Chapter 106: 106, it’s all retribution!

“Mom, Su Gang just abandoned us! He ran off and even took the rest of the money for your medical bills!”

Upon hearing this, Su Mengqing, who was standing beside them in a daze, snapped back to reality. Overwhelmed with sorrow, she walked over and squatted in front of Zhang Meili, weeping bitterly.

“Su Gang ran away, and you… you moved me from the hospital back to this rundown hovel?!” Zhang Meili’s pale, pudgy face twitched. She screamed furiously, pounding on the sofa. What terrified her even more was that the right side of her body had become completely numb, devoid of sensation. She could only barely move her left arm and leg.

This is clearly a stroke. I’m paralyzed on one side!

“Su Mengqing, you useless thing! I gave birth to you, I raised you, and this is how you treat me!” Zhang Meili shrieked, her voice growing shriller with terror. “I don’t care! I want to go to the hospital! I want to stay in a private luxury suite! I don’t want to stay here and wait to die!”

“Mom, our family is bankrupt, completely finished! Where would we get the money to keep you in the hospital?” Su Mengqing cried with even more grief and indignation, her hands clenching the edges of the sofa.

“That’s your problem! I’m your mother, you have to take care of me! Even if you have to sell yourself and become someone’s mistress, you have to earn enough for my medical bills!” Zhang Meili screamed.

Then her hefty body convulsed, and she fainted from rage.

“…Fine. I’ll sell myself. I’ll go earn money. It seems I just deserve to be tormented by all of you until my life is worse than death!”

After a long moment, Su Mengqing stood up, her eyes bloodshot and her expression numb. Life had to go on. Even if she didn’t care whether Zhang Meili lived or died, she still had to eat. Taking out her phone, she began making one call after another.

“Second Uncle? It’s Mengqing… I, uh, I was hoping to borrow some money…”

“Third Cousin, you borrowed 20,000 yuan from my family last month. Could you possibly pay it back now?”

“Lili, you borrowed 100,000 yuan from me when you bought your house. Isn’t it time to pay me back?”

“Xiaohuan, my family’s in a bit of trouble right now. For the sake of our old friendship, could you lend me some money? I promise, next month I’ll…”

But whether she was asking to borrow money or trying to collect old debts, the relatives and supposed best friends on the other end of the line all hung up on her in a flash. Some even cursed her out, saying the Su family was just running a scheme to cheat stockholders!

She was out of options. There was simply no other way.

Su Mengqing bit her lip hard, silently taking off all her jewelry: a platinum necklace, a pair of pearl earrings, and the Omega watch on her wrist. As for her wedding ring, she never liked wearing it, finding it an eyesore. It had been lost long ago when Su Hua and the others trashed the villa.

Even if I sell all of this, it’ll only be a few tens of thousands of yuan. That won’t last long… and I still need to buy supplements and medicine for Mom.

Muttering to herself, Su Mengqing couldn’t help but turn and look toward the neighboring Xu family’s house. Aunt Xu was a team leader at a housekeeping services company and often hired people for cleaning jobs. Right now, Su Mengqing desperately needed work to support herself and her mother.

What about sending my résumé to other companies? The news of Su Pharmaceutical’s collapse is all over Haicheng. The company’s reputation is in the gutter… who would hire Su Mengqing now?

After much hesitation, Su Mengqing went to the Xu family’s front door and knocked. KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Mengqing? You must be joking. You’re a big boss. What favor could you possibly need from me?” The door opened, and a startled Aunt Xu shook her head with a laugh.

“Actually… my family’s gone bankrupt. We’ve lost everything,” Su Mengqing explained, her face flushed with shame as she lowered her head. “My mom was so angry she had a stroke from a brain hemorrhage. I can’t even afford her medical bills, so I had to bring her back to our old house to recover… I… I was hoping I could do housekeeping work with you.”

“Ignore her!” The next moment, Xu Shengli, Aunt Xu’s husband, stormed out and scowled at his wife. “Back when the Su family was rich, they looked down on us old neighbors! They were too important to even invite us to their housewarming banquet!”

“Uncle Xu, that was our fault. Please don’t be angry. Can you forgive me?” Su Mengqing’s face burned as if she’d been struck by an invisible hand. Her voice dropped to a whisper, and she couldn’t bring herself to meet Xu Shengli’s eyes.

“See? This is karma! Your Su Family always looked down their noses at people, and look at you now! You still had to come crawling back!” Xu Shengli ranted as Aunt Xu quickly pushed him back inside.

