To Get Married - Chapter 28.2

Chapter 28.2

“Birds of a feather flock together.” Wang Yan rolled her eyes. “That Lu Yudong is just like Zhang Ziyun, they both have weird tempers. The only difference is Zhang Ziyun is better at buttering up the boys in class.”

“The class beauty’s lackey, what’s with the attitude,” Zhao Wen said.

Wang Yan smiled: “Who voted her as class beauty? An’an is not worse than Zhang Ziyun. She just doesn’t like to deal with those boys, that’s all.”

Wu An’an shook her head: “Alright, alright, stop talking. We’re all roommates, don’t hold such prejudices…”

Wang Yan said: “Wasn’t it Zhang Ziyun who was prejudiced against us first? That girl’s arrogant attitude in the dorm is so annoying. I really wish she’d take a long leave. The less I see her, the more peaceful the day is.”

Zhao Wen made a shushing gesture: “Don’t jinx it.”

Wang Yan immediately exaggeratedly covered her mouth.

She was truly a jinx.

She didn’t want to see Zhang Ziyun, but Zhang Ziyun returned to school from outside during the evening self-study session that night.

Lu Yudong had just finished dinner alone in the canteen and saw Zhang Ziyun slumped over her desk as soon as she returned to the classroom.

“Zhang Ziyun? Are you asleep?” She walked over and gently patted Zhang Ziyun’s back.

Zhang Ziyun sniffed, lifted her head, and her eyes were full of bloodshot fatigue.

Lu Yudong was startled and quickly sat down next to her, gently rubbing her back, and whispered: “What’s wrong? Uncle… is he okay?”

The moment Zhang Ziyun heard Lu Yudong’s question, she immediately threw herself into her arms, sobbing with a suppressed sound.

At this time, there were only a few people in the classroom, and it was very quiet.

Zhang Ziyun cried hard, with snot and tears, and was a bit incoherent.

The few classmates in the room heard the commotion and curiously gathered around Zhang Ziyun. They listened to her crying and coughing, disjointedly and haltingly, even somewhat incoherently, as she managed to say a few words.

She said her father had been in a car accident on the highway while heading out for a business trip. The driver of the other car, who caused the accident, died on the spot and had no surviving family members. Her father was severely injured and rushed to the hospital for emergency rescue.

She didn’t know how her father was doing. She had waited all day, but there was no result.

The doctor told her mother that her father had not yet passed the critical stage, and the conservative estimate for the medical expenses was over a million yuan.

Her mother hugged her and cried for a long time. Zhang Ziyun didn’t fully understand what all this meant. She only knew that her mother cried for a long time, and she couldn’t help but cry with her, her mind filled with frantic, worried thoughts.

Finally, her mother calmed down and told her everything would be okay, asking her to return to school and study hard, saying there would be new updates about her father in a few days.

She said she was so scared. This was the first time she was so afraid.

The surrounding classmates were all comforting Zhang Ziyun, but words of comfort are often the most futile and pale.

From that day on, Zhang Ziyun was constantly distracted.

She scored a very poor grade on the midterm exam. In the past, she would have worried and wailed about this result, fearing criticism from her parents. But this time, she didn’t care about her grades at all.

Lu Yudong felt that although only a few days had passed, Zhang Ziyun seemed much more haggard, listless, and spoke less and less.

The homeroom teacher learned of Zhang Ziyun’s difficulty and organized a donation drive in the class. Subject teachers also participated, but how much money could students have? In the end, the funds raised were only a little over four figures, which was a drop in the bucket compared to the enormous medical expenses.

Lu Yudong stayed with Zhang Ziyun, but couldn’t utter a word of comfort. She simply pulled out all the money she had secretly saved from Manzhu for a long time from her backpack.

$1,400, it was all she had.

Zhang Ziyun didn’t want to accept it, but ultimately couldn’t refuse Lu Yudong.

She sat in the corner of the playground, hugging her knees, and whispered, choking: “I will pay it back.”

In early November, the weather in Yuanchuan City grew colder.

Ten days had passed since Zhang Ziyun’s father’s car accident.

During these ten days, Zhang Ziyun’s father had remained in critical condition. He had undergone two major surgeries, and the total cost had already exceeded $300,000. Further treatment was a bottomless pit.

This family, which had only recently paid off their car and house loans and always maintained a high quality of life, had not accumulated much savings. The sudden car accident was like a nightmare, attacking the still-sober mother and daughter day and night.

Zhang Ziyun’s mother, desperate to raise the initial surgical fee and find a buyer, sold the family car. But that only brought in a little over $200,000, and little was left after the second surgery.

Apart from a few relatives who were not wealthy themselves, absolutely no one dared to lend them money.

This was because Zhang’s father was the breadwinner of the family, and his income was much higher than Zhang’s mother’s. Now, with such severe injuries, even if he survived, he would be paralyzed from the waist down and unable to care for himself.

They couldn’t pay it back. At least, most people believed they couldn’t.

Zhang’s mother considered selling the house, but a buyer was hard to find in a short time, and those willing to offer a price were trying to take advantage of their misfortune.

This house was her last hope to save her husband. She was already deeply in debt and absolutely could not sell the house at such a low price. Otherwise, she would never be able to afford the subsequent treatment costs.

