“Oh, what exactly is ‘really impressive’?” Jiang Nuan asked, with a serious expression, but internally, she was rolling her eyes.
“Waking up every morning at 5 a.m. for a half-hour run, followed by an hour of basic training, then brushing your teeth, washing your face, and heading to school. Then, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 8 to 10, and all day Saturday, there’s sparring training.”
“That’s the life of a monk! Life is short—enjoy it while you can, brother.” Jiang Nuan said, though she admired his dedication, she had no interest in living that kind of strict, joyless life.
It might look focused, disciplined, and self-controlled, but there’s no fun in it at all.
“But even if you give it your all, you can’t outrun the speed at which you’re forgotten.”
Jiang Nuan burst out laughing. “Are you kidding? You were the national U16 men’s sabre champion at the Youth Sports Club League last year! You’re constantly ranked in the top ten in our school! How could anyone forget you?”
What, do you need a monument in your name or something?
“Jiang Nuan, if one day you liked someone, and then you had to start over, would you still like the same person?” Lu Ran asked in a calm tone, as if he were asking her whether she’d remember to bring an umbrella if it was going to rain.
“That kind of question goes better with rainy days. It doesn’t suit your style.” Jiang Nuan waved her finger.
Lu Ran wasn’t the sentimental type at all. He was the kind of person who, once he set his sights on a goal, would focus with such intensity that it drove everyone else around him crazy.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re persistent, arrogant, and oblivious to others.” Jiang Nuan tilted her head as she said this, wondering how she could have possibly liked Lu Ran before.
“If I couldn’t let go of someone, my persistence would make me turn back for her, my arrogance would make me bow to her, and my indifference would crack open to let her in.” Lu Ran’s voice remained calm.
To Jiang Nuan, that sounded like the words of an obsessive maniac. Giving up everything for someone wasn’t something rational like Lu Ran would ever do.
But to be willing to sacrifice everything for someone… only someone as obsessively focused as Lu Ran could pull that off.
“Well, when that day comes, let me know. Since you’ve been tutoring me this holiday, I’ll make an effort to grow taller so you’ll have someone to lean on when you’re crying.”
“Focus on your test paper now, unless you don’t want Coach Jiang to sign your application form.”
He hit her weak spot, leaving her with no choice.
Ugh, how annoying!
Just when I thought we could have a normal conversation!
Without saying anything more, Jiang Nuan spread out the test paper and began working through each problem seriously.
At first, she resisted every word on the paper. But as she listened to Lu Ran’s steady breathing, her mind gradually began to focus. By the time she was halfway through the last question, she heard Lu Ran’s voice in her ear.
“Time’s up.”
Jiang Nuan put down her pen, and Lu Ran took her paper, marking it from start to finish. The accuracy was better than she had expected.
He handed the paper back to her. “You were on the right track with the last question. See how far you can get.”
Jiang Nuan was about to lower her head when Lu Ran’s hand reached over and gently pressed against the top of her head.
In that moment, her shoulders almost tensed up.
She became acutely aware of the warmth of his palm and how his fingertips brushed through her hair, with a delicate sensation she hadn’t noticed before.
Jiang Nuan turned her head to look at Lu Ran, only to find him resting his chin on his other hand, casually reading a manga. It seemed like the gesture of patting her head was just something he did “incidentally.”
Focus! Focus! Focus!
Jiang Nuan unhappily swatted his hand away.
The room fell quiet again.
The last question was a comprehensive problem, combining several previous concepts. As she worked through it, her mind started to get muddled. When she finally hit a dead end, she instinctively reached out to tug on Lu Ran’s sleeve, but before she could, she noticed the shadow cast by the desk lamp on the table… It almost looked like Lu Ran was resting his chin and watching her.
That’s impossible.
Jiang Nuan turned her head to find Lu Ran’s eyes on his manga, though it seemed like he hadn’t turned the page in a long while.
“Can you keep going?” Lu Ran’s voice was softer than usual, as if he didn’t want to wake something up, but his eyes remained lowered as he slowly flipped to the next page of the manga.
“I can’t.” Jiang Nuan shook her head.
