"Who on earth are you?"

Village Chief Hua couldn’t help but interrupt. ’I never got any notice about this,’ he thought. ’Why is someone asking about it?’

He was just a kid, but every question was more pointed than the last. The village chief’s palms were sweating.

Donations? People worse off than Lin Ruoxi’s family? ’Who could that possibly be?’

His education level wasn’t high, so those documents were usually handled by others.

He couldn’t answer the questions Xue Rui was asking.

To be precise, Xue Rui’s phrasing was too formal, too official. He’d only ever heard such language during meetings in town.

But he knew these things wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny.

He had expected some riffraff to come cause trouble, the kind of people who were beneath his notice. What he feared were educated people like Xue Rui.

Most of all, he couldn’t figure out Xue Rui’s background.

"I’m her long-lost cousin. The man behind me is Lin Ruoxi’s maternal uncle," Xue Rui replied.

"Those documents... can’t be found. The records room caught fire a while back. You can come back and check later," Village Chief Hua stammered.

He wanted to send this plague god away as quickly as possible so he could prepare and figure out what to do about this situation.

Since her mother’s side of the family had shown up, they were definitely here to stand up for Lin Ruoxi. He didn’t want that kind of trouble.

"Oh?" Xue Rui feigned surprise, then nodded and said:

"No problem. The town should have copies of those records. Why don’t you call and ask?"

Xue Rui took out his phone and flipped to the contacts list.

Yulian Town, Town Mayor Yin, 152...

Xue Rui handed the phone to Village Chief Hua and deliberately muttered, "Hua Village is part of this town, right?"

Taking the phone, Village Chief Hua’s eye twitched.

He’d seen a phone like this before. A wealthy businessman who came to the village to discuss an investment had one. It was said to be worth over a hundred thousand yuan.

And that BMW parked at the entrance...

Most importantly, he recognized the number, and there was even a call log entry on the phone.

Then there was Xue Rui’s comment: "Hua Village is part of this town, right?"

That seemingly casual remark made his mind race. It meant that Xue Rui’s wealth and connections were far beyond his imagination.

He instantly realized that this boy was someone he could not afford to offend.

"It’s the weekend. No need to bother him with such a trivial matter while he’s resting." Village Chief Hua plastered a smile on his face.

’Cutting down fruit trees? Why should I get involved in that mess? The kid has the contract. If he wants to cut them, let him. They’re not my trees anyway.’

Ren Jun’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Xue Rui had just said a few seemingly unrelated things, and the village chief’s attitude did a complete one-eighty.

"You’re right, the weekend is for resting." Xue Rui smiled, took back his phone, and didn’t press the issue.

Because the number for Town Mayor Yin was from his father’s phone. It had absolutely nothing to do with him, and even if they called, the mayor wouldn’t know who he was.

Of course, he was confident that Village Chief Hua would never dare to make that call.

Winning the bet wouldn’t benefit the chief at all, but what if he lost?

No one goes looking for trouble.

"I understand the specifics of the situation. Since you have the land lease contract, I have no authority to interfere. You can negotiate with Zhang Guihua yourself."

Village Chief Hua had extricated himself from the situation. He guessed that Xue Rui just wanted to blow off some steam.

’After all, what would a wealthy family like his want with land in their village?’

"Sorry to have troubled you, Secretary Hua. This was always between her and me."

Xue Rui offered Village Chief Hua a cigarette, and the atmosphere instantly relaxed.

Xue Rui had achieved his goal. It was obvious Village Chief Hua had just come to play politics. As long as the village leadership didn’t interfere, he was fine.

He had come on strong from the start partly because he held a grudge against Hua Village. If the village had followed proper procedures, Lin Ruoxi wouldn’t have met such a fate in her past life.

After some brief, irrelevant chitchat, the men walked out of the house, talking and laughing.

The villagers saw Village Chief Hua with a smile on his face and a cigarette between his fingers, and assumed the matter had been settled.

