Chapter 172: Chapter 170: I’d Even Get Into Qingbei
On the lawn outside the school’s sports field, a group of students had thrown their school uniform jackets on the ground. They lay on the grass, eating and relaxing, without a care for whether the ground was dirty.
"Brother Rui, happy birthday!" Yi Bing shouted, holding a handful of meat skewers.
Today was Xue Rui’s birthday, and he was treating the entire class to a barbecue. The ground was covered with all sorts of drinks.
"Just eat and talk less." Qiu Mengze shoved Yi Bing with his body, but ended up bouncing back himself.
Xue Rui watched his classmates with a beaming smile.
Actually, today wasn’t his birthday. He had already celebrated it several times last month. He’d had a meal at home with Lin Ruoxi, and Gu Muxue had even given him a watch.
Treating his classmates now was just a formality. This was how students here celebrated birthdays—they didn’t accept gifts, but they would treat their classmates to good food.
Xue Rui thought this was a pretty good custom. Otherwise, if it was your birthday today and his tomorrow, would students have to worry about buying gifts every single day?
It was much better for whoever’s birthday it was to just treat everyone to some food. It counted as a celebration, and everyone took turns anyway.
His generosity wasn’t about showing off his wealth. He was simply the last person in class to have a birthday this year, so even if someone wanted to one-up him, they wouldn’t get the chance.
Besides, getting high school classmates together after graduation was incredibly difficult.
It was the afternoon activity period. Usually at this time, the third-year students would be in their classrooms, furiously working through practice problems. But today, the students of Class Two had been called out by Xue Rui for food, leaving their classroom completely empty.
As for why they were on the lawn outside the sports field?
Because it was closest to the "dog hole" in the school fence. The two barbecue chefs Xue Rui had hired were right outside the dog hole, working overtime to grill the meat...
’He didn’t dare order delivery. What if the ingredients weren’t clean and the students got sick?’
Still, some people were holding thick stacks of test papers, reading while they ate.
Director Wang was in the third-year academic building when he noticed that all of Class Two was gone. He rode his bicycle around the school for a bit and found the group having a barbecue by the sports field.
"Director Wang is here!" someone exclaimed, hastily hiding their skewer behind their back.
Xue Rui gave a helpless smile. Director Wang had obviously seen them long ago. ’What’s the use of hiding now?’ It was just a subconscious reaction from the students.
Seeing Director Wang’s stern expression, the students suddenly felt that the skewers in their hands were no longer so appetizing. They thought they were definitely about to get a lecture.
"Director Wang, why don’t you sit and have some?" Xue Rui said with a smile, offering him a handful of skewers.
No one was surprised by Xue Rui’s action. After all, Xue Rui had always been this shameless. They watched Director Wang’s reaction with faces full of anticipation.
To the students’ surprise, Director Wang smiled and took the skewers from Xue Rui’s hand. He then got on his bicycle and rode away, leaving them with one last sentence before he left: "Clean up the ground when you’re done."
It was already the last month of their senior year. The students who were going to work hard would work hard on their own, and for those who were far behind, it was too late to catch up now. So the school had adopted a more laissez-faire approach and was no longer managing them so strictly.
"Brother Rui, you’re awesome! Even Director Wang showed you respect," someone said in amazement.
Xue Rui waved his hand. "It has nothing to do with that. We’re about to graduate, so the teachers don’t want to bother."
At this point, the teachers were actually more worried about the third-year students’ mental state. He was just treating his classmates to a meal. Even if a teacher wasn’t close with them, they wouldn’t spoil the students’ fun at a time like this.
Just then, Lin Ruoxi and Yi Bing returned from the dog hole with another large handful of meat skewers, distributing them to the classmates around them.
A male classmate asked, "Brother Rui, are you really a rich second-generation?"
He was truly shocked. In the past, when he saw female classmates treating others to egg tarts or chocolate, he already thought that was quite luxurious.
But today, Xue Rui was providing unlimited snacks, drinks, and barbecue for the entire class. He could even see two barbecue chefs outside the fence, grilling meat just for them.
Xue Rui took a bite of a skewer. "Yes."
In reality, by most definitions, he was more of a "rich first-generation." Xue Jianfeng hadn’t provided him with any financial assistance; the money he was using now to treat his classmates to barbecue and cake was all earned by himself.
But Xue Rui still admitted to being a rich second-generation.
There was a simple reason for this. Xue Rui believed that in both his past life and this one, he had benefited from his family’s protection.
His parents provided him with a good environment to grow up in, with a villa and luxury cars at home. This gave him a huge sense of security.
’If his family was truly poor, how would he dare to pursue Gu Muxue?’
Although in both cases he appeared poor on the surface, the mindset of someone pretending to be poor is completely different from someone who is actually poor.
Many students develop inferiority complexes because of their family’s poor financial situation, just like Lin Ruoxi.
Moreover, the rich second-generation act with more drive. They don’t have to worry about the consequences. If they fail, they can just go back and inherit the family business, remaining wealthy and prosperous...
Confidence, perspective, mindset... When these things are combined, they can often propel a person toward success.
But these intangible things are difficult for children from poor families to possess, which was why he openly admitted to being a rich second-generation.
Everyone was astonished. They all knew that Xue Rui used to constantly freeload off Gu Muxue for food and drinks...
"But at the school store, we never saw you spend much..."
Xue Rui couldn’t help but laugh. ’These students are so damn cute,’ he thought. ’The most expensive thing in the school store is only a few yuan. How can you judge someone’s family background from that?’
The students looked at the first and second years on the sports field and were struck by a belated realization.
"We’re about to graduate already? The teachers weren’t lying, it really passes in the blink of an eye," someone sighed with emotion.
