I Fell in Love With My Cold-Hearted, Flirtatious Roommate (GL) - Chapter 19

There were quite a few people in their English class, about seventy or eighty students, and it was held in a large classroom. The professor couldn’t even remember the faces of the students who came to class.

Rong Ting easily slipped Ran Jiu into the class. Since the back seats were already taken, the two of them sat in a middle row.

Ran Jiu was wearing a hat at first, but later got a little warm and had to take it off.

The sight of the striking dark green hat, and then her bright, attractive face, briefly drew the attention of the surrounding people. However, they seemed to realize that they probably had nothing to do with this kind of person, and they returned to opening their laptops and getting busy with their own things.

For the first time, Rong Ting felt that being fiercely competitive (juan sheng juan si) and paying no attention to outside matters might actually be a good thing.

After all, focusing on studies was always better than paying attention to other people’s gossip.

The course taught in this class was College English Speaking. The students’ oral English levels varied widely, as they were randomly assigned together. Some people who had scored 7 on the IELTS speaking test could apply to the school for exemption and only take the final exam. So, most of the people who came here generally had average English speaking skills.

Rong Ting’s oral English was neither good nor bad, but she often confused ‘n’ and ‘l’ sounds (nl bu fen). She was assigned to this class after the placement test at the beginning of the semester.

For this class, everyone else brought a laptop and was frantically typing on it, mostly slacking off and not listening to the lecture but doing their homework instead. The professor wanted to interact with the students below several times, but the laptops seemed like a natural barrier, separating the students’ sight from the teacher’s.

As luck would have it, Rong Ting hadn’t brought her laptop because she hadn’t gone home.

At that moment, she was diligently writing in her notebook. She happened to look up and her eyes met the teacher’s gaze.

A butcher knife hitting a power line, sparks and lightning. A certain wire in Rong Ting’s brain snapped.

Only two words remained: It’s over.

The professor’s face beamed with delight. The hand pointing at Rong Ting was trembling: “Then this student! Please read this section for everyone!”

The section the professor chose was excerpted from an American natural science magazine, containing many obscure vocabulary words and long numbers.

Rong Ting was most afraid of reading numbers in English; it always took her a long time to process them.

Worse still, this piece was last week’s required preview assignment. She had held onto a glimmer of hope, intending to preview it an hour before class, but the class was moved up, squeezing the time, and she didn’t have time to look at it at all.

Now, cornered (gan ya zi shang jia), she knew she had no choice but to bite the bullet and stand up to read.

The students around only knew the professor was pointing in their direction and were looking up, gloating, to see who the unlucky person was.

But before Rong Ting could stand up, the chair next to her scraped the floor, making an abrupt grating sound.

Ran Jiu calmly took the book from Rong Ting’s hand and began to read the section the teacher had designated.

The professor’s expression was momentarily stunned. He slightly opened his mouth, seeming like he was about to correct something, but Ran Jiu had already started reading.

“Oh, forget it,” the professor pouted, and had to keep quiet.

Ran Jiu read in a standard British accent. Her naturally clear and cool voice sounded surprisingly gentle and pleasant when reading English. The passage was quite long, and she paused a few times in the middle, as if recognizing a word, but otherwise, she did not stutter or stumble.

After she finished reading, the professor’s face instantly brightened. He complimented her several times and, seeing that she didn’t have her own book, kindly reminded her to bring her book next time.

The rest of the class went smoothly. The professor didn’t call on anyone again, and he took the opportunity to emphasize the parts in the passage that needed to be underlined and remembered. He made absolutely no mention of who he had originally intended to call on, nor did he ask Rong Ting to read it again.

Afterward, Rong Ting even had a surreal feeling; she had somehow escaped disaster. Listening to Ran Jiu read English was quite a shock, and she was inexplicably moved.

Her heart was pounding anxiously, nervous, and worried about being exposed, but later these feelings turned into something sour yet wonderful, like a lemon effervescent tablet suddenly dropped into a cup of warm water, bubbling incessantly.

In the second half of the class, the teacher played an English movie. The lights at the front and back of the classroom were turned off, and the entire room was plunged into darkness, with only the faint blue light from the screen.

The atmosphere was relaxed, but Rong Ting could not keep her attention on the movie.

She could hear Ran Jiu’s light breathing, the occasional yawn, and could tell from the reflected light that she was leaning back sometimes, and forward at others. Occasionally, she would suddenly lean into Rong Ting’s ear to comment on the movie, and then be silent again a moment later.

