Chapter 151: Chapter 150: I Want to Support You

Summer passed and winter came again. The days of senior year felt like they were on fast forward, leaving only a flash of fleeting images in the students’ minds.

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of December 2013.

When they first entered senior year, students were still complaining about the lack of holidays. But now, the monotonous, day-after-day routine had made them lose all sense of time.

In the Senior Year Building of No. 2 High School, the morning reading session had just ended.

"Hello, Teacher Lin," a male student said in passing.

Lin Ruoxi had stopped wearing her school uniform ever since she became a student discipline officer. Today, she wore a snow-white down jacket over black, straight-leg pants and flat shoes, putting her long legs on full display.

By now, she no longer needed to wear an armband; every student recognized her as the student discipline officer.

Lin Ruoxi saw the student greet her, offered a brief glance, and gave a slight nod.

This was something Xue Rui had taught her: speak to the students as little as possible to maintain an air of authority.

Lin Ruoxi had been doing this job for half a year now, and the school even gave her a token monthly salary of 1,500 yuan.

"Hello, Teacher Lin." A female student bowed slightly as she passed by and greeted Lin Ruoxi.

"Wait," Lin Ruoxi called out.

The student froze, her heart pounding. ’Why is Master Lin singling me out?’ she wondered. ’I haven’t brought my phone to school recently, have I?’

’Did she find out I was secretly reading that magazine yesterday?’

"Here." Lin Ruoxi pulled a box of painkillers from the pocket of her down jacket.

Earlier that morning, she had seen the girl squatting by the door of the school clinic and overheard her conversation with Dr. Liang. The doctor had said they were out of painkillers.

So, on her way in, Lin Ruoxi had bought a box for the girl at a pharmacy outside the school.

The student was taken aback, her eyes welling with tears. "Thank you, Sister Xi."

"Mm," Lin Ruoxi nodded.

After the girl walked away, someone rushed up to her. "What did Master Lin say to you?"

"Stop badmouthing Sister Xi behind her back," the girl retorted with a frown.

"Er... I was just joking."

...

Chen Tingting stood at the entrance to the Senior Year Building. After hesitating for a long time, she decided to leave.

Every time she came, she saw that teacher staring at her with a cold, unfeeling gaze.

But she remembered Lin Ruoxi was a student; she had no idea how she had suddenly become a teacher.

In any case, there was no way for her to get into the Senior Year Building now. When Lin Ruoxi wasn’t around, Director Wang was there watching.

"Just give it up, Tingting," said Zhang Jing, who was with her. "You can wait until you’re all in college."

She felt Chen Tingting’s romantic strategies were completely useless. There’s an old saying: a man chasing a woman is like crossing a mountain, but a woman chasing a man is only separated by a thin veil of gauze.

Yet Chen Tingting had been frantically pursuing Xue Rui for a year, and he remained completely unmoved. They were still stuck in the same game of cat and mouse as before.

Besides, she always found the senior year section to be particularly oppressive and desolate. Downstairs, no one was chasing each other around, there was little laughter, and it was obvious from a single glance that the beautiful teacher was not someone to be trifled with.

’Right, I can’t disturb him.’ Chen Tingting was deeply conflicted.

She wanted to see Xue Rui, but she was also afraid of distracting him from his studies, especially with the college entrance exams just around the corner.

In truth, Lin Ruoxi was also a factor. She was very tall with a flawless figure. More importantly, she stood on a metaphorical pedestal, and the respectful attitude of the seniors toward her was incredibly intimidating...

Lin Ruoxi watched Chen Tingting with a blank stare, feeling extremely anxious. ’What if this girl tries to throw herself at Xue Rui? What should I do?’

’Should I stop her? How? Am I supposed to just drag her away by force, like Gu Muxue...?’

Lin Ruoxi was a nervous wreck, but little did she know, the girl watching her was even more terrified.

To Chen Tingting, that blank stare felt like a look of intense scrutiny.

After a moment’s thought, Chen Tingting decided to head back to the second-year building.

Seeing Chen Tingting leave, Lin Ruoxi let out a huge mental sigh of relief.

"Hello, Teacher Lin," Xue Xiaying said with a smile.

She had assumed Lin Ruoxi took the student discipline officer role for fun, but to her surprise, Lin Ruoxi was taking the job very seriously. She was actually excellent at maintaining school discipline.

She couldn’t help but marvel at Xue Rui’s cleverness. He had managed to elevate Lin Ruoxi beyond her status as a student, placing her in a position of authority, like an elder.

Over time, this diminished the students’ impression of Lin Ruoxi as one of their peers.

"Hello, teacher," Lin Ruoxi greeted demurely. She didn’t teach any classes, so she didn’t consider herself a real teacher.

Xue Rui had helped her get this job, and she found it quite easy. She would occasionally stroll through the halls, check in on Xue Rui, make sure no students were slacking off, and head back to the office to warm up by the heater whenever she got cold.

Standing at the classroom door, Xue Rui stretched. He saw Lin Ruoxi strolling through the building with a stern expression, a hush falling over every place she passed.

Xue Rui suppressed a laugh. ’These students have no idea what she’s really like,’ he thought. ’If any of them actually talked back to her, she’d probably burst into tears, wouldn’t she?’

But with Director Wang backing her, no one dared to cross her.

Combined with her silent, imposing aura, the last time she’d simply stood in front of a student without a word, the kid had mentally reviewed every rule he’d ever broken and voluntarily surrendered his phone.

Inside the classroom, students were divvying up and eating breakfast.

"Thanks, Sister Xi," someone called out to Lin Ruoxi.

