My mother killed herself over five dollars. All because she used five dollars to buy me a notebook for school. My father beat her bloody in front of hundreds of people at the farmers' market. Never mind that the family's main income came from my mother waking up before dawn to wholesale vegetables at that very market. In the end, my mother borrowed five dollars from Mrs. Song at the next stall to buy me the notebook. That night, my mother hanged herself. My father said I drove her to suicide. "Just three notebooks," he said. "The teacher wouldn't have killed you for not doing homework." He dumped me at my uncle's house and disappeared for twenty-three years. After I made my fortune, ignoring my uncle's curses, I immediately brought him home—penniless and scammed by a woman—to live with me. 1 My father sat on my sofa, legs crossed, sipping the tea I just bought. "At least you have a conscience," he said. "You know to bring me back to enjoy life now that you're rich." "Clear out the master bedroom for me. And give me a $1,500 monthly allowance." "My stomach is bad, I need small, frequent meals. Make sure you cook me a nutritious meal every four hours." "If I bring a girlfriend home, go stay at a hotel. Don't disturb our quality time." I looked at my biological father, whom I hadn't seen in twenty-three years, with a cold, fake smile. The wall clock ticked to 6:30. My uncle should be home from work soon. The door creaked open. As soon as my uncle walked in and saw my father, he grabbed a shoe from the rack and hurled it at him. "Who let you in?" "You drove my sister to suicide! You took her hard-earned money and ran off with some woman for twenty-three years! Now that Sophie is rich, you come crawling back?" "Have you no shame?" My father's obese body dodged clumsily. The shoe landed squarely on his well-maintained face. I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing. "My daughter is filial. She brought me here to enjoy life. Mind your own business." My uncle was heartbroken, his lips trembling with rage. "Sophie, I'm so disappointed in you. Have you forgotten how your mother died?" Of course I haven't forgotten. I wouldn't dare. Countless sleepless nights, I forced myself to recall every detail of that day. The clearer the memory, the stronger the hatred. I was seven. It was the first day of school, and I needed notebooks. I cried and begged him for a long time. He had played mahjong all night and lost. He didn't give me money; he gave me a slap. I ran crying to the market to find my mother. My mother wholesaled vegetables. My father said labor was too expensive, so he made her do it all herself. That morning, she unloaded ten tons of cabbage alone. I urged her anxiously, "Mom, hurry, it's eight o'clock. I'm going to be late." My father came every morning to collect the money, checking every cent. If a penny was missing, my mother got slapped. My mother bit her cracked lips and bravely took out five dollars for me. "Study hard. Don't be useless like Mom, oppressed by a man your whole life." The next second, a fist like a sandbag smashed into her head. "Bitch! Who said you could touch my money?" My mother was pressed into a pile of rotting vegetable leaves, beaten until blood flowed. I threw the money at him, crying and screaming that I didn't want the notebook anymore, begging him to stop. But the more I cried, the more excited he got. "Wastrel! Steal five today, you'll steal five hundred tomorrow. I'll beat you into submission once and for all." Like every time before, my mother curled up, holding her head, silent. Letting him beat her. Because begging only made it hurt more. My father took the five dollars and all the earnings from that morning. My mother crawled up, wiped the blood from her face with her sleeve, and borrowed five dollars from Mrs. Song, who sold apples at the next stall, to buy me the notebook. She took a half-melted fruit candy from her pocket and stuffed it into my mouth. "Go to school. Mom can't pay back this five dollars. You'll have to pay it back yourself in the future!" Those were the last words she ever said to me. Unfortunately, I didn't understand them that day. When I came home from school, my mother had hanged herself in the bathroom. My father cursed at home all day. "Damn it! Daring to kill herself in my house! My hard-earned house is now a murder scene, how can I sell it!" "So unlucky. I knew I shouldn't have married her." He pulled my thin hair and cursed me repeatedly. "Money-loser! You drove your mother to death. Buying notebooks... would you die if you didn't write?" As soon as my mother was buried, he sent me to my uncle's house. I heard that the afternoon I arrived at my uncle's, he brought another woman home and bought her a $30,000 car. From then on, it was like he died in my world. He never visited, never sent a cent. 2 "Uncle, he's my biological father. He's old, sick, useless. If I don't take care of him, who will?" My father leaned back on the sofa smugly. "No matter how much effort you spent raising her, she's still my seed. She's close to me." "This is my daughter's house. Get out!" After I bought this 3,000-square-foot villa, I asked my uncle's family to move in with me. My aunt and cousin hadn't gotten off work yet. My uncle's face turned red with anger. "Sophie, is this what you want?" I quickly helped my uncle sit down, poured him tea, and massaged his back. "Uncle, you raised me. How could I chase you away?" "We'll all be one family from now on. How nice to live together happily!" My father and uncle shouted in unison: "No!" My gaze towards my father turned cold. "If you don't agree, I'll send you back to your bridge." My father immediately shut up. When I found him, he was fighting with other homeless people for a spot under a bridge. I whispered in my uncle's ear, "Uncle, this house is so big. It's perfect to have him clean it." "With my cousin here to supervise, what trouble can he cause?" My uncle's eyes lit up. He said no more. I took my father to the storage room on the first floor. It was full of pungent chemicals. I work in R&D; having chemicals at home is normal. "You'll live here from now on." "My house doesn't support idlers. After we go to work, you must clean the house inside and out every day. No slacking." "My cousin will check when he