Driving Force
When Qiao Yu went to school on Monday, she received a lot of attention due to her injury.
The fight that had occurred after the sports meeting had not yet spread around Yaohua, and the students were curiously staring at her bandages. Having spent over two months with her classmates, Qiao Yu had a fairly good rapport with them, and soon they gathered around to ask her about it.
“Qiao Yu, what happened to your injury? Did you fall?”
“That’s where you’re all in the dark!”
Lu Yao, with a small bruise on his hand as well, excitedly rolled up his sleeves and joined the conversation, showing off his “battle scars” to the astonished crowd.
“We got into a fight with the guys from Yizhong on the afternoon of the sports meet!”
The boy was filled with pride about standing up for his friends, and he animatedly described the situation to his classmates, the scene resembling a storytelling session. Even passersby at their classroom door were drawn in to stop and listen; a fight that lasted no more than twenty minutes was narrated by Lu Yao with suspense and excitement.
Qiao Yu was happy with the peace and quiet, listening with interest to Lu Yao’s explanation that was biased by his intense personal feelings. After his tale, Qiao Yu was practically upheld as a heroic figure of the academy, with martial prowess that commanded respect from others. The admiring glances from the crowd made Qiao Yu feel somewhat uncomfortable.
…After all, the rich second-generation kids of Yaohua really didn’t have much experience in fighting and brawling. It could be said that Qiao Yu might actually be considered the top of Yaohua’s fighting capacity.
She thought about it and didn’t rush to refute. Instead, she decided to take advantage of the “fierce reputation” created by Lu Yao and spread a piece of news among the onlookers.
“The two guys from Yizhong also gave me a few names.”
“I’m not going to say them out loud here, but those people surely know who they are.”
“Just… I hope they’re clear on what they should be doing now. Wouldn’t want to make it ugly by having to go looking for them, right?”
“——Could you spread the word about what I’ve just said, please? Thanks, thanks a bunch.”
Qiao Yu’s words stirred the crowd of students. When outsiders make trouble in their own school, the students naturally side with their own. Now, hearing that there were traitors in the midst of this incident, the students were inflamed with both gossip-fueled curiosity and a sense of school loyalty, and Qiao Yu’s message spread like wildfire.
Spread the word, the more they talk about her fierce fighting skills the better. It’ll scare those people to the point they can’t sleep at night. Of course, it would be even better if they were smart enough to come looking for her themselves, saving her the trouble.
The bell signaling the start of class dispersed the gathered crowd, and Lu Yao, still not completely over the excitement, returned to his seat. Qiao Yu was taking out textbooks from her bag and then, belatedly, a question popped into her mind.
…Weird, with all the commotion just now, why was Cong Ye, who normally loves to join the fray, so quiet?
Just as she was about to turn around and check on Cong Ye, Lin Qing in front of her reached out to take her textbook, flipping it to the section for today’s lesson, and then whispered to her, “Just focus on listening to the lecture, no need to take notes. I’ll copy them for you after class.”
“Eh, is that okay?”
Qiao Yu completely forgot about Cong Ye, her eyes sparkling with surprise and delight. For a student, having someone offer to take notes for you is nothing short of bliss!
Lin Qing smiled at her and nodded, saying, “Your injury hasn’t healed up yet, you can’t afford to get physical again with those people.”
“No fighting, no fighting, I promise I’ll be civil this time!”
Seeing Qiao Yu earnestly raise her palm as if taking an oath, Lin Qing affectionately patted her head before turning back around. Mi Yi, who was reading next to them, clicked her tongue without even looking up and commented, “Qiao Yu, you’re really one lucky duck.” Qiao Yu giggled foolishly, feeling that life has its ups and downs, and right now she was surely on the upside.
As for the earlier absence of Cong Ye, whom she had completely pushed to the back of her mind…
Right now, he’s staring daggers at the back of Qiao Yu’s head, seething with deep animosity.
Ever since the day he forcefully joined Lin Qing and Mi Yi’s secret conversation, his little head has been crammed with loads and loads of new information, as though he had opened the door to a whole new world.
‘…Huh? You’re saying Lin Qing is into Qiao Yu, but Qiao Yu doesn’t like Lin Qing yet?’
Cong Ye looked at Mi Yi, who had uttered such an absurd statement, with an expression as if he were looking at an alien, his tone full of skepticism.
Seeing his reaction, Mi Yi wasn’t too keen on engaging with him. If he hadn’t barged in out of nowhere after overhearing her, she wouldn’t dream of discussing such matters with Cong Ye. She then shot Lin Qing a “Should we even continue this?” look for consultation. The person in question, Lin Qing, closed her eyes with a headache before picking up where Cong Ye had left off.
‘That’s exactly it, so you can’t go blabbing about it.’
