Rebirth to Save Myself

Liu Qi and Su Xia chatted for a while longer until their parents came looking for them, at which point the four of them parted ways and went back to their lodgings. After Liu Qi returned, Liu Jiannan questioned him carefully and was relieved to hear that he had been chatting with Su Xia and the others. Liu's mother, hearing her husband's overly cautious manner, was a little annoyed and said, "Old Liu, why do you want your son to try and win over those two girls?"

“You’re just a woman with such narrow-minded views, what do you know?” Liu Jiannan said.

"You don't need their help. We're all equal. Why are you making such distinctions?" Liu's mother was very unhappy. Her son was also an only child, and she had doted on him since he was a child. But today, her husband was scolding their son because of those two girls.

"You think I could get your son into No. 8 Middle School just by paying money? It was Lu Zhongqing who acted as a middleman. The principal gave Lu Zhongqing face before accepting my money. That's why your son can go to the regular class at No. 8 Middle School, instead of the bad class." Liu Jiannan directly stated the reason, and then added, "If I didn't know Chen Jianguo, I wouldn't know how to repay him. Chen Jianguo remembered the favor I helped him with when he was doing business, so he didn't refuse when I asked him out this time."

“Then there’s no need for our son to fawn over those two girls!” Liu’s mother’s tone softened a bit, and then she argued softly.

"Did you hear your son trying to curry favor with someone? They were clearly just chatting with him, not ignoring him. If Lu Zhongqing hadn't said he'd bring the kids along to make things less formal, would I have even bothered sending him?" Liu Jiannan was truly exasperated. Chen Jianguo had previously tried to get him involved in business, offering to manage a province's affairs. But Liu's mother said Chen Jianguo was just looking for a scapegoat, and that Liu Jiannan would definitely have a hard time. She absolutely refused to let Liu Jiannan work with Chen Jianguo.

At the time, Chen Jianguo's business was just starting out, and he didn't take Liu Jiannan's refusal to heart, continuing to associate with him. Now, Chen Jianguo's business has far exceeded Liu's mother's expectations, and she wants Liu Jiannan to approach Chen Jianguo again to ask for the administrative rights to a province. Liu Jiannan directly refused his mother, saying, "You rejected him because his business was small, and now that his business has grown, you want a piece of the pie."

Liu's mother was silenced by Liu Jiannan's words. Liu Jiannan added, "I also received a referral fee from Lu Zhongqing this time. I can't take other people's money and not do anything worthwhile."

The next morning, Su Xia got up early, intending to run around the lake; the air was unusually fresh there. She ran into Lu Jingnian on the way and greeted him, "What a coincidence!"

"Yes, the air here is fresh, it's a good place for running."

After they finished speaking, the two of them silently ran two laps around the lake. When they returned, the adults were already up and having breakfast. Today's breakfast was quite plentiful, with Chinese breakfast items such as steamed buns, mantou, and soy milk, as well as Western breakfast items like milk and bread. Everyone could help themselves to what they liked. Su Xia took a bowl of millet porridge, along with vegetarian steamed buns and fried dough sticks.

Chen Yuan came out a little while later, grabbed some meat buns and millet porridge, and sat down next to Su Xia to eat. She usually spent her weekends sleeping in, but today, not being home meant she couldn't indulge herself, and she was so sleepy she felt like she was half-asleep while eating.

"Yuanyuan, are you going to pick oranges later?" Su Xia asked Chen Yuan, shaking her head.

"Huh? Orange, let's go." Chen Yuan instantly sobered up at the mention of food and nodded to indicate that she was willing to go.

The owner of the agritainment business had leased a mountain and planted fruit trees for different seasons, so now was the perfect time to go fruit picking. After everyone finished breakfast, changed into long sleeves and pants, put on their hats, and set off.

Halfway there, they unexpectedly discovered persimmons, and the group picked a bucketful. The workers brought by the boss helped carry it down first, and then they continued towards the orange trees. Oranges hung heavily on the branches, and from a distance, it looked like the whole tree was laden with them. After a brief training session with the boss, everyone got to work, and Su Xia immediately picked one and started peeling it on the spot.

"Yuanyuan, ah!"

"Ah!" Chen Yuan turned around abruptly, took a bite of the orange segment from Su Xia's hand, and exclaimed, "So sweet!"

Su Xia naturally offered a slice to Chen Jianguo and Chen Chunqi, and then, seeing Lu Jingnian looking at her, she held out her hand and said, "Do you want some?"

