An Impossible to Reject Confession

Chapter 18.2:

At 9:30 PM, Qiao Mu finished sending Xu Youyou home and came back. As soon as he entered, he saw Lu Shi lying on his bed.  

“You sent that sinister tigress back?” Lu Shi sat up and said. 

Qiao Mu silently stared at him. 

“Because of her I was suffering. Grandmother hasn’t hit me in many years, why can’t I call her a tigress?” As Lu Shi talked the more he pitied himself, “I am still a minor who spent three months working hard filming. My father doesn’t dote on me, my mother doesn’t love me. It wasn’t easy for me to arrive and have a nice home cooked meal at Grandmother’s. But as soon as I entered I was beaten indiscriminately. My own brother betrayed me.” 

“Sorry, I accidentally caused her to misunderstand. Don’t say that about her, I already explained it to her just now.” Qiao Mu apologized. 

Lu Shi saw Qiao Mu’s sincere apology and felt it was bad to pretend to be pitiful. He magnanimously waved his hand: “Forget it, it’s fine. Besides, Grandmother doesn’t have the heart to actually beat me. Although, your relationship with this Xu Youyou seems pretty good. Tell me about it in detail.”

He had known Qiao Mu for sixteen years, but he’s never seen Qiao Mu as “lively” as he was today. Because of this, the small grievance he suffered was nothing. 

Qiao Mu looked at his cousin’s standard gossiping face and grabbed his clothes: “I’m going to shower.” 

“Why are you showering? You can shower after we talk.” Lu Shi ran over and pulled him and pressed him onto the bed. “It’s been three years, this is the first friend you’ve made. Furthermore, it’s a girl that you’ve brought home.” 

“Don’t talk nonsense.” 

“Don’t be nervous, it seems my guess is correct. Little brother, you’ve finally grown up.” Lu Shi patted Qiao Mu’s shoulder with a look of relief. 

Qiao Mu angrily swatted Lu Shi’s hand away, and asked: “Since you’ve come back to school, how long are you going to stay?” 

“I won’t leave before winter break. If I take any more leaves of absence, the school will expel me.” Lu Shi said, “Besides, my dad also wanted me to study hard and get into college the typical way.” 

“Then during this time can you stay here and accompany Grandmother?” Qiao Mu asked.

“I can, but……what are you going to do?” 

Qiao Mu didn’t hide it and brought out his phone. He opened up the sign up sheet that Li Xiuran had sent him and showed it to Lu Shi. 

“My goodness!” The impact of the sign up sheet was so great, Lu Shi had jumped up from the bed in surprise. “You want to participate in a Weiqi competition.” 

“Talk quieter.” Qiao Mu anxiously looked towards the door and Lu Shi understood in seconds. The two listened in silence for a while and when they didn’t hear Grandmother Qiao make a sound, they let out a sigh of relief. 

“Are you really going to participate in this Weiqi contest?” Lu Shi could suppress and lower his voice, but he couldn’t suppress the excitement in his heart. 

If Qiao Mu could start playing Weiqi again, did that mean his sickness was completely cured?

“I want to try, I want to walk out by myself. I can’t keep letting Grandmother and you guys worry about me.” Qiao Mu said. 

“That’s great.” For people with mental illness, self-awakening was the best medicine. 

“However, there are a lot of matches. I may have to go into the city every weekend for a match. While waiting for the finals, I’ll even have to go to the province.”  Because it was an amateur Weiqi competition, the matches were held on the weekends. “Once I find an excuse, I’ll talk to Grandmother.” 

“Honestly speaking, if Grandmother were to know that you wanted to overcome your psychological shadow,  she would be very happy.” Lu Shi said. 

“Let’s wait until it succeeds first, otherwise it could make her worry more.” Qiao Mu shook his head, At the beginning, to not let anything related to Weiqi trigger Qiao Mu, Grandmother had even burned the Weiqi set his grandmother had left behind. 

“That’s true. Then you better find a good reason. Finding a reason to go out so often after you’ve been spending the last few years at home will be hard.” Lu Shi touched his chin and carefully thought about it. 

Qiao Mu knew it would be hard. During this time, he was always worrying about the same thing. 

“Ai, to go Xu Youyou for help.” Lu Shi suddenly had an idea. 

“How can she help?” 

“Just say that you guys are dating and spend the weekends going on dates.” Lu Shi said. 

Qiao Mu had thought he actually came up with a solution, but after listening he gave him a look of disdain. 

“Don’t think that I can’t tell. You like her, don’t you? Earlier at school, I thought she looked familiar. It was only during dinner did I remember, you guys went to the lantern festival together for the Mid-Autumn Festival, right? That photo~~” Lu Shi winked as he said. 

“She only thinks of me as a friend.” Just as Lu Shi thought Qiao Mu would be obscure and dodge the topic, Qiao Mu actually openly answered. 

Qiao Mu was serious, Lu Shi realized. The teasing mood disappeared in an instant. 

“I think she cares a lot about you. She was very protective of you.” Lu Shi encouraged. 

“She likes handsome guys.” Qiao Mu heard this personally. 

“That’s impossible. Look how handsome I am, but she didn’t like me. She even pretended to be a white lotus to frame me.” Lu Shi immediately retorted. Girls who like handsome guys would not bear to harm him. 

“How tall are you now?” Qiao Mu suddenly asked. 

“Why are you suddenly asking this? This month I grew another two centimeters. I’m now 178 cm.” Lu Shi said. 

“She likes guys 180 cm and above.” Qiao Mu said. 

“How do you know?” 

Because Xu Youyou had mentioned and emphasized the number 180 more than once in front of him. So, 180 cm was probably the height she liked. 

“Her requirements are quite detailed, but that’s fine. We are just 16. We’ll continue to grow. Earlier at school, I wanted to say that you finally had a growth spurt. You are now around 173 cm, right?” Lu Shi used his own height to estimate Qiao Mu’s. “Last time I saw you, you were only 168 cm and it hasn’t been long since I last saw you. I think after another year, you’ll be taller than me. After another growth spurt, you’ll be taller than 180 cm before senior year.” 

“As for your looks, did you forget? When you were younger, my mom always said you were so good looking that you were like a girl. As long as you slim down, you’ll definitely be handsome.” Lu Shi encouraged. “After you overcome your psychological shadow, you can stop taking the medicine. And with the nutrients needed to grow taller, you’ll be able to slim down in just a winter break.” 

On the topic of slimming down, Lu Shi did have the right to speak. Although his time as an actor wasn’t long, he’d seen many actors become skinnier in a short amount of time for filming. Besides, Qiao Mu had become fatter because of special circumstances. As long as he recovered, slimming down in two to three months was easy. Furthermore, this time back, he clearly felt that Qiao Mu had become skinnier compared to the last time he saw him. 

Perhaps it was because of Lu Shi word’s encouraged him, but before he went to bed, Qiao Mu looked at his bedside cabinet where the medicine bottle sat and didn’t open it.