“Mengqing, don’t listen to your Uncle Xu’s nonsense. Every family has its struggles.” Aunt Xu looked troubled and forced a smile. “Our team is fully staffed at the moment, so we can’t hire anyone right now, you see…”

“It’s okay. Thank you, Aunt Xu. I’ll find another way,” Su Mengqing nodded forlornly, a bitter taste filling her mouth.

Am I really this useless? It’s come to this—I’m willing to lower myself to become a cleaner, and I can’t even manage that?

Just as Su Mengqing turned to leave, Aunt Xu called out to her again, her eyes filled with pity. “However, at the pharmaceutical purchasing convention in two days, our company is sending people to the entrance to kneel and shine the guests’ shoes. We’ll definitely be short-staffed and need temporary workers. Are you willing? It’s for three days. I can pay you three hundred yuan a day. It’s just… you might have to put up with some humiliation.”

“I’m willing! I am! Thank you, Aunt Xu!” Su Mengqing froze for a second, then nodded quickly, biting her lip as she thanked her profusely.

Well, all things are difficult at the beginning. Even if it’s only 900 yuan, that’s still an income! Thinking back four years ago, when Su Pharmaceutical was on the brink of bankruptcy, didn’t I do the same thing, swallowing my pride to hand out flyers, wash dishes, and work part-time jobs to get through that difficult period?

“Alright. Come with me early tomorrow morning. I’ll take you to the company for a little training,” Aunt Xu said with a smile, though she sighed inwardly. She had heard rumors about the Su family’s fall but hadn’t quite believed them. Only now did she realize they had truly hit rock bottom, right back where they started.

But who was there to blame? The root of it all, they said, was the mess Lin Fan made after Su Mengqing kicked him out with nothing. What goes around comes around. Su Mengqing went from being a CEO to being on the verge of kneeling to shine shoes for others. Sigh… she can only blame herself.

「Two days later.」

The Haicheng Pharmaceutical Purchasing Convention, an event watched by the entire nation’s pharmaceutical industry, had finally arrived!

“Hahaha, Mr. Wang Sr., you’re positively glowing! You look decades younger!”

“The same to you. Everyone must have been working overtime these past few days, furiously producing new drugs, hoping to make a splash at the convention and make a killing, right?”

“Well, the Meng family only managed to make a meager 100,000 boxes of the Moonlight Lung Soothing Cream.”

“HISS! You’re greedy, Old Meng! My Song family only rushed out 200,000 boxes of the Ferocious Strengthening Pill!”

“Heheh, my Fang family can’t compete with that kind of scale. We barely scraped together 90,000 bottles of Heavenly Glow Moisturizer.”

At ten in the morning, a crowd of Haicheng’s pharmaceutical giants gathered inside the Medical Association building. They were all beaming, their faces flushed with excitement as they chatted away.

“It seems everyone came well-prepared. My Wang family is mainly pushing the Divine Dragon Detox Powder this time, though we didn’t manage to produce that much,” Mr. Wang Sr., sitting at the head of the table, said with a happy smile as he observed the excited crowd.

“Mr. Wang Sr., stop keeping us in suspense! Your Tianchuan Pharmaceuticals is the top company in Haicheng. How much did you prepare?” someone asked with a laugh.

The others perked up their ears, their eyes filled with curiosity.

“Not that much. About 30,000 cases,” Mr. Wang Sr. said in an airy, casual tone.

HISS!

A full 30,000 cases? Considering each case contained one hundred units…

Doesn’t that mean they churned out 3,000,000 units of Divine Dragon Detox Powder in just a few days? This old man is truly insatiable. He’s clearly planning to dominate this convention and snatch the title for most orders!

“As expected of the Wang family! Such a grand play!”

“Hahaha, Lin Fan said he’d make us all look like fools at the convention? I think he’s the one who’s going to make a fool of himself!”

“I heard Yuan Ruoshan arranged for Yuandao Pharmaceuticals’ booth to be in the furthest corner of the exhibition hall, right next to the restrooms. No one’s going to want to go over there!”

“That bastard is definitely screwed. And with Young Master Wen making a move against him? Hmph. He won’t get a single damn order from this convention!”

Hearing this, the crowd drew sharp breaths, shocked by Mr. Wang Sr.’s astonishing boldness. Some then turned the conversation to Lin Fan, their words dripping with scorn and ridicule.

“Today, we’ll see what he’s really made of.” Mr. Wang Sr. glanced at his watch, then rose to his feet with a cold smile. “Let’s go. It’s about time we headed to the exhibition hall to host the new product launch. As for Lin Fan? After today, he’ll be nothing but a laughingstock in Haicheng’s pharmaceutical industry!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep