Chapter 1

My daughter and my husband’s younger sister were admitted to university in the same year.

I transferred my daughter’s tuition and living expenses.

My sister-in-law, who had lived in our home for five years, stood beside me, staring at my phone.

Her eyes were red.

Not with happiness. She was calculating how much more money she could get from me.

The moment we got home, she blocked the doorway, pale-faced.

“Have you forgotten something?”

“How much will you give me every month for university?”

“Look how lovely our acceptance letters are side by side.”

Zhou Xiaoyu laid hers beside my daughter’s on the dining table and tapped her own name.

“Two university students in our family at once.”

The words “our family” made my heart sink.

Xiaoyu was the younger sister of my husband, Zhou Lei.

Five years earlier, my mother-in-law said a county-town education offered no future and brought Xiaoyu, newly in high school, to our home.

Lei patted his chest and promised, “Just one year. Once she passes her exams, she’ll go home.”

But one year became another.

Uniforms, tutoring, dormitory deposits—even her winter down coat went on my card.

My mother-in-law occasionally brought two sacks of rice or a box of fruit at holidays. The real household expenses never stopped.

I had never used them to claim credit.

I thought she would remember when she grew up.

That day, after paying my daughter’s first-year tuition, I bought bedding and a desk lamp.

Xiaoyu said nothing on the way home. The moment we arrived, she waited for me at the door.

She blocked my path, her voice tight.

“How much does my niece get for living expenses each month?”

“We’ll start with what the family can afford. She’ll apply for a work-study position, too.”

“What about me?”

I stopped changing my shoes.

“You’ve been admitted, too. Finish your enrollment first.”

“I’m asking about living expenses.”

She stared at me, enunciating every word.

“Will you give me eight thousand yuan a month?”

The entryway light was glaring.

I thought I’d misheard.

“How much?”

“Eight thousand.”

She lifted her chin.

“I can’t get less than your daughter.”

“You can’t let people know her aunt has to depend on a sister-in-law’s moods to survive at university.”

I looked at the face I’d cared for for five years.

I remembered her arriving at sixteen, holding her schoolbag at the door, saying quietly that she didn’t want to trouble her brother.

Apparently, “I don’t want to trouble you” had only meant waiting until every trouble became her right.

Lei poked his head out of the kitchen.

“Don’t rush, Xiaoyu. Eight thousand isn’t a small amount. Let’s sit down and talk.”

My daughter put down her chopsticks, her expression changing.

But Xiaoyu laughed.

“What is there to discuss? Doesn’t she love me best?”

She pushed her acceptance letter toward me.

“I’ve lived here for five years, eaten here for five years, used your things for five years.”

“Now I only want a little spending money. Surely you won’t refuse?”

“Zhou Xiaoyu, be reasonable.”

My daughter stood first, her fingers clenched white.

“My mother paid for your food and schooling because you’re Dad’s sister. Not because she owes you.”

“You don’t decide whether she owes me.”

Xiaoyu shoved my daughter’s hand away. Her eyes reddened immediately.

“I’ve called her my sister-in-law for five years. I’ve lived in this house for five years.”

“I eat what you eat and go where you go. Am I just someone staying in your spare room?”

“That’s exactly what you are,” my daughter blurted.

Silence fell.

Xiaoyu’s tears spilled. She turned to me.

“Do you think that, too?”

Before I could answer, Lei frowned.

“Ningning, stop. Xiaoyu is going away to study. How can a girl live without money?”

I looked at him.

“Eight thousand a month. Do you know what that comes to in a year?”

“Give her a few months first. We’ll talk once she’s settled.”

“She wants eight thousand every month.”

His voice lowered.

“We’re family. We can’t keep such strict accounts.”

I’d heard that countless times.

When Xiaoyu took extra classes, he said family should pay upfront.

When she bought a phone, he said a girl needed some dignity.

When she took my daughter’s new headphones, he said his sister was only borrowing them. Don’t be petty.

Every time, I paid.

Xiaoyu sniffled, as though she’d finally found support.

“I don’t want to ask for so much. But university is in a big city. Rent, food, socializing—everything costs money.”

“You’ve prepared tuition and expenses for your daughter. I can’t be too far behind her.”

“My daughter doesn’t get eight thousand,” I said.

She immediately looked up.

“That’s favoritism. She’s your daughter. What am I?”

“No one cared about me growing up. Now I’m here, and I’m still being treated differently?”

Just then, the phone rang.

Lei checked the screen, answered, and put it on speaker.

