My Sister-in-Law Sold Her Family Jade to Send Me to College

You're signing this whether you want to or not! Where do you think you can go after the divorce? Who else would want a worn-out old woman like you!

Sean's roar rattled the living room windows. He slammed a stack of divorce papers down on the coffee table, knocking over a freshly cut watermelon. Red juice spilled across the table, looking uncannily like dried blood.

Vera huddled in the corner of the sofa, her faded housedress hanging loosely on her frame. She twisted her fingers tightly; her knuckles were thick and deformed from years of hard labor, and two cheap bandages were stuck to them.

"Crying! All you know how to do is cry! What a jinx!" Sean loosened his tie in disgusta Herms tie worth two months of Vera's living expenses. "For the sake of what we used to be, I'll give you a hundred thousand. Take the money and get out. I need this place cleared out to use as a wedding home."

"A hundred thousand" Vera finally raised her head, her voice hoarse as if she'd swallowed sand. "Sean, I've been with you for twenty years, slaving away for the Sullivan family, and you're giving me a hundred thousand?"

"A hundred thousand is plenty! Learn to be grateful!" Sean lit a cigarette and blew the smoke into Vera's face. "Don't think that lousy jade pendant from back then buys you a lifetime allowance. I've been supporting you these past few yearsthat debt's been paid off long ago!"

In the shadows of the entryway, Landon stood quietly. He was holding a cheap toy he'd bought for his nephew, wearing an old jacket that had cost a few bucks online.

He watched the woman who had once sold off a family heirloom overnight to put him through school being ground into the dust; he watched his own brother, once so honest and simple, now reeking of money.

Landon set down the plastic bag in his hand.

"Sean, you don't need to sign this."

Landon stepped out of the shadows, his tone calm, yet it dropped the temperature in the room to freezing.

This was the fifth year since Landon had left his hometown.

Two days before New Year's, the cold wind in this small Midwestern town cut at the face like a knife. Landon didn't have his driver take the Cullinan with the out-of-state plates into the complex; he had it parked in the underground garage of a mall two streets away.

He changed into a set of plain, unremarkable old clothes, dragged out the beat-up suitcase from his college days, and, treading through the blackened snow, walked back to the old apartment building that held his entire childhood.

The stairwell still smelled of rotting cabbage and coal smoke. Fifth floor, no elevator.

Landon stood at the door, took a deep breath, and pushed open the security door with its peeling paint.

The room was dim; to save on electricity, the lights were off even in broad daylight.

"Who is it? Is that you, Sean, back home?"

A voice called out from the kitchen, and then Vera came out wiping her hands. The moment she saw Landon, she froze, and then her weathered face broke into enormous, delighted surprise.

"Oh! Landon! What are you doing back? You didn't even call aheadI would've come to pick you up!"

Vera flustered, rubbing her hands on her apron, moving to take his luggage, then pulling her hand back halfway, as if afraid the smell of cooking grease would offend the college graduate.

Landon caught her hand instead.

Cold, rough, covered in calluses, with a deep frostbite crack at the base of the thumb.

These hands had once never had to do any rough work.

His parents had died young, and the eldest brother stood in for a father, the eldest brother's wife for a mother. The year Landon got into the Ivy League, on the day the acceptance letter came, the family couldn't even afford a celebratory dish of braised pork. Sean had squatted in the doorway smoking a pipe all night, and finally, eyes red, told Landon to quit school and come haul bricks with him on the construction site.

It was Vera.

This woman, married into the family for barely two years, went back to her parents' home without a word and took out the emerald-green jade Ruyi pendant her grandmother had left her. It was her dowry, and her most precious possession. She pawned it outright for fifty thousandthat was Landon's tuition and living expenses.

"Vera, what happened to your hand?" Landon looked at the crack and felt a pang in his chest.

"Oh, it's nothing. Everybody's hands crack from working in the winter." Vera pulled her hand back and smiled to cover it up. "Come inside, it's cold out there, isn't it? Your brother's been busy with business lately, he might be home late. I made you some pork and scallion dumplings."

Landon looked around the room.

The place was almost unchanged from five years ago. The paint had peeled off the walls, exposing bare cement. The sofa was still the same old fabric one with broken springs, and the television was one of those bulky CRT sets.

That was strange.

Landon knew his brother, Sean, had struck it rich in the building-materials business these past couple of years, boasting an annual revenue in the tens of millions. And though Landon himself never flaunted his wealth in the Capital, he still sent a few hundred thousand home every year to support them.

