Rebirth: Saving the Lovely Girl from the Start

Chapter 238: Chapter 236: Now It’s His Turn to Humblebrag

Xue Rui listened intently for a while. He hadn’t realized a score of 745 was so impressive!

So it turned out all those top scorers with perfect scores he’d read about online had bonus points. The raw scores of those so-called "perfect score champions" were actually quite a bit lower than Lin Ruoxi’s.

If Lin Ruoxi had been eligible for bonus points, her score probably would have overflowed by more than ten points.

Even though the exam questions and scoring varied by province, a score of 745 made her the undisputed number one in the college entrance exams, no matter how you looked at it.

’So, the little girl really did break the college entrance exam record...’

It was just that the whole process had been so effortless, it felt surreal to Xue Rui.

The little girl just cooked for him, watched TV with him, and occasionally tapped out some code or soldered a circuit board...

How did she just break the college entrance exam record?

’What did my four years of hard work, spanning my previous life and this one, even count for?’

Lin Ruoxi had even memorized the exam questions, which was like breaking the record while running with weights on...

’Are Lin Ruoxi and I even the same species?’

’Could it be that those genius students who get early admissions have this kind of ability too?’

He curiously reached out and patted the little girl’s head, then put his phone on speaker and set it on the table.

"I was thinking of having her repeat the year. How could she not even get a perfect score?" Xue Rui said with a sigh.

Now it was his turn to humblebrag.

Yu Minlan was speechless. Xue Rui was such a show-off, and he was using Lin Ruoxi’s score to do it.

"Um, I... I’ll try to get a perfect score next time. Are you going to repeat the year too?" Lin Ruoxi said weakly.

She didn’t care about repeating the year; she only cared about where Xue Rui was going.

She recalled their life when they went to school together. She could cook for Xue Rui, do his laundry...

And in Hedong, she could visit her grandmother often. She felt there was nothing happier than that.

On the other end of the line, Teacher Zhang’s brain was short-circuiting. He had been working nonstop for over a dozen hours, only to hear that the person with the highest raw score on the college entrance exam was going to repeat the year...

The key thing was, the person in question had even agreed to it. He instantly felt like the sky was falling...

’What is going on?!’ He suspected he was dreaming.

And without a doubt, it was a nightmare.

He collected himself. "Student Xue Rui, can we please have a serious discussion?"

"Discuss what? I don’t need any of the terms you’re offering. I’m not short on money," Xue Rui laughed.

Teacher Zhang shook his head to clear it. He had investigated Xue Rui’s family background; he was a bona fide second-generation heir.

Ordinary families would be swayed by a six-figure scholarship, but not Xue Rui.

That was the most troublesome part. Xue Rui wasn’t interested in fame or fortune.

Teacher Zhang was silent for a moment before unleashing his ultimate move. "As long as you let Lin Ruoxi choose our Tsinghua, we can get you in as well. The paperwork will be a bit tricky, but we guarantee you’ll be able to enroll smoothly."

In reality, he didn’t have that much authority. This was a condition he had promised unilaterally, born from his absolute confidence in Lin Ruoxi’s score.

He believed that as long as Xue Rui went, Lin Ruoxi would definitely follow.

It seemed like Lin Ruoxi was bringing Xue Rui along as a package deal, but in reality, Xue Rui was the one bringing Lin Ruoxi. He had no idea how he was going to explain this to his superiors...

When Xue Rui heard this, his heart actually skipped a beat. What child hadn’t dreamed of getting into Qingbei?

After a moment, Xue Rui said sincerely, "Teacher Zhang, let’s just forget it. I’m planning to take her abroad."

"Our university is very strong, too! We’re no worse than those foreign schools. Our computer science, materials science... they’re all world-class..." Teacher Zhang said hurriedly.

He had offered everything he could, but the other party remained unmoved.

"Let’s leave it at that. I won’t accept any offers from Peking University, so you can rest assured," Xue Rui said before hanging up.

Teacher Zhang stared blankly, listening to the dial tone. He looked at the dozens of students he’d brought with him—all high-scoring Tsinghua students from previous years. This was one of the admissions office’s tactics: letting peers talk to the candidates to make it easier to build a rapport.

The result... It seemed he had made the trip for nothing.

"Teacher Zhang, if he doesn’t agree, let’s go to his home. Lin Ruoxi is an orphan, but Xue Rui isn’t," a teacher beside him said.

"Alright, let’s find Xue Rui’s parents," Teacher Zhang nodded in agreement.

...

「Meanwhile, in Shencheng.」

The people around them were stunned. Someone had actually rejected offers from both Tsinghua and Peking University, one after the other. It was unheard of...

It all sounded quite convincing...

They thought Xue Rui was showing off, but they had no proof!

Who in their right mind would have nothing better to do than talk on speakerphone in a teahouse about turning down Qingbei? Wasn’t that just crazy?

Yu Minlan overheard their conversation and whispered, "Won’t this hinder little sister Ruoxi’s future? I think it would be great if you two went together."

Xue Rui shook his head. "My memory isn’t very good. It’ll be a problem whether I can even pass the CET-4 English exam in the future. How would I graduate if I went to Qingbei?"

The corner of Yu Minlan’s eye twitched. Xue Rui’s answer... was brutally honest.

She inwardly looked down on Xue Rui a little. ’Isn’t this just you thinking about yourself?’ she thought.

However, just then, Xue Rui spoke again. "Qingbei’s strengths are their high-quality student body and abundant resources. It’s good for outstanding people to gather together, but Lin Ruoxi doesn’t need that kind of environment."

In truth, the main reason for not going to Qingbei was that it conflicted too much with his previous plans. The little girl liked to stick by his side, and whatever direction she chose in the future, he could just use his money to build a platform for her.

