I Fell in Love With My Cold-Hearted, Flirtatious Roommate (GL) - Chapter 17

It was seven o’clock in the evening, and Rong Ting was still doing her homework. She had just finished a phone call with her mother, telling her that everything was fine here.

Lately, she often thought about how lucky she was to have found such a good place to live and to have met Ran Jiu. So, the remaining troubles should be solved by herself.

If the group project courses affected her GPA, it would be much harder to get a scholarship. Rong Ting needed to make up the score from other courses, so she worked even harder on her homework.

She even roughly calculated that if she got the National Scholarship, the rent for four months would be covered. If she got the First Class Scholarship, she could at least treat Ran Jiu to something nice and reduce the burden on her family.

Suddenly, there was a faint movement at the door. She looked up and saw Ran Jiu only wearing a white lace camisole and black hot pants. Her long, slender legs were exposed without fear of the cold, and her feet were hidden in blue fuzzy slippers, only revealing two pink toes.

This sharp contrast in colours was undoubtedly a huge impact on Rong Ting, even making her temporarily forget the plan she had just made.

Her hand slowly withdrew from the keyboard, “Jiu Jiu?”

Ran Jiu sighed a little sadly, “Your Jiu Jiu is in a bad mood. Will you take her out for a spring outing?”

Because of that one sentence, the two of them sat side by side on the bed in the middle of the night, discussing where to go.

Under the dim yellow light, they were like hedgehogs huddled together for warmth.

Both had gone through a period of detestable things, both had bristled and flared up, but now they had shed their ferocity and were nestled together.

Rong Ting flipped through the guides on her phone: “How about Prince Gong’s Mansion (Gong Wang Fu)?”

Ran Jiu shook her head: “Been there. And there are many alleys that are easy to get lost in, the river has a bit of a smell, and it might be too crowded on Saturday.”

A breath like fragrant orchid sprayed by her ear. Rong Ting pretended to be calm and changed the page: “What about Qianmen? There’s an art exhibition centre there. My friend from the art academy had an exhibition there last time. Oh right, there are also many xiangsheng (crosstalk) clubs and comedy clubs there. If we get tired, we can go in and listen.”

Ran Jiu: “Tickets are hard to book.”

…

After being rejected in a few words, Rong Ting even suspected she was doing it on purpose.

Ran Jiu’s body was cool, like a natural ice cellar, and she didn’t take up much space on the bed. When she leaned towards Rong Ting, a few strands of her hair brushed against hers.

Rong Ting was briefly lost in a trance. Ran Jiu’s index finger pressed against her phone screen, scrolling through the guides up and down. Her faint breathing sprayed by Rong Ting’s ear. Although very soft, its presence was strong.

Aaaah, I can’t take it!

Rong Ting closed her eyes and turned slightly to avoid her: “What kind of place do you want to go to?”

Ran Jiu paused in her movement. Her amber eyes looked at Rong Ting. She seemed completely unaware of the previous intimacy, instead showing a kind of earnest, sweet innocence while thinking about the question.

“I want to go somewhere spacious, with open terrain, preferably outdoors,” she thought for a moment and added, “I don’t want to go to a place with too many people.”

Rong Ting was speechless for a moment. So this person wants to see open-air scenery outside? If she had said so earlier, she could have narrowed down the scope long ago.

Later, she suggested going to the Olympic Forest Park (Aosen Gongyuan). Afraid that Ran Jiu would reject it again, she added a string of reasons: “It fits what you chose: open area, probably not many people at this time of the week, and there are quite a few scenic spots inside, the air is also good…”

This time, Ran Jiu lowered her eyes and stared blankly for a moment. Then she gave Rong Ting a faint smile, “Okay.”

They decided on Wednesday because it would be too crowded on the weekend. Also, Ran Jiu had her rotating day off on Wednesday, and Rong Ting only had classes on Wednesday evening.

When that day came, Rong Ting actually stayed up all night. Her emotions were introverted, and very few things could excite her. Even if it was an impending final exam, where others would cram until three or four in the morning, she would still go to sleep on time.

But just thinking about going on a spring outing with Ran Jiu—the two of them!—she actually suffered from insomnia.

