CH 33

Qin Juran picked up some of the packages that she had received yesterday, glanced at the time to see that it was 7 p.m., then nodded a goodbye at Huang Ying as she began to walk out.

“Where are you going, Juju?” Huang Ying asked.

Qin Juran replied without sparing a glance back: “What do you think?”

“Ah…then are you coming back tonight?” Despite her suppressed tone of voice, Qin Juran could see the eagerness burning in Huang Ying’s small eyes.

She tossed her hair: “Probably not. Is there a problem?”

Huang Ying shook her head so fast that she looked like a rattle drum. “No problem, no problem at all.”

“You got this, Juju!” Huang Ying chanted from behind her as she left.

The bike ride to Ruan Nan’s apartment complex was quick and smooth, as she was familiar with the route by now. She went up the elevator and knocked before walking into the living room to see the coffee table piled with textbooks and papers. Lin Wei was sitting on the carpet sharpening pencils.

As soon as he noticed Qin Juran’s arrival, he took on a “brother-in-law” attitude: “Come, sit down, Little Qin; explain this problem to us.”

Qin Juran ignored him. Today, she was wearing a white casual blazer on top of a white shirt, the pair of gold wire-frame glasses adorned her face, and a rather formal black bag was slung over her right shoulder. As soon as Ruan Nan opened the door, Qin Juran leaned against the doorway and began her roleplay: “Are you the one who requested the private home tutor, Miss Ruan?”

Seeing her getup, Ruan Nan flinched in shock. However, she played along, and without blushing, she only crossed her arms and stared at her: “Mhm, how do you take payment?”

Qin Juran froze. “I typically charge by the hour, but that can become pricey, especially if Miss Ruan requires a longer session…”

“I recommend the all-night package.”

As she spoke, Qin Juran slid her body through the doorway inside.

In a familiar manner, Qin Juran changed into slippers. Noticing the bag in her hand, Lin Wei asked, “What a surprise, Qin Juran came to Sister Nan’s home bearing gifts. Is there any good food I can have a bite of?”

Qin Juran: “You want some lightbulbs?”

“….”

Qin Juran didn’t rush to take the items out from the bag. She placed her stuff down in the living room, then approached the coffee table and picked up the notes that Lin Wei was just studying.

The most difficult courses in this semester were mathematics and economics, and most of their questions were concentrated in these two areas.

Qin Juran glanced at the piece of scrap paper on which Ruan Nan had written calculations and frowned: “You guys haven’t properly grasped this formula. This reasoning is incorrect.”

As Qin Juran spoke, she picked up a pencil and paper, intending to demonstrate for Lin Wei. From the side, Ruan Nan let out a cough, and Lin Wei quickly scooted over to make way for Ruan Nan to sit by Qin Juran’s side.

The three of them sat side-by-side like elementary schoolers. Qin Juran placed the paper in between them, writing down calculations as she explained the process. Her handwriting was very neat; even through the simple numbers and characters, her confidence and fine easily shone through.

The silver metal of her wire-rimmed glasses glinted in the light, giving off the impression of a refined older sister. She was sitting close enough for Ruan Nan to smell her faint fragrance, causing her to daze off.

Although Qin Juran was a quick thinker, she hadn’t necessarily taught anyone else before, and wasn’t sure of how well Ruan Nan and Lin Wei were comprehending her explanations. After finishing explaining for the first time, she didn’t hesitate to repeat herself upon seeing the perplexed expressions on both of their faces.

“Do you get it now?”

Qin Juran noticed Ruan Nan’s attention drift elsewhere.

“Ah…” Ruan Nan quickly pretended to study a question.

Meanwhile, Lin Wei boasted from the other side, twirling his pencil between his fingers: “I get it! So it’s that easy! If only I knew about that method earlier.”

“What about Ah-Ruan?”

Ruan Nan hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head.

“Alright, then I’ll find a similar problem for you guys to try out.”

Without waiting for Qin Juran to assign a problem, Lin Wei began speedily stuffing his books into his bag, mumbling something about forgetting to turn off the gas at home as he quickly ducked out the door.

The apartment door shut with a thud. Once Qin Juran regained her senses, feeling stunned, she held the problem before Ruan Nan’s face: “Then you try.”

Ruan Nan frowned nearly imperceptibly, then slowly took the problem that Qin Juran found.

Qin Juran shifted slightly closer, peering at Ruan Nan’s calculation paper to examine her written thought process. Ruan Nan was wearing her usual at-home nightgown. Perhaps because Lin Wei was there earlier, she wore a light white cardigan over it.

Seeing that she didn’t write a single stroke after a long moment, Qin Juran was about to ask whether she had actually understood or not, when Ruan Nan unbuttoned her cardigan and tossed it onto the sofa. “It’s hot.”

The neckline of the nightgown had a V cut. From Qin Juran’s view from the side, the dress revealed the curves of Ruan Nan’s figure, despite her delicate frame. As the image of her silhouette from the shower that day flashed in Qin Juran’s mind, she struggled to stifle a cough.

Once she moved her hand, Ruan Nan turned her head, speaking in a somewhat angry tone: “What are you wearing glasses for? You never wore them before.”

Qin Juran had first noticed that this body was a little near-sighted right when she’d transmigrated. Since she had always taken great care of her eyesight, she quickly went to the doctor for an exam. After fitting this pair of glasses, she found them quite helpful while reading and writing.

At that moment, Qin Juran felt a bit baffled. “Is there a problem?”

“I can’t work on the problem when you’re wearing those glasses.”

?

