Chapter 1740: Crowded, Hand in Hand, A Burning Imprint on My Heart

If it were any other day, Jiang Ruan would certainly not join in on this excitement and would wait in the auditorium until the crowd dispersed before leaving. Today, she was out looking for Yan Chi.

"Stay close." Yan Chi lowered his eyes to look at her, advising.

"There are too many people." Jiang Ruan was helpless. If she had wings, she would have flown out.

As she continued to follow Yan Chi, she was almost pushed aside again. This time, however, they weren’t separated.

Because, in the next second—

Her wrist and forearm were grasped by someone, causing her heart to skip a beat, her heart suddenly tightened.

Following the hand, she saw it was Yan Chi.

Her breath halted for a moment.

He exerted a slight force with his wrist, pulling her out of the crowd to his side.

Probably because he was tall, with long hands and legs, even his knuckles seemed longer than others’, easily encircling her forearm.

The night wind was cool, chilling the skin, but his palm was scorching, pressing against her, making her forearm feel hot.

She originally thought he should let go.

Because Jiang Ruan felt his fingers loosen slightly...

The tightly bound heart seemed to catch a breath, and her heart started beating again, but then, his fingers gently slid down naturally and familiarly, lightly grasping her wrist.

"Stay a bit closer." His voice was scattered and dissipated by the roaring crowd, already very faint when it reached Jiang Ruan’s ear.

But where would she have the energy to care about what he was saying at this moment...

All she felt was that his palm was too hot.

So much so that her palm was starting to sweat.

The heart that had just eased a bit was instantly lifted again, and her heartbeat became more violent. The surrounding crowd, noise, and jostling seemed to vanish in an instant.

Her world...

Had only him.

And the hand tightly grasping her wrist.

In a state of extreme nervousness and excitement, Jiang Ruan seemed to hear her own heart beating chaotically like a drum, a flush deepening layer by layer on her face...

She felt it was too crowded here.

People pressed against each other, crowded.

And something seemed to be pressing against her heart, squeezing it airtight, even amplifying the sound of breathing little by little.

Actually, compared to her, it wasn’t much different for Yan Chi either.

There were many people, and he didn’t want to see her being pushed and jostled. However, he couldn’t openly shield her beneath him. Hesitant and uncertain, he built up his courage for a long time, grasping her forearm, reluctant to let go, after all, he had already touched...

So he simply seized her wrist.

Sometimes, too abrupt an action can easily cause resentment, and Yan Chi was quite worried, fearing she would shake him off, but fortunately...

She didn’t.

...

After successfully exiting the crowd, Yan Chi, although feeling reluctant, showed no change in expression as he let go of her hand and faced her, "There were a lot of people just now."

"Yeah." Jiang Ruan nodded, the heat on her face hard to dissipate under his gaze.

Her heart raced so fast it seemed unable to supply blood, the suffocating feeling from lack of oxygen made her feel weightless.

"Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Uh... after the student council event, there’s a dinner gathering. The president asked me to see if you’d like to join us."

"Are you going too?"

"Yes."

"Where is the location?"

Jiang Ruan led him towards the snack street at the east gate, where the student council dinner was being held at a restaurant.

On the way, neither spoke much, but as they drifted further from the crowd, he suddenly asked:

"Are you going back to Beijing for Mid-Autumn Festival?"

"Yeah, my friend is coming over, so I’ll go back with him."

"A friend..." Yan Chi nodded, "I’ll be in Beijing in a few days too. There’s a jewelry exhibition during Mid-Autumn Festival I need to check out."

"Is that so?" Jiang Ruan gave a faint smile.

This doesn’t really concern her, so why tell her.

**

Jiang Ruan originally thought Yan Chi accompanied her to join the dinner, but as they approached the entrance, he stopped.

"You go on in."

"Aren’t you coming in with me?" Jiang Ruan pointed at the restaurant, it was just a few meters away.

"I’m not going, it’ll be late when the dinner ends and I still have some work to handle."

"Then you..."

Why did you come along?

Jiang Ruan didn’t finish her sentence, but Yan Chi seemed to understand her thoughts, and simply smiled:

"When you were little, I once lost track of you, thought I had lost you, from now on..."

"That won’t happen again."

Jiang Ruan felt something brush against her heart, her heartbeat quickening inexplicably.

He then spoke again:

"It’s too dark and late, bringing you here makes me feel a bit more at ease." The event ended at 9:30, so it wasn’t early.

For some reason...

At this moment, Jiang Ruan even felt a bit disoriented, wondering if he could hear her thunderous heartbeat in this quiet setting.

Yan Chi watched her enter the restaurant before turning away, but inside, Jiang Ruan didn’t go into the private room, instead peeking at the door, watching him disappear into the night.

When she finally went into the private room, the president approached and asked her where Yan Chi was.

"Senior has left." There’s no way Jiang Ruan would admit that Yan Chi had escorted her to the door before leaving, lest they found out and went mad.

"It’s okay, don’t be nervous, it’s normal he didn’t come, it was just a try, thank you for your effort tonight." The president smiled, "Quickly, have a seat, dinner’s starting soon."

After Jiang Ruan sat down, people came over asking about Yan Chi, mostly girls.

Among girls, though some things remain unspoken, Jiang Ruan understood them well.

The impression Yan Chi gave was too intense; girls didn’t dare approach, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have feelings for him.

"I wouldn’t say we’re close." Perhaps due to selfishness, Jiang Ruan didn’t want to tell them that Yan Chi was actually a very meticulous and considerate person.

"You two watched the event together, didn’t you talk?"

"We didn’t talk about anything." Jiang Ruan replied truthfully.

"Alright, stop asking, everyone knows what Senior Yan is like, sitting next to him probably made her nervous already, not to mention Senior Yan isn’t much of a talker."

"True, talking to him is harder than climbing a mountain."

"By the way, that main instructor responsible for the military training who spoke today was really handsome."

...

With the topic shifted, no one paid further attention to Jiang Ruan.

Yan Chi, taciturn?

Jiang Ruan frowned, wondering where this rumor came from, for although he seemed not very talkative, he wasn’t a man of few words either, and...

He was very articulate!

Always leaving her flustered.

She touched the wrist he had just held, the surface warmth from him had long dissipated, but the heat seemed to have seeped into her skin...

Leaving a faint mark on her wrist.

Just thinking about it made her heart race and face heat up.

**

Yan Chi left the school but didn’t go home; instead, he headed straight to the office, reviewing the schedule for the upcoming jewelry exhibition in Beijing during Mid-Autumn Festival. His trip had long been planned, organizing the jewelry exhibition was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, and he had hoped they could travel together if she were returning to Beijing for Mid-Autumn Festival.

Unexpectedly, she had already made plans with a friend.

But this wasn’t a big deal, as there would be plenty of opportunities in the future anyway.

What Yan Chi didn’t anticipate was discovering that Jiang Ruan’s friend was actually a male.

And by sheer coincidence, he happened to witness it.