CH 54.1

By the time Qin Juran arrived at her classroom building, the first class period had already ended. The bell signaling the second period rung just as she walked into the classroom, and she immediately noticed Ruan Nan staring towards the doorway, head perched on her palm. Qin Juran directly approached her, dropped the exam results that she’d just received onto Ruan Nan’s desk, then found the nearest open desk to sit at.

Ruan Nan began looking over the exam paper. She didn’t understand the questions that Qin Juran had missed either – frankly, she didn’t even understand the questions Qin Juran had answered.

But nonetheless, Qin Juran had still scored an astounding 93, and the title of “1st place” was marked strikingly on top of the page.

The female professor soon walked into the classroom. Although this class was the one that Qin Juran was most concerned about before, after she took the midterm exam, it was now the least of her worries.

The teacher left an exercise question for the students to solve during the class. While the other students frantically looked up the formula to solve it, Qin Juran easily calculated the result from memory. When she raised her head to glance at Ruan Nan, her proud little wife’s calm, elegant demeanor stood out from the rest –

She hadn’t even bothered to open her textbook for the formula.

Qin Juran giggled. She pulled out a slip of paper and wrote the corresponding page number of the textbook with the formula, as well as a note: 【If you can’t solve it, then Professor Qin can tutor you tonight. 】

When Ruan Nan received the slip, she whipped her head around to see Qin Juran’s amused expression, and her face flamed. She tossed the paper into her bag and quickly flipped open her textbook to look for the formula.

This formula was one that Qin Juran had already taught her, so Ruan Nan was able to quickly solve the problem. She pulled out a sticky note and wrote the answer she’d calculated on it, followed by, 【Why don’t you just send a text message, instead of passing paper notes？】

【Paper notes give the impression of a clandestine love affair.】

……

Ruan Nan ignored the rest of this vixen’s games and pulled out her phone to send Qin Juran a message instead: 【How do you want to celebrate today, since you got first place.】

【Could I have Ah-Ruan for myself today?】 Qin Juran replied.

【……Not that again.】

Qin Juran was puzzled at what ‘that’ was referring to, and stared at the phone in confusion for a moment before finally reacting. Alright, looks like her little wife can play some games of her own.

Qin Juran laughed, replying: 【Let’s go to the library in the afternoon, I can help you edit your resume. Then let’s go out in the evening.】

She had noticed that Ruan Nan had been fixing up her resume during the past few days, and she hadn’t had a chance to look it over while she was busy studying for the competition exam. Qin Juran flipped open her phone to browse through the nearby shows and events happening. Asides from some uninteresting movie showings, there was a concert being held soon.

Qin Juran flicked open the page. The concert was for a female artist named “Yiming.” This world seemed to have its own entertainment industry, so Qin Juran had never heard of her. When she searched for the name, she appeared to be a very popular singer, with a good singing technique and a large fanbase. Qin Juran clicked on the tickets, but they were already sold out.

After class, Qin Juran walked over to Ruan Nan’s desk and told her that she’d booked two movie tickets for the evening. She also mentioned that there was a concert she was interested in, but the tickets were sold out, so she felt bad for being forced to take Ruan Nan out on such a simple date.

Ruan Nan didn’t say anything just then, but during lunch when Qin Juran was going to get food, she pulled out her phone and search for Yiming. She’d heard of this singer before and might’ve even seen someone post about her on social media.

Ruan Nan took a screenshot of the concert details, then hesitated for a moment before sending it to Mr. Chen.

After they finished eating, the two returned to the library café again. This time, the seats by the window were all full, but just as they wondered what to do, the waitress underclassman from before led them over to a private booth in the corner of the room. A thin Muslin cloth hung from the ceiling surrounding the sofa.

The waitress brought over two cups of coffee, and Ruan Nan pulled up her resume onto her laptop.

