Ill-intentioned, harboring improper thoughts
Qiao Yu was just feigning ignorance in front of Li Hua. About ten minutes after he had left, Lin Qing returned.
Although she was not fond of Li Hua, Qiao Yu dutifully recounted the recent happenings to Lin Qing and, true to her promise, gave her his contact information. Cong Ye, observing by their side, widened his eyes and clicked his tongue in amazement.
“So you actually added him.”
“Yeah, what else would I do?”
“I thought you were just faking it to fool him and then pretend you never met the guy.”
“You shouldn’t say things like that; it would ruin my image.”
To Qiao Yu’s surprise, Cong Ye turned out to be a male lead with schemes. After some reflection, she decided not to portray him as too naive in her future writings.
She didn’t like Li Hua, but she wouldn’t stoop to such petty tactics. After all, he really was Lin Qing’s junior school classmate, and it would be quite impolite to Lin Qing to take matters into her own hands.
But that didn’t mean she would keep silent about it either.
“I don’t like that person,” Qiao Yu declared, frowning to Lin Qing, without mincing words.
At first, when Li Hua stepped in to block those two from their school, Qiao Yu thought she would owe him a word of thanks later. But before long, he revealed his timidity in front of Bear One’s blustering.
Big brother, he’s spreading rumors that Lin Qing is your girlfriend. If you don’t hurry up and clarify, refuting it, why are you blushing over there?
If Qiao Yu had had anything more substantial than a bottle of mineral water in her hand at that moment, she would have thrown it right at Li Hua’s face with the force of a shot put.
From that moment on, her impression of Li Hua plummeted. And later on, his behavior, constantly mentioning Lin Qing, stirred a nameless fire in her heart.
His intentions were as clear as day, and Qiao Yu really didn’t have the patience to pretend to be clueless with him. That fire blazed so fiercely that she couldn’t even finish boasting about Cong Ye before she lost her temper and chased Li Hua away.
No wonder Cong Ye is the main lead, and Li Hua only fits to be the second male lead—although, at first, she also felt Cong Ye was no good, at least he corrected his ways quickly! Now he’s turned out quite all right!
Qiao Yu definitely didn’t want Li Hua to make any progress with Lin Qing. After saying this, she continued to question Lin Qing, “Were you and him close before?”
“Not really, just classmates.”
Seeing Qiao Yu so openly showing her dislike for someone was a rarity, and Lin Qing’s internal scales tipped without hesitation.
“It seems like at that time we were both class officers… We might have had some official things to discuss, but beyond that, we never really spoke.”
Qiao Yu’s ears perked up, her mood swiftly clearing like clouds giving way to sun. Thinking it over, she felt the need to bolster her assertion with evidence and spoke again with a serious tone.
“I think his intentions towards you… are not good.”
She paused mid-sentence, mulling over her words, then decidedly finished with the last three words. Mi Yi, who was listening, couldn’t help but let out a snicker before covering her mouth to silently laugh until her shoulders shook.
Qiao Yu sent a puzzled look her way, wondering if she had misspoken. Cong Ye stepped in righteously to back her up, adding indignantly, “Exactly, that guy looks like he’s up to something, and his attitude isn’t great either. He’s definitely got… got… what’s that word again?”
Stuck midway due to a lack of vocabulary, Cong Ye scratched his head in frustration and turned to Qiao Yu. After a moment of blank stares between them, Qiao Yu finally thought of a term, tentatively parting her lips to speak.
“…Improper thoughts?”
“Yes! That’s it!”
Enlightened, Cong Ye enthusiastically high-fived Qiao Yu, as if inspired by her words. Mi Yi couldn’t hold back anymore and burst into a hearty laugh.
“Why are you laughing so hard…”
Qiao Yu watched, baffled, as Mi Yi clutched her stomach in laughter, feeling quite perplexed.
“Just now you saw it too, think about his behavior; could we possibly be wrong?”
With Li Hua’s performance that seemed like he could grab a passerby and chatter non-stop about Lin Qing for a good ten minutes, Qiao Yu felt that even the most oblivious person could spot his mood. Mi Yi, being as clever as she was, shouldn’t fail to see it, right? Pondering this, Qiao Yu then saw Mi Yi finally catch her breath, wiping away the tears of laughter at the corners of her eyes, and said apologetically.
“I’m not negating your opinions, I think you both are right.”
“I just didn’t expect that you would notice someone harboring ill intentions and improper thoughts towards Lin Qing.”
“…”
Qiao Yu frowned in frustration, feeling somewhat underestimated.
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Lin Qing soothed her by gently patting her head, casting a glance at Mi Yi, who immediately raised her hands in a surrendering gesture, giggling and ceasing her teasing of Qiao Yu.
“So, does that mean you dislike him because he has… certain feelings for me?”
Her voice was gentle, causing a moment of surprise for Qiao Yu, who instinctively wanted to deny it but found herself unable to speak.
…Is that so? Or is it not?
“Yes, yes, yes! Qiao Yu, why are you just standing there? Speak up!”
