Chapter 86: Li Mu’s Plan
After school on Wednesday, Yu Fan went alone to the music room.
The door wasn’t locked, but Yang Ye hadn’t arrived yet.
Yu Fan found a seat, sat down, leaned forward with his elbows resting on his thighs, and started thinking about life.
That Li Mu... Yu Fan never realized how dramatic he could be.
He had clearly agreed to let Yu Fan help explain the whole cross-dressing thing, but yesterday he kept coming up with excuses to avoid it. And now, he was acting like nothing had happened and planned to keep cross-dressing as if the truth hadn’t come out.
Maybe... something’s wrong with his head?
“I had class just now.” The door to the music room swung open. Yang Ye came in quickly, holding a bowl of stinky tofu. While eating, he apologized, “Sorry I’m late. You didn’t wait too long, right?”
Yu Fan looked up and saw the snack in his hand. The corner of his mouth twitched. “It’s fine.”
Come on, you clearly went off campus to buy that tofu and then suddenly remembered you were the music teacher, right?
Yang Ye glanced around the room and then asked, “Li Mu… I mean, Li Juan?”
So he does know that "Li Juan" is just Li Mu in girl’s clothes.
Still, Yu Fan pretended not to notice and answered, “She’s from another school, so she’s a bit late.”
“Oh, I thought her period hadn’t ended yet.”
Yang Ye was their homeroom teacher, but he usually treated the students more like friends. So it was common for him to make light jokes like this.
He sat down next to Yu Fan, set the stinky tofu and a skewer stick on the floor, and asked, “Want some?”
“I don’t like stinky tofu.”
Yang Ye nodded, then fell silent for a moment. After hesitating for a while, he finally asked slowly, “Do you think Li Mu might have some... mental—”
Before he could finish, footsteps echoed in the hallway. He quickly shut his mouth and turned his head to look.
Li Mu, dressed as a girl, walked into the room.
He was wearing the same outfit as during the previous auditions, but his makeup was even more polished, he was getting better at it with practice.
As soon as he walked in, he saw Yang Ye looking at him. Li Mu's cheeks turned slightly red, and he gave a bright, innocent smile. Speaking in a sweet and delicate voice, he explained, “I wasn’t feeling well last time, so I asked Yu Fan to get me excused.”
“Mhm, Li Juan, right? Once I finish eating, we’ll get started,” Yang Ye said, holding back a smile, curious to see how long Li Mu could keep up the act.
To be fair, Li Mu looked very different from his usual self.
If Yang Ye hadn’t known for sure that Li Mu didn’t have a sister who looked just like him, and if Li Mu wasn’t so bad at hiding it, he might not have believed that the tall, pretty girl in front of him was actually Li Mu.
He suddenly realized Li Mu actually had a nice smile.
“Try to smile more from now on,” Yang Ye said as he finished his stinky tofu, set the bowl aside, and walked over to the piano. “Alright, let’s begin.”
“Okay!” Li Mu skipped over to the piano, looking excited for the lesson.
Yu Fan could tell that Li Mu’s body was now being controlled by Xiao Jing.
Otherwise, Li Mu would’ve been way too embarrassed to even lift his head, definitely not skipping around like this.
He stood next to Li Mu and asked Yang Ye, “So what song are we singing for the New Year’s event?”
“Since it’s a duet between a boy and a girl, we should use that to your advantage... How about a song with harmonies? Like Rooftop?”
Xiao Jing was confused for a second.
Yu Fan scratched his head. “You mean that song by Jay Chou?”
This song came out in 1999. Later, it became popular again when Jay Chou sang it. But Yu Fan, who was born in 2002, only has a vague impression of it.
As for Xiao Jing, she was born in 2008. By the time she was old enough to understand music, Jay Chou wasn’t that popular anymore. She had barely even heard any of his songs.
“You two will need to practice a lot, especially the harmony parts,” Yang Ye said with a cheerful smile. “When I heard you sing Myth last time, I thought your voices matched pretty well. So this song should work.”
“Alright,” Yu Fan nodded.
Yang Ye then looked at Li Mu. When he saw Li Mu also nodding, he said, “Okay, I’ll play the song twice so you can get familiar with it.”
He took out his phone and started playing Rooftop, but his eyes kept glancing toward Li Mu.
Even though he was pretty sure that this “Li Juan” in front of him was really Li Mu, the more he looked, the more confused he felt.
Wait... was Li Mu always like this?
When he first saw the girl up close today, he was sure it was Li Mu in girl’s clothes, just look at the hairstyle. If you removed the hair clips, it looked exactly like Li Mu’s usual haircut.
But now, watching Li Mu lightly hum along with the music, looking happy with a small smile on his face, Yang Ye just felt more puzzled.
He had known Li Mu for over two years now.
After a form was filled out for a family background check, and Yang Ye learned that both of Li Mu’s parents had passed away and he was all alone, he started paying special attention to his mental health.
After all, situations that sad are rare.
In his eyes, Li Mu was always someone who was quiet and shy, didn’t talk much, didn’t like to make friends, and generally kept to himself.
For more than two years, that’s the impression Li Mu gave him, whether from his own observations or from asking Li Mu’s roommates. The answers were always similar.
But this version of Li Mu looked nothing like that.
After watching for a while, Yang Ye gave Yu Fan a look.
“You keep listening here. I’m going to the bathroom,” he said, standing up and walking out of the room.
Yu Fan hesitated, looked at Li Mu, then at Yang Ye’s back, and finally followed him out. “I need the bathroom too.”
Once they reached the hallway and stood at the restroom entrance, Yang Ye turned around and asked seriously, “What’s really going on? Don’t hide it from me.”
“Huh?” Yu Fan looked at him, confused.
Without Li Mu’s permission, Yu Fan had already decided to play dumb all the way.
But after thinking things through, he had a rough idea of what Li Mu wanted to do.
“Don’t pretend,” Yang Ye said, hands in his pockets, with a serious tone. “Li Mu doesn’t have a sister. I don’t have a problem with his personal interests, but pretending to be his sister just to get free stuff is crossing the line.”
“Huh?”
Now Yu Fan was truly confused. But then, the image of Wang Chen popped into his mind, and he suddenly understood who Li Mu had tricked for free food.
He kept shaking his head and said, “No, that really is Li Mu’s sister. But back then, because of the one-child policy, she was given away.”
“......”
Yang Ye stared at him silently, while Yu Fan looked back at him with a straight face.
“Look, even their voices are different,” Yu Fan said, spreading his hands. “And their personalities too, especially that. You can’t fake that kind of personality.”
...That kind of made sense?
Yang Ye turned to look back toward the classroom and muttered, “Don’t tell me this is some kind of split personality thing?”