Chapter 499: Chapter 496 Borrowing Money
This question stumped He Qianhui, as she currently had no idea whether Liang Xin had any other friends here.
Seeing her silent, Zhang Hao couldn’t help but speak, "You two haven’t been in touch for several years, she probably doesn’t live over here, right?"
He Qianhui didn’t say anything, but she nodded her head.
After graduating from university, Liang Xin had planned to stay here, find a decent job, and start her life after school.
But not long after, an accident occurred, and Liang Xin fell ill.
Her meager salary couldn’t support her continued existence in this big city.
After handing in her resignation, Liang Xin went back to her hometown alone.
At that time, He Qianhui was also working, but it wasn’t long before she got together with Liu Gang.
She had wanted Liang Xin to come to her wedding, but Liang Xin’s phone was unreachable.
Messages were sent but never returned, becoming a regret at He Qianhui’s wedding.
In the blink of an eye, so much time had passed, and the two of them had lost contact since then.
Later, whether she changed her phone number or not, no word was ever heard about Liang Xin again.
If it weren’t for the chance encounter at the hospital today, the two might never have seen each other again in this lifetime.
He Qianhui remembered that Liang Xin’s hometown was not around here, but why would she travel so far to get a pre-marital check-up?
Could it be that the provincial hospital in their area wasn’t large enough, and she was afraid that the results would be inaccurate, so she made the long trip here?
Whether this was possible, He Qianhui couldn’t judge at the moment, but following Zhang Hao’s reasoning, having not seen each other for so long and not staying in touch online,
the sudden intrusion into life must have a reason, although what that reason was, it was still too soon to tell.
"If she’s getting married in her hometown, do we have to go too?" Zhang Hao suddenly asked.
He Qianhui couldn’t answer right away and regretfully slapped her face, "Why didn’t I ask so many key questions."
"It seems that we haven’t seen each other for so long, and suddenly meeting made me so excited. Luckily, this time I added her on WeChat, so if there’s anything, I can directly speak to her on WeChat."
He Qianhui stood up to get her phone, habitually lighting up the screen, and to her shock, she saw that Liang Xin had sent her a message five minutes ago.
Upon opening it, she found that Liang Xin was asking to borrow money, a not inconsequential amount of fifty thousand yuan.
Although fifty thousand yuan was not a large sum for He Qianhui now, a small mosquito is still meat.
Moreover, they had just met today, and only a few hours had passed since then, when suddenly she was asking to borrow money.
It would make anyone feel uneasy. Zhang Hao, seeing her fixedly staring at the phone, guessed that it must be a message from Liang Xin.
"What message did she send you? You look so engrossed," he said.
He Qianhui hurriedly showed the phone to Zhang Hao, "Look, she’s asking to borrow fifty thousand yuan from me, should I lend her the money or not?"
Zhang Hao was cautious, "You should ask what she needs such a large amount of money for, whether it’s to pay off debts or to make a down payment on a house."
"The money can be lent, but we need to know where it’s going, don’t we? It can’t just be to satisfy her vanity by buying a bag."
He Qianhui felt Zhang Hao was thinking more comprehensively and quickly typed a message to Liang Xin to send.
Soon after the message was sent, Liang Xin replied, but hesitated for a long time and wouldn’t say what the money was for.
This inevitably raised He Qianhui’s suspicions. She decided to simply make a phone call.
The call went through but was never answered until it disconnected automatically.
She clearly had time to reply to the message, but no courage to answer the phone, which made He Qianhui suspect that the person behind this WeChat account might not be Liang Xin.
As he was thinking, Zhang Hao seemed to suddenly realize an issue.
"Where did you run into her today?"
He Qianhui blurted out without thinking: "At the hospital, the City Hospital."
After speaking, He Qianhui quickly covered her mouth, looking at Zhang Hao with a shocked expression on her face.
Zhang Hao put his hands on his waist, "So now you should probably tell me why you had to go to the hospital."
"Your husband here is a doctor, so what’s with the need of running off to the hospital for every headache or fever you get?"
He Qianhui blinked her eyes rapidly, her mind churning like turbulent waves, trying to find an appropriate excuse or reason to dispel Zhang Hao’s suspicions.
"Well, well, it’s because of my menstrual pain, so I went to do a checkup at the hospital."
"Going to our hospital would inevitably lead to your colleagues stopping me with all sorts of questions, and I didn’t want to disrupt your work."
Zhang Hao asked, "What about the medicine? If you went to City Hospital to see a doctor, surely they didn’t send you away empty-handed?"
He Qianhui spoke without hesitation: "The doctor didn’t prescribe any medicine, saying it was a normal occurrence and I didn’t need medication."
Having lived with He Qianhui for so long, Zhang Hao could immediately tell whether she was telling the truth or lying.
Especially since she had been avoiding his gaze while speaking, it was hard not to suspect that she was lying.
At this moment, Liang Xin sent another message, which may have been hastily composed just a while ago; the long paragraph made one’s eyes spin.
"Xiaohui, I know asking to borrow money from you so suddenly is quite abrupt, but you also know that I haven’t had any decent jobs over the years."
"Finally, I’ve found a man willing to marry me, and I want to give myself a little more dowry."
"I also want to keep a little something for myself before getting married. Don’t worry, I will definitely repay this money after borrowing it."
"I won’t take long to start working after getting married, and I promise to pay back the fifty thousand yuan within two years. I can write you an IOU."
Looking at this message, He Qianhui suddenly didn’t know what to do.
She could lend the money, but to do so just so that Liang Xin could have a bigger dowry seemed off.
Shouldn’t her parents be the ones preparing her dowry?
"As far as I know, Liang Xin also has a younger brother, and the place where she lives has a severe issue with gender preference."
"Being able to provide for a daughter through college graduation is quite an accomplishment already, so there likely isn’t extra money for her dowry. Maybe you should rethink lending this fifty thousand yuan."
Zhang Hao disagreed: "That won’t do. She can earn money by working, or she can discuss with her fiancé to see if they can manage with fifty thousand yuan less."
"But why would she rather borrow the money than cut back by that amount? Don’t you think there’s something fishy about this?"
He Qianhui also harbored doubts, "How about I meet her tomorrow, ask her in person to clarify things, and then decide whether or not to lend her the money?"
He Qianhui did not rush to reply to the message but merely set a time to meet at a certain coffee shop at nine o’clock the next morning.
She would give Liang Xin only thirty minutes; if Liang Xin didn’t show up within thirty minutes, there would be no room for discussion.
Liang Xin also replied ten minutes after receiving the message, promising to arrive on time the following day.
Early the next morning, as soon as the bank opened, He Qianhui withdrew fifty thousand yuan in cash directly from the counter.
Looking at those five bundles of red banknotes was truly tempting.
She hoped that this money could really help Liang Xin. She arrived at the agreed-upon coffee shop and ordered a cappuccino.
With ten minutes left until nine, He Qianhui decided she would wait until nine-thirty at the latest; if Liang Xin hadn’t arrived by then, she would leave.