Where had the money gone?

"Vera, where's the money I sent back? Why didn't you get a better place? The heat isn't even working." Landon touched the cold radiator.

Vera's hands paused as she rolled out the dough, her eyes darting away. "Ah well, the moneyyour brother said the business was short on cash flow, so it all went into buying stock. He said business is hard these days, that you have to spend where it counts. We're used to this old place, all the neighbors are here. A new place, and there'd be no one to talk to."

Just then, heavy footsteps sounded outside the door, along with the rattle of keys.

"Damn it, those punksa few drinks and they forget where they stand!"

Sean pushed the door open and came in, reeking of alcohol. He wore a sharply tailored black wool coat, a Burberry scarf around his neck, and a big gold watch gleaming on his wrist.

That outfit had to be worth well over a hundred thousand.

It made a bitterly ironic contrast with the shabby furnishings in the room and the ragged padded coat Vera wore.

Sean came in, saw Landon, and paused, then burst out laughing, walking over to clap Landon hard on the shoulder. "Well, if it isn't our family's big scholar, back home! What's with the state of you? Couldn't cut it in the Capital?"

He looked Landon up and down in his old jacket, his eyes carrying three parts warmth and seven parts contempt.

"I get by. Enough to eat," Landon said with a faint smile, offering no explanation.

"If you can't make it, just say so! Your brother's doing well nowI can easily set you up as a VP at the company, two hundred grand a year. Isn't that better than getting pushed around in the Capital?" Sean stripped off his coat, tossed it onto the sofa, sat down sprawled out, and crossed his legs.

Vera hurried over, picked up the coat and hung it, then brought a cup of hot tea.

Sean didn't so much as glance at her. He took the tea, sipped it, and spat it out on the floor with a "pfft."

"It's scalding! You trying to burn me alive?"

He slammed the teacup down on the coffee table, and the boiling tea splashed out onto the back of Vera's hand. Vera flinched but didn't dare make a sound, silently taking a rag to wipe the table.

Landon stood off to the side, his fists slowly clenching inside his sleeves.

The atmosphere at the dinner table was strange and oppressive.

Vera set down the last dishbraised ribs. It had been Landon's favorite when he was little. She'd been busy cooking all day, but she didn't sit at the table herself. She just stood off to the side, watching the two brothers eat.

"Sit down and eat with us." Landon pulled out the chair beside him.

"No, no, you two have a couple of drinks. I'll just grab a bite in the kitchen." Vera stepped back out of habit, a meek smile on her face.

"Sit down." Landon's face darkened, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Vera flinched and instinctively glanced at Sean.

With a rib in his mouth, Sean mumbled, "Let her sit. The college boy has spoken, so quit putting on that act."

Only then did Vera sit down, carefully, daring only to reach for the plate of sauted greens in front of her.

"Business been good lately?" Landon poured Sean a glass of cheap whiskey.

"You bet!" Sean's face flushed as he took a sip. "Half the building materials for that new development on the Southside come from me now. Just picked up a BMW X5 last month. Was gonna get a Mercedes G-Class, but figured that was too flashy. Hey, what is it you actually do out in the Capital? I never see you post anything about work online."

"Some finance and investment. I work for a firm," Landon said lightly.

"Finance? That's a con game, isn't it?" Sean scoffed. "Real industry's the solid bet. And you're not getting any youngerstill no girlfriend, right? I'll set you up with someone. Little Liu in my company's accounting department is a good one, wide hips, good for having kids."

Landon let it pass. He turned to Vera instead. "I noticed your phone screen is all cracked. I'll get you a new one."

Vera quickly clapped a hand over her pocket. "No need, no need, it still works. A new one would just be a waste of money."

"Change it for what?" Sean suddenly slammed his chopsticks down on the table. "She's a housewife. She doesn't do business. As long as she can answer a call, that's plenty. Besides, I gave her five thousand for household expenses just last month, and it's already gone. What a spendthrift!"

"Five thousand?" Landon looked at the table full of dishes, then at the run-down house. "With prices these days, what can five thousand do? And that has to cover our nephew's tutoring too, doesn't it? Where is he?"

"He went to his grandmother's," Vera explained softly.

"Tutoring? That kid can't study for shit! I don't think he's got the brains for it. He can just come work construction with me one day!" Sean cursed. "And anyway, where did all the money go? Straight to propping up her broke family, that's where!"

