Shengliver’s Note: Catching up on the teens’ journal entries is like taking a trip down their life lane. In this entry the writer describes how the extended family collapsed after her uncle’s death. In an earlier entry titled “So Close to Death”, she writes about the visit to her uncle in a hospital ward. Less than two years after the uncle was diagnosed with lung cancer, he died.

 

Before I entered Grade 4 primary school, every summer vacation was my favourite thing. The whole extended family would get together at my grandparents’ house for a quiet but interesting reunion.

 

I still remember the scene where Gran and Dad were working around the kitchen, where my uncle was lounging back in a recliner, laidback, with a cigarette between his fingers, and where the women of the family were chatting away in the living room. Meanwhile, my cousins and I ran about the house for fun. Weather permitting, we would climb the hill nearby. The clear blue sky, the lush green grass and the carefree laughter along the way, all of these are still as vivid in my mind as if the scene were unfolding right in front of my eyes.

 

Since my uncle passed away just one week before the Spring Festival, the big family has suffered so much apart from grief. My uncle had set up a company when he was alive. His company employed almost all the extended family members. Although the company thrived, there was no shortage of financial conflicts between the family members involved.

 

Having foreseen the growing strife within the family which resulted from the division of the profits from the business, my parents decided to withdraw from it one year ago. It turns out that they were right. All the other extended family members are now embroidered in quarrels and fights over the inheritance. One moment they are mourning my uncle’s death; the next moment they are cursing him for not leaving behind enough money for them. Everyone claims they made great contributions to the empire and that they deserve more of the fortune. Amid cursing words and fighting fists, the big family broke apart just two weeks after my uncle’s death.

 

I have been sick of all the fights and quarrels caused by an insatiable desire for more. I have witnessed how the human heart turns black when it comes to money.

 

Fortunately, after graduation from high school, I will go back to Wuhan. I will stay away from the so-called family members. I promise myself not to be a slave to money.