Rebirth to Save Myself

Military training ended, and high school life officially began. The experimental class started with a major tactic: teachers only spent twenty minutes lecturing, leaving the rest of the time for students to learn on their own. Many students couldn't keep up and asked the teachers to explain in more detail, only to be met with the teachers' merciless mockery: "If you can't keep up, it means you're not suited for the experimental class."

Su Xia had already self-studied high school textbooks in junior high, and would ask her teachers questions whenever she didn't understand something. Therefore, while she disagreed with the teaching methods of the experimental class teachers, it didn't have a significant impact on her. She even took time to write a novel. Currently, her novel has one of the highest click rates on the website, and many people are urging her to update it soon.

Even the editor said that given the prospects of her novel, the income would be considerable. Since Su Xia was still a minor, she needed her parents' approval to sign a contract. Chen Jianguo and Chen Chunqi knew about Su Xia writing a novel, but instead of scolding her for not spending time studying, they bought her a computer and put it in her room so she could upload it.

"Mom, if you find out I'm writing novels, will you treat me the same way you treat Xiaxia?" Chen Yuan asked curiously.

"You? Don't think I don't know that you read novels in junior high and that caused your grades to drop. If it weren't for Xiaxia's help later, I wouldn't have let it go so easily." Chen Chunqi glanced at Chen Yuan, looking like he knew everything, which startled Chen Yuan.

"How did you find out? Did Chen Wenwei tell you?" Chen Yuan asked.

"I'm your mother, what don't I know about you?" Chen Chunqi continued to look down at Su Xia as she wrote her novel, gradually becoming engrossed in it.

"I'm so scared, Xiaxia, did you tell Mom?" Chen Yuan asked Su Xia.

"I didn't, but there are probably many ways for Mom to find out, not just by asking me and Chen Wenwei." Su Xia shook her head, indicating that she hadn't told Chen Chunqi.

"That's right, don't underestimate your mom." Chen Chunqi proudly raised her chin, then asked Su Xia, "Which world are we going to next?"

"Interstellar," Su Xia replied.

"That's really good, I was completely engrossed in watching it." Chen Chunqi sincerely praised Su Xia.

Su Xia smiled. If her parents knew she was writing novels, they would definitely express their disapproval immediately. They would say that it was all unproductive and would affect her studies. She was a student, and students should focus on their studies. Getting into university was the most important thing.

I remember when we were studying in Putian, Su Xia borrowed a novel magazine from a classmate and secretly read it at home. Her father saw her, snatched it away, and threw it on the stove, turning it to ashes. Su Xia said it was borrowed from a classmate and needed to be returned; burning it meant paying for it. Her father resolutely burned it without paying for the magazine.

This put Su Xia in a difficult position. At first, she thought her father was just hiding it. So she patiently explained to them that she had borrowed it from a classmate and would return it when she was done reading it. But her father wouldn't believe her and naturally wouldn't pay back the five yuan magazine. In the end, Su Xia could only sign an IOU with her classmate and slowly return it.

Perhaps Su's father knew that she had borrowed the novel from a classmate, but he still wanted to burn and destroy it, to let Su Xia know that a father's authority cannot be challenged. He thought that this action would leave a deep fear in his daughter's heart, making her fear him, be afraid of him, and obey him.

Half a semester has passed since the start of the semester, and the midterm exam results have brought joy to some and sorrow to others! During the class meeting, the homeroom teacher singled out Lu Jingnian for criticism: "You, who clearly has such good grades in math, physics, and chemistry, why can't you put more effort into Chinese and English! The college entrance exam also requires Chinese and English, whether you choose science or humanities, you still have to take these two subjects."

Lu Jingnian remained silent in his seat, not even looking at the homeroom teacher, which angered the teacher so much that she said directly, "Su Xia, please tutor Lu Jingnian in Chinese and English after class, and also help improve your chemistry grades, they're dragging down your overall score."

Su Xia was completely bewildered. She'd been just watching the homeroom teacher scold other students, so why was she suddenly being called on? She stood up groggily and looked at Lu Jingnian, who glanced at her but didn't say anything. Su Xia was annoyed by that glance. What was with the attitude? She didn't even want to tutor him; it would only delay her getting home. So she said, "Teacher, I..."

