Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Ma’am, do you still want this baby formula?”

The cashier’s tone was laced with impatience.

I snapped back to reality, only to realize that the line behind me had grown into a long queue.

“I’m sorry… I’ll leave it for now.”

I pushed the empty cart out of the supermarket and dialed my mother-in-law’s number.

The line rang a dozen times before it was finally picked up. The background was filled with the clacking of mahjong tiles.

“Spit it out, I’ve got a great hand right now!”

I took a deep breath, every word feeling incredibly heavy. “Mom, Zhou Chen’s company… their salary payments are delayed this month. I was wondering if you could watch Xiaobao for a couple of days? I need to go out and find some part-time work.”

“No!”

She cut me off before I could even finish.

“I’ve already fulfilled my duty by raising Zhou Chen! Don’t come at me with that moral kidnapping. If you’re short on cash, go ask your own family. Didn’t you get sixty-six thousand yuan in bride price? Tell your parents to cough it back up!”

The call was abruptly disconnected.

A bitter sting rose in my nose.

When did they start changing?

It was probably a year ago, when my daughter fell seriously ill.

In addition to the bride price and my dowry, even my pre-marital savings were poured into her treatment.

Zhou Chen was away on a business trip at the time.

He had made a solemn promise over the phone: “Honey, all my money is tied up in investments. Find a way to cover it for now, and I’ll definitely pay you back once they mature.”

It was from that day on that my mother-in-law’s gaze toward her granddaughter turned into pure loathing.

“Some children are born just to collect debts,” she’d say. “They’re cursed, born specifically to drag the family down.”

And Zhou Chen began to complain to me frequently.

“My uncle’s company is restructuring. I wasn’t laid off, but the economy is bad, and my salary’s been slashed in half.”

“You don’t work, so you have no idea what it’s like out there right now. Just let your parents help out a bit more. Once my uncle’s business turns around, my salary will go back up. I’ll make it up to you both twofold then.”

That wait lasted a year.

I waited as he went from an aspiring entrepreneur to being buried in debt.

I waited as his salary shrank from twenty thousand to five thousand.

I waited as my daughter and I transformed, in his words, from family into parasites who couldn’t survive on our own.

Finally, I called my younger brother.

After hearing about my predicament, he let out a long sigh.

“Sis, honestly, it hurts to see you living like this. Take this five thousand. You don’t have to pay it back.”

“But I really hope this is the last time. You have to climb out of that hole yourself.”

After hanging up, the tears finally broke through the dam.

It turns out that when you hit rock bottom, even your shadow leaves you.

The very people who once beat drums and gongs to pressure you into marriage and childbearing were now standing around the pit, mocking your wretchedness and incompetence.

Their scripts were always so polished:

“You have to have a son to gain a firm footing in your husband’s family.”

“He’s out there working hard to earn money; how can you not even take care of one child properly?”

“A woman needs to be kind and generous, otherwise how can she keep a man’s heart?”

I wiped the tear stains from my face and picked up my daughter, who had cried herself to sleep.

Only after getting married did I realize that the phrase “I’ll take care of you” is the biggest lie in a marriage.