The reason for his heavy mood wasn't entirely Lin Ruoxi's family background.
When Xue Rui was only twelve, his mom couldn't get him into the official version of *X-Change*. So, she found a poor mountain village and, what's more, she fucking went out of her way to find the poorest family there. She paid them over ten thousand yuan as a "lodging fee" for him to participate in a real-life version of the show.
The family's food was terrible—you could say they were practically eating bran and wild vegetables. Xue Rui couldn't leave the mountains, so he had no choice but to find ways to improve his meals on his own.
In reality, this just meant catching rabbits in the mountains or foraging for fruit. If he really came up empty-handed, the village chickens would be in for a bad time.
Of course, the most convenient method was to go to the better-off families and mooch food and drinks.
If a family's son came back from the city, he would bring a lot of food with him. That was like Christmas had come early.
One day, Xue Rui heard that Old Liu's son was back. He eagerly prepared to go say hello and see what he could mooch.
But before he even stepped through the door, he heard a disgruntled voice from inside:
"When the hell are you going to find the 'drug son'? My boss only approved a seven-day leave, and I already factored in the time for the funeral."
"Sigh..." Old Liu let out a heavy sigh.
"Don't hold things up. The round-trip ticket cost me several hundred."
...
Xue Rui sensed something was wrong with the atmosphere and decided not to go in.
The very next day, however, white ash was sprinkled in front of every home.
This was a rural custom. When someone died, ash had to be sprinkled in front of the doors.
The entire village went to the funeral feast, so Xue Rui's meals improved as well.
At the funeral, Old Liu's son was smiling from ear to ear, downing drinks with everyone around him.
But a chill went down Xue Rui's spine. 'How exactly did Old Liu die?'
Just a few days ago, Old Liu had given him some dried persimmons. How could he just be gone the moment his son returned?
And his son, it was like he'd calculated the exact day, even mentioning the funeral in advance.
After asking around, he learned that the rural elderly had many "sons": the "drug son," the "rope son," the "well son," and the like.
The "drug son" was a bottle of pesticide; the "rope son" was a length of rope...
Some of the elderly, afraid of burdening their children, sought out these "adopted sons" on their own.
Others were forced into it by their own flesh and blood.
...
Lin Ruoxi stood in the courtyard, her face scrubbed clean, a faint smile playing on her lips.
"Yeah, let's eat." Xue Rui's mood brightened considerably. He reached out and gently pushed up the corners of Lin Ruoxi's mouth.
"Smile more. I like seeing it."
Lin Ruoxi's body went rigid. She stood at the door for a long moment before finally going inside.
Xue Rui walked into the living room. The first thing he saw was a single incandescent bulb, its low wattage barely managing to light the space.
On the main wall hung a portrait of a great leader. Below it was a table with an incense burner and two black-and-white memorial portraits of men.
One was an old man, and the other was a handsome, middle-aged man.
The former must be Lin Ruoxi's grandfather, and the latter, her father.
'Gotta admit,' he thought, 'the bastard was pretty damn handsome.'
'No wonder he managed to find a wife even while living in a wreck like this,' Xue Rui grumbled to himself.
Lin Ruoxi's father had died in a car accident two years ago. The compensation money from the driver at fault had been just enough to pay off his gambling debts, leaving not a single penny behind.
"What about a picture of your mother? I bet she was beautiful, too," Xue Rui asked.
Lin Ruoxi shook her head gently. "My mother passed away when she gave birth to me. I heard from the villagers that she was a simpleton my father bought for five thousand yuan."
Xue Rui fell silent. 'I'm such a fucking asshole,' he thought. 'Why the hell would I ask something like that?'
'No wonder the villagers never mentioned Lin Ruoxi's mother. They were probably afraid I'd look down on her.'
However, Lin Ruoxi was completely different at home than she was at school. Not only did she show her face openly, but she also spoke without any of her usual nervousness.
'Maybe this little mud-brick house is what gives her a sense of security.'
"Hurry and sit down to eat. You're the first classmate Xixi has ever brought home." The old woman pulled Xue Rui down into a seat.