Lu Ran took the scratch paper and effortlessly wrote down the solution, as if he had already anticipated the point where she would get stuck.
ABU=ACU=-mgR/2q=…
Jiang Nuan leaned closer, watching, and suddenly everything made sense.
“Don’t be so rigid in your thinking.” His usually cool voice seemed to carry a touch of softness that Jiang Nuan couldn’t quite place.
Lu Ran also helped her review the incorrect single-choice and multiple-choice questions, and Jiang Nuan’s mind had never felt so clear.
Just then, Jiang Nuan’s mom called out, “Oh no—what’s wrong with this faucet?”
Lu Ran got up and tapped his long fingers on the scratch paper. “I’ll go check it out. You go over that question again.”
“Okay, got it!” Jiang Nuan slumped over the desk.
As soon as Lu Ran left, she started losing focus. She considered flipping through the manga, but then worried that with Lu Ran’s near-obsessive memory, he’d remember exactly what page it was on and how it was positioned on the desk. So she withdrew her hand.
She stood up, stretched lazily, and moved around her room to loosen up. That’s when she noticed the row of horizontal lines on her wooden door.
These were the marks showing her growth from elementary school to high school.
Jiang Nuan looked down at her slightly short school pants, feeling a burst of excitement. She grabbed a Xinhua dictionary from the bookshelf and placed it on top of her head, ready to mark her height on the door.
Just then, the door suddenly opened, and the dictionary fell to the floor with a loud thud.
Lu Ran stood in the doorway, looking down.
“Uh… I…”
“Measuring your height?” Lu Ran’s sleeves were rolled up, exposing his sleek forearms.
He bent down and picked up the dictionary.
Jiang Nuan froze in place. How did Lu Ran know she was measuring her height just by seeing the dictionary?
Lu Ran put the dictionary down and glanced at the lines on the door.
Jiang Nuan was still trying to figure out how to explain that she wasn’t reviewing the final question but was instead messing around with a dictionary in her room.
He was approaching her again. Jiang Nuan couldn’t help but stare at his lips, trying to catch the glint of mischief in his eyes, as if that would help her prove that Lu Ran had the potential to be a “bad boy.”
“If you weren’t trying to measure your height, were you planning to ambush me and hit me with the dictionary?”
“I was measuring my height!”
If I were to ambush you, I wouldn’t use a dictionary! That wouldn’t be satisfying at all!
Lu Ran reached out and tapped Jiang Nuan’s head lightly. “Stand against the door.”
“What? I was just using a dictionary to measure my height, and now you’re going to make me reflect on my actions?”
“I’ll measure it for you.”
Jiang Nuan was stunned. Lu Ran wanted to measure her height?
Is he being nice? Is there some hidden motive?
“Are you measuring or not?”
“No.”
“Really not?”
His expression reminded her of the night he had proven that the male lead in From Far Away wouldn’t actually be liked by girls in real life.
“Not measuring.”
He’s probably just going to tease me for being a square root of two again!
“At first, it looked like you’d grown a bit taller. But if you’re so unwilling to measure, maybe you already checked and found you haven’t grown at all.”
As Lu Ran was about to put the dictionary back on the desk, Jiang Nuan immediately spoke up, “Measure!”
I’m so mad!
How could I not have grown taller!
Jiang Nuan turned around, stood up straight, and pressed herself against the door.
She had to prove that she had grown taller!
Lu Ran walked over with the dictionary. As he got closer, Jiang Nuan felt a strange surge of nervousness.
“It’s just a height measurement. No need to get so tense.”
Lu Ran raised his hand and gently placed the dictionary on top of Jiang Nuan’s head. At that moment, she realized how tall Lu Ran was. His shoulders were broad, and when he lifted his hand to reach her head, it felt like a tide that was about to embrace the entire world.
The air around them filled with Lu Ran’s scent—a faint, refreshing fragrance.
He tilted his head slightly, and in the shadow cast by the light, there was a hint of mystery, as if he were holding something back, brewing something, yet not saying it, leaving her feeling restless.
His eyelashes were really beautiful, like translucent butterfly wings ready to take flight. Jiang Nuan didn’t even realize she was staring at him.
