Chapter 1 Humiliation Upon Borrowing Money

• “Grandpa, I bought this herbal tonic especially for you.”
• “Grandpa, I went out of the way to buy this bag of premium tea for you...”
• It was master’s birthday banquet. As he was receiving one gift after another, he was over the moon. However, a deep, hoarse voice broke the joyful atmosphere out of the blue.
• “Grandpa, I… I wish to borrow some money, my mom has relapsed. She needs money for the surgical procedure.”
• The joy and warmth energy instantly dissolved into a heavy and tensed atmosphere.
• The living room quickly reduced to a deafening silence.
• Master responded with a stiff smile on his face.
• The guests looked over to the source of the voice and found the unsophisticated bumpkin, Cheng Yuan, who was standing at the side of the room.
• This man was the matrilocal son in law of the Bai Family!
• Two years ago, when he just finished his university studies, the young and enthusiastic Cheng Yuan thought he could rely on his own hands to provide him and his mother a wealthy life. Unfortunately, his mother fell into an unforeseen illness and needed a vast sum of money to save her life.
• It was then, a middle-aged man helped him.
• However it came with a condition, to marry Bai An Xiang from the Bai Corporation for three years. He agreed in order to save his mother’s life.
• Cheng Yuan later found out that the man was Bai An Xiang’s father, Bai Shi Ju. He arranged this marriage so that An Xiang did not end up becoming a pawn, caught in the middle of the Bai and Long families’ business alliance through marriage.
• Over the last two years, Cheng Yuan knuckled down and worked diligently. However, owing to his lack of connections and resources, he ran into numerous obstacles and resulted in him being an underachiever. In the end, he quit his job out of frustration and stopped working. That was also the reason he was known as the trash of the Bai Family.
• If it wasn’t for Li Hui, his former classmate, who refused to clear his debt owed to Cheng Yuan, he did not have to go as far as to beg for money during master’s birthday banquet.
• “Do you still have dignity? Never mind not buying a present, how dare you ask for money from grandpa?” Bai Yong Ming lashed out at Cheng Yuan.
• Bai Yong Ming was Bai An Xiang’s cousin. he had always looked down on Bai An Xiang’s family, especially Cheng Yuan. Every time they met, he would make a quip directed at Cheng Yuan out of despise.
• After Bai An Xiang and Cheng Yuan’s wedding two years ago, he deliberately spread the news that the precious daughter of the illegitimate child in the Bai Family was married to a country bumpkin from the rural area. Hence, this marriage soon became a joke in people’s eyes.
• “Exactly, who do you think you are?” a disapproving voice arose from within Cheng Yuan’s peers, “How dare you even think about taking money from our family?”
• “Yeah, why don’t you look at yourself in the mirror? Who talks about sickness and death at a banquet anyway?”
• “He really thinks he is one of us now? Disgusting.”
• All these voices of condemnation felt like razor-sharp knives, piercing through his heart one by one. Topping it off with master’s stiff expression, Cheng Yuan finally understood, regardless of how much he put himself down, he was always going to be just an outsider of the Bai Family.
• Seeing Cheng Yuan shaking involuntarily, Bai An Xiang felt sorry for him.
• Despite being forced to marry Cheng Yuan, despite not having intimacy between them, despite being disappointed with him, at the end of the day, they lived together for two years.
• Not to mention Cheng Yuan treated her with tremendous respect these two years. He would prepare sumptuous breakfasts and dinners for her every single day. When she was verbally abused by other members of the Bai Family, he would stand up for her, try to comfort and amuse her.
• Every single human on earth has feelings.
• But… She couldn’t put her feelings into words.
• “If you want to borrow money, at least show some sincerity? How could you beg standing up, kneel!” Bai Yong Ming rebuked.
• Cheng Yuan frowned as he heard this, on the one hand he did not want to let go of his pride, but on the other hand he was willing to be humiliated to save his mother.
• In this moment, Bai An Xiang stepped in front of Cheng Yuan, she stopped him as he was about to kneel, “How much do you need?”
• “200 thousand,” Cheng Yuan replied.
• 200 thousand…
• Bai An Xiang’s turned pale in the blink of an eye, she knew Cheng Yuan’s personality, he was not the type of person who would make a joke out of his mother’s life. But… 200 thousand was not a small amount of money, unless she sells her house just to gather enough funds.
• However, was it worth it?
• Bai An Xiang came back to her senses, she took a deep breath and turned toward master, “Grandpa, can you please…”
• Before she could finish her sentence, she was cut off by Bai Yong Ming abruptly.
• “Grandpa, you must not succumb to these guys, look at him, he has contributed nothing at all. All he does is going after our money and wealth. Now, he’s even made up such a crappy excuse. You must not show compassion to people like this, people who are willing to curse their mother for a little bit of money!”
• “Yeah grandpa, please don’t fall for it,” the others agreed with Bai Yong Ming.
• “We must condemn this type of morbid behavior.”
• “Yeah, yeah…”
• Master gave Cheng Yuan a glare of contempt.
• Bai Yong Ming and the rest never liked Cheng Yuan because they knew, when master passes away in the future, Bai An Xiang and Cheng Yuan will fight for a portion of their inheritance.
