Chapter 13: Paying Off Her Father's Debts

The next morning.

Zhang Qiyang had a dream in which he was eating steamed buns—so delicious that he could almost taste them. Upon waking and opening his eyes, he saw Qin Xueyang, the plump girl, sitting in his hospital room eating steamed buns, the aroma of scallions filling the air.

Zhang Qiyang licked his lips, his hunger now fully awakened.

Noticing he was awake, Qin Xueyang, still munching on her bun, walked over and asked, “You’re up?”

Zhang Qiyang’s mouth was unbearably dry—he couldn’t even muster any saliva. He licked his parched lips again and reached out to Qin Xueyang. “Give me a bun.”

“What for?” Qin Xueyang guarded her buns as if they were treasures.

“To eat, of course! I’m starving.”

“Even if you're hungry, you can’t have buns. The doctor said you can only have porridge and liquids for the next couple of days—no meat or anything rich.”

Suddenly recalling something, Qin Xueyang, chewing her bun, asked, “You woke up last night, didn’t you? You didn’t sneak anything to eat, did you?”

“Stop talking nonsense and give me a bun, I’m starving to death!” Zhang Qiyang, feeling weak, struggled to sit up in bed, reaching for the bun in her hand.

After yesterday’s stomach pumping, his belly was washed empty—he felt as if he hadn’t eaten a proper meal in months.

Qin Xueyang was quick, stuffing all the buns into her mouth at once so that her already round face puffed up even more, making her look almost platter-shaped.

She laboriously chewed the buns, mumbling at Zhang Qiyang, “Can’t you understand plain words? The doctor said you can’t eat anything right now!”

Swallowing four buns nearly choked her. When she fetched water, she poured a glass for Zhang Qiyang as well, telling him, “Have some water first. I’ll call the doctor to check on you. If the doctor says you can eat, I’ll buy something for you right away.”

With that, she went out to find the attending physician, still hiccuping from being stuffed.

As the aroma of steamed buns lingered in the room and Qin Xueyang’s barrel-shaped figure disappeared through the door, Zhang Qiyang could only shake his head helplessly.

In this new world, aside from his own family, it seemed that this plump girl was the only one who truly cared about him.

The original Zhang Qiyang’s relationship with Qin Xueyang hovered somewhere between friendship and servitude. The two of them had once had a clear-cut contract—Qin Xueyang worked for him in exchange for a loan.

Qin Xueyang had once been a pampered heiress herself. Though her family’s wealth never quite matched Zhang Qiyang’s, it far surpassed that of most business families. They had spent five years as classmates at Westminster Royal College, then both went on to Cambridge.

It was during their time at Cambridge that Zhang Qiyang’s mother died in a car accident, and he changed drastically, sliding into self-destruction and drifting away from the Chinese students around him—especially Qin Xueyang, with whom he had little contact.

Even before, while they were classmates, Zhang Qiyang had looked down on Qin Xueyang, seeing her as nothing but a gluttonous, overweight girl. From what he’d heard at home, her family’s business was not exactly aboveboard, so he’d always kept his distance.

Less than a year into their studies at Cambridge, disaster struck Qin Xueyang’s family. Her father turned out to be running a massive Ponzi scheme. His political protector abruptly fell from power, and her father, caught off guard, was arrested. The fraudulent empire collapsed in an instant—the family assets were frozen before they could be moved, and the Qin family fell overnight.

The Ponzi scheme had made the Qin family enemies everywhere; many powerful groups had been swindled, and the Chinese business community loathed them. That hatred spilled over onto Qin Xueyang. Friends abandoned her, and everyone cut ties.

The blow was devastating, but fate was not yet done with her. Around that time, her mother was diagnosed with leukemia and needed care. Qin Xueyang took a leave from Cambridge and returned home to care for her mother.

That period was the darkest in her life. Her mother’s treatment required enormous sums, but with the family’s downfall, not a single relative or friend would help—the relatives had all been cheated as well, demanding Qin Xueyang repay her father’s debts.

Mother and daughter were driven to the very edge of despair. In those bleakest days, Qin Xueyang’s stout body became her family's last pillar. She wrote IOUs to every creditor, vowing to repay them in the future, but begging them not to disturb her mother’s treatment for now.

Moved by her filial piety, the creditors relented.

Qin Xueyang then threw herself into exhausting work to pay for her mother’s treatment. She did every job under the sun except sell herself, working herself nearly to death.

In just a few months, her weight dropped from over 200 pounds to about 150—still large, but the lost flesh pained her mother deeply.

Seeing no hope in further treatment and unwilling to drag her daughter down any longer, her mother soon took her own life, ending it all. The blow nearly destroyed Qin Xueyang.

Fortunately, she was even stronger in spirit than the original Zhang Qiyang.

She had thought of ending her own life, but then realized—if she died, when her father was released from prison decades later, he’d be alone, hounded by creditors. How would he survive? Though her father had cheated the world, he had given her all his love. Even if he was a notorious fraud, Qin Xueyang could not abandon him. For his sake, she had to live and be strong.

From then on, she endured, working tirelessly to pay off the debts.

Born to wealth, she understood luxury goods, was talkative, and carried herself with a certain fullness and dignity. She often managed to land jobs as a salesperson in luxury boutiques.

More than once, she ran into women from her former social circle or their friends while working. She endured their scorn and humiliation, her dignity trampled, and was even fired several times after being outed as the daughter of a swindler. Yet she bore it all—for every penny she could earn to pay off her father's debts, she was willing to suffer any hardship.

Eventually, Zhang Qiyang dropped out and returned to the capital. One day, while browsing luxury stores, he ran into Qin Xueyang by chance. He didn’t recognize her at first—she was down to 140 pounds, but he still pictured her as the 200-pound girl from before.

At that moment, another heiress with ties to the upper crust recognized Qin Xueyang. Her family had also been swindled by the Qins, and she loathed Qin Xueyang, insulting her cruelly and calling her the “little fraud whose mother deserved to die.”

To Zhang Qiyang, those words were unbearably harsh.

He had heard of the Qin family’s downfall—everyone in their circle despised them. He’d never felt sympathy for Qin Xueyang, thinking her family deserved what they got. But hearing that her mother had committed suicide in disgrace, and that Qin Xueyang was working to pay her father’s debts, he found himself seeing her in a new light—this plump girl who’d once shared his classroom and even a character in her name.

That day, in the boutique, Zhang Qiyang used his wealth to silence the vindictive heiress and, as the son of the richest man, stood up for Qin Xueyang, turning the tables on her tormentor.

Afterward, he took Qin Xueyang with him.