Rebirth: Saving the Lovely Girl from the Start

"Let’s talk about you first. Your grade ranking dropped by dozens of places in this final exam. Your performance is clearly not..."

Xue Xiaying deliberately put on a stern face and lectured him for a long time.

Xue Rui breathed a sigh of relief. ’So that’s all this is about?’ he thought.

Anyone would have to spend a lot of energy to make ten million in a short time. He had been busy with his game, not to mention arranging his assets and dealing with all the paperwork. It took up too much of his time, so it was only natural for his grades to drop.

It took him a great deal of effort just to calm down and get back into a normal high school routine.

Besides, with the college entrance exams approaching, many students were starting to work twice as hard, so it was normal for them to push him down the rankings.

Of course, Xue Rui wasn’t going to explain any of this to Xue Xiaying. He just sighed and said, "I know. I’ll work harder from now on."

"Don’t just say it..."

Xue Rui had a feeling Xue Xiaying was going to lecture him for a long time, so he cut her off. "Let’s talk about Lin Ruoxi first."

At the mention of Lin Ruoxi’s name, Xue Xiaying fell into a brief silence.

Last year, she had wanted Lin Ruoxi to join the competition track, but Lin Ruoxi had refused.

But with the abilities Lin Ruoxi had demonstrated, she didn’t need to participate in competitions anyway.

It was Xue Rui who had told her that Lin Ruoxi wouldn’t be taking the last exam, and it was also at Xue Rui’s request that Lin Ruoxi stopped controlling her scores.

She had discovered that Lin Ruoxi was very obedient to Xue Rui.

Now, she did indeed have a favor to ask of Lin Ruoxi, which was why she had come to find Xue Rui.

After a long silence, Xue Xiaying spoke tentatively, "Can you get her to stop staying in the classroom?"

Xue Rui was completely baffled. ’What kind of request is that?’ he thought. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Xue Xiaying explained, "She doesn’t study in the classroom. Not that she needs to..."

"But, the other students are watching. I’m afraid she’ll discourage them." Xue Xiaying seemed a little embarrassed.

She felt her request was a bit unreasonable since it wasn’t Lin Ruoxi’s fault, but the reality was that this problem did exist.

Xue Xiaying didn’t dare say this to Lin Ruoxi, feeling a little guilty about it.

After hearing her out, Xue Rui fell into thought. Lin Ruoxi did spend most of her time in the classroom playing on her phone...

Even though Lin Ruoxi, afraid of blocking other students’ views, had taken the initiative to sit in the last row, they were all still in the same classroom. They were bound to see each other.

Sooner or later, some students would notice that the city’s top-ranked student wasn’t studying at all and was just playing around all day.

Xue Rui considered it. Lin Ruoxi’s current lifestyle was similar to Yi Bing’s, but the nature of the two was completely different.

Yi Bing was a hopeless case. When his classmates saw him, they didn’t think much of it. They knew Yi Bing wouldn’t get into college; that was the price of his delinquency. This made them feel much more at ease.

Lin Ruoxi, however, was the complete opposite. The Lin Ruoxi they saw, who seemed to do nothing but eat, drink, and play all day, would easily get into the top-tier universities they could only dream of.

The high-pressure academic environment, combined with the psychological gap created by this contrast, could easily make students give up on themselves.

"Does the teachers’ office have Wi-Fi?" Xue Rui asked.

"The senior year office doesn’t. Why are you asking?" Xue Xiaying frowned.

She thought all Xue Rui cared about was getting online.

"Contact Director Wang and have one installed. Lin Ruoxi will use it. Just let her stay in the office for the rest of her senior year," Xue Rui said with a sigh of resignation.

He had just seen Lin Ruoxi staring into space. Xue Rui guessed it instantly—the girl must have run out of mobile data and was too reluctant to spend money on more...

To be honest, 30MB of data for five yuan was ridiculously expensive these days. Even he would feel the sting.

"I’ll go buy a router right now," Xue Xiaying said with a smile. As expected, Xue Rui was the one who could handle it.

After returning to the classroom, Xue Rui told Lin Ruoxi about his suggestion.

Lin Ruoxi’s feelings were written all over her face. The corners of her delicate mouth turned down slightly, expressing her unhappiness.

"What’s wrong? You don’t want to go? The office has Wi-Fi. You could bring your laptop to school and no one would say anything. You could even drive that little toy car of yours around in the office..."

