Chapter 750 — A Wretched Zhong Yongliang

The kidney was showing severe rejection inside his body and already beginning to necrotize—it had to be surgically removed as soon as possible!

"The kidney's gone bad?" Zhong Yongliang stared at the hospital's test report, hardly able to believe it.

Zhong Fabai, meanwhile, chain-smoked and paced back and forth in the hospital room. So it was the worst possible outcome after all! He had foreseen it, true, but while foreseeing there is always some faint hope to cling to; now there was not a shred of hope left.

"Damn it! That bastard An Liwen screwed me!" Zhong Yongliang was so furious that he snatched up the pillow from the sickbed and hurled it to the floor.

"Pinliang, don't be rash—you're still a patient, you mustn't get worked up!" Zhong Fabai was seething too. This An Liwen—if you weren't going to find Pinliang a new kidney, then don't, but what possessed you to give him an incompatible one?

Of course, Zhong Fabai did not believe for a moment that An Liwen hadn't known beforehand. As the doctor put it, for such violent rejection to set in within two days, the kidney could never have been a match—had they not even run a compatibility test beforehand?

"Dad, what am I going to do? The kidney I just got is already ruined?" Zhong Yongliang was close to despair. "I thought I'd finally be a healthy man from now on, but now..."

"Whatever happens now, we follow the doctor's advice and cut this kidney out. If we leave it to necrotize inside you, the damage will only be worse!" Zhong Fabai pondered a moment and made his decision. "As for An Liwen, there'll be plenty of chances to settle accounts with him later!"

"But I really don't want to go back to being a one-kidney man—it's too miserable!" Zhong Yongliang had once dreamed of becoming a top fighter with a Yellow-rank kidney, but now he felt as though lightning had struck him from a clear sky; every last hope lay in ruins!

"Kidneys can be found slowly, one at a time!" Zhong Fabai said. "As long as we keep working for Young Master Bing, money will be plentiful in the future—and with money, what's there to worry about in finding a good kidney? The urgent thing is to cut out this bad one!"

"I suppose that's all we can do!" Zhong Yongliang clenched his fists. "An Liwen, you and I are sworn enemies from this day on—this is the third time you've made me suffer!"

Counting this kidney-removal surgery, Zhong Yongliang had now been cut open three times.

Having made the decision, Zhong Fabai hurried off to make the arrangements, and Zhong Yongliang was taken in for the kidney-removal operation.

As for the police, they were not especially suspicious—after all, shady brokers cheating people happened all the time, and Zhong Yongliang had simply been unlucky: he'd finally gotten a kidney, only for it to be an incompatible one that promptly went necrotic!

At that moment, of course, An Liwen lay in his own hospital room, his face a mask of agony. He wanted to contact Zhong Yongliang but had no way to reach him; his kidney was in Zhong Yongliang's body now, and he had no idea whether he would ever get it back!

It was true that once out of the hospital, An Liwen could use his family's connections to procure another kidney for himself—but how could a replacement kidney ever be as good as the original?

He still did not know that his kidney in Zhong Yongliang's body had already gone necrotic and was about to be cut out. Had he known, he would probably have wept himself hoarse.

……………………

Word that Tang Zhi's family had bought an apartment spread through the shantytown in no time! Several residents who were on good terms with Tang's mother came to the hospital right away, hoping to ask her whether she had any connections.

After all, no one knew what things would be like once the shantytown was demolished and relocated, and everyone wanted to buy an apartment building of their own.

"What? Not only was it two hundred and fifty thousand cheaper, but they even threw in the deluxe renovation and home appliances?" Xiaofen's parents stared wide-eyed at the excited Tang's mother, scarcely able to believe it.

"That's right! Our Xiaoyi knows the developer's big boss, and the sales office manager has to dance to that big boss's tune. Otherwise, what makes you think I'm so lucky that I could knock two hundred and fifty thousand off the price and still win the grand prize?" Tang's mother hadn't said it outright, but the hint was plain enough!

In truth, she knew perfectly well that what she had drawn was an electric kettle—what grand prize? But recalling the look on the sales manager's face whenever he turned to Fatso Lai, she had figured it out: Fatso Lai was the real big boss!

And Fatso Lai treated Wei Zhao with utmost deference, every inch the obedient underling—how could Tang's mother fail to notice? Besides, it had been her own family who begged Fatso Lai to handle the matter, and after he had done it, he had even insisted on treating them to dinner. Where was the logic in that?

So although Tang's mother had said nothing at the time, once she was back at the hospital she could not resist boasting to all her neighbors.

"Xiao Wang, you really found yourself a fine son-in-law!" Xiaofen's mother sighed with envy.

"Your Xiaofen isn't so bad off either!" Though Tang's mother believed Tang Zhi had found herself a good man, Xiaofen was damaged goods with a lame leg, and yet she too had landed a decent boyfriend. Talk about good luck!

Xiaofen's mother was taken aback. Thinking it over carefully, it was indeed true. Her own daughter could not compare with Tang Zhi, and to have found Kang Xiaofeng under such circumstances was a blessing earned over eight lifetimes!

"Xiaobo and Wei Zhao are on good terms, so your family ought to be able to get a bargain-priced flat too!" Tang's mother said. "But the most important thing is to have the money in hand. Without money, no matter how cheap the flat, it's still useless, isn't it?"

"That's true. I wonder when Qibing Real Estate will come to discuss the demolition compensation?" Xiaofen's mother shook her head. "We're not as lucky as your family, getting three million all at once!"

"Oh, what's that but Old Tang's leg bought it?" Mentioning the three million, Tang's mother's face bloomed with joy, not a trace of sorrow over a leg traded for money! For she knew very well that although the money was nominally exchanged for a leg, in reality it was nothing of the sort!

If Wei Zhao hadn't dealt with Li Cihua's younger brother, would he have handed over the money so readily? Not a chance!

"My Xiaofen's leg is ruined too, but has a single cent come of it?" Xiaofen's mother sighed.

"That depends on your methods. Get that Kang Jingming to pay up some compensation too?" Tang's mother suggested.

"How could that be? Where would he get the money to compensate us?" Xiaofen's mother shook her head.

As the women were talking, Tang's mother's cell phone rang.

"Let me take this call." Tang's mother stared at the caller ID on her phone with some puzzlement—it was an unfamiliar number! Tang's mother did not usually get many calls. Apart from Tang Zhi and Tang Jucheng, hardly anyone ever called her.

"Hello? Who is this?" Tang's mother answered the phone.

"Hello, is this Ms. Wang Yujie?" On the other end, Su Jiaonang tried his best to make his voice sound refined.

"This is she. And you are?" Tang's mother was startled, having no idea who the caller was.

"Hello, Ms. Wang. I'm Su Jiaonang, demolition project manager at Qibing Real Estate Development Company," Su Jiaonang said politely.

"Su Jiaonang? Demolition project manager at Qibing Real Estate?" Tang's mother repeated the name and title, all the more puzzled. "What do you want with me?"