Chapter 7 — Leaving That Dinner Table, I Had 70 Million Yuan

At the end of October, the turning point began with my sister-in-law. After what happened at the wedding, she was silent for half a month, but people like her are never truly quiet, being silent is just gathering strength. Her next step is to follow me. I knew this later. That day after work, I went back to the west house. When I swiped my card to enter the gate, out of the corner of my eye I saw a white electric car parked across the street. The person sitting in the car was wearing a hat and mask, but I recognized the bag immediately. Sister-in-law's bag, fake, with a small ball of fur hanging from the top of the zipper. She wanted to hide it, but her aesthetic sense sold her out. I didn't turn around, went straight inside, and when I got home, I stood on the balcony and looked down. The tram was still there, about twenty minutes later it left. The next day after work, I didn't go straight home but instead went to my new apartment in the central area. The apartment worth more than 8 million yuan was almost completed, the living room floor was made of light gray herringbone wood, the TV wall was made of gray concrete, outside the glass door was the lake surface, the sunset light spread out into a sparkling golden strip. I stood for a while in the living room, the phone rang, it was my brother calling, I didn't answer. On the third day, my sister-in-law came again, this time changing clothes, not taking the tram but calling a car, but that day I was not at home in the west. I guessed it so I went to the new apartment. She waited at the gate for more than an hour without seeing me. She was definitely impatient, but she would not give up, because when it comes to money, she is always more persistent than ever. By the fourth time, she caught up. It was Saturday, I went to the new apartment to see the progress of completion, the workers were installing the final doors, I got off the bus at the gate, swiped my card to go inside. She stood from afar and watched. I know, because that night my brother called. This time I answered the phone. His voice was a bit dry.

“Vien Chu.”

“You… bought a house in the central area?”

I don't answer.

“That area costs more than 40,000 yuan per meter, the area is more than 180 meters…”

He stopped for a moment.

“Where did you get so much money?”

I heard the sound of breathing on the other side, not a person's. Sister-in-law is next door. I know for sure. Because his next sentence took on her tone.

“Vien Chu, do you already have money?”

“The day the house was divided…”

His voice lowered.

“Did you know anything that day?”

This question. Finally asked. I waited two months. Just waiting for this sentence. I sit on the new sofa in the apartment, a dark gray, minimalist sofa, delivered two days ago. Outside the glass door, the lake surface stretches out at night, the lights reflecting into a strip of light on the water surface.

“You say it.”

“You really want to know?”

The other side was silent. I know he's hesitant. There are times when people are afraid of the answer, because once they know it, they can't pretend they don't know anymore.

“…You say it.”

I smiled softly.

“No rush, let's talk someday.”

I hung up. The phone was placed on the arm of the chair, the screen went dark. Outside the glass window, a small boat turned on its lights and slowly drifted by, dragging a long streak of light across the water. For two months now, I've been waiting for them to discover it themselves. It's not because I don't want to talk. It's because I want to see... When the truth comes out little by little, I really want to know what their faces will turn into. Now, my sister-in-law knows that I live in a house worth more than 8 million yuan, she will tell my mother, and then my mother will knowing, the three of them would gather together, repeating the same question over and over again.

“Where does its money come from?”

That question will be like a thorn stuck in their head, they can't get it out, they can't sleep peacefully, the more they think about it, the more they panic. Because they had begun to vaguely realize that they might have made an irreversible mistake. They just don't know how big the mistake is yet. They don't know, it's as big as 70 million yuan. I turned off the living room lights, leaving only the light from the lake outside the glass window, sitting alone in the dark, very quiet, very good.