Xue Rui tried to entice her. He couldn’t believe it. ’Even Wi-Fi and a computer can’t tempt Lin Ruoxi?’

’Wouldn’t it be even more boring for Lin Ruoxi to just sit in the classroom and space out?’

"But... I won’t be able to see you in the office..." Lin Ruoxi said in a small voice, picking up her schoolbag and walking out of the classroom.

Although she was a little unhappy, she did it because Xue Rui told her to.

Xue Rui’s heart skipped a beat. ’This girl speaks without thinking. Is this another confession?’

"You can go on patrol with Director Wang. Tomorrow, have him get you a red armband to wear. You can wander the hallways every day and catch students who are slacking off," Xue Rui suggested, offering a win-win solution.

Lin Ruoxi thought about it. It seemed that this way, she could watch Xue Rui openly, which was even better than being in the classroom. The corners of her eyes gradually lifted into a smile.

...

After the three afternoon classes, Gu Muxue called Xue Rui over for tutoring.

From a distance, Xue Rui could already feel a hostile aura. Gu Muxue’s brow was slightly furrowed.

Xue Rui guessed it was because his grades had dropped this time.

"Muxue, has your performance been off lately? You’re still second in the grade, but it looks like that Hong Zihan is about to overtake you." Xue Rui launched a preemptive strike, pointing out Gu Muxue’s flaw.

Gu Muxue was taken aback. She hadn’t even opened her mouth, and Xue Rui was already bringing up her grades?

"I..." Gu Muxue gritted her teeth.

Her grades had indeed slipped a little. She had created a targeted study plan for Xue Rui based on his progress, but her own grades had dropped as a result.

But Gu Muxue was far too proud to ever admit that.

"I think you’re actually quite smart. Getting into Chang’an Jiaotong University shouldn’t be a problem for you." Gu Muxue really wanted to bite Xue Rui, but she held back.

The most important thing now was to raise Xue Rui’s academic performance. She wanted to go to the same university as him, so she suppressed her temper and tried to encourage him.

However, Gu Muxue’s behavior made Xue Rui uncomfortable. He said, "I’m just not cut out for it."

Xue Rui knew what the girl was thinking, but he really didn’t have that kind of ability...

He had only improved so quickly by relying on the foundation left over from his previous life. He couldn’t keep making huge leaps forward; he had already realized he’d hit a plateau.

It would be great if he could just stabilize his rank in the top few dozen of his grade before the college entrance exams. Chang’an Jiaotong University? He was short by about a hundred points. He wouldn’t even dare to dream of it.

People have their limits, and he knew his own.

Besides, for a high school student worth ten million, just being able to settle down and focus on the senior year environment was already remarkable. There was no need to put so much pressure on himself.

Now, this girl was using her own study methods to arrange a study plan for him.

Xue Rui looked at the page full of notes and the small calluses on Gu Muxue’s knuckles, worn down by her pen, and felt a pang of heartache.

Speaking of which, Gu Muxue’s parents were both top students. According to the principle of regression to the mean for intelligence, Gu Muxue was bound to be less exceptional than her parents’ generation.

Because her parents were so outstanding, her elders had high expectations for her. As a result, Gu Muxue was serious about everything she did, working steadily and diligently since elementary school. Her excellence was built on diligence and hard work.

As for Lin Ruoxi? Xue Rui considered her a genetic mutation. The less said, the better.

It was a good thing he had removed Lin Ruoxi’s "seal." Otherwise, if Lin Ruoxi had kept controlling her scores, how much pressure would that have put on Gu Muxue?

Lin Ruoxi’s goal had always been to be second in the grade. By intentionally controlling her score, she always stayed very close to the first-place student’s score.

If the gap was too big, people would just give up. But if it was always just a little bit, the first-place student would be afraid of being surpassed by Lin Ruoxi and could only work twice as hard...

In fact, Xue Rui had noticed that ever since Lin Ruoxi took over the first-place spot, Gu Muxue had clearly relaxed a lot.

"I’m not as smart as you think. If I can do it, you can too," Gu Muxue encouraged.

In high school, she had given up a top-tier high school to accompany Xue Rui to the No. 2 High School, and Gu Qingshan had now found out about it.

She definitely couldn’t do the same for university; Gu Qingshan would absolutely not agree to it.

Since she couldn’t lower her score to go to the same university as Xue Rui, she would have to pull Xue Rui up to her level so they could attend the same school. That would be best for both of them.

