Chapter 93        Debt Repayment

“You sure you didn’t steal these diamonds from the others?

“Did anyone order you to sell them?

“If your diamonds indeed have an unidentified origin, then as your teacher, I’ll be in big trouble! Don’t you dare try to lie to an old man.”

The transaction of fifty thousand yuan took less than half a minute. After asking repeatedly for almost an hour, Mr. Ma finally decided to reach an agreement with Zhou Qingfeng. However, Mr Ma did not dare to keep the goods in his hand overnight, as he quickly called his friends in order to transfer the owners.h.i.+p.

Meanwhile, Zhou Qingfeng felt exuberant after receiving the transaction notification on his mobile phone.

Fifty thousand yuan, it’s f*cking fifty thousand yuan! His earning did not reach close to fifty thousand yuan even though he had worked several part-time jobs for the past several years. He took the taxi once again, and he already knew how he will be spending his fifty thousand yuan—he first had to repay his debts!

That’s right, debt repayment! During the past few years, Zhou Qingfeng had lived in poverty. His adoptive parents divorced and left nothing behind for him except a lot of debts. Those debts were not supposed to be paid by him, but the creditors only looked for him!

The taxi did not send Zhou Qingfeng to his home. Instead, he brought to an old building located in front of the old city area. Zhou Qingfeng found a house and knocked the door for quite some time, but he did not get any response. Someone from the neighborhood then yelled, “Aunty Zhang’s not back yet!”

The residents were quite old, and they all looked pitiful in front of the withered flowers and willows planted in front of the buildings. Most of the residents were just workers from the lower social cla.s.s, and hence they had no income when they reached their elderly stage. They tried to change their occupation, but they did not possess any skills. And so, they could only think of a way to work as casually. However, nowadays, even if an employer looked for casual workers, they would only look for teenagers. There was no way they would look for elderly in their fifties or sixties.

Zhou Qingfeng waited under the building. His creditor, however, did not appear even when it was already past nine o’clock at night. All the other houses were brightly lit, but Aunty Zhang’s house remained pitch black. It was not until ten o’clock that he saw an old woman riding back home with a broken bike.

“Aunty Zhang, Aunty Zhang!” Zhou Qingfeng shouted twice, as he walked toward her happily. Aunty Zhang used to be colleagues with his adoptive mother. She once even lent his adoptive mother eight thousand yuan for a small business. The two families used to be close to each other, but they had lost their amicable relations.h.i.+p since then.

The white-haired Aunty Zhang was shocked when she saw a teenager approaching her. Her expression then turned sour when she realized that the teenager was actually Zhou Qingfeng. She said unpleasantly, “Why are you here?”

Aunty Zhang did not want to bother with Zhou Qingfeng. She carried her bike and tried to go upstairs. She lived on the sixth floor, and there was no elevator in the old building, so it was quite difficult for the old woman to carry the bike. However, if she left her bike downstairs, the two wheels will be gone for sure the next day.

“I’ll help you carry it.” Zhou Qingfeng hurriedly walked near her and carried the bike with ease.

Aunty Zhang, however, said to him anxiously, “Oh dear…. Put it down, put it down!”

“Don’t worry, it’s not heavy at all.” Within a few moments, Zhou Qingfeng carried the bike to the sixth floor. In those years when the relations.h.i.+p between the two families was still good, Aunty Zhang had given him quite a lot of snacks. He still remembered her as a very optimistic and humorous person.

Aunty Zhang was already gasping for breath when she arrived on the sixth floor. She pointed at Zhou Qingfeng and shouted, “Kid, stop paying tribute to me! I’ll make it clear: I don’t have any money to lend you. Your family still owes me eight thousand yuan.”

“Aunty, I think you get me wrong. I’m here to repay the debt.” Zhou Qingfeng felt sad after spitting out those words even though he was wearing a smile on his face. Everyone had lived through tough times these few years as the condition in Tianyang City worsened by the day. Eight thousand yuan would be a life-saving a.s.set for her, an elderly who had no pension at all.

Aunty Zhang used to look for him several times to collect the debt, but Zhou Qingfeng always shook his head to indicate that he had no money. Therefore, as time pa.s.sed, Aunty Zhang stopped looking for him as she knew that she could no longer get back her money.

As a result, when Zhou Qingfeng said that he was there to repay the debt, Aunty Zhang was shocked. “You’re here to repay your debt?”

