Chapter 342 — Driven into a Corner

"I..." Tang Zhi bit her lip and looked to her father, hoping he might put in a word for her, but Tang Jucheng only lowered his head, the very picture of a henpecked, long-suffering good man.

At that moment, Tang Jucheng was in fact silently cursing his own uselessness. If he had made something of himself by now, would the family still be struggling this hard?

"Sis, is your man really that rich?" Xiaowei, overhearing his aunt, could not help asking. If there was any other hope, who would go sell a kidney? Xiaowei too had only thought of selling his kidney because he was driven into a corner—but if the problem could be solved without selling it, naturally he would not be foolish enough to insist on going under the knife.

"Xiaowei, don't listen to Mom's nonsense. He's not your brother-in-law—just a classmate I'm fairly close to." Looking at the hope in Xiaowei's eyes, Tang Zhi felt deeply torn.

She knew that if she borrowed money from Wei Zhao this time, the ties between them would become truly impossible to disentangle. But if she did not borrow it, Xiaowei would still have to sell his kidney...

"Sis, why don't you ask him?" Hearing Tang Zhi say this, Xiaowei felt certain that the man his aunt had mentioned must be his sister's boyfriend—and even if he was not, he was almost certainly close enough.

"I... Xiaowei, it's not that your sister doesn't want to help you, but if I borrow the money, what would I repay it with? Do we have any money to pay anyone back?" Tang Zhi sighed.

"Sis, sooner or later he'll be my brother-in-law anyway. You're already his, so he won't force you to pay it back, will he?" Xiaowei looked at Tang Zhi. "Besides, Xiaodan and I have hands and feet. If we work hard from now on, there'll surely come a day when we can pay it back..."

"That's right, Yun'er. Your brother has never asked you for anything. This is nothing more than a lift of the hand—why must you be so stubborn, girl?" Tang's mother was growing annoyed too. There was clearly a way to solve this, yet you had to force your brother to sell his kidney? "If you won't make the call, then I'll call him myself!"

"You... you're all forcing me..." Tang Zhi's eyes reddened, and she was on the verge of tears. "You don't understand at all. You have no idea what's really going on..."

Tang Zhi wanted to say that it was not even certain whether Wei Zhao would end up with her, but in the end she did not say it.

"Yun'er, how can you call this forcing you? Would your mother ever harm you?" Tang's mother was rather displeased. She was not asking her daughter to do anything shameful. Wei Zhao was clearly there to be borrowed from, yet she refused to go—what sense did that make?

"I'll call, I'll call, all right!" Tang Zhi stood up, took her phone, and ran out of the room into the yard, where she could not hold back her sobbing...

Her mother did not understand. Her brother did not understand either. They all thought she had enough sway with Wei Zhao to make him lend her family a hundred and fifty thousand! Had they even stopped to consider her situation?

It was true that Wei Zhao liked her now, but when it came down to it, her relationship with him had not even been formally confirmed. On what grounds would he lend her a hundred and fifty thousand? That was no small sum. Besides, if she could have borrowed money, she would long since have borrowed some for her father's surgery—why would she have waited until now?

After she had cried herself out, Tang Zhi still dialed Wei Zhao's number. No matter what, she could not let her brother sell his kidney.

Wei Zhao had sent Tang Zhi a text message, and when she did not reply for a long while, he assumed she had not seen it. He never expected that she would end up calling him instead.

"Hello? Tang Zhi?" Wei Zhao was rather pleasantly surprised. Tang Zhi calling him of her own accord was, by any measure, a good start. "What made you call me? Miss me?"

"..." Tang Zhi was caught between laughter and tears at his rapid-fire questions, and her originally sorrowful mood lifted considerably. "Who misses you? Don't flatter yourself!"

"Heh..." Wei Zhao chuckled. "Calling so late—is something the matter?"

Wei Zhao actually knew Tang Zhi quite well. She was the introverted sort—strong-willed, yet not very good at expressing her feelings. If nothing was wrong, she would not call him, at least not yet.

"Wei Zhao... there's something I'd like to ask of you..." Thinking of what she was about to say, Tang Zhi's heart grew heavy again.

"Something to ask of me?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. That did not sound like Tang Zhi at all.

"Yes... could you... lend me a hundred and fifty thousand? Don't worry, I will definitely pay you back, I promise!" Tang Zhi hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth and made her request.

"A hundred and fifty thousand?" Wei Zhao was even more astonished. This sounded even less like Tang Zhi. When he had given her a phone before, she had hesitated and been reluctant to accept it—so why would she suddenly ask him for money?

Still, this indirectly proved one thing: Tang Zhi must have run into some trouble she could not resist. Otherwise, asking him for a loan would have been harder for her than dying. Tang Zhi was not the kind of girl who coveted money; if she had been, society's great dyeing vat would have corrupted her long ago.

"I really do need this money. My younger brother has gotten into some trouble, and without it, he's going to sell a kidney..." Tang Zhi, thinking Wei Zhao had mistaken her for a money-grubbing girl, hurried to explain.

"Sell a kidney?" Wei Zhao was dizzy. "Tell him not to do anything stupid, no matter what. Money is not a problem. Give me an account number, and I'll have someone transfer it right now!"

A few days earlier, Wei Zhao would not have had such confidence, but now he had just extorted a hundred million from Liu Tianyi—wealthy enough to throw his weight around.

"Huh?" This time it was Tang Zhi's turn to be stunned. She had not expected Wei Zhao to agree to transfer her money without even asking what it was for! Was he really that trusting of her? Not afraid she might make up some lie to cheat him out of his money?

"Huh what? It's only a hundred and fifty thousand..." Of course Wei Zhao was not afraid Tang Zhi would cheat him, because he knew her character.

"Then... wait a moment..." Tang Zhi was thrilled inside, her little face flushing red. She had only just mustered the courage to ask Wei Zhao for a loan; she had been afraid he would refuse outright, and afraid too that lending her the money would put him in a difficult spot. Wei Zhao was probably a rich man's son, but not every rich man's son could produce a hundred and fifty thousand on the spot.

Yet Wei Zhao had agreed as though it were nothing at all, without the slightest hesitation. Tang Zhi breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time felt deeply grateful to him.

"Mom, Wei Zhao says he needs a bank account number..." As she spoke, Tang Zhi felt the corners of her mouth curl into a smile she could not suppress...

She had been driven to ask for a loan against her will, but now that she had gotten it, she wanted to show off a little. A girl like Tang Zhi had her share of small vanity too; she wanted others to see just how much Wei Zhao cared about her...