Joyce Lawson was a very talented student. With a mentor guiding her every step of the way, she was able to perform minor surgical procedures on her own in just one year.

Later, Joyce Lawson was promoted to a permanent position and received a generous bonus.

A few days ago, experts had predicted the arrival of a massive blizzard and advised residents on lower floors to take precautions in advance.

Joyce Lawson’s family lived on a lower floor.

After hearing the news about the blizzard, the family discussed it and decided that Joyce Lawson would use her money to buy this apartment in The Metropolis Residences.

Joyce Lawson sighed with emotion to Melody Summers, "The timing was perfect. The hospital gave me a bonus, the natural disasters have brought housing prices down, and the apartments in this complex are cheap. I can finally have a place of my own in the big city!"

Even though Apartment 1601 was a small, two-bedroom, one-living-room unit of less than 60 square meters, Joyce Lawson was still over the moon.

After all, buying an apartment was something Joyce Lawson had never even dared to dream of before.

According to her original plan, as a medical student, she would have had to pursue a master’s and a doctorate after graduating, then complete her residency at a hospital...

It would have taken her at least twenty years to save up enough money to buy a place!

Seeing how happy Joyce Lawson was, Melody Summers felt happy for her too.

She remembered how Joyce Lawson had lived on a tight budget in college. Back when they were preparing for the biomathematics competition together, they would eat at the cafeteria. Joyce would only get the cheapest dishes, and sometimes she wouldn’t even order a dish at all, just eating plain white rice with Lao Gan Ma chili sauce.

Melody Summers’s financial situation was a little better than Joyce Lawson’s. She offered to treat Joyce to meals, but Joyce always refused.

The young woman might have been poor, but she had her pride and didn’t want to take advantage of others for no reason.

Melody Summers really admired this strong-willed and hardworking classmate.

Now, seeing that Joyce Lawson could afford to buy her own apartment with her own income, finally establishing a foothold for herself in the big city, Melody was truly happy for her. It really proved the saying that education can change your destiny.

The two of them walked to the property management center. In the lobby, they saw Manager Grant and a few others gathered together, discussing something.

They seemed to have run into some trouble; every one of them had a grim expression.

Seeing this, Melody Summers walked up and asked, "Manager Grant, what’s wrong?"

When Manager Grant saw Melody Summers, he sighed. Not treating her like an outsider, he said in a low voice, "There was a shipment of coal in the government’s second batch of supplies, but it still hasn’t arrived... We’ve reported it to our contact at the supply department several times, but we haven’t heard anything back!"

Melody Summers was stunned. ’The coal still hasn’t arrived?’

Manager Grant sighed again, his face etched with worry. "We sent people to check with other residential complexes in the north of the city. They’ve all received their coal. Only ours is missing, and we have no idea why!"

In the year since the disasters began, the supply chain for The Metropolis Residences had always been stable and had never run into any issues.

With the temperature dropping day by day and the coal still nowhere in sight, Manager Grant and his team were getting anxious.

Melody Summers found the situation puzzling, but there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.

She and Joyce Lawson explained their purpose to the property management staff. An employee named Tate quickly said, "Oh, you’re the new homeowners, right? I’ll go activate your utility cards for you."

With the current energy shortage, the government was managing water and electricity with extreme strictness. The supply was tightly controlled based on the number of people per household. New homeowners needed to register to get their utilities activated.

Melody Summers and Joyce Lawson followed Tate to his office. Tate turned to Joyce and asked, "Could I see the homeowner’s ID, please?"

Joyce Lawson quickly pulled out her ID card and handed it to Tate.

Tate took the ID and began searching on his computer.

Melody Summers and Joyce Lawson stood by, waiting patiently. But what happened next was something neither of them expected.

Tate’s brow furrowed. He said, puzzled, "That’s strange, we don’t have this homeowner’s name in our system... Could you tell me your unit number, please?"

Joyce Lawson was taken aback for a moment, then she quickly replied, "I’m in Building 4, Apartment 1601... We just moved in today. Is it possible the information hasn’t been entered yet?"

But Tate shook his head, still confused. He handed the ID back to Joyce Lawson, looking as if he wanted to say something but was hesitant.

Sensing something was wrong, Melody Summers quickly pressed him, "Tate, what’s going on?"

