Sweet Nostalgia of the 80s

Chapter 96: Chapter 96 Borrowing Money

That evening, An Hao, An Shuchao, and Bai Xue stayed in the town.

The next day, the village chief didn’t come over, but the Party Secretary brought two people with him, carrying a small amount of money pooled together by the village cadres, along with a letter of introduction. They accompanied An Shuchao to the city hospital.

The city doctors checked him out and found that his bones were broken, and surgery was necessary.

An Hao asked Bai Xue to pay the little money they had for the surgery upfront. The Party Secretary handed the hospital the letter of introduction from the brigade, requesting that they perform An Shuchao’s surgery first.

The hospital, seeing the letter and noting the described financial difficulties of An Hao’s family, agreed to perform the surgery first and asked that the follow-up fees be paid off in a short time.

After discussing the surgical plan, the hospital prepared to go ahead with the surgery.

An Hao watched An Shuchao enter the operating room, thanked the Party Secretary for his thoughtful and thorough arrangements, and then hurriedly went back to the village to borrow money.

As soon as she walked in the door without even taking a sip of water, she called Bai Yanjiao and An Ping: ”Dad needs surgery and we don’t have enough money. The two of you go out and borrow money with me. Write down whose house we borrow from and how much we borrow for each person. When we have money, we will pay them back.”

”How much do we borrow?” Bai Yanjiao asked.

”Two hundred!”

”Ah? That much? When can we pay it back?” Bai Yanjiao, in the same tone as her mother, was worried about paying back the money before they had even borrowed it.

An Hao looked at Bai Yanjiao angrily and then said, ”Would you still say that if he were your biological father?” After that, she continued, ”You don’t have to worry about paying back the money. Now let’s go borrow money separately to save some time.”

Before borrowing money, An Hao had felt that it would be difficult because their family was so poor, and the fellow villagers were worried about the inability to repay the loans.

An old saying goes: ”Lend help in crises, not in chronic poverty.”

An Hao’s family was both in an emergency and poor, so naturally, there were very few people willing to lend them money.

An Hao made the rounds and only managed to borrow five yuan, which was a drop in the bucket regarding her father’s surgical expenses and far from enough.

She clenched those pitiful five yuan in her hand, standing by the side of the road, her heart heavy with distress. Before long, An Ping also arrived.

Seeing his dejected expression, she knew that An Ping hadn’t been able to borrow any money either.

At that moment, An Hao thought of Song Yueqin’s family. They were well off and could surely spare some money, but would they be willing to lend it to An Hao?

An Hao was very hesitant.

”Sister, let’s borrow some money from Sister Yueqin?” At that moment, An Ping thought of Song Yueqin as well, unaware of the tensions between her and An Hao.

”An Ping, my relationship with Song Yueqin isn’t as good as you think...” An Hao said, biting her lower lip in turmoil.

”Sister, let’s just try. Dad needs the money now, so put aside your little grudges for the time being,” he urged.

Listening to An Ping’s persuasion, An Hao felt he made sense.

So she decided to give it a try.

An Hao headed in the direction of Song Yueqin’s house and happened to meet Song Jincai on the way.

Seeing An Hao return so quickly, Song Jincai asked her, ”An Hao, how is your dad’s leg? Why did you come back so soon?”

”Uncle Song, my dad is in surgery, and we’re short on money, so I came back to borrow some,” she replied.

Knowing her family’s situation and seeing An Hao’s sweat-drenched, weary face, Song Jincai felt a pang of pity: ”An Hao, come with me to my house. I can give you fifty yuan.”

An Hao was feeling anxious, but her eyes lit up when she heard Song Jincai’s offer: ”Thank you, Uncle Song! Once we have money at home, I’ll pay you back first!”

”No need to be polite, come with me!”

Upon reaching the courtyard of Song Yueqin’s house, Song Jincai went inside to get the money, while An Hao waited outside.

He fetched five ten-yuan notes from the wardrobe, came out, and handed them to An Hao: ”An Hao, here’s fifty yuan. Take it.”

An Hao gratefully accepted the money and quickly thanked him: ”Thank you, Uncle Song! Not everyone is willing to lend money to a family in our situation. I’ll write you an IOU. I aim to pay it off within half a year.”

”No need, An Hao, this will do! We’re all villagers here; we don’t need to talk about that stuff!”

”What do you mean? That’s not right,” An Hao insisted. Tucking away the money, she took out paper and a pen from another pocket and crouched on the ground to start writing the IOU. She had only written two words when she heard Song Yueqin’s voice coming from inside the house.