Chapter 77 - 77 Debt Collector
77 Debt Collector
“If you don’t f*cking pay me back, I’ll rip out your son’s oxygen tube! You hear me?!”
Old Zhu was unable to hear him clearly, but as soon as he finished speaking he was kicked away.
The man crashed to the ground and yelped in pain.
Old Zhu was astonished. He turned around and saw Lu Ning.
“Young, Young Miss…”
His face was swollen and bruised, and he could not articulate his words clearly.
Lu Ning turned to look at him.
“Damn girl, you’d better mind your own business! How dare you hit me, do you want to die?!”
He staggered to his feet, hurling a slew of insults.
Old Zhu frantically stood in front of Lu Ning. “I-I’ll pay it back, don’t hurt her.”
The man stepped forward and grabbed his collar. “I’ll give you three days! If you don’t, then wait to collect your son’s corpse!”
He raised his hand as if to slap Old Zhu, but he was frightened by Lu Ning’s steely glare.
His hand fell and gently patted Old Zhu’s cheek. “I’ll wait for you at the usual place in three days. See you there.”
After gritting his teeth, he pulled his hand back and turned to leave.
Old Zhu instantly deflated; his body swayed and almost toppled over.
Lu Ning supported him. Old Zhu quickly steadied himself and did not dare to look up at Lu Ning; he hung his head low and kept his gaze on her shoes. “Young Miss, I-I’ll leave first.”
He wanted to leave in a panic.
“Hold it!”
…
Lu Ning brought him to the infirmary and had Gu Chen bandage him. Not only was his face swollen, but there were also many bruises on his body.
After Gu Chen disinfected his wounds, he brought him to the café.
Lu Ning had not gotten off work yet. She had returned to the café right after leaving him with Gu Chen.
Old Zhu looked at Lu Ning, who was standing behind the counter. He stood at the door, unsure of what to do.
There were few customers now. After saying a few words, Lu Ning walked from the counter and dragged Old Zhu to the window seat at the back.
“What happened?”
Lu Ning went straight to the point.
Old Zhu lowered his head. “No-No, it’s fine, Young Miss. I-I should leave.”
As he spoke, he clambered to his feet.
Lu Ning looked at him and rasped, “Old Zhu!”
Old Zhu looked at her bitterly.
Seeing Old Zhu sit down again, Lu Ning asked, “Is your son sick?”
Hearing this, Old Zhu hung his head and went quiet, but tears fell onto the back of his hand.
Lu Ning was upset. Old Zhu had watched her grow up; to her, he was like family. Now, she did not have the faintest idea what had happened to him. From the looks of it, something big must have happened; otherwise, he would not be like this.
Lu Ning looked at him and did not probe further. She waited for Old Zhu to calm down a little, and he gradually opened up to her.
Old Zhu’s son had been in a car accident not long ago, and the perpetrator escaped. Although he was caught later, his family was very poor and could not afford to compensate Old Zhu for his son’s treatment fees.
Old Zhu’s son was still comatose, and the prognosis was not optimistic. He was in the ICU, and all his organs were showing signs of failure; however, Old Zhu was unwilling to give up just yet. Even if there was only a glimmer of hope, he wanted to treat him, but this required surgery that was prohibitively expensive.
All these years, Old Zhu’s family situation had not been very stable, and thus he did not have much savings at all. When Lu Ning was still around, he had relied on her for financial support. However, now Lu Ning was no longer around, and he also did not dare tell the Lù family about his situation even though he had already spent all the money he had on hand; so, he could only ask around for money. In the end, he borrowed so much that his relatives did not even want to see him anymore, and he had no choice but to borrow from loan sharks.
“That person just now is the debt collector…”
Old Zhu clenched his fists, ashamed.