Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
8
After so many days apart, Mum looked visibly worn.
Her hair was a mess. Her face was gray, and she had lost weight.
Because Tianci’s mortgage wasn’t paid off, my name couldn’t yet be added to the flat’s title.
I took Mum straight to a notary instead.
We drew up an agreement giving me half ownership of the house and land in the village.
Outside, she repeated the warning.
“Remember. Your brother mustn’t know.”
I knew her too well.
She only wanted to placate me for now.
Notarized or not, once things improved—or once she had extracted enough money—she would turn on me.
In the village, giving a daughter a share of the family home was practically taboo.
If she later claimed I had forced her, one embroidered story would be enough to drown me in the neighbors’ condemnation.
I had to move first.
As soon as the document was ready, I photographed it.
I posted it in the family group.
Then on my WeChat Moments.
With the caption:
[A mother’s love.]
My phone erupted.
[Second Sister: ???]
[Second Sister: Mum, what are you doing?]
[Second Sister: Why does she get the house? Wasn’t it supposed to be our brother’s?]
[Second Sister: If she gets a share, I want mine.]
[Second Sister: Never mind the old house. I’ve paid a quarter of the mortgage on Tianci’s marriage flat. A quarter share isn’t too much to ask.]
[Second Sister: @Eldest Sister, say something!]
My eldest sister normally had her phone in her hand all day. She never left a message unanswered for more than ten seconds.
This time, nothing.
Our second sister lost patience.
She dropped everything and went home to question Tianci.
He was stunned.
The moment he saw my photograph, his face reddened with fury.
He charged into Mum’s room and demanded to know how she dared give me part of the house.
Through tears and snot, Mum told him I had forced her.
She had no choice.
She was only agreeing for now. She would find a way to reverse it later.
She swore that he was still the only one who mattered to her.
Calm down, she told him. They would think of a way to deal with me together.
But Tianci had lost all reason.
Half the house gone.
The money gone.
If his girlfriend found out, she would leave him.
He slapped Mum twice.
“You idiot! She says a few words, and you believe her?”
Then he tore through the house like a burglar, searching cupboards and hidden corners.
He even dug out Mum’s wedding gold from twenty years earlier.
She collapsed onto the floor, beating her thighs and wailing.
“Ungrateful boy! I’m not dead yet, and you’re selling the house? If you sell it, I’ll kill myself!”
He spat.
“Whoever has money can be my mother!”
But he found little of value.
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at her.
“It was all mine!
“This is your fault. You destroyed this family. Gave everything to my sister and those relatives, always getting in my way.
“If you want to die, get on with it!”
Ignoring her sobs, he seized a kitchen knife and went to Uncle’s house.
He demanded the two hundred and eighty-eight thousand back.
Xiao Hui was eating there with his girlfriend.
Tianci pointed the knife at her face.
“The bride-price. Now! Or I’ll cut your face up and kill you and the baby!”
She trembled.
Whether someone pushed her or her legs gave way, she fell.
She began bleeding.
By the time she reached hospital, the baby couldn’t be saved.
Grieving the loss and furious at Tianci’s demands, she broke up with Xiao Hui on the spot.
Uncle turned on Mum.
He demanded five hundred thousand yuan.
Otherwise, he would report Tianci for intentional injury and have him jailed.
Mum was terrified.
She rushed to the flat, hoping to persuade Tianci to sell it and raise enough compensation to settle things.
She found another battlefield.
Angry over my share of the house, our second sister had packed her pots and pans and decided to move in.
But Tianci’s girlfriend was already living there.
She refused to open the door.
Our second sister wasn’t meek. She called several rough-looking men to break it down.
After two nights shut out in the corridor, she was seething.
The moment she got inside, she slapped Tianci’s girlfriend twice.
The other woman recovered and fought back.
But the slender internet beauty was no match for my sister.
By the time Mum arrived, she had been beaten unconscious.
The flat was wrecked.
Mum pointed at them and screamed.
“Ungrateful beasts! Not one sensible child! I should have strangled the lot of you!”
Uncle was demanding money.
My brother had disappeared with the recovered bride-price.
Mum wore herself out and spent two days in bed.
Then she remembered her good daughter.
Me.
When I opened the door, she stood there with a falsely gentle face.
“Jingjing, you’re all I have left.”
Her hair had gone gray. Her eyes were sunken.
She looked worse than before.
I glanced at her, pretending surprise.
“Mum, what happened to you?”
She gave an awkward smile.
“Let’s talk inside.”
From her pocket, she took a little bundle.
Layer after layer came away.
Inside was a bank card.
“These past few days have shown me I was wrong. This is money I kept aside. Your brother doesn’t know about it.
“I want to show you I mean it. Could I live with you?”
Something stirred in me.
She was finally willing to give something up.
She pressed the card into my hand.
“I’ve thought it through. Your brother can’t be relied on. You’re the best child in this family.”
“How much is on it?”
Her smile turned embarrassed.
“Your brother spent most of the money. I have about twenty thousand left.
“I know you earn well. It isn’t much to you. I only want to show my attitude has changed.”
So she could still read the situation.
I smiled faintly.
“Twenty thousand isn’t enough. After everything you gave him, why should I settle for that?
“How about this? Find a way to sell his flat.”
