Chapter 60: Turning Bad Part 4

“I have two apartments next to Tsinghua University. They’re spacious and convenient. They’re just sitting empty anyway, so why not let you and your sister stay in one? It’ll add some life to the place.”

“Think of it as renting.” She emphasized.

Chu Ran shook her head firmly this time. “No need.”

“Why? You have to rent somewhere with your sister. What’s the difference between renting from someone else and renting from me?”

Chu Ran smiled candidly, revealing her neat, white teeth in a way that was pleasing to the eye.

“Your family’s place is a luxury mansion. I can’t afford it.”

Qian Hao was momentarily stunned. Chu Ran’s frankness made her feel unexpectedly good, and she laughed along with her. “We’re friends, aren’t we? I’ll give you a discount. That should work, right?”

Chu Ran still shook her head, her smile as candid as ever. “Your beauty’s favor is too heavy a burden. I dare not accept it.”

Qian Hao’s gaze sharpened, her breathing quickening a little. This was the first time Chu Ran had so candidly acknowledged her admiration.

“Chu Ran, is it that you dare not accept, or that you refuse to?”

Chu Ran raised an eyebrow. “Is there a difference?”

Qian Hao’s expression dimmed instantly.

Silence stretched on, second by second. Suddenly, she gritted her teeth and stared at Chu Ran with burning intensity. “Why?”

She desperately wanted to ask what she lacked, where she fell short of Gu An’an. But the pride of a favored daughter of heaven kept the words locked in her throat. She even felt that voicing them would mean total defeat.

Chu Ran didn’t answer. She stood up and gave Qian Hao a deep look. “Qian Hao, stop being good to me. My heart belongs to someone else. You’ll find someone better than me.”

She turned and left. The moment she stepped out the door, she heard the clear, piercing crash of a glass cup shattering against the floor behind her.

As she got into the taxi at the entrance, she could still clearly see through the tall floor-to-ceiling windows the graceful, alluring figure inside. The atmosphere was deathly still. Qian Hao sat poised at the coffee table, watching her depart. Her jade-like neck held high, she was like a proud white swan—stubborn, elegant, refusing to concede.

Chu Ran pulled out her phone and called Lawyer Qian.

She wanted to arrange a time to meet with Lawyer Qian, return Qian Hao’s bank card, and pay back the two million to Qian Zai’an as well.

Some favors had been accepted, but now it was time to settle them one by one.

When she got home, Gu An’an asked how it went. She gave a brief account and said to her, “The homeroom teacher said today that time is tight. A lot of classmates have already headed over early. I need to hurry.”

Gu An’an grew anxious. “So when are you leaving? Are you going with other classmates? Did Qian Hao say she’s leaving in a week? Can you go together?”

Chu Ran sat silently on the sofa for a long moment before saying, “I’m not going.”

Gu An’an stared in bewilderment. “What’s wrong? Little Ran, why do you say you’re not going? What do you mean?”

Chu Ran stood and walked back to her room, sitting at her desk. She pulled out the family photo with her parents and stared at it blankly.

Gu An’an’s heart raced in panic, completely at a loss for what had happened. She wheeled herself over to Chu Ran’s side and nudged her. “Little Ran, say something. Why do you say you’re not going?”

Chu Ran was building up her emotions. After a long while, she mumbled sullenly, “Sister An’an doesn’t want me, so I’m not going!”

Gu An’an’s face paled in distress. “Little Ran, what nonsense are you saying? When did I ever not want you?”

Chu Ran looked at her with grievance. “All the other classmates have their parents going with them, but you won’t go with me.”

Gu An’an was speechless. She looked at Chu Ran, who looked back at her. Their gaze locked in a silent contest of wills.

After a long while, she conceded, softening her voice. “Little Ran, before, when I was healthy, I could have gone to take care of you and share the load. But now, I’d only hold you back. It was so hard for you to get into university. Think about your parents, think about all our struggles these years—they were all for this moment, weren’t they?”

“Little Ran, don’t be stubborn, okay?”

“Let your sister beg you.”

“Your sister really wants everything to go well for you. I don’t want to drag you down.”

Chu Ran’s emotional defenses crumbled inch by inch. She clenched her teeth and buried her head in the photo with her parents.

She knew she couldn’t give in, or Gu An’an would never agree to go.

If she left alone, how miserable Gu An’an would be—she could picture it even with her eyes closed!

Seeing Chu Ran still refusing to budge, Gu An’an grew frantic, like an ant on a hot griddle. One hand clutched Chu Ran’s hand, the other stroked her head.

“Little Ran?”

“Say something. Talk to me?”

“We agreed on this yesterday, didn’t we?”

“Have your wings grown strong? Are you refusing to listen to me now?”

