Before Easter, my father passed away unexpectedly.

In the group chat, my father-in-law Frank Richter said that his family had a rule that son-in-laws and children couldn’t go to pay tribute.

He was clearly saying that to me.

But my father died because he fell from the scaffolding while building a house for the Richter family.

I couldn’t tolerate this at all, [Fuck. Just wait for my father to talk to you tonight.]

——

In order to bring my father's ashes back to our hometown for Easter, I was still catching up with my work when I got home in the past few days. Finally, I finished my work and took out my phone to watch videos of my father when he was alive.

I saw that the [Lovey-Dovey Family] group chat, which was usually silent, was very lively now.

The group chat consisted of relatives from my husband's family. I didn't want to open it, but I found that someone mentioned me.

I didn't expect to be furious when I opened it.

Frank forwarded a link with the following text, [In our Richter family, son-in-law and children must not visit the in-laws' grave. It will bring bad luck to the Richter family. Moreover, your father's death is unnatural and has negative energy. I suggest you don't go either. After all, you are a member of our Richter family. It will affect everyone's luck to be associated with a dead person. It's not reasonable. @Yvonne]

I clicked on the link and quickly browsed through the whole article. The general idea was that after I married, I would have to follow the rules of my in-laws.

Scrolling down, the chat records were filled with cheers and support.

It was like they had all lost their memories, forgetting that my dad fell to his death in order to build the Richter family's ancestral home!

I suppressed my anger and pushed open the door of Frank's room, "Dad, if you have any opinions, just tell me privately. There's no need to mention it in the group."

Frank snorted, "Hmph, we are a family. What can't be seen openly by everyone?"

I patiently said, "Others don't know, but you know how my dad died."

Frank looked at his phone and glanced at me sideways, "How did he die? Isn't it because of his own carelessness? I didn't say anything about him dirtying our ancestral house. How dare your family want my son and granddaughter to visit his grave? No way!"

Violet Richter didn't even lift her head, "Yvonne, since we've come to this point, let's talk about it today. Don't act like the Richter family owes you money. Your father came to work for us, and we paid him. If we didn't pity him, how could we give him this lucrative job? Who knew he would be so careless?"

She waved her hand several times in disgust.

I was filled with anger, and tears fell involuntarily.

My dad used to be a well-known tile worker in the county, but later he injured his waist and had less work.

Other workers at least charged 500 dollars a day, but my dad worked for the Richter family for more than 20 days and only asked for 1000 dollars.

I felt sorry for my dad, but my dad persuaded me, "We are all family, it doesn't matter if they don’t pay me, as long as they treat you well!"

But even until he died, my in-laws never treated him as a family.

Even I was an insignificant and easily manipulated object to them.

I gritted my teeth and said, "Felix Richter can choose not to go, but Stella must go. That's her grandfather!"

After saying that, I hurried back to the room, thinking about how to tell Felix about this while my phone rang again.

Frank, [I'm useless now that I'm old. My words are not important in the eyes of my children and grandchildren. Felix, if you want to go, just go. Don't worry about our life and death.]

Aunt, Olive Richter, [Brother, you are too cowardly. How dare your daughter-in-law offend you? According to reason, a married girl is a member of the in-laws. You shouldn’t interfere in the affairs of your original family. Do you teach her a lesson? @Violet]

Violet, [Yvonne won’t listen to us. We can't intervene. Everyone, let's turn the page on this matter. Stop talking about it.]

Olive, [I can't tolerate. How dare they compete with us for land?]

Uncle Jack Richter came out to mediate, [Olive, watch your words.]

Competing for land?

Oh.

I finally realized that they didn't want Felix to go back with me, not because of any custom, but because they didn't want him to pay for my dad's burial.

If it were before, I would definitely be so angry that I would cry.

After all, as a housewife for ten years, I had to ask my husband for every penny.

They simply thought that if they stopped Felix from going back with me, it would be difficult for my dad to be buried, and Olive would be able to get a free burial plot as she wished.

But now, I had a job and had just received a bonus of 200,000 dollars for outstanding performance, enough to bury my dad.

I figured it out and realized their plan should have started when my father just passed away.

That day, I was called back home by a phone call from Felix.

He said that my father, because of irregularities in operation, fell from a scaffolding more than six meters high, smashed right on the rebar and died on the spot.

I rushed back in a muddle. Just as I arrived at his ancestral home, I saw a body lying on the ground, with a piece of rag casually thrown on it.

My legs went weak and I fell onto my father, tears uncontrollably streaming down my face.

The shoes he was wearing were the ones I bought him ten years ago.

My mother passed away early, and he was frugal. If not for the fact that his shoes were so rotten that he could only wear them with a rope, he would never wear the shoes I bought out to work.

I couldn’t understand why my father, who had always been careful when working, fell from the scaffolding and became a corpse, when he was just video chatting with his granddaughter a moment ago.

My house was not far from Felix's house. We had known each other since childhood.

I set up a makeshift memorial hall at home for my father. With tears in my eyes, I changed his shoes and clothes. Before I could recover from the grief, the harsh laughter of Olive came from a distance.

"Jacob, everything we are thinking of will happen. Now your father's grave is settled."

Jacob was the son of Olive. His father passed away due to illness a year ago. The Richter family cemetery was already full, so they could only buy a neighboring grave from another family for burial.

Although Jacob had been working outside for many years, he was getting poorer and poorer every year, and his father had not yet been buried.

Therefore, they had selected my family's cemetery on the west side, and wanted to directly ask for the one belonging to my father. Although my father was generous, he was very resistant to this matter.

He refused Olive's request, using the reason that he wanted to be buried in the ancestral grave after he died.

