I was my whole family's “mobile blood bank.”
Growing up, my younger brother got the meat while I drank the broth. After I started working, my mother drained my salary with one excuse after another, using it to cover my father's gambling debts and my brother's vanity.
I kept giving in, until my mother, just to avenge my brother, slammed my only companion to death: my little pet.
Looking at its mangled corpse, I finally woke up. This wasn't a family at all. It was a hell that devoured people.
When my family found out I was dating Huo Jingchuan, the son of the richest man in the country, their greed spiraled completely out of control.
My father used his supposed connection to the richest family by marriage to take out enormous loans from loan sharks and gamble recklessly, boasting, “My daughter's about to get a bride price worth millions!”
My brother went even further. Without telling me, he stole Huo Jingchuan's million-yuan sports car, drove drunk at full speed, and left someone grievously injured.
After the accident, my parents showed no remorse. Instead, they demanded I kneel and beg for leniency, using my marriage to buy my brother's freedom.
But they didn't know that the once spineless sister who lived for her little brother was already dead inside.
When my whole family pressured me, I coldly called the police. “He's an adult. He can go to prison on his own.”
Later, my brother was jailed. My father's dream of a sky-high bride price was shattered, and loan sharks beat him into a crippled, incoherent state. My mother, who had spent her life emotionally blackmailing me, could only weep day after day in a leaky rental, caring for her paralyzed husband. She had it coming.
I severed those rotten family ties and finally stood in the sunlight, holding the hand that truly belonged to me.
