Chapter 281 - 258: The Deterrent Power of a Guardian (3)

He waved to Yu Minlan. "You keep her company. I have something to take care of."

"You stay inside this circle, don’t come out," Xue Rui joked to the young girl, echoing the words Tang Monk once said to Monkey Sun.

Yu Minlan scoffed under her breath. ’He’s the one who insisted on bringing her out, and now he’s ditching her,’ she thought. ’And he won’t even let her leave the circle? He must be planning to message some other girl.’

Xue Rui found a spot to watch Lin Ruoxi quietly from a distance, then took out his phone to check a new message.

Qiu Mengze had sent him a photo of two hands intertwined, taken in what looked like a movie theater.

The photo was captioned with a single phrase: "Fingers intertwined."

Xue Rui’s brow furrowed. He texted back: "Why don’t you post this on social media? What are you flexing on me for?"

Qiu Mengze replied: "Qin Tong won’t let me."

Xue Rui scoffed. ’What a fucking pushover,’ he thought.

Just then, however, Lin Ruoxi was being hit on. A handsome young man in sunglasses approached her, phone in hand, to ask for her WeChat.

"Hey, beautiful. Can I get your WeChat?" the young man asked, holding out his phone.

Lin Ruoxi instinctively flinched, shrinking her shoulders and giving a slight shake of her head. When Xue Rui had been with her, no one had approached. Now that he was gone, it felt like a lot of people were watching her.

"I just want to be friends," the young man pressed.

Yu Minlan instinctively moved to block the young man, but a look from Xue Rui stopped her.

Xue Rui sighed. ’With looks like hers, Lin Ruoxi is bound to go through this.’ He couldn’t be by her side watching over her every second. Right now, the guy was just holding out his phone, asking for her WeChat.

The beach was crowded, a relatively safe environment. He wanted to see how the young girl would handle it.

Yu Minlan leaned close to Lin Ruoxi and whispered, "Just tell him you have a boyfriend."

Lin Ruoxi’s expression was blank. Xue Rui had just said today that they were "a little more than good friends." ’Does that mean he’s my boyfriend?’

But Xue Rui hadn’t made it official. She didn’t dare say it.

The young girl looked toward Xue Rui, her eyes pleading.

Xue Rui didn’t know what Yu Minlan had said, but he could guess. With a helpless sigh, he could only nod.

Lin Ruoxi mustered her courage, her voice a little louder. "Um, Xue Rui is my... boyfriend."

Xue Rui smiled and nodded. ’Attagirl,’ he thought.

Hearing the young girl call him her boyfriend felt pretty damn good.

The young man shook his head and walked away, dejected. ’That girl is absolutely stunning,’ he thought. ’Too bad someone beat me to it.’

Before long, someone else came over to try their luck.

"Hey, beautiful. Can I get your WeChat?"

As for Lin Ruoxi, she stuck with the one trick that worked. "Um, I have a boyfriend."

And the more she said it, the more confident and happy she became.

This time, however, the guy was different. He was persistent. "So what if you have a boyfriend?" he pestered. "I just want your WeChat, that’s all."

Xue Rui’s brow furrowed. You can’t help running into shameless scumbags sometimes. This was where he had to step in.

The young girl’s eyes welled up with tears, and her voice trembled. "My... my parents are here."

The man instinctively took a step back, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. He glanced around furtively, then scurried away.

Xue Rui was surprised. ’The little thing is pretty sharp,’ he thought. The word "boyfriend" didn’t have enough of a deterrent effect, but "parents"? The intimidating power of that word was even stronger than threatening to call the cops.

It made sense. A girl that beautiful and elegant had to come from a well-off family. If her parents saw someone making their precious daughter cry, you’d get a tongue-lashing at best. At worst... who knew? No one wanted to get mixed up in that kind of trouble.

The only thing was, no one could have guessed that the "parent" she was talking about was Xue Rui, a prospective college student.

Xue Rui walked over with a smile and wiped away her tears, giving her cheek a gentle squeeze. "What’s there to be afraid of? From now on, just say that."

"Mhm," Lin Ruoxi nodded emphatically, then stretched her arms out from where she stood.

Xue Rui was a little surprised. ’Is she asking for a hug?’

’She was bold enough to kiss me at noon, so why is she acting all cute and shy now? Shouldn’t she just walk over and hug me?’

He looked down with a wry smile, and then he saw it: her little feet were right on the edge of the circle he had drawn. He remembered his joke about not letting her leave it...

Yeah, this little one was far more obedient than Monkey Sun ever was.