Douluo Continent: Thunder Roar

Wang Dong'er felt as if something had gently pricked her heart, and the sense of loss intensified, even overshadowing her shyness.

She bit her lip, and said with a hint of stubbornness and urgency, "If I did something wrong, I can change! I was a bit willful before, but haven't I already changed?"

Ling Yu looked into her bright pinkish-blue eyes, which seemed especially bright due to her emotional turmoil, remained silent for a moment, and then spoke softly, his voice low, yet like a pebble thrown into a calm lake:

"It's not because of that."

He paused, looked directly at Wang Dong'er, and said, word by word:

"Wang Dong, are you a girl?"

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

All the expressions on Wang Dong'er's face—disappointment, anxiety, grievance, and feigned composure—froze, then went blank, followed by incredulous shock and a sudden surge of panic.

She opened her mouth, but found that she couldn't make a sound. She could only stare blankly at Ling Yu with her eyes wide open.

The dormitory room fell into a deathly silence.

He knew… he actually knew?!

How is that possible?!

She hid it very well!

Coupled with his cautious and discreet behavior, which even the many experienced teachers in the college couldn't see through, how could his roommate, whom he had only known for a day, possibly...?

Countless questions and shocks clashed in her mind, leaving her completely unable to react for a moment. She could only stare intently at Ling Yu's calm and expressionless face with eyes full of disbelief.

Ling Yu wasn't surprised to see her looking like she'd been struck by lightning.

He closed his eyes again, and added in a calm tone, breaking the suffocating silence:

"Therefore, to avoid unnecessary trouble and misunderstandings, it's better for both of us to move out."

These words, so calm they were almost cruel, were like a bucket of ice water poured over Wang Dong'er's head, jolting her back to her senses.

Panic, embarrassment, anger at being seen through, and a deeper sense of loss that she herself was unwilling to admit were intertwined, impacting her rationality.

"You...you..." She pointed at Ling Yu, her fingertips trembling slightly, her voice quivering, "You're talking nonsense! What makes you think you can say that! How...how do I look like a girl?!"

She tried to make a final stand, straightening her chest in the hopes that it would be more convincing, but her reddened eyes and slightly trembling lips betrayed her inner turmoil.

Looking at her blustering yet cowardly demeanor, Ling Yu wore a helpless expression.

"When...when did you find out?" Wang Dong'er finally gave up her futile struggle. As if all her strength had been drained, she sat weakly on her bed, her voice lowered.

"From the moment you stepped into this room," Ling Yu's voice was calm, his dark pupils subtly changing, replaced by a pair of deep, blood-red Sharingan eyes containing three tomoe, "There's no disguise; you can completely escape the observation of these eyes."

"Then... why didn't you say so sooner?" Wang Dong'er couldn't help but ask, with a hint of resentment she herself didn't realize, and even more confusion.

"You must have your reasons or difficulties for choosing to enter the academy as a male student, right?" Ling Yu's tone softened, and he even sighed softly. "I don't want to... interfere too much with other people's choices."

Wang Dong'er listened blankly, and the panic and embarrassment in her heart miraculously subsided a little.

A thought suddenly flashed through her mind, making her heart skip a beat and her cheeks flush. She mustered her courage, raised her still slightly moist eyes, and looked at Ling Yu, her voice barely a whisper:

"So...so you've decided to move out now because...because I'm a girl?" She paused, feeling her face burning, but still managed to ask the second half of the question, with a hint of cautious expectation, "No...it's not because you hate me, is it?"

Ling Yu paused for a moment upon hearing this.

Looking into her large eyes, which were filled with tension, expectation, and a hint of vulnerability, he ultimately did not answer directly. Instead, he stated in a factual tone, "When you moved in yesterday, I already told you that I was planning to move out."

"Oh..." Wang Dong'er responded softly upon hearing this.

The heavy weight in my heart seems to have loosened a little.

It turned out that his plan to move out wasn't out of disgust for her, but rather something he had planned all along. This realization lessened the intense sense of loss, replacing it with a complex, slightly bittersweet feeling of relief.

