Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“To think that she’s still so determined to search for whatever it is she’s looking for while it’s raining so heavily like this.
“Has she thrown the triumph of her victory in the gamble to the dogs?”
Quan Rui had no choice but to acknowledge that she was very different from every other woman he had met before.
She was very unique.
Bai Ran was not thinking self-consciously about this matter at all. She focused solely on the fact that she could not afford to lose that ring.
“Now that it has started raining so heavily, I’ll lose the ring for good if I don’t find it quickly!”
The rain poured down and turned the top layer of mud on the lawn into slush. Although she was knee-deep in the muddy yellowish-brown water, she was completely oblivious to the dirt that she was wading through.
Her white dress was entirely drenched at this point and it clung onto her body, outlining the perfect contours of her body.
Quan Rui merely cast her figure a single glance, not letting his gaze linger.
He was way past the young teenage years where boys struggled to avert their eyes from the bodies of women.
Now, he was older and mature enough to behave like a gentleman.
Quan Rui took a step forward and held the umbrella over Bai Ran’s head to shelter her from the pouring rain.
Bai Ran did not expect anyone to come after her in such a heavy downpour, much less bring an umbrella along. Not to mention, the person who came was actually…
Bai Ran looked up at the man who stood before her with disbelief.
“Quan Rui?
“What is he doing out here?”
Bai Ran’s mind blanked out for a moment and she frowned. “What are you doing?”
“Is this ring of yours really that important?” Quan Rui raised his eyebrows and asked her curiously.
“Yes.” Bai Ran nodded. She watched as Quan Rui merely stood still with amusement on his face, not offering her a helping hand, or doing anything other than to hold the umbrella over her head. She guessed that his offer to help her search for the ring earlier on was probably just a joke.
But Quan Rui was contemplating every single word that Bai Ran just said.
He looked down at her.
Her tiny face was shockingly pale, and he thought it would be a miracle if she did not fall ill from being drenched by the rain for such a long time.
She looked up at him with icy rainwater flowing down her cheeks.
“She…looks like a lost homeless dog.”
For some reason, Quan Rui was suddenly reminded of a stray dog he saw outside the school gates when he was much younger. He had wanted to bring it home, but his mother forbade him from doing so.
Now and then, he would recall how that stray dog watched him with an innocent but somehow pleading look etched onto its face.
It was a heart-wrenching and upsetting incident that Quan Rui always remembered but kept concealed in his heart.
While it was inappropriate to compare a beautiful woman like Bai Ran to a stray dog, she evoked in him the feelings of regret he had felt back then.
“If I miss out on this opportunity to be with her now, will I feel this same regret for the next twenty years?”
Quan Rui did not have an answer to this. To be precise, he did not have deep thoughts like this at all. Perhaps it is because he had always been far removed from such situations and grew up learning to put aside his emotions. This was new to him and his heart had been moved when he saw Bai Ran for the first time.
“Let me help you,” Quan Rui said. Then he squatted next to her and began to grope around in the mud with his long slender fingers.
After all, he had promised to help Bai Ran if she won the game. Actually, it was not a difficult matter for Quan Rui to find the ring Bai Ran was searching for because Quan Rui had brought along quite a few bodyguards. If he commanded it and they joined in the search, they would be able to find the ring in a flash.
There is, after all a saying that goes, “There is strength in numbers.”
But Quan Rui did not think that far regarding the current situation. He simply squatted next to her, casting aside his distinguished status for a moment.
When Bai Ran saw Quan Rui crouch next to her in the mud, she became more aware of her heart thudding in her chest as though it was being violently hammered at by a large mallet.
“No one…ever helps me like this.
“Everyone else thinks of me as a pest or a lunatic whenever they see me. Everyone despises me. Also, I’m kneeling in the mud like a stray dog searching pitifully for something someone else threw away.
“Quan Rui is the exception…”