Chapter 274 - 256: A Romance Unique to Lin Ruoxi

Should he agree? And if so, when?

He’d actually never considered it, because he knew the lass would never leave.

Perhaps any time would have been fine, but the lass never dared to ask.

Lin Ruoxi was not like Gu Muxue. Gu Muxue would dare to force Xue Rui to confess his feelings, and even if he refused, she would find other ways.

But Lin Ruoxi had grown up in poverty. Her life had zero margin for error; one wrong step meant falling into an abyss. She didn’t dare make a mistake, didn’t dare take a gamble.

Even if the lass was 99% sure Xue Rui would agree, she would still be terrified of the remaining 1% chance.

To be precise, Lin Ruoxi could not bear to be rejected by Xue Rui.

Xue Rui changed the subject, saying, "Director Wang said the acceptance letters have arrived."

Lin Ruoxi nodded. "Mhm, the university called me this morning. They asked if I was going to enroll."

Xue Rui’s chopsticks paused. ’Chang’an University of Posts and Telecommunications called Lin Ruoxi?’

But that was to be expected.

It was like some short, poor, ugly old man suddenly meeting a beautiful, wealthy woman in her early twenties, who opens by saying, "Let’s get married, shall we?"

A top scorer in the country choosing a second-rate university—of course they’d have to call and confirm.

"What did you say?" Xue Rui asked.

"I said I’d do whatever my guardian says," Lin Ruoxi said quietly, giving Xue Rui a timid glance after she spoke.

If Xue Rui wasn’t going, then she definitely wouldn’t go either.

Xue Rui took a deep breath. He could just imagine the university staff’s baffled expressions. ’An orphan has a guardian?’

Besides, if he were in charge at Changyou, his first guess would have been, ’Did this girl fill out her application form wrong?’

"When you get to school, don’t be as hardworking as you are now," Xue Rui instructed in a serious voice.

Lin Ruoxi had some social anxiety, and her current environment was one he had curated entirely. Whether it was her friend Yu Minlan or her colleagues at the electronics factory, the relationships weren’t ones of equals. Lin Ruoxi was the one in charge; how would employees dare to bully their boss?

But the lass would eventually have to face different environments. Her relationships with her classmates would be between equals, and someone like Lin Ruoxi, who took on every task, would easily be treated like a pushover.

He knew that back in her school days, whenever the class was divided into groups for cleaning duty, many students would dump all the hard and tiring work on Lin Ruoxi, and she never refused.

Lin Ruoxi looked blank, not understanding what Xue Rui meant.

"Don’t try to please anyone. If it’s someone else’s job, let them do it. If someone is taking advantage of you, you have to speak up..." Xue Rui went on and on, telling her how to get along with her peers and when she needed to be more assertive.

Yu Minlan, sitting on the balcony, nodded slightly. ’That bastard’s finally teaching her something useful,’ she thought.

"Um, but I want to please you. Can’t I?" the lass said meekly.

Xue Rui swallowed. Sometimes the lass was so direct that he was caught completely off guard.

Seeing the lass waiting anxiously for his answer, what could he say but yes?

Xue Rui nodded slightly. "You can. Is there anything else you don’t understand?"

The lass thought for a moment, then voiced her worry, "Um... I’m very pretty. My coworkers at the factory say men all like my type, and there are so many boys at university..."

Xue Rui’s head snapped up, and he stared at Lin Ruoxi in disbelief. ’So you’ve known all along?’

Why did that sound so much like a humblebrag?

Then again, with the lass’s looks and figure, such a worry was perfectly normal. What wasn’t normal was hearing it come from Lin Ruoxi’s own mouth. It seemed those old men had taught her a thing or two.

"And then? What do you plan to do?" Xue Rui asked with a smile. To be blunt, the lass was still a bit naive.

"Um, I... I plan to do whatever you say." Seeing that Xue Rui had finished eating, Lin Ruoxi stood up to clear the table.

Xue Rui sat in his chair, quietly watching the lass bustle about. She radiated the mature aura of a perfect wife and mother.

Sometimes he had the strange feeling that the lass might know everything, and she just wanted him to be the one to make all the decisions.

’A guardian, huh? What a heavy title,’ Xue Rui thought. As he stood up, he gave the lass’s cheek a pinch.

The lass didn’t dodge or avoid it, simply standing in place with a beaming smile as she let Xue Rui squeeze her cheek.

"Let’s go out tomorrow," Xue Rui said.

"Mmm, okay." With her cheek being squeezed, Lin Ruoxi’s voice sounded a little different than usual.

She knew—tomorrow was the Qixi Festival.

...

「The next day. Saturday, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.」

In Xue Rui’s mind, a Qixi date should involve taking a girl out shopping, watching a movie, eating dinner, kissing, getting a room...

But right now, it felt more like celebrating the Lunar New Year.

The lass had been busy in the kitchen since morning, a lively CLANGING and BANGING of pots and pans. Now the whole apartment was filled with the aroma of food, and there was even a whiff of fried New Year’s treats in the air...

Yu Minlan had also helped out quite a bit. Now, while the lass had command of the kitchen, she was taking a moment to rest on the single sofa to Xue Rui’s right.

"Why does it feel like New Year’s?" Yu Minlan sighed.

She had originally planned to go out to give the couple some time alone, but Xue Rui had said there was no need. She figured he just enjoyed rubbing their happiness in other people’s faces...

Xue Rui nodded emphatically. "So you feel it too?"

The two of them exchanged a glance, then both shook their heads with wry smiles. They were actually just waiting for the meal to start...

Perhaps this was just Lin Ruoxi’s unique brand of romance.

Xue Rui planned to take the lass for a walk by the sea later in the afternoon, once it cooled down. The lass had been in Shencheng for a month and still hadn’t seen the ocean.