Getting Outsmarted By The CEO - Chapter 107

Chapter 33.2
TL: Bara Chou; PR: FeedMeOreos

Gu Jue was suddenly reminded of his trainwreck of an attempt at inquiring on the girls’ love-advice forum which ended with him being labeled a f?u?c?k?b?o?y?. He sought opinions from his “sons” in their group chat as well.

The boys’ reactions were:

“…”

When Gu Jue saw those replies, he reflected upon his impatience. When he’d invited Ruan An’an over, he’d simply wanted to see if she’d still remember Dummy. Bringing up cohabitation was not his plan.

The way his plan went, after confirming she still remembered, he would confess to her how long he’d been crushing on her… He had not expected to find out she’d liked him for just as long.

He was still reeling from all the news today. He’d had no time to react before the next headline hit him in the face.

Since early childhood, Gu Jue rarely felt emotional rollercoasters. His career aside, there’d been a few with Dummy. The rest of the ups and downs mostly had to do with the girl in front of him.

His demeanor showed nothing of the whirling emotions inside, “When are you moving?”

His voice came out slightly husky.

He was still expressionless, but his eyes looked darker. His stare seemed especially seductive.

Ruan An’an felt even more self-conscious. “I don’t know either…”

“Today is Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday…” He tried to not sound too eager, “If you’re free, let’s do tomorrow.”

…

Now that there was something to do, Ruan An’an didn’t stay much longer. She left to pack after playing with Dummy for another short while. After all, she would have all the time in the world to play with him after moving in.

Her visit lasted merely two hours.

After sending her back to campus on the bike, Gu Jue sat on his couch, savoring the recent events.

Savoring the afternoon that might as well have been an epic tale.

When he reached the end of his mental replay, he was especially elated. Thinking back to the mockery he had received from his friends, he opened their group chat.

Someone had changed the group name again, but the joke remained, “Gu Jue is a dog; he is such a dog.”

Gu Jue started typing without a care.

He switched to the music app and tapped on the familiar upper right corner.

Ruan An’an got dropped off at the school, so she went straight to Yin Yuan’s dorm.

She was daydreaming the whole ride and the couple didn’t talk much.

The excitement was real. There was also a bit of incredulous and an inexplicable… resonance in her heart.

Not just resonating with him, but with herself as well.

Ruan An’an had thought that she already liked Gu Jue a lot. She’d pushed her crush to the back of her mind the moment she’d seen Gu Jue at the university. If it were brought up, she would say “Oh, yeah. I liked someone when I was younger… You know, a crush.” It wouldn’t weigh on her to say that.

She would say it smoothly and naturally as if talking about someone else’s life.

Now that she found out the other side of the story, combining all the emotions, she felt something complex.

It was like… they had both waited all these years.

They didn’t go anywhere, nor fall for anyone else.

We’ve been waiting for each other – what a wonderful feeling.

…

Yin Yuan had been pestered by her family to go on blind dates. Fed up, she invented a project her advisor wanted her to help with during the weekends so she could stay at school instead of going home.

When Ruan An’an entered her room, Yin Yuan was playing on her computer. Sounds of various skills being cast could be heard.

She went over to watch. The screen was very colorful. It was a group of Whales with their flashy animations. “Guild battle?”

“Yeah, and we’re set to win.” Yin Yuan replied without lifting her head. “Didn’t you go over to your boyfriend’s? Why are you back so early? I thought you’d at least stay for dinner if not spend the night there.”

Ruan An’an glanced at the clock on the wall.

She was back early. It had only been 2 hours.

— For some reason, she didn’t know how to begin explaining “because I’m packing to move in with him”.

Looking at Yin Yuan’s fingers dancing atop her keyboard, she took a moment and said, “Focus on your fight, we’ll talk after.”

She sat on the rug, and after a pause, pulled up Jiang Yi’s chat.

It was Saturday afternoon, so Young Lady Jiang would be at home playing on her phone. She replied almost instantly.

Ruan An’an:…

Ruan An’an didn’t know how to reply.

She did find him again and rekindle the old flames…

She started typing, “No…”

How could she even explain this? How her old crush was her new boyfriend, how they were connected through a cat, and how, coincidentally, he’d crushed right back on her during high school… It was just… his age and appearance were a little different from what she had assumed, so she wanted some confirmation from Jiang Yi.

