Gentle therapy
Using Qiao Yu’s birthday as a boundary – or even earlier, probably starting from the day Lin Qing proposed the rest time, the newly established addiction recovery plan of Lin Qing has gradually collapsed.
Her original idea was good: by maintaining a certain distance from Qiao Yu, restrain the excessive craving for Qiao Yu due to two years of separation, and after achieving initial results, then be intimate with Qiao Yu – that’s a story for later, let’s not mention it now.
At this point, even the first step has failed, let alone maintaining it. It is more accurate to say that the distance between them has drastically shortened during this time.
Of course, there are her own reasons for being unfaithful, but Lin Qing still feels that the main reason is because the other protagonist in this plan is becoming bolder and diverging fundamentally from herself.
“You see, this is different from quitting smoking and drinking, isn’t it?”
During break time, Qiao Yu earnestly elaborated on her theory.
“After all, I am not like tobacco and alcohol, which are completely harmful things. It is best to quit them completely, but I cannot be quit.”
… Speaking so confidently, it sounds quite convincing, clearly well-prepared.
“So I think the method of quitting those things cannot be applied to me. That is absolutely not going to work.”
Seeing Lin Qing loosening up a bit, Qiao Yu seized the opportunity and raised her eyebrows at her.
“—What should be used here is not maintaining a distance, but getting a little closer to let Qingqing get used to it, right? Gentle therapy is better, gentle therapy.”
For a moment, unable to find words to refute Qiao Yu, Lin Qing silently looked at her, hesitated, and said, “Is this the reason you always put your hand on my waist?”
“Oh.”
With a very exaggerated reaction, Qiao Yu let out an insincere cry, reluctantly withdrew her hand that had unknowingly reached around Lin Qing’s waist from the gap between Lin Qing and the backrest of the chair, and placed it neatly back on her own thigh.
“This is—probably a case of skin thirstiness or something? I unconsciously reached out.”
Clearly sophistry, Lin Qing looked at her amused and exasperated, although she felt there was some truth in what she said before this nonsense, she still had to give her a lecture on her increasingly audacious behavior.
“This ‘illness’ came quite suddenly, it was perfectly normal just a month ago.”
“Well, maybe something happened in this past month, do you have any clue?”
It must be said that recently, Qiao Yu’s face and mouth have made significant progress. Now, not only was she unfazed by the sarcasm in Lin Qing’s words, she could even calmly counter her, with a smile that seemed full of meaning, annoying Lin Qing even more.
“I think it might be an issue with this break time.”
Said in a completely provocative manner, Lin Qing caught Qiao Yu’s smiling gaze and responded with a flawless smile.
“If you didn’t do these things during break time, you wouldn’t have these troubles.”
Even though it might not be good to think about this when she’s trying so hard… Lin Qing is really cute.
Qiao Yu pretended to look puzzled, but couldn’t hold back her smile at the corner of her mouth, so she had to cover it up with an intentional sigh.
“Indeed, what I did during break time may have some issues.”
Unexpectedly, Qiao Yu admitted so honestly, leaving Lin Qing, who was prepared for her possible sophistry, momentarily at a loss. She looked at her with a slight bewilderment, only to see Qiao Yu smile modestly and gently, inching closer to her.
“Because, teacher, you never taught me what to do during break time.”
Qiao Yu’s voice became softer.
This is a dangerous signal.
Lin Qing’s alarm bells rang loudly in her mind, and she leaned back in the direction Qiao Yu was approaching, hastily trying to stop her: “What are you going to do again—”
“Wouldn’t a teacher avoid their own student?”
Although the words sounded unquestionably correct, Qiao Yu’s eyes did not match her seemingly innocent student-like expression.
“Aren’t you going to teach me? Just now, the teacher said what I did was problematic.”
Knowing that any response to this would veer into a strange direction, Lin Qing chose to remain silent.
“If that’s the case, I’m going to do things my way, teacher?”
Like the last escape route left by a merciful hunter, Lin Qing lowered her eyes, feeling Qiao Yu’s breath and voice slowly approaching her.
Avoiding it would be quite easy, as long as she showed a clear refusal, Qiao Yu wouldn’t force her.
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But Lin Qing didn’t want to.
Her previous request for Qiao Yu to call her ‘teacher’ during tutoring had become a pitfall she dug for herself. Qiao Yu skillfully added a touch of ambiguity to this word, as if veiling it with a forbidden layer. When this word reached Lin Qing’s ears, she couldn’t help but tremble. There was an inexplicable sense of doing something inappropriate with her student. Lin Qing tensed her shoulders nervously and closed her eyes as Qiao Yu approached.
“—Alright, let’s stop here.”
