I Fell in Love With My Cold-Hearted, Flirtatious Roommate (GL) - Chapter 5

Rong Ting had four classes back-to-back on Wednesday afternoon. After the last class ended, the few people in their dorm still went to the cafeteria as usual to discuss the PPT they needed for the presentation, the inner cover and table of contents of the textbook, and the specific content settings.

Wan Sang was holding onto Wang Qing, who she was closer to, and the two walked in front. Chen Saiyu hesitated, wanting to walk with Rong Ting, but Rong Ting didn’t even turn her face.

The cafeteria was relatively less crowded at noon, and they chose a quiet spot. Wan Sang was the first to pick a good seat, and Wang Qing sat next to her. Rong Ting paused and sat diagonally opposite them. Chen Saiyu also sat down next to her, seemingly nonchalantly.

This time the main discussion was about the textbook cover and the exercises after the text, which was much easier than just discussing the selected texts before. None of them had experience in book typesetting, so they were just chatting aimlessly. Rong Ting only wanted to settle the matter quickly.

After the few people offered suggestions haphazardly for a long time, Wan Sang, who was originally strong-willed, had no reason to take advantage of the situation and was stifled for a while. She quickly found a topic later and began to assign tasks.

She cleared her throat and looked at them: “In any case, we have to make a PPT for the presentation. Then I’ll go first and do the literature review on textbook management. The rest can be divided into classmates who introduce the reason for the selection, the after-text exercises, and the final typesetting.”

The first two tasks were quickly claimed by Wang Qing and Chen Saiyu. Rong Ting didn’t even say a word, nodding straightforwardly: “Then I’ll be responsible for the final typesetting.”

Wan Sang’s eyes lit up, revealing a hint of schadenfreude, “Then the PDF presentation and binding of the book are all up to you. We’ll present on Friday, just have it ready before then.”

Rong Ting packed her things and stood up: “Okay.” As she walked to the door, Wan Sang’s voice came intentionally from behind, “We finally finished assigning the work, I’m exhausted. How about we all go eat Haidilao together?”

The other two must have agreed, and there was a chorus of celebratory responses.

Rong Ting’s expression was indifferent. As she reached the cafeteria entrance, there was a WeChat voice call on her phone. Seeing the nickname, she didn’t move and put it back in her pocket.

Footsteps followed her from behind. Chen Saiyu called out to her, “I told Wan Sang, and she said you could come along. We can talk anything out.”

Rong Ting didn’t stop: “The assignment has been divided. I don’t think there’s anything that needs to be said, and I don’t like eating Haidilao.”

Chen Saiyu became anxious, her voice rising: “You’re always like this! Some things can clearly be salvaged, but you never bother to salvage them. Do you think leaving can solve the problem? Or do you expect the environment to improve after you come back?”

People at the cafeteria entrance thought they were about to argue and curiously looked over. Seeing no further commotion, they scattered and left.

“You’re right, I don’t expect to change anything.” Rong Ting did stop because of these words and said slowly, “I never expected that if I left for a while, you would suddenly have some realization, stop treating me as a punching bag, or even have the slightest awareness that hurting others is not a good thing.

“Because this kind of thing will always happen!”

Chen Saiyu chased after her: “That’s also because you act too indifferent, as if you don’t care about anything. You kept saying ‘whatever’ during the discussion just now! Why ‘whatever’! That’s really not good.”

Rong Ting was annoyed by what she heard. Subconsciously, she took out her phone, defiantly opening the WeChat interface to prove she was busy, but after choosing for a while, there was actually no one she could message.

She hesitated for a moment, clicked on the chat box with Ran Jiu, and it still stopped at the message from Ran Jiu asking her to leave the door unlocked that night.

She casually typed: [Coming back tonight? What do you want to eat?]

As she expected, the other party did not reply.

Chen Saiyu inadvertently glimpsed her screen, and knowing she was being ignored made her even angrier, “I’m really exasperated. It feels like you’re floating in the sky every day, not grounded at all.”

Upon hearing this, Rong Ting finally turned off the screen, “Why did I say ‘whatever’? Don’t you all know? Aren’t you all unhappy that I’m taking on the most work?”

Chen Saiyu opened her mouth but didn’t speak. The atmosphere between the two was tense, a situation that had never happened before.

