Everyone's been reborn, so who would bother finding a wife on their own?

Chapter 42 Gentleness

Over the next few days, Song Huan noticed that several oranges would mysteriously appear in her schoolbag.

At first, he found it a little strange.

On Tuesday morning, when he unzipped his backpack, two oranges rolled out. He thought his mom had put them in there and didn't pay much attention.

Three more appeared on Wednesday. They were in excellent condition, round and plump, with a shiny surface, clearly indicating that they had been selected.

Song Huan picked up the oranges and examined them, and then she roughly knew what they were.

He remembered.

In her past life, Lin Yue told him that her family was very poor when she was a child. They lived in the cheapest rental rooms in urban villages, and sometimes even getting enough to eat was a problem.

On those days, sharing food with others was a particularly meaningful and solemn thing for her.

She doesn't just give to anyone.

The person she's willing to share her favorite things with must be someone she's truly committed to.

Oranges are her favorite fruit.

When she said those words in her past life, Song Huan didn't take them seriously.

By then they'd all grown up, so what's a few oranges?

But her eyes were red when she said this. She said that when she was little, her father brought back three oranges from outside. She ate half of one, but couldn't bear to eat the rest. She left it for three days, and it eventually rotted. She cried for a long time.

Song Huan didn't say anything.

On Thursday, in front of Lin Yue, he took out an orange, peeled it bit by bit, and put the orange segments into his mouth.

He glanced behind him out of the corner of his eye.

Lin Yue was sitting two rows away, pretending to be reading a book, but her eyes secretly glanced over and saw Song Huan eating an orange. Her lips twitched as if she wanted to laugh, but she held it back and quickly lowered her head, her ears turning red.

After finishing the orange, Song Huan unconsciously smiled slightly.

"Why did you buy oranges again?" Xiao Yunqing asked curiously as she sat next to her.

She looked at the second orange in Song Huan's hand with a hint of inquiry in her eyes.

"Do you want one?" Song Huan took one out and handed it to her.

Xiao Yunqing didn't stand on ceremony and took it, peeled it, and started eating.

She ate the orange very quickly, peeling it clean in no time, breaking off a segment and putting it in her mouth. After chewing it a couple of times, her brows furrowed slightly.

"It's a little sour."

"Is it sour?" Song Huan also ate a slice. "It's alright."

Xiao Yunqing glanced at him, then at the orange in her hand, said nothing more, and continued eating.

For the next few days, oranges continued to appear in Song Huan's schoolbag every day.

Sometimes there are two, sometimes three, and occasionally four. Each one is carefully selected, round and plump, with not a single bad one.

Song Huan always ate in front of Lin Yue, deliberately eating very slowly, breaking the orange segments one by one, as if she were savoring something precious.

Every time Lin Yue saw him finish the last orange, a smile would involuntarily appear on her face.

The smile was very light and faint, as if she had secretly breathed a sigh of relief, or as if she had received some kind of confirmation, making her feel a little more at ease.

Sometimes Xiao Yunqing would ask him for one, and Song Huan would give it to her. She wouldn't take more than one, just one, and wouldn't comment on it after eating it.

Once, after Song Huan finished eating an orange and went to throw away the peel, she passed by Lin Yue's seat and Lin Yue suddenly looked up and whispered, "Was it sweet today?"

Song Huan paused for a moment, then nodded. "Sweet."

Lin Yue laughed.

In the afternoon light, that smile was as clean as a freshly peeled orange segment.

The last period on Friday afternoon is physical education class.

The September sun still carried the lingering heat of late summer, and the playground was sweltering, with the rubber track emitting a faint smell from the heat.

The PE teacher blew his whistle twice, had everyone run two laps to warm up, and then announced free time. The boys roared and rushed to the basketball court, while the girls scattered in twos and threes. Some went to sit and chat under the shade of the trees, while others took badminton rackets and swung them around in the open space.

Song Huan held the ball and played half a game with a few boys.

He was in good form today, making two mid-range shots in a row. His teammates patted him on the shoulder and shouted "Good shot!" Sweat dripped down his forehead. He took off his school uniform jacket and threw it under the basketball hoop, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt, and continued to run and catch the ball.

Halfway through the game, he stood up straight, panting, wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve, and glanced casually at the playground.

On the steps by the playground, Xiao Yunqing was sitting with several girls.

She was holding a bottle of water, tilting her head to listen to the girl next to her, nodding occasionally and smiling sometimes.

Sunlight fell on her high ponytail, creating a soft halo around it.

Someone handed her a bag of snacks, and she reached out and took a piece. Her movements were natural and casual. The girls around her were all very close to her when they talked to her, as if they had a very good relationship.

Song Huan's gaze continued to sweep towards the edge of the playground.

Then he saw Lin Yue.

She sat alone under the old banyan tree at the far end of the playground, leaning against the trunk, her legs curled up, and her hands hugging her knees.

The commotion around her had nothing to do with her.

The place where the girls were chatting was far away from her, as if there was an invisible wall separating them.

