ATCF Ch 77 Part 1 – Her Former Childhood Friend (I)

Jiang Li followed Tong Yi’s gaze and saw her third brother, Feng Bai, stepping out from behind a camphor tree, smiling awkwardly. “You two conspired this together?” She was shocked.

Feng Bai chuckled guiltily and tried to explain: “Well, it’s not exactly a conspiracy… We’re simply working together to nip all uncontrollable factors in the cradle.”

Jiang Li was stunned for a while before asking again: “It’s just the two of you, right? No one else?”

Feng Bai quickly shook his head, “I originally planned to recruit my bro, but our big nephew over here said he is too reserved for this kind of operation.”

“…” Jiang Li didn’t know what to say. Indeed, if Second Brother knew about their silly plan, he would have definitely tried to stop it.

“Jiang Xiao Li, you’re being unfair!”

Jiang Li looked up and met Tong Yi’s resentful gaze. She frowned, “How am I being unfair?”

Tong Yi replied righteously, “You were mad at me for supposedly framing Tong Xu, but now that you know your third brother was the mastermind and I was just an accomplice, you aren’t upset with him. Isn’t that unfair?”

Before Jiang Li could respond, Feng Bai quickly said, “I’m her third brother, you’re her nephew. Can you even compare?”

Jiang Li nodded earnestly, “Yeah, can you even compare?”

Tong Yi turned his gaze to Feng Bai, “What you’re doing is called burning bridges after crossing them, you know that?”

Feng Bai looked smug, “I like burning bridges. If you have the guts, come hit me!” With that, he put his arm around Jiang Li’s shoulder and started walking, muttering, “Our big nephew here, though mostly unreliable, can be useful at times. Like giving us a heads-up—he’s really good at that.”

Jiang Li said helplessly, “If Grandpa finds out what you guys did today, he’s definitely going to scold you.”

Feng Bai immediately shook his head, “No way he’d scold me. If Grandpa knew that old guy Tong Xu had a crush on you, he’d be even angrier than I am. Believe it?”

Tong Yi trailed behind the cousins, silently listening to their conversation, finally sighing in relief.

Jiang Xiao Li’s earlier expression was really scary. Fortunately, he had the foresight to get Feng Bai into the plan, so even if Jiang Xiao Li found out and got angry, there would be someone else to share the blame.

It wasn’t easy to lure Feng Bai into coming up with this series of plans and convince him not to tell his twin brother, but it was all worth it!

Now that Jiang Xiao Li knew about Tong Xu’s intentions, she would definitely be on alert, making it difficult for Tong Xu to approach her again.

He no longer had to worry about Tong Xu slowly approaching Jiang Xiao Li and winning her over anymore. After all, that guy indeed had a refined and gentle appearance that girls tend to like. If he didn’t guard against it, it could be quite dangerous.

Tong Yi took a step forward and reached out to pull Jiang Li’s arm, but she suddenly dodged and frowned at him, “Don’t touch my right arm.”

Tong Yi was taken aback, “What’s wrong with your right arm?”

Feng Bai explained, “During our family’s routine check-up two days ago, the doctor had a shaky hand while drawing blood from Xiao Jiang Li and missed the vein. Her arm has been a bit sore these past few days.”

Tong Yi immediately said, “Let me see.” He gently rolled up Jiang Li’s sleeve and saw that her arm was fine, though she had a band-aid over the needle mark, probably to prevent infection.

He frowned, “What kind of doctors does your family hire? They can’t even find a vein. I think this one should retire early.”

Feng Bai chuckled, “That’s exactly what my third uncle said when he found out. You both think alike.”

“Does it hurt much?” Tong Yi looked at Jiang Li with concern.

Jiang Li shook her head, “It’s not a serious injury. As long as it’s not touched, it should be fine in a couple of days.”

…

After leaving the KTV, Qin Zheng wandered aimlessly through the streets, feeling a profound sense of loss. He knew that the moment Shen Mian mentioned Jiang Ruo’s terminal illness, his mind had been thrown into chaos. Especially after seeing the medical records in that video, countless memories of Jiang Ruo from their childhood kept flooding his thoughts.

He knew very well that Jiang Ruo was delicate and afraid of pain, but now… she had to undergo dialysis every two or three days to stay alive.

Shaking his head, Qin Zheng forced himself not to recall those past memories, but he couldn’t. He wandered aimlessly along the street, not knowing how long he walked until he looked up and saw the Ferris wheel.

Suddenly, he remembered the time in junior high when he and Jiang Ruo visited this amusement park. They are riding the Ferris wheel together when the amusement park suddenly has a power outage, causing them to be trapped at the highest point for almost half an hour. During that half hour, he did everything he could to comfort Jiang Ruo, eventually calming her fears.

After getting off the Ferris wheel, Jiang Ruo asked him a question, “Qin Zheng, will you always be by my side whenever I’m in danger?”

At the time, he had laughed and replied, “As long as you need me, call me. No matter how far, I’ll come to you immediately.”

He was so confident back then, believing it was a lifetime promise. But now, Jiang Ruo had a terminal illness and needed dialysis to survive, yet she hadn’t called him once. She no longer needed his comfort.

Just like how he had avoided hearing any news about Jiang Ruo in recent years, to the extent of leaving chat groups from their junior high days. He only learned about her livestreaming activity from classmates at a birthday party, and just tonight, he found out about her terminal illness from Shen Mian.

Two people who were once so close now no longer needed each other.

Qin Zheng lay on a bench under the Ferris wheel, lost in thought for a long time until his mother called, urging him to come home. Only then did he get up and take a taxi back home.

Sitting in the taxi, his mind was in a mess, but he had to force himself to sort through his thoughts. He knew that the Jiang family had completely fallen, and Jiang Ruo, not being Jiang Huai’s biological daughter, was now suffering from a terminal illness. Jiang Huai could no longer use her for a business marriage and would likely no longer treat her as his own.

To make the situation worse, Jiang Ruo’s rare blood type made it almost impossible to find a suitable donor. She had to go to the hospital for dialysis day after day and couldn’t even earn a living like a normal person. Sooner or later, she would even have to deal with financial difficulties.

Back home, Qin Zheng locked himself in his room, found all his debit cards, and started linking them to his WeChat account to check the balances. Although his father’s secondary card had a high limit, withdrawing large amounts of cash would raise his father’s suspicions. If his mother found out his purpose, she would definitely cause trouble for Jiang Ruo. So he could only use the money in his bank accounts, which was mostly New Year’s money from his grandparents and relatives. Surprisingly, this money was now coming in handy.

After scraping together all he had, Qin Zheng found he had just over six million yuan. For him, this amount wasn’t much, but it was more than enough to cover Jiang Ruo’s medical expenses.

Now, he just hoped Jiang Ruo would accept his goodwill. Even if she only saw him as a former childhood friend and refused to take money for nothing, she could consider it a loan.

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