Chapter 80: Heartbeat 1 (Qin Shi)

“Are you here for the school anniversary performance today?” Principal Zhou retracted his gaze that had been discreetly observing Qin Ruyan. He lowered his eyelids slightly, his attitude somewhat restrained.

He had considered sending an invitation to Lu Jingchen. After all, Lu Jingchen had also graduated from Beijing University. However, this was someone ordinary people couldn’t afford to invite, nor dared to invite.

Lu Jingchen hummed in response, “Could you please help us reserve two seats? We’ll enter from the side when the performance hall is almost full.”

He was simply here to accompany Qin Ruyan today, not wanting to cause a stir.

Principal Zhou smiled and nodded, “Of course, I’ll reserve two seats for you in the first row, near the middle.”

Qin Ruyan shook her head, “Principal Zhou, there’s no need to be so courteous. We can sit in the back.”

She slightly raised her head, and Principal Zhou finally got a clear look at her face. His first impression was that she was beautiful, very beautiful. He had searched all of Beijing University and hadn’t seen anyone as beautiful as her.

Her features were bright and delicate, her skin was fair, and her voice was cool. A pair of youthful and unruly eyes held a hint of coldness, making her an undeniable presence even without standing beside Lu Jingchen.

Although few people recognized Lu Jingchen, it didn’t mean there were none, especially today with many entrepreneurs and government officials present.

Qin Ruyan had guessed this would be the case, and she particularly disliked crowds and the hassle, finding them noisy and painful.

She took two masks from her pocket, placing one in Lu Jingchen’s palm. He glanced at her, then slowly took it and put it on himself.

Only then did Qin Ruyan withdraw her hand with satisfaction and put on the other mask.

Lu Jingchen turned back to speak a few more words with the principal before leaving.

Qin Ruyan sent a message to Li Pan, informing her that she had arrived, and then put away her phone.

Behind them, the two walked into the performance hall. Principal Zhou breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t even dared to breathe properly while talking to Lu Jingchen. He wiped his face with his hand and then took out his phone to call the vice principal, confirming the performance schedule for the day.

Li Pan was currently backstage applying makeup. She was performing a solo dance and had already changed into the outfit Qin Ruyan had gifted her.

She was beautiful, with long legs, fair skin, and a round, petite baby face that hadn’t lost its childishness.

There were many people backstage. When she received Qin Ruyan’s WeChat message, she was just about to have her makeup done. She smiled and replied with a couple of sentences.

The person applying her makeup was the coordinator for this event, a senior who was a year older than her.

“Is Panpan texting her boyfriend?” the senior asked. The two were quite familiar and knew that Li Pan had a boyfriend studying at another university.

Li Pan smiled and shook her head, “No, it’s a message to a sister. She came here specially to watch me perform today.”

She was worried that Qin Ruyan might not find a seat when she arrived and was about to tell her that she had reserved a seat, but Qin Ruyan sent a picture of the performance hall seating chart, showing that she had already found a seat.

The senior smiled, “Then I have to make our Panpan even more beautiful. But this outfit of yours is really pretty and unique. Where did you buy it? I’ll go shopping there next time.”

She glanced at Li Pan’s clothes: a short black sweatshirt and a matching high-waisted tulle skirt. The style was actually quite simple, not too complicated, but with many small details. Whether it was the rose thorn embroidery on the sleeves or the small diamond embellishments on the tulle skirt, when worn by Li Pan, it gave the impression that the outfit was made specifically for her.

Li Pan pursed her lips and then smiled again, “It was given to me by the sister who came to watch my performance today. It’s her original brand, the store is in the CBD area, but I saw that the clothes in their store were already sold out, now they are all pre-orders, you can follow their brand Weibo, it’s called Lingxi Clothing Studio.”

Her senior sister nodded as she applied makeup to her, “I’ll follow them after I finish with you, thanks, little Panpan.”

In the performance hall, Qin Ruyan pulled Lu Jingchen to sit in the back row. The lights were not very bright in the performance hall, most people were sitting in the front, the two of them sitting in the back row seemed a little out of place.

Occasionally, people around them would shift their gaze to the two of them, but they were wearing masks, their faces were not clear, and people would just take a look and then withdraw their gaze.

Qin Ruyan was incredibly grateful for her habit of always carrying a mask in her pocket.

She sent Li Pan a picture and told her that she brought her milk tea, to come over and get it when convenient. She just put her phone away when someone patted her on the shoulder, not lightly.

She turned her head impatiently, and the next second she saw Cheng Yubai and Qin Shi standing behind her.

“Brother, why are you two here?” she was a little surprised.

“I saw two figures talking to Principal Zhou from afar, and it looked like you two, I guess I wasn’t wrong.”

Qin Shi explained, Lu Jingchen turned around and saw the two of them the moment Qin Ruyan turned her head. He followed Qin Ruyan and called Qin Shi “Brother,” and then nodded to Cheng Yubai. The two of them weren’t very familiar, and he was always taciturn in front of outsiders.

The two of them sat down next to Qin Ruyan, Cheng Yubai smiled, “Principal Zhou told me early this morning to come and watch the performance, saying that if I stay in the experimental building any longer, I’ll get moldy, so he told me to come out for some fresh air. Unexpectedly, I ran into Qin Shi at the door, and now I’ve run into you.”

He lowered his head and said, “But you two are siblings, why didn’t you tell me?”

Last time he accidentally mentioned that Qin Shi had been coming to see him recently, she reacted strangely at the time, but didn’t say anything. Both of them had the surname Qin, so he guessed that they were probably related.

However, he remembered Qin Shi’s family’s Qin Pharmaceutical, it didn’t seem like they had enough money to allow Qin Ruyan to provide him with funds at any time, right? He was so curious, where did she get so much money to invest in him?

After all, she hadn’t been married to Lu Jingchen for very long, and it couldn’t be from Lu Jingchen, she had been providing him with research funds three years ago.

“You didn’t ask, why should I tell you?”

After saying that, she pressed down on the brim of her hat, “Can you two go sit somewhere else?”

Qin Shi was puzzled, “Why?”

Qin Ruyan pointed at the two of them, “Haven’t you noticed that a lot of people are looking at you?”

She and Lu Jingchen deliberately wore masks because they didn’t want to attract attention. Now, these two were sitting next to her, although their appearance was not as good as Lu Jingchen’s, they were still very handsome, it was probably rare to find people more handsome than them in Beijing University.

Cheng Yubai just smiled, he took out two packaged disposable masks from his pocket, gave one to Qin Shi, and put on his own after opening it, then looked at Qin Ruyan, “Now can we?”

Qin Ruyan looked at them, although it couldn’t hide the unrestrained arrogance in their eyes, but the light wasn’t very good, so it was barely okay.

She just nodded perfunctorily, then turned around and talked to Lu Jingchen.