Novel Turned Yuri – Chapter 31

Embrace

The little episode at the banquet could be considered over; the proceedings continued more or less smoothly and soon reached the stage for free activity.

The adults there, sharp as hawks, after detecting that the relationships between Qiao Yu and Cong Ye were not of a certain kind, hurriedly thronged around Qiao Yu. They cozied up to her or started introducing their sons to her, making it difficult for her to move an inch.

Cong Ye was similarly surrounded and, unable to fend for himself, was of no help to Qiao Yu. He could only make urgent eye contact with her through gaps in the crowd, signaling her to make a quick escape.

Not that she needed his reminder; Qiao Yu had already been looking for a way out. Seizing the opportunity, she excused herself to go change her clothes and sprinted away, only breathing easy when she arrived at a less populated corridor.

Holding the two cards in her hand, she fretted. She had planned to discreetly slip one to Cong Ye, hoping he would use it to curry favor with Lin Qing and soothe things over, and maybe they could even make plans to visit the expanded City of Dreams together—But now, both of them besieged, passing the card seemed an insurmountable task. She barely managed to escape; wouldn’t she just be caught again if she showed her face?

Faced with no choice, Qiao Yu could only put the matter on hold for the time being. She fumbled over her gown with heavy breaths, cursing silently—how could this dress lack even a single pocket? There was simply nowhere for her to place her card.

She couldn’t help but deeply miss her school uniform; it was so loose with plenty of pockets to hold many things—

“Qiao Yu?”

A puzzled voice suddenly called out from the hallway, startling Qiao Yu and making her look up sharply. She had thought she’d been discovered by her “pursuers” again, but to her surprise, she saw Song Wanwan, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time.

She was dressed quite cutely today—a giant bow tied at her chest, quivering tantalizingly with every movement she made, very eye-catching indeed.

Song Wanwan’s expression was oddly discordant with her attire. She looked thoroughly displeased, her face drooping like an irritable cat tricked into a shot at the vet.

“Why are you here?” she asked. “Weren’t you quite busy with Cong Ye on the stage just now?”

Qiao Yu understood immediately; Song Wanwan’s barbed words were clearly a jab at her, suggesting that she was partly to blame for Song Wanwan’s foul mood.

Indeed, since Song Wanwan had been watching from below the stage, and even the usually good-tempered Lin Qing could hardly hide her irritation, how could this hot-headed miss not puff up like a pufferfish in anger?

Even if Song Wanwan’s romantic endeavors were likely to be fruitless, Qiao Yu felt obliged to clarify things. She sighed wearily, “You know, I can only interact with ten strangers a day—any more than that, and I get a stomachache. That’s why I left early.”

“As for Cong Ye—I’ve explained to you about our relationship before, haven’t I? Can’t you have a little more faith in me?”

Perhaps it was her seemingly genuine plea for sympathy that softened Song Wanwan’s expression a bit, though her mouth was still unforgiving: “Hmph, who knows whether what you say is true or false. I think that ‘illness’ you’re talking about is just an excuse you’ve made up. How could there possibly be such a disease in the world?”

Ah, blissful ignorance. The genuine young miss was indeed so worldly and well-versed that she couldn’t even recognize social anxiety.

With eyes blinking admiringly, Qiao Yu swiftly took advantage of the young miss’s improved mood to change the subject.

“Why did you run off to such a secluded place then?”

No sooner had she spoken than Song Wanwan’s face clouded over, and she leaned against the corridor wall, her lips pouting slightly.

“…Not much different from you, I guess.”

Qiao Yu had an epiphany: “You got set up for a blind date too?”

“…”

Song Wanwan rolled her eyes at her blunt wording but didn’t argue, silently nodding her head in confirmation.

“Those people are only after my family’s money; they might not even bother to learn my name before hitting on me—it’s so annoying. I have no intention of getting engaged to any of them!”

