Fish and meat

During the final week of his month-long hospital stay and the subsequent at-home recovery period that followed, Feng Xue had made every effort to revitalize his health, and mainly fish soup followed by other seafood dish variants had been a must-have on her daily menu.

Something to do with seafood being healthier than meat, and with the fact that the original Feng Xi loved eating seafood, Yang Jingshen's fate had been decided beforehand without him even getting the slightest say in it.

Every single day, he'd find his meal filled with something to do with seafood; fish soup, boiled fish, poached fish fillets in hot chili oil, fish head soup, braised prawns, etc. &, etc.

Yeah, like– you got fish and then you got fish.

This would've been all fine and dandy if he had been a seafood lover– to be honest, it would have been every seafood lover's living dream. But the problem was that Yang Jingshen had never been that fond of eating fish… he was more of an 'I love meatmeatmeatmeat and more MEAT' kinda guy.

So, one can only imagine the extent of his suffering during this period of time, right? No sign of a single piece of meat in sight -most of the time anyway- and he was stuffed full of fish and shrimp and crab and squid and whatnot until he felt like running to the hills at even the sound of the word 'fish'.

Yang Jingshen disinterestedly poked at a slice of swamp eel before finally placing it inside the fragrant broth. These past two weeks, he had somehow with great difficulty managed to convince Feng Xue of the benefits of eating meat until she had finally relented and started adding a single chicken dish -mark it down, it was only chicken and only one measly potion at that- in their meals, once every other day.

To achieve even that, he had engaged in a lot of covert underground operations– from 'randomly' switching to channels with cooking programs showing hard-working chefs preparing tantalizing meat dishes, to 'accidentally' forwarding articles about the benefits of eating meat, to discussing the long and celebrated history of their motherland's culinary arts and somehow managing to direct the said topic into discussing many fantastic historical meat dishes…

In his quest of eating meat, one could say that Yang Jingshen spared no efforts. But, the results had been abysmal.

And, for the first time in his life, Yang Jingshen could feel his iron-clad resolve weaken seeing the utterly content look on Feng Xue's face as she ate the hotpot with a gusto unbefitting her usual elegant image.

'What is she- a sea dragon? How the fuck can someone continue eating the same thing like that? Isn't she tired of it?'

Of course, if Feng Xue heard this, she would have argued with him as any authentic seafood love would be inclined to do; 'How can it be the same thing? Is bass and yellow croaker and crab the same thing? Are you an idiot?'

Resigned to his fate, Yang Jingshen reluctantly picked up the now-overcooked slice of eel and put it in his mouth before starting to chew slowly, and if one looked carefully, his unwillingness was very apparent to see. But, luckily or unluckily for him, his cousin was too engrossed in enjoying her meal that she failed to witness this spectacle.

'This swamp eel thingie… it's new, even for me.'

'...'

'*Sigh* Tastes like fish.'

The meal was torturous, but Yang Jingshen managed to somehow get through it with the help of vegetables provided for the hotpot and by smelling the aroma of their neighboring table's meat-only hotpot.

'Pathetic! To think there would come a day when vegetables end up saving my day– I ended up thinking even this Chinese cabbage is also not bad… Argh!'

And another day with fish ended for our hero in this manner while his future still appeared uncertain and shrouded in darkness. But, one could see a smile dancing in his eyes as he kept observing the sights that flashed past on their way back home, showcasing the glorious nightscape of the imperial capital.

After all, this mystery and uncertainty– isn't that the thing that makes our short lives all the more interesting and thrilling? If we knew everything that would happen beforehand, what would be the fun in that?

***

Yang Jingshen looked inside the mirror of the old dressing table, checking his outfit for any mistakes. Today was too important a day for him to be casual about what he was gonna wear as he was finally going to visit 'Star dreams', the entertainment company to which Feng Xi had been contracted as an artist.

