Novel Turned Yuri – Chapter 14
by Little PandaI Just Want to Make Things Difficult for Your Dad
Having explained everything, Qiao Yu felt refreshed and spirited. She marched back with Lin Qing in tow, only to spot Cong Ye lurking and poking his head around suspiciously a few steps later. She immediately laid into him.
Cong Ye was initially unwilling to back down, but after Lin Qing explained everything in a gentle voice, he finally believed Qiao Yu had no malicious intent.
After all the commotion, the lunch break was almost over. The three of them walked back clutching their books. Qiao Yu had learned absolutely nothing the entire lunch break and had suffered an undeserved grievance to boot—her face was dragging all the way to the ground.
“I just want to make things difficult for your dad, that’s all.”
“If I fail the monthly exam, it’ll be because I couldn’t study properly this lunch break. When that happens, you, Cong Ye, will be the one tutoring me.”
She grumbled angrily, while Cong Ye, knowing he was in the wrong, dared not make a sound. The only one in good spirits among the three, Lin Qing leaned close and gently shook Qiao Yu’s hand to soothe her.
“Come on, don’t be angry. We’ll just come back tonight.”
Her gentle voice, like a clear spring washing over stones, extinguished Qiao Yu’s temper. She hadn’t forgotten to do Lin Qing a favor either—she shot Cong Ye a glare. “Did you hear that, Cong Ye! If Teacher Lin hadn’t interceded for you today, I would have demanded justice!”
Cong Ye nodded his thanks to Lin Qing with a pained expression, and she returned a gentle smile. “You were thinking of me, too. Qiao Yu and I both know that.”
“Qiao Yu and I?” Cong Ye’s heart stirred. He felt that her words seemed to draw a line between close and distant.
It seemed Lin Qing and Qiao Yu were indeed very close; he had really meddled unnecessarily today. Thinking that he had only added trouble, he offered her an apologetic smile.
Although she had abandoned following the original plot, Qiao Yu’s material radar remained professional at other times. It buzzed, quickly recording in her mind: X month, X day—Cong Ye and Lin Qing smile at each other in the corridor.
This was truly a memorable first. She let out a gratified sigh—Cong Ye had grown a bit. She had previously thought he had a semi-permanent sarcastic sneer1.
After a rotten lunch break, there was finally a good thing. Qiao Yu happily returned to class and finished the afternoon’s lessons, understanding only half of what she heard, just waiting for school to end so Teacher Lin could give her extra tutoring.
“…Ha.”
Qiao Yu stood in the Self-Study Room, her face full of confusion.
Before her were the three desks Cong Ye had set up at noon. Cong Ye was sitting in his usual spot, blinking at her innocently.
She looked at Lin Qing, who looked equally puzzled beside her. Not knowing what scheme was brewing in Cong Ye’s little head, she asked him wearily, “…What are you doing again?”
“Didn’t I do something wrong at noon?” Cong Ye let out two dry laughs and took out his notebooks for each subject from his bag.
“I was thinking, why don’t I tutor you as a way to make up for my mistake? Two teachers are definitely better than one, aren’t they?”
…Qiao Yu really had no idea why he was dead set on studying with the two of them—but him volunteering to join was rare. What if the iron tree bloomed2 and he fell for Lin Qing’s beauty? Wouldn’t that be a great thing?
After securing Lin Qing’s consent, the three of them sat in a neat row again.
This time, there was none of the surface harmony from noon. The three of them were genuinely amiable and got along well. Finally receiving tutoring, Qiao Yu was very touched. During breaks between problems, she even found a spare moment to chat with the System about whether sitting in the middle wasn’t a bit inappropriate.
“…It’s rare for the two of them to review together, and I’m stuck in the middle where they don’t even communicate at all.”
“Even so, the Male Lead and Female Lead are nominally here to tutor the Host. It would be even stranger if the Host didn’t sit in the middle.”
That made a lot of sense. Qiao Yu stopped writing and pondered. Should she make an excuse to leave and create an opportunity for them?
“But what about the Host’s tutoring?”
“…”
Right. The choice between the two was obvious; she would rather die than fail the monthly exam. Qiao Yu simply gave up on the idea of matchmaking them here.
“Is there a problem here?” Probably because she had stopped writing for too long, Lin Qing leaned over at the right moment to ask her. Qiao Yu waved her hand hurriedly and refocused on the paper.
