Chapter 88

"Would you like to be a normal lesbian couple with me?"

Qiu An could hear her heartbeat clearly.

Not only is it clear, it can even be called noisy.

Especially after she uttered this strange confession in an awkward manner, the heartbeat sound under her ear changed from "thump, thump" to "thump, thump, bang, bang, bang".

But then again, the timing that Ranlong chose and the wording of his confession were really too strange, which made Qiu An stunned for a moment before she realized that Ranlong was asking her, "Are you willing to date me?"

Qiu An felt that she was in a daze for not long. Perhaps it was because Ranlong was too nervous, and her tense nerves made her lose the sense of the passage of time.

It seemed to her that half a century had passed and Qiu An still hadn't responded to her.

Does this mean that she refused?

Ranlong couldn't see Qiu An's expression, so naturally he couldn't see that she had opened her mouth to speak.

Ranlong was anxious, and pushed Qiu An's head before him, using a loud voice to cover up the embarrassment of "failed confession": "Hey, hey, hey, hey! Don't you think this is fake and you're trying to trick me?"

Qiu An's unspoken words were interrupted by the sudden shove and questioning. Puzzled, she half-raised her body and looked up at Ran Long: "What's fake? What did I lie to you about?"

"You...you get up first!"

Qiu An sat up straight, and Ran Long slipped out from under her like a loach. She didn't even have time to put on her slippers and ran to the master bedroom barefoot.

Looking at the direction Ranlong ran, Qiu An roughly guessed what she saw.

She stood up from the sofa, put the jewelry box on the table in place, and followed Ranlong into the bedroom.

When she reached the door, she almost bumped into Ranlong who was rushing out. She quickly braked and saw that there was a red scarf in Ranlong's hand.

Ranlong hung the red scarf in front of Qiu An, moistened his trembling lips, and stammered, "That's it. This scarf is a gift from me, right? You've kept it so well and even built a display cabinet for it. Doesn't that prove, prove..."

That was the winter when Ranlong was still a child star.

Ran Cheng was filming a costume drama in Hengzhen, and Ms. Hu took her to play a small role.

That year, Ranlong was ten years old, at the age when he loved running and jumping and was full of energy.

The houses at the filming base were beautiful, and the crews were bustling everywhere. She loved hanging out there. Unfortunately, the crews in Beiji favored her more, so she didn't have many opportunities to come to Hengzhen.

Since it was such a rare opportunity to come here, of course she wanted to play with it inside and out.

Hengzhen is very big, and Ms. Hu was afraid that she would get lost, so she always told her not to run around, and that if she was bored, she could play with the children in the crew.

But the young actors in the crew are either lifeless and speak in a flowery manner, or like to yell and act arrogantly.

They sit on the bench all day long, talking to themselves and bragging. After just a few words, their butts get itchy and they can't sit still anymore.

The adults were all busy and it was still early for her to appear. While Ms. Hu was being taken away for a greeting, Ranlong jumped onto the roof and slipped out the door.

Hengzhen was a bustling place, and Ranlong loved to join in. If a film crew was handing out roasted sweet potatoes, she'd go over and ask for one; if a crew was taking a group photo, she'd go over and give them a "yeah" sign; even if workers were repairing the city wall, she'd go over and grab a handful of lime, only to be yelled at.

We walked and played all the way, and before we knew it, we had walked a long way, so far that we forgot the way back.

Just when Ranlong was anxiously asking for directions like a spinning top, she met Qiu An, who had just finished filming his extra scenes for the day and was wandering around various outdoor film crews trying his luck.

Ranlong remembered that it was not Qiu An who took the initiative to help her.

She was the first one to take a fancy to this pretty, cute, kind and gentle sister, and she pulled up the corner of her clothes without saying a word, regardless of whether she was busy or not.

At that time, Ranlong's height had not yet experienced a rapid growth stage. Qiu An was busy looking up at the adults and did not notice the little guy coming to his feet, and almost tripped and fell.

Qiu An stumbled and looked down to find that the little girl was wearing an antique-style middle-length coat under her down jacket. So she bent down and asked her, "Little girl, which crew are you from? Are you lost? Do you want me to take you back?"

But the title of that costume drama was too complicated. Ranlong forgot how to pronounce it or write it. He only remembered the names of a few characters in the drama.

Qiu An was completely confused and had no choice but to take little Ranlong with him and look for the person from one crew to another.

Halfway through the walk, Ranlong's stomach growled, so Qiu An bought her a basket of dumplings. She ate so much that her face and hands were shiny with happiness.

Soon, Qiu An became her good friend when she was in Hengzhen.

I don’t know whether Ranlong went to see Qiu An every day just for the dumplings, or Qiu An bought her dumplings every day because he saw that Ranlong came hungry every day.

In short, Ranlong had a great time eating xiaolongbao that winter.

There were six dumplings in the basket. Ranlong ate four and left two for Qiu An.

But Qiu An always quietly packed the food and stuffed it into her clothes, and she never ate it once.

When I asked her, she just said that if she got any fatter she wouldn't look good on camera.

