Although They're Mentally ill, They're Extremely Easy to Comfort - Chapter 102

“Knock, knock, knock…”

“Come in.”

Qiao Bo’er sat upright in her office chair. After she gave her assent, the person who pushed the door open was surprisingly Su Yunjin.

“Yunjin? A rare visitor…” Qiao Bo’er relaxed her brow, put down the document in her hand, and stood up to greet her: “It seems like ever since the studio moved here, neither you nor Xiao Mo have come up to sit with me. Would you like something to drink?”

“No need for a drink, I came specifically to invite you,” Su Yunjin directly stated her purpose, which puzzled Qiao Bo’er: “Invite me?”

“Yes, would it be convenient to move to the studio?”

“What is it about?”

“Just come with me first…”

Seeing Su Yunjin’s mysterious look, Qiao Bo’er’s expression was a knowing, half-smile: “Is that scoundrel Ling Xi cooking up some bizarre idea again?”

“You’ll have to allow us to keep you guessing.”

Qiao Bo’er found it difficult to decline the invitation, so she had no choice but to follow Su Yunjin out of the office.

“Are you sure you want to hide here? Isn’t this a bit much?” Xiao Mo bent over to look at Ling Xi, who was hiding under the reception table, and looked doubtful: “Are you sure this is a surprise and not a fright?”

“Oh, it’s fine, just do as I say. Especially those flowers, has everyone in the studio finished folding them?”

“Yes, yes, they learned in one go.”

Hearing Xiao Mo’s confident answer, Ling Xi breathed a sigh of relief: “Then when Bo’er arrives, you all start giving them to her, not one person can miss out.”

“Honestly, you spend all day doing these fanciful things and dragging everyone else into the commotion. It’s quite boring!” Xiao Mo complained irritably. Ling Xi rolled her eyes at him: “You don’t understand, this is a serious pursuit for me. Qiao Bo’er is as stubborn as an ox. It’s been so long, and I haven’t succeeded in wooing her yet. I’ve been waiting for today for almost two months. If I don’t succeed this time, I’m going to jump in a river!”

“Alright, alright… hurry up and hide!” Xiao Mo heard the sound of high heels and shushed her into concealing herself.

“I brought her,” Su Yunjin pushed the door open. Xiao Mo was leaning against the reception table, looking awkwardly amused: “Bo’er, come, sit, sit…”

He solicitously waved Qiao Bo’er in, then hastily pulled out a chair, waiting until she was seated before clapping his hands: “Miss Qiao…”

This overly formal address made Qiao Bo’er feel uneasy. She looked at Xiao Mo suspiciously: “Are you okay? Why are you acting so strange…”

Before Xiao Mo could speak, Su Yunjin was the first to walk up to Qiao Bo’er, holding a rose folded from a napkin, and gently placed it in her hand: “From now on, the scoundrel is yours.”

Qiao Bo’er took the paper rose, an exasperated smile on her face: “What?”

Xiao Mo also quickly took out a tissue, deftly folded a rose, and stuffed it into her hand: “How did you say that sentence back then… ah… right, a person like you lying down is particularly suited to having a white rose placed on your chest…”

“Huh?” Qiao Bo’er’s expression went from confusion to growing bewilderment. Employees from the studio also started pouring in inexplicably to hand her paper roses.

“My goodness, what kind of ridiculous scene is this?”

“Are… are you driving yourself crazy thinking about women?”

“I’ve seen plenty of people trying to extort money, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone trying to extort a contract of sale of one’s person…”

Every line of dialogue was a true reflection of the day Qiao Bo’er forcefully barged into Ling Xi’s world.

With Ling Xi’s careful arrangement, the single paper rose quickly accumulated into a bouquet. Qiao Bo’er held the roses in her hands, a warm, joyful smile overflowing at the corners of her mouth: “You guys…”

When everyone had given their paper roses, Ling Xi slowly climbed out from under the table. Qiao Bo’er couldn’t help but laugh, though her eyes were slightly red with emotion: “Xi Xi…”

Ling Xi ignored Qiao Bo’er, instead walking backwards towards the doorway in front of her. The relaxed expression on her face gradually turned into one of panic. To make the performance convincing, she deliberately closed the door.

Separated by the door, she breathlessly pulled Xiao Mo over and asked: “What precious item was crushed… let me see…”

Xiao Mo rubbed her back to soothe her breathing: “First, drink some water and calm down.”

