At twenty-eight, Li Yao had a thriving business, but on the Chinese New Year trip home, she buried her boss title — all she wanted was a quiet holiday. On day two at her grandmother's, while scrambling to help her cousin, who was on the chopping block at work, review a survival plan, she was met with her eldest aunt's cutting insults, a nephew pulling the internet plug and trashing her files, and elders reflexively siding with their own. The rest of the family? Just there for the show. She'd had it. But the one who truly shattered was the cousin she was saving. Years of her mother's crushing comparisons and put-downs had driven her into a spiral — fake displays of wealth, secret mountains of debt. When her career imploded and the last trace of family warmth went cold, she finally detonated.