The soft touch that was anticipated never reached her lips. Qiao Yu’s breath suddenly moved away, and her voice cheerfully called for a halt. Lin Qing opened her eyes in confusion, only to see Qiao Yu’s satisfied gaze.
“The gentle therapy, how does it feel? Is it effective?”
“…”
Silenced momentarily, Lin Qing listened as Qiao Yu somewhat embarrassedly elaborated that continuing further might be considered a radical therapy. She felt it was time to first shorten the distance between them, as she couldn’t pay attention to any more of what was being said.
Taking a deep breath, without saying a word, she reached out and grabbed Qiao Yu’s collar, decisively pulling her towards herself without any doubt.
Mid-sentence, this sudden turn of events interrupted their exchange. Qiao Yu’s expression showed a hint of surprise, but obediently followed her pull back closer.
Truly a face that evoked a mixture of love and hate.
“You are just…”
Lin Qing murmured, not finishing her sentence, yielding to her own desires, and offering her lips.
Thus, her plan to maintain distance was officially declared over.
After that, with Lin Qing’s tacit approval, Qiao Yu began to push the boundaries more during their weekly tutoring sessions. If it weren’t for Lin Qing’s reprimands, she might have seriously considered holding Lin Qing while she completed her assignments. This thought had progressed to the point where Qiao Yu murmured, “If I make a mistake, Qingqing will see it immediately,” before being sternly rejected by the shocked Lin Qing.
It seemed as if Qiao Yu was trying to make up for all the missed opportunities in the past by seizing every chance to… touch her.
This made Lin Qing unable to help but wonder who between them was dependent on the other.
Of course, fundamentally, they still maintained decorum. At the very least, her hands remained obediently in their proper places, not wandering into strange territories, with the exception of some restlessness with her mouth.
“…I’ve told you several times, haven’t I? Don’t bite, it’ll leave marks…someone might see it.”
“Ugh…sorry, I sometimes can’t control myself. I’ll pay attention next time.”
“Next time—ah, really, maybe we should cancel break time…”
This kind of conversation probably occurred every now and then. Due to Qiao Yu’s forgetfulness in such matters, despite Lin Qing’s stern words, she actually indulged her, and in the end, it was she who suffered. For example, not being able to tie her hair into a ponytail, or wearing turtlenecks when the weather wasn’t that cold.
By the way, Lin Qing felt that Qiao Yu’s parents basically knew that the two of them were engaged in some unspeakable activities upstairs. After all, they never knocked on Qiao Yu’s door during their tutoring sessions, and after each lesson, they would look at her with such a kind and understanding gaze that made Lin Qing uncomfortable.
She had also pondered whether this behavior was too outrageous—after all, she was being paid to be a tutor and spending time teaching Qiao Yu in this aspect just didn’t feel right.
Out of a sense of responsibility and shame, Lin Qing proposed a rule after much thought.
“If you drop in the rankings for the monthly exams, we’ll cancel break time for that month.”
“Wait wait wait, I already ranked seventh in the class last time, you know? The gap for dropping is much larger than the gap for improvement, isn’t it?”
Met with Qiao Yu’s feeble protest, Lin Qing decided not to entertain it. Dealing with such enemies required a heart of stone—
“…Then let’s change it to not dropping out of the top eighty in the grade.”
Despite Lin Qing relenting under the pitiful gaze of the other person, she cursed herself for lacking firmness.
However, Qiao Yu never actually dropped below eightieth place, so the break time couldn’t be canceled, making the rule seem more like a formality.
During the third monthly exam of the previous semester, Qiao Yu successfully achieved fifth place in the class. As she proudly handed her report card to Lin Qing, the sense of accomplishment she exuded could make one think she had ranked first in the grade.
Lin Qing glanced over the report card and looked at Qiao Yu, who was sitting upright, waiting for praise. She couldn’t resist raising her hand to tousle Qiao Yu’s hair and softly said, “You’ve reached your goal, so what reward would you like?”
Feeling somewhat nervous about what request she might make, Lin Qing was surprised when Qiao Yu simply shook her head and calmly spoke, as if she had already made a decision.
“I want to wait until after my college entrance examination to tally it together.”
Implying her confidence in making it into the top five again, Qiao Yu’s response left Lin Qing momentarily stunned, but she soon smiled.
“Then we’ll see how you perform.”
Being able to wait until that time was also a good thing for Lin Qing.
By that time, if everything went smoothly, there would truly be nothing she couldn’t give to Qiao Yu.
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Or rather, hoping Qiao Yu would take it all.
In the blink of an eye, winter had arrived.
