Chapter 39: 39

 39.1 - Sweet (Part 1)

Qin Juran nearly choked on her soda, lowering her head and furiously coughing. Meanwhile, Ruan Nan had no idea what was so funny, but she was worried that Qin Juran was seriously choking. Furrowing her brows, she began patting against Qin Juran’s back.

Qin Juran’s face was turning pink from the coughing. She pointed a finger at Ruan Nan: “If your uncle and dad’s names are really supposed to mean ‘flying dragon and jumping tiger,’ then that’s pretty impressive.”

“What about my name?” Ruan Nan unwittingly pouted her small mouth.

Ruan Nan.

Both ‘soft’ and ‘difficult.’ 1

Qin Juran grinned. “It’s nice, very nice.”

She pulled out her phone to check the time. It was nearly 6 p.m., and she still had to practice driving for two hours. Standing up, she said, “Where’s your car? I’ll walk you there.”

Ruan Nan shot her a look: “Uncle wants me to teach you.”

That was exactly what Qin Juran was worried for. For language skills such as speaking Spanish, if she didn’t know it, she simply wouldn’t speak it. However, for manual skills such as driving, it would be difficult for her to pretend to not know.

Qin Juran coughed softly, looking away somewhat evasively: “No need to, I wouldn’t want to trouble Miss Ruan. I’ll be fine just practicing by myself.”

“It’s fine, it’s no trouble.” Ruan Nan began walking towards the car.

Qin Juran immediately grabbed her arm. Feeling her seemingly nervous grip, Ruan Nan raised a brow and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Qin Juran: “It’s almost dinner time, you should go back and eat. I still have a while to go.”

If this were any other circumstance, Qin Juran would probably be overeager to have her stay. It was rare to see her with such a nervous, evasive disposition – what could she possibly be so afraid of?

Ruan Nan returned a large, fake smile, then delicately pried her hand away from her arm: “Don’t worry, Campus Flower Qin. This feast for my eyes will be enough.”

Without looking back, the prideful little Missus strolled in her high heels to the practice car. Meanwhile, all President Qin could do was irritatedly flip her hair and follow behind stiffly.

After getting in the car, Qin Juran rolled her eyes and plugged the keys into the ignition, about to step on the gas.

“Seat belt.” Ruan Nan called out.

“Oh yea, I always forget that cars have seat belts. Sometimes I feel like I’m still riding my electric bike, looking around for my helmet instead.”

As she spoke, Qin Juran single-handedly buckled her seat belt in a familiar gesture.

“……”

Perhaps sensing that her movement was performed with too much ease, Qin Juran began staring wide-eyed at the gear shift: “Ah-Ruan, which gear am I supposed to use?”

Ruan Nan flicked her a look: “One.”

“Got it.” Qin Juran gripped the knob and clumsily yanked it, going past gear 1 straight into gear 3. However, she seemed to not notice and was about to step on the gas pedal.

A rumbling sound emitted from the car. Ruan Nan spoke, “It’s on gear 3.”

“Oh, haha.” Qin Juran faked a nervous laugh. “I always get confused with the positioning of those two gears.”

Instead of immediately moving to correct herself, Qin Juran first looked towards Ruan Nan and asked: “Ah-Ruan, can you teach me how to prevent going into the wrong gear?”

This was a valid question. Since the model of the driving school’s car was rather popular, it was likely that she’d drive something similar in the future, and it was a common mistake to go straight past gear 1 into gear 3.

Ruan Nan thought for a moment. She instructed her to grip the gearshift, then wrapped her own hand around Qin Juran’s: “Make sure to push from the center to the left and forward: first left, then forward. Don’t accidentally go forward first.”

Ruan Nan’s hand was slightly smaller than Qin Juran’s. Her cold fingers were steady on Qin Juran’s as she patiently explained what to do.

By 6 p.m., the sky outside had already turned a deeper shade of blue. The sunlight shone through the car windows onto Ruan Nan’s face, highlighting a rarely seen expression of deep concentration.

Qin Juran couldn’t help grinning: “Then what about gear 3?”

Ruan Nan directed her to spread her hand open, then use the palm to gently push forward: “For gear 3, you just push forward. This way, you don’t need to grip too tightly; just push gently.”

Qin Juran pushed just as was told, and the knob shifted easily into place.

“Yep, just like that. You’re a pretty quick learner,” Ruan Nan complimented.

Qin Juran’s smile grew. She raised her head and looked at Ruan Nan, eyes glistening: “Ah-Ruan, you look really cool when you’re teaching me.”

