I Fell in Love With My Cold-Hearted, Flirtatious Roommate (GL) - Chapter 27

After a week of training at school, the May Day holiday finally arrived.

When the class group chat announced the vacation, everyone was excited. The class teacher even sent a red packet to celebrate the four-day break.

Rong Ting’s maternal uncle called, saying they were also on holiday and inviting her to stay with Chen Baiyuan for a few days, eat well, have fun, and help Chen Baiyuan with her homework in the meantime.

Ran Jiu was barely home during the day these past few days. Rong Ting hesitated for a long time before agreeing.

However, even though university students were on holiday, the workload for some courses didn’t decrease. On the first day when Rong Ting was working on her thesis at home, Ran Jiu was still unusually busy.

Rong Ting kept speculating whether Ran Jiu was in the ascendancy of her career and had too many tasks.

Sometimes she only heard the sound of the door opening after 12:00 AM. Rong Ting initially wanted to go out and check, but half-way through getting up, she lay down in disappointment, losing the courage to ask.

She was afraid Ran Jiu would be annoyed if she interfered too much in her life.

She could only suppress her curiosity about Ran Jiu’s affairs and instead started scrolling through Ran Jiu’s Weibo. Sure enough, there were several new announcements for audio dramas. The latest one was for an upcoming web drama. Ran Jiu had merely reposted it without any accompanying text, but the likes had already exceeded 4000.

Comments were rife with: “Looking forward to the cool female gong voice going online!!” “Jiu Jiu is dubbing a female general this time, and the actress is my favourite Xiao Ran da da. Looking forward to your collaboration,” “If I were a princess, why wouldn’t I marry the female general?” “Jiu Bao is 8 years younger than Sister Xiao Ran, I’m really looking forward to it. How will Jiu Bao manage the age gap this time, especially for a female character disguised as a man?” “Jiu Da is going to make it big this time. Blow up the voice acting circle soon!” “Looking forward to the web drama ahhh!!”

Rong Ting scrolled down and found that the actress for the female general in the cast list was an important supporting role, played by the professionally competent actress Xiao Ran.

She remembered watching a historical drama starring Xiao Ran a long time ago, perhaps when she was in junior high. The character in the script also had a good intellect. Xiao Ran played a character disguised as a man, and even today, fans still clip her video segments from that year, saying this is a female disguise that doesn’t treat the audience like fools.

However, this actress has always been low-key. She reportedly married her childhood sweetheart, has never had any messy scandals, and later only took roles to hone her acting skills. She has been lukewarm for a long time, but her acting skills have always been online, and she is currently in her early 30s.

Ran Jiu dubbing her voice, apart from the age difference, did not feel mismatched.

Rong Ting felt reassured about this person, but the male actor Xiao Ran was partnering with was again CV Ting, and the fans were going crazy, starting to ship the Ran Jiu (Jiu Tu) and Ting pairing again.

Rong Ting’s mind was a mess. One moment it was the scene of Ran Jiu and the pink-haired girl standing on the stage, the next moment it was the beautiful jie jie who sent her home that time, and now she started searching for information on “Ting.”

There was very little information about Ting. She only knew that he was the most famous male CV of the new generation in the voice acting circle, backed by the flourishing Tian Hai company, under 30 years old, and six years older than Ran Jiu.

Rong Ting watched Ran Jiu’s Weibo voice actor ranking gradually rise. She felt a little envious of her busyness and also a bit lost.

She suddenly realized her current mood was a bit like fan-girling… and also a bit like the worry of her own cabbage being snatched away.

She tugged at her messy hair, sighed, and told herself not to overthink. She rolled around in her quilt for a long time, and finally slowly closed her eyes, facing the ceiling.

The next day she didn’t get up until nine o’clock. As expected, Ran Jiu was gone again. Her bedroom door was open, and many printed papers were scattered on the desk inside. The bed was messily spread, and the chair was carelessly pushed to one side.

Rong Ting was stunned. So she came back so late last night and was still working?

A sense of pity immediately welled up in her heart. Rong Ting hesitated for a long time, went in, neatly folded the bedding on the bed, pulled back the curtains, and then returned the chair to its place. The printed papers on the desk were all stapled. Rong Ting just tidied them up in their original order and left them where they were without looking at any of the content.

While she was washing up, Chen Da called, asking her to come out at 10 o’clock to meet him at the alley entrance.

When Rong Ting got into the car, Chen Baiyuan was already sitting in the back seat, but the atmosphere between the father and daughter was clearly tense.

“Oh, Xiao Ting is here.” Chen Da forced a smile, “Hurry up and get in. Uncle turned on the air conditioning. See if you’re cold.”

