"But owing so much money, it just doesn't make sense!"

Hela adjusted her posture and spoke with grave sincerity. "Mother in law, as her mother, you really should get to the bottom of this."

"There's such a thing?" Ruth looked genuinely surprised, her acting utterly convincing.

Hela brought out a bag she had with her. Upon opening it, it was full of jewelry boxes.

She then said, "Mother in law, to be perfectly honest, when Nancy got married, the 'Three Golds', including the gold jewelry given by relatives, were worth nearly 10,000 dollars."

"I heard she sold some of it before. What's left with me is only worth about 5,000 dollars now."

"She even sold the gold jewelry?" Ruth took the bag and looked inside, exclaiming with a convincingly shocked expression.

Daniel stopped pretending at this point and stated bluntly, "Mom, occasionally when I maxed out my credit cards, my parents paid them off. I also received living expenses. But Nancy spends so extravagantly all the time, that when she couldn't cover it before, she sold the gold jewelry."

"If she was just lazy at home, fine, I could support that. But I can't stand her constant comparing herself to others all the time."

The atmosphere was so tense you could cut it with a knife. The six people at the table had barely picked up their chopsticks ten times before the battle lines were drawn. It was truly a spectacle.

Nancy sneered coldly. "Is that so? All the cigarettes and things I bought for you might as well have been fed to a dog."

"Wife, you should drink more of this soup, it is very nourishing!" Luis simply tended to his wife while also watching the drama unfold. Lily knew his confrontational skills weren't strong, so it was best not to hold him back. The couple shared a tacit smile, filled with tender affection.

"Since they got married, they haven't held proper jobs. We've been subsidizing their water, electricity, gas, and living expenses. Nancy hasn't found a steady job either. She occasionally talks about part time work, but it never earns much money."

"We wouldn't dare to boast, but let's just say we're neither rich nor poor. Even without working, we could support them."

Daniel's face turned stern. "We are discussing the significant debts you've accumulated right now."

Hela also spoke with apparent sincerity. "Mother in law, to be frank, Daniel's father and I are currently a bit short on funds ourselves. Regarding this matter, you will need to provide the support yourselves. I've brought the remaining gold jewelry here."

"More than that I cannot manage, but I can scrape together twenty or thirty thousand dollars..."

Twenty or thirty thousand dollars was likely a significant sum for Daniel and Nancy, but for her, it was absolutely not. This was purely meant to be insulting.

It was almost like pointing a finger and shouting, 'What kind of daughter have you raised? A useless vase, lazy and greedy, buried in debt, and she had the audacity to expose my shortcomings first.'

"Nancy, how could you possibly owe so much money?" Ruth's acting was superb, immediately switching to a look of bitter disappointment directed at Nancy.

Although she had little prior information, Luis had already started serving his beloved wife more food. His calm demeanor was enough to bolster her confidence.

Nancy simply moved to sit between the two of them, snorted haughtily, and said, "I told you it was a scam text message. I may not have a regular job, but the money I earn from part time work means I at least have some savings."

"Then how do you explain this?" Daniel produced his compiled list of incriminating evidence: the various lending platforms and the amounts owed.

Nancy looked at him with a cold sneer, took out her phone, opened Whatsapp, and said, "Mother in law, the WetLoan is about twenty thousand dollars, correct?"

She opened the corresponding app interface. Daniel leaned in to look and was dumbfounded.

Forget the credit limit or outstanding balance; the function itself had been deactivated. Meaning, without even having a credit line, it was impossible to have borrowed money.

"Impossible! Then there's also..." Daniel began to panic as he saw this.

For each platform he named, Nancy opened the corresponding app right in front of her mother and mother in law. Every single online lending platform showed its services deactivated.

If there was an outstanding debt, you couldn't close the account. Or, if it wasn't activated, you couldn't borrow money in the first place.

"Impossible, impossible! You have credit cards! I've seen those credit card statements!"

Nancy directly opened her credit card app and showed the screen to her mother in law, Hela.

Daniel immediately exploded. "This one I know! This one has the most debt, over forty thousand dollars!!"