“No, don’t keep the client waiting too long.”

The conversation ended, and the door was pushed open.

Ling Xi quickly walked up to Qiao Bo’er, just like their first meeting. She stared at Bo’er’s face, unable to look away. The two exchanged gazes, an uncontainable depth of affection in their eyes.

Qiao Bo’er felt a little shy under Ling Xi’s gaze, but she wanted to wait, to see how Ling Xi would complete this surprise performance.

“Hello, Miss Qiao, I am the studio manager, Ling Xi.”

Qiao Bo’er let out a giggle, but quickly adjusted her emotions to cooperate with Ling Xi’s performance, feigning coolness: “I’ll talk to whoever is in charge.”

Ling Xi knelt on one knee on the floor, took out an exquisite wooden box from her pocket, and presented it to Qiao Bo’er: “Talk to me. The kind of talk that lasts a lifetime…”

Ling Xi opened the box. The handheld glasses, restored to their original state, shimmered with a jade-green light under the illumination: “As everyone knows… a broken pen is hard to mend, and a broken mirror is hard to restore. Time should flow backwards at the beginning of next summer, but I can’t wait. I really can’t wait…

I want to restore everything now, back to that day, when the glasses weren’t broken, and we weren’t at loggerheads… And at this moment… only one thing is missing…”

Ling Xi tucked the box into Qiao Bo’er’s hands. She stood up and leaned forward, pressing Qiao Bo’er back against the table.

Qiao Bo’er’s golden long hair lay scattered on Ling Xi’s fingertips. She tilted her head back to welcome Ling Xi’s unrestrained kiss: “This time… let me be the one to kiss you. Only then will we be even…”

Xiao Mo waved his hand, dismissing the crowd of onlookers, and quietly closed the door.

Ling Xi cradled Qiao Bo’er’s face, their lips meshing together in a passionate kiss until they were utterly intoxicated.

Qiao Bo’er softly called her name: “Ling Xi…”

“I’m here…”

“You haven’t asked me yet…”

Ling Xi understood, rubbed Qiao Bo’er’s ear, and whispered: “Did Vice Professor Ling succeed in winning over the arrogant and difficult Miss Qiao today?”

“You did.” Although this performance of time flowing backwards was a bit rushed, Qiao Bo’er happily accepted everything Ling Xi had meticulously planned: “So, the reason you were secretly meeting a strange man yesterday morning was to get these fixed glasses?”

“You were following me!? Speaking of that!” Ling Xi suddenly exclaimed, belatedly: “Qiao Bo’er!”

“Hmm?”

“What’s with the finger cots!”

“I was angry… Angry that you were secretly meeting other strange men, and also angry that… I thought there really wouldn’t be a Christmas gift…” Qiao Bo’er’s voice grew softer and softer, finally trailing off into a little murmur.

Ling Xi’s mouth curved into a mischievous smile. She pulled a candy-wrapped finger cot from her trouser pocket: “It looks like tonight… I’ll have to taste the watermelon flavor too…”

“You! Is your brain full of lust?”

“Wife… now that time has flowed backward, whatever you want to do, I’ll accompany you…”

“Well… first, you’re not allowed to be mad that I gave you a gift, and second…” Qiao Bo’er also kept her in suspense, only dropping one line: “See you at the villa tonight.”

With that, Qiao Bo’er made a move to leave, which left Ling Xi utterly confused: “See you at the villa? We’re not having dinner together tonight?”

“You get to prepare a little surprise, and I can’t?”

“You prepared one too?” Ling Xi hugged Qiao Bo’er, enjoying the happy moment of solitude. Qiao Bo’er buried her lips in Ling Xi’s neck and nipped her: “Secret…”

“Another secret!”

“You’ve asked me about this secret several times. Today is the day to give it to you…”

White snow had been drifting down all day long, and the whole world was singing Christmas carols. Ling Xi had been nagging Qiao Bo’er all day as well, finally enduring until nightfall.

Qiao Bo’er drove the ‘scoundrel’ back to the small villa. She hadn’t expected the house’s decoration to have changed so drastically these past few days, now looking like a proper little home. Even the doghouse in the corner of the garden had been built.

