CH 58.1

Ruan Nan’s mouth felt dry all of a sudden.

In the instant that the full impact of this calculated attack hit Ruan Nan, her face flamed and she sputtered while turning away: “Qin Juran, put that back on.”

“That was an accident, Ah-Ruan, trust me.” Qin Juran folded her arms across her chest shyly, but she could hardly cover up her 36C cups. The entirety of her smooth, porcelain back was exposed on the phone screen.

“I believe you, just hurry and put something on.” Ruan Nan clasped her eyes shut, afraid of seeing anything more.

The sound of Qin Juran’s laughter echoed from the phone speaker: “As long as Ah-Ruan believes me, that’s good.”

There was the sound of fabric rustling, and a moment later, Qin Juran leaned into the phone’s receiver and murmured: “I’m done, Ah-Ruan.”

Ruan Nan opened a sliver of her eye to take a peak. Once she made sure that Qin Juran had indeed wrapped the bath towel around herself, she relaxed into the soft pillow propped up behind her on the sofa, returning her attention back to the phone screen.

“Are you flustered, Ah-Ruan?” Qin Juran asked while flicking an eyebrow, despite already knowing the answer.

Ruan Nan blushed, responding: “Tomorrow is competition day, what are you doing?”

A large, self-assured grin spread across Qin Juran’s face. She shrugged nonchalantly: “Ah-Ruan, I haven’t done anything. Since you’re not by my side, even though I’m in this fancy hotel room, I have to hold back since I’m all alone.”

“Ah-Ruan, the feeling of restraint is really hard to bear.” Like a sly fox, Qin Juran winked at the camera.

Ruan Nan knew exactly what she was restraining herself from, and couldn’t meet her eyes: “You—you better stop thinking about those kinds of things. Just focus your energy on studying.”

“Studying, again with the studying.” Qin Juran mumbled, a disappointed look in her eyes.

Sensing that she must be under too much pressure, Ruan Nan paused for a moment, then softly consoled her: “Didn’t you say before that as long as you see me, you’ll be able to study with no distractions?”

She fluttered her eyelashes as she spoke, then got up from the sofa and raised her phone in the air, spinning around a few times for the camera: “Seen enough?”

Watching her adorable demonstration, Qin Juran’s smile grew wider. She shook her head and whined like a spoiled child: “It’s not enough—there’s no such thing as enough.”

“Unless…..” Qin Juran leaned against her bed lazily: “You reenact what I did earlier.”

Just a moment ago, she was all stressed and upset, and now she was back to dirty talk? Ruan Nan felt that she really couldn’t figure out Qin Juran. Her face flamed as she glared: “Absolutely not, Qin Juran! Don’t even think about it.”

“Then I accidentally flashed you for nothing?”

“I, I didn’t see anything……”

“Wow, your face is as red as a tomato, and you’re still claiming that you didn’t see? I should start calling you ‘tomato’ from now on.”

“I— I really can’t win against you.” Ruan Nan buried her head in her knees, shyly stealing glances at Qin Juran.

Another small laugh of victory came from the phone speaker, but Qin Juran had no intention of hanging up yet. Holding back her laughter, she tried to negotiate with Ruan Nan: “Ah-Ruan, then if I can’t look at you, then will you let me listen to you?”

Listen to her……

Ruan Nan thought back to the romance novel she was reading the other day, and her face reddened furiously: “I don’t know how to do that, Qin Juran.”

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Qin Juran hesitated: “Why wouldn’t you know how? Do you need me to demonstrate that for you, too?”

“Qin Juran…..” Ruan Nan didn’t even want to look at the screen anymore. She bit down on her lower lip so hard that it puffed up before she weakly continued: “I don’t want the first time to be like this.”

What first time?

Qin Juran paused in confusion for a moment before she finally understood: “Ah-Ruan, don’t tell me that you think that I wanted to listen to you moan and that kind of stuff?”

Wasn’t that the case? Ruan Nan also paused at that moment, staring back into Qin Juran’s wide eyes. Before she could react, Qin Juran turned her head slightly away, barely stifling her laugh. Once again, Ruan Nan realized that it was only her own imagination that went wild, and she wanted to crawl into a hole.

