OHHACOM Chapter 3

Jiang Nuan struggled with her chopsticks in the hotpot for a long time but couldn’t manage to pick up a fish ball. After several seconds of persistence, she finally got it, but just as she was about to lift it out of the pot, it slipped and splashed broth all over her face.

“Ack, Mom!”

“Oh dear, why on earth are you using chopsticks when there’s a perfectly good ladle?!” Luo Chen got up to fetch a cloth from the kitchen.

Jiang Nuan quickly lowered her head, feeling the broth drip down her cheek.

A napkin appeared in front of her, placed beneath her chin. Jiang Nuan quickly grabbed it and turned her head, realizing it was Lu Ran who handed it to her.

His chopsticks were resting on the plate, and he had his chin lightly propped on top of them, looking at her with a slight crease at the corner of his mouth, almost giving the illusion of a smile.

“I always thought you just had an overactive imagination, but it turns out you’re also clumsy. When you play games, your teammates probably use power outages as an excuse to disconnect from you.”

“Overactive imagination” was just a fancy way of saying she had a “brain full of holes,” which ultimately boiled down to being brainless!

Jiang Nuan was about to look toward her dad, hoping he’d back her up, but he was on the phone with Lu Ran’s dad and didn’t hear a thing. At the same time, her mom came back with a cloth and wiped the spilled broth from the table.

Then, Jiang Nuan watched as Lu Ran effortlessly picked up a fish ball from the hotpot with his chopsticks, dipped it in some sauce, blew on it gently, and took a bite.

It felt like her IQ had been bitten off along with that fish ball.

Her brain hurt a little.

“Hey, that fish ball… I already touched it with my chopsticks.” Jiang Nuan said with a squinting smile. “So it has my saliva on it.”

In her impression, Lu Ran never ate food that others had touched. She was looking forward to his reaction, but she was disappointed when he calmly turned to her and said, “Earlier, when you drank the rice wine, you used my cup by mistake.”

“Ah…”

Jiang Nuan looked down and noticed that her cup and Lu Ran’s cup were placed very close to each other. It seemed she really had… used the wrong one! Her cup had less rice wine and egg, but the one she had now had more.

“Here… take it back!” Jiang Nuan quickly moved the cup aside and grabbed her own cup, taking a big gulp to assert her ownership.

But then, Lu Ran casually dropped another bombshell: “I was just teasing you earlier. Now you’ve actually drunk from the cup I used.”

Jiang Nuan almost spat out the wine!

This is too much!

Lu Ran, however, calmly picked up his own cup from her and took a sip, a barely noticeable smile tugging at the corner of his eyes.

Jiang Nuan was so furious she was about to puff up like a pufferfish.

Meanwhile, at the table, her dad started discussing her plans for the next semester with Lu Ran.

“Sigh, I’ve pretty much given up hope that Xiao Nuan will be able to catch up on what she missed last semester. With the New Year approaching, where am I supposed to find a tutor? She can’t even get into a cram school now. If all else fails, she’ll have to restart the second semester of her freshman year.”

Jiang Nuan was deeply opposed to this. No matter what she said about being okay with repeating a grade, it was just self-consolation. After all, as DouDou had said, she didn’t want to miss out on life with her friends. She wanted to keep up with them, living the same experiences.

“In her current state, sending her to a cram school would just make her a ‘sick chicken in class and a flying chicken after class.’ Cram schools are for students with a decent foundation who need to improve. What she needs now is someone who can systematically and logically help her review the basics.”

Jiang Nuan nearly choked on the lamb she was chewing—what’s this about chickens and flying chickens?

“Then what should we do? Where am I supposed to find someone to guide her through the basics?” Jiang Nuan’s father fell silent for half a minute. In that time, Jiang Nuan had finished eating all the lamb she had dipped in the hotpot. Then her dad’s next words nearly made her choke: “How about Lu Ran, you help tutor Xiao Nuan?”

“What? Lu Ran tutoring me? He’s a student too; how can he teach me?”

It was true that Lu Ran was the type of student who didn’t seem to put in much effort but still consistently ranked in the top ten of the first exam hall. Balancing both studying and fencing, he seemed superhuman.

“Didn’t you always go upstairs with your homework, asking Lu Ran for help? You even made it into the top three exam halls!” Luo Chen said with a smile.

Mom, that was when I was young and naive…

“Sigh, wait a minute. Let’s forget it. Lu Ran has his own things to do over the break—he has to study and train…”

“I’ll help her review and see how it goes. Uncle, have you been worried lately that Jiang Nuan might have to repeat a grade?”

“Sigh… yeah, that’s been on my mind.”

Jiang Nuan couldn’t eat anymore. The last thing she wanted was to spend the entire winter break with her “rumored crush.”

After dinner, Lu Ran helped clear the dishes, then put on his coat to leave.

“Jiang Nuan, my scarf.” Lu Ran said softly.

The scarf was on the sofa. Reluctantly, Jiang Nuan picked it up. The yarn was loosely knitted, with large gaps that her fingers could pass through. It was also a bit short—definitely hand-knitted, and by someone inexperienced. It must have been made by someone foolish enough… How could this short scarf be effective at blocking the wind?

As she handed the scarf over, she couldn’t resist making a jab, “Which fool knitted this for you? With such big holes, does it even keep the wind out?”

Lu Ran wrapped the scarf around his neck, lowering his head as he leaned slightly toward Jiang Nuan.

Jiang Nuan couldn’t explain why, but she suddenly felt on guard. She had a feeling that when Lu Ran got close, he never had anything good to say.

“What do you think?” His usual cool voice had a playful lilt that sent her imagination running wild.

