I Fell In Love With My Rival (GL) - Chapter 18.2

While bantering in the chat, Su Chunyin suddenly recalled that the conic sections and physics problems Fu Erqiu had taught her had featured heavily in the exam. And those were the parts she was most confident in.

Finally, Xu Yuhui and the head priest concluded their talk. Su Chunyin stared at her phone for a while before standing up and saying, “Mom, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Xu Yuhui nodded and told the head priest they’d resume the lecture later.

Once inside the guest room, Xu Yuhui gently touched her forehead. “What’s wrong? Is there something you want to tell Mom?”

It had been a long time since Xu Yuhui had touched her like that. In Su Chunyin’s childhood memories, her mother was once kind and gentle, always smiling, crouching down to wait for her to catch up before softly stroking her forehead.

Xu Yuhui’s hands were warm and soft—something Su Chunyin had missed dearly. But ever since Su Zhi’s business had taken off and he was rarely home, Xu Yuhui had stopped smiling, stopped being gentle, and stopped showing such affection.

Su Chunyin nearly choked up. She fought back her tears, her voice still slightly wet: “Mom…”

She rested her forehead against Xu Yuhui’s chest and hugged her like she used to when she was little. “Mom, I improved fifty-two ranks in this term’s final exams.”

Xu Yuhui lit up. “Really? That’s amazing, Niaoniao! You must’ve worked so hard this semester. I saw how you were always running out—you’ve even lost weight.”

Su Chunyin lifted her head slightly and rested her chin on her mother’s shoulder. “Mom, that’s exactly what I wanted to tell you. Near the end of the semester, I was always going out, remember? Actually, I was going to a classmate’s house for tutoring.”

“Tutoring?” Xu Yuhui paused, already guessing what might come next.

Su Chunyin didn’t bother checking her mother’s expression and hurried to explain, “Yeah, this classmate is in the next class over. She’s really smart and explains things super well. She only tutored me for a week before finals, and I improved by over thirty points. She’s amazing! I was thinking of asking her to tutor me during summer break—would that be okay?”

Xu Yuhui remained silent in thought. Su Chunyin quickly added, “She’s really a good person—so kind and warmhearted…”

Her mind was spinning fast, trying to think of every compliment she’d ever heard and directing them all at Fu Erqiu. Finally, she looked at her mother with puppy-dog eyes and said, “Mom, her family is really struggling. She works part-time every summer to make ends meet. In this heat, it must be exhausting. If she could tutor me, it’d be a little easier for her, and she could earn more. It’s basically doing a good deed, right?”

Su Chunyin sat up from Xu Yuhui’s arms and immediately began to butter her up with a massage. “Mooom~ say yes, pretty please~”

Xu Yuhui looked at her helplessly. “You’ve already said so much. How could I possibly say no? I was just wondering how much would be appropriate to pay her.”

Su Chunyin replied a little cluelessly, “Why not just pay her the same as our previous tutors?”

She had had plenty of tutors growing up—literature, English, music, art… Su Zhi had hired top-notch professionals in each field. But Chunyin never really enjoyed those lessons. It wasn’t until Xu Yuhui, seeing how miserable she was, scolded Su Zhi that he finally stopped hiring them.

Xu Yuhui shook her head. “That won’t work. Your father hired professionals with prestigious reputations and years of experience. She’s just a classmate of yours—it wouldn’t be right to pay her that much. And judging by what you’ve said about her background, I doubt she’d even accept such a high fee.”

She narrowed her eyes at her daughter. “Be honest with me. Does this ‘tutor’ even know about your plan yet?”

A mother knows her child best. Su Chunyin gave a couple of sheepish grunts, then, under her mother’s gaze, shyly admitted, “She’s about to find out.”
Well, “about to find out” might be optimistic. It wasn’t until that evening that Su Chunyin finally got Fu Erqiu’s WeChat. Song Rao called to take credit: “Do you know how much effort it took to get her WeChat

from Lin Zhizhi? At least a Deshanlou dinner’s worth, okay?”

Chunyin half-listened. “Okay, okay, I get it.” She opened WeChat and began entering Fu Erqiu’s ID. Instead of her own phone number, Erqiu had used a straightforward combo of name initials and numbers: 0913.

Chunyin stared at the numbers a few seconds longer. Could that be her birthday?

Fu Erqiu’s profile picture was an odd-shaped shadow, which Chunyin glanced at lazily. She guessed it was a sunlit leaf casting a shadow. Then she clicked to enlarge it and realized with a start—her own profile picture was a leaf, and Erqiu’s was the shadow of a leaf. And both of them had the character “秋” (autumn) in their names.

