91: Chapter 91 Su Qiang's Dilemma

Su Qiang's sobbing echoed through the spacious, luxurious hospital room, making anyone who heard it feel a pang of heartache.

The yellow delivery rider uniform he wore was still dripping water, and dirty rainwater seeped into the expensive handmade carpet, staining a dark patch. But he couldn't care less. He curled up on the floor, clutching the envelope of money tightly in his hand, as if it were his last straw.

"Qiang Zi, stop crying, get up!" Su Wanqing, with red-rimmed eyes, tried to pull him up, but Su Qiang's body felt as heavy as lead.

Sitting on the hospital bed, Su Guohua watched his only son's pathetic display and slapped his thigh in anger: "Crying, crying, always crying! You've completely disgraced the Su family! What exactly happened? Is that Xiaoli... really breaking up with you?"

Su Qiang sniffled and wiped his face haphazardly; the mixture of muddy water and tears made his face look even messier.

"Dad, Xiaoli... she's pregnant."

This sentence made the room go instantly quiet. Liu Yumei exclaimed in surprise: "Pregnant? That's good news! Our Su family will have an heir!"

"Good news, my foot!" Su Qiang jerked his head up, his eyes bloodshot. "Her mother said that being pregnant doesn't matter! If I want to marry Xiaoli, the bride price must be increased to 200,000, and I must have a fully paid-for apartment within the Third Ring Road with only Xiaoli's name on the deed! If I can't come up with it, she's taking Xiaoli to the hospital tomorrow... to abort the baby!"

"What?!" Su Guohua was so angry he almost jumped off the bed. "Is this selling a daughter or marrying one off? 200,000 and a fully paid-for apartment? This is trying to squeeze every last bit of marrow from our family!"

Su Qiang collapsed on the floor, looking desperate: "I just ran through all the loan platforms, and only two were willing to approve, totaling just 30,000. I borrowed everything I could from my fellow workers, and this is all I managed to scrape together..."

He opened the envelope in his hand; the 2,000 yuan inside was crumpled and even smelled of sweat.

"I originally wanted to use this to buy some nutritional supplements for Xiaoli and beg her mother for a few more days. But as soon as I heard you were sick, Dad, I..." Su Qiang choked up, unable to speak, and slapped himself hard across the face. "I'm a piece of trash! Dad, I can't even afford your medical treatment, and I can't protect my wife and child either! What's the point of me living!"

Chen Muyang stood by the window, watching the scene with cold eyes. For him now, 200,000 wasn't even enough for a meal. But he also understood that this was the cruel truth of the lower class—a few thin banknotes could break a man's spine.

Chen Fan didn't speak, just quietly watched the envelope.

This kid, even when he was in dire straits himself, still managed to use the only money he had to save his father.

He might be a bit foolish, but his heart is in the right place. Worth helping.

"Just for this?" Chen Fan walked over, kicked aside the leather ottoman, sat down opposite Su Qiang, and took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, but then remembered it was a hospital room and put them back.

Su Qiang looked up, eyes teary, at his unfamiliar brother-in-law.

"Brother-in-law, you don't understand..." Su Qiang gave a bitter laugh. "You're a big boss, doing import and export business, earning a million a year. 200,000 is small change to you, but to me... it's my life."

"It is indeed small change." Chen Fan nodded, his tone so calm it was almost annoying. "But let me ask you, how is the girl named Xiaoli? Is she in cahoots with her mother?"

"No! Xiaoli is a good person!" Su Qiang was so anxious his neck turned red. "To be with me, she's argued with her family several times and even secretly gave me her salary card to save for a down payment. This time... this time she was locked at home by her mother, her phone confiscated; I can't even see her."

Chen Fan rubbed his chin thoughtfully: "Since the girl is a good one, then this is easy to handle."

"Easy to handle, what are you talking about!" Su Guohua sighed on the bed. "With our family's conditions, even if we sold everything we owned, we couldn't scrape together enough for that fully paid-for apartment. Old Chen, although you have some money, you've already paid 5 million for my medical treatment; we can't keep..."