Not even a few questions in, Cong Ye leaned over again, pointing with his pen at the question she had just finished: “Wrong. Let me explain.”
How did he spot it so fast? Was this truly a genius who could tell the answer just by glancing at the problem?
Qiao Yu handed over the paper in confusion. Cong Ye drew on his scratchpad to explain it to her, and she quickly understood. She took back the paper and praised him, “That’s impressive, Cong Ye. You explained it quite clearly.”
Cong Ye gave her a smug look as if to say, “Who do you think I am?” One compliment and he was already full of himself.3 Qiao Yu ignored him and continued working on the paper.
After writing quietly for a while, just as Qiao Yu was writing calculation steps in her scratchpad, Lin Qing’s cool hand reached over and gently tapped her notebook.
“You should use that formula here.”
She took Qiao Yu’s pen and wrote the correct steps in her elegant handwriting on the notebook. After finishing, she tucked a stray hair behind her ear and smiled at her.
“Oh, oh, I get it, I get it! Teacher Lin is amazing!” Qiao Yu didn’t hesitate to flatter her. “Teacher Lin is both smart and pretty. I’m really making a fortune being taught by you alone!”
“…Smooth talker.”
Lin Qing had developed some resistance to her, so she just glanced at her with feigned reproach before turning her head away. However, the slight upturn of her lips indicated she was in a good mood.
It seemed Lin Qing was even more impressive; she could tell the calculation was wrong just by looking at the scratchpad. Qiao Yu sighed as she continued writing, marveling that they truly deserved to be the Male Lead and Female Lead.
However, in the next half hour, the situation became increasingly strange, making Qiao Yu feel something was off.
Math was the subject she was least confident in, and she had pretty much forgotten all the function formulas. Therefore, she got stuck and made the most errors while working on the paper.
…Even so, weren’t Lin Qing and Cong Ye a little too sharp-eyed about her mistakes?
It started relatively normally, with the two of them taking turns teaching one question each in a friendly manner. But it escalated, gradually turning into a situation where the moment Qiao Yu wrote down a wrong answer, both on her left and right would slap her shoulders like they were hitting quiz-show buzzers, leaving no gap between them.
The one who didn’t get there first would show a very understandable look of frustration, which left Qiao Yu completely baffled.
…What kind of act were they putting on?
Qiao Yu held her pen blankly, staring at the multiple-choice question before her, feeling like it was another problem she didn’t know how to solve.
As she stared at the paper, she could feel the invisible pressure coming from both sides, feeling as if both of them were staring intently at her pen. But when she turned her head, they both looked like they were writing furiously and diligently, making Qiao Yu suspect she was hallucinating.
She really didn’t know how to solve this question, but the experience of being caught immediately after making a mistake had given her a bit of a complex. She decided to guess even if she had to—it was better than directly admitting she didn’t know.
Qiao Yu looked at the four options and cautiously wrote a vertical line in the option box.
There was no movement from either side.
Sweat beaded on her forehead. She licked her lips and carefully wrote the second stroke.
As the arc of her pen showed a faint tendency to curve midway, she heard a hissing intake of breath from somewhere, startling her hand into a jerk. She hurriedly changed it to a large arc—writing a D.
Hands slapped her shoulders on the left and right. Cong Ye, who had reacted first, pointed to the paper, his face lighting up with joy.
“Wrong! It should be A!”
Qiao Yu could take it no more. She slammed the table.
“What on earth are you two doing!”
Cong Ye’s thinking was actually quite simple.
At first, he felt that he really had misunderstood Qiao Yu and needed to compensate her properly.
As it turned out, whenever Qiao Yu had questions, she prioritized asking Lin Qing. He sat there with nothing to do, while his own review went quite smoothly.
This wouldn’t do. Cong Ye immediately got anxious.
He had to be of some use! Otherwise, what was he doing here!
But he didn’t dare tell Qiao Yu directly to come to him with questions, fearing it would trigger unpleasant memories of noon and bring him bad luck. Cong Ye, who was practically about to be laid off for idleness, racked his brains and finally came up with a brilliant plan.
If she wouldn’t come to him, he would proactively find errors in her work! Whoever found the error would explain it, right?