What on earth! Why is someone else jumping in to answer for her?
Qiao Yu looked incredulously toward Cong Ye, who leaned in excitedly, seemingly unaware of her shock. He bared his teeth and grimaced, his expression so contorted that she had no idea what he was trying to convey, only that he was very eager.
“Well, let’s just say that’s the case…”
Seeing Cong Ye’s face, Qiao Yu felt that maybe the explanation did make some sense. After all, even when choosing between them, Cong Ye is better, and moreover, Lin Qing currently likes him. It seemed right that she wouldn’t want Li Hua to come in and interfere… probably.
Lin Qing sighed inwardly as she observed Cong Ye’s over-the-moon reaction, uncertain whether to thank him or to settle accounts with him for his antics.
“So, should I just not add him then? Is that okay?”
She didn’t persist with the earlier issue—there seemed to be no definitive conclusion to be drawn from it right now. Instead, she promptly offered a fundamental solution.
“Ah…”
Qiao Yu, who had just been speaking ill of Li Hua, suddenly started to feel a bit uneasy.
After all, Li Hua was Lin Qing’s bona fide junior high classmate, and it was definitely no coincidence that he appeared here. If it weren’t for Qiao Yu’s interference, he would surely have been added as Lin Qing’s friend. Now that she has directly cut off that path, she wonders if it’ll have an impact on the world.
But then again, hasn’t she already caused enough impact?
As Qiao Yu ponders, she feels fearless, and after a moment of contemplation, she sincerely says to Lin Qing, “I honestly feel that he’s unreliable.”
“But this matter is between you and Li Hua. You’ve known him longer, so it’s best you make the decision. I won’t object. Don’t change your mind just on my account.”
“I understand that there’s no need to sour the relationship with an old classmate too severely… of course, if he really starts to harass you, that’s a different story altogether. I’ve seen him post in his WeChat Moments—”
“You’ve become friends with him?”
Lin Qing’s keen sense quickly latched onto the keyword. She saw Qiao Yu nodding her head in a daze.
“…”
She fell silent for a while before speaking in a gentle voice.
“Then how about I add him first but don’t chat with him, would that be okay?”
After all, Li Hua already had Qiao Yu’s contact information, and if she kept not adding him, it might be more troublesome if he constantly sought her out.
Qiao Yu quickly grasped this point from the change in Lin Qing’s attitude, and annoyedly slapped her forehead.
“I should have just asked him to write a note or something to leave behind… But at that time, I was a bit curious to see if his Moments were all in English…”
“It doesn’t matter whether you add him or not.”
Her oversight had affected Lin Qing and now she needed Lin Qing to comfort her. Qiao Yu hung her head in dejection, deeply regretting her momentary curiosity.
Lin Qing deciding to add Li Hua as a friend herself was a completely different matter from adding him because she didn’t want her to be bothered; it was practically like handing a weapon to the enemy and bringing them directly to their base—ah, in short, she was angry! Angry at herself!
“It’s really okay.”
Lin Qing couldn’t bear to see her like this, taking her hand and tenderly stroking it, soothing her with a soft and gentle voice that could lull the self-blaming pup whose ears had drooped down.
“If he says anything to me—it also gives me a chance to refuse him and make him give up for good, which is better than keeping him hanging and pretending I don’t know he’s going to come around.”
Qiao Yu’s eyes brightened at this, but her brow quickly furrowed with worry.
“But it feels like Li Hua is the type who won’t give up easily after being rejected…”
Just looking at his name, it seems like he’s someone capable of causing a lot of trouble. Of course, this could just be Qiao Yu’s bias. Hopefully, it’s just a bias.
“I will reject him thoroughly. I’ll just tell him—”
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Lin Qing’s voice was tinged with mirth, then she suddenly stopped speaking, drawing Qiao Yu’s right hand towards her own lap, flipping it palm up, and began to trace on it with her finger as if using it as a pen.
Her fingertips were cool, like a flake of snow landing in the palm of Qiao Yu, making her breath catch.
With meticulous strokes, Lin Qing wrote something on her hand. Qiao Yu knew it must be the latter half of a sentence inappropriate for public discourse. Nervously licking her dry lips, she focused intently on that hand without looking away.
A tickling sensation began to accumulate, seemingly spreading from her palm to her wrist, making her worry it might reach all the way to her heart.
Her heart fluttered with each stroke Lin Qing made, and Qiao Yu struggled to set aside the distracting thoughts invading her mind, concentrating hard to decipher what Lin Qing was writing.
Lin Qing soon stopped, and Qiao Yu felt she had written the character “I”, obediently waiting for her to continue.
It took quite some time before Lin Qing began the next character, her movements now more hesitant, as if uncertain. Qiao Yu glanced subconsciously at her, just catching a glimpse of Lin Qing’s slightly pinched, delicate brows and eyes, yet before she could sneak a peek at the strokes, Lin Qing chided softly, “…Don’t look at me.”
Straightening herself, Qiao Yu listened to Lin Qing’s laughter as her writing again became smooth, flowing effortlessly like drifting clouds and flowing water.
