One hundred thousand yuan—not a single bill had ever made its way into my hands.
Every last yuan had gone straight into the down payment for my cousin’s wedding home.
I opened another video.
“You said you gave me additional cash in the stairwell. The entire process of me opening the envelope that night was recorded right here.”
“There was only one thousand yuan in the envelope from beginning to end. Not a single yuan was missing, and every bit of it was deposited into my uncle’s account.”
“As for the other cash you claimed to have given me…”
“It doesn’t exist in the video, in the bank records, or in the serial-number list.”
“It exists only in your words.”
My aunt-in-law opened her mouth.
Hoarse, guttural sounds came from her throat, but she couldn’t utter a single word.
Then her legs gave way, and she collapsed into a plastic chair beside the payment counter.
Less than three seconds later, she suddenly sprang up and rushed to my uncle’s wheelchair, clutching his legs.
“Jianjun! Jianjun, we’ve been married for thirty years! You can’t treat me like this! I only did it because I wanted Chu Hao to get married…”
My uncle lowered his head and looked at her for a long time before speaking.
“Let go.”
“I’m sick. I don’t have the strength to pull you off. Get up on your own. At least leave yourself with a shred of dignity.”
Her hands slowly loosened their grip.
That night, the hospital corridor lights stayed on until morning.
The family group chat erupted into chaos, fell silent, then erupted all over again.
Great-Aunt sent a very long message to the group.
Her final sentence read:
“We owe Wanwan an explanation.”
A flood of apologies followed.
“Sorry, Wanwan. We were foolish.”
“I accept your apologies,” I replied.
“Next time something happens, look at the receipts before choosing sides.”
Then I muted the group.
In the early hours of the morning, my uncle called me over to his hospital bed.
He had just undergone an urgent examination and was feeling much better.
He took a piece of paper from beneath his pillow and handed it to me.
It was a handwritten agreement.
“Read it to me.”
I unfolded the paper.
It read:
“From today onward, all income under Chu Jianjun’s name shall be managed by him personally. Both parties must be informed of all major household expenditures.”
“The 98,000 yuan Wang Tulian used without authorization must be repaid by Chu Hao within three months. Failure to repay the amount will result in legal action.”
“Marriage terminated. Finances separated.”
There were no accusations, no tears.
After spending half his life letting his wife control his money, this was all the man had to write in the end:
“My money. I manage it myself.”
When I finished reading, my uncle stared at the ceiling for a long time before speaking.
“Wanwan, I’m sorry.”
“I trusted the wrong person.”
Tears immediately spilled down my cheeks.
“Uncle, I’ll wait for you outside the operating room. You’re going to be okay. I know it.”
In my previous life, I had pleaded for those very words in front of his gravestone for an entire year.
I had begged until the moment I jumped from the eighteenth floor, and I still hadn’t been able to wait for him.
In this life, it was my uncle himself who had given those words back to me.
Three days later, Chu Hao came to repay the money.
The sales office deducted a 20,000-yuan penalty for violating the deposit agreement, and his girlfriend broke up with him as well.
After scrambling to borrow money from everyone he could, he finally managed to transfer the remaining 78,000 yuan into my uncle’s account.
I watched the transfer come through without saying a word.
On the day my uncle was discharged, my aunt-in-law came to pick him up, too.
When she saw me, she asked just one question.
“We’re all family. Did you really have to drive me into a corner like this?”
“Now your uncle wants to divorce me. Are you happy?”
I stared at her, bewildered.
“Auntie, I never took the initiative to do anything from beginning to end.”
“You brought this on yourself. Your mistakes weren’t caused by me!”
She continued cursing as she walked away.
Chu Hao kept glaring at me, his eyes full of venom.
I pretended not to notice.
We lived in a society governed by law.
There was nothing he could do to me.
That evening, I went home to have dinner with my parents.
Their faces were filled with relief and happiness.
“Thank goodness. It’s finally all sorted out.”
“Your uncle will have a much easier life from now on!”
A year later, during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
My uncle had recovered remarkably well and could now go downstairs for walks.
I brought him some mooncakes for a visit.
He was sitting on a rattan chair on the balcony, basking in the sun.
When he saw me, he pulled a pension bank card from inside his shirt.
Its edges had been worn smooth and rounded with use.
He held it up in front of me.
“Wanwan, look! I know how to pay the electricity bill myself now.”
We both burst out laughing.
After we finished laughing, he took something from a drawer and slid it toward me.
It was a sealed plastic pouch containing a payment receipt.
Advance payment: 1,000 yuan.
“Your aunt-in-law left this behind before she moved out. On the day she left, she put it here and said she had wronged you.”
He paused for a moment.
“She works as a cashier at a supermarket now, counting money every day. Every single amount gets counted out clearly in front of the customers.”
“She knows she was wrong, actually. She wants to apologize to you, but she’s never found the right opportunity.”
I held the plastic pouch and stared at it for a long time.
Finally, I shook my head.
“There’s no need to see her again.”
A year ago, on that night, this very receipt for one thousand yuan had been the first thunderclap to shake our family group chat.
Everyone had assumed that the thousand yuan on the receipt was proof that I had pocketed the remaining ninety-nine thousand.
Only I knew the truth.
That one-thousand-yuan receipt had been the first move that allowed me to turn everything around in this life.
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