Joyce Lawson was a very talented student. With a ntor guiding her every step of the way, she was able to perform minor surgical procedures on her own in just one year.
Later, Joyce Lawson was promoted to a permanent position and received a generous bonus.
A few days ago, experts had predicted the arrival of a massive blizzard and advised residents on lower floors to take precautions in advance.
Joyce Lawson’s family lived on a lower floor.
After hearing the news about the blizzard, the family discussed it and decided that Joyce Lawson would use her money to buy this apartnt in The tropolis Residences.
Joyce Lawson sighed with emotion to lody Sumrs, "The timing was perfect. The hospital gave a bonus, the natural disasters have brought housing prices down, and the apartnts in this complex are cheap. I can finally have a place of my own in the big city!"
Even though Apartnt 1601 was a small, two-bedroom, one-living-room unit of less than 60 square ters, Joyce Lawson was still over the moon.
After all, buying an apartnt was sothing Joyce Lawson had never even dared to dream of before.
According to her original plan, as a dical student, she would have had to pursue a master’s and a doctorate after graduating, then complete her residency at a hospital...
It would have taken her at least twenty years to save up enough money to buy a place!
Seeing how happy Joyce Lawson was, lody Sumrs felt happy for her too.
She rembered how Joyce Lawson had lived on a tight budget in college. Back when they were preparing for the biomathematics competition together, they would eat at the cafeteria. Joyce would only get the cheapest dishes, and sotis she wouldn’t even order a dish at all, just eating plain white rice with Lao Gan Ma chili sauce.
lody Sumrs’s financial situation was a little better than Joyce Lawson’s. She offered to treat Joyce to als, but Joyce always refused.
The young woman might have been poor, but she had her pride and didn’t want to take advantage of others for no reason.
lody Sumrs really admired this strong-willed and hardworking classmate.
Now, seeing that Joyce Lawson could afford to buy her own apartnt with her own inco, finally establishing a foothold for herself in the big city, lody was truly happy for her. It really proved the saying that education can change your destiny.
The two of them walked to the property managent center. In the lobby, they saw Manager Grant and a few others gathered together, discussing sothing.
They seed to have run into so trouble; every one of them had a grim expression.
Seeing this, lody Sumrs walked up and asked, "Manager Grant, what’s wrong?"
When Manager Grant saw lody Sumrs, he sighed. Not treating her like an outsider, he said in a low voice, "There was a shipnt of coal in the governnt’s second batch of supplies, but it still hasn’t arrived... We’ve reported it to our contact at the supply departnt several tis, but we haven’t heard anything back!"
lody Sumrs was stunned. ’The coal still hasn’t arrived?’
Manager Grant sighed again, his face etched with worry. "We sent people to check with other residential complexes in the north of the city. They’ve all received their coal. Only ours is missing, and we have no idea why!"
In the year since the disasters began, the supply chain for The tropolis Residences had always been stable and had never run into any issues.
With the temperature dropping day by day and the coal still nowhere in sight, Manager Grant and his team were getting anxious.
lody Sumrs found the situation puzzling, but there was nothing she could do about it at the mont.
She and Joyce Lawson explained their purpose to the property managent staff. An employee nad Tate quickly said, "Oh, you’re the new hoowners, right? I’ll go activate your utility cards for you."
With the current energy shortage, the governnt was managing water and electricity with extre strictness. The supply was tightly controlled based on the number of people per household. New hoowners needed to register to get their utilities activated.
lody Sumrs and Joyce Lawson followed Tate to his office. Tate turned to Joyce and asked, "Could I see the hoowner’s ID, please?"
Joyce Lawson quickly pulled out her ID card and handed it to Tate.
Tate took the ID and began searching on his computer.
lody Sumrs and Joyce Lawson stood by, waiting patiently. But what happened next was sothing neither of them expected.
Tate’s brow furrowed. He said, puzzled, "That’s strange, we don’t have this hoowner’s na in our system... Could you tell your unit number, please?"
Joyce Lawson was taken aback for a mont, then she quickly replied, "I’m in Building 4, Apartnt 1601... We just moved in today. Is it possible the information hasn’t been entered yet?"
But Tate shook his head, still confused. He handed the ID back to Joyce Lawson, looking as if he wanted to say sothing but was hesitant.
Sensing sothing was wrong, lody Sumrs quickly pressed him, "Tate, what’s going on?"
