Chapter 65: Chapter 65: The Troublesome Maternal Uncle

It was nearly eleven at night when Yan Feifan returned home. As soon as he stepped inside, he couldn’t help but twitch his nose.

“Sis, were you eating durian in the living room again!”

“No, I wasn’t!”

Yan Ziruo, who was half-lying on the sofa watching TV, pointed to the trash can by the coffee table and retorted loudly, “That ’little puppy nose’ of yours is just smelling the durian shells I threw in the trash.”

She immediately followed up, “Does that Yao Yiyi really have a brain tumor?”

Yan Feifan grunted in affirmation. “We can confirm it’s a brain tumor, most likely a benign meningioma.”

“She’s been admitted to the neurosurgery department. We’ll have a definitive confirmation after further tests tomorrow.”

Yan Ziruo said sympathetically, “How pitiful. She’s only twenty-four or twenty-five and she already has a brain tumor.”

“Hey, Feifan, I’m starting to think you have the makings of a jinx.”

“The girl just came to you for a doctor’s note, and you ended up finding a brain tumor in her.”

Yan Feifan sat down on the sofa next to his sister.

He casually picked up a big, red apple from the fruit bowl on the coffee table and took a bite.

“How does that make me a jinx?”

Yan Feifan defended himself, “That tumor has been growing in her head for a few months, if not years. I just discovered it.”

“She should be thanking me.”

“If the tumor were left to grow, the constant pressure on her brain tissue could lead to brain damage, a stroke, or even a cerebral herniation.”

“Besides, the larger the tumor, the greater the surgical risk.”

Yan Ziruo nodded. “That’s true. Any other doctor probably would have just written her a doctor’s note and been done with it.”

“But you, with your Eyes of Golden Flame, saw the problem.”

“In other words, you could be considered her savior.”

Yan Ziruo then declared dramatically, “It’s like the great hand of fate, moving mysteriously in the background, ensuring Yao Yiyi was destined to meet you today and escape disaster.”

Yan Feifan rolled his eyes and snorted, “You can attribute any coincidence to the guidance of fate if you just work backward from the result.”

He finished the apple in a few crunchy bites and stood up. “I’m tired. Going to wash up and go to sleep.”

“Sis, you should go to bed too!”

“I was waiting up for you!”

Yan Ziruo turned off the TV with the remote, stretched luxuriously, pulled her phone out from between the sofa cushions, and stood up.

Just then, her phone rang.

“Huh? A video call from Uncle!”

Hearing this, Yan Feifan turned and came back to his sister’s side.

Their uncle had been working as a seaman for the past few years, traveling all over the world. He often went a month or two without contacting them.

The video call connected. Once the image on the screen stabilized, the siblings were met with a frightening sight.

The person on the screen was battered and bruised beyond recognition. His right eye, in particular, was so swollen shut he couldn’t open it.

If the siblings hadn’t known their uncle so well, they almost wouldn’t have recognized the man on the screen as their once handsome and dashing uncle.

“Uncle, what happened to you?” the alarmed and worried siblings asked in unison.

Their uncle on the screen winced, then sucked in a sharp breath in pain. He said slowly, “I’ve run into some terrible luck this time.”

“I’m in a bit of trouble. I need twenty thousand USD to fix it, or one hundred fifty thousand RMB.”

“Xiaoruo, Feifan, I need you to help me this one time.”

Seeing the state of their uncle’s face, Yan Feifan knew the trouble he was in this time was serious.

Just then, Yan Ziruo’s expression turned cold. She asked icily, “Uncle, you didn’t go gambling at a casino and rack up debt, did you?”

On the screen, their uncle raised his right hand and swore to the heavens, “Xiaoruo, I swear, since the day I quit gambling, I haven’t gambled even once.”

“I’ll be honest with you…”

Their uncle sighed, dejected. “Anyway, my image in your eyes isn’t that great to begin with. One more bad thing won’t make a difference.”

“The ship was docked for repairs this time, so I went ashore to have some fun with a woman.”

“But I got targeted and fell for a honey trap.”

“They’re threatening to chop off one of my hands if I don’t give them twenty thousand USD.”

Yan Feifan said urgently, “Uncle, you have to call the police!”

On the screen, their uncle’s facial muscles twitched, and he winced in pain again.

“Feifan, this isn’t like back home. You could say the police are their protectors here. It’s better not to call them.”

“The truth is, I’m still under their control right now.”

“I either pay up or leave a hand behind. That’s the only way I can get out of here.”

Yan Ziruo, now much calmer, asked, “How much time do you have?”

“Twenty-four hours.”

Yan Ziruo nodded. “Uncle, don’t you worry.”

“Feifan and I will scrape together the one hundred fifty thousand and transfer it to your bank account before the deadline…”

After the call ended, the siblings, their faces heavy, looked at each other and sat down on the sofa in unison.

“Feifan, we only have a little over twenty-six thousand in our account right now!”

Yan Ziruo calculated aloud, “A few groups of people have come to see our house at Happiness Garden these past few days.”

“I lowered the rent to three thousand a month, but it has to be paid for the whole year upfront.”

“At such a cheap price, we should be able to rent the place out by tomorrow.”

Yan Feifan said worriedly, “That still leaves us ninety thousand short! Sis, I can ask Mr. Wang for a loan.”

“A few tens of thousands is nothing to him.”

Yan Ziruo shook her head. “We shouldn’t borrow from others if we can avoid it.”

“Feifan, your credit card has a fifty-thousand limit. Mine has a twenty-thousand limit.”

“I can find someone to help me cash out about sixty thousand. That should be doable.”

“That leaves thirty thousand…”

“My WeChat and Jiebei credit line will be enough for that.”

Yan Ziruo sighed again. “The good news is the hospital will be paying out our March salaries in a few days.”

“It just means we’re in for a few more tough months.”

She added, frustrated, “If I’d known this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have bought the car.”

Yan Feifan comforted her, “Sis, I’ll be taking on more and more surgeries at the plastic surgery center from now on.”

“Unlike the ER, the stipend for every surgery at the plastic surgery center is at least one or two hundred.”

“At that rate, my monthly salary will be between ten and twenty thousand.”

“Paying off this ninety-thousand debt will only take three or four months.”

Yan Ziruo hugged Yan Feifan’s arm and rested her head on his shoulder, sighing wearily. “If only Uncle could be as sensible and well-behaved as you.”

“He’s such a handful!”

Yan Feifan chuckled softly. “Compared to back when he blew through the demolition compensation money and two houses, he’s actually been quite well-behaved these past few years.”

He then asked curiously, “Sis, how did you get Uncle to turn over a new leaf back then and become a seaman, unafraid of all the hard work?”

“I refuse to believe you just had a drinking contest and he agreed to honor the bet.”

“You want to know?”

“I do!”

“But I’m not going to tell you!”

Yan Ziruo stood up and patted Yan Feifan on the head as if coaxing a child. “Alright, go on to bed now.”

“As long as the money gets to Uncle, he’ll be fine.”

“You just focus on your work.”

“Leave the rest to me…”

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