Ma Dahua’s face nearly turned green with anger as she listened to those words, but she could not find anything to say in response. Suppressing her frustration, she forced a smile and said, “I was only joking with you. There’s no need to ask Director Guan about such a small matter. Don’t waste her time.”
Because she had spent years trying to have a son, Ma Dahua had already quit her job at the factory. The entire household now depended on her husband’s income.
She was planning to return to work once her son was a little older. Given her current physical condition, however, she could no longer return to the workshop. If she managed to go back, she would probably have to work in the logistics department. The cafeteria would be a good option, and that would put her under Director Guan’s supervision. So she definitely could not afford to offend her.
“Oh, so you were joking with me?” He Yingying said innocently. “I thought Auntie Ma had really become a department head and started enforcing workplace discipline. I almost misunderstood you.
“But if I may say so, Auntie Ma, you should be more careful when making jokes like that in the future. It’s easy for people to misunderstand. If word gets back to Director Guan, she might think you’re trying to overstep your authority and compete with her for the position of department head!”
Heh. Anyone can slap a label on someone, right?
He Yingying felt that the saying birds of a feather flock together really was true. Ma Dahua was just like her husband—neither of them had good intentions.
Fortunately, Ma Dahua had not insulted her daughter the way her husband had. Otherwise, He Yingying would not have merely responded with sarcasm. She would have cursed her outright.
Qiao Jia Jia wanted to applaud her mother at that moment. That whole string of sarcastic remarks had been absolutely perfect. Even without seeing Ma Dahua’s expression, she could tell that it must have been terrible.
Ma Dahua finally realized that He Yingying was not someone she could easily provoke. She began to back down, afraid that He Yingying would continue putting words in her mouth. She quickly said, “I’m taking my son out. I won’t keep you from going to work.”
With that, she hurried away.
But she was not going anywhere far. She was heading to her daughters’ homes.
Her precious eldest son was the Hu family’s only boy. As his older sisters, shouldn’t Da Ya and Er Ya contribute some money to buy their little brother nutritious food?
Seeing Ma Dahua scurry away in embarrassment, He Yingying felt a little better.
At first, she had felt somewhat guilty about Ma Dahua suffering because of her husband’s actions when the Hu family was eventually punished. After all, Ma Dahua had not had an easy life either. She had been forced to take all kinds of medicines in an attempt to have a son, and her health had been ruined in the process.
But now it seemed that her sympathy had come too soon.
People who share the same bed really are often made from the same cloth.
The next afternoon, as soon as Hu Shifu returned home from work, he saw that his doorway was surrounded by people.
And they were all people who had lent him money.
From a distance, he could already hear his son crying inside the house. Panicking, he hurried toward the entrance.
When Ma Dahua saw her husband coming back, she immediately cried out aggrievedly, “Honey, look! They’ve all blocked our door. They even scared our Da Bao into crying!”
But when the people saw Hu Shifu return, they stopped blocking the doorway and swarmed around him instead.
The man at the front angrily shouted, “Hu Wenjun, pay us back! You’ve owed me money for a whole year! When I came to ask for it before, you told me your family was struggling and life was difficult, and that you barely had enough money to raise your son.
“Who doesn’t have difficult times? Who doesn’t have children? We felt sorry for you when you made yourself sound so pitiful, so we didn’t force you to pay us back.
“But look at what happened! You said your family was struggling, yet you’ve been raising your son so well. I’ve never seen such a fat baby! He’s only one year old, but he’s already bigger than my one-and-a-half-year-old. Look at those arms—they’re practically wrapped in rolls of fat!
“I haven’t even been willing to buy my own son formula, but look at your family! You’re using the money you borrowed from us to give your son formula every day!
“And those children’s clothes hanging outside your house are all brand new. They’re made of pure cotton, and there’s not a single old piece among them. Is this what you call struggling?
“If that’s what struggling looks like, then my family must be starving! My son hasn’t worn a single new piece of clothing since he was born! Pay me back! I want to buy my son some new clothes too!”
Someone beside him immediately chimed in.