She was able to speak some Spanish before because she’d lived in Spain for many years as a child, and her English was also at a standardized level. Ruan Nan wanted to tell Qin Juran that she didn’t need to help, since she’d have an organization look it over later, but Qin “the melodramatic businesswoman” Juran only flicked an eyebrow and perched her glasses onto the top of her nose bridge: “How could I leave my wife’s matters into others’ hands?”

Alright, then.

Qin Juran nudged Ruan Nan’s laptop so that it sat between the two of them. She wasn’t just boasting; Qin Juran had lived abroad for seven years in her past life, so she had a good idea of the types of resumes that these schools liked to see and what qualities they were looking for in a study abroad applicant.

When she first skimmed through Ruan Nan’s resume, she couldn’t help letting out a laugh when she read the English blurb that she’d included: “When I was a child, I met a cat named Emma. Every day she would stare at me from the walls of my yard, but later she disappeared, and I missed her every day.”

As Qin Juran laughed, Ruan Nan bashfully turned her laptop away. In a single move, Qin Juran looped Ruan Nan in her arms and pulled her onto her lap.

“Ah—” Ruan Nan was so started by this action that she cried out, face flaming. “What are you doing – we’re in a library!”

Qin Juran jutted her chin towards the muslin drapery, whispering into Ruan Nan’s ear: “No one will notice if you stop screaming.”

“…..! !”

Qin Juran didn’t let go, only pulling Ruan Nan tighter into her chest. She pointed to the words that she highlighted on the laptop screen, speaking in a sincere tone: “Did you really meet a cat named Emma?”

Ruan Nan nodded.

“Do you know what my English name is?” Qin Juran looked at her little wife in her arms playfully, a mysterious glint in her eyes.

“Luisa. That’s what you wrote on the attendance sheet before.”

“……”

Qin Juran’s English name in her past life was actually Emma.

“Alright then, from now on, it’s Emma.”

With that said, Qin Juran logged onto her student portal account from Ruan Nan’s laptop, typed her new name, clicked through the warning prompts of “Are you sure you would like to change your English name?” and hit Enter.

As Ruan Nan was trapped between her arms, she couldn’t restrain Qin Juran’s quick hands. She blurted anxiously, “You don’t have to do that Qin Juran, don’t change the English name that you’ve been using for so long just because of me.”

Qin Juran rubbed the back of her head: “It’s not just because of you, Ah-Ruan.”

“It just so happens that I also like the name that you like.”

Qin Juran continued to give Ruan Nan a few suggestions to edit. As Ruan Nan considered the changes, she agreed that they made sense, especially in her introduction. Somehow, Qin Juran even had a good understanding of what the University of California wanted.

“Qin Juran, how are you so good at this kind of stuff, too?”

Qin Juran paused for a second. “When the counselor mentioned earlier about how the top three students in the grade were offered a study abroad opportunity, I did some research on it.”

In addition to the written resume, there was an additional VCR video that Ruan Nan filmed and edited herself. Qin Juran was immediately interested, reaching out to click play, but Ruan Nan quickly gripped her arm and said shyly: “Don’t watch that.”

“The interviewer can watch it, but not your girlfriend?” Qin Juran propped her chin on her palm, staring at her with wide eyes and feigned grievance.

Ruan Nan got up from her lap. Qin Juran’s words seemed to make some sense, but it was still too embarrassing. She continued to restrain Qin Juran’s hands as she knelt down and debated internally for a long time.

“Then, then you expect me to let you watch it for nothing in return?” Qin Juran blinked curiously at Ruan Nan.

Qin Juran gestured towards her own body: “I can make it up with whatever part of me you’d like to see.”

“…..” Ruan Nan quickly shook her head. “I don’t mean it like that……” After hesitating for a long moment, Ruan Nan pouted and huffed: “I’ll let you watch it on one condition.”

Qin Juran laughed as she leaned closer, replying in a deep voice: “What condition? Where do you want me to kiss?”

Ruan Nan blushed as she pushed her away: “The condition is that you’re not allowed to kiss me today.”

