Chapter 118: Chapter 118: The Confession Hidden in the Photo Album

"Mom, can you please put that down?"

Xue Rui’s butt was covered in shoe prints, and his calves were twitching from being hit by the broom.

As for why his upper body was spared, he suspected it had something to do with the sweater from Lin Ruoxi...

"Hurry up and talk!" Ren Qunfang said, panting. She was about tired from all the hitting anyway.

Only then did Xue Rui find a relatively safe spot and begin to explain, "Chen Tingting is..."

He explained how he and Chen Tingting met and what he had been through.

However, Ren Qunfang frowned and said, "If you don’t like her, why did you accept her gifts?"

"Her dad delivered them! Could I really refuse?" Xue Rui was speechless.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to refuse. Most of the time, he couldn’t, or he never even got the chance.

Besides, he’d made his attitude perfectly clear, but Chen Tingting was just a persistent pest, even more thick-skinned than he was.

"I see Chen Tingting as a little sister. I have absolutely no interest in her," Xue Rui said firmly.

"You’d better mean that," Ren Qunfang shot Xue Rui a glare.

She was grinding her teeth in frustration.

The Gu Family’s daughter was nice, a girl you could be proud to show off. She even looked a lot like Ren Qunfang did as a child, which gave her a sense of affinity.

But she liked Lin Ruoxi even more. Every time she saw Lin Ruoxi, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of affection and protectiveness.

She knew her son’s personality well, and she believed Lin Ruoxi was the most suitable choice for him.

But her own boy was blatantly trying to two-time them, and now this Chen Tingting had popped up...

She paused for a moment, thinking she should probably give Xue Rui another beating. Otherwise, she feared he wouldn’t grasp the gravity of today’s lesson.

Just as Ren Qunfang was concocting a reason to strike again, Xue Yao came down from upstairs. She grabbed a carton of ice cream from the freezer, took a spoon, and started digging in.

Noticing her mom and Xue Rui staring at her, she couldn’t help but ask, "You guys want some?"

Xue Yao swallowed what was in her mouth with a GULP. "What’s wrong?"

She had sensed it for a while now—the way her mom looked at her lately was off.

But no matter how long she thought about it, she couldn’t figure out what the problem was.

The look was vaguely familiar. It seemed like the same way her mom used to look at her brother.

A mixture of helplessness and a faint trace of disappointment.

A wave of feeling wronged washed over her, and she fiercely scooped a few more spoonfuls of ice cream.

Xue Yao felt that this winter was exceptionally long, and her stomach felt just as cold.

After Xue Yao went back upstairs, Ren Qunfang rubbed her forehead.

Before, without any point of comparison, she had thought her daughter was perfect. Bragging about her during mahjong games always made her proud.

But now... there were too many girls around Xue Rui.

Gu Muxue often came over to hang out with Yaoyao, and she herself often visited Lin Ruoxi.

Over time, she subconsciously started comparing these girls to her own daughter.

She realized that Xue Yao... seemed to have no special talents whatsoever.

It went without saying that Lin Ruoxi and Gu Muxue had excellent grades.

She had just asked Xue Rui, and even Chen Tingting had transferred from a top-tier municipal high school. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

In other aspects... compared to them, Xue Yao was in a completely different, lower league.

Gu Muxue was multi-talented, well-read, and sensible.

Lin Ruoxi was virtuous, considerate, and gentle as water.

Even Chen Tingting, whom she had never met, was an expert at making dumplings.

In comparison, Xue Yao was a useless bum who did nothing but eat, sleep, and play video games the moment she got up.

She was already so old, yet she still had the housekeeper wash her underwear.

Xue Rui saw what his mom was thinking and reminded her, "Mom, you can’t compare them like that. They call you ’Auntie,’ but only Yaoyao calls you ’Mom.’"

Ren Qunfang paused, realizing her son had a point.

She looked at Xue Rui, felt the sweater she was wearing, and said with a beaming smile, "Well, Xixi could call me ’Mom’ too."