For the rest of the time, the side next to her was completely quiet.

Three and a half hours passed, and the sky had grown dark. When the lights were turned on again, Rong Ting looked to her side immediately.

Ran Jiu was sprawled on the table next to her, facing Rong Ting, sleeping soundly with her hat pulled down tight. Her face was turned sideways, and only a short section of her perky nose was visible beneath the hat.

Fortunately, class was over. The professor didn’t pay any attention to the students here, grabbed his briefcase, and hurried out.

The students started to trickle out. Ran Jiu awoke with a start. Seeing that only the two of them were left, she stretched: “Shall we go?”

On the way, Rong Ting felt a little guilty: “I told you to go back and sleep, but you didn’t. Can a desk be as comfortable as a bed?”

Ran Jiu’s voice was languid and hoarse: “Haven’t you heard that sleeping on a desk is more restful than sleeping in a bed?”

But jokes aside, Ran Jiu comforted her: “It’s okay, my usual work is quite easy, it’s not tiring.”

Rong Ting laughed in exasperation. Not tiring? Then how could you fall asleep? She then asked: “Why is your language sense so good?”

Ran Jiu slowed her pace. In the darkness, a hint of sarcastic smile hung on the corner of her mouth: “It’s what money bought. We don’t have an oral exam where I’m from, but my mother bought me online speaking conversation courses very early on.”

Rong Ting couldn’t see her expression, only heard her voice, and was a little surprised, “So it’s because you started practising early?”

“What else?”

“I thought it was required for voice acting.”

Rong Ting remembered that she spoke Japanese fluently the last time, and she became even more curious about her.

Ran Jiu found it amusing: “Our voice acting industry isn’t that competitive (juan) yet.” She then added, “But who knows, maybe it will be soon.”

She saw something and reached out her hand towards Rong Ting’s face.

Rong Ting was deep in thought. When she saw the hand appearing in front of her eyes in a daze, she became stiff for a moment, and then hastily tried to avoid it.

Ran Jiu’s slender, pale hand paused for a moment, then gently moved closer and brushed a strand of hair away from Rong Ting’s forehead: “You didn’t sleep with your head on the desk, so how is your hair more messed up than mine?”

The previous movement felt like an electric current had shot through Rong Ting’s nerves and limbs, and now it gradually faded into silence and calm. She suspected that she was indeed anticipating something, and her tone was a little low: “The braid wasn’t undone, so it gets messy easily.”

She heard the other person reply: “Oh, I see.”

This time, they both stopped talking. Rong Ting’s peripheral vision rested on her. Ran Jiu seemed to have an innate affinity for darkness. Under the dim streetlights, her figure looked even more delicate and slender, and her fingers were fair and long.

Rong Ting had seen her wearing a camisole. Her collarbones could hold small fish. She knew Ran Jiu was slender from her forearm to her shoulder, her wrist bones always protruding, and her waist was easily encircled.

In the taxi, Ran Jiu sleeping on her lap was enough to poke her.

She ate so much but never seemed to gain weight. She was sometimes clingy like a cat, sometimes lively. She would pick up Rong Ting’s conversation, and she had a few friends she often met up with.

Yet, she always appeared inexplicably cool and lonely; you could never know what she was thinking.

Rong Ting felt that Ran Jiu was sometimes very close to her, but in reality, very far away.

She suddenly wanted to ask about her past.

“Did you live in Inner Mongolia all the time when you were little?”

Ran Jiu nodded: “The grasslands there are vast, and the moon is bright, but there are a lot of mosquitoes at night.” She smiled, “If there’s a chance…”

Her voice choked for a moment, then she adopted a light tone again: “If I can go back someday, I’ll take you with me. The mutton there is quite delicious.”

When Rong Ting heard the words “take you with me,” her heart fluttered with joy again. Yet, she clearly saw that Ran Jiu wasn’t very happy, as if she had touched a sensitive spot. Rong Ting clumsily tried to fix the blunder she had made: “It’s okay if you don’t go back. I heard the weather there is quite cold in winter too.”

Hearing this, Ran Jiu seemed to hear an amusing joke, and finally let her guard down.

“Who goes north in the middle of winter?” Ran Jiu pulled her hat down for her. “Silly, besides, the winter in the capital is very cold too.”