Chapter 552: Hidden Boss

“You… How could you be looking at something like this!” Gu Muxue turned her head away, covering her face tightly to avoid what was on the screen.

At that moment, Gu Muxue’s face was like a ripe tomato. Her ears, in particular, were so red that you could almost see the capillaries under the sunlight…

Gu Muxue felt like her eyes had been tainted.

Hearing this, Lin Ruoxi quickly force-closed the browser. She didn’t want Gu Muxue to turn into a bad girl, but even more, she didn’t want Xue Rui to get beaten up. This was the simplest solution.

“I… I’m sorry. Please don’t hit him. It was just a little game,” Lin Ruoxi said meekly.

“Oh.” Gu Muxue’s gaze was unnatural. She turned her head to the side, suddenly unsure how to face Lin Ruoxi and Xue Rui…

Lin Ruoxi was surprised. Back in her high school dorm, she had heard the other girls secretly talking about this kind of stuff. She had assumed Gu Muxue must have seen at least a little bit of it…

In reality, whether boy or girl, the desire to explore during adolescence is endless. Someone like Gu Muxue, who was only seeing this for the first time in college, was actually in the minority.

The image, which had only been on screen for a few short seconds, was now stuck in Gu Muxue’s mind…

By the time she found her parents, her mind was a blank. She suddenly felt a pang of guilt and didn’t dare to meet their eyes.

Gu Muxue looked down and handed Gu Qingshan an ice cream bar. “Dad, this is for you.”

“Muxue, why is your face so red?”

“The sun…”

“Remember to bring an umbrella next time,” Gu Qingshan reminded her.

“Okay…”

Gu Muxue took out a Xiaobuding ice cream bar and walked over to Xue Rui. She felt both embarrassed and angry. ‘How could someone as innocent as Lin Ruoxi have come into contact with that kind of stuff?’

She naturally pinned the blame on Xue Rui. ‘He must have been the one to corrupt Lin Ruoxi.’

So, she squished the Xiaobuding bar in her hand a bit before giving it to Xue Rui. “Here, eat it. The creamy ones melt fast.”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind.” Xue Rui took the ice cream with a smile, thinking, ‘Gu Muxue and Lin Ruoxi are really different.’

‘Lin Ruoxi is always a bit clueless, only thinking of giving him the best of everything while keeping the worst for herself, occasionally forgetting what other people might think.’

‘But Gu Muxue has a much broader perspective. For something as small as eating ice cream, giving the worst-looking one to the person you’re closest to isn’t a bad solution at all.’

“Huh?” Xue Rui’s brow furrowed.

He could tell by the feel of it that someone had deliberately squished it. Finger-shaped dents were embedded in the ice cream’s surface.

‘Melted? This little lady is just throwing a tantrum.’

But Xue Rui didn’t call her out on it and just took a big bite.

Lin Ruoxi quietly walked up behind Xue Rui. She stuffed a small bag of terracotta warrior figurines into his hand. “These are for you.”

“You bought these?” The corner of Xue Rui’s mouth twitched when he saw what was in the bag. ‘How old am I again?’

These souvenirs were mostly sold to tourists as proof they had visited Chang’an, similar in nature to taking a souvenir photo.

But he and Lin Ruoxi were students in Chang’an…

Xue Rui felt helpless. Lin Ruoxi always treated him like a child, like a grandmother from the countryside secretly buying snacks and toys for her grandchildren.

“Muxue paid for half,” Lin Ruoxi said in a small voice.

If she had haggled by herself, she would have gotten the price down to seventy or eighty yuan at most. So in Lin Ruoxi’s eyes, she and Gu Muxue had each paid half.

“Oh, I love them. Quick, help me put them in the trunk,” Xue Rui whispered. Whether he liked them or not, he had to say he did. He couldn’t hurt the girl’s feelings.

“Xiaorui, let’s go. Muxue said she wants to get hot pot,” Gu Qingshan said with his hands behind his back.

“Coming.”

「…」

For the next few days, Xue Rui was forced to revisit—and in some cases, re-revisit—all the tourist spots he had already been to in his past life. It wasn’t until the National Day Golden Week was more than half over and Zhao Lizhen announced she had to leave town for an urgent matter that Xue Rui finally had a chance to go to Gu Muxue’s apartment again.

Xue Rui put on a curious expression. He walked a circle around the living room, then stood on the balcony and said, “Aunt Zhao, the apartment you bought is really spacious.”

He thought to himself, ‘The ninth floor is pretty high. If someone were to “accidentally” fall from here, wouldn’t they be splattered into pieces?’

So, even though this wasn’t his first time here, Xue Rui had to pretend it was.

In fact, the phone in his pocket had already automatically connected to Gu Muxue’s home Wi-Fi.

Zhao Lizhen leaned against the balcony railing and said softly, “Xiaorui, those sneakers by the door… I seem to remember you have an identical pair.”

“That’s how it is with popular items. All the students wear them these days,” Xue Rui said calmly, though his heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t seen Zhao Lizhen very often because she was always busy with work.

‘She can remember what clothes I’ve worn?’

He had been so careful, putting on a flawless performance in front of Gu Qingshan, but he never expected Zhao Lizhen to be the hidden boss!

‘A woman’s intuition is terrifying!’

“I checked the property management’s security footage. I saw a little bear,” Zhao Lizhen said with a smile at Xue Rui.

Xue Rui was stunned. ‘Aren’t I completely screwed?’

He subconsciously took a step back from the balcony railing…

‘She checked the security footage. That proves Zhao Lizhen knows full well that he was hiding in Gu Muxue’s apartment that day, and that he arrived right around the same time she did…’

Xue Rui suddenly felt his back grow a little damp…

Zhao Lizhen sighed and patted Xue Rui on the back. “Muxue’s all grown up. There are a lot of things she’s unwilling to tell us. Please help me keep an eye on her.”

The main purpose of her trip was to see how Gu Muxue was doing in Chang’an, but Gu Muxue was hiding something, and she couldn’t get it out of her.

Knowing that Xue Rui had hidden in her daughter’s room overnight, as a mother, she was naturally obligated to protect her daughter’s safety.

Most parents would think they definitely had to keep a close watch on their daughter.

But is control alone useful? She couldn’t control Gu Muxue every single moment. That would only push her daughter to oppose her, just like she herself had done when she was young, getting into endless arguments with her own family.