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After three years of grinding, I'd finally earned the right to become a partner at the firm, and my mom came in from the countryside with two hundred thousand dollars to help me buy in.
Before the partnership ceremony, thrifty as ever, she went to the clearance section of a mall and bought more than a dozen dresses in one go, all tagged at ninety-nine dollars.
But at checkout, the nine hundred ninety-nine she expected turned into one hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine.
Frightened, she immediately waved her hands and said she didn't want them anymore, but the clerk said the tags had already been cut off, so she had no choice but to pay.
With no way out, she called me for help.
The moment the call connected, though, the clerk snatched the phone away.
"Your mom rang up a hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine in our store and she's playing dumb, refusing to pay!"
"If you're broke, don't come to the mall pretending you can shop like everyone else!"
"Can't afford it but still bagging things up to look rich, huh. So today you either come down here and pay for these clothes, or I'm sending your mom to jail!"
Listening to her strut through the phone, I couldn't help laughing out loud.
I'd been at Shenghong Law Firm for three years, handled over a hundred cases, with a hundred percent win rate. People called me the undefeated ace of Southport.
Extort me? Was she tired of living?
...
By the time I got to the mall, my mom had already been taken into the security office.
Two guards flanked her, one on each side, watching her like a criminal, never leaving her space.
When she saw me, her eyes reddened on the spot, her lips trembling as she spoke, careful and small.
"Tao, did Mom go and cause you trouble?"
I looked at the torn hem of her clothes and her messy hair. Before we left the house she'd pressed every wrinkle out and combed her hair without a strand out of place.
She'd said, "Mom's got no education, but Mom will never embarrass you. I'll make myself clean and neat so these city folks don't look down on us."
My nose stung. Before I could get a word out, the clerk beside her, Gayle Perry, shoved a stack of bills into my arms.
"You're her daughter, right? Your mom rang up a hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine here. Card or cash?"
I stared at the bills in her hand and didn't take them.
"My mom said the clothes here were cheap and a good deal. Ninety-nine dollars each."
"A hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine would probably buy your whole store. Did you maybe make a mistake?"
I was giving her an out. All she had to do was smile and say, so sorry, I really did mess up, and I'd let the whole thing go.
I'd have bought every one of the dresses my mom picked, too.
But she looked me up and down, contempt in her eyes.
"You're kidding, right? You don't plan on paying either?"
"I've seen plenty of people like you. Nothing more to say. I'll call the police and let the officers sort it out."
My mom panicked, grabbing her hand, her voice pleading.
"Don't call the police. We'll pay, all right?"
"Tao, Mom's got a bank card here. It's the savings I put away over half my life."
"I was going to give it to you for your partnership buy-in. It's Mom's fault, I'm useless..."
Gayle's eyes lit up the second she saw the card, and she snatched it away in a flash, still grumbling.
"You had money and couldn't take it out sooner? Had to wait until I called the police."
"You country people are just born to grovel. You need to be taught a lesson!"
But just as she set the card on the POS machine and moved to swipe it, I stopped her.
"We don't accept this bill. Go ahead and call the police."
