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墨書 Inktalez
Watching a long-distance race was a rather dull affair. Even knowing that one of the teams represented the honor of the country, it still felt tedious. Most of those who remained in the stands were there for Chen Rui's sake.
Many had already left or had never come at all. Chen Rui didn’t want to pay them any mind, as he himself was feeling a bit restless at that moment.
Chen Rui considered himself an ordinary person, and ordinary people could never compare to saints. Li Xue clearly noticed Chen Rui's discomfort and grabbed his arm, murmuring, "I didn't sleep well last night. I'm a bit tired. Would you accompany me back to the hotel?"
Chen Rui glanced at the position of the sun and smiled helplessly.
What time is it? You're tired already? It seems like you didn't just sleep poorly; you probably didn't sleep at all! Your excuse is a bit weak.
Though Chen Rui felt a mix of emotions and found it hard to make a decision, he understood that this was Li Xue giving him an out, an excuse. While it was indeed somewhat flimsy, there was no other alternative.
"Alright, but you need to take care of yourself; the air here is different from back home," Chen Rui said with a smile as he stood up, holding Li Xue's hand as they left the stands together.
Once Chen Rui walked away, the remaining team members scattered like birds. The audience area, which had not been full to begin with, suddenly opened up into a large empty space. Those who didn’t understand might have thought something had gone wrong at the event, prompting staff to be dispatched to resolve an issue.
The track was not close to the hotel; it took about twenty minutes to walk there. Since all the hotel guests were staff members, they were either at the venue or in the stands at that moment. Thus, both the hotel and the road leading there were quite deserted. Even when encountering a few people along the way, they were all familiar faces from his own team.
Holding Chen Rui's hand, Li Xue still felt somewhat dissatisfied and leaned against him. "I'm a bit tired; carry me back."
Chen Rui calculated the distance awkwardly and smiled sheepishly. "It's still quite a way; how about I carry you?"
Li Xue pouted, huffing in displeasure while stealing glances at Chen Rui's face, looking utterly adorable.
"Alright... fine then, I'll carry you back," Chen Rui said as he bent down and wrapped his arms around Li Xue's ankles, lifting her onto his arm. If she sat up a bit more, it would look just like a father carrying his daughter.
Li Xue hadn’t expected Chen Rui to be so clueless. Embarrassed and annoyed, she lightly tapped his back while huffing in frustration, clearly unhappy with their current situation.
Chen Rui knew exactly why Li Xue was upset; he hadn’t been following her wishes. Naturally, she would think he was being dense. Still, he continued to play dumb. "What’s wrong? I’m carrying you now! What else could you be unhappy about? Ancestor!"
"You! I! You! You’re driving me crazy!" Li Xue exclaimed with a flushed face as she tugged at Chen Rui's shirt, stammering and unable to articulate her thoughts. Eventually, her antics made it impossible for Chen Rui to hold back his laughter any longer; he burst out laughing.
“Ha ha ha! Ancestor!” Chen Rui laughed as he lifted Li Xue's ankle with his left hand, using his right hand to support her back and carry her. Li Xue, in a fluster, wrapped her arms around Chen Rui's neck, inadvertently achieving her original goal.
“Are you satisfied now, my princess?” Chen Rui chuckled as he walked along the asphalt road, his laughter making Li Xue’s cheeks, already resembling ripe peaches in autumn, turn an even deeper shade of red.
Li Xue mumbled, “If it had been like this from the start, I wouldn’t have had to get angry.”
Carrying Li Xue back to the hotel, the seemingly long journey was quickly completed. Perhaps it was due to their position or the fact that it was just the two of them along the way, but Chen Rui did not feel tired or that the road was long.
At that moment, he might have wished for the road to be even longer, long enough for them to arrive at the hotel only after the person before him had already left...
Zhang Jun saw Chen Rui carrying Li Xue into the hotel and gestured for him to come over. Reluctantly, Chen Rui let Li Xue go upstairs to rest by herself and walked over to Zhang Jun after saying goodbye.
“What do you want from me?” Zhang Jun stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and looked at Chen Rui, diving straight into the topic without giving him a moment to breathe.
No way, is he really coming to hold me accountable this quickly? It's a bit hard for me to accept.
“You talk too much. I’d need a reminder about which specific thing you’re referring to. Even so, I might not remember it anyway; after all, we’re brothers who share everything,” Chen Rui said, realizing there was no room for easing the tension. He started to ramble on, trying to find an excuse to slip away.
It wasn’t that Chen Rui didn’t dare to openly admit his responsibility; rather, he knew that with someone like Zhang Jun, being tough would only lead to greater backlash. Zhang Jun was someone who responded better to softness than hardness; even if he was somewhat angry at the moment, as long as there were a few kind words and nothing too serious at stake, he wouldn’t delve deeply into assigning blame.
