I was an extremely selfish person.

I drained my parents’ life savings, abused my young nephew, and extorted my husband’s premarital assets.

My family could no longer endure it and took me to court.

If the charges were proven, I would be flayed alive, my tendons torn out, tortured until death.

When I woke up, I was sitting in a packed conference room.

The people around me looked like they had just woken up too. The hall buzzed with noise.

“Where is this?”

“How did I end up here? Who are you people?”

“Welcome, everyone, to the Trial of a Parasite.”

A solemn voice rang out from the stage in front.

Trial of a Parasite?

I frowned, recalling the new law that had been passed just last month.

Starting this year, exploiting others for personal gain would be criminalized under the charge of parasitism.

Anyone accused of being a parasite would be forcibly brought here, to stand trial.

If found guilty, the accused would be forced to repay everything they took—many times over—until there was nothing left of them but death.

The man beside me suddenly perked up, his shiny bald head leaning closer.

“So that means we’re the lucky audience picked for this case?”

“I don’t have time to sit around as an audience member.”

I rolled my eyes impatiently.

“My mom’s pension comes in today. I need to go withdraw it—just enough to send a couple of big tips to my favorite streamer.”

Ignoring the man’s stunned look, I stood to leave, only to be dragged back into my seat by an invisible force.

What the—?

I froze.

Then, with a low hum, the lights above the stage flickered on, illuminating the figures standing there.

“Mom?”

My eyes widened in disbelief.

“Why are you here?”

My mother stood behind a wheelchair, her head lowered, shrinking in on herself, not daring to look at me.

My father, slumped in the chair, glared at me with fury.

Unfortunately, ever since his stroke, he could no longer speak, only twist his mouth and strain his neck as he stared daggers at me.

My sister-in-law stepped forward, shielding my mother, tears streaming down her face as she spoke.

“Please don’t blame Mom. She had no choice. If we kept letting you go on like this, our whole family would be ruined!”

She wiped her tears and looked resolutely at the judge.

“My sister-in-law has been living off her parents for years. She even beat my son and took away his right to go to school! Today, our entire family is suing her as a parasite!”

The moment she said it, the entire room erupted.

I forced myself to ignore the stares around me and looked up at the large screen.

My mother stepped beneath a memory extraction device, and her memories immediately appeared on the screen.

In the footage, I was crouched by a cabinet, rummaging through it.

Our eyes met, and my expression changed. I quickly hid what I was holding behind my back.

It was the deed to my parents’ house.

My mother reached out to grab it, but I shoved her hand away. She burst into tears.

“My daughter, you can’t do this! Your father and I only have this one home. You can’t take this from us too!”

Thud!

The scene shifted as my mother dropped to her knees, trembling as she reached for the hem of my pants.

The audience instantly boiled over.

“To push your own mother to this point—what a disgrace.”

“She’s already this old and still living off her parents. A textbook parasite. Looks like we’re in for quite a show today.”

“Having a daughter like this is worse than raising nothing at all. I’ve always said you’re better off having a son to look after you in your old age!”

“Order!”

The judge struck the gavel, and the audience fell silent, turning their attention back to the screen.

Seeing that I remained unmoved by my mother’s cries, my sister-in-law, who had been eavesdropping by the door, couldn’t hold back any longer.

She shoved the door open and wheeled my father inside, pointing at me as she started shouting.

“You should have some conscience. Every month you show up for their pension, and you’ve already driven Dad to this state!”

She struck the wheelchair in anguish, and my father answered with low, broken groans, the sounds barely human.

Turning her head aside, she wiped the tears from her face, trying to steady her voice.

“I know you can’t stand the idea of our parents transferring the house to us.

“But when it’s not payday, you don’t even show up. It’s been the two of us taking care of them all this time—whether anyone gives us credit or not.

“And we’re not trying to take their house. We just need a place in a good school district so our son can go to school!”

Her emotions spiraled, her voice rising higher and higher.

“Waa—”

In the living room, my daughter Megan burst into tears, frightened by the shouting.

I shoved my sister-in-law aside impatiently and strode into the living room, only to see my nephew clumsily trying to comfort Megan.

He pressed the egg in his hand into her palm.

“Don’t cry, Megan. You can have my egg.”

The audience instantly melted at the sight.

“Aw, what a sweet kid.”

“The two kids couldn’t be more different. Her mother exploits everyone, and she still has the nerve to cry, listening to it is enough to give me a headache.”

