Chapter 856: In hell

Some people say that people who lend usury are devils, but actually, people who borrow usury are also devils.

It's just that one devil is more powerful, and one devil is weaker; they are essentially no different.

People's pity for those who borrow usury is only because these people are in a weak position in the end.

These people always use the reason that they don't understand usury, or other reasons, to tell the public that they have to do so.

The public is also easy to be deceived; no matter what these weak people say, they think what these people say is true.

But they don't know that before these people borrow money, they actually know better than those bystanders what they are doing, what they want to do, and what they will encounter in the end.

Just like right now, clearly this gentleman is doing a business that eats people, but from his bright appearance and his kind attitude, you can't link him to "devil."

Oge sat in the wheelchair, his eyes staring straight at those property proofs, his mind thinking of his wife, his daughter, thinking of the doctor saying he wanted to sue him to get back the money he owed the hospital.

After about ten seconds, he nodded, "Okay."

The two soon came to the sofa provided for rest in the hall, and they sat here.

There are many such places for guests to rest in the casino, and they can also let them complete some work by the way.

The person who lent usury soon took out a general standard contract, filled in a series of information on it, and put it in front of Oge, "Sign it, and this money is yours."

Next to the contract were six hundred dollars, all in twenty-dollar denominations, a total of thirty sheets.

If it weren't for him going to the bank to inquire, and the bank could only give him five hundred, perhaps he wouldn't be very likely to sign this agreement.

He picked up the pen and prepared to sign, but stopped for a while.

The guy who lent usury didn't urge him; he leaned on the sofa, crossed his legs, smoked, he was not in a hurry at all, and even persuaded—

"Actually, you can consider it more; after all, this is not a small matter like buying a pack of cigarettes; it relates to your house."

"If you are not satisfied with this price, you can also go to ask other financial companies, or some real estate agents are willing to help you with this."

Mayor Williams wants to expand the city to accommodate more people and enterprises, so naturally, he not only built a new industrial zone but also built a new residential area.

There will be more houses in New Jincheng, plus the depression of these years, real estate has never been very prosperous, and the market price has always been the price of "slow sale."

Oge's apartment can be hung for one thousand two hundred dollars, then at some real estate agents, and after hanging for a few months, welcoming at least a dozen waves of people looking at the house, it is possible to sell it.

Then the person buying the house has to bargain, plus the agency fee charged by the real estate agent, he actually only gets about one thousand dollars.

The purpose of usury is to make money, not to do charity, so whether it is a bank or these financial companies, they will not lend according to the actual price of the house; this is too stupid.

Usury pursues more benefits, faster returns, so the price they give will be higher than the bank, in order to attract borrowers.

He can be very sure that the price he gave is definitely relatively high among peers.

Although the interest is a little more, this is a casino!

Those who want to borrow money to live can go to outside financial companies; in the casino, everyone plays for "fast."

Someone borrowed one thousand dollars here and could pay back this money in less than an hour, and leave with thousands of dollars.

There are also people who borrowed two or three thousand dollars and left with pale faces ten minutes later, never coming here again.

Seeing more, even soft-hearted people will become hard.

After hesitating for less than a minute, Oge signed his name on the document and pressed his handprint.

The guy who lent usury took the document and looked at it, confirmed there was no problem, and pushed the six hundred dollars forward, "Now it's yours; have a pleasant day, Mr. Oge."

He said this and stood up; he still had to work, and at the same time had to arrange for people to freeze the real estate under this asset document at the registration office to avoid conducting transactions again.

Oge, holding six hundred dollars, felt his breathing become much heavier; this was the most cash he had seen in his life, not counting those in newspapers, magazines, and movies.

Clearly these six hundred dollars were light, but in his hands, they were so heavy that he couldn't lift them.

The young reporter couldn't help but say, "Actually, it's still not too late for you to return it to him now; no interest within a week."

Oge had a moment of hesitation, but soon shook his head, "Push me to exchange chips."

The reporter still wanted to say something, but Oge suddenly urged, "Hurry up!"

His voice was very loud, and some waiters around looked over; perhaps he himself knew that maybe if the reporter persuaded him again, he might really give up.

He couldn't give up; this was the last hope.

The reporter finally pushed him to the counter; he exchanged for six one-hundred-dollar chips.

When the reporter wanted to push him to the hall, he let the reporter send him to the elevator.

The maximum bet for a single person at a single table in the first-floor hall was one hundred dollars; on the first floor, he might not be able to make it!

The reporter didn't say anything either and sent him directly to the second floor; the upper limit of the second floor was larger; six hundred dollars for here was equivalent to… five or ten dollars downstairs.