My mother-in-law, Wang Guizhi, filled the room.

“Is Xiaoyu crying? I knew it. You only care about your own child. My daughter means nothing to you.”

“No one’s bullying her, Mom.”

“Then why is she crying like that? What’s wrong with eight thousand?”

“She’s going to university. Do you want her to work while studying and be laughed at?”

I took the phone.

“Mom, you know who paid most of her tuition and living expenses over the last five years.”

“You volunteered. Now she’s going to university, of course you should continue. You married into the Zhou family. Family helps each other.”

“Help goes both ways. It doesn’t mean I pay endlessly on my own.”

She immediately cursed me, saying I cared only for my daughter.

I could buy things for my own child but begrudged my sister-in-law a decent life.

Xiaoyu lowered her head, her shoulders shaking.

Lei kept signaling to me with his eyes.

“Mom’s angry. Agree to four thousand for now. We’ll work out the rest later.”

I looked at him. Suddenly, he seemed a stranger.

Less than ten minutes after the demand, he had agreed to half on my behalf.

Xiaoyu wiped her tears.

“When will you transfer the four thousand?”

No one spoke.

She opened a note on her phone, apparently prepared long before.

“I’ve calculated it. Eight thousand isn’t much. If a whole year at once is too stressful, you can pay monthly.”

She turned the screen toward me.

“I’m part of your family, after all.”

I took the phone onto the balcony and closed the sliding glass door.

Yet my mother-in-law’s voice still carried clearly from the living room.

“You can’t make Xiaoyu live elsewhere. You’ve raised her for five years. What are a few more years of university?”

I called back, perfectly calm.

“Five years isn’t five days. I kept records of every expense.”

“Records? Are you settling accounts with your own sister-in-law?”

“She was the one who first treated eight thousand a month as an entitlement.”

She sneered.

“How much have you given her? I sent money every year.”

“I recorded what you sent, too. Three transfers. Twelve thousand yuan in total.”

“Her tuition, dormitory fees, and tutoring through three years of high school exceeded ninety thousand.”

“Lei and I paid for clothes, food, travel, and her phone.”

“Are you saying I gave too little?”

“I’m stating facts.”

After a silence, her voice suddenly rose.

“The fact is you don’t want her to study! You’re afraid she’ll spend your money and become more successful than your daughter!”

I closed my eyes briefly.

Xiaoyu rushed from the living room, opened the balcony door, and dropped to her knees.

“Please. If you stop supporting me, what will I do when term starts?”

“I’ll be alone somewhere unfamiliar. I won’t even have food!”

My daughter stood in alarm and tried to help her up.

Xiaoyu slapped her hand away.

“Stop pretending to be kind.”

“You two have a house and car. What’s eight thousand to you? I only want to live decently like you.”

Lei lifted her and turned on me.

“Do you have to drive her this far?”

I looked at him.

“Did I force her to demand eight thousand, or did she ask for it herself?”

His expression darkened.

“You just won’t help.”

“I’ve helped for five years.”

I opened the balcony door fully so everyone could hear.

“From today, I won’t give a cent of that eight thousand.”

“She may stay until the end of the month. I won’t ask for the tuition I’ve already paid.”

“But she must arrange her own future. Either move out, or we settle the money and living arrangements clearly.”

Xiaoyu stared.

On the phone, my mother-in-law shrieked abuse.

“If you dare throw my daughter out, I’ll tell every relative how cruel you are!”

“As you wish.”

I hung up.

Lei stared at me.

“Are you really going to be that heartless?”

“Is asking an adult to leave my own home heartless?”

My daughter came and held my hand.

“You’re not wrong, Mom.”

I nodded, but something inside felt hollowed out.

The next morning, the instant I reached the office, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

My mother-in-law, my husband’s aunt’s husband, a cousin’s wife, even an aunt in another province sent voice messages.

“We’re family. Is eight thousand worth such a fuss?”

“Without money, people will look down on Xiaoyu.”

“You supported her right up to university and now refuse? What dignity will the Zhou family have?”

The final voice message contained one sentence.

My mother-in-law said, “I’m bringing people to your house this afternoon. We’ll talk face to face.”

At exactly four, the doorbell rang.

I opened it. She stood in front with an old cloth bag.

Behind her were two relatives whose names I couldn’t even remember.

As soon as she entered, her eyes reddened.

“Where’s Xiaoyu? Where’s my poor daughter?”

“In her room.”

She went around me, rushed to Xiaoyu’s door, and pounded on it.