Looking at Jiang Yi’s replies, Ruan An’an felt she had done something unnecessary.

She didn’t explain any further and changed the topic.

Two seconds later, she got a call from Jiang Yi.

The first thing thrown at her from the other side of the phone was, “The f?u?c?k?? Moving in?? Are you for real???”

…

Yin Yuan’s guild battle ended half an hour later. Ruan An’an was still on call with Jiang Yi on speaker mode. They caught her up to date

Her reaction was similar to Jiang Yi’s. First, it was hysterical exclamations with curses, then, when she had calmed down, she made Ruan An’an assure her over and over that she knew what it meant to live together and had thought it through.

Ruan An’an had indeed thought it through.

She had thought it through a long time ago.

She knew that a relationship was supposed to progress in gradual steps, but…

She liked him so very much.

They met two months ago and had been dating for a month. He had never taken her to a romantic restaurant. There had been no candlelit dinner; no dramatic confession with roses. They’d only been on a measly few dates.

But being with him in her daily life had given her so many moments that only made her like him more.

Many people thought that couples in school shouldn’t overdo public displays of affection. After all, no one could guarantee how long they’d stay together. Once the couple broke up, all the public displays would become humiliating and all their common friends would feel awkward, to say nothing of the ex-couple themselves. They’d have it the worst of anyone.

Ruan An’an and Gu Jue were a common topic on the forums. At first, they were all civil, but at one point, there were people saying stuff like “Go ahead and ship them, it’s only been how long? I’ll die of laughter when they break up”.

She had brought this up with Gu Jue very discreetly, and Gu Jue’s reply came without thought. “They can wait all they want. We will still be together even when they die. Not just that, we’ll dance together on their graves.”

…

Even if his words had been crude, Ruan An’an knew what he meant.

Thinking about it, even that time he got jealous, he was simply venting his dissatisfaction. He didn’t give her any reason to feel insecure.

Be it insisting on holding her hand while he napped in class or the daily candy that he’d never skipped, he had always displayed his affection to others any chance he got, even making a hobby of it.

To the other girls, he was practically wearing a sign that said “Don’t even try, you don’t have a chance”, but to her, he was a completely different person.

To her, all those details were a loud proclamation of his affection for her.

At first, Ruan An’an was after his looks. She thought herself to be among the prettier girls, after all. She would’ve had no problem landing him.

She never would’ve thought that this person would give her such a wonderful love story.

Jiang Yi and Yin Yuan’s reactions were as she expected. They thought she was moving too fast.

Ruan An’an didn’t hold it against them. After all, that was the normal reaction to her making the decision this early. Ruan An’an only dared to tell her best friends. She wouldn’t even think of mentioning it to Lin Songbai. He’d think his granddaughter had been cursed, and would give her head a good smacking before seeking out Gu Jue to break his legs.

What she had not expected, however, was how fast her best friends had accepted it.

“You might as well go for it, Ruan Ruan,” Jiang Yi said, “Thinking about it, you have nothing to lose”

“I trust your sense of beauty, so the guy must be a real hottie to begin with… Plus, you claimed to want to do him every time you got drunk. Won’t living together make that a reality real soon?”

Ruan An’an: “… You’re making me out to be so dirty.”

“I think it’s fine, too…” Yin Yuan chimed in as well, “It doesn’t matter if we think it’s fast or slow. We’re not the ones in this relationship. You’re a grown adult, and you’re not the type to have your head in the clouds… If that’s what you want, I say go for it.”

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. There was no need to fit into what other people thought was best.

It took Ruan An’an a moment to react, but a smile soon appeared.

These two really knew her well.

Ruan An’an and Yin Yuan were sitting on the rug. Over the phone, she told Jiang Yi, “I’m moving tomorrow, are you two free tonight? Come shopping with me?”

Jiang Yi: “Sure I’m free, but why shopping?”

“I’m free too, my guild battles are all in the afternoon,” Yin Yuan was confused though, “Why are you shopping instead of packing?”

Ruan An’an eyed Yin Yuan, “I need to buy cheaper clothes and skin care products…”

“…”

In the end, despite some ranting, Jiang Yi and Yin Yuan still accompanied her.

