Chapter 593 - 376: You Might Make a Small Profit, but I Will Never Lose (Part 2)

Just a few seconds later, Da Huang trotted merrily to the side of the dining table, waiting with an expectant look for the food hidden in Xue Rui’s hand.

"Heh heh, mind if I borrow that head of yours?" Xue Rui opened his palm, revealing a plump, red egg.

In an instant, Da Huang bolted away from Xue Rui and let out two angry barks from a distance.

Xue Rui said disdainfully, "Da Huang, you’re such a petty dog. So what if I’ve used your head to crack an egg a few times?"

"WOOF!" Da Huang barked again.

"Alright, alright, I admit it was more than once or twice, okay?"

"WOOF WOOF!"

"Seventy or eighty times at most..."

Gu Muxue struggled to keep a straight face. Xue Rui was just too amusing—arguing with a dog, of all things, and Da Huang was playing his part perfectly.

"Xixi, Da Huang won’t listen. Call him over so I can crack an egg," Xue Rui said as usual.

"Mm, you can use my head," Lin Ruoxi said, squeezing her eyes shut and leaning her head forward.

"Works for me." Xue Rui didn’t hesitate, crisply cracking the egg on her head.

With a sharp CRACK!, the young woman’s shoulders twitched, a gesture that was particularly lively and cute.

Xue Rui’s brow furrowed. He could have sworn he heard two sounds.

He turned his head and saw Gu Muxue glaring, having just slammed her chopsticks onto the table.

"She let you, and you actually did it? How could you bring yourself to do that?" Gu Muxue said through gritted teeth.

’This is no way for a couple to act. Isn’t this just blatant bullying?’

Lin Ruoxi frantically waved her hands in explanation. "It didn’t hurt."

"Ruoxi, don’t defend him. How could it not hurt? Eggs are hard! Even Da Huang knows to stay away from him." Gu Muxue felt a sense of helplessness; Lin Ruoxi was just far too compliant.

"Xixi, Muxue is saying you’re not even as smart as a dog," Xue Rui said, shaking his head.

"Xiaorui!" Enraged, Gu Muxue shot to her feet, grabbed an egg, and moved to crack it on Xue Rui’s head.

The corners of Xue Rui’s mouth lifted slightly as he leaned his head toward her. ’She’s more alive when she shows some emotion,’ he thought. ’Maybe then she can get off those damn pills sooner.’

Gu Muxue gritted her teeth, but just as her hand was about to strike, she quickly eased up, tapping the egg gently on Xue Rui’s head instead.

Xue Rui could hear the egg tapping lightly and repeatedly against his head, the vibrations making him dizzy.

’Just get it over with!’ Xue Rui screamed internally. The girl’s soft-heartedness was, ironically, torturing him.

There’s a science to cracking eggs on one’s head. If you do it decisively and shatter the shell, you don’t feel any pain.

Conversely, if you only tap it lightly and the egg remains intact, then for the head in question, it’s sheer torture...

Xue Rui looked as if he’d lost the will to live. Of course, a pampered young lady like Gu Muxue wouldn’t be privy to such obscure trivia.

"Stop tapping, you’ll hurt him," Lin Ruoxi said, getting up to grab Gu Muxue’s wrist.

Gu Muxue pouted. "Ruoxi, don’t indulge him. He hit you so hard just now that the egg broke."

Lin Ruoxi looked like she was about to speak, then hesitated. Not having time to explain, she simply snatched the egg from Gu Muxue’s hand and cracked it on her own head.

"Ruoxi!" Gu Muxue suddenly felt a pang of guilt. She knew she shouldn’t have tried to hit Xue Rui, but she just felt that things weren’t fair.

Seeing Lin Ruoxi reach for the last egg, she snatched it away and hid it behind her back.

"Hmph! Ruoxi is a girl and even she didn’t complain." Gu Muxue was convinced Xue Rui was just faking his pained expression.

"Muxue, I know it seems a bit counterintuitive, but I feel I should explain..."

With a serious expression, Xue Rui shared the "little trick" to cracking eggs with Gu Muxue. It was a technique most boys knew; in middle school, there were always some who would try to look cool by cracking eggs on their heads.

"You and your twisted logic," Gu Muxue said, wrinkling her nose at him in a threatening gesture.

"Um, Rui is right. Tapping it lightly feels different from hitting it hard. When you tap it lightly, the egg doesn’t break, so the whole shell transfers most of the force to your head. That’s why it hurts so much."

"When you hit it hard, the shell cracks and deforms, absorbing some of the kinetic energy. This extends the collision time, and according to the impulse-momentum theorem—FΔt = Δp—we can deduce that both the average and peak force are reduced. Then there’s the contact surface area..."

"So hitting it hard doesn’t hurt. Rui is absolutely right."

Lin Ruoxi patiently explained the science behind it, and both Xue Rui and Gu Muxue listened attentively.

However, Xue Rui started to tune out during the second half of her explanation. ’So this is the advantage of studying so much,’ he thought. ’Who knew you could analyze something like this so methodically?’

Knowledge had just wormed its way into their brains in a strange way.

Gu Muxue picked up the egg, tapped it lightly against her head a few times, and then brought it down hard with decisive force.

CRACK! The eggshell shattered on impact.

Gu Muxue looked at the dented egg, then felt her own head. She smiled and said, "Hmm, Ruoxi has a point."

"Isn’t that the same thing I said? Physics doesn’t lie," Xue Rui said with a shrug.

"Tomorrow, I’m using your head to crack my egg," Gu Muxue said, peeling the egg and placing it on Lin Ruoxi’s plate.

"That will hurt," Lin Ruoxi said faintly.

"You just said it wouldn’t, and I just tried it myself. It doesn’t hurt," Gu Muxue said with a grin.

"I... I’ll feel bad for him," Lin Ruoxi said. She peeled the egg in her hand, inspected it carefully, and then placed it on Xue Rui’s plate.

Xue Rui chuckled and gave the egg in his hand to Gu Muxue. That way, everyone had an egg to eat.

"Hmph! At least you know what’s good for you," Gu Muxue said, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly.