Ruan Bei still remembers December 19th of that year.
In his previous life, he was still in high school, in his senior year, and his studies were very demanding.
Because his English grades never improved and he always dragged down the overall score in every exam, his English teacher made sarcastic remarks to him. As a naive young boy, Ruan Bei was under a lot of psychological pressure.
His parents were worried about disturbing his studies, so they never told him about household matters. Even when someone caused trouble at the store, saying that someone had died from eating their food, Ruan Bei didn't find out for several days.
Ruan Bei then told his parents to call the police, but his mother sighed and said that calling the police would be useless.
The man who died was a migrant worker from out of town. He carried heavy loads on construction sites, doing hard labor. I heard that a few years ago, his wife and children stayed in their hometown, while he struggled alone in Jincheng.
Things have gotten a little better in the last two years, so I brought my wife and kids here. My wife cooks for the workers at the construction site. The construction site is just a makeshift shack, and we have to move back home every time we move to a different construction site.
He has three children. The eldest and second eldest are of school age, but because they don't have local household registration, they have difficulty enrolling in school and have to pay a transfer fee to attend.
On December 14th, it was their eldest daughter's birthday. The man took a day off from the construction site and brought his wife and children out to explore this bustling city that he had lived in for several years but never had the chance to see.
At noon, the family of five ate at Ruan Bei's small restaurant. When Ruan's father heard that it was his daughter's birthday, he gave her a plate of red bean cakes.
When they got home that night, the man was dead.
The loss of the family's breadwinner is indeed a cause for sympathy.
However, no one knows how his family found out the news, but they insisted that he died of food poisoning, ignoring the fact that all five members of their family ate at Ruan's restaurant, and only the man had an accident. They accused Ruan's family of having food poisoning that killed someone.
The woman had three children, the eldest daughter was only ten years old, and the youngest was just over three years old and could barely walk steadily.
The orphan and widow, holding the portrait of the deceased, knelt in front of the Ruan family's small restaurant. Ruan's parents were speechless, their mouths agape.
Mr. Ruan called the police. The police arrived and said they would open a case for investigation and told them to wait for the autopsy results.
But as soon as the woman heard about the autopsy, she started wailing and crying, saying that her man was dead and she couldn't even leave him a complete body. In her hometown, destroying a person's body would be punished by heaven.
The police couldn't get through to her; they couldn't reason with her. After a couple of sentences, she started crying, and then the child started crying too.
The police couldn't just arrest them directly. As soon as they approached, the adults and children started crying and hugging each other. The children cried out for their fathers in shrill voices, which sounded extremely pitiful.
They blocked the entrance to Ruan's shop, crying to everyone they met that the food at Ruan's shop was killing people, and that not only their customers but also the businesses of neighboring shops were being affected.
Fortunately, Mr. Ruan has always been kind to others, and the neighbors who own shops nearby know him well. They also know the whole story and that he was innocent, so they don't hold any grudges against him.
But they knew it was useless. Mr. Ruan was so frustrated that he couldn't do business anymore, so he had to pack up and go home to wait for the police's report.
But the mother and her three daughters felt that Mr. Ruan was deliberately avoiding them, and that he had killed someone and was trying to renege on his debts.
They had no relatives or friends in the city, but their deceased husband had a group of coworkers, many of whom were from the same hometown and had come together to work in the city.
So she went back and shouted, gathered a group of people, and smashed up the door of the Ruan family's shop.
The shop owner next door quickly called Mr. Ruan, and Mr. and Mrs. Ruan rushed over. What happened next was like a nightmare.
Ruan Bei was in class when her homeroom teacher received a call from Ruan's mother and rushed to the classroom to find her.
At this point, Ruan's mother didn't dare to hide it from her two children, fearing they would become even more worried and frightened if they heard it from others. So she called Ruan Bei from the ambulance and said, "Your father is injured, and we are going to the hospital now."
Ruan Bei was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. His homeroom teacher patted him on the back and said, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. He's already on the ambulance. He'll be fine."
Ruan Bei asked his homeroom teacher for leave, but the teacher was worried and told another teacher to change the class. Then the teacher drove Ruan Bei to the hospital himself.
