For ten years Zhao Xiaowu kept her siblings alive, saving her brother Zhao Gang’s building-materials factory from collapse, spending 300,000 to drink her nephew Zhao Wen into the city’s best school, and feeding her three sisters the clients that made their companies look successful, while taking only the dividends her contracts already allowed. At a celebration dinner Wen calls her a freeloader who got rich on an empty hand, and Gang and the sisters don’t stop him; the factory is “theirs” now, and they demand every dividend back. Xiaowu wires the money in front of them and cuts the family off. They laugh over the refund until the cancellation calls start: those clients never stayed for Gang’s skill, only because Xiaowu was willing to share. Sure they can replace her, the siblings chase a new “perfect” account, get stiffed on the balance, and drag all four companies into bankruptcy. Only then do Gang, the three sisters, and the nephew who mocked her come begging, too late.
