Reversed Life: Chapter 13 - The Boss from the Neighboring Sports School is Here to Cause Trouble!
Chapter 13: The Boss from the Neighboring Sports School is Here to Cause Trouble!
Mu Xiangxiang stared at the string of numbers for a full five minutes without blinking.
Ever since that previous text message informing her of a one-hundred-thousand-yuan transfer a few days ago, this was the second time in her life she had come into contact with such an enormous sum of money. Even though it was only a virtual string of digits, it still deeply shocked her.
And when they had sorted through each other’s belongings before, hadn’t Qiao Nan said this was merely the account he used for receiving pocket money from home?
Recalling how she had secretly marveled over that first transfer for an entire day, Mu Xiangxiang finally understood what it meant for poverty to limit one’s imagination. Back then, she had already been astonished that Qiao Nan’s monthly allowance could amount to one hundred thousand yuan, but reality had now informed her: Girl, you are far too naive.
If not for the fact that after exchanging personal belongings, the only thing she still had on her that belonged to Qiao Nan was his phone, Mu Xiangxiang would absolutely have taken out the bank card and examined it carefully, just to see what exactly distinguished a card containing over seven hundred thousand yuan from her own card balance that barely reached four digits.
Maybe the outside was wrapped in gold trim or something?
Reluctantly rereading the text messages several more times, Mu Xiangxiang took screenshots and sent them to Qiao Nan while indulging in such fantasies—until she bumped into someone.
Snapping back to reality, she immediately straightened up the moment she recognized him and greeted him solemnly. “Good morning, Grandpa Principal.”
Several students fooling around nearby happened to pass them at that moment. Hearing her greeting, they also stopped and, following the lead of No. 12 High School’s resident school tyrant, chimed in noisily: “Good morning, Grandpa Principal~”
Mu Xiangxiang originally assumed the principal would at least respond to the students. She even deliberately waited a moment. Unexpectedly, the old man proved even stricter than she had imagined. He merely gave her a deep look before silently walking away. Though it should have been an energetic morning, his departing figure looked indescribably desolate—even more exhausted than the previous day.
This respectable educator must truly be worrying himself sick over the students of No. 12 High School, becoming this worn out after only a few days on the job.
Mu Xiangxiang could not help feeling deep admiration.
******
After school, the two arranged to meet at a shopping mall somewhere in City A. The moment Mu Xiangxiang got off the bus, she spotted from afar the girl leaning expressionlessly against a motorcycle while playing on her phone, and she could not help spacing out for a moment.
It was rather strange. Although she clearly knew that was her own body, every time they met face-to-face, Mu Xiangxiang still instinctively felt that Qiao Nan retained his old appearance. The pressure he gave off seemed entirely unaffected by changes in height or facial features. Like now—this girl dressed all in black, standing there with a careless slouch, looked no different from before except for not wearing glasses, yet somehow she practically radiated attention.
The crisp short hair made her appear spirited and heroic. A few curled strands fell over her forehead, making her already small face seem even paler and more delicate. She needed to do absolutely nothing. Merely standing there naturally created a clear invisible barrier between herself and the passersby who kept turning back to stare at her.
This was something unique to Qiao Nan’s aura. It really was remarkable.
Mu Xiangxiang could not help recalling her own timid self from before, until the girl standing at the center of everyone’s attention impatiently called out to her: “Are you standing guard or what?”
Only then did she smile and walk over beneath the equally obsessive gazes of the girls who had been staring at her the whole way. “What are you doing?”
“Reposting lucky koi.” Qiao Nan looked back at his phone. “I’m telling you, this koi is seriously effective. Last time I reposted it, my dad transferred me money the very next day. I thought it was just a coincidence, so I reposted it again. And well, you saw the result yourself.”
Mu Xiangxiang could not understand his logic. “Your dad’s the one who transferred the money to you. You should be thanking your dad instead.”
Thinking of his biological father—someone he barely communicated with and with whom every conversation inevitably ended in a huge argument and smashed furniture—Qiao Nan scoffed. “What would you know?”