The battle was very intense; until two hours later, he looked at his last two hundred dollars of chips being cleared by the dealer, and his whole body was filled with a dead air of despair.

The reporter's emotions were also constantly rising and falling; he swore that this was the most exciting gambling he had ever seen since he grew up.

Perhaps in the eyes of those big figures… it was just a small game involving six hundred dollars.

But for Oge, this was a contest between despair and hope, survival and death!

He once won up to one thousand one hundred dollars!

This was simply a miracle!

His chips were one hundred dollars away from doubling!

At that time, the reporter also persuaded him; he won five hundred dollars, he was still four hundred and fifty dollars away; borrow a little from others, scrape together, still had hope to scrape together.

But Oge's eyeballs were already red; he felt he was terrifyingly strong, and then lost the following card game.

He also once was only one step away from "ending," the last one hundred dollars, but it was by relying on this last one hundred dollars that he successfully turned over.

He had experienced several heart-pounding moments; he was once really only one centimeter away from hope!

But whether it was one centimeter, one millimeter, or one kilometer, if it wasn't there, it wasn't there!

Until this moment, the last two hundred dollars were taken away by the dealer, and the game was over.

He was completely silent, paralyzed in the wheelchair, and the whole person seemed to have lost his soul.

The reporter sighed and pushed him back to the first floor.

The gentleman who lent him money saw Oge's despair and walked over again, "It seems your luck is not very good, friend; maybe you still need a sum of money."

Oge slowly raised his head; he squinted at this gentleman, his eyes full of despair and violence.

This made the guy who lent usury retreat two steps slightly; he raised his hand and made a gesture of resistance, "Okay, I shouldn't have disturbed you."

After saying this, he laughed twice, shook his head, and turned to leave.

Take action in the casino?

No, no one could do this; look at the security guards constantly patrolling around; they would pull out their pistols at any time to kill those who tried to harm the casino's interests!

This was Lanse's casino; here, even if the President came, he had to follow the rules!

Of course, this was an exaggerated way of saying it, because the President hadn't come, and people didn't know if he would follow the rules, but it didn't hinder them from saying so, because saying so was very cool!

"Send me back."

The reporter silently pushed the wheelchair to the entrance of the casino, then supported Oge and left.

Oge, lying on the bed, didn't know how to speak to his wife; this house no longer belonged to them.

Guilt filled his heart; he felt despair, felt unable to breathe!

Perhaps at this moment, death was the best destination.

He lay there on his side, looking at the sky outside the window.

The sky was very small, only as big as the window; the surrounding places were occupied by walls, and those patients.

He was very flustered inside now, but strangely calm; he just lay there until he fell asleep.

In the evening, his wife came to deliver dinner, still complaining about not being able to find the passbook, and various bills had been mailed to the house.

Those people would put the bills in envelopes and let the postman deliver them to the door; if the apartment had a mailbox, they would put them in the mailbox.

If the apartment didn't have a mailbox, they would push them in through the gap at the bottom of the door.

They lived in a very old apartment; it was designed with a mailbox at first, but later the mailbox was a bit in the way and was dismantled by the manager.

For a period of time after dismantling, the manager would manage those mails according to the door number, but later he was too lazy to continue managing; the postman would directly push them in through the door gap according to the door number.

The first few days of every month and the last few days are the days federal people fear the most!

Because they themselves are not sure what bills they will receive, and how much money they have to pay.

Many times federal people don't know how much money they need to pay for something they did; they will only receive the mailed bills after a period of time, and then they know how much money they have to spend.

Sometimes it might be a simple little thing that people think, but it costs a lot of money.

This also led to many federal lower-middle-class families, every time the bill day arrived and they saw those envelopes containing bills, they would immediately have a mental breakdown!

Oge's wife was also complaining about the bill day; their situation was already bad enough, but those people still didn't intend to let them go and sent various bills.

"At least eight dollars are needed for us to pay all the pending bills, and some bills can be postponed for a while, but they can't be postponed for too long."

"I only have less than five dollars in my pocket now; you think carefully, can you remember where our passbook was placed?"

His wife was organizing some things on the bedside while asking casually.

She had asked once before; he said he didn't know, so this time she didn't expect her husband to remember.

Men sometimes forget what happened as soon as they turn their heads; she was already used to it.

"Sorry."

His wife heard her husband say a sentence; she looked up at her husband with some shock, "Did you say something just now?"

"Sorry?"

Oge put down the lunch box; his whole person's state was very bad; at this time his wife discovered this point.

"Sorry, I lost the money."

His wife was stunned for a while, "You mean, you went to gamble?"

