Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Have you had lunch?” Seeing her walking over, Cheng Juan slightly lowered his phone and lowered his gaze. His voice was soft and gentle.

Lu Zhaoying, on the other end of the phone, got a shock.

Master Juan had always spoken to him with either an indifferent tone or a cold and emotionless one. Why was he suddenly speaking so gently and properly?

“Erm… Master Juan…”

“Nope. I just came from the library.” Qin Ran was holding on to her black backpack, and her black laptop was stored inside her bag.

There was a lot of research work involved in the Nuclear Engineering course outside of class hours, so Qin Ran would always go to the library with Pan Mingyue once class ended every day.

Lu Zhaoying almost blurted that he couldn’t get used to Master Juan suddenly changing his tone, but he immediately swallowed his words after he heard Qin Ran’s voice in the background.

“We’ll arrive soon. I’m hanging up first.” Cheng Juan raised his slightly lowered phone and quickly hung up after one sentence.

Walking seemed like a faster option than driving at this point, as the road to Beijing University was a lot more crowded and packed due to the upcoming holidays.

This was also the same road that led to a smaller pedestrian street filled with eateries, which was also packed with a large and chaotic crowd.

Cheng Juan stood out in the messy crowd due to his tall figure and his chic yet posh aura and stature, while Qin Ran followed quietly behind him.

Due to the large crowd, people would cut across in front of them almost every two steps they took, disrupting their line of vision.

The hollers of the shop owners, loud blasting music, and countless chatter around filled Qin Ran’s ears. Her eyebrows unconsciously knitted.

The bustle was coupled with the smell of body sweat and oil from the eateries around.

When yet another burly and stout looking man bumped into her, Cheng Juan stopped in his tracks a few steps ahead of her. He expressionlessly looked at the burly guy, then extended his hand towards Qin Ran. He held on to her hand and said with a neutral yet gentle voice, “Follow me closely.”

Cheng Juan’s body temperature was always slightly on the colder side, and his hand holding her was no exception.

As Qin Ran followed him through the street of eateries, the crowd started to thin after a while.

“A few of my friends will be there together, and you happen to be on holiday too.” His footsteps slowed down, but his voice remained steady. “You may remember one of them. He’s called Zhang Xiangge.”

Qin Ran nodded and went silent after simply saying, “Alright.”

The venue was chosen by Lu Zhaoying and was situated at a hotel near Beijing University in order to accommodate her.

After exiting Beijing University and crossing the street of eateries, it was just a 5-minute straight walk from there onwards.

**

Zhang Xiangge and the others were all sitting inside the private suite.

There weren’t more than six people in the gathering, including Lu Zhaoying and Jiang Dongye, and all of them had met Qin Ran previously at the Heaven Clubhouse. Even though this bunch was known to be party animals, none of them brought their flings along with them, so it was pretty quiet in the suite.

The food was already served on the table by the time Qin Ran and Cheng Juan arrived, and everyone was caught up in their own conversations with one another. Although some of them had cigarettes, none of them were lit up as they were clearly instructed by Lu Zhaoying beforehand.

“Please have a seat, Ms. Qin.” Jiang Dongye, sitting calmly in his spot, immediately jumped up and pulled out a chair for Qin Ran once he saw her walk into the room.

He even set a pair of chopsticks for her on the table.

As if that wasn’t enough, he received Qin Ran’s backpack from her hands and placed it on the other side of the sofa for her.

Apart from Lu Zhaoying and Cheng Juan, who were long used to Jiang Dongye’s bootlicking antics, everyone else was clearly taken aback by what they were seeing. Including Zhang Xiangge, they all just stared blankly at him.

Everyone grew more and more curious about Qin Ran’s identity.

In the entire Beijing, apart from Cheng Juan and Cheng Wenru who were at the top level of the social class, almost no one could make Jiang Dongye treat them with such a servile attitude.

Although the Jiang Family was affiliated to the Cheng Family, Jiang Dongye didn’t act this way normally. He wouldn’t butter someone up just because that person was related to Cheng Juan, or rather, he didn’t need to do so at all.

Even if it was Ouyang Wei, Jiang Dongye would probably just be slightly more polite when speaking to her.

“Ms. Qin, are you settling down well enough in school? There’s an unspoken tradition in Beijing University where everyone has to live in the campus residences, but you can always find Master Juan to settle that part for you.” Zhang Xiangge was reminded that he was the one who hosted this gathering, and he immediately called the waiter over to order a glass of juice for her. “Oh, right. Have you joined the Student Union yet? Your school’s Outreach Department has approached me previously for sponsorship purposes. So, if you’re keen, you can always come to find me.”

Even though the Zhang Family wasn’t considered one of the most affluent families in Beijing, due to Zhang Xiangge’s highly sociable and likable personality, he possessed a considerable number of connections. On top of that, as he was also considered to be a part of the reputable social circle of the Cheng Family, his status and influence were a force to be reckoned with.

Qin Ran, who was finally seated and engaged with her phone, looked up when she heard his offer and rejected him politely. “No, thank you. It’s alright.”

As she frequented the school library so often for class, President Jiang had also sent her all the text and materials required for the second and third years of University.

Other than attending classes, she would be either having official consultation sessions with the lecturers of her Nuclear Engineering course or occasionally finding Song Luting for help.