Xue Rui felt like he was sitting on pins and needles. This topic was impossible to continue.

He changed the subject. "They say you teach by example, that parents are a child’s first teachers in life."

Ren Qunfang nodded. "You’ve been studying for a few days, and your vocabulary has certainly gotten more sophisticated. What are you trying to say?"

Xue Rui cleared his throat. "Mom, first, let me declare that what I’m about to say isn’t aimed at anyone in particular, nor is it meant to be demeaning. I’m just stating an objective fact, and the following opinion..."

Xue Rui habitually preempted his statement with a thick layer of defensive armor.

"Just say it!" Ren Qunfang was completely lost.

Xue Rui said in a neutral tone, "Hypothetically. I’m just saying, hypothetically."

"If, hypothetically, a mother gets up every day just to plop down on the sofa, and when she’s not doing that, she’s out shopping or playing mahjong, you’d think her daughter, following such an..."

Ren Qunfang’s expression instantly darkened. ’What do you mean, hypothetically? Isn’t he talking about me?’

’Is Xue Rui calling me lazy and gluttonous in a roundabout way?’

She bent down slightly and picked up the broom from the floor.

Xue Rui had already sensed the danger and made a run for it. "Mom, I’m not talking about you! It was just an example!"

Thankfully, their house was quite large, so Ren Qunfang didn’t catch up to him.

Ren Qunfang stood at the top of the stairs, tapping the handrail with the broom. ’That Xue Rui is just infuriating!’

But on second thought, it seemed to make sense. She mumbled to herself, "Is Yaoyao really influenced by me?"

As Xue Rui passed Xue Yao’s room, he wasn’t sure if he should go in and comfort her.

’She’s a bit dense and doesn’t hold grudges,’ he thought. ’She’ll probably forget about it in a few days.’

Besides, his mom wasn’t completely useless aside from being pretty.

Ren Qunfang was self-aware; in plain terms, she could take advice.

Xue Rui walked into his room and saw Xue Yao sitting on his bed, eating ice cream.

"Get off!" Xue Rui couldn’t take it anymore. A few sticky drops of ice cream had dripped onto his bedsheet.

’If the cleaning lady sees this tomorrow, who knows what she’ll think I’ve been doing!’

Xue Yao giggled and handed Xue Rui an apple. "Bro, you’ll be at school on Christmas Eve in a few days, so I’ll give you an apple now."

"Oh. Now get off!"

Xue Rui picked up Xue Yao and pushed her out of his room.

After closing the door, Xue Rui picked up the apple, smiled, and took a big bite.

Then he discovered the inside was black. It was rotten...

Xue Rui immediately spit it out, feeling a wave of nausea.

He examined the apple’s skin carefully but found nothing unusual. It was just a coincidence.

He changed his bedsheet and, while he was at it, emptied the trash can.

’Since I’m cleaning the room, I might as well sort through the stuff I used to hide under the bed.’

Xue Rui got on the floor and pulled out the things he had hidden under his bed.

"This videotape is definitely not mine! I watch everything online, or download it to my hard drive at most. Who’s trying to frame me?!"

Xue Rui snapped all the not-safe-for-kids discs, thought for a moment, then found a marker to scribble over the covers before throwing them in the trash.

His memory might be bad, but it wasn’t so bad that he’d have zero recollection of something. This stuff was definitely not his.

The most important thing was, the covers weren’t to his taste.

After some more rummaging, he pulled out a thick photo album.

’Gu Muxue wanted to see my photo album the other day. Is there something in here that she was concerned about?’

Xue Rui wiped the dust off the cover and slowly opened the album.

It was mostly the same as Xue Yao’s album, just with some extra school photos of him.

He and Gu Muxue were in the same class in elementary school, but their only picture together was the class photo from graduation.

Unfortunately, in that kind of class photo, all you could see were everyone’s heads.

He continued flipping through the pages, reaching his middle school years.

