"Grandpa, this is the winter worm grass I gave you."
"Grandpa, this is the best tea I bought for you..."
At the birthday banquet, gifts were handed to the old master one by one. The old master was so happy that his eyes were out of focus. However, in this happy atmosphere, a heavy and hoarse voice suddenly sounded.
"Grandpa, I, I want to borrow some money from you. My mother's old illness has broken down again, and she is in urgent need of surgery."
The atmosphere of joy suddenly froze.
The living room became extremely quiet at this moment, so quiet that even a pin drop could be heard.
The smile on the Old Master's face froze.
Upon hearing the voice, everyone looked over and saw Cheng Ran, who was standing next to him.
This man was the son-in-law of the Bai family!
Two years ago, when Cheng Ran just graduated from college, he, who was young and vigorous, originally thought that he could rely on his own ability to let himself and his mother live a rich life. But at that time, his mother suddenly fell ill and needed a large sum of money to save her.
At this time, a middle-aged man helped him.
But the only request was for him to marry Bai Qinxi, who was in the fruit industry of the Bai family, for three years. In order to save his mother, he agreed.
Later, he learned that the man was Bai Qinxi's father, Bai Shaolin Temple. The reason why he and Bai Qinxi agreed to marry was that Bai Shaolin Temple did not want Bai Qinxi to become a pawn in the business marriage between the Bai family and the Long family.
In the past two years, he worked hard, but it was because he had no connections, no background, and resources. He ran into obstacles everywhere and did nothing. In the end, he simply resigned at home and did nothing. Because of this, he was called a good-for-nothing by the Bai family.
If it weren't for his old classmate, Li Hui, who owed him money, he wouldn't have borrowed money at the old man's birthday party.
"Are you ashamed? It's okay that you didn't buy a gift, but you still have the face to ask grandpa for money?" Bai Yongwei said angrily.
He was Bai Lingxi's cousin. He usually looked down on her family, especially Cheng Ran. Every time they met, he would ridicule him.
Two years ago, after Bai Lingxi and Cheng Ran got married, it was he who spread the news to the public that the daughter of the illegitimate child of the Bai family was married to a bumpkin. Therefore, their marriage became a joke after dinner.
"That's right. Who do you think you are?" In the same generation, someone shouted angrily, "How dare you ask for our Bai Family's money?"
"You'd better pee and take a look at yourself. On a happy day, what do you mean by 'don't get sick'?"
"Who do you think you are? Do you really think you are a member of the Bai family? It's really disappointing."
The scoldings were like sharp knives stabbing into Cheng Ran's heart. Coupled with the rigid expression of the Old Master, Cheng Ran understood that no matter how humble he was, he was still an outsider in the Bai family in the end.
Looking at Cheng Ran's trembling shoulders, Bai Lingxi felt bad as well.
Although she had no choice but to marry Cheng Ran, although she had not allowed Cheng Ran to touch her in the past two years, and although she was very disappointed with Cheng Ran, after all, they had lived together for two years.
Moreover, Cheng Ran had been very kind to her in the past two years. Every morning and night, she would have a sumptuous breakfast and dinner. Every time she was bullied by others in the family, Cheng Ran would stand in front of her and try every means to comfort her and make her happy.
As the saying goes, when a man is not a plant, how can he be ruthless?
But... she wanted to say something but stopped on second thought.
"If you want to borrow money, you have to look like you want to borrow money, right? Please, Old Master, you're still standing. You don't have any sincerity at all. Kneel down!" Bai Yongwei scolded.
Cheng Ran frowned. A man's knees were gold. For his mother, he was willing to bear all the humiliation.
At this moment, Bai Lingxi finally stood up. She stood in front of Cheng Ran and stopped him from kneeling down. "How much do you need?"
"Two hundred thousand," Cheng Ran blurted out.
200,000...
Bai Lingxi's face instantly turned a little pale. Others might not know, but she knew that Cheng Ran was not the kind of person who would make fun of her mother. But two hundred thousand... was not a small sum for her. If she wanted to gather enough money, she had to sell the house.
But was it worth it?
She took a deep breath and turned to look at the Old Master. "Grandpa, can you..."
Before she could finish her words, she was interrupted by Bai Yongwei.
"Grandpa, you can't be soft-hearted. He is so mean and has no ability. He only cares about the money of our Bai Family. Now he can even come up with such an excuse. For the sake of getting more money, he doesn't deserve sympathy."
"That's right, Grandpa. Don't be fooled." The others echoed Bai Yongwei's words.
"We can't boost this kind of evil wind."
"That's right, that's right..."
The Old Master glared at Cheng Ran.
Bai Yongwei and the others did not like Cheng Ran because they knew that after the Old Master passed away, Bai Lingxi and Cheng Ran would compete with them for the family property.