The winter vacation was approaching quickly, although the winter break for seniors in high school was a mere ten days or so, it was still something to look forward to. The only regret was that on Lin Qing’s birthday, she actually had to attend classes. Qiao Yu had considered taking a day off, but Lin Qing, who had anticipated this early on, strictly prohibited it.
‘Just focus on your studies, don’t come to my place, and you don’t need to give me a gift.’
In her memory, Lin Qing’s tone was very firm, repeatedly emphasizing as if afraid that Qiao Yu wouldn’t listen.
“… Wait until next year’s birthday, I’ll come for both the principal and the interest.”
Her face inexplicably blushed, and as a cover-up, she added another sentence.
“But you have to call me. If you’re not the first one to wish me a happy birthday, I’ll bite you.”
This threat was cute to the point of being excessive. In reality, Qiao Yu was quite curious to see how Lin Qing would bite her, but she couldn’t afford to make a mistake in this matter, so she could only deal with it later.
Qiao Yu remembered raising her hands in surrender, fully accepting everything, and then seeing the girl in front of her being amused, she hugged her.
Ah, she couldn’t think about it anymore, if she kept thinking, this night would become even more desolate.
Qiao Yu shook her head groggily, forcing herself to focus on the screen in front of her.
Yes, even though Qiao Yu, as a busy senior high school student focused on studying, still had the responsibility of writing chapters every week.
What had been giving her a headache recently was that she had finally written the two years when she left.
“How did the comments on last week’s chapter go? I won’t go read them myself, so just give me a brief summary…”
“I also think the host better not go read them. Simply put, about 50% of readers feel sorry for Lin Qing, another 40% are blaming Qiao Yu, and the remaining 10% are neutral.”
“Really miserable.”
The “Qiao Yu” mentioned here refers to the character in the novel. Since the real reason for her departure couldn’t be included, Qiao Yu had to package the situation as “Qiao Yu disappeared after a serious illness,” making it somewhat reasonable that her friends didn’t contact her during these two years.
Of course, no matter how she wrote it, there would be an out-of-character aspect, but Qiao Yu just wanted to minimize that.
In last week’s written content, the fact that “Qiao Yu” had fallen ill had not been disclosed yet, so readers could only see Qiao Yu’s sudden departure and Lin Qing’s panicked helplessness – it was a mess in the comments section, which Qiao Yu dared not read.
Setting that aside for now, just focusing on the act of writing about this period of time was a very difficult task for Qiao Yu.
“…”
Her hands felt like they were filled with lead, stagnating on the keyboard, her body stiff and sweating.
“Host, Host? How about taking a break?”
“…Mm.”
Qiao Yu temporarily succumbed to her own powerlessness, took a few sips from the water cup, and only then did her heart palpitations subside slightly.
She had to delve into and depict Lin Qing during those two years.
During that period, Lin Qing would occasionally mention those times in a light tone, but would only say a few words without going into details, occasionally showing a helpless expression.
An expression like tearing open a wound alive.
Qiao Yu couldn’t bear to ask her further.
So, even though she was risking an increase in the OOC levels, Qiao Yu still decided to complete this part of the story herself, but it was even more difficult than she had imagined.
This was her third time getting stuck in the text tonight; Qiao Yu stared blankly for a while, then suddenly, as if waking from a dream, looked at the clock.
It was eleven forty at night.
She frowned in thought for a while, then picked up her phone to send a message to Lin Qing.
Qiao Yu: I’m taking a break! There are things that I really can’t finish today, so I might need to sleep later.
The reply came very quickly, as if the person on the other side was right by the phone, immediately responding to the message.
Lin Qing: What kind of break is this?
Lin Qing: Okay, considering your serious attitude
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Lin Qing: But however late you stayed up today, you have to sleep that much earlier tomorrow
In a tone of definite assertion, Qiao Yu could almost see Lin Qing’s solemn and soft expression reflected in the words.
After that, Lin Qing didn’t chat with her much, probably considering that she still had things to do, and after a few words, bid her goodnight.
Qiao Yu put down her phone, took a deep breath, and turned back to the screen.
“…Is it okay, Host? You only took a short rest.”
“It’s fine. I have to make the most of my time, or else Lin Qing will worry.”
Feeling like it had been fed a mouthful of sweet dog food, the system was both worried and happy, hearing Qiao Yu speak in a serious tone.
“During those two years, really painful things happened, but now they are in the past.”
“What I need to do is… write it down, remember it, engrave it in my heart, and then love her even more.”
“I almost lost her once, but luckily we have made it to this point.”
“This is probably called – reminiscing the bitter past for a sweeter present?”
While she could still crack jokes, the painful past and the contented present intertwined in her writing, Qiao Yu looked at the screen and typed out a line.
【Just being in this world is enough to make me less likely to lose you.】
In the future, it will be all about gains.