Chapter 055
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Chapter 055 The Past Has Faded Away
“Tell me the name of the orphanage, I’ll have someone check where it was relocated after demolition,” Lin Aoxue continued. Perhaps touched by Su Rui’s background, today’s Lin Aoxue didn’t seem as cold as usual.
“Ninghai Fourth Children’s Welfare Institute.” Su Rui said, then thought for a moment before adding somewhat uncertainly: “It should be called that, just the Fourth Welfare Institute.”
The past is like smoke, many things scattered in the wind, and what remains in memory are just fragments of dust.
When mentioning this name, Su Rui shook his head and said: “Ninghai really has a lot of orphans, there are at least four or five welfare institutes!”
While Su Rui was speaking, Lin Aoxue had already dialed her assistant’s phone: “Find a way to check for me if there’s a place called Ninghai Fourth Children’s Welfare Institute, originally located on Xihua Street, and where it was relocated after demolition.”
After hanging up, Su Rui looked at Lin Aoxue with a wry smile: “Little Aoxue, I didn’t expect you to be so efficient. I hadn’t even finished speaking and you’ve already made your call.”
Lin Aoxue said: “Time is money, efficiency is life. I don’t like wasting money, and I especially don’t like wasting life.”
This statement truly matched Lin Aoxue’s style.
Looking at Lin Aoxue’s gaze and her expression, Su Rui felt an inexplicable sense of regret: “Little Aoxue, do you know that life doesn’t necessarily have to be at such a fast pace?”
“Fast pace, what do you mean?”
“Life can actually be slowed down a bit, along with your footsteps.” Su Rui again displayed the appearance of an otherworldly sage, with a silly expression and an air of pomposity, saying: “You can treat our lives as a journey. If you walk too fast, you can’t see the scenery along the way. Only by walking slowly and savoring can the roadside scenery enter your view. Those insights need time to be recorded. If you just rush forward, you’ll lose many quiet and beautiful things in life. Even if you eventually reach your destination and achieve the success you want, you’ll find that the additional things you gained with that success are pitifully few.”
“But during the journey, if you slow down, you might gain much more than what you ultimately achieve.”
Lin Aoxue sneered and said: “You’re lecturing again.”
In fact, with Su Rui’s pretentious language combined with his silly expression, there wasn’t much lecturing intent.
Su Rui chuckled and said: “This isn’t lecturing, I’m just sharing my insights with you. Accept it if you want, or pretend I said nothing if you don’t.”
Lin Aoxue glanced at Su Rui, not wanting to pay any attention to this overly self-satisfied guy.
Seeing Lin Aoxue’s demeanor, Su Rui began to laugh heartily, his smile carrying an indescribable pleasure.
The more he interacted with her, the more Su Rui discovered that Lin Aoxue wasn’t as cold as she appeared on the surface. She was just covering herself up. Only by breaking through that layer of ice would one discover the warm current flowing beneath!
It’s just that this girl was too unwilling to let her warmth appear before others!
Ten minutes later, Lin Aoxue’s phone rang.
It seemed to be her assistant calling, presumably reporting news about the Fourth Children’s Welfare Institute. As Lin Aoxue listened, her brows gradually furrowed.
Su Rui approached with a silly expression and said to Lin Aoxue after she hung up: “Sister Aoxue, before you speak, can I give you a suggestion?”
“What suggestion?” Lin Aoxue raised her eyebrows again.
“The suggestion is, could you try not to frown no matter what happens? If you keep doing this, before you’re old enough to have wrinkles, a deep line will appear between your eyebrows, which would greatly affect your beauty.”
Lin Aoxue looked at Su Rui, her lips twitching slightly, then uttered four words that greatly surprised and shocked him.
“None of your business.”
Upon hearing this, Su Rui’s smile instantly froze on his face, his expression as spectacular as if he had eaten a bowl of hot excrement.
…
“What did you say? The Fourth Children’s Welfare Institute was demolished nineteen years ago?”
Su Rui could hardly believe this number!
In today’s rapidly changing world, nineteen years could bring earth-shattering changes!
In these nineteen years, the teachers and director of the welfare institute had probably long gone who knows where!
Finding them would be like looking for a needle in the ocean!
Although there were some connections he could use, Su Rui didn’t want to expose his presence in China. If he did, those guys from the Western dark world would definitely act upon hearing the news, and he didn’t want to bring even the slightest ripple to this ancient Eastern country because of himself.
Su Rui wasn’t afraid of Koschelniy; he had once done the kid a favor. If he dared to leak information about Su Rui being in China, Su Rui would really go to the Black Spider headquarters to twist off his head.
“Nineteen years, nineteen years…”
Su Rui muttered this number, and suddenly an expression of disbelief crossed his face!
Because if he hadn’t miscalculated, he should have left that welfare institute exactly nineteen years ago!
Could it be that shortly after he left, the welfare institute was demolished?