Vera's face flushed instantly, tears brimming in her eyes. "I didn't... My mother was in the hospital last month, and I didn't dare touch a single cent of our money. I borrowed all of it from the neighbors..."

"Borrowed? You borrow it and never pay it back? In the end I'm the one footing the bill!" Sean jabbed a finger at Vera's face. "Let me tell you something, Vera. Don't think selling off some cheap jade pendant back then makes you some hero. I've fed you and kept you all these years, food and drink and everything else. Whatever you were owed, it's been paid back a long time ago!"

Smack!

Landon set his glass down hard on the table.

"That pendant wasn't cheap jade," Landon said, staring into his eyes, spacing out each word. "It was your wife's whole life. Without that jade, there'd be no me today."

Sean felt a little unnerved under that stare, but the liquor stiffened his neck. "Fine, fine, she paid for your Ivy League degree, all right? But now I pull in millions a yearisn't that my own doing? This whole family, every mouth at the table, who's the one keeping them all fed?"

He pulled a wad of red bills from his wallet, maybe two or three thousand, and flung them in front of Vera like he was tossing funeral money.

"Take it! And stop moping around in front of Landon like I abuse you. Go buy yourself a couple of decent outfits tomorrow. I've got a dinner over there in a few daysI'm bringing you along, so don't embarrass me!"

The red bills scattered across the greasy tabletop, one of them even landing in the soup.

Vera lowered her head, picking them up one by one, wiping them clean with a tissue, tucking them away carefully.

Watching those movements of hers, so meek they seemed to sink into the dust, Landon felt a stab in his heart, like a needle going in.

How had his once generous, big-hearted brother turned completely into this nouveau riche creature?

Late that night, faint sounds of arguing drifted from the master bedroom next door.

"...Who is that woman? Why did you wire her fifty-two thousand?" It was Vera's voice, choked with suppressed sobs.

"A client! A client, you understand? It's just for show! You go through my phone one more time and see what happens!" Sean roared.

Landon took out his phone, the cold glow of the screen lighting up his icy face. He sent a message to his assistant:

Look into Sean Sullivan's cash flow at Grand Vista Building Materials. And look into any women who've recently turned up around him.

Early the next morning, Sean went out, saying he was going to inspect a construction site.

Landon said he wanted to visit his parents' grave. Vera rode her electric tricyclethe one that rattled everywhere except the belland headed out toward the edge of town with Landon on the back.

The cold wind howled, and Vera sat up straight, doing her best to block it for Landon behind her.

"How long has my brother had someone on the side?"

Out of nowhere, in the wind, Landon asked the question.

The back in front of him stiffened noticeably, and the tricycle swerved before she got it straight again.

"No... nothing like that..."

"I work in investment, and I read people well." Landon sighed. "Look at the way he looks at youit's all fear, not love. A normal husband and wife shouldn't be like that."

Vera pulled the tricycle over to the side of the road and suddenly slumped against the handlebars, sobbing.

"Landon, I'm useless. I can't hold on to my man, and I can't keep my home in order. He... he's got a young one on the side, named Yaya, a college student, a full twelve years younger than him. I heard... she's already pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Landon's eyes went sharp.

"Yes." Vera wiped her tears. "Your brother always looked down on your nephewsaid he was frail and did poorly in school. But once that woman got pregnant, your brother put her up on a pedestal. Last time... last time I even saw him take her to a jewelry store and buy her a whole lot of pieces, more expensive than that jade pendant I sold back then."

Landon handed Vera a tissue, his voice low. "Do you want a divorce?"

Vera waved her hands in horror. "No! I can't divorce him! Where would I go if I did? My side of the family is long gone, I have no job, and I'm this old already... For the child's sake, I have to bear it."

The classic sorrow of a Chinese woman. For the sake of the so-called "family," she would grind her self-respect into the mud.

"And if I had a way to get back everything that belongs to youeven more than that?"

Vera looked at Landon blankly, as if she hadn't understood.

After visiting the grave, they came back to the complex, and the moment they stepped through the gate, they saw a crowd gathered downstairs.

A red Porsche Cayenne was parked sideways across the entrance to the building, blocking the way.

A young woman in a white mink coat, teetering on sky-high heels, was pointing up at a fifth-floor window and screaming curses.

"Vera! You gutless coward! Get down here!"