Tate glanced at lody Sumrs, then answered carefully, "According to our system, the owner of 4-1601 is nad Gregory Lawson, not Joyce Lawson. We need Gregory Lawson to co in person with his ID or household registration book to activate the card."
"What?!" lody Sumrs’s eyes went wide. She couldn’t process what she’d just heard.
’Gregory Lawson?’
’Who is Gregory Lawson?’
’Didn’t Joyce Lawson just say she bought this apartnt with her own salary and bonus?’
lody Sumrs turned to look at Joyce Lawson, wanting to ask her what was going on.
Joyce Lawson was clearly just as shocked by the news.
As a certain possibility dawned on her, her face turned deathly pale.
Seeing both lody Sumrs and Tate looking at her in confusion, Joyce Lawson opened her mouth and said with great difficulty, "I... I understand... I’ll have my brother co over later..."
...
As they left the property managent lobby, Joyce Lawson was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice the steps. She stumbled and nearly fell, but thankfully, lody Sumrs quickly reached out and grabbed her hand to steady her.
"...Joyce, are you okay?" lody Sumrs could feel that Joyce’s hands were ice-cold and even trembling slightly.
Joyce Lawson looked up at lody Sumrs with a dazed expression and stamred, "I’m... I’m fine..."
Seeing that Joyce wasn’t herself, lody quickly helped her to a nearby bench. "Joyce, sit down and rest for a minute," she said with concern. "You look awful. What on earth happened?"
Joyce Lawson’s lips were drained of all color, and her eyes were vacant, as if she had suffered a terrible blow.
She opened her mouth and said, as if talking to herself, "No wonder... No wonder they sent away when they were buying the apartnt... No wonder they wouldn’t let see the deed and said they were ’keeping it safe’ for ..."
"So... so they put the apartnt in my brother’s na..."
Joyce Lawson kept murmuring to herself. lody Sumrs sat beside her, listening with a frown, and gradually pieced together what had happened.
Joyce Lawson’s parents had taken her bonus and savings to buy the apartnt. The original agreent was to put the property in Joyce’s na for the whole family to live in.
But when it ca ti to sign the papers, they put it in her younger brother Gregory Lawson’s na instead. The entire family had conspired to hide it from her.
If Joyce hadn’t accidentally discovered the truth just now, she would have likely been kept in the dark by her own family indefinitely.
Joyce Lawson was devastated. The joyful excitent from before was completely gone, replaced by a look of hurt and confusion.
"Why are they always like this..."
"When I got into university, my dad kept telling the tuition was too expensive and that it was a huge strain on the family. They kept complaining, asking why I didn’t just go to a tuition-free teachers’ college so I could go back to our hotown and be a teacher after graduating..."
"But my brother only scored a little over 300 on his college entrance exams... Why is the family so generous with him, spending millions to send him abroad to study..."
"They always told they don’t favor sons over daughters. They said that parents who truly do that would never even let their daughters go to high school—they’d send them off to work right after middle school..."
"They said the fact they were willing to let continue my education was proof of how much they loved , and that I should be grateful they didn’t favor my brother and repay them properly..."
lody Sumrs’s frown deepened as she listened.
’What kind of parents are these?!’
Their daughter got into a top program at a top-two university in the country, and they refused to support her. Yet they poured all their resources into raising a good-for-nothing son who only scored 300 on his entrance exams.
They’d rather bankrupt themselves sending their son to a diploma mill abroad just to pad his resu than pay tuition for their brilliant daughter.
’300 on his entrance exams... Do they really expect a son like that to bring honor to the family?’
’Which of their children is the one who can actually bring them honor? Are they blind?’
’Idiots!’
As Joyce Lawson spoke, her emotions suddenly escalated. "Tell , have I not been good to them?"
"Since the disasters started, almost every penny I’ve earned has been spent on them!"
"They wanted to eat at, so I bought it for them, even when it cost thousands per pound!"
"They wanted to run the air conditioner, so I paid their electricity bills, even when they were tens of thousands!"
"At the beginning of the year, they even had an unplanned pregnancy and needed an abortion. I was the one who paid for it and pulled strings to get the procedure done for them!"
"What have I ever done to deserve this?! Why are they doing this to ?!"
"Why did they have to steal my apartnt?! They knew how much I was looking forward to having it!"
"They knew I dread of having a ho of my own in this city!"
With that, Joyce Lawson buried her face in her hands and began to sob.
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