Xue Rui found it rather strange. When he had just been reborn, he complained every day about the school’s terrible environment and the childish mindsets of the people around him.
But now, with graduation just around the corner, he felt a little reluctant to leave.
Lin Ruoxi picked up a broom and began sweeping the surrounding ground. Xue Rui watched her tall, beautiful figure, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.
’The little lass is always so considerate.’
Xue Rui called Lin Ruoxi over to the side, mentally organizing his words.
Another month had passed since the incident with the old lady, and he still hadn’t been able to bring it up with Lin Ruoxi.
Seeing Xue Rui’s hesitation, Lin Ruoxi’s nose tingled, and she felt a pang of sadness. ’What is it that he can’t just say directly?’
’Is he not coming over for dinner anymore?’
"What... what did you want to say?" Lin Ruoxi asked weakly, her eyes growing moist.
The words were on the tip of Xue Rui’s tongue, but he swallowed them back down.
"I..."
Every time he faced the little lass’s pitiful gaze, a strong sense of guilt would wash over him.
"I just wanted to ask what’s for dinner tonight," Xue Rui said, changing the subject.
Suddenly, his gaze went past the sports field fence, and he saw the figure of Chen Tingting.
"Xue Rui!"
Chen Tingting called out sweetly, and started to make her way around the fence toward Xue Rui.
Seeing Xue Rui’s face instantly darken, the surrounding students couldn’t help but burst into hearty laughter. "HAHAHA, Chen Tingting is the only person in the whole school who can handle Xue Rui."
"Don’t come over here. If you come any closer, I’ll run," Xue Rui warned.
"But I want to eat barbecue too," Chen Tingting said.
"Hmm..." Xue Rui thought for a moment, then took a skewer and passed it through the sports field’s fence.
But Chen Tingting didn’t take it with her hand. Instead, she stood on her tiptoes and took a bite.
’Xue Rui felt that feeding her through the fence was just like feeding a small animal at the zoo...’
Chen Tingting wasn’t tall, only a little over 1.6 meters, and her features were on the childish side, with a chubby, round face.
Xue Rui didn’t actually dislike this kind of cute girl, but not as a girlfriend. At most, he could only see Chen Tingting as a little sister.
"You stay right here and don’t move. I’ll go get you a few more skewers," Xue Rui said with a smile.
’If they could maintain a proper distance, Chen Tingting was actually quite cute,’ Xue Rui thought.
However, when he turned back to get more barbecue, he found his classmates staring in shock at the space above his head.
"What’s wrong?" Xue Rui looked back and saw that Chen Tingting had nimbly climbed onto the sports field fence.
"Get down from there!" Xue Rui cursed. The fence was over three meters high; it was too dangerous.
"I can’t get down..." Chen Tingting’s voice was trembling. She had discovered that climbing up was easy, but getting down was hard. Now there was nothing for her feet to step on, and she was straddling the top bar, shaking uncontrollably.
Xue Rui had wanted to run for it, but no matter how much he disliked the situation, he couldn’t just let Chen Tingting fall. He had no choice but to stand beside her and offer his shoulder.
"Step on my shoulder to get down," Xue Rui said with a look of resignation. He felt like a weary father right now.
’Raising such a mischievous daughter must be a real handful.’
He suddenly felt a strange pang of sympathy for Chen Shen...
Lin Ruoxi hurried forward to help. "I’m tall," she said in a gentle voice. "You can step on my shoulder too."
Lin Ruoxi was worried that Xue Rui would get hurt from being stepped on, and also that Chen Tingting would fall.
Chen Tingting hesitated for a moment, then chose to get down on Xue Rui’s side. She gripped the edge of the fence with both hands, her small feet probing for a foothold below.
"Don’t step on my head," Xue Rui couldn’t help but curse.
"Ngh, let me," Lin Ruoxi said, walking over. She cupped one of Chen Tingting’s feet with both hands, trying to help her use it as leverage to get down.
However, the first thing Chen Tingting did when she got down was to hang herself around Xue Rui’s neck.
...
A male student murmured, "Sister Xi is so gentle."
"I wonder who’ll be worthy of Sister Xi in the future," someone else sighed.
"I don’t think anyone is."
One male student clutched his chest and said, "I’d do anything to protect Sister Xi, I’d even get into Qingbei!"
A student next to him sneered, "You fucking wish. You want to have your cake and eat it too."
In truth, when Lin Ruoxi first revealed her face, she had many suitors. They were just too intimidated by Director Wang to go up and confess their feelings.
However, over time, the boys realized how shallow they had been. Lin Ruoxi’s beauty wasn’t in her looks, but in her heart, which was as gentle as water. When she was a student monitor, she often helped the classmates around her...
Plus, the fact that Lin Ruoxi consistently ranked first in the entire city made everyone feel she was completely out of their league, separated from them by an insurmountable ladder to the heavens.
They really couldn’t imagine what kind of boy could possibly be worthy of a girl like Lin Ruoxi.
Qiu Mengze, listening to this conversation from the side, couldn’t help but feel his mouth twitch.
’Who could be worthy of her?’ he thought. ’These classmates have no idea what a beast Xue Rui is. They just think he likes Gu Muxue...’
’But in reality? Xue Rui has probably already eaten Lin Ruoxi up, leaving no crumbs behind!’
’Discussing this now? Isn’t it a little too late?’
’And look, here’s another pretty girl clinging to Xue Rui...’
As Qiu Mengze thought of this, his heart ached with jealousy. GULP, GULP, GULP. He fiercely chugged a few mouthfuls of Coke.
Xue Rui had a look of disgust on his face. "Lin Ruoxi, hurry up and pull her off me."