Lin Qing said this with exceptional earnestness, causing Cong Ye to choke up all of a sudden, his mind becoming a tangled mess.
…Huh? So that’s how it is?
Then, weren’t his preconditioned answers to the problem all wrong from the start…?
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‘No, no, no, that can’t be right!’
He couldn’t accept such a reality, so he slapped the table and stood up to present evidence to prove his point.
‘That day, Qiao Yu clearly said she wants Lin Qing to be happy—’
‘Eh? Did Qiao Yu actually say something like that?’
‘—Ah.’
This time, it was Mi Yi who excitedly slapped the table and stood up, with Cong Ye frozen on the spot, turning towards Lin Qing with a look of pleading for help.
Lin Qing sighed deeply, truly deeply.
Words once spoken are like water spilled, and due to Cong Ye’s slip of the tongue, Lin Qing simply repeated everything that Qiao Yu had said in the courtyard that day to Mi Yi, while Cong Ye sat tight-lipped beside them, nodding repeatedly—of course, there wasn’t really anything left for him to reveal at this point.
‘…’
After listening, Mi Yi remained open-mouthed in a daze for a moment before slowly beginning to speak.
‘…A proposal?’
‘Right?!!’
Cong Ye eagerly grabbed Mi Yi’s hand with the joy of finding a like-minded comrade sparking in his eyes. The quickly rational Mi Yi, with a look of disgust, flicked his hand away and furrowed her brows in deep thought.
‘Something’s off… Qiao Yu didn’t seem to be in love with Lin Qing before, so why would she say that sort of thing… so early?’
The three of them fell into silence for a moment. Discussing matters of the heart out in the open made Lin Qing intensely embarrassed, and she had already pondered Mi Yi’s question many times, never coming up with a satisfactory answer.
‘…Anyway, it’s certain that her purpose in saying that at the time wasn’t what you guys are thinking.’
Lin Qing looked sideways at Cong Ye, hinting within her words that she wanted to end this topic quickly. Cong Ye, even though he felt his misunderstanding was forgivable—who would blame him when Qiao Yu spoke so ambiguously?—cleared his throat twice and joined the discussion with a mindset of making amends for his error.
‘Ah… I’ve got the picture now, but what should we do next?’ He thought for a moment and then offered his own plan, ‘I think we should go for a confession—’
‘Zip it. Bringing up this heaven-or-hell gamble out of the blue is too risky right now.’
Mi Yi mercilessly cut him off before he could finish. Military Advisor Mi, as if stroking an imaginary beard, took control of the situation, her eyes briefly scanning over the disheartened Cong Ye.
‘…I think what Qiao Yu needs over there is a little push to help her figure things out.’
‘And this driving force—’
She slapped Cong Ye heavily on the shoulder, startling him into trembling thrice.
‘Hang on, you don’t mean to say…’
Lin Qing grew restless, her face a picture of surprise and uncertainty as she turned to look at Mi Yi, only to see a sly, fox-like grin spread across her face.
‘Now that we’ve got Cong Ye here to lend a hand… we’ve got a whole new set of options.’
‘After all, jealousy is the greatest motivator.’
Even the dense Cong Ye understood her meaning now, and he was instantly scared out of his wits, jumping up to wholeheartedly express his opposition to the plan.
‘No way, no way! I can’t do stuff like this!’
He didn’t want to be the person who meddles in his friends’ love lives—not even for acting! He racked his brains for drawbacks to the plan.
‘Because, because… Right! Because I can’t keep a secret! Just like earlier! I’d definitely spill the beans to Qiao Yu in no time! That would be terrible!’
‘…’
Mi Yi narrowed her eyes.
‘And another thing!’ Cong Ye pressed on, seizing the momentum, ‘Don’t you know what kind of person Qiao Yu is? Even if we somehow manage to fool her without giving anything away… if she takes it seriously, it’s going to be a real headache!’
‘If she really thinks there’s something between me and Lin Qing, with her personality, even if she likes Lin Qing, she’d definitely never speak of it again!’
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His desperate and earnest plea finally swayed Mi Yi, as she withdrew her hand in disappointment, muttering, ‘You’ve got a point.’
Cong Ye let out a sigh of relief, his brain whirring quickly in the moment of crisis and had even thought of a feasible plan.
‘…So even if we want Qiao Yu to get jealous, it has to be someone who isn’t Qiao Yu’s friend but someone important enough to attract her attention to pursue Lin Qing.’
‘If it’s a friend, she might just bless them in a minute. If it’s some insignificant pawn—well, Lin Qing has rejected how many people already? Qiao Yu hasn’t shown any reaction.’
Military Advisor Mi, was also out of ideas, feeling the feasibility of the plan drop significantly.
