RCJM Chapter 15

Chapter 15

In the dormitory, Du Ruo sat in front of the computer wearing headphones, listening to online courses from Caltech. 

On the table next to her, a bunch of girls from the dormitory next door crowded in front of He Huan Huan’s table to watch the competition video. Even students from the Liberal Arts department came - on the BBS forum, the posts related to the robot battle had taken over, and the attention was unprecedented.

The girls were chirping:

“So handsome! You can call him the school idol!”

"His clothes look so good. I heard he's from a rich family."

He Huan Huan: "Hey, are you here to watch the competition or the models?"

"Hmm... his robot is so cute!"

"Well, the robot is amazing."

"He even talks strategy, so smart!"

He Huan Huan: "..."

Du Ruo did not join them. She had to pack up her textbooks for class.

"He seems to have a girlfriend.” Hua Jiang Xiao Yun from the Media department of the dormitory opposite said disappointedly.

"I saw someone on the BBS saying they just broke up."

“I heard from Chen Si that the girl kicked his robot, really crazy.”

Du Ruo was stunned and slowly zipped up her school bag.

After watching the video, everyone was obviously not satisfied: "Are there any other matches of his? Let's find them and watch."

Du Ruo put on her school bag, passed them and glanced at the computer screen through the crowd of figures.

She saw Jing Ming from a few years ago, a thin boy wearing a white shirt, with hair covering his eyes. His face was expressionless, with only a slight curve at the corner of his lips, looking at his robot on the competition field, being tested.

Sure enough, these competitions were very “serious”, highly professional, and not “violent and bloody”.

She took one more look at the boy in the video, then hurriedly looked away, trying to recall what she had just studied, leaving the dormitory without looking back.

Studying was a period of asceticism, only after mastering the material would one feel the joy. She would reach that stage as quickly as possible.

She thought silently all the way, but as she was about to reach the teaching building, she got slightly distracted and slowed down her pace.

The autumn sunlight filtered through the treetops. She squinted her eyes. After hesitating for a moment, she took out her phone, opened the BBS forum, and quickly scrolled through.

Finally, on the 79th floor of a certain post, she found a comment:

"He just broke up with his girlfriend yesterday."

She looked through again, but there was no other news. She walked up the steps of the teaching building with her head lowered. Not paying attention, she bumped into a boy next to her.

"Sorry!"

"It's okay." Li Qing He turned around with a smile, and suddenly felt a sense of familiarity. "Hey, you're..."

“Senior brother Li Qing He, we are from the same department." She smiled and put away her phone.

Li Qing He remembered: "The one who ran the 400 metres in a gauze skirt."

"Hmm," Du Ruo scratched her head, "How embarrassing."

"No, it was quite fun. The more embarrassing thing is probably..." He deliberately paused, and jokingly said, "At the freshman assembly, while this senior was giving a speech, and someone's phone rang.”

"...Ugh, I’m going to crawl into the ground."

Li Qing He laughed heartily: "I’m just teasing you." He followed her into the teaching building. "What classes do you have this morning?"

"Matrix theory. Fundamentals of modern physics."

"Do you find it difficult?"

"It’s not too difficult."

"Looks like you’re adjusting well." 

"Thank you for your concern," Du Ruo said. In fact, she had been exhausted some time ago and was restless day and night. But fortunately, it was all in the past, and these things were not worth mentioning to outsiders.

Li Qing He suddenly asked: "Didn’t you join the club? I remember that you attended the student union recruitment, but you didn't go for the second round of interviews."

"Yes." Du Ruo smiled awkwardly. "I'm too busy with my studies to take care of it."

"It doesn't matter if you don’t go. There's nothing special to do in the student union anyway. On the other hand, are you interested in debating?"

"Debating?" She was a little surprised, then waved her hands and said with a smile, "I'm no good at arguing with words."

"Don't worry, debating is not arguing. It's about logic and skills." He took out a pamphlet from his backpack and handed it to her. "The debating club holds activities every two weeks. If you're interested, you can check it out. No pressure."

"Okay, thank you."

As they reached the corner of the stairs, the two went their separate ways.

Du Ruo looked at the flyer while walking. There were several photos printed on the front of the flyer. The senior brothers and sisters were dressed in formal attire and looked heroic. Each person had a faint smile, looked confident and in high spirits. 

On the back were the achievements and numerous awards of the debating club, such as "First place in the Xth National Debate Competition" and "Second place in the Xth World University Debate Competition."

Wow!

This thing had nothing to do with her at all. 

Two boys were walking in her direction, and their conversation caught her ears:

"That kid Jing Ming is too arrogant. He actually burned the robot directly. How can he be so ruthless!"

She raised her eyes and saw an unfamiliar boy and Yi Kun.

