Chapter 560: Rippling Dimples, Sweet as Frosting (Part 2)

It was better to let things take their course than to let the tension between them build up again.

Xue Rui had thought it through. In this situation, he was the biggest winner.

“Xixi, let me pat your head too,” Xue Rui said softly.

He walked over to Lin Ruoxi with a smile, only to find that her eyes had snapped open. She was staring at him, blinking her bright, enchanting eyes.

Xue Rui pretended not to notice and patted her head anyway. Lin Ruoxi, for her part, was very cooperative, nuzzling against his palm with an expression of pure enjoyment.

“I’m going to bed,” Gu Muxue pouted. ‘The moment Xue Rui arrives, Lin Ruoxi forgets all about me.’

She pulled her hidden bag out from behind a sofa cushion, clutched it to her chest, and slowly walked into her room.

“Muxue, remember to take your medicine!” Lin Ruoxi called out urgently.

“Got it,” Gu Muxue replied instinctively.

As the door clicked shut, Xue Rui heard the sound of the deadbolt sliding into place. He and Lin Ruoxi exchanged a look, then held their breath in perfect sync, listening intently for any movement from within the room.

“ZZZIP~”

A short, scraping sound echoed, and Lin Ruoxi whispered, “That’s the sound of her bag’s zipper. She’s going to take her medicine and go to sleep.”

Xue Rui made a soft clicking sound with his mouth and patted the young woman’s head. “You’re incredible.”

Lin Ruoxi’s powers of observation were, without a doubt, the most formidable he’d ever encountered. ‘She’s also a very sensitive person,’ he thought, ‘she just tends to bottle up her unhappiness.’

He suddenly remembered calling Gu Qingshan his “father-in-law” earlier and felt he needed to explain things to Lin Ruoxi. At the very least, he had to spin a story to make the young woman feel better.

“Xixi, Old Gu is on my case every single day. He video calls to check up on me, he’s pushing me to get into grad school… it got so bad I had to go get a hotel room just now to fake it for him.”

“I wasn’t thinking straight when I said that. Me, call him ‘father-in-law’?”

Looking like he’d been gravely wronged, Xue Rui slapped the sofa, making it go THUMP, THUMP.

“Frankly, who does he think he is?”

“So what if he’s a little more handsome than me, a little more distinguished, and has a beautiful daughter… Tell me, besides all that, what’s he got?”

‘The real kicker is, that old geezer won’t even let me have his prized little cabbage!’

Of course, Xue Rui didn’t dare say that part out loud.

Knowing Gu Muxue, Xue Rui was pretty sure she was pressed against her door right now, eavesdropping. Every word he spoke, every move he made, was being monitored. So, he absolutely couldn’t say anything too harsh; in fact, he needed to throw in a couple of compliments.

And so, Xue Rui vented his frustrations in a tirade that cleverly mixed insults with praise.

On the other side of the door, Gu Muxue covered her mouth, stifling a laugh. Xue Rui had just viciously praised her father in the most begrudging tone possible, and he’d even managed to compliment her in the process.

Lin Ruoxi was left momentarily stunned by his rant. He seemed so genuinely wronged. She hugged him and whispered, “You’re the most handsome.”

“Xixi… it’s a shame my father-in-law passed away so young. Next year, during the Qingming Festival, I’ll go back with you to visit him.”

Xue Rui murmured, holding her hand.

In truth, Xue Rui had already paid a visit this year without telling Lin Ruoxi. As for what he did there…

Hearing this, Lin Ruoxi felt a prickling in her nose. Her rosy lips trembled, and she tilted her head back, fighting to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes.

‘Xue Rui called her father his father-in-law… That meant he saw her as his wife…’

“Okay… we’ll go back together next year.” Lin Ruoxi wrapped her arms around Xue Rui’s neck, pressing her cheek tightly against his.

‘It didn’t matter if the future Xue Rui described would ever come true. The fact that he was willing to make such a promise to her proved that even though she was all alone in the world, she was just as important to him as Gu Muxue.’

‘Xue Rui always said that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but she never wanted to be the one crying and making a fuss to get his attention.’

‘And yet, he had still made this promise to her. If he didn’t love her, why would he bother?’

“You should go sleep in Muxue’s room. I’m going to get some work done.” Lin Ruoxi reluctantly let go of him.

“It’s the National Day holiday. What work could you possibly have?” Xue Rui asked.

Lin Ruoxi put her hands behind her back. “You said it yourself. Uncle Gu is going to check up on you. You need a photo editing app.”

“Right. And as everyone knows, you can’t just Photoshop a video,” Xue Rui said, pinching her cheek. “But for now, you need to get some proper rest. Go to bed.”

“Rui, it’s too exhausting for you to run back and forth. I’ll get it done as quickly as I can.” Lin Ruoxi slowly shook her head, walked into her room, and sat down at her computer. She picked up the noise-canceling headphones from the desk and slipped them over her ears.

Xue Rui gave a helpless smile but didn’t try to stop her.

In Lin Ruoxi’s eyes, he was omnipotent, but he knew she was just seeing him through rose-colored glasses.

But in Xue Rui’s eyes, Lin Ruoxi was the true jack-of-all-trades. It wasn’t just that she was incredibly efficient; she also slept less than a normal person, seemingly blessed with an inexhaustible supply of energy. She never even seemed “weak” during her period. She was practically born with a saintly constitution for hard work.

‘Putting on the headphones now was her way of ‘seeing no evil, hearing no evil.”

Lin Ruoxi’s generosity moved him, but he had zero confidence in his ability to actually win over his ‘little cabbage.’

He glanced at the time. It was eleven o’clock. He’d be lucky if he could coax the young woman to open her door before midnight.

To be precise, her actual birthday would start in an hour. The best-case scenario would be to bring her the cake, candles lit, at the stroke of midnight.

Xue Rui gently closed Lin Ruoxi’s door. He picked up the bag with the small cake inside and tiptoed over to Gu Muxue’s room, knocking softly on the door.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK~

“Muxue, are you asleep? If you’re not, just say so…”

Gu Muxue’s brow furrowed. ‘It’s true that boys his age don’t have the best reputation, but is Xue Rui really this desperate?’

‘Hmph!’ Gu Muxue scoffed internally.