RCJM Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Du Ruo was crying and scared. She didn't want to walk back in the middle of the night, what would she do if she was in danger.

Jing Ming, that bastard!

A minute later, her phone rang again.

This time, she quickly wiped away her tears and pressed the answer button filled with righteous indignation.

Jing Ming's voice was cold and angry: "Are you crazy, hanging up my call?"

She ignored him with disdain.

The other end waited for a while, probably considering the danger in the middle of the night, he lowered his voice, and confirmed: “Du Ruo Chun?”

Du Ruo guessed his thoughts and thought resentfully: "I'm in danger! I’m going to die! You’ll regret this to death!"

After thinking about it, she found that this threat was useless, he thought she was insignificant anyway. 

She said angrily: "What do you want!"

Jing Ming paused and asked: "Where are you?"

"On the street."

"Which street?"

"The street on the way home"

"..." He endured it, not knowing whether she was pretending to be stupid or just being dumbfounded, and said: "Open the map and see which street you’re on."

Du Ruo: "I came from the countryside, I don't know how to use it."

Jing Ming: "..."

Unbelievable.

As soon as he heard her tone, he knew she was deliberately being difficult.

He wasn't someone with a good temper to begin with, so he replied angrily: "It’s already so late, why are you acting like this?"

"I'm going to walk, I'm hanging up."

"Hey, we need to..."

Beep... Beep… she hung up...

In the underground parking lot, after a second of silence,

"Damn it!"

With a dark face, Jing Ming drove along the route back home, scanning the sidewalk the whole way. Pity for him, he could only drive his flashy sports car at forty kilometres per hour, the passing cars probably thought he was out of his mind.

After driving two blocks, he finally saw Du Ruo, actually walking.

This woman, did she know how far it was from home? Was she planning to walk forever?

Jing Ming pulled onto the side road, parked beside her, waited for a few seconds, and saw that she didn't move: "Hey, get in the car."

Du Ruo: "I won't."

He looked at her like she was insane: "Are you out of your mind? Making trouble at this hour."

She couldn't argue with him, so she walked away.

He gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, endured with great effort, and slowly drove along the side, following her.

"Get in the car."

"... Can you get in the car?"

"If you have something to say, get in."

"Hey! Don't walk away."

Finally losing patience:

"Du Ruo Chun, if you don't get in the car, I'm leaving. This place is dangerous. If something happens to you, who will be at a loss, me or you?"

Du Ruo suddenly stopped, stood still for a few seconds, struggled internally, and realised even if she was angry with him she shouldn't joke with her own safety. In the end, she got into the car.

Jing Ming calmed down a bit, but he was still annoyed and said: "Didn't I tell you to wait in the parking lot? It’s already so late, why are you running around?”

Du Ruo turned a deaf ear, not even looking at him. 

Just as he was about to get angry, he saw her eyelashes were wet and her lips were tightly pressed.

Did she cry?

He froze for a moment, pursed his lips tightly, and remained silent.

Starting the sports car, he got back onto the main road.

After driving two blocks, he asked casually: “Didn't I tell you to wait in the parking lot—"

"I was there," Du Ruo interrupted, "You forgot."

Jing Ming was stunned once again, his mind taking a turn, and finally understood.

It’s not that he forgot her, but that he misjudged the time back then, thinking it was still early and not yet midnight. So he sent Min En Zhu home first. He came back after 15 minutes, but she was nowhere to be seen, and he thought she left without saying anything. 

"I... didn't forget." He raised a hand and rubbed his brows guiltily, "I misread the time, I thought it was only eleven o’clock."

Du Ruo ignored him

He knew he was wrong and didn’t speak anymore.

The two went home, got out of the car, entered the house, went upstairs, and each went to their respective rooms.

Silence.

During breakfast the next day, Ming Yi asked Du Ruo and Jing Ming how it was last night.

Jing Ming bit into his sandwich not saying a word.

Du Ruo spoke: "We went singing."

"Was it lively?"

"Mm."

Ming Yi smiled and turned to Jing Ming: "Does Xiao Ruo sing well?"

Jing Ming furrowed his brows, and gave a vague “mm”: "It was okay."

Ming Yi: "Xiao Ruo, are you leaving after lunch?"

Du Ruo: "Let’s go after breakfast, I want to go back to school early."

Ming Yi didn't try to keep her, then turned to Jing Ming: "You should also head back to school early, and send Xiao Ruo back."