What they didn’t expect was the sharp crack as I slapped the egg out of my nephew’s hand.

Then I grabbed him by the collar and started slapping him across the face.

My sister-in-law clung to me, crying as she pleaded, “I’m sorry, we won’t send Ethan to private school. Please, just don’t take it out on him…”

My mother cried even harder, leaning against the doorframe, her body trembling.

The memory ended there.

But the audience was fully ignited.

“What kind of lunatic beats a child for no reason?”

“That poor kid. Stuck with a crazy aunt and her crazy daughter. What rotten luck.”

My nephew stepped down from the platform, clutching an egg in his hand, sniffling.

“My mom said eggs are precious… I only get one a day. I couldn’t bear to eat it, so I gave it to Megan. I didn’t think Auntie would hate me this much…”

The bald man beside me looked heartbroken. He snatched the egg and stuffed it into his mouth in two bites.

“Good boy. Eggs are good food. If she won’t eat it, I will!”

“We’ll stand up for you. That parasite of an aunt is about to be judged!”

The more he spoke, the angrier he became. With a shout, he swung a punch at me.

Fortunately, the invisible force binding the seats held him back.

The judge had to strike the gavel several times before the room settled.

He cleared his throat.

“The verdict will now be delivered.”

“The charge of parasitism is confirmed. The defendant will be stripped to their true form.”

A wave of cheers erupted from the audience.

They clapped eagerly, all eyes on me, waiting for the spectacle.

But with a deafening boom, nothing happened to me.

Instead, the skin of my family on the platform split open, their bodies bursting into bloated, greasy worms.

The audience froze.

For a moment, the entire courtroom fell silent.

“What’s going on?”

My sister-in-law writhed, her bloated body twisting as she reached toward the judge, her voice rising into a shrill scream.

“Did you make a mistake? We’re the ones who accused her! Why did we turn into parasites?”

The judge spoke calmly, “There’s no mistake. The Trial of a Parasite judges parasites, not defendants.

“If the accuser is the parasite, they will be stripped to their true form all the same.”

The audience exchanged confused looks, unable to make sense of it.

“She’s been living off her parents like that, and yet the ones being leeched off are the parasites?”

“No matter what, judging from the way she beat her nephew, there’s no way she’s in the right.”

The judge remained expressionless. Using a pair of tweezers, he picked up the squealing nephew and dropped him beneath the memory extraction device.

The screen lit up with a scene from a morning.

My sister-in-law grabbed my reluctant nephew and forced a bottle and an egg into his hands.

“Take it! If you need to pee during the day, use the bottle. I’ll need it tonight.”

“These eggs are a delicacy. You only get one a day. Don’t waste it!”

“Ugh—”

The bald man who had just eaten the egg gagged violently, clawing at his throat.

“No wonder it tasted salty! You little brat, why didn’t you say it was soaked in urine?”

My sister-in-law writhed angrily, her voice rising into a shrill screech.

“You don’t know what’s good for you! It’s a well-known delicacy! I have my son collect his urine in bottles every day just to make this!”

Unfortunately, her son didn’t seem willing to cooperate in preserving this so-called delicacy.

When he walked into kindergarten carrying the bottle, the two teachers on duty exchanged a glance but said nothing.

After all, my sister-in-law was the type to fire off ten one-minute voice messages in a row, demanding, “Why isn’t my son smiling in today’s photos?”

No one wanted to get on her bad side.

But children didn’t understand any of that.

A bold little boy pointed at my nephew and laughed loudly.

“I could smell the pee from a mile away. Turns out, the walking toilet’s here!”

The other children recoiled, keeping their distance from him.

My nephew’s face flushed red with humiliation, but something darker began to take shape in his mind.

If there were someone who seemed even more like a “walking toilet” than he did, wouldn’t the ridicule shift to them instead?

He peeked out from the doorway of the teachers’ office, his eyes lighting up as he fixed on my daughter, Megan.

Megan had a congenital heart condition and couldn’t handle strenuous activity. During group play, she could only sit off to the side.

My nephew seized the chance and quietly circled behind her.

He twisted open the bottle and dumped the urine over her head.

“Look! She’s the real toilet!”

Clapping his hands, he shouted excitedly to the other children.

Startled, Megan clutched her chest, her face turning purple as she collapsed to the floor.

The teacher rushed to the office to get her medication.

However, my nephew only smiled more smugly.

When I handed the medicine to the teacher, he overheard that it could save Megan’s life.

He remembered how his mother always said that girl was a burden who would take half of what should be his.

