Chapter 448 - 320: We Owe Each Other Nothing (Part 2)

Xue Rui had misunderstood Gu Muxue.

"It’s not like that..." Lin Ruoxi opened her eyes. She saw Gu Muxue standing right behind Xue Rui, putting a finger to her lips in a "shh" gesture.

"Is she gone?" Xue Rui asked.

Gu Muxue bit her lip hard, trying to keep from sobbing.

’This is torture.’

’Xiaorui, why would you think I was bullying her?’

’And saying "let’s go home" and "where is she"...’

To her, those words were incredibly jarring.

It was as if Xue Rui and Lin Ruoxi were the ones meant for each other, and she was the outsider.

’Xiaorui, what does our relationship of all these years even mean?’

’I’ve known you for over ten years. Am I worth less than her?’

She had long prepared herself for this, but that was a choice she had made on her own terms.

Watching the man she loved embracing someone else so tightly, hearing the subtle blame in his voice—it was truly heart-wrenching.

Xue Rui suddenly noticed two phones stacked on a nearby table, and a bad feeling washed over him.

’She’s still in the room? I didn’t see her when I came in. Is she in the bathroom?’

As Xue Rui slowly turned around, Gu Muxue turned as well, leaving him with only the sight of her back.

"Muxue?" Xue Rui focused his gaze and saw a faint, unwashed lipstick stain on her cheek.

He didn’t know what had happened, but since Gu Muxue had one too, it meant no one was bullying anyone.

It seemed he had misunderstood.

Xue Rui explained, "Muxue, I misunderstood..."

Lin Ruoxi’s state had truly scared him just now, and he’d gotten emotional. Some of the things he said might have hurt Muxue.

"Give me your phone," Gu Muxue said coldly.

"Okay." Xue Rui unhesitatingly unlocked his phone and handed it over. He couldn’t see her face clearly now, but he could imagine her expression.

Gu Muxue took Xue Rui’s phone, opened WeChat, and found her own contact. Seeing that he had nicknamed her "Creditor," her grip tightened.

’Creditor?’

She had always liked that identity. Xue Rui had played along by never "paying her back," letting her throw her little tantrums.

She tapped her own profile in the top-right corner and decisively pressed "Delete Contact"...

She had tried to do this many nights before. But every time she saw the system prompt asking if she wanted to delete him as a friend, along with the line "This will delete all chat history"...

...she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Those were her memories with Xue Rui.

But by using Xue Rui’s phone to delete herself, she could still look back on their old chat records on her own phone...

She knew she was a sentimental person, but now it was time to make a clean break...

Xue Rui had misunderstood her? Fine. Let him feel guilty.

"We... are even now. Don’t follow me." Gu Muxue turned back, handed the phone to Xue Rui, then frantically grabbed her own from the table and bolted out the door.

Even though they had booked the largest private room, it still felt suffocating, making it hard for her to breathe.

She ran all the way outside, but even breathing in the damp, cold, rainy air, she still felt a tightness in her chest.

She had to escape. Escape this city.

Yang Xing was at the entrance, shooting the breeze with a server, when he saw Gu Muxue rush out. He hurried forward to hold an umbrella over her. "Muxue, what’s wrong?"

"I want to go home," Gu Muxue’s voice trembled.

...

Of course Xue Rui wasn’t going to listen to Gu Muxue. He told Lin Ruoxi to go wash her face first, then quickly chased after Muxue.

"Muxue!" Xue Rui yelled, running out into the rain.

What ’even now’? Gu Muxue hadn’t explicitly said they were breaking up, but when he got his phone back, he saw his pinned contact on WeChat had disappeared...

’It’s over. It’s really over. I’ve completely broken her heart.’

Gu Muxue was sensitive, and tonight of all nights, he had kissed Lin Ruoxi right in front of her. Even if he wasn’t the one who initiated it...

"Stop him," Gu Muxue said coldly.

Yang Xing handed the umbrella to Gu Muxue. This was the first time she had ever given him such a command.

Moreover, in all his years by her side, he had never seen Gu Muxue so utterly distraught she could barely keep her balance walking down the steps.

"Uncle Yang." Xue Rui smiled. How could he not tell that Muxue had sent Yang Xing to block him?

He tried to go around Yang Xing to give chase, but the next moment, he was lying flat on his back.

"Stay down." Yang Xing cracked his neck and slowly pulled his leather shoe out from under the back of Xue Rui’s head.

The server at the door asked in amazement, "Are you really a Sanda champion?"

"I never bullshit," Yang Xing said without looking back.