Yi Kun didn't notice her, walked past, and replied with a cold tone: "He meant to cut off the circuit and give me time to cool down Sonny, but I didn’t listen. Sonny was burned and I am responsible. I don’t need mercy from my opponent."

"Sonny..." the other person said with a low voice, "died just like that."

The two walked away.

Du Ruo couldn’t bear to think of the scene when Sonny was burned that day. His master must have been even more sad.

Suddenly, her phone beeped, and a bank payment message came through.

An income of 2000 yuan was recorded this month.

Du Ruo was very surprised. Her monthly allowance was only supposed to be 1000 yuan.

She ran to the end of the corridor, dialled Ming Yi's number, and explained the situation: "Auntie, did you send the wrong amount? I will return half of it, or you don't need to send me any money next month."

"No mistake, it's the correct amount." Ming Yi's said in a distressed tone. “You, my child, now that the prices are soaring and you don’t have enough money, why didn’t you tell your aunt? How could you just eat a piece of bread for breakfast? If Jing Ming hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have known you were living so frugally in school.”

Du Ruo was surprised. Gradually, her face turned red and hot: "Auntie, thank you, but I really don’t need it. I have enough money. That time was a misunderstanding. I was in a hurry to go to class..."

"Say no more, you also know Auntie's temper. This matter is settled. Besides, it's getting colder so buy a few winter clothes."

Du Ruo's eyes were hot, and her heart felt a little sour and warm. After a long while, she let out a low “Mm”.

Ming Yi changed the subject to a lighter topic: "How are you doing at school? Are you keeping up with your studies?"

"I'm keeping up." She raised her voice slightly and reported her results actively, "I learn very quickly. Now I am studying extracurricular content on my own, and I also go over the wall to read foreign thesis libraries and research courses. I learn something new every day, it’s very satisfying.” 

"Already started doing your own self-study. Auntie is happy to hear that."

"Thank you for the computer you gave me."

"Little Ruo, you are too polite. One computer, how many times have you thanked me? You mention it every time I call. You are not allowed to mention it next time."

She blushed, stuck out her tongue and smiled: "Okay."

“Come to think of it, your uncle and I had forgotten about it before and didn’t buy it for you earlier. It was Jing Ming who mentioned it, and then his father and I only thought of it.

Du Ruo was once again taken aback and froze on the spot.

Even when she’d put down the phone, the burning sensation on her cheeks still didn’t go away, and even her breathing felt chaotic.

With a heavy heart, she returned to the classroom. As she passed the stairwell, she heard the footsteps and voices of a group of boys quickly going upstairs, talking loudly. One of them was Wan Ziang, a classmate in her class:

"Damn it, you're awesome. You're willing to dismantle such an expensive car into parts."

"For the sake of science." This was Jing Ming's teasing voice.

Du Ruo shrunk her steps, hesitated for half a second, and finally forced herself to move forward, meeting them at the top of the stairs.

Jing Ming was wearing a red and black bomber jacket, with his hands in his pockets. He walked up the steps, his eyes raised, his gaze briefly met hers, and he moved away without stopping.

Du Ruo took a deep breath slowly.

As they passed each other, she held her breath and did not dare to raise her eyes and look at him. She only saw a small white logo on the chest of his jacket which read: "U.S.ARMY"

In a flash, they passed by each other.

Li Wei and Wan Ziang smiled at Du Ruo. Zhu Tao and Zhang Lei from the next class were not familiar with her and didn’t greet her. Their class was on the first floor, so they said goodbye to Li Wei and the others: “Let’s go”

"Goodbye."

Jing Ming didn’t say anything, didn’t look back, lazily took out one hand from his pocket and waved, then went upstairs.

Du Ruo's breath slowly calmed down, and she walked to the classroom.

Wan Ziang slapped his forehead. "Ah, I only talked about the car and forgot to ask him how Eva is doing?”

Li Wei: "Don't worry; it's been fixed a long time ago. She’s jumping around in the dormitory 

humming.” At this point, he seemed to think of something, sighed, and mumbled to himself, “This time, I can’t play the peacemaker.”

Wan Ziang didn't pay much attention. In a blink of an eye, he saw the flyer in Du Ruo’s hand and asked: “Want to join the debate team?"

"No, how can I argue?" She folded the paper.

Li Wei said: "Du Ruo, you are a bit introverted, but you might benefit from some training."

Du Ruo said, "Let’s forget it, I'm afraid I won't even be able to pass the interview."

In the stairwell, Jing Ming and several classmates went upstairs.

Zhu Tao suddenly said without warning: "That girl just now is the one who was very popular on BBS a few days ago. Before a bunch of threads about Eva and Jing Ming overtook her.”

