“Deep feelings, my foot!” Jiang Nuan grabbed the scratch paper on the table and looked at it.
Feelings? That sort of thing didn’t suit Lu Ran at all. His world seemed devoid of any “emotions” like that.
Back in the summer break of their first year of high school, when the graduating seniors had returned to school after their college entrance exams, Jiang Nuan and Rao Can went to the sports equipment storeroom to deliver some materials for their homeroom teacher. There, they overheard Lu Ran talking with a senior girl behind the storeroom.
Lu Ran took the materials she handed him, said, “Thank you.” and turned to leave. But to their surprise, the senior girl suddenly hugged him from behind.
Jiang Nuan’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor, and she would have screamed if Rao Can hadn’t quickly covered her mouth.
That senior girl had met Lu Ran during a debate competition. She was smart and very pretty. That day, she had specially dressed up, wearing a skirt and white sneakers, flaunting a figure any girl would envy. She pressed herself tightly against Lu Ran’s back, but within a second, he calmly pried her off.
“Save yourself for the right person.”
During their school years, girls often admired the top students, especially those like Lu Ran, who not only excelled academically but also looked good and had a great build. Even a senior two years older than them still had a schoolgirl crush.
If it had been any other guy, he would’ve held onto the senior and comforted her, maybe even shared a goodbye kiss. But Lu Ran left without looking back, without any hesitation.
He was someone who lived in his own world. Jiang Nuan couldn’t imagine him ever showing a shaken expression or losing focus on the things he excelled at.
But for now, she put that aside and focused on flipping through the notes and study points Lu Ran had given her. Before she knew it, she had finished the entire test paper.
The most surprising part? She didn’t just stop at writing “Solution” on the big problems—she flowed through them smoothly from beginning to end!
This definitely boosted Jiang Nuan’s confidence.
Could it be that this mud could actually stick to the wall?
Even though Lu Ran had told her to preview some physics, it was winter break, after all… a time to relax, right?
Jiang Nuan leaned back in her chair and rocked it slightly. Suddenly, she noticed a copy of One Piece she had hidden on the keyboard tray of her desk.
Oh my god, how long had it been sitting there? It was already covered in a thin layer of dust. If her mom found it, she’d definitely hang her up and give her a beating!
It must have been from before her memory loss when she borrowed it. The deposit at the rental bookstore was probably lost already, so she might as well read it a few more times to get her money’s worth.
Jiang Nuan pulled out the keyboard tray, spread out the manga, and started reading it with great interest. She didn’t even hear her mom open the door and say, “Lu Ran is here.”
When her mom knocked on Jiang Nuan’s room door, she panicked and quickly pushed the keyboard tray back with her belly. Unfortunately, due to the momentum, the manga fell off the other side of the tray and landed on her foot.
“What sneaky thing are you up to?”
Jiang Nuan’s mom didn’t like her reading manga, thinking it was a waste of time that distracted from her studies. She walked over and pulled open the keyboard tray, only to find nothing on it.
Jiang Nuan let out a quiet sigh of relief. “I… I was just getting up to greet Lu Ran, but when I stood up, I bumped the keyboard tray with my belly, and it slid back in!”
Jiang Nuan subtly shifted, trying to kick the manga under the bed.
“Oh really? You must have quite the belly!” her mom said skeptically.
“Of course!”
Jiang Nuan looked up and met Lu Ran’s eyes, who was standing behind her mom.
She was certain she wasn’t imagining it—there was a hint of amusement deep in Lu Ran’s eyes. It was the kind of smile adults have when they see through a child’s little tricks—teasing yet indulgent. But when she looked more closely, it seemed like there was nothing there at all.
Her mom, however, walked over to check under Jiang Nuan’s desk, making her even more nervous.
Lu Ran walked to her desk, picked up the math test she had completed, and said, “You got the big problems right too. You’ve grasped the basics. Although this test was pretty simple.”
His comment immediately caught her mom’s attention.
Seeing her mom walk away, Jiang Nuan let out another sigh of relief.
But Lu Ran leisurely walked over to the side of her chair, knelt down on one knee, and easily pulled the manga out from under the bed.
“Well… I need some entertainment too…”
To Jiang Nuan’s surprise, Lu Ran found not only One Piece but also Red River!
That was something Cheng DouDou had accidentally left behind at her house ages ago!
Lu Ran quickly flipped through the pages, and Jiang Nuan was horrified. She immediately lunged to grab it, but Lu Ran effortlessly pushed her back down.
“So you like reading this kind of stuff.”
“It’s not mine! It’s Cheng DouDou’s.”
Oh god! She hadn’t read much of that manga, but she remembered there were a lot of questionable scenes!
Lu Ran didn’t respond. He just slipped both manga into his coat pocket.
