Lin Ruoxi had hidden it in such a secret place. She must not want anyone to see it, even though it was highly unlikely anyone would visit her home.
"I have to look! How am I supposed to save her if I don't?" Xue Rui hesitated for only a moment before flipping open the diary.
But the contents were a far cry from what he had imagined.
There were no stories inside, just a dry, boring ledger. The neat, elegant script was tainted by the stench of money.
June 23: Helped Uncle Li Baoquan's family with weeding. Uncle Li gave me an extra 50 yuan.
June 29: Picked vegetables. Aunt Yang gave me an extra 100 yuan.
...
Entry after entry recorded instances of people overpaying her for her labor. She was probably planning to pay them back later.
'I bet some people underpaid her. Why wouldn't she write that down?' Xue Rui sighed.
However, one line of numbers had a completely different format: Aunt Zhang, 30,000-200-1,000-20…
Judging from this line, Lin Ruoxi probably owed Aunt Zhang money. Each time she made a payment, she would subtract it from the total.
'Thirty thousand yuan? That's not a lot.'
Xue Rui put the diary back where he found it and decided to go use the outhouse.
It was already dark out. Xue Rui happened to see a flashlight on Lin Ruoxi's desk, so he grabbed it and went outside.
He flicked the switch, but the flashlight emitted ultraviolet light, making many things in the courtyard glow with a faint, eerie white light.
"Huh? This isn't a regular flashlight?" Curious, Xue Rui shone the light around. He'd seen villagers use these to catch scorpions.
Following the beam of UV light, he noticed two round, glowing spots in a crack in the wall of Lin Ruoxi's house. Moving closer, he saw they were two eggs, each about the size of his pinky nail.
'What kind of eggs are these?'
Xue Rui was curious. After watching for a while and seeing that the owner of the eggs wasn't around, he reached out a finger to try and fish them out for a closer look.
"Fuck!" he yelped, a full-throated curse.
Something had pricked Xue Rui's finger. A piercing pain shot through him. He was getting instant karma for trying to steal the eggs.
Enduring the pain, Xue Rui peered inside again. A scorpion was raising its two pincers, its tail curled up, looking menacing.
And a tiny red dot had appeared on his finger.
"Damn it, how can I be so unlucky," Xue Rui cursed.
"What's wrong?" Lin Ruoxi came running over in a panic.
"I got stung by a scorpion."
Sweat beaded on Xue Rui's forehead from the pain. It was his first time being stung by a scorpion, and he never imagined it would hurt so much. It came with an intense burning sensation, far more painful than a wasp sting.
He instinctively pulled out his phone, intending to look up what to do for a scorpion sting and ask the all-knowing internet for help.
"What the..." As it turned out, he pulled out a Nokia.
Just as Xue Rui was at a loss for what to do, Lin Ruoxi grabbed his finger, gently bit down, and he felt a warm, sucking pressure.
Xue Rui froze. 'What kind of treatment is this?' But it did seem to be helping quite a bit.
Once he calmed down, he realized Lin Ruoxi was trying to ease the pain and stop the venom from spreading.
But Lin Ruoxi didn't seem nearly as nervous as he was. 'Could it be this girl has been stung before, too?'
"Have you ever been stung before?" Xue Rui asked, curious.
Unable to speak, Lin Ruoxi simply nodded lightly.
They stayed in that position for a long time before Lin Ruoxi finally let go. "You... just bear with it. The pain will fade soon."
Xue Rui valued his life dearly, so he immediately called his uncle, who was a doctor.
"Hello? Uncle, I got stung by a scorpion. Do I need to go to the hospital?"
"Xiaorui? You got stung by a scorpion? Is there any swelling or dizziness?"
"No, not really."
"If you're not having a reaction, then don't bother coming. Just drink plenty of water. By the time you got to the hospital, you'd probably be fine anyway."
"But it hurts!"
