In order to scrape together the sky-high medical bills for my mother, who had leukemia, and also to train the healthiest possible bone marrow so I could donate it to her. I went to the construction site without hesitation. I ate the hardest bread, lived in a prefab shack that leaked from every side, and sent every last cent of my blood-and-sweat money to her. For three years, I finally saved up that “life-saving money,” and I also built myself a solid body. I thought the hard days were finally over, so I rushed home full of excitement, only to hear my stepfather’s voice outside the door. “The money’s been tricked out of her, and her body’s been trained up too. Why aren’t you hurrying up and getting her tested?” My mom sneered. “What’s the rush? I haven’t used up my poor, sick person act yet!” “If we don’t squeeze every last bit of value out of her, how else is she supposed to willingly become Thompson’s free bone marrow bank?” At that, Thompson on the side let out a scream. “Mom! I don’t care! If you don’t let Alice donate bone marrow to me, I’m telling her we have several villas and that you’re not even sick!” The cold wind outside cut like a knife, and when I looked down at my own hands, covered in thick calluses and scars, all the blood in my body seemed to freeze. The next second, I dialed the number I had kept hidden for more than ten years. “This time, I’m willing to come home.”
The voice on the other end was careful, and a smile was impossible to hide. “Good! Good! My Alice!” I hung up and shoved my phone back into my pocket, while laughter was still going on inside. “Mom, how much money did that idiot send this time?” “Three hundred thousand. With everything from before, it’s almost enough for Thompson to study abroad for a while.” “Mom really knows how to handle things. She’s got Alice that fool wrapped around her finger.” With a blank face, I pushed open the half-closed door. The three people in the room—my mom, Bella; my stepfather, Harris; and my younger half-brother, Thompson—froze with their smiles still on their faces. My mom was the first to react. She immediately clutched her chest and started coughing hard, her face going pale as death, looking like she could keel over any second. “Alice, you’re back… cough cough… why didn’t you say something first? Look at you, you’ve gotten so thin from working at the construction site.” She was so good at acting. For three years, she had tricked me into giving her everything with that same act. Harris hurried to back her up too. “Yeah, Alice, sit down. Your mom’s been talking about you this whole time.” Only Thompson, the precious son they spoiled rotten, didn’t bother hiding his disgust. He pinched his nose and exaggeratedly took two steps back. “You reek of sweat. Disgusting! Alice, can’t you wash up before coming in?” I ignored him and went straight to my mom. “Did you get the money?” My mom froze for a moment, then quickly put on a weak but relieved smile. “We got it, Alice. You’ve really suffered. My illness is all depending on you.” “Now that the money’s enough, let’s go to the hospital tomorrow for the bone marrow match.” A flash of panic crossed my mom’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by greed. She grabbed my hand. Her hands were well cared for, soft and smooth, completely different from mine. “Alice, the doctor said… said the surgery fee went up again. We’re still short a little bit…” “And the matching isn’t urgent. Your health matters most.” “You need to recover more, build yourself up nice and strong. That way the bone marrow quality will be best.” I looked at her and suddenly smiled. “Really? I thought you were all in a hurry.” “After all, if we don’t get the bone marrow swapped soon, Thompson won’t be able to hide it much longer.”
The color drained from my mom’s face in an instant, and this time it wasn’t fake. She violently shook off my hand, as if she had touched something filthy. “You… what nonsense are you talking about!” Harris panicked too, pointing at me as he shouted sharply, “Alice! How can you talk to your mom like that! She’s seriously ill, and you’re saying things like this to upset her. Do you even have a conscience!” I couldn’t be bothered to waste words on them, so I turned and walked toward the storage room at the end of the hallway. That was my room. There was no window inside, only a hard bed and a few pieces of my ragged clothing. Right next door was Thompson’s room. It was the biggest room in the house, and the closet was stuffed full of all kinds of designer brands. Even the old clothes he didn’t want were cleaner than what I was wearing. That was the difference between Thompson and the “bone marrow bank.” I took out the biggest woven sack I had and threw all my things into it. Harris blocked the doorway, his face dark. “Alice, what do you mean by this? Your mom is still sick, and you want to leave?” When I ignored him, Harris started trying to appeal to my feelings. “Alice, we know you’ve had it hard, but we didn’t have any choice either.” “You can’t bear to see Thompson get hurt, can you? Your mom did all this for the family, so…” I cut him off. “She did it for the family, so she can treat me like trash she can throw away whenever she wants?” “For the family, she could lie to me for three years, use me as a free bone marrow bank and an ATM?” Harris’s face went white, then red, and he couldn’t say a word. In the living room, my mom began screaming and crying like a madwoman. “Alice! Why is my life so bitter! Why did I give birth to you!” “Your poor dad didn’t want you after the divorce, and I was the one who raised you!” “Now that I’m sick and need you to save my life, you want to abandon me. Your conscience has been eaten by a dog!” If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, I almost would have believed her again. Because of her so-called “raising me,” I had hated my biological father for more than ten years and was willing to be invisible in this family. But her “raising me” was nothing more than making me sleep in a storage room, eat leftovers, and endure my stepfather’s cold stares.
