Qiao Zijin required urgent treatment, but Ding Jiayi still had to think about their next meals with the money she had left. As such, Qiao Nan had to pay for the two-thousand-yuan hospitalization bill. Thus, Ding Jiayi tirelessly made yet another call to the Zhai family. Initially, Miao Jing had not intended on answering the call. In fact, she had even considered unplugging the landline. After all, everyone in the family owned a mobile phone. To be honest, not many people even contacted them through this landline.

  Very quickly, Miao Jing changed her mind, deciding to punish the blind Ding Jiayi in another way. Perhaps it was because Miao Jing had spent too much time with the triplets that she had become childish too. She had decided to play a cruel and disgusting joke on Ding Jiayi.

  As long as Ding Jiayi called the Zhai family, Miao Jing would always pick up the phone. However, she refused to utter a word before slamming the phone back down.

  As long as she picked up the call, it would be chargeable even if she didn’t say a word. Even if the call lasted for only a second, the telecommunication companies would still charge by the minute. Besides, Ding Jiayi’s phone card was from Ping Cheng. Since she had traveled out of Ping Cheng, it would be a foreign call that cost one yuan a minute!

  Miao Jing had hung up five times, and that meant that Ding Jiayi had spent five yuan on nothing. Initially, Ding Jiayi had not understood the situation. It was only when she received a notification that she had less than ten yuan in her phone card did Ding Jiayi finally understand what Miao Jing was doing.

  \r \r \r

  Ding Jiayi was used to taking advantage of others. This was the first time she was being played like this. Ding Jiayi, who already had half a foot in the grave, burst out in tears like a young child, having been infuriated by Miao Jing.

  Since she was outside, Ding Jiayi ran to the toilet to cry her heart out. She didn’t have Qiao Nan’s phone number, and she had no idea whether Miao Jing’s attitude was a result of Qiao Nan instructing her to act that way, or whether it was purely out of her own volition. She wanted to get in touch with Qiao Dongliang, but it seemed like he had changed his phone number too. She couldn’t get through no matter how hard she tried.

  After sobbing for almost three minutes, Ding Jiayi finally washed up and returned to Qiao Zijin’s rented apartment to get her bank card. Ding Jiayi knew Qiao Zijin’s passcode, so she easily retrieved ten thousand yuan from the ATM. From there, she used two thousand yuan to pay for Qiao Zijin’s hospitalization admission bill so that she could receive treatment.

  Before Qiao Zijin awoke, Ding Jiayi simply felt that the capital was too frightening. She couldn’t even get in touch with a single person here. It seemed as though her phone had suddenly spoiled as soon as she arrived in the capital. Apart from the Zhai family’s landline, she hadn’t been able to get through to anyone!

  In the face of such a situation, Ding Jiayi strengthened her resolve to return to Ping Cheng after Qiao Zijin recovered. She would never leave Ping Cheng again up until both Qiao Dongliang and she died in Ping Cheng.

  “Zijin, you’re awake?” It was painfully expensive to receive treatment at a hospital, but thankfully, Qiao Zijin’s illness was soon under control with treatment. After a night in the hospital, Qiao Zijin’s fever had nearly subsided and she had sobered up too. “Are you hungry? I made some congee. Why don’t you have some for nourishment?”

  Ding Jiayi supported Qiao Zijin to a sitting position, but Qiao Zijin’s gaze swept past the ward. “Mom, are you alone? Where’s Nan Nan? Did she go back?” What a pity. The first person she had seen when she had awoken hadn’t been Qiao Nan. Otherwise, she would have burst out in tears and hugged Qiao Nan without letting go.

  What a pity. Qiao Nan never ever followed her script. But that didn’t matter. This incident gave her an excuse to rely on Qiao Nan. She had already said that Qiao Nan would never be so heartless to abandon her in times of need.

  She was already so advanced in age. Not only had she stayed by Qiao Zijin’s side all this while, but she had even needed to run around getting money for Qiao Zijin’s admission. Ding Jiayi felt that she had never been this exhausted in her entire life.

  However, not only had Qiao Zijin not thanked her for working so hard after waking up, but she had even asked about Qiao Nan! “What nonsense! That wretched girl didn’t even come to visit you! It was your mom who’s been running around to take care of you! Otherwise, you’d probably still be burning up in your rented apartment! Zijin, you’re all grown up. How could you not know how to take care of yourself? Do you know you contracted pneumonia? Thankfully, it was only pneumonia. What if you’d gotten meningitis like Qiao Nan had in the past? If I was any later, your brain would have been burned!”

  This was not Ding Jiayi’s first encounter with such an incident. The difference was that she hadn’t been by Qiao Zijin’s side. That was why Qiao Zijin had been sent to the hospital too late. At that time, Ding Jiayi had purposely prevented Qiao Nan from receiving treatment, wanting her to miss out on the registration date for school. It was because of that that Qiao Nan’s illness had worsened.

  “Pneumonia?” Qiao Zijin was taken aback. Apart from childbirth, it was only uremia that had pained Qiao Zijin terribly. At that time, Qiao Zijin had told herself that she would definitely lead a healthy life so that she would never have to be hospitalized again. She had never expected her condition to have gotten so serious from standing in the wind because of her desire to meet Qiao Nan. “Did Qiao Nan not even come to visit me and take care of me when I contracted pneumonia?”

  Was Qiao Nan really that heartless? Was she not going to visit her even if she died?

  “Otherwise?” Ding Jiayi replied in frustration. “Apart from giving me a plane ticket and your address, she didn’t do anything!” It was because she was exhausted that Ding Jiayi lost her temper.

  “I might have two daughters, but it seems like you’re both here to collect debts from me! I should be enjoying my life at my age now, but look how much I owe you that you’re torturing me like this! Zijin, you’re not young anymore. Can you stop causing trouble like this? Don’t tell me that this illness was just an accident.”

  Before Qiao Zijin had awoken, Ding Jiayi had been rather worried about Qiao Zijin. After all, she had thought that Qiao Zijin had fallen ill because she had neglected her own health. But the moment Qiao Zijin awoke and called out for Qiao Nan, Ding Jiayi gained a clear understanding of the whole situation.

  Ding Jiayi did know a little why Qiao Zijin had come to the capital this time. As such, Ding Jiayi had a reason to believe that Qiao Zijin had deliberately fallen sick so that Qiao Nan would take care of her. In fact, her arrival might very well have ruined Qiao Zijin’s plan.