Rebirth: Start to Save the Treasure Girl

Xue Rui practically carried the boy into the bedroom.

After entering the bedroom, the boy let out a long sigh of relief and sat back down in front of the computer to continue playing League of Legends.

Xue Rui stood aside, unsure where to begin asking the question.

Judging from Aunt Qin's behavior, she treats Lin Ruoxi almost like a daughter, but her son's behavior is quite subtle.

Theoretically speaking, Aunt Qin's son is Lin Ruoxi's childhood friend and most likely her classmate.

But the boy's reaction seemed to be that he couldn't wait to get away from Lin Ruoxi, making the little girl act like some kind of monster.

The boy was engrossed in the game and had no time to acknowledge the overly friendly Xue Rui.

Xue Rui squinted and noticed that the boy's hand holding the mouse was trembling slightly.

He had seen many people like this; most of them had poor mental fortitude and their hands would tremble when faced with nervous situations.

A few minutes later, the computer screen went gray, and the boy complained, "Nothing good ever comes from seeing her. It's my promotion match, and this one's going to be tough again."

Xue Rui chuckled and patted the boy's shoulder, gesturing for him to move over: "Brother, let me take over. I'm a Master in the first server."

In an instant, the boy's expression became respectful, and he gestured to Xue Rui, "Big brother, just call me Zhang Hao."

Xue Rui glanced at the scoreboard; it was a gold-level game...

While Xue Rui was trying to turn the tide in the game, he also chatted briefly with Zhang Hao.

"I noticed your hands are shaking a bit. Is it because you get nervous? I sometimes experience the same thing when I play particularly intense matches," Xue Rui asked with concern.

He planned to first get closer to Zhang Hao, and then slowly talk about Lin Ruoxi.

The little girl never talked to him about her childhood stories, and Xue Rui was too embarrassed to bring it up.

But Xue Rui really wanted to know everything about the little girl, such as whether she had any cute photos from when she was little, or any funny or embarrassing stories, so he came to the village to inquire about her.

Thinking of this, Xue Rui let out a soft "hmm" in his heart. What was the difference between himself and the little girl?
"Because of Lin Ruoxi, my hands tremble whenever I see her."

Zhang Hao's expression changed several times, and finally, his gaze towards Xue Rui was filled with pity: "Brother, I truly admire you."

Xue Rui's attention was entirely on the game, and he had already pushed to the enemy's high ground: "Hey~ it's just a game, what's there to admire or not admire? Let's talk about Xi Xi first, why did your hands tremble when you saw her?"

"Huh? I was just talking about her, wasn't I?" Zhang Hao's expression was strange.

As the enemy base exploded, Xue Rui took his hands off the keyboard, exchanged a serious look with Zhang Hao, and his expression became increasingly puzzled.

Most people who know he is Lin Ruoxi's boyfriend show expressions of envy or jealousy.

But what does it mean to admire someone?

No, there's also a hint of pity?

Xue Rui was completely baffled.

Zhang Hao suddenly stood up, tiptoed to the door, and after confirming that the door was closed, he lowered his voice and said, "You have no idea what she was like when she was a child."

Xue Rui's eye twitched. Zhang Hao's furtive manner seemed as if he was afraid of being overheard by Lin Ruoxi outside the door.

No, the little girl is just a coward, how did you describe her as a village bully?
Could it be that the little girl has a lot of dark history, so she never dares to mention things from her childhood?

"What do you mean?" Xue Rui hurriedly offered him a cigarette.

Zhang Hao hesitated for a moment, then held the cigarette between his fingers, his eyes filled with reminiscence: "Let me tell you a story. It was August 7th, 2005, around nine o'clock at night. It was a pitch-black night, and my friends and I went out to catch scorpions..."

Xue Rui was puzzled. What could possibly make someone remember something so clearly?

……

Catching scorpions is a common memory for rural children. They would take bottles and jars and split chopsticks in half to make simple tweezers.

The scorpions caught were collected and sold to merchants every two days. In the early 2000s, the price reached several hundred yuan per kilogram.

As a child, Zhang Hao went out with his lantern to catch scorpions, just like always.

Of course, catching scorpions isn't the most important thing; the important thing is being able to go out and play late at night and compete with your friends to see who can catch the most scorpions.

However, Zhang Hao had extremely bad luck that day, and only found one all night.

"Zhang Hao, I've caught over a dozen. How about you?"

The little boy proudly held up the canned food, showing it off.

Driven by his competitive spirit, Zhang Hao gritted his teeth and walked into the cemetery at the village entrance. Since children were afraid to come here and adults also avoided it, there must be a lot of scorpions here.

However, when he arrived at the cemetery, he saw a ball of light in the distance.

……

"When I got closer, I saw Lin Ruoxi holding a flashlight and a glass bottle filled with scorpions." Zhang Hao's voice trembled slightly.

"And then?" Xue Rui asked hastily.

Zhang Hao said with a pained expression, "Then I don't know what came over me, but I thought I'd go over and scare her."

