After she calmed herself down, Xia Rui touched up her face with some loose powder, fanned herself twice, finally let out a breath, and walked out of the restroom in her high heels.
“Hi~ I was just touching up my makeup in the restroom, so I came out a bit late~”
Xia Rui was still as enthusiastic and polite as ever, greeting An Luxi and Liang Rou with a bright smile.
Liang Rou and An Luxi hadn’t noticed anything strange about her.
The two of them still sat close together, but once Xia Rui came out, they stopped picking food for each other and started picking food for Xia Rui together.
“Eat more, eat more.”
Liang Rou kept nagging as she put food onto Xia Rui’s plate.
Seeing her Senior picking food for her, Xia Rui’s face bloomed with a happy smile.
She knew it—her Senior still cared about her. See, now they were picking food for her! She really mattered to her!
Poor Miss Xia Rui was once again working hard on her own self-romance.
“Sister Xiaolu.”
Xia Rui suddenly turned her attention to An Luxi, looking at the woman before her with a beaming smile.
“Mm?” An Luxi looked up, a clear confusion in her eyes.
Xia Rui clasped her hands together and rested her chin on them, propping up her head.
“Sister Xiaolu, I want to know, how did you and Senior meet? Your story must be really romantic~”
She winked at An Luxi and tilted her head.
At the mention of this, An Luxi immediately blushed. She glanced at Liang Rou, lowered her head a bit, and stammered, “Ah, well, about that, um…”
Liang Rou looked at Xia Rui, then at An Luxi, just about to step in to help when An Luxi continued speaking.
“It was one day four months ago. I’d been studying all day, and when I left school in the evening, I started feeling a bit hypoglycemic… I really was helpless at that time. After a wave of dizziness, I just collapsed to the ground. Really, if it hadn’t been for Rou Rou passing by and catching me, I might’ve ended up with a ruined face~”
An Luxi smiled sheepishly.
Liang Rou laughed and teased, “Oh come on~ You wouldn’t have ruined your face, but you’d definitely have gotten filthy, because there was a trash bin right in front of you. The trash bin would’ve caught you, but you would’ve landed right in it, like a green onion being pulled out by the roots.”
“Aiya~”
An Luxi playfully hit Liang Rou’s shoulder, making her burst out laughing.
Watching the two of them flirt and banter right in front of her, Xia Rui once again silently clenched her fists, her smile barely holding together.
An Luxi continued, “And then I met Rou Rou… Maybe it was love at first sight. Back then, she stuffed the chocolate she had in her pocket into my mouth, and I tasted that sweet flavor as I slowly opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was a sparkling, radiant girl~ just like an angel!”
“Xiaolu, don’t you think it’s possible that the reason I looked like a sparkling angel was because the streetlight was behind me, shining right on my head?”
Liang Rou couldn’t help but poke fun at her.
An Luxi was speechless for a moment. This time, instead of hitting her girlfriend, she covered her mouth and smiled shyly.
She was always like this—not just in front of Liang Rou, but even outside, she always acted so gentle.
Xia Rui heard a “grind grind” sound—it was none other than her own teeth grinding together.
She really hated this!
She thought she was the one who met Liang Rou first, but it turned out An Luxi had met her before!
“Senior, do you still remember this clearly?” Xia Rui suddenly asked Liang Rou.
Liang Rou was stunned by the question, but immediately nodded hard.
This was a trap question! If she said she didn’t remember their first meeting in front of her girlfriend, wouldn’t she be in for a scolding when she got home?
“Of course I remember~” Liang Rou said.
“……”
Xia Rui suddenly fell silent.
Because she remembered that Liang Rou always thought their first meeting was at the Company, but in reality, their first meeting wasn’t there at all—it was in a bookstore.
The scene from back then floated up in Xia Rui’s mind:
She’d been sitting quietly in her seat, staring blankly out the window at the scenery outside. Amidst all the bustling cars, she felt a hint of loneliness.
It was probably the same kind of loneliness that all rich kids felt.
She thought she had nothing but money.
Her parents were always so busy, and her brothers, sisters, and friends all had their own things to do once they grew up.
Everyone had grown up, but it felt like only she hadn’t. The new friends she made seemed to only be there because she was rich enough.
There was a book lying open in front of her, but she just couldn’t get into it.
As evening fell, she sighed, closed the book, picked up her expensive bag, and got ready to go home.
But just then, a tall, burly man bumped into her shoulder, knocking her heavily to the ground and twisting her ankle.
Whether as a wealthy young lady or as a Shibuya Gal, she had never suffered such humiliation.
She glared fiercely, staggered to her feet, and pointed her sharp nails at the man in front of her. Before she could say anything, the man slapped her hand away.
The burly man didn’t take her seriously at all. He turned and left, ignoring Xia Rui’s calls for him to stop.
“What rotten luck.”
At that time, Xia Rui really thought she was extremely unlucky.
Why did something like this have to happen to her? She looked at her swollen, reddened ankle and sighed, resigned to her fate.
It was at this moment, just as An Luxi had described, that Liang Rou made her “da-dum da-dum” entrance! Just like all those chance encounters in anime, she thoughtfully bought her some medicine ointment, helped her out the door, and sent her to her car.
Back then, Xia Rui was so busy marveling at Liang Rou’s cuteness that she completely forgot to ask for her contact information.
It was only after she’d driven some distance away that she remembered, but when she went back, Liang Rou was already gone.
Xia Rui had no choice but to give up, but that chance encounter left her tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
She realized—her heart had been moved.
Liang Rou was exactly her type. She appeared just when Xia Rui needed help the most, so passionate and so kind—how could anyone not fall for her?
So, Xia Rui immediately had someone investigate.
This was the power of “money solves everything.” Soon, she locked onto Liang Rou’s location, found out all about her, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that this girl actually worked at her father’s Company. With the idea that “the one near the water gets the moon first,” Xia Rui begged her father to let her join the Company, starting from the bottom.
“Xia Rui?”
“Xia Rui?”
Liang Rou called her name a few times, finally pulling Xia Rui out of her memories.
Xia Rui looked dazedly at the present Liang Rou, then at An Luxi by her side, the flames in her eyes burning even fiercer.