The Student Union had also approached her repeatedly, with one of the seniors finding her at her lodging on two occasions and calling her on the phone multiple times.

Zhang Xiangge glanced at her and nodded, not probing on the matter any further.

“Master Juan, why is Ms. Qin still residing in school?” Lu Zhaoying tilted his head to look towards Cheng Juan as he asked, with chopsticks in hand and legs crossed. He recalled that Chang Juan had an apartment near the school when he was in University.

Cheng Juan was seated beside Lu Zhaoying with his hands resting on the table. He spoke without any visible change in his expression, “Just eat your food.”

His tone was slightly grumpy. Lu Zhaoying smiled, immediately understanding what he meant.

Judging from the situation, it only meant that Qin Ran herself refused him.

Cheng Juan was known to be hard to handle; even Elder Cheng couldn’t handle him. But now, he had finally met his own rival. Lu Zhaoying and Cheng Wenru concluded.

His smile widened as his legs remained crossed.

They started to discuss business matters as they dug into the food, mainly touching on the recent issue regarding the Yunguang Consortium.

“I saw the bulletin board yesterday,” Zhang Xiangge spoke, mindlessly swirling the wine in his glass and leaning against the chair after finishing his meal. “They’re going to announce the new companies after mid-Autumn. It should be just a few smaller IT companies. But I heard all of them are quite strong and capable companies, and we’re just there to make up the numbers. Now that our Miss is present, what do you think about it?”

The Missy Zhang Xiangge was referring to was Cheng Wenru—Beijing’s well-known career woman. Everyone in the circle who knew her would all address her as Miss Cheng when they saw her. That marked Ouyang Wei as being far from her current status.

They weren’t on the same level, after all.

Putting down his chopsticks, Chang Juan tilted his head and looked at Qin Ran as she slowly chewed on a piece of pork rib. He grabbed a glass beside him, poured a new glass of tea, and placed it beside her. He then mindlessly answered, “I’m not sure, but she recently borrowed an amount of working capital.”

Every single person at this gathering had a reputable status in Beijing.

The scene happening before their eyes made them even more restless—no wonder Zhang Xiangge instructed everyone to not publicize today’s gathering to anyone outside of their circle. Taking this current situation for example… nobody would believe it if they heard about it themselves.

Holding her glass with one hand, Qin Ran texted Qin Ling with the other.

Qin Ling was on holiday starting this afternoon—

Hey sis, could we have dinner together tomorrow night?

Tomorrow was the mid-autumn festival. Qin Ling had toyed with this idea for a long time in his mind.

Qin Ran’s furrowed her eyebrows when she saw the message. Shouldn’t Qin Ling and Qin Hanqiu be back at the Qin family’s house by now? Why was he asking her out for dinner tomorrow night?

Just as she sent a question mark over, Qin Ling replied—

Old Mister Qin said that it wasn’t the right time yet.

The “Old Mister Qin” that Qin Ling was referring to was the same person as the “Uncle Qin” that Qin Hanqiu mentioned previously.

After hearing his short explanation, Qin Ran more or less understood the situation.

She replied: Alright.

The gathering didn’t drag on for too long. Qin Ran left with Cheng Juan right after she finished texting with Qin Ling as she had to get back to continue studying through some of her research files.

Jiang Dongye and Lu Zhaoying followed them along naturally.

After Zhang Xiangge and the others sent them away, they returned to the suite to continue their drinking session. As if he just recalled something important, Zhang Xiangge immediately whipped out his phone and gave a call to the Outreach Department of Beijing University.

“Minister Yu,” Sitting on the stool, Zhang Xiangge lit up a cigarette. “There’s something I need your help with.”

Minister Yu from the Outreach Department was a business lady with a cold and precise personality. “Go ahead, Director Zhang.”

Zhang Xiangge briefly explained his request for them to accept someone into the Union.

He was known to always have a long-term vision for things, and he also gave Minister Yu many sponsorship opportunities on many occasions. The students of Beijing University were always more than keen to be of any help to Zhang Xiangge and would welcome his requests with open arms.

Immediately understanding his intention, Minister Yu placed him on speaker mode as she opened her documents to key in the new name and contact number. “Sure. Just give me her name and number. I’ll personally contact her for you.”

Zhang Xiangge started reciting the number for her. “166…”

Not noticing anything out of the ordinary in the first three numbers, the remaining eight numbers slowly started to ring a bell in her mind as she keyed them in.

She stared at the name that popped up along with the contact number that she had just keyed in and went silent for a second.

“Have you saved the number, Minister Yu?” Getting impatient, Zhang Xiangge hurriedly asked.

“Ah.” Minister Yu let out an audible sound of hesitation. “Director Zhang, this person that you’re referring to, is her surname Qin, perhaps?”

Zhang Xiangge raised his eyebrows. “Yeah.”

“And does she go by the last name of Ran?” Minister Yu’s words seemed to have been spoken with slightly clenched teeth.

Zhang Xiangge’s tightened the grip on his phone and sat up straight. “You know this too? Do you know her personally?” He was suspicious and curious at the same time.

“And I’m guessing that she doesn’t know about this whole thing about you speaking to me to try to get her into the Student Union, am I right?” Minister Yu questioned.

“Yes, that’s right.” Zhang Xiangge could tell that something was wrong. “What’s going on?”