Chapter 4

“Kang Wei doesn't want to pay for rehabilitation. He even plans to move Mom somewhere else.”

Her pupils contracted, and a muffled groan escaped her mouth.

I bent toward her.

“Mom has always supported her son's decisions.”

“I'm sure you'll support him this time, too, right?”

Mom grabbed my sleeve.

Her right hand could still move. She clutched the fabric so tightly it almost tore.

But she couldn't form a complete sentence. She only kept shaking her head.

The moment my brother saw Mom appealing to me, his initial discomfort turned into anger.

“Sis, that's enough.”

He glanced at the hospital bed, then quickly looked away.

“Whatever Mom's faults, she's still the one who gave birth to you and raised you. You have a spare room. Chen Zheng has a salary, too. What's the big deal about taking her in?”

My sister-in-law stood by the door with a hand on her waist.

At first, she'd avoided Mom's eyes. Only after my brother spoke did she join in, her eyes red.

“We're about to have two children. We really don't have room at home.”

She wiped the corner of her eye, her voice full of reproach.

“Sis, you can't refuse your own mother just because of a little property from years ago.”

I pulled my sleeve free from Mom's grasp and picked up the cost estimate on the table.

“I'll pay whatever the law says I'm responsible for.”

“But when Kang Wei received the assets, he agreed to take primary responsibility for Mom's medical costs and care arrangements.”

My brother swept the agreement off the table.

Papers scattered everywhere.

At last, he stopped pretending to be a devoted son.

“I only said that to make Mom happy. Who actually takes this kind of thing seriously?”

His voice carried into the hallway.

A hospital social worker pushed open the door and asked what had happened.

After reviewing the agreement and the lawyer's certification, the social worker set the documents back in front of my brother.

“This isn't just a private family promise.”

“He received most of the elderly woman's assets and explicitly agreed to cover the associated expenses. He can't simply say it no longer counts.”

My brother was about to argue.

Just then, the rehabilitation department's cost estimate was brought in.

Treatment, care, and supplies came to nearly twenty thousand yuan a month.

He glanced at the page and put it down.

“Even with treatment, she won't be able to stand. What's the point of spending so much?”

Mom was lying in the hospital bed, hearing every word.

Tears slid from the corners of her eyes into her hair.

She kept looking at my brother, as if still waiting for him to change his mind.

But he had taken out his phone and started searching for the cheapest nursing home.

He found a place in the suburbs that charged two thousand yuan a month for a bed and three meals. It offered nothing else. He immediately decided to send Mom there.

I paid my share according to the lawyer's calculation and helped Mom find a reputable care facility where she could continue rehabilitation.

When my brother saw the fee, he changed his mind.

“If you want somewhere that expensive, pay for it yourself.”

The lawyer reminded him that under the agreement and the terms attached to the asset transfer, he was responsible for most of the expenses.

My brother shoved his phone into his pocket.

“I don't have any money. Do whatever you want.”

He turned and left.

He didn't look back at Mom once.

That afternoon, one of the caregivers secretly called me. Mom wanted to see me.

When I returned to her room, she was staring at the door.

The moment she saw me, she reached out.

She'd spent the whole afternoon practicing so she could speak, but the corner of her mouth still wouldn't close properly.

“Take Mom… home.”

She rested for a long time, then added, “My pension… is yours.”

In my previous life, those words would have softened me immediately.

Now, all I felt was how absurd they were.

She had given my brother assets worth several million yuan. When it came to caring for her, she offered me a few thousand yuan a month in pension as if it were a generous favor.

I didn't pull my hand away.

“Will you tell our relatives that you gave Kang Wei the houses, the savings, and the shop, but he refuses to care for you?”

Mom's hand went rigid.

She looked at me, but didn't nod.

The only sound in the room was the hospital monitor.

A long time passed before she managed to say, “You take care of me.”

“Tell everyone… Kang Wei paid.”

She struggled to breathe, then tightened her grip on my hand.

“He's getting promoted… he can't have a reputation for being unfilial.”

“Don't tell Chen Zheng… don't let the child hate me.”

Her broken words pieced together the final truth of my previous life.

She had always known who was really taking care of her.

She knew my brother hadn't fulfilled his duty to her even for a single day.

Yet she'd rather accuse me falsely than let her son lose his reputation as a devoted son.

In her eyes, her daughter's marriage, child, and dignity could all be used as stepping-stones.

I stopped the recording on the phone in my pocket.

“Mom, you should stay at the nursing home.”

She froze.

Then she grabbed my hand again, cursing in muffled, unclear syllables.

I pried her fingers loose one by one and left the room.