It didn’t matter as much as making Lin Qing happy
After deciding to focus on studying and avoid remedial classes during the two weeks before the exam, Qiao Yu and Lin Qing greeted Cong Ye and his group during Monday’s lunch.
“I’ve been having lunch with Lin Qing before the monthly exam. I want to follow her and study hard to catch up on my assignments.”
Cong Ye’s hand holding the spoon shook violently, and it plopped into the soup bowl with a clatter.
Qiao Yu, sitting next to him, quickly moved her own bowl aside and angrily said, “You’re so clumsy, Cong Ye! How can you not even hold a spoon properly?”
Although the words were spoken, there was no response. Qiao Yu looked at him in confusion and noticed his mouth wide open, his face full of disbelief, as if he had seen Godzilla.
“Qiao Yu… Have you been possessed by something?”
…In a sense, he was right.
Qiao Yu’s weak voice struck the truth, and her pupils trembled as she put on a show of strength, saying, “W-What do you mean?”
“The Qiao Yu I know would never say something like studying hard on her own… You used to have a headache and practically roll on the ground at the mention of the word ‘study’!”
What a image! Did she have a golden hoop given by some Bodhisattva on her head or something?
Qiao Yu listened in confusion, feeling that Cong Ye was definitely exaggerating. Seeking confirmation, she looked at the other two people sitting across the table.
Mi Yi was engrossed in examining a bottle of pepper, emitting an aura that said it was the most worthy thing in the world to study and that nobody should disturb her. And when Lu Yao caught her probing gaze, he carefully thought for a moment and added, “There was one time when you actually did roll.”
Qiao Yu:…
Sometimes it’s better not to say anything. Feeling like the original was an idiot, Qiao Yu swallowed her pride and turned to Lin Qing, who looked puzzled next to her, putting on a sincerely pained expression.
“That was me being young and reckless in the past.”
Having to shoulder the blame for something completely unrelated to herself, Qiao Yu felt indignant. She patted her chest and assured Lin Qing, “I will never be like that again!”
Headache.
Qiao Yu sat in the self-study room, grimacing as she massaged her temples.
A note was silently pushed over from her left side. Qiao Yu pretended not to see it, but her knee was harshly bumped by the person next to her. When she turned her head, she saw Cong Ye wide-eyed and glaring at her. Reluctantly, Qiao Yu took the note and looked down.
【Don’t roll here.】
Get lost!
Qiao Yu crumpled the note in her hand, her anger rising to her head.
She was about to come up with a clever response when the person on her right suddenly leaned towards her, and she could faintly smell the elegant fragrance emanating from her.
“Do you have any questions you don’t understand?”
Out of consideration for not disturbing others in the self-study room, Lin Qing spoke in a low and close voice. Her exquisitely delicate profile was right in front of Qiao Yu’s eyes, and she could even attempt to count her eyelashes.
Lin Qing has such long eyelashes…
Lost in thought for less than a second, Qiao Yu felt a forceful tap on her left shoulder as Cong Ye leaned in and whispered.
“If you have any questions, just ask me. Don’t keep bothering Lin Qing.”
…Qiao Yu moved her chair closer to Lin Qing, her face wooden, and two tears silently streamed down her cheeks.
–To understand how this situation came about, we need to go back to after lunch.
She explained tirelessly in the cafeteria, but she couldn’t completely convince Cong Ye. They returned to the classroom to fetch their books and planned to go to the self-study room during lunch break. Along the way, Cong Ye had been closely following behind.
Just as they were about to enter the self-study room, Qiao Yu couldn’t bear it anymore. She stopped in her tracks and turned around angrily, “What’s the matter! Do you have to watch me study to believe me?”
Cong Ye, for the first time, didn’t retort. He just looked at her with a complex expression, then told Lin Qing, “I need to talk to her for a moment, you go in first.” He then pulled Qiao Yu aside.
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Qiao Yu couldn’t make sense of his strange behavior. She glanced at Lin Qing, who stood a little further away with an expressionless face, clearly indicating that she didn’t intend to enter first despite Cong Ye’s words.
This made Qiao Yu very anxious. Although she was confident and had said that she treated Cong Ye like her own son, did this rebellious child have to do things that could be easily misunderstood? Father had to find time to teach this son a lesson!
