"Xiao Rui, you're not lying to me, are you?" Li Yongzheng was a man, after all, and recovered fairly quickly from his shock before asking cautiously.
He had been a farmer his entire life and had once dreamed of striking it rich, but by his fifties, the blows of everyday reality had beaten every last trace of that dream out of him.
Now that dream seemed to have come true through his son, and he was afraid that speaking a little too loudly would wake him from it.
"Dad, if you don't believe me, just look at the text on my phone." When Li Rui told his parents he had ten billion, he had already instructed the system to transfer another nine billion into his bank account. The balance now showed over 9.96 billion.
Taking Li Rui's phone, Papa Li counted the digits in the text over and over. Once Mama Li recovered, she joined him in counting. Only after a full ten minutes, having counted them who knew how many times, did the two return the phone to Li Rui.
Looking at his parents, who seemed to have lost their souls all over again, Li Rui asked with a grin, "Mom, Dad, do you believe me now?"
"Xiao Rui, just what have you been doing these past few years? How could you have earned so much money?" Even after more than ten minutes, the shock had not faded from Wang Sumei's face. It was simply too much money. Never mind imagining it-she had never even dared dream of it.
Beside her, Li Yongzheng also looked at Li Rui with an expression that said, You'd better come clean, brat.
Li Rui then put himself into the financial trading history the system had modified and recounted it vividly to his parents. Whether they understood any of it, he had no idea.
They probably didn't. Stocks? Futures? Bitcoin? Virtual currencies? How many people in the countryside knew about any of those?
Naturally, Papa Li and Mama Li listened with baffled expressions, but it no longer mattered whether they understood. Seeing how coherently their son explained everything, there surely wasn't anything wrong with the money. Whether they understood was beside the point.
"Dad, now that we have money, I want to renovate the ancestral hall and reunite the clan." While Papa Li and Mama Li were still wondering how those things they couldn't understand could make so much money, they heard Li Rui's words.
Li Rui had planned to renovate the ancestral hall long ago. If he wanted to revitalize the clan and receive rewards, he had to give it a sense of unity again. How could a clan scattered like loose sand possibly be revitalized?
Renovating the ancestral hall was therefore essential. He had told his parents he had ten billion to gain their support, too. After all, renovating the ancestral hall would cost quite a lot.
"Renovate the ancestral hall? Xiao Rui, what made you think of renovating it?" Papa Li asked in puzzlement.
"Dad, hasn't renovating the ancestral hall always been your dream, too? I remember you telling me when I was little that the big wooden building behind the village was our clan's ancestral hall, and that our clan was once a renowned major clan here."
"It was only later that we fell on hard times and the clan lost its unity. You always said we should work hard to rise above the crowd, renovate the ancestral hall, and restore the clan's glory. I've remembered that all along."
To ordinary people, clans no longer held much significance. Ordinary people's clans had effectively disappeared; they existed in name alone, without unity, alive in name but dead in substance. As a result, many ancestral halls had fallen into disrepair, with no one to maintain them.
Li Rui's ancestral hall was no exception. When he was young, Papa Li had used talk of renovating the ancestral hall and restoring the clan's glory to motivate him to study hard.
But it had only been talk. Papa Li had never taken it seriously before. After all, renovating the ancestral hall would cost no small sum. To Li Rui now, however, that amount of money was hardly anything.
After thinking for a moment, Li Yongzheng said, "Xiao Rui, you've made something of yourself now. If you want to renovate the ancestral hall, you have my full support. As for exactly how to do it, we'll have to discuss it with the clan."
"All right, Dad. Let my eldest and second uncles know, then. We'll hold a clan meeting tomorrow and discuss rebuilding the ancestral hall."
"All right, I'll go see your eldest and second uncles now." With that, he took out one of the Dazhonghua cigarettes Li Rui had brought home and happily lit it.
