Hearing Qin Feng's words, everyone fell silent once again.
They suddenly felt that it made a lot of sense!
When you put it that way,
it seems like there aren't any real consequences to not repaying the money, right?!
But their traditional mindset was still causing them inner conflict.
They couldn't shake the feeling that this was highly immoral.
Qin Feng had a rough idea of what was troubling them and seized the moment to drive his point home:
"Besides, borrowing from these illegal platforms is actually a way of doing a good deed."
"You have to understand, other people who take out loans aren't as protected as we are, with our clan backing us up."
"Most of them are completely on their own. When the debt collectors show up to pressure them, they really have to face threats, intimidation, and even violence!"
"Think about it—if we borrow money from these platforms, doesn't that mean they have less money to lend to others?"
"By taking out more loans from these platforms, aren't we indirectly protecting some people?"
"And if we manage to bankrupt these shady online lending platforms, that would be a truly virtuous achievement!"
Well,
after Qin Feng laid it all out like that,
their resolve truly began to waver.
They fell into deep thought, one after another.
Each of them wore expressions of inner turmoil.
It was a battle between their deeply ingrained traditional beliefs and this new perspective.
After a long silence,
someone spoke up:
"I need a few days to think this over."
"For now, I'm heading back."
"But Qin Feng, no matter whether I end up taking this loan or not, if those debt collectors come here to threaten you, I won't just stand by and do nothing!"
"We can't let outsiders bully one of our Qin family's own!"
"Don't worry, I won't let them mess with you in our village."
Others chimed in as well:
"I also need some time to think it over. But if anyone dares to lay a hand on Qin Feng, I won't stand for it. Just say the word, and I'll be right here."
"Taking out this loan right now—I really can't bring myself to do it. It just feels too wrong, too immoral."
"...But if those people come to our village to bully Qin Feng, that's a different story altogether!"
"Even if Qin Feng owes them loans and doesn't repay, I still can't stand by and watch him get bullied by them!"
"Same here. We're all from Qin Family Village, descendants of the same ancestors. Letting Qin Feng be bullied by outsiders in our own village is absolutely unacceptable—it would be a disgrace to our ancestors!"
After everyone expressed their stance, they bid farewell one by one.
After seeing everyone off, Qin Guangzhi and Li Fengxia looked at Qin Feng with worried expressions.
The reassurances from the others did little to ease Qin Guangzhi and Li Fengxia's anxiety.
After all, neither of them had much life experience or had seen much of the world—they were traditional farmers at heart.
"Qin Feng, maybe it's better to just repay that money."
"Even though your uncles, aunts, and elders said they won't let you be bullied by outsiders, borrowing so much money isn't good in the long run."
"Since you just took out the loans a few days ago, the interest shouldn't be much yet. I'll cover the interest for you, and you can repay the principal. How about that?"
Qin Guangzhi spoke to Qin Feng in an almost pleading tone.
Although he was Qin Feng's father, this situation had left him feeling utterly lost.
Qin Feng shook his head:
"Dad, leaving aside the fact that these lending platforms don't simply calculate interest based on the number of days—they actually deduct a significant handling fee as soon as the loan is issued."
"...Even if there were no handling fees, and it was just simple interest, given our family's current situation, we still couldn't cover the shortfall."
"Because I've borrowed over three million in total. Some of them calculate interest on a monthly basis, while others calculate it by the quarter."
"That means even if I only borrowed the money for one day, I'd still have to repay a month's worth of interest, or even a quarter's worth."
"That alone would amount to tens of thousands!"
"Then there's the car I bought. If we sell it now, it would depreciate by at least over a hundred thousand."
"That's nearly two hundred thousand right there!"
"On top of that, the lending platforms deduct handling fees when disbursing the loans, which comes to about over three hundred thousand."
"Adding it all up, that's five hundred thousand."
"In other words, if we try to repay the loans now, we'd have to come up with an extra five hundred thousand!"
When Qin Guangzhi and Li Fengxia heard this, it felt as though the sky had fallen once again.
With a thud, Li Fengxia slumped onto a stool and let out a bitter sigh:
"What are we going to do now?!"
"Five hundred thousand—even if we use all our savings and borrow from everyone we know, we still couldn't scrape together five hundred thousand!"
Qin Guangzhi lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and finally spoke.
"I was originally planning to buy some tiles to renovate the house."
"Now it's just as well—we don't need to renovate anymore. Let's try to sell this property too."
"Qin Pingzhi from the west end of our village seems to want to buy a house for his father. Let's see if he's willing to take it for seventy thousand."
"If he agrees, that seventy thousand plus our savings, and borrowing from everyone we know, should be enough to make up five hundred thousand."
"Except we'll have to work for many years just to break even—all our earnings will go toward paying off the debt."
Qin Feng retorted:
"Why can't we just choose not to repay it?!"
"Even if we don't repay the loan, there won't be any serious consequences."
"First of all, it's not illegal—we won't have to bear any legal responsibility."
"Secondly, if I stay in the village all the time, the debt collectors can't really do anything to me even if they show up."
"Besides, if we repay the loan, we'll have to come up with five hundred thousand. We'll be completely bankrupt!"
"So… why should we repay it?!"
"On the other hand, if we don't repay, we'll have over three million."
"We could drive a Mercedes worth more than a million and even renovate our house into a villa!"
"So… why should we repay it?!"
Qin Feng asked again.
This left Qin Guangzhi utterly stunned.
Yeah!
There were plenty of reasons not to repay the loan.
Not repaying came with a lot of benefits.
Repaying would only lead to bankruptcy.
So, why bother repaying?
Qin Guangzhi hesitated for a long time, unable to find the words.
But he felt that if they really went through with it, something just wasn't right!
As for what exactly was wrong—
Qin Guangzhi couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Was it illegal?
No, it wasn't illegal!
Immoral?
Qin Feng had said that doing this could even be considered a good deed, so it wasn't immoral either.
...and in a way, it even counted as doing a good deed.
But he just felt that something wasn't quite right about it.
Qin Guangzhi squatted by the doorway, smoking one cigarette after another.
Li Fengxia sat there at a loss, waiting for Qin Guangzhi to make a decision.
She was just a rural woman with no opinions of her own—Qin Guangzhi was her pillar of support, and she always followed his lead.