Su Guohua was an honest man; the 5 million credit card receipt from earlier had already made his heart race, and now he really couldn't bring himself to ask his son-in-law for more.

Chen Fan stood up, straightened his tank top, walked over to Su Qiang, and extended a hand.

"Get up."

Su Qiang paused, then instinctively grabbed Chen Fan's hand. With a slight exertion of force, Chen Fan hauled the 140-150 catty man straight up.

"Go to the bathroom and wash your face; all that snot on your face is disgusting." Chen Fan patted Su Qiang's shoulder with disdain. "Take off that delivery rider uniform and change into some clean clothes."

"Brother-in-law, what are you doing?" Su Qiang looked bewildered.

"What am I doing?" Chen Fan grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. His smile carried a chilling air of lawlessness. "Since that old woman wants money, we'll go deliver it to her. Can the seed of the Su family really be stifled by money?"

"Brother-in-law, are you saying you'll lend me the money?" Su Qiang's eyes lit up, but they immediately dimmed again. "But that house... a fully paid-for apartment in the city costs over two million. I'll never be able to pay you back in my life, even if I deliver food forever..."

"Who said you had to pay me back?" Chen Fan turned to look at Chen Muyang, who had been silent the whole time. "Son, don't we have a few spare apartments in the city?"

Chen Muyang put away his phone, his face expressionless, seamlessly playing along: "Yes, we do. There are a few fully furnished school district apartments in Dragon Bay that were originally intended for company executives to use as dorms, but they've been sitting empty."

"Dra... Dragon Bay?" Su Qiang was stunned.

Longwan No. 1 was the top luxury residential area in Yunzhou; any apartment there cost several million, or even over ten million!

"Alright, that'll do." Chen Fan waved his hand nonchalantly. "Throw away that broken e-bike of yours. We'll take my car later."

Su Wanqing, listening from the side, was terrified. She quickly tugged on Chen Fan's sleeve and lowered her voice: "Are you crazy? You can't just give away a house in Dragon Bay like that! Also, our current 'persona' is a small business owner; don't blow our cover!"

Chen Fan patted his wife's hand, gave her a reassuring look, then leaned into Su Qiang's ear and said, in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Qiang Zi, remember this: from today on, your brother-in-law is your backbone. If that so-called mother-in-law dares to nag one more word, you just throw money at her until she shuts up."

Su Qiang felt his brain buzzing, his blood rushing straight to his head.

He looked at Chen Fan; the man in the big shorts and flip-flops looked taller than Ultraman in his eyes at that moment.

"Brother-in-law..." Su Qiang's voice trembled. "You... you're my real brother!"

"Don't try to claim kinship, go wash your face now!" Chen Fan kicked him in the butt. "We're leaving in ten minutes. Since we're going to propose, we need to show some class. Don't let that bunch of snobs look down on us."

Su Qiang scrambled into the bathroom.

Chen Fan turned around, looked at the dumbfounded Su Guohua and Liu Yumei, and shrugged: "Dad, Mom, you two just rest easy and recover here. As for that unreasonable mother-in-law, I'll go meet her. I guarantee I'll bring your daughter-in-law back to you safe and sound."

Su Guohua opened his mouth, but in the end, he only managed to squeeze out: "Old Chen... take it easy, don't... don't cause any loss of life."

"Don't worry." Chen Fan tidied his messy bangs, a flicker of imperceptible cold light flashing in his eyes. "We win people over with virtue. As long as the money is right, even ghosts can be made to grind grain, let alone a mother-in-law."

A few minutes later.

The sound of water in the bathroom stopped. Su Qiang looked at himself in the mirror; although his eyes were still swollen, the look of desperate grayness in them was gone, replaced by a flame called "hope."

He didn't know how rich his brother-in-law really was, but he knew that after today, the world that had trampled him into the mud was about to change.

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