Chapter 289 - 261: Lin Ruoxi’s Sad Night

If her boyfriend were such a jerk, how could she possibly be in the mood to take care of him like this?

She would have slapped him awake and kicked him out the door without a second thought long ago.

But alas, Lin Ruoxi was just that kind of girl.

Even though she was covered in wounds herself, she couldn’t bear to let Xue Rui suffer even the slightest bit.

Yu Minlan sighed. "You silly girl, he’s just taking advantage of you. You have to stand up for yourself..."

There was no need for her to hide anything now; Lin Ruoxi probably knew everything there was to know.

Lin Ruoxi wiped her tears and suddenly smiled, interrupting Yu Minlan. "Yeah, I know. Sister Yu, you should go get some sleep."

With that, she gently pushed Yu Minlan back toward her room, then fetched a small blanket and carefully draped it over Xue Rui.

She glanced at the friend request on her phone. She neither accepted nor rejected it, simply ignoring the notification as if she had never seen it.

It was what Xue Rui had done, and she was prepared to do the same.

Lin Ruoxi leaned down, adjusted the blanket over Xue Rui, and studied his sleeping face.

She forced herself to stop thinking about Gu Muxue and reached out a slender finger to gently tap Xue Rui on the nose.

After a moment’s hesitation, she leaned in and gently hugged Xue Rui.

She could now tell whether Xue Rui was truly asleep or just pretending. She knew he couldn’t hear her.

She murmured softly in Xue Rui’s ear, "If you don’t want me to contact her, then I won’t."

"You like naive girls, don’t you? Fine, I’ll be naive for you my whole life..."

As she spoke, another tear slid from the corner of her eye.

"Okay?"

Lin Ruoxi’s voice trembled. She’d spent a long time searching for answers online, but she hadn’t liked any of them. She didn’t want to make things difficult for Xue Rui, so she had decided on an answer for herself.

She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she just wanted to make Xue Rui happy. That was all.

But the sleeping Xue Rui was oblivious to everything happening in the darkness, and so he could offer no reply.

Lin Ruoxi reached out and pinched Xue Rui’s nose. He frowned, letting out a subconscious "Mmmph."

Her face immediately broke into a smile, but her tears flowed like pearls from a broken string, sliding down her pale cheeks. She carefully caught them in her palm, making sure not a single drop fell on Xue Rui...

"Mmm, I heard you." Lin Ruoxi’s rosy lips gently brushed against Xue Rui’s forehead.

She stood up, picked up Xue Rui’s phone, and deftly plugged it into the charger. Then she turned to clear away the tissues she’d used to wipe her tears from the coffee table.

On the shoe cabinet, after the charging animation on Xue Rui’s phone faded, a message from Gu Muxue was displayed on the screen.

Creditor: Happy Qixi, good night.

...

’Sigh... What a heartbreaking night,’ Yu Minlan thought to herself.

She had been terrified that Lin Ruoxi might do something reckless, so she had been hiding behind the doorframe, watching her every move.

She breathed a long sigh of relief. ’Even though Lin Ruoxi is heartbroken, her emotions are stable,’ she thought. ’She’s even composed enough to do chores.’

However, Lin Ruoxi caught sight of Yu Minlan out of the corner of her eye. She looked up, their gazes met, and she walked over to whisper, "Sister Yu, please don’t tell him, okay?"

’Xue Rui didn’t want her to know, so she would pretend that she didn’t.’

Yu Minlan glanced at the sleeping scumbag, then back at the heartbreakingly vulnerable Lin Ruoxi. She simply couldn’t refuse such a request.

She gritted her teeth. "Fine."

"I’m so sorry, Ruoxi. I’ve actually been hiding this from you..." Yu Minlan said, her face wracked with guilt.

Lin Ruoxi shook her head. "It’s okay."

Yu Minlan felt like words were caught in her throat. In the end, all that came out was a helpless sigh. "Sigh... just keep enabling him, then..."

"Yeah. As long as Xue Rui is happy, I’m happy."