They agreed to get up at eight, eat breakfast downstairs first, and then go to the Olympic Forest Park.

Ran Jiu was wearing a refreshing grey windbreaker and black hiking pants. The loose clothing concealed the curve of her upper body, only revealing her two long legs.

Rong Ting, even more so, was wearing a mid-length cashmere trench coat and white pants. For convenience, she even tied her hair into two pigtails, looking just like a student out on a field trip.

When they went downstairs, Ran Jiu locked the door, quickly caught up to her, and gently tugged on her pigtail: “Why are there dark circles under your eyes?”

Rong Ting looked like her spirit had been sucked dry by a demon. Even though she had applied some concealer, she was still found out. She vaguely mumbled, “Rushing a paper.”

Fortunately, Ran Jiu didn’t press the matter. They walked silently for a while. When they reached downstairs, Ran Jiu added a finishing comment: “Is this how hard the straight-A students at good universities work?”

Rong Ting: “……”

They went to the breakfast stall downstairs. Fresh youtiao (fried dough sticks) were being taken out of the deep-fryer outside. Rong Ting ordered sweet tofu pudding (tian douhua) and youtiao.

Ran Jiu looked at the menu in the window for a long time, seeming a little dissatisfied. Finally, she ordered soy milk and a meat patty (roubing), and also asked for two steamed dumplings with pickled cabbage and pork (suancai zhurou zhengjiao). Before Rong Ting could react, she scanned the code to pay.

When they sat down, Ran Jiu looked suspicious: “You eat sweet tofu pudding?”

Rong Ting glanced at the pickled cabbage and pork steamed dumplings in front of her, with a matching expression: “……Yes.”

Ran Jiu picked up the vinegar dispenser, poured a pile of vinegar liberally into a small dish, and then dipped her dumpling in the vinegar to eat. In the middle of it, she could even comment on whether the meat was tough or bouncy.

Rong Ting silently ate her tofu pudding with a spoon. Just as she brought a spoonful to her mouth, she saw the other person looking at her with complicated eyes: “What does sweet tofu pudding taste like?”

She was stunned: “Wait, I’ll get you a new spoon.” She was about to get up, but Ran Jiu pressed her down, quickly picked up Rong Ting’s spoon, scooped a mouthful, and put it into her mouth: “Hmm, so that’s what it tastes like.”

Rong Ting watched with wide eyes as she used her spoon. The rim of the spoon barely touched her lips before the tofu pudding slid into her mouth.

It didn’t touch any saliva, it was clean, so it couldn’t be counted as offensive, but Rong Ting’s chest still thumped at that moment.

How can this person be like this!!

Ran Jiu sometimes looked like an innocent, ignorant child. After tasting a bite, she returned the spoon to Rong Ting: “The taste is okay, but I’m used to savory. Sweet is fine for one bite, but it gets too much if you eat more.”

“Oh,” Rong Ting took the spoon and continued eating.

Ran Jiu dipped the last steamed dumpling in vinegar and began to unwrap the meat patty.

The meat patty here was hastily made. After peeling off the outer paper, the patty itself was quite thick, but it only had a thin layer of meat inside. Biting into it, one could barely taste any meat crumbs.

She frowned, seemingly dissatisfied, but her eating speed was fast. She quickly finished it with the soy milk. Rong Ting even suspected that she was some kind of animal in her previous life, with small, neat teeth, a strong bite, and the cute kind…

After Ran Jiu finished her food, she looked at Rong Ting idly. Rong Ting’s eating movements instantly became constrained. She had already separated her youtiao into two halves, and she hadn’t even finished the half in her hand.

She painstakingly swallowed a mouthful of tofu pudding, tapped the plate with her fingertip, and signalled that if Ran Jiu wasn’t full, she should eat Rong Ting’s food.

Ran Jiu helped her finish the remaining half of the youtiao. Only then did Rong Ting finish her tofu pudding.

The two of them left the shop in the chilly morning breeze. Ran Jiu sighed, stretched, and narrowed her eyes, like a satiated cat.

Rong Ting checked the route. From their place to the Olympic Forest Park, they needed to take two public buses and then the subway, which would take an hour and a half, meaning they would arrive around 10 o’clock.