He didn't hate himself...at least, not because of that.

She lowered her head, looking at her fingers. The tension and panic she had felt earlier gradually subsided, and a slightly awkward yet strangely "real" silence filled the room.

However, this quiet period did not last long.

Ling Yu's words were like a pebble thrown into a deep pool. After creating ripples in her heart, they slowly sank to the bottom, touching something that had been overlooked and was deeper in her heart.

"You chose to enter the academy as a male student; you must have your reasons or difficulties, right?"

Reasons... Difficulties...

The blush on Wang Dong'er's face gradually faded, replaced by a blank, pale expression. She suddenly realized that she... couldn't answer the question clearly right away.

Why did she disguise herself as a boy to come to Shrek Academy?

For training?

For...some arrangement by the Haotian Sect?

Or... something else?

The tendrils of memory reach inward, only to seem to encounter a blurry barrier.

Some of the details that should have been clear became obscure, and only the idea that "this must be done" remained clear.

Even... regarding the more distant childhood, those fragments of memory are like looking through frosted glass, unclear and indistinct.

She had never thought about this question in detail before, or rather, some subconscious thought made her ignore the need to delve into it.

She simply followed the established path, carefree and enjoying the new environment and adventures.

But now, when Ling Yu laid this question out so bluntly in front of her, a strange chill crept up her spine, followed by an even sharper, needle-like shame and panic.

Why did she do that?

A girl voluntarily moved into a boys' dormitory?

If this behavior itself is stripped of all the vague "reasons" and laid bare, what would people think?

What will he think?

"Shameless," "malicious," "licentious," "despicable"... These words, which she would never normally associate with herself and are full of malice and belittling, flashed uncontrollably through her mind at this moment, bringing waves of cold, stinging shivers.

She disguised herself as a man, perhaps not with this intention, but the objective result was that she ended up sharing a room with a strange boy.

What will Ling Yu think of her?

Did his earlier phrase "trouble and misunderstanding" include this meaning?

He thought she was... a frivolous girl who deliberately created ambiguity and trouble?

No! That's not how it works!

A strong urge to defend himself surged up, mixed with the resentment of being misunderstood and a deeper fear—the fear that he really had labeled him with such a terrible tag.

With a mix of confusion and a desperate desire to clarify things, she unconsciously murmured, as if asking Ling Yu, but more like questioning the source of everything that had orchestrated her events yet left her with blurred memories: "What...what reasons or difficulties do I have?"

As soon as she said it, even she was stunned for a moment.

Then, she suddenly raised her head and looked at Ling Yu, her eyes filled with a mixture of confusion, intense unease, and a hint of pleading that she herself was unaware of.

She stared intently at his lips, her heart clenching, afraid that he might utter a single word related to "frivolous" or "debauched."

She could accept his estrangement because of trouble, and his indifference because his pretense had been seen through, but she couldn't bear him thinking of her as the kind of girl who didn't know how to love herself.

Ling Yu was also taken aback upon hearing this.

His Sharingan had long since returned to normal. He carefully examined the genuine bewilderment on Wang Dong'er's face, as well as the complex light deep in her eyes, a mixture of pain, shame, and an urgent desire to defend herself. It did not seem fake.

"Don't you know what you're here for?" he asked rhetorically, his tone calm, devoid of any disdain or conjecture, more like a pure confirmation.

Wang Dong'er shook her head blankly, her light blue hair swaying gently with the movement.

She instinctively hugged her knees, resting her chin on them, her voice muffled, carrying a painful self-doubt and an urgent desire to clear herself: "I...I don't know. It seems...it seems my memory is a bit hazy, many things...I can't remember clearly. But...but I'm not...not the kind you think I am..."

Her words trailed off, her cheeks flushed again, and she was too embarrassed to say what she wanted to say. She just looked at Ling Yu with her misty eyes, hoping he would understand and that he wouldn't look at her that way.