They had arranged to meet here in order to buy a birthday gift for Gao Yan, whose birthday was this weekend. Most Yingcheng students had family ties dating back to their parents’ generation, so Qiao Nan had received the invitation long ago. Now that Mu Xiangxiang was using his body, they conveniently needed to buy two gifts.
Mu Xiangxiang was puzzled. “Why would Gao Yan invite you… I mean, why would she invite me to her birthday party?”
Qiao Nan glanced at her and silently called her an idiot in his heart while skillfully turning into a row of stores. “How should I know? Maybe she just likes you and wanted to invite you.”
Naturally, Mu Xiangxiang had no idea about all the bizarre things Qiao Nan had done at school while using her body. Analyzing things from a normal perspective, she could not make sense of it at all. Qiao Nan’s explanation sounded far too far-fetched. After all, Gao Yan’s birthday party last year had had absolutely nothing to do with her. She only learned afterward from overhearing classmates discuss it at school the next day that such a grand event had even taken place the night before.
That was the moment she truly realized the vast gulf separating her from the other students at Yingcheng. How could people like them suddenly decide they liked her?
But since she could not figure it out, she could only give up. “Forget it. As long as you weren’t bullied.”
“Me? Bullied?” Qiao Nan nearly laughed out loud. “By those few people in your class?”
Even at the utterly chaotic No. 12 High School, he had always been the one making other people suffer. Ever since he started attending Yingcheng in Mu Xiangxiang’s body, from beginning to end only Fang Lingli had dared get slightly out of line. After he dealt with her in a couple of moves, the students of Class 1, Grade 11 had become unbelievably obedient today.
Class monitor Lin Long’s face had blushed bright red while greeting him first thing in the morning, and Luo Yong—the bespectacled boy sitting behind him—copied every class note beautifully and neatly. Compared to the bunch of hyperactive little mongrels in Class 9, the difference was like night and day.
Mu Xiangxiang had personally experienced what it felt like to be completely out of place among wealthy classmates, so she did not understand what there was to sneer at. She casually picked up a wallet from a display shelf, but when she saw the price tag, her mind went blank for a moment.
“Qiao Nan,” she asked softly, “can’t we buy a cheaper gift? I don’t think I can afford anything here.”
Qiao Nan replied flatly, “Who said I was making you pay?”
Mu Xiangxiang frowned and was about to argue, but Qiao Nan seemed to sense her resistance and cut her off with a look.
“First of all, I’m the one who agreed to attend the birthday party, so you never had any obligation to buy a gift in the first place.” His expression remained as unpleasant as ever, but his tone was unexpectedly patient. “Besides, if you just buy something random, are you going to give it while using my body, or am I supposed to personally hand it over?”
Mu Xiangxiang found herself unable to argue back. She could only watch helplessly as he had the sales clerk wrap up two items whose combined value had already reached five digits.
After they came out, Qiao Nan handed one of the bags to Mu Xiangxiang. This was the social obligation she would later deliver on his behalf.
Then his gaze shifted and landed on a menswear store not far away.
Mu Xiangxiang still felt as though the bag in her hands was filled with actual bricks of cash. Distractedly pondering the wealth-gap discussions she had seen online recently, she suddenly heard a question from ahead of her. “What size jacket does your dad usually wear?”
“165. Why?” Mu Xiangxiang answered reflexively before looking up. “Nothing,” Qiao Nan replied casually. Then he made a small gesture toward one of the sales assistants. The assistant immediately brought over a coat with an eager expression.
Mu Xiangxiang followed the movement with her eyes. The item the assistant carried was a dark brown coat. The leather surface gleamed almost luminously, and the inside was fully lined with wool. Even a blind person could tell it was extremely expensive.
Then a gentle voice came from the cashier counter. “Hello, the total is 58,800 yuan. Will you be paying by card?”
Qiao Nan gave a brief “Mm” and handed over his card. Mu Xiangxiang stared blankly. “Who are you buying that for?”