But Cong Ye didn’t perceive her exasperated state of mind at all. He approached her with a serious expression, as if whispering confidentially, and spoke in a hushed voice.
“Qiao Yu, tell me the truth.”
Oh, my old buddy, the truth is that right now I really want to kick your butt with my boot.
“Are you trying to bully Lin Qing?”
Qiao Yu:…
Her anger was instantly replaced by a bellyful of question marks. Qiao Yu looked at Cong Ye with a mixture of curiosity and seriousness, as if she were observing a mythical creature, wondering how much water his head was filled with.
“…Are you okay, Cong Ye?”
Her words, spoken almost like an insult, were filled with genuine concern, her eyes reflecting worry.
“You say I want to bully Lin Qing… It would be more believable if you said I want to establish an independent country in our high school and gain the support of all the other countries in the world.”
Cong Ye remained unmoved by her sincerity, looking at her with a mixture of belief and doubt. “Then why did you let her teach you?”
“You have to understand that it’s disheartening to put in so much effort to teach someone, but they can’t learn anything.”
“I see. You’ve been calm for a few days, but now you’re reverting back to your old ways and looking for trouble with Lin Qing, right?”
…Qiao Yu understood. He was insulting her in a roundabout way.
Veins were about to pop on her forehead as she clenched her teeth and explained to him, “…It was Lin Qing who suggested teaching me—”
“—Haven’t finished yet?”
Lin Qing’s voice came through, and she approached with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you, but the lunch break is short, so…”
Qiao Yu saw her as if she had encountered a savior and rushed over, grabbing her hand with a sense of injustice.
“Teacher Lin! You were the one who said you would teach me, right?”
Lin Qing naturally nodded. “Yes,” she said, looking at Cong Ye with an inquiring gaze. “What’s wrong?”
Cong Ye, at this moment, for some reason, started to stutter and didn’t mention his suspicions—probably because he felt it wouldn’t be right to say it to the victim. He just awkwardly nodded and hurriedly walked towards the self-study room.
…What is he up to, anyway!
Cong Ye’s actions infuriated Qiao Yu to the point of a headache. Lin Qing glanced at her without saying anything and silently held Qiao Yu’s hand as they followed along.
Once they entered the self-study room, it was a sight to behold. Cong Ye huffed and puffed as he moved three tables to the back row and pushed them together, then stood beside them as if presenting a treasure, gesturing for them to take a seat.
“I’ve thought about it, and I haven’t reviewed for the monthly exams yet. Can I study with you guys?”
He even let go of his high and mighty demeanor, smiling innocently and warmly looking at Qiao Yu.
“By the way, Qiao Yu, what kind of grades do you want to achieve in this month’s exams?”
…His eyes were filled with the message, “If you say something outrageous, it means you want to bully her.” Qiao Yu was infuriated by his unreasonable crisis awareness, and she wished she could slam the textbook on his face.
“…Just passing all the subjects, like being the eleventh from the bottom.”
With such a pitifully low requirement, he had nothing to say, right?
Qiao Yu glared at Cong Ye with anger, only to see him exaggeratingly put on a helpful top student’s smile.
“A small goal like that doesn’t require bothering Lin Qing. Let me help you instead!”
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Cong Ye could say anything except for allowing Lin Qing to teach her. It was damn maddening.
Now, Qiao Yu sat between the two of them, wishing she could open up her heart to prove her innocence.
It seemed that Lin Qing’s gesture of giving up the car last time had improved Cong Ye’s impression of her. Now, he was even taking precautions to protect her.
This was clearly a good thing, clearly a good thing…
Qiao Yu held her head and almost couldn’t help but groan in pain.
What was Cong Ye thinking? He actually targeted her!
How could she prove that she didn’t want to bully Lin Qing? In Cong Ye’s suspicious eyes, everything she did seemed like a cunning wolf!
Qiao Yu had considered asking Lin Qing to help her explain, but…
She secretly glanced to the right, where Lin Qing was solving math problems, her expression calm and pleasing.
It seemed no different from usual, but Qiao Yu could feel a sense of distance emanating from her.
Well, no wonder. Just two days ago, she had referred to Cong Ye as her son, and the next day she was involved with him in a secretive manner (from an outsider’s perspective) without explaining clearly. It was normal for Lin Qing to not want to talk to her.