In fact, the old master hated Cheng Ran more than them. Because of the combination of him and Bai Lingxi, the marriage between the Bai family and the Long family turned into bubbles, which made the Bai family suffer great losses.
After a cold snort, the Old Master turned his head and went upstairs. Everyone could see that he was very unhappy.
After the old man went upstairs, Bai Yongwei looked at Cheng Ran playfully and said sarcastically, "Haha, bumpkin, let me tell you, in this society, the poor are not qualified to have a serious illness."
"However, you are lucky to meet such a kind-hearted person like me. I can lend you 200,000 yuan, but..." Bai Yongwei sneered. "I will give you half a month. It doesn't matter if you don't go with me. If you go through my crotch, maybe when I am in a good mood, I won't care about you."
Haha...
Everyone burst out laughing, and their mocking faces undoubtedly sprinkled salt on Cheng Ran's wounds.
Humiliation.
This was naked humiliation.
"Bai Yongwei, you've gone too far!" Bai Qinxi scolded him angrily.
"Okay." However, she suddenly raised her head and looked straight at Bai Yongwei. She nodded heavily and said, "I promise you, as long as you are willing to lend me, I will return 200,000 yuan to you in half a month."
"No, no, no." However, Bai Yongwei didn't seem to want to be so hasty. He shook his head and said with a smile, "Don't you need interest from borrowing money from the bank? You can pay 500,000 yuan within half a month, or you can forget about it."
Cheng Ran agreed directly. "Okay!"
Anyone with discerning eyes could tell at a glance that Bai Yongwei was playing with Cheng Ran. He did not intend to lend him any money at all. No one would agree to it. It was more profitable than loan sharks. However, in Cheng Ran's eyes, no matter what it was, it was not as important as his mother's life.
At this moment, someone in the crowd suddenly muttered, "What if he returns in half a month?"
The voice was not loud, but it came into everyone's ears.
"Haha..."
Everyone was happy.
He couldn't even afford 200,000 yuan. How could he pay 500,000 yuan in half a month?
Everyone seemed to have heard a big joke, and no one believed that he could do it.
"Humph, with just him? If he can really get it back, then I'll crawl into his crotch." Bai Yongwei did not believe that Cheng Ran could do it, so he patted his chest and said.
After that, he directly transferred two hundred thousand yuan to Cheng Ran. To him, this amount of money was just a drop in the bucket. Using this amount of money to play with this country bumpkin son-in-law was not bad either.
Cheng Ran, who had picked up the money, turned around and rushed to the hospital.
But when he arrived at the hospital's payment office, he was told by a nurse that his mother had been arranged by the director to have an operation in person, and she was now in a single VIP ward.
Cheng Ran was stunned and asked, "Who paid the operation fee for me?"
"It's me." Before the nurse answered, a woman's voice came.
Cheng Ran suddenly turned around and saw a very elegant woman standing in front of her.
Before Cheng Ran could react, the woman grabbed his hand and said with tears in her eyes, "I, I am your biological mother."
Cheng Ran was stunned. "Big Sister, did you mistake me for someone else?"
"Big Sister..." The woman's body trembled as she chewed the way Cheng Ran addressed her. A trace of bitterness rose in her heart.
She sighed helplessly and told Cheng Ran about her helplessness back then.
"I know it's hard for you to accept, but this is the truth."
"At that time, Mr. Lu said that our Cheng family was destined to be single, but at that time, we had you and your brother... In other words, we were destined to die."
"Your hands and hands are full of flesh. Your father and I didn't want to see our son die a violent death, so we sent you away in pain."
"Are you the only one who has no father and mother since you can remember?"
Hearing this, he was stunned. He began to believe in women's words.
Yes, from the moment he could remember, there was no father, no other children, only him, so he had suffered a lot when he was a child.
He had asked his mother countless times, but every time he asked, his mother would frown and not say a word.
Later, when he grew older, he stopped asking because he did not want to see his mother frown.
"Who is Mr. Lu?" Cheng Ran frowned and asked.
The woman pursed her lips. "She is the best master-in-charge in the capital. It doesn't matter. What matters is..."
"Yes, it doesn't matter." Cheng Ran continued to interrupt the woman. "What matters is why you could abandon your own son just because of a divination letter. Why did you abandon him... Me? And why are you not afraid of the rumors of that bloodline now?"
Cheng Ran's words made the woman look bitter. She didn't seem to know how to answer for a while and remained silent for a long time.
"Ranran, we know we are sorry for you, so I came to you this time to try my best to make it up to you. In Xin Yang City, with the property of our Cheng family and this black card, I will give them to you."
With this, the woman stuffed a black gold-rimmed card into Cheng Ran's hand. "There is only this kind of black card in Xin Yang City..."
"I'm sorry. In my eyes, money can't buy the favor of kinship and raising, even if you have a million yuan in your card..."
"No, it's 100 million," said the woman.
