However, Ruolin's self-control exceeded Xu Ling's expectations. Ruolin smiled and said to her, "So what if we look alike? At least Haoxuan loves me now."
Xu Ling was completely defeated by Ruolin. She felt that she had never met someone so shameless. In the end, she left with the words "You win" and walked away.
In fact, after Xu Ling left, Ruolin didn't feel like a victor at all. Instead, she was pondering Xu Ling's words, "You're just a substitute for his ex-girlfriend." Although she had doubts, she decided not to ask Han Haoxuan. Because if what Xu Ling said was true, then she would have to leave Han Haoxuan now, and she didn't want to be someone else's substitute. But she loved him so much, wanted to stay by his side so much, and cherished every day they spent together.
So she decided to forget, to pretend that Xu Ling had never come looking for her.
Chapter 59
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For Ruolin's health, Han Haoxuan forbade her from working at the restaurant or tutoring, which left Ruolin struggling financially recently. She had no choice but to borrow another 5,000 yuan from Xinyu.
Fortunately, she later discovered she could have another part-time job that Han Haoxuan couldn't stop her from: a magazine contributor. Writing seemed quite relaxed, and Ruolin always said that writing was her greatest hobby.
She casually submitted a short story to a relationship magazine, not expecting much, but to her surprise, she received a notification that her manuscript had been accepted and would be published soon. She then received a payment of 600 yuan. From then on, she began writing for the magazine in her spare time.
Every day after dinner, Ruolin would sit in front of the computer and play word games with great enthusiasm. Han Haoxuan would sometimes come over and bother her: "What are you writing? You're not going to write down my embarrassing moments to sell for money, are you?"
"You've interrupted my brainstorming session. That's so tasteless."
"That's what you call tasteless." Han Haoxuan picked Ruolin up from the computer desk and carried her to the bed, then pretended to pounce on her.
"Han Haoxuan, you've gone too far!" Ruolin shouted.
"You're the one who's going too far! You should belong to me when we get home, but instead, a broken computer has taken over all of that."
"You're not jealous of a computer, are you?" Ruolin couldn't help but laugh.
"So what if I am? You'd better spend more time with me, or I might sabotage your computer!"
"You dare! If you keep disturbing my writing like this, I'm moving out. Writing requires peace and quiet." Faced with Han Haoxuan's childish domineering attitude, Ruolin had no choice but to say this.
This tactic worked quite well on Han Haoxuan: "Alright, great writer, go write your stuff, I'll just stay here alone in this empty bed." He said it in a pitiful tone.
"I'll keep you company after I finish writing." Ruolin got out of bed and went to her computer desk to continue typing.
"It was past midnight by the time you finished writing, and I was already asleep. Sigh... Can you please stop being so stubborn? I'll pay back the money you owe Mu Jingyan and Xinyu, isn't that enough? Why do you have to work so hard writing every day to earn money? Now we don't even have time for sex. Think about it yourself, how long has it been since we had sex?" Han Haoxuan complained, lying on the bed.
"It hasn't been long, it was just last week... By the way, Han Haoxuan, how come I never noticed you had such a scheming mind before? Get your minds on something serious, like how to develop and expand your company. Young people should have some ambition."
"Right now, I just hope you don't have to work so hard and that I can marry you as soon as possible. That's what's really important to me," Han Haoxuan said honestly.
Upon hearing Han Haoxuan's words, Ruolin's smile froze on her face. She recalled what Xu Ling had told her: "He will get tired of you one day, and he will never marry you!"
"Haoxuan, has your relationship with your parents improved at all?" Ruolin asked casually.
"It's alright." Han Haoxuan seemed reluctant to bring up the topic. "Don't worry, if they really don't agree to us being together, we can just make it a fait accompli and you get pregnant with my child, okay?" As he spoke, Han Haoxuan had already come up behind Ruolin and gently put his arm around her shoulder.
"No, that's not good. That's just a temporary measure. If your parents don't accept me, they'll just think I deliberately got pregnant to coerce you into marrying me. I don't want your parents to see me that way." Ruolin quickly rejected Han Haoxuan's idea.
"Okay, okay, I'll go and persuade them." Han Haoxuan hugged Ruolin even tighter.
Ruolin's mood suddenly became heavier than ever before; she felt that her future with Han Haoxuan was shrouded in uncertainty.
A few days later, one morning, the editor-in-chief, Fang Qiang, called Ruolin into his office. He first affirmed her recent work achievements and serious work attitude, and then told her that he had decided to change "Fang Ling's Appointment" to "Ruolin's Appointment". She would no longer need to do process editing, but would directly work on the "Ruolin's Appointment" column, and would be promoted to editor-in-chief with a monthly salary increase of 1,000 yuan.
