Chapter 1: Ninety-Nine Calls
When the nurses wheeled my son into the emergency room, they asked me for a one-hundred-thousand-yuan deposit. I held the critical condition notice and called my husband, Gu Mingli. On the ninety-ninth call, he finally answered. "What kind of cough costs a hundred thousand?" "It is acute laryngeal edema. The doctor says he is suffocating." On his end, Lin Shuya laughed softly. "I won the bet. She is using the child as an excuse to get money again." Gu Mingli's voice cooled. "All household expenses must be submitted to Shuya for review. This is an unplanned expense. There is no price comparison and no prior report. She needs time to approve it." I knelt at the payment window and called everyone I knew. No one could produce a hundred thousand in ten minutes. My bank card had long been frozen and controlled by Gu Mingli. I could not even take a temporary loan. I sent him the documents again. An hour later he replied: "If you want money, follow the process." At that moment the doctor came out of the emergency room. "The child was severely deprived of oxygen when he arrived. We could not save him. I am sorry." I held Guoguo in the morgue all night. At dawn I took out my phone, numb, and made a list: cremation, funeral, cemetery plot. I compared prices for every item and kept every receipt. I was waiting for Gu Mingli to come home and approve it one last time.