Chapter 427 - 312: Lin Ruoxi’s Apology

Lin Ruoxi gently lifted her head, her long eyelashes fluttering like butterflies dancing in a field of spring flowers.

Gu Muxue did her best to keep smiling. Lin Ruoxi’s apology brought her a mix of joy and pain.

She was pleased that Lin Ruoxi was a sensible girl, one who had frankly admitted her mistake to her face.

’She knew Xue Rui had a girlfriend, yet she’d still agreed to his unreasonable request without a single thought for my feelings.’

She didn’t actually blame Lin Ruoxi. The real fault lay with Xue Rui, and she was well aware of that. Since Lin Ruoxi was willing to apologize, she had no intention of dwelling on it.

What pained her, however, was that Lin Ruoxi said nothing more after her apology. ’Was she tacitly accepting this relationship?’

"Why?" Gu Muxue asked.

Lin Ruoxi’s gaze subconsciously darted away. A soft, timid voice escaped her red lips. "I... I want to make Rui happy. As long as he’s happy, I... I’ll do anything."

Lin Ruoxi timidly watched Gu Muxue’s reaction.

As far as Lin Ruoxi knew, Xue Rui had already told Gu Muxue about her. So, her words now seemed to be asking for Gu Muxue’s approval.

Xue Rui’s heart sank. ’From Gu Muxue’s point of view, even if she was eighty percent sure Lin Ruoxi was his other girlfriend, there was still a twenty percent margin of doubt as long as he didn’t admit it himself.’

But with that one sentence, Ruoxi had just pushed Muxue’s suspicion to 99.999... percent.

Gu Muxue’s eyes filled with disbelief. ’Lin Ruoxi agreed to Xue Rui for a reason like that?’

’Girl, you have to have some dignity, some standards. How could you agree to something like this?’

She desperately wanted to say so, but she swallowed the words before they could escape.

"What did you call him?" Gu Muxue replayed Lin Ruoxi’s words in her mind. She felt like a word was missing.

"I... I call him Rui, and he calls me Xixi." Lin Ruoxi couldn’t help but give a shy, happy smile as she said her nickname. She thought it didn’t sound as nice when she said it compared to when Xue Rui did, all the while completely failing to notice Gu Muxue’s head sinking lower and lower.

Xue Rui ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. ’So it’s finally come to this...’

’There was an information gap between Ruoxi and Muxue. They were both misunderstanding each other.’

’Of course, this was all my fault. But things hadn’t gone the way I’d planned at all. They met prematurely...’

Agitated and antsy, he fiddled with the lighter in his hand. He expertly tapped the sealed end of a soft pack of Chunghwa cigarettes, then lowered his head to catch one between his lips.

They say it’s easy to kick a smoking habit, but much harder to kick an addiction of the heart.

He’d quit for two years, but right now he had a sudden, desperate urge to light one up and ease his anxiety.

CLICK! With a crisp sound, a flame several inches high flared to life in front of Xue Rui’s face, nearly singeing off his eyebrows.

In his anxiety, he must have flicked the adjustment wheel to its maximum setting. He reflexively wanted to shout, ’Holy shit!’ but managed to bite his tongue.

At the same time, with a dull THUD, the water bottle in Gu Muxue’s hand dropped to the ground.

"I’ll get it," Lin Ruoxi said, quickly bending down.

Gu Muxue’s voice trembled slightly. "Don’t. I can get it myself."

’A form of address she had never heard... Lin Ruoxi had called him by his first name only, without his surname, as if it were second nature.’

’For Lin Ruoxi to say it so naturally... could that really be a habit she formed in just a few days of school?’

’And... what did Xue Rui call Lin Ruoxi?’

’Xixi?’

Gu Muxue’s brow furrowed. The corners of her mouth turned down uncontrollably, and her smooth, flawless chin began to tense, trembling faintly with each ragged breath.

’Xiaorui, did you lie to me again?’

A bitter ache spread through her chest. She squatted on the ground, gasping for air.

She noticed a movement from the side of the hedges. Turning her head, she looked toward the nearby shrubbery. Through the sparse holly bushes, Gu Muxue could gradually make out the profile of Xue Rui’s face.