CH 46.2

Huang Ying and Lin Wei looked at each other, puzzlement written on both their faces. The relationship between the three of them was still rather ambiguous, so there were a few people who believed that Qin Juran and Ruan Nan had something going on between them, as well as others who still thought that Qin Juran liked Fan Chuan.

As she exchanged seats, the two male students who were close to Fan Chuan whistled teasingly. Since her new seat was further from Ruan Nan, she now had to turn to get a good look at her.

Qin Juran was still wearing her coat until now, so she finally took the opportunity while switching seats to take it off, revealing the stunning red dress. The dim blue lights hovered over Qin Juran’s body, highlighting her red lips and high heels, evoking gasps of surprise from the group. She tossed her black curls over her shoulder as she strode slowly towards the sofa.

The game was to be conducted simply using a toss of dice. The loser would have to choose a truth or dare, or otherwise drink a large shot of liquor.

The group of ten or so sat around the table, and the clinking of dice soon began sounding through the room. Liu Chao even seemed to be looking out for Qin Juran, asking, “Campus flower, do you know how to play? Is this your first time?”

Qin Juran smiled slightly: “I’ll just keep rolling for now; you can guide me from there.”

The game didn’t involve any complicated rules anyway, it was only a matter of luck.

In the first round, the loser who rolled the smallest number was a male student who ended up choosing a “truth.” His roommate Xue Dong didn’t hold back, prodding him: “Who was the person you were dreaming about last night? I heard you talking in your sleep, all ‘Be quiet’ and ‘You can shower first.’”

“Woah, that’s a lot to take in…”

Hoots of laughter erupted from the group, but Xue Dong didn’t relent: “So won’t you tell us – who was it?”

The student’s blush reached the tip of his ears: “It was the masseuse at the foot therapy clinic – I was dreaming of getting a foot massage, ok?”

“HAHAHAHAHAHA”

No one believed him, and a shot glass was handed to him: “If you don’t tell the truth, then you have to drink. That’s all there is to it.”

The student’s face was still flustered and bright red, but he threw his head back and downed the shot in a single gulp.

The game continued, and the second person to be chosen was Liu Chao. He ended up giving a show of himself acting as a gorilla and dancing, which made everyone laugh and whip out their phones to film him.

With his penchant for acting and dancing, combined with an appearance vaguely resembled a gorilla, even Qin Juran couldn’t help giggling a little as she watched on. But when she turned her head to glance at Ruan Nan, she saw that she wasn’t laughing.

Qin Juran’s mouth clamped shut as well.

The third person to be chosen was a female student. She was dared to call her boyfriend and declare “Babe, I love you,” as everyone thought that she’d be embarrassed by it. However, the group didn’t expect the phone call to turn into a mushy round of PDA, causing the onlookers to feel as if they were the ones being punished instead.

As the game continued, the fourth loser was Ruan Nan.

Several people in the group seemed to huddle together, whispering amongst themselves and looking at each other. After all, no ordinary person dared to joke with Ruan Nan. Huang Ying glanced at Qin Juran, who didn’t look as if she was about to say anything either. Suddenly Huang Ying came up with an idea and voluntarily raised her head, a question already prepared in her mind: “I got it. Sister Nan, truth or dare?”

Ruan Nan stared at her, then muttered quietly, her eyes downcast: “Dare.”

“…..”

Huang Ying: “That works, too. Then Sister Nan, give the person that you like a call right now. You can say anything you like.”

“Woah——”

""

This dare – Huang Ying sure knew how to make things interesting.

As everyone stared at Ruan Nan, waiting to see what she’d do, Qin Juran also couldn’t help pinching her dress with her fingers restlessly. However, Ruan Nan only raised her head and declared coldly: “I can’t.”

Not that “there wasn’t anyone,” but that she “couldn’t.”

The lively atmosphere suddenly died down.

Liu Chao waved his hands: “That’s alright, that’s alright. If you can’t, then drinking is also fine.”

Lin Wei peered at him: “Sister Nan doesn’t drink.”

“But it’s the rule…..”

While his sentence trailed off awkwardly, Qin Juran leaned in and picked up a shot glass, the brown liquid sloshing around in the glass. She announced quietly, “I’ll drink for her,” then downed the shot in a single gulp before anyone could respond.

