Chapter 469: 493 A Gift (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Votes)

It was another morning.

The California sun was as bright as ever, spilling in without reservation from outside the hotel's massive floor-to-ceiling window, illuminating the entire Living Room until it shone.

And at the door to the hotel room belonging to Lin Xiuyuan, a very slight sound of the latch turning suddenly rang out.

The sound was made very slowly and carefully, for fear that making too much noise would wake the person inside.

Immediately following, the door was pushed open a tiny crack, slowly expanding from two centimeters to about ten centimeters before it stopped.

Then, a small head quietly poked in through the gap.

Xueli, who had poked half her face inside the door, held the doorknob with one hand while bracing her other hand against the doorframe to steady her balance.

Her gaze, probing inside, landed first thing on the large bed in the center of the room.

The quilt was bunched into an irregular shape, and a figure was lying on their side there, sandwiching the quilt between their legs, with an arm also draped over the quilt; the person's entire posture looked like they were hugging an oversized body pillow.

Sleeping soundly, that was for sure.

After seeing this scene, the corners of Xueli's mouth curled up slightly, and then, without making a sound, she stared at that back for two seconds before pulling her head back out from the door gap.

She gently closed the door again.

Having finished all this, she turned around, returned to the Living Room, and cast her gaze toward Goo Hara, who was curled up on the sofa in a standard "Ge You slouch" posture.

The other person had her legs stretched out and resting on the edge of the coffee table, her toes wiggling up and down.

"Unnie, hee hee, you guessed wrong; oppa was resting at the hotel last night, he really didn't stay out all night."

Xueli, who had plopped down onto the sofa armrest next to Goo Hara, spoke with the cheerfulness of someone who had won a small bet, and casually grabbed a strawberry from the coffee table and stuffed it into her mouth, her cheeks bulging out.

Regarding Xueli's answer, Goo Hara smiled and offered her own guess, "Zhenli, do you really believe it? I think he definitely only came back this morning."

"That shouldn't be the case, why would he crawl back so early?" Xueli swallowed the strawberry, tilted her head, and thought about it.

"Afraid of being nagged by you, obviously." Goo Hara's answer came quickly, her tone light and airy.

Faced with this claim from Goo Hara, Xueli shook her head, her expression quite firm, "That wouldn't be it, it's not the first time oppa has treated me like this; if he were truly afraid of being nagged by me, he wouldn't have just dumped me and run off to the future back at the Apartment."

Speaking of this, her tone couldn't help but carry a bit of melancholy, and her mouth pouted slightly, but she quickly pulled it back.

Thinking of this, Xueli continued along this line of thought, "But it is precisely because of this that I said yesterday it is absolutely impossible for oppa to have those kinds of replacement thoughts about us; he doesn't have that kind of feeling for us."

In her view, Lin Xiuyuan's attitude toward her was to snap back when he wanted to, run off when he wanted to, and if he wanted to leave her alone in the Apartment, he would leave her in the Apartment without the slightest hesitation.

That kind of openness and lack of reserve precisely showed that he didn't have those thoughts in his heart.

"Is that so? Then he must have been scared by your little temper yesterday, which is why he's coaxing you a little." After hearing this analysis from Xueli, Goo Hara changed to a different line of speculation.

Xueli felt this reason was somewhat correct, or rather, it was the kind of correct she was more willing to believe.

So the corners of her mouth curled up, and her eyes brightened, "If that's really the case, then it seems I should get angry more often and be tsundere a few more times in the future."

As soon as Xueli finished speaking, Goo Hara sat up straight.

"That won't do, Zhenli; occasionally making a scene or arguing a bit belongs to the realm of romantic play, it belongs to the tug-of-war between you and Xiuyuan."

"But if you keep making scenes like this, that's just being unreasonable, and then the problem will be on you."

Whether in romance or other relationships.

Occasional little tempers or little bouts of tsundere can indeed serve as a seasoning between two people, letting the other person coax you and letting both sides feel a certain warmth of being needed or cared for.

But if you use this as a regular weapon, doing it every few days, then the nature of it changes completely.

By then, it won't be romantic play, but a burden.

"I know these things, Unnie, I'm not stupid." After hearing this earnest advice from Goo Hara, Xueli burst out laughing.

She wasn't the type of person who didn't know her limits just because she was spoiled; she knew where that boundary line was.

