Pale Requiem: Transformed into a Girl

Chapter 17: The Mountain, the Moon

Yu Chunqiu sent Bai Lengci out of the villa.

“Be careful on the road. When you have time… come by more often. I don’t have much else here, but I’ve got plenty of books. If you encounter any difficulties in your studies, feel free to ask me.”

Bai Lengci gave a slight nod.

“Thank you, Mr. Yu. Sorry to trouble you today.”

As for this kind of method where one could gain goodwill without paying any cost by being polite, Bai Lengci didn’t mind using it a few more times.

“Be careful on the road!”

Yu Chunqiu stood at the door, squinting his small eyes as he watched in the direction where Bai Lengci disappeared.

From behind came Luo Nansheng’s cool yet faintly sulky voice.

She had also walked to the entrance, holding her coat in hand.

“Teacher, I still have piano lessons this afternoon, I should leave too.”

Yu Chunqiu stopped her.

“Wait a moment, Xixi, I have a few words I need to say to you.”

Luo Nansheng glanced at the direction Bai Lengci disappeared, then silently nodded and followed Yu Chunqiu back to the living room.

Yu Chunqiu poured himself another cup of tea and began to speak slowly, his gaze falling on the gloomy sky outside the window, tinged with distant reminiscence.

“Do you know, the first time I met that boy… mm, that’s Bai Lengci, do you know when it was?”

Luo Nansheng was slightly startled.

“That boy”?

In her mind flashed Bai Lengci’s flawless, beautiful face, along with that calm and cold voice…

In an instant, she recalled a detail she had previously overlooked.

Bai Lengci’s voice!

It was not a deliberately lowered female voice, but rather… something closer to neutral, carrying a clear and youthful sharpness!

It was only that his face was too stunning, making people subconsciously ignore the gender characteristics in the voice.

Luo Nansheng’s voice carried a faint trace of disbelief and hesitation.

“Bai Lengci… is male?”

Yu Chunqiu nodded with certainty, the corners of his mouth curling into a meaningful arc.

“Mm, male.”

Yu Chunqiu nodded again, his smile carrying a hint of teasing.

“When I first met him, I almost mistook him for a little girl too. Back then, his hair was a bit longer than it is now, and he was thin and pale. Quiet, sitting there like a doll carved from jade.”

“And then?”

Yu Chunqiu lifted the cup of tea that had already gone cold and took a sip, as if organizing his words.

“That was about… two years ago, wasn’t it?” he recalled.

“It was also winter, bitterly cold. That day I went to the old city district in the south of town to handle some business. The rain came suddenly, and I didn’t bring an umbrella. On my way back, I took a shortcut and thought I’d take shelter at that riverside park.”

“So, I ran into the pavilion by the lake to hide from the rain. And guess what? That boy was sitting at the innermost bench of the pavilion.”

Yu Chunqiu’s eyes narrowed slightly, as though he was seeing that scene once again.

“He just sat there, holding an old canvas bag in his arms, wearing a school uniform faded from too many washes, with mud splattered on his pant legs. The rain was pouring outside, and the wind blew the rain into the pavilion, yet he just sat there quietly, staring at the lake beyond.

That gaze… tsk, it wasn’t like a teenager’s at all. Empty, and yet as though it contained the entire rain-soaked lake.”

He paused, as though savoring that feeling again.

“I thought then that this child carried something special about him, something out of place with the noisy world around him. Like a piece of jade dropped into the mud.”

“Me, being an old man, I like to chat. Seeing him sitting alone, I went over and struck up a conversation.”

Yu Chunqiu mimicked his tone at the time.

“‘Little girl, the rain’s quite heavy, are you hiding from it too?’

He turned to look at me, and that gaze… calm, without a trace of the uneasiness a child might show to a stranger.

He simply nodded and said, ‘Mm.’

His voice was clear and crisp, quite pleasant to the ear.”

“Then I started making small talk, asking him which school he went to, where his home was, why he wasn’t going back in such heavy rain. He just answered simply—one question, one answer. Not a word more, yet it didn’t feel cold either. Just… quiet.”

Yu Chunqiu gestured with his hands.

