Novel Turned Yuri – Chapter 9
by Little PandaAfter All, the Earth Is Round
At first, Qiao Yu was a bit bewildered — she didn’t get how she was “different” from Cong Ye.
But her clever brain figured it out in no time: Cong Ye was the male lead, and she was a Background Character — of course they were different!
She figured Lin Qing’s reluctance to be alone with Cong Ye was just shyness, which made perfect sense. Qiao Yu nodded knowingly and fell silent, patting Lin Qing’s shoulder with an encouraging touch.
Lin Qing: Something about this feels off.
Though she understood the reason, Qiao Yu was still hesitant. The thought of Lin Qing squeezing onto a crowded bus for who knows how long didn’t sit well with her.
Lin Qing was so slight and small — how could she compete with a crowd? What if someone bullied her?
The image of Lin Qing fighting for survival in the cracks of a crowd flashed through her mind. Her brows knotted so tightly they could tie a knot. She persisted, coaxing gently, “Really — can’t you think of some way to push through the awkwardness? If you took a car in the mornings, you’d get to sleep in a bit longer than catching the bus.”
Apparently, the promise of extra sleep was, in Qiao Yu’s eyes, an irresistibly tempting proposal.
Lin Qing looked at her with quiet amusement, knowing this was all for her sake. Not wanting to refuse her outright, she simply watched her without a word.
She had known Cong Ye as a child, but when they met again, he had forgotten her completely. Lin Qing was perceptive — she noticed Cong Ye’s discomfort around her and kept her distance.
That arrangement was more comfortable for both of them. Then Qiao Yu had barged in out of nowhere, taking to heart a grievance that Lin Qing herself didn’t even mind, clashing head-on with Cong Ye less than two weeks into the school year. And that cold, distant Cong Ye had actually shown flashes of childish honesty in their interactions — a glimpse, at last, of the boy he used to be.
Qiao Yu was truly inexplicable.
“How about this,” Qiao Yu said, her mind racing as she came up with a brilliant idea. She leaned in eagerly. “I’ll pick you up and drop you off every day from now on, okay? Riding in our car like this — no awkwardness!”
…Huh? What did this have to do with promoting the male and female leads’ relationship anymore?
The System felt a bit bewildered. Its host’s goal seemed to have quietly shifted from “get them to ride in the same car” to “get Lin Qing a private car.” It wasn’t entirely sure whether it should point this out.
Lin Qing’s thoughts ran along similar lines.
She had sensed that Qiao Yu was trying to improve her relationship with Cong Ye, but Qiao Yu’s latest proposal made her doubt herself again — this had nothing to do with Cong Ye at all, did it?
She opened her mouth, the habitual refusal already on her lips, but looking at Qiao Yu’s “hurry up and praise me for my great idea” expression, she couldn’t bring herself to say it.
Lin Qing had always believed there was no such thing as unearned kindness in the world — those who bestowed favors would eventually demand repayment.
But Qiao Yu’s goodwill toward her was so abundant and obvious, impossible to ignore.
Suddenly, she didn’t know what to say.
Just then, the car came to a stop. Lin Qing looked out the window — they had arrived at the gate of her villa without her noticing.
She quickly suppressed the unfamiliar feeling, thanked Father Qiao politely, and opened the door. She hesitated, then looked back at Qiao Yu, who was watching her with eager, expectant eyes, and spoke — gentle but firm.
“It’s really fine, Qiao Yu. That would be too much trouble for you.”
The hopeful light in those large eyes dimmed at once. Lin Qing felt an inexplicable pang of sympathy, and added, “Besides, Cong Ye doesn’t know about this yet. If you came to pick me up and ran into—”
The rest of her sentence was drowned out by the roar of an engine. A car had pulled up behind them, its headlights flashing. A woman in her mid-thirties stepped out and walked unhurriedly toward their car.
Her face bore a resemblance to Cong Ye’s — even Qiao Yu, meeting her for the first time, instantly understood who she was.
Before she and Lin Qing could exchange a word, Father Qiao rolled down his window and greeted the woman warmly. “President Cong, back early today!”
So this was the great President Cong.
Cong’s Mother nodded at Father Qiao with an impassive face, then caught sight of Lin Qing still in the back seat. A flicker of surprise broke through her expressionless features.
“Qingqing?”
…Did all parents love calling their kids by these reduplicated nicknames1? At least her own dad had the sense to tone it down in public. Qiao Yu glanced sympathetically at Lin Qing, who had flushed red to the neck, and tactfully stayed quiet.
“Hey, President Cong, I’ve got a thing or two to say to you about this.”
Father Qiao’s reproachful voice rang out from the front seat. Qiao Yu’s heart dropped — a vague sense of impending doom crept over her.
“You’re a big-shot president — you’ve already taken your classmate’s daughter into your home, so how do you still let her ride the bus to and from school?”
“Your son gets picked up by a driver, right? Isn’t that just rubbing it in your classmate’s face? If the neighbors saw, they’d say you favor boys over girls. There’s no need for that, Old Cong.”
Father Qiao, who doted on his own daughter like treasure, put himself in their shoes and worked up a bellyful of indignation. He fired off his points in rapid succession. In the back seat, Qiao Yu couldn’t stop him in time — she could only watch helplessly as her unknowing father filed a complaint against Cong Ye behind his back.
She glanced at Cong’s Mother’s darkening expression, exchanged a guilty look with Lin Qing, and somehow understood what the second half of Lin Qing’s unfinished sentence had been.
‘Besides, Cong Ye doesn’t know about this yet. If you came to pick me up and ran into Aunt Cong, it would be hard to explain.’
…The world really had a cruel sense of humor. Aunt Cong was remarkably easy to summon just by talking about her.
