Rebirth: Saving the Lovely Girl from the Start

Xue Rui and Gu Qingshan talked for a long time, mostly about work. They didn’t mention Gu Muxue.

In the end, Xue Rui left empty-handed.

Gu Muxue saw Xue Rui get into the car from upstairs, her brow furrowing instantly.

’He left without even saying a word to me? Did Old Gu chase him out?’

In the living room.

Gu Qingshan poured himself a glass of liquor, holding a half-eaten five-nut mooncake in his other hand.

He had never eaten like this before. It was because that kid Xue Rui had just said, "Mooncakes with liquor, the more you have, the richer you get."

The mooncake was made by his own daughter, and the liquor had been swiped from a buddy.

Gu Qingshan nodded. It actually had a unique flavor.

"Dad, why did Xiaorui leave?" Gu Muxue ran downstairs to ask.

"He was done with his business. Should he have stayed the night instead of leaving?" Gu Qingshan retorted.

Gu Muxue grinned, leaning over the back of the sofa to massage Old Gu’s shoulders. "Dad, what did you and Xiaorui talk about?"

Gu Qingshan enjoyed it with his eyes closed. "Just some work stuff. Xue Rui said he wants to register a game company..."

Gu Muxue’s hands froze.

’Xue Rui came to her house just to talk about this?’

’He made such a big deal out of it, brought a pile of gifts, and it turns out it has absolutely nothing to do with me?’

’And he had me nervous for so long... ’

At this thought, Gu Muxue’s anger flared, and she put a little more force into her hands.

"Hiss—easy now."

Gu Qingshan winced. His daughter was surprisingly strong.

"Stop drinking. It’s bad for you."

Gu Muxue snatched the liquor bottle away and stomped upstairs in a huff.

"Huh? Just a one-minute massage?" Gu Qingshan shook his head with a wry smile.

Gu Muxue had just left when Zhao Lizhen returned.

When she saw the table piled with pastries from her hometown, arranged so exquisitely, her eyes lit up.

’My husband is actually quite thoughtful,’ Zhao Lizhen thought. ’He knows that even after all these years of being married and living in Hedong, I still haven’t gotten used to the local food.’

In past years, she always had to buy these herself. This Mid-Autumn Festival, Gu Qingshan had actually gone and bought them for her.

"Thank you, honey." Zhao Lizhen’s eyes reddened. She threw her arms around Gu Qingshan, gave him a kiss, and then snuggled into his embrace.

"Thank me for what?" Gu Qingshan was a little confused.

"The pastries."

Gu Qingshan glanced at the coffee table, where the pastries Xue Rui had brought were displayed.

"Mm, of course." Gu Qingshan nodded, gently comforting the woman in his arms.

A pang of sorrow struck Gu Qingshan’s heart.

’So... what she wants is this simple?’

’Am I not even as considerate as a kid?’

’She’s so strong on the outside, but she’s still a little girl on the inside...’

’All these years... I’ve owed her too much.’

...

「At the school gate.」

"Thanks for the ride, driver." Xue Rui smiled and waved.

After the car drove off, he turned and headed for Lin Ruoxi’s house.

Since Gu Qingshan had accepted the gifts, he would definitely get things done.

Xue Rui opened the door. The old lady was sitting on the sofa watching TV, and Lin Ruoxi was squatting to one side, studying an iPad.

"Grandma, I’m going to register a company in your name in a few days," Xue Rui said with a grin.

He was never one to be overly polite with the old lady; he always spoke his mind.

The old lady was over seventy, but luckily the registration process didn’t discriminate against the elderly.

Using her identity was perfect. Besides, the old lady was always idle at home with nothing to do. It would be good for her to get out a bit.

"What’s a company?" the old lady asked without looking at Xue Rui.

"It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand, as long as someone else does." Xue Rui waved his hand dismissively.

The old lady didn’t say anything, her eyes still glued to the TV.

In truth, the old lady felt she was old, and her granddaughter was still naive and inexperienced.

That boy Xue Rui was unreliable, but Lin Ruoxi hadn’t truly suffered any losses because of him.

So let him make his requests. She had nothing left to lose—what could he possibly covet from her?

"Lin Ruoxi, time to get to work."

Xue Rui cracked his neck, ready to go all out.

There were two computers now, and they sat side by side.

"Three or more identical elements can be eliminated."

Xue Rui roughly sketched out the game’s logic on a piece of paper.

"Mm, that’s pretty simple," Lin Ruoxi said with a nod.

Xue Rui was in charge of giving Lin Ruoxi the design specifications and requirements.

Lin Ruoxi was responsible for the code and feature implementation.

Xue Rui checked in from time to time to make sure Lin Ruoxi wasn’t straying from the right path.

Then he started searching for a graphic designer online.

Neither he nor Lin Ruoxi could handle this part, because Lin Ruoxi’s drawing was absolutely terrible.

"The animations can be a bit rough for now. We can iterate and update them later."

Xue Rui thought for a moment and realized he still didn’t have enough money, so he decided to cut some features for now.

The computing power of phones in this era wasn’t sufficient. If they made the game at the level of a decade later, it would probably put too much strain on the hardware.

Just custom-designing a set of icons would cost over ten thousand, because Xue Rui wanted the copyrights.

Time tends to fly when you’re completely absorbed in something.

In the blink of an eye, Xue Rui’s alarm went off. It was time for him to go back to his dorm.

"This progress is too slow," Xue Rui complained.

"I... I can work on it at night, too," Lin Ruoxi said in a small voice.

"Forget it. I’m afraid you’ll go off track. We’ll continue tomorrow."

The next day at noon, Xue Rui received a phone call.

"Hello, is this Mr. Xue? Mr. Gu asked me to contact you," a man’s voice said.

