Chapter 120: Chapter 120: Unfriendly to Two-Timers

"Muxue, you’ve got to teach her a good lesson," Xue Rui shouted at Gu Muxue’s retreating back, clutching his own in pain.

Of course, the pain was faked.

He had just exposed one of Gu Muxue’s little secrets, which was bound to make her furious. Pretending to be in more pain would help her feel a bit more vindicated.

However, this scene made Lin Ruoxi’s heart ache.

She thought Gu Muxue was terrifying. She’d hit Xue Rui and then dragged Chen Tingting away.

On the way back to Lin Ruoxi’s house.

"Does... does it hurt?" Lin Ruoxi reached out, wanting to touch Xue Rui’s back, but hesitated and pulled her hand back.

"It doesn’t hurt," Xue Rui said with a smile.

He was wearing thick winter clothes, and she had only hit his back. Xue Rui just felt a tingling numbness; there was no pain at all.

’She’s worried about such a simple, common-sense thing?’ Xue Rui thought.

"Why did she hit you?" Lin Ruoxi asked in a small voice.

The entire school knew that Xue Rui was pursuing Gu Muxue, but he hadn’t been doing so recently.

Besides... she remembered Xue Rui saying a few months ago that he’d stopped.

’Does this mean Xue Rui gets hit if he *stops* pursuing Gu Muxue?’

Lin Ruoxi couldn’t figure it out.

Hearing Lin Ruoxi’s question, Xue Rui suddenly grew tense.

This was the first time Lin Ruoxi had ever talked to him about Gu Muxue.

"I made her angry, so she came to get back at me. I think it’s normal," Xue Rui said.

Lin Ruoxi blinked her big eyes. ’Is that how it is?’

He changed the subject. "If anyone bullies you in the future, you have to hit them back."

"Hitting people... is bad," Lin Ruoxi muttered under her breath.

Xue Rui ruffled Lin Ruoxi’s hair. He knew it was useless to say anything.

"What if someone kept chasing me and hitting me?" Xue Rui asked, his expression turning serious.

Lin Ruoxi bit her lip, her small fists clenched tightly.

She had felt awful seeing Xue Rui get hit today. If someone were to constantly chase and hit him...

For some reason, just thinking about it made her feel scared and angry.

Seeing Lin Ruoxi’s body begin to tremble slightly, Xue Rui put his arm around her shoulder. "I’m hungry. Let’s go home and eat."

"Oh... what are we eating today?" Lin Ruoxi asked blankly.

"Anything but dumplings."

Xue Rui had been traumatized by dumplings over the past few days. Just the sight of them killed his appetite.

「At Lin Ruoxi’s house.」

While they were eating, Lin Ruoxi kept feeling that something was strange today, as if something was missing.

"It’s Christmas Eve."

Lin Ruoxi handed him an apple. She had bought it herself, picking the biggest, reddest one.

She had never known what this holiday was for, and no one had ever given her an apple before.

But today, she had received many, many apples, though Xue Rui had taken them all to "deal with."

She had looked it up online and learned that on this holiday, you give an apple to someone you like.

However, Xue Rui’s reaction was very mild.

At that moment, Xue Rui’s mind was racing. He’d never cared much before, but now he dreaded holidays!

On one side was Gu Muxue, on the other was Lin Ruoxi, and then there was Chen Tingting stirring up trouble in the middle.

He couldn’t split himself in two. What was he supposed to do if they both wanted to spend the holiday with him?

Xue Rui said seriously, "Actually, I don’t like Christmas Eve. Why should we celebrate a foreign holiday? Don’t we have our own festivals?"

"Kids these days... they don’t pay attention to our traditional holidays but insist on celebrating other people’s. I don’t think that’s right."

"Xixi, don’t you agree? Let’s not celebrate foreign holidays." Xue Rui’s tone was very sincere.

With the advent of the mobile internet era, capitalism needed to push consumerism.

However, male "leeks" weren’t so easy to harvest.

So, the scythe turned.

They packaged any day remotely related to women into a holiday that required gifts and companionship, creating a "simp" economy.

Even if guys knew it was just corporate marketing, they had to bite the bullet and fall into the trap.

Because their girlfriends would only remember that their best friends got gifts while they didn’t.

This comparison created a sense of disparity, putting immense pressure on the guys.

’There are too damn many holidays to celebrate in the future,’ Xue Rui thought.

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day... hardly anyone really knew what these holidays were about. But they were a time for girls to get presents and for guys to find an excuse to get a room.

Xue Rui considered them "get-a-room" holidays...

Then there was March 8th, Women’s Day, which had been forcibly repackaged as "Goddess Day."

Xue Rui believed that those girls who didn’t work—whose hands had never touched dishwater—and only knew how to receive gifts didn’t deserve to celebrate this holiday. They were demeaning the sacrifices of the great women throughout history.

And there was the online Valentine’s Day on May 20th...

After that was June 1st, Children’s Day, because who isn’t a "baby," after all?

Even worse, there was the "first cup of milk tea of autumn"...

...

The whole year was full of holidays!

For someone like Xue Rui, who was two-timing, it was extremely inconvenient.

It was manageable in high school; many of these holidays could be skipped.

But... what about after high school?

If he had to celebrate all of them, how much mental anguish would he have to endure?

"Xixi?" Xue Rui asked, his tone questioning. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

He was planning to cut down on some holidays with Lin Ruoxi, and then cut down on a few with Gu Muxue later. That way, he could manage to get by.

Lin Ruoxi’s face flushed bright red. She had heard Xue Rui call her "Xixi."

