Chapter 115: Telling the Truth
After school on Wednesday, Yang Ye arrived early at the music room to wait.
While eating a flatbread, he was thinking that he had never seen Li Juan and Li Mu appear at the same time.
Even though Li Juan and Li Mu had totally different personalities, the more time passed, the more he started to suspect something about Li Mu.
He heard light footsteps outside, and when he looked up, he smiled and called out.
“Li Juan didn’t come again?”
Li Mu followed behind Yu Fan, keeping his head down, his face slightly red.
His smaller and more delicate body made it easy to hide behind Yu Fan, and he looked like he was trying hard to disappear.
Come to think of it, Li Mu used to be only half a head shorter than Yu Fan. Now the difference was nearly a full head. It clearly wasn’t because Yu Fan got taller.
When Li Mu stepped out from behind Yu Fan, Yang Ye was surprised. “Whoa, Li Mu? Why are you here?”
Li Mu turned his head away, face red with embarrassment.
Yang Ye paused. Li Mu’s expression reminded him of how Li Juan looked when she stayed quiet, shy and quiet. But once Li Juan opened her mouth, she would suddenly turn into someone completely different, lively and full of energy like a little kid.
Smiling, Yang Ye asked, “What’s going on?”
Li Mu was so embarrassed he couldn’t even speak. Instead, he poked Yu Fan in the side.
Yu Fan immediately understood and said, “Teacher Yang, Li Juan is actually Li Mu in girl’s clothes.”
“Oh~ I figured.” Yang Ye wasn’t surprised at all. He grinned and asked, “So you two are dating now?”
“Huh?” Yu Fan froze.
“You two should act more normal in public,” Yang Ye said casually. “I don’t mind, but others might.”
“We’re not dating!” Yu Fan walked over to the piano and sat down, explaining, “Li Mu and I are just normal friends. We only pretended to be a couple because of Wang Chen.”
“Really?” Yang Ye looked at Li Mu.
Li Mu nodded weakly, his cheeks burning.
Since Wang Chen already knew about his crossdressing, there was no point in hiding it from Yang Ye too. Being honest would avoid more problems later.
For example, at the New Year’s performance, if he still needed to dress up as “his sister,” he’d need Yang Ye’s help to cover for him.
He couldn’t just disappear from the crowd before going on stage, that would be too suspicious.
With Yang Ye’s help, they could make up an excuse for him to leave the room without drawing attention.
Li Mu lowered his head like a shy little bird, showing the same nervous expression he wore whenever he went out dressed as a girl.
His face felt hot and dizzy. Telling a grown-up this kind of secret was more embarrassing than he expected. His hands gripped the bottom of his shirt without him noticing.
He just couldn’t keep a straight face, his blush was even spreading to his collarbone.
Yang Ye looked at him, finding his shy look kind of funny. He laughed and joked, “Well, if you didn’t dress like a girl, none of this would’ve happened.”
Li Mu couldn’t explain it. He could only accept that he looked like some weird guy who liked crossdressing.
But he wasn’t! Even though his heart beat fast every time he put on makeup and dressed up like a girl, and part of him enjoyed the excitement, he could still control himself. It wasn’t like he had to do it.
“Alright, let’s start class,” Yang Ye said, waving him over. But then he suddenly asked, “So you’re really going to dress like a girl and perform on New Year’s?”
“Um…”
“What for?”
“I lost a bet with Yu Fan,” Li Mu said quickly, even though his head was still spinning from embarrassment. He made sure to push all the blame onto Yu Fan as fast as possible.
Yang Ye didn’t feel suspicious. After all, Li Mu had a delicate and pretty face, and didn’t look like someone who would lie. So he just gave Yu Fan a helpless look and said, “You young people really know how to play around.”
Yu Fan didn’t argue, he just silently rolled his eyes.
After a few lessons and some weekend practice, the teamwork between Xiao Jing and Yu Fan had improved a lot. They had sung the song “Rooftop” so many times now.
After listening to them sing again, Yang Ye asked with a bit of confusion, “Li Mu, why do you seem like a different person every time you sing?”
“If it weren’t for that, I would’ve figured out a long time ago that it was you dressed as a girl.”
Li Mu froze for a second, trying hard to think of a good excuse.
But Yu Fan quickly stepped in and said, “Maybe it’s because Li Mu really loves singing.”
“Really?”
“Yes!” Li Mu nodded without hesitation.
“You should’ve told me earlier. If I had known, I could’ve given you some private lessons. But now the spring entrance exams are coming up, so you two should focus more on studying.”
Li Mu didn’t say anything, just nodded.
The 40-minute lesson ended quickly. Yang Ye yawned and lazily got up to leave, but Yu Fan stopped him.
Smiling, Yu Fan asked for time off again.
“Teacher Yang, I really have something to do tomorrow and the day after. Can I take a leave?”
“What is it?” Yang Ye looked at him with disbelief. “If you really want time off, have your parents call me.”
“Okay.” Yu Fan took out his phone, opened his contacts, changed Chen Yi’s name to “Dad,” and made the call.
After a moment, the call went through.
Yu Fan had clearly explained everything to Chen Yi ahead of time, so Chen Yi smoothly acted like his dad and asked Yang Ye for time off on Yu Fan’s behalf.
Li Mu, watching from the side, felt a little jealous and went over too. “I want time off too. I mentioned it last time.”
“Then you also have to let your paren—” Yang Ye suddenly realized what he was about to say and quickly corrected himself, “Give me a reason.”
“I’m going with Yu Fan to a wedding.”
Yang Ye looked down at Li Mu’s big, shiny eyes, but couldn’t see much sincerity in them.
Just as he was about to say no, Li Mu’s expression turned sad and he sighed.
“My parents can’t call you either…”
With Li Mu’s looks getting more and more pretty, that sad and pitiful face instantly made Yang Ye feel protective. Plus, since he had misspoken just now, he quickly nodded and said, “Alright, alright, you can take time off. Don’t look so down.”
Tsk, looking prettier really does help sometimes.
Acting pitiful fixed a tough situation right away.
Li Mu squinted his eyes and nodded, “Then I’ll go pack my things at the dorm.”
Too bad, being a guy, using this kind of trick once in a while is fine, but doing it too often feels weird.
He left first, and Yu Fan happily followed behind him.
“We’re heading to Yingfeng Town tonight. I’ll be riding with Chen Yi. You should probably call a taxi.”
“Okay.”
“Just don’t say anything weird to Chen Yi, alright? Or he might not want to hang out with me anymore.”
“I know.” Li Mu’s feelings were a bit complicated.
Yu Fan scratched his head. “Mm.”
Hopefully this time everything will go smoothly, unlike last time which was kind of a mess.