Chapter 288 - 261: Lin Ruoxi’s Sorrowful Night (Part 2)

’This is nice,’ she thought. She wanted to linger by Xue Rui’s side a little longer.

Lin Ruoxi casually picked up her phone, thinking she’d secretly take a picture of Xue Rui. After all, he had taken one of her during the day...

She wanted to preserve every little moment they spent together.

However, when the screen lit up, the first thing she saw was the friend request interface. Gu Muxue was requesting to add her as a friend.

She recalled Xue Rui’s earlier reaction, and her gaze grew distant for a moment.

’Xue Rui could have accepted it, but he didn’t. Does he not want me to have any contact with his classmate Gu Muxue?’

Lin Ruoxi’s hand, holding the phone, trembled slightly...

She already knew... She knew Xue Rui’s relationship with Gu Muxue was more than just that of classmates. Why else would he be on the phone with her and not any of his other female classmates?

Lin Ruoxi stared at Gu Muxue’s WeChat profile for a long time, completely torn.

For some reason, she just had to see what Gu Muxue’s life was like...

Lin Ruoxi glanced to the side and saw Xue Rui’s phone on the coffee table. She forced herself not to look at it, closing her eyes tightly and sinking into her memories. She remembered seeing something in a classmate’s autograph book once...

After a moment of thought, she opened the QQ app on her phone. Following the number she had just recalled, she typed in Gu Muxue’s QQ ID...

On Gu Muxue’s profile page, she saw a picture of pink roses.

Lin Ruoxi clicked into Gu Muxue’s QQ Space and discovered that the photo of the roses was from the Qixi Festival. It had a caption, and it also tagged Xue Rui’s QQ account.

The comment section was filled with classmates and friends posting "99!" Xue Rui had even replied with his own "99."

Lin Ruoxi’s fingers trembled. She opened Baidu and searched: [What does ’99’ mean in a relationship?]

The results were more or less what she’d feared. It was a play on words meaning "forever and ever"...

In an instant, tears streamed from the young woman’s eyes.

’Xue Rui likes his classmate, Gu Muxue.’

’Yes, I know. I’ve actually known all along. I just didn’t dare to face it, and I didn’t want to. I thought I could just deceive myself forever...’

She felt like a thief, snooping through someone’s QQ Space and peeking into their life. She didn’t like this version of herself.

’Why did I have to look at this? Wasn’t it better being kept in the dark by Xue Rui?’

Lin Ruoxi’s shoulders shook uncontrollably from her sobs. She tried to calm herself, afraid her trembling would disturb Xue Rui, who was sleeping soundly on her lap.

’But my heart aches so much, as if a steel needle has been plunged right through it.’

Lin Ruoxi clutched her chest and took deep breaths, like someone on the verge of drowning, desperately fighting for a gasp of fresh air.

She quickly grabbed her phone to delete her browsing history from the QQ Space. Seeing the words "VIP Status," her gaze softened as she looked at Xue Rui. ’He’s the one who set this up for me.’

She reached up and gently touched the delicate gold necklace around her neck. ’I got a Qixi Festival gift, too.’

But every time she remembered the image of those pink roses, her heart ached terribly.

’I don’t understand why it hurts so much...’

Lin Ruoxi’s left hand rested on the necklace from Xue Rui while her right held up her phone, endlessly searching for all sorts of information...

An unknown amount of time passed before Yu Minlan tiptoed out of her room to use the bathroom, returning just as stealthily.

She was afraid Lin Ruoxi and Xue Rui were doing something in the living room, but she really couldn’t hold it anymore. At the same time, she was scared of getting yelled at by Xue Rui...

However, just as she was about to sneak a peek before going back into her room, she witnessed a strange scene:

Lin Ruoxi was leaning against the sofa, her face streaked with tears. Her small hand rested gently on Xue Rui’s chest, her eyes were vacant, and her right hand hung limply at her side, next to her still-glowing phone.

Lin Ruoxi noticed Yu Minlan’s gaze. The corners of her mouth lifted into a slight smile as she pointed at the living room light.

Yu Minlan froze on the spot. Lin Ruoxi’s smile was so tragically beautiful it made her own heart ache.

’Why is Lin Ruoxi crying so hard? The whole living room feels like it’s filled with a quiet sorrow...’

’The main thing is, she’s asking me to turn off the light. Is she planning to stay in that position with Xue Rui all night?’

"Ruoxi, what’s wrong?" Yu Minlan walked over and asked softly.

She knew Xue Rui was a heavy sleeper; even a stainless steel basin crashing to the floor wouldn’t wake him, let alone some quiet whispering.

She waited for a moment, but when it was clear Lin Ruoxi wasn’t going to answer, she glanced at the phone in her hand. At the very top of the screen, in the search bar, was a jarring line of text...

[Can you be in love with two people at the same time?]

Yu Minlan’s scalp instantly went numb, and a chill shot straight to the crown of her head. ’Lin Ruoxi found out about Gu Muxue?’

She gasped. ’This might be my fault.’ She remembered saying something earlier in the day about "checking his phone" and "making him run errands."

A sudden wave of guilt washed over her. She regretted saying those things. How could Lin Ruoxi possibly withstand a blow like this from Xue Rui?

But that’s just the kind of bastard Xue Rui was—always two-timing.

But what was done was done. What could she say to comfort her? Tell Lin Ruoxi to stay away from Xue Rui?

That was impossible. Lin Ruoxi was too dependent on Xue Rui; you could say her love was born entirely from that dependency.

’Tell her to compete with that Gu Muxue girl?’

Lin Ruoxi wasn’t that kind of girl at all, and even if she did fight for him, she might not win...

’Don’t tell me... I’m supposed to persuade Lin Ruoxi to accept a two-timing Xue Rui?’

That would be inhuman. There was no way she could bring herself to say something like that.

Just as she was wrestling with her thoughts, Lin Ruoxi pointed to the throw pillow behind her.

Yu Minlan dazedly handed the pillow over and watched as Lin Ruoxi gently repositioned Xue Rui to lie flat on the sofa to sleep. She couldn’t help but let out a helpless sigh.