Xue Rui rarely used that name for her, only when he was talking with his grandma. Usually, he called her by her full name...

It felt so intimate, and Xue Rui had also said "us."

It was as if... they were a family.

"Mm... okay," Lin Ruoxi said, looking down.

Xue Rui smiled. He had only called her by her nickname, and the girl’s face was redder than the apple.

He broke the apple in half and gave one piece to Lin Ruoxi. "Here, eat."

Lin Ruoxi took the apple and bit into it, the corners of her mouth turning up into a smile.

Even though she only got half an apple, it was truly sweet...

Xue Rui sighed. ’If only Gu Muxue were this easy to please,’ he thought. ’My life would be so much easier.’

After dinner, the two of them got back to work on the game and developing new software.

In his current situation, the only realistic way for him to make money while still in high school was through software.

First, he could ride the wave of the mobile internet boom to make money quickly, and second, it wasn’t like he had any other skills.

The game’s metrics had clearly started to rise over the past two days. Based on previous earnings, the revenue from the matching game this month should be around 50,000 yuan.

After lowering his expectations, Xue Rui was quite satisfied with this number.

After all, at this point in time, earning 5,000 yuan a month already put you in the high-income bracket. He was now making over 10,000 yuan a month, and the workload wasn’t even that intense.

Although he had passed most of the burden onto Lin Ruoxi, her skills were solid, so it didn’t take her much time...

"Let’s set aside enough money for daily expenses. I want to invest the rest in Bitcoin," Xue Rui suggested.

He had previously bought over 30,000 yuan worth of Bitcoin. There was a surge a while back, and the price multiplied several times over.

But in Xue Rui’s opinion, the price was still too low. It wasn’t worth selling.

Then the price fell again... Xue Rui was a little disappointed.

He was preparing to invest heavily in Bitcoin. There was no way he could lose money anyway; it would rise to four or five hundred thousand yuan per coin in the future.

But he had made the game with Lin Ruoxi, so she naturally had a share in the revenue. He had to ask for her opinion.

He had actually already guessed the outcome. Lin Ruoxi would, in all likelihood, support him without a second thought.

But asking and not asking were two different things.

"Mm, that’s fine," Lin Ruoxi agreed with a decisive nod, not hesitating at all.

Xue Rui had expected this answer. He smiled and asked, "Cryptocurrency is volatile. What if we lose it all? Your money is in there, too."

Lin Ruoxi thought for a moment, then broke into a happy smile. "If we lose it... we can just earn it back."

Xue Rui was a bit surprised. Lin Ruoxi couldn’t lie; her thoughts were practically written all over her face.

For some reason, he got the feeling that Lin Ruoxi was actually hoping he would lose the money.

But on second thought, that didn’t seem right. Why would Lin Ruoxi want him to lose money?

’What on earth is this girl thinking?’

It was the first time he had ever failed to understand what Lin Ruoxi was thinking.

Lin Ruoxi had great faith in Xue Rui’s choices. Besides, she felt that if they lost the money, she could keep making software with him to earn it back.

"Money... as long as we have enough, it’s fine," Lin Ruoxi said softly.

The truth was, Lin Ruoxi had been surfing the internet intensely lately and had come across a certain viewpoint: men turn bad when they get rich.

But Xue Rui had warned her not to believe everything she saw online.

So, she had asked Xue Rui: do men turn bad when they get rich?

At the time, Xue Rui had been dozing on his bed, and when he heard the question about rich men turning bad, he had subconsciously given an affirmative answer.

Lin Ruoxi didn’t want Xue Rui to turn bad...

...

「In the blink of an eye, it was New Year’s Eve.」

Xue Rui was relieved. He didn’t know if it was a sign of the times or because Hedong City was an eighteenth-tier city, but the students here didn’t celebrate Christmas.

As a result, Gu Muxue hadn’t brought it up with Xue Rui either.

Today was New Year’s Eve, and the school was holding a New Year’s gala.

However, Xue Rui was a second-year. Concerned about academics, the school only scheduled performances from the first-years, who had a lighter workload.

The second and third-year students were the audience.

Many students were hoping one of the school beauties would take the stage—either Gu Muxue or Lin Ruoxi would have been great.

Unfortunately, both of the school’s beauties were second-years.

"What a shame. I still remember Gu Muxue’s performance last year. It was a real feast for the eyes," a male student lamented.

"Yeah, it’s a real shame," someone else chimed in.

"Really? Senior, do you have a video I can see?" a first-year boy asked excitedly. They had arrived a year too late to witness such a good thing.

"A video? The school is probably the only one that has it. You’ll have to ask the principal."

Xue Rui smiled. He had seen a lot of camera equipment in the cafeteria at lunchtime, which the school prepared for the gala every year.

The underclassman walked away with a look of regret, muttering, "Actually, Chen Tingting is really cute too."

The New Year’s gala was taking place during the evening self-study period. It was already past 6 p.m., so it should have been pitch-black outside.

But today was different. It had been snowing for a few days after Christmas, dressing the entire campus in a limited-edition winter outfit.

A bright moon painted a layer of silver over the snow-covered ground.

At this moment, the campus was as bright as day, and everything was clearly visible.

The New Year’s gala was being held in the cafeteria because it was spacious and warm enough.

The teachers arranged for each class to enter the cafeteria in an orderly fashion, but since it was right before the New Year’s holiday and winter break was just around the corner, none of the students were listening to the teachers. Everyone just did their own thing.

Gu Muxue snuck up on Xue Rui and deliberately shoved her icy little hand down the back of his neck. "Xiaorui!"