Losing the laundromat job was a massive, sickening punch to the gut. I walked home that night feeling colder and more defeated than I had since the day of the beatdown. Liang Xu wasn't just bullying me anymore; he was systematically destroying my ability to survive and help my family, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. That rich bastard knew exactly how to hurt me—by taking away my only power: my income. I looked at the small wad of bills hidden under my floorboards, and suddenly it looked totally pathetic and useless.
The financial collapse started immediately. I had to continue the stupid lie about the night classes and the job, but I couldn't risk telling them I was fired, so I just started pretending to go to work. Every night, I would sneak out and sit for hours at a freezing cold bus stop, just staring at the traffic, terrified and completely lost. I spent days trying to find a new job, hitting all the same places, but my hope was completely gone. I felt like I had a giant, invisible sign on my forehead that said, "FAILURE." No one was hiring a nervous, high school dropout with no references.
The money I was bringing home vanished, and my parents started getting that stressed, worried look on their faces again, the kind that always appeared when the bills were due and the bank account was empty. My mom kept asking me why the paychecks were suddenly so much smaller, and I had to come up with these stupid, elaborate excuses about "tax deductions" and "slow work hours." The pressure of the lie was suffocating me, and every time I looked at my sister, whose future I was desperately trying to save, the guilt just completely crushed my cold resolve.
I knew I was completely desperate now. The fear was returning, but it wasn't fear of a punch; it was the terrifying fear of financial ruin and the thought of my little sister being unsafe. Liang Xu had backed me into a corner, completely cutting off my escape route, and I realized that staying quiet and compliant was no longer an option for survival. I had to do something drastic, something stupid, but something that might finally stop that rich monster from attacking my family's life.