Chapter 340 — Tang Yun's Cousin

"Not at all. I think it's perfectly normal..." Shen Yushu rubbed her little head.

"Come upstairs with me. Put some clothes on before you come back down, and no more of this... openness from now on!" Gu Mengyao could not be bothered to scold Shen Yushu any further. She took her by the hand and pulled her upstairs.

After a hot shower, Wei Zhao felt wonderful all over, every pore wide open. Lying at ease on the bed, he switched on his phone.

The moment it powered up, a flood of text messages came in.

Wei Zhao saved the number, then looked through the messages that followed. Several were from Kang **, reminding him not to forget to come back for the weekend, to attend his great-uncle's birthday banquet.

The last one was from Tang Yun. It was short, just six characters: "When are you coming to school?"

Wei Zhao quickly texted back to Tang Yun: "All finished here. I'll be at school tomorrow."

The text alert chimed, and Tang Yun nearly jumped out of her skin. She had not dared tell her mother about the phone, and as a result had forgotten to set it to silent.

"Whose phone was that? Old Tang, is it yours? Mine doesn't make that sound!" Tang's mother was busy with dinner. Hearing the message tone, she called out.

"Not mine. Mine doesn't sound like that either. That's a Nokia text tone, isn't it?" Tang's father was sprawled on the sofa in the living room. He picked up his phone and glanced at it. "Old Zhang next door has a Nokia that sounds like that!"

"Eh? Then whose is it? How strange. Yun'er, did you hear it?" Tang's mother asked.

"...It's... it's mine..." There was nothing else for it. Tang Yun pulled the phone out of her pocket. Even if she had wanted to lie now, she could not; besides, lying had never been her strong suit.

"Yours?" Tang's mother looked at the phone in Tang Yun's hand in surprise. "Yun'er, when did you buy a phone?"

"I didn't buy it... Wei Zhao gave it to me..." Tang Yun lowered her head, cheeks red, like a child who had done something wrong.

"Wei Zhao bought you a phone?" Tang's mother did not scold her. Instead her face lit up. "Let me see it. It must have cost a thousand yuan, surely?"

"Mom!" Tang Yun was rather displeased. Her mother had not scolded her at all, but reacted like that, and it made Tang Yun feel her mother was being snobbish.

"This child, all embarrassed!" Tang's mother shot her daughter a glare. "Isn't it a good thing that someone bought you a phone? Your father still hasn't bought me one. This knock-off I'm using now, I bought it myself with money I earned!"

Tang Jucheng lowered his head. At times like this he secretly loathed his own uselessness. Wounded, bedridden, a man left good for nothing, not only could he not go out and earn money, his medical expenses dragged down Tang Yun and her mother as well...

Sometimes Tang Jucheng wished he could simply die and have done with it, but when he thought of his wife and daughter, he could not bring himself to do it. His wife often cursed him for being useless, yet in her heart she still loved him; Tang Jucheng could feel it. He saw it in the way she rose before dawn and came home after dark, working herself to death to hold the household together.

"Mom, Dad really is good to you..." Beside the drifting unreality of being with Wei Zhao, Tang Yun felt that this, her father and mother weathering life together, was what true happiness looked like.

"I know he is good to me, or I would have divorced him long ago!" Tang's mother had a sharp tongue and a soft heart. She gave a sniff. "But Yun'er, don't be like me. All my life I loved your father, and I have accepted my fate. You must not live as bitterly as I have!"

Tang Yun knew her mother meant to bring up the matter of her and Wei Zhao. But were she and Wei Zhao really suited to each other? Tang Yun always had a feeling of unease, as though her life were somehow unreal, as though one day Wei Zhao would simply stop liking her...

"Knock, knock, knock..."

As the Tang family sat talking, a knock came at the courtyard gate. Tang's mother set the bowl and chopsticks in her hands on the table and walked out of the house into the little yard. "Who is it?"

"Auntie, it's me and Xiaowei..." From beyond the courtyard gate came a girl's voice.

"Is that Xiaodan? What brings you here so late?" Tang's mother recognized the girl's voice. It was Xiaodan, the childhood sweetheart of her nephew Xiaowei. With that, she opened the gate.

Xiaodan, her face drawn tight with worry, was pulling along a boy whose expression was somewhat stubborn. The moment she saw Tang's mother, she looked as though she had seen a savior. "Auntie, quick, talk some sense into Xiaowei. He's going to sell a kidney!"

"What?" Tang's mother was badly startled by Xiaodan's words. "What's going on? Xiaowei, you're going to sell a kidney?"

"Auntie, just leave it alone. Xiaodan insisted on dragging me here so you could talk me out of it, but talking is no use. No matter who tries, I am selling my kidney!" Xiaowei's expression was set, his words cut with finality.

Tang Yun had heard her cousin's voice from inside the house as well. When she heard he meant to sell a kidney, she was startled too and hurried out. "Xiaowei, what are you saying? What do you want to sell a kidney for? What kind of nonsense is that?"

"Big Sister, it's none of your business, and you can't help anyway! I have to sell my kidney, or Xiaodan will be in danger!" Xiaowei said.

"Xiaodan, take Xiaowei inside first, then we'll talk. Tell Auntie first, what on earth has happened? How can you go off to sell a kidney without rhyme or reason?" Seeing that her nephew did not look as if he were joking, Tang's mother grew anxious too. Selling a kidney was no laughing matter. How could it be sold just like that?

Xiaodan pulled Xiaowei into the house, nearly weeping with anxiety. "Sister Tang Yun, please talk to Xiaowei. No matter what I say, he won't listen. He is bent on selling his kidney..."

"Xiaowei, tell your sister, why do you want to sell your kidney?" Tang Yun was thrown into confusion by the news. She had thought it a joke before, but from the look of Xiaowei, he was not joking at all!

"Sister, there's no use even if I tell you. I need money now, but your family is hardly better off than mine. If I don't sell a kidney, how am I supposed to raise the money?" Xiaowei shook his head.

"What problem cannot be solved? We can find a way to borrow the money. There is no need to go selling a kidney!" Tang's mother came over then and tried to reason with him. "Xiaowei, how much money do you need?"

"A hundred and fifty thousand! Where would we borrow that? Uncle is sick and bedridden, and they haven't even raised the surgery fee yet. If we could borrow, wouldn't we have borrowed already?" Xiaowei sighed. "Auntie, Big Sister, I know you mean well by me, but I have no other way!"

"A hundred and fifty thousand?" Tang's mother and Tang Yun were both shocked. What did Xiaowei need so much money for?

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