"What! Go down the mine to dig coal!" Liao Zhaoji stared at him with wide eyes and exclaimed, "Who let you do that? Do you know what kind of place that is? Do you have no regard for your life? Where is your grandma, your dad? Why don’t they look after you? You’re really causing trouble blindly. How could they let you go down into the mine? Isn’t that just sending you to death?"
Liao Zhaoji interrogated him, sentence by sentence, filled with righteous indignation.
She pushed all the blame onto the Ruan family, as if she had nothing to do with it herself.
Ruan Jun laughed, a laugh filled with sarcasm, "Yes, it is going to death, but Mom, who is really sending me to my death, do you truly not know?"
That last sentence, Ruan Jun almost shouted.
Liao Zhaoji was startled by his shout and took a couple of steps back, her expression one of confusion. She stammered, trying to defend herself, "I... I didn’t tell you to sign up for this. I told you to go to your grandma, to your dad... I..." By the end, even she couldn’t continue her own excuses.
Because she knew that the Ruan Jiandang simply couldn’t come up with that much money.
Even if the Ruanlin Family had the money, they wouldn’t provide such an amount for her...
Ruan Jun realized that the only path left for him to get this money was this one.
Going down into the mine to dig for coal was extremely dangerous work. No one would choose such risky work unless they were truly desperate. Even if one emerged alive, one’s health would be utterly ruined.
Thus, even though the job offered a decent wage, most people wouldn’t consider it.
Liao Zhaoji stared blankly at Ruan Jun, watching as he stuffed the money into her hands, instinctively stepping back as if the money burned her.
"Oh, you’ve brought the money too, it seems Xiaojun still cares about his mom," Li Family chimed in from behind. She had approached at some point, and upon seeing the money in Ruan Jun’s hands, her eyes narrowed, and she rushed over, pushing past Liao Zhaoji to snatch the money away.
She opened the red cloth, spat on her fingertips, and started to count the money right in front of Ruan Jun.
After counting, she looked at Ruan Jun with a beaming smile and said, "No mistakes, no mistakes, it’s three hundred."
Ruan Jun ignored her, his gaze still on Liao Zhaoji.
Liao Zhaoji was still looking at him, somewhat incredulous, "Did you really sign up?"
"Yes," Ruan Jun answered.
Liao Zhaoji took a deep breath, "Have you told your grandma? What did she say? Did she let you go?"
Even at that moment, Liao Zhaoji didn’t want to believe that things were as bad as they seemed. She hoped for a solution, always thinking that the Ruan family wouldn’t be so heartless. After all, Ruan Jun was their own grandson; even if they doted on their granddaughter, they wouldn’t want to see him die, right?
"Grandma told me to decide for myself; the family wouldn’t miss one less of us," Ruan Jun said.
"How could she do this! Has she gone mad!" Liao Zhaoji indignantly said, "You are her biological grandson!"
"I am also your biological son," Ruan Jun said with a laugh, but this laugh was uglier than crying.
Liao Zhaoji’s face changed color, clearly understanding the implication of Ruan Jun’s words. She turned to look at the Li Family, who immediately hugged the money tightly, glaring at Liao Zhaoji before turning and running away.
Liao Zhaoji opened her mouth hesitantly. Watching her flee into the distance, she couldn’t utter a word.
She fell silent for a few seconds.
Then, with a negotiating tone, she said, "Xiaojun, go back and plead with your grandma. She surely won’t let you go down into the mine."
She still didn’t say she would return the money to him.
She still abandoned him.