"Three thousand dollars, is it going to kill your family, or did you spend a fortune on it?"

"If you can't afford a wife, just say so. Why are you lecturing her as if my daughter stole your money?"

Ruth, this shrew, was eloquent to begin with, and now, having the moral high ground, her output was devastatingly effective:

"Mother-in-law, that's not how you should put it. What woman would sell her own jewelry unless she was truly desperate?"

"If Daniel were more capable, my daughter wouldn't have to do this."

The words were deeply offensive, yet they weren't baseless. Hela gritted her teeth and said, "Mother-in-law, I didn't mean it that way. You said yourself it was her nest egg. I just wanted to show I care about them."

Ruth wasn't having any of it, firing back immediately, "Mother-in-law, parents show they care by spending money and effort, not just with empty words. If you truly cared, you'd have known where Daniel spent that over a thousand dollars long ago."

"It's for game equipment! It's still worth that much if I sell it now!"

Seeing his mother losing ground repeatedly, Daniel's anger flared, "And her? Where did that over three thousand dollars go? All those bottles and jars of cosmetics?"

"Since when do you control how I spend my money? How amusing."

Nancy smiled, raised her wrist, and said, "Mom, how much is this worth? The receipt is here, see for yourself."

The Summer Cicada series bracelet worth over three thousand dollars perfectly explained it away.

Daniel's face changed, and he immediately said, "No, that's your mother's..."

Ruth raised her own hand and took Lily's hand, saying speechlessly, "We're wearing ours."

Lily even added, "Brother-in-law, one bracelet is enough. It's not like you're practicing Iron Wire Fist, you don't need to wear so many."

Lily's follow-up strikes were exceptionally precise. Normally, one would only buy one bracelet; who would have thought Luis bought two specifically to suck up.

Hela's face was now full of helplessness. She said softly, "Nancy, what made you think of buying this?"

"That old jewelry was too tacky, I didn't want to wear it anymore. I thought I'd buy something nice."

Nancy said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Mother-in-law, gold holds its value. I just spent a little on the craftsmanship fee. What's the problem?"

"Well, you should have said so earlier, to avoid misunderstandings!"

Hela was mortified, feeling she had lost all face.

At the very least, everyone now knew the Daniels family's contemptuous attitude. Ruth naturally wouldn't let the opportunity slip, immediately adding,

"Mother-in-law, what exactly is wrong with your Daniel? He doesn't earn money himself, yet he spends it on games."

"I won't comment on other things, but if it were me, I certainly wouldn't agree to this. Besides, the over three thousand dollars came from selling her own jewelry. What's with the endless interrogation? It's not his money."

"Even if your son mortgaged or sold the house, my daughter wouldn't have the right to question it, would she?"

After this barrage, Hela felt utterly miserable, glaring fiercely at her son. This was completely different from what he had said before they came.

Daniel was already furious with humiliation. He suddenly pulled out another envelope and said, "Then what about this lawyer's letter?"

Nancy did not even glance at it. She directly tossed the contract to her mother-in-law, Hela, with a clever, radiant smile. "Mother, see for yourself!"

Her attitude was so detached that Hela instead grew timid. Not daring to open the contract, she asked, "What is the meaning of this?"

"Your son does not earn money, and you support him. I earn my own money and encountered some trouble. I did not want to worry you all. Who knew he would make such a tremendous fuss over nothing."

"As a husband, he is not only useless in helping, but now he is here causing more trouble. He is truly a piece of work."

Nancy now spoke lightly, yet her presence was overwhelmingly powerful. She stated directly, "All he knows is eating, drinking, and having fun. Mother-in-law, you ought to know that a lawyer's letter is just a worthless piece of paper."

"Bullshit! It says right here that you have to pay tens of thousands!" Daniel immediately spat out, exasperated.

Nancy looked at him with utter contempt. "My apologies, but I have sued them as well. A few thousand is a conservative figure; you could write it as hundred of thousands. The real question is whether the court will support such a claim."

Hela felt a wave of weakness wash over her. Looking at her son, red-faced with shame and anger, she suddenly felt very angry herself.

Ruth suddenly let out a sigh and said, "Mother-in-law, if you look down on us, you can say it directly. There is no need to find so many excuses."

"Mother-in-law, you misunderstand me. I am also a parent; I do not mean that at all," Hela quickly said, resorting to polite, formal words.

"Last time, when the two children ended up at the police station, I thought you came to apologize as you said. Instead, you came to pick faults with our family."

Ruth, now holding the upper hand, immediately adopted a tone of helplessness. "Well then, you and Daniel should ponder what other faults you can possibly voice."

