For the next half year, the Tangs were in shock. Their Xuemei, the lazy diva herself, started getting up every single day at 7 a.m. before tirelessly working with the physical trainers to build up her strength again. No matter how tiring and hard the exercises were, the expected complaints never came. She just grit her teeth and bore all the pain. Eating all the plain hospital meals because of her weak health, she was not picky about the quality. They loved their daughter no matter what, but even they were extremely happy with these changes. During her time in bed, Xuemei developed a lot and Christian realized the girl was completely different from her 14-year-old self. She was a rare 173 cm with long legs and slim curves and a decent sized chest. Although she was a still-developing 17-year-old, Tang Xuemei was showing all the signs of a budding beauty. Christian could not help but wryly smile when he saw himself. Too bad he could not date himself… After these six months of work, he could walk normally, but his easy exhaustion was still a problem. The check-ups with the lead doctor went well and they cleared him for discharge. He would still have daily appointments with the physical trainer. Christian was also thinking of training in martial arts again, as well. Obviously, he was no longer in the military, but he could not rest easy feeling so helplessly weak and defenseless.

The day of his discharge, his family came to the hospital to pick him up. His mother brought a change of clothes for him. When Christian looked down into the bag, he could feel a deep sigh escape his mouth. Although he expected as much, actually seeing the dress and stockings with the fancy jacket, he felt helpless. Taking a shower first, Christian dried off then took all the clothing out of the bag. With much more ease than before he slipped on his underwear and bra before picking up the stockings. With some trial and error, he finally pulled them up correctly. Breathing hard with much more effort than should have been necessary, Christian felt bothered by what a pain this was all becoming. Why couldn’t he just wear a loose sweatshirt and pants? Afterwards, he picked up the light pink dress. It was slim-fitting and objectively speaking did look really nice on Tang Xuemei’s body. Just that Christian could not get used to looking at himself like so. Grimacing, he finished putting on the tan trench coat before walking out. His family was outside the bathroom waiting for him.

“Mei-er, look at your wet and tangled hair! You will catch a cold like that.” His mother scolded him before pulling him over to the counter where there was a hair-dryer. The next 15-20 minutes were spent in comfort as he felt the soft hands comb through his hair and dry it. Having someone do his hair like this actually felt pretty nice. The drying ended with his mother taking an elegant light pink clip that matched the dress and pinned back his hair. Afterwards, two matching light pink heels were placed in front of him. Inwardly groaning, he sincerely wondered if he would be able to walk correctly in those things. Thankfully, maybe because he was still weak, they were only around one-inch high. Slipping his feet into the shoes, they were not terribly uncomfortable just a little different feeling. In the beginning, he slipped a little after losing his balance since he was still getting used to the new shoes. His brother Tang Xueliang, however, would not even let him walk by himself afterwards and was adamant about holding his hand to help him walk to the car. Frowning slightly, Christian knew that this was normal and he should not make a fuss. Holding hands with a guy also did not feel particularly comfortable, either, but he pushed down these awkward feelings trying his best to play the part of the nice younger sister and daughter. Once they were all seated, Father Tang coughed slightly seemingly struggling to say something. Xueliang picked up on his father’s difficulties and decided to bite the bullet instead.

“So, Mei-er, what are your plans? I know it’s been hard for you these past six months trying to acclimate to all the changes after three years. Have you given any thought what you might want to do? Do you want to go to school or get tutoring before taking the exams to get into college? Do you want to work for the company? Mom, Dad, and I do not have any preferences, you can choose whatever you want to do!” Xueliang spoke carefully, trying not to rush his sister. They were just worried about Xuemei getting her life back on track. With a slightly blank look on his face, Christian suddenly did not know what to say. In order to control his thinking, he set his goal on therapy and recovery. Being asked about his future, he felt as if he were thrown straight back into his earlier confusion. Future? Actually, he did give it some thought at random moments. He thought about going back to the military, but he felt that he owed it to Xuemei and to himself to live his life differently this time. Not that his last life was bad or that he regretted joining the military, but there were so many other things he could also try now. Going back to school or at least getting tutored so he could take the college exam seemed like the most logical choice to him. But then after school? Christian felt like his thoughts were running around in circles all coming to the same point. He did not know what he wanted to be and this was severely limiting his ability to make choices and to dedicate himself fully to one thing. This feeling of floating along aimlessly truly frightened Christian at his core. Trying to push down his worries, he answered carefully.

“I would like to get intensive tutoring. I want to try to start college on time before the fall semester begins.” Although he was still completely unsure of what he wanted to do, schooling was extremely important no matter what he decided to do. Christian thought his answer was extremely normal, however, he seen noticed that the car seemed to be filled with silence. Looking up, he realized that his parents were staring at him in disbelief along with his brother.

“Uh… Mei-er, it’s not that Mother and Father underestimate you, but it would probably be very difficult for you to catch up in time. That is three years-worth of school that you missed. Even before your coma, didn’t you hate school? Your grades were… uh…” This time Mother Tang decided to gently speak up. Christian did not know how to respond to this. She was right, Xuemei was a downright idiot who hated studying and knew almost nothing important. However, was he the same? Of course not! Back at the military academy, he graduated magna cum laude. His intelligence and hard-working attitude kept his grades high. He did not believe he could not pass the infamous gāokǎo¹.

“Mother speaks correctly, I was getting ahead of myself.” Reigning in his pride, Christian kept up his gentle daughter act. He would not expect them to understand, he would just prove them wrong after he starts studying with the tutor. After all, if he changes too quickly, his parents might find something off about him. Obviously, he did not go as far as to think that they would catch onto his rebirth story. It was more that he was worried they would misunderstand and instead think that he developed some sort of psychological disorder due to the trauma of almost dying or that his brain suffered damage in the fall. Doctors, in the end, could not be completely certain of the effects of the fall to his brain. There were cases, though controversial, of claimed dissociative identity disorder in the world these days. His parents could maybe come to that conclusion.

“Hahaha, Mei-er, Father is so happy to see you finally excited to study. Don’t worry, I will find the best tutor around for you! I will definitely help you get into college.” Laughing loudly, Father Tang did not know what spurred this change in his daughter, however, he would not complain for such a blessing. Later, he would have to ask Assistant Yan about well-known tutors.

1 National College Entrance Exam