“Exactly! Pay us back! We live so frugally that we’re reluctant to buy anything. But you take the money you borrowed from us and spend it on whatever you want.
“I just saw that your family even has expensive biscuits! Hmph! I’m taking those biscuits later to count toward what you owe me. My son hasn’t even tasted a biscuit before!”
The others demanding repayment joined in.
“Just tell us when you’re going to pay us back! I’ve lent you money for more than three years! If you don’t repay us, we’ll go to the factory director.
“You make more than forty yuan a month. We’ll tell the director to deduct thirty yuan from your wages every month and use it to repay us first. The remaining ten-something yuan should be enough for the three of you to live on. Don’t say we’re forcing you so hard that you can’t survive!”
They could tolerate it if the Hu family’s life was genuinely difficult. They were not heartless people. Everyone could fall on hard times, and there might come a day when they themselves could not repay a debt.
But the Hu family’s situation had absolutely nothing to do with being poor.
Their son was well-fed and well-dressed, and they spared no expense on anything he needed.
And they called this struggling?
What a load of nonsense!
There was no reason for someone to refuse to repay their debts while spending money freely on their own family first. Ten or twenty yuan was not a small amount. If they were careful with it, that money could support an entire family for a month or even two.
When these people had first heard rumors about the Hu family, they had not really believed them.
The Hu family was supposedly struggling so badly that they had nearly been unable to afford the hospital bills when their son was born. So how could they possibly have enough money now to raise him so lavishly?
Formula milk, biscuits soaked in milk, brand-new clothes—who among them could afford to raise a child like that?
But once they had come to the Hu family’s house and seen everything with their own eyes, all their doubts had turned into anger.
The Hu family was nowhere near as miserable as Hu Wenjun had claimed.
The couple simply had money but refused to repay their debts!
At that moment, everyone who had come to demand repayment was determined to get an explanation from Hu Wenjun. Otherwise, they had no intention of leaving.
As for how these people had learned about the Hu family’s situation, that was naturally thanks to Qiao Heping and several of his good friends.
They had gone around separately, pretending to casually chat and accidentally revealing the information.
Now, with a whole crowd surrounding the Hu family’s doorway and demanding their money, He Yingying and Qiao Heping stood outside their own home, happily watching the spectacle.
They felt not the slightest bit sorry for the neighbors.
And no, it wasn’t as though they were viciously taking revenge over a minor argument.
Repaying a debt was simply the right thing to do. By telling the people who had lent money to the Hu family about the truth, they were actually doing them a favor!
Those people had lent the money to help the Hu family through an emergency. Money did not grow on trees.
The Hu family clearly had the ability to repay them, yet they refused to do so and instead spent lavishly on their precious son.
There was simply no justification for that.
Watching the people outside demand repayment, Qiao Zhufang suddenly slapped her forehead as if she had just remembered something.
“Wait, Heping. Our family lent them ten yuan too! Back then, Ma Dahua said she was sick and didn’t have money to buy medicine. I felt sorry for her and lent it to her. That was almost two years ago.
“If this hadn’t happened today, I would’ve completely forgotten about it. If I’d known they were this kind of people, I wouldn’t have lent them the money in the first place.”
When Qiao Heping heard this, he could no longer just stand by and watch.
He needed to get their money back too.
He stepped forward and joined the conversation with a smile.
“Oh, Hu Shifu, don’t forget about our family either. We lent you ten yuan too. We only did it because we’re neighbors.
“Ten yuan may not sound like much, but it’s nearly half a month’s wages. When you’re paying everyone back, don’t forget about us!”
For several years, Hu Shifu had gone to great lengths to get his wife to give birth to a son. They had tried all kinds of folk remedies, and Ma Dahua had taken countless medicines that supposedly guaranteed the birth of a boy.
Those medicines were not cheap either. Any medicine that dared to advertise itself as something that could guarantee a son was obviously designed to fleece people.
Because of her efforts to have a son, Ma Dahua had quit her job at the factory long ago. With only Hu Shifu’s monthly salary of a little over forty yuan, there was nowhere near enough money to buy all those medicines.