Zhang Lei: "Which one?... Oh, the one who ran 400 metres in a gauze skirt. I saw her during the competition that day. It was really fun."

"Right. That's her. She’s from Li Wei's class. She's quite cute. Jing Ming even knocked her down while running. Haha." Zhu Tao raised his hand and put it on Jing Ming's shoulder. The latter was playing with his phone and ignored him.

Zhu Tao shook Jing Ming's shoulder: "What do you think?"

Jing Ming stuffed his phone into his pocket: "I don’t think."

...

There were four professional classes in the morning. By the end of the class, the boys were a little sleepy but Du Ruo was always in high spirits.

In the last class, when the bell rang, she packed up her books and ran to the stairwell.

The students had finished class and poured down from upstairs.

Du Ruo walked back and forth at the stairs several times, but did not see that person or his classmates.

She went up a floor and looked into various classrooms along the corridor. Classes were over and the classrooms were all empty. Only then did she realise that maybe they only had two classes this morning, or maybe they had changed classrooms.

It’s always better to say thank you in person.

She ran downstairs towards the boys’ dormitory.

…

There was a straight and not too wide road at the entrance of the boys’ dormitory building, with ginkgo trees planted on both sides of the road. Occasionally, a few leaves fell when the wind blew.

One or two birds fluttered their wings and landed on the trees, disappearing among the branches and leaves.

Du Ruo sat by the flower bed at the end of this side of the road, occasionally glancing at the entrance of the boys’ dormitory building about ten metres away.

It was lunchtime now. Some students walked out of the dormitory building either alone or in groups. Some boys were running into the door carrying packed lunches. Others carried three or four plastic bags in each hand, which were lunches bought for their entire dorm room.

On the balcony on the third floor, Jing Ming's OG-107 military pants were hung on the drying rack, occasionally swaying with the wind.

The sunlight wasn't strong, but it was still dazzling.

Once or twice, a shadow flashed across the balcony. She stretched her neck to look, and quickly recognised that the shadow did not belong to him.

She kept sitting in the warm sunshine, feeling complicated and embarrassed, until at a certain moment when she felt that she shouldn’t sit down anymore, as there would be no results.

As she prepared to leave, she saw Jing Ming quickly coming out of the dormitory building.

She was in a dilemma, thought about it, and finally followed.

The big trees swayed in the wind, and students hurriedly carried their lunches and school bags.

The shadow of the trees and figures lie between them.

His back was tall and thin. Perhaps because he was wearing a bomber jacket and his clothes were thicker in autumn, he didn’t look as thin as the boy in summer.

He never looked back.

She followed him past the boys’ dormitory, the activity centre, the auditorium, the main road, the garden, the pond… The surrounding scenery changed, and the number of people around became less and less.

It wasn’t until they reached a certain building from the Republic of China period that she lost track of him.

It was a two-story building with grey brick walls and red wooden windows. The upper floor was covered with green ivy.

The tree-lined path had no one passing through. The yellow and green leaves blocked the blue sky. It was quiet, as if everyone in the world was taking a nap. It was extremely quiet.

Du Ruo searched around, walked around the corner of the small building, kicked out on

Du Ruo searched around, circled around the corner of the small building, and kicked something with her foot, stumbling on her shin.

"Ah—" She staggered and almost fell. The faint scream startled a bird from the tree.

Jing Ming frowned: "Following me?"

"No. I have something to find you about." Du Ruo said.

Jing Ming glanced at her up and down, and finally fixed his gaze back on her eyes, with an expression of “Let’s see what you’re going to say next.”

At this moment, he was his usual self again, without the good temper he had on the day of the competition.

The autumn sunlight shone through the gaps in the leaves and fell on Du Ruo’s neck. The tip of her nose was hot. She couldn’t look directly into his eyes. Her eyelids drooped and she stared at the U.S.ARMY on his chest.

She opened her mouth to thank him for the computer and the living expenses, but the words were stuck on the tip of her tongue. She couldn’t say them out.

She suddenly regretted following him.

The man in front of her did not have a good-tempered, and he frowned impatiently.

Her mind raced: "I’m studying robotics on my own. Do you have any recommended books?"

His frown relaxed for a moment, he took out his mobile phone and started typing quickly.

When the wind blew, the leaves of the ivy on the wall rustled.

He pressed his thumb on the screen and put away his phone. In the next second, there was a “ding” sound.

Her phone rang, and Du Ruo took it out. There was a text message from Jing Ming, densely packed with more than a dozen book titles.

"Thank you." She raised her head.

Without saying anything, he brushed past her shoulder, walked on the main road, and disappeared into the yellow and green shaded path.

Du Ruo looked up at the leaves swaying in the wind above her head, took a deep breath, and strode towards the library.

Translated by evienRose

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