“Hey! Hey! Why are you taking my manga?”
“I’m returning them.”
“You know where to return them?” Jiang Nuan asked in surprise.
Rental bookstores were becoming rarer in the city, and she had spent a lot of effort finding that one.
“I know. Do you want me to help you borrow the next volumes?” Lu Ran’s arm brushed past her shoulder, reaching for her sophomore physics textbook, and as he flipped through it, he saw a doodle of Luffy she had drawn during class.
Jiang Nuan’s eyes lit up. “Really? You’d actually help me borrow them? I mean One Piece!”
Lu Ran responded coolly with, “Keep dreaming.” and walked out.
Jiang Nuan froze for a second, then kicked her legs in frustration.
I must be cursed to have ever liked you!
When she looked down, she noticed a little whale doodle she had drawn in the corner of her physics textbook with a pencil.
If you flipped the pages quickly, the whale’s water spout would gradually grow taller, and its mouth would spread into a grin.
But on the last two pages, a shark suddenly appeared, its jaws wide open, about to chomp down on the whale’s head.
Jiang Nuan’s shoulders stiffened, and her head suddenly hurt.
Who the heck was bored enough to mess with my little whale drawing!
After dinner, Jiang Nuan had her test papers spread out in front of her, but she couldn’t focus on a single question—because Lu Ran was sitting next to her, reading Red River!
The sound of him turning the pages was like a scratch on her nerves, making her heart race with every turn. She sneaked a glance at him just as he flipped to the scene where the prince pinned the heroine down and kissed her passionately. Jiang Nuan wanted to crawl into a hole!
“It’s weird for a guy like you to be reading that kind of manga. If you’re interested in manga, you should read One Piece!”
Please, I’m begging you!
“Do you imagine the male protagonist in the book doing that to you?” Lu Ran asked, resting his chin on his hand as he casually flipped through the book.
His voice had no particular tone to it, but it was quieter than usual. Under the soft orange light, everything seemed to slow down. Jiang Nuan felt her blood rush downward for some inexplicable reason.
“Nonsense! I already told you it’s Cheng DouDou’s! One Piece—that’s my kind of story!” Jiang Nuan immediately defended herself.
“In real life, you girls would probably hate a prince like this,” Lu Ran said.
“Not at all! A lot of girls are crazy about him,” Jiang Nuan said, eyeing the book, trying to figure out how to snatch it back.
“Want to test it out?” Lu Ran asked.
“How do you even test something like that?”
There’s no formula, no rule! It’s not like a chemistry experiment!
“If my theory proves right, you’ll focus on studying. Outside of studying, I won’t mind if you read manga.”
“Really? Okay! But you’d better help me get the next volumes of One Piece too…”
Before Jiang Nuan could finish her sentence, Lu Ran suddenly stood up and scooped her into his arms.
In that moment of being lifted off the ground, Jiang Nuan’s breath caught in her throat. The strength in Lu Ran’s arms was beyond what she had expected. She stared wide-eyed at his handsome face, and in the next second, she was tossed onto the bed.
“Hey! What are you…”
Just as she tried to prop herself up on her elbows, Lu Ran easily pinned her wrists above her head. His fingers were strong, and Jiang Nuan was too shocked to say anything!
Before she could even kick him, Lu Ran’s face was already hovering close, and she almost screamed, but he quickly covered her mouth with his hand.
“See? Isn’t it annoying when a guy does this?” Lu Ran asked.
Jiang Nuan stared at him with wide eyes and immediately nodded.
It was only then that she realized Lu Ran had just reenacted the scene from the manga.
“In real life, could you still like him?”
Jiang Nuan shook her head like a rattle drum.
Not just dislike him—it was straight-up psychological trauma!
Lu Ran removed his hand from her mouth and helped her sit up by holding her waist effortlessly.
“So, will you study or read manga?”
“Study!” Jiang Nuan answered firmly and decisively.
Lu Ran finally closed Red River.
When he left that day, he took One Piece with him but left Red River on her desk.
“I really do like One Piece…” Jiang Nuan said longingly, eyeing the manga sticking out of Lu Ran’s pocket.
“I know. That’s why I left Red River for you, because you won’t read it again.”
Not only would she never read it again, but even the last bit of girlish fantasy she had left was now gone!
Jiang Nuan seriously suspected that Lu Ran had a Spartan streak in him. He seemed determined to make her winter break revolve around nothing but eating, sleeping, and studying.
“Lu Ran, you don’t need to come tomorrow!” Jiang Nuan said with a smile as she leaned closer to Lu Ran, who was marking her test papers.
He was wearing a brown wool sweater. With his broad shoulders and narrow waist, even the simplest clothes looked good on him.