Sensing that Qin Juran was about to say something unruly, Ruan Nan strategically scooted backward, but she still couldn’t avoid Qin Juran’s piercing gaze: “Ah-Ruan, in the future, Big Sister will also teach you how to drive just like this.”

“Hands on hands, lips on lips.”

“…..”

As Ruan Nan’s face reddened, Qin Juran stepped on the gas pedal and began driving. Afraid of going too fast, she could only carefully control herself and make her way towards the subject 2 road course.

She probably hadn’t gone a bit over 10 mph.

Ruan Nan stared outside the window, faintly commenting: “That’s the second old lady who passed us already.”

Qin Juran let out an embarrassed laugh. She was about to reply with, “Why would there be old ladies around here?” when she indeed saw one whiz pass in front of her.

…..

Finally, the car made it to the subject 2 course. The road test in this world was the same as her previous world, with 5 main points. As she reversed into the garage and made the ‘S’ turns, Qin Juran purposely made two mistakes. The cars behind her both passed in one shot.

Ruan Nan nodded: “I believe there shouldn’t be any issues. Should we go onto the road and practice subject 3?”

Qin Juran had already practiced the subject 3 basics during the past two days, but seeing Ruan Nan’s resolute expression, showing no signs of leaving anytime soon, she could only drive compliantly to the driving school entrance. Upon their arrival, Ruan Longteng came to deliver them two lunch boxes, then left to do some work.

After they finished eating, the driving instructor sidled over. After learning of Qin Juran’s connections, his attitude changed dramatically. He smiled sweetly and ask her whether she wanted him to accompany her on the road.

Since Qin Juran didn’t want to expose her secret, she accepted his offer to practice with him for two laps. Although it was already 8 p.m., there was still a decent amount of people practicing, as there were numerous practice cars driving back and forth, and some students still waiting on the side. Throughout the past few lessons, this instructor had noticed that Qin Juran drove pretty well and rarely made mistakes. Even these two laps around the course went smoothly. Afterward, he looked towards Ruan Nan, who then gestured that she’d be fine accompanying her alone.

Once the instructor got out of the car and Ruan Nan returned to the passenger seat, Qin Juran stepped on the gas, then glanced at Ruan Nan and laughed.

“What are you laughing about?”

Qin Juran shifted gears: “Nothing, I just never thought that the first time I could give a ride to the girl I liked would be under these circumstances.”

Ruan Nan paused, looking at the number of road signs and lights lining the road course. Indeed, this setting was rather strange.

“Ah-Ruan.” Qin Juran propped an elbow against her window: “Here, I might not be able to provide much for you for the time being.”

Without waiting for a reply, Qin Juran continued, “Actually, this thought has crossed my mind many times – if I haven’t met you at this exact time, if I were already President Qin, would things have turned out differently?”

“No.” Ruan Nan immediately cut her off.

“I have never cared about stuff like that. I’m sure you understand by now.”

That was true – as the little princess of a wealthy chairman’s family, she was even driving a Porsche as a third-year in university, something that the majority of people would never be able to touch in a lifetime. Of course she wouldn’t care about something like wealth.

Since Qin Juran hadn’t said anything even after a few moments, Ruan Nan figured that she was thinking about her personal family circumstances. She frowned, then somewhat clumsily tried to explain: “Qin Juran, I don’t care about that, stuff like that isn’t important to me…”

“What’s important is me?”

Qin Juran flashed her a smile from the rearview mirror.

“……” Ruan Nan couldn’t tell whether she was affected or not. She lowered her head and muttered: “You’re fine.”

Soon, the course reached the accelerating and car passing section. Since it was hard to see in the nighttime, Qin Juran cleared her mind and concentrated on driving. Longteng Driving School was in a rather out of the way area, so this road had relatively few cars, except for a few large trucks exiting from the national highway.

Once Qin Juran accelerated up to 40mph, she switched gears. Right when she reached the exit, the loud rumble of a horn sounded, followed by a bright white light illuminating the roadway.

“Qin Juran!”

A large, swerving truck came rushing from the left side, horn blaring all the while. As the last few moments of her past life came flooding into her mind, Qin Juran’s heart skipped a beat and all the blood rushed out of her face.

Ruan Nan tried to take control of the steering wheel, but there was no time.

“Qin Juran”

“Qin Juran!”

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Footnotes

The ‘Ruan’ in her name sounds like the word for ‘soft’, while the ‘Nan’ sounds like the word for ‘difficult.’ 

39.2 - Sweet (Part 2)

Ah-Ruan couldn’t die.