Xue Rui's lips twitched, and his eyes filled with disdain.

You're a born bad guy.

“Listen to me first,” Zhang Hao continued. “I tiptoed over and just as I tapped her on the shoulder, she opened the glass jar, turned around, and splashed a whole bottle of scorpions on me!”

Xue Rui couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Zhang Hao frowned. "What are you laughing at? Is it that funny?"

"It's a natural human reaction; when startled, you'll drop what you're holding," Xue Rui explained seriously. Then he pressed further, "But what does that have to do with your trembling hands?"

Zhang Hao said irritably, "You're covered in scorpions, why don't you just brush them off with your hands?"

Xue Rui swallowed hard, and a picture suddenly flashed in his mind:
Zhang Hao screamed as he tried to pry the live scorpions off his body, getting stung again and again.

"Hi~"

Xue Rui gasped. He had been stung once at Lin Ruoxi's house, and the feeling was truly unpleasant.

But Zhang Hao was stung dozens of times...

Just thinking about it makes people's scalp numb.

"Brother, aren't you just reaping what you sowed?" Xue Rui said, suppressing a laugh.

"Yes, I admit it." Zhang Hao gritted his teeth and continued, "My wails echoed throughout the village, and a lot of adults came. Guess what happened?"

Xue Rui was stunned for a moment: "We rushed you to the hospital?"

Zhang Hao shook his head in pain: "Wrong, I was the one who got stung, but Lin Ruoxi cried even more miserably than me. She was so pitiful, and all the adults were surrounding her. My dad didn't even ask why, and beat me up without saying a word, thinking that I had bullied Lin Ruoxi."

Xue Rui's eyes were filled with heartache; the little girl must have been very sad back then.

Most of a jar of scorpions, over a hundred yuan gone...

Losing 100 yuan in 2005 would be a lifelong memory for anyone, not just Lin Ruoxi from a poor family, but even someone from a wealthy family.

"The next day, Lin Ruoxi bought snacks and came to my house to see me, and even apologized to me." Zhang Hao's expression became increasingly unpleasant as he spoke.

“I knew it, Xixi is still very gentle.” Xue Rui nodded.

"No, no, no, my dad said look at Xi Xi, she didn't even make a fuss, why are you giving her the cold shoulder? I think Lin Ruoxi did it on purpose!" Zhang Hao said with a pained expression.

"Let me ask you, if you got stung by a scorpion and then beaten up, would you be able to laugh? But my dad didn't care about any of that, and he beat me up again..."

"She's like a bewitching enchantress, able to twist the truth with ease. I haven't spoken to her since..."

Xue Rui remained silent, glanced at Zhang Hao with some pity, stood up, and patted Zhang Hao on the shoulder: "Brother, I understand you."

When the little girl cries, her face is like a pear blossom in the rain; who wouldn't feel sorry for her?
Coupled with her tendency to stumble and stumble when nervous, and her timid expression towards everyone, she unknowingly shifted the blame onto others.

"Take care of yourself too." Zhang Hao put on his headphones and immersed himself in the game world. ...

After leaving Zhang Hao's house, Xue Rui and Lin Ruoxi walked to the next house.

"Xi Xi, aren't you scared to go to the cemetery to catch scorpions in the middle of the night?" Xue Rui chuckled as he rubbed Lin Ruoxi's head.

"Huh?" Lin Ruoxi's eyes widened in surprise.

Wasn't Xue Rui playing games?

How did you know about this?

"I'm not scared. A scorpion only costs a few cents, which can buy a lot of things," Lin Ruoxi said with a silly smile.

Even though she was scared, she didn't want to tell Xue Rui, because the matter was long in the past, and she only liked having memories of Xue Rui.

"Hmm, this is Aunt Wang's house." Lin Ruoxi paused and led Xue Rui into Aunt Wang's house.

Upon entering, the familiar pleasantries began again.

Lin Ruoxi and Aunt Wang were chatting and reminiscing in the living room when Xue Rui took the opportunity to catch up with Lin Ruoxi's childhood friend and ask her about her childhood stories.

Lin Ruoxi liked Xue Rui's arrangement very much. She could praise Xue Rui without restraint in front of acquaintances, thus receiving blessings from many people.

A dozen minutes later, Lin Ruoxi and Xue Rui stood at the door, and Aunt Wang's voice came from behind them: "Xixi, where are you planning to get married? It would be best if it were in the village. Auntie is practically family to you."

"Okay, Auntie, we're leaving." Lin Ruoxi didn't dare turn around; her nose was stinging again.

After walking a few steps, Xue Rui gently put his arm around Lin Ruoxi's shoulder: "Xixi, even the best relationships need to be maintained. Come and visit every year from now on."

Lin Ruoxi threw herself into Xue Rui's arms, took a deep breath, and looked up at him with teary eyes, asking, "The next place... are you going in?"

Xue Rui paused for a moment, then joked, "Of course I'll go in, otherwise I'm afraid you'll talk bad about me behind my back."