"You bastard!!" Hela was also furious because the screen showed a zero balance owed, with an available credit limit of forty five thousand dollars.

Daniel snatched the phone away, staring at it while saying, "This can't be right! I saw her take out many loans!"

"Nancy, what is going on? You've been borrowing money?" Ruth was already feeling reassured by now, but the performance had to continue, so she asked immediately.

"Nonsense, if I had to rely on him and his parents begging for food, I would have starved to death long ago. I'm not some frumpy housewife, at least I need to buy cosmetics and things like that."

Nancy was now holding her head high with pride, scolding, "Those part-time gigs as an etiquette hostess are exhausting, standing all day. He comes home, plays games, then goes out drinking at night. I had to start my own little business, otherwise if his parents stopped supporting us, I'd literally starve to death."

Hearing this, Daniel's face turned particularly ugly.

Nancy was even more blunt, "Mother-in-law, only country bumpkins with no looks have to put up with that kind of hardship. You spend more on cosmetics than I do, you should understand me."

"That was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!"

Hela became somewhat flustered, probably not expecting a scene like this.

Daniel was completely furious, slamming the table and yelling, "You pig-brained idiot, what business are you running? Doing multi-level marketing like your mom, pushing these fake red wines, right? You'll be lucky if you don't lose your shirt."

This was too much, even Hela felt it was excessive; you shouldn't say such things, even when drunk and causing trouble.

Ruth sneered coldly but didn't speak. This shrew not speaking was somehow even more intimidating.

Nancy was no longer holding back either, lashing out, "Daniel, you're just picking a fight, aren't you? You can't even talk properly, and now you're insulting my mom? How much money did my mom's multi-level marketing ever cost you?"

"It's fine, his family's upbringing is probably just like that."

"After all, what kind of son-in-law comes for a New Year's visit bringing two bags of bulk fruit? Even a live-in son-in-law spends a few thousand on gifts."

The atmosphere froze into an icy silence with that one sentence. Luis looked at his wife Lily with new respect.

Usually such a quiet person, but when she finally spoke, her soft, gentle words could cut deep. She never spoke unless it was shocking.

Hela's expression was already extremely ugly, but she still pulled Daniel down to sit, angrily saying, "Shut up! How can you speak to your mother-in-law like that?"

It proved her authority was still strong; after all, she controlled Daniel's financial lifeline, so her word carried weight.

Hela took a deep breath, immediately adopting a tone of concerned elder, "Nancy, then why did you sell the gold jewelry?"

"Money isn't easy to come by these days. It's easier to build a fortune than to keep it. Never mind making it grow, just preserving its value is an achievement. Gold is the best for preserving value right now, why sell it off just like that?"

It was clear she wasn't giving up, planning to attack from a different angle.

"Oh, that sold for five thousand dollars!"

Nancy was completely unfazed, and started fiddling with her phone again. This made Hela's heart sink.

Then Nancy pulled up a transfer record and showed it, saying, "This one thousand dollars, Daniel said it was for a friend transferring a set of game equipment, that he could make at least three to five hundred off it."

"But I never saw that three or five hundred, didn't even see the original one thousand dollar principal back."

She had spent the whole night cleaning up her phone, keeping all the useful information and resolving all the bank collection notices.

Hela's face darkened as soon as she saw it. Daniel quickly explained, "Mom, that equipment is all in my account. It's still worth that much if I sell it now, the appreciation just wasn't as much as I thought."

The excuse was pathetic; it was obvious he'd just spent the money on game gear and lied to his wife.

"And the remaining money?"

Hela asked again.

Ruth knew it was her time to step in. She immediately furrowed her delicate brows and asked, "Mother-in-law, your family isn't that hard up, is it?"

This was a direct attack. Hela was stunned for a moment, then forced a smile and said, "Mother-in-law, what kind of talk is that?"

Ruth was not holding back at all now, "We sold it for five thousand dollars, spent over a thousand on your son. Your family didn't give a betrothal gift, and we didn't say anything."

"But I didn't marry my daughter off to be a slave or a servant in your house. Why the inquisition over this bit of gold jewelry?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.