However, when Ruan Bei arrived at the hospital, he couldn't find his parents, and he couldn't get through to them by phone. He went to the nurses' station and asked, only to find out that the ambulance had been in an accident on the way.
Ruan Bei was completely stunned. He stood frozen in place, muttering, "My parents are still in the car, my mom and dad..."
He stood in front of the nurses' station, tears streaming down his face, wiping them away as he asked the nurses where the accident had occurred.
The homeroom teacher stopped him, saying that he would only cause trouble if he went now, and that the nurse said they had sent another doctor to treat the patient, so he should wait here.
Ruan Bei was greeted by his sister first. Ruan Xi's school was far away, and she arrived late after receiving the news.
Then the siblings were met with their father's body and their mother, who was being treated for serious injuries.
Ruan Bei dared not recall that experience. Just thinking about it made her tremble all over, and her heart ached as if a huge hole had been torn in it. She didn't even have the strength to stand up.
After being reborn, Ruan Bei remembered those two dates: the day that man died and the day her father had the accident.
He booked a trip for two to Hainan for his parents, and to ensure they would go, Ruan Bei even got his sister to help him persuade them.
The siblings coaxed and tricked her, with Ruan Xi praising Xiao Bei's filial piety and saying that she hadn't earned much money yet, but once she started working, she would take her parents out for a good trip.
Ruan Bei used all her tricks, from being cute to being unreasonable, and finally persuaded her father to close the snack shop so the couple could go on a trip together.
Before leaving, Mr. Ruan said he regretted that business was good and it would be a pity to close the shop. But once he was out having fun, his wife was much happier, so he stopped saying that.
Ruan's mother is not in good health. She suffered from a difficult labor when giving birth to her second child, and her back aches and pains are common in winter.
The climate in the southern province is mild and the winters are not cold. As Ruan's mother's illness has lessened, Ruan's father is happy. He tells Ruan Bei on the phone that he is praising him for being filial and that he is thinking about bringing his wife here to play more often in the winter.
Ruan Bei calls her parents several times a day to ask about their situation and to see the photos and videos they post in the family group chat.
Hearing his father say this, Ruan Bei became more determined and had a new goal: he had to continue saving money to buy his mother a house in the southern province so that she could spend the winter there.
He told Qin Gu about his new plan, and Qin Gu said, "The house needs to be bigger. If we're going to spend the New Year there, we need to bring my uncles over too."
The Ruan family's closest relatives are these two families, and in previous years all three families would celebrate the New Year together.
Ruan Bei thought about it carefully: "Then we'll have to buy a big villa."
He spread his hands on the table in frustration: "I can't afford it." He was so poor.
Qin Gu lay down next to him, tilted his head and smiled, "I'll save money with you, and we'll buy it together."
Ruan Bei looked at him and couldn't help but laugh too. He pushed Qin Gu and said reproachfully, "Who wants to be with you?"
As she spoke, her face gradually turned red.
After sending his parents away from Jincheng to the southern province, Ruan Bei didn't rest. He asked Qin Gu for a Yin Qi talisman and found the Six Ghosts of the Eastern Suburbs, asking them to help him keep an eye on the family of the dead man.
When Dong San came back from his surveillance, he told him that the man had cancer and it was incurable.
Even more surprisingly, before the 14th, the man drank paraquat, but he was discovered in time and saved.
Ruan Bei was both angry and at a loss for words. In his previous life, although he firmly believed that it was not his own food that killed that man, he never suspected that there was anything wrong with his death.
Because he died on his daughter's birthday, any father, if given the choice, would choose to have his daughter's birthday as his death anniversary.
But now it seems that this person in his previous life probably knew he was going to die, so he wanted to swindle some money before he died.
As for why his family was chosen, Ruan Bei couldn't figure it out. Perhaps it was because his father was kind-hearted. Sometimes you have to admit that some people think that kind people are easy to bully.
Although the family was pitiful, Ruan Bei felt no sympathy for them at all when he thought about what they had done in his previous life.
The 14th passed, and Ruan Bei waited anxiously for the 19th.
He began to regret booking such a long trip. Otherwise, he would have stayed by his parents' side every step of the way until the day was over.
On the 19th, Ruan Bei skipped class. He called his mother from his dorm and complained that he had a cold and a headache and wanted to talk to his mother.
