Chapter 341 — Tang Yun's Grievance

Xiaowei and Xiaodan were both from small county towns near Songshan City. They had been neighbors since they were small, childhood sweethearts; when they grew up they fell in love with each other, and both families had tacitly accepted the fact that the two of them would one day be together.

But then something went wrong.

Both families were poor, the kind registered as impoverished households. Never mind tuition for school; even daily life was lived in the most pinched frugality. When Xiaowei and Xiaodan were in primary school, a few big bosses came to the village and offered of their own accord to sponsor poor children's schooling.

When the families heard the news they flocked to it, wild with joy. Xiaowei and Xiaodan, under the sponsorship of the same boss, made it smoothly through primary school, middle school, vocational high school...

Now graduation was in sight, and according to the agreement they had made with that boss back then, once they turned eighteen they would go work at his company for a period without pay, as repayment for the kindness of all those years of sponsorship.

Originally, that agreement had been purely symbolic. Many students in the village, after going to see the bosses who had sponsored them, put in a token stretch of time and called the debt of gratitude paid.

Xiaowei and Xiaodan assumed it would be the same for them. What they never expected was that once they arrived at the big boss's company, the man took one look at Xiaodan and made her his secretary, while Xiaowei was assigned to be a security guard. Both of them were paid a normal employee's wages.

These days a job was not easy to come by, and Xiaowei and Xiaodan, having found formal employment before they had even graduated, were naturally thrilled. Grateful to the big boss with all their hearts, they resolved to work hard and repay his kindness.

What they never expected was that the nightmare began right there. The big boss had made Xiaodan his secretary with no good intention at all. From the very first glance he had begun to lust after her looks and her body.

In truth, Xiaodan was not especially beautiful. Her advantage lay in her youth, her freshness, her fine skin and good figure, and the big boss was smitten at once, determined to make her his own.

At first the big boss only let his intentions be known in veiled terms. After Xiaodan flatly refused him, he showed his savage face, growing more and more unbridled in the hands he laid on her.

Once she had been wronged, Xiaodan naturally told her boyfriend Xiaowei. In a fury, Xiaowei brought Xiaodan to confront the big boss, telling him they wanted to resign. If they could not afford to offend him, surely they could hide from him? They would simply quit, and that would be that.

Xiaowei was no fool. He knew they could not afford to offend this big boss; word was that the man had Songshan City sewn up, black and white alike, a figure whose hand reached the heavens. So he could only tactfully voice his dissatisfaction and his request to resign.

The big boss turned hostile on the spot. He flung out the words: resign? Impossible. By the contract signed back then, Xiaowei and Xiaodan, upon turning eighteen, had to work three years for the company before they could leave; otherwise it was a breach of contract, and they would have to repay every cent of the sponsorship money of those years, plus interest.

Of course, that contract had been symbolic from the start. Many students sponsored by other bosses had never gone to work at all; it was treated as a kind of charity.

But with Xiaodan and Xiaowei, this big boss meant to hold them to it, and there was nothing they could do about it. When the two of them looked at the contract, they were struck dumb, not knowing how to handle it at all.

Since the big boss had already torn away all pretense, he grew all the more unbridled, telling Xiaodan that she had a choice: become his mistress, and the money need not be repaid, and she would get raises besides. As for Xiaowei, he could just keep at his security job in peace, not resign, wages as usual.

If she refused, then within three days they were to bring back every penny of the sponsorship money of all those years.

Xiaowei and Xiaodan were dumbstruck at once. Three days — where on earth were they to get that much money? Over the years, the sponsorship money this big boss had given the two families came to at least a hundred and fifty thousand. How were they supposed to repay such a sum?

At his wit's end, Xiaowei got in touch with a kidney-selling ring, preparing to sell a kidney and pay off the debt. He did not want Xiaodan to suffer that indignity either; that his girlfriend should become another man's mistress was something Xiaowei could not endure under any circumstances.

The matter of the sponsorship was something the Tang family knew of. Back then they had thought Xiaowei and his girlfriend lucky to be helped by a rich boss. Now it looked like misfortune.

"Auntie, please think of something. Xiaowei can't sell his kidney! They say once you sell a kidney your health goes to ruin, and afterwards you can't do anything at all..." Xiaodan was close to tears, looking piteously at Mother Tang. She had tried to talk him out of it, but Xiaowei would not listen in the least.

"Xiaowei, don't you dare do anything foolish. Listen, over the years Auntie has saved up a little more than twenty thousand yuan. Take it and use it first, and I'll think of something else for you!" Mother Tang said, and started off to look for the passbook...

"Auntie, there's no need. Twenty thousand yuan is nothing, it wouldn't cover a thing, and besides, that is the money you saved for Uncle's surgery. How could I touch it?" Xiaowei hurried to stop her. "Auntie, you know how Xiaodan and I feel about each other. I could never push her into that pit of fire!"

Still, what Xiaowei said was the plain truth. He could not push Xiaodan into the pit of fire, and what he needed was a hundred and fifty thousand, which no one else could help him raise. If Mother Tang had had a hundred and fifty thousand, she would long ago have gotten her husband his surgery instead of letting it drag on to this day.

"Yun'er, could you give Wei Zhao a call? Ask him to lend us some money?" Mother Tang hesitated a moment, then looked at her daughter. Xiaowei was the only male of the family on her own side, and they still counted on him to carry on the family line. If he sold a kidney, whether he could even look after himself in the future was a question...

"Ah?" Tang Yun was startled. She had not expected her mother to tell her to borrow money from Wei Zhao. This was not three or five thousand, but a hundred and fifty thousand — how was she to bring herself to ask? And even if she borrowed it, with what would she repay it? A sum that size, she feared, could never be repaid at all.

"Auntie, who is Wei Zhao?" Xiaodan had never heard the name. She was slightly taken aback, wondering who on earth could lend a hundred and fifty thousand just like that.

"He's your sister Tang Yun's boyfriend. His family is quite well off," Mother Tang explained.

"Mom! Wei Zhao is not my boyfriend. There is nothing between us!" Tang Yun's face went red, and she gave her mother a reproachful look. How could she say such a thing so carelessly?

"He gave you a cell phone, how is he not your boyfriend?" Mother Tang grew anxious, looking at her daughter. "Yun'er, you as his elder sister won't just stand by and leave your brother to his fate, will you? Are you going to watch him go sell his kidney?"