Rebirth to Save Myself

Chapter 130 Investigation (4)

"Sis, I'll be going now!" Su Yue waved with difficulty and prepared to enter the campus.

"Wait a minute." Su Xia couldn't help but call out to her.

"Well, what's wrong?"

"Have you remembered everything I've told you these past two days?"

"Got it, I'll go home next week to gather evidence."

"Tell me what you're missing or what's in short supply."

"Okay, got it."

"Eat healthier, and gain some weight."

"Uh-huh."

"Don't be stingy with money, but spend it on useful things."

"it is good."

"besides"

"Alright, alright, you two sisters have WeChat, right? You can video call and chat anytime. Don't act like you'll never see each other again. Xiaoyue, you need to study hard at school and try to get into a university in the provincial capital next year to reunite with your sister."

"I will try my best, brother-in-law. Sister, don't worry, I won't contact you on WeChat again."

"Yeah, let's go."

"Goodbye, sister; goodbye, brother-in-law."

"Bye-Bye."

Su Yue returned to her dorm carrying large bags and small packages. Several of her roommates were already there. They were surprised to see Su Yue humming a little tune and carrying a bunch of bags. After living together for more than two years, they all knew that Su Yue's family didn't give her much living expenses, and she usually lived frugally. Why did she bring so many things today? Looking at the brands on the bags, some of them were from stores that were only available in shopping malls.

So roommate A asked, "Su Yue, did your parents buy these for you?"

"No, my sister bought them for me," Su Yue immediately retorted, then carefully put the items into her closet.

"Your sister? Don't you only have one younger brother in your family?"

"Yes, you often complain that your parents don't let your brother do chores, but only make you do them."

"That's because my sister is amazing! I just made a phone call and she came over to help me!" Su Yue couldn't help but wave the phone Su Xia bought for her in front of her roommate.

"Wow, isn't this the latest model phone? Your sister is so rich, she bought you a new phone?"

"Yes, here's your phone back. My sister asked me to thank you for lending me your phone, but she said it's never a good idea to lend it to others, so she bought a new phone and asked me to return it to you." Su Yue became more and more proud as she spoke, wishing she could just grab a megaphone and announce it to the whole school right now.

"Having an older sister is so wonderful! Did your sister buy all these clothes and food for you?"

"Yeah, my sister even said that if I need money, I can ask her for it."

"Since you're so rich, can you treat us to meals often?"

Upon hearing this, Su Yue immediately looked at her roommate with an expression of utter disbelief and said, "Are you stupid? That's my sister's money. She gave it to me because I didn't have any living expenses. I have to spend all of this myself. Why should I treat you to meals all the time?"

Su Yue's words made her roommate angry and embarrassed, but seeing that no one else was on her side, she said, "You're such a stingy person," and then went to bed, drew her curtains, and stopped talking.

"Ignore her, she's just jealous of me. Come on, let's share the snacks, these were all bought by my sister for me and my roommates to eat together."

"thanks, thanks."

"Take a little of everything, don't be shy."

"Your sister is so nice."

Meanwhile, Su Xia watched as Su Yue entered the school, got into the car, and returned to the provincial capital with Lu Jingnian. On the way, Lu Jingnian tentatively asked Su Xia, "I didn't realize you cared so much about your sister?"

Su Xia glanced at Lu Jingnian, then said, "Do you know about the butterfly effect?"

"I know that the flapping of a butterfly's wings in South America could trigger a tornado in Texas, USA. This is a kind of chaotic phenomenon, which shows that there are constants and variables in the development of anything. The trajectory of things in the process of development has a regularity, but there are also unpredictable 'variables'. Sometimes it can even backfire. A tiny change can affect the development of things."

"Yes, because I am that butterfly. I flapped my wings and left this home, and the price was that Su Yue took on my part. She could have lived a better and freer life. But because of me, she has become like this. I used to tell myself not to be soft-hearted, not to care about them, and just to take care of myself. But what did Su Yue do wrong to become like this because of me?" Su Xia became more and more upset as she spoke, as if she was the one who caused it all.