But in the text that followed, there were no pauses whatsoever. Qiao Yu tried hard to make out the letters but just couldn’t discern the beginning from the end. The more she tried, the blurrier it became, and she couldn’t recognize a single word.
Unable to hold back, Qiao Yu laughed and turned to Lin Qing, saying, “You’re cheating!”
“I am not,” Lin Qing defended righteously, insisting that she had written every word properly. “If you can’t read it, that’s on you.” Her face broke into a smile as well, revealing shallow dimples.
“With that handwriting of yours, no one could make it out—”
“Oh, is that so? Why don’t you give it a try?”
In response to Qiao Yu’s challenge, Lin Qing generously extended her hand in front of her, blinking innocently as if to say, go ahead, write anything.
Faced with such a challenge readily presenting itself, Qiao Yu certainly didn’t hesitate. Playfulness surged within her; she racked her brains, pondering what she could write that would be the most indecipherable to Lin Qing.
Hmm, perhaps some rare and obscure characters—but it seems she doesn’t quite remember how to write those either. Then how about considering some classical Chinese she’d learned recently? Pick out an exceptionally difficult sentence and write that down!
Qiao Yu hesitated, brimming with eagerness, as she silently recited classical Chinese in her mind, but then she heard Lin Qing’s voice, tinged with laughter, break through her concentration.
“Still haven’t decided?”
“Almost there—”
Qiao Yu responded offhandedly as she turned to look at Lin Qing, only to be taken aback by her smile, which was as radiant as the most splendid flower of spring. The delicate beauty of the girl before her laughed, her eyes as soft as the moon above, simply gazing upon her.
The people and objects around them seemed to blur for a moment, as if in this world, only she and Lin Qing were in focus. Perhaps it was because Lin Qing’s smile was so captivating that Qiao Yu’s eyes could no longer take in any other sight.
Suddenly, Qiao Yu became aware of the secretive situation at hand.
She was holding Lin Qing’s hand, intending to write something on it—whatever she wrote would leave no trace, ensuring that no third person in the world could possibly learn of it.
This would be a secret… their secret.
And at such a moment, why was she thinking of writing some exceedingly difficult-to-recognize classical Chinese?
With a sigh at herself, Qiao Yu closed her eyes. Upon reopening them, she had her answer.
Qiao Yu wrote earnestly on Lin Qing’s hand, her fingertips trembling slightly against her better efforts.
She should have conjured some flowery language, but Qiao Yu truly had no energy left to think that deeply—she could only write clumsily, tracing each character that came to her mind.
The writing process stretched on, yet she did not forget to mimic Lin Qing, linking several of the characters’ strokes together. When she finally finished the last stroke, Qiao Yu let out a long sigh, only then realizing she had been holding her breath.
Qiao Yu assumed, as a matter of course, that Lin Qing wouldn’t make it out—she had chosen this sentence ridden with a contradictory desire both to reveal and conceal her thoughts, causing her heart to thump wildly as she wrote.
But when she raised her head, she met Lin Qing’s slightly astonished gaze. That gaze was filled with unspoken words, yet the loudest message Qiao Yu could discern was clear and couldn’t be more obvious.
——I’ve guessed it.
A late wave of embarrassment surged through Qiao Yu’s body. She jumped up suddenly, gesturing frantically with her fingers towards the sports field before Lin Qing could speak.
“I—I’m going to prepare for the relay race! It’s almost time!”
After blurting out these words, she dashed away from the stands like a streak of smoke. Cong Ye, startled by her sudden outburst, glanced at the schedule, puzzled, and remarked, “Isn’t there still half an hour left?”
Lin Qing’s gaze followed Qiao Yu’s retreating figure until she disappeared from her sight. Only then did she slowly withdraw her gaze and looked down at the palm of her hand.
“Cough, cough.“
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Seeing Qiao Yu had left and after watching for a while, Mi Yi came over trying to hold back her laughter, deliberately coughing twice.
“We’re still in the stands here, with so many people around, you guys should have some public decency…”
She spoke in a lowered voice, unable to hide the smile at the corners of her mouth.
“So, how was it this time? Did Qiao Yu get a clue at all?”
Lin Qing stared at her empty palm for a while, then slowly clenched it into a fist, as if she was gripping something tangible.
“…It’s much better than I expected.”
She had thought Qiao Yu would jokingly scrawl some illegible sentences, but Qiao Yu seriously wrote eight characters, two phrases.
【May you be safe, joyful, smooth-sailing, and free of worries】
Even though Lin Qing hadn’t figured out why Qiao Yu chose these particular blessings, she was still touched and happy about the sincerity behind them.
As for what she wrote on Qiao Yu’s hand—
Originally, she intended if she was to reject Li Hua, she would have to respond with, “I already have someone I like.”
That was her thought as she set out to write, but after only penning down the character “I,” she couldn’t help but change the message.
She ended up writing a very simple phrase of four characters.
It was 【我喜歡你】(I like you)