At that moment, simply calling Li Yongzheng happy could no longer describe his mood. His son had earned ten billion in Dragon Country Currency-even the richest man in the county couldn't compare.
He had spent his whole life farming, his head bowed all his life, yet in his old age, he could still become the father of the county's richest man. At that thought, Li Yongzheng even swaggered as he walked. In a word, he was showing off.
Watching his father swagger off to find his eldest and second uncles, Li Rui felt happy, too. He had obtained the system and had more money than he could spend in a lifetime. Even without the system's rewards, anything was worth doing if it made his loved ones happy.
After chatting with his mother a little longer, Li Rui returned to his room. To reestablish the clan, he needed sufficient prestige.
Money was the most direct way to achieve that. In this day and age, as long as you had enough money and could bring others enough benefits, you would have enough prestige. Only then would your words carry the weight of gold and jade, and people would listen to you. And the impact of cash was always far greater than a string of digits.
Just as Li Rui was about to look up the Agricultural Bank of China's phone number to arrange a cash withdrawal for tomorrow, a call from an unfamiliar number came in.
Puzzled, Li Rui answered the phone. "Hello, Mr. Li. I'm Qin Baichuan, president of the Agricultural Bank of China in Chuning County. Is now a convenient time for you to talk?" A middle-aged man's voice came through the phone.
The Agricultural Bank of China's president? Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrived. He had just been planning to call and arrange to withdraw cash at the Agricultural Bank of China tomorrow, and now the man himself had come straight to him, saving him quite a bit of trouble. As for why a county bank president would call him, Li Rui could more or less guess.
Chuning County had a population of 510,000 and an annual GDP of thirteen billion, with an annual per capita GDP of only a little over twenty thousand. How much could people save? And that was before the other banks took their shares. So Li Rui's ten billion was probably close to ten years' worth of business for the entire Agricultural Bank of China there.
Qin Baichuan had already been alerted when Li Rui transferred the first billion into his bank account. He had merely worried that calling Li Rui too soon would put him off, so he had held back.
But when his staff told him just now that another nine billion had been transferred into Li Rui's account, Qin Baichuan could no longer sit still. He immediately called Li Rui. This was a lord to be served-the God of Wealth himself.
"Bank President Qin, was there something you wanted to speak to me about?" Li Rui asked, despite already knowing.
"Heh, heh, Mr. Li, you really are young and accomplished, a role model for everyone in Chuning County!" Qin Baichuan laughed as he buttered him up. As the saying went, flattery could slip through where nothing else could. Everyone liked hearing pleasant words, let alone a young man in his twenties.
Unfortunately, Li Rui was not an ordinary young man. He was a young man with a system. Such flattery barely tickled him. After all, his money had come far too easily, as though he had simply picked it up for free. He couldn't relate to such praise at all.
"Heh, heh, you flatter me, Bank President Qin. I'm young and not much of a talker. If there's something you need, just say it." To be honest, Li Rui really wasn't used to this sort of official talk. After all, he had been a loser before.
"Mr. Li, you truly are young and accomplished. Your frankness is a style all your own. Then I'll get straight to the point. You have nearly ten billion deposited with our bank. What are your plans for it? Our bank can arrange a dedicated financial adviser for you. Would you need one?"
The fawning words came through the phone, and Li Rui still felt somewhat unaccustomed to them. The man on the other end was a county bank president-a major figure to his former self.
"Bank President Qin, I don't need a financial adviser for now, but there is something I'd like your help with. I wonder if it would be convenient for you," Li Rui said politely.
"Mr. Li, what are you saying? You're far too polite. If you need anything, just give the word. As long as it's something I, Qin Baichuan, can do, I'll absolutely get it done for you." Qin Baichuan's words were full of solemn assurance. A lord like this absolutely had to be served well. Never mind one favor-he would have to help with a hundred.
"Then thank you, Bank President Qin. I need fifty million in cash tomorrow. Would that be possible?"