Rong Ting closed her eyes, composed herself for a moment: “Also, stop always making conjectures about others. This makes it easy to become convinced of your own assumptions, thereby pushing others into an awkward position!”

After saying this, she felt a little drained. Chen Saiyu also didn’t confront her again, and the air was electrically silent.

At this moment, her phone chimed, and the screen lit up when Rong Ting was completely unprepared.

Chen Saiyu, standing beside her, was originally too embarrassed to speak and felt a bit angry, assuming the other person felt the same way.

However, she saw the person opposite suddenly curve her lips, the gloom instantly swept away from her face, and her dimples were like ripples stirred by a spring breeze.

At that time, Ran Jiu was in the recording studio, having just finished the last segment of voice-over recording. Xiao Zhi asked her if she wanted to add a Free Talk, but Ran Jiu said no.

The protracted battle finally had a moment of rest.

The outside made a “cut” gesture. Ran Jiu pressed the end recording button and saw the message on her phone immediately.

She thought for a moment and replied: [Do you like spicy food?]

The reply came back: [I can.]

She continued to type: [How about Mala Xiang Guo /w/ then?]

The reply came back: [Okay.]

Looking at the concise reply, Ran Jiu slightly curved her lips, telling her not to rush to buy things and to wait for her to come back so they could buy them together.

The sound engineer sitting at the control desk outside was still wearing headphones listening to the audio clips. He stopped for a moment, took them off, and made an “OK” gesture, “It’s good to go.”

The people in the recording studio immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Yu Lai: “It’s finally recorded.”

Xiao Zhi: “This client is a bit difficult to please.”

Another person was sending a voice message to his girlfriend. Wei Feng wiped his sweat: “My dear, it’s really not a good time to answer the phone during work. Can we talk when I get home? It’s really not me being picky, it’s the work that’s picky. I want to see you early too.”

The others looked at each other, getting goosebumps.

Yu Lai couldn’t help but grimace, “Where’s the degreaser? We need to spray some here.”

Wei Feng put down his phone: “Have you seen my new WeChat profile picture?”

Yu Lai: “The blue one?”

“Hmm, look closely.”

Yu Lai zoomed in on the picture. It had the four characters “No Contradiction” (禁止擡杠) written on it.

Xiao Zhi, the oldest among them, smiled and said to them: “Little Jiu didn’t say anything while she was in the recording booth. What do you all have to complain about?”

Hearing Xiao Zhi’s words, the few people instantly understood. Wei Feng put on his flamboyant blue jacket, “Let’s go, we must treat Little Jiu to a drink today. Red or white?”

Everyone in the studio had a stage name; Ran Jiu’s stage name was Jiutu (Drunkard).

Ran Jiu joined the school broadcasting studio in her first year of university, and her later withdrawal caused a sigh of regret. Some people in the broadcasting studio who had a good relationship with her introduced her to work, and others often invited her out to hang out.

This voice-over studio was founded by Xiao Zhi, a senior sister from the broadcasting studio, two years ago, and she recommended Ran Jiu.

The voice-over industry was just starting up in these years. Those who joined the studio were young students, generally from different majors.

Among the earliest members, Yu Lai was a graduate student in Financial Modeling, who loved tinkering with electronic products and was responsible for adjusting various parameters and electronic equipment. Wei Feng studied Visual Communication and Directing and could help design product covers in his spare time.

Xiao Zhi was a graduate student sister a few years older than them, studying Business Administration, and was responsible for the entire studio’s operations.

In addition, the full-time and part-time voice actors could be counted on two hands, plus a sound editor and two scriptwriters. Xiao Zhi held several positions, including external promotion.

Only Ran Jiu studied law and dropped out halfway through. When she joined, she joked that she hoped there would never be a day when she needed to use her professional knowledge.

Yu Lai joked at the time, “Of course not, I’m afraid we’ll jump straight from Commercial Law to Criminal Law, from fixed-term to life imprisonment.”

Ran Jiu, who was spacing out at the time, said belatedly that it wouldn’t come to that.

At this moment, she walked out. Having been in the stuffy environment for a long time, her hair wasn’t messy at all. The soft strands hung neatly, and a slight blush was layered on her porcelain-white face, carrying a sense of weary beauty in her clear elegance.