Looking at Ruan Nan’s fully serious expression, Qin Juran could only smile wryly, then slowly and deliberately slid the glasses off and placed them on the side. She raised an eyebrow at her: “Is it fine now?”

Ruan Nan tapped her pencil against her face, thoughtful: “Not quite. This jacket is also too white; it’s hurting my eyes.”

Although Qin Juran was confused, she was curious to see just where this was going. She took off her jacket accordingly, leaving only the casual white shirt underneath.

“How about now?”

Finally, Ruan Nan felt that the source of her stress had been taken care of. She grunted gruffly, then turned to work on the problem.

For another long while, Qin Juran watched as  Ruan Nan sat motionless, still refusing to write. She asked curiously, “Is this shirt also too glaring? Should I take it off as well?”

Ruan Nan blushed, but before she could reply, Qin Juran reached out and pulled her into her chest. Her right hand reached around Ruan Nan’s back to take hold of her pencil, while her left hand flicked Ruan Nan’s forehead. She muttered into her ear: “You don’t pay attention during the explanation, then blame other people’s clothes when you can’t figure out the question.”

“Taking off a piece of clothing after explaining a question – what an overbearing rule, hm?”

Qin Juran ignored Ruan Nan’s deepening blush, taking a blank piece of scrap paper, while continuing to trap her in her bosom with her partial embrace, forcing Ruan Nan to listen as she explained the question another time. “Do you understand this time around?”

Ruan Nan nodded in the manner of a chick pecking rice.

Qin Juran let go of her and had her redo the problem. This time, she completed it quickly and correctly.

Qin Juran embraced her again while she explained a few more problems. Although Ruan Nan wanted to push her away in the beginning, she then realized that whenever she looked at Qin Juran teaching, she felt like a small grade-schooler caught eating in class by the teacher, and was filled with a sense of nervousness. As long as she didn’t look at her, then she could keep her mind calm.

Whatever – it’s not like this was the first time she’d been hugged.

By the time they finished going over the basics of input-output analysis, Qin Juran realized that Ruan Nan was actually really intelligent; she was just a bit lacking in the foundations that were taught from the past three years, and was unclear about the basic formulas and principles.

Qin Juran left her another three examples to work through, then stood up and asked, “Mind if I go into your room?”

Ruan Nan had no idea what the other girl was planning, but she nodded before turning her focus back to the example problems.

Qin Juran grabbed the bag that she brought and entered the bedroom. The last time she was here, she had felt that Ruan Nan’s bedside lamp wasn’t that good. Thus, two days earlier, she’d purchased a kitten-shaped nightlight and some other fixtures for her online.

Qin Juran took off her slippers and stepped onto the carpet, carefully taking out the nightlight and placing it by the head of the bed. The light was in the shape of a pink, translucent ball. Inside, there was a sleeping kitten figure, so whenever the warm light was turned out, one could see the little kitten nested inside.

Besides the light, she had also bought other cute decorations, which she proceeded to put in place one by one in accordance with the room’s layout. Once she was done, the large room suddenly felt much cozier, with the sense of actually being lived-in.

Before Qin Juran could walk out, Ruan Nan emerged in the doorway. She spoke as she walked, “Hey, I don’t know how to do those three problems.”

Qin Juran quickly moved to block the kitten light from her view: “Don’t come in.”

Ruan Nan: “…..”

“Actually, you can come in if you’d like, but turn off the wall lights first.”

Ruan Nan didn’t protest and flicked off the lights.

“Okay, I’ll count to three, then you can come in.”

Ruan Nan laughed softly upon hearing. “You’re not going to show me an erotic sight, are you?”

Qin Juran didn’t reply, only yelling out: “THREE, TWO, ONE – “

In the second that Ruan Nan raised her head, Qin Juran stepped away from the lamp, allowing the warm, yellow light to illuminate the far half of the bedroom.  The railing by the balcony was also laced with small fairy lights, the glowing specks like starlight shining throughout the entire room.

A sense of astonishment immediately flooded through Ruan Nan. She could hardly recognize this room that she supposedly inhabited until then. The warm light lit upon Qin Juran, who was standing quietly by the wall. It was unclear whether she was busy admiring her own work, or the person it was for.

Ruan Nan walked slowly towards the bed, staring at the adorable sleeping kitty in the lamp, whose closed eyes who upturned in small crescent shapes. As if she were afraid of waking up the kitty, she whispered, “You did all this?”

Qin Juran raised a brow in response.

Ruan Nan cupped her hands lightly around the kitten lamp, feeling the gentle warmth of the light in her palms.

She brought the light close to her nose, as if touching the kitten in greeting, then reluctantly put it back down and turned to meet Qin Juran’s eyes: “Thank you, Qin Juran.”

Qin Juran laughed softly. “Like it?”

Ruan Nan nodded firmly.

Without replying, Qin Juran walked over to the bed. She continued, “What were you about to ask when came in?”

Ruan Nan took a moment to react. “Oh, about the three problems that you told me to do, I need some help…”

Without waiting for her to finish, Qin Juran plopped lazily onto the bed, then tugged Ruan Nan forward. With a stagger, Ruan Nan tumbled onto the soft bed, causing the kitten lamp to flick off with the sound, leaving only the fairy lights by the window to provide illumination.

“I spoke too much earlier, I’m tired now. I need to relax a bit before I can get back up.”

“Also, given all the problems I explained earlier—”

Qin Juran slowly turned and inched closer to Ruan Nan until her forehead was practically touching her face. She squinted her eyes as her slender fingers brushed aside the stray hairs on Ruan Nan’s forehead. In a slurred voice, she murmured, “Shouldn’t Miss Ruan be calling me Professor Qin?”