RCJM Chapter 6

Chapter 6

After the military training ended that day, they dispersed on the spot.

Min En Zhu jumped down from the stands like a bird, took Jing Ming’s arm and walked away.

He Huan Huan admired: "She's really beautiful. Even her back looks good."

Xia Nan: "Of course, otherwise, how could she be called the school belle?"

Min En Zhu wore a white chiffon blouse and dark blue pencil pants today. Her legs were naturally thin and straight, and she wore sky-defying high heels, making her not much shorter than Jing Ming.

Du Ruo recalled that she was a head shorter than Jing Ming. The way he naturally looked down at her, coupled with his condescending expression, was really terrible.

"She's quite tall," said Qiu Yu Chen. "Is she about 1.7 metres?"

"Well, taller than me." Xia Nan was 1.7 metres tall. Du Ruo and Qiu Yu Chen were two or three centimetres shorter than her, but even two or three centimetres in height meant a world of difference in temperament.

"Shall we go eat?" Foodie He Huan Huan changed the subject in a second.

"..."

"I'll take a shower first, I'm so dirty."

"Me too. If you don’t go to the bathroom, where do you two go to wash?”

"There’s a shower next to the washroom."

"Isn’t there no hot water there?"

“We’ll go to the water room to pick it up."

"You're really going through a lot of trouble," Qiu Yu Chen said.

"We’re not eating now... Let's go buy some fruits then." He Huan Huan's mind was only thinking about food.

"..."

The four chatted and went to the fruit shop.

The store smelled fruity, and was crowded with many freshman who had just finished their military training.

Du Ruo looked around and was shocked by the prices. A kiwi fruit cost ten yuan a piece, enough for her to eat two meals in the cafeteria. The cherries were almost two hundred yuan per catty [1], equivalent to her living expenses for six days. As for the mangoes, durian, red grapes, and longans, they were not outrageously priced, but they felt a bit extravagant to her.

After pondering for a while, she finally chose four bananas and two oranges, exactly ten yuan.

Qiu Yu Chen bought a catty of cherries and washed them for everyone to eat at night.

Du Ruo only ate one and didn't take more. She knew that the bananas she shared with her roommates were worthless.

"Take some more."

"It's enough, I still have the longan that He Huan Huan gave me."

"Take two more," Qiu Yu Chen urged.

Du Ruo couldn’t resist, so she took one more.

Cherries are round, cute and delicious, no wonder they were so expensive.

She thought about finding a part-time job. But she couldn't be too hasty to earn money; at least wait two or three months after starting school to see if there was enough time. After all, studies came first, especially in such a prestigious university that never lacks outstanding students.

A few days ago, Du Ruo was sitting at her desk reading a book when Qiu Yu Chen came in humming an English song. Du Ruo was surprised to find that her spoken English was as standard and fluent as the original version. 

In contrast, Du Ruo's English that she had learned back home was difficult to express, and hard to understand.

She was deeply stimulated, bought English reading materials and audio, and went to the sports field to read English every morning. On the first day she went, she found that there were many students studying in the morning, even earlier than her.

This was university; people who were better than you worked harder than you.

...

After the military training, university life officially kicked off, and everyone began to run around various buildings and laboratories with books.

Du Ruo and her three roommates were all in different classes with different schedules, it was all over the place. The chances of going to and from the dormitory and canteens together were greatly reduced.

The workload in the first year was heavy, especially for the major courses with intensive theoretical classes. Everyone focused on their studies, only gathering at night to go to the library together.

Du Ruo had been a studious child since she was young. Regardless of whether it was major courses or general courses, compulsory courses or elective courses, small class teaching or large lectures, as long as she focused on listening in class, she could quickly catch up with the content. After class, she would review and consolidate the material and look over the difficult points, so she never found it too strenuous.

But even so, she often felt like she was falling behind.

Many boys in the class were extremely knowledgeable. Their inadvertent knowledge when chatting with the teacher, or answering questions in class or operating machinery made Du Ruo feel ashamed. Every now and then, like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers [2], she was showered with a bunch of unfamiliar knowledge points, leaving her to look them up in the sea of books after class.

This invisible pressure compelled her to spend even more time buried in the library, reading from Schopenhauer to Wittgenstein, from Planck to De Broglie.

But there was another invisible gap that was difficult to fill—their strange divergent way of thinking and their imagination that broke through the sky.