Lin Ruoxi shook her head vigorously, "I...I can't even praise you enough, you're the best."

"Alright, wipe your tears, or people will think I'm bullying you," Xue Rui said, patting the little girl's head.

Aunt Hua's home.

Xue Rui finally managed to catch a girl who was the same age as Lin Ruoxi.

"Classmate, you're all childhood friends from the same village, you could even say you were breastfed together, why don't you play with Xixi?" Xue Rui asked curiously.

The girl shook her head slightly: "Let me tell you this, even the dogs in the village avoid her."

"Huh?" Xue Rui was taken aback. What was going on now?
"She's been strange since she was little. She likes to catch snakes and hedgehogs, and she always has an aura that keeps strangers away. Even the vicious dogs in the village look down at her..." the girl said slowly.

Xue Rui: ……

Girls are more sensitive to the atmosphere and see things differently than boys.

Xue Rui added, "But she has a very gentle personality and is very kind to people."

"Yes, I know that too." The girl paused, then asked, "Are you a good student?"

"Uh, no good." Xue Rui shook his head decisively.

“We’re about the same age, so you should understand what your parents mean by ‘other people’s children’, right?”

The girl glanced in Lin Ruoxi's direction, her eyes filled with helplessness.

“I’ve had that experience too, being compared to other children by my parents, but it wouldn’t be enough to isolate Xixi, would it?” Xue Rui frowned.

“No, you don’t understand at all.” The girl sighed. “She wasn’t just at the top of her class; she came to my family’s fields to do farm work when I was playing house.”

"As soon as she came to my house, my mom started looking at me differently and dragged me to the field to feed the mosquitoes."

"I work all day, and when I get home I still get a scolding from my parents. Tell me, if you were in their shoes, would you feel comfortable?"

"Oh right, there was another time when my mom asked me to go to Lin Ruoxi for tutoring. She doesn't show the steps when she does problems, she just circles a couple of circles and gives the answer, and then asks me if I understand? How could I possibly understand?"

"As for isolating her? I'd rather avoid her than see her. I'm terrified that when she sees me, she'll be reminded of my parents and come to my house to berate me again..."

"As a child, she is so perfect, she is every parent's dream child, but she doesn't have a mother. Don't you think that's torture for our generation?"

"It's terrifying. She's so perfect, it's unreal. I don't even feel like I deserve to be her friend..."

Listening to the girl's incessant complaints, Xue Rui suddenly felt a sense of empathy.

He and the girl in front of him were both "mortals," while Lin Ruoxi seemed like a fairy who had descended from heaven.

"I understand now, classmate."

Xue Rui stood up, preparing to go to the next place with Lin Ruoxi.

Suddenly, his sleeve was tugged, and Xue Rui turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

"Um... Xue, could you please not bring her to my house next year?" the girl asked guiltily.

This year, Lin Ruoxi brought a lot of gifts, but she went home empty-handed.

She could imagine how her parents would scold her after Lin Ruoxi left.

“Sorry, we’ll come every year from now on.” Xue Rui pushed the girl’s arm away.

"what?!"

In an instant, the light disappeared from the girl's eyes, as if something had gently shattered.

……

As he continued his visits and heard many stories from Lin Ruoxi's childhood friends, Xue Rui's image of the "young version of Xi Xi" became more and more vivid.

The little girl is a little money-grubber; she'll plunder every wild animal in the village.

Scorpions, snakes, hedgehogs...

Any wild animal that can be sold for money cannot escape the little girl's clutches.

Xue Rui felt sorry for all the wild animals in the village, but he felt even more sorry for the little girl.

Other children catch scorpions for fun, but this little girl does it to make a living.

In the eyes of the boys, the little girl was almost like a king among children, fearless and invincible, but they had all been wronged by her and suffered beatings from their families, so they avoided Lin Ruoxi.

For example, Zhang Hao was left with a lifelong psychological trauma by the little girl, and his hands would even tremble when he saw her.

In the eyes of other girls, the little girl was a monster. While everyone else was playing house, she was catching snakes in the field...

Is this how this little girl was born? Or is she forced to be this way?
If a girl comes from a normal, warm family, what little girl would put down her dolls and run to the fields to catch those ugly, poisonous creatures...

The reason for this is Lin Ruoxi's scumbag father.

After leaving the last house, Xue Rui drank a lot of tea and suddenly felt the urge to urinate.

Looking around, it was pitch black, and diagonally opposite was Lin Ruoxi's father's grave.

"Xixi, I need to pee. Can you help Xiaoyu turn the car around? Her driving skills are terrible."

As Xue Rui spoke, he walked into the cemetery, loosened his belt, and prepared to offer some "New Year's gifts" to his deceased father-in-law.

"Rui, you...you should stand by the roadside, it's too dark inside." Lin Ruoxi was worried that Xue Rui would fall.

"What if someone sees me? I'll move inside a bit."

"Can……"

Lin Ruoxi paused, knowing she couldn't persuade Xue Rui.

So Lin Ruoxi quietly followed, without making a sound. (End of Chapter)