Uncharacteristically, Jing Ming did not object.

After breakfast, he drove Du Ruo back to school. Like last time, he parked the car on the side of the road outside the campus. After Du Ruo packed her things and got out of the car, he drove away.

The two still didn’t speak a word, and neither paid attention to the other. 

Du Ruo stood on the side of the road, watching his car disappear, and couldn't help rolling her eyes.

...

Over the next week, Du Ruo tried to find a part-time job as a tutor, but she couldn’t find a suitable one.

Firstly, some destinations were too far away, it could take three or four hours to travel back and forth by car; if expenses are shared with travel fees, the hourly salary is pitifully low, and her academic workload was too heavy. Secondly, there were too many activities at school. There will be a sports meeting in the courtyard and her class was organising a fall outing. Once these activities were over, the midterm exams will come as scheduled.

Looking at the calendar on the wall, Du Ruo sighed: "Why can't there be a few more days in a month?"

"Xiao Ruo, it’s only freshman year. Don't be so nervous. Take it easy and enjoy university life. It's okay to relax occasionally." Xia Nan replied while curling her eyelashes in the mirror.

Du Ruo leaned in curiously: "What are you doing?"

"Curling my eyelashes."

"What’s the point of clamping it?"

"To curl them." Xia Nan put down the eyelash curler and blinked at her: "Look, aren't they curled now?"

"Hmm... they are."

"Come on, let me curl yours. Come, sit here," Xia Nan stood up and gave the chair to Du Ruo. She bent down: "Just open your eyes naturally."

After curling one side, she curled the other.

Qiu Yu Chen came in with a bucket of freshly washed clothes, walked to the balcony, glanced at Du Ruo’s table, and said: "Xiao Cao, you have classes in the next two periods."

Du Ruo jumped up from the chair with a gasp and covered her eyes, and didn’t care about the eyelashes that were clipped off.

"My god! I forgot!" She hurriedly grabbed her textbooks, and rushed out of the dormitory with one eye teary.

Xia Nan glanced at the few remaining eyelashes on the curler, and shook it a bit: "That must’ve hurt…… Oh, Xiao Ruo's eyelashes are quite long."

...

Du Ruo rushed into the laboratory at the last second when the class bell rang, and fortunately was not late.

Her favourite seat in the front row was still reserved for her.

This class was a lab session, continuing with the topic of RC series circuits.

The teacher didn't care about this small episode, and after Du Ruo sat down, he started teaching:

"We've covered the basics in the previous classes. The content may seem simple and basic, but don't take it lightly. Every complex circuit is made up of individual elements, and each of them is a simple factor. For instance, this simple RC series circuit, with different values, arrangements, input frequencies, and signal forms—or to put it another way, by using different input and output ports—can show different circuit functions. Such as coupling and decoupling circuits, low-pass and high-pass filters, phase-shift circuits, integration and differentiation operation circuits. All of these build upon this foundation... How about it, is it simple?"

The students smiled.

Du Ruo frowned and thought, seeming to have an epiphany.

The teacher continued: "Everyone, remember, when you get to university, you have to draw inferences from one instance and integrate with another. After laying a solid foundation, you can build it layer by layer, simplifying the complex, and breaking down the complexity."

The content of the class was not complicated. The students had to design a circuit diagram themselves, then actually conduct the wiring experiment.

After the lab session, although Du Ruo was able to quickly catch up with the pace, she began to feel dissatisfied with the current situation.

For the past month or so, her goal was to keep up with the teacher.

But now, she felt that what was taught in class was just the basics. What made people stand out were the ‘inferences’ and ‘integration’ of ideas outside of class.

She didn't spend enough time in the computer room and laboratory, and she didn’t have enough time for self-study. Moreover, she needed a computer, and the computers in the school computer room were too slow.

But she couldn't afford one, for now.

Working part-time during the winter vacation and saving money on food and expenses, she should be able to afford a regular desktop computer next semester.

Du Ruo pondered, put her books away and walked out of the laboratory.

Several boys in the class ran past her and swarmed into the laboratory at the end of the corridor, and some turned their heads and waved at her, beckoning her to come along.

She followed and ran to the circuit laboratory, where a group of boys gathered around an experimental setup, all with an expression of fun anticipation, but also with a bit of seriousness in their laughter:

"F*ck, don’t mess around, kid."

"It's going to burn, it will burn."