Yu Minlan thought about Lin Ruoxi’s upbringing...

The educational resources Lin Ruoxi had access to were pitiful and couldn’t compare to students from big cities, yet she still managed to break the college entrance exam record. Her environment hadn’t limited her talent...

"Do you think you’ve used what you learned in college?" Xue Rui asked.

Yu Minlan froze. She hadn’t used a single thing she’d learned! Although her salary was high now, her job was that of a nanny and a driver...

On second thought, many of her classmates hadn’t used their degrees either...

"Schools mostly teach theoretical knowledge, which is disconnected from real-world production in society..." Xue Rui explained.

The textbooks at school were fucking older than the students. They were learning theoretical foundations from the last century, and a wide, messy range of them at that. The production line uses the latest technology, so you have to start learning from scratch when you enter a production environment.

The surrounding diners perked up their ears. They hadn’t expected this young man to not only be a show-off but also to say something of substance.

Someone suddenly chimed in, "That’s true. The recent college graduates I’ve hired can’t do anything. You have to teach them everything."

Xue Rui said, "You have to give young people a chance to grow. Their theoretical foundation is solid, so they learn quickly."

Yu Minlan found his words strange. Xue Rui was the youngest one here and hadn’t even been to college, yet he was using the term "young people" with the air of a seasoned veteran.

A middle-aged man asked, "He grows, but what if he leaves for another job? Didn’t I train him for nothing? Shouldn’t he pay me tuition?"

The middle-aged man hit the nail on the head, asking a question directly related to his own interests.

Xue Rui calmly took a sip of tea. ’Getting paid to work? What kind of capitalist talk is that? A truly next-level understanding...’

He said, "You can sign long-term contracts. Besides, the same industry is a small circle. People trained by others will jump over to your company, too."

Someone laughed. "We’re really getting old. We don’t see things as clearly as the young folks."

Yu Minlan understood now. The reason Lin Ruoxi was able to grow so quickly was also related to her direct contact with the front lines of production. If she had just buried her head in theoretical studies, she would have quickly found it dull, boring, and directionless.

She guessed that Xue Rui had brought Lin Ruoxi to Shencheng with this in mind. Otherwise, he could have just hidden Lin Ruoxi away; there was no need to keep her by his side at all times.

She thought carefully about her own classmates. The time they grew the fastest was when they graduated from college and started looking for jobs...

Some of them started studying like crazy after getting a job to make up for their shortcomings, a far cry from their lazy, carefree attitudes at school.

Textbooks can’t teach you, only life can. Xue Rui was right.

"Young man, you two came to Shencheng to do business, right?" someone asked.

Xue Rui nodded. "That’s right."

The two of them looked only eighteen or nineteen, almost excessively young. The onlookers subconsciously saw them as being from their own children’s generation.

But Xue Rui’s conversation just now was definitely not something a teenager could possess.

They could only think of one other possibility: Xue Rui came from a good family and was very worldly.

In that case, he must be here to do business.

Doing business as a teenager wasn’t anything new in Guangdong Province.

"I didn’t believe it when he said he wasn’t going to Qingbei, but now that I think about it, you really do need to study more," someone said, shaking their head.

"Yeah, our generation has been left behind by the times," someone else laughed.

Xue Rui waved his hand. "I’m all talk. I can’t compare to the market you seniors have fought for with blood, sweat, and tears."

These people could leisurely eat breakfast until eleven on a weekday; they were all old-timers from various industries.

One person exchanged a glance with his companion and nodded. He felt that this kid, Xue Rui, was pleasant to talk to. He was truly talented, much better than the younger generation in their own families.

"Miss, he’s doing business, so what do you do?" someone asked Lin Ruoxi with a smile.

"Sir, I work for Xue Rui," Lin Ruoxi said, her voice soft.

"And what can you do?" a middle-aged man teased, thinking to himself, ’She’s so pretty, he obviously just keeps her around for the view.’

"Embedded development, algorithm optimization..." Lin Ruoxi said seriously.

The crowd’s expressions froze. They really had been fooled by her appearance.

Neither of these two was simple. One had a big-picture perspective, and the other seemed to have mastered many technologies. Although they didn’t know what exactly they did, these terms were definitely not just empty words.

They had seen all sorts of people and could tell from someone’s demeanor whether they had real skills. Lin Ruoxi was very calm when she said those words, and they knew it was a sign of confidence.

And so, they turned their gazes to the last person remaining.

Yu Minlan felt like she was sitting on pins and needles as she looked at the curious gazes of the people around her.

’What are they expecting?’

’Don’t look at me!’

"Me?" She pointed to herself.

The crowd nodded slightly.

"I’m just a driver," Yu Minlan said with a wry smile.

"I don’t think it’s that simple," an old man said, his face full of disbelief. He felt that Yu Minlan must have a special skill of her own.

Yu Minlan’s expression was strange. ’What does a driver need to know? Isn’t knowing how to drive enough?’

She felt immense pressure being with these two.

But she really had nothing impressive to show for herself.

Xue Rui said with a smile, "My driver here can do bookkeeping. The kind with an accounting certificate."

Yu Minlan was taken aback. She did, in fact, have a junior accounting certificate...

The crowd looked at Yu Minlan in surprise. They had seen plenty of drivers, and they had seen plenty of accountants...

Female drivers were already rare. A female driver with an accounting certificate? This was the fucking first time they’d ever seen one.

"Impressive," someone praised.

"Thank you." Yu Minlan felt an indescribable emotion. Was she actually feeling a tiny sliver of vanity?

A junior accounting certificate was such a worthless thing, yet Xue Rui had made it sound like it was incredibly rare...