Chen Shen stared at Lin Ruoxi in surprise. The girl was incredibly pretty.

’The key thing is, how can someone be this adorably naive?’

’Xue Rui is just a student. Why would I arrest him?’

’Can’t this girl tell that my arm around Xue Rui’s shoulder is a friendly gesture?’

"I... I did something wrong too... I just lied to the teacher and the security guard..."

Teary-eyed, Lin Ruoxi confessed her "crimes."

Xue Rui thought that Lin Ruoxi actually knew how to be deceptive. The moment she started crying, she got this pitiful look that would make anyone’s heart ache. Who wouldn’t feel sorry for her?

Besides, she hadn’t ratted him out to the police officer.

"Miss, Xue Rui and I already know each other. We were just chatting for a bit."

Chen Shen had intended to play along with Xue Rui and tease the innocent girl, but she was so earnest he just didn’t have the heart.

Seeing Lin Ruoxi still looking upset, Chen Shen smiled and squeezed Xue Rui’s shoulder. "That’s enough."

"Lin Ruoxi, let’s go. I was just chatting with Uncle Chen," Xue Rui explained with a smile.

Lin Ruoxi stood there blankly, still trying to process what had happened.

"We’re heading out now, Uncle Chen." Xue Rui sighed in resignation, pulling Lin Ruoxi’s arm and leading her away.

"Goodbye, Officer," Lin Ruoxi said politely.

This was exactly what worried Xue Rui most. Lin Ruoxi was too naive; he could talk her in circles with just a few sentences.

’So that’s the girl Tingting was talking about?’ Chen Shen muttered to himself.

Back home, his daughter had mentioned having a powerful "rival."

He figured Chen Tingting must have been talking about the girl he just saw.

Not only was she gorgeous, but she also had this docile, clingy air about her.

’What boy doesn’t have a bit of a macho streak? Faced with a girl’s admiring gaze, he’d quickly get lost in it, unable to break free.’

It was Xue Rui’s appearance that had prompted Chen Shen to start sizing up these kids with the eye of a potential father-in-law.

’Xue Rui?’ Chen Shen shook his head.

He’d met countless people, but Xue Rui was the most unique.

The eyes are windows to the soul. A single look can give you a rough idea of a person’s character and their family background.

A look of innocence and curiosity is often found in students or very sheltered adults.

Take his own wife, for example. Her understanding of the world was only surface-level.

Adults who have been beaten down by life for years have lost the light in their eyes. They’re listless, with no hope for the future.

He saw that same look in many commuters every morning when he was on duty.

Successful people have ambition in their eyes, a hint of ruthlessness, as if they have everything under their control.

The elderly, with one foot in the grave, have a look of acceptance, a sort of detached tranquility, as if nothing in the world could affect them anymore.

But Xue Rui? He was like a great vat of dye into which all sorts of colors had been poured. He had a bit of everything, but wasn’t any one thing in particular.

’That sweet, well-behaved girl from before didn’t seem like the type to ever skip class. Xue Rui must have been a bad influence...’

Xue Rui tells Chen Tingting to respect herself, yet he’s the one teaching Lin Ruoxi how to skip class.

Chen Shen couldn’t help but recall a rather inappropriate saying: Corrupting the virtuous and reforming the wicked...

"Whatever." Chen Shen shook his head with a wry smile.

He felt his professional habits were kicking in again. ’Why am I starting to analyze these kids?’

"Tingting!" Chen Shen saw his daughter and waved with a smile.

"Dad, take me to buy ingredients to make a cake. I heard from Xue Rui that Gu Muxue has baked a cake before. I can’t lose to her."

Chen Tingting’s face was a mask of fierce determination.

"And who is Gu Muxue?" Chen Shen couldn’t help but ask.

"A powerful rival."

Chen Shen: "..."

He remembered clearly that the girl from a moment ago was named Lin Ruoxi.

As a father, Chen Shen naturally believed his daughter was the prettiest girl in the world.

But objectively speaking, she didn’t quite measure up to Lin Ruoxi.

’And now a Gu Muxue has popped up?’

’So, does that mean there are two girls prettier than his daughter around Xue Rui?’

"Tingting, maybe we should just forget it. I still haven’t finished the cookies you baked last time."

"Dad, can’t you just eat more?"

"..."

...

Xue Rui first sent Lin Ruoxi home to change. He was planning to take her to run a street stall today.

"We’re going to set up a stall and sell some things today. Have you ever done that before?" Xue Rui asked.

"Mmm... I’ve sold vegetables," Lin Ruoxi nodded.

"Today we’re selling something else," Xue Rui said with a smile.

He could sense that Lin Ruoxi was becoming very dependent on him, but he didn’t dare just let her go off to be "independent" on her own.

The cost of growing up can be brutal, especially for someone like Lin Ruoxi.

Xue Rui wanted to teach Lin Ruoxi about the world with the least amount of pain possible.

On the way to the market, Xue Rui asked casually:

"Why did you list me as the beneficiary on that insurance policy? What would you have done if I’d just taken the money and run?"

Lin Ruoxi had no one to rely on. Thinking she had a terminal illness, she actually made him the beneficiary of her insurance policy.

Xue Rui figured she probably thought her grandmother couldn’t live on her own and wanted him to take care of her.

’But do I really seem like a good person?’

The grandmother herself had said she was just an old scoundrel who’d failed to raise her son properly.

Xue Rui agreed. He didn’t believe people deserved respect just for being old.

It’s only when people get old that they start to regret their past actions.