Ling Xi wasn’t afraid of the cold in the garden, and quickly piled up a small snowman: “Wife! Wife! Look!”

Ling Xi pointed to the crooked little snowman she had built, proudly showing it off. Qiao Bo’er walked over, took her hand, and kept breathing on it: “Are you cold?”

“No, I’m not…”

“Let’s go, quickly get inside, it’s warm. I’ll make you a cup of hot milk.”

“Oh, I’m not a child, drinking hot milk!”

“In my eyes, you’ll always be a child…”

Ling Xi tugged on the belt of Qiao Bo’er’s coat, trotting along behind her: “So, where’s the surprise, where’s the surprise?”

“Follow me…”

Qiao Bo’er entered the living room without turning on the lights. They walked through the entire living room in the dark towards the backyard.

Pushing open the balcony door, she led Ling Xi to the area that had once been covered by a tarp. Ling Xi rubbed her eyes, trying to see clearly: “This is…”

“Didn’t you always want to know what this was? Although it’s not the height of summer for the flowers to bloom, I’m just like you, I can’t wait either. I want to give you the best.”

Qiao Bo’er pointed to the rose vines as tall as walls. There were no dazzling flowers in the deep winter, but the sheer scale of the vines, which occupied the entire backyard, was astonishing.

Holding Ling Xi’s other hand tightly, Qiao Bo’er whispered a warning: “Stay close to me. I’m the only one who knows the way out of this rose garden maze I designed. Be careful not to get lost.”

“So… you went to all that trouble to create a rose maze just to amuse me?!”

“Mmm-hmm…” Qiao Bo’er was extremely pleased, her small lips curving into an arrogant smile: “And…”

“And what?” Ling Xi asked playfully, already impatient to walk inside.

“Don’t you think… it would be exceptionally romantic for the two of us to go to all sorts of different places for deeper understanding?”

Qiao Bo’er deliberately drew out the final syllable of ‘romantic,’ which tugged at Ling Xi’s heartstrings. She leaned in closer and whispered: “Your fruit-flavored finger cot might come in handy…”

Ling Xi’s face instantly turned as red as a rotten tomato. Qiao Bo’er looped her arm around Ling Xi’s waist, and they walked slowly towards the entrance, embracing: “I was planning to give you this garden when I was entertaining friends at home…

Especially in summer, it will be incredibly beautiful. But you couldn’t stand the wait and made time flow backward so quickly, so I can only give you my grand finale secret now…”

The two wandered through the maze, occasionally echoing with a few bursts of laughter.

Qiao Bo’er led Ling Xi, walking leisurely ahead.

Ling Xi suddenly stopped and pulled Qiao Bo’er into her embrace. Amongst the rose bushes, she closed her eyes, utterly content: “Miss Qiao Bo’er, now that I’ve finally won you over, we can properly plan our life together…”

“How do you want to plan it?” Qiao Bo’er poked Ling Xi’s nose, kissing her chin, and slowly moving up to her neck.

“Let’s get married.”

“But you haven’t prepared an engagement ring…”

Knowing that Qiao Bo’er would challenge her, Ling Xi slowly pulled out the brooch she had designed a long time ago from her inner pocket: “I changed the emerald that was originally designed to be a ring into a brooch. Weren’t you complaining that I hadn’t prepared a Christmas gift?”

Ling Xi held the brooch gift box in one hand, knelt on one knee, and smiled triumphantly: “Did you think the gift I prepared was just the fixed handheld glasses? It’s not that simple…

I’m using this brooch to express my heart, and to ask Ms. Bo’er to be my wife for life. If you agree, I will pin this brooch over your heart. It will be me, listening to your thoughts for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?”

“I do!” Qiao Bo’er leaned down and kissed Ling Xi’s eyes, wishing the wedding could be transported into a dream.

Ling Xi stood up, fumbling to pin the one-of-a-kind brooch onto Qiao Bo’er: “I love you. My love for you is more than a shattered galaxy!”

“Merry Christmas, scoundrel…”

“Merry Christmas, my dear wife…”

Even though there were no flower buds on the rose vines, under the pristine white snow, the most magnificent and resplendent blossoms burst open. This was the scene only those who embraced and kissed could witness.

A toast to unwavering commitment, to a lifetime well spent, to sleeping peacefully together for the rest of one’s days, free from all worries!

I invite you all to continue to the next chapter.

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