Pursuing Her Best Friend after Confession Failed

...

After Wang Yong and He Zhi saw Li Yuan and chatted for a bit to build some rapport, they took the initiative to leave.

Li Yuan had just gotten home; they didn’t feel right about disturbing him too long. Their main purpose was just to recognize the place and get their faces known...

After chatting with the relatives for a while, Li Yuan pulled Weixi along to take a tour of the new villa.

This was something Li Yuan had personally found people to design, build, and decorate, so of course it wasn’t like an ordinary countryside house; it looked more like a Western-style villa.

Looking at Bai’s little face reddened from the cold, Li Yuan rubbed her cheeks and said with a smile:

"The environment back home really is a bit rough, not exactly good for one’s health."

"But, Bai, your skin is seriously amazing. You’ve lived here for so many years and your skin hasn’t been affected at all."

Bai’s pretty face was flushed red as she sweetly enjoyed Li Yuan’s facial massage, feeling delighted inside.

"What are you talking about, I just bundle up really well. I used to dress super thick, with a hat, earmuffs, gloves, and a scarf, of course I wouldn’t get frozen..."

As Bai spoke, she glanced around Li Yuan’s bedroom. Suddenly, she blinked and teased:

"Brother, now that you’ve moved into a new house, did you throw away the little gifts I gave you before?"

Li Yuan froze for a moment; he honestly didn’t know whether all those things he’d kept before had been thrown out by his dad.

Back in high school, as his deskmate and "good friend," Bai had also given him a few little gifts. They weren’t worth much money, but each one meant a lot.

Those gifts, even in his previous life, after so many years, right up until his rebirth, he’d never had the heart to throw them away and had always kept them carefully.

Seeing the nervous look on Li Yuan’s face, Bai ran her fingers through her long black hair, gave a little snort, and hummed:

"Stinky brother, don’t tell me you really threw away all the gifts I gave you?"

"Hmph, you know, all the gifts you gave me, every love letter you wrote, I’ve carefully kept every single one of them."

Li Yuan gave an awkward laugh. "How could I? I remember I asked my dad to put them away for me."

"Wait, let me look for them."

With that, Li Yuan hurriedly opened the wardrobe, desk, and so on, and started searching carefully.

Seeing how seriously Li Yuan was taking it, Bai couldn’t help but giggle and joined in to help him look.

Since this was a new house,

there wasn’t much stuff in Li Yuan’s room, so it didn’t take long before he found it.

All the things he’d treasured before had been put by his father, Li Heng, into a cabinet used specially for keepsakes.

"Hey, found it!"

Looking at the familiar box, the big stone in Li Yuan’s heart suddenly dropped.

No matter what,

no matter what had happened, this box held the most beautiful period of his life.

Even if, in the future, that memory had already become shattered.

Li Yuan took out an album from the box.

The cover of the album was a photo of him and Bai from their high school days.

It was also the birthday present Bai had given him for his birthday in their senior year.

Most of the photos in the album were various shots of Bai—some studio portraits, some daily-life photos, including a few group photos of her with Li Yuan...

Bai carefully took the album from Li Yuan’s hands, gently opened it, turned to the first page, and seeing the page protectors intact,

her expression suddenly froze. She stared straight into Li Yuan’s eyes, to the point that he started to feel a bit embarrassed.

"What is it, Bai? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Seeing that Li Yuan really didn’t seem to have noticed the secret in the album, Bai snorted, glared hard at him, then waved her soft pink fists in a threatening way:

"Stinky brother, big dummy, if you dare lose this album I gave you, hmph! Hmph! Hmph!"

Listening to Bai’s "threat," Li Yuan burst out laughing and hurriedly swore in response.

"Don’t worry, Bai, I’ve kept everything you gave me safe."

"Look, besides the album, all these are here too."

Li Yuan pointed at the things in the box. Aside from the album, there was a palm-sized sailboat and a crystal ball...

Bai checked each of the other gifts one by one, and the look she gave Li Yuan became even more speechless.

The little "surprises" she’d hidden when she gave him those gifts—this playboy radish actually hadn’t discovered any of them...

"Hmph, stinky brother, you have to keep every single gift I give you."

Li Yuan didn’t notice anything strange about Bai and quickly nodded.

"Don’t worry, of course."

"By the way, Bai, are you staying here tonight, or should I take you home?"

Bai stared at Li Yuan, her heart pounding, and huffed:

"Stinky brother, what are you trying to do?"

Li Yuan nodded and answered with a straight face, "I’m trying!"

Only then did Bai realize she’d misspoken.

She shot Li Yuan a fierce glare, turned her head away, lifting her chin proudly like an arrogant white swan...

"Today’s the twenty-ninth of the twelfth month. Tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve. Of course I’m going home. If I don’t, my parents will be furious with me."

"Honk, honk, honk~~ No, wait, they’re probably already half dead from being mad at me."

Li Yuan smiled faintly. He hadn’t actually planned on keeping Bai overnight; the timing wasn’t right yet.

He still wasn’t sure where his future father- and mother-in-law stood on things.

Just because Bai Tianqi and Yang Jinyu had been so nice during National Day didn’t mean their attitude would be just as good now.

Right now it was a completely different situation, a whole different matter.

Even though he’d said out loud that Bai should relax and let him handle her parents,