Now that I think about it, the two leftover dumplings were probably taken back for Jiang Ting to eat.

Qiu An spent a lot of money on buying dumplings for Ranlong, but was reluctant to spend money on buying a scarf for herself.

The temperature dropped sharply during those days. Ranlong noticed that her neck was bare and she didn't even put on more thick clothes. She was so cold that her hands and feet were shivering and she couldn't speak clearly.

So she took off the new scarf that Ms. Hu had just bought for her and gave it to Qiu An.

Ranlong was originally supposed to stay in Hengzhen for two full weeks, but one day she hurriedly found Qiu An and told her that the crew didn't have enough money, a lot of her scenes had been cut, and she had to go home the next day.

At that time, Ranlong felt that her sister didn't like her very much, because her sister didn't even ask her where she was going back, so how could they meet again in the future.

Fortunately, Ranlong was very open and confident at that time. When her sister was silent, she took her sister's hand and told her, "My family lives in Beiji. When I grow up, I will go to Beiji Film Academy. You can find me there. Remember? I will go to Beiji Film Academy, the most amazing film academy."

Qiu An nodded.

At that time, Qiu An was not called Qiu An, but Ranlong could not quite remember the name that her sister told her.

The cheerful, generous and cute Ranlong is popular wherever he goes. In a blink of an eye, many people are around him, so it is difficult for him to remember a friendship that only lasted a week.

Qiu An is different.

This was the first gift Qiu An received, and it was the first ray of light in her gray life.

From the moment she received the scarf, she began to think about how to preserve this light.

It couldn't be kept at home, and Qiu An didn't dare hide it in her desk. The colors on the children's clothes were too monotonous, and the sudden appearance of the red scarf was bound to attract attention.

So she put the scarf in a small bag and hid it in the drawer of the podium desk. That was where the teachers kept their belongings, and the children didn't dare touch them. And the teachers didn't know what each other had put in there, so the bag was safe there.

When the man found the money she had hidden in her desk, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

She thought, fortunately, fortunately she hid the scarf.

The day she ran away from home, she first took out the scarf hidden in the podium desk, then took the cash and ID card from the classroom desk, and left Luochuan forever.

She left in such a hurry, but left nothing behind.

Perhaps she had already made the plan to run away, and had rehearsed it thousands of times, without even realizing it.

The scarf accompanied Qiu An all the way, drifted to Hengzhen, then drifted to Beiji, and finally fell back into Ranlong's hands.

"Doesn't it just mean... that you actually, maybe, just a little bit... like... me?" Ranlong was so unconfident that his voice got smaller and smaller until only a passing mosquito could hear it.

"Huh? What did you say?" Qiu An didn't hear clearly.

"Or... did I misunderstand you again? Your love for me means you treat me as a younger sister, not as a romantic partner...?"

Oh, this is so annoying. Does liking something have to be divided into so many different categories? It's so complicated. She considers herself simple-minded and underdeveloped, so she always thinks things are simple.

For her, the antonym of like is dislike, and the antonym of dislike is like.

Look at her, she doesn't like Yuan Chengyin, Yao Ling, Sister Hou, or Xixi, but she likes Qiu An. She likes him because she likes him.

Um……

But wait…

"But how can you treat me as your sister and at the same time, sleep with me as Yuan Chengyin's substitute?"

Qiu An was so amused by Ran Long's bizarre train of thought that she laughed so hard that her stomach hurt and her face turned red.

"You're still laughing at me! You pervert!"

Qiu An wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and said seriously, "I don't treat you as my sister."

Ranlong's heart skipped a beat.

"I never said I liked Yuan Chengyin."

"this……"

"Also, I never said I didn't want to be a 'normal lesbian couple' with you."

"...You, what do you mean?"

Ranlong's brain was about to smoke. She seemed to not understand what Qiu An said. She seemed to just blush.

Qiu An chuckled, stood on tiptoe, and put his arms around Ranlong's neck.

"Look, you've been talking in circles, and you've even confused yourself."

Her pretty face was so close to him, her hot breath was on his nose, his back stiffened reflexively, and he leaned back slightly.

But no matter how she moved, Qiu An could hear her thunderous heartbeat. He could hear it without even pressing his ear to her chest. The sound of Ran Long's heartbeat was so loud that it seemed to fill the entire room. Now, even the mosquitoes in the corner could hear it.

Did she really like Qiu An? It turns out that liking someone really can make you less confident.

I can't understand the roundabout words, and even if I understand them, I don't dare to believe them.

All the evidence clearly points to "I like you", but I still pretend to be deaf and dumb, wanting to be treated like a fool for a straightforward explanation.

Even though Qiu An raised his chin slightly and pecked her lips again and again, she just stared at Qiu An blankly, not knowing how to react.

This little guy, doesn’t he understand?

Was it her who left a shadow on Ran Long? Although she never said that she loved Yuan Chengyin, and never said that she used Ran Long as a substitute, she also acquiesced when her heart was broken.

She is so nasty.

So, it’s no wonder that Ranlong would rather treat her as a pervert than believe—

"I like you. Ranlong. I love you."