"It's settled then. Su Xia, you need to get 95 points in Chemistry on your final exam. Lu Jingnian, you need to get 120 points in both Chinese and English. If you don't, we'll settle the score with you later." The homeroom teacher didn't give Su Xia a chance to continue speaking, making the final decision, and then began to criticize the other students.

After a class meeting, the homeroom teacher called on several groups to help each other with their studies before dismissing the class. Su Xia watched as everyone packed up to go home, then looked at Lu Jingnian's seat and saw him stand up and walk out the back door of the classroom. The girl sitting in front of Su Xia turned around and said to her, "You should go home early; Lu Jingnian won't stay to tutor you."

"Why? This is what the teacher told us to do, it's not like I insisted on tutoring him?" Su Xia asked the girl curiously.

"Back in junior high, our homeroom teacher did something similar. As a result, Lu Jingnian went straight home after school, leaving the girl who was tutoring him until her family came looking for her after dark. The next day, the homeroom teacher canceled their tutoring sessions, supposedly because the girl's parents spoke to the homeroom teacher about it."

Su Xia was speechless. This boy was incredibly rude! He should have at least told her he wasn't going to have tutoring. Leaving a girl alone in the classroom like that was terrible. And this girl was so stubborn! If it were her, she would have left if Lu Jingnian hadn't returned in five minutes. Why bother with him? Was she giving him the time of day?!

"Anyway, just go home. Don't be silly like that girl and wait for him to come back," the girl in the front row said.

"Thank you, what's your name?" Su Xia smiled at the girl.

"Xie Shilan, you're welcome. I'll be going now." Xie Shilan said and walked out of the classroom.

Su Xia packed her schoolbag and left the classroom. She wasn't going to wait for that boy who might not even come back. Besides, she could learn chemistry on her own; she didn't need his tutoring to improve.

When Lu Jingnian returned to the classroom with two bottles of water, only the students who were cleaning remained. He asked one of them, "Where's Su Xia?"

"I don't know, she must have gone back. I saw her walk towards the school gate with her schoolbag on her back."

"Okay, thank you." Lu Jingnian looked at the two bottles of water in his hand, stuffed them into his desk, picked up his schoolbag, and left the classroom.

The next day, Su Xia arrived at the classroom feeling refreshed. She had gone to bed early the night before because her chemistry lesson had gone very smoothly. She got up early this morning, went for a run along the riverbank, and took a shower before coming to class. A slight smile unconsciously appeared on her lips; good sleep definitely makes for a good mood.

"Why did you go back without waiting for me to finish my tutoring yesterday?" Lu Jingnian's voice suddenly rang out, sounding accusatory.

Su Xia was stunned for a moment. What was going on? This was like a wife who had been abandoned coming to the mistress's house to question her husband! Anyone who didn't know the situation would think that she had wronged him, but he was the one who left first yesterday, okay? So she said, "Ah, I saw you go back yesterday, so I went back too."

"I went to buy water," Lu Jingnian said.

The convenience store is a bit far from the teaching building, taking about ten minutes to walk there and back. But when Su Xia went back yesterday, it only took about five minutes. The two of them missed each other like that. But, but, but, but, you didn't even tell me you went to buy water!

"Yes, yesterday Lu Jingnian came back with two bottles of water and asked me where I had been," the student who cleaned the room yesterday added, confirming that Lu Jingnian's words were true.

At this point, the classmates started giving her unfriendly looks, so Su Xia quickly explained, "I had something to do at home yesterday, and I saw you leave as soon as get out of class ended, so I left too."

"Hmm, are you all set for today?"

"it's okay no problem."

"Wait for me after school."

"it is good."

Lu Jingnian heard her reply and returned to his seat. Su Xia was left speechless. She should have waited ten minutes before leaving yesterday; that way, she wouldn't have been questioned by him.

After Lu Jingnian left, Xie Shilan turned to Su Xia and said, "I'm sorry!"

"It's alright. You were just being kind by reminding me yesterday. As for my decision to leave, it was my own." Su Xia smiled, feeling that it was nothing.

“You’re different from what they say. I think you’re a really nice person,” Xie Shilan said.

"Haha, how is it different?" Su Xia knew that these girls had talked about her in private, because she rarely chatted with them, and she ate lunch with Chen Yuan and Ye Lingling.