Ruan's mother felt sorry for her child and couldn't resist his whining. Over the phone, she instructed Qin Gu to pour him hot water and get him medicine.
Then, instead of participating in the day's tour group activities, Ruan Bei and his father stayed at the hotel, talking on the phone with Ruan Bei.
Throughout the entire day, Ruan Bei had to call them every hour to make sure they were alright before he could feel at ease.
Otherwise, he would become restless and pace back and forth in the dormitory, sweating profusely even in the dead of winter.
Qin Gu sat next to him, put his arm around his shoulder, and gently patted him along his spine, telling him it was okay, Xiao Bei had started over, and was destined to have healthy parents and live a long and healthy life.
The 19th passed peacefully amidst Ruan Bei's worries.
That night, Ruan Bei lay exhausted on the bed, feeling completely drained, as if he had run a long way. He was tired, but at peace.
Qin Gu half-embraced him and pushed him to take a shower. When he was finding clothes for him, Bai Miaomiao looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't.
Qin Gu waited until Ruan Bei went into the bathroom before asking, "What's with that expression?"
Bai Miaomiao glanced at the bathroom like a thief and said furtively, "You're too thirsty. You're even skipping class and taking Xiao Bei out in broad daylight... cough cough, you've gone a bit too far."
Qin Gu: "..."
Luckily, Xiao Bei didn't hear it. If she had, Bai Miaomiao would have had to crawl to bed tonight.
Bai Miaomiao continued nagging: "If you really can't stand it, go get a hotel room. Look at this lousy bed in our dorm, aren't you afraid it'll collapse? The soundproofing is terrible too..."
Zeng Peng groaned in pain, feeling as if he had gone blind.
Why is it that in other dorm rooms everyone is chatting about sweet, soft girls, but he has to listen to gay guys making suggestive remarks here?
Qin Gu raised an eyebrow and smiled wickedly: "What do you know? What's the point of booking a hotel room? It's all about the fun."
Bai Miaomiao: "..."
I admit defeat; you're still the most sassy one.
When Ruan Bei came out, he was met with Bai Miaomiao's resentful gaze.
Bai Miaomiao, still stunned by the rebuke, recalled how Ruan Bei had sworn he wouldn't date before he was an adult, and even called him a "pervert" back then. But what happened? Before he could even win over his brother, Ruan Bei had already left him behind to have sex with her boyfriend!
Playing with romance? Pshaw, you liar!
Ruan Bei was puzzled by his gaze, but thinking that she should call her parents again before going to bed, she ignored Bai Miaomiao's crazy behavior and climbed into bed to make the call.
Bai Miaomiao pouted angrily. She had pretended to be quite innocent and shy when chatting with him privately, but she didn't expect him to be so open.
No, he can't let himself be outdone. He has to speed things up, otherwise he'll just have to watch Ruan Bei and Qin Gu bully him and show off their love in front of him.
Bai Miaomiao opened her notebook and rewrote the plan to pursue her brother that she had previously put aside.
After that, until Mr. and Mrs. Ruan returned from their trip, nothing dangerous happened.
Ruan Bei went to the airport to pick up his parents. Seeing them safe and sound, he finally felt a huge weight lifted from his heart.
He was always afraid that if he couldn't change the tragedy his parents had suffered, what would be the point of his rebirth?
Judging from the timeline, the father's near-death experience has passed, and the Lu family may discover the babies were switched at birth around the end of January.
Ruan Bei still hoped that things could change. If they could avoid discovering that the babies were switched at birth, that would be the best outcome. Since Lu Sibai really liked his parents, he shouldn't come back and try to take them from him. He should just pretend that they didn't know.
Mr. and Mrs. Ruan returned just before Christmas. Although they don't usually celebrate this holiday, they invited relatives and friends to get together since they had just returned from a trip.
After everyone had a meal together, Mr. Ruan wanted to pack up and reopen the shop the next day.
Ruan Bei disagreed and tried to persuade him to rest at home for a few days. He also secretly sent the Six Ghosts of the Eastern Suburbs to keep a close eye on the family that was causing trouble.
Hearing that the man was currently hospitalized with a thick stack of medical records, Ruan Bei felt a little relieved, thinking that he was unlikely to try to extort money from them again.