“Oh my god, is that really the Qin Juran that we all know?”

“Oh my god, who knew that the campus flower could drink so well?”

As she set the glass back down, the strong alcohol flavor made her cough so hard that her face turned pink. Huang Ying quickly passed her a napkin and began patting her back. During the moment that Qin Juran had picked up the shot glass, she noticed from the corner of her eye the surprise in Fan Chuan’s expression, but he hadn’t said anything in the end.

Qin Juran turned her head towards the far side of the room where Ruan Nan was sitting only to see her staring right back at her. However, her eyes flicked away when they met. Qin Juran lowered her head as well, pursing her lips.

The game continued until nearly everyone in the group was chosen; there were both funny dares and sad confessions, and the atmosphere of the group grew giddier and giddier as they kept drinking and playing. Lin Wei himself had been chosen three times, and during one turn, he was dared to call the most recent contact in his phone and tell them that they “looked really hot today.”

Only it turned out that the most recent contact he called was the little old school counselor.

After a while, Liu Chao asked Qin Juran drunkenly: “Wait a second, campus flower, how come you’re the only one who hasn’t been chosen yet?”

The others in the group nodded in agreement. Seeing that the game was coming to a close, as it was nearly 10 o’clock and the dormitories were going to be locked soon, Qin Juran suggested with a smile, “Why don’t we change the rules a little?”

“Like what?”

Qin Juran explained: “The person who rolls five dice of the same number can choose anyone in the room to ask a question to, or say something from the heart. If no one rolls it, then I’ll drink.”

Huang Ying and Lin Wei immediately understood what she was trying to do, and instantly began hyping her up. However, Liu Chao pointed out, “But, Campus Flower, don’t you know that the chances of rolling that are really low?”

The male student beside Fan Chuan chimed in, “Is there something in particular that you want to say to someone? Don’t be shy, you can just say it directly, we’re all listening!”

Qin Juran laughed and shook her head. She picked up the dice cup and rolled – it was no good. She picked up her glass and downed half of the drink.

The second round was also another failure. With a slight upward tilt to her lip, she finished off the rest of her glass.

After the third round of rolling to no avail, Qin Juran slowly grasped the dice with her slender, white fingers, and raised her head towards Ruan Nan.

The two pairs of eyes focused on each other. Qin Juran’s face was flushed from the alcohol, but her legs were planted firmly in the ground and her back stood straight. The tassels of her sleeves hung in the air and her pretty eyes were pools of midnight, enigmatic and mysterious in the dim light.

Qin Juran slowly raised her hands and shook. The surprised gasps followed immediately: “Five ‘6’s!!!”

“WOW!!! Even the dice know to obey Qin Juran!”

“Alright now, the floor is all yours, Campus Flower.”

Qin Juran’s eyes once against flicked back to Ruan Nan, and she noticed her fists clenching in her lap.

But then, she suddenly turned her head, instead facing Fan Chuan straight on: “Fan Chuan, there’s something I want to say to you.”

This turn of events was too unexpected. Before anyone else could react, Qin Juran announced boldly to Fan Chuan: “Fan Chuan, before, I always thought you were an annoyance, but now I realize that I should’ve been clearer with you. So I’m going to tell you this once, right here and now.”

“During high school, Qin Juran really was secretly in love with you, all the way until college. But all those years, all you did was leave her hanging and make her run around in circles, even pulling your friends into this almost psychotic behavior.”

“I’m going to save you some humiliation and not go into all the specifics of what you’ve done, but I’m sure you know very well yourself. I don’t care where you want to direct your sadomasochism towards, but it won’t be me anymore.”

Her words left no trace of ambiguity, and the expression in her eyes was cold as ice. As the color slowly drained from Fan Chuan’s face, the others could only look on dumbfoundedly, not daring to say a word.

“But you should know this – people can change. On the day in which I ripped the love letter for you, the ‘me’ in this world wanted nothing to do with you anymore. But of course, if you’re going to keep interfering with my life and relationships, then I won’t show any mercy either.”