‘Where could we find such a convenient person…’
All three sighed in unison, as the first session of the ‘Help Lin Qing Find Love’ campaign involving Cong Ye ended not so perfectly.
Time returned to the present, and Cong Ye was still somewhat dazed, hardly believing the huge misunderstanding he had been under all this time.
Why had Qiao Yu been so attentive to Lin Qing before? Eh? Just friends? But didn’t she look at Lin Qing that day when she said she would only confess if the person she liked also liked her?
Cong Ye’s not particularly sharp brain was deeply tangled up, and it seemed he would need some more time to adjust to the situation.
“I think there’s something going on between Cong Ye and Mi Yi.”
“…Just a friendly heads-up, so far, your judgment on others’ romantic lives has never once been right.”
Qiao Yu silently ate her ice cream as Lu Yao, whose weak point had been caught, had a deflated look on his face but still insisted on his point of view.
“Because, because, Qiao Yu, you’ve seen it too, recently those two have been sneaky, always whispering to each other, right? Today too, they disappeared as soon as school was out!”
“Well, you’re not wrong about them talking…”
More than half a month has passed since the sports festival, and those two indeed seemed to be spending a lot of time alone together these days, but to Qiao Yu, it didn’t seem like that kind of atmosphere; it was probably just normal socializing.
Qiao Yu carelessly licked the chocolate that had smeared on her upper lip and looked towards Lu Yao, who was wearing a serious expression.
“…Feel lonely being left out by them?”
“Yes.”
An immediate answer.
With nothing to say in return, Qiao Yu silently patted him on the shoulder.
“Isn’t it that you still have me to accompany you after school?”
“Woo-ow, having you, Qiao Yu, is just the best… but why are you carrying two backpacks?”
Lu Yao approached her with a crestfallen face and, belatedly noticing, expressed his puzzlement at Qiao Yu’s front and back being fully occupied by two backpacks.
“Ah, this one is Lin Qing’s.”
Qiao Yu pointed to the backpack in front of her, flashing a bright smile.
“The monthly exams are coming up, aren’t they? I made plans today to go study at Lin Qing’s place, but there was suddenly a class committee meeting that came up, so Lin Qing told me to go ahead to the car and wait for her. That’s when I was gathering her backpack for her, you came over to ask if I wanted to go home—”
“Enough, I don’t want to hear it anymore! I’m obviously being excluded by my friends!”
Cold shots were coming from an unexpected direction, and a shivering Lu Yao huffily turned his head to show he was in a bad mood and didn’t want to talk. Even as Qiao Yu kept up a smile and said she had originally planned to wait for Lin Qing in the classroom, and that she had changed her mind for his sake didn’t seem to soothe him. He pointed at the plastic bag in her hand.
“Then I also want ice cream!”
“Ah, no can do, this is for Lin Qing.”
“Are you her boyfriend?!!”
“See, I told you your judgments on other people’s love lives are never right?!”
Qiao Yu jumped up like she had her tail stepped on, babbling to Lu Yao that her actions were purely out of concern for a friend and there were absolutely no personal feelings involved.
“But I also very much need your concern!”
“…although, although you’re right…”
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Over-explaining made the matter seem even more suspicious. Initially, Lu Yao, who had spoken in the heat of the moment, looked at Qiao Yu with heightened wariness, his gossip radar blinking uncertainly in his mind.
Finally realizing that explaining was worse than remaining silent, Qiao Yu began to change the subject. By this time, they had almost reached the school gates, and Qiao Yu caught sight of a person standing outside the gate who looked utterly out of place.
“…That is…”
“It looks like someone from another school… That uniform seems familiar somehow…”
Successfully distracted by the person at the school gate and having forgotten to stay angry with Qiao Yu, Lu Yao, who was a bit nearsighted, squinted his eyes and strained to look in that direction. His vision was fuzzy, and he couldn’t make out the person’s face, only discerning that it was a slim, tall boy.
But Qiao Yu had good eyesight; she recognized at a glance who the nervous face standing at the gate was, frowning with a disdain that was anything but ordinary.
“… It’s that relentless Li Hua.”
“Wow.”
Lu Yao let out an insincere exclamation. By this time, Li Hua at the gate had also noticed them and his face showed a mix of surprise and a contrived modesty, making both of their faces fall simultaneously.
“It looks like he’s here for us… do you think he’s come to thank us for our help?”
“…I don’t think so. To be honest, he did thank me before, and then I deleted him as a friend.”
Qiao Yu sighed, feeling deep down that she didn’t even want to write an extra word about this second male lead in the script. She crammed the last of her ice cream into her mouth in two or three bites, causing her a series of brain freezes.
She truly hoped this could be resolved before Lin Qing could show up.
