Chapter 25 - Two Equally Difficult Situations
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
After Sun Yiyi’s stammered recounting, Shi Lei finally understood everything.
Sun Yiyi’s mother met a man who was a few years older than him after by chance about a year after her father had pa.s.sed away.
The man claimed that he was a businessman at Wu Dong. He did not remarry after his wife, who pa.s.sed away at a young age and did not have any children. He came to Run Zhou because he had a business deal.
After that, whenever the man came to Ren Zhou for business, he would meet up with Sun Yiyi’s mother. Gradually, they established their relationship as lovers. Perhaps because the man was too good at disguising, and he used marriage as an excuse to make Sun Yiyi’s mother sell their house in Ren Zhou, she took the money and followed him to Wu Dong.
The man said that he was lacking money for the transactions, so Sun Yiyi’s mother gave him her entire savings of more than a million without hesitation. Except she never thought that the man would disappear with the money after that. Afterwards, she learnt the fact that the man also rented the house they were living in. Abruptly having lost her savings she worked for half of her life, naturally she could not afford such high rental fees. She also felt that it was rather shameful of her to be fooled by a man’s looks and got scammed, she did not have the face to return to Ren Zhou, so she rented a small house in Wu Dong, found a job and was finally settled down.
If that was the only thing that happened, only the loss of money should have impacted them to be in a straitened situation. But not long ago, Sun Yiyi’s mother suddenly experienced angina at home. After checking at a hospital, she found out she had heart problems. The doctor expressed that she needed a heart bypa.s.s surgery. This time she lived, but if it happens again they might not be able to save her. Plus, after the surgery, her mother would basically lose all her ability to work. Although she might be able to handle the small things at home with struggle, but she would definitely be unable to work.
As they were in Wu Dong a year so so, thank G.o.d that Sun Yiyi’s mother was an accountant with a decent income and saved some money. Originally, the money was intended for Sun Yiyi’s university fees, but all the savings are gone due to her illness and Sun Yiyi even gave up on her studies. The school barely agreed to let Sun Yiyi enter the school a year later, but Sun Yiyi knew that even if she could heal her mother, there’s no way for her to gather enough money for her school fees.
At the beginning, Sun Yiyi wanted to find a normal job to earn money for her mother’s illness. But she was a high school graduate and was rather weak, how was it possible for her to find a high salary job? Before, she was working as an employee at a KTV, but she heard from her fellow cohort that the income was much higher if she was to sell beer at the bar. Some girls even earned up to 10,000 yuan per month and that’s the reason why Sun Yiyi was here.
She had been working here for about five or six days. At first, the people she encountered were not too bad, at most just flirted verbally in a sentence or two because of her good looks and her sales were rather good. If it was like the first two days, she might really be able to earn up to 10,000 yuan a month. But in a place like bars, the chaotic side was quickly exposed in front of Sun Yiyi as she began to encounter those customers who attempted to grope her.
To be honest, the two tonight were not that bad. Even though they had bad intentions, they wanted to take her to the hotel after getting her drunk. But some just straight forwardly wanted to take advantage of her. It was good that Sun Yiyi had her guard up and kept herself safe so far.
But it was only a matter of time. It had only been a few days yet all kinds of incidents happened. If she was to continue, incidents will definitely happen sooner or later.
Seeing that the time was almost up, Shi Lei returned to the bar, finding that Zhang Mo and the others had combined tables with two girls and did not have the intention of going back to school anytime soon. Shi Lei called out to them and took Sun Yiyi to get her today’s earnings. Ten dozens of beers got her 1,000 yuan, no wonder many girls knew that they would be taken advantage of yet still chose to continue.
Shi Lei took Sun Yiyi to a nearby congee place and as he saw Sun Yiyi taking big mouthfuls of it, he felt terrible.
“Yiyi, from tomorrow onwards, don’t sell beers at the bar anymore. Something will happen sooner or later in that sort of place.”
Shi Lei said softly as Sun Yiyi placed her bowl down.
Sun Yiyi nodded. She knew that a long time ago, but her mother’s medical fees as well as their living expenses are hardly letting her breathe. She doesn’t have other abilities either, what else can she do if she doesn’t do this?
Quickly, Sun Yiyi felt that the future for her was uncertain. Her mother was seriously ill and she was considering to go to university next year. If she gave up on the job now, her life would be hopeless.
Sun Yiyi bit her lips; she seemingly wanted to say something yet could not open her mouth to say so.
“I will help to think of something for the money needed for aunt"s illness. As for your school fees, don’t they have student loan nowadays? I think your application will be approved with your current situation. Now, let’s think about the money for aunt’s treatment. Yiyi, tell me, what is the total cost for the heart bypa.s.s surgery?”
Sun Yiyi’s tears were about to rush out of her eye sockets again. Blurred with tears, she said: “The doctor said the surgery fees are more than 50,000 yuan, plus the recovery after the surgery, it may cost up about 100,000 yuan. My mum has medical insurance and that can write off almost half. The doctor said to prepare for at least 60,000 yuan.”
Shi Lei nodded, thinking that next week’s quota definitely won’t be lower than this week’s, so paying the expenditure for Sun Yiyi won’t be a problem.
But, Shi Lei did not know how the Sceptre would calculate this money as helping a friend to pay for her mother’s medical expenses was obviously different to direct consumerism.
One side is Sun Yiyi, the other side was possibility of risking his life. Shi Lei grew up together with Sun Yiyi, almost treating her as his own sister, so much that for a long time, whether it was the Shi family or their neighbours, all joked that since they are so close to each other, they should get married. When Sun Yiyi’s father was still alive, both two families seemed to be happy to see these two to come together eventually. When Shi Lei was in high school, he had some ideas of romantic relationships and he did have feelings for Sun Yiyi, But not to mention that they are not of a romantic relationship yet, even if they really were, Shi Lei would not give up his life as he was not that n.o.ble.
What about asking the Scepter?
Shi Lei quickly denied his own idea.
He could almost imagine that the Scepter will not give him an answer. For the sake of making this game more fun, the Scepter would even purposely make him sink into the difficult situation even deeper.
To negotiate about this kind of things with the Scepter was as if asking the tiger for its skins.
However, will he just watch helplessly as Sun Yiyi’s mother’s condition deteriorated? If Sun Yiyi was pressured too much, it might really ruin her.
Shi Lei simply could not make a decision that satisfied both sides. He could only comfort her that there will be a way when the worst comes and will have a solution, then he sent Sun Yiyi home.
Although Sun Yiyi’s mother was lying on the bed, she was waiting for Sun Yiyi to come back. She was shocked when she saw Shi Lei and after finding out what happened, she scolded Sun Yiyi that even if she was dead, she did not wish to see Sun Yiyi working as a beer girl again. She always thought that she was still working at the KTV as an employee!
As Shi Lei saw Sun Yiyi’s mother’s haggard look and their rented house that was renovated from a garage, he was determined to help them to overcome this difficulty.