“Yes.”

“How much?”

“I remember that we owed you eight thousand four hundred yuan. Including the interest, I’ll pay you ten thousand yuan!”

Ten thousand yuan? Aunty Zhang thought she heard wrong. She already felt disbelief when Zhou Qingfeng said that he was going to repay the debt, as everyone in these days tend to renege on their promise to pay their debts. She thought that Zhou Qingfeng would pay her with a smaller amount, at most two thousand yuan.

“Are you really going to pay me ten thousand yuan?” Aunty Zhang was truly shocked! Her family needed a large amount of money as her grandchildren needed money in order to continue their studies. She also needed the money to treat her geriatric diseases. She could solve a lot of problems if she had ten thousand yuan.

“Yes. What’s your account number? I’ll transfer the money to you right now. You’ll receive the notification about the transaction details in no time.” Zhou Qingfeng took out his mobile phone. “Paying someone using mobile phones nowadays is extremely quick. It just takes around a couple of minutes.”

“Come, we’ll continue talking inside the house.” Aunty Zhang almost burst into tears after hearing that she was going to receive ten thousand yuan. She then opened her house door and invited Zhou Qingfeng inside.

Her old house contained two cramped rooms. The walls were all mottled and the furniture were all worn out. The house was a decent place to live in thirty years ago, but now, the house no longer had anything of value in it. There also sat a few leftovers soured dishes on the dining table.

“As you can see, there’s nothing here for me to offer you.” Aunty Zhang invited Zhou Qingfeng to sit on her sofa, as she rubbed her hands anxiously.

“Aunty, I better send you the money first, so you can stop worrying about it.” Zhou Qingfeng knew that the old woman was actually quite anxious. However, due to her pride, she did not take the initiative to ask for the money.

“Okay, okay.” Aunty Zhang stopped beating around the bush too, as she soon told him her account number. Ten seconds later, she received a notification from the bank on her phone. After repeatedly confirming that it was indeed the figure ‘1’ followed by four zeros, the old lady instantly burst into tears.

“Thank you so much! You’ve really helped me a lot.” Aunty Zhang talked to him in tears, “I’ve stood in the supermarket today for the whole day, but I couldn’t even find a part-time job.

“I know that the people on the streets mock me. They resent the fact that I’m too old, so they don’t hire me, even for a job with a wage of only fifty yuan. I can’t even afford to commute through the public transport right now. I’m exhausted because I rode the bicycle for the whole day.” Aunty Zhang continued crying as she grumbled about her life.

“Aunty, don’t be too sad! You have ten thousand yuan now, don’t you?” Zhou Qingfeng tried his best to comfort her, but even he eventually cried in the process of comforting her. People from the neighborhood heard the commotion, so they came to see what had happened. They cried as well when they found out that Zhou Qingfeng was there to repay the debt.

After crying, Zhou Qingfeng felt a lot better when he left Aunty Zhang’s house. He then headed to the other houses in order to repay his debts. All the families were surprised with his arrival, as all of them kept expressing their grat.i.tude when they received the money from Zhou Qingfeng.

Zhou Qingfeng’s fifty thousand yuan only lasted for a few hours. He used up all his money to repay his debts. But he did not feel any regret for his actions. Instead, he felt extremely happy from finally being able to live a debt-free life.

It was already midnight when he returned to his home. Zhou Qingfeng planned to take a bath and sleep. However, it was not long before someone gently knocked on his door.

Zhou Qingfeng opened the door and saw a young woman, perhaps around twenty-seven to twenty-eight years old, standing outside his house. She wore a common work uniform. Her appearance was extremely rustic, and there was not much meat on her cheeks.

“Xiao Zhou, I’m sorry for disturbing you so late. However, I recently heard that you’re paying the debts of your parents. I just want to ask, could you… could you….” The young woman lowered her head, unable to complete her sentence.

At that moment, an impatient voice snapped from the back of the young woman, “Wife, just cut straight to the point. Ask him if he could pay us back our five hundred yuan.”

Zhou Qingfeng threw a glance into the darkness and saw a perverted man hiding behind the young woman. The man even hid himself subconsciously in the shadows when he saw Zhou Qingfeng staring at him.

Zhou Qingfeng lowered his gaze and looked at the young woman. Then, he said mercilessly, “No, I couldn’t.”