Yin Yuan drove Ruan An’an, and Jiang Yi drove herself. They chose to meet at a mall close to the university. The building had 5 levels and sold everything from clothes to cosmetics as well as household items.

The group first visited the grocery store on the basement level to buy toothpaste, a toothbrush, and other daily necessities.

“Say, does Miss Ruan who has only been using an electric toothbrush still remember how to use a regular one?”

“Who knows? Do you think a 10-yuan toothbrush will hurt her precious mouth? I’m so worried, ahahaha!”

“It shouldn’t be a problem. She can just learn again from her boyfriend.”

“Mr. Cheng didn’t make it because he doesn’t know how to manually brush his teeth!”

”…”

What a joke!

The pair was gibbering the whole way, getting on Ruan An’an’s nerves, “How many times do I need to explain it to you… I think it’s necessary to have matching living standards and values for a peaceful life together. If you want to see why,” She looked at Jiang Yi who was gleefully joking with Yin Yuan, “Just look at the trainwreck your older cousin’s relationship is.”

“…” Oh, right, the cousin who was drowning her sorrows in alcohol.

That cousin of Jiang Yi’s still had not recovered yet.

But apparently, the boy from University F was in a slump as well. The proud overachiever got a fail during the recent midterm season. Jiang Yi’s cousin had been keeping tabs on him, and when she heard the news, she got drunk and called Jiang Yi crying again. “He had always aced everything, sob… Yiyi, should I chase him baaaack?”

Every time Jiang Yi replied with “go for it”, the cousin would cry harder. “But I’ve said all those harsh things when we broke up, I can’t face him…”

“…” Remembering that, Jiang Yi was done teasing, “Fine, good luck, don’t slip up…”

After finishing up on the basement level, they took the elevator up to the second floor.

Yin Yuan saw something and pulled Ruan An’an around the corner, “Hey, this brand is pretty good. The face wash is just over 100 yuan, and the body wash is just over 200. Most importantly, the ingredients all seem plant-based… it shouldn’t be harmful in any way, you’ll just have to bear with it for now…”

…

There was a lot of traffic in the mall during the evening. Just as Ruan An’an’s group left the basement level, two other customers arrived.

Xue Zhao was in a bad mood today.

Earlier, Gu Jue had very obnoxiously announced how his girlfriend was moving in with him.

However, because of how sudden it all was, he still had to buy a lot of things, and needed someone to come with and offer their opinions.

His prior actions had put him in bad favor with everyone, so he had to resort to bribing the most easily swayed Xue Zhao with money.

“You can’t use your blow dryer that costs thousands, you’ve got to get a new one…”

“You need to buy a new aftershave too…”

Shop Assist Xue Zhao sneered, “You might as well not shave anymore. The unshaved look will really fit the whole ‘poor and unkempt’ ensemble.”

Gu Jue smiled in response, “That won’t do. I wouldn’t mind it, but I need to smooch my girlfriend, and I don’t want to scratch her.”

“……”

“How is this body wash?” Gu Jue pointed to an unfamiliar brand.

Xue Zhao took a glance, “Should be decent. Their commercials are everywhere.”

“Then…” Gu Jue looked all over, “They don’t have a mint version? What to do, that’s what my girlfriend likes…”

“……” F?u?c?k? you.

“ Why the f?u?c?k? did I accept the money… A few thousand just to be tortured?” Xue Zhao was in deep regret. “I’ve been defiled.”

But he took the money so he did his job.

The shampoo section.

“What shampoo do you use?” Xue Zhao realized how useless his question was after voicing it, “Nevermind, I don’t need your answer, it’s probably a long name in a foreign language.” He pointed to the shelf, “Buy this, I see it on commercials all the time, it should be decent.”

Gu Jue looked.

Neck & Shoulders Anti Dandruff Shampoo, Price: 29.9 ¥.

The name sounds down to earth, at least.

Gu Jue was pleased. He grabbed one and tossed it in the cart, “This will do.”

TL/N:

Sorry for the long wait, but you may have noticed I got myself a proofread/editor to help bring you the best reading experience! Thank you so much, Oreos-san~

(who else feels attacked by the Head & Shoulders thing… Me and Oreos definitely do XD