Chapter 28: Something Happens To Her Brother

Jimmy was busy again with his job. A few days later, when Kate called him and wanted to return his uniform, he said he was out of town and didn't need it, for now, to just keep it. He didn't have a very good signal and hung up soon.

Kate folded Jimmy's uniform and put it into a paper bag, but she changed her mind and took it out, smoothed the fold mark, and hung it in the wardrobe among her colorful summer clothes. It was much longer and stood there like a pine among flowers. The uniform was like its owner, straight and spirited.

She thought of him asking her jokingly if she liked him in uniform.

Kate said yes in a low voice to herself.

Time flew, and the summer was over in the blink of an eye.

In the meantime, Jimmy and his teammates cracked down a major case and were awarded by the highest authority. He boasted himself that he was a rising star with promising prospects in the criminal police department.

John and Sarah broke up because Sarah's first love came back for her. So this reliable "affordable class man" was knocked out of the game by a worthless punk. John thus drew the conclusion all women were masochistic.

Max had gotten used to his college life. In fact, he had more efficiency than the college required. Besides his work at school, he squeezed his time to take part-time jobs. Kate guessed that these environments might stimulate him.

Max was from a small place with a poor family, but his classmates mostly came from much wealthier families, and some were children of senior officials or CEOs or even billionaires.

Besides, the financial pressure from their family wasn't much lighter than before their father got sick.

Half a month earlier, their mother had fallen on the street on a rainy day while running some errands. She broke her shank and spent more than two thousand dollars in the hospital and on medicine.

Their father was getting better, but he had to take very expensive prescription medication all the time. When Kate wired money to her parents last week, Max also gave her one thousand dollars to send. She felt upset, but Max said he should help the family too, as he was now a grown man.

Kate was upset, but not just because Max had to share the burden of the family. She also had the indistinct worry that Max was too smart and too sensitive, and his keen focus on money might affect his schoolwork.

And she was right. Things were developing exactly the way she had feared.

One month later, when it happened to be Columbus Day, she received a call from Max's classmate. "Kate, something happened to Max."

It was a bolt from the blue to Kate, and she took a long moment to resume calmness so that she could listen to his classmate tell the story.

It turned out there was a senior student in Max's department who was quite a genius in business. Max became a big fan of him and started to work with him. This senior student got a project of installing digital advertising screens in public places like canteens on the campus.

So they promoted their business in other universities and got into competition with other groups of people who were doing the same kind of business. They had some conflict, and it escalated from verbal battle to physical fights. Seven people ambushed Max and two of his teammates on their way back to school.

And in the fight, Max hurt one of them quite seriously. He was sent to the hospital and was told he had an injury on his brain. The guy was still in a coma, and even if he woke up, he might be paralyzed all his life, the doctor said.

Max and his classmates freaked out. The other side wanted to sue them or require a whopping fee for medical treatment and living expenses. Now they asked for two hundred thousand dollars.

Two hundred thousand dollars, this astronomical figure for her again. Kate felt her head was going to explore.

Max's classmate said that Max was now in their hands, and they let him and another classmate came out to collect the money. They were students and didn't have much money, and they had begged everyone they could and only collected two thousand dollars so far.

They were only given one week's time to get the money ready. And the other classmate had run back home because of the great pressure.