As Qin Juran looked upon her little wife’s smug face, her teeth ground together in frustration. However, the video titled “The Life of Ruan Nan (5~21)” displayed on the screen was too enticing. After weighing her choices, President Qin made a decision that she rarely came to as a businesswoman: compromise.

Ruan Nan sat back on the sofa, unable to hide the satisfaction from finally winning on her face. Qin Juran clicked open the videotape that she’d exchanged for a day’s worth of kisses: the numbers 5 and 21 most likely represented her age ranges, as the video opened on a clip of a small 5 year-old-girl dressed in a white dress with a flower garland atop of her head, singing a Spanish song.

The background was a neat European-style underbrush in the midst of a large garden. Little Ruan Nan was doe-eyed with a loud, resonating voice. Although her child-like singing skills weren’t amazing, something about her voice was so endearing.

Ruan Nan wasn’t the only one in the video, and shots of her parents flickered in and out of the camera. Her father, Ruan Huyue, had the demeanor of a businessman, while her mother, dressed in a traditional Chinese cheongsam, didn’t say a word throughout the video, merely smiling dotingly upon Ruan Nan with a gentle, loving manner.

As she looked upon her husband and daughter, her eyes were full of hope and happiness.

The main purpose of the video was to demonstrate Ruan Nan’s Spanish proficiency. The next segment was of an international academic competition, showing what appeared to be a 7-year-old Ruan Nan. As Qin Juran watched, she realized that the Ruan Nan in the clip seemed like an entirely different person; she didn’t seem to have any desire to speak, and almost looked afraid of the camera.

By the time the video cut to when she was 12, the setting already changed back to China. The segment showed a large-scale band performance, where Ruan Nan sat quietly behind the drum set with her slender frame and calm temperament. The large drums nearly obscured her entire body. While the other band members seemed to stumble over their words or wring their clothes nervously in front of the camera, Ruan Nan didn’t seem to pay any mind to the interview segment at all nor did she care for the publicity.

Only when the performance was over and the microphone was shoved in front of her face did she finally make a statement before turning to leave: “I don’t care about things like winning or losing.”

Afterward were some personal introduction clips from throughout the years. Each time the clip cut to a different time period, Qin Juran could see that Ruan Nan had grown little by little, and her figure grew taller and slimmer.  As the look in her eyes became more mature, the most obvious change was in her temperament. She spoke very little, and throughout the years that were shown in the video clips, she seemed to be especially alienated from peers of her own age.

She was like a little wild cat who had been hurt, and so would never take the initiative to let out a kind ‘meow’ in front of strangers ever again.

The last clip didn’t have a time stamp, only marked by the number ’21.’ However, based on the outfit that Ruan Nan was wearing in the clip, it should’ve been filmed within the past few days.

She had shot the video in the living room of her apartment. The warm sunshine was pouring through the large windows in the living room, the dream catcher on the balcony was swaying lightly in the wind, and the green plants in the glass bottle on the coffee table looked freshly picked, with small dewdrops still adhered to the leaves.

Ruan Nan fixed the camera in place. At first, she merely stood before the camera for a while, seeming to practice squeezing out a polite fake smile in order to appear more friendly.

After she forced out a laugh, she seemed to realize that it sounded too fake and winced, revealing a split second of shyness that Qin Juran caught. She quickly followed with a fluent self-introduction spoken in English, providing an overview of her learning and life experiences over the years, and recounting the daily life that was shown in the previous clips. Finally, Ruan Nan spoke to the camera in English:

“Truthfully speaking, I originally thought that studying abroad was simply a change of environment to immerse one’s self in new cultures or life experiences, but now it is quite different. Ever since I experienced certain events and met certain people, I’ve begun to want to truly, actively, strive to become the best version of myself.”

“Therefore, my intentions behind this study abroad application is not only because of the valuable opportunity provided jointly by my alma mater and your university, but also my personal ambition.”

“I am ready.”

The ending syllable of “I am ready” was elongated, accompanied by Ruan Nan’s bright smile on the screen fading to black with a curtain falling effect.