CH 5.2

An Impossible to Reject Confession by Grumpy Crab

Chapter 5.2:

After turning seven, the opportunities Xu Youyou had to practice writing Chinese became scarce. So although she knew how to read and speak, her writing was stuck at a seven year-old level. 

Before Xu Youyou didn’t worry about it, after all people in Country Y didn’t care whether or not her Chinese characters looked good. But now it was totally different. She would be continuing her education in China, how would she write in the future? Before when she wrote her name it was clearly nice looking.

Thinking of a certain someone, Xu Youyou silently turned her head. 

Qiao Mu’s attention had long been captured once Bai Yi had asked about her condition. He was the only one in the class who knew the real reason of her condition. Besides, the headroom teacher had asked him to take care of the new student. 

Thinking about Xu Youyou’s past, Qiao Mu’s heart softened. He turned his head towards Xu Youyou and quietly asked: “Do you need anything?”

“Yes!” Xu Youyou immediately nodded her head. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Can you help me write my name?” Xu Youyou said. 

“What?!” Qiao Mu didn’t quite understand, what did helping her write her name mean?

Xu Youyou immediately brought her textbook that she had just written her name in front of Qiao Mu: “Look.”

Qiao Mu looked down, and his eyelids fluttered. These crooked characters weren’t written by a five year old?

“You wrote this?” Qiao Mu could not help but confirm. 

“Yes,” Xu Youyou sadly said, “So can you help me write my name? My handwriting is too ugly.”

If he was just supposed to write a few characters, Qiao Mu would not have any objections. His handwriting was nice, and since young he had been the one to write reports on the black board. However, writing her name……

Qiao Mu felt that it was weird: “The name is written on your textbook, typically no one else looks at it.”

Is he rejecting me? Does this brat not remember that ten years in the future he wanted to write her name for her?

Fine, you don’t remember.

“Before someone had told me that my handwriting was really nice, but when I write it looks very ugly.”

It was very ugly. 

“Your handwriting is very nice, can you help me write it? This way, I can look at it more often and practice.” Xu Youyou’s eyes quivered as if she would cry if Qiao Mu rejected her. 

“You want me to write it here?” Qiao Mu’s gaze shifted and he held Xu Youyou’s textbook.

“Yes, you can write it right here.” Xu Youyou was afraid he’d take it back and refuse so she responded immediately. 

Qiao Mu grabbed his own pen, didn’t even think and just started writing. But the difference between the same three characters was like heaven and earth. If someone who didn’t know how to read Chinese characters looked at it they would think it were two separate languages. 

Xu Youyou looked at the three familiar characters. Although one was written with a ballpoint pen and the other a brush, the character looked the same except for one small part. 

“There is a small part not right,” Xu Youyou unconsciously said. 

“What’s not right?” Qiao Mu asked. 

“It might be because of the difference in pens” Xu Youyou pointed to the character “You” and a small stroke on the right of the lateral radical. “Before when someone wrote my name, they used a brush and made a mark here like this.”

Xu Youyou got her pencil and began draw it. When she was younger she had learned to sketch. While she was not good at writing Chinese characters, she could easily draw some simple pictures. With a few strokes, she brought the extra bit the previous life’s Qiao Mu had drawn to life. 

After she finished drawing, Xu Youyou compared it. It actually wasn’t quite different, it was just that the Qiao Mu ten years later had an extra stroke crossing back. 

Maybe it really was because of the difference in writing utensils. 

Qiao Mu had begun learning calligraphy at a young age. He knew every stroke to make for different Chinese characters. But from one look he could tell that this extra part was a bit weird.  Because when you brought the brush back to retrace a bit, it would never be for so long. It was a short stroke yet there was an extra part. If it weren’t a mistake, it could only have some special meaning.

“Was he just learning calligraphy?” Qiao Mu asked. 

“He had learned for around ten years” Xu Youyou said. 

That long? Qiao Mu looked at the picture Xu Youyou had drawn again, and he unexpectedly noticed a faint heart shape: “Did that person like you?”

“How did you know?” Xu Youyou lifted her eyes excitedly, her soul was shaking. 

Was he going to recover the previous life’s memory?

“This here is in the shape of a heart. The person must have purposely drawn it in.” Qiao Mu said. 

Xu Youyou was stupified and she looked down towards the spot. Before she hadn’t thought so, but with Qiao Mu’s comment, the more she looked at it the more it looked right. 

That was the first time Qiao Mu had shown Xu Youyou his calligraphy. Qiao Mu had said her name looked pretty and wrote her name on a piece of Xuan paper. 

“This is so pretty, can you give it to me?” Xu Youyou liked it and wanted to take it home. 

“Of course, but when you take it home you have to look at it often” Qiao Mu said. 

“I’ll hang it up in the living room and look at it everyday.” Xu Youyou promised. 

“Good.”

This scene wasn’t long before Xu Youyou’s rebirth. It happened two months ago, when they were packing a week before they left for Tibet. In the end she never hung it up in her living room……

“Ah……Maybe I saw it wrong. Or maybe it is just a habit of the person.” Qiao Mu saw that Xu Youyou hadn’t said anything for a while and feared he said something wrong. 

Xu Youyou looked towards Qiao Mu and asked: “Do you have this habit?”

“No,” Qiao Mu shook his head. 

“It’s good that you don’t,” Xu Youyou replied. 

Qiao Mu frowned, not understanding.