Getting Outsmarted By The CEO

Chapter 24.1 (TL: Bara Chou)

Ruan An’an was grasped by her hand and the back of her head, unable to do anything but watch Gu Jue’s flawless handsome face close in on hers.
The moment her lips were taken hostage as well, she felt a heat radiate throughout her body.

This kiss caught her off guard.

When Ruan An’an sat down, her arms had nowhere to rest but on top of Gu Jue’s shoulders, in a perfectly organic embracing position.

Just a moment ago, she was still deep in thought—

She was thinking about how the chance of Gu Jue being the same person as the Key-Slam God was probably 0.001%, and how unbelieve it was for an “authentic” university student like Gu Jue to be better than her.

But at this very moment, her mind was completely blank.

Not only had she never had any prior experience, but she also hadn’t seen many romantic movies or dramas.
The most intimate scenes she knew were from the novels she’d read.

Sometimes, if the passage was too raunchy for her taste, she would even skip it to focus on the plot.
In other words, she didn’t even have any “theoretical knowledge”.

After 3 seconds, she closed her eyes.
Two words appeared in her blanked-out mind:

Ruan An’an had to work her mind hard to understand what Gu Jue said after their lips met… he was asking for payment.

Just say it directly if you want to kiss.
No need for an excuse.

Her lips may not be free, but that didn’t stop her from mocking his dishonesty in her mind.

Even though his features were flawless and Ruan An’an often joked with her besties about Mr.
Perky Butt being a beauty, his looks were actually more handsome and alpha-like… when he wasn’t joking around or being an a̲s̲s̲, that was.

However, when he kissed her hand last time, Ruan An’an noticed that his lips were, contrary to his appearance, especially soft.

Ruan An’an was very comfortable in this sitting position.
Maybe it was Gu Jue’s long legs or the height of these computer chairs, even though she was held by the back of her head, her head was actually tilted down slightly.

Who was on top meant nothing though.
Gu Jue was leading her through and through.
At first, Ruan An’an was somewhat tense, but after ten or twenty seconds, she was left with only one thought:

Kissing someone with soft lips feels so good.

Her boyfriend probably snuck a candy earlier.
At this close range, all she could smell was a sweet minty scent.

I wonder if the taste…

As the thought crossed her mind, Ruan An’an could feel her boyfriend attempting to slip past her teeth with his tongue.
She immediately reacted and clenched her jaw tight.
Luckily, Gu Jue stopped and let her off with a laugh.

The kiss didn’t last for too long.
Ruan An’an sat back in her own chair the moment she was freed.

Neither of them spoke.
There was a moment of silence between them as if savoring that kiss.

Ruan An’an didn’t even want to lift her head.
She could feel the heat on her face and knew it wasn’t a good look.

“Sigh…”

She heard a sigh.

The classroom was too quiet, making the sound especially clear.

? Huh?

What’s with the sigh?

I mean, we kissed already, so why are you sighing?

Could it be… he is disappointed with my skills??

Several questions popped up in her mind, one after another.
When that last assumption appeared, she jerked her head up as if someone had stepped on her tail.

She looked at Gu Jue, attempting to appear calm as she had no reason to let out her anger, “… why did you sigh?”

Gu Jue didn’t answer right away.
He shifted in his seat, stretching out his long legs to reach the legs of her chair.
With a pulling motion, her chair once again brought her close to him.

Too close.

Ruan An’an wasn’t expecting these moves.
She subconsciously grabbed her armrests and held her breath.

“I sighed…” Gu Jue took a strand of her long hair between his fingers.
His smile reached even his eyes.
In a defeated tone, he said, “because, I realized my girlfriend is a little uptight.”

“…” Uptight! Uptight—

Ruan An’an took a few deep breaths and explained, “this was my first kiss…,” her voice becoming quieter, “it’s normal to be a little uptight.”

Unlike you, who knows everything and is skilled at everything.

Ruan An’an deemed herself to have decent self-control.
After all, she had been confessed to by plenty of hotties.
But even then, against Gu Jue, most of the time she would be rendered speechless by his flirtations.

Gu Jue could not hold in his laughs after hearing her words.

It was a silent laugh.
The hot air he exhaled tickled her ear.
Ruan An’an shrank her neck from the stimulus, pulling her hair away from his hand.
“Stop it…”

Gu Jue paused himself.

He had been holding back for a long time.
If not for the band-aid incident that divided his attention the first few days they were dating, he would’ve found a chance to steal a kiss from her long ago.

Though, upon further thought, taking it slowly didn’t seem bad either.
Google said so; the love-advice forum also said so.
Don’t rush things, moving forward in a relationship at a slow and steady pace makes the girl feel safe.
Holding hands, hugging, kissing, then…

“Gu Jue.”

Gu Jue’s thoughts were interrupted.
He snapped back and refocused on her.
“Mm-hmm, what is it?”

Ruan An’an looked at him suspiciously, “tell me the truth, is this really your first love?”

“It is.” Without a moment of hesitation, “I’ve said this before, it was my first time pursuing anyone.
It’s true.
It’s also true that this is my first relationship.”

“…”

Gu Jue added, “I’ve kept my first kiss for 20-some years, and only offered it to you 2 minutes ago.”

“………”

Ruan An’an met his eyes, seeing a miniature version of herself in them.
The corner of his lips was straight, and his expression didn’t appear as if he was joking.

