Novel Turned Yuri – Chapter 44

Why haven’t they hugged and kissed yet?

After the sports meeting, it’s the weekend, which gives Qiao Yu two days to rest and heal.

Her injury isn’t too severe, but since it’s mainly on her hands, it still brings quite a few inconveniences to her life.

Even though her homeroom teacher generously excused her from this weekend’s homework, there’s still some work she can’t avoid and must do.

“…What should I do, I can’t type on the keyboard.”

Qiao Yu helplessly spread out her bandaged hands that couldn’t bend, staring blankly at the computer screen.

The system had indeed tried to persuade her to wait until her hands were fully healed before writing, but Qiao Yu’s insistence on finishing today’s work today when it came to her writing was rather stubborn, so it had no choice but to compromise and offer a new solution.

“Don’t worry, Host, I support voice input.”

It was as if the system had upgraded its software, becoming more and more feature-complete.

Although it was a solution, for Qiao Yu, who was not used to voice input, adapting to the process was a big challenge.

Especially since what she wrote about were real people and events, making the writing process filled with difficulty and comedic elements.

Her relationship with Lin Qing was like the paired birds flying in the sky—what comes after that? What is all this stuff Cong Ye was talking about, oh no, wasn’t that part not meant to be written down, quick, delete it…

Just like that, it was really difficult for her to say those words.

By the way, the way Qiao Yu dealt with this was by erasing the latter part that pointed to her and deftly changed the subject in her narrative, making the readers think it was Cong Ye bragging about himself.

Even with that change, Cong Ye’s image still turned out to be a bit strange. Initially, he was a proper candidate for a domineering CEO, but now he looked more like a comedic character in a sitcom.

…Although it’s true that he always had an unreliable side to him, but for their first important confrontation in the story, did he reveal this side a bit too thoroughly?

For this, Qiao Yu was powerless to intervene; she couldn’t cover it up even if she wanted to. She could only try her best to minimize his comedic parts and, turning a blind eye, made the character of Cong Ye and his psychological activities lighter in the drafts she had saved.

Fortunately, the latest chapter that was sent out only just reached her birthday party, focusing more on the characterization of Lin Qing, meaning that changes to Cong Ye’s portrayal could still be made in time.

Having drafts was a boon; if the writing went awry later, she could always go back and revise.

With a stoic face, Qiao Yu spent an hour completing the textual revisions for Cong Ye, feeling that voice input was ten times more exhausting than normal writing. What was even more daunting was that inevitably, she had to include descriptions of the male and female leads’ appearances in her writing.

As Qiao Yu tried to narrate with an even tone, “Lin Qing’s eyes were like the timeless Lake Baikal; no one could escape their clarity,” this unfortunate phrase was overheard in its entirety by the well-meaning Father Qiao, who had come over to bring her some fruit.

Fortunately, the system was clever enough to turn the screen off, so Father Qiao did not see it. When Qiao Yu realized something was wrong and turned her head, meeting Father Qiao’s eyes, she almost thought she would faint on the spot due to her overheating brain.

In the end, Father Qiao closed the door with an expression that said “I understand,” leaving Qiao Yu in the room, tongue-tied and steaming at the forehead, unable to muster even a “Dad, let me explain.”

Without even having a bite of the fruit and having lost face, Qiao Yu covered her face and wept.

The most distressing part was that she didn’t know whom to blame. Blame the system for only allowing voice input instead of mind input? Blame Bear One’s tough face for injuring her hand? Or blame herself for not locking the door while writing?

… It seems that the last reason was the most relevant. Qiao Yu learned her lesson and decided that from then on, writing would be like thievery—she would need to be exceedingly careful.

At this point, Qiao Yu could only continue to write with bottled-up frustration, but writing today seemed exceptionally difficult. Her phone buzzed with the sound of an incoming message before she had spoken many words.

Qiao Yu thought of checking it after finishing her sentence. However, the person on the other end of the phone seemed to be possessed, sending messages frantically. The room buzzed incessantly, and even the dictated text included nonsensical sentences like “Cong Ye’s disapproving buzz.”

Her anger surged within her as she blamed the system for its unprofessional voice recognition while resentfully grabbing her phone. The sender was Li Hua.

So, this dog still had the nerve to contact her, liking to court disaster, huh?

Qiao Yu’s temples throbbed as she patiently opened his message thread and skimmed through it. Li Hua had sent a long apology letter, filled with formalities, sincerely apologizing for his previous actions and expressing his gratitude. It looked just like a product of an English exercise translated into Chinese, titled “Help Li Hua Write an Apology Letter to His Friend.”

