North Family Letters

Boundless selfishness destroys family ties.

The third sister never felt she had done anything wrong. Instead, she wrapped her greed in the guise of "filial piety" and peddled it everywhere, placing her own interests a thousand times more important than blood ties.

With most of her savings in her pocket, she enjoyed all the benefits and lived a comfortable life, never once thinking of showing any consideration for her sisters, nor showing any remorse. Not long after, she secretly took all of her father's wooden wardrobe, which he had used for half his life, a nice set of purple clay teaware, and several unopened silk quilts—which had been agreed to be shared among her sisters as keepsakes—while her eldest and second eldest sisters were not at home, and drove them all back to her own home.

When the fourth sister rushed over after hearing the news, the house had already been emptied, leaving only some broken stools, old quilts, and other worthless odds and ends. The third sister sat in the main room, wiping the purple clay tea set with a clear conscience. When she saw the fourth sister arrive, she didn't feel guilty at all. Instead, she rolled her eyes and said in a sarcastic tone, "These things are just collecting dust. I can use them if I take them back. It's better than them sitting idle here. Besides, I've served Father for so long. These junks are not worth the sleepless nights and exhaustion I've endured."

"Junk?" Fourth Sister trembled with rage, her voice shaking. "This is the last thing Father left behind, not for you to take and keep for yourself! You took the savings, you took the gold jewelry, and now you won't even leave these old things behind. Do you have no heart at all?"

The third sister slammed her teacup on the table, the porcelain clattering loudly. She immediately adopted a tantrum, yelling, "I'm heartless? You're all heartless? When Father was bedridden, who stayed by his side every day? Who brought him medicine and bathed him? You all just stand there talking without understanding the situation, and now you're trying to take my old things? Where were you all before? Let me tell you, everything Father left behind is mine, and no one can touch it!"

She completely disregarded sisterly affection, talking only about her own sacrifices and taking everything she asked for for granted. Xiaoman rushed over upon hearing the news, but seeing the empty house and her third sister's self-righteous face, she was utterly heartbroken. She didn't want to say another word, so she just grabbed her fourth sister and turned to leave. Behind them, she could still hear her third sister cursing and swearing, calling them stingy and jealous.

What's even more despicable is that the third sister continues to play the role of a dutiful daughter outside. Whenever she meets neighbors, relatives, or elders, she cries and complains about how she painstakingly cared for her seriously ill father, how she spent all her savings to treat him, and how her sisters were all cold and selfish, trying to take away their father's inheritance from her. She portrays herself as a victim who has suffered all kinds of injustices and has to bear everything alone.

She deliberately concealed the truth about medical insurance reimbursement, exaggerating the few hundred yuan she paid out of pocket into tens of thousands, portraying occasional care as tireless work day and night, calling her sisters' forbearance as weakness, and her own greed as filial piety. Those unsuspecting relatives were actually fooled, all advising their fourth sister, Xiaoman, to be sensible and understanding of their third sister's hard work. This only earned Xiaoman and her fourth sister a reputation for being unfilial and unjust, leaving them full of grievances with nowhere to turn.

When her eldest and second eldest sisters heard about her moving things and spreading rumors, they completely gave up any remaining hope. The eldest sister shut herself off from visitors and refused to see any of her sisters again, while the second sister moved to another city and refused to return for holidays. It wasn't that they didn't want to fight back; they had seen through their third sister's boundless selfishness and knew that no amount of arguing could awaken her conscience, and no amount of affection could fill the hole of her greed.

The third sister, watching her sisters leave one by one, felt no remorse whatsoever. Instead, she felt they were in the wrong, that they were jealous of her. She continued to guard her money and possessions, living a comfortable life, even occasionally calculating whether her father had left anything behind that could be exchanged for money. In her eyes, blood ties were merely a pretext for profit, and filial piety was just an excuse to cover up selfishness. As long as she could gain an advantage and hold onto the things, she could throw all sisterly affection and her father's wishes to the wind.

