CH 18

Qin Juran never had the habit of sleeping in. She woke up at 7 a.m. sharp the next morning, took a shower, and stuck her headphones in to listen to the BBC news broadcast.

Since JuJu Tavern didn’t serve breakfast, Papa and Mama Qin only got up around 8 to begin the preparations. Expecting his sister to sleep for longer, Qin Julai came knocking on her door at 8:30 to bring her a plate of bread, milk, and eggs especially made in the shape of a heart.

The morning sunshine poured through the window, illuminating the tiny specks of dust hovering in the air.

Qin Juran squinted and contentedly took a picture of the meal, then posted it on her WeChat page with the location pinned, omitting a caption.

She sat at her desk while she ate, using one hand to open her investment app. With her background as the daughter of an influential business family, along with her finance expertise, stocks were the best form of investment that she could think of.

Unfortunately, she only had so much money to begin with, and she didn’t want to put it all into stocks. After last month, she had only earned around $2000.

As she thought about the Qin family’s current financial state, recalling Qin Haotian’s cloth shoes that had been washed and worn to a faded state, Qin Juran pursed her lips. Anyways, she was a third-year in university, so it was about time for an internship.

Qin Juran recalled that the original protagonist had entered the male lead’s family company for an internship in her fourth year. In a melodramatic, pitiful conversation, she had mentioned something about being desperate for money.

Desperate for money…

What could she possibly need so much money for that she would even give up the opportunity to study abroad? Or was it just another contrived plot point to drive the story?

Whatever the case, now that she had become Qin Juran, there was no way she was interning at Fan Chuan’s company. As to the study abroad that the counselor had mentioned, Qin Juran opened her phone to look up the details. Just as she turned it on, she noticed that her post had received a bunch of comments, some even commenting that she’d make a great wife. She skimmed through the names to see that it was mostly all male students.

As she tapped onto the chats, she noticed a message from someone called “Fan Fan.” She opened the conversation and read the message:

【Juju, you’re back home???】

Qin Juran scrolled up and deduced from their previous chats that this person might be one of the original owner’s close friends. She replied with a “yea,” then after a moment, added a small emoticon to retain the original owner’s texting style.

She quickly received a response: 【You didn’t even tell me that you were going! If I knew I would’ve gone back too!】

Qin Juran: 【Hehe.】

【What are you laughing for? You sure are something – I haven’t even seen you in so long. Oh, right, why are you back all of a sudden? Don’t tell me you’re attending the class of 21’ and 22’ joint reunion? Didn’t you say you weren’t going before?】

This was the first time she was even hearing about this. She replied: 【I’m not going.】

Fan Fan: 【Mhm, I heard Zhou Ziqing was going, so Ruan Nan could be going, too. It’s better to be safe and not go. Can’t avoid them in university, but at least we can avoid these types of things.】

Qin Juran knew that the original owner and Ruan Nan had attended the same high school, but she wasn’t aware of what exactly happened between them. Or was it still related to Fan Chuan?

Feeling intrigued, Qin Juran was about to ask for more details when Fan Fan messaged saying that she was busy and had to go.

Qin Juran spent most of the day at home, then went out for a stroll with Qin Julai in the afternoon. “JuJu Tavern” already had a unique name; although they served Chinese homestyle meals, the design of the restaurant had its own individual style.

The two of them went to the flower, bird, and fish market to look around. Qin Juran picked out ten fishes and a small round fish tank, while Qin Julai went elsewhere to look around, telling Qin Juran to wait a moment.

Qin Juran obediently waited by the entrance, and soon after, Qin Julai came wobbling through the throng of people, hands protectively grasping a glass vase on top of his head. A delicate white silk ribbon was tied around the vase, which was filled with a large bunch of gypsophila flowers.

Qin Juran gaped at him, mouth dropping open. Before she could ask, Qin Julai laughed shyly and said, “Sis, I noticed the tattoo on your ankle, so I thought you’d like them.”

“But I’ll only be home for a few days.”

Qin Julai fervently shook his head: “Don’t worry about that. As long as it livens up even one day.”

Qin Juran almost chuckled at his naivety, and raised her brows: “You knew that this word was a flower name? What if it represented something else?”

Qin Julai paused, pursing his lips: “Well the only thing I could do to help my big sister is to buy her flowers – anything else is up to her.”

“Tch…”

Nonetheless, Qin Juran passed over the fish tank to Qin Julai while she happily received the flowers, breathing in the light, fragrant scent.

Qin Juran thought of spraying some lime-scented perfume on them.

