DLWAV CH157

One could easily imagine how twisted Xue Jiazhi’s face became when he learned of this upon waking up.

“Impossible, this is absolutely impossible—”

His eyes were bloodshot as he roared hysterically.

But in the next second, he clutched his abdomen; moving too violently had compressed his kidneys, causing them to convulse intensely in an instant.

And then his expression twisted even further.

Not only because the pain was unbearable, but even more so because every bit of it told him that what Shen Xinghui and the others said was true.

He didn’t have a cold; he had been poisoned.

Although the doctors saved his life, his kidneys could not be saved.

He had less than ten years left to live.

And during these ten years, even if he were alive, he would be tormented day in and day out by illness and pain.

Thinking about it, it was obvious why he had been poisoned—

He regretted it!

He shouldn’t have brushed it off when he accidentally spilled the reagent onto his hand.

He especially shouldn’t have delayed going to the hospital for treatment when he found himself falling ill, all to save on medical expenses so he could treat Shen Xinghui to his favorite Western dinner for his birthday.

All of this was because of Zhang Ruize.

“Where is Zhang Ruize?”

“I’m going to kill him, I’m going to kill him—”

Seeing this, although Shen Xinghui felt a twinge of pity for Xue Jiazhi, he felt even more relieved.

Because this way, he wouldn’t have to worry about Xue Jiazhi pestering him in the future.

The Youth Class students who had come to visit Xue Jiazhi were the first to react.

They hurriedly stepped in to stop Xue Jiazhi from frantically pounding on the bedboard.

“Student Xue, Student Xue, calm down! You can’t get so worked up right now.”

“Student Xue, don’t worry, your grudge will be avenged very soon.”

“Because Zhang Ruize has already been arrested.”

Yesterday afternoon, they saw with their own eyes Zhang Ruize being escorted into a police car.

In their view, if the police hadn’t already secured evidence of Ao Ruize poisoning Xue Jiazhi, how could they have mobilized so many officers to take him away?

It was rumored that even the wastebasket in his lab was hauled off by the police.

Hearing this, Xue Jiazhi snapped his head toward them: “Is this true? Is this really true?!”

“It’s true.”

Receiving affirmative answers from the students, his fists clenched even tighter: “Good—”

“When he gets executed by firing squad, I will definitely go send him off in person; I want to watch him die with my own eyes…”

Although the students found his expression overly terrifying, considering what he had been through, they ultimately said nothing.

Who knew that before his voice even faded, a group of police officers suddenly barged in.

The lead officer produced an arrest warrant directly: “Xue Jiazhi, you are under arrest for unlawfully trespassing into Zhang Ruize’s laboratory with intent to sabotage Zhang Ruize’s research.”

“Considering your current medical condition, you may remain hospitalized, but you are no longer permitted to receive visitors.”

Hearing this, the expression on Xue Jiazhi’s face froze instantly.

Not to mention Shen Xinghui and the other students of the Youth Class.

By the time they snapped back to reality, the police were already ushering them outside.

Xue Jiazhi’s voice rang out immediately, hysterical with panic that was impossible to miss: “What trespassing into Zhang Ruize’s lab, what sabotaging his research? I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“You should be interrogating him! He poisoned me, he ruined me…”

The students were utterly stunned.

By the time they realized what was happening, they had already been expelled from the ward.

Inside the room, Xue Jiazhi was still screeching: “Don’t come near me, don’t come near me…”

“Xinghui, save me, Xinghui…”

The students instinctively turned to look at Shen Xinghui beside them.

They weren’t stupid; otherwise, they wouldn’t have made it into the Qianda Youth Class. The words spoken by the police were more than enough for them to piece together the entire sequence of events—which meant that the reason Xue Jiazhi had been poisoned was that he secretly sneaked into Zhang Ruize’s lab wanting to sabotage Zhang Ruize’s research, only to end up poisoning himself instead.

Most of all, Xue Jiazhi couldn’t go three sentences without crying out for Shen Xinghui; could it be that Shen Xinghui had a hand in this matter too?

Noticing their gazes, Shen Xinghui’s eyes darkened instantly.

Xue Jiazhi truly was useless!

Even handling such a minor task resulted in so many complications.

Fortunately, whenever he instigated Xue Jiazhi to target Zhang Ruize, he always used reverse psychology rather than saying anything outright, so even if the police investigated him based on Xue Jiazhi’s ramblings, they wouldn’t be able to pin anything on him.