His gaze was so focused that it triggered some strange fantasy in her mind, as if her height had become a problem he was pondering deeply. She could hear the sound of the pencil scratching against the door, marking her height—softly, one stroke at a time, like it was carving into her heart.
“All done.” Lu Ran said softly.
For some reason, tonight, his voice was lighter than usual, as if he regretted leaving her behind when she was about to jump on his bike.
Jiang Nuan didn’t dare look into his eyes. She reached for the dictionary, but Lu Ran, who had been holding it, suddenly released it and leaned lightly against the door next to her ear, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the door with a “thump, thump, thump.”
“Do you think you’ve grown taller?”
Jiang Nuan, who had been about to move away from Lu Ran, now pressed herself even more tightly against the door in nervousness.
Don’t look nervous.
Don’t let Lu Ran know you’re nervous.
“I’m sure I’ve grown taller.” Jiang Nuan said, raising her chin confidently.
“Just a little bit.” Lu Ran replied, pulling his hand away and holding his fingers up in front of her eyes to show a small gap between them.
“You’re lying! That’s just one centimeter! I must have grown more than just one centimeter!”
Otherwise, her school pants wouldn’t be too short!
Jiang Nuan immediately turned around and looked at the door. She found that the distance between the two lines was clearly about four or five centimeters!
She glared back at Lu Ran. “Hey! It’s obviously this much!”
But Lu Ran suddenly leaned in closer, and his usually reserved eyes were so clear that Jiang Nuan could see her own reflection in them.
“Yeah, if you didn’t grow a bit taller, I’d end up with a hunched back.”
“What does your hunched back have to do with me?” Jiang Nuan instinctively leaned her head back.
With Lu Ran tilting his head like that, his nose looked even more elegant and straight, and Jiang Nuan’s ears started to burn for no reason.
“Because I’d have to bend down to talk to you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to hear me.”
“You’re the one who wouldn’t be able to hear!”
I really want to hit him with a dictionary!
Just then, the sound of a door opening echoed faintly from outside. Jiang Nuan realized her father had come home.
She was about to keep bickering with Lu Ran but suddenly remembered something: “Quick, hide the manga! If my dad sees it, he’ll think I’m the one corrupting you, making you read manga too!”
Jiang Nuan grabbed the manga from Lu Ran’s hands and was about to toss it into her drawer when Lu Ran held her back.
“I don’t think reading manga counts as ‘corruption.'”
But Jiang Nuan stuffed it into the drawer anyway.
“So, do you think manga is pretty good too?”
“Not really. This One Piece is filled with too much hot-blooded motivational nonsense. It makes people lose touch with reality. Like this Luffy character—no matter what, he never dies.”
“…Then why were you reading it for so long?”
“I wanted to understand your thought process—why you’d like this kind of thing.”
“Oh, so have you figured it out?”
“I already did.” Lu Ran stood up, heading out the door, pausing only to say, “Kindergarten kid.”
Jiang Nuan couldn’t even be bothered to get mad at him anymore.
“Then you must be the kindergarten principal, and all the kids hate you!”
“But in my kindergarten, there’s probably only ever going to be you.” Lu Ran reached out to pat her head again, but she dodged away.
Jiang Nuan felt annoyed—was she really the most childish person Lu Ran had ever met?
“Coach Jiang, I’m heading home.” Lu Ran greeted her father, who had just come through the door.
“Oh! Lu Ran! Thank you so much for helping out with Nuan! Don’t rush off yet—stay for a bit. Aunt Luo is making noodle soup. Have some before you leave!”
Lu Ran nodded. In front of Jiang Nuan’s father, he always presented himself as the epitome of respect, politeness, and perfection.
Jiang Nuan’s sharp eyes caught sight of the package her father had tossed onto the sofa.
“Dad, what’s this? It’s from the capital! Is it something tasty?”
“All you think about is food! This is from Jian Ming. Go ahead and open it.”
—
Author’s note:
Jiang Nuan: What does your hunched back have to do with me!
Lu Ran: The correct answer is that when I kiss you, I won’t want to let go. If you never grow taller, I’ll definitely end up hunched over.
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