Before Rong Ting could open her mouth, Chen Baiyuan on the side sneered: “Does that even need to be said? You turned the air conditioner up so high, are you trying to freeze us to death?”

Chen Da immediately frowned, his tone also becoming severe: “Chen Baiyuan! How dare you speak like that! I don’t care about your little tantrums at home, but when you’re out, you should act like an adult. Look at your sister—”

“What about my sister?” Chen Baiyuan’s voice was a little aggrieved, “My sister doesn’t have a strict dad like you.”

Chen Da was thoroughly angry this time. The father and daughter’s voices got louder and louder: “How can I not intervene when you’re messing around? The class teacher even came for a home visit! How long are you going to keep being naughty! Wasn’t it embarrassing enough at school?”

Chen Baiyuan retorted: “How was I embarrassing? What face did I make you lose? I don’t feel embarrassed, so why do you feel embarrassed first!”

“What were you and the girls in your class doing?” Chen Da was breathing heavily with anger. “The surveillance cameras captured it all. You were at school, you… how dare you! How dare you!”

Chen Baiyuan leaned back in her seat: “I told you a long time ago that I like girls. I told you twice, but you took it as a joke. What can I do?”

Chen Da sighed heavily: “Truly, truly shameless.”

Chen Baiyuan shrieked: “Who are you calling shameless? I suggest you watch more educational videos. Homosexuality is common, even a manifestation of evolution, understood?”

“Evolution? I think you’ve been brainwashed by watching too much A-station and B-station every day. I’ll cut off your internet when we get home. What is all this nonsense?”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

Rong Ting silently gripped the handle in the back seat. The car windows were tightly closed, but the decibels inside the car were very high. Outside, there was a steady stream of traffic, all of which made her nervous.

“Why wouldn’t I dare?” Chen Da had to watch the road while speaking, making a quick turn. “You ask your sister if she does all this nonsense. Kids these days, if they’re not homosexual, they pretend to be for the sake of personality. I’m already quite lenient with you. If your sister dared to be like this, see if your third aunt wouldn’t hit her.”

Rong Ting: “…”

Chen Baiyuan rolled her eyes and leaned back heavily against the seat, not speaking for a long time. Chen Da saw she had quieted down and drove with a frown.

After a long time, Rong Ting finally heard a faint whisper by her ear, like a rebuttal, like a defence, “I’m not pretending to be homosexual, and it’s not for the sake of personality.”

The tension between the father and daughter came and went quickly. After all, Chen Da missed his deceased wife dearly, and they only had this one daughter, so he had to love her well. Usually, he cherished her so much that he was afraid she would melt in his hands, so he wouldn’t dwell too much on this matter.

At noon, Chen Da took them directly to the Xiyun government office in the capital, which was their hometown’s representative office. Rong Ting watched the car drive into the heavily guarded compound. A doorman helped park the car, and Chen Da took them to the second floor.

It turned out there was a proper Xiyun restaurant on the second floor. Rong Ting had always found it hard to adjust to the capital’s cuisine. Before, she had a small appetite in the cafeteria, almost always ordering only dried potato slices, and she was tired of eating it for a year.

It was only after living with Ran Jiu that she occasionally made something she liked to eat.

Thinking of Ran Jiu again, Rong Ting recalled teaching her abdominal vocalization and smiled.

Chen Baiyuan saw her smile, turned her head to talk to her: “By the way, Jie Jie, how is your CV roommate? Are you getting along well? I heard that many people in the er ci yuan (ACG) circle are very eccentric. What if she’s into punk, I’m a little afraid you won’t be able to adapt.”

Rong Ting dispelled her worries: “The two of us are quite harmonious.”

Yes, what more could she be dissatisfied with, having met someone like Ran Jiu?

She wasn’t a picky eater, was very quiet at home, occasionally would cling to her like a cat for a while, and sometimes they would go out for a feast together, and sometimes they would watch movies together…

As she thought about it, she was also a little confused about what she was dissatisfied with.

The lunch was rare in that it suited her taste, so she ate a little more. Chen Baiyuan and Chen Da spoke little, occasionally mixed with a hint of anger.

In the afternoon, Chen Da took them to the Capital Theme Park. Many of the rides inside were too thrilling and dangerous. Rong Ting didn’t even dare to go on, but Chen Baiyuan enthusiastically played on quite a few rides, though she seemed a little disappointed when no one accompanied her.

Later, Rong Ting had to grit her teeth and accompany her on the roller coaster and the log flume. The consequence was that she looked pale after getting off the roller coaster, her stomach churning, and her vision blurry and shaky.