The woman had flawless makeup, big wavy hair, and a Herms bag on her armthe classic "influencer face."

The neighbors around them pointed and whispered.

"Isn't that Boss Sullivan's little side piece?"

"The nerveshe's come right to their door."

The second Vera saw the woman, her face went deathly pale, her legs buckling until she nearly dropped to her knees.

"It's her... it's that Yaya..."

When Yaya saw Vera come back, she spun around at once, click-clacking over in her heels, and swung her hand up to slap Vera.

"You shameless old woman! Did Sean come home last night? Did you cling to him for money again? Let me tell you, every cent of Sean's money belongs to me and my babydon't you dream of getting a single penny!"

Her hand hung in the air, but it just wouldn't come down.

Landon had caught her by the wrist.

"Ow, ow, ow! Who are you? Let go!" Yaya shrieked.

"What gutter did you crawl out of, screeching like this?" Landon looked at her coldly, tightening his grip a little.

"Ah! He's hitting me! Help! Sean's brother is hitting me!" Yaya started thrashing and wailing.

Just then, Sean's car pulled up too.

Seeing the scene, Sean jumped out of the car, his face iron-gray.

"Landon! What do you think you're doing! Let her go!"

Sean rushed over, shoved Landon aside, and gathered Yaya into his arms, aching over her. "Baby, are you okay? Where are you hurt?"

"Boo-hoo... Sean, look at him! You called your little brother home just to push me around! My hand's about to break! What if our baby got scared?" Yaya burrowed into Sean's arms, weeping prettily, but her eyes were on Vera, taunting.

Sean turned his head and glared viciously at Vera.

"Vera! Did you put Landon up to this? What are you scheming? Yaya is carrying the Sullivan family's flesh and bloodif anything happens to her, I'll make you pay with your life!"

"Sean, we're in a residential complex, with all these people watching. Aren't you ashamed?" Landon straightened his cuff.

"Ashamed? I'm rich and powerful nowwho would dare laugh at me?" Sean roared. "Fine, since it's all out in the open, let's stop hiding it. Vera, this marriage ends today!"

Sean pulled Alex along and strode upstairs.

Landon steadied the swaying Vera and followed behind.

The moment they stepped inside, they walked straight into the brutal scene from the opening.

Sean slapped the divorce agreement down on the table. Alex sat on the sofa, doing her nails while looking smugly at Vera.

"The house is mine, the car is mine, the savings are mine." Sean pointed at the terms. "The kid is yours. Considering you have no income, I'll give you a hundred thousand in a lump sum. You can stay in this house for one more month. After that, you have to move out."

"A hundred thousand?" Landon picked up the agreement and looked it over, so angry he laughed. "Brother, you've made eight, maybe ten million these past few years, haven't you? It's marital property, and you're giving your wife a hundred thousand?"

"What joint property? I earned every cent of that money with my own hard work!" Sean said, self-righteous. "I'm the legal owner of the company. There's nothing in the accounts, it's all debt. This hundred thousand is money I squeezed out from between my teeth!"

A textbook way of moving assets.

"Sean, why waste your breath on them?" Alex said sweetly. "Just hurry up and sign, we still have to go look at wedding dresses."

Vera sat in the corner, her tears already run dry, her eyes as hollow as a dry well.

"Sean, I only want to ask you one thing." Vera's voice was hoarse. "In these twenty years, have I ever wronged you, or this family, in even the smallest way?"

Sean waved his hand impatiently. "Don't talk to me about the past. People rise, water flows down. Our outlooks are on completely different levels now. What I need isn't a maid, it's a woman I can take out in public."

He pointed at Alex. "Look at Alex. A college girl, she knows fashion, taking her out is good for my pride."

"Pride?" Landon tore the agreement in half and threw it in Sean's face. "You earned your pride by cheating on her?"

"Landon! Don't be shameless when I'm giving you a chance!" Sean roared. "This is my family business! Don't think you're something special just because you went to an Ivy League school. In this world, money is king! You think I can't make sure you never get by in the Capital again?"

Landon looked at this brother who had become a total stranger, and the last bit of warmth in his heart vanished.

"Fine. Very good." Landon nodded and took out his phone. "Since you want to settle accounts, then let's settle them properly."

He glanced at the time: two thirty in the afternoon. The market had opened not long ago.

"Vera, pack your things, we're leaving." Landon pulled his brother's wife to her feet.