Mr. Ruan is a man who can't rest, and he managed to reopen the shop before New Year's Day.
Ruan Bei was still in school when she heard what her sister said, and she wanted to persuade her again.
This time, no matter what, Dad wouldn't listen to him. He'd already had his fun and rested, and it was almost New Year's Day, a time when business was booming. How could he just close the door and do nothing?
At his age, he's not even at retirement age yet. What kind of talk is it for him to be idle at home?
Ruan Bei was at a loss. Then he thought that the time had already passed, and he couldn't let his father close the shop again.
To be honest, running a shop is hard work, but Mr. Ruan seems to really enjoy it. He likes to hear customers praise his cooking skills, and he's happy when everyone is having a good time.
Ruan Bei had no choice but to compromise, but he repeatedly reminded him to be careful and stay away from anything that might happen.
Mr. Ruan laughed on the phone, saying that his son had grown up and now he was starting to give him advice.
Even after hanging up the phone, Ruan Bei was still worried, so he called his sister again. Ruan Xi's internship company was relatively close to home, and she was currently living at home.
He told his sister that he had heard the security situation had deteriorated recently, with a group of thugs causing trouble everywhere. He told her to be careful and keep an eye on things, as their father had told him to close the door early at night because it wasn't safe.
Ruan Xi took it to heart as soon as she heard it. When she went outside, she heard her father telling her mother that the shop had been closed for so long and they had run out of ingredients. They should go to the market early the next morning to get more supplies.
Going to the market early in the morning to buy produce is really early. Vegetable vendors usually have to be there by three or four in the morning. People like Mr. Ruan, who are particular about ingredients and like to pick out the freshest produce themselves, also have to go early, at least by four or five in the morning. If they are late, they will only get what others have left over.
Ruan Xi immediately called Yin Zhuo and said, "My dad is going to the market to buy supplies at four or five o'clock tomorrow morning. I'm not comfortable with him going alone."
Yin Zhuo was eager to prove himself when his prospective son-in-law came to visit. Without saying a word, he patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, no problem, leave it to me."
He got up very early the next day and went to the Ruan family's door in the middle of the night to wait. It was too early, so he didn't dare to knock.
When Mr. Ruan opened the door, he was startled by the dark figure at the entrance.
Hearing that Ruan Xi had called him, Ruan's father almost woke his daughter up and scolded her. In the dead of winter, she called him from so far away without even saying a word. It was outrageous.
Later, Ruanxi got up. She had set an alarm. When she came out and saw her boyfriend, whose face was pale from the cold, Ruanxi felt a little sorry for him.
Yin Zhuo ate a bowl of hot soup noodles at Ruan's house, which warmed him up. He then accompanied Ruan's father to buy goods. Before leaving, Ruan Xi noticed that his neck was bare, so she ran back to her room, grabbed one of her own dark red scarves, and wrapped it around Yin Zhuo's neck herself.
Yin Zhuo, wrapped in his girlfriend's scarf, grinned from ear to ear, seemingly oblivious to the cold weather, full of energy.
It was December 30th, and with New Year's Day approaching, the school was filled with a festive atmosphere. The upcoming New Year's Eve party had heated up the entire campus.
The graduating seniors, who are about to leave campus, received an invitation. They heard that the freshmen had prepared a special program for the seniors.
So most of the senior students who had free time came back, and unsurprisingly, this was probably the last New Year's Eve party they attended at school.
Lu Siyuan received a message in the class group chat and originally didn't want to go back.
Although he hadn't deliberately flaunted his identity before, he hadn't deliberately hidden it either. Over the course of three years, many of his classmates knew that he was the eldest son of the Haiming Group.
After the last recording incident, Haiming Group's reputation was almost ruined, and Lu Siyuan received many messages of comfort, some sincere and some insincere.
He didn't want to go back to school at all, but if he didn't, it would make him seem guilty.
He thought about it for a moment and realized he really didn't want to attend that inexplicable New Year's Eve party, but he could go to school early and pack his things while there were fewer people around.
Then tell your roommate that you can't go because of something, and that you won't need to go back to school again except to get your graduation certificate.
He deliberately chose a time early in the morning, around 8 a.m., when those who were supposed to go to class had already left, and those who weren't going to class were still sleeping, when the dormitory building was at its quietest and least crowded.
Meanwhile, Ruan Bei, who was sleeping in his warm bed in the morning because he had no classes, was woken up by a phone call from Ruan Xi.
Upon hearing the words "Dad is injured" on the phone, Ruan Bei's mind went blank. In a daze, she thought she had returned to her previous life and that everything she was experiencing now was a dream.
He stood there, his ears ringing, clutching his phone tightly, unable to hear anything or think.
Qin Gu was close to Ruan Bei's bed and was familiar with Ruan Bei's phone ringtone, so he woke up when Ruan Bei answered the phone.
He squinted and listened for a moment, only to hear Ruan Bei call out "Sister," and then there was silence.
He sat up and saw Ruan Bei sitting on the bed with a blank and bewildered expression, his eyes glazed over and filled with despair.
Qin Gu was startled, quickly put on a piece of clothing, and then stepped over the bed ladder to Ruan Bei's bed.
He took Ruan Bei's coat and draped it over him while reaching for the phone in Ruan Bei's hand.
Ruan Bei was gripping too tightly, so he couldn't pull his wrist away. He simply held it to his ear and asked, "Sister? It's me, Qin Gu. What happened?"
"Kunkun? Where's Xiaobei? Why isn't she saying anything?"
"You're frightened. Tell me what happened."
“Tell him it’s nothing serious,” Ruan Xi said. “This morning, Dad went to the market to buy supplies. When he came back and was unloading the goods at the store entrance, he was robbed by two men.”
"How are you now? Where's Dad? Is he hurt? Is it serious?"
Qin Gu glanced at Ruan Bei, who had come to his senses and was looking at him nervously, then moved the phone closer to him, put his other arm around him, and patted him reassuringly.
"Don't worry, it's not serious," Ruan Xi comforted her. "A Zhuo was here this morning too; you know how skilled he is."
Upon hearing that Yin Zhuo was there, Ruan Bei breathed a slight sigh of relief and hurriedly asked, "Where are you now? Has the ambulance arrived?"
Don't let him get in the ambulance; he's terrified of ambulances now.
Ruan Xi chuckled: "Why call an ambulance?"
She seemed to have moved to a different place, and her voice was a little softer: "Those two robbers were no match for me. A-Zhuo took care of them all by himself. Dad fell down on his own, and he was too embarrassed to tell you."
He was even less likely to call an ambulance. He tried to stand up despite his stubbornness, which terrified Yin Zhuo. He carried his future father-in-law to the car and then drove him to the hospital himself.
Ruan Bei: "...Where did you fall?"
“His leg is broken.” Ruan Xi sighed. “The doctor said it takes a hundred days to recover from a broken bone. This time, Dad will have to stay in bed whether he wants to or not. He was just complaining about all the groceries he bought, saying it was a waste of money.”
Ruan Bei was speechless yet relieved. Knowing that her father was alright and had arrived at the hospital safely, Ruan Bei was finally less scared.
He was getting dressed while making a phone call to Ruan Xi, asking why Yin Zhuo was also there.
Ruan Xi said, "Luckily you mentioned it to me, saying that the security situation has been bad lately, so I called Yin Zhuo over."
Ruan Bei thought about it and was immediately filled with fear. His father had gone to buy the goods that morning, and it was still dark in the dead of winter, and the nearby shops were not open yet.
If the two robbers hurt his father, they could run away and leave his father there with no one to help him.
When he made the call, Qin Gu had already gotten dressed and washed up.
Bai Miaomiao and Zeng Peng were woken up by the two of them, but after hearing what Ruan Bei was saying on the phone, they knew that something had happened at his home, so they didn't say anything. Only after he finished the call did they ask him with concern.
Ruan Bei thanked his roommates for their kindness, packed up, and then hurriedly left with Qin Gu.
No matter what Ruan Xi said on the phone, Ruan Bei was still worried until he saw his father safe and sound.
He was preoccupied with his father lying in the hospital, so he had no interest in the other classmates he met on the way. When the two of them went downstairs, Lu Siyuan was opening his dormitory door.
Their dormitory was the second dormitory diagonally opposite the stairwell. Hearing hurried footsteps, Lu Siyuan subconsciously looked up.
He froze on the spot after just one glance.
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