Getting to school separately was something both Cong Ye and Lin Qing had tacitly agreed on, but Cong Ye was about to take the entire blame. Qiao Yu’s face fell. She asked Lin Qing in a small, miserable voice, “…If I told Cong Ye that this time it really wasn’t me — that it was my dad who complained to his mom — do you think he’d believe me?”
“I… I’ll help you explain…”
Even Lin Qing’s words lacked conviction. Qiao Yu groaned inwardly, sensing that tomorrow at school was not going to be pleasant.
After Father Qiao drove off, Lin Qing followed Cong’s Mother inside, the older woman radiating a forbidding aura.
She had only recently met her mother’s high school classmate, and they hadn’t interacted much — their relationship was still somewhat reserved.
But Lin Qing knew that if this continued, Cong Ye was definitely going to be in trouble — and then Qiao Yu would be dragged down by the fallout from a miserable Cong Ye. To avert this catastrophe, Lin Qing decided to do her best to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Aunt Cong,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “I’m not very used to riding to school with Cong Ye, so I started taking the bus instead.”
The woman, whose face had been dark as water, stopped walking. Her expression softened somewhat, but she still wouldn’t let it go. “Then Cong Ye should be the one taking the bus.”
…It seemed Father Qiao’s words had struck a deep nerve. Lin Qing wasn’t sure how to recover, but then Cong’s Mother continued, “Are you and Qiao Zheng’s daughter close?”
Lin Qing paused before realizing that Qiao Zheng was Father Qiao’s name. She nodded. “Qiao Yu is really nice. She said it was on the way, so she gave me a ride back.”
Hearing this, Cong’s Mother raised an eyebrow subtly and spoke slowly, her voice laced with confusion.
“On the way?”
“Qiao Zheng’s house is not on the way. From your school, it’s in the completely opposite direction.”
On the drive home, compared to his daughter’s stormy expression, Father Qiao was in exceptionally high spirits, still chattering about his heroic deed.
“I never thought Old Cong would be on the receiving end of a lecture from me one day. That habit of hers is a big problem — I hope my wake-up call makes her turn over a new leaf.”
Father Qiao, feeling he’d done a good deed, was positively refreshed. After all, Cong’s Mother had left with Lin Qing without a word after his lecture — clearly, she knew she was in the wrong.
In a less than beautiful mood, Qiao Yu pulled out her phone, debating whether to text Cong Ye a pre-emptive explanation. But after tapping away for ages, everything she wrote sounded like she was mocking him in advance. She cursed her own inability to find the right words.
“Yu-Yu, are you and Lin Qing pretty close?”
Father Qiao, oblivious to his daughter’s complicated feelings, hummed a little tune as he chatted with her.
“This is the first time I’ve seen you go out of your way for someone and ask Dad to play along with a lie to make it easier for her to accept.” Father Qiao turned to look at her at a red light, teasing her with a wink. “Yu-Yu really likes her, huh.”
What Qiao Yu had asked of him earlier was to give Lin Qing a ride home, but to tell her it was just on the way. Father Qiao was surprised, but also felt a swell of pride that his child was learning to be thoughtful — so he’d readily agreed.
Teased like this, Qiao Yu didn’t argue. She kept frowning, tapping on her phone, trying to word things properly, mumbling, “Because Lin Qing is really nice. Everyone likes her.”
The point wasn’t whether Lin Qing was likable — it was that he’d never seen his Qiao Yu care this much about anyone.
Mindful of his daughter’s thin skin, Father Qiao tactfully left it at that and continued driving.
Not long after, Qiao Yu’s phone buzzed with a new message. She switched out of her chat with Cong Ye and saw it was from Lin Qing.
Lin Qing: Your house isn’t actually on the way from mine
Lin Qing: Right?
…That got exposed way too fast.
Less than five minutes since they’d left, and the lie was already blown. Qiao Yu immediately narrowed the culprit down to Cong’s Mother, muttering inwardly about whether all parents were just bigmouths.
Qiao Yu: It’s… it’s not completely out of the way…
Even her texts reeked of guilt.
Back inside, Lin Qing could picture Qiao Yu’s expression just from reading the reply. She hurriedly steeled herself before she could soften, waiting to see what excuse Qiao Yu would come up with.
Qiao Yu: After all, the Earth is round — drive one full lap and you’ll always get to my house!
That was a truly massive-scale “on the way.”
Lin Qing was instantly amused. She should have been angry about being deceived, but she couldn’t muster even an ounce of irritation.
After all, whenever she thought about why Qiao Yu had told this lie, her heart couldn’t help but melt into a puddle.
She sighed, watching the “typing…” indicator blinking at the top of the screen, and forgave her before Qiao Yu could send her frantic apologies and pleas for mercy.
Lin Qing: Don’t lie to me anymore.
Lin Qing: No next time.
Qiao Yu perked up at once, eyes brightening. She fired off several vigorously nodding sticker emojis, swore repeatedly that she’d never do it again, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when Lin Qing truly let her off the hook and returned to her usual self.
Just then, another new message arrived. Still riding her high, Qiao Yu casually tapped over to see who it was.
Cong Ye: Qiao Yu.
Qiao Yu’s expression changed drastically.
She held her phone trembling, waiting for Cong Ye’s next message like a prisoner awaiting sentencing.
Cong Ye: Tomorrow
Cong Ye: Take the bus to school
…What?
The author has something to say:
A lot of new readers have suddenly arrived these past two days — thank you all for liking it! I’ll keep working hard!
There’s nothing wrong with taking public transportation to school. It is perfectly safe and its better for the environment
5555 I love this.
their interactions are so adorable. just kiss and fall in love already, ughh
their interactions are so adorable. just kiss and fall in love already, ughh