To everyone's surprise, Lu Jingnian simply lowered his head and ate directly from Su Xia's hand, then explained, "My hands are a bit dirty, you won't mind, will you?"

"No, no." Su Xia quickly withdrew her hand and then stuffed the remaining orange into her mouth.

Xie Yuezhi smiled knowingly as she watched the two interact, then silently started shipping them. Lu Zhongqing was completely bewildered. He had seen Su Xia peeling an orange and had casually peeled one for his wife to try, only to find her smiling so strangely. But while he thought this, he certainly didn't dare say it aloud, or his wife would get angry.

The three families happily picked oranges, persimmons, and pomelos, and went home after lunch. Before leaving, Xie Yuezhi invited Chen Chunqi to visit their home next time. Chen Chunqi had feelings for Xie Yuezhi, so he agreed.

Chen Jianguo understood Lu Zhongqing's purpose in inviting him out, and without hesitation, he felt they could collaborate. Lu Zhongqing only wanted to work on one of his projects; it wasn't a big deal. Chen Jianguo was also looking for partners, and with Liu Jiannan acting as a go-between, he felt a greater sense of trust.

As soon as Su Xia got home, she made pomelo tea. They also picked some pears to make pear syrup. In the autumn, they can use it to make tea to soothe the throat and prevent coughs. Because Su Xia made a lot, Chen Chunqi gave some to Xie Yuezhi and Liu's mother. When Xie Yuezhi heard that Su Xia made it, she praised it highly, making Chen Chunqi extremely happy.

Before long, the final exams arrived. With each other's tutoring, Su Xia and Lu Jingnian made considerable progress in their final exams. The homeroom teacher was very satisfied with the results; all the study groups she had assigned had improved in the midterm exams, so she happily announced that the study groups could be disbanded.

Some study groups are quite happy to do this. It's already a hassle; they don't even have enough time to study themselves, let alone tutor others, and there's no guarantee they'll be good at it. Disbanding them at this point is perfect. At the end of the semester, they can be reassigned to different classes—perfect.

Su Xia received a call from her parents, asking if she would be spending the Spring Festival in Putian or at the Chen family's house. They hadn't shown much concern about Su Xia's life in the provincial capital over the past year. Since Su Xia had said her tuition and accommodation fees were waived, and she also received scholarships, they hadn't even given her much living expenses. They assumed that because she was a good student, the school would definitely waive her meal fees.

But they knew perfectly well that Su Xia lived in the Chen family home, eating and using their food, yet they never mentioned it. Su Xia understood that such parents were unnecessary; she had been waiting for the day she came of age so she could rightfully escape this family. Chen Jianguo had previously asked Su Xia if she wanted to take custody of her directly, but Su Xia refused.

She felt she could wait until she reached adulthood and no longer needed anyone's custody before severing ties with the Su family. Fighting with them now would only benefit them. Chen Jianguo respected Su Xia's choice and didn't bring it up again, because in his and Chen Chunqi's eyes, Su Xia was their daughter regardless of whether they had custody.

Meanwhile, Lu Zhongqing told Xie Yuezhi the information he had found out about Su Xia.

"Oh, I see. Su Xia is quite pitiful," Xie Yuezhi said.

“Yes, but it’s also a kind of luck for her to meet Chen Jianguo,” Lu Zhongqing said.

"Sigh, I was wondering why everyone in their family had the surname Chen, but she was the only one with the surname Su. At first, I thought she took her mother's surname, but I never expected that she wasn't their biological daughter."

"At first, they said she was their goddaughter, but now they almost always say she's their own daughter."

"Their daughter and Su Xia seem to get along quite well, so it's good that she has someone to keep her company."

Lu Jingnian sat beside her, shocked by Su Xia's background. He had never witnessed any abuse or abandonment of a girl in his life. Everyone else had only one child, who was showered with love and affection. His mother's friend had a daughter who had been enrolled in the best classes in music, art, and chess from a young age; he'd recently heard they were even planning to send her abroad to develop her career.

The next day, when he looked at Su Xia, his eyes held a hint of pity, which gave Su Xia goosebumps. Regardless of whether they were at school, he went over to him at lunchtime and said, "Want to have lunch together?"

“Okay.” Lu Jingnian naturally agreed. On the one hand, he felt sorry for Su Xia, and on the other hand, Chen Jianguo asked him to take care of Su Xia at school, so he had no objection to Su Xia inviting him to lunch.