The shouts suddenly snapped Qin Juran out of her momentary stupor. In the instant right before the truck was about to hit, Qin Juran made the decision that she hadn’t in her previous life –

She slammed onto the gas pedal.

After a shift of the gear and a step on the gas, right at the moment when the two vehicles were about to collide, the truck only grazed against the back of her car for a quick instant. Despite the small surface area of the collision, it still sent Qin Juran’s car spinning out of control, causing it to drift a full 180 degrees before slowing down.

Qin Juran eased off the gas, swiftly shifted gears, then slammed on the brake. Her body seemed to be operating in fight-or-flight mode as she steadily parked the car in a safe area on the side of the road.

There was only silence, as the world around them remained a dead calm.

The out-of-control truck had already rammed through two protective railings and ended up on the side of the road before finally coming to a stop. All of the students and instructors who were on the road quickly rushed over to the accident.

“Qin Juran”

“Qin Juran”

Qin Juran felt that this voice was coming from very far away; her ears sounded muffled, as if covered by a thick cloth, and she couldn’t hear anything clearly.

“Qin Juran, are you hurt anywhere?” Qin Juran sat blankly in the driver’s seat. She could feel Ruan Nan patting all over her body and wanted to shake her head in response, but she didn’t know whether she actually was able to move or not.

The truck driver had sustained severe injuries and was immediately rushed off to the hospital by some of the instructors. Afterward, the onlookers realized that Qin Juran’s car had nearly been implicated in the collision, and quickly gathered around to ask whether they were injured.

The taillights had been smashed to pieces. After Ruan Nan got out of the car, she aided Qin Juran out and the two of them walked shakily to some small steps nearby, where Qin Juran sat straight down woozily. A few instructors rushed over and asked Ruan Nan: “What happened? You guys are both unharmed?”

Despite her ashen pallor, Ruan Nan tried to calm down and shook her head: “We were just passing by the intersection when the truck lost control. But Qin Juran quickly accelerated, and we were able to dodge it.”

“Well, f***” The instructors stared at the tail of the car, unwittingly letting out a breath. Just a brush against the back had demolished the taillights to such a terrible condition; if there was a full-on collision, they definitely would’ve died or become severely injured.

One instructor spoke quietly from the side: “I believe that she must’ve been too nervous and mistook the gas for the brakes. But it’s a good thing that she stepped on the gas, otherwise, I don’t want to imagine what might’ve happened.”

“Getting into such an incident the first time on the road – she might be too scared to even drive at all in the future.”

As they continued to stand around the car and talk, Qin Juran finally raised her head: “Ah-Ruan, would you mind telling them to leave for now?”

Ruan Nan nodded, then explained that Qin Juran was still in shock and needed some peace and quiet. Finally, the instructors returned to their cars and left.

Ruan Nan walked up to Qin Juran, who was still sitting on the steps, her entire face a sickly pale. Ruan Nan didn’t speak a word as she stood in front of her for a long while. Finally, Qin Juran seemed to come to her senses and raised her head to ask: “Ah-Ruan, you’re not hurt, are you?”

Her eyes betrayed a never-before-seen sense of bewilderedness and helplessness, shocking Ruan Nan. She walked closer and reached out to wrap Qin Juran in a tight embrace.

There were no cars at all along the road. In this desolate span of road, under the moonlight, Qin Juran could hear the pounding of Ruan Nan’s heart.

Wrapped in her embrace, her body finally lost some of its rigidness.

As if her limbs had a consciousness of their own, Qin Juran reached an arm to lightly encircle her, and the strength in her arms gradually come back until she was tightly embracing Ruan Nan back.

Qin Juran buried her face into Ruan Nan’s shoulders, revealing a rare sense of vulnerability. She held on firmly, as if once she were to let go, she’d be gone.

After a while, Ruan Nan began to gently stroke Qin Juran’s back: “Don’t be scared, Juju, you’re okay now.”

Qin Juran didn’t reply, only seeming to shake her head in the crook of her neck: “Ah-Ruan, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to drive again in the future.”

Ruan Nan answered softly, still stroking her back: “You made the right decision back there – by stepping on the accelerator, you saved us. If I were the one driving, my first reflex would’ve been to hit the brakes.”

Had she not been in the same position before, would Qin Juran’s first reaction have been to step on the brakes, as well?

A wave of suffocation washed over Qin Juran as she thought back to her past life. She inhaled sharply, closed her eyes, then spoke with a trembling voice: “Ah-Ruan, I wasn’t afraid of dying.”

The girl in her arms paused. “You were afraid that something would happen to me?”

