Su Qingyun

"Come, my youngest, have something to eat."

A woman looked at the rice porridge served before her, licked her cracked lips, then spoke softly to her son beside her.

Longing filled her face, but she still saved the first mouthful for her son.

Her son held the bowl and took a full mouthful of rice water, his face content. "Mother, you drink some too."

As he spoke, he passed the bowl back to his mother.

Unable to refuse her son, the woman lowered her head and took a sip.

An Weiyan glanced to the side. A man already dizzy and seeing stars from hunger carried a bowl over to his father and first fed him several mouthfuls.

After watching for a few moments, An Weiyan withdrew his gaze, unable to bear looking any longer.

Even this tiny amount of nothing but rice water had to be shared.

It was his first time seeing such a scene, and naturally, he could hardly bear it.

The rice water in the dozen or so large pots was soon ladled out entirely. Several children stared fixedly at the pots, looking very much as though they wanted to go up and lick them a few times.

An Weiyan sighed inwardly at the sight.

He knew full well that this little bit of rice water would not keep hunger at bay. These people would be hungry again soon.

I'll get some more rice over here later.

An Weiyan gritted his teeth inwardly at the thought.

If all these common people died, wouldn't he become a commander without an army here?

As long as they stayed alive, they would be of some use.

"Old sir, arrange for a few people to wash the pots. I'll go back and get some more food."

After saying this casually, An Weiyan turned and left.

He would go back and see whether he could think of a way to get some food.

There was no rice left at home, and he had no money in his pocket to buy any.

His Huabei credit limit had never been high, and he had spent it all on stab-resistant clothing.

Back in the main world, An Weiyan took out his phone and checked. Sure enough, he had no Huabei credit left.

Opening his contacts, An Weiyan went through the names one by one. They were either people he was not particularly close to or people who did not have much money themselves.

Finally, An Weiyan's eyes stopped on one name.

Su Qingyun.

At the sight of that name, something stirred in An Weiyan's heart. After thinking it over, he gritted his teeth, opened WeChat, and sent her a message.

"You there?"

Moving his fingers, An Weiyan sent her a message after all.

Meanwhile, in a mansion, Su Qingyun was curled up with her long, slender, jade-like legs tucked beneath her, lazily wearing a face mask.

Hearing her phone, she knitted her delicate brows slightly and glanced at it, a trace of displeasure on her pretty face.

She wondered which fellow it was this time, messaging to invite her out for dinner, to the opera, or something of the sort.

There were far too many messages like that every day. She was so sick of them that she could not even be bothered to clear the red notification badge showing 99+ unread messages.

But when Su Qingyun glanced at her phone out of the corner of her eye and noticed the name in the middle of the screen, she froze briefly, then hurriedly sat up.

She grabbed the expensive face mask she had only just put on and tossed it into the nearby trash can.

"It's him!"

Looking at the message lighting up her phone, Su Qingyun's pretty face instantly filled with delighted surprise.

"Hmph, so you do remember to contact me. Then I suppose this young lady will reluctantly grace you with a reply!"

Unlike all those unopened messages on WeChat, An Weiyan was pinned at the top of her chat list.

And although Su Qingyun was huffing those words aloud, she had actually already started replying.

"Ahem, I'm here!"

Su Qingyun cleared her throat, a hint of softness in her voice.

But before sending it, she felt something was off and quickly canceled it.

She cleared her throat again and spoke, only to be dissatisfied once more.

After several attempts, seeing that she had already gone a minute without replying to An Weiyan, Su Qingyun's pretty face filled with anxiety, and she abandoned the idea of sending a voice message altogether.

Her slender fingers typed out "I'm here" and sent it to An Weiyan.

After sending it, Su Qingyun thumped the cushion beside her in frustration, feeling that she had utterly failed to perform well just now.

An Weiyan was waiting on his end. When he saw Su Qingyun's reply, his heart eased a little.

An Weiyan: "Um, there's something I'd like your help with. I don't know if it's convenient for you. If not, never mind."

Once the message was sent, An Weiyan grew apprehensive.

Back in university, he and Su Qingyun had been on very good terms. Whenever their classmates organized outings together, An Weiyan and Su Qingyun always had a wonderful time chatting, and each time they headed back, they felt they had not had their fill.

It was precisely because of that relationship that, upon seeing her name just now, An Weiyan had approached her without hesitation.

The two of them could be considered extremely close.

An Weiyan knew that Su Qingyun's family was extremely wealthy, but he was not quite sure exactly how wealthy.

He had only learned from things Su Qingyun occasionally said that her family background was far from ordinary.

Looking at An Weiyan's message, the corners of Su Qingyun's little mouth lifted slightly, and she looked very happy. In the past, she had always been the one to contact An Weiyan.

For once, this fellow had actually remembered to contact her!

But when Su Qingyun read An Weiyan's message clearly, her delicate brows knitted slightly. Had he run into some difficulty?

They had known each other for so long, but this was the first time she had ever seen An Weiyan ask her for help.

An Weiyan had always told her that he did not much like troubling others, that he always felt terribly embarrassed about it.

Yet now, An Weiyan had come to trouble her.

"What is it? If I can help, I definitely will." Su Qingyun's fingers flew as she typed, then sent the message to An Weiyan.

She was terribly afraid that sending it even a little later would make An Weiyan think she was unwilling.

Seeing Su Qingyun's reply, An Weiyan felt a little relieved. "Well, I'd like to borrow some money. Something's come up recently."

Su Qingyun held her phone, waiting for An Weiyan's reply. When she saw his message, she hurriedly typed back, "How much do you need? Is a million enough?"

"Pfft..."

An Weiyan jumped in shock at the message. He knew Su Qingyun's family was wealthy, but he had not expected her to offer a million right off the bat.

Wasn't she worried that I might be able to borrow the money but have no way to pay it back?

Tsk, my family circumstances really couldn't compare to Su Qingyun's at all.

An Weiyan shook his head inwardly. "Ten thousand is enough."

After thinking it over, An Weiyan felt that borrowing ten thousand should do.

As long as he made it through the immediate difficulty, he should be able to earn it back afterward and repay her.

"I'll transfer it straight to your Alipay."

Seeing this, Su Qingyun opened her app without another word and transferred the money to An Weiyan.

A moment later, An Weiyan stared blankly at the extra hundred thousand in his app. Hadn't he asked for ten thousand?

"Use this hundred thousand for now. If it isn't enough, come borrow more from me. If it's more than you need, just pay it all back together when you have the money. There's no rush."

Before An Weiyan could say anything, Su Qingyun had already typed him another message.

Looking at the enormous sum that had appeared on his phone, An Weiyan suddenly felt its weight.

He had always thought they were very close, but he had never imagined that Su Qingyun trusted him to this extent.