Grace Bennett was suddenly taken aback. “He wants to buy our house for just 900,000? Why doesn’t he just go pick one up off the street? It’s a 110-square-meter townhouse with a yard. Even a couple of years ago, when prices weren’t this high, Uncle Thompson’s house sold for 1.2 million. I once ran into him after school and said hi, and he kept saying he sold the house too cheap back then. If he hadn’t moved, wouldn’t it be great to still be our neighbor?”

“小姑夫 is really ruthless—he’s basically trying to squeeze us dry.”

Grace Bennett’s mother said, “It is a bit low, but your 小姑夫 promised to let us stay in that old place next to the market, so we’d save on rent.”

Grace Bennett rubbed his forehead, a dark line appearing on his brow. “That place by the market is a one-bedroom, one-living room, doesn’t even get any sunlight, dark as a cave. No one rents it even for 600 a month, and it’s just a loan, not a gift. If you two want to live there, I’m actually worried it’ll be bad for your health.”

“Mom, I heard our area is about to be demolished for redevelopment. If we can’t keep the house, we’ll take a huge loss. Tell me the truth—who do we owe money to, and how much?”

Grace Bennett’s mother looked troubled. She’d lived here for over ten years, got along well with the neighbors, and didn’t want to move. She also knew the place 小姑夫 mentioned was really unfit for living—moving in would just be suffering.

“The biggest debts are to your 小舅 and 大舅.”

“My uncles?”

“Yes, your 大舅 is owed more, 270,000, and 小舅 is owed 160,000. They’re both my real brothers. Honestly, they haven’t pressured your dad to pay it back. It’s just your dad’s stubbornness—he feels that since it’s family, if he owes money, he can’t face them during holidays, so he insists on selling the house to pay the debts.”

“And then there’s your Uncle Foster, we owe him a full 300,000. He’s the one pressing hardest for repayment. He even came by yesterday, said he was visiting an old friend, but really, every other sentence was about the money. It made your dad so mad that he finally made up his mind to sell the house.”

“There are also miscellaneous debts of seventy or eighty thousand, but those aren’t much, and the creditors are old friends who haven’t said much about it,” Grace Bennett’s mother told him.

“Mom, I’m going out to buy a bottle of Coke.”

Having gotten the gist of the situation, Grace Bennett found an excuse to leave the house and called both uncles and George Foster in the courtyard, telling them to come by that afternoon.

Actually, he didn’t have enough money to pay off all the debts. Charles Reed had agreed to transfer 250,000 to him every week. After all, even though Grace Bennett was nominally the founder of Sky Eye, it hadn’t been registered with the business bureau yet, and Charles Reed was worried he’d take the money and run.

At the moment, Grace Bennett could only access just over 300,000. Whether he could resolve the family crisis depended on this afternoon.

Chapter 011: Shocking Everyone

After lunch, Grace Bennett went to his room to do some backend maintenance.

After two o’clock, Grace Bennett heard the doorbell, followed by his 小姑 and 小姑夫 chatting with his parents in the yard.

Grace Bennett came to the living room. 小姑 and 小姑夫 were already seated on the sofa.

His mother was busy making tea, and his father picked up the cigarette box on the table and offered 小姑夫 a cigarette.

“Hongshanshu? Is this even smokable? Big brother, try mine—Zhenlong, a friend gave it to me, it’s a hundred a pack.”

小姑夫 looked down on Grace Bennett’s dad’s cigarettes, took out a box of Zhenlong—which is rarely seen in the north—from his pocket. Grace Bennett’s dad waved him off, “Forget it, I’m not used to out-of-town cigarettes.”

“Here, have some tea.” Grace Bennett’s mother brought over a tea tray.

“Sis-in-law, don’t trouble yourself, plain water is fine for us.”

小姑 was polite and quickly took the tea tray, while 小姑夫 sat there with his legs crossed, letting 小姑 set the teacup in front of him as if she were serving a landlord.

Grace Bennett sighed inwardly. 小姑 was a full ten years younger than his dad, timid since childhood—she’d cry even if a chicken was killed at home.

Grandpa and dad both doted on 小姑. After grandpa passed, dad had always looked after her.

Unfortunately, 小姑 had bad luck and married a no-good man.

It’s said that after 小姑夫 took a liking to 小姑, he pestered her relentlessly—calling her at work, waiting outside her company after hours.

小姑 was timid and didn’t know how to turn people down.

Seeing 小姑夫 so desperate, threatening life and death, she finally gave in out of pity. Dad was upset about it for a long time.

Later, when 小姑夫’s embezzlement as an accountant was exposed, 小姑 came to Grace Bennett’s father in tears.

Grace Bennett’s father couldn’t bear to see his sister so upset, so he ran around pulling strings, spending who knows how much on dinners and gifts.

The boss didn’t want the scandal to blow up, so in the end, they just had 小姑夫 patch up the hole and let it go.

After that, not only did 小姑夫 not pay back a cent, he didn’t even say thank you, as if Grace Bennett’s father was supposed to help him.

After losing his job, 小姑夫 and a bunch of shady friends started a sand-washing business, delivering sand to construction sites.

In recent years, he seemed to have made some money—his car upgraded from a Jetta to a low-end Audi A4.