She screenshotted the map and was about to send it to Ran Jiu when she heard the latter say without raising her head: “Wait.”

Rong Ting was a little confused: “Wait for what?”

Ran Jiu tapped on her phone twice and showed it to Rong Ting.

A ride-hailing page appeared on the screen, already displaying a license plate number, meaning a car was on its way.

Rong Ting was stunned: “Cancel quickly! It’s far from here to there, the fare will be very expensive!” Moreover, the starting fare in the capital was high, and there was congestion in between. Once, it cost her eighty yuan to take a taxi from the train station back to school. After that, she never took a taxi in the capital again.

Ran Jiu turned off her screen, slowly put up her collar, and waited: “I won’t. This is simpler.”

Once they were in the car, Rong Ting was helpless and started calculating the cost of this trip.

She roughly estimated a figure and transferred 50 yuan to Ran Jiu via WeChat, but the other person didn’t accept it for a long time. Rong Ting gently nudged her arm. Ran Jiu turned her face to look at her and said lightly that it wasn’t much money.

Seeing that the other person didn’t want to bring up the matter again, Rong Ting looked at the scenery outside, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

Her curiosity grew stronger. She wondered what kind of person Ran Jiu really was.

She recalled their first meeting, before they even knew each other, when Ran Jiu bought her a bunch of food.

Ran Jiu also insisted on paying for breakfast just now, and now she didn’t care about the taxi fare either. She also remembered that during all the time they had lived together, Ran Jiu had never asked her for utility fees…

Remembering that her dorm room had to pay water bills once every half a month, Rong Ting suddenly speculated that maybe Ran Jiu had received the utility bills but had never split them with her.

Rong Ting didn’t know if Ran Jiu needed to immerse herself in emotions for her voice acting work, but she felt that in real life, Ran Jiu rarely spoke and seemed not to care much about things in life, especially not small money. Doing as she pleased was clearly more important.

The whole person exuded a kind of indifferent and natural temperament, as if nothing mattered to her, and thus, she was slow to notice certain things.

Rong Ting guessed that she might have a few good friends, often going out to play ball or drink cold wine. She wasn’t completely bored.

While Rong Ting was concocting wild theories in her mind, Ran Jiu wasn’t thinking about it at all. Instead, she stared out the window, yawned, and her eyes looked sleepy.

As the temperature in the car gradually rose, Rong Ting suddenly felt a weight on her shoulder. In her right peripheral vision, Ran Jiu was hugging her bag, her cheek pressed against Rong Ting’s shoulder blade. Her small, soft white face was flushed with a thin layer of pink, and her jawline was even slightly indented from the pressure.

Rong Ting didn’t dare to move: “Are you sleepy?”

Ran Jiu let out a long “Mm,” completely showing her lazy state.

As expected, they encountered a traffic jam. Some roads in the capital were very “spirited,” setting up a traffic light every 50 meters, so the journey was stop-and-go, enough to give anyone a heart attack.

Even Rong Ting felt a little annoyed. She looked at Ran Jiu’s face and waved her hand in front of her eyes: “It’s still a long time until we arrive. You won’t be comfortable like this, why don’t you rest your head on my lap?”

The weight on her shoulder suddenly disappeared. Ran Jiu sat up and moved slightly to the other side. Then, she curled her knees slightly and rested her head on Rong Ting’s lap in a curled-up posture. Her voice was languid: “Thank you, Ting Ting. You’re so kind.”

Rong Ting tried her best to tuck in her legs, but the fabric of her pants was thin, and her leg bones were distinct. She could even feel Ran Jiu’s weight.

Rong Ting slightly tensed her muscles, a little afraid of bumping her.

Sure enough, Ran Jiu seemed to adjust the position of her head a few times, but wasn’t quite satisfied. Then, she suddenly sat up again.

Rong Ting felt inexplicably nervous, thinking she wasn’t going to sleep anymore.

Ran Jiu just squinted her eyes, reached behind her, and took out her bag to pad Rong Ting’s lap, and then rested her head on it again. This time, she seemed much more comfortable and didn’t move again.

A long while later, listening to the faint breathing below, Rong Ting slowly let out a breath and slowly rolled up the half-open car window.