CH 91

Chapter 24.2 (TL: Bara Chou)

In the end, the group dinner was set for Sunday afternoon. Qiu Yan sent over a simple schedule: first going for karaoke, then heading over to the restaurant they’ve booked for food.

Seeing that there wouldn’t be a time conflict, Ruan An’an also scheduled to meet Jiang Yi and Yin Yuan for lunch that Sunday.

The lunch spot they chose was their favorite during high school. Today, Ruan An’an didn’t doll up as much as she usually did, and instead, wore her “normal student” clothes. Jiang Yi was clad in glamorous high-ends, while Yin Yuan… the one who usually dressed up the most, showed up in gym clothes and no makeup.

Jiang Yi’s jaw dropped. “My god, what happened to you? Did you get dumped or something?”

Ruan An’an also showed her support, “Yeah, Ms. Computer Engineer, how have you been? We couldn’t even fit into your schedule before. Now that we finally managed to meet, why the long face?”

“If we’re on this topic, you better keep your mouth shut,” Yin Yuan sat down, fuming, “recently, I’ve been working on a system with my supervisor, and it’s been giving me a headache every day… god, I get angry just thinking about it. I only managed to keep going by cursing at you.”

Ruan An’an: …

Ruan An’an really couldn’t blame Yin Yuan since she had, indeed, been in the wrong.

During high school, Ruan An’an and Yin Yuan studied the sciences while Jiang Yi studied the arts. After college entrance exams, Ruan An’an managed to convince Yin Yuan to apply to Comp Sci at University C with her.

Originally, Yin Yuan was a bit hesitant. After all, it was a fact that everyone loses their hair in Comp Sci. But Ruan An’an confidently promised her, “Bestie, if my tutoring got you 92% on the college entrance exams, I can carry you through Comp Sci at University C.”

Yin Yuan thought there was nothing wrong with that logic, so she ended up applying with her impulsively.

And then…

A certain God named Ruan An’an ran away to Harvard, leaving Yin Yuan alone to grow bald.

With Yin Yuan’s aggressive personality, every time before a test, exam, or project deadline, she would ping Ruan An’an in their group chat, reminding her of the promise she made and hurling various passive-aggressive memes at her.

“Comp Sci is not for humans, okay?” Yin Yuan said, “If not for this major, taking away all my free time all year round, I wouldn’t have stayed single for 4 years!”

Ruan An’an dreaded it whenever she brought this topic up. After she piled nice words on Yin Yuan and served her tea, Yin Yuan was finally done giving her the side-eye.

Undoubtedly, this lunch date turned into Ruan An’an’s boasting session.

With ears full of sickeningly sweet stories, Jiang Yi raised her hand, “I have a question.”

Ruan An’an: “Go on.”

“According to what you’ve said, Perky Butt hadn’t doubted you once, and thinks that you’re just a university student?”

Ruan An’an nodded, “Not only did he believe me, but I’ve also successfully established my character: simple, pure, and studious. It’s perfect!”

On the side, Yin Yuan spat at her words.

“Oh, I see, Ms. Simple and Pure.” Jiang Yi laughed, “So you really don’t plan to come clean? Just keep going like this?”

“… I have thought about it.” Ruan An’an paused a little, mindlessly poking at the fruits on her dessert, “It’s just, at first, I thought that being a student would make it easier to approach him. After all, we’d be the same age and in the same class. It’s easier to grow closer when you have common topics…”

“So then?”

“But then, I realized, Perky Butt must be quite poor.” After she said that, Ruan An’an thought the other two might take it the wrong way, so she added. “This is in a positive sense! Maybe his family’s situation isn’t the greatest, but his person is impeccable. His face and personality all fit my beauty standards perfectly.”

“…”

“We’re already dating. If I suddenly tell him that I actually own millions, that’s a bit…” Ruan An’an just thought of something too, “plus, I’ve found this play-pretend to be addictive and started losing myself in the character. Just the other day, I forgot I could take a taxi home from school and ended up riding over 40 minutes on the subway, just like a normal student. Can you believe that?”

“…”

“That’s why I’ve decided to keep… Oi, what’s with your expressions?! What’s wrong with being poor?! Don’t you dare badmouth him merely cuz he’s poor—” Ruan An’an made an emphasis, “he may be poor, but he’s working hard as a tutor!”

She got excited whenever this topic came up, “let me tell you, even though Perky Butt doesn’t have much money, he has the resolve to part-time as a tutor while being a student. Isn’t that a hundred times better than those lazy scions? You agree, right?”

