Chapter 251: Chapter 244: Next Time, Kick with Shoes On
Gu Muxue was at the top of the stairs. She walked slowly, tilting her head to try and eavesdrop on what Xue Rui and Old Gu were talking about.
She heard the words clearly enough, but without the full picture, she couldn’t understand what they were discussing. Based on what she caught, it seemed to be about traditional Chinese medicine and wellness...
"I’m worried you’ll get lost," Gu Qingshan said, showing no intention of leaving.
"Dad, our house is only so big. How could I get lost?" Gu Muxue asked curiously.
Gu Qingshan sighed. ’My daughter has no sense of self-preservation at all,’ he thought. ’What if Xue Rui uses ’getting lost’ as an excuse to go use your shower?’
That was precisely what he was trying to prevent.
"Muxue, hurry up and get washed and dried off. Don’t catch a cold," Xue Rui urged.
"Hmm?" Gu Qingshan felt Xue Rui was being too chatty and dragged him to the third-floor bathroom.
Gu Qingshan heard the sound of running water, casually found a set of clothes, and tossed them by the door. "Change into these when you get out."
"Okay, thanks, Uncle Gu!" Xue Rui shouted back.
Gu Qingshan wanted to say something to Xue Rui, but since Xue Rui was in the shower, the sound of the rushing water would probably drown him out.
"Hurry down when you’re done," Gu Qingshan said.
Humming a little tune, Xue Rui showered, thinking that the little minx was probably showering downstairs too. ’But I only have the nerve to think about it, not to act on it,’ he mused. ’Gu Qingshan is probably guarding the staircase, pretending to inspect his flowerpots.’
He had only been soaked by rain, so a quick rinse with hot water was all he needed. The whole process didn’t even take five minutes.
When he finished showering, he glanced at his phone. The girl should be off work by now. He casually gave her a call to make sure she was eating properly.
At that moment, Lin Ruoxi had just walked into the electronics factory’s cafeteria. When Xue Rui wasn’t around, she felt there was no point in cooking; nothing tasted good when she was alone.
Seeing the call from Xue Rui, the girl’s eyes instantly sparkled, and her steps became much lighter and more cheerful.
Seeing Lin Ruoxi’s reaction, Yu Minlan knew who was calling without even having to guess.
Lin Ruoxi’s social circle was exceptionally small. The number of people who might call her could be counted on one hand: Xue Rui, her grandmother, and Xue Rui’s mother...
Lin Ruoxi, assuming Xue Rui was calling to check up on her dinner, deliberately got a heaping plate of food. She ate every last bite in front of the camera and even turned the plate upside down to prove it to him.
"See? I’m eating properly," Lin Ruoxi said with a smile.
"Good. How’s work going?" Xue Rui asked.
"It’s going well! I made a few small changes to my previous design. They said the mass production cost for the step-up circuit I designed was a little high..." Lin Ruoxi reported to Xue Rui earnestly.
"Oh, and it’s been hard to find an injection molding factory for the power strip casing."
...
Gu Qingshan waited outside the door for a while. ’Seriously? The kid actually started making a phone call?’
However, the conversation seemed to be about legitimate work matters. He recalled the photo Gu Muxue had sent him before, showing Xue Rui on a factory production line.
He couldn’t be bothered to listen in, so he just went downstairs.
In the bathroom, Xue Rui nodded along. He had already been briefed on these issues, but his real intention was to let the girl get some front-line production experience, learning things from the old masters that she could never learn in school.
His reason for having her report on it again was simple: the girl wanted to talk to him but didn’t know what to say, so he was letting her talk for a while about a field she knew well.
Even if he didn’t understand the technical jargon, her soft, sweet voice was a pleasure to listen to.
Xue Rui glanced at the video call timer—it had already been twenty minutes. He had been dawdling in the shower for far too long. He spoke up, "I’ll be keeping an eye on you. Don’t you dare get any thinner before we meet again. Bye-bye."
