Rebirth: Saving the Lovely Girl from the Start

Time flew by, and soon it was the end of June.

After signing the contract, Le You transferred the money to his grandmother’s account within three days.

The ten million in cash left Xue Rui at a loss. It wasn’t that he’d never earned this much money before, but having this much wealth at his age left him unsure of how to manage his assets.

Xue Rui considered half of it to be Lin Ruoxi’s, but the girl had never had more than a hundred yuan to her name. Any money she did have was just tucked under her mattress; she had no concept of a bank card holding a massive sum.

Besides, Lin Ruoxi was too naive. If the money were in her hands, getting sweet-talked by the bank into buying some financial product would be the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario was that she’d be scammed out of it.

So, Xue Rui made the decision for her.

He set aside some cash for emergencies and used the rest to buy cryptocurrency.

Conventionally, most assets should be allocated for stable, medium-to-long-term returns. But since Xue Rui knew what the market would do in the future, he considered cryptocurrency a great choice.

He wasn’t entirely sure about the cryptocurrency market’s fluctuations between 2013 and 2016, but he knew for a fact he wouldn’t lose money.

Anyway, the worst that could happen was that his funds would be tied up for a few years. It would eventually double in value, and he could cash out then. Besides, with the dividends from Le You, he wouldn’t have to worry about money for school or for starting a business.

In his past life, he’d only heard about the crypto world and was basically an outsider. He’d often seen news stories about people losing everything they had and jumping off buildings...

It was only after getting involved himself that he discovered just how insane cryptocurrency could be. The few hundred thousand he’d invested earlier had already grown to several million. He’d been tempted to sell for a while, but he resisted, knowing the price was still relatively low.

Xue Rui finally understood why it was so hard for ordinary people to make money in crypto. Many people couldn’t even hold on to stocks or funds for a ten-percent gain, let alone for a tenfold increase.

’If I sell now, it could multiply by another hundredfold in the future. Who could predict something like that?’

’But if you bought at a high point, the price could get chopped off at the ankles...’

Ever since he’d added another nine million to his position last month, the price had started to drop. Within a month, two million of his principal had evaporated.

Xue Rui felt like he was on a roller coaster. His net worth fluctuated wildly every single day...

Over the past month, he and Qingfeng had discussed many things about the game.

When Xue Rui was running the game, he’d actually included a design for a friends leaderboard. However, due to resource constraints, he had disabled that feature.

After Le You took over, they leveraged Tencent’s social platform for rapid expansion. According to Qingfeng, Tile-Match was on its way to becoming Le You’s core game...

As for Lin Ruoxi, since her part of the business handover was complete, her life had become much more relaxed. All she did was eat and play, and she used her free time to make toys. She’d even built a remote-controlled car in the last few days and was playing with it and Da Huang in the living room every day.

With less work-related stress, Lin Ruoxi had put on a little weight again.

But in Xue Rui’s eyes, this was a good thing. The few pounds she’d gained had gone to all the right places, making her look more mature.

...

Hedong Second Middle School, the third-year building.

After the college entrance exams, the third-year classrooms were vacated, so the school had the second-year students move in early.

The building was in the southeast corner of the campus, mostly isolated from the student life areas, making it seem rather deserted.

Carrying her stool, Lin Ruoxi spotted Xue Rui and jogged a few steps to catch up. She whispered, "Can we buy cheaper underwear next time?"

She felt like she was being so wasteful. ’I just got new underwear two months ago, and now it’s too small again.’

Xue Rui glanced to the side. Lin Ruoxi was in her summer school uniform, and her soft, natural curves drew frequent glances from male students passing by.

"What should I do with the ones that are too small? Throw them away?" Lin Ruoxi asked quietly. She couldn’t bear to part with them, but there wasn’t enough fabric to repurpose for anything else.

"If you’re willing, you could give them to me," Xue Rui joked.

"Mm, okay," Lin Ruoxi replied obediently.

The corner of Xue Rui’s eye twitched. ’Do you even think before you speak?’ he thought.

’Giving something like that to a guy?’

’To be honest, he was tempted for a second. But then he thought, what’s the point of collecting that stuff? The real Lin Ruoxi is right here next to me.’

"Don’t worry about the money," Xue Rui said. "You already know what it means to be a rich woman, don’t you?"

"But... it’s just so expensive..." Lin Ruoxi said meekly.

’She thought the ones for a few dozen yuan online were perfectly fine; there was no need to buy underwear that cost a thousand yuan.’

"You can’t think of it that way," Xue Rui explained. "When you spend money, other people get to earn money. The more expensive the clothes you buy, the more people you’re helping."

’That girl, Lin Ruoxi. Even though she was sitting on a fortune, she still hesitated over prices when buying snacks.’

Lin Ruoxi loved Choco Pies, but when she was shopping, she’d sometimes get conflicted. She’d reason that since she’d already had a Choco Pie recently, she should buy the cheaper custard pie instead.

But she was only like that with herself. The other day, she saw an old man picking up discarded vegetable leaves outside a grocery store, and she gave him the two pounds of beef she had just bought.

"Is that right?" Lin Ruoxi fell into thought.

"You can look it up online," Xue Rui said with a smile.

"Sister Xi, let me help you carry that!" Yi Bing came waddling over, his footsteps sending dull thuds echoing through the empty stairwell.

"What’s with the sudden chivalry, kid?" Xue Rui laughed. Yi Bing’s personality was something else; he wasn’t shy around pretty girls.

