Rebirth to Save Myself

After returning home, Su Xia refused the help from the nanny and Chen Chunqi, and busied herself in the kitchen alone. She quite enjoyed the process of preparing and chopping vegetables, doing things methodically and distributing everything properly. Two hours later, the aroma wafting out of the kitchen's glass door was irresistible, prompting Chen Yuan to run from the living room to the kitchen doorway.

Hearing the knocking on the glass, Su Xia turned around and saw Chen Yuan. She opened the door and asked, "What's wrong?"

"When are we going to eat? I'm getting hungry just from the smell." Chen Yuan touched her stomach, which hadn't changed much. She had been snacking while Su Xia was cooking.

"Almost done, I've finished the main dish, the rest just need a quick stir-fry. Come on over, help me carry the dishes." Su Xia opened the kitchen glass door and let Chen Yuan in.

On the kitchen counter were already laid out boiled fish, braised prawns, and stir-fried pork with vegetables. Next to them, a stew pot of corn and pork rib soup was kept warm. Chen Yuan beckoned Chen Chunqi and Chen Jianguo to come in, and the three of them helped carry the dishes to the table. Su Xia quickly finished the remaining dishes; dinner was done.

The four people sat at the table, glanced at each other, and then reached for the dishes they wanted with their chopsticks. One bite, and they couldn't help but exclaim, "Delicious!"

Seeing the three of them enjoying their meal so much, Su Xia felt a sense of joy. The person who cooks always feels a great sense of accomplishment when they see everyone finish their food.

The next day, a new week began. It seemed that Lu Jingnian and Su Xia had no interaction beyond after-school tutoring. This relaxed the tense girls, who were afraid that the two might develop feelings for each other and they would miss their chance. As long as Lu Jingnian didn't have a girlfriend, maybe they would be the lucky one.

Su Xia understood the feelings of young girls; it was common to have crushes during the prime of youth. Especially when compared to ordinary people, Lu Jingnian had the face of a perfect leading man. If it were her past life, Su Xia would have also been attracted to Lu Jingnian—who doesn't love a handsome guy!

In the evening, while the two were studying, Lu Jingnian suddenly asked Su Xia, "You seem to have good stamina. You go running along the river whenever you have free time. Why did you suddenly faint during military training?"

Su Xia was momentarily speechless, unsure how to respond, as she herself was also unsure of what had happened. After military training, Chen Chunqi took her to Peking Union Medical College Hospital for a full-body checkup, but the results still revealed only anemia. As for her sudden fainting spell, the doctor attributed it to heatstroke, which temporarily disrupted blood flow. Su Xia specifically asked the doctor if she had any lesions, especially those related to cancer, only to be met with the doctor's blunt remark: "You're so young, watch less TV dramas."

This left Su Xia both amused and exasperated. A Korean drama had recently become a hit, featuring a female lead who suffered from a terminal illness. Suddenly, every girl felt like she was that character. Even minor ailments were seen as precursors to terminal illness, as if they were about to die. It wasn't entirely the doctor's fault, but the doctor clearly stated that Su Xia's body showed no signs of illness.

"I don't know either, it must be heatstroke," Su Xia replied to Lu Jingnian.

"Oh, you're too thin. Last time I hugged you, you weren't even as heavy as my bubble." Lu Jingnian glanced at Su Xia up and down, then looked at her with obvious disdain.

Su Xia is 168 cm tall. She has been eating well these past few years, and her height has increased rapidly, but her weight has remained at around 90 catties. She is so thin that Chen Chunqi said she could be blown away by a strong wind, and he feeds Su Xia constantly every day.

"I eat a lot," Su Xia argued. She really did eat a lot, at least two bowls of rice at each meal, plus snacks, basically six meals a day, and she also ate a lot of snacks. She had already worked very hard to go from 85 pounds to 90 pounds.

"Mmm." Lu Jingnian clearly didn't believe her and gave a perfunctory response.

"By the way, who is Bubble?" Su Xia asked.

“My dog, a golden retriever,” Lu Jingnian said without looking up.

"You, you, you, how could you compare me to a dog!" Su Xia could only utter these words for a moment.

“You like dogs? I can take it out for you to play with this weekend, but not in the coffee shop,” Lu Jingnian said, looking up at Su Xia, who was standing up in anger.

"I, I, I, no, I'm talking about you now."

"You don't like dogs?"

No, I like it, but...

"Then how about the weekend? Saturday or Sunday?"

"Saturday."

Morning or afternoon?

"Morning."

"Then take it for a walk when you're going for your morning run."