As the video call ended, the smile on Lin Ruoxi’s lips slowly faded. ’Time flies so fast when I’m on the phone with Xue Rui,’ she thought. ’It’s over in the blink of an eye.’
Looking at Xue Rui’s picture on her phone’s wallpaper, she eagerly awaited their next meeting.
Xue Rui noticed that Gu Qingshan had brought him a brand-new, still-packaged white shirt and a pair of black casual pants.
He tried them on briefly. He and Gu Qingshan had similar builds, so they were a good fit.
As it happened, just as Xue Rui was coming downstairs, he ran into Gu Muxue emerging from her room.
’Do girls really take this long to shower?’
The overhead spotlight shone on Gu Muxue’s long hair, giving her black locks a faint, coffee-colored sheen. The minx’s hair wasn’t as fine as the other girl’s, but it gave her a different kind of charm.
Gu Muxue held a small hair tie between her teeth as she gathered her hair to tie it up behind her back. As she looked up, her gaze met Xue Rui’s, who was standing on the stairs.
’Xue Rui is actually wearing a white shirt?’
It was the first time she had ever seen Xue Rui dressed so formally. The cut was a perfect fit, too.
’Hmm... It looks pretty good. Makes him look mature.’
Xue Rui noticed the minx checking him out—she must be looking at the clothes. He shamelessly asked, "So? How do I look? Only a little bit worse than Uncle Gu, right?"
Gu Muxue smiled faintly. "What took you so long? Were you admiring yourself in the mirror?"
"That’s not called being vain, that’s called appreciating the view. Besides, you just got out yourself, didn’t you?" Xue Rui retorted.
"My dad says I’m too slow because I take a bath every day. Now you’re saying it too. All men are the same," Gu Muxue said with a pout.
She liked to soak in the tub for a while, getting out just before her fingers started to wrinkle.
Xue Rui gave her a strange look. ’It’s not a bad habit, but where are you going to find a bathtub in college?’
’You’d be thanking your lucky stars just to have hot water in the dorms. University infrastructure isn’t great these days. Even top-tier schools might just have public bathhouses...’
’No wonder Zhao Lizhen wanted to buy Gu Muxue her own apartment. Turns out she’s been pampered her whole life...’
"That’s a bad habit of yours," Xue Rui said, slowly walking down the stairs.
"How is it bad?" Gu Muxue asked, tilting her head up at him.
Xue Rui was already tall, and now he was standing on the stairs above her. Finding it uncomfortable to crane her neck, she stepped onto a stair above him and poked his forehead with her finger.
"It’s a huge waste of fresh water. Do you have any idea how much hot water it takes to fill a tub? Based on the size of your family’s bathtub, it’s enough for me to take dozens of showers," Xue Rui said, shaking his head repeatedly.
"You think so too?" Gu Muxue tilted her head, her plump, rosy lips pouting slightly. Her dad had said similar things about being wasteful.
But for some reason, hearing it from Xue Rui’s mouth, she suddenly felt a pang of guilt, as if she had violated the virtue of frugality.
’But she just really liked playing in the tub for a while...’
Gu Qingshan waited for half an hour, but neither of them came down. He couldn’t help but head back upstairs to check on them. Now, standing at the bend in the staircase on the first floor and listening to their conversation, he felt much more relieved.
He had to admit, Xie Jianfeng’s method of raising his son without forcing hardship on him wasn’t entirely without merit. Xue Rui was very down-to-earth and hadn’t become detached from ordinary people despite his immense wealth.
Just as he was nodding in satisfaction, he heard Xue Rui say languidly, "To save water, we could always take a bath together."
Instantly, Gu Qingshan’s breathing grew ragged. He clenched his fists and started to march upstairs.
’And here I thought Xue Rui was going to say something profound. A dog will always go back to its shit...’
There was a crisp SMACK!, followed by Xue Rui wincing, "You’re trying to kill me!"
