Rebirth: Saving the Lovely Girl from the Start

"What was intentional about that?" Xue Rui chuckled.

He had called Gu Muxue over to put on a show for his grandfather, hoping to spur the old man into rebuilding their house.

"Don’t run!" Gu Muxue flashed her pearly whites as she chased Xue Rui through the alley.

Xue Rui dodged her by leaping back and forth across the alley’s drainage ditch. Unable to land a hit, Gu Muxue huffed, grabbed a handful of snow, and tossed it at him.

Gu Muxue pouted, her eyes darting to the side as she muttered under her breath, "Just classmates?"

"What was that?" Xue Rui leaned in, cupping his ear. Gu Muxue had spoken too softly.

Gu Muxue just tilted her head. ’She hadn’t meant for Xue Rui to hear her anyway.’

’When she’d greeted Xue Rui’s grandfather earlier, she had hesitated for a moment before finally saying she was his classmate.’

’She had hoped Xue Rui would say something different, but he’d also just said they were classmates. She couldn’t quite put her finger on the feeling, but she felt inexplicably disappointed...’

"It’s nothing. So, what about those pop-its you mentioned?" Gu Muxue held out her hand.

’She’d never played with them herself, though she’d been startled by the village kids using them. Since her relatives’ children were also fairly quiet, she’d never had the chance to play with such firecrackers. Now that Xue Rui was offering to play with her, she felt a little thrill of excitement just thinking about it.’

"We’ll have to buy them in your village," Xue Rui said.

"Why?" Gu Muxue couldn’t understand. ’Didn’t Xue Rui say he’d already bought them?’

Xue Rui put on a mysterious expression. "You’ll see when we get there."

The two arrived at Gu Muxue’s ancestral home in Dongguan Village. At the village entrance, Xue Rui chatted with a few old men and, for the price of a few cigarettes, learned how many convenience stores were in the village.

At first, when Gu Muxue saw Xue Rui chatting fluently with the villagers in the local dialect, she thought he was amazing.

But when she saw the practiced way he handed out cigarettes to the old-timers, she couldn’t help but frown.

After Xue Rui bid farewell to the old men, she walked over to him and said, "You’re not allowed to smoke."

With that, she reached out and confiscated the cigarettes from Xue Rui’s pocket.

"Did you see me smoking?" Xue Rui asked.

Gu Muxue froze. On second thought, it was true. Xue Rui had only handed them out to others; he hadn’t lit one himself.

After a moment’s thought, she reluctantly handed the cigarettes back to Xue Rui.

The two of them arrived at a convenience store near the village entrance.

As soon as they walked in, Gu Muxue asked, "Excuse me, do you sell pop-its here?"

Seeing such a fashionable-looking young lady, the shop owner beamed. "Yes, we do. How many boxes would you like?"

Gu Muxue thought of those awful kids. ’No amount would be enough to throw at them.’ "I’ll take all of them."

"Kid, you’re not joking, are you?" The shop owner was stunned. He had stocked a whole case, thinking it would last until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. He never expected to be cleared out on the very first day of the New Year.

When the owner brought out a whole case of pop-its, Gu Muxue was taken aback. ’There are that many?’

Xue Rui cut in, "Muxue."

"Don’t try to talk me out of it, Xiaorui. I’m definitely buying them," Gu Muxue said with a frown. ’Those kids are horrible. I can’t even understand the dialect they speak, and they use firecrackers to scare me.’

’Besides, she had a gut feeling that group of kids was bad-mouthing her.’

’Now, with so many "weapons" in her hands, she could finally get her revenge.’

"That’s not what I meant." Xue Rui shook his head and turned to the shop owner. "Sir, bring out all the firecrackers you have that explode. We’ll buy out your entire stock."

"Huh?" Gu Muxue jumped, her eyes landing on the rows of various small firecrackers lining the shelves.

’She thought Xue Rui was going to tell her not to be so impulsive, but his idea was even more outrageous than hers!’