After a few back and forth, they settled things. It took Su Xia a while to realize that Lu Jingnian had just brushed aside the fact that he had compared her to a dog. Thinking of this, Su Xia glared at Lu Jingnian, thinking to herself, "This young man is so cunning! Humph!"

After hearing that Lu Jingnian had a large golden retriever, Chen Yuan wanted to pet it. However, Su Xia's morning run started too early—six o'clock, the sun was barely rising! But, but, it's a golden retriever! I really want to pet it!

"Then try to see if you can get up early. If not, we'll see next time when we have the chance," Su Xia said to Chen Yuan.

"Okay, I'll give it a try." Chen Yuan seemed to have made a big decision.

"You should exercise too. Look at you, you're a whole size bigger than Xiaxia," Chen Chunqi said to Chen Yuan. Earlier, she had wanted to wake Chen Yuan up and go for a run with Su Xia, but Chen Yuan was used to sleeping in and couldn't get up, so she gave up.

"I'm not fat, where am I fat? There's a chubby girl in my class who weighs 180 pounds." Chen Yuan was hit where it hurt by Chen Chunqi, and immediately jumped up to give an example.

"Yes, you're not fat, but you'd look better if you were thinner." Chen Chunqi nodded, offering Chen Yuan some comfort.

"I want to lose weight, I'm not going to eat dinner." Chen Yuan was provoked by Chen Chunqi and blurted out.

"Really? Then I can eat more braised pork knuckle tonight. Auntie has been braising it for ages." Su Xia said directly from the side, her face full of surprise.

"I, I, I'll start dieting tomorrow." Chen Yuan hesitated for a moment, but still couldn't bear to part with the big pork knuckle, so she quickly changed her mind.

Auntie's braised dishes were taught by Su Xia, and every time she braised something, the whole house would fill with a wonderful aroma! Su Xia even had Auntie add seaweed, tofu puffs, lotus root slices, and other vegetables, and they tasted just as good as meat. In fact, they absorbed the flavor of the meat, making them incredibly delicious. Auntie would braise a pot every few days to satisfy everyone's taste buds, and Chen Yuan was particularly addicted.

The next morning, Su Xia got up, washed up, and glanced at the sleeping Chen Yuan, feeling helpless. She had called Chen Yuan when she got up, and Chen Yuan woke up, saying she needed to wake up for a while, but after Su Xia finished washing up, Chen Yuan fell back asleep. Su Xia went over and nudged Chen Yuan, saying, "Yuan Yuan, get up, I'm going out."

"Ugh, um, um," Chen Yuan hummed softly, but showed no signs of waking up.

Su Xia had no choice but to go downstairs. As soon as she got downstairs, she found Lu Jingnian standing not far away with a large golden retriever on a leash, waiting for her. As soon as the golden retriever saw her, it rushed up to her, but was stopped by the leash in Lu Jingnian's hand.

"You're here, Bubble, be quiet." Lu Jingnian scolded the golden retriever, signaling it not to rush towards Su Xia.

"It's a bubble, is it male or female?" Su Xia squatted down and asked Lu Jingnian if she could touch it.

“It’s a woman, you can touch her.” Lu Jingnian also squatted down, holding one end of the rope in his hand to prevent Bubble from rushing over.

Su Xia happily patted the dog's head, and the golden retriever squinted its eyes in obvious enjoyment. It was clear the dog was well cared for; its fur was shiny and glossy, there were no tear stains around its eyes, and it loved to snuggle up to Su Xia. If Lu Jingnian hadn't stopped it, it probably would have stuck out its tongue and licked Su Xia.

"Let's go, you still have to go for a run." Lu Jingnian stood up and helped Su Xia up.

Su Xia felt a little dizzy when she stood up because she had been squatting for too long. After being helped up, she naturally said, "Thank you, let's go."

The two people and the dog then started jogging along the riverbank. There were some early risers doing their morning exercises along the river, and they were already quite familiar with Su Xia, greeting her as they passed by. Today, with Lu Jingnian joining them, the older folks jokingly asked Su Xia, "Xia, is that your boyfriend?"

"No, it's a classmate." Su Xia was also embarrassed. She glanced at Lu Jingnian and found that he had no expression, so she couldn't tell if he disliked being said that. She quickly explained to him, "Your aunt and uncle were just joking, please don't mind."

"No, not at all." Lu Jingnian shook his head, indicating that he didn't take it to heart.