"Look at it this way: scorpion venom is good for you. It's used in traditional medicine to clear the body's channels. Who knows, maybe getting stung will open your mind and even help you get better grades."
"..."
Xue Rui hung up, fuming. His family's favoritism toward girls was completely out of hand!
If his sister had been the one stung, his uncle would have already sent a car to pick her up instead of spouting such unhelpful nonsense.
"I... I'm sorry," Lin Ruoxi apologized, lowering her head.
Xue Rui gave a bitter smile. "It's not like you're the one who stung me. What are you apologizing for?"
Lin Ruoxi didn't know what to do. 'If Xue Rui hadn't come to my house, he wouldn't have been stung.'
She reached out her slender fingers and skillfully grabbed the menacing scorpion.
"Hey!" Xue Rui started to object, only to see that Lin Ruoxi already had the scorpion firmly in her grasp.
"..."
'Catching a scorpion with her bare hands?' The word "badass" was the only thing in Xue Rui's mind. He instinctively took a step back, terrified of getting stung again.
"Do you... want to step on it to let off some steam?" Lin Ruoxi asked tentatively.
The first time she was stung, she had also been angry. Her grandmother had deep-fried the scorpion and fed it to her.
Seeing the scorpion dead made her feel less angry.
"I just want to know what kind of eggs those were."
Xue Rui asked, pointing at the two eggs. If it hadn't been for his curiosity, he wouldn't have brought this trouble upon himself.
"Gecko eggs," Lin Ruoxi replied without hesitation.
Seeing that Xue Rui had no intention of killing the scorpion, Lin Ruoxi pinched it by the tail and went inside.
Curious, Xue Rui followed her, watching as Lin Ruoxi dropped the scorpion into a large glass jar.
The jar was already more than half full of scorpions.
"You caught all of these?" Xue Rui asked in amazement.
"Mhm... A pound of them can sell for several hundred yuan."
A glimmer of joy flashed in Lin Ruoxi's eyes. The jar was almost full.
In the span of a single day, Xue Rui's perception of this girl had changed dramatically once again.
At school, she seemed so timid and meek, but back in the village, Lin Ruoxi was like the king of the neighborhood kids, seemingly possessing a little bit of every skill imaginable.
Moreover, this girl had taken subsistence farming to its absolute limit—growing vegetables, raising poultry, helping others with their farm work, and even living off the mountain by catching scorpions to sell for cash.
It was no wonder she was so thin. All her energy was spent on these tasks.
And despite all that, her grades were still at the top of her class, which made Xue Rui feel thoroughly inadequate by comparison.
"Now *this* is a goddamn 'model child'," Xue Rui exclaimed, grabbing Lin Ruoxi's hand.
Lin Ruoxi's hands were slender and soft, her fingers long and fair. But the pads of her fingers had faint, yellowish calluses—the product of constant hard labor.
"What a waste," Xue Rui said, his expression full of pity.
Such a beautiful pair of hands. If she kept on like this, her knuckles would eventually grow thick and her fingers would become deformed, losing their current beauty.
Lin Ruoxi tried to pull her hand away, but she was no match for Xue Rui's strength. Only when he had stared his fill did he finally let go.
"I read your diary," Xue Rui announced brazenly, showing no signs of guilt for his shameless behavior.
Lin Ruoxi looked surprised at first, then murmured, "Oh..."
"You're too quiet. When someone does something you don't like, you have to chew them out."
"My teacher said... cursing is bad," Lin Ruoxi said in a small voice.
Xue Rui pinched her cheek. 'Anyone who pisses off Lin Ruoxi,' he thought, 'is basically trying to fight a pillow...'
"So what's the deal with that Aunt Zhang? Do you owe her money?" Xue Rui asked.
"My grandmother had surgery last year, and Aunt Zhang lent me thirty thousand yuan," Lin Ruoxi explained. "Tomorrow... I have to go to her place to pick fruit."
"How much does she pay you for a day's work?"
"Thirty."
"How much?" Xue Rui asked again.