“Yes, because nineteen years ago, there was a big fire at that children’s welfare institute. The fire almost completely destroyed the entire place, and the government didn’t allocate funds to rebuild it on the original site. Instead, they distributed the teachers and children who fortunately escaped the fire to several other welfare institutes. And because of that fire, many children and teachers died from burns. Afterward, the exact cause of the fire was never determined, whether it was man-made or due to other reasons.”
Lin Aoxue told Su Rui all the information her assistant had uncovered.
“I see.” Hearing about what happened to the children’s welfare institute where he had lived for several years, Su Rui felt quite uncomfortable.
After all, those teachers and the director had been very good to him, and if they had perished in the fire, it would be too unfortunate. Although he couldn’t remember clearly those little playmates from before, he didn’t want to see those children die in the fire either.
Nineteen years, shortly after he left, the welfare institute was destroyed by fire. Su Rui didn’t know whether to feel fortunate or sad.
Nineteen years had passed, and trying to find people now would truly be like searching for a needle in the ocean, the difficulty was far too great.
Su Rui stood silently with his hands behind his back for a full ten minutes or more. Lin Aoxue also stood nearby, watching Su Rui without saying a word, a trace of complexity flashing in her eyes.
As long as Su Rui didn’t speak, she absolutely wouldn’t speak first. That was just this woman’s nature.
Su Rui looked at the sky that was no longer azure, sighed deeply, turned around, and squeezed out a smile for Lin Aoxue: “Let’s end it here for today and go back. I didn’t have much hope for this matter anyway, and now it seems even more hopeless.”
Seeing Su Rui’s obviously dejected face, Lin Aoxue’s heart stirred: “Actually, you don’t need to give up. We can think of other ways, maybe we can still find something.”
“It’s okay, I’ll figure it out myself.”
Lin Aoxue nodded. After spending the day together, she no longer had the initial hostility toward Su Rui, although his perverted and lecherous manner sometimes still provoked her disgust.
Su Rui looked at Lin Aoxue and said: “How are you? Are you hungry? Following me around for so long, you must be tired, right?”
Lin Aoxue nodded and said: “I’m fine.”
Although her expression was still cold, there was already a subtle softness in her words. Although this softness was hard to detect, it was indeed a huge transformation. For Lin Aoxue, such a transformation was truly not easy, considering that before this she was an absolute ice queen!
Because today’s Su Rui gave her a different feeling, making her feel that this man was not the same as the one she knew before, Lin Aoxue had this psychological change. Especially when she saw Su Rui’s dejected look after not finding the orphanage, this feeling became even more obvious.
“How about this, to thank you for accompanying me today, I’ll treat you to dinner. What do you think?” Su Rui adjusted his mood. He was just that kind of optimist, forgetting the unpleasantness in an instant.
“Mm.”
“Is there anything you’d like to eat?”
Lin Aoxue thought very seriously, then said two words: “Whatever.”
A black line appeared on Su Rui’s forehead, and then he asked: “Can you eat spicy food?”
Lin Aoxue also thought very seriously and said: “Either way is fine.”
A second black line appeared on Su Rui’s forehead, and then he asked: “Do you want to eat meat?”
Lin Aoxue also thought very seriously and answered: “It doesn’t matter.”
Su Rui’s forehead was covered with black lines. Just as he was about to ask the next question, Lin Aoxue blocked his mouth again, saying: “You don’t need to ask anymore. This question is really boring and completely meaningless.”
Su Rui immediately became upset: “Lin Aoxue, you’re too much!”
“How am I too much?” Lin Aoxue looked at Su Rui as if looking at an idiot.
Su Rui said with heartfelt indignation: “Today I taught you to be down-to-earth, taking the bus, taking the subway, catching thieves, and you’ve thrown everything I taught you to the winds!”
Lin Aoxue glanced at him: “What do you mean?”
“Food is the first necessity of the people. How can what you eat be ‘whatever’ or ‘not important’? Eating, clothing, housing, and transportation—these are the four aspects of life, and yet you’re so dismissive, saying ‘it doesn’t matter’ and ‘either way is fine.’ Is this something a person who loves life would say?”
Su Rui argued eloquently. He found that he really enjoyed the feeling of having the upper hand over Lin Aoxue in conversation.
“I love life, but that’s not the standard for measuring love of life.” Lin Aoxue’s voice remained cold, making people feel as if the surrounding temperature had dropped a few degrees.
Su Rui said angrily: “I’ll let you be cold, I’m definitely going to eat something spicy today to drive away your coldness!”
Su Rui really said whatever came to mind, but Lin Aoxue seemed indifferent. Even though Su Rui spoke to her in such an unfriendly manner, she seemed unaffected, as if she had already become accustomed to this man speaking to her in this tone.
Of course, if other men spoke to her like this, Miss Lin Aoxue would definitely have walked away with a cold face long ago.
“Eat something spicy to drive away the coldness.”
For some reason, hearing these words, a slight smile appeared on Lin Aoxue’s icy face, though this smile wasn’t seen by Su Rui.
This stunningly beautiful smile would have stopped any man in his tracks.
Unfortunately, no one noticed it.
