I looked my uncle in the eyes and spoke slowly, emphasizing every word.
“One thousand yuan from Aunt.”
“Plus the thirty-three thousand I deposited myself. That’s all the money there is. Not a single yuan more.”
The corridor was so quiet that the steady beeping of the heart monitor could be heard clearly.
My cousin was still trying to hold his head high, but his confidence had noticeably faded.
“Then… then the hundred thousand my mother withdrew…”
“I’ve already told you. I’ve never seen it.”
I looked straight at him.
“Weren’t you shouting so loudly just now? Why don’t you get that hundred thousand from your mother yourself?”
He choked on his words, his face turning red and then pale.
“Lin Wan, that’s enough!”
“Don’t push your luck! At the end of the day, this is my family’s business. What right do you have to interfere?”
“While I’m still in a good mood, hand over the money obediently and get lost!”
“Otherwise, I’ll make sure everyone knows—from your classmates to your coworkers—that you embezzled the money meant to save my father’s life!”
Some relatives chimed in to support him, while others tried to calm things down.
The narrow corridor descended into chaos.
My uncle sat in his wheelchair with his eyes closed.
When he opened them again, the man who had spent half his life being tormented by illness and his marriage slowly reached into the inner pocket of his jacket.
A small pouch had been sewn into the lining.
With trembling fingers, he took out a bank card.
Its edges had been worn smooth.
“This is the card where my pension is deposited. Every month, when the money comes in, I withdraw only a hundred yuan for pocket money. The rest stays in this account.”
“I’ve been saving it for eight years.”
“The PIN is your maternal grandmother’s birthday.”
My aunt-in-law stared at the card and cried out in disbelief.
“Where did you get that card?!”
“If you had money, why wouldn’t you pay the down payment for our son’s house?!”
“Chu Jianjun! If you’d been willing to use this money to buy a house back then, I wouldn’t have had to touch…”
Realizing she had almost let something slip, my aunt-in-law abruptly clamped her mouth shut.
But her eyes remained fixed on the card in my uncle’s hand.
He didn’t even look at her.
“You’ve controlled my pension card for half my life, but you can’t control this one.”
He held the card out to me, his hand trembling violently.
“Wanwan, go pay the bill.”
“I’ll pay for my own treatment.”
I took the card.
It was still warm from his hand.
My nose suddenly stung, and tears threatened to spill.
In my previous life, I had died without ever knowing this card existed.
My uncle had lain in his hospital bed, believing that his own niece had stolen the money.
Even on his deathbed, he had been trapped in a web of lies.
The lights at the payment counter were still on.
I passed the card through the window.
“I’d like to pay the deposit for Chu Jianjun.”
The machine beeped and whirred.
The receipt printed out.
Additional payment: 66,000 yuan.
As the payment was being processed, my aunt-in-law instinctively spoke up.
“Give me the card. I’ll keep it safe.”
“No need to trouble yourself.”
My uncle took the card back from me and put it away in his inner pocket himself.
“From now on, I’ll manage my own money.”
My aunt-in-law’s outstretched hand froze in midair.
I took a photo of the receipt, sent it to the family group, and returned to the corridor.
My uncle sat in his wheelchair, looking neither at me nor at anyone else.
He simply stared at his wife for a long time.
Then he spoke.
His voice wasn’t loud, but every word landed like a nail being driven into wood.
“Wang Tulian, that hundred thousand yuan I told you to withdraw…”
“Where is it?”
All the color drained from my aunt-in-law’s face.
She opened her mouth.
“The money… I lent it to someone…”
“Who did you lend it to?” my uncle asked.
“I… I lent it to Chu Hao. He needed it urgently…”
Everyone’s eyes immediately turned toward my cousin, Chu Hao.
Chu Hao instinctively took half a step back.
“Mom! What are you talking about?!”
My aunt-in-law had completely abandoned any attempt to save face.
“The house you and your girlfriend picked out was still short of a hundred thousand yuan for the down payment! You wouldn’t stop pestering me about it every day! What else was I supposed to do?”
“Your father’s illness is a bottomless pit. You could pour money into it forever and still get nothing back. It’s better to take care of our son’s future and get him married first!”
“Mom!!!”
Chu Hao’s face turned purplish red.
“Have you lost your mind?! Why would you tell them that?!”
“Am I not telling the truth?!”
My aunt-in-law screamed through her tears.
“I didn’t plan to do this at first! You were the one who said that if anything went wrong, we could make Lin Wan take the blame!”
“You said she was softhearted and cared so much about your father that she would never stand by and watch him die! Weren’t those your exact words?”
Mother and son immediately turned on each other, each trying to tear the other apart.
Chu Hao was so frantic that he stamped his feet.
“I was just saying it offhand! How was I supposed to know you’d actually dare to touch the money for Dad’s surgery?! You’ve ruined me!”
“You were just saying it offhand?”
I spoke up.
Chu Hao whipped around and glared at me.
“What does this have to do with you?!”
“Three days ago, you were still short a hundred thousand yuan for the down payment on your wedding home.”
I opened his social media profile.
“Yesterday, the down payment was fully paid.”
He had even deliberately posted a photo of the housing development, accompanied by the caption:
\(Finally, a home that truly belongs to me alone.\)
I looked at him and enunciated every word.
“The day after your mother withdrew the money, that hundred thousand yuan had already become the down payment on your wedding home. Chu Hao, tell me—are you really going to claim you knew nothing about this from beginning to end?”
Chu Hao’s lips moved, but he couldn’t force out a single word.
I put my phone away.
“Not only did you know what was happening, you were the one who benefited from it. And just now, when you were shouting that your mother had nothing to fear because her conscience was clear, you stood awfully tall.”
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