Chapter 340 — Tang Zhi's Cousin

"No, I don't think so. Seems pretty normal to me…" Shen Yushu touched her little head.

"Come upstairs with me. Put some clothes on before you come back down. No more being this shameless from now on!" Gu Mengyao could not be bothered to scold Shen Yushu any further; she took her by the hand and dragged her upstairs.

After a hot shower, Wei Zhao felt wonderful all over, every pore opened wide. Lying comfortably on the bed, he picked up his phone.

Once it powered on, a flood of text messages came in.

Wei Zhao saved the number, then scrolled through the rest of the messages. Several were from Kang **, reminding him not to forget to come back over the weekend for his second granduncle's birthday banquet.

The last one was from Tang Zhi. It was very brief, only six words: "When are you coming back to school?"

Wei Zhao quickly sent Tang Zhi a reply: "All done here. I'll be at school tomorrow."

The chime of an incoming text made Tang Zhi jump. She had not dared tell her mother about the phone, and now she had forgotten to set it to silent.

"Whose phone was that? Old Tang, was it yours? Mine doesn't make that sound!" Tang's mother was busy preparing dinner and called out when she heard the text alert.

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

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

"…It's… it's mine…" There was no way out for Tang Zhi. She could only pull the phone from her pocket. Even if she wanted to lie now, she could not—and lying had never been her strong suit anyway.

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

"I didn't buy it… Wei Zhao gave it to me…" Tang Zhi lowered her head, face flushed red, like a child caught in a mistake.

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

"Mom!" Tang Zhi was rather displeased. Her mother had not scolded her at all—in fact, she had reacted like this—and it made Tang Zhi feel her mother was being snobbish.

"This child, getting all embarrassed!" Tang's mother shot her daughter a glare. "Isn't it a good thing that he bought you a phone? Your father, to this day, has never bought me one. This knockoff I'm using now, I bought with my own hard-earned money!"

Tang Jucheng lowered his head. At moments like this, he secretly hated his own uselessness. Injured and bedridden, reduced to a cripple, he could not go out and earn money, and his medical bills dragged down Tang Zhi and her mother…

Sometimes Tang Jucheng thought of ending it all and being done with it, but when he thought of his wife and daughter, he could not bring himself to do it! His wife often called him useless, but deep down she still loved him—Tang Jucheng could feel that. He could see it in the way she rose early and came home late, working herself to the bone to hold this family together.

"Mom, Dad actually treats you very well…" Compared with the hazy unreality of being with Wei Zhao, Tang Zhi felt that the way her parents supported each other through hardship was true happiness.

"I know he treats me well. Otherwise I would have divorced him long ago!" Tang's mother had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. She gave a little huff and said, "But Yun'er, don't be like me. In this whole life of mine, I fell in love with your father, and I've accepted my fate. You mustn't live so bitterly!"

Tang Zhi knew her mother was talking about her and Wei Zhao, but were she and Wei Zhao really suited to each other? Tang Zhi always had an uneasy feeling, as if her life were a little unreal—as if one day Wei Zhao might simply stop liking her…

"Bang, bang, bang…"

The family was still talking when the sound of knocking came from the courtyard. Tang's mother set down the bowls and chopsticks in her hands, walked out the door into the little yard, and called, "Who is it?"

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

"Is that Xiaodan? What brings you here so late?" Mother Tang recognized the girl's voice—it was Xiaodan, the childhood sweetheart of her nephew Xiaowei. As she spoke, she opened the courtyard gate.

Xiaodan, looking frantic, was pulling along a boy with a rather stubborn expression on his face. The moment she saw Mother Tang, it was as though she had laid eyes on a savior: "Auntie, please talk some sense into Xiaowei—he's going to sell his kidney!"

"What?" Mother Tang was badly startled by what Xiaodan said. "What's going on? Xiaowei, you're going to sell your kidney?"

"Auntie, just leave it alone. Xiaodan insisted on dragging me here so you could talk me out of it, but talking won't do any good—no matter who tries, I still have to sell my kidney!" Xiaowei said with a look of absolute resolve, his tone brooking no argument.

Tang Zhi had heard her cousin's voice from inside the house too, and when she caught that he meant to sell his kidney, she was just as alarmed and came running out: "Xiaowei, what are you saying? What do you want to sell your kidney for? What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Big sis, you don't need to get involved—and you couldn't stop me even if you tried! I have to sell my kidney, or Xiaodan will be in danger!" Xiaowei said.

"Xiaodan, you take Xiaowei inside first and let's talk. Tell me first—what on earth has happened? How can you go selling a kidney without so much as explaining why?" Mother Tang could see that her nephew was not joking, and she grew anxious too. Selling a kidney was no laughing matter—how could anyone just up and sell one?

Xiaodan pulled Xiaowei into the house, on the verge of tears from worry: "Sister Tang Zhi, please talk some sense into Xiaowei. No matter what I say, he won't listen—he's set on selling his kidney..."

"Xiaowei, tell me—why do you want to sell your kidney?" Tang Zhi was at a loss, thrown off balance by the news. She had thought it was a joke at first, but from the look of Xiaowei, he was not joking at all!

"Sis, even if I told you, it wouldn't help. I need money right now, but your family's circumstances aren't much better than mine—if I don't sell my kidney, how else am I supposed to raise the money?" Xiaowei shook his head.

"Is there anything that can't be solved? We can find a way to borrow the money—there's no need to go selling a kidney!" Mother Tang had come over by then as well and tried to reason with him: "Xiaowei, how much money do you need?"

"A hundred and fifty thousand! Where would we even borrow that? Uncle's sick in the hospital, and we haven't even scraped together enough for his surgery—if we could borrow, wouldn't we have borrowed long ago?" Xiaowei sighed. "Auntie, big sis, I know you mean well, but I've got no other choice!"

"A hundred and fifty thousand?" Mother Tang and Tang Zhi were both shocked! How had Xiaowei come to need so much money?