One Look Reveals All: From Rough Stone to Heirloom Jade

[Midlife Crisis + Layoffs + Enabling a Younger Brother + Stone Gambling + Antiques Appraisal + Comeback + Turning His Life Around + Feel-Good Fiction + For Middle-Aged and Older Readers]

At 45, Su Jianguo is laid off in a midlife shake-up. His son is about to take the college entrance exam, and they still have no money for tuition. Meanwhile, his wife secretly gives her younger brother the family’s twenty years of savings and Su’s layoff compensation to buy a house.

Wife: “All you care about is your son. Is my brother not a person too?”

Father-in-law: “Su Jianguo, what’s that supposed to mean? My daughter’s been married to you for years. What’s wrong with giving her own brother some money to buy a house? You can’t even support your wife and child, and you still have the nerve to come here asking for money?”

Younger brother-in-law: “Brother-in-law, I’m just saying, you’re a laid-off worker. Why keep so much money? How much interest does a bank pay? This house will go up in value, so you won’t lose anything. Besides, look at what you’re wearing. You look like a beggar. Don’t embarrass me in my new house.”

The relatives join in: “Jianguo, you’re the one in the wrong. Why be so calculating with family?”

“Shufen must have had the worst luck in the world to marry you.”

“Since when does a man surnamed Su get a say in the Zhang family’s money?”