"Leaving? Where do you think you're going? Sign the papers before you leave!" Sean blocked the doorway.

"We'll sign. But not this one." Landon pushed Sean's hand aside, his eyes sharp as knives. "Brother, I hope you can still be this tough tomorrow."

Looking at his younger brother's unshakable eyes, Sean suddenly felt a flicker of panic, but it was quickly buried under his anger. "Cut the theatrics! Get out! All of you, get out!"

After leaving that house with his brother's wife, Landon put her up in the best five-star hotel in the city.

For the next three days, Landon didn't go anywhere. He stayed at the hotel with her, taking her to the spa and shopping for clothes. At his insistence, Vera slowly relaxed, changed into a stylish cashmere coat, and the beauty she'd once been gradually came back into view.

But this was just the calm before the storm.

On the morning of the fourth day, Landon's phone rang.

It was Sean.

"Landon! You bastard! What the hell did you do?!"

On the other end, Sean's voice was hysterical, full of fear and rage.

"What's wrong, Sean? Didn't you always say money makes the man?" Landon sipped his coffee, unhurried.

"Why?! Why did Grand Vista cancel my supply contract?! And the bankwhy did the bank suddenly call in my loans?! All my payments are tied up in there, my cash flow's cut off, the workers are making a scene, the suppliers are blocking my door... Was it you?!"

"Sean, you give me too much credit. I'm just a working stiff 'grinding away' in the Capital," Landon said mildly. "But I do know a few people. For instance, the chairman of Skyhold Capitalthe money behind Grand Vistahappens to be my boss. And that project? I'm the one who signed off on it."

There was a deathly silence on the other end, then Sean's trembling voice: "You... you're a partner at Skyhold?"

Beep... beep... beep...

Landon hung up.

Ten minutes later, his phone received an MMS. In the photo, Sean was kneeling on the ground, his face covered in blood, documents scattered all around him.

Right after that, a text came through: "Mr. Sullivan, the fish is in the net. Also, while we were going through the books, we found a very interesting document about that woman named Regina."

Landon looked at the message, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

Just as he'd expected.

"Landon, who was that?" Vera asked, coming out from her treatment.

"It's nothing, Vera," Landon said. He stood up and straightened his suit. "Come on, let's go home. Someone's about to come begging to us."

Back at that old, run-down complex, this time there was no Porsche parked out frontinstead, two court patrol cars sat by the entrance.

The front door of Sean's house was wide open, the inside in complete disarray. Sean sat slumped on the floor, his hair a mess, his eyes vacant. Regina was nowhere to be seen.

The moment Sean saw Landon and Vera come in, he lunged like a drowning man grabbing at a lifeline, scrambling over and wrapping his arms around Vera's legs.

"Honey! Honey, I was wrong! I'm an animal! I won't divorce you! Please, help me, make Landon stop! I'm going bankrupt, I'm going to prison!"

Vera flinched, and instinctively started to help him up.

Landon stopped her and said softly, "Take it slow, Vera. Look at this first."

Landon pulled a brown paper file envelope out of his briefcase.

"Sean, did you really think Regina loved you? Did you really think the baby she's carrying is a Sullivan?"

Landon held up the envelope and waved it in front of him.

Sean's face went deathly white in an instant, his eyes locked onto the envelope. "You... what do you mean?"

"In here is a paternity test report, along with the fraud records on Regina and her real boyfriend. Want to see them?"

Just as Sean reached out to snatch it, Landon pulled his wrist back.

"Not so fast."

Landon looked down at him and tossed another documentone he'd prepared in advanceonto the floor in front of him.

"You want the truth? Sign this first."

Sean's hands shook as he stared at the agreement, his face filled with despair. "Landon, you're driving me to my death..."

Landon bent down and, right against his ear, said something in a voice only the two of them could hear.

In that instant, Sean jolted as if struck by lightning, his whole body going limp on the floor, the light in his eyes snuffed out completely.

It was a newly drafted divorce agreementhe would leave the marriage with nothing.

With trembling hands, he picked up the pen and signed his name on the agreement.

Landon put the agreement away and threw the file envelope down on him.

"See for yourself. And one more thing to leave you withpeople do things, and heaven is watching. Vera's jade pendant kept you safe for half your life. Too bad you threw that blessing away all on your own."

Sean shakily opened the envelope, took one glance, and let out a shrill, agonized scream, spitting up a mouthful of blood...