Love in the Midst of Mistaken Identities

Xia Ruoxin’s hands began to clench up by her side, and her body froze ever so slightly. However, gradually, she began to relax with the sound of the man’s breathing. He smelled clean with the scent of shower gel; refreshing and natural. There was even a hint of the doctor’s disinfectant which was too clean.

All of a sudden, she was tired. Indeed, this was truly an irresistible temptation. She had worked hard, been on her own toiling for so long, went through turmoil, and had seen so much. Sometimes, all she wanted was to have a shoulder to depend on just like this.

However, her identity...

She was a divorced woman with a daughter. She was a cripple, and she had even sold herself. There were times when she would look at herself and feel ashamed. Occasionally, she would think of how wonderful it was to have met someone like Gao Yi. How amazing would it be if the one she loved had not been Chu Lui? With everything that had happened this year, was it going in the reverse direction, towards a road of blooming flowers?

Yet, this was wishful thinking. After all, she had not met one; she was already like this.

“Go to a school. I will help you find a good one.” Gao Yi reached out and rubbed her back in a soothing manner. He felt her body slowly relaxing. He was not in a hurry. They had plenty of time together. A woman who had been hurt before would not open herself up easily to others.

Wounds needed time to heal.

Time would heal everything. He just had to wait.

Xia Ruoxin hesitated. Finally, she nodded her head gently.

“Okay,” she agreed.

She would repay him. Just let her owe him a bit more. She would do everything within her power to repay him for everything.

Gao Yi moved quickly. After a few days, when Xia Ruoxin had almost forgotten about attending art school, he told her that he had found her a school. It was in the vicinity of Rainy’s school, and he had already paid the fees and registered for Xia Ruoxin without discussing with her. He knew her well. With this woman, he had to hand it to her directly. Otherwise, she would only delay it again and again because of her habitual inferiority.

A woman needed her self-confidence. Yet, Xia Ruoxin’s confidence had been worn off throughout all these years. In order for her to find herself again and become the old Xia Ruoxin, she needed to truly forget the past and start afresh.

Naturally, a woman like Xia Ruoxin also remembered who had treated her well. She tended to forget easily those who had owed her. However, if she was the one to owe someone, she would remember that person for the rest of her life. Sometimes, Gao Yi was also being selfish. The reason why he had been doing so much for her was that he wanted to make it impossible for her to leave him.

On this day, Xia Ruoxin brought her registration form and came to the art studio.

Knock, knock. She knocked on the door and took a deep breath. The door opened, and a young woman came out.

“Hi, I am here for the class.” Xia Ruoxin smiled coyly as she handed over her registration form.

The woman who came out took over the registration form and scanned through the particulars. Then, she turned back and shouted into the room, “Hey, come out quick. There is a beauty. A gorgeous, beautiful woman is here. She will be gone if you are late.”

When she’s finished, she suddenly gripped Xia Ruoxin’s hand tightly. “Oh, I am holding the beauty’s hand. I feel so fortunate. I am so happy that I am going to pass out.”

Xia Ruoxin could hear the sound of random footsteps stomping around behind the woman. All at once, more than ten heads popped out from the small doorway. Weren’t they afraid of getting their heads stuck in the small space?

“Stop pushing me. My head...”

“Stop pushing already. You are squeezing my guts out.”

“Where’s the beauty? Where’s the beauty?”

“She’s right here. I touched here.” A hand reached out. They had no idea whose hand was it, but it had accurately found its way onto the back of Xia Ruoxin’s hand.

“Ah... I touched the beauty!”

Xia Ruoxin was aghast. She looked on with wide eyes as though she was going to cry. She must have looked silly. Suddenly, she burst out laughing. Her new classmates seemed really adorable.

“Whoa, the beauty has laughed. She looked at me and laughed.”

“What? She was laughing at your melon-shaped face. The beauty was actually laughing to me.”

“What the heck. Then, what kind of face do you have? She was actually feeling disgusted. How can she be smiling at you?”

The rowdiness was the very first lesson that Xia Ruoxin attended.

This was also the place where Xia Ruoxin first gained the nickname ‘Beauty’.

“Do you know how the Beauty became so beautiful?” One of the students gave a knock on another’s shoulder. “Look at the way the posture and the way she moved. How can she look so pleasing and seductive?”

“That’s because she’s a beauty.” Another student looked up and pinched her classmates’ small, round cheeks.

“Actually, you look pretty, too.”

“Oh, really.” That student cupped her face. “Am I really pretty?”

“Mmm.” His friend replied seriously. “Beauty’s good looks are natural, aesthetic, elegant, and exquisite while your good looks are artistically manly.”

“Scram!” A flying kick almost landed on that student’s face.

That student evaded gloomily with his grumbling.

“You are not only manly but also fierce. Beauty is better. The gorgeous way she looks when she’s drawing is equivalent to a goddess.”

Xia Ruoxin realized someone seemed to be talking about her. She looked up, and suddenly, a smile lit up on her face, all the way to her eyebrows.

Her smile was so dazzling that the others started to see waves of flowers before their eyes.

Beautiful was insufficient to describe Beauty. Everything about her spoke charm. Even the way she dug her nose was considered beautiful. However, it seemed that none of them had seen her digging her nose.

Their Beauty wasn’t only gorgeous; she was smart and hardworking, too. Her foundation might be weak, but she picked things up very quickly. One could see the obvious improvement in her foundation even though she had joined the class later than her peers.

The instructor teaching the class was a renowned illustrator. She turned down the other major universities’ invitations to set up this studio. Perhaps, the master’s character was just bent on choosing a path that was anything but normal.

Or maybe, she preferred to embrace her freedom and liked the flexibility of searching for her inspirations.

The salary of being a professor in the university might not be as much as what she was earning at the studio.

Regardless of her reasons, the illustrations done by the master was considered unique.

“Have you taken lessons before?”

The master came over to Xia Ruoxin’s side and lowered her head as she watched the way her student was holding her brush.