Qiao Nan ignored her. Mu Xiangxiang grabbed his wrist. “You’re not buying that for my dad, are you?”
“Why do you care so much?” Qiao Nan signaled for the clerk to continue swiping the card, secretly feeling rather pleased with himself. While out jogging that morning, he had already thought about finding time to buy Father Mu a new coat. He had not expected to stumble upon a suitable one so quickly. The old man had still been wearing that dirty, tattered padded jacket even after the New Year had passed. The weather had recently turned cold again, bitterly so. One time, Qiao Nan had seen him hunching his shoulders from the cold. Yet the old man had pretended everything was fine and had secretly stuffed money into Qiao Nan’s hand that morning, saying business had been good the day before and he had sold three brooms, so Qiao Nan should not be stingy and should buy himself a milk tea on the way to school.
A single broom sold for six yuan. Father Mu had not kept even a cent for himself. When Qiao Nan held those eighteen yuan in his hand, his emotions had truly been indescribably complicated.
What he remembered most clearly was the pair of hands that had pressed the money into his palm—so cold that they sobered his mind instantly.
This new coat looked unbelievably warm. Father Mu would probably feel much more comfortable sitting downstairs in it.
Just as he was thinking this, Mu Xiangxiang beside him protested fiercely. “No, Qiao Nan, this coat is way too expensive! Wait, wait, wait—don’t swipe the card yet—”
Naturally, the sales assistant did not listen. Her hands never stopped moving. Qiao Nan accepted the returned card and shopping bag from the clerk and calmly headed toward the exit. “Why are you getting so worked up?”
Fifty-eight thousand eight hundred yuan… The Mu family’s annual rent did not even cost that much.
Mu Xiangxiang was on the verge of collapse. Grabbing hold of Qiao Nan, she desperately tried to stop his impulsiveness. “Qiao Nan, Qiao Nan, this is really too expensive. Hurry up and return it, please, I’m begging you. If you give my dad something like this, are you trying to scare him to death?”
Qiao Nan became a little unhappy. This was the first time in his life he had spent money on someone only to receive this kind of reaction. “Seriously? Isn’t it just a coat?”
But it really was not merely a coat. Leaving aside the fact that such an expensive gift should not casually be accepted in the first place, just the gossip it would provoke among the residents of their urban village housing complex was enough to make one’s scalp tingle. Rumors and idle talk could sometimes cut like knives. If Father Mu heard people talking, he would probably worry himself sleepless. What father would not be concerned if his always-poor daughter suddenly started spending money on such extravagant things?
But the gap between their values was not something that could be explained in a few sentences. In Qiao Nan’s eyes, this fifty-eight-thousand-yuan coat truly was just a coat.
Left with no other option, Mu Xiangxiang dragged him to a discounted down-jacket store on the second floor of the mall. “Listen to me, Qiao Nan. I know you mean well, and I’m really grateful, but I truly can’t let you give my dad something that expensive. Look, these down jackets are also really good, aren’t they? Look at this one—and this one too. I have just enough money on me to buy one. I’ll pay for it myself, so can you go return that leather coat?”
Qiao Nan neither agreed nor refused. He simply stared at her darkly.
His gaze made Mu Xiangxiang uneasy. She knew he was angry but had no idea what to do, so she could only call over a sales assistant to fetch one of the down jackets she had pointed out, preparing to pay for it.
The instant the assistant approached, Qiao Nan directly dropped the shopping bag in his hand at Mu Xiangxiang’s feet.
Then, without saying a single word, he withdrew his gaze, turned around with a dark expression, and walked away.
Qiao Nan was so angry he almost wanted to grab someone on the spot and start a fight. If he stayed any longer, he was afraid he would lose his temper at Mu Xiangxiang.
On his way out of the mall, he slammed straight into someone acting suspiciously. The hostility radiating off him hit the other person like a truck. Watching the guy—who looked vaguely familiar though Qiao Nan could not remember where he had seen him before—flee in panic clutching his head, his mood finally eased a little.
