Chapter 9

Du Ruo couldn’t stop crying, she was terrified, too. She didn’t want to walk home alone in the middle of the night. What if something happened?
Jing Ming, that bastard!
A minute later, her phone rang again, a second call.
This time, she scrubbed her tears away in a fury and answered, determined not to let him off easy.
Jing Ming’s voice was cold and furious: “What the hell is wrong with you? Why hang up on me?”
She simmered in silence, ignoring him.
He waited a while on the other end, maybe realizing how late it was and that it might be dangerous outside. His voice dropped a notch, cautious: “Du Ruo?”
Du Ruo guessed what he was thinking and fumed, glaring: Oh, I’ve been kidnapped! I’m dead in a ditch somewhere! Go ahead and regret it for the rest of your life!
But even in her own head, that threat sounded empty. As if he’d care.
She snapped, “What do you want?”
Jing Ming fell silent for a beat, then, “Where are you?”
“On the street.”
“Which street?”
“The one that leads home.”
“…” He bit down the retort, not sure if she was playing dumb or just being difficult. “Open your map app, see which street you’re on.”
Du Ruo: “I’m a country girl, I don’t know how to use it.”
Jing Ming: “…”
Unbelievable.
He could tell from her tone she was just poking at him on purpose.
His temper wasn’t much to begin with; now he almost lost it: “Why are you acting crazy in the middle of the night?”
“I’m walking. Hanging up.”
“Hey, wait, I’m, ”
Beep… beep… call ended…
In the underground parking lot, after one stunned second,
“Fuck!”
With a thunderous face, Jing Ming turned onto the route home, car crawling along as he scanned the sidewalks. His flashy sports car puttering at forty km/h, anyone passing by would think he was nuts.
He drove two blocks, finally spotted Du Ruo. She really was walking home.
This girl, did she have any idea how far it was? Was she planning to walk into next week?
Jing Ming swerved onto the side road, pulled up beside her, waited a moment. She ignored him. “Hey. Get in.”
Du Ruo: “Not happening!”
He stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “What is actually wrong with you? Throwing a tantrum at midnight.”
She couldn’t out-argue him, so she just started walking.
He gritted his teeth, exhaled hard through his nose, and did everything he could not to lose it. He drove beside her, matching her pace.
“Get in the car.”
“…Come on, just get in, okay?”
“If you’ve got an issue, at least get in first.”
“Hey! Stop walking!”
Finally, his patience snapped:
“Du Ruo, if you don’t get in now, I’m leaving. This area’s not safe. If something happens to you, who loses here, me, or you?!”
Du Ruo froze, stopped in place for a few seconds, wrestling with herself. Gambling with her safety just to spite him wasn’t worth it. In the end, she got in.
Jing Ming’s anger cooled a little, but he was still peeved. “Didn’t I tell you to wait in the parking lot? What were you thinking, running off after midnight?”
Du Ruo ignored him, refused to even glance his way.
He opened his mouth to go off, but caught sight of her, tears clung to her lashes, her lips pinched tight.
She’d been crying?
He hesitated, lips pursed, and let it go.
Revving the engine, he pulled away onto the main road.
They’d driven two blocks before he spoke, as if nothing had happened: “Didn’t I tell you to wait at the parking lot, ”
“I did.” Du Ruo cut in. “You forgot.”
Jing Ming blinked, brain ticking, finally putting it all together.
He really hadn’t meant to ditch her, turned out he’d checked the time wrong, thought it was still only eleven, not midnight. So he dropped Min Enzhu off, figured he had time. But when he got back, Du Ruo was gone. He’d just assumed she’d left without saying anything.
“…I didn’t forget.” He rubbed his eyebrows with a guilty hand. “I checked the time wrong. Thought it was only eleven.”
Du Ruo gave him the silent treatment.
He knew he was in the wrong and didn’t continue.
They got home, got out, headed inside, upstairs, each to their own room.
Not a word between them.
The next morning over breakfast, Ming Yi asked how Du Ruo and Jing Ming’s night had been.
Jing Ming bit into his sandwich, said nothing.
Du Ruo replied, “Everyone went out to sing karaoke.”
“Was it lively?”
“Yeah.”
Ming Yi smiled, turning to Jing Ming. “Was Xiao Ruo a good singer?”
Jing Ming frowned a little, mumbled, “She was… alright.”
Ming Yi: “Xiao Ruo, won’t you stay for lunch before you go?”