JuJu Tavern was in business as usual all day. After eating dinner, Qin Juran wanted to go help out, but after serving a few dishes, the guests began to stare at her, so Mama Qin quickly rushed her back upstairs.

Up until 11 at night, customers bustled to and from the restaurant. Qin Juran showered and casually glanced at relevant job postings. Just as she prepared to put down her phone and turn in for the night, she received a direct WeChat call from Lin Wei.

“Where are you right now, Qin Juran?” Lin Wei’s voice was filled with anxiety.

“Home.”

“Are you busy?”

“Speak.”

“Sister Nan sent her location to the group chat a moment ago, saying that she needed Zhou Ziqing for something. But Zhou Ziqing hasn’t been answering his phone, and I don’t know any of her other high school classmates, except for you.”

As she listened, Qin Juran quickly got up and changed. “What kind of location is it that’s making you so scared?”

“I didn’t know that Sister Nan would be going back to A District all of a sudden, since her cruise trip to Iceland had already been booked. And since her dad lives together with that witch, I don’t think she’d want to go home. I had no idea where she was even staying the past two days!”

Qin Juran’s mind flashed back to the phone call that Ruan Nan had picked up from her car last night. The voice sounded like it belonged to a young man around Qin Julai’s age, but his question was dripping with hostility.

“Send me the location right now. I’m on my way.”

Qin Juran speedily finished changing and just left the door when Qin Julai also came walking out. Seeing her rush, he quietly asked, “Sis, where are you going?”

“Big Sister has a high school classmate who might’ve been bullied. I need to quickly go help.”

Qin Julai froze, then blurted, “Bullied?! Then I’m coming with you.”

Since Qin Juran agreed that it’d be safer with more people, she didn’t decline. Before Qin Julai walked out, he grabbed a lighter that one of the customers had left on the table and pocketed it.

Tossing the electric bike’s keys to Qin Juran on his way out, he pointed to the internet café across the street: “Sis, give me a minute.”

After a brief moment, three or four electric scooters drove up accompanying Qin Julai. Qin Juran was taken aback, but he explained, “Sis, these are my classmates. Since they happened to be nearby, I asked them to come along just in case.”

“Nice to meet you, Older Sister,” the group of young men chimed in greeting.

Seeing the six or seven strong young men, Qin Juran felt more reassured. She nodded and gave them the directions for the “World of Mortals KTV” that Lin Wei had sent. The scooters quickly sped off to their destination.

As Qin Juran reached the KTV entrance, she noticed Ruan Nan’s Porsche parked outside. She jumped off her bike and bolted inside, but was quickly halted by the receptionist: “Hey hey hey – what do you think you’re doing? You might as well just ride your bike straight inside!”

Qin Juran’s eyes shot daggers toward him: “You want to try me?”

Another receptionist rushed over to break up the dispute: “Miss, Miss, please calm down.”

“Is there a guest with the last name Ruan? She might’ve stayed here all of last night.”

The receptionist frowned: “Are you here for love or revenge? I’m sorry, Miss, but we can’t disclose our guests’ personal information.”

Qin Juran yanked on his collar: “You can’t disclose it, but you’ll disclose to a man? Listen, the guest named Ruan is the owner of the car parked right outside your door. If anything happened to her, don’t even think about running away.”

At the word “Porsche,” the receptionist began shaking in alarm, and thinking that she already knew too much, he gestured outside: “Out—outside is a small alley. Just before, those people went looking for her there.”

Upon hearing about “those people,” Qin Juran’s ears began ringing. She ran out and leaped onto her bike, racing towards the alley he spoke of. Turns out, just around the corner, standing in a dimly lit corner were 7 or 8 young men towering over a small, slim figure who was pressed against the wall. The figure was shrouded in shadows, hidden away from the nearby street lights.

Qin Juran immediately slammed on her bike horn, tightened her grip on the handles, and rammed on the gas, aiming straight towards the group of men. The ones standing on the outskirts heard the horn and moved to avoid her, but the man standing closest to Ruan Nan didn’t manage to react before Qin Juran knocked him straight onto the ground.

“MOTHERF*CKER—”

He slammed headfirst into the ground, screaming out obscenities as he tried to crawl up.

Qin Juran leaped off her bike and looked at Ruan Nan, who was faintly trembling. She immediately went to grab a fistful of the young man’s fair, pulling out the lighter from her pocket and holding the flame alarmingly close to his chin. She spat out in a chilling tone: “If you say another word, I’ll light you up.”

