Chapter 3

Xiaoyu suddenly pulled a small notebook from her bag and slammed it onto the coffee table.

“I kept a record. You promised to support me until graduation once I got into university.”

“You said anything Ning got, I would get, too.”

She opened the first page.

It was densely filled.

Tuition. Living expenses. Phone. Travel. Graduation gifts.

Beside every item: “Entitled to.”

On the final page lay her calculation.

“Eight thousand for four years is three hundred eighty-four thousand. If you won’t give it now, you’ll still have to later.”

My daughter picked up her phone, pale-faced.

“Mom, this is what she posted in the family group.”

She opened screenshots.

Xiaoyu had asked her mother:

“She bought Ning a computer. When is my turn?”

“She said family doesn’t distinguish between yours and mine. Eight thousand a month for university shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Her mother had replied:

“Don’t rush. I’ll tell your brother to work it out. She’s soft-hearted. Make a scene a few times, and she’ll agree.”

Silence fell.

Xiaoyu tried to grab the phone. My daughter dodged.

“You read my private messages!”

“You posted them in the family group.”

My daughter held the phone high.

“You’re just waiting for Mom to soften.”

My mother-in-law went pale.

“What does that prove? A child talking casually.”

“Was eight thousand casual, too?” I asked.

No answer.

I went into the study and returned with a document box and calculator.

“If you all think I owe her, let’s settle the accounts properly.”

I set the box on the table and clicked it open.

“We’ll go through every payment.”

I put down the first stack of receipts.

“Tuition and dormitory deposits from grades ten to twelve: thirty-eight thousand six hundred yuan.”

The second stack was tutoring and materials.

“You said the teachers required those extra classes, so you couldn’t skip them. Forty-nine thousand.”

More bills.

“Examinations before surgery for your nearsightedness, glasses, and your winter hospitalization: seventeen thousand in total.”

Her expression grew worse.

“You gave me that voluntarily.”

“Yes. I voluntarily helped you finish high school.”

I spread out the bank statements.

“That doesn’t mean I agreed to pay eight thousand every month after you became an adult.”

“Clothes, shoes, your phone, tickets, and the three trips you insisted on taking came to over sixty thousand. Including daily meals, even a rough calculation exceeds two hundred thousand.”

The relatives bent over the bills.

No one said eight thousand was nothing anymore.

I pressed the calculator.

“Eight thousand a month. Ninety-six thousand a year. Three hundred eighty-four thousand for four years. After I’ve already covered over two hundred thousand, you want another three hundred eighty-four thousand.”

“It isn’t just money!” she suddenly shouted. “I want people to know someone supports me!”

“Support doesn’t mean pinning someone else down and draining them dry.”

Her eyes reddened.

“Mom said once I got in, you had to give me a guaranteed sum!”

My mother-in-law hastily interrupted.

“Xiaoyu, don’t say everything!”

I turned to her.

“What guaranteed sum?”

She looked away.

“Something we said as a family.”

“Who said it? When? Is it written down? Is there a transfer? Or only what you’re saying now?”

She opened her mouth but couldn’t answer.

Lei had been smoking by the window, ash scattered on the floor.

I looked at him.

“You knew she would ask for eight thousand, didn’t you?”

He didn’t look up.

“I’m asking you, Lei.”

After a long time, he answered quietly.

“Mom spoke to me.”

“When?”

“When you paid Xiaoyu’s last tutoring fee.”

“What did she say?”

“That you couldn’t go on bearing everything alone once Xiaoyu started university. She told me to agree first, then talk to you slowly once you’d cooled down.”

“So you agreed?”

His throat moved.

“I only said I’d find a way.”

My mother-in-law suddenly stood.

“He agreed family should care for each other, not to eight thousand! Don’t turn her into a creditor!”

“You did that first.”

I took Lei’s phone and opened his conversation with his mother.

My daughter had captured it while sorting the family group’s messages a few days earlier.

Lei himself had written:

“For Xiaoyu’s university years, Yun and I will prepare eight thousand a month for now.”