Xue Rui was surprised to find that he actually had a photo with Gu Muxue.

But why was Qiu Mengze in it, being a total third wheel?

The dusty memories gradually came loose, and Xue Rui began to remember.

Back then, he and Gu Muxue weren’t in the same class, but Qiu Mengze and Gu Muxue were.

At graduation, you could pay a photographer to take individual group photos.

It was Qiu Mengze who had dragged him into the picture.

Xue Rui guessed that Gu Muxue had probably asked Qiu Mengze to get him, but the dense Qiu Mengze didn’t understand the underlying intention.

The Xue Rui of back then hadn’t understood either, thinking it was just his good buddy asking him to take a photo together.

So, in the photo, his arm was around Qiu Mengze’s neck, both of them laughing heartily, while Gu Muxue stood quietly to the side, smiling sweetly at the camera.

"Gu Muxue definitely paid for this photo,"

Xue Rui muttered, pulling the photo out of the album to get a closer look.

Many photos had messages or dates written on the back. He wondered what was written on the back of this one.

Xue Rui flipped the photo over and froze.

Written in ballpoint pen was "Xue Rui," followed by a comma.

Following that was a line in faint yellow ink: I hope we can be together forever.

Read together, it seemed like a confession.

After tutoring with Gu Muxue for so long, Xue Rui would never mistake her handwriting. It was definitely written by that girl.

But he wasn’t blind back then. The words were written quite large; there was no way he could have missed them.

Xue Rui pinched the bridge of his nose. He really had no memory of this at all.

But it’s not like the words could have appeared out of thin air...

After thinking for a long time, Xue Rui still couldn’t figure it out, so he decided to take the photo and consult Xue Yao.

Only a girl would know a girl’s business.

If Xue Yao didn’t know, he’d take it to school and ask some other girls.

"Yaoyao, I remember these words weren’t here before. Why did a line of text just randomly appear?"

Xue Rui showed the back of the photo to Xue Yao.

"Bro, which blind girl confessed to you?" Xue Yao asked, surprised. She tried to flip it over to see the front, but Xue Rui stopped her.

"Just analyze the situation first," Xue Rui said through gritted teeth.

’Any girl who falls for me must be blind? What kind of nonsense is that?’

He noticed his sister didn’t seem all that surprised; she probably knew the reason.

"This was written with an invisible ink pen."

"An invisible ink pen?" Xue Rui looked confused.

Xue Yao rummaged through a large pile of stationery, pulled out a pen, scribbled on a piece of paper, blew on it lightly to dry, and showed it to Xue Rui.

Xue Rui could only see a faint watermark; there was nothing else visible. He figured it would probably disappear completely once it was fully dry.

Xue Yao took the UV light on the pen cap and shone it on the paper. The writing became clearly visible under the light.

"This..."

Xue Rui suddenly felt that Gu Muxue had the potential to work for a secret service agency.

"But," Xue Yao sighed, "these pens have a flaw. After a while, they stop being invisible."

"Why? Did you confess to someone too?" Xue Rui asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I got caught writing bad things about my teacher. It was so embarrassing..." Xue Yao said with a look of regret.

She and a classmate used to write bad things about their teacher in their textbooks with it. She thought it was a little secret only the two of them shared. So every time she handed her textbook to the teacher for inspection, she would feel a thrill of glee, as if she were cursing someone to their face without them even knowing.

But as time went on, the invisible ink became visible, and the teacher caught her red-handed...

A smile played on Xue Rui’s lips. He finally understood.

Why was Gu Muxue so concerned about his photo album?

That girl wanted to express her feelings but was too proud, so she used this method that she thought only she knew about, believing she could hide it from him.

But later, Gu Muxue must have discovered that this so-called "invisible ink pen" wasn’t completely invisible, and she worried that Xue Rui would find the words written on the back of the photo.

So, when Gu Muxue wanted to see his photo album that day, she was actually trying to "destroy the evidence."