Lin Ruoxi had bought the breakfast. They all felt that as a "teacher," she was actually very kind. She ran errands to get them breakfast without charging a delivery fee, and she’d even occasionally treat them to a meal with her own money.

"Your breakfast." Lin Ruoxi pulled a food container from her bag. Xue Rui didn’t like takeout, so she had made this for him.

"You’re back in the delivery business again?" Xue Rui chuckled, taking the container and starting to eat.

"Well, they’re all studying so hard, and it’s so cold out. They don’t want to eat the cafeteria breakfast, and it’s not like I have anything else to do..." Lin Ruoxi murmured, her voice soft and gentle—a complete departure from the "Teacher Lin" who stood guard outside the classroom.

If the students outside heard her speaking like this, her entire persona would instantly shatter.

"Getting special treatment again, are we?" Qiu Mengze grumbled while munching on a fried dough stick, reaching over to snag a bite from Xue Rui’s container.

He was so jealous it made his teeth ache. He had just gotten back from delivering breakfast to Qin Tong himself.

And yet, here was Xue Rui, having homemade meals cooked by a goddess-level beauty like Lin Ruoxi. The key point was, her cooking was delicious.

"Brother Rui’s eating," Yi Bing said, greeting Xue Rui first. Then he turned, saw Lin Ruoxi, and immediately plastered a fawning smile on his face. "Sister Xi, my phone’s dead again."

After Lin Ruoxi had confiscated his phone, Xue Rui had not only gotten it back for him but had also convinced her to charge it.

"You’re on breakfast duty tomorrow," Yi Bing said to Qiu Mengze.

"I know," Qiu Mengze replied with a wave of his hand.

Yi Bing needed Lin Ruoxi to charge his phone, while Qiu Mengze needed her to bring him breakfast so he could then give it to Qin Tong.

’What is all this nonsense?’ Xue Rui thought. ’Now Yi Bing and Qiu Mengze have become Lin Ruoxi’s lackeys, too.’

"Let’s go out for a bit this afternoon," Xue Rui said.

There was another test last week, and the scores came out today. His results had dropped slightly compared to the last one.

Gu Muxue had been on his case about doing practice problems lately, even assigning him homework during the holidays and diligently explaining the concepts to him.

Xue Rui felt he had let down all of Gu Muxue’s painstaking efforts. She would definitely scold him today and force him to do several more practice sets.

Therefore, he decided to make a preemptive escape.

The crypto market was just too volatile. Xue Rui hadn’t anticipated the first major cryptocurrency boom to happen this early.

Coin prices had been skyrocketing for the past few months, and he spent every day checking the market on his phone, which drained a lot of his focus.

But there was no time to hesitate. Following his experience, he cashed out more than half at the peak.

The money he had invested piecemeal had already grown more than tenfold, enough to make him feel lost about the direction of his own life.

Even now, before he had even graduated, his net worth had already surpassed a hundred million. He had ninety million in cash alone. In his past life, he’d worked himself to the bone and never had anywhere near this much money in his account...

Now, the price was starting to drop. He still held some coins, and after riding the wave up, it was time to sell on the way down. He had to liquidate everything now.

Based on market patterns, the next crypto boom wouldn’t be until 2016 or 2017. There wouldn’t be any more major fluctuations in the interim.

He could only sigh and admit that the famous saying was true: if you stand in the right spot during a hurricane, even a pig can fly.

Who would have thought that an ordinary, stressed-out high school senior had already joined the hundred-millionaire’s club.

"What for?" Lin Ruoxi asked in a small voice.

"To open a bank account for you and transfer some money into it," Xue Rui said.

The truth was, he couldn’t delay any longer. If he waited, the price would drop even further. His own bank account was still registered to a minor; large deposits were fine, but making large withdrawals was difficult. It would be much simpler to sell the crypto and have the money deposited directly into an account in Lin Ruoxi’s name.

"Um, I don’t need money," Lin Ruoxi said meekly.

Ever since Xue Rui had gotten his own bank card, their grandmother’s card had been left in Lin Ruoxi’s care.

’I’m already making over a thousand yuan a month from my job,’ Lin Ruoxi thought. ’That’s more than enough for me.’

’Even though the things Xue Rui likes to eat are expensive, the balance on Grandma’s card barely seems to go down, no matter how much I spend.’

"No. How can a little rich girl not have her own money?" Xue Rui said seriously.

’Someone with her personality,’ he thought, ’desperately needs the protection that money provides. Giving her a lot of money will elevate her into a different social class, one that comes with many privileges.’

’Privileged circles are smaller and offer better treatment, which is perfect for a socially anxious girl like her.’

"Okay. I’ll be your sugar mama," Lin Ruoxi nodded. Xue Rui was always calling her a little rich girl, after all.

’And rich women are supposed to have kept men,’ she reasoned. ’I don’t think Xue Rui is a kept man, but the ’keeping’ part must be right.’

Lin Ruoxi was convinced that Xue Rui wanted her to be his sugar mama. Why else would he give her money?

The two were speaking quietly, but Qiu Mengze had sharp ears and caught a snippet. "What’s this about a sugar mama?"

"Don’t eavesdrop on things that don’t concern you," Xue Rui said, his face darkening.

’I’m a hundred-millionaire now,’ he thought. ’But even if I told him, Qiu Mengze would never believe me. He’d just think I was bullshitting.’

’And how could Lin Ruoxi be so blunt? What does she mean, she’ll be his sugar mama?’

"’Sugar mama’ isn’t a very nice term," Xue Rui said, then nodded. "But... I’m not against the idea."