Xue Rui gave a noncommittal smile and looked at Mei Lili, who was diligently working on problems beside him. "Mei Lili, where are you planning to apply?"

"Three hundred days of struggle, and I’ll get into Chang’an Jiaotong University!"

Mei Lili looked up, and Xue Rui saw two dark circles under her eyes.

"Stop daydreaming. Are you really cut out for it?"

Xue Rui frowned. This girl’s state was getting more and more frantic.

"Xiaorui." Gu Muxue glared at Xue Rui, then turned back to Mei Lili and said, "Lily, I believe in you. You can definitely do it."

"Yeah, I can definitely do it!"

As if injected with chicken blood, Mei Lili pinched her thigh again to make herself even more alert.

"..." Xue Rui facepalmed in resignation. So it was Gu Muxue’s doing.

No wonder. Mei Lili didn’t like studying before, but with her goddess encouraging her from the side, it was a different story...

"These are the problems you have to do over the summer break, and the things you need to memorize. I’ve organized it all."

Gu Muxue handed Xue Rui a thick stack of printed materials.

"Muxue, did you forget? Our summer break is only ten days. How am I supposed to finish all this?" Xue Rui pleaded.

"I’ll come to your house to supervise you, to make sure you don’t hire someone to do it for you." Gu Muxue gave him a triumphant smile.

’It’s over,’ Xue Rui thought. ’The senior year nightmare starts now.’

Not only would his homeroom teacher and school teachers be watching him, but during the break, he’d have Gu Muxue watching him too...

After Gu Muxue left, Xue Rui walked out of the classroom, clutching the thick stack of materials.

"Xue Rui, let me borrow your phone for a second. I forgot to send Qin Tong a ’good morning’ message today," Qiu Mengze said, clutching his hair.

He usually sent one to Qin Tong every day, like he was carrying out a mission. No wonder he felt like he’d forgotten something today, leaving an empty feeling in his heart.

Xue Rui cursed irritably, "You useless bum. No."

"Brother Rui, please. Let me borrow your Nokia... uh, Vertu," Qiu Mengze pleaded.

Xue Rui held up his phone. "Call me ’Daddy.’"

"Daddy?" Qiu Mengze repeated, not quite understanding what he meant.

"Good son. Here, you can use it," Xue Rui said with a laugh.

"What the fuck, you’re taking such a huge advantage of me." Qiu Mengze finally realized what was happening. He was supposed to call him ’daddy’.

But he didn’t dwell on it. Sending a QQ message to his goddess was clearly more important.

"You don’t have a phone either. How do you usually send them?" Xue Rui asked curiously.

"I use Yi Bing’s. That kid got an iPhone and treats it like a precious treasure. He hasn’t let me use it for the past few days," Qiu Mengze said, pointing at the doorway.

Xue Rui looked toward the door and saw Yi Bing, a fawning look on his chubby face, begging Lin Ruoxi for something.

"Sister Xi, you can charge your phone in the office, right?"

"I can," Lin Ruoxi answered truthfully.

"Then can you help me charge my phone? I got an iPhone, and you can’t swap the battery. What a pain..."

"No."

...

Xue Rui looked up and saw that Lin Ruoxi was wearing a "Supervising Teacher" armband.

"Did Director Wang get that for you? Keep up the good work, Teacher Lin," Xue Rui teased. He hadn’t expected Lin Ruoxi to suddenly jump up to the rank of a teacher.

When Yi Bing heard Xue Rui call Lin Ruoxi "Teacher Lin," he followed suit. "Teacher Lin, I’m begging you, just charge it for me once."

Lin Ruoxi thought for a moment. ’Xue Rui said to keep up the good work. Does he mean I should take my job seriously?’

’Since Xue Rui said so...’

Lin Ruoxi took a deep breath and reached out, gently taking the phone Yi Bing was holding out.

"Thank you, Teacher Lin." ’Calling her what Xue Rui called her was the right move,’ Yi Bing thought. ’She agreed right away.’

However, Lin Ruoxi’s delicate lips parted slightly, and Yi Bing was instantly frozen on the spot.

Lin Ruoxi walked into the teachers’ office with the phone.

"What did she say?" Xue Rui asked curiously. Lin Ruoxi’s voice was too quiet for him to hear.

"She said, ’Confiscated.’" Yi Bing’s face fell, and he looked as if all hope was lost. "Lin Ruoxi actually confiscated my phone."