At times like this, she should take the initiative to explain things to Lin Qing.
…If it weren’t for the system butting in first, she would have done so long ago.
‘Host, host.’
Just as Qiao Yu stood hesitating in front of the three tables, contemplating whether to talk to Lin Qing directly, the system unexpectedly spoke up.
‘I just thought of something.’
‘Look at the current situation. Does it resemble an event that would happen in a novel?’
Its words were somewhat unclear and hesitant, and it took Qiao Yu a moment to understand its meaning.
In other words, from Cong Ye’s perspective, he (presumably) noticed someone intending to bully Lin Qing, but Lin Qing was unaware. So Cong Ye silently protected her, keeping her from harm.
…This was such a smooth development of emotions. The only thing missing was Qiao Yu being caught red-handed while intending to bully Lin Qing, and then Lin Qing getting moved and blushing.
Sensing her complex emotions, the system hurriedly tried to compensate for her: ‘Uh, the role of the host in this script is really lousy, and her actions don’t have any reason behind them. I think it’s just my overthinking.’
Qiao Yu remained silent, sitting in the middle of the three seats, lost in her tangled thoughts. Until now, she hadn’t come to a conclusion.
The system was right. If she actually did that, it would completely lack logical behavior. The character development would be inconsistent from beginning to end.
However, however, what if the Qiao Yu who used to exist was here right now?
She remembered the system saying that this world was constructed by the original author, and everything in the story, including foreshadowing and subsequent events, would happen naturally.
Did that mean that if she hadn’t transmigrated into Qiao Yu’s body, she would actually go and bully Lin Qing at this moment? But then, wouldn’t all the things she did to help Lin Qing never have happened? Lin Qing wouldn’t have proposed to tutor her, and the three of them wouldn’t have come here together.
Qiao Yu found herself caught in a series of contradictory thoughts, leaving her feeling helpless.
She felt like this world was slowly changing as she acted. Qiao Yu wasn’t sure if this was a good thing—this was an unfinished book, who knew what butterfly effect it might have? Would it affect the foreshadowing? Would it affect the plot? Would it affect Lin Qing?
…Could she really become friends with Lin Qing?
Qiao Yu was no longer the character from the book. Here, only her character was entirely determined by herself, and perhaps it had a greater impact than she had imagined.
And now was a crucial moment for character development.
At this moment, perhaps both she and the system were overthinking, or perhaps it was just a predetermined plot development happening as expected. She had no means to confirm anything.
…If it was the latter, maybe following the author’s plot development would be the right choice…?
She hesitated and looked at Lin Qing, only to meet the gaze of Lin Qing, who had been watching her without her realizing when it began.
Lin Qing was as calm as water, her obsidian-like eyes cold and clear, revealing no discernible emotions.
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Just by looking at her like this, Qiao Yu’s heart inexplicably tightened into a knot.
It feels so uncomfortable. Qiao Yu thought silently, uncontrollably a thought popped into her mind.
Lin Qing is unhappy.
A string inside Qiao Yu’s body seemed to snap, and she suddenly stood up. The sound of the chair scraping against the floor startled the others in the self-study room, and they all turned to look at her. Blood rushed to her head as she reached out and grabbed Lin Qing’s wrist, pulling her outside without paying any attention to Cong Ye’s surprised voice behind her.
She didn’t feel any resistance from Lin Qing’s hand as she obediently let herself be grabbed. They walked together to a quiet corner by the staircase, where Lin Qing’s delicate face showed no trace of surprise, as if she had been waiting for Qiao Yu to speak.
“Cong Ye just told me that he thought I asked you to tutor me so that I could bully you.”
Once she started talking, the subsequent words flowed more easily. Qiao Yu’s mood inexplicably calmed down, as she looked directly into those eyes as clear as Lake Baikal, slowly explaining everything to her.
“…That’s right, he stayed because he still doubted me.”
Qiao Yu laid out the whole story, watching the girl in front of her blink with confusion. She knew that it was difficult for Lin Qing to understand Cong Ye’s peculiar way of thinking, and couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
That icy cold feeling, as if separated by a layer of ice, had completely disappeared, and she once again touched the real Lin Qing.
To hell with the original plot. Qiao Yu thought.
Even if what happened just now was indeed a predetermined plot development, it didn’t matter as much as making Lin Qing happy.