Novel Turned Yuri – Chapter 7
by Little PandaQiao Yu, How Can She Be Like This!
The four of them endured the curious stares of everyone in the hallway as they made their way to the rooftop. The class bell rang just as they walked through the door. Qiao Yu silently resolved that if she got punished with another self-criticism this time, she’d make Cong Ye write it for her. She carefully shut the rooftop door behind them.
The rooftop was just a spot for students to get some air — nothing but railings. Qiao Yu and Cong Ye stood facing each other. The September autumn wind swept past, and somehow the scene had the feel of a decisive duel at the summit of Mount Hua1.
Truthfully, Qiao Yu still couldn’t quite understand why Cong Ye was reacting so strongly. She couldn’t discuss it with Lin Qing, so she’d asked the System — but the System’s not-especially-bright little brain clearly couldn’t grasp the complexities of human emotion either. Two heads put together, and they still couldn’t figure it out after ages of discussion.
Today she could finally ask the person himself. Qiao Yu spoke first: “Why exactly do you have such a problem with Lin Qing?”
“I’d like to ask you the same thing — why are you so fond of Lin Qing?” Cong Ye glared, crossing his arms with a huff. “Did she slip you some kind of love potion? You’ve never been like this before.”
“…What do you mean, ‘like this’?”
“Going head-to-head with me over a woman.”
…She’d noticed it back in the classroom — Cong Ye’s perception of things was seriously warped.
Qiao Yu gritted her teeth, trying to correct his bizarre framing: “I’m not going head-to-head with you. For that matter, aren’t you the only one who has a problem with me and Lin Qing being close? My issues with you have absolutely nothing to do with Lin Qing, okay?”
“Her being close to you is the problem!” If Cong Ye were an animal, his fur would be standing on end by now. “She quietly bewitched you over to her side — that girl is definitely up to no good!”
“Wait — she bewitched me? How could her being friends with me be ‘up to no good’?”
“She—” Cong Ye paused, then blurted out, face flushing red, “She just wants to hover around me and get attention!”
…What kind of bullshit logic was that!
Qiao Yu was so exasperated she almost laughed. So in his mind, Lin Qing being friends with his friends was all about him? When was he going to fix this inflated sense of self?
“You made such a scene on the first day of school that she’s been the subject of gossip ever since. Lin Qing should be the one coming after you — what dream world are you living in?”
Mentioning this got Qiao Yu fired up, and her tone turned sarcastic. Cong Ye’s expression shifted through a range of emotions before settling into confusion.
“What gossip?”
This guy actually didn’t know!
Qiao Yu was shocked, but quickly understood — of course no one would dare talk about it in front of Cong Ye, and he paid zero attention to Lin Qing, so a whole week had passed without him realizing the consequences of his actions. It was absolutely outrageous!
“That day — how did Mi Yi initially think it went, again?” Furious, Qiao Yu rolled up her sleeves and turned aggressively to Mi Yi, who was standing to the side. Mi Yi thought for a moment and answered honestly, “I thought Lin Qing had stolen Cong Ye’s boyfriend.”
“That’s exactly it!” Qiao Yu snapped her fingers and pointed at Cong Ye. “Lin Qing has been dealing with this kind of gossip all week! Are your eyes and ears just for decoration?!”
Cong Ye’s face darkened visibly. “Who the fuck said I have a boy—”
“It just meant something along those lines!”
Communicating with him was like talking to a brick wall. Qiao Yu shouted until her head was spinning, then rubbed her temples and glared at Cong Ye. “Cong Ye, get this straight — Lin Qing isn’t the one who picked a fight with you. You picked a fight with her first! I’m friends with her because she’s smart, pretty, and lovable, and this has absolutely nothing to do with you!”
To his credit as a romance male lead, Cong Ye’s brain wasn’t entirely beyond saving, and he quickly grasped the crux of the matter. But he still refused to concede verbally: “She… she got elected as study representative, didn’t she…”
“So you think the class elected her study representative because they like her? Cong Ye, you’re hilarious.”
“…”
Cong Ye shut his mouth, deflated. Qiao Yu, having won the first round, felt a surge of satisfaction — but before she could fully enjoy it, he mumbled, “…Then why didn’t you tell me? Qiao Yu, you’ve really changed a lot.”
God, that tone sounded like he was accusing her of being a heartbreaker.
Qiao Yu’s temples throbbed. She tried her best to explain calmly: “You were deaf and blind and didn’t notice. And have you forgotten that this past week, every time you saw me, you looked at me like I was your mortal enemy? Cong Ye, are these symptoms of early-onset dementia?”
Cong Ye, for once feeling he was in the wrong, swallowed his anger and stayed silent. Lu Yao, who’d been standing by ready to break up a fight, saw that things seemed to have cooled down and let out a pitiful sigh of relief.
