Rebirth: My Home Has Become a Gathering Place for Young Women with a "Crazy" Spirit

Qin Lang glanced at Xu Han's departing figure, a slight smile appearing on his lips. Then he turned to look at Wu Xiaoxiao, the smile vanishing instantly. "Put your card in."

Wu Xiaoxiao quickly opened the SIM card slot and inserted her own card. She turned it on, the signal was full, she connected to Wi-Fi, and tried it...it worked.

"Call your mom and tell her you're coming home today," Qin Lang said sternly, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Wu Xiaoxiao's smile instantly froze, replaced by a bitter expression. "Go home? Go which home?"

"Your home. Your mother's home." Qin Lang looked at her, like an adult instructing a child, "You've been out here for so many days, your mother must be worried sick at home. Don't you have to go back and let her know you're safe? How can she feel at ease if she doesn't see you with her own eyes?"

Wu Xiaoxiao stood there holding her phone, looking aggrieved, and pouted as she said, "But...but if I go back, my mom definitely won't let me come out again."

"Then don't come out." Qin Lang looked at her and said sternly, "You have to go home today so your mother can see you."

Seeing that her cousin was serious, Wu Xiaoxiao's mind raced. She quickly put her phone in her pocket, walked over, grabbed Qin Lang's arm with both hands, and nuzzled his face against it, her voice as soft as cotton candy: "Brother, dear brother, you've always been the best to me since we were little. Please come back with me. Just say a few good words to my mom, tell her you're taking me to do something serious, not just mess around. My mom trusts you the most; she believes everything you say. Please, please say something for me, please..."

Qin Lang was shaken so badly that he stumbled two steps to the side, giving him the illusion that he was being pampered by a large canine.

"Alright, stop shaking me." Qin Lang shook off her hand, rubbing his shoulders that were sore from being shaken. "I'll go back with you."

However, Qin Lang decided to go along, not mainly to speak well of Wu Xiaoxiao. He suddenly realized that he hadn't seen his aunt and uncle for a long time and should visit them.

When he was a child, his parents were busy with work, so they often sent him to live with his aunt. His aunt's family was not well-off; they lived in a self-built house in an urban village, consisting of two single-story rooms and a small courtyard. But his aunt never let him suffer any hardship.

At that time, my uncle was not yet paralyzed. He was a strong man who carried bricks and cement on the construction site and could earn more than 100 yuan a day. I would always secretly slip him five yuan to buy snacks.

Later, his parents were in a car accident, and overnight, his world collapsed. Not long after, his uncle fell from scaffolding, fracturing his spine and becoming paralyzed from the waist down, and his aunt's world collapsed as well.

From then on, both families struggled in their own abysses...

Qin Lang shook his head, suppressing his surging emotions, and said to Wu Xiaoxiao, "Pack your things, we'll be leaving in a bit."

Wu Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up instantly, and she jumped up excitedly, saying, "Really?! Brother, you're the best brother in the entire universe! No one else comes close! I'm telling you!"

"Don't be too happy yet." Qin Lang reached out and tapped her forehead with his finger. This time he didn't flick it, he just tapped it. "I won't spoil you like your aunt and uncle do. If you misbehave in the future, I won't be polite."

"Brother, don't worry, I'll definitely listen to you. From now on, if you say east, I'll never go west; if you say to beat a dog, I'll never chase a chicken; if you say the earth is flat, I'll immediately go find you pictures of four corners! I swear..."

"Alright, enough of this nonsense, let's go." Qin Lang picked up his phone from the coffee table, greeted the three people in the living room, and said, "I'm going home with her, we might not be back tonight."

Su Yue leaned halfway out from the sofa: "Okay, Brother Lang, be careful on the road."

Xu Han sat in the corner of the sofa, holding the half-finished cola in her hand. Her gaze swept over the novel and landed on Qin Lang. Qin Lang nodded slightly to her, as if to say goodbye.

Xu Han did not respond and lowered his head to continue reading the novel.

After leaving the residential area, Qin Lang stood by the roadside and hailed a car using his phone. Wu Xiaoxiao stood next to him, looking down at the iPhone 6 that Xu Han had given her, examining it over and over as if it were a priceless treasure.

The taxi arrived; it was a Volkswagen Jetta, the paint on the body was a bit chipped, but it was very clean. The driver was a man in his fifties, with dark skin, and wearing white cotton gloves.

"Where to?" The driver, an older man, rubbed his face with an olive pit bracelet in his left hand, glanced at the two of them through the car window, and asked in a thick Liaobei accent.

"Wu Family Lane, a village within the city of Nancheng." Qin Lang opened the back door and let Wu Xiaoxiao get in first, then sat in the passenger seat himself.

