A few days ago, didn't we talk about being scammed by an acquaintance? A sister explained it more directly. She said that the first time she went shopping with her future mother-in-law, before they even entered the door, she was asked in front of relatives, "Does your family have the custom of bringing a 'dowry car'?" She was stunned for a moment and didn't say anything.

On the way back, her mother called and asked if they talked about the house and didn't mention adding her name. She held the phone, looked at the increasingly distant community entrance in the rearview mirror, and said no. Her mother hung up, then called back after two minutes, saying she forgot to ask that the persimmons at the fruit shop downstairs were on special this week, and to bring a bag next time.
She stood in the elevator lobby, still holding the packaging string of the gift she just brought, suddenly feeling her wrist hurt a little from the tightness. She said she didn't take the elevator that day and walked down a few more flights of stairs. She said there was an old phone number on a pile of unopened delivery boxes at the stair corner, and she looked at it for a long time. She wasn't sure if she had written it on paper herself, but she recognized the line of words below — it was a star trail map her ex-boyfriend drew for her, with only half a sentence of caption: "Don't be afraid to express yourself."
The next day, she set aside the matter of dowry and told her best friend she planned to save money and find a new job. The person on the other end of the phone was probably flipping through a calendar, paused for a long time, then softly asked if there were any other words under that phone number. She said no, they had weathered away, only this half-sentence remained.