No wonder I like her, Chunyin thought silently. The people I’m drawn to always have something in common.

She was just about to tap “Add Friend” when a thought occurred to her. Her finger paused mid-air, and she opened her own Moments feed.

Thank goodness she did. A quick scroll revealed several posts of her cursing the “F-school top student” through gritted teeth. Her heart sank. If Lu Fang liked Fu Erqiu—and they were in the same class—they were probably WeChat friends. Which meant Erqiu could easily see the comment exchanges between her and Lu Fang.

Even if nothing overly revealing had been said, it was risky. What if one careless remark from either of them gave away her real motives? Her whole plan to get close to Fu Erqiu could fall apart.

So, instead of sending the friend request, Su Chunyin opened WeChat, created a new account, and spent a good half hour picking out the cutest, softest chibi anime girl avatar she could find. Satisfied, she sent the friend request from the new account.

Then she clutched her phone and waited expectantly. But she waited… and waited… and dozed off with the phone still in her hands, Erqiu never approving the request.

That night, heavy rain began to fall. The mountain air turned chilly. Chunyin was jolted awake by the sound of raindrops and the cold creeping into her neck. She touched the red marks on her skin and the rumbling of her empty stomach, then picked up her phone and ordered food delivery.

Qingchan Temple was far from the city. After the rain, the mountain roads were slick, and the last stretch couldn’t even be accessed by scooter. Under normal circumstances, no delivery driver would agree to go.

But if Su Chunyin had anything in abundance, it was money. With a generous tip, she finally found a runner willing to take the job. An hour later, she had a steaming box of crystal shrimp dumplings on the way.

While waiting, the wind and rain battered the mountain forest. Even with the door tightly shut, gusts of cold air still found their way in. Chunyin couldn’t take the chill anymore. She refused to sleep under the temple’s hard, scratchy quilts, so she pulled out the two changes of clothes in her suitcase and bundled herself up. Feeling weak and miserable, she texted Qiu Ye to complain.

But Qiu Ye must’ve been busy. Even after a long string of messages, there was no reply. Giving up, Chunyin curled against the window, watching the sky.

The rainy sky was pitch black, no stars in sight. But she imagined the sky on a clear summer night. Her grandparents used to live in the mountains too. When she was little, Xu Yuhui would bring her there to escape the summer heat. At night, her grandparents would fan her gently and tell stories of comets and falling stars.

Chunyin closed her eyes and tried to picture a meteor streaking across the night sky. Just as the image was forming, her phone pinged. She thought Qiu Ye had finally replied and grumbled as she typed:

[I’m at a Daoist temple. It’s freezing and pouring out here. The bamboo mats in the guestroom are so hard, I can’t sleep at all.]

Then, being dramatic even though she knew it was silly, she added:

[If only you were here. You could bring me a big, fluffy comforter so I could finally sleep well.]

She hit send and waited—but there was no reply from Qiu Ye. Feeling something was off, she looked at her phone more closely.

To her horror, the message hadn’t been sent to Qiu Ye at all.

It had gone to Fu Erqiu—from her new account. That earlier ping? It wasn’t a reply. It was the notification that Fu Erqiu had accepted her friend request.

Su Chunyin jolted upright, fingers hovering over the keyboard, completely at a loss for words.

Then a message came through:

[Su Chunyin?]

She rubbed her face in panic and was just about to type:

[Sorry! That message was a mistake—please ignore it, just pretend you didn’t see anything!]

But before she could send it, another message arrived:

[Which temple?]

After a moment of hesitation, she replied honestly:

[Qingchan Temple.]

A few minutes passed. Then came the reply:

[I’m nearby. Wait for me.]

Wait? Chunyin stared at the message, confused. Wait for what?

Before she could make sense of it, her phone rang—it was Meituan customer service, informing her that her delivery was about to arrive. She grabbed an umbrella, walked to the temple entrance, and pushed open the gate a crack.

Rain flew in sideways. A gust of damp wind made her sneeze hard. As her eyes adjusted to the misty downpour, she finally made out the figure standing outside.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Fu Erqiu?”

Outside the temple gate, a tall girl in a loose yellow raincoat stood, wet strands of hair clinging to her forehead. She handed Chunyin a takeout box and spoke hoarsely, “Your shrimp dumplings.” Then she pointed behind her. “And the quilt.”

Chunyin followed her gaze. Behind her stood a familiar, battered bicycle. On the back was a carefully tied bundle—a soft, clean quilt wrapped in a plastic sheet.

The rain kept falling. But not a single drop had touched that quilt.