She was only left to watch and marvel. While benefiting from them discussing new ideas, she also fell into the melancholy of "how come they can grasp it, but I can't."

Du Ruo still remembered that when she was admitted, her high school home room teacher told her: After you go to university, you will meet many people who are better than you. Don’t panic, don’t be angry, and don’t be depressed. Study hard, live well, and walk your own path step by step.

She remembered this, and was not in a hurry.

She genuinely admired and appreciated the boys in her class. They were always full of curiosity and enthusiasm for the unknown, and they really loved what they learned. Even the boys who normally seemed ordinary and introverted would become eloquent when talking about their areas of interest, their eyes shining.

They were very friendly to Du Ruo, and even took care of her. Whether about studying or daily life, they would readily answer any questions she had, and helped with any tasks she was busy with. Once, Du Ruo encountered a problem she didn’t understand and was asking Wan Ziang for advice. When several boys around heard it, they all leaned over and explained to her one by one each point thoroughly, providing additional knowledge.

It was like having twenty-one brothers sitting in the classroom and laboratory.

The first row of the small classroom became her exclusive seat, and no one competed with her. During lab classes, the position closest to the lecturer was also left for her.

Even during large lectures in the department, they would help reserve a seat for her.

In public English class that day, He Huan Huan followed her to a good seat and couldn't help sighing: "The treatment of class flowers is really different."

Du Ruo gave her a sideways glance speechlessly.

Public English was taught in large classes, and the lecture hall was full of people.

Before the class bell rang,

Du Ruo opened her book and recited the words silently when a lazy inquiry came from behind her:

"No one’s sitting here right?"

In an instant, all the hairs on her body stood on end.

Why is it him again?

Why come here instead of sitting in the last row?!

She knew he was asking Wan Ziang who was diagonally behind her. They were in neighbouring dorms and had naturally become acquainted since the start of the semester.

Wan Ziang said: "No one."

Jing Ming tossed his book on the table, sat down slumped and said: "F*ck, I'm late. The last few rows are all taken."

Du Ruo: "..."

Wan Ziang: "If you don’t want to take this class, next time I can roll call for you."

Jing Ming sighed: "This teacher and my mother are classmates, she knows me."

Du Ruo: "..."

Already thinking about skipping classes just after school’s started, truly wasting his father’s painstaking efforts.

She didn't realise that her slander against him was becoming more and more harsh, like Ah Q’s resistance [3], against his arrogance and rudeness towards her.

While she was silently scorning him, there was a "clang" sound under her chair. His foot had kicked her butt through the thin board.

Du Ruo was startled: ?????

"Oh. Sorry." Jing Ming leaned forward slightly, his low voice spoke close to her ear.

Her ears tingled.

In the lecture hall, the chairs in the front row were short, and his legs were too long. While stretching, he accidentally kicked her chair, so he quickly retracted his legs and adjusted his sitting posture.

"The last row still has more space." Jing Ming muttered to himself.

Du Ruo looked down at her book and didn't dare to turn around.

Seeing that she didn't look back, Jing Ming paid more attention. His voice wasn't so low that people couldn't hear it, but the person in front didn't respond at all. She must have quite a temper?

He squinted his eyes and looked at the back of her head for a while, and felt a sense of familiarity, then tilted his body slightly to the side to look at her, slowly recalling, and realised that it was Du Ruo.

At this moment, her ears were flushed red.

The corner of his lips hooked into a smirk, and he stopped caring.

The bell rang, and class began. The classroom fell silent.

Du Ruo was no longer affected by Jing Ming. His legs didn't move anymore, and the people behind her were still, as if they didn't exist.

She listened attentively, took notes, and silently recited words and sentences from time to time.

Halfway through the class, the teacher asked someone to read the text.

Du Ruo lowered her head silently, avoiding eye contact with the teacher.

Presumably, at that moment, everyone avoided looking directly at the teacher. The packed classroom was enveloped in a silence that seemed to have deepened several degrees.

But Du Ruo couldn't endure the silence. Out of curiosity, she raised her eyes and glanced at the teacher.

And, got caught.

Teacher: "You, read the first few paragraphs of the text."

She struggled helplessly and weakly pointed behind her. It's him, right???

Teacher: "Not him. It's you."

Du Ruo: "..."