Some people, disappointed they hadn’t seen a good show, looked a little let down.

"Hmph. Little brat. Thought you could act wild here, but you still got put in your place."

Zhang Guihua sneered inwardly, her face a mask of disdain.

Her son had just called again, specifically telling her to apologize properly to Lin Ruoxi.

He’d said things like, "It’s the only way," "You’ll never win this kind of lawsuit," and "They won’t even consider mediation."

’My son is still too young,’ she thought. ’See? Didn’t I handle it? Village matters are complicated.’

"Zhang Guihua, you talk to this young man yourself. His paperwork is all in order. I couldn’t get through to him."

Village Chief Hua put on a regretful expression, implying that he had done his best.

In reality, he’d never even had a chance to speak. Xue Rui had been leading him by the nose ever since he walked in.

Still, as the village head, he had to put on an act when necessary.

"How could this be!"

Zhang Guihua was incredulous. She turned and started yelling at Village Chief Hua:

"You must have taken a bribe from this brat! Don’t think I don’t know, that time our village sold land..."

Her words caused a stir among the onlookers, who began to mutter amongst themselves.

"Zhang Guihua! This is a society ruled by law! He has a contract, what can I do? You’ll be held legally responsible for slandering me!"

Village Chief Hua was furious. It was one thing for people to gossip behind his back, but for this shrew to say it in front of so many people—it was a public slap in the face.

Zhang Guihua trembled. She remembered the village head’s ruthless methods and started muttering something unintelligibly again.

"Where’s Li Jiansheng? Tell your husband to come out. What can a woman accomplish by just shouting?" said Village Chief Hua.

"No need. Just go cut down the trees. We’ll pay the workers extra for overtime," Xue Rui said.

"Alright," one of the loggers replied.

Since someone was paying extra, they had no complaints. Besides, they’d gotten to watch a great show, so they were in a pretty good mood.

The pickup truck’s engine started, ready to head for the orchard.

"No! You can’t cut them down!"

Zhang Guihua was frantic. She plopped herself down in front of the two vehicles and started rolling around on the ground, screaming, "I don’t want to live anymore!"

"Whoever tries to cut down my fruit trees, I’ll fight them to the death!"

Xue Rui laughed in exasperation. He called out to the driver, "Back out the other end of the alley. Try not to run anyone over."

Hearing this, Zhang Guihua scrambled to her feet and ran to block the back of the vehicle.

But there were two vehicles, one in front and one behind. She was only one person; she couldn’t block both.

"Brother-in-law, quick, help me block them!" Zhang Guihua yelled to the young man on the side.

The young man covered his face, pretending not to see.

’If someone were really bullying his sister-in-law, he would definitely step up.’

’But he had no ground to stand on today. Even the village chief was helpless, so what could he possibly do?’

Still, he spoke up, trying to mediate. "Can we wait for her husband to get back and discuss it then?"

"I’m in a hurry to get home and study hard so I can get into a good university. I hear college students are pretty amazing."

Xue Rui said with a smile, tugging at the school uniform he was wearing.

Only then did everyone realize that Xue Rui was just a teenager, still in his school uniform...

Lin Ruoxi, who had been keeping her head down, glanced sideways at Xue Rui when he mentioned studying.

’Xue Rui, studying? Doesn’t he just sleep and skip class all the time? Does he only study on weekends?’

"But some college students don’t even know what scumbags their own family members are. Makes you wonder how they got into college in the first place."

Xue Rui was determined to tear down the person Zhang Guihua was most proud of, making him seem utterly worthless.

"You!" Zhang Guihua was so furious she started pounding the ground. She couldn’t stop both vehicles and could only watch as her family’s orchard was about to be destroyed.

"It’s all your fault, you vixen! If it weren’t for you, none of this would have happened!"

Zhang Guihua suddenly flew into a rage, charging toward Lin Ruoxi in the courtyard with her arms flailing like claws.