The two ran along the riverbank for almost an hour, taking Bubble for a walk along the way, before parting ways downstairs at Su Xia's building. When Lu Jingnian led Bubble home, his mother said, "Oh my, what brings you out to walk Bubble so early today?"

“There’s not much wind.” Lu Jingnian ignored his mother and untied the string from the bubble.

"I just saw you with that girl from the coffee shop last time. What's going on between you two?" Lu's mother looked at her son with a teasing expression, then sighed, "My son's all grown up now, he's got his eye on the ladies!"

"Are you bored? If you are, you can sign up for a yoga class to pass the time." Lu Jingnian didn't respond to his mother's words and directly gave her a suggestion.

"Old Lu, your son is dating!" Lu's mother shouted directly.

He called Mr. Lu out of his room, then looked at his son in surprise and asked, "You're dating someone? Bring her home to meet your parents sometime. What does she look like? Is she pretty?"

"This, this is it. I've seen her in person, she's quite pretty." Lu's mother took out the printed photo and handed it to Lu's father, also thoughtfully pointing to Su Xia in the photo.

Mr. Lu looked at her, then nodded and said, "Not bad, she looks quite well-behaved and pretty."

"And they live in the same neighborhood as us, in Building 1," said Lu's mother.

"Oh, what a coincidence." Mr. Lu looked at Lu Jingnian and then asked, "What's your name?"

"Su Xia, Xia as in summer." Before Lu Jingnian could even speak, his mother interrupted him.

“That’s enough, you two. We’re just ordinary classmates, nothing more,” Lu Jingnian said.

"Classmates? You mean you haven't won her over yet!" Lu's mother said with a disappointed look, "Son, you're hopeless. You can't seize such a good opportunity."

"I'm going back to my room." Lu Jingnian couldn't stand his mother anymore, so he ran back to his room and closed the door.

Watching Lu Jingnian return to his room, Mr. Lu said to Mrs. Lu, "You need to teach this child not to be so casual with girls. But why does the name Su Xia sound so familiar?"

“Of course, we can’t be like those men who play with girls’ feelings,” Lu’s mother said firmly.

The matter was temporarily put to rest, and Mr. Lu didn't pay much attention to the name Su Xia, thinking it sounded familiar and he must have heard it somewhere. When he met Chen Jianguo's friend, he learned from him that Chen Jianguo had a very talented daughter, Su Xia, who had participated in a national competition in her first year of junior high school and was admitted to the top high school without taking the entrance exam.

Because of business needs, Mr. Lu wanted to collaborate with Chen Jianguo. So he asked Liu Jiannan, a mutual friend of the two, to help invite Chen Jianguo out for a meal. Since he felt that his son and Chen Jianguo's daughter were familiar with each other, he decided to organize a family gathering, asking Liu Jiannan and Chen Jianguo to bring their wives and children to a farmhouse in the mountains.

With communication between women, things will go much more smoothly for the men, and given the relationship between her son and Su Xia, it will be one of the reasons for them to get closer. Lu's mother was happy to hear Lu's father's suggestion; getting to know the future mother-in-law beforehand would be a good thing. Lu Jingnian was initially reluctant, but his father told him that he was doing his parents a favor by growing up, so Lu Jingnian agreed, thinking he would tell Su Xia at school that he didn't have time to study on the weekend.

"A farm stay? Shall we go together?" Chen Chunqi asked Chen Jianguo.

"Yes, it's just to relax and have something to eat. Xiaxia and Yuanyuan have been studying hard, so let's go have some fun together," Chen Jianguo said. His father's suggestion was quite in line with his own thoughts.

"Yay! Farm stays sound so fun!" Chen Yuan happily agreed.

“Let’s go together then.” Chen Chunqi understood that as Chen Jianguo’s business grew, he would eventually have to go out and socialize as well. So he didn’t hesitate and agreed. Besides, they were business partners, and their families were unlikely to be of low quality. And just as Chen Jianguo had said, since coming to the provincial capital for high school, Chen Yuan and Su Xia hadn’t really gone out to relax much.

Su Xia had that incident again after starting school, and the doctor said it might be related to her mental state. He advised her to relax and adjust her mindset to avoid stress and anxiety. Going to a farm stay now seemed like a good idea. Considering all these points, Chen Chunqi happily prepared her clothes for the trip.

Seeing that Chen Yuan and Chen Chunqi had both agreed, Su Xia didn't say anything. She just wanted to tell Lu Jingnian that they wouldn't be able to study together this weekend for the time being. The place Lu's father had arranged was a resort-style place where they could stay overnight and then come back, which suited everyone's expectations.