Her heart trembled as tears filled her eyes. Soon, it turned into a kind of impassioned bravery. Although she had been studying for less than a month, her basic pronunciation had improved, so there was no need to be ashamed.

Take it as an early review!

She flattened the textbook with her hand and began to read:

"Aletterortelephonecallcomesfromsomeoneyouhavenotmet,andyoufindyourselfimagingwhatthepersonlookslike,puttingafacetothehiddenvoice.Areyouanygoodatthis?Sometimesitiseasytogetitwrong—"

She read extremely slowly, properly enunciating each word, and her pronunciation was not flawed, but the sentences lacked fluency.

After reading a few paragraphs, the teacher said: "Okay."

She stopped.

"There is no problem with pronunciation, but you were too nervous. Don’t be so nervous next time.”

Du Ruo nodded, very satisfied with her performance. Her hard work over the past month has finally paid off. As long as one works hard, there will be progress. 

While she felt excited and encouraged, the teacher said: “Next, continue.”

The moment Jing Ming spoke, Du Ruo was dumbfounded.

A foreigner sat behind her.

"John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station——"

His speech was slightly faster, his pronunciation smooth and clear, and was even very casual and relaxed, with natural fluctuations as if it were his mother tongue.

But this was English.

Even Du Ruo had to admit that the voice behind her was very charming and pleasant to listen to.

He Huan Huan even looked back at him in surprise for a while.

He read a long paragraph, and the teacher didn’t stop him.

He frowned, too lazy to read, stopped, and glanced at the teacher.

The teacher smiled: "Your spoken English is excellent. Next."

Du Ruo was dumbstruck, her mind buzzing.

She was faintly flustered, as if the defensive line in her heart that scoffed at him was about to collapse.

What was even more disconcerting was another obscure and cruel fact: Some people tried desperately to catch up but end up exhausting themselves to barely reach the starting line, only to see others pulling ahead, leaving them behind.

It won’t be like that, she told herself, it won’t.

Fortunately, the next class, Jing Ming returned to the last row, and the distance between the two seemed like a hundred thousand miles. Besides, with so many students in this large class, it won’t be until next semester before it was her turn to read again.

She was safe.

…

Until the end of the month, the department's student union would recruit new students.

All four girls in the dormitory went, and met Li Qing He who spoke at the freshmen assembly last time. He was the president of the student union.

The recruitment process was very simple. One by one, they introduce themselves and share their special talents.

Qiu Yu Chen and He Huan Huan's performance were eye-catching.

Xia Nan wasn’t bothered and didn't go on stage, she just came to join in the fun.

As for Du Ruo, she didn't have much hope, and just took it as an opportunity to get to know more people from the same department.

The recruiting process was lacklustre. Xia Nan, with a cold and indifferent demeanour, whispered a few words from time to time providing background: who was the top scorer in which province, and who was the champion of the national physics competition.

When Du Ruo listened, she felt like a gopher who was hit on the head one after another. 

Walking back to the dormitory after the meeting, the branches and leaves on the trees were lush, but they couldn't block the brilliant lights of the teaching building and the library. Behind each crystal-clear window were students studying hard at their desks.

Du Ruo sighed: "Our school really has hidden dragons and crouching tigers." [4]

"Right?" He Huan Huan gnawed on the ice cream she’d just bought from the store, "Our class masters are one after another, scaring me so much that I have to eat snacks every day."

"When don't you eat snacks?" Qiu Yu Chen complained, "I’ll go, when did you get that ice cream, I didn't even notice?"

"Just now. Want a bite?"

Qiu Yu Chen took a bite.

"Xiao Ruo?"

Du Ruo shook her head.

"Xia Nan?"

Xia Nan shook her head and suddenly said: "Oh, by the way, Jing Ming was also specially admitted."

Du Ruo asked: "For sports?"

Xia Nan gave her a strange look and said: "He's very powerful."

"He won first place at the World Youth Robot Competition. Three times."

_______________________

[1] ‘a catty’ is 600g

[2] ‘like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers’ - casually using special terms and concepts in their conversations

[3] ‘Ah Q’ - he persuades himself mentally that he is “superior” to his oppressors even as he succumbs to their tyranny and suppression (if you’re interested in his story, you could probably search him up)

[4] ‘Our school really has hidden dragons and crouching tigers’ - there are many hidden talents and outstanding students within the school

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