"Zijin, stop crying. I was wrong. It was all my fault."
Wang Xiaoliang edged half a step forward, only to be driven back by Wei Zijin's gaze.
"I promise I'll tell you everything from now on. I won't hide a single word."
"Stop making promises. You're hiding something from me right now." Wei Zijin wiped her face, but her tears simply wouldn't stop. "The more you talk, the more it hurts. Did you tell me about your mom?"
Wang Xiaoliang froze.
"Your uncle scammed your mom out of 1.6 million. Why didn't you tell me?" Wei Zijin's voice trembled. "I treated you all as family. I treated your mom like my own mother. And what did I get? Bullshit. You three are the real family. What am I?"
She drew a breath, failed to steady it, and broke into tears again.
"I thought I'd found a home. But my home was gone long ago. I'll never find it again. Wang Xiaoliang, do you know that?"
"Not telling you was my mom's idea." Wang Xiaoliang's voice dropped. "She felt she'd let you down. She's depressed."
"Depressed? Who does she have to blame but herself? She wouldn't listen to her husband or son. She just had to trust that deadbeat brother of hers. A man who leers even at his nephew's wife-is that someone you can trust?"
"Wei Zijin, my mom is depressed. Do you understand? Think about her feelings. If I told you and you went to comfort her, wouldn't that make her feel even worse?"
"Have any of you thought about my feelings?"
Wei Zijin abruptly stood, her chair scraping backward.
"What if one day someone says online that Wei Zijin's in-laws are running a street stall, barely scraping by, while Wei Zijin makes over a million from a single