Xue Rui weakly pushed himself up from the ground. Staring at the distant taillights of the car, he let out a long sigh.

"Buddy, that was a Maybach. No point in chasing it," the manager said with a smile, offering Xue Rui a cigarette.

He didn’t say it outright, but just looking at Xue Rui’s sorry state, it was clear he was leagues apart from the girl who had just left.

"Thanks." Xue Rui sat down by the entrance, a cigarette between his fingers, as the heavy rain poured from the sky.

He didn’t know where to go or what to do. She had run off, and his classmates were still inside drinking and singing. Should he go back in?

’Forget it.’ He really wasn’t in the mood. He was covered in lipstick stains, and his clothes were soaked...

"I dated a girl once when I was young," the man began, taking a deep drag from his cigarette before slowly exhaling. "Her family was too well-off. She really liked me, but..."

"She could afford to be naive, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t good enough for her..."

Xue Rui didn’t interrupt. His problem wasn’t about money; it was about two-timing.

’A Maybach? He could afford one if he wanted to.’

’But how much would it cost to mend her wounded heart?’

Just then, Lin Ruoxi, having sorted herself out, walked slowly over to Xue Rui with an umbrella.

"It was only later that I realized, a man should focus on making money first, and then..."

The man was still rambling on with his grand theories when he suddenly saw a beautiful girl take a jacket from her bag, drape it over Xue Rui’s shoulders, and deftly pluck the cigarette from his lips.

"Rui, I bought the house. It’s in your name..."

"Are we... staying there tonight?" Lin Ruoxi asked softly.

The man’s "grand theories" came to an abrupt halt. He couldn’t understand what on earth Xue Rui was so upset about.

"Damn it." The man slammed his cigarette butt onto the ground.

He had just assumed Xue Rui was heartbroken and thought he’d offer some comfort—comforting his younger, lost self in the process...

But damn, the comparison was infuriating!

’What did that girl just say? She bought this kid a house? And put it in his name?’

"Let’s go," Xue Rui said, slowly walking down the steps.

"Okay. I’ve been drinking, so you drive today."

"Alright."

...

Neither of them said a word the entire way.

Lin Ruoxi had just picked up her new car today. He should have been taking her out for a celebratory drive, but Xue Rui’s heart was too heavy. Following her directions, he drove to a residential complex near the school.

Stepping into the apartment, Xue Rui gave it a quick look. It was a three-bedroom, two-living-room layout, about 140 square meters.

Lin Ruoxi had already decorated most of it. The bed in the secondary bedroom was made with red sheets, and the rest of the room was situated between the wall and a bay window.

What made him curious was that the master bedroom was empty, except for a cat tree.

"You haven’t decorated this room?" Xue Rui asked casually, assuming the cat tree was something left by the previous owner.

"I don’t like rooms that are too big. That’s a toy I bought for Xiaobu..." Lin Ruoxi said.

"Gu Muxue is so sad. I don’t know how to comfort her."

The question gave Xue Rui a headache. He had misunderstood Muxue.

And Lin Ruoxi was being far too generous. The implication was that she was leaving the master bedroom for Gu Muxue...

"I’ll give her a call," Xue Rui said, taking out his phone and dialing Gu Muxue.

[We’re sorry, the number you have dialed has been switched off...]

Xue Rui put his phone down, frustrated. It seemed Gu Muxue had blocked him.

"Let me try. She should pick up for me," Lin Ruoxi said, pressing the power button on a phone.

’Gu Muxue said she was giving Xue Rui up to me, but now I’m so worried about her.’

"Rui, she took the wrong phone," Lin Ruoxi said in surprise, holding the phone screen up to Xue Rui. The wallpaper was a photo of him and Gu Muxue in the snow.

In the picture, a younger-looking Muxue wore a white knit hat with two fluffy pom-poms hanging from the sides. A grinning Xue Rui was playfully pinching one of them...

That was a picture from when he and Gu Muxue were playing in the snow at school. Thinking back on it now, he felt a wave of nostalgia.

"She took my phone," Lin Ruoxi said. "Our phone models are the same, and so is the color..."

The only difference was the wallpaper. Earlier, Gu Muxue had turned off both phones and stacked them together, and she must have grabbed the wrong one when she left.

"Good! It’s good that she took the wrong one..." Xue Rui said, pleasantly surprised. Wasn’t this a perfect opportunity to apologize?

Just as he was thinking that, a call popped up on the screen. The two words "Old Gu" made Xue Rui’s eye twitch.

It was a call from Gu Qingshan.