After Becoming a Cannon-Fodder Lackey, I Swore to Protect the Young Lady to the Death - Chapter 15

By the end of the second evening study session, Li Gangjiao still hadn’t finished that set of basic math problems. The battle had ended in a decisive victory for Mathematics.

Li Gangjiao: Deceased.

“You…” Even after a few days of this, Lu Jiaoyue was still genuinely stunned by the absolute train wreck of an answer sheet before her. Seven out of ten were wrong, and the one she got right was clearly a lucky guess.

Lu Jiaoyue considered herself a patient person, but it took two deep breaths before she felt calm enough to check the English homework.

“Tell me,” Lu Jiaoyue said, her beautiful face sporting a look of exasperated amusement. “How exactly did you arrive at this translation?”

“…”

Li Gangjiao: Silence is the only music for tonight. Chinese people shouldn’t have to learn foreign tongues!!!

Lu Jiaoyue let out a long sigh, finally setting aside both the math and English papers. “Starting today, you’re coming home with me. I’m giving you extra tutoring. Your foundation isn’t just shaky; it’s been rotten since middle school.”

Li Gangjiao: Why do I feel simultaneously blessed and tortured?

“I won’t even start on your grammar; your vocabulary alone is a disaster. I knew more words than this back in primary school…” Lu Jiaoyue wasn’t trying to be mean; she was simply stating the objective truth.

Shen Nana caught a glimpse of Li Gangjiao’s workbook. Her initial confusion over Lu Jiaoyue’s harshness vanished, replaced by a slow, somber nod.

This girl is definitely a ‘connections’ hire—a nepotism baby among nepotism babies. Honestly, calling her a nepotism baby is an insult to nepotism babies. You could drag a toddler in here to pick answers at random and they’d do better than this.

******

The night proceeded as usual, though Li Gangjiao felt as if a dark cloud were hovering over her. After following Lu Jiaoyue back to the villa, she was immediately dragged into a “correction session.”

After looking up thirty different words for a single short passage, Li Gangjiao quietly shuffled over to Lu Jiaoyue’s side. Usually, she didn’t pry into what the Eldest Miss was doing, but tonight’s homework was exceptionally soul-crushing.

“What’s this?” Li Gangjiao asked, looking at the pages covered in dense, tiny text.

“Evidence of Gu Yan’s crimes,” Lu Jiaoyue replied. In moments like these, she was intensely focused, her eyes as calm and steady as a deep spring.

“Wait, what?!” Li Gangjiao stared at the stack of documents, her hands trembling slightly. It was so thick!

“This is the summary I’ve organized. It only covers his criminal acts; feel free to look through it. Some of the documents were sent from abroad, so they’re still in English. I haven’t had time to translate them yet, but you probably wouldn’t understand them anyway.” Lu Jiaoyue handed a summary sheet to Li Gangjiao.

Homicide, usury, violent debt collection, organizing prostitution, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, trafficking of controlled substances, collusion between officials and businessmen, illegal stock manipulation, money laundering, organizing illegal gambling, illegal fund transfers, tax evasion…

Amidst that terrifying list, the entries for “Drunk Driving” and “Speeding” looked hilariously out of place.

The male lead truly lived up to his title as an Underworld Prince. From civil and administrative to criminal law, he hadn’t missed a single category. He was a master of the entire legal code—specifically, how to break it.

“This is so much… how much evidence are we going to need?” Li Gangjiao’s lip twitched as she read. They were all Chinese characters, but seeing them grouped like this was mind-boggling. The man was literally into everything!

“Only civil lawsuits require ‘he who asserts must prove.’ For the rest, the prosecution and the government will provide their own evidence after the indictment is filed,” Lu Jiaoyue explained.

Clearly, her politics grade isn’t great either, Lu Jiaoyue noted inwardly.

“Oh, right. Got it.” Li Gangjiao had no idea she had just reinforced her “academic disaster” label. She was too busy processing the information.

“Guess how much this data cost?” Lu Jiaoyue asked, feeling a sudden playful urge to tease her. She pointed at the files on the desk.

“At least… a hundred thousand yuan?” Li Gangjiao guessed, using the limits of her imagination.

“One hundred million,” Lu Jiaoyue said, waving a finger in front of Li Gangjiao’s eyes with a small smile.

“!!!” Li Gangjiao bolted upright, rendered speechless by the figure. She pointed at the documents, then let her hand drop, utterly floored.

“Information brokerage fees are expensive,” Lu Jiaoyue said. Seeing Li Gangjiao’s stunned silence, the heavy weight she’d felt while reviewing the files lifted slightly. “I bought these from various sources. The civil stuff was relatively cheap, but the others…” She trailed off, but the implication was clear.

One hundred million. Even in her wildest dreams about winning the lottery, Li Gangjiao wouldn’t have dared to imagine that much money.

“Open this,” Lu Jiaoyue said, producing an exquisitely packaged gift box. The gold-embossed lettering on the plain black box gave it an air of quiet, expensive luxury.

“Earrings??” Seeing a gift for herself, Li Gangjiao happily accepted the box.

“Do you like them?” Lu Jiaoyue asked, resting her chin on her hand, her eyes curving with a smile.

“They’re beautiful! So beautiful!” Li Gangjiao was almost breathless. They were studs featuring vibrant, purplish-red gemstones.

“These are gem-grade Taaffeite. Five carats. They’re perfectly fine for everyday wear,” Lu Jiaoyue explained, pleased by her reaction.

“This… this must be incredibly expensive. Maybe I shouldn’t…” Li Gangjiao looked at them closely for a moment before moving to set them back down.

She had actually seen Taaffeite before. As a young child, she’d been fascinated by shiny gems, and in the underground gambling dens, people were always forced to liquidate assets to pay off debts. She vaguely remembered a gem merchant who had lost so much that he had to pledge a shipment due for delivery in three days to the casino.

There had been crates of various pretty stones. Li Gangjiao had helped move them and couldn’t resist sneaking a few extra looks, even playing with them in her hands. Those raw stones were supposedly worth a fortune, but none were as beautiful as the pair she held now. Those raw gems were dull and lackluster compared to the brilliant, crystalline light of these earrings.

Taaffeite itself isn’t the rarest mineral, but gem-grade specimens are a different story. All the raw stones that merchant had used for debt wouldn’t have been enough to trade for a single gem-grade Taaffeite like this.

“The confession the other day only had flowers. Think of this as my actual confession gift!” Lu Jiaoyue spoke as if she hadn’t just handed over a small fortune. Or rather, she simply believed Li Gangjiao was worth every penny.

Her liquid cash was running low; after buying the dirt on Gu Yan, she had barely ten million left. But she had felt that Li Gangjiao deserved the absolute “best” gift. She hadn’t found it until a high-end jewelry auction sent her an invitation. The star lot had caught her eye, and her proxy bidder had secured it on the tenth bid.

The price for the five-carat *Taaffeite had soared all the way to $40,000.

*****

Note:

*Taaffeite is a million times rarer than diamonds and comes in shades of purple, pink, red.

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