At this thought, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

What he never anticipated, however, was that matters didn’t end there. No sooner had they returned to campus than they were informed that Zhang Ruize had been released; not only that, he had transformed into the university’s newest professor.

The reason being that he had invented a novel washing machine just as advanced as those abroad.

In the words of other Youth Class students: Zhang Ruize had always felt his repeated experimental failures were due to someone secretly sabotaging him, so he deliberately approached Principal Li, claiming he intended to abandon electrical engineering topics to pursue biochemistry.

In reality, the meteorite research was merely a smoke screen; what he had genuinely been working on during this time was still electrical engineering—specifically, his newly developed automatic water-changing technology for washing machines.

In the end, the culprit behind the scenes, Xue Jiazhi, predictably took the bait. He sneaked into Zhang Ruize’s lab hoping to repeat his old tricks and ruin the experiment, only to end up poisoning himself.

If things were merely like this, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.

Crucially, Yangda subsequently announced the cancellation of this year’s government-funded study abroad selection program.

The stated reason was that the university’s finances were tight this year.

Even though in the blink of an eye, Yangda cordoned off a plot of land adjacent to campus, supposedly preparing to construct a world-class biochemistry lab and electrical engineering lab within two months.

Nevertheless, the school offered those graduating students who had originally been selected for the study abroad program a new placement: becoming researchers at the soon-to-be-completed laboratories.

Most of the selected students suppressed their reluctance upon learning that a researcher’s salary was as high as sixty yuan per month, and that outstanding performers could still be selected as visiting scholars for paid study abroad.

After all, in these times, aside from a small minority, the vast majority of students came from modest backgrounds, and most of their parents had worked their entire lives without ever making sixty yuan a month. Graduating right into a sixty-yuan monthly wage, with future opportunities for overseas training, why wouldn’t they be willing?

The only exception was Shen Xinghui.

To him, what did a sixty-yuan monthly salary amount to?

In his previous life, any casual meal cost more than sixty yuan.

In this life, he was meant to become a billionaire.

But if he didn’t go abroad, how could he encounter Zhao Xian? How could he become the young mistress of the Zhao family?

At this thought, Shen Xinghui’s eyes nearly split open with fury.

On the other side, Principal Li and Ao Ruize finally returned to Qianshi University.

One could imagine just how complicated Principal Li’s feelings were at this moment.

Because just half a month ago, he had been deeply anxious about the future of these gifted prodigies and the country, all over Ao Ruize and Xue Jiazhi’s brawl and their ruthless blows.

Yet in the turn of a hand, Ao Ruize had single-handedly unlocked a magnificent future for Great Yang!

Ao Ruize didn’t think nearly as much.

He said, “Principal, if there’s nothing else, I’ll head back home first.”

Because he couldn’t wait to see what the President meant by having Gao Zong protect him twenty-four hours a day.

Principal Li: “Alright.”

When Ao Ruize arrived home, Zhang Jianguo happened to be returning from outside as well.

Seeing the large burlap sack slung over his back, Ao Ruize immediately extended a hand to help support it.

Once inside, he discovered that what Zhang Jianguo had hauled back was actually a sack of meteorites.

Most notably, quite a few meteorites were already piled up inside the cramped living room.

Zhang Jianguo remarked with regret instead: “It’s just a pity I found out too late; the meteorites around here have already been completely scavenged.”

Only then did he explain: “First thing this morning, the fertilizer plant in town put up a notice saying those meteorites could be used to manufacture chemical fertilizer, offering a purchase price of fifty cents per hundred catties.”

And then the entire city went mad.

Again, in these times, a catty of high-grade peanut oil was only fifty cents; to think that meteorites strewn everywhere could fetch fifty cents per hundred catties! So everyone rushed out to scour for meteorites.

Zhang Jianguo went late and only managed to gather a little over three hundred catties.

But this regret was only momentary.

A surge of excitement soon rose across Zhang Jianguo’s face: “However, I have another piece of good news! The factory issued an announcement this morning saying that to reward the workers, the city waived this year’s taxes for the plant. The taxes already paid will be refunded by tomorrow at the latest, and that sum happens to be just enough for the factory to finish constructing the employee housing…”

“Ruize, by the New Year at the latest, you’ll be able to move into a new apartment.”

How could he not be thrilled?

He thought that now that the apartment was within reach, Zhang Ruize would surely cheer up and stop throwing tantrums at him over the new housing.

“Mm.”

Ao Ruize smiled and said, “I have a piece of good news as well—”

“What is it?”

