Unwrapping Her Archenemy Like a Gift

The rain pounded outside the window, as if it knew how sad Lu Xiaoxiao was and was crying with her.

Nothing hurt more than a blow to the heart from family. Lu Xiaoxiao had always been tenacious, but her greatest soft spot was her mother, Ms. Wen.

When she thought of how she had been poisoned to death in her previous life, and how Ms. Wen had grieved so deeply that she had nearly gone blind, her heart ached as if it were being cut by a knife.

Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes were scarlet. Her fingers clenched the bedsheet, her nails digging into the fabric. She stared at a spot on the ceiling, her gaze unfocused but fierce.

She had to catch the killer who had poisoned her!

When her tears finally stopped, Lu Xiaoxiao discovered that the call had already ended.

The screen showed her call history, with a string of numbers beneath Qiu Boye's name.

She glanced at it, put down her phone, and went into the bathroom to wash her face. As she splashed cold water on her face, droplets ran down her jaw and fell onto the counter.

She braced herself against the counter and straightened up. In the mirror, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and she looked pitiful.

Just then, her phone rang. Lu Xiaoxiao looked down at the screen and saw that Shao Enci was calling.

She picked up the phone and walked back into the bedroom. When she answered, her voice was still a little hoarse and nasal. "Hello?"

His voice came from the other end, accompanied by the sound of wind, as though he were standing outside. "Come downstairs. I have a gift for you."

Lu Xiaoxiao held the phone without answering for a moment. She turned her head to glance out the window. The rain still hadn't stopped.

What was he doing here so late?

She threw on a coat and went downstairs with her phone.

When she reached the entrance to the building, she paused.

Shao Enci stood tall in the darkness, his shoulders damp with misty rain. A black business van was parked behind him, and two men in suits stood beside it, their hands full of things.

The two bodyguards were actually quite puzzled. As they knew their young master, he had always kept a low profile and never revealed to anyone that he was the heir to the Guanghuan Group. The luxury cars he drove to school were worth only a few million, and he never let people like them follow him for protection.

But for some reason tonight, he had called Assistant Liu and urgently exercised his authority, sending more than a dozen people from the company to nearby malls to buy accessories and food that girls liked.

They had to finish within fifteen minutes and deliver everything downstairs to a building in a residential complex.

The young master hadn't wanted many people accompanying him, either, so he had only sent the two of them to carry the gifts.

They couldn't help marveling: The young master really is different when he's in love. Just to cheer up his girlfriend, he has more than a dozen of us running around in the middle of the night.

Lu Xiaoxiao glanced at the bags filling the two bodyguards' hands, then at Shao Enci's impassive expression. Looking utterly bewildered, she said, "You... came to my complex to sell things?"

"I came to cheer you up." He took an exquisitely wrapped box from one of the bodyguards and held it out to her, his lips curving upward. "I heard girls feel happier eating dessert when they're in a bad mood. I bought these for you. They're all things you usually like."

Lu Xiaoxiao took the opened box and looked inside. It contained a few macarons, their colors neatly arranged: pink, yellow, and mint green. The packaging was from a shop she liked.

She closed the lid and looked up at him. Thinking she didn't like them, Shao Enci turned and took a few small boxes from the other bodyguard, holding them out to her. "These are for you too."

Curious, Lu Xiaoxiao opened one. It was a pure gold Sanrio bracelet with Hello Kitty on it. She promptly opened another, which featured Cinnamoroll, and there was a Kuromi one too. All three designs were together.

Holding the three bracelets, she felt her lashes tremble and unconsciously bit her lip.

To be honest, she really did like the bracelets.

Lu Xiaoxiao tilted her head toward the other gifts the two bodyguards were carrying and asked, her eyes bright, "What are those?"

Shao Enci's dark eyes stayed fixed on her. Seeing her eyes swollen from crying, he looked at her with a trace of tenderness. He took her wrist and said lazily, "Open them one by one and you'll find out."

Lu Xiaoxiao loved opening packages, and now, as she opened gifts, the pleasant surprises made her forget her sadness for a while.