She would like to believe Gu Jue, but it just didn’t make sense…

Someone can be so talented naturally??

It took less than 2 seconds for her to form that thought, and he was already done being serious.

“Look…” Gu Jue returned to his usual lethargic self, dragging out his words, “my first love is you; my first kiss was also you.
Unless something happens… in the future,” he drew close to her ear, “you will also be my first…”

There was a trigger in Ruan An’an brain, as if an alarm, warning her that the man in front of her was about to say something vulgar again.

She was startled, and quickly covered Gu Jue’s mouth.

The sensation on her palm was soft, a bit moist too.

As soon as Ruan An’an thought about what he was about to say… her face became blood-red.

“Don’t say it.” She said through her teeth, glaring at the culprit, “just… shut up.”

“…”

Due to his mouth being tightly covered by Ruan An’an, unable to speak even if he wanted to, he could only blink at her innocently.

He wanted to laugh though.

Tsk.
She didn’t let him finish, but…

Seems like she already guessed it.

Their classmates noticed the reviewing process that “Hope of the Towns” was doing after every mock competition.
After a while, other teams also decided to follow the ways of the Gods, and so, the people that stayed after class increased by a bunch.

Everyone was happy.
Except for a certain Mr.
Gu, who sported a cold expression as he did the analysis.

Since the number of third wheels increased, the Qiu Yan trio no longer felt bad about intruding on the couple and began staying as well.
Even if they were of no help, it was good to watch the Gods look for errors.

Looking at the rest of the teams all losing their hair together, for the 100th time, Qiu Yan was grateful for her ingenious decision of inviting Ruan An’an simply because of her beauty.

Qiu Yan busied herself with following and commenting on posts on the forum.

Recently, she had bookmarked several threads on the couple sitting in front of her.
She looked to the couple in question and went to add a comment under one of the threads: [Ahhhhhhhh I’m so jealous of RuanGu’s teammates! Not only are they getting carried so hard! They also get to see godly beauties every day! Frontline for witnessing sweet interactions too! I’M SO JEALOUS!!!]

Lian Hao witnessed the whole process.
Looking at his teammate, he twitched the corner of his mouth, “…have you no shame?”

Qiu Yan ignored him and continued browsing happily.

On her other side, Chen Song was playing Happy Landlord.
He took a moment to look at Ruan An’an and Gu Jue and nudged Qiu Yan with his elbow.
“Hey, tell us the truth, why did you invite Ruan An’an to the team? Did you know about her? And Gu God???”

Qiu Yan quickly shook her head.

Lian Hao didn’t seem to believe her either, “right, I wanted to ask as well, how did you know these two were Gods? F̲u̲c̲k̲, don’t tell me it was all a coincidence?”

Qiu Yan: …

I’m confused too, ok?

Didn’t I do this to ship these two at a close range? Who knew it was like winning the lottery?!

Qiu Yan shook her head furiously, “… I really didn’t know! Why would I hide it from you two if I knew?!”

The pair concurred.
They were close enough to have seen each other naked as children.
This wasn’t something to hide.

“Fine.
Mr.
Li already said he will go vegan for a year if these 2 didn’t make it to the top 100.” Lian Hao patted Qiu Yan’s shoulder, “maybe our careers in the future took a different turn thanks to you.”

What did it mean to get carried into the top 100 in the Games Competition? It was like getting mega-boosted; like a small ant planting a whole rainforest without a sweat.

Qiu Yan laughed out loud, turning to lean over the wall of the cubical.
The two Gods, who were in a discussion, lifted their heads to look at her.

Qiu Yan habitually exclaimed to herself over how in sync the couple was, then moved on to what she had to say.
“So, just now, the Sports Committee member wanted to ask you, if you’re free this weekend for a group dinner.”

The Sports Committee member was a victim of the band-aid incident.

Back then, he was still naïve.
Seeing the band-aid on Gu God’s face, not only did he express his concerns on the first day, but he also offered kind words as he noticed the color of the band-aid flower changed.
That was until he overheard all the girls discussing—“which the poor victim is gonna be the one to suffer at Gu God’s blathering today? Sports Committee member? F̲u̲c̲k̲, how is it him again? It’s been 3 days straight.
Is he alright?”

That was when he learned of the true meaning behind Gu Jue’s words, how it was all an act.

The Sports Committee member had expressed his reluctance in facing Gu Jue, being traumatized and all.
So, he asked Qiu Yan to pass on the message.

Before the couple answered, Qiu Yan continued, “this dinner is to celebrate the Sports Meet.
We’re only doing this now cuz the reward money was handed out only recently.
Everyone agrees that Gu God was the MVP, so they told me you two have to come!”

Gu Jue smiled, “whatever my girlfriend decides.”

Qiu Yan: … How sweet!

“I’m fine with it,” Ruan An’an eyed Gu Jue and asked him quietly, “don’t you have tutoring on the weekends?”

“It’s fine to occasionally ask for a day off…” Gu Jue seemed happy.
He draped an arm over Ruan An’an’s chair and said lazily, “compared to tutoring, I would rather go to a group event with my girlfriend.”

Qiu Yan: … sob sob, Gu God really never stops handing out shipping material!

Ruan An’an felt her eyelid twitch at his words.

Being this excited about the group event was not a good omen… although it would be hard to prevent him from doing stuff, at least she would make sure he wasn’t getting another wound on his face.