Lu Jingnian checked the navigation, decisively turned into the service area, found a parking space, parked the car, turned off the engine, unbuckled his seatbelt, and leaned over to hug Su Xia. He gently patted her back and said to Su Xia in as calm a tone as possible, "None of this is your fault, you don't need to blame yourself. As her boyfriend, I think it's already amazing that you were able to spread your wings and leave this family."

"But if I hadn't left Su Yue, things wouldn't have turned out this way."

Lu Jingnian sat back down, took Su Xia's hand, looked into her eyes and said seriously, "If you don't leave, you won't be able to help Su Yue today. Or you might end up in a worse situation than Su Yue. How will you save yourself then? If you don't leave, you might be married off to a divorced old man by your parents after graduating high school and become a stepmother. Is that the life you want? Instead of complaining about yourself here, let's try our best to help Su Yue get out of her current situation. Aren't you already doing it, and doing it very well?"

"Yes, I misunderstood for a moment. Thank you for comforting me."

"Don't mention it, I'm your boyfriend. Have some water, are you hungry? Do you want me to go buy something to eat?"

"No need, it's getting late, let's go home early."

"Okay, let's go back first. If you're hungry, we can go eat."

The car slowly started moving. Su Xia looked at the scenery outside the window and thought of Lu Jingnian's words: How did she live her life in her previous life when she didn't escape?

When she took the high school entrance exam, her mother told her, "If you don't pass, go to a vocational school to learn nursing, so you can find a job later."

So she barely made it into high school and was accepted. Her mother then asked, "Are you sure you want to go to high school? Or are you going straight to nursing?"

Su Xia was certain she didn't want to study nursing, so she began her three years of high school, choosing science subjects. However, she wasn't very bright, and her grades were neither good nor bad. After the college entrance exam, she was admitted to a private junior college. Because private colleges were expensive, her mother paid for her to continue her studies. So when Su Xia graduated and started working, her mother said to her, "We don't have much money at home, but we've used it all to support your education. Now you have to share the responsibility of taking care of your younger siblings with your parents."

At that time, she thought Su's parents were good people. Many families favored sons over daughters and wouldn't let their daughters go to university at all; most of them would go out to work after completing nine years of compulsory education. So when Su's mother told her about the family's difficulties, she resolutely stepped forward and took on most of Su Yue's school expenses.

Therefore, she received praise from Su's mother: "Xia has really grown up and knows how to lighten the burden on the family."

She was delighted to receive praise from Su's mother, which gave her a sense of direction, and she continued to move forward in that direction. Whenever she had doubts, Su's mother would offer a few words of praise, and she would continue on her way without hesitation.

From covering Su Yue's living expenses to renovating the house their family built in the provincial capital, she constantly took out money to ensure that Su's mother would praise her as a wonderful older sister in front of her and other relatives and friends. Then, when the relatives heard this, they would also praise her and compliment Su's mother, saying, "It's so good to have daughters! You have two daughters, just wait and enjoy your life!"

The relatives' praise made Su's mother increasingly kind to Su Xia. To maintain this, she worked tirelessly, saving every penny to send her earnings to Su's parents. It wasn't until she was diagnosed with cancer that she truly saw her parents' true colors. In their eyes, it was only natural for their daughter to earn money for the family. The more money she earned for her family before marriage, the more leverage they would have for their son to find a wife.

They took advantage of her lack of parental love since childhood, using superficial praise to get her to give herself away, and even when she was dying, they didn't forget to ask her for money.

It took the two of them more than an hour to get back to the provincial capital. Lu Jingnian saw that Su Xia said she had come to terms with things, but she was still in a bad mood, so he made an excuse that he was hungry and took Su Xia to eat hot pot.

While waiting for their food, Su Xia came to a realization. Since she had been reborn, change was inevitable. What would be the point of being reborn if she didn't change anything?

Just as Lu Jingnian said, she is now fully capable of helping Su Yue, which is already helping her former self. As for whether Su Yue can handle it, she is not a fool who has been exploited without her knowledge.

"Hello, here are your dishes, all served. Please call me anytime if you need anything."

"Okay, thank you." Lu Jingnian naturally put the vegetables into the pot and watched the pot bubble and simmer.

"What are you looking at?" Su Xia asked curiously.

