Chapter 356: Chapter 214: Failing to Repay a Debt—Perhaps There’s More to the Story (Part 2)

At the same time, he tapped his phone a few times, exhaled a puff of smoke, and looked at everyone, saying, "Open your phones and take a look, I’ve posted a picture in our village’s big group."

Everyone was puzzled but still opened their phones, tapped on the picture, and there it was—three bundles of Dragon Coins, each stack being a hundred thousand, totaling three hundred thousand in cash!

"What do you mean by this?"

Grandpa Hua’s deep wrinkles sank in, and he said coldly, "You owe money and don’t pay back, are you showing off?"

"No, no, no, I wouldn’t dare."

Wang Baoqiang shook his head with a smile, then directly handed all his valuable belongings, like his phone, wallet, and watch, to Grandpa Hua.

This move left everyone even more bewildered.

"You’ve broken the rules of our community, admitting fault now won’t spare you from a good beating." Someone snorted coldly at once.

Wang Baoqiang shook his head, brought over a chair, sat down all by himself, and then smiled and said to everyone, "Why are you standing? It’s more tiring to stand, let’s all sit down first."

Everyone glared at him angrily, only responding with continual cold snorts.

In their eyes, Wang Baoqiang was rotten to the core, and they felt dirty just by associating with him.

Seeing no one responding, Wang Baoqiang still wasn’t annoyed, he crossed his legs and smiled, "Earlier, he told a story. I wonder if I could also tell a story."

Everyone remained silent, Wang Baoqiang blew out a smoke ring, extinguished the spark with his fingers, and started speaking to himself:

"Zhang Qiang was right, that year my son was seriously ill in the hospital. Coincidentally, my business that year failed, and I owed a lot of money. I barely managed to pay off the debts by scraping together all I could, leaving basically nothing at home."

"At the time, I thought, being Wang Baoqiang, if I could rise once, surely I could rise a second time. Sooner or later, I could make a comeback!"

"Therefore, back then my family didn’t appear bankrupt, instead, we were more extravagant than before to avoid becoming a laughing stock."

"Because I believed that I could stand up soon, this was just a special period, a transition, nothing to worry about."

"But it was as if fate played a little joke on me. Just half a month later, my son fell ill unexpectedly, collapsing on the ground without warning."

"Sent to the hospital for examination, the doctor said my son had congenital heart disease, not very serious, and being discovered early, it was treatable."

"It would only take two hundred thousand for surgery to ensure my son could live safely."

"But back then, to be honest, where could I get two hundred thousand? I sold everything at home that could be sold, yet only managed a little over fifty thousand, still nearly one hundred fifty thousand short!"

"There was no choice, for my child, I had to borrow, losing some face to save my child, that was definitely worth it."

Wang Baoqiang changed his crossed leg, with the same smile, as if he wasn’t telling his own story.

"As Zhang Qiang said, his house is the closest to the village entrance, so I went to his house first."

"When I arrived at his house, the door wasn’t closed. I didn’t think much of it, since we all earn a living in this village, if the host isn’t home, naturally it’s impolite to enter."

"But just as I was leaving, I vaguely heard movement inside the house, like a TV sound, and when I listened carefully, it was the lottery results channel. I suddenly had a feeling that Zhang Qiang might have won."

"After all, after so many years, it was normal for him to get lucky once or twice, so I thickened my face and waited in the living room for him to return."

"And just as I expected, when Zhang Qiang came back, he was carrying a bag. Although he didn’t look too happy, based on my experience, that bag contained a lot of money."

At this point, the surrounding villagers couldn’t hold back anymore, showing revulsion and urging:

"What’s there to say? Didn’t someone mention this before? Are you trying to gain our sympathy?"

Wang Baoqiang was a bit stunned, he seemed to have urged Zhang Qiang in the same tone just now.

"Reaping what you sow, karma is inevitable, hahaha."

Wang Baoqiang laughed dryly twice, quickly adjusted his mindset, and continued, "At that time, I just thought, how nice it would be if he was willing to lend me all this money."

"You all know, at that time, because of the epidemic control, no one had extra money to lend a hand to others."

"But I never expected that when I expressed my plea, Zhang Qiang agreed, and even agreed very promptly."

At this point, there was undisguised disgust on the villagers’ faces around.

"Zhang Qiang was willing to lend you all his money, and this is how you repay him?"

"What, did a dog eat your conscience? We never noticed you were so ruthless before!"

"At that time, everyone was tight with money, even if you borrowed from everyone around, you might not have gathered that amount. He saved your son’s life!"

"Yeah, now that you have money, you don’t even express gratitude?!"

"Gratitude?"

Wang Baoqiang flicked some ash off his cigarette and said indifferently, "I borrowed him one hundred fifty thousand, and after two years, if you deposited that in the bank as a fixed deposit, it’d only earn three percent. I returned him three hundred thousand, twice the principal, isn’t that gratitude?"

"Humph!" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Even the ever-so-kind Grandpa Hua couldn’t hold back, stepped out, and shouted angrily, "So you still have a bit of conscience. But if it weren’t for today’s incident, weren’t you planning not to repay the money!"

"Exactly!"

The faces of the surrounding villagers were also filled with anger, shouting in unison.