Immediately, he looked at Qiao Yu’s test paper as if he’d found a recipe for wealth. Without much effort, he found an error and immediately forced his way in to explain it to her, feeling completely satisfied.
It was true that people were only happy when they created value. Cong Ye had learned new knowledge again today.
To avoid exposing that he was deliberately hunting for errors, he waited patiently for a few minutes after explaining before pointing out the second one—like a hero who had done his deed and vanished without a trace4—then continued staring at Qiao Yu’s paper, eyeing the third error. She was making too many mistakes, so he started timing it precisely.
But this time, things didn’t go as planned—Lin Qing preemptively explained the error, snatching it away5 from him.
At first, he thought it was a coincidence, but when Lin Qing launched a series of proactive attacks, not even sparing the scratchpad, Cong Ye’s expression grew serious.
When Lin Qing finished explaining another problem, she seemingly glanced over in Cong Ye’s direction. Their eyes met above the head of Qiao Yu, who was bowing her head to write.
Although they only touched for a moment before each looked away, Cong Ye, turning back, insistently felt a smell of gunpowder in the air.
Fine, this was war!
His competitive nature was completely triggered, and a blazing desire to win burned in his chest.
In that case, let’s compete and see who makes the most competent teacher!
Lin Qing’s thinking was much more complex.
When faced with Cong Ye’s gesture of goodwill, Qiao Yu, having grown wiser, stepped aside and pushed Lin Qing to the front. She spread her hands to indicate that Teacher Lin needed to make the final call and see whether she would grant him the opportunity to teach.
Lin Qing could only sigh helplessly and then agree.
After all, Cong Ye had taken a humble stance, and this was beneficial for Qiao Yu, so there was no reason to refuse.
She sat down, took out the prepared practice problems from her bag, and handed them to Qiao Yu. She instructed her in a low voice which ones to write first and to ask her if she didn’t know something, while Cong Ye repeatedly chimed in, patting Qiao Yu’s back and telling her not to hold back.
Lin Qing smiled and turned her head, effectively masking the trace of displeasure in her heart.
She actually wasn’t very willing to let Cong Ye join in.
Lin Qing looked at her review materials, unusually absent-minded.
Although she didn’t know why, she seemed to want to study alone with Qiao Yu.
Not long after, Qiao Yu came over to ask her a question. Lin Qing explained it to her earnestly. When she looked up, she met her clear amber eyes, in which only she was completely reflected. Her clear voice, filled with admiration, showered her with a stream of praise.
She had heard no shortage of praises growing up, but for some reason, she had no defense against Qiao Yu’s. She could only feign a scolding tone and tell her to focus on her work, to cover up her own helplessness at not knowing how to respond.
Around Qiao Yu, it seemed many things became beyond her control.
When she nonchalantly withdrew her gaze, she remembered Cong Ye’s eager look as he readily accepted the challenge. She pursed her lips lightly and, with delayed realization, felt a wave of regret.
This was bad. She seemed to be about to do something very childish.
As for why she was doing this, Lin Qing didn’t understand yet.
The author has something to say:
…I originally planned to make some new progress in this chapter, but I accidentally wrote too much.
…This kind of development where each of the three has their own ulterior motives is really hard to stop.
Footnotes
- A playful twist on the Chinese idiom 说你胖你就喘 ('call you fat and you start panting'), meaning someone gets full of themselves from a single compliment. 半永久 ('semi-permanent') is borrowed from cosmetic terminology.
- Chinese idiom 'iron tree blooming' (铁树开花), referring to something extremely rare or virtually impossible, as iron trees were believed to never bear flowers.
- A variation of the Chinese idiom 说你胖你就喘 ('call you fat and you start panting'), meaning someone gets full of themselves from a single compliment.
- A line from Li Bai's famous poem 'Ode to Gallantry' (侠客行), describing a knight-errant who accomplishes his deed and departs with his fame concealed—a cultural trope for doing good without seeking recognition.
- Originally a mahjong term (截胡) meaning to intercept another player's winning tile; used colloquially for snatching someone else's opportunity before they can claim it.
ML and FL? No, Consort 1 and Consort 2 seeking favor from the emperor 😭
Time to add a harem tag 😂
the female and male lead became rivals lol 😆 😂 🤣
the female and male lead became rivals lol 😆 😂 🤣