"He hit his wife, and yet he comes here saying these things. Bullying our family is not done this way."

"Mother, please say no more about this." Lily's follow-up strike was particularly sharp. "Their family upbringing might be like gold and jade on the outside, but rotten within. Showing up empty-handed with New Year greetings for the mother-in-law's family, only to express disdain upon arrival. After beating his wife, he fabricates stories and comes to our door to make trouble."

"Look down on our family? But I have never seen our elder brother-in-law buy anything for you. Perhaps he is too poor and has spent all his money, so he can only come to our house to put on a show."

"The elder son-in-law is less thoughtful than the second son-in-law who married into the family. Even a normal son-in-law from the countryside would not be that shabby." 2

"At the very least, he should bring a couple of local chickens, right? How can he just buy two random bags of fruit downstairs?"

"And as it happens, we know the fruit seller. Those two bags together cost less than 3 dollars, and he still picked the cheapest ones. The humiliation is monumental."

This comment made Hela's face completely lose its composure, her expression shifting between dark and stormy one moment and clear the next.

At that moment, Daniel suddenly stood up, slammed the table, and shouted, "Lily, you ugly woman, shut your mouth for me! You have no sense of respect, who gave you the right to speak?"

"Shut up!" Hela spun around abruptly and slapped Daniel across the face.

The sound was exceptionally sharp and clear. Daniel covered his mouth as he sat down, his face a picture of disbelief. After a moment's thought, he lowered his head again.

But he still roared unwillingly, "Mom, don't listen to her nonsense! She sold all of her own bags! She must have..."

Before he could finish, Nancy sneered, took a newly bought bag from the coat rack beside her, and first placed an invoice in front of her mother-in-law.

"Mother-in-law, even if I sold three bags, they wouldn't be worth much. The ones your son bought for me... well, it seems none are as good as the one you carry, are they?"

Not waiting for Hela to formulate a response, Nancy pointed at the new bag she had bought that day and said, "After selling them, I added my own money to buy a new one. That shouldn't be considered excessive, should it? There's really no need to come here and make an issue out of this."

"This... It's not excessive!" Hela's voice trembled slightly as she spoke.

"Your family spends money on your son. How stressful buying a house is has nothing to do with me. My name isn't on that deed at all."

"Every day he nags at me about how stressful buying a house is. Is he insane? What does that have to do with me? If I had known about Daniel's pile of gambling debts back when we got married, I would never have married him."

"And what's the deal with your son's living expenses? If he gets all the money, then why should I have to beg him for it like a beggar? Am I just a haggard housewife who only needs to avoid starvation each month?"

Nancy completely erupted now. She slammed the table and stood up, saying, "Mother-in-law, are these matters clear now?"

"Clear, clear!" Hela was also startled.

This was the first time Nancy had lost her temper in front of her.

"If it's not clear, it doesn't matter. You didn't contribute a single cent. What does it matter to you whether it's clear or not?"

"Understood. If she really owed 20,000 dollars, how much would you contribute? Have you ever treated my elder sister as part of your family?"

"Changing a bag, changing a piece of gold jewelry, and you all stare like thieves. How poor must you be to be so sensitive?"

With this stab from Lily, Daniel and his mother were suffocated, while the Wood family members were mentally exhilarated.

Luis immediately brought a bowl of clear conch and fish maw soup from the kitchen and scolded mockingly, "Wife, the adults are talking. Don't interrupt."

"Okay, I know~" The couple exchanged a secret chuckle.

Luis appeared to be stopping her, but in reality, he was rewarding her!

The atmosphere fell into a momentary silence. Hela simply did not know what to say.

She had originally intended to speak from a position of moral superiority, but instead found herself rebutted at every turn and was nearly driven mad.

"Daniel, how are we going to account for that slap you gave me?" Nancy asked, her face flushed with anger.

Hela immediately started, "Nancy, husband and wife fight at the head of the bed and make up at the foot. It's normal."

Her words immediately drew dissatisfaction from Ruth.

"That was in the past. Who can tolerate such treatment nowadays? Mother-in-law, look at what happened today. Your son deliberately created all this messy trouble to pick on Nancy, isn't that right?"

"What, if your husband hit you, would you endure it? If it were me, I definitely wouldn't."

"The hitting is done. You came here not to apologize but to say all this. Think for yourself whether there is any sincerity in that."

Hela was also losing patience. "Mother-in-law, then what do you suggest we do?"

"What to do?!" Nancy was a fiery character too. The moment her mother-in-law's words fell, she suddenly stepped forward and slapped Daniel hard across the face.

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