"Yeah, they said you're aloof, that you're hard to get along with, and so on. Sorry, I didn't mean that." Xie Shilan quickly stopped herself from continuing to speak ill of Su Xia.

"Hmm, that makes sense. I am indeed quite difficult to get along with, hahaha." Su Xia smiled, easing Xie Shilan's embarrassment.

"Hehe, can I ask you questions I don't know the answers to in the future?"

"Anything I know is fine. If I don't, we can think about it together."

"Uh-huh."

During lunch, Su Xia told Chen Yuan that she could go home by herself after school, as she would be home later.

"Why? Does your experimental class go overtime?"

"I need to tutor another classmate, so I'll be a little late."

"Okay, I'll wait for you."

"No need, you go home first, I won't be too late."

"Alright alright."

As the school bell rang, everyone packed their bags and went home. This time, Lu Jingnian didn't move. He sat in his seat and waited until most of the crowd had dispersed before coming over with two bottles of water. He handed one to Su Xia: "I bought this for you yesterday."

Su Xia took the water and said, "Thank you!"

"Why didn't you wait for me yesterday? If you simply had something to do, why didn't you tell the classmate who was cleaning to do it?" Lu Jingnian asked.

"Oh, I forgot because I was in such a hurry. How about I treat you to milk tea as an apology?" Su Xia asked Lu Jingnian.

"No need, let's begin," Lu Jingnian said.

Su Xia didn't hesitate and directly handed Lu Jingnian a physics problem. Lu Jingnian raised an eyebrow, but without saying anything, he explained the problem to her. Lu Jingnian was excellent at physics, even getting a perfect score on the midterm exam. With such a top student by his side, who cared about chemistry!

Lu Jingnian roughly understood Su Xia's plan, so he didn't say much. The two of them studied on their own, handing over their notes to the person next to them when they didn't understand something, and the tutoring session ended in an hour.

"Lu, it will be a pleasure to work with you in the future!" Su Xia extended her hand, smiling at Lu Jingnian.

"It's a pleasure working with you." Lu Jingnian also extended his hand to shake hers.

Su Xia packed her schoolbag and walked out of the school gate with Lu Jingnian. They got on the same bus at the bus stop, which startled Su Xia. She thought Lu Jingnian was going to take her home, so she quickly said, "You don't need to take me home. I can manage on my own."

Lu Jingnian glanced at her and said, "My home is also on the Bund."

"Oh, how come I haven't seen you before?" Su Xia blurted out in surprise, then realized that it was impolite to say that, so she quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

"Because you're busy chatting with your girlfriends," Lu Jingnian said coldly.

"Oh." Su Xia awkwardly turned her head to the side. Why did she have to assume that someone would give her a ride? If the bus hadn't been moving, she would have jumped off.

The two got off the train together at the Bund Station and entered the residential complex together. They arrived at Building 1 where Su Xia lived first. Out of politeness, she turned to Lu Jingnian and said, "I'm here. I live in this building. What about you?"

Lu Jingnian glanced at the building number and said, "Building 5."

"Okay, I'll go up first." Su Xia said without waiting for Lu Jingnian's reply, and ran inside in a flash.

Lu Jingnian watched her retreating figure, smiled, and turned to walk towards his own building.

The next day on the bus, Su Xia observed carefully and indeed saw Lu Jingnian there, though he was sitting towards the back and she hadn't noticed him. Chen Yuan, seeing Su Xia looking back, followed her gaze and saw Lu Jingnian. She said, "He also lives on the Bund, in Building 5. I just don't know which class he's in, Xia Xia, do you know?"

Su Xia looked at Chen Yuan in surprise and asked, "How did you know?"

"Oh, he was the one who carried you for the second half during the school's military training." Chen Yuan said in surprise, then patted her head and said, "Right, you fainted back then and didn't know."

"It's him? How did you know he lives in building number 5?"

"I saw him going to Building 5 when I went downstairs for a walk over the weekend. Only residents can open the gates in our community." Chen Yuan said, then glanced at Lu Jingnian and saw him looking in their direction, clearly looking at Su Xia. Curious, she asked Su Xia, "Xiaxia, do you know him?"

"Um, we just met yesterday, they're in our class."

"oh oh."