The master of that family was three years younger than my father, an orphan named Kang Shan. Grandpa Gu, taking pity on him, raised him and then found him a wife to start a family.
Although it wasn't the grand five-room brick house, he still built Kang Shan a modest abode with two rooms in the front with brick walls and one in the back made of mud bricks.
Grandpa Gu wasn't wealthy, but he had done all that benevolence and righteousness required.
Yet, he never expected that very family would become the culprit that drove his sister to death.
When their mother fell gravely ill, Gu Qianqian somehow borrowed five thousand yuan in high-interest loans from Kang Shan.
The foolish sister even pressed her thumbprint and signed her name.
A week later, their mother, filled with regret, passed away in the county hospital.
So, when she returned, she was greeted not only by two coffins but also by an IOU.
With compounded interest, the debt had already reached over ten thousand.