I slung the woven sack over my shoulder, pushed Harris out of the way, and went straight outside. He tried to stop me, but the strength I had built up from years of working at the construction site was nothing to laugh at. When my mom saw that, she stopped crying too. Without looking back, I left that house. Now I had to go to the hospital. Over the past three years, every physical exam report I had ever gotten had been taken away by them under the excuse that it was “easier for the doctor to keep track of things.” I needed to make sure they hadn’t tampered with my body without me knowing. Just as I reached the hospital entrance, I saw Thompson. He was dressed head to toe in designer clothes, with the latest limited-edition sneakers on his feet, chatting and laughing with a few friends. When he saw me, the smile on his face immediately turned to disgust. “Well, well, if it isn’t my brick-carrying construction worker sister, Alice?” His friends burst out laughing. “Thompson, this is the idiot sister you were talking about? She worked herself into looking like a beggar just to get your mom treated.” “That’s so touching, too bad she’s just a sucker.” Thompson looked smug and walked up to me, fanning the gray, dusty fabric of my clothes with his hand. “Hey, you’d better go back obediently, or else you’re going to regret it.” I sneered, “I’m waiting. Let’s see what you can do.” Thompson was furious and grabbed my arm. “Alice, don’t push your luck! I’m telling you, you’re just a dog our family raised. I tell you what to do, and you do it!” Just then, my mom and Harris also came running over. Seeing us struggling, my mom immediately rushed up and, without even thinking, slapped me across the face. With a crisp, loud smack. “You ungrateful brat! How dare you lay a hand on Thompson!” She pointed at my nose and started shouting outside the hospital. “Everybody come look! This unfilial daughter has a mother with leukemia and doesn’t care at all, and now she’s even trying to hit her little brother!” “I worked so hard to raise her, and this is how she repays me! I might as well die!” While crying and screaming, she even started to lunge toward a pillar nearby.
The crowd around us immediately gathered in, pointing fingers at me. “How can she be like that? Look how pitiful her mom is.” “She looks pretty strong, so why is her heart so cruel?” “Today’s young people really have no conscience.” I covered my burning cheek and stared coldly at this ugly family of three in front of me. The cursing from around us rose and fell in waves, and I couldn’t go head-on against them. I grabbed my mom’s arm. “Don’t smash into anything. I’m out of money.” I pulled an empty card out of my woven sack. “There’s still three hundred thousand in this card.” “This is the last ‘life-saving money’ I prepared for you.” “I asked around. There’s a coworker at the construction site whose wife also has leukemia. He said the bone marrow transplant and follow-up treatment cost at least one million.” “I don’t have that much, so I really can’t do anything.” I spoke sincerely, with just the right amount of guilt and helplessness in my eyes. My mom immediately stopped throwing a fit and instead grabbed my hand. “Alice, I know you’ve done your best. I don’t blame you.” She wiped the corner of her eye, where there weren’t any tears at all, and her voice turned incredibly gentle. “If the money isn’t enough, we’ll think of something else. You’re my only hope.” “As long as you listen obediently and give me your bone marrow, I’ll be saved.” Harris also chimed in beside her. “Yeah, Alice, we’ll figure out the money. You just need to take care of your body first. The match is what matters most.” I nodded, pretending I had been persuaded. “Okay, then let’s go get the old physical exam reports first and let the doctor take another look. I want to see whether my condition is actually suitable for donation.” What I said made perfect sense, and they didn’t doubt me. When I finally got that thick stack of physical exam reports, my heart settled. Every single report showed that all my numbers were shockingly good. Healthy, strong, the perfect bone marrow donor. They really went to a lot of trouble for this. To get to this day, they must have spent a huge amount of effort!