He might have decided not to pursue his acting career once this particular contract expires, but that doesn't give him any excuse to dress in a sloppy manner. He wanted to preserve whatever was left of Feng Xi's dignity by doing at least this, as he'd be the one who'd be using this body in the future anyway.

If anyone thought that him despising his current situation and his helplessness in making any changes to it would propel him to do something like dressing in a slipshod fashion, then they were greatly mistaken.

Because, Yang Jingshen had always believed in the saying that clothes make the man, and he'd consider it the heights of immaturity to treat oneself poorly to satisfy a passing grievance.

After much consideration, he had decided to pair dark-grey, loose-fitting jeans with a white, long-sleeved baggy woolen sweater; after browsing through the original's rather extensive wardrobe, this had been the only outfit he could bring himself to wear in the end.

Not because of anything else, but because this girl's closet was full to the brim with nothing but a score of collections of feminine outfits and accessories, and even the mere sight of them had given him a headache.

Up until now, he had managed to get away with wearing Tees and denim jeans or shorts, but wearing a blouse or a dress or something equally horrendous? No thank you!

He'd have borne with it if it had been only for professional purposes, but was there any need to force himself to endure these nightmarish existences aka feminine fashion articles when it was apparent that he had other choices besides them?

For fuck's sake, he was used to wearing casual T-shirts and denim jeans or dress suits. His being in a body of a woman doesn't mean that he became one, right? Inside, he, Yang Jingshen was still a pure man through and through!

Completing this rather plain but fashionable outfit with a pair of sneakers, Yang Jingshen grabbed his phone -he won't be using a handbag, he just won't!- and rushed out of the room after hearing the urgent voice of Feng Xue.

And, then was subjected to a momentary silence during which his cousin stared at him with a hawk-like gaze, which was very much unlike her usual gentleness.

This gaze, which was reminiscent of him of this one teacher he had during middle school, and which ended up making him stand on the spot while squirming uncomfortably as a hard-to-describe fear invaded his mind, ended up with Feng Xue declaring her final verdict on the entire matter.

'You need to change!'

And, in his defense, Yang Jingshen could say that he fought valiantly and courageously. But it was a losing battle.

By the end of it, he found himself sitting inside a cab speeding in the direction of the metropolis, sporting a glum look on his face as he stared out of the window, not really paying much heed to the passing scenery.

He only managed to keep the baggy sweaters on his being and the rest has been directly stripped off of him– the many arguments had been of no use.

His comfortable jeans were switched out with horrible yellow plaid pants– something to do with the season, and he'd admit they looked cute with Feng Xi's fresh-looking face, but for a man like him, they looked nothing short of something directly out of his worst nightmare. It felt like he was a beefcake wearing a bunny suit!

Mentally gagging at the image, Yang Jingshen twisted uncomfortably on the seat as he could feel the waist of the pants digging into his midriff. His cousin had insisted he tuck the sweaters inside and now it was feeling hella uncomfortable.

And the sandals… did he mention the sandals? They were dainty and had thin straps and looked good, but what was the use in looking good? They only worked to freeze his poor toes into ice cubes in this cold weather ah!

At least he was spared the trouble of carrying around a handbag after a round of heated argument, though he had ended up compromising to wear a pair of mid-sized hoop earrings.

But, after that seeing the cat-who-ate-the-cream expression that briefly flashed past his cousin's eyes, he had started having this sinking suspicion that it had all been a ruse to get him to wear those damned earrings in the first place.

'Was I mistaken?'

'Nope, I definitely wasn't! She did it on purpose!'

Crap and more crap! Now, on top of his disgruntlement, Yang Jingshen was starting to feel traces of disbelief. Turning to look at Feng Xue who was staring out of the window with that same old sweet expression on her face that he had been used to seeing these past few months, and which was in great contrast with her tigress-like expression from moments ago, Yang Jingshen felt his mouth fall open in shocked disbelief.

'No! She was sooo on purpose… I-I was done in by a woman? No– really?'

'Hahahaha…' ⋗⏝⋖

'...'