After returning to the village, Li Rui purchased another ten intelligence agents through the system, spending 20 million yuan. He named them Zhao Yi through Zhao Shi, then sent them to investigate the forces behind Gu Tianlong.
If there were even more powerful people behind Gu Tianlong, they would definitely come looking for trouble with him again. Rather than remain passive, he might as well take the initiative, find the trouble, and resolve it.
Li Rui also called Li Wu and told him to warn Ximen Jin, the one harassing Li Ru. If he dared harass Li Rui's younger cousin again, Li Wu was to break his damn legs. Ximen Jin? Just hearing that name, he didn't sound like a good person.
While Li Rui had the intelligence agents investigate the forces behind Gu Tianlong, Gu Yuanshan viciously smashed a teacup from the tea tray onto the floor inside a luxurious villa in Star City.
"Investigate! Find out exactly what that brat's background is! He dared cripple my son! I want him dead! I want his whole family dead!" His furious roars left everyone present as silent as cicadas in winter.
After returning to school, Li Ru and Li Tai went back to their respective dorm rooms. The other students were still in class, and Li Ru sorted through the small portion of the clothes her older cousin had bought her that day, happier than she had ever been.
Even the cheapest clothes cost over a thousand yuan, and the dress she was wearing cost 48,000. The most expensive piece of clothing she had ever bought before was something costing a little over a hundred yuan three years ago. She had never imagined she could wear such beautiful, expensive clothes. Thinking of her cousin Li Rui, Li Ru's smile was as radiant as a sunflower in full bloom.
And the Huawie phone in her hand, worth over ten thousand yuan-there probably weren't more than a few people in her entire class who had one, were there?
Only after trying on clothes in the dorm room for half an hour did Li Ru finish trying on everything she had brought back. Just then, the other students finished class and returned to the dorm.
There were eight girls in Li Ru's dorm room, and Chen Qianxue was one of them. After their last class, the students returned one after another. Chen Qianxue, who was in front, pushed open the door and saw Li Ru sitting on her bed, along with the shopping bags piled all over it.
Li Ru saw Chen Qianxue too and greeted her first with a smile. "Qianxue, you're back."
Chen Qianxue froze for a moment, then hurried over. "Xiao Ru, are you okay? How can you still be smiling? I just heard about that huge brawl outside the school gates today. Was Gu Mengqi's brother giving you trouble? You weren't hurt, were you?"
Hearing Chen Qianxue's concern, Li Ru reassured her with a smile. "It's all right now, Qianxue. My cousin Li Rui took care of everything."
"Your cousin took care of it? Gu Mengqi's brother has over a hundred men under him. How did your cousin handle that?" Chen Qianxue asked skeptically.
"My cousin owns a security company..." Li Ru then told Chen Qianxue what she had witnessed.
Hearing that Li Ru's cousin had summoned two hundred men, Chen Qianxue was stunned. She had thought her cousin was just an ordinary farmer, never expecting him to have so much power.
"Xiao Ru, your cousin runs a security company? How come you never mentioned it before?"
"I didn't know before either. I only heard about it from my mom today. My cousin had only been back in the village a few days when he put up 50 million yuan to renovate the ancestral hall, establish a family ancestral hall, and set up a family fund. Oh, right, he also set up academic scholarships."
"Academic scholarships? What are those for?" Chen Qianxue asked in puzzlement, like a curious child.
"I'm not too sure about the details either. I only heard my mom say that if I get into a Project 985 university, the family's academic scholarship will give me 10 million yuan. For a Project 211 university, it's 5 million. For Huaqing or Jing University, it's 15 million. If I get into Dragon Country National University of Defense Technology, it's 20 million."
"What?!" Before Chen Qianxue beside her could react, the other six girls who had just returned to the dorm cried out first.
"Twenty million? Li Ru, do you know what twenty million means? Are you the one bragging, or is it your cousin?" one girl mocked snidely.
"Exactly. How is that possible? Five million just for getting into a Project 211 university? Why even bother studying after that? You wouldn't have to worry about anything."
"Yeah, exactly. My parents run a business and only make two or three million a year. Ten or twenty million as a reward for getting into a university? That's bragging so hard you'll burst the cowhide."
Li Ru looked at the three of them without replying. Although they shared a dorm room, she had never gotten along well with them. All three came from comfortable families, with even the lowest annual household income running well into the hundreds of thousands. Naturally, they looked down on a farmer's daughter like her, who could not even afford clothes.
Li Ru was good-tempered and said nothing, but Chen Qianxue would not indulge them. She immediately shot back, "What does it have to do with you? Who asked you to believe it?"
Chen Qianxue's family was very well-off, with assets worth over a hundred million yuan, but she did not think even her father could produce twenty million in cash, let alone for what Li Ru called an academic scholarship.
So she did not believe it herself either. After all, she had known Li Ru for nearly three years. If her family were that powerful, how could they have let even food and clothes become a problem for her? But with people mocking her good friend, she would certainly support her unconditionally.
The thought of buying clothes suddenly made Chen Qianxue notice that she had never seen Li Ru wear this dress before. It was also very new, worlds apart from the clothes Li Ru used to wear, washed until they faded white.
"Xiao Ru, did you buy new clothes?" Chen Qianxue asked in surprise.
"Mm-hmm. My cousin bought them for me. Pretty, aren't they?" At the mention of her cousin, Li Ru smiled involuntarily, her captivating, big Carslan eyes nearly narrowing into slits.
Hearing Li Ru's confirmation, Chen Qianxue examined the dress more closely. She seemed to have seen it somewhere before. After thinking for a moment, her eyes suddenly widened. "Is this that dress from the women's clothing boutique in Qianda Plaza?"
Li Ru paused, wondering how her good friend knew, then answered with a beaming smile, "Yes. Qianxue, how did you know?"
Chen Qianxue did not answer Li Ru's question. Naturally, she knew because she had gone to look at it too, but she could not afford it with the allowance her father gave her.
Instead, she asked Li Ru, "If I remember correctly, this dress costs something like 48,000, doesn't it? Your cousin treats you so well."
"Mm-hmm. My cousin bought me over a million yuan's worth of clothes today. This is only a small portion. Most of them will be delivered to me later. He also bought me Weihua's latest phone." Beaming, she picked up the phone and waved it. Li Ru had smiled more today than she had in the past ten years.
Hisses of sharply indrawn breath came from all six roommates listening nearby, including the three who had just been mocking Li Ru.
Those three came from well-off families, so they had often browsed luxury clothing stores like that. When Chen Qianxue said the dress Li Ru was wearing cost 48,000, they had taken a closer look too and knew it was true. Only now did they believe that what Li Ru said might be true.
If that was the case, Li Ru's family was not one they could afford to offend, casually buying over a million yuan's worth of clothes for a student.
Then producing ten or twenty million as scholarships for the family's younger generation was not impossible either. A family like that probably had assets worth over ten billion. At that thought, they immediately grew somewhat fearful, afraid they might bring trouble upon their own families.
Afterward, as her roommates spread the word, the entire class learned that Li Ru, the formerly poor student, had a cousin who could summon over two hundred men and a wealthy family that could offer tens of millions in exam scholarships. From then on, no one dared bully Li Ru or Li Tai again. Instead, people trying to flatter and curry favor with them were as numerous as crucian carp crossing a river.