for him.

Even happier was that one time he went on a business trip to City B and, on a friend’s recommendation, discovered a place called the [Club of Second-year Syndrome].

The name alone tells you the place has only one purpose: to make the offline practice of "chunni"—which countless people dream of—a reality!

Though he was a bit restrained at first, under the guidance of all sorts of Vampires, Superpower Users, Demon Hunters, Prophets, aliens, Children of Destiny, and Chosen Children in the club, Tian Xingdao quickly loosened up and became a regular at the Club of Second-year Syndrome. He also met various fellow enthusiasts, including Cholera, and got along very well with them.

And today just so happens to be the day Tian Xingdao and a few fellow chunni who also play The Realm of Innocence are having an online meetup.

It was originally supposed to be four people...

But [Silver Alpha], the repeat student, got GANKed by his biological mom because the new school term is about to start, and was forcibly graduated from chunni (official term: swallowed by Black Mud).

Meanwhile, the other one, [Sage of Blue], was defeated on the battlefield after rage-eating two big tubs of ice cream plus one authentic Sichuan spicy boiled fish during her period, perfectly demonstrating the meaning of "Impermanence of fate."

So in the end, today’s meetup was just Tian Xingdao and Cholera.

"So, Brother Xingdao, what are we gonna do?"

Cholera, looking utterly bored, threw the choice of activity at the older Tian Xingdao.

The latter showed a faint smile, his eyes blazing with fighting spirit—

"We fight!"

Chapter 1210: End