The man immediately humbled down. Seeing that the intruder was a girl, the other 3 standing guys were about to fight her directly, when suddenly there came the sound of sticks hitting the ground from behind them. They turned to see that another 7 or 8 boys had joined them.

Their resolve suddenly weakened. After all, group fights were all about strength in numbers, especially in this kind of area.

Qin Julai walked up and slowly picked up the stick, pointing it towards the man on the ground: “Sis, is it him?”

Seeing that the man had subdued, Qin Juran released her grip on the lighter and turned towards Ruan Nan, wrapping her arms around her. Once she had ensured that she wasn’t hurt, Qin Juran furiously assessed the young man, who seemed to be around Qin Julai’s age. His looks were average, but he was dressed in designer clothes with a luxury watch on his wrist, suggesting that he was a second-generation rich kid.

“Was he the one bullying you?”

Before Ruan Nan could answer, the boy rattled on: “Look at you, Big Sister – you’re even mixing with the electric bike-riding crowd now, huh?”

Qin Juran kicked his shoulder: “Want to see just how bad an electric bike can mess you up?”

Seeing that the boy was about to keep spouting nonsense, Qin Julai approached him with the stick in hand. Suddenly, Ruan Nan pleaded, “Juran, don’t hit him.”

Qin Juran asked quietly, “What’s wrong?”

“He didn’t use violence…”

Qin Juran noticed Ruan Nan’s firmly clenched fists and thought back to the boy calling her “Big Sister.” Without saying anything else, she simply moved off to the side, standing in a protective manner, and waited for Ruan Nan to talk to him herself.

Ruan Nan coolly stared at the rascal lying on the ground, tire tracks imprinted onto his back. She inhaled a sharp break and spoke icily: “Today is the last time I’ll tolerate this. If there’s a next time, then you and your entire family have it coming.”

“You should know better than anyone just what I am capable of.”

Under the streetlights, Ran Nan’s expression was especially vicious, and her words came out as threateningly as if she were giving a terminal illness diagnosis. The boy was quite young, after all, and hearing her voice, he felt himself breaking into a cold sweat.

When Qin Juran saw that Ruan Nan was through with him, she gave the boy another kick in the shoulder. Shooting him her sharpest glare, she growled in his face: “Get out.”

The group of men quickly staggered away.

After making sure they were all gone, Qin Julai walked over and asked, “Older Sister, are you alright?”

Ruan Nan glanced at him and subtly nodded her head.

Qin Juran flashed a smile towards the rest of the young men: “Thank you, guys.” Without them, who knows what might’ve happened instead.

When the boys saw the two pretty older sisters standing there, they were filled with the satisfaction of being the knights in shining armor. They glanced at each other bashfully, and chimed together, “No problem!”

Qin Juran nodded. “Julai, you and your friends can go back first. I’ll make sure to treat you guys to some milk tea later.”

Qin Julai grunted in agreement and told her to be careful, as well.

Once they all walked away, Qin Juran gave Ruan Nan another look up and down her body. “You’re really not hurt?”

Ruan Nan nodded.

Qin Juran noticed her disheveled hair and moved closer to straighten it. Although Ruan Nan wanted to dodge the gesture at first, she succumbed in the end.

Seeing Ruan Nan’s listless expression, Qin Juran pulled her under the streetlamp and stood silently beside her.

She waited for Ruan Nan to adjust to the light and calm down from her frightened state. She then rested her hands on Ruan Nan’s shoulders and looked directly into her eyes, asking, “Zhou Ziqing didn’t answer your messages, so why didn’t you contact me?”

Ruan Nan looked like a child who just did something wrong, flashing a quick glance at Qin Juran then lowering her head. She spoke in a tiny voice: “I didn’t want to.”

Qin Juran reached a finger to poke her nose: “You still don’t want to? Who was the one that just came running to save you?”

Her words came out with a sense of protectiveness, her lips curling and her expression softening. Ruan Nan’s mouth twitched and avoided her gaze, answering quietly, “Now I owe you another favor.”

Qin Juran looked at her expression and didn’t press the matter further. She smiled and smoothly clasped Ruan Nan’s hand in hers: “Let’s go.”

Ruan Nan’s hand was cold and trembled as it was enveloped by Qin Juran’s grasp. Taking a hesitant step forward, she asked, “Where?”

Qin Juran raised a brow: “You stayed at this KTV all last night?”

Ruan Nan blushed: “I forgot to bring my identity card.”

In other words, she couldn’t book a hotel room.

Qin Juran thought back to what Lin Wei said about her family matters, and didn’t ask any more. She let go of her hand and leaned against her bike, patting the back seat: “My house or the motel?”