Chapter 114: Reputation
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
After she figured it out, the situation was not that hard to understand. If intimate activities were delineated according to levels, sex would naturally be the highest level and lower than it would be kissing, hugging, and holding hands.
Hugging and holding hands were out of question because they might occur too accidentally, like someone might reach out to steady you when you tripped and fell. In fact, these activities might be considered a cultural reaction for the alien race.
So, it was understandable that these two interactions would not influence the sex transformation. However, kissing was obviously a sign of intimacy. If intercourse was the concrete condition to stabilize one’s sex, a level 1 intimate interaction could be seen as a pseudo-trigger.
The effect of a pseudo-trigger was not permanent, so without a final condition to follow up, the sex swap would return to its original state.
Ye Shuang discovered something interesting that she had not paid attention to before. Like on that alien planet, what if a couple’s transformation time was completely similar?
Sex between same sex individuals was not meant for trading of genetic information, so it defeated the purpose of procreation. So, they would have to go and have sex with another alien to stabilize their sex before coming back to hump their lovers‽ That was too challenging to the moral standard; even the aliens had shame.
Therefore, when facing this situation, one of the couple could ask for a kiss of blessing from a family member of the opposite sex to extend the sex transformation to the next day. This meant that their transformation time would be delayed by one day… and that was more than enough time for those ‘things’.
This kind of interaction only needed the touching of the lips—the length and passion would not affect the outcome. After breaking up, this method could be repeated until the final partner was found.
“So, as I’ve said, kissing a member of the opposite sex can delay the transformation time to the next day, but this is only possible on the day of the supposed change; kissing earlier than that would be pointless. For example, if I kissed someone on the second day of being a woman, then the third day I would still be a woman, so the kiss would have no effect, and it wouldn’t be delayed to the fourth day.”
Of course, if you want to continue the streak on the fourth day, it was possible as well. The alien race upheld the notion of free love, too. Before settling down with the final partner, a little physical affection was not that out of line, and it could be used to stabilize both parties’ sex.
Basically, it was easy to discern whether someone was in a relationship on that planet—you could just see whether their sex had changed within a three day period. If it did not, then said person was taken.
After the detailed explanation, Ye Shuang sighed. “I didn’t pay attention to this detail before because I assumed it was an alien culture and life experience information… and isn’t something worth knowing. Since I don’t plan to visit this alien planet, I just skipped over the information.”
Why would she, an earthling, familiarize herself with alien culture‽ If not for the need to find out the reason for the discrepancy, she would not have gone back to study it either. After hearing Ye Shuang’s explanation, her father felt much relieved because at least it was not a health scare as he had thought, but now he had another problem to worry about.
“Who is the creep that kissed you‽” Father Ye’s face fell and hissed through gritted teeth. Which f*cker dared kiss my precious daughter‽ Does he want to die?
“…Erm, it was an accident. I still have work tomorrow, so I’ll be leaving, good night!” Ye Shuang fled as soon as she could. With flighty steps, she hurried back to her room to sleep, leaving a grim-faced Father Ye who was prepared to find out more information from Little Brother Ye.
…
The next day, Brother Shuang reappeared at her apartment. After fetching the golden retriever, she picked up the lawyer on the way to meet Miss Bai. Miss Bai was straightforward. That morning, she had called to say that Director Zhou was free due to the delay in his latest film and was coming with her because he wanted to meet Brother Shuang.
Therefore, Ye Shuang was not surprised when she saw the elderly man sitting beside Miss Bai. She even greeted him gracefully, “Director Zhou, it is nice to finally meet you. Your name precedes you.”
When Brother Shuang stepped into the café, Director Zhou’s eyes were glowing. When he first saw Brother Shuang on the commercial, he knew this was the person he was looking for. The man’s handsome level superseded normal understanding. However, Director Zhou thought part of it was thanks to special effects like post-editing. That was how things worked in advertisement—things like photoshop and airbrushing ran rampant.
Commercials normally only ran for tens of seconds, and the director often had to rely on artificial help to create a dream-like scene, so before meeting the man, Director Zhou had been mentally prepared to see the difference between the real man and the man on the commercial. However, when Brother Shuang appeared in person, Director Zhou realized how wrong he was. There was no post-editing involved; the man’s handsomeness was all natural. Just how kind was God to this man‽
“This is Anthony and Lawyer Ding Wei.” After sitting down, Ye Shuang made the introductions to Miss Bai. Lawyer Ding nodded politely, and standing next to him, Anthony appeared incredibly animated. He picked up the spoon from the table and commented with a grin, “Nice to meet you, Boss!”
“…” Ye Shuang pulled the spoon back from Anthony’s claws calmly and replaced it back on Miss Bai’s saucer. “I’m sorry, I should have taught him more table manners, but Tony’s professionalism is definitely trustworthy.”
Actually, Ye Shuang did not know that for sure. She had not really seen Anthony at work, but since Han Chu had vouched for this guy, Ye Shuang chose to believe him.
Anthony and Lawyer Ding had already signed the contract, so after Miss Bai signed it, Ye Shuang returned one copy to her, and the case was thus completed. The details of the company start-up did not need her anymore. She was just the middleperson. It was not her responsibility to follow up on the working relationship between the talents and the client. Therefore, Director Zhou lifted the cup of coffee and asked with a chuckle, “Xiao Ye, shall we change to a different table?”
Ye Shuang smiled. “Okay.”
This was the real test that day. Ye Shuang stood up and moved to another table with Director Zhou. After calling the waiter to serve two cups of coffee, Director Zhou said directly, “Your name is Ye Shuang, right? I’ve talked to Xiao Bai earlier, and I believe you know why I’m looking for you, yes?”
“I’ve heard the rumors from the internet.” When she was a man, Ye Shuang would unconsciously act a bit more freely. After all, this was an identity that she would shed sooner or later, so she did not have to worry about offending others. Therefore, Ye Shuang smiled easily, and after nodding at Director Zhou, she rejected the man directly. “But I have no interest to go into the entertainment field, so I might disappoint Director Zhou.”
Director Zhou came prepared because he was not easily persuaded off by Ye Shuang. What did those people who joined the entertainment business need? Popularity, reputation, a good script, and a good contract… but Ye Shuang did not need any of these because she did not want to walk this path. However, that did not mean that she was without weakness. After all, as long as she was human, she would need something.
“Xiao Ye, don’t reject me so quickly.” Director Zhou smiled serenely as he added a cube of sugar into his coffee. “I heard from Xiao Bai that you’re a talent scout. That’s a wonderful job, but with Xiao Ye’s talent and looks, how come I’ve not heard of you before?”
“…I’m new to this job.” Ye Shuang was speechless. Before this, there was no Brother Shuang, so how could Director Zhou have heard of her?
“New at this job, is it…” Director Zhou scratched his beard and continued in the tone of a concerned elder. “But it is not so easy to break into the upper society. Before they work with someone, they needed the other person to come from the same powerful background as them or… the other person has to at least have a certain reputation. After all, if they don’t even know you, how do you expect them to cooperate with you?”
“This might sound superficial, but this is how the world works.” Director Zhou slowly got to the purpose of his visit. “For example, if you have a designer who was new to the scene and a designer who had been in the business for years already, and you are going to a big event, which designer would you have more confidence working with? The latter would do a satisfactory job to preserve their reputation, but the former…”
Ye Shuang understood the hint. She was the former, and people would not believe her because she had nothing to lose, so she would not pay as much attention to preserving her reputation.
“Therefore, Director Zhou’s suggestion is that I should work on improving my reputation?”