’But it looked like those firecrackers had to be lit with a lighter. That seemed really dangerous. What if one exploded in her hand?’

"Huh?" The shop owner was equally incredulous.

Only when Xue Rui slapped a few red bills onto the counter did the owner finally believe he wasn’t joking.

Xue Rui and Gu Muxue walked out of the convenience store, each carrying a large box.

"Xiaorui, do we really need this many?" Gu Muxue couldn’t help but ask.

"We’re not done yet. There are still two more convenience stores in your village. Let’s go clear out their inventory, too," Xue Rui said with a grin.

"We’re buying more?" Gu Muxue’s eyes widened. ’What on earth is Xue Rui planning?’

’She just wanted to scare the kids a little, but from the looks of it, Xue Rui was preparing to blow them to kingdom come...’

Xue Rui clasped his hands behind his back, cleared his throat, and adopted a profound tone. "Ever heard of Sun Tzu’s *Art of War*?"

Gu Muxue nodded thoughtfully. "’Before the troops move, the provisions go first?’ But our ’provisions’ are already more than enough. The two of us can’t possibly use them all."

Xue Rui shook his head. "It’s about ’removing the firewood from under the cauldron.’ We buy up all the firecrackers in the village and cut off their supply."

’He knew a thing or two about village life. Parents rarely bought their kids huge piles of firecrackers. Instead, they’d give them pocket money to buy a few at a time.’

’Even if the kids got their red envelope money on the first day of the New Year, they wouldn’t dare spend it recklessly. If their parents saw them buying a huge pile of firecrackers, they’d most likely get a scolding, or even a taste of ’bamboo shoots stir-fried with pork’—a good spanking.’

’That’s why Xue Rui was going to buy out all the firecrackers in Dongguan Village.’

’Besides, while it looked like a huge pile of several hundred boxes, each box only cost half a yuan. Even clearing out all the firecrackers for all the kids in the village wouldn’t cost much at all.’

’Not to mention, with his net worth now in the hundreds of millions, why would he care about a few hundred yuan?’

’His old man had spent several thousand yuan on fireworks just last night. This was nothing in comparison.’

Gu Muxue couldn’t help but laugh. "Xiaorui, you’re using military strategy on little kids."

’She hadn’t thought of that herself. She found Xue Rui fascinating—pitting his wits against a bunch of children, treating it like a full-blown war.’

Xue Rui put on a solemn expression. "Be serious. This is a war of attrition."

"Yes, Commander Xiaorui," Gu Muxue replied, playing along with a salute.

Gu Muxue was wearing a pink sweatsuit today, which made her cheeks look even more rosy and delicate. Xue Rui subconsciously reached out to pinch Gu Muxue’s face.

However, she didn’t let him pinch her. Instead, she bit his hand.

"HISS~" ’I must be too used to pinching Lin Ruoxi’s cheeks,’ Xue Rui thought. ’I forgot Gu Muxue isn’t so easy to bully.’

The driver looked on with a helpless expression. ’These two are really something else.’ His task for the day was simply to accompany Gu Muxue, so he took the initiative and loaded the two boxes of firecrackers into the trunk.

"Sir, could you help us clear out the firecrackers from the other two stores, as well as the ones in the neighboring villages?" Xue Rui handed him over a thousand yuan in cash, with an unopened soft-pack of Chunghwa cigarettes tucked underneath.

The driver ignored Xue Rui, looking instead at Gu Muxue, who stood behind him.

Only after Gu Muxue gave a slight nod did the driver accept what Xue Rui offered. "I’ll go back and get a different car. You two play here in the village, and don’t wander off."

"Don’t worry. Not a hair on Muxue’s head will be harmed," Xue Rui promised.

The driver nodded. ’This kid seems pretty mature,’ he thought. ’There shouldn’t be any major issues, especially since they’re just staying in the village.’

Back in the village, Gu Muxue was in an unfamiliar place, had some difficulty communicating, and didn’t know anyone. For all these reasons, she let Xue Rui take charge.

