Chapter 373

Chapter 373 You’re So Good to Me!

What kind of relationship they had — everything but friendship.

These words coming from Lin Aoxue’s lips carried a sense of desolation.

That feeling of desolation seemed like it shouldn’t belong to this daughter of heaven, yet there it was, and somehow it didn’t feel out of place at all.

Su Rui didn’t know what to say to comfort this girl who seemed to have everything going for her on the surface, yet whose life was anything but easy.

Perhaps she had always come across as a little aloof and cold, but deep down she longed for friendship just like anyone else. The more exceptional a person is, the lonelier they tend to be. Lin Aoxue stood at the summit, her music too refined for most ears, and over time she had gradually sealed her heart away even further.

“Honestly, I don’t really care all that much about it. So many years without a friend — that kind of connection has become something I can take or leave.”

Lin Aoxue took another sip of red wine.

She wasn’t much of a drinker, and she’d already had quite a bit tonight. Some people, at certain moments, really can only open up when they have a little alcohol to lean on.

Su Rui had been about to stop her from drinking more, but the words died in his throat before he could say them. He had already realized that perhaps this would be the one and only time in Lin Aoxue’s life that she would ever pour her heart out like this, and he didn’t want to interrupt.

“Looking back over all these years, I’ve gradually come to understand what I truly want. Every day I’m either in the office or in the lab, and even at night, sitting on my bed, I’m still reading research findings from abroad. For me, that is life in its entirety. Making Bikang the world’s leading pharmaceutical group — that is my goal.”

At that, Lin Aoxue let out a bitter smile. Su Rui was stunned. In all the time he had known her, this was the first time he had ever seen that expression on her face.

“Am I terribly boring?” Lin Aoxue suddenly asked.

Su Rui paused for a moment, then said with a sheepish grin, sharing what was honestly on his mind: “If you were plain-looking, a life like that would indeed be pretty dull. But unfortunately for that argument, you’re beautiful — so not only are you not boring, you’re actually incredibly distinctive.”

This world really does judge by appearances. Damn, it’s just not fair.

Lin Aoxue laughed too. She simply slipped off her shoes, drew her legs together, and sat on Su Rui’s bed. “Actually, I know — regardless of whether I’m pretty or not, this kind of life really is quite dull. I don’t read novels or watch movies, I don’t play mahjong or bridge, I don’t do horse racing or golf, I don’t chat with my parents or go shopping with girlfriends, I don’t date and I don’t even bother with social media. What man would want a woman like that?”

Everything that a person of high society was supposed to enjoy seemed to have nothing to do with her.

“What man would want a woman like that? I’d imagine the line of men wanting to marry you stretches from Ninghai all the way to Qinghai.” Su Rui curled his lip.

“Those men chase after me either for my looks or for my family background. Maybe once they’ve actually married me and have to face such a dull woman every single day, they’d end up regretting it.” Lin Aoxue said with self-deprecating humor. “If it were you, would you regret it?”

“If it were me? Me marrying you?” Su Rui was taken aback. “I honestly have never entertained that kind of hypothetical.”

“What about now?” Lin Aoxue looked into Su Rui’s eyes, her gaze soft, her voice soft, without a trace of shyness — beneath that gentleness in her eyes was nothing but courage.

Su Rui looked at Lin Aoxue’s delicate features, at her graceful figure, his gaze sweeping from top to bottom before finally returning to her eyes.

Lin Aoxue’s cheeks were still flushed, but being looked over like that by Su Rui seemed to deepen the color in her face by another shade.

“You’re so beautiful — if I married you, I think I could spend a lifetime looking at you and never get enough.”

Su Rui finally said what was on his mind. It was a genuinely fitting and apt thing to say about Lin Aoxue, yet hearing words like that in the dead of night, just the two of them, gave the moment a tender, lingering warmth.

Lin Aoxue’s face flushed a shade deeper at his words.

“Really?” She seemed almost unable to believe it, and there was a faint note of quiet surprise in her voice.

Whether it was the alcohol or not, Lin Aoxue was being far more emotionally open tonight than she usually was.

“Of course.” Su Rui said. “I have no reason to lie to you. And in my opinion, the longer you spend time with you, the more you realize you’re not boring at all — quite the opposite, actually. You’re fascinating.”

That much, Su Rui wasn’t lying about. It was his genuine feeling.

Before getting close to Lin Aoxue, anyone would have thought she was impossibly cold and unapproachable. But the more time you spent with her, the more you discovered qualities in her that most people simply didn’t have.

“I don’t believe that.” Lin Aoxue smiled slightly. She really couldn’t accept what Su Rui was saying.

“I always thought my life was monotonous, and I never felt I needed anything more colorful. But looking at it now, I was wrong.”

The proud Lin Aoxue was actually admitting she was wrong? Su Rui found the whole evening growing more and more interesting.

“To be precise, it was after that one time you took me out that I knew I was wrong — and wrong in such an absurd way.” Lin Aoxue said.