Zhang Jun turned his face away, his usual gentle demeanor replaced by seriousness as he said sternly, “Don’t give me nonsense. About this incident! If anything goes wrong, it’s entirely your responsibility…”
Seeing that Zhang Jun’s attitude was different from usual made Chen Rui question whether someone really intended to take action against them.
“Fine then, since it was my order given out. If anything happens, I’ll take full responsibility!” With no way to evade it any longer, Chen Rui had no choice but to seriously shoulder this responsibility.
“You…” Zhang Jun sighed deeply, staring into Chen Rui’s eyes for a moment before sighing again. “Well… since it’s already like this now, taking a conservative stance will only raise more suspicion. Let’s just proceed as we should; even if they tear each other apart verbally, the team responsible for Project Four won’t be changed.”
Chen Rui laughed heartily. “That’s good! Who cares what they think!”
Zhang Jun smiled wryly and nodded, "You! That room allocation was your idea, wasn't it? I can't believe you thought of that."
Chen Rui's heart tightened as he analyzed whether there was anything unreasonable about that room allocation. After thinking for a while, he couldn't come up with anything. The only downside seemed to be the somewhat coercive feeling it imposed on the team members, but that was part of following orders from superiors.
"Um... is there a problem with the room allocation?" Chen Rui asked hesitantly.
"What problem could there be? I'm just surprised you came up with it! This way of living is good; it saves some of your team members from exhausting themselves! Hahaha." Zhang Jun laughed as he walked into the elevator. It seemed he had no other tasks besides monitoring the Chen Rui Group, making him appear quite relaxed.
Chen Rui followed him into the elevator. Although it was still early, he was ready to go back and take a nap. After all, the previous two research competitions had drained a lot of his energy, and he hadn't slept well either. The main issue was that Peng Hao snored loudly and fell asleep quickly, making it impossible for Chen Rui to drift off before the snoring started. As a result, he ended up falling asleep only when he was utterly exhausted.
When Chen Rui reached the door, he rummaged through his pockets but realized he had given the room card to Peng Hao. However, that guy was probably still inside catching up on sleep. Chen Rui knocked vigorously on the door without pressing the doorbell, shouting loudly, "Open the door! I'm back!"
After knocking for a while with no response, he frowned slightly. He really didn't want to believe that Peng Hao would be out wandering around at this time; if he had that kind of mindset, he wouldn't be so shameless.
Moments later, a voice from inside screamed like a banshee, "Get lost!"
Chen Rui was taken aback and then knocked even harder on the door, cursing loudly, "You bastard! Can't you just get up and open the door for me? What’s it going to cost you? Damn it, open the door!"
"Get lost! You jerk!" Peng Hao yelled back from inside, his voice sounding truly terrifying and making Chen Rui hesitate to continue entering.
Confused, Chen Rui leaned against the wall and inadvertently caught sight of Li Xue's figure.
Li Xue waved at Chen Rui when she saw him, signaling him to come over.
As Chen Rui approached, he saw Li Xue standing at her room's entrance. She pulled him closer into the room and said, "Hurry up and come in; it's awkward out here."
Chen Rui was baffled by Li Xue's behavior and asked, "What’s awkward? Oh! Did you see? That guy is sleeping inside and acting all righteous about it. If he's going to sleep, then just let him sleep; why won't he open the door for me? Seriously!"
Li Xue's face flushed slightly as she cleared her throat twice. "You’re jumping to conclusions without understanding the situation; what if you scare him?"
Chen Rui smiled lightly, "How could that be? Waking up from sleep and getting scared? Peng Hao is not that sensitive. By the way, isn't Ye Han staying in your room? Where is she?"
Li Xue's face turned red again, her fair cheeks adorned with two faint pink blushes that made it hard to look away. Leaning against Chen Rui's chest, she slowly said, "Ye Han? She's sleeping with Peng Hao."
"Oh... sleeping, huh? I didn't expect her to be so lazy..." Chen Rui paused, suddenly realizing something and nearly burst out laughing. "With whom? Peng Hao? Then what about just now? I..."
Li Xue giggled mischievously and said, "It's true! They were just getting to the good part! You interrupted them halfway."
Chen Rui sighed, putting his hands together and saying slowly, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! Brother Peng, I truly didn't know; ignorance is no crime!"
"Hey! It's too late. Do you think he will listen to your explanation?" Li Xue laughed even brighter, as if someone had covered for her while she was doing something bad.
Chen Rui keenly sensed a problem, his expression changing rapidly as he smirked. "How did you know? Could it be that you just..."
Yuki Chiba waved her hands in a flurry, stammering and unable to say much.
Creak—The door was pushed open, and someone walked in.
Peng Hao looked at Chen Rui and Li Xue with a helpless expression, while Ye Han followed closely behind him, her face flushed.
"You two really are surprisingly in sync," Peng Hao remarked coldly as he looked at Chen Rui and Li Xue.
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