One Thousand In An Envelope

The night before my uncle’s surgery, my aunt called me into the emergency stairwell and pressed an envelope into my hands.

“There’s one hundred thousand yuan in here. Go pay the deposit tomorrow morning. That way, your uncle can rest easy.”

I squeezed the envelope. It felt strangely thin.

In my previous life, I had chased after her to ask about it, and she had said, “The bank is closed. I’ll make up the full amount tomorrow morning.”

I took out all my savings to cover the shortfall, scraped together the full one hundred thousand yuan, and deposited it into my uncle’s hospital account.

Three days later, my aunt posted a payment receipt in the family group chat.

It clearly stated: Advance Payment: 1,000 yuan.

Weeping, she cried out, “I gave that girl the entire one hundred thousand yuan meant to save his life, yet she only paid one thousand! Where did the rest of the money go?!”