Buying a home

After eating the large lobsters and king crabs his sister had prepared, Li Rui took four bodyguards and his sister's family out in two Land Rover Range Rovers to rent a home. He had the bodyguards drive all the other vehicles back to the Sun Grand Hotel.

In the car, Li Xiaoshuang asked, "Xiao Rui, where are we going to rent a place?"

"Sis, I'm planning to buy a home. Why don't you come take a look with me first?"

"Huh? Xiao Rui, what made you think of buying a home in Star City? Weren't you planning to develop your business back home?"

"Sis, housing prices here in Star City aren't expensive. Even if I don't live here often and only come over to have fun occasionally, buying a place is fine. Just consider it an investment."

"Well... all right. It's not like you're short of money now anyway. You've already spent nearly a hundred million on cars." Li Xiaoshuang rolled her eyes at her younger brother. What a spendthrift.

"Hehe, Sis, I have five supercars, worth over 250 million in total." The moment those show-off words left his mouth, the car fell silent. Li Xiaoshuang and her husband were too shocked to speak. Seeing her parents sitting speechless with their mouths slightly open, Yiyi copied them and parted her lips slightly too. She looked as adorable as could be.

"Y-you... Xiao Rui, just how much money have you made? What did you do to earn it?"

"I just invested in some Bitcoin, futures, and foreign stocks. Not much, just a few tens of billions." Inwardly, though, he thought that once the system-rewarded super new energy technology industrial park was completed and began production and sales, it might not take long before he could earn over a hundred billion a year, even without system rewards.

Just a few tens of billions? Was that something a human would say? If anyone else had said that, Li Xiaoshuang would have cursed him for showing off. But what could she do when he was her own younger brother?

"Aah!" Zhang Huaiyuan suddenly cried out in pain, startling Li Rui.

"Honey, why are you pinching me? That hurt like hell!" Zhang Huaiyuan rubbed his thigh and turned sideways to ask Li Xiaoshuang.

"Nothing. I just wanted to see whether I was dreaming."

Zhang Huaiyuan: ...

I've heard of Bitcoin. At its peak, it rose several millionfold. Foreign financial futures could be especially profitable too. Maybe Xiao Rui really was a financial genius.

"Our Xiao Rui is a genius. How else could he have made tens of billions?" Li Xiaoshuang, who had been disbelieving just moments ago, now affirmed her brother's talent with pride all over her face.

"Yes, yes, yes." Zhang Huaiyuan nodded repeatedly in agreement too. This brother-in-law of his was truly incredible. He had made tens of billions in finance just three years after graduating from university. Genius was no longer enough to describe him. He was simply a monster.

"All right, Xiao Rui. Since you have so much money, buying a home is nothing. I happen to have a good friend who sells homes here in Star City. If you buy through her, you might even get a bit of a discount."

"Sure, Sis. Let's pull over, and you can call her and ask."

"Okay," Li Xiaoshuang agreed, taking out her phone to call her good friend.

The phone rang only briefly before someone answered.

"Hello, Shuangshuang. Has Yiyi recovered?" A somewhat brisk, capable-sounding female voice came from the other end.

"Yes, yes, Yiyi's better! She was just discharged today. Manxiang, thank you for lending me that fifty thousand yuan. I'm calling today for two reasons. First, I want to meet you and pay you back. Second, I want to buy a home through you," Li Xiaoshuang said cheerfully.

"Really? Yiyi's recovered? Thank Heaven for watching over her. As long as she's better... But didn't Yiyi's treatment cost a lot? Where did you get the money to pay me back?" The voice on the other end went from delighted surprise to confusion.

"My younger brother paid for Yiyi's treatment. Anyway, I have the money to pay you back now. Do you want it or not? If you don't, I won't pay you back!" Li Xiaoshuang joked.

"Your brother paid? Didn't your brother only graduate from university three years ago? Where would he get the money to give you? Stop fooling me."

"I'm not fooling you. Give me your address and I'll come see you. My brother happens to want to buy a home."

"Aren't your stories getting more and more far-fetched? Even if the development we're selling isn't the most expensive in Star City, it's still in the top ten. It's over forty thousand per square meter, and even the smallest home costs four million. What did your brother do to afford a home like that?" The person on the other end clearly did not believe Li Xiaoshuang.

"Fine, fine. Just take what I said as a joke. Tell me where you are. Yiyi was discharged today, so I'll bring her over to see you. That's okay, right?"

"That's fine, but I can't get off work until five thirty."

"Okay. What's the address?"

"The Xiang River Loulan sales hall."

Their conversation ended, and after the call was disconnected, Li Rui drove toward the Xiang River Loulan sales hall at the address she had given.

Inside the Xiang River Loulan sales hall, a woman of twenty-six or twenty-seven saw Gu Manxiang, who had been gossiping with her just a short while ago, hang up the phone. She asked curiously, "Who called you?"

"A good friend of mine. Her daughter was discharged today, and she's coming over to see me," Gu Manxiang explained.

"Oh, I see. I thought I heard her say she was coming to buy a home. I thought she was your client and was getting excited for you."

"My friend was just joking. She spent a lot on her daughter's treatment. How could she have money to buy a home? She said her brother wanted to buy one, but that's even less likely. Her brother only graduated from university three years ago."

"True. Our homes here certainly aren't cheap. The off-plan homes have sat on sale until they became completed homes. But that's no surprise. Ordinary people can't afford homes here. I've only sold two this month."

"Oh, count your blessings. I haven't sold a single one this month. If I don't close a sale soon, even my base salary will be cut in half," Gu Manxiang sighed.

Twenty-odd minutes later, Li Rui and the others arrived by car at the Xiang River Loulan sales office. It certainly lived up to its reputation as one of Star City's top ten developments. The sales office was incomparably grand. No wonder the homes cost forty thousand per square meter.

An image-presenting security guard inside a glass booth in front of the sales office saw the two Land Rover Range Rovers pull into parking spaces. He immediately opened the door and waved to signal the welcoming security guards at the sales office entrance.

Seeing this, four or five guards hurried over with umbrellas and held them over Li Rui and the others. Each Land Rover Range Rover cost 1.3 million, and with the addition of four exceptionally presentable bodyguards, anyone with eyes could tell that this group definitely had the means to buy a home. Naturally, the guards' service was exceptionally attentive.

After telling Li Yi and the other three to wait in the cars, Li Rui and the others enjoyed the attentive service as they followed the guards into the sales hall.

Gu Manxiang, who was leaning back in an armchair, saw a group walk in. Taking a closer look, wasn't one of them her good friend Li Xiaoshuang?

Heavens, this good friend hadn't told her to come outside to meet her, and had even had the guards escort her in under umbrellas. If the sales director found out she was only a friend coming to visit her, she would get scolded to death.

At that thought, Gu Manxiang quickly stood up. But someone moved faster than her: a middle-aged man in glasses who was closer to the entrance.

As Gu Manxiang rose, she saw someone heading toward the entrance faster than she was. Once she got a clear look at who it was, her heart trembled. It's over, it's over. Director Liu's gone over. She was definitely going to get scolded. But what could she do at this point? She could only steel herself and walk toward Li Xiaoshuang and the others.

"Hehe, hello. I'm Liu Wenbin, the sales director of Xiang River Loulan. Are you all here to view homes?"

As a sales director, Liu Wenbin would not ordinarily visit the sales office often. Recently, however, sales at the Xiang River Loulan development had been too miserable to look at, and he was under considerable pressure from above. He had therefore come to the sales office to see just what was going on, and happened to encounter Li Rui and the others.

Li Rui was just about to answer when Gu Manxiang, hurrying over, spoke first.