He’d heard from the villagers that in her youth, the grandmother had been a notorious shrew throughout the entire area.

If the grandmother hadn’t failed to raise her son properly, how could Lin Ruoxi have been dragged into such a mess?

He never put on an act in front of Lin Ruoxi. His attitude toward her grandmother was actually quite cold.

"You... are a good person," Lin Ruoxi said earnestly.

In truth, she hadn’t given it much thought when she was filling out the insurance form.

Lin Ruoxi believed Xue Rui was a good person and would take care of her grandmother after she died.

"Let’s hope so," Xue Rui said with a small smile.

The two arrived at a wholesale clothing market.

The market was a chaotic scene of vehicles unloading goods. There were a few people there to buy stock, but not many.

"Hey, Boss, how much for this fall jacket?" Xue Rui asked, casually picking out a jacket that seemed to be of decent quality.

"Fifty for the one you’re holding. How many do you want?"

"It’s my first day running a stall. I’ll need some men’s and women’s styles—let’s do twenty of each," Xue Rui said with a grin, offering the man a cigarette.

...

Xue Rui didn’t haggle with the wholesaler. The prices in this kind of place were already very transparent.

Most buyers would do a lap around the market to compare prices from different wholesalers anyway.

Xue Rui figured the price difference wouldn’t be more than five, tops.

Even if the wholesaler tried to make a little extra off them for being kids, it didn’t matter.

Xue Rui wasn’t planning on making a profit this way to begin with.

Besides, he was planning a one-time, high-profit sale today, so there was no need to pinch pennies on the initial cost.

Xue Rui paid a deposit and borrowed a beat-up tricycle from the wholesale boss.

"Hop in," Xue Rui said with a grin, patting the back of the tricycle.

’This was a damn pedal-powered tricycle. If he were on a college campus, he’d probably get laughed at by passing coeds.’

’Let alone asking a beautiful girl to ride in something like this.’

But Lin Ruoxi climbed meekly into the back of the tricycle without a single word of complaint.

Xue Rui figured that for a girl as beautiful as Lin Ruoxi, most guys with cars worth less than a hundred thousand wouldn’t even have the nerve to approach her.

’And yet here she was, sitting in the back of his tricycle...’

The sight of the two of them, Xue Rui and Lin Ruoxi, drew many stares along the way, making Lin Ruoxi bury her head in her knees in embarrassment.

The two soon arrived at a nearby plaza.

Xue Rui had heard about this place from the wholesaler; you could set up a stall here as long as you paid the fee.

Xue Rui went and found the manager to pay the stall fee.

However, because they arrived so late, and it was the weekend, all the good spots were long gone, leaving only a very remote corner.

Xue Rui set up the rack he’d borrowed, while Lin Ruoxi hung up the clothes they’d bought one by one.

"Out here earning money so young?" the neighboring stall owner exclaimed in amazement. It was the first time he’d ever seen kids running a stall here.

"Just getting some experience," Xue Rui replied cheerfully.

The neighboring stall owner sold bulk snacks and was not in competition with them.

"Kids like you are really rare these days."

"It’s a school holiday today, though. You should’ve stocked some kids’ clothes," the owner advised.

Foot traffic was high at this time of day, but it was mostly parents picking up their kids after school. Not many people were interested in adult clothing.

"Thanks, sir. It’s our first time, so we don’t really know what we’re doing," Xue Rui said with a grin, offering him a cigarette.

Of course, he knew selling kids’ clothes would be profitable, but that would ruin his plan.

"How much... should we sell them for?" Lin Ruoxi asked.

She had just done some quick math. Including all the costs, they’d have to sell the jackets for 60 yuan each just to break even.

Xue Rui held up two fingers. "We’ll sell them for 200."

"Two hundred?" Lin Ruoxi covered her mouth, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"People will haggle. You’ll be lucky just to break even," Xue Rui said with a laugh.

Xue Rui guessed she thought that was too much of a markup.

But people at these street stalls drive a hard bargain. ’If you price it at 200, they’ll haggle you down to 80 at the very least.’

’And since Lin Ruoxi wasn’t much of a talker, how was she supposed to haggle with customers?’

He casually took a jacket from the stall and put it on himself.

Lin Ruoxi watched him and was about to follow his example and put one on herself, but Xue Rui stopped her.

"You just stand there," Xue Rui said, shaking his head.

He had told Lin Ruoxi to go home and change into a pretty, celadon-green dress for this very reason—to attract customers.

A beautiful girl is a living, breathing advertisement. People of all ages, men and women alike, will stop to take a look.

Before long, the first customer arrived.

A middle-aged woman browsed the stall, then reached out to feel the fabric of a jacket, a satisfied look in her eyes.

Xue Rui noticed. The clothes he’d bought were actually on the higher-quality side; you couldn’t find much wrong with them, at least for stall merchandise.

"Young lady, how much is this jacket?" the woman asked.

"Two hundred," Lin Ruoxi said, her voice lacking conviction.

The woman’s face broke into a smile. "I’d say it’s worth thirty at most."

Lin Ruoxi was clearly taken aback. ’How could it be thirty? Our cost was fifty!’

"That’s too cheap, I..."

"My neighbor bought the exact same one a few days ago. She got it for thirty."

"I... My cost price was fifty," Lin Ruoxi said, so naive she completely missed that the woman was just making up an excuse to haggle.

She actually blurted out their cost price.

The neighboring stall owner stifled a laugh, thinking to himself, ’This kid is way too honest.’

Xue Rui just watched from the side with a broad smile, not saying a word.