Rebirth: Saving the Lovely Girl from the Start

"I’m on my way. The traffic is bad because of the holiday."

Xue Rui explained, sitting on Lin Ruoxi’s bed.

"Hurry up! I’ve been waiting for a while," Gu Muxue urged, her voice full of dissatisfaction.

"Gotta go, gotta go. I’ll be there soon. Driver, can you go faster?" Xue Rui said, his voice urgent, pretending he was in a taxi.

In reality, he didn’t even remember Gu Muxue had messaged him...

’I can’t log into QQ on Lin Ruoxi’s computer, and my own phone doesn’t have notifications turned on.’

When he’d checked QQ these past few days, Qiu Mengze was whining like a jilted lover. He said that even though Qin Tong had added him, she was completely ignoring him, and Mengze had no idea what to talk to her about.

So, throughout the holiday, Qiu Mengze would periodically send Xue Rui a "nudge" on QQ, asking him to go to an internet cafe.

Xue Rui got so annoyed he just stopped checking QQ altogether.

’Anyway, if Gu Muxue really needs something, she’ll call me.’

Xue Rui opened QQ and saw over a hundred unread messages.

As he quickly scrolled up, his heart sank.

Gu Muxue had sent him the address last night. He’d been so sleepy at the time that he only glanced at it.

He thought he’d replied to Gu Muxue...

In reality, it was a "mental reply."

In the fast-paced era of being online 24/7, many people are bombarded with countless messages. Replying becomes an unconscious action, and sometimes you think you’ve replied to someone...

...when in fact, you just replied in your head and then forgot all about it.

On QQ, Gu Muxue had been bugging him from seven in the morning until nine.

And now, it was already ten o’clock.

"Lin Ruoxi, don’t wait for me for lunch," Xue Rui said as he walked toward the door.

Gu Muxue had already been waiting for at least two or three hours. He couldn’t delay another minute.

"Oh..." Lin Ruoxi reached out a hand. ’But I already bought groceries...’

Besides, Xue Rui had also taken her hair tie.

He rushed out of the residential complex, and luckily, there was a taxi parked by the roadside.

Xue Rui pulled open the door and got in.

"Driver, to International Trade. A friend told me there’s a huge fight between a group of girls over there, they’re tearing each other’s clothes off."

"Really?"

The driver had been idly smoking by the roadside. Hearing such explosive news, he started the car, pulled a U-turn on the spot, and peeled out.

"The light’s green, go, go, go!" At an intersection, the driver honked his horn incessantly.

Xue Rui just wanted to trick the driver into going faster. Who would’ve thought the driver was so desperate for gossip he’d drive the taxi like a fighter jet?

The taxi might as well have had wings; it was practically taking off. He was jostled so much his breakfast nearly came back up.

"Driver, you should be careful," Xue Rui reminded him.

"Don’t you want to see it?" The driver drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

Lured by the promise of juicy gossip, a trip that should have taken twenty minutes took less than ten.

When they arrived at International Trade, there was no girl fight to be seen.

Xue Rui stared at his phone and said with a look of regret, "We’re too late. They’ve already left."

"Tsk." The driver shook his head repeatedly, saying with some reluctance, "I’ll circle around and look. They can’t have gone far."

After paying the fare, Xue Rui headed to the address Gu Muxue had given him.

There was a newly opened milk tea shop nearby with a long line out the door, so long it was blocking the sidewalk.

"How long is this going to take?" someone grumbled, fanning themselves impatiently.

As Xue Rui tried to cut through the line to pass, a girl stopped him.

The young woman scowled. "No cutting! I’ve been in line for an hour!"

"You’re blocking the way. I’m just passing through." Xue Rui had no time for these people and pushed through the middle of the line.

As he walked past, an idea suddenly struck him.

Just then, two students emerged from the line, carrying several cold drinks.

Xue Rui’s eyes lit up. He walked up and stopped the two female students. "Hey, can you sell me your milk tea? It’s an emergency."

"Huh?" One of the girls was clearly unhappy. She had waited in that long line for so long. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

’And what kind of emergency requires milk tea?’

’He’s obviously lying.’

Xue Rui smiled and held out a 100-yuan bill. "The rest is to treat you two pretty ladies to a meal," he said cheerfully.

While one of them was hesitating, the other girl handed over the milk tea. "Here."

Xue Rui grinned, gave the girl the money, and said, "Thanks, you two."

The short-haired girl held the bill up to the sun to check if it was real. "We only spent twenty yuan, and he gave us a hundred. We can just get back in line. By the time we’re done, it’ll be time for lunch anyway."

"You have a point," the other girl mumbled, realizing she had nothing else to do today and had just made some easy pocket money.

The people around them saw this and watched in amazement as Xue Rui walked away.

"Must be nice to be rich," someone sighed.

’Why didn’t I think of that?’

"Anyone else selling their milk tea? My girlfriend’s waiting for one!" someone shouted.

The two girls looked at each other. They had just discovered a business opportunity.

Xue Rui jogged all the way to an alley.

From a distance, he saw Gu Muxue in a floral-print dress and white stiletto sandals, holding a parasol. Her head darted from one end of the alley to the other, as if waiting for someone very important.

Xue Rui slowed his pace, hiding one hand behind his back while waving at Gu Muxue with the other.

