Chapter 8
Soon it was time for me to start university.
With the money I’d saved, I took my sister to the university district and rented the cheapest student apartment I could find nearby.
It was small, but it was the closest one to her new school.
Every morning, I dropped her off, then timed my return journey by subway, shuttling between our two schools.
Our first semester was very hard.
After rent, utilities, and tuition, we were almost out of money for food.
I called Dad for the first time. The moment he heard my voice, he grew angry. “Xuanxuan, stop asking the family for money all the time. You’re the eldest. You should be thanking me for not making you leave school to help us!”
“And don’t forget, when you graduate and get a job, you’ve still got a brother back home!”
Suddenly it all seemed laughable.
He’d hated having a wife who sacrificed everything for her brother. Yet when it came to his own daughter, he wanted nothing more than for me to devote my entire life to mine.
I knew I had no way back.
But it wasn’t yet time to sever all ties with the family.
I wanted to escape a life controlled by the family I’d been born into.
I tried every way I could to get ahead.
Just as I earned my first money from tutoring and writing, Mom called me for the first time since the divorce.
I answered cautiously.
She was no longer as aggressive as before. Instead, she tried to talk me around. “Xuanxuan, your father says you got a guaranteed place in a sports program? So when you finish, will you come home and teach PE?”
In Mom’s mind, sports students had the least promising futures of all.
When I used to represent my school at track meets, it didn’t matter how many medals I brought home. She would only sneer. “What’s the use of those? Can you spend them?”
Even now, she had no idea what I wanted to achieve. She thought I was just coasting toward a diploma.
“You’re doing well in the big city, aren’t you? Have you got any money to spare? Your uncle’s child is sick and needs an operation. I really can’t afford it…”
Once again, she was so naive I almost laughed in anger.
But then I thought about it. Her ignorant, parasitic brother would be the greatest misery of the rest of her life.
My anger faded. Instead, I offered a suggestion. “Why don’t you find some work and earn a little to help him?”
“He’s your uncle! Give him whatever you can! You can’t go through life being this selfish!”
“Mom, I won’t give him a penny either.”
“Fine! Then go and die!”
She hung up first.
Helplessly, I opened the unfamiliar number in my call history and blocked it for good.