Tate glanced at Melody Summers, then answered carefully, "According to our system, the owner of 4-1601 is named Gregory Lawson, not Joyce Lawson. We need Gregory Lawson to come in person with his ID or household registration book to activate the card."

"What?!" Melody Summers’s eyes went wide. She couldn’t process what she’d just heard.

’Gregory Lawson?’

’Who is Gregory Lawson?’

’Didn’t Joyce Lawson just say she bought this apartment with her own salary and bonus?’

Melody Summers turned to look at Joyce Lawson, wanting to ask her what was going on.

Joyce Lawson was clearly just as shocked by the news.

As a certain possibility dawned on her, her face turned deathly pale.

Seeing both Melody Summers and Tate looking at her in confusion, Joyce Lawson opened her mouth and said with great difficulty, "I... I understand... I’ll have my brother come over later..."

...

As they left the property management lobby, Joyce Lawson was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice the steps. She stumbled and nearly fell, but thankfully, Melody Summers quickly reached out and grabbed her hand to steady her.

"...Joyce, are you okay?" Melody Summers could feel that Joyce’s hands were ice-cold and even trembling slightly.

Joyce Lawson looked up at Melody Summers with a dazed expression and stammered, "I’m... I’m fine..."

Seeing that Joyce wasn’t herself, Melody quickly helped her to a nearby bench. "Joyce, sit down and rest for a minute," she said with concern. "You look awful. What on earth happened?"

Joyce Lawson’s lips were drained of all color, and her eyes were vacant, as if she had suffered a terrible blow.

She opened her mouth and said, as if talking to herself, "No wonder... No wonder they sent me away when they were buying the apartment... No wonder they wouldn’t let me see the deed and said they were ’keeping it safe’ for me..."

"So... so they put the apartment in my brother’s name..."

Joyce Lawson kept murmuring to herself. Melody Summers sat beside her, listening with a frown, and gradually pieced together what had happened.

Joyce Lawson’s parents had taken her bonus and savings to buy the apartment. The original agreement was to put the property in Joyce’s name for the whole family to live in.

But when it came time to sign the papers, they put it in her younger brother Gregory Lawson’s name instead. The entire family had conspired to hide it from her.

If Joyce hadn’t accidentally discovered the truth just now, she would have likely been kept in the dark by her own family indefinitely.

Joyce Lawson was devastated. The joyful excitement from before was completely gone, replaced by a look of hurt and confusion.

"Why are they always like this..."

"When I got into university, my dad kept telling me the tuition was too expensive and that it was a huge strain on the family. They kept complaining, asking me why I didn’t just go to a tuition-free teachers’ college so I could go back to our hometown and be a teacher after graduating..."

"But my brother only scored a little over 300 on his college entrance exams... Why is the family so generous with him, spending millions to send him abroad to study..."

"They always told me they don’t favor sons over daughters. They said that parents who truly do that would never even let their daughters go to high school—they’d send them off to work right after middle school..."

"They said the fact they were willing to let me continue my education was proof of how much they loved me, and that I should be grateful they didn’t favor my brother and repay them properly..."

Melody Summers’s frown deepened as she listened.

’What kind of parents are these?!’

Their daughter got into a top program at a top-two university in the country, and they refused to support her. Yet they poured all their resources into raising a good-for-nothing son who only scored 300 on his entrance exams.

They’d rather bankrupt themselves sending their son to a diploma mill abroad just to pad his resume than pay tuition for their brilliant daughter.

’300 on his entrance exams... Do they really expect a son like that to bring honor to the family?’

’Which of their children is the one who can actually bring them honor? Are they blind?’

’Idiots!’

As Joyce Lawson spoke, her emotions suddenly escalated. "Tell me, have I not been good to them?"

"Since the disasters started, almost every penny I’ve earned has been spent on them!"

"They wanted to eat meat, so I bought it for them, even when it cost thousands per pound!"

"They wanted to run the air conditioner, so I paid their electricity bills, even when they were tens of thousands!"

"At the beginning of the year, they even had an unplanned pregnancy and needed an abortion. I was the one who paid for it and pulled strings to get the procedure done for them!"

"What have I ever done to deserve this?! Why are they doing this to me?!"

"Why did they have to steal my apartment?! They knew how much I was looking forward to having it!"

"They knew I dreamed of having a home of my own in this city!"

With that, Joyce Lawson buried her face in her hands and began to sob.