Afterward, room service pushed the breakfast cart in right on time.

Immediately after, the two of them just curled up on the sofa like that, looking at the seascape outside the window that was shimmering under the sunlight, chatting about various trivial matters in a desultory way.

And inside the room, Lin Xiuyuan had no perception at all of everything happening in the Living Room outside.

He turned over unconsciously in his sleep, changing from lying on his side to lying flat on his back, with no intention of waking up at all.

Actually, just now, Lin Xiuyuan's situation was indeed exactly as Goo Hara had guessed.

He had indeed only come over from Park Hyomin's place in the early hours of today.

As for why he crawled back to the hotel so early?

It wasn't that he was afraid of being nagged by Xueli; the reason was that Park Hyomin had to get up and leave for the airport this morning, as their group had a commercial event today and had to fly to Busan.

So they had to get up very early; she got up to pack her luggage before the sky was even fully bright, needing to rush to the airport to meet up with the members.

Actually, this packing situation should have been taken care of last night.

But due to Lin Xiuyuan's sudden appearance and the impromptu card game that lasted until the early hours, Park Hyomin had absolutely no time to pack her luggage.

Helpless, she could only set a very, very early alarm to wake up and pack her luggage.

During this time, the sound of walking back and forth and the lights also inevitably woke Lin Xiuyuan up.

So after waking up, Lin Xiuyuan first had a groggy moment of intimacy with Park Hyomin, the two of them hugging and kissing on the bed and pressing down the bedding a few times, before Park Hyomin reluctantly got up and left.

After the other person had completely left, Lin Xiuyuan also yawned, got up, opened The Gate, and came over to the hotel room side.

Finally, he collapsed onto the bed in a daze and fell into a deep sleep once again.

Although the whole process was a matter of accidental coincidence, the result was good in the end.

When Xueli saw him sleeping on the bed early in the morning and believed he had kept his promise of "not staying out all night," she was in a very good mood.

So much so that when Lin Xiuyuan slept until the afternoon and finally crawled out of bed after getting his fill of sleep, Xueli and Goo Hara had already gone out for a big round and returned.

Both of them were carrying several shopping bags in their hands, the logos on the paper bags were varied and diverse; someone without a bit of knowledge accumulation really wouldn't be able to recognize them all.

When they entered the door, they were still comparing what each of them had bought, chatting happily and chirping away.

And Xueli, who was walking in the front, had just placed the shopping bags in her hands onto the cabinet in the entryway when she looked up and discovered that Lin Xiuyuan was already sitting on the sofa in the Living Room.

The moment she saw him, a surprised smile bloomed on her face, and her eyes brightened, "Oh, oppa, you're awake."

"Mm, just woke up, you two went out to play, huh." Lin Xiuyuan nodded gently, his gaze resting on each of their faces in turn.

Then his gaze fell upon the many shopping bags in their hands, and he asked curiously, "What did you buy? So many bags."

"We didn't go anywhere special, just strolled around the nearby streets, then bought a few pieces of clothing and shoes."

As Xueli spoke, she moved those large and small bags from the cabinet at the entryway into the Living Room, placing them on the carpet.

The shopping bags tumbled onto the floor with a clatter.

She squatted on the ground to briefly sort the bags, then specifically picked out two from the pile of paper bags, held them up, and shook them at Lin Xiuyuan, a sudden sense of excitement in her tone.

"By the way, oppa, we bought something for you too."

"I have enough clothes to wear," Lin Xiuyuan replied subconsciously.

His wardrobe had long since been filled to the brim.

Not to mention clothes, he had enough wristwatches, shoes, and even glasses.

"It's not clothes, it's sunglasses," Xueli corrected.

She held one of the bags in her arms and explained as she took things out, "I noticed you didn't seem to be wearing sunglasses when you came over this time, so I bought you a pair when I saw them while shopping. Look, ta-da..."

As she finished speaking, Xueli very happily took an exquisite black sunglasses case out of the bag.

The box was embossed with the classic LV monogram; as the box opened, she took the pair of sunglasses out from the velvet lining inside and held them up to Lin Xiuyuan with both hands.

The style was the classic aviator look, the frames were made of very thin metal, and the lenses were a gradient dark gray; overall, it looked both low-key and stylish.