Gu Qingshan froze mid-step. ’A good smack!’ he thought. ’How could my daughter ever be at a disadvantage?’
"Dream on," Gu Muxue said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Just now, when Xue Rui had suggested they bathe together, he had rested his hand on her shoulder. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and she had noticed him freeze for a second when he didn’t feel a strap...
Xue Rui rubbed the back of his hand, which she had slapped red. ’This minx is quick,’ he thought. ’She guessed what I was thinking in an instant.’
"Are you studying traditional Chinese medicine? What kind of illnesses can you diagnose?" Gu Muxue asked with a smile, remembering the TCM terms Xue Rui had used earlier.
Xue Rui’s eyes lit up. "Muxue, have a seat. There’s quite a story behind this."
’He had been waiting for the minx to ask. All that time spent memorizing the acupoint chart hadn’t been a waste, after all.’
He reached out and pulled off Gu Muxue’s slipper. The minx clearly tried to pull her leg back, but Xue Rui relentlessly grabbed her ankle. "Hiding your illness won’t make it go away," he said with a serious expression.
"I’m not sick." ’Gu Muxue felt Xue Rui was up to no good. Why was he grabbing her foot?’
"The soles of your feet are cold, and you still say you’re not sick?" Xue Rui said, looking dead serious as he felt Gu Muxue’s foot.
The minx’s small foot wasn’t even as big as his palm. Her toes were rosy and plump, looking so tender it seemed you could squeeze water from them.
Gu Muxue’s face flushed. ’Of course they’re cold, I just got out of the bath!’
’Xue Rui was actually taking advantage of her with a straight face. This was the first time anyone had ever grabbed her foot...’
’Was this... a feeling of shame?’
"Let me warm them up for you first." ’This isn’t working,’ Xue Rui thought. ’The minx is too smart to trick. I’ll have to show off some of my real knowledge about the meridians in the feet if I want to play around a little longer.’
Gu Muxue propped herself up on the step with her hands. ’This was the first time she’d ever looked down on Xue Rui from this angle...’
’It was kind of fun.’
"This point corresponds to the stomach. Does it hurt?" Xue Rui asked.
"It’s ticklish... Ow, it hurts."
Gu Qingshan couldn’t stand it anymore. His face dark, he started up the stairs.
When Gu Muxue saw Gu Qingshan coming up, she panicked. She knew Xue Rui was just playing around, but her father couldn’t see this.
In a moment of desperate inspiration, she frantically lifted her foot and kicked Xue Rui away.
Xue Rui was kicked to the ground by the minx. He stared at Gu Muxue in astonishment. ’This minx plays even rougher than I do. Stepping on my face with her foot?’
From Gu Qingshan’s perspective, Gu Muxue had kicked Xue Rui to the ground and was now stepping on his face. This sight made him feel much, much better. Still, he said in a deep voice, "Downstairs. Dinner’s ready."
The corner of Xue Rui’s eye twitched. ’So Gu Qingshan was just downstairs this whole time? No wonder the minx suddenly kicked me.’
Gu Muxue’s face was a mask of panic. She whispered to Xue Rui, "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that just now."
They say you can hit a man anywhere but the face; a boy’s face is his last line of defense. No matter how angry she got, she had never once hit Xue Rui’s face. But just now, she had stepped on it with her foot. She was genuinely afraid he would get angry and ignore her.
Xue Rui patted his cheek and whispered, "Well, next time, remember to do it on purpose."
His handsome, almond-shaped eyes crinkled. Xue Rui was still the same shameless rogue...
’But what did he mean by ’remember to do it on purpose’? What was Xue Rui even saying?’
’Could someone actually want their face to be stepped on?’
The two of them walked to the dining table, where Gu Muxue gestured for Xue Rui to sit on her right.
"Next time, kick him with your shoes on," Gu Qingshan said faintly.
Xue Rui’s eyebrow twitched. ’You’re the ruthless one,’ he thought. ’Telling her to use a shoe to the face.’
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