Swinging onto his motorcycle, he still felt an indescribable irritation in his chest, all because of the words Mu Xiangxiang had said, words that drew boundaries between them as sharply as a demarcation line— Your dad, my dad. Your money, my money.
********
Mu Xiangxiang sighed. After telling the sales assistant there was no need to continue helping her, she carried the shopping bag downstairs.
She returned to the previous store and asked to return the coat. The sales assistant’s attitude remained very polite, but after inspecting the item, she awkwardly explained that it could not be refunded and could only be exchanged, because Qiao Nan had instructed them to remove the tags immediately after purchase.
Mu Xiangxiang looked at the coat. Its comfort was obvious at a glance—thick, soft, warm. She knew her father had never owned clothing this good in his life.
For a brief moment, her resolve wavered. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to just keep it and let her dad wear it?
But even though she had grown up in such poverty, she still remembered the dignity her parents had taught her to preserve. This was different from the birthday gift connected to Qiao Nan’s reputation and social standing.
So after a long silence, she slowly spoke. “Then let me exchange it for another size.”
“What size?”
Mu Xiangxiang recalled Qiao Nan’s father’s build. “175.”
When she left the store carrying the exchanged coat, she suddenly felt a little sad. A flood of emotions crashed over her all at once. She stared at the sky for a while, feeling that she really needed time to sort through her feelings.
Meanwhile, on the road, a speeding motorcycle suddenly screeched to a halt. Qiao Nan planted one foot on the ground as something abruptly struck him.
He remembered the person he had bumped into at the mall entrance earlier. At the time, he had been too furious to think clearly and only found the guy vaguely familiar.
But now he remembered exactly who it was. Wasn’t that He Pengcheng from the neighboring sports school?
A couple of months ago, because of some personal grudge, the guy had brought a group of people to block Guo Zhi behind the school and beat him up. Qiao Nan had happened to run into them and had led his own group of friends into a brutal counterattack.
This place was nowhere near the sports school. Why would He Pengcheng appear here, sneaking around?
A terrible premonition suddenly surged through Qiao Nan’s chest. For the first time, he experienced what it meant to feel true panic. With trembling hands, he fumbled for his phone and forced himself to calm down as he dialed his old number. The moment the call connected, he immediately asked: “Where are you?”
Mu Xiangxiang’s voice sounded strange. “Huh?”
“I asked where you are!!” Qiao Nan could not stop himself from shouting in the middle of the street. Realizing what he had done, he hurriedly softened his tone. “Mu Xiangxiang, hurry and tell me where you are.”
She sniffed lightly. “I’m at that pavilion in XX Park where we met before. What’s wrong? My phone’s almost dead…”
“What’s wrong with you?” Qiao Nan was startled by how much she sounded like she had been crying. He hurriedly said, “Listen, Xiangxiang, right now you need to—”
Beep beep beep beep…
Before he could finish, the line went dead.
Qiao Nan glanced at the screen and frantically dialed again, but the call would not connect.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!!” Enraged, he kicked his beloved motorcycle hard. He rapidly thought things through, then immediately logged into WeChat and pulled up Yan Zhiyang’s number.
The call connected. “Hello?”
“Yan Zhiyang.” At that moment, Qiao Nan felt unnaturally calm. “Right now, call every single person you can find and get them to XX Park immediately. Qiao Nan’s been cornered there by He Pengcheng and his people.”
“What?!!” Yan Zhiyang first let out a shriek an octave higher than usual, then suddenly realized something. “Wait, who the hell are y—”
Qiao Nan had already restarted the motorcycle. His voice was frighteningly calm. “Cut the fucking crap.”
******
Mu Xiangxiang looked at her phone’s black screen and thought about the unfinished sentence Qiao Nan had been saying earlier. She honestly had no idea what he had wanted to tell her.
But at the moment, she had no energy left to ponder the unfathomable mind of a teenage boy.
Looking at the familiar pool of water before her, Mu Xiangxiang remembered that this was where she and Qiao Nan had switched bodies. Ever since then, everything had changed. Yet she still had to pretend nothing was wrong while forcing herself to adapt to completely unfamiliar environments and people.