Gu An’an gave her a gentle push, but she didn’t move, head buried, teeth gritted hard. Tears fell one by one onto the photo frame with her parents.

Fortunately, her long hair hid it from Gu An’an’s view.

She took a deep breath, swallowing her choked sob.

Her tone was resolute, like that of a willful, spoiled child.

“Anyway, you’re the only one I’ll ever recognize in this lifetime. If you won’t go with me to university, I won’t go!”

“Whenever you’re willing to go with me, that’s when I’ll go!”

“If you never go, then I’ll never go to university!”

Those words were like the straw that broke the camel’s back, shattering all of Gu An’an’s remaining resolve in an instant!

She burst into tears with a wail.

Tears poured out, soaking her eyes and streaming down her entire face.

“How can you say something like that?”

“Are you trying to anger me to death?”

“We’ve endured so much hardship and worked so hard all this time, all for you to get into university.”

“Now you’ve finally made it, and you know how happy that made me. But you’re throwing it away just to spite me? You…”

“Little Ran, you’ve disappointed me so much!”

Gu An’an shoved her hard.

“You little rascal, say something!”

Chu Ran quickly wiped her face and turned to look at her.

Their eyes met. Gu An’an’s face was a picture of tear-streaked resentment, and Chu Ran’s heart twisted like a knife, though her expression remained resolute.

“Sister An’an, I can’t live without you. If you won’t come with me, I definitely won’t go.”

Gu An’an’s expectant gaze turned to panic. “Little Ran, you can’t do this. You have to go to school. I can’t go and embarrass you. You don’t know what it’s like to have people talking behind your back. It crushes you, sweeps away all your dignity. I can’t bear for you to go through that. It’s not that I won’t go with you, really…”

She grabbed Chu Ran’s arms and shook her forcefully, as if trying to shake some sense into her.

In the shaking field of vision, Gu An’an looked so pitiful, her tear-streaked face like a gentle, enveloping net that smothered her completely.

“Little Ran, say something. Promise me. You can’t do this…”

The girl’s tearful eyes and soft, pleading voice steadily eroded the tough facade Chu Ran had built around her heart.

She panicked, her insides burning with turmoil. Suddenly, she threw her arms around Gu An’an and kissed her fiercely, without a care in the world.

The sight of her tear-filled eyes tugged at Chu Ran’s heart. She kissed haphazardly at Gu An’an’s eye sockets. The tears made her chest tighten, so she frantically kissed them away from her face. A fierce possessiveness welled up from the depths of her bone marrow, like a venomous serpent wreaking havoc inside her body.

She was hers—all of her. Her tears were hers, her vulnerability was hers, and even that tear-streaked and pitiful look on her face was hers!

Gu An’an was stunned by her intensity. She sat there motionless, dazed, letting Chu Ran kiss all over her face.

After that stormy barrage of kisses came a gentle drizzle of feather-light ones, softly brushing her eye sockets, the spot between her brows, her forehead, her cheeks, and even her chin.

Gu An’an remained dazed, her large, damp almond-shaped eyes wide open. She looked like a frightened little deer—pitiful and helplessly fragile—as she gazed at Chu Ran.

Chu Ran kissed until she had her fill, lingering only until there were no more tears left to kiss away. Then, with great reluctance, she forced herself to stop.

She suppressed the thick, bone-deep desire in her eyes and said in a low voice, “If you cry again, I’ll keep kissing you until your face swells up.”

Gu An’an’s lips quivered, and she nearly burst into tears once more.

Chu Ran looked away, unsettled by Gu An’an’s pure, innocent, fragile, and utterly vulnerable gaze.

Pretending to be stern, she said, “You promised me, and you have to keep your word. You said you’d go to university with me, so you have to.”

Gu An’an sniffled and shot her a glance full of resentment.

“Little Ran, you’ve gone bad.”

Chu Ran’s heart skipped a beat, suddenly afraid that Gu An’an had noticed something. But then Gu An’an said wistfully, “You won’t even listen to me anymore.”

Chu Ran’s heart settled back into place. She put on her usual bratty face. “Can’t I be going through a rebellious phase? Anyway, you keep your promises. I’ll go if you do—otherwise, I’m not setting foot on any university campus.”

With that, she made as if to stand. “I’ll call my homeroom teacher right now and tell him I’m not going. He can pass the word on to Tsinghua University.”

Gu An’an panicked and clutched her tightly. “Don’t!”

“I promise you!”

“I’ll go with you, okay?”

“You’re trying to scare me to death, you little jerk!”

She gripped Chu Ran’s back fiercely, pounding on it wildly. The blows looked forceful but landed as light as could be.

Chu Ran wrapped her arms around Gu An’an in return, a triumphant smile curling her lips. But she kept up the stern act. “You’re the one who wasn’t keeping her word. I haven’t gone bad at all.”