Xue Rui tore open a box of pop-its and threw a handful on the ground, setting off a series of CRACKLING POPS.

Gu Muxue jumped. ’Xue Rui is way more vicious than those kids,’ she thought. ’They only throw them one by one, but he’s slamming them down by the handful.’

"Heh heh, let’s just wait here by the convenience store entrance. Some kids are bound to come by to buy more," Xue Rui said with a laugh.

’It was just after breakfast. The kids’ current stashes would be depleted soon, and it wouldn’t be long before they came to resupply. That’s when they could launch a surprise attack.’

"Will it hurt them?" Gu Muxue asked. She knew Xue Rui would exercise restraint, but the sound of the exploding pop-its still made her heart jump.

"Nah, they just sound loud. They have no real power. They won’t even go off if you throw them at clothing."

As he spoke, Xue Rui crushed a pop-it under his foot, which let out a muffled pop.

’These things are only good for scaring people; where would they get any real power from?’

"I remember this idiot, Qiu Mengze. In elementary school, he peeled the paper off a pop-it with his bare hands in the classroom. It exploded right in his palm, and he was totally fine..."

Gu Muxue couldn’t help but laugh at that. ’Are all little boys this mischievous?’ she wondered. ’Xue Rui was probably just like that as a kid; he’d even poked a hornet’s nest before.’

Before long, Gu Muxue spotted a familiar-looking boy. "That’s him! He’s the one who scared me with firecrackers last night. And that taller one next to him, two years ago he tried to wipe his snot on me."

"..." Xue Rui sucked in a sharp breath. ’This girl really holds a grudge, huh?’

’These boys were only about ten years old. The oldest among them looked like he was in the fourth or fifth grade at most.’

’Still, since Gu Muxue had pointed them out to him, he was definitely going to take action.’

The two exchanged a look, grabbed handfuls of pop-its, and gave chase.

"Don’t run! Take that for scaring me!" Gu Muxue shouted with a laugh, tossing a handful of pop-its and sending the kids scattering in terror.

"Don’t run if you’ve got guts! Just you wait!" one of the little boys yelled back.

Gu Muxue’s brow furrowed. She could roughly understand the boy’s dialect. "Is he threatening me?"

"Yep, that’s what he means." Xue Rui took a long stride forward and tossed another handful of pop-its at the feet of the boy who had shouted the threat.

Watching the boy flee in panic, Xue Rui chuckled. "Feeling better now?"

"Not yet. I only got to throw two handfuls," Gu Muxue said with a giggle. She was starting to understand why kids liked to scare people.

’This kind of teasing was strangely satisfying.’

’Today, she was going to settle every last score.’

"There won’t be a truce before lunch," Xue Rui said. He knew the kids wouldn’t give up. The children of one village were their own little clique; they’d definitely regroup and come back for revenge.

The presence of an unfamiliar face like his would be especially effective in galvanizing them to band together for "battle."

「Xiguan Village Headquarters」

A group of little boys was huddled together. Their leader, perched on a high spot, spoke up. "Xiaochao, did you get the pop-its?"

"Brother Ergou, the convenience stores in our village are all sold out. They said the next village over is sold out too. All that’s left are firecracker strings," Gouwa said, pulling out a roll of them.

"We can just break them off the string and light them," Ergou said.

"I... I don’t dare," Xiaochao said, taking a step back.

’He’d seen people play with individual firecrackers broken off from a string. The fuses were very short and burned incredibly fast. If you couldn’t throw it in an instant, it would explode in your hand...’

The boy called Ergou put on a prideful expression. He broke a single firecracker from the string, lit it with a lighter, and casually tossed it away.

BANG!

The firecracker exploded in mid-air, just inches from the boy’s fingers. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

’He dared to do what others wouldn’t. That was why he was the undisputed king of the village kids.’

’Now that outsiders had come to "invade their turf," he had to go and show them who was boss.’