Breaking Free: “You want to make up with your mom? But your conflict has been going on for so long. It’s not something a few words can fix.”
Jiang Tinglan: “I really don’t know how to start.”
As Chen Yuru read this, her throat tightened painfully.
The irritation she had felt toward her daughter just moments ago had now turned entirely into heartache and guilt.
In a parent-child relationship, shouldn’t the adult be the one trying to solve the problem? Yet her daughter had been left to figure it out all on her own!
Her daughter wanted to reconcile with her mother, and that was exactly why someone had managed to exploit her vulnerability again!
She continued reading.
Breaking Free: “Sweetheart, the fact that you can think this way proves your mother hasn’t become completely unreasonable. She truly is someone worth forgiving.”
Breaking Free: “I know a counselor who specializes in repairing parent-child relationships.”
What followed was a long string of seemingly professional-sounding remarks.
The core message was that she must not simply apologize to her mother, because otherwise conflicts would arise again in the future.
She had to enroll in this course if she wanted them to reconcile for good.
Finally, the real purpose emerged: “This course is normally 59,999 yuan, but if you sign up within the next hour, you can get fifty percent off. The course includes a relationship assessment, mother-daughter communication scripts, three private voice consultations, and one family relationship review.”
Jiang Tinglan: “Forget it. I’m not signing up.”
Breaking Free: “That’s okay. It’s fine if you don’t enroll. After all, I don’t make any money from this. I just want to help more children who are as lost as you are.”
Breaking Free: “I can add you to a group first. You can talk with other kids who have had experiences similar to yours.”
Before long, the other person added her to a group called [Intimate Relationship Repair Camp—Members Only].
There were dozens of people in the group.
The moment Jiang Tinglan joined, someone posted:
“After I finished the course, I was finally able to have a proper conversation with my mom for the first time.”
“Forty thousand yuan to get a whole family back! It really isn’t expensive.”
“It is a little expensive, honestly. But after listening to the teacher and focusing on my studies, I realized that the family trauma I’d suffered through for more than ten years could be healed with just forty thousand yuan. Totally worth it!”
Some people had even posted lengthy testimonials.
They described families that were incredibly happy, where everyone respected one another.
That was exactly what Jiang Tinglan wanted at that moment!
There were even people in the group playing the villain: “This course may be useful, but everyone else paid forty thousand yuan to enroll, while I paid sixty thousand. Give me my money back, or I’ll report you!”
The teacher replied, “Those were outstanding students recommended by Teacher Breaking Cocoon. You weren’t recommended by a teacher, so you don’t qualify for the discount.”
Those words gave Jiang Tinglan a sense of being valued, too.
And besides, even the cheapest enrollment fee in the group was forty thousand yuan, while she only had to pay thirty thousand. That had to mean Teacher Breaking Cocoon valued her more.
And so, she signed up...
—
Jiang Tinglan cried until her voice was hoarse. “The moment I paid, I regretted it... The kind of mother they said needed communication wasn’t someone like you at all...”
“I kept thinking, why was I spending thirty thousand yuan to have a stranger teach me how to talk to my own mom?”
“So I told them I wanted a refund. Even getting half of it back would have been okay... But they belittled me and insulted me.”
“They said I was someone who couldn’t be saved—a person who looked down on herself and willingly accepted being treated badly...”
The more she spoke, the more completely she broke down.
“Mom, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… I shouldn’t have dropped out of school. No wonder people keep scamming me everywhere I go…”
Seeing her daughter sobbing like this, Chen Yuru suddenly remembered the first nationally reported case of someone dying as a result of telecom fraud more than a decade ago.
Unlike the terrifying industrial-compound scams being publicized nowadays, that victim hadn’t been abducted and tortured to death in one of those compounds.
She had been an excellent student who was accepted into a prestigious university, only to be tricked out of all her tuition money by scammers.
Overwhelmed by guilt, the student became mentally and physically exhausted. She died that very day.
The hospital found no illness and no evidence that she had taken poison to commit suicide. She had literally died from blaming herself.
At the time, Chen Yuru hadn’t thought the girl was stupid. She had simply been a student who had never had any contact with society. How awful must it have felt to be deceived? If only someone had comforted her, perhaps she wouldn’t have blamed herself to death.
If Chen Yuru could empathize with a complete stranger, then she could certainly empathize with her own daughter.
She raised a hand and gently stroked her daughter’s head. “I can tell how guilty you feel right now. Feeling guilty means you’ve learned your lesson, so there’s no need for Mom to keep scolding you.”
“Besides, this was clearly a whole gang of people tricking one person. Even adults might not have been able to spot the scam. How could a student like you have recognized it? Just remember the lesson and be more careful next time.”
“But we still have to get justice for this! I won’t let outsiders bully you! Come on, we’re going to the police!”
Jiang Tinglan had never expected her mother not to scold her even once this time.
She cried even harder than before, nodded vigorously, then stood up and prepared to go to the police.
Jiang’s father looked at Chen Yuru disapprovingly. “Isn’t calling the police taking this too far? Tinglan’s already in a terrible emotional state. Can’t you stop pressuring her?”
“It won’t do any good anyway. There’s no way we’ll get the money back. Otherwise, why would so many people lose their entire fortunes to scams and then jump off buildings every year?”
“If you go to the police, all you’ll accomplish is making Tinglan get mocked by the officers, who’ll say she was greedy for a bargain and brought it on herself. Why put her through even more pressure?”
“And it was only thirty thousand yuan. Let’s just treat it as a lesson learned. There’s no need to make such a big deal out of everything.”
Chen Yuru smiled. “Someone who hasn’t contributed a single cent is standing here saying, ‘It was only thirty thousand.’ Listen to yourself. Do you even sound human?”
This time, their daughter didn’t take his side either.
Once again, she understood that whenever there was a conflict within the family, her father always stood by her.
But whenever the conflict involved outsiders, her father never fought alongside her.
The mother and daughter had already left.
From beginning to end, no one had asked for his opinion again.
Jiang’s father stared at the empty house and suddenly felt anxious.
Back then, when his family had given Chen Yuru the traditional betrothal gold jewelry, they had passed off silver wrapped in gold as the real thing. Once Chen Yuru discovered the deception, she had insisted on getting a divorce.
The only reason their marriage had continued was that their daughter couldn’t bear to part with him and had made it clear that she would live with him after the divorce.
All these years, he had been able to act without restraint because he possessed his daughter’s love.
Chen Yuru could earn money, but her personality was too strong and rigid. She couldn’t give their daughter the gentle companionship she needed.
But now that Chen Yuru could provide both a stable life and emotional support, what use was he anymore?!
Sitting on the sofa, Jiang’s father realized that his greatest source of leverage had vanished.
He supposed he really would have to return to the countryside and spend his days planting beans beneath the southern mountain—where the weeds flourished and the bean seedlings barely grew…