Still, Xue Rui knew the kid hadn’t figured girls out yet. All he cared about was eating and playing games. A pretty face held no appeal for Yi Bing; he’d rather have a hot flatbread.

"Sister Xi, I’m really craving the beef noodle soup from that one place," Yi Bing said, giving Lin Ruoxi a pitiful look.

"..." Xue Rui was speechless. ’So he just wants Lin Ruoxi to keep running his errands?’

’Making a young millionaire run errands for food?’

’It’s a fascinating thing,’ Xue Rui thought. ’This kind of friendship probably only exists when you’re a student.’

"Okay," Lin Ruoxi agreed with a nod.

"Thanks, Sister Xi!" Yi Bing exclaimed, taking the stool from Lin Ruoxi and skipping off toward the classroom.

"What’s all this noise?!" Director Wang bellowed from the first floor, seeing the chaos in the building. "You’ve moved into the third-year wing, which means you are now third-year students! The college entrance exams are just over three hundred days away! Don’t you feel any sense of urgency?!"

The sudden shout silenced the entire building in an instant.

Lin Ruoxi, who was standing right next to Director Wang, jumped at the furious roar.

Noticing her reaction, Director Wang’s stern expression melted into a smile. He said gently, "Lin Ruoxi, you’re different from the others. Would you like to come to my office and enjoy the air conditioning? It looks pretty hot out today."

’He had originally thought he should provide Lin Ruoxi with the best educational resources to help her stabilize her grades.’

’However, the last time he’d prepared a full set of college-entrance-exam-level practice tests for her, she had finished in less than half the allotted time and still scored above 745...’

’The teachers at the school couldn’t teach her anything more. On the same tests, the teachers themselves would score 148 at most in their respective subjects, but Lin Ruoxi was basically hitting the maximum score...’

’Lin Ruoxi was an undeniable genius. He had no idea what she could possibly gain from being at school anymore. He might as well just invite her to his office for tea.’

’In his decades as an educator, he had never seen a genius like her.’

"No, thank you," Lin Ruoxi replied instantly, rejecting Director Wang’s offer.

’She wanted to stay in the classroom, because she could see Xue Rui there.’

"Well, feel free to come over anytime. All the teachers would be happy to have you," Director Wang said with a smile.

"Okay," Lin Ruoxi responded.

’Xue Rui’s method really worked. Before, she would get so nervous when she had to turn someone down, but it was different now.’

’By keeping her answers as short as possible, she didn’t have to worry about formulating her thoughts and wouldn’t stumble over her words.’

’Best of all, it was easy, and the other person wouldn’t press her for a reason.’

Xue Rui went into the classroom and set down his desk in its old spot.

"Xue Rui, Li Qiang and Zhang Feng aren’t here for the new term," Qiu Mengze said, his eyes looking vacant, as if his soul had left his body. "I just used Yi Bing’s phone to ask. They’ve dropped out. And Meng Fei is gone too..."

’There were six of us in the dorm. Two dropped out before the college entrance exams, and one transferred. The only close friends he had left were Xue Rui and Yi Bing.’

’Yi Bing was already off in his own world, and Qiu Mengze felt like they weren’t on the same wavelength.’

’As for Xue Rui, he was never around. Qiu Mengze had lost all his school buddies and had no idea how he was going to get through the next year.’

"It’s nothing to worry about. That’s just life. Very few people walk with you for your whole journey," Xue Rui remarked with a sigh.

’Hedong Second Middle’s admission standards were the lowest in the city, so it got the worst batch of students.’

’Even if some had started studying hard under his influence, others just couldn’t stick with it, unable to handle the academic pressure.’

Now that the end-of-year exams were over, they had technically earned their high school diplomas. Many students with poor grades chose to skip their third year and go into business with their families or learn a trade.

Other parents, fearing the last year would be a waste of time for their child, spent money to enroll them in intensive boarding cram schools or transfer them to a better high school.

Qiu Mengze thought Xue Rui was trying to act all profound again. "Don’t give me that deep, philosophical crap," he said. "My point is, with only three of us left in the dorm, when the dorm matron does her rounds, she’ll notice right away that we’re a third short."

"Fuck! That’s a problem?" Xue Rui felt a headache coming on.

’In other words, it’ll be harder for me to spend the night in Lin Ruoxi’s bed from now on?’

"Heh heh," Qiu Mengze gloated.

Just then, Xue Xiaying walked up to the back door of the classroom. Hearing Xue Rui swear, she couldn’t help but frown.

Qiu Mengze’s smug grin froze on his face. He frantically tried to signal Xue Rui with his eyes to turn around.

"Xue Rui, come out here," Xue Xiaying said in a cold voice.

The two of them walked to the end of the hall. Looking out at the empty corridor, Xue Rui had the strange feeling that he was about to graduate.

"Auntie, what did Ren Jun score on the college entrance exam?" Xue Rui asked.

’Ren Jun took the exam this year. I wonder how far off he was from 500 points.’

"Um... he said he’s going to try again next year." Xue Xiaying had actually asked him as soon as she could, but Ren Jun had seemed pretty down, so she hadn’t pressed him for details.

Xue Rui smiled and nodded. "So, pretty bad, then."

Xue Xiaying sighed. "He’s already so old... Don’t worry about him. Let’s talk about you and Lin Ruoxi."

"Me and Lin Ruoxi?" Xue Rui frowned. ’Why is she asking about that?’