The Price of a Rabbit

The light in front of the girls’ dormitory was bright enough, but Guo Peng couldn’t quite make out the expressions on the faces of the two people beside him.

To be precise, he couldn’t understand them. Xiao Ye had been all smiles just a moment ago, but the second Teacher Chu arrived, all that warmth vanished. On the other hand, although Teacher Chu looked calm, Guo Peng felt a strange chill creeping down his spine. The cold was so sudden that he briefly wondered if he was coming down with something.

I guess I didn’t wear enough today. I’d better head back and drink some cold medicine, he thought.

After a quick goodbye, Guo Peng hurried away, leaving only Chu Ran and Ye Nanzhi behind.

Behind them, the crowd was still noisy, with bursts of laughter and cheering erupting every now and then. It sounded incredibly lively.

In contrast, the atmosphere between Chu Ran and Ye Nanzhi was several degrees colder than a Northern winter night.

Seeing that things weren’t right, Ye Nanzhi wanted to make a run for it. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll head up now. Goodbye, Teacher Chu.”

She turned to flee. But her attempts to escape never seemed to go smoothly.

Chu Ran reached out and caught the strap of Ye Nanzhi’s crossbody bag. “Did I say you could leave?”

Ye Nanzhi was like a rabbit caught by its tail. Unable to run, she was forced to turn around. She kept her head down, not daring to meet Chu Ran’s eyes, while her toe ground relentlessly against the pavement. Her voice was tiny—a flicker of resistance that lacked any real backbone. “I… I haven’t finished reading the literature yet. If you do this, I won’t be able to report to you tomorrow…”

With the proposal defense approaching, writing the report would take up a lot of time. The topic had to be finalized this week.

Chu Ran didn’t care for Ye Nanzhi’s clumsy excuses. Her gaze swept over the girl and finally settled on her right arm.

“What’s wrong with your hand?” Chu Ran asked.

With just a simple glance, she could tell something was off, just as Ye Nanzhi had read the unhappiness in her eyes the moment they met.

Chu Ran was unhappy. The reason wasn’t hard to guess.

Ye Nanzhi chose to play dumb. After all, she had experience with this.

“Nothing… nothing’s wrong.” Ye Nanzhi raised her right arm and waved it in a circle, desperately trying to prove she was fine.

Moving her arm and rotating it was technically fine, but she had no strength in it, and it hurt immensely. She endured the discomfort, clenching her hand into a fist and releasing it to demonstrate flexibility.

But this clearly didn’t fool Chu Ran.

Ignoring Ye Nanzhi’s display of her left hand, Chu Ran took a step forward, gripped her wrist, and gently supported her arm.

At that small movement, Ye Nanzhi subconsciously hissed, “Sss—”

The sound wasn’t loud, but Ye Nanzhi felt Chu Ran’s movements—already gentle—become even slower.

As the sleeve was slowly pushed up, Chu Ran saw a large, dark purple bruise on the otherwise fair skin. The center was green, and the outer ring was flushed red.

“You call this ‘nothing’?” Chu Ran’s eyes turned cold. That single look made Ye Nanzhi lose all her confidence. She murmured softly, “It’ll be better tomorrow…”

After saying that, Ye Nanzhi peeked at Chu Ran’s expression again and immediately went silent.

“I… I was wrong!”

This was Ye Nanzhi’s survival tactic. Since the day she met Chu Ran, as long as she lowered her head and apologized, the other woman would stop pursuing the matter. Although she didn’t know what she had done wrong this time, Ye Nanzhi figured that if she admitted fault quickly, Chu Ran would let her go as usual.

But this time, the survival tactic failed. Chu Ran had no intention of letting go.

Not only did she not let go, but she also took her by her uninjured arm and led her to the car, placing her in the passenger seat without a word.

Before Ye Nanzhi could react, the door slammed shut with a bang. No matter how hard she pulled, the handle wouldn’t budge.

Chu Ran got into the driver’s seat, facing Ye Nanzhi’s flushed, anxious face.

Chu Ran’s hand, which had been reaching for the keys, suddenly let go. She leaned over toward Ye Nanzhi’s right shoulder, her extended arm boxing the girl into a narrow space. Ye Nanzhi subconsciously closed her eyes, her entire body tensing up as her back pressed firmly into the seat.

A rustling sound followed, then a click. Ye Nanzhi opened her eyes to find that Chu Ran had simply buckled her seatbelt.

Ye Nanzhi quietly turned her head, meeting Chu Ran’s gaze. “Why did you close your eyes?”

“Nothing… it was nothing…” Ye Nanzhi turned her head mechanically, pretending to rub her eyes. “My eyes just felt uncomfortable for a second.”

“Oh.” Chu Ran pretended not to see through the lie and didn’t press further, finally pressing the start button.

By now, the crowd from the confession had mostly dispersed. Ye Nanzhi thought Chu Ran was taking her to the school clinic, but to her surprise, they drove straight out of the school gates.

“Where… where are you taking me?”

“Student Ye, isn’t it a bit late to start asking that now?” As Chu Ran spoke, she stepped on the gas. With a low hum, the car accelerated forward.

At the orthopedic hospital, the emergency room physician was a young woman, likely not even thirty, around the same age as Chu Ran. Her name tag read “Lin Shuang.”

