Plunder

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: What to Give Back Chapter 17: Chapter 17: What to Give Back Qiao En’s heart tightened, a sense of foreboding engulfing him.

“Mom, don’t panic, take it slow. What happened to Qiao De?”

Qiao En’s mother hadn’t had the chance to speak when the phone was snatched away.

A brutal voice came through, “Your brother owes us a high-interest loan, and with compound interest, it’s almost two million now. If he doesn’t pay today, heh heh, don’t blame us for not being polite to these two old folks!”

Before the voice had even finished, Qiao En heard the sounds of smashing.

There were also the fearful pleas of Mrs. Qiao, “Stop smashing, please stop, we’ll pay back, we’ll definitely pay back!”

“You bunch of bandits, this is my home, get out—” Qiao En’s father roared angrily.

The scene was pure chaos.

Qiao En gripped the phone, his fingers trembling non-stop.

That nightmare from three years ago seemed to have started again.

“I’ll pay Qiao De’s debt, don’t trouble my family, I’m coming back right away.”

She didn’t hesitate, grabbing her purse and running towards the exit.

Once outside the airport, Qiao En hailed a taxi and hurried to the Qiao Family home.

At the traffic light, the understated silhouette of a Maybach stopped beside Qiao En to her left.

Zhou Jin’an leaned back in the rear seat, furrowing his brows, his eyes closed.

After finishing the phone call with Qiao En, he had made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take a trip on short notice.

His destination was America.

He hadn’t noticed Qiao En in the taxi.

Qiao En was frantic with anxiety, neither did she notice Zhou Jin’an so close by.

When the light turned green, the two of them left in different directions.

Twenty minutes later, Qiao En arrived at the Qiao Family’s place.

The Qiao Family lived in an old neighborhood, in a five-story walk-up.

Just as Qiao En entered the building, she smelled a pungent odor of paint.

She climbed the stairs, passing by splatters of paint along the way.

Her family’s home was on the third floor, the door splashed with red paint, in complete disarray.

The door was ajar, sobbing sounds from Mrs. Qiao intermittent from inside.

Qiao En pushed the door open, and all the people inside turned to look at her.

On the sofa sat a man with tattooed arms and a gold chain, smoking a cigarette with his feet propped up on the coffee table.

By the dining table, there sat four others dressed similarly.

“Enya.”

Seeing Qiao En, Mrs. Qiao began crying even harder.

The room was in shambles, Mr. Qiao’s aquarium that he had kept for many years was shattered on the ground, a few goldfish nearing death struggled, opening and closing their mouths.

“Mom, don’t be afraid, I’m here.”

Qiao En reached out to embrace her mother’s shoulders, trying to comfort her.

The leader, squinting his eyes, sized up Qiao En, “Will you pay Qiao De’s debt?”

“Where’s my brother?”

Qiao En asked, scanning the room.

“They locked your brother and your father in the bedroom,” Mrs. Qiao replied.

At a signal, someone got up to open the bedroom door.

Mr. Qiao and Qiao De were pushed out, staggering.

“Dad, are you okay?”

Mr. Qiao hung his head in dejection, his face grim, not making a sound.

Qiao De hung his head, one side of his face swollen, clearly having been hit.

She walked over, gently patting Qiao De’s shoulder as a sign of comfort.

“Talk, how will you pay? Transfer or cash?”

The man pressed on, insistent.

Qiao En turned around, her expression cool.

This situation was tricky, but she wasn’t scared.

“Let’s talk outside.”

Qiao En suggested.

“We’ll talk here!” the man refused.

Qiao En didn’t engage with him, and headed straight to the door, “I said, I’ll pay this money. If you want it, follow me.”

“Enya!”

Mrs. Qiao watched her worriedly.

“Qiao De, take good care of mom and dad, I’ll be back soon.”

After speaking, Qiao En nodded, turned around, and left.

As she did, the men followed her out.

Two million wasn’t an astronomical sum for Qiao En.

Having been by Zhou Jin’an’s side for three years, she had saved quite a bit of money, just not that much.

She led the group to the nearest bank in the neighborhood.

Her account balance was less than one and a half million.

“Not enough!” the man barked upon seeing the number, becoming aggressive once more.

Qiao En touched her forehead, remaining remarkably calm from beginning to end.

“The rest of the amount, I’ll return it to you within a week. Of course, you can also choose not to take this card.”

As she spoke, attempting to take it back, the person snatched it away once again.