Jing Ming slanted one shoulder, and stood loosely in front of the test bench. There were a bunch of red and black wires on the table, and the experimental setup was also plugged with complicated lengths of wires.

He plugged the ports one by one, and connected the wires. A complicated circuit diagram lay beside it.

Li Wei stood in front of the bench with a few boys from the mechanical and electrical engineering class, tracing the circuit diagram with his fingers slowly, frowning and silently calculating the circuit equation.

Someone said: "Have you tried it in the software? Have you shown it to the teacher? What if it blows?"

Jing Ming snorted and ignored him.

Du Ruo glanced at his confident face, stretched her neck curiously, and leaned over to look at the circuit diagram.

Her mind went blank at first glance.

Resistors, capacitors, diodes, filters, and inductors—other than recognising the symbols and lines on the diagram that looked like a treasure map, she really couldn't comprehend how it worked.

Before Li Wei and the others could figure it out, Jing Ming had already connected the wires, turned on the power, and turned the knob of the voltage regulator to increase the voltage.

Everyone around shrank back at the same time, as if he had fired a gun. Du Ruo also flinched, expecting an alarm to go off, but no.

In the silence, there seemed to be a very thin and crisp sound of electric current, and the green light was on.

"Wow." The students gathered around again, curiously observing the setup following the wiring on the instrument.

Jing Ming raised an eyebrow and curled his lower lip. Then he caught sight of Du Ruo standing nearby, struggling to figure out the diagram, tangled in her thoughts. She raised her head sadly and dazed, and finally met his gaze.

He raised his eyebrows.

Du Ruo: "..."

She felt tight in her chest, and she turned around to leave.

Ha!

Looked down on again.

What the heck! Who’s showing off? Knowing how to design complex circuits and successfully experimenting without burning out the machine, you think you’re so amazing, and can throw it in my face?!

...Yeah.

Du Ruo’s face puffed up sullenly like an eggplant.

She had to admit that she was very envious of Jing Ming.

He could do everything.

She heard that he even formed a robot research and development team called Prime. Among the freshmen, all the top-ranked elites with special admissions were under his command. 

A little person inside her heart fell to the group and acted spoiled:

Aww! I want that too!

Ugh—

I also want to have extraordinary skills to show off.

Stop!

She tapped her forehead, stopping these pointless thoughts.

If she had time to daydream, it was better to think about the key points of the class.

She walked out of the laboratory, went down the stairs, and ran into Chen Si and Wang Huai Yu from the dormitory next door. They were in the same class as Jing Ming, and asked Du Ruo: "Want to eat together?"

She thanked them for their invitation with a smile, and said, "The cafeteria is too crowded at this time. I'll go later."

"Going to the library now?"

"Computer room." Before she finished speaking, Li Wei’s laughter came from behind her: “So hardworking.”

Du Ruo turned around and joked: "Go to the computer room to play games."

"With the computers in this school? You might as well play on calculators." Li Wei followed down the stairs, along with his three dorm mates, Zhang Lei, Zhu Tao, and... Jing Ming.

Du Ruo's smile faltered.

Jing Ming had his head lowered, fingers tapping his phone. Zhang Lei and Zhu Tao frowned and loolooked at his phone screen, as if there was something important on it.

Li Wei said: “Oh, by the way, Du Ruo, gather at the field at 7 o’clock in the evening."

"For what?"

"Next week's sports meet. We'll discuss the opening ceremony."

"Oh that’s fine."

Chen Si overheard and asked: "What kind of opening act is your class planning to do?"

Li Wei: "We haven't figured it out yet. The guys mentioned some ideas casually, and the general consensus is to highlight our class!... Flower!"

Du Ruo: "..."

From the back of her head, a certain guy snorted a laugh, which sounded both lazy and unbelieving.

Du Ruo clenched her teeth,

Chen Si and Wang Huai Yu also giggled: "Let's wait and see."

"..."

Alas, forget it. Just go with the flow.

...

Du Ruo went to the computer room after leaving the laboratory building, and Jing Ming and the others walked in the opposite directions.

Li Wei muttered to himself: "Sigh, how can we design something that highlights the importance of our class beauty?"

Jing Ming scratched his eyebrow lazily, and said casually: “What effect do you want? How about giving Cinderella a magic wand, turning a pumpkin into a carriage drawn by white horses, and making crystal shoes?"

Li Wei slapped his forehead: "That's a good idea!"

Jing Ming: "....."

Friend, are you out of your mind?

Translated by evienRose

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