“What’s going on, Xiao Nuan?” Her parents, who had just finished cleaning up the dining table, came over.

“Nothing, we were just talking about Lu Ran’s scarf…”

“Didn’t you knit that scarf for him?” her dad said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Jiang Nuan stood there, stunned for a few seconds… This isn’t real! How could this possibly be real! She had just called the person who knitted that scarf a fool!

If Jiang Nuan ever liked someone, she’d definitely pull up on her bike, park it in front of that guy, and confidently say, “Hey classmate, I like you. Wanna go out?”

Simple and straightforward, no beating around the bush.

Knitting a scarf? That was… an overly poetic gesture.

She looked at her dad, then at her mom, and pointed toward the door, “That definitely wasn’t knitted by me.”

“Didn’t you promise to knit it for Lu Ran after he helped you get into the top three exam halls?” her dad replied.

Jiang Nuan looked at her mom.

Her dad didn’t know her that well, but her mom should know that not only was she completely unqualified to knit, but where would she even find the yarn?

“That was the simplest knitting method. I taught you for a long time. Later, you were worried that you wouldn’t finish it before Lu Ran left for the capital, so you begged me to help you. I knitted the last half for you,” her mom said.

“Mom, I’m a sophomore in high school!”

“Huh?” Jiang Nuan’s mom looked at her with an expression that seemed to say, “What does that have to do with you knitting a scarf for Lu Ran?”

“As a sophomore, I should be focusing on studying and improving every day, not knitting silly scarves!”

That night, back in her room, Jiang Nuan tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She kicked her legs in frustration, but it was just futile struggling.

What kind of spell had she fallen under?

Unable to sleep, Jiang Nuan decided to call her best friend for some emotional support.

She huddled under the blanket and called Rao Can.

After several tries, the phone finally connected. Rao Can was probably in the middle of a skincare routine.

“Xiao Nuan, why are you calling all of a sudden?”

“Can Can, I can’t figure this out. I’ve got a knot in my heart, and I won’t feel at ease until I untangle it!”

“Restless, huh?”

“Yeah! I’m dying of frustration! Let me tell you, Lu Ran came over for dinner tonight!”

“Are you upset because your parents treat Lu Ran better than you?” Rao Can asked with a laugh.

“Not just that! Well, that’s part of it too! But do you know about that scarf Lu Ran wears around his neck? It’s really short and full of holes!”

“Yeah, I know. You knitted it for him!”

Jiang Nuan closed her eyes, wishing she could just faint and escape from reality.

“How could I possibly have knitted that scarf! Didn’t you think it was strange? Why didn’t you stop me?”

“I did try to stop you.”

“And how exactly did you stop me?”

“I told you to just buy one! There are plenty of simple scarves at the market, red, black, yellow, sold by the kilo!”

“Yeah! That would’ve been great!”

Those old-fashioned scarves for grandmas—she doubted Lu Ran could ever bring himself to wear one!

“But it was like you were under a spell, insisting on knitting it yourself! To be honest, that scarf you knitted turned out so ugly, you really would’ve been better off buying one.”

“Alright, alright! I’ll never knit a scarf for anyone again! I just don’t get it—how could I have possibly liked Lu Ran?”

“It’s better than saying you liked Jinlun Fawang, right?”

“That’s different! I admire Jinlun Fawang! No matter how much he wanted revenge or how villainous he was early on, when Guo Xiang was in danger, he still gave up everything to save her!”

“Lu Ran’s still a more reasonable choice.”

“Liking Lu Ran is such a cliché aesthetic! Remember back in freshman year, when I just borrowed his advanced math book for a glance, and he snatched it back? Then, in front of the whole class, he said, ‘Jiang Nuan, with your abilities, finishing the basic problems is normal, but copying the later ones will make the teacher expect more from you than you’re capable of.’ Everyone laughed! Why didn’t he say anything when others copied his homework, but when I just peeked at it, it was like I had stolen his family’s safe?”

“…Well, he wasn’t wrong. He really did save you that time. Several students who copied the later questions were called up to solve them in front of the class, and they had no idea how. They ended up lined up in the hallway. Meanwhile, the teacher praised you, saying that even though your math skills weren’t great, at least you were honest about what you knew and didn’t know, which helped the teacher understand what you needed to learn. You remember that, right?”

“I do remember…”

“Exactly. Xiao Nuan, sometimes liking someone builds up over time, or maybe it’s because they did something that touched you deeply. Then all the things they did that used to annoy you start to seem kind of cute.”

“You make it sound like Lu Ran did something earth-shattering.”

“Do you remember who your desk mate was before the classes were split in freshman year?”

“Li Shuyue! I remember! Didn’t she transfer to the humanities class?”

“Yep. At the end of freshman year, she barely scored over 100 in English, even though she was usually a 130-plus scorer. When the English teacher, Ms. Cai, was going over the final exam, you and Li Shuyue were chatting.”

“Oh gosh, Ms. Cai adored Li Shuyue. She must’ve taken out her frustration over her falling grades on me.”

“Wow, you see that now, but back then, you were in tears.”

“Huh?”

“I still remember it clearly. Ms. Cai dragged you up from your seat in front of the whole class and accused you of distracting Li Shuyue, talking to her every day.”

“No way. I barely got along with Li Shuyue!”

“Exactly. You were never one to take things lying down, so you immediately said it was Li Shuyue who had pulled you into a conversation about the drama she watched last night! But there was no way Ms. Cai would listen. She made you stand at the back of the classroom, saying you were distracting Li Shuyue’s studies. Li Shuyue kept her head down, too scared to speak up. Guess who stood up for you in front of everyone?”

“Don’t tell me… It was Lu Ran, wasn’t it?”

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