Du Ruo: “No, I’ll leave after breakfast. I want to get to campus early.”
Ming Yi didn’t insist. She glanced at Jing Ming. “You head back to school early too. Make sure you drive Xiao Ruo back.”
For once, Jing Ming didn’t argue.
After breakfast, he drove Du Ruo back to campus, same as last time, dropping her off by the curb outside. Du Ruo gathered her things and got out; he drove away without a backward glance.
Not a word passed between them. They both pretended the other didn’t exist.
Standing on the side of the road, watching his taillights disappear, Du Ruo couldn’t help herself, she rolled her eyes hard.
…
Over the next week or so, Du Ruo tried to find a tutoring gig. But nothing fit.
Either the destination was too far, just getting there and back would take three or four hours. Spread out, the pay was basically nothing, and she was already drowning in coursework. Plus, there were too many campus events: the department’s sports day, her class’s autumn field trip; and then once those passed, midterms would be right around the corner.
Staring at her wall calendar, Du Ruo sighed, “Why can’t a month just have a few more days?”
“Xiao Ruo, it’s only freshman year, don’t stress yourself out. Chill, enjoy college! It’s fine to take a break sometimes.” Xia Nan said, curling her lashes in the mirror.
Du Ruo edged over, curious. “What are you even doing?”
“Curling my eyelashes, what else?”
“And afterwards? What’s the point?”
“Makes them look longer.” Xia Nan put down the curler, winked at her. “See? Looks better, right?”
“Whoa… you’re right.”
“Here, let me do yours. Come on, sit here.” Xia Nan stood, offering Du Ruo the chair. She bent close. “Just open your eyes naturally.”
She curled one side, then tackled the other.
Qiu Yuchen came in carrying a bucket of freshly washed laundry, headed for the balcony. She glanced at Du Ruo’s desk as she passed. “Hey Xiao Ruo, don’t you have class next period?”
Du Ruo shot up from the chair like a rocket, yelped, and clapped her hand over her eye, forgetting all about the loose lashes.
“Crap! I totally forgot!” She grabbed her textbook, tears springing in one eye, and dashed out the door.
Xia Nan eyed the couple of stray lashes caught in the curler and gave it a shake. “Ouch. That really hurts… Wait, Xiao Ruo, your eyelashes are super long!”
…
Du Ruo made it to the lab just as the bell rang, thankfully, not late.
Her usual front-row seat was waiting for her.
This was a practical class, more on RC series circuits.
The professor didn’t dwell on her entrance. Once she sat, he got straight to it:
“We covered the basics last time. It all seems simple, but don’t get careless. Every intricate circuit is built from these basic little pieces. Take the RC series, for example, change the values, swap the order, alter the input frequency or signal type, or use a different input port, and suddenly you’ve got different results: coupling or decoupling circuits, low-pass or high-pass filters, leading or lagging phase shifters, integrators, differentiators, it all starts here. So, easy stuff, right?”
The class chuckled.
Du Ruo frowned in thought, something clicking into place.
The professor continued, “Remember: after you get to college, learn to connect the dots! See patterns, make the knowledge your own. Master the basics, build on them, break down the complex into the simple, and vice versa.”
Class was straightforward. Each student designed their own circuit diagram, then built it out in the actual experiment.
By the end of the session, Du Ruo found herself keeping up easily, but something felt lacking.
For the past month, her only goal had been to stay caught up with the professor.
Now she saw the lectures were just the foundation. The real skill was in what you learned afterwards, making leaps, connecting it all.
She didn’t spend enough time in the computer lab or the workshop, and barely any for self-study. And she desperately needed a computer. The school machines were ancient and slow.
But for now, she couldn’t afford one.
With winter break jobs and a little saving, maybe she could buy a basic desktop next semester.
Thinking this over, Du Ruo packed her books and left the lab.
A group of guys from her class tore past, racing into the lab at the end of the hall. A couple gestured for her to join in.
She followed them to the circuit lab, where a gaggle of boys crowded around a testing rig, clearly ready for chaos, laughing but half-serious too:
“Bro, don’t mess around!”
“It’s gonna fry, no way it lasts.”
Jing Ming leaned casually against the lab table, one shoulder slouched, looking effortlessly cool. A mess of red and black wires tangled across the tabletop, and the experiment rig was practically bristling with complex, multicolored cables of every length.
He was calmly slotting in connectors, linking up the wires, a complex circuit diagram propped beside him.
Li Wei and a few guys from the Mechatronics class stood at the bench, fingers drifting slowly over the circuit paper as they silently worked through equations, brows furrowed in concentration.
Someone piped up, “Did you test this in the software? Show it to the professor yet? Don’t blow us all up, man.”
Jing Ming just snorted, grinning, pointedly ignoring them.
Du Ruo shot him a look, way too smug, and, suspicious, craned her neck closer for a peek at the circuit diagram.
Her mind went completely blank. That was the first thought.
Resistors, capacitors, diodes, filters, inductors… Sure, she could pick out a few symbols, maybe follow the maze of connections like a treasure map, but beyond that? Total mystery.
While Li Wei and his crew were still crunching numbers, Jing Ming had already finished wiring everything. He flipped the power, twisted the voltage regulator,
Everyone instinctively leapt back, like he’d just triggered a bomb. Even Du Ruo shrank away, bracing for alarms. But nothing happened.
In the hush, there was a faint, crisp crackle of current. The green indicator light blinked on.
“Whoa!” The students crowded in again, their curiosity piqued, eyes tracking the wires across the instrument panel.
Jing Ming tipped an eyebrow, lips twitching in a half-smile, then noticed Du Ruo hovering nearby, still puzzling over the circuit. She was chewing over every detail, looking adorably lost and frustrated as she finally glanced up and locked eyes with him.
He lifted a brow just for her.
Du Ruo: “…”
Her chest felt tight. She spun on her heel and stalked away.
Hmph!
Got looked down on again.
Seriously?! What’s with that smug act? Pulling off some dazzling circuit, sure, he didn’t set the place on fire, but does that really make him hot stuff? Is he really just going to wave that in my face?!
...Yeah. Kind of is.
Du Ruo puffed out her cheeks in defeat, sulking like a sad eggplant.
She had to admit it, she was honestly jealous of Jing Ming.
There was nothing he couldn’t do.
Word was, he’d just started some robot R&D team, called Prime. Every top-ranked special admit and prodigy in the freshman class had basically fallen in behind him.
Inside her head, a tiny imaginary Du Ruo lay dramatically on the floor, clutching Jing Ming’s ankles with all her might:
Waaah! I want that too!
Boohoo,
I want to have some god-tier skill, just once, and knock his socks off.
Enough! Stop it!
She gave herself a mental smack, forcing her mind off those wild daydreams.
If you’ve got time for envy, why not review the class notes you barely understand…
She left the lab, heading down the stairs, and ran into Chen Si and Wang Huaiyu from the next dorm over. They were in Jing Ming’s class. “Wanna grab dinner together?” they asked.
She smiled and thanked them for the invite. “It’s always too packed at the dining hall right now. I’ll go later.”
“Heading to the library, then?”
“Computer lab, actually, ” No sooner had she spoken than Li Wei’s voice rang out behind her, laughing, “Grinding so hard, are we?”
Du Ruo turned, joking back, “Off to the lab to game, obviously.”
“With those ancient school PCs? Trying to game on that is a joke.” Li Wei was coming down the stairs with three more from his dorm, Zhang Lei, Zhu Tao, and… Jing Ming.
Du Ruo’s grin faded a notch.
Jing Ming was gazing at his phone, fingers flying. Zhang Lei and Zhu Tao hovered, brows raised, peering at whatever he was typing.
Li Wei called out, “Oh, Du Ruo, meet at the track at seven tonight.”
“For what?”
“Next week’s sports day. Gotta plan our entry parade.”
“Ah, sounds good.”
Chen Si overheard and asked, “What kind of entry are you guys planning?”
Li Wei: “No clue yet! But the guys all agree, we gotta feature our class! And our flower!”
Du Ruo: “…”
Behind her, one of the guys let out a lazy, smug laugh.
Du Ruo ground her teeth.
Chen Si and Wang Huaiyu burst out laughing too. “Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!”
Fine, whatever. Let chaos reign.
After leaving the science building, Du Ruo made her way to the computer lab. Jing Ming’s group headed the other way.
Li Wei was muttering to himself, “How can we design something that really highlights our class beauty?”
Jing Ming lazily scratched his brow. “What kind of vibe do you want? Maybe hand her a fairy wand, turn a pumpkin into a carriage, glass slippers and all that?”
Li Wei snapped his fingers. “Ooh, I like that!”
Jing Ming: “…”
Dude. Are you for real?