“One week then. Don’t forget, he owes high-interest loans, and with interest compounded, it will be more than this amount in a week.”

The other party was arrogant, but Qiao En had no choice.

“I know.”

She conceded.

The others shouted and dispersed.

Qiao En stood there, dazed for a long time.

Her wallet was empty, and so was her heart.

She had endured the bitterness of having no money and knew all too well how important money was for someone of humble origins.

But no matter how important, it wasn’t as important as family.

When Qiao En returned to the Qiao Family, Mrs. Qiao immediately embraced her.

“En, let’s call the police; high-interest loans are illegal. We can’t pay them back.”

Three years ago, she had already been frightened once, and it was Qiao En who had, by her own efforts, pulled the family back from the brink.

Times had changed; Qiao En wasn’t a deity, she couldn’t possibly work miracles again.

Qiao De’s father slapped him without hesitation.

“Not focusing on your studies, why did you get involved with high-interest loans?”

Tall and thin, Qiao De’s glasses flew off from his father’s slap.

He kept his head down and said nothing.

Qiao En bent down, picked up the glasses, and put them back on Qiao De.

He was crying silently.

“Sis, I’m sorry.”

Qiao De apologized in a low voice.

Qiao En raised her hand and ruffled his thick hair. “I’m hungry, come with me to grab some food.”

As she spoke, she took Qiao De’s arm and dragged him out.

At this point, blaming, accusing, slandering… any outburst of emotion would cause nothing but harm to their feelings, without changing any facts.

Qiao En was rational; she knew what mattered more.

As they left the building, Qiao De asked, “Sis, will those people still come looking for us?”

Qiao En let out a slight sigh, not lying, “They will.”

Hearing this, Qiao De became agitated, “Sis, I was the one who borrowed the high-interest loan, I should pay it back myself.”

“With what will you pay it back?”

Qiao En hit the nail on the head, and Qiao De, mouth agape, was dumbfounded.

He had always been in the Ivory Tower, and during the disaster three years earlier while he was in his final year of high school, everyone had kept it from him, so he never experienced the danger.

“I’ll go work part-time jobs, sell my blood, do live streaming—there will be ways to make the money.”

When Qiao De spoke, his tone was that of a child’s.

But he didn’t understand that in this society, earning money might be easy, but making a lot of it was hard.

She didn’t have the heart to squash his spirit.

She just asked, “The allowance I give you isn’t small, why did you borrow a high-interest loan?”

Qiao De hemmed and hawed, unable to provide a reason.

Qiao En didn’t press him. They sat down at the noodle shop by the community gate and each ordered a bowl of clear broth noodles.

Qiao En was truly starving. She bowed her head, picked up the noodles, and took big bites.

Qiao De couldn’t eat. He just watched Qiao En.

Finishing the bowl of noodles, Qiao En looked up and saw that Qiao De’s eyes were red.

“Don’t worry about the money; I’ll handle it. You go back to school and concentrate on your studies, and don’t get involved with this stuff again.”

She didn’t say a word of reproach, but it made Qiao De feel even worse.

Ever since they were young, no matter how big of a mess he made, Qiao En was always the first one to protect him.

“Sis, I’m sorry.”

Qiao De began to apologize again.

That night, Qiao De returned to school.

From start to finish, he was unwilling to disclose the reason for borrowing the high-interest loan.

Late in the night, Qiao En went back to the Qiao Family home.

Mrs. Qiao, holding a bucket, was wiping the paint at the doorway, and Mr. Qiao, hunched over, was fixing the damaged furniture.

“En.”

Mrs. Qiao stopped her work and took Qiao En’s hand, shoving the property deed into it.

“Ah De has gotten himself into big trouble. It’s our fault for not disciplining him well. Take the deed for this house and sell it to plug this gap.”

As Mrs. Zhou said this, tears began to fall.

This apartment was bought by Qiao En with a full payment in her first year of work. It was a two-bedroom apartment with a common hallway, not very big or in a particularly good location.

But on the day they moved in, the whole family laughed happily for a long time.

They finally had a home of their own and didn’t have to squeeze into a Tube Building on the outskirts of the city anymore.

“We’re not at the point of selling the house yet; I can manage this. Don’t worry yourselves needlessly.”

Qiao En pushed the deed back into her hands.

That night, she stayed over at the Qiao Family’s house.

As she was laying down, a call from Mrs. Zhou suddenly came in.