She never dared to go on again.

Chen Da bought them drinks. Rong Ting only drank two sips of lemonade. She was exhausted at this point and lacked enthusiasm.

Chen Baiyuan felt a little guilty and suggested taking her shopping. Rong Ting agreed, thinking this was better than continuing to play at the amusement park.

Chen Da was also very generous, giving Rong Ting a card and telling her to take her sister and spend as she liked. The two happily went shopping.

Chen Baiyuan had an unusually strong desire to shop. She bought cute figurines and trendy clothes, as well as new handbags and lipsticks. She also particularly liked Hublot watches and bought a pair of water-grey couple watches. She asked the salesperson to wrap one of them in an exquisite gift box.

It was easy to cheer up a child; a few games and a little money spent would do the trick.

Rong Ting looked at the couple watches, smiled thoughtfully, and probably guessed who she was buying them for.

She mostly just accompanied Chen Baiyuan and didn’t buy anything for herself. Chen Baiyuan felt a little embarrassed, “Cousin, don’t just accompany me. If my dad sees you haven’t bought anything, he’ll scold me.”

Spending someone else’s money was a significant psychological barrier for Rong Ting. She simply refused, saying she didn’t need to buy anything.

“How can that be?” Chen Baiyuan looked at her as if she were an alien creature, “Sister, you’re already in university. Aren’t things like cocktail dresses essential? You also need to have a few bags, right? You can’t carry the same bag for several years, can you?”

Rong Ting silently held her tongue. Actually, that was exactly the case. Before starting university, she only bought a very nice canvas bag, which she was still using and had no intention of replacing.

She told Chen Baiyuan the truth and told her to shop on her own.

“How can I do that?” Chen Baiyuan kept rambling while unceremoniously pulling her into a designer bag store. Inside were limited edition Prada bags, but Prada primarily focuses on understated luxury, so the styles weren’t overly flashy. Rong Ting took a few extra glances.

Chen Baiyuan’s eyes were like a radar, scanning the surroundings. She immediately spotted the latest tangerine-orange model. Rong Ting followed her gaze. It was indeed a very unique bag. When this bag was released, there was a lot of discussion about it on Weibo, saying it looked like a hybrid of a lily and corn, and people later jokingly called it the “corn lily.”

But despite the complaints, it didn’t affect people’s enthusiasm for shopping. This type of bag had recently become fashionable. Many senior students at school thought it was too expensive at the mall and went looking for duty-free proxies to buy it.

Rong Ting was drawn to a owl-shaped pendant hanging on the bag. The cat’s body was slender, the patterns were delicate, making it look elegant and playful.

Chen Baiyuan thought she liked it and immediately instructed the salesperson to take it down for her to try.

Rong Ting slung it over her shoulder and looked in the mirror. It was a very individualistic style that didn’t look out of place on her. She cherished the feel of the owl’s head, the coldness of the metal transferring to her fingertip.

Chen Baiyuan saw how much she liked it and directly swiped the card to buy it.

When they left the store, Rong Ting still felt a little surreal. A bag that cost nearly five figures was hanging on her. Normally, fearing to burden her family, the most expensive bag she bought was no more than five hundred RMB, and it was an ordinary tote bag she had been using for nearly a year.

She carefully put the bag back into the packaging bag, planning to only use it occasionally when she returned.

Finally, the two of them held rainbow shaved ice and sat on a chair in the commercial building to rest. Chen Baiyuan’s gasp brought her back to reality. She pointed to the big screen: “Sister, look quickly. Didn’t you ask me who Ting Daren was last time? That’s him.”

Rong Ting looked up and saw what appeared to be a press conference on the mall’s large screen. A group of people in suits and ties were standing on stage. The man Chen Baiyuan pointed to was particularly conspicuous, a tall man with long legs, a sharp face, but wearing gold-rimmed glasses, exuding a mixture of maturity and cunning.

In the entertainment industry, people like him are often referred to as the “gentleman scoundrel” type. Others wearing similar outfits were standing next to him. Rong Ting’s gaze suddenly paused.

At the very end of the line, Ran Jiu was wearing a pure-style black formal dress with a Windsor knot at the collar. Two long legs extended from beneath the suit jacket, especially since she was wearing wide-leg trousers, which perfectly outlined the slender line of her legs.

Whether intentionally or not, she stood on the very edge. Her temperament was so unique, her eyes calm and indifferent, surrounded by a natural barrier that separated her from the crowd next to her.

The host was still chatting and joking with several famous CVs, trying to warm up the atmosphere, but she seemed a little tired, only occasionally looking at the CVs next to her, likely checking the progress of the event.