Her expression cleared up slightly, thinking to herself that at least Li Hua knew to admit his mistakes, which was a bit better than those who never repent. Then, she scrolled to his last sent message.

Li Hua: So, is Lin Qing really living with Cong Ye?

Qiao Yu’s rage shot through the roof, and she launched into a long tirade of voice messages at him, with enough force as if to break through the screen, ending with two emphatic, crystal-clear words.

“Idiot.”

After saying her piece, she directly added Li Hua to the block list, feeling rather relieved.

The system, having never seen the host curse someone out so viciously, trembled nervously and asked bewilderedly, “But, but isn’t Lin Qing actually living with Cong Ye?”

“The ‘living together’ he’s asking about isn’t so innocent… It’s basically with some dirty thoughts mixed in. You don’t need to bother with him.”

The system seemed to half understand but mentioning Lin Qing reminded it of something else. Despite feeling apprehensive, as a loyal system, it still sincerely addressed Qiao Yu.

“Here’s the thing, host. When you and Lin Qing were talking outside the medical office earlier, I… I observed something…”

“Hmm? What’s that? By the way, didn’t you use to refer to Lin Qing as the ‘female lead’ before?”

Faced with Qiao Yu’s question, the system decided to dodge the query and not respond directly. After all, it was only after observing that particular incident that it felt calling her ‘female lead’ so formulaically was a bit odd – the system itself couldn’t quite articulate why.

As for what it had discovered—

The system cautiously judged that the host’s mood wasn’t as foul as when she had been scolding Li Hua. With trepidation, it spoke up.

“I, I noticed that there was an increased secretion of dopamine in the host’s body at the time.”

“Do you even have that sort of function?!”

Qiao Yu leaped up, unable to believe that her system was actually a body scanning system.

“I do have that function because we need to ensure the host’s physical health, but I’ve never used it before. It was just that, after the host had finished fighting, I was worried about the host’s body, so I thought to run a scan…”

“… Thank you.”

The fight had even made the system anxious… Qiao Yu felt an exceedingly complex emotion, as if she was a host that couldn’t give her system any peace of mind.

Of course, that wasn’t the main issue at the moment!

“No need for thanks, this is what I’m supposed to do. I observed that the host’s dopamine levels were rising when talking to Lin Qing—”

“Alright, alright, I got it, you don’t need to repeat it.”

That’s right, the issue here is dopamine!

The meaning in the system’s words was already quite obvious, especially after the previous conversation Qiao Yu had with it.

‘What, in your systems’ view, should love look like?’

‘It’s the massive secretion of dopamine.’

In other words, the system was worried that Qiao Yu… had fallen in love with Lin Qing.

This must indeed be an awkward topic for the system.

“…Maybe you’re right. I might have been secreting a lot of dopamine at that time.”

Qiao Yu took a deep breath and unexpectedly accepted its words with composure. The system felt a sudden pang in its virtual heart, already calculating the hundred and more potential tragic outcomes for its host, who had unrequited love for the novel’s female lead, Lin Qing.

Just as the system had calculated the seventeenth possible tragic outcome, it heard Qiao Yu start to speak again, abruptly halting its calculations.

“But! It must be because of exercise!”

“…Eh, what?”

“That’s right! Exercise also produces dopamine!”

Qiao Yu, disregarding the system thrown into confusion, desperately laid out the scientific principles to it.

“And me! I had just finished fighting not long ago!”

“So that has nothing to do with Lin Qing! Got it!”

“Okay, okay!”

Overwhelmed by Qiao Yu’s assertiveness, the system subconsciously accepted her explanation. Only then did Qiao Yu let out a long sigh of relief, settled back down into her chair, and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

“I’m so tired… Let’s just hurry up and finish writing so we can take a break…”

Then, with a weary and hoarse voice, she continued the section on the sports meet. As the system inputted her speech into text, it still pondered the recent event.

…After having talked to the teacher and then heading to the infirmary for bandages, could it still be considered “just after a fight”?

Meanwhile, it was the weekend, and from his home, Cong Ye was in his room, deep in thought.

He hadn’t slept well the night before, with two very noticeable dark circles under his eyes.

After all, that Friday had been the first fight of his life—if the unilateral tackle from Qiao Yu on the first day of school didn’t count. As a high school boy in the throes of adolescence, that kind of excitement wasn’t easy to shake off.