At a look from Shao Enci, the two bodyguards obligingly carried the gifts into the luxury business van, then stepped away of their own accord.

He took her by the wrist and gave her a gentle tug. "There are a lot of mosquitoes outside. Let's get in the car and take our time looking."

Lu Xiaoxiao nodded slightly and followed him into the spacious business van.

There were more than twenty bags in the trunk, piled up across more than half a seat. The sight dazzled her, and she didn't know where to start, so she finally chose to begin with the food.

There were Chinese and Western desserts, each one thoughtfully chosen, all in flavors she had loved before.

As she reached the third gift, Lu Xiaoxiao suddenly stopped. Instead of continuing, she turned to look at the young man beside her. He looked back at her with his clear black-and-white eyes and asked softly, "Why did you stop?"

"I'm going to. I want to unwrap you as a gift." Lu Xiaoxiao deliberately teased him. With the two bodyguards out of the van, she slipped her hand under his clothes and felt for his belt.

Shao Enci hurriedly stopped her mischievous hand. His eyes darkened and his breath caught. "You can't unwrap this one."

There were still faint red marks around Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes from crying, but her tears were gone. Seeing his nervous expression, she lifted the corners of her lips slightly, and her voice softened. "Qiu Boye told you I'd been crying, so you had people buy all these gifts to cheer me up?"

"Yeah." Shao Enci raised a hand and rested his fingertips on her cheek. His finger lightly touched the skin beneath her eye, as though he wanted to touch her but was afraid of hurting her. His hand froze in midair before he withdrew it, his voice growing quieter:

"Lu Xiaoxiao, I've reflected on it. I shouldn't have spoken to you so harshly this afternoon. I was wrong."

A giant question mark was written all over Lu Xiaoxiao's face.

Hadn't he just been jealous that afternoon? His tone hadn't even been that harsh. What kind of apology was this?

"I wasn't sad because of you," she said, tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I just thought about how sad my parents would be if I died someday. I imagined it so vividly that I couldn't help crying."

She couldn't exactly tell him she had been reborn. Would he believe her?

Shao Enci fell silent for a few seconds after hearing that. Finally, he said with a hint of helplessness, "That's it?"

Lu Xiaoxiao nodded. "That's why. Otherwise, who did you think had bullied me?"

He didn't answer. His deep gaze rested on her face for a few seconds.

After a while, Shao Enci leaned forward slightly, drawing closer. The lovely scent of lychee and rose on the girl drifted into his nose, making his Adam's apple bob a few times involuntarily. His voice was low. "Then when did you get so close to Qiu Boye?"

His heart felt heavy at the thought that his brother, rather than he, had been the first to learn she was upset.

Shao Enci paused, narrowing his phoenix eyes slightly. "Don't tell me... you like him?"

Remembering how she had specifically asked him to invite Qiu Boye along the last time they went to the movies, he grew a little more suspicious.

Lu Xiaoxiao caught his distinctive scent of mint and locust blossoms. She swallowed, turned her face away, and rolled her eyes. "If I liked him, I wouldn't be kissing and hugging you."

At that, Shao Enci unconsciously touched his neck, where she had just left a red mark that afternoon. A hint of a roguish smile played on his upturned lips. "The last class tomorrow afternoon is swimming. You deliberately left a mark on my neck. Were you trying to stake your claim?"

"You're overthinking it." Lu Xiaoxiao had barely finished speaking when 037's voice came through.

[Mission 24: forcibly kiss your archenemy for three minutes in the swimming pool. Countdown: 17 hours and 59 minutes.]

Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes widened, and she demanded of 037 in her mind, When you say I have to forcibly kiss him in the pool, you don't mean in front of everyone, do you?

037: [Yep! You've completed so many socially deadly missions already. I'm sure you know the ropes by now, Xiaoxiao.]

Lu Xiaoxiao: "..."

She took back what she had just said. A bitter smile touched her lips as she looked at Shao Enci's handsome face. "You're right. I'll come find you during swimming class tomorrow afternoon. Be mentally prepared."

Looking at the girl's somewhat unnerving smile, Shao Enci had a bad feeling.