The driver glanced at Wu Xiaoxiao in the back seat through the rearview mirror, then at Qin Lang beside her, his eyes holding that subtle, calculating look typical of taxi drivers. He didn't ask any questions, turned on the meter, and merged into traffic.

To get to Wujia Lane in the urban village, you have to go through the old town. It's not a short journey; even without traffic, it takes about forty minutes. After the car gets onto the main road, the scenery outside the window gradually changes from brand-new high-rise residential buildings to old houses full of historical charm. The shops along the road also change from chain brands to various small shops without signs, selling all kinds of things: general stores, hardware stores, breakfast stalls, and auto repair shops, one after another.

The driver turned on the music and played a very old song, Xu Wei's "Blue Lotus." As soon as the guitar intro started, the driver's fingers began to tap lightly on the steering wheel in rhythm.

Qin Lang, feeling bored, glanced at the driver. He noticed that the driver's hands were rough, with black grime that couldn't be washed off under his fingernails, but the rhythm with which his hands tapped the steering wheel was precise, not like he was just randomly playing around.

"Master, did you work in music before?" Qin Lang asked casually.

The driver paused for a moment, then smiled, revealing teeth yellowed from years of smoking. "Young man, you're very observant. I played guitar for a few years when I was younger, even in bars, but I quit later."

"Why did you quit?" Wu Xiaoxiao, sitting in the back seat, leaned over like a curious child. "Playing music is so cool, why did you quit?"

The middle-aged man glanced at her in the rearview mirror, smiled, but didn't answer. He turned up the volume of the car's music a little, just enough for him to hear the passengers without seeming overt.

Qin Lang didn't ask any more questions; he wasn't one to pry into other people's privacy. Wu Xiaoxiao stuck out her tongue but didn't press the matter further.

The car continued driving, passing through the old town's commercial streets, past a wholesale market, and turning onto an old road lined with plane trees on both sides. The plane trees' branches and leaves were so lush that they intertwined above the road, allowing almost no sunlight to penetrate.

Wu Xiaoxiao leaned against the car window, looking at the scenery outside, and suddenly said softly, "My dad took me this road when I was a child. The sycamore trees weren't this tall back then."

Qin Lang didn't speak, but he knew what Wu Xiaoxiao was thinking.

At that time, my uncle was not yet paralyzed, and the family lived in an urban village. Although they were not wealthy, they were happy.

Then everything changed. My uncle had an accident at the construction site, injuring his spine and losing sensation in his lower body. The contractor ran away, the site owner shirked responsibility, and the family had to pay all the medical expenses themselves. In the end, they didn't receive much compensation.

Her aunt single-handedly supported the entire family, running a small shop and caring for her paralyzed uncle. Wu Xiaoxiao didn't want to face this, so she started running away from home, associating with unsavory characters, using this method to escape...

The taxi had reached the boundary of the Nancheng urban village, where the asphalt road had been replaced by a cement road, and there were still many potholes.

The driver was a local and knew the area well. He drove the car through a maze of turns until he reached the entrance of Wujia Lane, then stopped and said, "You can't go any further. You'll have to walk in yourselves."

Qin Lang paid the fare, got out of the car, and glanced around. Before him were all old-style brick and tile houses; some had lost most of their white plaster, revealing the grayish-red bricks underneath. Overhead, power lines tangled and twisted like spiderwebs.

Wu Xiaoxiao jumped out of the car, took a deep breath of the air, and her expression was somewhat complicated.

"Let's go," Qin Lang said.

The two walked along the alley. The road surface was uneven, and in some places, there was still rainwater from several days ago.

An orange cat jumped down from the wall, a fat mouse in its mouth. It glanced at the two of them warily, as if afraid they would try to take its food, and then darted away.

Qin Lang walked in front, and Wu Xiaoxiao followed obediently behind. Perhaps because she was nervous, the girl was unusually quiet at this moment.

The two walked for a while longer, passing through an even narrower alley, until a small square appeared ahead. Calling it a square was a bit of a stretch; it was more of a relatively open space with a few old locust trees growing there. Several stone tables and benches beneath the trees were worn smooth and shiny. A few elderly people were sitting under the trees, enjoying the shade, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans, and chatting idly.

Qin Lang's gaze swept across the small square, and suddenly he stopped.

At the other end of the square, a man wearing a white short-sleeved shirt was walking out of the alley. The man looked to be about the same age as Qin Lang, about 1.78 meters tall, with a slender build. He wore silver-rimmed glasses and his hair was neatly combed, but one corner of his shirt was not tucked into his pants, probably because he was in such a hurry when he left that he forgot to tuck it in.

The man looked down at his phone and walked slowly toward the square.

The moment Qin Lang saw this person, his pupils contracted sharply.