She stamped her foot in frustration, the large bow on her dress swaying with the motion. Qiao Yu watched amusedly, momentarily distracted from responding, until Song Wanwan’s glare snapped her back to reality. She quickly tried to soothe Song Wanwan, saying,

“Just ignore them. Sooner or later, you’ll meet someone you actually want to get engaged to—”

…Wait, isn’t that supposed to be Cong Ye?

Realizing her faux pas in time, Qiao Yu abruptly swallowed the rest of her sentence, reflecting that she shouldn’t talk recklessly when trying to console someone. Misunderstanding Qiao Yu’s sudden halt, Song Wanwan sighed deeply.

“But Cong Ye has rejected so many people, I heard he isn’t planning to settle down so early.”

Well done, Cong Ye! Worthy of a romance novel’s male lead—abstinent and upright!

Qiao Yu rarely praised Cong Ye inwardly. She then thought about Song Wanwan’s predicament, realizing it wasn’t a solution for her to continue like this. What if, one day, Aunt Cong decided to sell Cong Ye off just like this time? Then, her book would immediately need an extra fifty chapters, and nine times out of ten, the readers would berate her.

To solve the problem, one must act at the root. Qiao Yu looked at the worry-laden face of Song Wanwan and, feigning casualness, asked: “Song Wanwan, why… why do you like Cong Ye?”

To her surprise, Song Wanwan showed no blush nor skip of heartbeat, replying indifferently, “Because he remembers me.”

“…”

Tears were almost welling up in Qiao Yu’s eyes as she thought back to her first encounter with Song Wanwan, realizing that indeed, it was only Cong Ye who had called out her name.

…What sort of existence does Song Wanwan have that’s so unremarkable? It sounded almost too pitiful, didn’t it?

“Most people look at me only as the daughter of the Song family, only Cong Ye doesn’t see me that way.”

As Song Wanwan spoke, she became downhearted, and her bow tie drooped listlessly.

“…Qiao Yu, will you help me pursue Cong Ye?”

No, that won’t do! Although it’s really a bit pitiful, it’s just not right!

Qiao Yu was so anxious that she was almost sweating. On one hand, she felt sorry for Song Wanwan, and on the other, she knew that Song Wanwan was definitely out of her league. She should probably persuade Song Wanwan to back off, to spare her further suffering, but how to put it without being too harsh…!

“I, I think…”

Qiao Yu’s mind was racing, as she stammered trying to convince her.

“Surely, Cong Ye isn’t the only one who could remember you. Maybe there are people who are just naturally forgetful and need to see you a couple more times to remember, it’s not necessarily that they don’t care about you!”

“There is plentiful grass on the other side of the world… Maybe, maybe you could fancy someone else?”

As she uttered these words, she felt a sense of hollowness, almost as if she were guiltily spinning sweet nothings and deceit.

Ah, if only Song Wanwan would actually heed her advice and switch her affections to someone else, she would definitely cheer her on and support her.

Upon hearing this, Song Wanwan paused for a moment before lifting her head to look at Qiao Yu, her eyes shimmering.

“…Switch to fancying someone else? The person who can’t remember me might not necessarily be indifferent towards me?”

“For example… fancy someone like you?”

This question caught Qiao Yu off guard.

…This statement… it felt neither right to agree nor correct to disagree…

Her wild intuition kept her from daring to look into Song Wanwan’s eyes. She hemmed and hawed, unable to articulate a response. The air in the corridor grew inexplicably tense, igniting in Qiao Yu the urge to flee.

As Qiao Yu stiffened, thinking about concocting some excuse to escape first, her gaze wanderingly caught sight of a familiar white figure flashing by at the end of the corridor.

She quivered into action, promptly pointing in that direction and giving Song Wanwan a brief heads-up, “Ah, I see someone over there looking for me, I’ll head over now, hope you have fun, ha.”

With that, Qiao Yu scurried away at top speed without waiting for Song Wanwan’s reaction, her life’s first-time managing to stride swiftly in high heels as if on level ground.