I thought that after another two years, Olive would naturally give up on this idea. But I never expected that my father would suddenly pass away.

Before I could even think about Olive’s words, she had already come to me with her phone in hand.

She condescended to me, "Your father didn’t have a son, so he cannot be buried in the ancestral grave. It's a good idea to let Jacob’s father be buried there."

Without even waiting for my response, she was already discussing with her son about the style of the tombstone, as if everything had been settled.

My anger suddenly erupted. I stood up and grabbed her collar, shouting, "You crazy bitch! Where do you come from?"

Olive did not expect the usually weak me to react vehemently.

She was surprised, "Yvonne, you are from the Richter family. Why are you siding with others?"

My father just passed away and I didn’t want to argue with anyone in front of him. I just coldly said, "Since the land is allocated to our family by the village, my father can be buried here. As for you, you are clearly an outsider. Get out of my house! You are not welcome here!"

As I said that, I pushed her out and slammed the door shut with a loud 'bang'.

She was so angry that she stomped her feet outside the door, and my in-laws were too embarrassed to face me.

Both of them looked displeased and said, "Then where should your uncle be buried? Poor man. He has been dead for over a year and still can't rest in peace. You are causing trouble!"

I didn't show any weakness, "This has nothing to do with me. You don’t have to talk to me."

My in-laws also angrily stormed out and cursed me. I didn't bother to listen. I just treated it as if they were all talking nonsense.

I guessed it was that time that made them collectively come up with this bad idea.

Seeing that I had completely deteriorated the relationship with them, I abandoned my plan to call Felix and started typing.

Me, [Your family has a son. But you are still taking advantage of our Granger family. I wonder if you married uncle into our family as the husband of my great-grandmother who died over ninety years ago.]

Me, [It's will soon be the Easter. Is Jacob still planning to hide from his debts and not come back? He has money to gamble but not to bury his father. What a joke.]

Me, [Why do you like sleeping in other people's graveyards? Have you been a widow for too long and gone crazy with desire? @Olive]

The group fell silent for two minutes.

Then Olive sent a 59-second voice message of curse.

Jack, [Yvonne, have you not received any education? You have no manners!]

Me, [Does she deserve my manners? She laughed and joked in my father’s funeral parlor. If it weren't for the fact that my father had just died, I would have slapped her in the face.]

Frank couldn't sit still, [Yvonne, if your father knew that you became so mean even after he passed away, how heartbroken he would be?]

Me, [If Uncle knew that you six or seven households couldn't pay for the 50,000-dollar grave, how heartbroken he would be?]

Jacob, who had disappeared, suddenly came out, [Exactly, Uncle, why don't you pay for my father’s grave? If you rely on me to make money, my dad will never be buried. @Frank @Jack]

Frank seemed dumbfounded and suddenly became silent.

My husband, Felix, suddenly appeared, [I received hundreds of unread messages. Yvonne, are you crazy? Or did someone mistakenly send it from your phone? @Yvonne]

He also sent me a private message, [Say it was sent by someone else. I'm tired. Don't look for trouble.]

The anger in my heart grew even more and I felt sad for my past self.

I also obtained a master's degree, but willingly spent ten years being a housewife for Felix just because he said he would support me.

Ten years had transformed him from a greenhorn into a charming middle-aged man.

I, on the other hand, changed from a proud girl to a housewife who was useless in his eyes.

Every day, I either transported the children, or took care of the elderly, or ran to the grocery store and the supermarket to buy cheap food.

Even then I was not treated well. I had to ask their permission when I wanted to send my father on his final journey.

It seemed that my endurance was just a joke in their eyes.

In that case, I had no scruples.

Me, [There is no one else. It's me who sent the messages! My dad lost his life for your family. You must have no shame to not allow me to go back to send him. Do you have a heart disease? Why don’t you have a heart attack when you are dancing with other ladies every day? I think your father is a psychopath!]

The group fell silent for another two minutes.

But Violet jumped out, [Yvonne, what nonsense are you talking about? You should have some self-awareness. After all, you are the daughter-in-law of our Richter family. You only have one father, and that is Frank.]

Felix quickly agreed, [Mom is right. It's unfortunate that my father-in-law died in our house. We also suffered a loss. But you, why do you always have a poke face to us?]

Me, [Sorry, my dad passed away and I'm not in a good mood. It's my first time experiencing this and I have no experience. But when you three die, I will definitely be experienced and happy.]

Violet retired as a teacher. Now she was so angry that she smashed a cup in the next room and started a long speech in a voice message, [Enough, Yvonne. A harmonious family is more important than anything else. When there is a conflict between personal and collective interests, you must sacrifice yourself. This time you should reflect on whether you are too selfish.]

I laughed. Anyone could talk big. When the fire didn't burn her, did she take it as a fireworks?

Me, [Exactly, how about you give 20,000 for Uncle's matter? @Violet]

Olive, [Yes, Violet. We have heard about how you took care of Tessa White. We are so touched. But you should treat my son's father as well as you treat her!]

Tessa claimed to be the daughter of Frank’s father's friend. Her parents passed away early, and she had been raised in the Richter family.

A while ago, Tessa sprained her foot when she danced with Frank and had been staying at my house and being taken care of by Violet.

Violet was in a difficult position and after a while, she just sent an expression.

I didn’t want to watch their performance. I was about to block everyone, but suddenly I felt reluctant.

My in-laws were very honorable on the surface, but behind their backs, they had not stopped gossiping about these relatives.

They wanted to crush me with public opinion, but I could also drown them in the same way.

Just as I was trying hard to recall the bad things they said behind other’s backs, Frank provided me with an excellent revelation.