The two walked to Class 3 and met up with Chen Yuan and Ye Lingling, then went to the cafeteria together. Chen Yuan was puzzled by Lu Jingnian's appearance and asked Su Xia, "Why is he here too?"

"I have something to talk to him about, so I invited him to lunch," Su Xia said.

"Oh, oh." The lunch break for the experimental class was always so short, just enough time to eat a meal. So the house opposite the No. 1 Middle School was completely unused and left empty.

After the four of them ordered their food, they found an empty seat and sat down. Su Xia said to Lu Jingnian, "Stop looking at me with that pitying gaze. I don't need it."

"Ah, no, no, I didn't."

"No need to say anything, I don't need your pity. If you continue like this, we can just be ordinary classmates," Su Xia said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it's just..." Lu Jingnian tried to explain, but Su Xia wouldn't listen.

“There are plenty of people in the world more pitiful than me. Do you think you can just be so kind to every single one you know? Besides looking at me with pitiful eyes and helping me when I don’t need your help at all, what else can you do?” Su Xia retorted.

"I... I can't do anything." Only after hearing Su Xia's words did Lu Jingnian realize how powerless he was; all he could do was pity her.

“That means you should stop looking at me like that. I don’t need it. Your gaze makes me feel disgusted,” Su Xia said to Lu Jingnian seriously.

"Okay." Lu Jingnian nodded solemnly, indicating that he understood.

Chen Yuan also understood why Lu Jingnian was invited to dinner by Su Xia during their conversation. She was speechless and then said to Lu Jingnian, "Xia Xia doesn't need your pity. Xia Xia is so capable and works so hard. She can live a good life on her own."

"I'm sorry, it was my fault. I hope I can make up for the unpleasantness you experienced today," Lu Jingnian said to Su Xia.

"Yes, no compensation is needed." Su Xia nodded, then lowered her head to eat.

This year, Su Xia said goodbye to Chen Yuan and the others and went to Putian to celebrate the Spring Festival. Su's parents were surprised by her arrival, but after the initial surprise, they composed themselves and said they would take Su Xia to buy clothes for the New Year, which Su Xia refused.

“I wear my school uniform to school now, so I don’t need to,” Su Xia said.

"That's true. You're growing a lot these days, and you won't be able to wear them anymore. We'll buy you some when you get into university," said Su's mother.

"Mm," Su Xia replied, usually not taking such promises to heart. She'd been deceived many times in her past life. When she came to Pucheng for school, she needed to ride a bicycle, and she'd only just learned, so she wanted her mother to buy her a folding bicycle. Her mother agreed, but ended up buying a large-framed bicycle, saying it was of better quality.

Less than a week into the new semester, her tire went flat. Her mother insisted it was punctured, not the bike itself. She had ridden that bike for three years, replacing most of its parts. Su Xia told her mother that she would get a new bike if she got into high school, and her mother agreed.

As it turned out, Su's mother said the bicycle wasn't broken, so why replace it? She even went to someone else's house to get her a new bicycle, saying it was new and usable. By the time she graduated from high school, the new bicycle was nowhere to be seen. Everyone else had even started riding electric bikes, while she was still diligently pedaling her bicycle for half an hour to get to class.

From childhood to adulthood, Su's parents had made countless promises to Su Xia that they never kept, and Su Xia had always healed herself through disappointment. She originally didn't want to come to Pucheng for the New Year, but she didn't want to trouble Chen Yuan and the others, so she came anyway.

Spending the Spring Festival in Pucheng was incredibly boring. There were no friends to play with, and very few people her age. Meanwhile, Su Yue and Su Yaoche, who grew up here, were happily out having fun with their friends during the holiday, having no time for Su Xia. In this lifetime, Su Xia had always stayed in her hometown before going to high school in the provincial capital. She hadn't been with Su Yue and the others, so their relationship wasn't as close as it had been in her previous life.

Soon after the Lunar New Year, Su Xia had to go to the provincial capital to start school. Before leaving, she gave all the New Year's money she had received to her mother. At first, Su's mother was reluctant to accept it, but Su Xia insisted, and since she felt that the New Year's money children receive is money they give away, she didn't hesitate to accept it.

As soon as Su Xia arrived at the station, she saw Chen Yuan's family waiting for her outside. The heartbreak she had suffered in Pucheng was miraculously slowly healing. She smiled, waved, and called out, "Dad, Mom, Yuanyuan!"

"Xia Xia!"