Chapter 81: The Vocal Coach
"Why does it feel like... you’ve grown boobs?"
After school on Monday, Wu Lei asked Li Mu this question after checking again and again. From the side, he could clearly see a small bump on Li Mu’s chest.
Li Mu looked down at his chest, which was mostly hidden by his jacket, and calmly replied, "I gained weight."
Just last week, there was only a slight bump. But now, he could even pinch some fat there.
Luckily, the weather was getting cooler, so wearing a jacket helped hide most of it. But Wu Lei sat next to him, so of course he noticed the change.
"Really?" Wu Lei scratched his head. He felt like Li Mu was acting stranger and stranger lately.
"Yeah."
Wu Lei reached out without thinking to grab Li Mu’s chest, but Li Mu reacted quickly and stood up, making him miss.
As he stood and started packing his books, Li Mu gave him a cold look. "Are you crazy?"
"I just wanted to check."
"……"
Wu Lei suddenly noticed that his deskmate seemed more and more feminine. That cold glance, it almost perfectly matched the idea of an “ice beauty.”
Before, Li Mu just looked like a kind of cold and quiet guy, maybe a bit handsome. But now, no matter how you looked at him, there was a clear “girl vibe” coming from him.
Li Mu ignored his nosy deskmate, quickly packed up, grabbed his umbrella, and walked out of the row, then looked toward the back door.
Yu Fan was chatting with a girl from their class. The chubby guy, Xu Ze, was also there joking around. They all seemed to be having a good time.
People's joys and sorrows truly cannot be shared.
Look at me, turning into this… and Yu Fan, who always calls me his brother and teammate, is still goofing around and even keeps pushing me to wear girls' clothes.
Li Mu sighed quietly and walked straight toward the group.
As he got closer, he could hear what they were saying.
"You're really chasing that girl?"
"But honestly, even if you put that girl in the next class, she'd still be one of the best. That height, that aura~ wow."
"Isn’t she Li Mu’s sister?"
Yu Fan was trying to handle their questions, but when he heard footsteps, he looked up and immediately saw Li Mu coming.
He quickly gave a slightly guilty smile and said, "I have to go meet the music teacher for practice, gotta go."
He left the other two behind and walked straight to Li Mu, smiling even more.
Li Mu looked at him with even more dislike.
Could you please stop smiling at me like that? It’s so creepy.
He paused for a second, turned his head slightly, and continued walking toward the door. Yu Fan followed right behind.
"Should I go get the outfit from your dorm?"
"Yeah."
"Or maybe we should just explain the situation to the teacher? If you keep dressing like a girl all the time, people will notice eventually."
"No."
"Then what are you going to do? Are you really planning to dress like a girl every time we go to music practice?"
Li Mu was also annoyed about this. He started to feel like Yu Fan was bringing these things up on purpose just to embarrass him.
In a bad mood, he found it hard to trust anything Yu Fan said, it all felt like there was a hidden reason behind it.
After thinking for a bit, Li Mu came up with a compromise. "Let me go meet the teacher with you first."
If the music teacher turned out to be a kind person, maybe he could slowly drop hints, like wearing women's clothes the first time, then makeup with boy’s clothes the next time, and full boy’s clothes the third time. That way, maybe the teacher would just think he was a tomboy, not a crossdresser.
Saying it directly would just be too embarrassing. He couldn’t bring himself to do it.
"Alright, that works too."
Yu Fan nodded, agreeing with Li Mu’s idea, then took the lead and walked toward the general building.
The school’s general building had six floors. Since it was a vocational school, almost every major needed hands-on practice in special classrooms.
As soon as they walked into the building, Li Mu smelled something delicious, and his stomach immediately started growling.
“Looks like the Chinese cooking class students have a free period,” Yu Fan muttered as he peeked into the classroom through the window. He turned to Li Mu and said, “I know a few people in that class. If you’re hungry, wait here. I’ll go inside and grab us some food.”
Li Mu held his stomach, trying to make it stop growling. “Not hungry.”
“Really? Then I’ll just go get a few bites myself.”
“I’ll just have a taste,” Li Mu changed his mind immediately.
Yu Fan really was popular at school. Since his first year at the vocational school, more and more people knew him. He had friends in almost every class.
Even though the cooking class had nothing to do with their own major, when Yu Fan opened the classroom door, Li Mu could hear many students inside greeting him happily.
Then, looking through the window, he saw a few girls blushing as they offered freshly cooked dishes to Yu Fan.
Damn, I’m so jealous.
A moment later, Yu Fan came out of the classroom carrying two bowls of food, complaining, “They made sweet and sour pork today. I don’t like that sweet-and-sour flavor.”
“Mm.”
He placed the two bowls on the windowsill and gave Li Mu a pair of disposable chopsticks, then started eating himself.
To be honest, studying Chinese cooking didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Li Mu looked into the classroom through the window. The cooking class had already finished, and the students were just eating the food they made during class.
Basically, they were having lunch.
Then he bent down and looked at the two dishes in front of him. He picked up a piece of pork with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.
Even though the sweet and sour pork made by the students was only about the same level as school cafeteria food, sweet and sour was Li Mu’s favorite flavor. He was the type of person who dipped dumplings in ketchup and liked putting sweet sauce on BBQ meat.
Thanks to his taste preferences, he gave the two bowls of pork an honest and heartfelt thumbs up.
“Not bad,” he said after eating a few pieces and standing up straight.
“You’ve almost finished both bowls,” Yu Fan said with a side glance, lazily leaning against the wall. He asked, “Do you know how to cook?”
“Yes.”
“Then make something for me to try next time?”
“No interest,” Li Mu said, bowing his head again and quickly finishing off both bowls of meat. Only then did he walk upstairs, fully satisfied.
If I could eat like this every time before music class, then dressing like a girl might actually be worth it.
The classroom they had agreed on was a music room on the fifth floor. By the time they got there, the teacher was already waiting.
But when they reached the door, both of them froze in shock. “Homeroom teacher?!”
“Yo!” Yang Ye, sitting at the piano, waved at them with a smile and then looked over at them kindly.
“You can play music too, boss?” Yu Fan ran over excitedly, his voice full of surprise. “For real? You never said anything!”
“I sometimes help with the vocal class for the next class music training program,” Yang Ye said with a smile at Li Mu. “He’s seen my schedule before, so he should know.”
Li Mu quietly shook his head.
How would he know that? Sure, Yang Ye’s schedule was on his desk, but Li Mu had only glanced at it quickly a few times.
The real reason he looked was to check if Yang Ye had any classes, so he’d know whether it was safe to slack off and play on his phone during some periods, without getting caught by Yang Ye suddenly showing up at the classroom window with a scary stare.
“So, where’s the girl?” Yang Ye asked with a cheerful look, “Didn’t your sister come today?”
“Um.”
Afraid that Li Mu wouldn’t be able to explain well, Yu Fan quickly jumped in, “She said she got her period today and has a stomachache.”
You’re the one who got your period!
Yang Ye laughed so hard that wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. He nodded gently and said, “Alright then, let’s begin.”