The camera focused on her for only a fleeting moment. Later, Rong Ting looked at the screen several more times, but didn’t see Ran Jiu again.

She even wondered if she had misseen her just now.

Chen Baiyuan was enthusiastically talking about the few CVs she knew, having spent money on them and followed various dramas and live streams, so she was more familiar with them.

She talked about how this CV had a total gong voice, that CV was super fan-loving, another CV was involved in both cosplay and voice acting, could write lyrics and sing ancient Chinese style songs, and yet another CV was a teacher at the high school next to their university. Chen Baiyuan proudly mentioned that when that person’s identity was revealed last time, she was there to get a fresh autograph.

Rong Ting felt utterly confused. Ran Jiu was so close to her, yet her circle was so far away.

The event on the screen seemed to be a live broadcast in the mall, but Rong Ting didn’t know which floor the press conference was on. Later, the camera finally moved, showing the group walking off the stage in order.

The male CV Ting took slightly bigger steps, so his walking speed was faster than the others. He paused when he reached Ran Jiu.

Rong Ting saw Ran Jiu seem to smile at him. The two walked off the stage side-by-side. Ran Jiu’s slender figure was almost hidden behind him.

Chen Baiyuan talked for a long time. Seeing that Rong Ting seemed only half-understanding, she lost a bit of interest, “Let’s go, Cousin. You need to develop more hobbies in the future. If you like the voice acting circle, I’ll tell you more about it.”

Rong Ting paused for a long time, her eyes reluctantly moving away from the big screen, “Let’s go.”

Rong Ting spent the remaining three days of the May Day holiday at Chen Da’s villa. There was an auntie at home, so food and drink were not an issue. She mostly tutored Chen Baiyuan and wrote her thesis in her free time, only checking her phone before going to bed at night.

She occasionally saw Ran Jiu’s updates on Weibo. The previous photo of her daily life had been pushed back by a large amount of promotional content, and recently there seemed to be no new daily updates… wait!!

Rong Ting scrolled to the second post from the top. Ran Jiu had just updated it at noon.

The background was their kitchen. A bowl was on the counter, but scattered inside were a few broken eggshells, transparent egg white dripped from the rim, and a golden yellow yolk was clearly outside.

The caption: “No one is cooking for me. Here’s a live performance of jī fēi dàn dǎ [chickens flying and eggs breaking – complete mess].”

There were hundreds of echoing comments below.

【Hahahaha, Jiu Bao is so cute! Hurry up and clean up, be careful, Mom will hit you when she gets back.】

【Wifey, look at me! Hand raised! Send me your home address, I’ll go cook for you!】

【Wifey, were you trying to scramble eggs? How can you not even crack an egg? Is the egg hateful, or is Little Jiu adorable?】

【A little worried about Wifey’s living environment. Is the little roommate not there?】

Ran Jiu replied to this comment: 【The Snail Roommate is not here. I can only rely on myself for now /strong/】

Immediately, there were new replies: 【Ah? Little Jiu is alone during the holiday? Where did the soft girl roommate go? Tell her to come back and keep you company.】

Ran Jiu replied again, the writing conveying a sense of careless laziness: 【She probably thinks I’m too lazy and wants to train my survival skills.**】

Rong Ting closed her phone, put her hand over her heart, lay on her side, and excitedly kicked her legs under the covers for a long time.

She felt like she was okay again.

After staying for two and a half days, the end of the May Day holiday quietly passed. Rong Ting packed her things on the last day to go home. Chen Da knew she had to go back to school, so he didn’t insist on her staying longer.

The auntie at home was very enthusiastic and gave her a lot of her pickled beef and garlic eggplant, telling her to take it back and eat it slowly.

There was a large import supermarket nearby, so Rong Ting also bought some specialty instant noodles and fruit tea to take back with her.

Chen Da was busy, so the family driver took her to the entrance of the apartment building. The driver originally offered to help her carry the items up, but Rong Ting politely declined, fearing Ran Jiu might be home.

So, she struggled to carry the large bags to the door. Just as she was taking out the key, the door in front of her was suddenly pulled open.

Light spilled into the hallway. Ran Jiu looked at her expressionlessly, but her voice was full of grievance: “Where have you been these past few days? Why are you just getting back!”

The moment was reminiscent of a small cat waiting for its owner to come home, its tail standing high, meowing plaintively in accusation, its expression fierce yet endearing.

Rong Ting was momentarily stunned, and the bags of instant noodles in her hand slipped to the floor.

Suddenly, a wave of sweetness washed over her heart.

Some people, even just looking at them a few more times, feel like love.