Ruolin was initially incredulous. She had previously told Xinyu things like "I hope money falls from the sky." Could it be that God heard her heart?
However, she also had a question: if "Fang Ling's Appointment" was changed to "Ruo Lin's Appointment," what would happen to Fang Ling?
Fang Qiang said he had arranged for Fang Ling to work on another program, and Ruolin was finally relieved.
After leaving the editor-in-chief's office, Ruolin ran to the restroom to wash her face, because she had just felt her eyes were a little wet, and she didn't want her colleagues to see her expression.
I wouldn't call it tears of joy, but I was suddenly filled with emotion. She had been working so hard for so long, and now her efforts were finally paying off.
She took out her phone and sent a message to both of her major creditors, Xinyu and Mu Jingyan: "I've been promoted and made a fortune. If you're free after get off work, I'll treat you to dinner."
She originally thought it would be good if one of the two was available, after all, Xinyu was currently in a passionate relationship! Who knew that in just a few seconds, she received replies from both of them almost simultaneously.
"You don't know I've been accepting everything lately, do you? I'll gladly accept any offer that's served to me. Quickly set a time and place, then get ready to be exploited. Hehehe..." This was Xinyu's text message; those last few laughs were really sly!
"Okay, congratulations. Text me when you've decided on the time and place. I don't need to work overtime today." Mu Jingyan's reply, like him, was always calm and unhurried.
Ruolin originally wanted to tell Xinyu that she didn't mind bringing her family, but then she thought that if Xinyu brought her family, it wouldn't be appropriate for her not to bring her family, but it would be even more inappropriate if she did bring her family. So she simply decided not to mention her family.
Han Haoxuan happened to have a social engagement tonight and said he'd be home late. Ruolin, however, was actually amused by this, finally able to escape the clutches of this domineering man for once. They weren't even married yet, so why did Ruolin feel that Han Haoxuan's love was too heavy? She decided to stop thinking about it; the future was too far off, and besides, marriage was still just a pipe dream!
Considering that Xinyu is a karaoke enthusiast, and Ruolin herself hadn't relaxed in a long time, she decided to go to a karaoke bar where she could treat everyone to a meal and sing to relieve stress. However, at the karaoke bar, she was mostly a dutiful audience member.
When KTV was mentioned, Xinyu's eyes lit up, and she immediately replied to the text message: "OH, YE! Hooray!"
Chapter Sixty
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Inside the KTV room, Xinyu was singing Mayday's "Stubborn," and her voice became unusually excited when she reached the climax.
Ruolin sat on the sofa and focused on eating, so that she would have the energy to sing later!
Mu Jingyan listened to Xinyu sing while eating, and would occasionally laugh out loud. It wasn't that Xinyu sang badly, but that she sang male singers' songs with such passion, and her passionate expression made him find it somewhat amusing.
Mu Jingyan turned his head casually and happened to see a grain of rice stuck to Ruolin's lips. He pointed to his own lips and kindly reminded her, "There's a grain of rice on your lips."
Unfortunately, the climax of "Stubborn" was repeating itself, and Xinyu's voice was incredibly loud, so Ruolin couldn't hear her at all. She asked blankly, "What?"
Mu Jingyan reached out and gently removed the rice from Ruolin's mouth. Only then did Ruolin realize what was happening, and she gave Mu Jingyan a silly smile.
"I've always liked you," Mu Jingyan said softly. He wanted to thank Xinyu for singing this rock-style song, so that Ruolin wouldn't hear him when he confessed, and he could finally confess to the girl he had a crush on.
"What did you say? Could you speak louder? I can't hear you." Ruolin could only see Mu Jingyan's mouth opening and closing, but she couldn't hear what he was saying.
“I said, you look adorable when you eat.” Mu Jingyan raised his voice several decibels this time.
"Oh, I thought you meant I looked funny when I ate!"
At this moment, Xinyu finished singing "Stubborn," but Ruolin and Mu Jingyan were looking at each other and chatting happily, without even giving her a round of applause.
"Hey, you two, this isn't a coffee shop, not a place to chat over tea. It costs several hundred yuan an hour, so make the most of it and go sing!" Xinyu stepped off the stage and urged them to go up and sing.
"I don't sing well," Ruolin declined.
"This isn't a singing competition, so what does it matter if I don't sing well?"
"Amu, you sing first," Ruolin asked Mu Jingyan for help.
"I'm not very good at singing either," Mu Jingyan said, looking embarrassed.
"Ugh, I've never seen two people so disappointing. How about this, we play rock-paper-scissors, and whoever loses has to go sing karaoke. Otherwise, it'll feel like I'm giving a personal concert, which is so boring!"