“Which time?” Su Rui genuinely couldn’t recall doing anything so momentous — something that had apparently rescued a girl in distress from the depths of despair.

“That time — you took me on a bus, took me on the subway, took me to eat street food, and then had me lie on the grass in the park and nap in the sun.” Lin Aoxue shook her head, looking at Su Rui with a soft gaze, and smiled. “All those things used to feel so far from my world, but your presence brought them close. You gave me so much change. In your words, you made me more down-to-earth.”

Thinking back to his scheming from that time, Su Rui couldn’t help but smile with a touch of nostalgia. When he had first met Lin Aoxue, he’d actually had a whole plan to “train” her — but looking at things now, there was absolutely no need to carry that plan any further. Lin Aoxue had chosen to change on her own.

That kind of change wasn’t just something to be glad about — it was also, somehow… moving.

“Look — I’ve kept it all this time.”

Lin Aoxue reached for her bag and pulled out a magnolia leaf wrapped carefully in a tissue.

It was from that park, from the afternoon they had lain on the grass — Su Rui had plucked it and placed it over Lin Aoxue’s eyes while she napped.

Ever since that day, whenever Lin Aoxue took an afternoon nap, she would often find herself thinking of the dappled sunlight that had filtered down through the layers of leaves.

Su Rui held the leaf and studied it for a moment, then shook his head with a smile. “If you like it that much, I can get you two tons of these leaves.”

“You call me boring — I think you’re the boring one.” Lin Aoxue broke into a breathtaking smile.

The number of times she had smiled tonight was probably more than she had smiled in the entire past year.

“I think you should stop going by Lin Aoxue and just call yourself Lin Xiaoxiao — that way you’d have a reason to smile more.” No matter how many times Lin Aoxue smiled, Su Rui was struck by it every single time. Calling her “a beauty beyond compare” was truly no exaggeration.

“Your naming sense is really something else.”

Lin Aoxue wrapped the leaf carefully back in the tissue and tucked it away in her bag with great care.

“Su Rui, I know that with my personality, not many people are willing to be my friend. But you are one — and perhaps the only one.” Lin Aoxue fixed her gaze on Su Rui’s eyes, her look burning and intent.

“I believe there are plenty of people in this world who would want to be your friend. I’m just one of them.” Su Rui, caught in the intensity of Lin Aoxue’s gaze, suddenly felt a flutter of nervousness deep inside. “Maybe it’s just that they’re far away from you, and you can’t feel it.”

“Maybe. But I don’t need to feel it, and I don’t want to. Having a friend like you — I think that’s enough.” Lin Aoxue said with complete sincerity.

Having you is enough.

Such a simple thing to say, yet it made the heart skip a beat.

Su Rui felt his breath catch for just a moment.

Sometimes, the simplest things are the most sincere.

Su Rui was uncharacteristically humble for once: “I feel like there are still a lot of ways I fall short.”

Lin Aoxue shook her head. “Books always talk about being willing to take a knife for a friend. Before this, I understood what that meant, but I couldn’t feel it. But just now — in that phone call just now — I felt it.”

Su Rui felt warmth rise in his cheeks.

“You would take a knife for me.” As Lin Aoxue said those words, a wave of emotion she could only call being moved surged up inside her once more.

Before today, she never could have imagined that this man would do so many things for her — things so dangerous they were almost unbelievable.

In truth, Lin Aoxue seemed to have half-forgotten that when Su Rui had been set up by Song Tianxiang and taken to the police station for questioning, she too had been so furious that she had ordered Bikang to go all-out against the Tianxiang Group from that day forward — even at the risk of the entire company’s future.

In a certain sense, the two of them were so very alike.

Lin Aoxue looked at Su Rui as memories flashed before her one by one.

From their very first meeting, Su Rui’s relentless persistence, to the danger at the Lin family estate when Su Rui had risked his life to save her — every single detail, Lin Aoxue had never forgotten.

If not for him, Lin Aoxue might have died several times over by now. The more she thought about these things, these moments, the more vividly they came back to her.

This guy who seemed a little unserious on the surface was, in truth, a man of burning passion and real courage — a friend you could entrust your life to.

“Su Rui, thank you.” Lin Aoxue looked into his eyes, her gaze sincere and deeply moving.

“Don’t mention it — what can I say, you’re just that beautiful. Standing by and doing nothing when a beautiful woman is in trouble is not my style.” Su Rui seemed a little uncomfortable with the weight of the moment and was trying to lighten the mood.

Lin Aoxue didn’t follow him down that lighter path. She took another small sip of wine and kept her eyes fixed on his. “Su Rui, do you know — in all my life, I have never met anyone willing to help me the way you do. Giving everything without asking for anything in return. I truly don’t know how to repay you.”

Thinking of how Su Rui had borrowed a trillion dollars at high interest for her sake, thinking of how his move against Gaoqi might expose the Temple of the Sun to attacks that could have been avoided, Lin Aoxue’s tears finally broke free and fell, one after another.

How could there be anyone in this world who treated her so well?