When Gu Muxue saw Xue Rui arrive, the corners of her mouth turned up involuntarily. But then she remembered how long she’d been waiting and decided she absolutely couldn’t let him off easy, so she deliberately put on a stern expression.

"What took you so long?" Gu Muxue asked coldly.

’I should at least stay mad for a little while to make him realize his mistake.’

"Couldn’t be helped. The holiday traffic was terrible," Xue Rui sighed.

In truth, Hedong City wasn’t a tourist destination, so there was never traffic, not even on holidays.

But Xue Rui figured Gu Muxue wouldn’t know that.

’In situations like this, you have to shift the blame to lessen your own "guilt."’

Gu Muxue thought what Xue Rui said made sense, but she still pouted. "If you knew there’d be traffic, then why didn’t you leave earli—"

Xue Rui had anticipated she would say that. He grinned and pulled two cold drinks from behind his back, dangling them in front of her.

"I was waiting in line to get you a drink. That place is crazy crowded."

’I have to make my schedule seem packed. Getting stuck in traffic and then waiting in line for drinks—that’s a reasonable explanation.’

Especially since that milk tea shop was right nearby; Gu Muxue must have seen it.

Gu Muxue’s eyes lit up. She had been wandering the area for a long time and had seen that new milk tea shop.

She had wanted to wait in line to buy one for Xue Rui, but she was wearing stiletto sandals and they could easily get stuck in the cracks of the sidewalk.

Besides, she was afraid Xue Rui wouldn’t be able to find her when he arrived.

’That line was so long...’ A wave of emotion washed over Gu Muxue.

’Xue Rui actually waited in that long line for me.’

Even though it was already autumn, the sun was still scorching today.

She felt stuffy even standing under her parasol. Xue Rui had nothing; he must have been baking in the sun for an hour.

"Are you hot?" Gu Muxue moved the parasol over Xue Rui’s head.

"Not at all," Xue Rui said, deliberately wiping his "sweaty" forehead.

’I didn’t wait in line, why would I be hot?’

As for the "sweat" on his forehead, when he spotted Gu Muxue at the entrance of the alley, he’d had a stroke of genius, dabbing some condensation from the drink cup onto his brow.

"I was worried your throat would get sore from recording, so I got you something to drink."

Xue Rui stuck a straw in, took a sip himself, and then handed it to Gu Muxue.

Gu Muxue saw him do it, but she pretended she hadn’t, her cherry-like lips closing directly over the straw.

Xue Rui savored the taste. ’A drink that cost fifty yuan a cup was bound to be good,’ he thought, ’but man, did it sting his wallet.’

’But it was worth it. Once this little lady has her drink, she’ll forget all about him being late.’

"Let’s go, time to record," Gu Muxue said, leading Xue Rui into a studio.

"Our city has a place like this?" Xue Rui had never seen anything like it.

Inside the studio, a vast array of professional equipment, none of which looked cheap, filled the room. Xue Rui moved slowly, curiously looking everything over.

"My mom’s friend owns it." Gu Muxue, thinking Xue Rui was walking too slowly, dragged him further inside.

A young man with tattoos and headphones glanced at Xue Rui before leading him into the recording booth.

"Man, couldn’t you find anyone else who can whistle?" Xue Rui asked curiously.

Gu Muxue had asked him to come out to record a song she had written.

But he felt his part was completely trivial; anyone who could whistle could have replaced him.

"Miss Gu only wanted you to do it."

The young man looked Xue Rui up and down but didn’t see anything special about the kid.

"Oh, okay. Let’s start," Xue Rui said with a smile, clearing his throat.

The recording booth was soundproofed and eerily quiet.

Guided by the staff, Xue Rui put on the headphones and stood alone, whistling into a large microphone.

The glass of the recording booth was one-way; you could see in from the outside, but not out from the inside.

Gu Muxue propped her chin on her hands and stared blankly at Xue Rui. Knowing he couldn’t see her, she tilted her head from side to side, her eyes crinkling into a smile as she sized up this roguish boy.

Suddenly, she noticed a black elastic band on Xue Rui’s wrist.

Gu Muxue frowned. ’Why does Xue Rui have a hair tie on his wrist?’

’Which girl’s is it?’

’It’s definitely not mine, anyway. That hair tie is too plain. I never use black ones.’

Gu Muxue’s song was playing in Xue Rui’s headphones.

Her voice was very sweet, and the song’s melody was light and lively.

The lyrics were in Korean. Although Xue Rui couldn’t understand them, he had a feeling it was a love song.

He regretted being late; he could have been on the other side of the glass, watching Gu Muxue sing.

’Oh well, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future.’

Gu Muxue spoke into the console’s microphone, "Do it again."

"Huh?" Xue Rui was confused. He couldn’t see Gu Muxue’s face.

But the studio’s top-of-the-line equipment amplified her tone.

From her voice, Xue Rui could tell that Gu Muxue seemed to be angry.

"Why?" Xue Rui didn’t get it. ’Is she still holding a grudge about me being late?’

’That can’t be right.’

’We already moved past that.’

Helpless, he could only follow Gu Muxue’s request and whistle the melody again and again.

"Muxue, my face is about to cramp up," Xue Rui said, his cheeks aching.

He rubbed his face and suddenly noticed the hair tie on his wrist... Lin Ruoxi’s hair tie.