"Are you even human? My aunt is so sick, and you can't even afford a sleeper berth? Did you come here to get treatment or to treat the person?"

Fang Yanming gave Xu Tianlai a thorough dressing-down. No wonder his aunt was in such a terrible state, she had lost all her charm. It takes fourteen or fifteen hours to travel from his hometown to Pingjiang by train, which is exactly one night. A sleeper berth is not much more expensive than a few dozen yuan, but it is much more comfortable than a hard seat. At least you can get a good night's sleep.

Xu Tianlai wouldn't even spend a few dozen yuan on a sleeper ticket, so how could he possibly spend money on medical expenses? He's clearly just here to freeload.

"It's because we don't have the money. A sleeper berth costs sixty or seventy yuan more."

"Then what are you doing here? Medical treatment in Pingjiang is not just sixty or seventy yuan, but sixty or seventy thousand or even one hundred thousand yuan. Have you prepared the money?" Fang Yanming asked directly.

Xu Tianlai's eyes flickered even more, and he dared not look Fang Yanming in the eye. He lowered his head and stammered after a long while, "Almost...almost done."

Is that enough or not?

"So close..."

"How much difference?"

Fang Yanming pressed on relentlessly. Although his aunt was pitiful, that was no reason for him to be taken advantage of. Out of kinship, he could help her find connections and even contribute another ten thousand yuan or so, without expecting the family to pay it back.

But this family clearly wants more than 10,000 yuan; they want him to cover all the medical expenses!

Do you really think he's a fool?

Xu Tianlai fell silent. He only had a thousand yuan on him, and the rest was for the three mouths to feed. The family had twenty or thirty thousand yuan in savings, but his wife said that money was for the children's schooling and couldn't be touched.

Fang Yanming sneered and mocked, "Tell me the truth, how much money do you have on you? Do you have ten thousand yuan?"

Xu Tianlai remained silent, his head hanging even lower. Uncle Fang coughed a few times and urged unhappily, "Let's go home first and talk. What will people outside say?"

Fang Yanming ignored him, staring intently at Xu Tianlai, making him feel increasingly uneasy. He couldn't hold back any longer and stammered, "One...one thousand yuan..."

"You came to Pingjiang for a thousand yuan to see a doctor? You think you can just treat a cold? Do you think hospitals are places you can joke around with? That they'll treat you even if you don't have money? I told you before, medical treatment in Pingjiang starts at least at 100,000 yuan, and you just walked out with a thousand yuan in your pocket!"

Fang Yanming was so angry that he sneered repeatedly. This was even more shameless than Sima Zhao's intentions.

Uncle Fang said with a dark face, "We can only scrape together a thousand yuan for now. We'll borrow some from you first and pay you back when we have the money. We can't just not pay for your aunt's medical treatment!"

"Does my uncle think I'm an ATM? Six years ago, my aunt and uncle borrowed three thousand yuan from my family, and they still haven't paid it back. When my uncle borrowed the money, he said he would pay it back as soon as he had the money. He made it sound so nice."

Fang Yanming couldn't take it anymore. He had never seen such a shameless family. Even debtors who refused to pay their debts could be so arrogant. It really refreshed his understanding of shameless people.

"You want to watch her die? She's your own aunt!" Uncle Fang glared at Fang Yanming with heartache, as if he were looking at a heinous criminal.

“The law only stipulates the husband’s and son’s obligation to support their parents, but it does not stipulate that the nephew must pay for his aunt’s medical expenses. It is my duty to pay, and it is not a big deal if I don’t pay. Since we’ve come to this point, I’ll make it clear from the outset that my family will not receive any guests during this period, not even my parents. We will treat everyone equally.”