Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 477: Chapter 473 Valentine’s Day Gift

Huo Sining sat in the chair, feigning sleep, when the hunger that had plagued her all night suddenly made her stomach growl uncontrollably. Her body stiffened slightly, and she instinctively pretended as if nothing had happened, slowly opening her eyes halfway and sneaking a peek around the room.

At that moment, the other students in the lounge were clustered in groups of twos and threes, chatting. Given that the noise from Huo Sining’s stomach wasn’t particularly loud, no one seemed to notice anything amiss on her side.

Just as Huo Sining breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that nobody had noticed her awkward situation, a muffled laugh suddenly came from behind her: ”Pfft--”

Huo Sining turned around abruptly, only to find that Gu Xu had somehow made his way to stand behind her and was shaking his shoulders, clearly struggling to hold back his laughter.

Huo Sining felt totally embarrassed and annoyed. She glared at Gu Xu, waiting for him to choke on his own amusement, ”It’s just a natural bodily reaction, is it really that funny?”

Gu Xu shook his head, sat down on the chair next to Huo Sining, and as if by magic, produced a heart-shaped box of chocolates. He stealthily slipped it into Huo Sining’s embrace while the rest of the lounge wasn’t paying attention.

Huo Sining was stunned and gave Gu Xu a weird look.

Gu Xu maintained a calm expression, though the tips of his ears were slightly red. Seeing Huo Sining look his way, he cleared his throat and clenched his fist, ”Well, you’re hungry, right? Have something to tide you over first.”

Huo Sining looked at Gu Xu with a suspicious gaze, ”Why would you be carrying this thing around with you?”

The chocolates in the box weren’t labeled in Chinese; they were obviously foreign.

”Oh, just happened to bring it,” said Gu Xu with a smile that appeared slightly unnatural. He skillfully changed the subject, ”After the expert meeting is over, we can go eat. Your task today might be a bit heavy.”

Huo Sining paused, sensitive to anything to do with missions, and couldn’t help but lower her voice to ask, ”Why were we summoned so early in the morning? What exactly are we supposed to do?”

Gu Xu looked at Huo Sining in surprise, ”You don’t know?”

Huo Sining shook her head, ”I woke up in a daze, was hurriedly called to assemble, and before I had the chance to ask, I was bundled into a military vehicle and shipped here.”

Gu Xu suddenly laughed, ”Is that so? It looks like those guys did a good job keeping things under wraps.”

”Is this something that can’t be talked about?” Huo Sining asked curiously.

Gu Xu lowered his head and leaned closer to Huo Sining’s ear with a light laugh, ”Others can’t talk about it, but you can.”

Huo Sining narrowed her eyes, why did she feel like there was a mocking glint in Gu Xu’s eyes, as if he was teasing her?

The sensitive kitten within her bristled at the insinuation, and Gu Xu, not daring to push his luck too far, quickly explained:

”It’s just a misunderstanding by those guys. I told them not to publicize it, but I didn’t tell them to keep it from you guys. We called you here mainly to authenticate a batch of items.”

”What items?” asked Huo Sining.

”My main task this time is to track down and retrieve cultural artifacts stolen from ancient tombs. Two nights ago, our people tracked down several individuals with unknown identities. Following the leads, they detained a truck prepared to transport ’crafts’ across the border under false pretenses. We suspect those individuals are antiquities smugglers, and the truck may be carrying genuine ancient artifacts.”

When the topic came up, Gu Xu’s face grew much more serious.

Huo Sining nodded. Artifact smugglers often colluded with tomb robbers to sneak real antiques out of the country amongst various handicrafts. If they managed to get those items out of the country, it would be that much harder to reclaim them.

Smuggling was the artifact smuggler’s forte because very few people could truly differentiate between real and fake items, making it necessary for experts to step in for appraisal.

No matter how vigilant customs might be, with wit often outmatching caution, breaches always occurred, and not a few precious artifacts were thus smuggled out of the country, netting criminals huge profits.

It was no wonder the military had decided to keep the information under wraps. With the location of that truck found, there would be a trail to track down the tomb robbers, but if word got out, it could potentially spook them.

As for the tracking of the suspects, that wasn’t within Huo Sining’s interests, so she didn’t ask, and Gu Xu didn’t plan to bring it up either.

Knowing that Huo Sining was involved in the excavation of the ancient tomb, Gu Xu couldn’t help his curiosity and started to ask about the situation at the tomb.

The discovery of the ancient tomb by developers was heavily publicized by the news, but what exactly was unearthed remained confidential. Even Gu Xu would have to wait until the emergency excavation was concluded to learn more. Now meeting Huo Sining, he naturally wouldn’t miss this chance and began to ask some non-confidential questions.

The two chatted about this and that, creating quite a harmonious atmosphere. The only imperfection was that Huo Sining’s stomach had once again begun to growl. Huo Sining, not being shy, promptly unwrapped a heart-shaped chocolate from the box and started to satisfy her hunger.

Just then, Gu Xu received a message that the professors’ meeting had ended.

Gu Xu replied with an acknowledgment, stood up ready to leave, but suddenly his lips curved into a subtle smirk. Seizing the moment while no one was paying attention, he leaned in close to Huo Sining, kissed her lightly on the lips as she was eating the chocolate, a flash of triumph in his eyes, and whispered, ”Wife, happy holiday!”

After saying this, Gu Xu straightened up and resumed his calm demeanor, his face returning to its usual expressionless state, and he strode out seriously.

Huo Sining blinked several times, looked at the chocolate in her hand, then at Gu Xu who had walked away, and suddenly, as if realizing something, she pulled out her phone and checked the calendar. Seeing the date, she couldn’t help but laugh.

After a moment’s thought, she sent a text message to Gu Xu’s phone.

--Our first Valentine’s Day and you give me just a box of lousy chocolates? Aren’t you being a little too thrifty, Boss Gu?

It wasn’t half a minute before Gu Xu replied.

--My dear wife, I didn’t give you chocolates, I gave you my whole heart. You’ve eaten my heart, so from now on, my heart will be inside you, and you won’t be able to shake me off even if you wanted to.

Huo Sining’s cheeks flushed with a blush as she stared at the text message on her phone, at a loss for words.

Who said that Gu Xu couldn’t speak sweet nothings, who claimed this guy had low emotional intelligence? He could turn even a box of chocolates into such slick talk. This wasn’t just someone inexperienced in love; he was a veteran of the game, an expert in charming women, wasn’t he?!

It wasn’t long after Gu Xu had left when the door of the conference room opened, and the professors filed out one after another. Camouflaged soldiers had been waiting at the door and immediately began leading everyone to the canteen for a meal.

For Huo Sining, this was music to her ears; she was starving. Knowing the chocolate was a Valentine’s gift from Gu Xu, she naturally wanted to save it and savor it slowly. How could she bear to wolf it down in such a rush?