Seeing Xinyu's insistence, Ruolin and Mu Jingyan could not refuse any longer and had no choice but to agree.
As a result, Xinyu chose paper, while Ruolin and Mu Jingyan both chose fist, but both failed and had to accept their defeat.
“You two actually treat something as fun as singing as a burden. Fine, I won’t make things difficult for you. Why don’t you two just sing a song together?” Xinyu said as she enthusiastically went to select a song for them. Surprisingly, she selected “A Little Bit Moved,” a duet by Jeff Chang and Carina Lau.
"Huh? I only know this one duet song. How did you know?" Mu Jingyan said in disbelief.
"Really? What a coincidence. It seems that Ruolin only knows this one love song." Xinyu looked at Ruolin.
Ruolin nodded hesitantly.
When the melodious prelude began, Ruolin felt as if time had turned back; it had been a long time since she had heard this song.
When this song became popular, it was during the most beautiful time of her youth. She always felt that she was tone-deaf and rarely sang in public, so she hummed this song silently in her heart countless times, and the person she hummed it to was Mu Jingyan.
She never imagined that Mu Jingyan, the boy she had been longing for back then, would sing this song with her.
"You and I, men and women, cannot escape love; who is willing, has the courage, to give their heart without regard for anything else?"
As soon as Mu Jingyan sang the first line, Xinyu started clapping: "Mu, you really are a hidden talent! You sing so well, but you humbly say you can't sing. You'll be punished by drinking later!"
"What you're talking about isn't just about you, it includes myself too. Should we continue? Should we have memories? Let love get closer step by step." Ruolin didn't even need to look at the big screen when she sang this, because she already knew these lyrics by heart.
"I'm a little attracted to you, but I'm so afraid to look into your eyes. I'm a little bit attracted and a little bit hesitant. I can't believe my feelings are out of control."
"I'm starting to have feelings for you, but I don't know if the outcome will be sadness or joy. I'm just a little bit moved, a little bit hesitant, afraid of losing you after loving you..."
With its soothing melody and tender vocals, Mu Jingyan felt almost completely captivated.
As the song ended, Xinyu shouted, "Mu Jingyan, this is so unfair! You sang so well but said you couldn't sing. Isn't that bullying? Drink up! Drink up!" With that, she grabbed the bottle and filled his glass. "You have to finish it!"
Mu Jingyan took the wine glass, and without saying a word, drank it all in one gulp.
"Wow, that's great! Want another drink?" Xinyu asked, holding the bottle to refill Mu Jingyan's glass.
"Xinyu, Amu has to drive later, so let him drink less." Ruolin remembered that Mu Jingyan had driven the company car this time, so she quickly pressed Xinyu's hand down.
“He’s drunk, I’ll just take him home later, okay? You don’t need me to worry about him now, you can just have Han Haoxuan pick you up,” Xinyu said calmly.
"He has something to do today, I'll take a taxi myself."
"A man might be up to something at night? Be careful!" Xinyu whispered in Ruolin's ear.
"You're always overthinking things. That's a serious matter for them." Ruolin gave Xinyu a disapproving look.
"It was just a joke, why take it so seriously?"
"What are you talking about? Whispering like that, is it some secret?" Mu Jingyan leaned closer and asked.
"Men, don't try to guess what's on a woman's mind." Xinyu gestured for him to get out of the way.
"You're making it all seem so mysterious," Mu Jingyan said with an awkward laugh.
"Chen Mai Ba, go sing! Don't you love singing 'One Night in Beijing' the most?" Ruolin didn't want Xinyu to keep the conversation revolving around Han Haoxuan, so she quickly changed the subject.
“That’s right, my must-sing song every time I come to karaoke is ‘One Night in Beijing.’ I want to show you what it means to be ‘both male and female.’” When it comes to singing, Xinyu gets excited, quickly selects a song, and jumps onto the stage.
Xinyu first sang the female part in a high-pitched voice, and then opened her mouth to shout the male part. Her singing, combined with her exaggerated expressions, made Ruolin and Mu Jingyan laugh so hard they almost fell over.
Midway through, Ruolin decided to go to the restroom.
The restrooms at this KTV were very hard to find. Ruolin asked several staff members and walked through several corridors before finally seeing the restroom sign.
Following the signs, Ruolin walked along the long corridor toward the restroom.
Near the restrooms, in a relatively secluded passageway, a couple was embracing and kissing passionately under the dim light.
It's unclear what attracted Ruolin, but she glanced at it a couple of times. What she did look at startled her.
Who else could that tall, handsome man be but Han Haoxuan?
Ruolin stood frozen, barely able to breathe. Han Haoxuan had actually kissed another woman right in front of her?!