“Alice, since the reports are fine, let’s go do the match right now!” My mom urged me impatiently, afraid I might change my mind. I held the stack of reports and shook my head. “Mom, not yet.” “What do you mean, not yet?” My mom’s face instantly fell. I put on a troubled expression. “I… I know a boss. He said if I can have dinner with him, he might be willing to lend me seven hundred thousand.” As soon as I said that, my mom and Harris both stared. Seven hundred thousand! For them, that was not a small amount. My mom immediately grabbed my hand and asked urgently, “Really? Which boss? Can we trust him?” Harris also looked tense. “Alice, you can’t joke about this. Don’t get tricked by someone.” He sounded righteous, like he was truly worried about me. I sneered inwardly, but on my face I wore the innocent look of someone inexperienced in the world. “I don’t know if he’s reliable either, but this is the only way I have.” “He said he’d treat me to dinner at SKY tonight, and then he’d give me the money.” SKY was the most exclusive private club in the city, with per-person spending so high it was outrageous. When my mom heard the name, the doubt on her face instantly turned into complete belief. Anyone who could treat people there had to be somebody important. “Good! Alice, you have to go!” She rubbed her hands excitedly. “This is my life on the line! You have to seize this chance!” “But… how can you go dressed like this?” She looked me over with disgust. “You need to change into something decent. You can’t leave a bad impression on the boss.” Without giving me a chance to refuse, she dragged me to the mall. For once, she bought me a white dress, and she even bought me a pair of high heels. In the mirror, after the grime on my face was washed away and I put on clean clothes, I actually looked a little delicate. It was just that my feet, used to sneakers, really weren’t used to the confinement of high heels. My mom looked at me in the mirror and nodded with satisfaction. “Now you look presentable.” She instructed me, “Alice, be clever tonight. You have to get that money.” “For me, even if you suffer a little, you need to endure it, understand?” I nodded, pretending I was a obedient puppet. At night, I arrived at the entrance of SKY at the agreed time. I knew that right now, my mom and the others were hiding somewhere nearby, waiting for me to bring back that seven hundred thousand.
The club was glittering and luxurious, and even the doormen at the entrance wore crisp uniforms. I stood at the door in my ill-fitting high heels and had no intention of going in. My mom and Harris were already anxious like ants on a hot pan. Just then, a black Rolls-Royce slowly pulled up at the entrance. The door opened, and a middle-aged man in a tailored suit got out. He walked straight toward me. My mom and Harris, hiding in the shadows, nearly had their eyes pop out. “Miss, I’m Mr. Stewart’s driver. He asked me to come get you first. He’s gone to prepare a gift for you and will be here soon.” I nodded. “No rush. I’ll wait for him here.” Seeing that we still weren’t going in, my mom couldn’t hold back anymore and rushed out from the corner. “What are you acting so high and mighty for! The boss is already here, so hurry up and go serve him!” As she spoke, she pushed me forward hard, her face stacked with a flattering smile as she turned to the driver. “Boss, please don’t mind her! This girl has never seen the world. I’ll teach her a lesson for you!” My stepfather also rushed over in a flurry, rubbing his hands together, his face full of panic. “Yeah, Alice, hurry up and greet the boss! Don’t offend a VIP!” The driver was confused by the whole scene and looked at them with open disgust. “Who are you people? Move aside!” My mom froze for a second and only thought the driver was putting on airs. The smile on her face got even wider. “Boss, you’re really funny! I’m her biological mother, so she has to listen to me!” My mom gave me wild looks, trying to signal me, but I didn’t budge. She lost her patience and raised her hand to slap me hard across the face. My cheek instantly swelled up. “I raised you for nothing! I asked you to have dinner with the boss, and you’re already giving me attitude? What good are you!” The next second, she turned to the driver again, and her face changed from vicious to sycophantic in an instant. “Boss, don’t take it personally!” “I’m her mother, so give the seventy thousand straight to me! What does a little girl like her know anyway!” “As long as the money’s in place, let alone having dinner with you, she can even sleep with you!” The driver’s face instantly turned ashen, and he was about to explode. A furious voice came from behind him. “What do you think you’re doing to my daughter?”
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