According to Cong Ye, “The blood that boils won’t cool down easily,” which kept him boiling and up half the night, staring at the ceiling lost in a whirlwind of thoughts. Most of his thoughts were along the lines of whether his posture while bashing Bear Two was cool enough or not.

Now, finally, with the dawn’s light, Cong Ye managed to break free from his own highlight reel and started thinking about his friend Qiao Yu.

There’s no denying that Qiao Yu really did look cool this time! Especially with the bandage wrapped by the school nurse!

Ahem, not just the bandage, her actions were cool, too! Stepping up to defend Lin Qing against those distasteful comments, it was simply youthful ardor! Even someone as critical of Qiao Yu as Cong Ye had to give her a round of applause.

But why haven’t they hugged or kissed yet?

Cong Ye sunk into contemplation over this question.

He pulled out the strict scrutiny he applied when tackling math problems and began to list the known conditions.

Known: Qiao Yu likes Lin Qing, but the condition for her confession is to be sure that Lin Qing likes her back.

To Find: When can they actually be together?

After pondering seriously for a while, Cong Ye felt that it seemed, for the moment, the problem couldn’t be solved.

Isn’t this simply because he has no idea what Lin Qing is thinking?

…After all, he only discovered Qiao Yu’s feelings by eavesdropping. Lin Qing is much harder to figure out than Qiao Yu, tight-lipped and always appearing as calm as a breeze and clear as the sky, giving nothing away. Cong Ye couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

This won’t do!

Cong Ye suddenly stood up, set on finding a solution fueled by sheer passion.

Ah, speaking of which, Mi Yi came to hang out with Lin Qing today. After briefly greeting him, they went back to Lin Qing’s room. Who knows what they were chatting about.

To get information, one has to get close to the enemy! A fighting spirit surged within Cong Ye; he resolved to thicken his skin and join them while Mi Yi was there, for isn’t a girls’ tea party the best time for love topics to emerge?

No sooner said than done, Cong Ye walked out the door with an air of brash confidence. He went downstairs and grabbed a tray of snacks and drinks, putting on airs. Arriving at Lin Qing’s tightly closed door, he lifted his hand like a gentleman ready to knock.

“…Qiao Yu—”

Before his hand touched the door, his keen ears picked up a faint mention of Qiao Yu’s name from behind the door. A thought struck Cong Ye, and he withdrew his hand, carefully pressing his ear against the door, careful not to make a sound.

Never before had he felt so frustrated by his home’s excellent soundproofing—leaning close, almost sprawling against it, he could only hear the faint murmur of voices.

Like a well-trained police dog, Cong Ye focused intently and pricked up his ears—ah, Qiao Yu, brother, I’m doing this somewhat dishonorable task for you; you better treat me to a meal in the future, and by that I certainly mean your wedding banquet.

He listened attentively with a guilty conscience, straining his ears, and finally heard a very valuable piece of conversation.

“…Since you like Qiao Yu so much—”

“—Then you really should be cautious, can’t spook the grass and startle the snake.”

Mi Yi nodded in agreement after hearing Lin Qing’s reflection on her thoughts from the other day, throwing in her own two cents based on experience.

“Although I feel she isn’t that straightforward, in these matters, it’s better to be safe than sorry. After all, words spoken are like water—”

As she spoke, she picked up a glass on the table and profoundly explained to Lin Qing the irreversibility of unveiling secrets. Mid-sentence, the tightly shut door was abruptly pushed open with no warning, startling Mi Yi so much that her hand shook and she spilled half a glass of water on the floor.

The two people inside the room looked at the doorway in astonishment. Cong Ye, without saying a word, held a tray that rattled loudly as he struggled to control his trembling hands to place it on the table.

After setting it down, he walked towards the door but didn’t leave; instead, he cautiously locked it, then turned around with a solemn expression to look at them.

“I just have one question.”

Cong Ye’s voice oddly rose in pitch, and Lin Qing, under his intense gaze, felt bewildered, not knowing what he was getting at with his cryptic attitude.

But the timing of his entrance was so delicate that Lin Qing couldn’t help but feel uneasy, a heaviness settling in her heart.

She braced herself for the worst, confrontationally facing Cong Ye, only to see him revealing a radiant smile that clearly held no malice, his tone as joyful as if he had stumbled upon great fortune.

“You like Qiao Yu, it’s real, right?”

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LP: We need more ‘male leads’ like Cong Ye!

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