After a series of careful examinations, Dr. Lin confirmed that there were no broken bones. However, Chu Ran still insisted on an X-ray before she felt at ease.

“The lack of strength in her arm is mainly due to soft tissue injury. It’s not going to feel pleasant.”

This aligned with Chu Ran’s initial assessment, but she had insisted on a checkup just to be safe.

Dr. Lin prescribed two medications for blood circulation and bruise removal, then told them to pay and pick up the medicine before heading back.

Ye Nanzhi reached for the payment slip, but Chu Ran snatched it first.

Dr. Lin looked at Ye Nanzhi and smiled. “You’re lucky. A teacher this responsible is hard to come by these days.”

At the end of the day, a bruise wasn’t a major emergency. A bit of medicinal oil would have sufficed.

In fact, it was the first time she had seen a teacher bring a grown student to the emergency room in the middle of the night for something so minor.

Furthermore, the teacher’s anxious expression when they arrived wasn’t faked. She wasn’t satisfied with a simple checkup and insisted on a film to ensure the bone was fine.

Even the medicine retrieval was handled personally by the teacher. Dr. Lin had seen all kinds of people in the hospital, but it was rare to see a teacher so concerned for a student.

If she hadn’t heard the girl call her “Teacher,” she would have thought they were in an extremely intimate relationship.

After handing over her shift, Dr. Lin returned to the office. She saw a tall, handsome figure who had seemingly just arrived—he hadn’t even taken off his coat yet. Seeing her, he greeted her with a smile.

The fatigue on Dr. Lin’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a gentle smile. “Tang Mu, you’re on the night shift too?”

After collecting the medicine, Chu Ran brought Ye Nanzhi back to the car.

This time, Ye Nanzhi was one step ahead and hid in the back seat. Once the door was shut, she let out a sigh of relief. However, Chu Ran followed her, opening the door on the other side and sitting inside without hesitation.

“What are you looking at?” Chu Ran said flatly, pointing behind Ye Nanzhi. “Hand me the disinfectant wipes behind you.”

Chu Ran disinfected her hands and then took Ye Nanzhi’s wrist. “It might sting a bit. Bear with it.”

As she spoke, the cool medicinal oil was poured onto Ye Nanzhi’s bruised arm. The moment the liquid touched her skin, there was a burning sensation, but it quickly subsided into a warm, soothing feeling.

The thin calluses on Chu Ran’s palm rubbed against Ye Nanzhi’s delicate skin. The slight tingling sensation felt like an electric current hitting Ye Nanzhi’s heart.

The warm palm slowly spread the cool oil, gently massaging the painful area. The pressure started light and gradually increased.

Even though it was a late autumn night, Ye Nanzhi’s cheeks began to heat up.

When Chu Ran went to pour more oil, Ye Nanzhi quickly stopped her. “That’s enough, Teacher Chu.”

Ye Nanzhi emphasized the title “Teacher Chu” heavily, as if deliberately scrubbing away the fantasies in her mind.

Hearing this, Chu Ran closed the bottle. Her gaze fell on Ye Nanzhi’s bag.

It was a small crossbody bag shaped like a rabbit’s head, with a carrot-shaped clasp.

Chu Ran’s finger brushed the tip of the rabbit’s ear, as if casually wiping away a drop of oil that had dripped onto it. “When you threw away the keychain back then, didn’t you say you hated rabbits the most?”

“Look! It’s my favorite rabbit!!!”

Eighteen-year-old Ye Nanzhi’s face was still full of youthful innocence. After getting her new keychain, she happily returned to her dorm. The moment she opened the door, she couldn’t wait to show her roommates her new treasure.

But no one in the room paid her any mind. Feng Linlin was busy researching a “New World” with the others.

She had discovered a new app that allowed her to add various stickers—like hearts or cat tails—to photos.

“Xiao Ye, let’s try it on you.” Without waiting for her to speak, Feng Linlin pulled her down and snapped a photo.

She used a rabbit-ear sticker and added six little whiskers to her nose. A pair of pink ears stood atop her head, making her look soft and adorable.

“Oh, our Xiao Ye is so cute!” Feng Linlin showed the result to everyone while sending the photo to Ye Nanzhi. “Sometimes I really wonder if Xiao Ye is a rabbit in human form. Look at this photo—tsk tsk, so pretty! Oh? Xiao Ye, what were you saying?”

Ye Nanzhi finally remembered, pulling the keys from her pocket. “I found my keys! And I got a new keychain! Isn’t it pretty? Look, isn’t my rabbit cute? It’s a King Kong Rabbit!”

Ye Nanzhi hooked her finger through the ring, showing it off.

Feng Linlin took a look, and a strange expression crossed her face. She hooked an arm around Ye Nanzhi’s shoulder. “Truth time: which suitor gave you this? Was it your Brother Tang Mu?”

“No,” Ye Nanzhi shook her head. “A senior in the Art Club gave it to me.”

“A senior? Liar!” Feng Linlin tapped away at her phone and soon showed Ye Nanzhi a picture of a keychain identical to the one in her hand.

“This is a new release from this year. It’s a luxury brand! That carrot doesn’t have a zircon on it—that’s a ruby! Why would a senior buy you something this expensive? I don’t believe it!”

Ye Nanzhi took the phone and looked. On the webpage, the price beneath the picture of the keychain was a piercingly bright red.

This rabbit actually cost 26,800?