“…”

“Plus, he’s making three thousand bucks a month!” Ruan An’an sipped her tea, b̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲i̲n̲g̲, “I didn’t know the market price for this, but I searched it up, and it’s like so much higher than your standard tutoring fee.”

Jiang Yi and Yin Yuan looked at each other.

Wake up, so what if that’s considered high? 3000RMB isn’t even enough to cover this meal, okay?

But in the end, it was none of their business, what a certain future CEO wanted to do.

Jiang Yi raised her glass, “I really don’t know what else to say, so I’ll toast a cup of tea to the infatuated Mr. Cheng.”

Yin Yan concurred, “Mr. Cheng has been left so far behind that we can’t even see him.”

Ruan An’an: …

After getting her share of jokes, Jiang Yi suddenly said, “Speaking of, your situation reminds me of someone else.”

Ruan An’an looked at her, “Huh?”

Jiang Yi: “Do you remember my cousin, Jiang Yin? I’ve mentioned her before, somewhat famous in our circle, known for being fun-loving.”

Ladies of prestigious families didn’t just live the socialite life, going to various shows around the world and being the talk of the media. Every day, they have plenty of time unwatched by camera lenses, free to do whatever they wanted. Jiang Yin was representative of the group that organized all sorts of entertainment events. Despite the large variety of activities, though, everything was within the legal bounds.

Ruan An’an nodded, “of course, I remember. Didn’t this cousin of yours once date 4 guys over the course of a month, breaking the record within the socialite circle?”

“Sigh, that was before.”

Her words intrigued Ruan An’an, “What? Is this some repentance arc? Quickly, tell me.”

Jiang Yi pouted, “She was in a similar boat as you. She met and fell in love with a university student on her business trip to the neighboring city. He’s from University F.”

“My cousin stayed at the school for a month to pursue this boy, calling me every day to tell me how real it was and how she found true love. Then, last week, she called me in the middle of the night one day. She told me that she came clean about being a member of the Jiang family, and told him that she hoped for him to move to Qing Cheng after he graduated…” Jiang Yi took a deep breath.

Ruan An’an, who was listening intently, immediately asked “Then what?”

Jiang Yi, “Then, that boy gave her the goodbyes…”

Ruan An’an: …

It was also the first time Yin Yuan heard a story like this. She voiced her confusion. “But, why? Isn’t Qing Cheng better than the neighboring city?”

Jiang Yi was even more puzzled, shrugging, “No idea. Even if the Jiang family didn’t have as much power as Ruan Ruan’s gramps, but… no, it can’t be that we’re not good enough, we must be too good. I think this university boy didn’t want to get involved in the messy business of us prestigious families?”

“…”

Jiang Yi sighed, “Either way, my cousin is neither going to the company nor holding any parties. She’s just been crying all day at home. And she sends me hundreds of messages every day, how annoying. I should just block her.”

“Luckily, I was smart about it… otherwise, I’d probably turn out like your cousin?” Ruan An’an felt a bit uneasy. “It was wise, so wise…”

Jiang Yi eyed her, “Yeah… compared to my cousin, you really are in a better position.”

Ruan An’an took a sip of tea and spoke after thinking a bit, “Doesn’t that just prove the belief that—”

“Birds of a feather flock together and like attracts like.” After reciting the two idioms as if they were poetry, she placed her teacup on the table with a clang, stating matter-of-factly, “For a relationship, it only works if you match each other.”

After parting with Jiang Yi and Yin Yuan, Ruan An’an took a taxi to the karaoke parlor the class had booked. Thankfully there was no traffic on the way, and she made it just in time.

Few people went for karaoke in the afternoon, so the parlor only opened after 2 pm. Finance Class 1 lavishly booked the largest room they had, the extravagant VIP room.

Gu Jue was messaging her while she was still on her way. So, once Ruan An’an notified him of her arrival, it didn’t take one for him to come out to meet her.

It was almost November. Ruan An’an had started wearing sweaters in addition to her coat. Gu Jue, on the other hand, seemed to sense no coldness. He only wore short sleeves under his jacket, or sometimes, just a single-layered hoodie.

As much as it looked cold, he also looked good, displaying that gorgeous figure of his. Ruan An’an smiled at him. Before she could greet him, though, he rushed over with a hug, enveloping her in his arms.

Ruan An’an couldn’t react. With her face buried in his hoodie, she could smell the scent of Abies koreana, but before she could recall the name of this plant, Gu Jue’s voice sounded from above her head. “The last time we met was Friday, right?”

