“You’re going to return it to us? Pfft. Can you even afford it? Do you think it’s just the eight thousand
dors? You owe our family much more than that?” Queenie had a resentful look in her
eyes.
Severin’s heart was in turmoil. He never imagined that his cousin, who had such a good
rtionship with him back then, would look at him with that kind of gaze. He knew that things were not
as simple as they appeared to be, and he could only wonder what could have happened to her family.
“What happened, Queenie? Why do you owe all that money, and why would they be so forceful with
you?” Severin decided to ask Queenie.
Queenie smiled bitterly. “You said you wanted to pay us back, right? Then let me ask you this: where
did your family move to now? I was told yesterday that you had just been released, so I went to your
house to look for you. Imagine my surprise when I found out that you’d
all moved away and there was no one there! I couldn’t get through to your parents either.”
Upon hearing that, Severin smiled wryly and said, “I’m really sorry, Queenie. My parents changed their
numbers after I bought them new cell phones, and we didn’t manage to inform you yet. I didn’t think
you’de looking for us yesterday. My n was to return the money to you. sometime tomorrow or
the day after tomorrow.” He then paused and looked earnestly at Queenie before asking, “What’s the
deal with those guys from earlier, Queenie? You haven’t told me anything yet!”
Queenie saw that Severin seemed to be telling the truth, so he sighed and said, “I’d rather we not talk
about it, but it has to do with my mother’s operation some time ago. Our family didn’t have enough
money, and we were short of another eight thousand, so my father wanted me to go to your home and
ask your family to return what you borrowed. But I knew that your family doesn’t have any money,
especially since your parents are forced to pay Easton every month.”
Severin thought for a while, and then said, “And you went there anyway, but my parents had less than
fifty bucks with them at the time. They gave it to you, but then you threw the money onto the ground
and left in anger, right?”
Queenie nodded. “Yes. I was desperate at the time, and my dad argued with my mother many times
because of how often she lent you money. I felt helpless when I couldn’t do anything for my mother
when she was lying on the hospital bed, and out of desperation, I got to know those guys after one of
my friends introduced us. I borrowed the eight thousand from them to help my mother pay for her
surgery. “After a brief pause, she continued, “I was afraid that my parents would worry too much, so I
didn’t tell them that I took a loan with a high interest rate from a private person.”
“How much money do you still owe them?” Severin asked.
Queenie smiled bitterly and said, “I have been working my butt off these few years to pay them back,
and I had no choice but to quit my previous job as an ountant and work as a B-girl. The sry is
much higher there. Many customers tend to feel me up, but I can only bear with them andugh
because I need to earn the money.”
“I’m sorry for causing all this suffering to you, Queenie. I didn’t expect you would have such a hard life.
I swear I’ll help you pay back the money you owe them and return what I owe you al hundredfold.”
Severin looked at Queenie seriously. He knew that Queenie would maintain her bottom line and not doExclusive content ? by N?(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
something as debauched as spending a night with random men, but being a ba hostess was surely
agonizing for someone who was originally very simple and conservative.
Queenie merely smiled at Severin’s promise of returning the money ‘hundred fold to her and did not
take it too seriously. She merely said, “If you’re rich now, you can just help me pay back the money I
owe to those people. I still owe them just a little under nine thousand dors now.”
“Nine thousand dors?”