The meal on the table was simple: a basin of stewed chicken, a dish of stir-fried greens, and a large bowl of tomato and egg noodles as the main course.
Xue Rui picked up his chopsticks, tapped them a few times on the table to even them out, and then dug into the noodles.
"Hmm?" Xue Rui's eyes lit up instantly.
"Classmate Xue, is it not to your liking?"
Lin Ruoxi grew nervous. She had already peeled the tomatoes; she didn't understand why Xue Rui was reacting this way.
"No, it's amazing," Xue Rui said, and he meant it.
Farm-fresh food just hit different. The eggs were from their own chickens, the tomatoes were a different variety from the ones in the city—the skin peeled right off—and the noodles had been kneaded by a beautiful girl's own hands.
He picked up a piece of chicken with his chopsticks. It tasted great. While it couldn't quite compare to his family's chef, Xue Rui figured that was just due to a lack of seasonings. In terms of the raw ingredient, this chicken was even better than what they served at his family's restaurants.
After all, just over an hour ago, this very chicken had been running around on the ground.
Da Huang sat by the table, drool practically dripping onto the floor.
Xue Rui suddenly remembered this mutt had looked down on him earlier.
He picked up a piece of meat to tease Da Huang, dangling it near the dog's nose, ready to snatch it away the instant Da Huang went for it.
But surprisingly, Da Huang had no intention of snatching the meat. He just stared at Xue Rui with pleading eyes.
"Boring."
Xue Rui relaxed his chopsticks, and the meat dropped to the floor. Only then did Da Huang wolf it down, mouth CRUNCHING as he swallowed it, bone and all.
Seeing how heartily Da Huang was eating, Xue Rui's own appetite surged, and he ended up eating nearly half the chicken by himself.
He gnawed on the meat while Da Huang chewed on the bones, and Lin Ruoxi kept placing more chicken in his bowl. It created a serene and harmonious scene.
Xue Rui knew this chicken was a special treat Lin Ruoxi had prepared for him. The silly girl's thinking was simple: the more he ate, the happier she would be.
After dinner, Xue Rui went to the room where he would be sleeping for the night, feeling an inexplicable sense of excitement.
Who would have thought it would be completely different from the pretty girl's bedroom he had imagined.
There were no pink decorations, no dolls. The bedsheets were as plain as something you'd find in a boy's room.
The most eye-catching feature, instead, was the wall of certificates.
From elementary school all the way to high school, Lin Ruoxi had earned a great number of academic awards each year. They were plastered over several walls, completely covering their original color.
"My grandmother put those up," Lin Ruoxi explained.
"All the awards I've gotten in my entire life wouldn't even cover half of one of your walls," Xue Rui remarked with a sigh.
'And most of mine were fucking participation trophies from kindergarten, the kind everyone gets. They're worthless.'
Lin Ruoxi's awards, on the other hand, were all for first place in various exams. Their value wasn't even in the same league.
"Here's a toothbrush, toothpaste, and..." Lin Ruoxi unpacked the new toiletries and arranged them neatly on the small desk where she did her homework.
"You really didn't need to buy all this, it's a waste of money. Except for the toothbrush, we could have shared everything else," Xue Rui said with a cheeky grin.
Lin Ruoxi slowly turned her head, looking at Xue Rui in astonishment.
"What? Didn't expect me to be so virtuous and thrifty?" Xue Rui said, his face a mask of shamelessness.
"I... I'm going to do the dishes," Lin Ruoxi stammered, her nervousness returning.
After Lin Ruoxi left, Xue Rui began to wander around the room.
By the head of the bed sat a small television, maybe a dozen inches or so. It was a fucking black-and-white model with knobs.
'If I got sent back in time to a place like this, I'd think I'd been reborn in the 80s.'
Xue Rui lay down on the kang bed, wanting to experience the spot where Lin Ruoxi slept.
But as he tossed and turned, he couldn't get comfortable. There was too little padding; the bed was ridiculously hard.
Suddenly, he felt that the spot underneath him wasn't perfectly flat. He instinctively lifted the thin mattress pad and found a diary hidden beneath it.
'To read or not to read?' Xue Rui was torn.