Oge painfully rubbed his cheeks fiercely with both hands; he seemed to want to rub this layer of skin off!

"I…, I wanted to win some money to keep our house, but I lost."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have done that!"

His wife was silent for a while, her heart was miserable and desolate, but she still had to comfort her husband, "Forget it, more than one hundred dollars, after your body is better, it's not difficult to earn it back."

"Although I don't want to say it, you definitely don't want to hear it, but don't do it next time."

"No matter what you do, notify me first."

"Sorry!"

His wife hugged Oge's shoulder, "Everything will get better."

"I also lost our house…"

Oge's wife didn't know how she returned home; her consciousness seemed to still be in the hospital, still in the sentence her husband said that shocked and frightened her!

He actually lost their house too.

And the purpose of him doing this was just to keep this house!

She couldn't understand.

Maybe she was a housewife, she didn't understand some things in society, but she just couldn't understand why this idiot would do such a stupid thing!

Now it's good, they still owe the hospital more than nine hundred dollars, and then they lost their house.

She just sat in the living room, her mind blank.

The good news is that they can still live in this house for six months; the bad news is that they still have to find a sum of money to pay back the hospital.

But… in a sense, this is actually another effective solution; now this house doesn't completely belong to them, even if the hospital goes through the process, the court can't freeze this house, and can't sell it.

But… in the end, they still lost everything.

Oge returned home from the hospital; actually, he had completely stopped treatment now because he didn't pay the money.

But he still occupied a bed; the hospital here was not tight on beds; as long as there was no treatment, there was no cost.

"I will find a job.", he sat opposite his wife, holding her hand.

"I am a skilled worker; although my leg is broken, my arm is intact, and I can still do those jobs."

"Before, they mentioned seventy dollars a month to me; I will lower the income, sixty-five dollars, there will definitely be factories that need me."

"Although… the house is gone, we still have hope."

His wife just looked at him blankly; the two looked at each other for a good while; he let go of her hand and said "sorry" again.

The sound of keys turning soon came from the door; the woman wiped the tears flowing out, and then squeezed out some smiles.

Their daughter came back.

The girl was carrying a schoolbag; she saw that her father had actually returned, and her face was full of surprise and smiles!

"You are better!"

"God, I missed you so much!"

Oge squeezed out an ugly smile, "I just…, yes, I am better, can go to work."

The girl didn't see through his lie, and the family sat together again.

The wife got up to make dinner; just as her husband said, if he could find a job as soon as possible, everything might still have a turning point.

Although the girl felt that the atmosphere was a bit wrong, she didn't realize what had happened.

The next day, Oge went out to find a job; the reporter also followed behind him.

These days, news in New Jincheng still revolved around the conflict of the parade and demonstration; they said it would be in court soon.

Oge didn't care much about these now; he just wanted to find a job.

It was a pity that he looked for quite a few garment factories; when they knew his leg was broken because he participated in the parade and demonstration, they all refused his entry request.

In the words of these factory owners, they would rather recruit a novice than recruit a skilled worker with trade union and Labor Alliance background; they were acquired!

One day, two days, it was always like this.

"Today's New Jincheng" had begun to report some problems encountered by workers who participated in the parade in life and work.

Newspapers like "Federal Post" and "Federal Daily" had all reprinted these news, including "Observation" magazine, an authoritative magazine studying social phenomena, also put the parade and demonstration screen on the front page.

Those workers held up signs, arrogant and domineering, walking in the middle of the road; they rolled up their sleeves and raised them high, waving, and their faces were all serious expressions of wanting to eat people!

But the content was the bad living conditions of the participants.

Finding no job was just the simplest and most common problem they faced, and then there were medical expenses, bills, and various problems.

Most of these problems were encountered by Oge; he was the same as them.

The report raised a question, that is, what are the people who stopped them from doing so doing now?

This was a very old, but always very effective practice, making the enemy internally produce contradictions, opposition, and even conflict.

It was also at this time that the hospital sued Oge in court, because he owed medical expenses and was unwilling to pay; the hospital hoped that the court could freeze Oge's assets and squeeze out the owed funds!

This period of time had been these cases, and some hospitals had postponed, and the court believed that the hospital's appeal was clear and the evidence was conclusive, so they didn't even need half an hour to pronounce the sentence.

But this time they encountered a little trouble; when the hospital's lawyers took the court's documents to the government department asset registration office for asset freezing, they found that Oge's house was not only frozen, but it was also in the process of transfer.

This meant that the hospital couldn't take away Oge's house at all, let alone auction this house to make up for the loss.

But… they were not without any way; soon they found the door…

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 857 =====