It felt as though her whole life had always been like this. She had always needed to shoulder responsibilities far heavier than those of her peers. But at least back then, her parents had been by her side. No matter how quiet and withdrawn she was, someone would still sneak into her room in the middle of the night to tuck her blanket around her properly.
At that moment, the tension she had been holding onto suddenly became too much to bear. Mu Xiangxiang herself did not know what was wrong with her. All at once, she started crying.
Fortunately, there was no one else around. Sitting inside the pavilion, she curled herself into a ball. At first she tried to hold it back, but then thought it would probably be better just to let it all out.
Once she finished crying, she would be fine. Just like before. No matter how difficult the problem, no matter how great the grievance, after crying it out, things would get better.
****
At the end of the stone pathway, He Pengcheng—the same guy Qiao Nan had bumped into earlier—was cautiously speaking to a tall young man he had brought along.
“Boss, that guy’s inside. I saw him go in with my own eyes.”
The big guy snorted, his voice booming loudly. “He’s alone?”
He Pengcheng nodded immediately. The next second, he got smacked hard across the head, the force making him dizzy.
“Fuck!” the big guy cursed angrily. “What the hell, are you trying to gang up on him? Have you got no sense of honor at all? You may not care about your reputation, but I do!”
Clutching his ringing head, He Pengcheng dazedly recovered before speaking resentfully. “But that bastard really can fight. Boss, you don’t know—he kicked me so hard back then I almost broke three ribs. He’s vicious as hell. If I had any other option, I seriously wouldn’t have come begging you to back me up. It’s just too humiliating. That bastard’s friend stole my girlfriend, so why the hell was I the one who got beaten up?”
Someone beside them tactlessly added, “Uh, Lao He, I heard Zhang Nana was the one who gave Guo Zhi a love letter…”
He Pengcheng nearly cried from anger. “Whose side are you on?!”
“Shut up, all of you!” the big guy finally barked, raising a hand to silence the commotion. Then, under He Pengcheng’s hopeful gaze, he asked once more, “You’re sure this guy can fight?”
He Pengcheng nodded furiously like a pecking chicken.
“Hmph.” The big guy snorted coldly. “Fine then. I definitely have to meet him myself.”
With that, he strode forward at the head of the group. Sure enough, after turning the corner, they saw a young man sitting in the pavilion with his back facing them.
The silhouette looked pretty cool, but why was he hugging his knees and sitting there so pathetically?
The big guy froze in confusion for a moment, then his fighting spirit surged as he marched over and slapped a heavy hand onto the figure’s shoulder. “Hey!”
For school toughs, this was the signal to start fighting. Every muscle in his body tensed, preparing for a brutal clash.
But the next second, the person sitting before him did not leap up and punch him as expected. Instead, his body tilted slightly from the force of the slap. Then he slowly raised his head and turned around.
The moment the big guy saw his face, he instantly straightened up like a startled meerkat.
Mu Xiangxiang had been crying her heart out when she was suddenly interrupted, leaving her feeling extremely wronged. Turning around, she found yet another fierce-looking stranger she did not recognize. The guy was built like a tank, standing behind her so broadly he nearly blocked out all the sunlight.
Who even was this guy? Couldn’t he see she was sitting here being miserable?
The tears poured down even harder. Covering the shoulder that had been slapped, Mu Xiangxiang sniffled and sobbed, “You’re awful… Wh-why did you suddenly hit me…”
The big guy: “!!!!”
He stared at the pale-faced boy before him—his nose and eyes red from crying, his eyelashes wet as they fluttered, his handsome face openly filled with grievance. Even his voice came out soft and slurred from sobbing, his whole person carrying a strangely delicate charm.
That expression… It was just like… Like… Like a girl’s…
The big guy’s face suddenly turned bright red.
Then, under Mu Xiangxiang’s tear-blurred gaze, he awkwardly stammered, “S-sorry…”
----------
If you like my translation, please support me by buying me a coffee:
0 comments: