My Father-in-Law Sent Me Cheap Dried Fish, I Threw It Away, Then Bitterly Watched Our Neighbor Get a New Car

The next day, while we were at home, we heard sounds of laughter and cheers coming from our neighbor’s house.

I looked over and was startled to see two brand-new scooters in their yard.

After getting married, I realized that marrying a poor wife was truly frustrating. While others receive money, land, and various kinds of support from their in-laws, I have nothing. Why was I so foolish back then? If I had known my family didn’t have much, I should have married someone with a wealthier family to be compensated for this. But we already had children, so I just kept pushing forward for their sake.

Time passed, and after 3 years of marriage, my wife and I were still living in a rental house. My monthly salary was barely enough to cover daily expenses, and we could only save a small amount for emergencies. How long would it take for us to afford a house or buy a new car?

Last weekend, I was at home alone while my wife took our child to visit a friend. A person from my wife’s hometown, who had just come to the city, arrived with a package from my father-in-law and mother-in-law for their daughter and grandchild.

I thought it would be something special, but to my surprise, it was dried fish. This was a local specialty from my wife’s hometown, and she liked to eat it, so her parents often sent it. But I thought the fish was cheap and smelled aw.ful—it only reminded me of the poverty in my wife’s family. They never gave us anything of value, just these cheap, sm.elly local gifts.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Since my wife wasn’t home, I angrily threw the bag of fish into the trash outside. Just then, our neighbor happened to walk by and saw me. She asked what it was, and I vaguely said the fish had gone bad and I was throwing it away. When I looked back after going inside, I saw her sniffing the fish and then taking the bag back to her house.

Clearly, the fish wasn’t spoiled, and she probably just liked it, so she decided to take it. Their family wasn’t w.ell off either. It seemed like we were all po.or people dea.ling with each other!

That evening, when my wife came home and asked about the fish, I told her that her parents sent it, but our neighbor liked it so much that I gave it to her. The bag of fish wasn’t worth much, so my wife didn’t complain.

The next day, while we were at home, we heard the sounds of laughter and excitement from our neighbor’s house again. I looked over and was shocked to see two brand-new scooters parked in their yard. I was stunned to find out that they had bought both scooters at the same time, one for the husband and one for the wife.

• "Our old bikes were falling apart. We didn’t know where to get the money for new ones, but then suddenly, some money fell from the sky!"

Our neighbor happily boasted to me. I felt an overwhelming sense of jealousy. The motorcycle I was riding was an old one I bought when I graduated and still hadn’t been able to replace. My wife’s bike was also getting old. How could they be so lucky? But when I asked about the source of their money, he refused to tell me.

A few days later, my father-in-law called to ask if my wife had bought a new bike yet. I was shocked when I found out that the dried fish they had sent us actually contained 50 thousand dollars for us to buy new motorbikes. They trusted us with the money, thinking we would find it when we opened the fish bag. My in-laws had recently been compensated with millions of dollars from a land deal, as a large factory was about to be built nearby.

My wife quickly ran over to the neighbor’s house to demand the money back. My lie was exposed. It wasn’t that I gave the fish to the neighbor; I had discarded it because I looked down on it, and the neighbor had picked it up. The neighbor’s family stub.bornly insisted that they had simply found the money, not sto.len it.

I was furious, both because of the lost money and because my wife scolded me harshly. She now knew that I had disrespected her family, and she was even talking about a divorce. I had never wanted to divorce her, even though her family was poor, because I felt sorry for our child, and she had never done anything wrong. Now that her family had money, I couldn’t bear the thought of div.orce.

I'm asking for advice on how to get the money back from our neighbor and how to apologize and reconcile with my wife!