• As the matter of fact, master actually detested Cheng Yuan even more. It was his marriage with Bai An Xiang that put a halt to the alliance between the Bai and Long families, resulting in vast losses to the Bai family.
• Master just gave Cheng Yuan the cold shoulder, turned around and started walking toward his room apathetically. He made it very clear that he was displeased.
• After master went upstairs, Bai Yong Ming took the opportunity to further ridicule Cheng Yuan, “Hahaha, let me tell you bumpkin, in this society, poor people are not allowed to get sick.”
• “However, you are in luck today since you run into a generous man like me. I can lend you the 200 thousand, but…” Bai Yong Ming sneered, “I’ll give you half a month’s time. And if you can’t pay off your debt by then… Fine, you could try to crawl through under my crotch. Who knows I will be delighted and consider us even?”
• Hahaha…
• Everybody was cracking up, the taunts Cheng Yuan received were like putting salt on his wound.
• Humiliation.
• Utter humiliation.
• “Bai Yong Ming, you have gone too far!” Bai An Xiang rebuked.
• “Fine,” however, Cheng Yuan was too anxious for his mother’s wellbeing, he looked at Bai Yong Ming in the eye and nodded firmly, “I promise you, if you will lend me the money, I will pay off the 200 thousand in half a month’s time.”
• “No, no, no.” it seemed like Bai Yong Ming wanted to take it further, he shook his head with a smirk, “Don’t you pay interest if you take a loan from the bank? Pay 500 thousand in half a month, take it or leave it.”
• Cheng Yuan did not hesitate, “Sure!”
• It was clear to everybody that Bai Yong Ming was just making fun of Cheng Yuan, he never intended to help him. Nobody would have agreed to this deal, it was even worse than borrowing from the loan sharks. However, in Cheng Yuan’s eyes, he could not care less, nothing was more important than saving his mother.
• Then, someone from the crowd whispered, “What if he really cleared the debt in half a month?”
• It was a soft whisper, but somehow everyone heard it clearly.
• “Hahaha…”
• Everyone took pleasure on Cheng Yuan’s misfortune.
• He did not even have 200 thousand, not to say 500 thousand in half a month.
• The crowd took the deal as a joke, nobody believed he could do it.
• “Humph, him? If he can clear this debt, I will crawl under his crotch instead!” Bai Yong Ming scoffed as he patted his chest, he was confident Cheng Yuan could not manage it.
• Following this, he transferred 200 thousand to Cheng Yuan, the money was only a paltry sum to him. It was not a bad idea to use the little pin money to humiliate the bumpkin.
• Once he got the money, Cheng Yuan rushed to the hospital straight away.
• However, when he got to the payment counter at the hospital, the nurse told him that his mother had been arranged for the procedure by the dean of hospital. Besides, she had been checked into the VIP room.
• Cheng Yuan, who was thoroughly stunned upon hearing this, asked, “Who settled the payment for me?”
• “It was me,” before the nurse could answer, the voice of a lady came from behind.
• Cheng Yuan turned back and found an elegant, graceful woman standing before him.
• Before he could react, the woman held his hand, with tears rolling in her eyes, “Yuan, it’s me, your birth mother.”
• Cheng Yuan was dumbfounded, “Ma’am, did you get the wrong person?”
• “Madam…” the woman muttered, with the way Cheng Yuan addressed her, she trembled and felt a stream of bitterness.
• She sighed helplessly, and told Cheng Yuan the story from years ago.
• “Yuan, I understand that you are upset, but this is the truth.”
• “That year, Mr. Lu told us that the Cheng Family was destined to have one son, but I already had you and your brother… In other words, I had to make the hard decision to send one of you away.”
• “You were both just as important to me, your father and I did not want to see any of you die a violent death.”
• “Ever since you were little, you had been living without a father, right?”
• Cheng Yuan continued to be confounded at this point, but he was starting to believe the words coming from the woman.
• Yes, ever since he was little, he did not have a father, unlike the other kids. For this reason, he grew up in a childhood filled with deep resentment.
• He asked his mother about this countless times, but everytime he brought this up, his mother would remain silent as her expression turned gloomy.
• He eventually stopped asking as he was growing older, because he did not want to upset his mother.
• “Who is Mr. Lu?” Cheng Yuan asked with a frown.
• The woman pursed her lips, “He was Jing City’s best fortune teller, that’s not important, the point is…”
• “Yeah, that’s not important,” Cheng Yuan interrupted, “the point is why would you abadon your son based on the words of a fortune teller. Why… me? And, why are you no longer afraid of the nonsense with the single son destiny?”
• Cheng Yuan’s words brought remorse to the woman. She did not know how to answer him and paused for a moment.
• “Yuan, I know we have wronged you, so I came here to try my best to make up for what I owed to you. The Cheng Family has abundant wealth in Xin Yang City, here, this is a Black Card I prepared for you.”
• As she was speaking, the woman put a black card with gold edges into Cheng Yuan’s hand, “There is only one of these in Xin Yang City…”
• “Sorry, there is no way you could put a price tag on family love and upbringing. It doesn’t matter if you have 1 million in this card…”
• “No, there is 100 million in there.” The woman replied.