As she spoke, she pulled out two large folders from her bag. From the first folder, Qin Juran pulled out the contract with the “Sheng Heng” company and slid it before him: “I’m returning this contract to you – I won’t join Sheng Heng. I don’t know what you meant by this, but if you pull anything like this again, then I’ll make sure the entire Sheng Chuan Group will have a problem on its hands.”

By this time, Huang Ying had just about processed everything that was happening.  No wonder Qin Juran seemed so suspicious of the internship company; she had connected the dots between Sheng Chuan Group and Sheng Heng…so Fan Chuan was behind that all along?

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With the giant bomb that Qin Juran dropped, Fan Chuan’s expression darkened exponentially. The onlookers seemed to sense that things were about to get ugly and quickly tried to smooth things over between the two, when Qin Juran suddenly sat back down, the vicious expression disappearing off her face. She slid the second clear folder in her hand towards Fan Chuan.

Everyone else craned their necks to get a look at the contents. It seemed to be an assortment of photos of Fan Chuan and other mementos.

“I’m leaving all of those remnants of the past here today. I can’t deny the feelings that Qin Juran once harbored for you. But now, I do not like you and never will.”

All the photos that she had once collected and treasured, now yellowed and torn at the corners, were all scattered about the table like an assortment of expired drugs; they stood as a testament to her past feelings that she no longer cared to hide.

This whole time, Fan Chuan hadn’t uttered a single word. He merely stared at the folders in stupefaction, his face turning pale one second, then bright red the next. Qin Juran held out a glass of wine towards him: “Fan Chuan, actually, there are a lot of people in this room that know who it is that I really like.”

“Don’t embarrass yourself anymore.”

Qin Juran’s glass hung in the air for a long time. Finally, Fan Chuan raised his head, the ugly expression from before instead replaced with a feigned smile. He picked up a wine glass: “Qin Juran, perhaps I did misunderstand you before. Since it turned out like this, let’s let bygones be bygones from hereon. Everyone here is in the finance industry; perhaps we can work together in the future if the opportunity arises.”

As Qin Juran clinked her glass against his, everyone else in the room seemed to relax. Liu Chao seemed to finally react, banking on the courage from the alcohol to ask, “Campus Flower, Campus Flower – so who it is that you actually like?”

Tch ——

Looks like they weren’t going to let things end off so easily.

Qin Juran set down her glass. Her features blurred in the dim lamplight, creating an otherworldly effect. As she turned her body, the tassels on her sleeve drew a perfect arc in the air. Qin Juran faced the corner where Ruan Nan sat and spoke quietly:

“I like this girl.”

“She’s proud, kind, yet always two-faced – secretly caring for other people without saying it out loud. Like a little hedgehog, she’s always making people scared of approaching her.”

“But in actuality, she’s a complete softie. When she laughs, there’s a small dimple on her right cheek, and when she’s nervous, her hands will ball into little fists, and she blushes easily…”

As Qin Juran spoke, she seemed to have remembered something. She lowered her eyes and laughed. The alcohol was gradually catching up to her, and her voice came out soft and mellow:

“Actually, she’s really lonely.”

“She once told me that it felt as if everything she liked was hard to get close to or bound to leave. She was always striving to conceal this kind of loneliness, but I know exactly how she feels.”

Qin Juran once again raised her head, peering deeply into Ruan Nan’s eyes as she enunciated: “I was once like that too.”

“When everyone who I really loved left me, I also felt that I didn’t belong anywhere. I once loathed all places noisy and lively, but now, as long as she is there in the crowd, I feel that I can fit in too.”

“I don’t know how to explain this unnatural crossover to her – I feel as if as soon as I open my mouth, then I’ll wake up from this dream. But if there’s one thing I do know, it’s that I don’t want to lose her.”

Qin Juran’s voice grew gradually softer as she spoke. By the end, with her head lowered, she whispered almost inaudibly: “That’s right. It seems that I really don’t want to lose her…”

The entire room was in a state of silence. Before anyone could react, Qin Juran picked up her coat, muttered a word of “sorry,” and then left to walk downstairs.

The cold winter air blew against her body, the street lamps casting long shadows along the road. In between the light and shadows, a pair of tall stilettos clinked against the pavement. Qin Juran wrapped her coat tightly around her body and walked forward step by step alone.