Chapter 270 - 255: Not Celebrating the Qixi Festival

After Xue Rui returned from Shencheng, he only stayed in Hedong for a few days before he was off again, running back and forth between several cities. He and his sales team spent a whole week in Huicheng just dealing with issues at the injection molding factory.

There was still a mountain of tasks waiting for him. In Hedong, he had Gu Qingshan’s help, but once he left, he had to handle everything by the book—registration procedures, business locations, and so on.

Of course, thanks to his memories from his past life, the procedures in Chang’an City weren’t too troublesome. He could find a familiar agency to handle the paperwork, and he just needed to make a trip there when he had the time.

If it weren’t for the summer vacation acting as a buffer, where would he find the time to run all over the country once school started?

Gu Muxue naturally understood this, so she just sent him photos of her daily life and told him what she’d been up to. When he had time to be in Hedong, the two of them would go out for a meal.

As for Lin Ruoxi... Xue Rui wouldn’t visit her even if he was passing through Shencheng. The little lass found it too hard to accept him coming only to leave again. It was better to keep his visits a secret and wait until he had a solid block of time to properly spend with her.

It was now early August. The main product on her end had been completely finalized and sent for 3C certification.

Meanwhile, Xue Rui had finally cleared out a large chunk of his schedule. He had just landed in Shencheng and been picked up by Yu Minlan. Now, he was heading toward the electronics factory’s R&D department—the place where Lin Ruoxi worked.

Yu Minlan sighed. "Boss Xue, you don’t know what Ruoxi is like. She only cracks a smile when she’s on a video call with you. The rest of the time, she just gives me a cold shoulder."

Having spent so much time with Lin Ruoxi, she knew it wasn’t intentional. Ruoxi was just in low spirits and couldn’t bring herself to smile.

Thinking back to their time in Hedong, wasn’t Lin Ruoxi so lively and adorable?

Now, after Xue Rui had been gone for a month, she was like a completely different person.

"I came to take her with me this time." Xue Rui couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. ’How did it come to this?’

"I didn’t tell her you were coming," Yu Minlan said.

"Good. It’ll be a surprise for her," Xue Rui said with a smile.

When Xue Rui quietly walked through the door, a group of people were gathered around a square table in the middle of the room, playing on their phones during a break. On the table were their recently developed products: a long, slender white power strip next to a pile of power banks.

"President Lin’s ideas are truly ahead of their time. I never would have thought an ear-pick could be linked to a phone," a middle-aged man said, staring intently at a screen while holding his right hand a bit stiffly to his ear, cleaning it out.

"It’s a shame the hardware cost is a bit high. The market won’t go for it," someone sighed.

"President Lin, what are your thoughts?" someone asked.

Facing the factory’s major shareholder, they found her quite approachable. It wasn’t just that Lin Ruoxi didn’t put on the airs of a leader; more importantly, her technical skills had also earned their admiration. Lin Ruoxi was improving so quickly that she had already absorbed all the experience they had to offer...

Take this ear-pick, for instance. They didn’t even know when the accompanying software was developed. Lin Ruoxi’s software abilities were formidable as well...

Lin Ruoxi nodded slightly. "Mmm, I think we should be making chips. Most of the profit from this is taken by the chip manufacturers."

"Huh? Semiconductors?" Someone suddenly laughed, thinking it was utterly absurd. To think they were discussing making chips in an electronics factory.

"President Lin, I was asking where the idea for the visual ear-pick came from," someone explained, feeling that Lin Ruoxi’s train of thought was a bit jumpy.

The corners of Lin Ruoxi’s eyes curved into a smile. She remembered the day Xue Rui was lying on her lap, cleaning his ears, and had asked her to check for him...

Everyone couldn’t help but stare, dumbfounded. Lin Ruoxi hadn’t smiled in a very long time. Now that she did, her pure and innocent smile seemed to pull them all back to springtime.

How could a bunch of tech geeks handle something like that!

Someone clutched their chest and joked, "As soon as the holiday starts, I’m going back to confess to my first love."

"Old Li, you’re already 32 this year. How old is your first love?"

"Twenty-three."

"You animal!"

...

Just as everyone was chatting away, Xue Rui quietly opened the door and tiptoed into the office.

Everyone was stunned for a moment. They instantly grew tense in the presence of their boss. At first, they hadn’t been clear on the relationships, but now, who didn’t know that Xue Rui was the real major shareholder?

Moreover, Xue Rui was the one who gave the final approval on product designs. He was the one in the R&D department who had the final say...

Someone even stood up subconsciously...

Xue Rui quickly made a ’shushing’ gesture, smiling as he held out his hand and pressed it downwards, signaling for everyone to keep quiet.

The shift in the atmosphere made the air seem to freeze. The only sound around the large office table was the HUM of the air conditioner.

Everyone laughed awkwardly, pretending as if nothing had happened, all thinking to themselves that young love was a beautiful thing.

Lin Ruoxi, however, was still thinking about what had happened that day and didn’t notice everyone’s gaze suddenly shifting to the space behind her.

Suddenly, a pair of large hands covered her eyes, obscuring even the lower half of her face.

Xue Rui noticed the little lass’s neck suddenly go stiff. ’She must have been startled,’ he thought.

Wrapping your hands around someone’s eyes from behind is something only close friends or lovers would do. He figured the little lass was probably experiencing it for the first time.

Just as he was about to say, "Guess who I am," he felt his palm suddenly become wet.

’The little lass is crying? Why?’

’Did she recognize my hands?’

Xue Rui found it incredibly strange and, for a moment, didn’t know what to say.

He had wanted to give the little lass a surprise. Why had it turned out like this?

The little lass said through choked sobs, "You... you’re back."