“O-okay now, it was all a misunderstanding once you talked it out. Cong Ye, just help Lin Qing explain things to everyone and it’ll be fine.”
Lu Yao — the biggest and most innocent member of their four-person squad — tried to mediate timidly. But the moment the words left his mouth, Cong Ye turned his head away.
“…The more you try to explain something like this, the worse it gets. I think if we just leave it alone, the gossip will die down before long.”
Qiao Yu felt her fists itching beyond restraint.
“C-calm down, Host. Getting into a fight with the male lead definitely won’t end well…”
The System’s timid voice brought Qiao Yu back to a slightly calmer state. She knew Cong Ye responded to softness, not force — if she actually hit him, their relationship would never recover.
But what he said was so infuriating!
Even Lu Yao and Mi Yi’s expressions changed. Mi Yi scooted away from Cong Ye in disgust, while Lu Yao looked at him disapprovingly. But Cong Ye kept his body stiff and refused to meet their eyes.
At the end of the day, Cong Ye was stuck in the “I know the reasoning but I can’t swallow my pride and admit I was wrong” mode. Qiao Yu, having calmed down, analyzed the situation rationally. To break this impasse, she needed leverage more powerful than Cong Ye’s ego.
She thought it over carefully and realized there might actually be such leverage.
“Cong Ye.”
Qiao Yu’s voice was perfectly calm. Cong Ye looked at her suspiciously and saw her face all smiles, beaming at him with utmost gentility.
“If you don’t explain, I’m going to tell your mother.”
The four of them stood on the rooftop getting blown by the wind for a full forty minutes before they heard the bell ending second period and shuffled back. They pushed open the classroom door and blocked the entire class, who had been about to head out for between-class exercises.
Cong Ye strode to the front of the classroom and grabbed the board eraser, banging it against the chalkboard a few times to get everyone’s attention — only to choke on the cloud of chalk dust that rose up, sending him into a coughing fit. Qiao Yu looked away, unable to bear the sight, and cheerfully winked at Lin Qing, who was casting inquiring glances from her seat.
The class had been dying to know what happened after the four of them left. When Lin Qing had told the teacher, without changing her expression, that Cong Ye had a stomachache and the other three were escorting him to the nurse’s office, everyone had tacitly played along with knowing expressions. Now, with Mi Yi and Lu Yao standing guard at the door like two sentinels, nobody was in a hurry to get to the field. They all looked at Cong Ye, fully cooperative.
Cong Ye, having finally escaped the chalk dust, looked worse than he ever had. A war raged inside him. He stood there gathering himself for a long moment without managing a single word, then cast a hesitant glance at Qiao Yu — who had blatantly pulled out her phone, a contraband item on campus, and expressionlessly tipped her chin at him.
…This was a blatant threat! Qiao Yu, how could she be like this!
Well, this was just how Qiao Yu was. She leaned against the side of the podium and started casually playing on her phone. Only Cong Ye could see that she had cheerfully pulled up a contact page — the name saved there was “Aunt Cong.”
Cong Ye’s teeth were about to crack from grinding. He slammed his hand on the podium and redirected his fury at the rest of the class: “Everyone listen up!”
Everyone stared at him expectantly.
“I, before — that first day of school —” When it came to the actual point, Cong Ye’s bravado evaporated bit by bit, and the few words came out haltingly. “That was — anyway, it wasn’t what you all thought!”
Then he inexplicably flared up again, and no one in the audience understood what he was trying to say. Qiao Yu rolled her eyes with an inward sigh and looked at Cong Ye. He flinched, then lowered his voice and spoke with bitter resentment: “…What I said that day, it was — it was all nonsense. It had nothing to do with Lin Qing…”
Saying even that one sentence was killing him.
“An-anyway, this is all family business between her and me! Don’t go spreading rumors anymore! Do you hear me?!”
…Though if you tried to stretch the logic, that description was barely, technically correct. But seriously, could Cong Ye not choose his words any better?
Qiao Yu’s ears were still buzzing from his deafening “family business.” She looked at the expressions of the students below — each one more colorful than the last. The bolder ones were already winking and nudging their friends right in front of Cong Ye. Over on the other side, Lin Qing had started rubbing her temples — she clearly had a headache.
From the podium, Cong Ye could see even more clearly than she could. He immediately realized he’d been misunderstood again. In his panic, he raised his voice and blurted out: “I’m her Ge2!”
Qiao Yu: …?
How could Cong Ye say something like that! This wasn’t a sibling romance novel!
The System frantically flipped through the book in her mind, quickly finding the reason Cong Ye would say such a thing.
“Found it! Host, let me read it to you!”
【”…That’s how it is. My high school classmate and her daughter will move in tomorrow.”
“I’ve arranged for her daughter to transfer to your class. She’s younger than you, so as her older brother, look out for her.”
His mother was less asking for his opinion than notifying him. Cong Ye listened half-heartedly, humming a few noncommittal replies.】
…What the hell! So the part he’d caught while half-listening was “as her older brother”?! He might not have heard the sentence before that, but he should have at least caught the “look out for her” part that came right after!
Qiao Yu winced at Cong Ye’s stupidity. From below the podium, she tugged at Cong Ye’s school uniform and said through gritted teeth: “What kind of relationship did you just make up…”
You two are the male and female leads of a romance novel! You can’t just go saying things like that!
But Cong Ye completely failed to appreciate her good intentions. He only felt that nothing worked — explaining was wrong, and not explaining was wrong too — Qiao Yu, how could she be like this! Furious, he glared at her and raised his voice even louder: “I’m her Ge!!”
Fine, fine, Ge, Ge, Ge. She was truly terrified of Cong Ye now.
Qiao Yu gave up in despair and stood back to watch. The class exchanged knowing whispers all around, and the classmates who had previously avoided Lin Qing suddenly swarmed over to her. Their grasp of reading the room left Qiao Yu marveling.
Truly children of wealthy families — quite practiced at this.
Everything was out in the open now — or rather, not really, but the outcome was acceptable. Cong Ye stormed off the podium and strode back to his seat. Qiao Yu followed at a leisurely pace and received a look from him that said “Are you satisfied now?”
…He actually looked so wronged that she couldn’t bring herself to say she wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ticking time bomb he’d just planted for himself.
Qiao Yu sighed, quickly locked her phone, and waved at him to signal the matter was closed. Mi Yi, beside them, let out a long breath and muttered that it was finally sorted, and starting tomorrow Lu Yao would be copying Cong Ye’s homework. Lu Yao let out a pitiful wail and asked Cong Ye if that was okay. Cong Ye violently wiped his face — copy, copy, copy what? He’d make Lu Yao finish his homework right here at school today. Pull out the worksheet right now.
The back of the classroom was in an uproar, and the front was buzzing too. Class 2-1 had completely forgotten about going out for exercises. Those who didn’t dare approach Cong Ye mostly flocked to Lin Qing instead, pelting her with questions. Qiao Yu slumped onto her desk and watched Lin Qing answering gently amid the crowd, and suddenly felt satisfied.
She’d spent a lot of time with Lin Qing lately and had seen plenty of the avoidance and pointing that Lin Qing endured. And this was when Qiao Yu was nearby and people were more restrained — who knew how much worse it got when she wasn’t around.
Now these things were finally drawing to a close.
“…Did I go too far?”
She buried her face in her arms and murmured to the System. The System thought about it and answered earnestly, “I think the Host only accelerated the reconciliation process between the male and female leads. The outcome is good, so there’s no problem.”
Qiao Yu felt half-reassured, but a lingering worry remained.
This time was different from the first day of school. Before, she’d just gone with the flow. This time, she’d driven the entire thing herself.
Her role in this story was getting bigger and bigger. Qiao Yu wasn’t sure whether she should keep going like this.
Suddenly a cool hand touched her forehead. Qiao Yu looked up to see Lin Qing’s worried face. Lin Qing felt her forehead, then her cheek, and asked softly, “What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?”
Qiao Yu shook her head hastily and gave her a silly smile. “No, no, I just talked so much I’m a little dizzy.”
Cong Ye’s snort came from behind them. Qiao Yu ignored him and, before Lin Qing could frown, leaned in close and whispered, “He didn’t know people were talking about you before. I just had a proper talk with him — he decided to explain things himself. He’s not a bad person.”
The System was practically moved to tears by the Host’s dedication — truly never forgetting to boost the male lead’s favorability with the female lead.
Lin Qing hadn’t even responded before the classroom door was thrown open by a teacher, who barked at the class, “What’s going on! The entire school is waiting on our class for exercises — do you all want to write self-criticisms?!”
The entire class scrambled to run out. Qiao Yu, who really didn’t want to write another self-criticism, moved faster than anyone. She didn’t forget to grab Lin Qing, urgently saying, “Quick, quick, quick, we need to get out there — Cong Ye, what are you—” before being dragged away by Cong Ye, who was very obviously doing it on purpose, pulling her by her school uniform.
Lin Qing didn’t manage to say a single word. She could only watch as Qiao Yu was hauled out the door.
…At least from what she’d just witnessed, Cong Ye was nothing like what Qiao Yu had described — “not a bad person.”
The author has something to say:
In the future, Qiao Yu will still have to call him “Ge.” Cong Ye is so happy about it.
Footnotes
- A reference to a famous duel scene from Jin Yong's wuxia novels, where martial arts masters compete at the summit of Mount Hua. Used metaphorically for an epic showdown.
- A Chinese kinship term meaning 'older brother,' commonly used as a standalone form of address between siblings or close family friends.
the male lead’s logic 😭😭😭 pleaseee
the male lead’s logic 😭😭😭 pleaseee