Zhang Jianguo asked.

Who knew that before Ao Ruize could speak, a flurry of hurried footsteps came from outside.

Immediately after, Auntie Zhang’s voice from next door rang out: “Master Zhang, Master Zhang, have you heard? Your Zhang Ruize has become a professor at Qianda!”

“My goodness, a Qianda professor not even eighteen years old! And guess how much his monthly salary is—one hundred and twenty yuan!”

“Add in your wages, and you two father and son make almost as much in a month as our entire household of six…”

“Master Zhang, Zhang Ruize truly has brought immense honor to your Old Zhang family’s ancestors—”

But in the very next second, her voice cut off abruptly, and the elderly folk who had trailed in with her stopped dead in their tracks as well.

Because they had all spotted Ao Ruize inside the room.

After all, just a few days ago they had been pointing at his back and cursing him; to have him overhear their extravagant praise right to his face, how could they not feel awkward?

Yet right now they cared even more about another matter: now that Ao Ruize had risen to prominence, he wouldn’t just kick Master Zhang to the curb, would he?

So, swallowing their embarrassment, they asked directly, “Ruize, what are your plans moving forward?”

How could Ao Ruize fail to deduce what was on their minds?

He then caught Zhang Jianguo’s eyes looking over instinctively.

So he simply smiled and said, “Then let’s start by hosting ten or twenty banquet tables, so everyone in the compound knows that I, Zhang Ruize, am no ungrateful scoundrel.”

As he spoke, he pushed the bundle by his hand toward Zhang Jianguo.

Only then did Zhang Jianguo realize that Ao Ruize had brought back a sack of items as well.

He opened it to look: inside were over a dozen cartons of Zhonghua cigarettes and several bottles of Maotai liquor.

“Wh-Where did this come from?”

Ao Ruize: “I know you like smoking, so I asked for some from others.”

As for the bottles of Maotai, those were complimentary additions from the Police Chief and his colleagues.

“Dad, don’t worry, I will definitely fulfill my filial duties to you properly in the future.”

“From now on, I’ll only keep twenty yuan of my salary each month as pocket money, and hand the rest over to you for safekeeping.”

Having said this, Ao Ruize couldn’t help rubbing his nose.

He felt that without even waiting for the electronics factory to deliver the new apartments, he could easily dig out a three-bedroom flat for Zhang Jianguo right now.

But Zhang Jianguo and the others clearly bought into this wholeheartedly.

His eyes reddened at once, and even his lips trembled: “Good, good, good…”

Auntie Zhang and the others naturally wore even more complicated expressions.

You call an entire burlap sack of cigarettes and liquor “some”?

No, rather: could it be that they had truly misunderstood Zhang Ruize all along?

Meanwhile, in the adjoining apartment, Zhao Mingyu, who was busy moving in, couldn’t help commenting upon overhearing this: “This Student Zhang’s shrewdness… he sure knows how to talk.”

Otherwise, why didn’t he mention handing over the additional two-thousand-yuan monthly government subsidy to Zhang Jianguo as well?

It seemed the government was right to instruct them to keep an eye on him.

Hearing this, Gao Zong remained silent beside him.

But he didn’t voice any objection either, indicating that deep down, he agreed with Zhao Mingyu’s assessment.

He only hoped Zhang Ruize would behave himself during this period.

Who knew that in the dead of night, a startled cry suddenly came from Ao Ruize’s room: “Who’s there?!”

Gao Zong opened his eyes sharply, vaulted out of bed, dashed onto the balcony, leaped over the railing, and entered Ao Ruize’s room.

“What happened?”

Yet there was no one else in the room aside from Ao Ruize.

Ao Ruize sat on the bed; because he wasn’t wearing anything on his upper body, Gao Zong could clearly see his pectoral muscles undulating along with his voice.

He said, “It’s nothing. I was just groggy from sleep and mistook the laundry hanging on the balcony for a person’s silhouette.”

Gao Zong: “…”

Wasn’t this far more pleasing to the eye than the form of a four-legged reptile?

But that was all.

After all, that didn’t change the fact that Ao Ruize was still a dragon.

“Since nothing is wrong, I will head back.”

Who knew that in the next second, he heard Ao Ruize say: “Since Mr. Gao is already here, why not spend the night and sleep with me?”

He explained: “Mainly because I’m still a little scared.”

Gao Zong: “…”

Zhao Mingyu and the others, who had just rushed over: “…”