But the corridor was quite long, and by the time she reached the corner, the person was already gone without a trace. Like a headless fly, Qiao Yu turned two corners but still couldn’t catch up.

Feeling a bit deflated, she walked toward the hotel’s atrium. By this time, it was just about nine o’clock in the evening — the temperature outside was not very comfortable, and nobody wanted to linger outside. The atrium was deserted. After a futile look around and not finding anyone, just as she was about to head back inside the hotel, someone standing at the corner took her hand.

“What are you looking for?”

Emerging from the shadows, the person was illuminated by the moonlight, their graceful outline traced with a layer of soft glow. Lifting their eyes to meet Qiao Yu’s gaze, there was no smile, but just the ripples in those eyes were enough to outshine the moon’s splendor.

“… I was looking for you.”

At the sight of her, Qiao Yu was enthralled, her voice involuntarily softened as if she was afraid to disturb the tranquil moonlight, even more so to scare her away.

“Is that so.”

Lin Qing lowered her gaze to their intertwined hands, her eyes deep and dark.

“That’s the same as me then.”

The calmer her tone, the more flustered Qiao Yu became, alarm bells buzzing in her head. How could she not see that Lin Qing’s mood was extremely foul now? Was she still angry about the misunderstanding with Cong Ye earlier? What should Qiao Yu say to make it right?

“I remembered I hadn’t given you your birthday present yet, so I wanted to come find you.”

Without waiting for Qiao Yu to speak, Lin Qing continued, and only then did Qiao Yu notice a small box in Lin Qing’s other hand.

“But then I realized, this matter doesn’t seem to be very easy.”

Lin Qing spoke in a low voice, causing Qiao Yu’s heart to flutter anxiously; she hurriedly apologized to her.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been surrounded by so many people all this time—”

“I know.”

Lin Qing, who was always gentle, uncharacteristically cut off what Qiao Yu was going to say next. The normally serene eyebrows and eyes now had a certain sharpness to them.

She knew; Lin Qing, who had always been watching Qiao Yu, of course knew.

No matter how many people crowded around Qiao Yu, offering her flattery in the name of celebrating her birthday, probing her preferences, making seemingly modest invitations with an affected posture, all aiming for an engagement with her…

Lin Qing observed all this in silence, wanting to call out Qiao Yu’s name yet feeling as if her voice was frozen in her throat, turning into a chunk of ice that slowly slid down her esophagus into her stomach.

She wanted to stop it all; she could stop it all.

…But what right did she have to stop it?

The bone-chilling coldness left her immobilized, surrounded by an overwhelming sense of helplessness and panic, unable to breathe. By the time she regained her composure, Qiao Yu had already left. Only then could Lin Qing move, taking the birthday gift she had prepared and stepped out to look for her.

In her search, Lin Qing finally found herself in the empty atrium, where Qiao Yu miraculously appeared, saying that she was looking for Lin Qing, too.

“Qiao Yu.”

Lin Qing felt that something was seriously off with herself; her mind was in complete disarray, unable to think rationally. Despite her best effort, she barely managed to keep her voice from trembling.

“…Are you going to be engaged?”

“Hm? No, I’m not.”

Lin Qing’s anxiety was easily shattered.

She was taken aback by Qiao Yu’s unhesitant response, her eyes widening in surprise. Perhaps her expression was too exaggerated, causing Qiao Yu to let out a laugh, self-consciously touching her nose.

“I’m all for love by one’s own choice; I would never do something like that.”

“But what if your family asks you to—”

“They won’t.”

Faced with Lin Qing’s probing, Qiao Yu casually waved her hand, “They won’t force me to do anything I don’t want to do, and even if someone truly tried to coerce me, I wouldn’t listen to them.”

It was strange.

It was a baseless assurance, delivered in a carefree tone.

Yet, Lin Qing felt surprisingly at ease.

