Chapter 6
Edward Quan ·
Xiaoyu sprang up and pointed at me.
“Why were you so good to me in the first place? If you didn’t want to support me, you shouldn’t have brought me!”
“Because you needed help. I helped for five years, until you received your university acceptance letter. Helping someone isn’t signing yourself into servitude.”
She grabbed the folder and tried to throw it.
My daughter held it down.
“These are copies. Throwing them won’t change the bank statements.”
My mother-in-law slammed her hand on the table.
“You two are bullying her together!”
Relatives waiting outside heard.
One of the family’s cousins couldn’t hold back.
“Stop crying. More than two hundred thousand in five years, and now eight thousand a month? Aren’t you favoring her too much?”
My mother-in-law rounded on him.
“What do you know? She’s my daughter!”
“Exactly. You and her father should find a way yourselves. Your daughter-in-law has helped far too much already.”
The room went quiet.
Xiaoyu looked at Lei.
“Say something!”
His fingers kept rubbing his knees.
“She’s right, Xiaoyu.”
“You think I shouldn’t ask?”
“I…”
His voice was low.
“I shouldn’t have promised you eight thousand without consulting her.”
The words struck my mother-in-law like a stone.
She lunged at him, hitting him.
“Are you mad? Your sister’s nearly out of money for school!”
He neither dodged nor struck back. He only bowed his head.
The mediator laid three sets of documents side by side:
Five years of expenses. Family group screenshots. A record of Lei admitting there was no agreement.
“Today, we can confirm there is no evidence that Ms. Su is obliged to pay eight thousand a month. Xiaoyu has received written notice of the end of her residence and must move out on the thirtieth. If anyone wishes to bring other claims, submit the materials through the legal process.”
My mother-in-law tried to make another scene.
I stood and placed the key on the table.
“I’ve boxed the personal belongings in her room. Everything must be moved by five this afternoon.”
Xiaoyu stared at me.
“You really want me out?”
“This is the result of your own choices.”
Her lips trembled.
“What do I do now?”
For the first time, I didn’t answer for her.
“Ask your university. Apply for student loans. Tutor. How you live from now on is your life.”
She turned to her mother.
My mother-in-law opened her mouth but couldn’t make a single promise she could fulfill.
At four, Xiaoyu messaged me.
“I’ll remember how you treated me today.”
I replied, “I’ll remember why I finally had to close this door.”
At five, she wheeled her suitcase out of the bedroom.
On the wall of the room she’d occupied for five years hung the timetable my daughter had helped put up.
A yellowing pothos sat on the desk.
She stood at the doorway as though waiting for me to ask her to stay.
I didn’t.
My mother-in-law pulled the luggage out, still cursing.
“Don’t ever come begging at her door! She has no conscience!”
Downstairs, several relatives waited by the building entrance.
The cousin glanced at the suitcase and asked Xiaoyu, “Has your dormitory application been approved?”
She pressed her lips together.
“Still waiting.”
“Find some part-time work first, then. She’s paid your school fees for five years. You can’t rely on her for all of university, too.”
My mother-in-law spun around.
“Why are you all defending an outsider?”
A cousin’s wife spoke.
“She isn’t an outsider. She’s your daughter-in-law.”
“You pushed your own daughter onto her to raise. After all that, you demand eight thousand a month. Anyone would think it excessive.”
My mother-in-law flushed.
As always, she looked to Lei to defend her.
He stood at the door holding the move-out notice, torn and pieced back together.
He didn’t lift his head.
“Mom, stop.”
Quiet as it was, it silenced her completely.
Xiaoyu wheeled her suitcase downstairs, then looked back.
“Are you really not going to support me anymore?”
Lei’s eyes reddened.
“I’ll ask your university about work-study jobs. But there won’t be eight thousand a month.”
She gritted her teeth and left.
Later, my daughter told me she’d found evening shifts in the library, tutored twice a week, and applied for a student loan.
She could still attend university.
She simply no longer had someone pay every time she held out a hand.
My mother-in-law posted several tearful complaints in the relatives’ group.
No one joined in anymore.