"When will my little Xiaxia finally notice me?" Lu Jingnian looked up at Su Xia with a wronged expression.

"I'm sorry, I was thinking about something just now." Su Xia quickly apologized. She had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she had overlooked Lu Jingnian.

"That's alright, the tripe is ready, eat up. I still have to take you home after you finish, I'm afraid your dad will kill me if I get home too late." Lu Jingnian naturally put the tripe into Su Xia's bowl.

"Actually, I didn't tell them I would be back today." Su Xia finished speaking and awkwardly lowered her head to eat the piece of tripe.

She didn't see Lu Jingnian's pupils shrink, then he seemed to struggle internally, and finally he said as if he had made up his mind, "I'll take you home."

"Oh."

The two weren't actually very hungry, so they ate something quick and then drove home. Su Xia carried her luggage into the house, and the three people sitting on the sofa watching TV looked at her in surprise.

Chen Jianguo asked, "Why did you suddenly come back? You didn't even ask me to pick you up at the station."

Chen Chunqi hurriedly went over and took the suitcase from Su Xia, asking, "You're back so late, have you eaten? Would you like Auntie to cook you a bowl of noodles?"

"No need, I came back after dinner. It's convenient to come back from the station, so I didn't ask Dad to pick me up." Su Xia waved her hand to indicate that it was no big deal, and then said, "I'll go to my room to tidy up my clothes first."

"Go ahead, go ahead, you're tired from the car ride."

A moment later, Chen Yuan came in with a plate of fruit and said to Su Xia, "Mom said you should eat some fruit after you finish your meal."

"Okay, put it over there." Su Xia said without looking up. After a while, when she still didn't hear the door close, she looked up and found Chen Yuan still standing at the door, looking at her meaningfully.

"what happened?"

“Tell me honestly, where have you been these past few days? How did you get back? Who did you go with? Don’t lie, I have evidence.” Chen Yuan closed the door behind her, walked over to Su Xia’s bedside and sat down, staring intently at her.

"Then please show me the evidence you have, Detective Chen, so I can defend myself one by one." Su Xia put down her hands that were tidying up, sat down on the ground, and looked up at Chen Yuan.

"Hmph, I clearly photographed you and Lu Jingnian in the basement, and you even got out of his car." Chen Yuan opened her phone and showed Su Xia the photos she had taken by chance.

"Since you saw me in the basement, why were you so surprised when I came upstairs?"

"This is called acting. My acting skills are alright, I guess."

“Okay, that’s great. Lu Jingnian picked me up. We had a meal before we got back, so I’m not very hungry.”

"So you went out with him?"

"No, I went to take care of some business."

"what's up?"

"Private matter."

"What private matters do you have that I don't know about? Tell me now!"

"Can you wait a little longer? I'm a bit confused right now. I'll let you know after I've sorted things out."

"Ok."

"Chen Yuan, what's wrong with you? I asked you to deliver some fruit, why haven't you come out yet? Xiaxia just got back and is tired. Can't you talk about it tomorrow?" Chen Chunqi's voice came from outside the door. She knocked on the door and spoke to Chen Yuan.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming out now." Chen Yuan raised her voice and called out, then said to Su Xia, "Then I'll wait for you to tell me yourself. I'll go out first, lest Ms. Chen start nagging again."

"Uh-huh."

After packing her luggage, Su Xia picked up her phone and saw that Su Yue and Lu Jingnian had both sent her messages.

Su Yue: Sister, are you home yet?

Su Yue: I just finished studying and am about to turn off the lights and go to sleep.

Coffee for a lifesaver: Hmm, it just arrived a short while ago.

Coffee to keep me going: Just focus on your studies, I don't need you to worry about me.

........................

Heading Towards Summer: Don't overthink today's events, just get a good night's sleep.

Coffee for a Lifeline: Okay, I got it.

Coffee to keep me going: Chen Yuan photographed you and me in the basement [facepalm]. Luckily it wasn't my dad, or things would have turned upside down.

All the Way to Summer: Looks like besides my sister-in-law Su Yue, I also need to bribe my sister-in-law Chen Yuan. [Striving]

Coffee to keep you going: Not for now, you should go to bed early too.

All the Way to Summer: Okay.