Throughout the entire process, Xueli's movements carried the kind of anticipation and joy a child has when trying hard to show an adult the results of something they carefully prepared.

And the sensible Lin Xiuyuan naturally would not be stingy with that bit of emotional value at such a time.

After seeing the sparkle in Xueli's eyes, he very cooperatively put on a look of great surprise, reached out to take the sunglasses, and examined them front and back.

Finally, he put the sunglasses on quite seriously, turned his head to face Xueli and Goo Hara, and lifted his chin slightly, "Wow, so handsome, thank you."

Although his tone carried a touch of exaggeration, it was clearly a compliment meant to amuse them.

Yet it didn't make people feel it was fake.

Instead, there was a very genuine warmth in it.

So when Goo Hara, standing behind Xueli, saw through the cooperative intent behind Lin Xiuyuan's exaggerated behavior, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl into a smile.

After wearing them for two seconds, Lin Xiuyuan took the sunglasses off his face.

He didn't just casually place them on the coffee table, but instead slowly folded the temples of the sunglasses and placed them back onto the velvet lining of the sunglasses case in Xueli's hand.

His movements were very careful, as if he were treating a very precious object.

Once the box was completely closed, his gaze crossed over Xueli and looked at the other bag on the carpet that hadn't been opened yet, "Then what is the gift in the remaining one?"

"This is the gift Unnie bought for you." Xueli looked back at Goo Hara, then picked up the bag on the floor and handed it to Lin Xiuyuan.

Hearing this, Lin Xiuyuan turned his gaze toward Goo Hara and raised his eyebrows slightly.

Seeing that look, Goo Hara nodded quite frankly, "Yeah, no choice, Zhenli bought you something, so it wouldn't look good if I didn't. If you, a grand Cult Leader, decide to make things difficult for me later, that would be troublesome."

"Oh ho, since you put it that way, I really must take a good look at what gift you've given to bribe me. If I'm not satisfied... just you wait, hehehe..."

Lin Xiuyuan was intrigued by Goo Hara's words, and he smiled as he reached his hand into the bag and pulled out the contents.

At this moment, Xueli, standing to the side, could no longer hold it in.

Having known in advance what was in the bag, she had already started laughing the moment she saw Lin Xiuyuan reach his hand into the bag.

Her shoulders were shaking, the corners of her mouth were stretched almost to her ears, and she was very much looking forward to the moment Lin Xiuyuan pulled the item out.

And when Lin Xiuyuan opened the bag and looked inside, his expression froze within a fraction of a second as his hand reached halfway in.

He clearly had not expected at all that he would pull such an item out of Goo Hara's gift bag.

Xueli, who had already been laughing, now went completely wild.

She collapsed onto the sofa, her back hitting the soft cushion, her two legs kicked out, laughing until she was convulsing.

And Goo Hara behind her didn't fare any better; although she had known what was in the bag, the sight of Lin Xiuyuan holding that thing in his hand was several times funnier than she had anticipated.

Listening to the frantic laughter in his ears, Lin Xiuyuan let out a long sigh.

Then, helplessly, he held up the pair of bikini briefs he had pulled from the bag and shook them in the air.

The briefs swayed in the afternoon sun of California; the color was a very garish fluorescent pink, and the straps on the sides were so narrow they were almost negligible.

Holding this thing, he looked at Goo Hara with a very amused expression, "So this is the gift you got me, Hela?"

Goo Hara, laughing so hard she couldn't close her mouth, nodded vigorously and managed to squeeze out a complete sentence, "Yeah, bikini briefs, very handsome, they really show off your figure when worn, and they can even show off that..."

When she said those last few words, she cast a meaningful glance downward and raised her eyebrows at Lin Xiuyuan.

The implication in this expression needed no words to supplement it.

Hearing this, Lin Xiuyuan looked down at his crotch, his gaze lingering there for a moment.

Then he lifted his head again, held the fluorescent pink briefs a little higher, and carefully gauged their actual size.

He replied calmly, "Then you've underestimated me; this might not be able to cover it all."

As soon as these words were spoken, the laughter in the Living Room, which had just calmed down slightly, exploded again.

Lin Xiuyuan sat in the middle of the sofa, still holding the fluorescent pink briefs, looking at the two women who were laughing until they were almost gasping for air, his expression full of helplessness and amusement.

But in the end, he followed suit and laughed as well.