When Qin Juran’s laughter finally calmed down, she looked back a Ruan Nan, who seemed as if she was about to hang up the call. She hurriedly explained: “Ah-Ruan, I meant that I wanted to hear some words of encouragement from you, that’s it. Is that okay?”

“How can I do that?”

Hm…Qin Juran squinted her eyes at her pensively, reaching out to turn off the bright wall light, leaving only the dim nightlight at the head of the bed. She turned off her video and held the microphone to her mouth: “Just say anything you like; whatever feelings are on your mind. But hearing you moan ‘Qin Juran’ is a little too strange.”

She added in a low voice: “Once this Big Sister is satisfied, then you may go to sleep.”

Since she had turned off her video, her face was no longer visible, leaving only the echo of her provocative voice, accompanied by soft breathing.

Ruan Nan understood what she meant to do. She also turned off her video and tightened her grasp on her phone. Underneath the warm glow of the living room lamp, Ruan Nan took a long breath, rubbed her warm face, then brought her phone closer, burying her head even deeper into her knees. Finally, she murmured a sentence through her pouting cheeks.

Although they were separated by several thousand kilometers, the invisible wavelengths of their voices were connected by this high-tech electronic equipment. After a moment of shyness, the words that eventually passed through the phone speaker tugged on Qin Juran’s heart.

From the other end of the phone, Ruan Nan spoke:

“President Qin, you must win, alright?”

“Big Sister, I really miss you.”

The next day was the provincial competition, which consisted of various teams from universities all across the provinces. S Province contained many of the top Universities in China, so the provincial competition was practically just as important and challenging as the national competition, making this an important training opportunity as well. This year, there was a newly added interview portion in addition to the written exam, so some of the teams who hadn’t prepared for this seemed taken aback and panicked.

Luckily, S University had long been aiming for the prize, so they were well-prepared for this news.

As she arrived in the newly set-up examination hall, Qin Juran immediately spotted Chi Ying and her other teammates, minus the teacher, who was no longer allowed to be present. Everyone was brimming with both confidence and nervousness. When Qin Juran noticed the chubby underclassman boy who seemed the most jittery, she began to calm him down like an older sister would, expressing that he just needed to focus on doing his best and not worry about letting anyone down.

Despite the possibility that she would end up becoming only a substitute, Qin Juran’s presence carried an unwavering sense of self-assurance, giving everyone else a boost of confidence as well.

The female medical student who had known Qin Juran prior also had a rather outgoing personality. She seemed to pay no heed to Chi Ying, instead announcing brightly to Qin Juran: “We await the good news, Team Leader.”

As she said this, she even raised her hand for a high-five.

Qin Juran laughed, then brightly proceeded to high-five each of her teammates.

Chi Ying saw that her mood was pretty good today, and also held up her hand when she made it over to her. However, Qin Juran didn’t immediately retract her hand back, letting it linger in the air as if waiting for her to clap back, a neutral expression on her face.

She stayed like that for a moment, until Chi Ying ended up awkwardly withdrawing her arm back, remarking curiously: “Campus Flower Qin seems awfully cheerful today, huh?”

Qin Juran also lowered her hand, letting a soft hum of agreement.

Chi Ying nodded: “Then I will also be positive today.”

“You’re not going to ask why?” Chi Ying continued when Qin Juran didn’t respond.

“Why?” Qin Juran raised a brow, going along intentionally.

Chi Ying shrugged: “Because I don’t hate you anymore. I actually find you very nice to look at. So if you’re in a good mood, then so am I.”

Hearing this, Qin Juran’s mouth lifted into a faint smile. The morning sun poured through the windows and onto her face, making her delicate features look particularly beautiful.

Chi Ying seemed enthralled by her smile and unconsciously leaned closer. She was just about to speak when Qin Juran opened her mouth: “Then do you want to know why I’m in such a good mood today?”

“Because as soon as the provincial competition is over, then I will no longer be forced to interact with you anymore.”

Qin Juran turned away, leaving Chi Ying to stare at the backside of her retreating figure.