“… Mm-hmm.”

“It’s been two days,” he paused, “were you dying to see me again?”

“…?”

Here she thought, he was about to make a dramatic confession of his love.

Once Ruan An’an’s body finally remembered to react, she pushed him away. “Who’s dying to see you?” She raised her voice, “Don’t be too full of yourself!”

Gu Jue enjoyed getting yelled at by her. He released his embrace and changed to holding her hand. Smiling, “Let’s go, they’re waiting.”

Ruan An’an didn’t struggle and trailed at his side into the elevator.

Gu Jue’s fingers were long and thin, his skin was smooth too. If she didn’t know about his financial situation, she would’ve thought he was a pianist.

Holding his hand felt nice. The only problem was how cold it was.

There was a mirror wall in the elevator. Ruan An’an met his gaze in the mirror. “Aren’t you cold wearing so little?” She squeezed his hand, “Your hand is freezing…”

Gu Jue was caught off guard by her question and turned his head. As if in sync, Ruan An’an also turned her head and met his gaze directly.

He could feel that the hand he was holding was a size smaller than his, soft as jelly, and radiating heat.

He felt that there were a lot of moments like these during the time they had spent together.

Highlight moments where his inner thoughts would be screaming “OMG, what kind of goddess is my girlfriend? She’s so f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g̲ cute!”

Like, right now, how she was doe-eyed while noting his cold hands, but also secretly held his hand tighter.

The elevator notified their arrival with a “ding” before Gu Jue could reply to her.

The massive private room they were going to was to the right, only a turn away from the elevators.

When they entered, Ruan An’an could see that many people had arrived already. The moment the couple entered, though, it seemed as if someone pressed the pause button.

Ruan An’an lifted her hand to greet everyone, but Gu Jue spoke before her, “Sorry for the wait, my plus-one got lost. I only found her just now.” His arm resting on her shoulder, in an intimate position. “Let me introduce, my plus-one, Ruan An’an.”

The organizers emphasized that they allowed plus-ones, namely, girl- or boyfriends from other classes.

But… who the f̲u̲c̲k̲ still doesn’t who this plus-one of yours, Mr. Gu God?

Their classmates had enough, immediately exploding.

“Gu God, can’t you stop showing off? Is this really necessary?”

“Other than 5 or 6 of us, everyone else in our class is still single, don’t you feel guilty about abusing us single dogs?”

“Sigh, don’t even mention that, I’ve already been traumatized. The other day, I dreamt of Gu God wearing a blue flower, telling me how it was fine but Ruan An’an was worried about it getting infected…”

“LMAO f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g̲ worried about infection? Who did? It was clearly Ruan God who ripped the flower off his face in the end!”

“…”

Ruan An’an was the last to arrive, so after a bit of joking about Gu Jue’s melodramas, they started the song selection process.

The Sports Committee member was the first one up, determined to select a good song to kick off today’s events.

After a few seconds, the screen lit up to show the name of the song, “Hurt By You.”

The Sports Committee member said profoundly, “I gift this song to all the single dogs who had been hurt by Gu God.”

The audience cheered and laughed. Ruan An’an wanted to complain about song choice, but after hearing his rationale, she also started laughing.

The culprit didn’t seem to mind in the least. “That’s just exaggerating it… What did I do?”

… Don’t you have the slightest idea about your prior actions?

The Sports Committee member was decent at sports. So, despite his questionable singing skills, at least he had the lung capacity to hit both the lows and the highs. With only the occasional off-key notes, the first verse went by just fine.

The screens in the private rooms were massive. The music video suddenly took a turn. The punk who got dumped got a haircut and started working out at the gym… shirtless.

Perhaps it was the actor’s good figure, the girls were all squealing. Ruan An’an only got to see the actor stripping off his shirt before a hand covered her eyes. There wasn’t much force applied, but it made sure she couldn’t see anything.

Ruan An’an was in the dark, still trying to figure out what happened.

A familiar voice spoke with a familiar tone.

“What is there to squeal about on that subpar body…”

“I guarantee you it’s all fake…”

“That dumbbell in his hand isn’t real either, it’s obviously a prop… tsk, so fake.”

Ruan An’an: …

Gu Jue continued to voice his criticisms while keeping her eyes tightly covered.

After he had enough to say, he drew close to her ear. Tickling her with his breath as he spoke.

“… Don’t look, it’s unnecessary.” He must’ve found his tone too harsh, since he added in a soft voice, “If you really want to see, your boyfriend could strip for you.”