Qin Juran nodded silently.

“I’m fine, Juju, nothing happened. We’re both perfectly fine.”

“Ah-Ruan…”

Qin Juran stammered, seeming as if she didn’t know how to express what she wanted to say: “The last time, the only thought on my mind was ‘release.’”

“Although there was a moment of regret, I had come to terms with my fate.”

“But this time, everything was different.”

“I only wanted to avoid it – I wanted to live, and even more so, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you. Ah-Ruan, I was really terrified.”

Although she didn’t know what exactly Qin Juran meant by the “last time,” Ruan Nan continued to hug her even tighter. On this cold winter night, the warmth of each other’s bodies provided the most tender consolation.

After a while, the police arrived. The bright flashing lights and grating sirens automatically turned the scene into a more serious one. The policemen asked Ruan Nan a few questions, spoke some words of consolation to Qin Juran, complimenting her for her good reflexes, then directed Ruan Nan to take the two of them home.

Qin Juran didn’t look very well as she rode in the passenger seat of the Porsche. As if she was still in a state of shock, she flinched every time a car’s headlights flashed in front of them.

Once they reached a red light, Ruan nan pulled out a bag of candy from her jacket and offered a piece to Qin Juran.

Qin Juran glanced at it but merely shook her head.

Ruan Nan’s hand hovered in the air for another moment, but she didn’t persist. She unwrapped the candy and popped it into her own mouth.

The honey peach candy emitted a sweet scent into the car. Ruan Nan ate it very peacefully, not saying another word as the candy rolled around in her mouth.

The Porsche soon approached Qin Juran’s dormitory. Since it was Saturday night, although it was already past 9 p.m., the entire lobby in front of the dorm was filled with couples who were busy hugging and kissing. Worried that Ruan Nan’s car would disrupt everyone, Qin Juran interjected right when they made it to the empty area behind the building, “Here is fine.”

Ruan Nan obliged, parking the car and unbuckling her seatbelt.

Qin Juran laughed softly, reaching out to caress Ruan Nan’s hair: “I can go in by myself.”

“I’ll walk you.”

“It’s only a few steps.” Before Qin Juran could stop her, Ruan Nan already stepped out of the car. At the moment when Qin Juran wasn’t looking, Ruan Nan took a deep breath and licked her lips.

The two of them walked towards the entrance. Some others noticed them, but everyone there was lovebirds reluctant to leave, too engrossed in their own matters, so they didn’t pay any more attention to Qin Juran and Ruan Nan.

Once they reached the doorway, Ruan Nan stopped walking, merely standing before Qin Juran and staring at her. Qin Juran bent over and reached out to button Ruan Nan’s jacket all the way from her knees up to her neck, then straightened her hair once again: “Just forget about what happened today. Go home and sleep early.”

Ruan Nan nodded.

Qin Juran nodded as well. Her face was still pale, her voice quiet, and her strained smile looked especially heartbreaking under the streetlamp.

“Qin Juran”

She had just walked a few steps away when she heard Ruan Nan’s voice call out from behind her. Qin Juran turned her head, but before she could say anything, Ruan Nan ran towards her to close the gap and wrapped her hands around Qin Juran’s neck.

Perhaps because she was too nervous, Ruan Nan used too much force while pulling on her neck. A dull pain went through Qin Juran’s nose as it hit Ruan Nan’s forehead. The next second –

A soft, cool kiss was pressed onto her lips.

The momentary softness allowed Qin Juran to forget all her previous grievances.

But the kiss was too short, so short that Qin Juran didn’t even have a chance to realize what was happening.

After a moment, Ruan Nan immediately pulled her lips away. Her arms were still wrapped around Qin Juran’s neck, and under the moonlight, her eyes were glistening and her hair seemed exceptionally soft. Trying to steady her breathing, she spoke: “You said before that when you don’t feel well, you should eat something sweet.”

After saying this, she released her arms and quickly ran away without looking back.

Qin Juran’s eyes unconsciously began tearing up from the pain in her nose after being hit.

She stared at her long shadow produced by the streetlights shining upon her back and even seemed to hear the chirping of cicadas on this autumn night.

A car accident, an autumn night, the cool breeze, and the streetlights.

Qin Juran slowly rubbed the tears sprouting from her eyes, then used her ring finger to gently caress the corner of her mouth that had just been kissed, placing the finger onto her lips for the aftertaste –

It was sweet.

T/N: Gasp! Is our girl RN finally making the first move??

Also, first post of the year! Hope you are all having a lovely holiday and staying safe and healthy, and cheers to a better 2022!

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