“Later, as we talked a bit more, I realized that though this kid didn’t speak much, he knew a great deal.I casually mentioned that the verse carved into the pavilion’s pillar was interesting, and he took one glance at it, then explained the poem’s background and the author’s life in detail. Some of the details I myself had already forgotten. Hey, I thought then that was amusing. What kind of ordinary middle school student was this?”

“Later the rain lessened, and he got up to leave. I left too, but our paths weren’t the same. Just when we were about to part…”

Yu Chunqiu deliberately left a suspenseful pause.

“And then?”

“And then…”

Yu Chunqiu slapped his thigh, laughing so hard his eyes disappeared.

“He lifted his head and, in that same calm voice, said: ‘Also, I’m male.’”

“Pfft…”

Even Luo Nansheng, who was usually composed and cool, couldn’t help but picture the scene.

The corners of her lips tugged upward ever so slightly before returning to normal.

Yu Chunqiu was still laughing.

“Hahaha, you should have seen my face then!Lost all dignity! So embarrassed I wished I could crawl into the ground! But that boy was strange too. After saying that, he just left, as though the words hadn’t even come from him.”

Yu Chunqiu sighed, his laughter fading into a touch of emotion.

“Later I asked around and learned he was an orphan.He grew up in a welfare institute. He was later adopted, but… it didn’t work out, and he was returned. He lived off scholarships and part-time jobs.  His temperament was very withdrawn. I thought the kid had it hard, but his mind was sharp, so I used some connections to get him a job at the city library. The work wasn’t heavy, and it let him read in peace.  Consider it a helping hand. He didn’t refuse, and he worked quite diligently.”

Luo Nansheng listened quietly, her mind involuntarily conjuring the image of the boy her teacher described—sitting in a rain-drenched pavilion, dressed in a worn uniform, eyes empty yet profound.

The stark contrast left her briefly absent-minded.

An orphan?

A boy who needed to work part-time, living in dilapidated alleys?

How could that overlap with the almost inhuman depth of thought and chilling aura he had displayed just now?

She fell silent for a moment, her cool eyes tinged with doubt as she looked at Yu Chunqiu.

“Teacher, today… you didn’t deliberately arrange for him to be here, did you?”

She paused, then added:

“For the sake of… giving me a lesson? Were his words prepared in advance?”

It was hard for her to believe that a boy living in such circumstances could possess such knowledge and insight.

Yu Chunqiu shook his head.

“Xixi, oh Xixi, girl, you overthink too much!

I may enjoy liveliness, but I’m not so bored that I’d deliberately find a child to trick you with!

Besides, when I first met him, you were still studying in the capital.

How could I know you’d come today, or that the two of you would even meet?”

Seeing the lingering doubt on Luo Nansheng’s face, Yu Chunqiu restrained his smile and said solemnly:

“When the mountain is near and the moon is far, the moon appears small, and so one says this mountain is greater than the moon. But if a person had eyes as vast as the sky, they would see the mountain tall and the moon broader still.”

He recited slowly, his gaze deep.

“People often think the mountain before them is the largest, and the moon insignificant.

But if one’s vision is as broad as the sky, one would realize there are always higher mountains, and the moon shines over all lands.

The world is vast beyond measure.

Xixi, you are intelligent, outstanding, and your family background and vision are exceptional.

This is your mountain.

But you must know, in this world, there are always moons that cannot be measured by the norms of the mountain you stand upon.

That boy Bai Lengci may very well be such a moon—one you cannot yet clearly see.

Whether or not his words today were prepared beforehand, the depth of insight and thought he showed cannot be faked.”

He lifted his cold tea and took another sip, his tone carrying both emotion and a faint trace of reverence.

“As for arrangement? Coincidence? Heh…”

He put down the cup, glanced at Luo Nansheng, his usual mischievous smile returning.

“Isn’t this exactly the probability problem you mentioned earlier?

I merely happened to take shelter in a pavilion on a rainy day and happened to meet a child quietly watching the rain.

And today, he happened to be here and happened to meet you.

Nothing more.

Now tell me, is that probability… big or small?”