I have a classmate. After her divorce, she got 600 thousand to split, and she took the kids back to live with her parents. Not long after that, her younger brother started “investing” like others—playing memes—and lost everything, ending up owing 400 thousand. Her parents and sister-in-law took turns begging her, asking her to take the money out first to help her brother pay off the debt, promising they would definitely pay her back later. My classmate didn’t agree.

Then they came up with another scheme: they asked her to go to the bank to provide a guarantee, and use a loan to repay her brother’s debts. She still didn’t agree. Guess what happened? The very next day, she took that money, bought a small apartment, and moved out with the kids to live on her own.

That really set off a hornet’s nest. Her family was furious. They all said she was heartless, that she wouldn’t save her own younger brother. Her mother cried, her father cursed, and her sister-in-law was even harsher—she directly deleted her from everything. Even relatives were talking behind her back, saying she was cold and didn’t value family ties.

A few of us old classmates got together and discussed it, and we all felt pretty awful inside. She told us: the money looked like a lot, but it was her ace card for the second half of her life and her kids’ education. When her brother was investing, she had tried to talk him out of it, but nobody listened. If she had put that money forward— or if the guaranteed loan couldn’t be repaid, then her mother and daughter really would have had nowhere left to go. Even though she’s been blamed by her family, at least she now has her own place. The kids’ school is also nearby, and life is stable.

During the Chinese New Year, she sent money back to her family, and her mother returned it. She said it felt a little hard to bring it up, but she didn’t regret it. Thinking about it, that’s true too: family matters, but dragging herself and the kids into a mire wasn’t a solution. Right now, she just wants to work hard, raise the children, and handle everything else step by step.