Pampering a wealthy daughter-in-law only to end up kicked out on the street: Mother-in-law collapses upon seeing the ‘darling’s’ true colors
PART 1: BLIND PARTIALITY AND THE LUXURIOUS TRAP
In a poor city, where red-dirt alleys year after year sank in mud and the sighs of hard lives, that family had once plunged into a distorted order dictated entirely by the mother-in-law’s pragmatism. In the level-four house with peeling lime walls, the mother-in-law always maintained a harsh, overbearing attitude toward her second daughter-in-law—a rustic girl whose hands and feet were covered in mud day in and day out, leaving early and returning late to shoulder all meager expenses just to secure daily meals for the whole family. No matter how much she exhausted her strength, yielded the best morsels, and attentively brewed medicine when her parents-in-law fell ill, in the mother-in-law’s eyes, all those sacrifices remained worthless, simply things a parasitic lodger was supposed to do.
Conversely, absolute favoritism and the sweetest praise from the mother-in-law were reserved entirely for the eldest daughter-in-law—a woman who stepped into the family wearing glittering designer clothes, expensive handbags, and high heels clicking haughtily on the worn tile floor. Every time the eldest daughter-in-law visited, bringing imported luxury gifts, uttering honeyed words of praise, and painting visions of ultimate wealth, the mother-in-law would smile brightly, achieving a content grin that made her forget family bloodlines. She was ready to utter the most venomous insults directly to the second daughter-in-law in front of relatives, likening her to a clinging burden, someone lacking the fortune to enjoy luxury.
The gentle yet timid husband could only bow his head and sigh, powerless against his mother’s cruel discrimination. However, behind the luxurious velvet cloak and the eldest daughter-in-law’s sweet promises of billions in profitable investments lay an abyss of deception. Through sophisticated manipulation and honeyed yet poisonous words, the eldest daughter-in-law step by step manipulated the old couple’s psychology, persuading them to sign authorization and title transfer documents for the sole house—the old couple’s lifetime savings—under the excuse of “processing large business expansion procedures to completely change the family’s life.”
Intoxicated by greed and illusions of upcoming wealth, the mother-in-law did not suspect a thing, even scolding the second daughter-in-law when she accidentally voiced doubts about the vague contract. Convinced she had chosen the right place to rely on for her old age, she believed a high-society future awaited ahead.
PART 2: THE CURTAIN FALL AND THE PAIN IN THE RAIN
The brutal truth struck like a fatal blow on a sultry late afternoon, when the gray sky prepared to unleash the season’s first thunderstorm.
When the two old people were cheerfully packing their luggage to move to the luxury apartment promised by the eldest daughter-in-law, a luxury car pulled up right in front of the door. Instead of the usual welcoming smile, the eldest daughter-in-law stepped out with a cold expression, tossing a stack of legal documents and a house eviction notice onto the muddy ground, accompanied by words as sharp as a razor:
“You’re out of use now. This house has been legally transferred to the bank to settle my business debts. From now on, we go our separate ways; don’t ever show your thick faces looking for me again!”
Before they could recover from the absolute shock, the two elderly people were rudely thrown out onto the main street by strangers, watched in horror by the entire poor neighborhood. The iron door closed coldly, locking away every last hope. Amidst the bustling crowd passing by, no one dared to step forward to help, because this family had long been infamous for living selfishly and arrogantly toward their neighbors.
It began to rain. The freezing raindrops lashed fiercely against aging skin, turning muddy on trembling feet. The mother-in-law collapsed onto the roadside, staring at the tattered luggage and the bright red transfer paper at her feet, her chest tightening with the ultimate pain of late regret. By now, the figure of the wealthy eldest daughter-in-law had vanished into the misty rain, leaving behind two lonely, aging figures in an indifferent urban world.
Amidst utter despair, when hunger, cold, and humiliation were choking her soul, a small figure, soaked in rain from head to toe, suddenly dashed out from the dark alley corner. Without a single word of blame, without a moment of hesitation, the poor, humble daughter-in-law whom she had always despised and cursed all these years rushed forward to tightly embrace the mother-in-law’s trembling body.
She took off her only dry jacket to drape over the mother-in-law, her calloused, frost-bitten hands gently massaging the mother’s stiffening joints, bursting into choked tears:
“Mom… Come home with me! The house may be poor and cramped, but there’s food to eat, there’s a warm place to spend the night. Are you hungry? I’ve already cooked porridge at home…”
At that moment, hearing those choked sobs filled with sincere devotion uttered by the woman she once deemed “unworthy,” the mother-in-law felt as though she had been struck by lightning. She raised her face, drenched in tears and rain, to look straight into the dark-ringed yet compassionate eyes of the daughter-in-law, trembling all over. The weight of repentance and remorse choked her throat, causing her to collapse onto the muddy ground, screaming in heart-wrenching sobs amidst the pitch-black night…