She picked up her clothes from the sofa, “No, I’m going home to eat tonight.”

Wei Feng immediately straightened up: “No way, Jiu. This client specifically requested your voice, that’s how we won this order. How can you not come to the celebration tonight?”

Ran Jiu smiled faintly: “My stomach hasn’t been well recently, I can’t drink anymore.”

It’s not surprising that Wei Feng found it strange. She had never refused when going out to relax with this group of people before, usually mixing red and white wine, and even playing pool if she wasn’t drunk at night. She also kept a lot of ice wine at home. Only this time, she suddenly wanted to go home.

The others couldn’t persuade her. Besides, Ran Jiu’s voice was too valuable; it was the main source of income for their studio, so if she had a health issue, they had to pamper her.

Their studio was on the fifth floor of a commercial building, which was conveniently located near U University. The group parted ways at the entrance.

Ran Jiu stood at the entrance of the building for a moment, not leaving. She thought for a while and made a voice call to Rong Ting.

Rong Ting was looking up information in the library at the time and had just borrowed a few course-related books when she received the call.

Ran Jiu’s voice was still clear and textured, but with a hint of hoarseness. She said, “Are you going to the supermarket now?”

Rong Ting checked the time; it was time to eat, “Yes.”

After hanging up the voice call, Ran Jiu sent her the location.

Rong Ting knew the building. The experimental branch of their school’s psychology department was located there. They often posted about psychological experiment activities in the moments, with compensation. She had participated a few times, but hadn’t been back since.

When she arrived, Ran Jiu was standing at the entrance of the building waiting for her. Her lean, tall figure was noticeable, wearing a loose grey jacket, with only her sharp nose and a few strands of dark green hair showing from the hood.

This person, from afar, was as cold as white snow, but up close, there was only a misty fog.

Rong Ting quickly walked over. Ran Jiu heard the footsteps and turned her head, “You’re here?”

“Mhm.” The two of them intended to walk inside. Rong Ting was walking faster, so the back of her hand accidentally brushed against Ran Jiu’s hand, and the coldness made her shiver.

“How long have you been standing outside?” Rong Ting subconsciously wanted to hold her hand, but hesitated and awkwardly retracted it.

“Huh?” Ran Jiu hadn’t taken off her hood yet, and her expression was a little lost. Then she took down the hood, and only then did Rong Ting realize she had a Bluetooth earphone in each ear.

“What did you just say?”

Rong Ting shook her head helplessly: “I asked how long you’ve been standing outside.”

Ran Jiu: “Listening to music and spacing out, I didn’t keep track of the time.”

Rong Ting: “Why did you decide to come here?”

This time Ran Jiu paused for a while, “I’m working part-time here.” Her expression seemed a little dejected.

Upon hearing “working part-time,” Rong Ting wisely kept silent. Her mind was sensitive and delicate.

Since she knew Ran Jiu had dropped out of school early, she had been careful not to bring up related matters. She remembered Ran Jiu saying before that her workplace was very far away, but this place was clearly very close. Perhaps the fact that she was working for others was difficult for her to mention.

She even started guessing whether Ran Jiu was going to a restaurant to serve dishes, deliver food, or wash pots.

If so, that would be truly pitiful. Rong Ting even thought about what her own low point a while ago amounted to; at least she was using her family’s money and could still attend school, while Ran Jiu had entered society to work early, leaving the comfortable environment of campus.

It was truly difficult for a girl.

Thinking of this, she actually felt a slight sense of guilt and never brought up the matter again.

And she definitely never thought that the reason a certain person said her workplace was far away was simply because she was too lazy to explain why she came home late, and she had long forgotten saying those words.

At the supermarket, the two first bought hot pot base. In the middle, Ran Jiu took a phone call, and Rong Ting went to the vegetable section to pick vegetables on her own.

Ran Jiu answered the phone. It was the Wei Feng group again, wanting to invite her out to eat. Wei Feng’s voice was particularly clear: “Little Jiu, just come, we won’t let you drink, at most.”

Ran Jiu was a little helpless, covering the earpiece: “Someone is cooking for me at home, it wouldn’t be nice not to eat it.”