Xue Rui was a bit surprised. Gu Qingshan worked unbelievably fast.

’I just gave him the stuff yesterday, and someone’s already contacting me today?’

"Oh? Where are you?"

"I’m at the school gate."

...

Xue Rui crawled out from the "dog hole" and saw a Jetta parked at the school gate.

"Mr. Xue?" the man asked uncertainly, because the person in front of him looked like a high school student no matter how you looked at him.

"Hello." Xue Rui smiled, greeted him, and extended a hand for a shake.

"My name is Xue Rui. And you are?"

The man mumbled, "Jiang Wei."

He still hadn’t recovered from the shock. The person Gu Qingshan mentioned was a high school student? He had assumed it was a teacher from the school.

"Mr. Jiang, let’s talk over a meal." Xue Rui casually found a nearby restaurant.

The man was from an agency that, to put it bluntly, ran errands for people.

Xue Rui was a law-abiding, honest person. His intention was just to find an acquaintance who would be more diligent with the work, and with Gu Qingshan keeping a slight watch over things, the process could go faster.

With this kind of thing, whether someone was watching over it or not made a world of difference.

"Should we go handle the paperwork after we eat? This afternoon would be perfect."

"I’m not the one registering. I’ll take you to meet the person in a bit."

"I also need to register several dozen word trademarks. What are your fees?"

"Er... since it’s a referral from an acquaintance, just covering the costs will be fine." Jiang Wei smiled. This was someone Director Gu had personally contacted him about; the job had to be done flawlessly.

"I’ll pay what I owe." Xue Rui’s tone was firm, refusing the offer.

He didn’t want Gu Qingshan to owe a favor over such a trivial matter.

Xue Rui handed over a sheet of homework paper, on which were densely written names: "Elimination," "Happy Elimination," "Joyful..."

In short, he was planning to register every trademark related to elimination-style games.

He’d just see how many of them got approved.

His main task right now was still developing the software; it was best to leave these miscellaneous chores to others.

Of course, he shamelessly registered every possible elimination game trademark.

Even if his game couldn’t compete with the major companies later on, he could still make some money selling the IP.

Losing money was impossible.

But it couldn’t really be considered malicious trademark squatting, because at this point in time, no one was making elimination-style games.

He had a game and he had the trademarks. It was perfectly reasonable.

As for even more valuable trademarks in the future?

Xue Rui didn’t think about it, because that would be too conspicuous.

It was like how he knew that in two years, there would be a World Cup match where Germany beat Brazil 7-1, with odds of over six thousand to one...

But getting rich like that was too strange; it would inevitably attract suspicion.

"It’s not being registered under my name. I’ll take you to meet the person."

After they ate, Xue Rui took Jiang Wei to the old lady’s house, showing him the way.

He, however, had to go back to school for class. Especially today, he had to keep an eye on Lin Ruoxi.

Today was the day Lin Ruoxi had jumped from a building in his previous life. Xue Rui couldn’t allow any mistakes.

During the activity period.

"Mengze, I’m not coming back tonight. If a teacher does a head check, help me cover for it."

Xue Rui pulled Qiu Mengze aside and whispered instructions.

"Xue Rui, you’ve gone too far!" Qiu Mengze’s breathing hitched.

He felt that this childhood friend of his was utterly shameless. He went to Lin Ruoxi’s house every day to freeload on food, drinks, and computer time, and now he was actually going to spend the night there.

"Fine!" Qiu Mengze agreed through gritted teeth, his heart sour with envy.

He hadn’t even held a girl’s hand, yet Xue Rui was about to sleep with a beauty of that caliber.

He was happy for his brother, but also sad for himself.

"Sigh, it’s not like I want to," Xue Rui lamented before making a cool exit.

Qiu Mengze was furious.

Xue Rui was just asking for a beating. This was an incredibly good thing, but he was acting as if he were being forced into it!

Qiu Mengze pulled a mooncake from Xue Rui’s drawer and stuffed it into his mouth in one go.

His mouth was stuffed full, as if eating a few more of Xue Rui’s mooncakes could restore some sense of balance.

Just then, a girl with brown-dyed hair walked past.

Qiu Mengze’s desk was right by the back door of Class Two. When the girl saw his appearance, she let out a disdainful little "tsk" and quickened her pace.

Qiu Mengze’s eyes went vacant, as if he’d been struck by lightning.

That was the girl he had had a crush on for years. The first time they made eye contact, this was the expression he saw.

He felt like his heart was about to break.

"Qiu Mengze, where’s Xue Rui?" Mei Lili also grabbed a mooncake from Xue Rui’s drawer.

She felt that Gu Muxue’s gloomy mood today must have something to do with Xue Rui. Plus, Xue Rui hadn’t even shown up to tutor Gu Muxue during the activity period. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

This was too abnormal. She had to come and question Xue Rui.

"Huh? Don’t cry." Mei Lili thought Qiu Mengze was acting abnormally, too.

...

「At the school’s dog hole.」

"Careful." Xue Rui helped Lin Ruoxi get through.

This time, Lin Ruoxi followed Xue Rui through the dog hole. She was afraid people from the private high school were waiting for her at the main gate.

Lin Ruoxi stood on the other side of the dog hole, turning back to pull Xue Rui.

"I’m sleeping at your place tonight," Xue Rui said casually.

He had to watch Lin Ruoxi closely today. As long as they got through tonight, the nightmare from his previous life would be well and truly over.

At least, that’s how he saw it.

Hearing Xue Rui’s words, Lin Ruoxi’s arm trembled instinctively.

Xue Rui had been holding onto Lin Ruoxi’s hand. When she flinched, it almost made him fall.

RIIIIP!

Xue Rui’s school uniform caught on a sharp point of the fence, tearing a hole in it.