comes back. If it's not clean, no food for you." My father instantly exploded. "What? Didn't you bring me back to enjoy life?" I looked at him innocently. "I'm letting you live in a big villa. Isn't that enjoying life?" My father pointed at the massive house with his loud voice. "Cleaning a 3,000-square-foot villa every day? My body can't take it." My lips curled into a sneer. "When I was little, didn't you make Mom clean our house and Grandma's house every day? If it wasn't clean, she couldn't eat." "What? Now you can't do it?" "If you can't do it, get out. Plenty of people would be willing." Seeing I was angry, he said meekly, "Then how much will you pay me a month?" "It's your own home. What salary do you need, right, Dad?" My father couldn't say a word. He never expected the slap he swung years ago would land on his own face. 3 When my cousin and aunt came home, they both walked straight in with their shoes on. I coughed lightly. My father immediately grabbed a broom and mop, following behind them to clean the floor. At dinner, my father was the first to sit at the table, taking the main seat. I pointed at him. "Go wait in the kitchen. Eat after we're done. And remember to wash all the dishes." My father's hand holding the chopsticks froze in mid-air. He looked at the nanny, Mrs. Wang. "Why can she eat at the table and I can't?" My cousin grabbed him and threw him aside. "I hired her. She gets paid." "You're different. You don't earn money. You're freeloading. You can't eat at the table." "Isn't that the rule you set?" Indeed, that was the rule he set for my mother back then. The table was silent. Seeing no one paid him any attention, my father went to the kitchen alone. At 1 AM, I woke my father up. He looked at me, eyes barely open. "What are you doing in the middle of the night?" I threw a set of durable, dirty work clothes at him. "It's not early. It's 1 AM." "I have a stall at the market wholesaling vegetables. Go help." "You have ten minutes to wash up. Any later and the business will go to others." My father finally couldn't take it anymore and cursed at me. "Sophie, are you sick? You're treating me like your mother!" "Am I the same as your mother?" "I'm a man, the pillar of the family. Your mother, as a woman, was supposed to do that work." He couldn't handle it already? This was just the beginning. "What's so great about being a man? Just a few extra ounces of meat in your pants." "You played cards, drank, and slept with women all day." "Why did my mom have to work so hard selling vegetables, give you all the money, and get beaten by you?" My father screamed with his rasping voice, "Because I'm a man! I'm the head of the household! She had to serve me unconditionally!" "When you get married, it'll be the same. Even if you're a tiger now, you'll have to kneel in your husband's house." I laughed. I haven't met anyone who could make me kneel. I turned and called my cousin. "Bro, kick him out." My father instantly backed down. "I don't want to sleep under the bridge. I'll go work right now." I warned him, "After work, remember to come back and clean the house inside and out. If it's not clean, no food." I followed him and watched him unload the truck alone. Ten tons of cabbage. He hadn't even unloaded a third before he was squatting by the road, crying and holding his waist. "Sophie, this isn't work for humans. If I keep going, my back will break." I urged him, "Don't be lazy. It's just ten tons of cabbage. How could my mom, a woman, do it, but you, a big man, can't?" Mrs. Song deliberately said, "When you bullied your wife back then, you didn't expect this day, did you?" "People need to build good karma." My father cried for a while, took off his jacket, and threw it on the ground. "I quit! Whoever wants to do it can do it." After my father left, the stall owner laughed and said to me, "Next time you have free labor like this, send them over. Slow, but free!" My father walked a few meters, then turned back. "Sophie, you want revenge for your mother, right? Then no one will have a good life." "I'll drive you to death just like I drove your mother to death." I was waiting for him to explode! People make mistakes more easily when they are impulsive. Three months later, I was working at the company when my uncle called. "Sophie, come home quick! Your dad has caused a huge disaster!" 4 I rushed home. A crowd was gathered at my door. I knew them all. They were suppliers and clients of my company. They held IOUs in their hands. As soon as they saw me, they surrounded me. My biggest supplier, Manager Zhao, questioned me first. "Ms. Tong, your father took $1.5 million worth of goods from our company in your name. He said he'd pay in a month. It's been three months." "Look, settle the bill!" My biggest client, Mr. Tang, showed me a thick stack of contracts. "Your father took a team and accepted my order in your name at one-third below market price. It's a month overdue, and he can't deliver. What do we do?" I looked at their IOUs and contracts one by one. In total, my father had scammed about $12 million. "You believed him just because he said he's my dad?" "Coming to my house to demand payment... where's the shrewdness you usually have when bargaining with me?" They looked at each other. "He has your contact info, photos with you, and your assistant was with him. We believed him." No wonder Assistant Huang was always asking for leave recently. He was helping my father run scams. Manager Zhao got anxious. "Ms. Tong, you aren't going to ignore this, are you? He's your dad." I calmly explained, "You may not know my personal situation." "My father abandoned me when I was seven. He never cared for me in twenty-three years. I have zero relationship with him." "His personal actions have nothing to do with me." "I advise you to call the police immediately. The sooner you report it, the better chance you have of recovering some losses." An old man with nothing to his name—if he spent all the money, where would they get it back? Mr. Tang, who worked with my company, always prepaid 50%. He lost the most. "Sophie Tong, even if you have a bad relationship with your dad and ignore him, are you going to ignore your company?" "Do you want to do business with me in the future?"
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