They could no longer squeeze much money out of their two daughters either, so borrowing money had become their only option.
Hu Shifu had borrowed money from people who lived farther away, and naturally, the Qiao family—who lived right next door—had not escaped either.
At the time, however, the relationship between the two families had been relatively peaceful. At least on the surface, there had not been so much friction.
Ten yuan was not an insignificant amount, but seeing that Ma Dahua was unwell and looked pitiful, combined with the fact that they would still have to remain neighbors for many years, Qiao Zhufang had softened and lent them the money.
The Hu family could even consider themselves lucky that Qiao Zhufang had been home when they came to borrow money.
Of everyone in the Qiao family, she had the kindest temperament. Although the two families were not particularly close, she had been willing to help when she heard they were in difficulty.
If Qiao Qiusheng had been home, they would not have gotten even a single cent.
Qiao Qiusheng had experienced poverty himself in the past. Every penny he had was reserved for his own household. Outsiders could forget about getting even a cent out of him.
And now that the Qiao family was about to fall out with the Hu family anyway, why should they let those ten yuan benefit the Hu family?
Of course they had to get it back!
Ten yuan was not a small amount. Although it was nothing major to the Qiao family, it could still buy plenty of things.
They could use it to go to the grocery store and buy a large package of biscuits and peach pastries for the whole family.
When Hu Shifu saw Qiao Heping joining in and demanding his money too, he was furious. But there was nothing he could do about it.
He already had this entire crowd to deal with.
Over the past few years, Hu Shifu had borrowed more than two hundred yuan in total.
Some people had lent him only a few yuan or a dozen yuan, while others had lent him twenty or thirty yuan.
At a time when the average monthly wage was less than thirty yuan, more than two hundred yuan was an enormous amount of money.
No wonder these people had become furious after discovering that the Hu family was actually living so comfortably.
Hu Shifu’s monthly wages, including his allowances, came to at least forty-eight yuan. With that income, repaying his debts should not have been difficult.
His family had only one son, and he occasionally managed to squeeze money out of his two daughters as well. Their standard of living was already better than that of most families.
But he simply refused to repay his debts.
He had finally had his precious son at the age of forty, so he treated the boy like an emperor.
Then he looked at the family next door. Even their little girl was drinking formula milk, eating expensive biscuits soaked in milk, and having steamed egg custard every few days.
That only made him more competitive.
If even the Qiao family’s little girl was eating so well, then his son—the only male heir of the Hu family—certainly couldn’t have anything less.
So he fed his son all kinds of good food. Whenever he ran short of money, he either borrowed more or went to his daughters to ask for money.
He never thought about anything else.
Saving money to repay his debts was completely out of the question.
But now, faced with a crowd determined not to leave until he paid, with two men even holding objects that could be used as weapons, Hu Shifu finally panicked.
A few people had already gone inside his house and started taking things.
His son’s new clothes and formula milk were already being carried away.
Hu Shifu’s heart ached terribly.
On top of that, his son was crying hysterically inside the house from fright.
In the end, Hu Shifu gritted his teeth and nodded.
“All right, all right! If you’re demanding that I repay everything today, I really don’t have that much money on hand.
“How about this? I promise I’ll pay twenty-five yuan every month until I’ve repaid everything. I’ll pay each of you in turn. I definitely won’t run away from the debt.
“Otherwise, no matter how much you pressure me, I simply don’t have the money to pay everything back at once.”
One of the sharper-minded people immediately responded after hearing this.
“Fine. You said you’ll pay twenty-five yuan every month, right? The factory already paid this month’s wages a couple of days ago. Don’t try telling us you’ve already spent it all.
“You can at least give us twenty-five yuan right now. We can divide it among ourselves, one or two yuan each. Even a tiny amount is still better than nothing.”
The others thought this made sense and immediately agreed.
“Hurry up! Give me two yuan and I’ll leave.”
Qiao Heping added with a mischievous grin,
“Don’t forget about me, Hu Shifu. I want two yuan too.”