The third surgery couldn’t be postponed any longer, the house wasn’t selling, and they were still short $70,000 for the surgery. Despair, like a toppling skyscraper, instantly crushed the mother who tried hard to be strong in front of her daughter.

Later, on an evening no different from others, Zhang Hao found Zhang Ziyun after the evening self-study session.

He asked Zhang Ziyun how much more money she needed, and he offered to lend it to her.

Zhang Ziyun grabbed onto this like a life raft, her eyes red as she stated the figure—$70,000.

She knew borrowing so much money from a classmate was ridiculous, but she was desperate. She and her mother thought alike: no matter the method, they had to raise the money for the third surgery first to buy some time, find a buyer who wasn’t so heartless to sell the house to, and deal with the rest later.

This figure was obviously still quite large for a student, but Zhang Hao hesitated for a while and eventually agreed, saying he would find a way to ask his father for the money as soon as possible.

Two days later, Zhang Hao actually gave the promised $70,000 to Zhang Ziyun.

The mother and daughter initially thought this was a turning point, but they didn’t expect that just two days after the third surgery, the man passed away.

As if unwilling to continue burdening his family, he left very quietly.

Zhang Ziyun didn’t come to school for a week, and Lu Yudong didn’t dare to send her any messages for a week.

She understood the feeling of losing a loved one.

If there was any difference between her and Zhang Ziyun’s experiences, it was probably that… she opened her eyes to darkness, while Zhang Ziyun had been running towards the light for so long, suffering all the while, only to eventually enter that boundless darkness.

Over the weekend, Lu Yudong returned home. Manzhu asked about Zhang Ziyun’s father’s recent condition, and she simply lowered her head and whispered: “He’s gone.”

Manzhu was speechless for a moment. After a long silence, she pulled Lu Yudong to sit next to her and gently said: “It will pass. She is a very strong girl, and her mother will always be with her.”

Manzhu knew that Zhang Ziyun was Lu Yudong’s best friend, and Lu Yudong cared deeply about her.

She had asked Mu Chensan if there was any way to save that human, but the answer was cruel.

“An ordinary human body cannot withstand a spirit’s power. If you try to save him with magic, it will only accelerate his death.”

“It’s not impossible to save him, but the premise is that a spirit is willing to form a soul-bond with him, just like you and Lu Yudong—using a spirit body to endure the fatal injury for him, thereby turning him into a half-spirit.”

“But you should know that not everyone is as lucky as Lu Yudong to meet someone like you, who is willing to form a soul-bond with her.”

Yes, unless there was no other choice, no spirit would willingly form a soul-bond with an ordinary human.

That was a burden, a lifelong and incredibly fragile burden.

Manzhu couldn’t find a spirit willing to help. She didn’t want to and couldn’t force any spirit to do such a thing.

Therefore, Manzhu could only comfort Lu Yudong and tell her that everything would pass.

Lu Yudong was a girl who had gone through such an experience, so she knew better than anyone that time heals all.

She leaned on Manzhu’s shoulder, lost in thought for a moment, then suddenly looked up, and asked in an extremely low, faint voice: “At that time… how much money did it cost for Sister to save me?”

Manzhu said: “That’s not important.”

Lu Yudong asked: “It must have been a lot, right?”

Manzhu didn’t answer her, but she knew that she had been in a coma for so long, and then unable to walk for quite a while after waking up. Regardless of whether she had a spirit body protecting her, regardless of how quickly and well her injuries recovered—no matter how much of a medical miracle it was—the hospital bills alone for those three months were enough to crush many families that were not well-off.

How much more for a spirit who came from the deep mountains and had no savings?

“Sister definitely didn’t have that much money, and my family didn’t have a house to use as collateral…” Lu Yudong took Manzhu’s hand and asked earnestly, looking up: “Was it Uncle Mu? Uncle Mu helped you.”

Manzhu nodded. Lu Yudong had no concept of these things before, but it was different now. It was impossible to keep it a secret even if she tried.

“Sister, how much do you still owe Uncle Mu?” Lu Yudong pursued softly.

Her gaze was extremely stubborn, as if she had to have this answer, regardless of whether it held any meaning.

Manzhu recalled and hesitated: “About… three or four hundred thousand?” She genuinely couldn’t remember the exact number.

Mu Chensan paid her a salary of $12,000 a month. This salary was higher than everyone else’s in the bar except Yan Zhaomu, which showed how high the sentimentality component was.

But even at a monthly salary of $12,000, half paid and half withheld, repaying $6,000 every month, the initial debt was enough to keep her paying for seven or eight years.

Mu Chensan had been keeping the accounts for these three years, and Manzhu simply treated her salary as $6,000 a month and hadn’t paid too much attention to the debt issue.

“It’s okay. Your Uncle Mu never pressures me. We pay a little every month, and it will be paid off in a few years…” Manzhu didn’t want Lu Yudong to feel overly guilty about this. She squeezed Lu Yudong’s palm and smiled faintly, “See, aren’t we doing just fine?”

Lu Yudong was silent for a moment, turned and lay on Manzhu’s lap, no longer speaking, but her heart remained heavy for a long time.

What she owed Manzhu had long exceeded her imagination.

“Sister…”

“Hmm?”

“I will give you a good life…”

That year, the child, not yet sixteen, lay on the person she was most attached to in this life.

Very seriously, she made a promise about a lifetime.