Occasionally, someone would pass by her without stopping or glancing in her direction.

Two people walked past her. After a few steps, one of them turned back and glanced at her, then whispered something in the other's ear. The two of them then walked away together.

Lin Yue just sat there.

She was looking down, drawing something on the ground with her finger, but it was impossible to make out what she was drawing.

A gust of wind blew, ruffling the stray hairs on her forehead. She reached up and brushed them aside, then continued to lower her head.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling her skin. It should have been warm, but the scene looked cool.

Song Huan knew what was going on.

These past few days, someone in the class has been spreading rumors about Lin Yue's mother.

At first, it was just a few girls whispering about it behind each other's backs, but somehow it spread wider and wider, with more and more versions emerging.

Some say her mother was a homewrecker who broke up someone else's family; some say she never had a father; some say the place she lives in now is dilapidated and dirty.

As these words spread, Lin Yue became an oddity among the girls in the class.

No one wanted to get too close to her, as if talking to her too much would mean catching something bad from her.

A few days ago, when they were doing their assigned cleaning duties, the two girls in her group went directly to the homeroom teacher and said they wanted to switch groups. Gao Xiao asked why, and they stammered and couldn't give a decent reason, but their attitude was very firm.

In the end, Gao Xiao said no with a stern face, and the two girls reluctantly went back. However, they didn't say a word to Lin Yue the whole time they were doing their chores.

From then on, Lin Yue became even more silent.

Song Huan stood on the court, glanced at it, and sighed inwardly.

He turned back to continue playing, but his luck suddenly turned sour, and he missed the basket twice in a row.

His teammates called for him to pass the ball, which he did. Then he stepped back to the three-point line and glanced at the banyan tree again.

Lin Yue remained in the same position.

I couldn't see the expression on her face because she was too far away.

But Song Huan could imagine it.

He remembered that Lin Yue had told him in his previous life that she had always been like this since she was a child.

When she was in elementary school, someone in her class spread rumors about her family, and overnight all the girls in the class stopped playing with her.

She sat alone in the last row of the classroom. During breaks, she would lie on her desk and pretend to be asleep, but she wasn't actually asleep. She was just afraid that if she opened her eyes, she wouldn't know who to talk to.

She said it felt like being forgotten by the whole world.

Song Huan wiped his sweat and played two more rounds. His teammates were playing with great enthusiasm, but he was bumped during a rebound attempt. He lost his grip on the ball, and it rolled out of bounds.

His teammates ran to retrieve the ball, and Song Huan straightened up and looked towards the banyan tree again.

Lin Yue has disappeared.

The area under the tree was empty, with only a few fallen leaves swirling on the ground in the wind.

Song Huan paused for a moment, then glanced around the playground.

No.

There wasn't one near the basketball court.

There was nothing on the runway.

There aren't any at the badminton court either.

He tugged at the hem of his jersey, dusted himself off, and said to his teammate, "I'm going to buy a bottle of water, I'm dying of thirst."

"Please bring me one!"

"OK."

Song Huan walked towards the convenience store. There was a shortcut from the playground to the store; it was just around the row of low buildings behind the equipment room.

That road is sparsely populated and rarely used because it's surrounded by walls on both sides, narrow, and shady. Even at midday, it feels chilly to walk there.

He had just reached the corner of the equipment room when he suddenly stopped.

Lin Yue was squatting about ten meters ahead.

She didn't see him.

She squatted on the ground, her knees on the cement pavement, and her school uniform pants were covered in dust at the knees.

She was wearing a school uniform that had faded a bit from washing, with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, revealing a slender, white arm.

Her hair fell down from her ears, covering half of her face, but on the half of her face that could be seen, her expression was extremely focused, her lips were slightly pursed, and the look in her eyes was as gentle as a thin layer of mist.

There was a cat in front of her.

A small, thin orange cat, looking only a few months old, with dirty fur covered in mud and grass clippings, and a few tufts of fur stuck together on its back.

The most noticeable feature is its left foreleg, where there is a wound at the base of the leg. It is not deep, but it is oozing blood, which has stained the surrounding fur dark red.

The kitten curled up in a ball, trembling, its two round eyes bright and frightening. It kept shrinking its body into the corner behind it, making weak meows. The sound was thin and hoarse, as if it had been meowing for a long time and could no longer make any more noise.

Lin Yue stretched out her hand, moving very slowly, so slowly that it was almost impossible to see her moving forward.

She spread her fingers slightly, palm up, and slowly offered the food to the kitten, as if afraid of startling it.

"Don't be afraid...don't be afraid..."

She spoke softly, her voice as light as a breeze.

"I won't touch you, I'll just look..."

She slowly extended her finger forward a little, then stopped, waiting for the kitten's reaction.

The kitten shrank back a little, then stopped and remained there, her finger hovering in the air, waiting patiently.

"Are you in a lot of pain?"

She looked at the wound on the kitten's leg, her brows furrowed, and the light in her eyes flickered.

"Who did this... how could they be so mean..."