But Jiang Nuan had no interest in admiring him. She just wanted her personal space back.
“Have you regained your memory?”
Lu Ran looked up at her.
For some reason, in those calm eyes, there seemed to be a trace of anticipation brewing.
“Regain what memory? The stuff you’ve taught me feels a bit familiar. Sometimes I even remember solving some of the problems before.”
“So you plan to study on your own,” Lu Ran said, lowering his head again and marking her chemistry paper with his red pen.
“No, I want to go see a movie with Cheng DouDou and Rao Can tomorrow.”
“Then you’ll also want to eat pizza at Pizza Hut, chat with them, and since it’s almost New Year’s, you’ll probably want to go to the mall and buy new clothes too, right?”
Jiang Nuan immediately nodded. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
“I see. But with your height of approximately the square root of two, what’s there to choose?”
Two seconds later, Jiang Nuan was furious.
The square root of two is 1.414, right?
“I’m 1.58 meters tall! Almost 1.6!”
“Well, I still suggest you balance your chemical equations. The teacher won’t understand your unique formula.” Lu Ran tapped lightly on her chemistry practice paper with his neatly trimmed fingers.
“You can’t expect me to go an entire winter break without any entertainment, right? Fine, fine, I can skip the mall.”
After all, Jiang Nuan didn’t really care much about clothes and fashion.
Lu Ran picked up his pen and started writing on the scratch paper. The moment he started writing, Jiang Nuan’s head began to ache.
“Now, let me explain the least common multiple method for balancing chemical equations.”
“I can’t take it in…”
“If I finish explaining, and you get all the equations right, you can go out and play tomorrow afternoon. I won’t come.”
Jiang Nuan’s eyes lit up. Could she finally get some freedom?
She swore she had never been so attentive in class in her entire life. She was so afraid of falling behind Lu Ran’s explanations that she kept her focus sharp.
The “odd-even balancing method,” the “electron gain and loss method,” the “undetermined coefficient method”—all those things that used to seem more incomprehensible than hieroglyphics suddenly didn’t feel so difficult. It was as if they had always been sitting in Jiang Nuan’s brain, just waiting for Lu Ran to give them a little nudge to bring them to the surface.
Jiang Nuan turned her head and watched Lu Ran’s focused expression, his beautifully shaped lips moving as he recited various chemical terms. How had this top student from her memories ended up sitting beside her?
Lu Ran’s pen tip paused. He didn’t turn his head, but his voice, though soft, carried a faint smile.
“Why are you sitting so close to me?”
Her mind suddenly replayed the scene of Lu Ran reenacting the manga, and Jiang Nuan immediately scooted back and straightened her posture.
“You don’t have eyes in the back of your head, so how did you know I was sitting close?”
Lu Ran turned his head slightly, revealing his neck. He pointed to it lightly with his finger, signaling that he could feel her breath on it when she got too close.
His eyes were deep, with finely detailed contours. At first glance, they didn’t seem to hold much warmth, but the longer you looked, the more you noticed layers of things you couldn’t quite decipher, things that weren’t easily expressed.
Jiang Nuan was suddenly reminded of the rumor that had spread throughout their entire school. Realizing she might have to spend the whole winter break with Lu Ran, she figured it was best to address it directly. Otherwise, this awkward atmosphere would be hard to deal with.
“Uh… I heard… that last semester, I was pretty close to you?”
“That’s right.”
Jiang Nuan licked her lips. She was never one to hold back what was on her mind, so the fact that she had managed to hold it in for so long in front of Lu Ran was already impressive.
“So, um, I’m sorry about that. I won’t bother you like that anymore. I know someone like you, a top student, must feel awkward if any rumors reach the teachers.”
“I don’t feel awkward. My grades have never been affected.”
Lu Ran spoke casually, but his words left Jiang Nuan momentarily speechless. He then added slowly, with a tone that hinted at something deeper, “Do you think… it’s possible that I actually wanted to be influenced by you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! That’s impossible! I’ve only temporarily lost my memory—I don’t have delusions!” Whether Lu Ran was teasing her or trying to pick a fight, she quickly drew a line. “I’m really grateful for all your help last semester! I owe you for saving my life! From now on, I, Jiang Nuan, will work hard and focus on my studies. I won’t do anything that could cause misunderstandings among our classmates!”
Jiang Nuan raised her hand as if making a vow to the heavens.
Lu Ran looked at her and, after two seconds, calmly said, “Do you know who Chen Shimei is?”
Author’s Note:
Jiang Nuan: Jay Chou said, “You are my U-love-milk.” So, what am I to you?
Lu Ran: You are my Chen Shimei.
Jiang Nuan: Huh?
Lu Ran: Figure it out yourself!
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