“Aren’t you angry anymore?”

Qiao Yu quickly picked up on the shift in Lin Qing’s emotions. She tilted her head, sneaking peeks at Lin Qing’s expression, and broke into a silly grin.

“Don’t worry, there’s really no chance of anything happening between me and Cong Ye. You see, we were just up there to pick up this—ah.”

Caught up in her happiness upon seeing Lin Qing wasn’t angry, she lifted the card in her hand to show Lin Qing, but then she noticed there were two cards and realized something was amiss.

…But Lin Qing had already seen them, and now Qiao Yu wondered if it might seem off to act as if nothing was wrong and just put them away.

After weighing her options, Qiao Yu decisively tipped the scales in favor of “making Lin Qing happy,” and handed the gold card directly to Lin Qing.

“Auntie accidentally gave me an extra one, so I’m giving it to you.”

She didn’t give Lin Qing the chance to refuse at all. Enclosing Lin Qing’s hands with hers, she spoke with a drifting gaze, “When the City of Dreams finishes expanding… we should go play together, with Cong Ye.”

Cong Ye, oh, don’t say your father wronged you. In the worst-case scenario, your father can take a cold shower, fall sick, and make it up to you!

Qiao Yu made a resolution in her heart, while Lin Qing looked down at the card for a while and then gently laughed.

“It was supposed to be me giving you a birthday present, but now it’s more like a gift exchange.”

She carefully put away the card and then opened the small box, saying to Qiao Yu, “Stretch out your hand.”

Obediently, and without hesitation, Qiao Yu stretched out both hands, to which Lin Qing smiled and said one would be enough. Then, she took out a gleam of silver from the box and carefully tied it around Qiao Yu’s left wrist.

It was a delicate silver bracelet with an exquisite design, and in the middle, there was a small tag that seemed to bear some inscription—

Qiao Yu couldn’t make it out clearly, for in the next moment, she was embraced by Lin Qing.

“Happy 17th birthday, Qiao Yu.”

Lin Qing’s voice was soft and trembling as it reached her ears. She fell into Qiao Yu’s embrace like a graceful butterfly, and Qiao Yu instinctively bent slightly while her hands unconsciously settled on Lin Qing’s waist.

Lin Qing, so terribly thin.

Qiao Yu had always known Lin Qing to be on the slimmer side, but it was only now, as she held her entirely in her embrace, that she truly felt how delicate she was.

Lin Qing was entirely enclosed within her arms—her scent, her voice, her warmth, all so vividly alive. The coat that she had draped over Lin Qing slipped off due to this embrace and fell to the ground. Qiao Yu, however, had no spare capacity to catch it, she could only watch helplessly as it fell, her palms rigidly pressed against Lin Qing’s waist, daring not to move an inch.

It was really for the best that this gown wasn’t backless, truly for the best.

Her mind was a mess, the thought kept popping up but was quickly washed away by new information. Lin Qing seemed to have put on perfume today, different from her usual scent, yet it was still very pleasant; Lin Qing’s shoulders were a bit bony but they were very white, almost as if they were glowing; Lin Qing seemed to be shivering, could she be cold? Should she… hold her a bit tighter?

Qiao Yu hesitated before lifting her left hand, gently placing it on Lin Qing’s shoulder and slowly pulling her in closer. It was only then that she finally saw the words on the bracelet.

【Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day】

But she had no time to understand the meaning of this phrase because Lin Qing had also tightened her arms around Qiao Yu’s neck, plunging her further into confusion.

Lin Qing, who had taken the initiative, was not much better off; she should have had a bellyful of words to say to Qiao Yu, but now there was only a blank.

Lin Qing, in a daze, lifted her head to look at the moon, then leaned back onto Qiao Yu’s shoulder and closed her eyes while shivering.

At this moment, she was like a monkey that had finally scooped the moon from the water, wanting nothing more than to hold onto the moon tightly.

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