“I won’t take the proceeds for nothing. I’ll keep them for your retirement. Buy a little place in town. Bring your parents and brother to live there too.
“You won’t have to worry about food or clothes again.”
Her eyes lit up.
“Really? All right. Leave it to me.”
She went to Tianci and told him that half the flat now belonged to me.
His girlfriend would never accept that, she said.
Then she claimed she had talked me around.
We would sell the flat and buy him a bigger one.
To convince him, she had me make a recording.
He never imagined Mum would conspire with me against him.
He believed every word.
Two weeks later, he cooperated in selling at a rock-bottom price.
Once Mum had the proceeds, she turned on him.
She blocked him and came to live with me.
Only then did he realize he had been tricked.
Guessing where she was, he arrived early one morning and hammered on my door.
His shouts filled the corridor.
“You old hag! Why aren’t you dead yet?
“You dare lie to me? Open up, or I’ll stay right here! Let’s see who outlasts who!”
Mum shouted from inside.
“Watch your mouth! Who are you talking to?”
“Whoever you’re favoring now!”
“Favoring? Who saved all the best food for you when you were little? Every penny your sisters sent came straight to you!
“Now you accuse me of favoritism? Get out! Don’t come here again!”
She pressed the alarm.
Security came up and removed him from the building.
With nowhere to go, he remembered his ex-girlfriend.
When Uncle returned the bride-price, he had been afraid Mum would take it and hand it all to me.
So he had left it with her.
The flat was gone.
But at least she still had two hundred and eighty-eight thousand.
He had a way out.
Relieved, he went to collect it.
She refused.
“I spent all that time with you. Maybe you don’t value it, but it wasn’t nothing. Your sister beat me up too. I’m keeping it for medical expenses.”
He flew into a rage.
“I left it with you to look after! It wasn’t a gift!”
She smiled.
“You never said it wasn’t. Don’t like it? Sue me.”
He stared.
Then he lunged at her throat.
“You bitch! You think you can swallow my money? Give it back! I’ll kill you!”
A tattooed man stepped out from behind her.
He grabbed Tianci as easily as a chicken and threw him to the floor.
After a kick to the ribs, he put an arm around the woman’s waist.
“Finished?
“So we’ve taken the money. What are you going to do?”
Tianci crumpled, too frightened to move.
The man bent down and struck his arm.
Tianci screamed.
It was broken.
“If you want to keep the other one, stay out of my sight.”
He crawled away.
Hatred was all he had left.
It was Mum’s fault, he thought.
Without her, he would have a home, money, a girlfriend.
In a few years, he would marry, have children, live comfortably.
She had ruined everything.
Turned him into a stray dog on the streets.
Rage, humiliation and madness filled him.
They whispered that if he killed her, he could have his old life back.
He grew calm.
He went to Mum and pretended remorse.
“Mum, I know I was wrong.
“Open the door. I’ll give back all two hundred and eighty-eight thousand. From now on, I’ll do whatever you say. No arguments.”
Her preference for her son had never changed.
He was sorry.
He was bringing money.
She opened the door without thinking.
A sudden pain struck her abdomen.
She looked down.
Blood was soaking her clothes.
Tianci held the knife.
His face was twisted, his eyes wild.
He stabbed her again and again.
A neighbor opened their door to take out the rubbish.
They screamed and ran inside to call the police.
When the officers arrived, he was still laughing.
“It was her! She ruined me!
“Blind old fool!
“Die! I’m only sending you to hell!”
Mum reached hospital in time.
She survived.
But her spine was damaged. She would spend the rest of her life bedridden.
Tianci was sentenced to twenty years.
I put her in a nursing home.
Our second sister had cut ties over the property dispute. Even hearing Mum had been stabbed didn’t bring her back.
Our eldest sister visited once.
Empty-handed.
Unable to help.
On the day of sentencing, Mum was doing physiotherapy.
“Do you want to visit Tianci?” I asked.
Her lip curled.
“That ungrateful boy? Why would I? All the things I did for him. Bought him this, bought him that…”
She repeated the story of her devotion a dozen times a day, as if possessed.
“If you could do it again, would you still treat him the same way?”
She went quiet.
Then she muttered.
“He wasn’t trying to kill me back then. If you’d accepted your punishment, none of this would have happened.
“You… you were just too stubborn.”
I looked at her.
I felt nothing.
She hurried on.
“But you’re the best to me now. Look at me. I’ve given you all my money. You won’t abandon me, will you?”
I didn’t answer.
I handed the bank card to the nurse and turned to leave.
As though she sensed something, Mum panicked and fell from the bed.
“Where are you going? Why are you giving her the card?”
I smiled slightly.
“Of course I’ll support you. Exactly the way you supported me.”
Never enough food.
Never enough clothes.
A bowl of rice and some water.
Nothing more.
Her eyes widened.
“No! You can’t! Look at me! How can you be so cruel?”
But Mum, you were just as cruel when I was little.
I said nothing more.
I looked at her once, deeply, and left the room.
Behind me came crashing objects and hoarse screams.
I clenched my teeth and hurried out of the nursing home.
Bring children into the world without caring for them, and don’t expect care in old age.
She had made this ending herself.
As for me, I was finally free of that family’s chains.
From now on, my life could only get better.
The End.
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