The once lively and harmonious family was completely torn apart by her insatiable greed, selfishness, and cold-heartedness. The bond between the six sisters was gradually ripped apart and crushed, never to be pieced back together. That 100,000 yuan savings became a thorn in everyone's heart, and the third sister's actions ensured that this thorn could never be removed, becoming a lifelong, unresolved enmity. Family ties crumbled completely before her selfish desires. Greed could not be concealed, and sophistry could not hide her selfishness.

In his later years, my father's health deteriorated, and he could no longer walk. He relied entirely on my third sister's house to recuperate. Firstly, my third sister's house was close to the hospital, and secondly, my sisters felt sorry for her and took the initiative to discuss letting my father live there. They relied heavily on her for daily care, and agreed that my father's pension would be temporarily entrusted to her for safekeeping to cover his daily medical expenses and food and drink expenses, with any overpayment refunded and any underpayment supplemented.

But who would have thought that this handover would become the excuse for the third sister to monopolize the money? Father's pension bank card and retirement subsidy receipt book were in her hands from beginning to end. She made all the decisions about withdrawing money and spending it, and never reported the accounts to her sisters. Even when her father asked how much his pension was and where it was spent, she would be vague and say that the money was all spent on medicine or that daily expenses were high, and she would brush her father off with a few words.

My father was frugal his whole life. His pension and veteran's allowance were not small. After deducting the cost of medicine and food, there should have been a lot of money left over. However, my third sister secretly pocketed all of this money to supplement our own family's income and buy things for her son. She didn't spend a single penny more on my father. Instead, she complained to others every day that she was poor and that she was spending money to take care of her father and that life was hard.

Fourth Sister and Xiaoman had long harbored suspicions, but out of sisterly affection and considering that their father was staying with her, they were unwilling to confront her directly. Instead, they whispered among themselves that Third Sister was probably using their father's retirement money for personal gain and secretly embezzling the old man's pension.

Before he knew it, his third sister, who was visiting, overheard him.

She immediately flew into a rage, kicking open the door and standing in the middle of the room, pointing her finger at her fourth sister and Xiaoman, launching into a tirade. Her face showed no remorse, only the grievance of being wronged and her arrogance: "You two heartless bastards, gossiping about me behind my back? Saying I embezzled Dad's retirement pension? I think you're just bored and deliberately trying to smear me!"

Fourth Sister, not expecting her to overhear, stopped trying to cover it up and stood up to question her: "We're not lying. Dad's monthly pension is so much; he can't possibly spend it all except for medicine and food. You never tell me where the money goes. What else could it be but embezzlement?"

Upon hearing this, the third sister jumped up and down, arguing loudly and insisting that she hadn't embezzled a single penny. She even turned the tables, saying, "Retirement pension? What can that little bit of money even be called money? What can it do? Dad needs to take medicine every day, and he needs to eat good food to nourish his body. Household utilities, grocery shopping, hiring temporary caregivers—everything costs money. That little bit of retirement pension isn't even enough to cover these expenses. I've even had to contribute a lot of my own savings. I'm already being lenient by not asking you to share the burden, and yet you accuse me of embezzlement? You're really ungrateful!"

"You clearly have a surplus, but you're just hiding the money!" Xiaoman retorted angrily, her eyes red.

The third sister, however, remained unyielding, her neck stiff, her face displaying a self-righteous selfishness: "Surplus? I think you're all money-hungry! Dad eats and lives at my house, I serve him day and night, I'm so tired I can't even sleep well. That little bit of money is just my hard-earned reward; it's not enough for me to use anyway, why should I share it? I didn't embezzle, not a single penny. If you want to blame someone, blame Dad's pension for being too small, don't come looking for trouble with me!"

She insisted that her father's pension was meager and far from enough to cover his living expenses, completely absolving herself of any responsibility for her embezzlement. She used her supposed duty of supporting her father as leverage to extort money. Despite having her father's retirement funds in her pocket, she acted as if she had suffered greatly and selflessly sacrificed for him. She was selfish to the core, showing no regard for sisterly affection and utterly disregarding her elderly father lying in the inner room, silently weeping. Deep down, there was no warmth left in her heart.