Chapter 254: Bai Jingxuan's Chocolate

Taking advantage of the moment when several juniors went back to fetch the chocolates, Senior Cuique shifted her position and sat at a square table inside the small hut.

Although the hut was drafty on all sides, a temperature-maintenance array kept it significantly warmer than outside, so Senior Cuique casually took off the suit jacket she had just bought that day and set aside the paper bag containing another garment she was holding.

Once she had finished all this, the three juniors arrived one by one at the table.

Consistent with her well-known decisiveness, Bai Jingxuan was the first to bring the pre-made chocolates from the workbench.

What she brought were several pieces of chocolate wrapped in colorful paper, adorned with a pile of cartoon stickers of unknown origin.

Sitting unceremoniously on the chair beside Senior Cuique, Bai Jingxuan laid out three pieces of chocolate, whose packaging could be called "cute," in a row on the table; once the other two drew near, she began distributing the chocolates she had made.

"Here, this one is for Sister Lin Xiaolu!" She first pushed the chocolate, decorated with a cartoon magical girl sticker, toward Lin Xiaolu.

"This one is for Sister Xia Liang!" Then, she pushed the chocolate, decorated with stickers of cats, dogs, and other animals, toward Xia Liang.

"And this one is for Teacher!" Finally, she handed over the chocolate, decorated with various nature-themed stickers like the sun, clouds, and snowflakes, to Senior Cuique.

Clearly, compared to the wrapping paper directly covering the chocolates, these stickers were what she used to distinguish them.

Although she did not know the basis for the other party's choice of stickers, it was obvious there was her own reasoning, so Senior Cuique naturally felt the sentiment behind them.

"Thank you, I am very happy."

She accepted the chocolate Bai Jingxuan handed her with both hands and expressed her gratitude very earnestly.

"It's not just these; there's more inside. Teacher can open it right now." Bai Jingxuan, propping her hands on the table, said with some urgency.

"Inside?" The other party's words slightly surprised Senior Cuique, but she had no reason to refuse the other's voluntary request, so she simply reached out, carefully tore open the wrapping paper along the seam where no sticker was placed, and took out the chocolate inside.

Inside was a piece of brownish-yellow milk chocolate, and on the upper part of one side of the chocolate, words written with a layer of white chocolate read:

"To my favorite mom who is willing to take me home."

These words were clearly handwritten, and probably because the pressure applied while squeezing the piping bag was uneven, the strokes varied in thickness; scattered around were some white dots that had solidified after spilling out.

If there was any technical skill involved, these two lines of completely unattractive handwriting certainly had none, yet, compared to the aesthetically pleasing fonts carved under industrial standards, this touched Senior Cuique more deeply.

Undoubtedly, her initial decision to acknowledge and accept Bai Jingxuan contained elements of comforting the other and caring for her emotions; simply because Bai Jingxuan at that time was at a very dangerous turning point, and out of an extreme decision made under extreme circumstances, she had agreed to play the role of a "mother" in the other's eyes.

However, every little bit of daily life since then had proven Bai Jingxuan's value and seriousness toward this relationship.

Not only with herself, but also with Lin Xiaolu, with Xia Liang, and even with "Lin Yun," whom she actually portrayed, Bai Jingxuan had maintained all of this with an attitude of going all out and cherishing it immensely.

She never concealed her affection and goodwill; the "I like you" she had said to Senior Cuique in daily life had become so frequent it was almost numbing to hear, yet even so, seeing these two lines of crude text written on the chocolate still made Senior Cuique feel quite warm in her heart, even moved.

"Hug."

And although her outward expression was not obvious, Bai Jingxuan, who often clung to Senior Cuique, still sensed the change in her mindset, so she very naturally squeezed closer to Senior Cuique and opened her arms.

"Thank you."

Senior Cuique responded with a hug as well.

Gently embracing the other with both hands and patting her back slightly, Senior Cuique's voice grew a bit heavier: "I am truly very happy, very moved. Thank you."

"Hehe, no problem." Bai Jingxuan rested her chin on Senior Cuique's shoulder and rubbed against it, looking completely satisfied.

Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang, standing nearby, naturally saw this scene; originally, Lin Xiaolu wore an expression of envy and jealousy, even unable to resist wanting to speak up and interrupt, but in the end, she was stopped by Xia Liang.

Without speaking, Xia Liang simply pointed to the chocolate in Lin Xiaolu's hand, the one Bai Jingxuan had given her.

Was this an instruction for her to open it?

Lin Xiaolu looked at the already opened packaging in front of Xia Liang, racked her brains, and roughly understood the other's body language, so she had to suppress the cat-scratching jealousy in her heart and slowly tore open the wrapping paper Bai Jingxuan had given her.

— "To Sister Xiaolu: I know I was wrong; I wanted to snatch a bit of Teacher and also a bit of Dad, so could I also like Sister Xiaolu a little more, exchanging my liking you a bit more for a bit of their liking?"

After reading these words, Lin Xiaolu stood frozen in place.

After a while, she turned her head to look at the piece of chocolate in front of Xia Liang and found written on it:

— "To Sister Xia Liang: Thank you for always taking care of me and yielding to me, never getting angry with me. Can I call you Little Liang Sister from now on?"

And this was probably the reason Xia Liang had intervened to stop Lin Xiaolu just now.

Bai Jingxuan was a sensible child.

Therefore, she never favored one over another, and she never ignored anyone's slightest sentiment.

If this child were truly her younger sister, she was afraid that in the struggle for family status, she would absolutely be the one to suffer a crushing defeat.

Lin Xiaolu's heart produced this thought once again, and this time, she was more certain of it than ever before.

Naturally likable enough, yet also willing to put in extra effort, using all her strength to make others like her; undoubtedly, this action-oriented quality was something both Lin Xiaolu and even Xia Liang lacked immensely.

But worse still, Lin Xiaolu had to admit that she seemed, indeed, increasingly unable to dislike Bai Jingxuan, this "enemy" competing for Senior Cuique.

So, although the jealousy in her heart still screamed, urging her to quickly pull this cat who stole affection, this thief of pampering, away from Senior Cuique, she gradually relaxed her leg muscles and gave up the idea of standing up from the chair.

Then, as if to retaliate, she viciously bit into the chocolate in her hand.

It was even sweeter than imagined; just how much sugar had this brat added inside?

The overwhelming sweetness that almost rushed to her forehead made Lin Xiaolu frown, looking somewhat displeased at the bite mark she had made, but soon, she sighed and, with a "might as well eat it since it's already here" mindset, bit down again.

"Mom... Teacher." After a while, Bai Jingxuan, who had been hugging Senior Cuique for half a long time, finally spoke.

"What is it?" Senior Cuique looked at her with maternal affection.

"Did you change into new shoes when you changed into new clothes today?"

Bai Jingxuan asked with some confusion: "Why do I feel that when I hug you, my chin can't quite reach your shoulder?"