If she were gone, wouldn’t that solve everything?

He carved the candy into pieces that matched the pills in both size and shape.

Then, while the teacher was busy receiving parents that morning, he slipped into the office and swapped the medication in the bottle.

Watching Megan after she took the pills, seeing no improvement in her condition, he grew even more pleased with himself.

It wasn’t until I rushed over from the ER and reviewed the kindergarten’s surveillance footage that his trick was finally exposed.

Yet when the police arrived, he still hid behind my overbearing sister-in-law, crying pitifully as he protested, “I just thought the medicine was too bitter… I wanted to switch it with candy to make Megan happy…”

At this point, the audience fell into silence.

“Do you still think he’s innocent?”

I spoke coldly.

Unexpectedly, one of the spectators who had defended him earlier snapped back, “He’s just a child. How could he understand the consequences of a prank? Kids are born innocent. How could a kid deliberately hurt someone?”

Several others chimed in as well.

“And who’s to say you didn’t abuse him first? Maybe that’s why he hates you.”

“Exactly. Without the full picture, we shouldn’t judge!”

I turned my gaze back to the screen.

“Then take a good look at what this ‘innocent’ kid does next.”

Megan was saved, and fortunately, there were no lasting complications.

My nephew was a minor, and my brother and sister-in-law paid for the emergency treatment.

No matter how hard it was for me to accept, he bore no responsibility in the end.

After I transferred Megan to a different kindergarten, my nephew, with no one left to bully, grew bored.

What happened last time made him realize that no matter what he did, the adults wouldn’t truly punish him.

He began imitating the thugs he saw on TV, lifting women’s skirts on the street.

Instead of stopping him, my mother and sister-in-law laughed and chatted cheerfully.

“Ethan’s growing up. He’s already interested in women!”

Encouraged, he became even more reckless.

Once, on a bus, he deliberately jumped onto a female passenger’s lap and started pulling at her clothes.

The woman was pregnant.

She was startled, and it was only thanks to her sister beside her that she didn’t fall.

She had to cover herself after her buttons were torn open while also protecting her stomach, utterly humiliated.

Her sister, furious, grabbed my sister-in-law and demanded an explanation.

My sister-in-law showed no remorse at all.

“He’s just a kid—kids act out, that’s normal. Let me tell you, my son is a minor. Even if he killed someone, he wouldn’t be sentenced to death!

“And besides, your sister is so fat. Who’d even want to look at her?”

The pregnant woman’s sister, unable to swallow her anger, turned to the internet for help.

But the comment section was flooded with ridicule.

“Who’d want to see that fatty? You’d have to pay me to even glimpse at her.”

“He’s just a kid. He hasn’t even hit puberty. How would he understand harassment?”

“This is what modern women are like. Can’t do anything useful, complain about basic chores, but they’re experts at writing sob stories and smearing people.”

Someone in the courtroom audience recognized the woman.

“Isn’t this that video that was trending not long ago?”

“What are these people thinking? Even if he’s just a kid, he knows he’s crossing a line and getting a kick out of it!”

Another group of spectators lowered their heads, saying nothing.

Perhaps they had been among the ones cheering back then.

On the screen, my nephew got his way once again.

As the woman got off the bus in anger, he suddenly ran after her, spat at her twice, and even stuck out his foot to trip her.

“Ah—my stomach!”

This time, it was serious.

The pregnant woman fell to the ground, blood spreading beneath her.

She lost the baby.

She had already been furious with my nephew. There was no way she would let it go now.

Her husband brought a group of men and caused trouble at my brother’s workplace every day.

He also plastered the neighborhood with posters that read, “Ethan Moore is a killer.”

My father, as the head of the family, couldn’t bear the neighbors’ whispers and judgment. In a fit of anger, he decided to take action.

As a result, he worked himself into a heart attack.

He hurriedly swallowed his medication, only to find that the pills in his bottle had also been replaced with candy—practice pieces my nephew had carved.

He wasn’t as lucky. Though he survived, he was left bedridden from then on.

That night, my nephew huddled in the corner, listening as my brother and sister-in-law discussed the situation.

My brother, timid and submissive outside, turned aggressive at home. He swung and slapped my sister-in-law across the face several times.

“This is all your son’s doing. What are we going to do now? It’s been days, and you still haven’t settled this?”

My sister-in-law clutched her face and wailed, “They’re asking for a fortune right off the bat. Where am I supposed to get that kind of money?”

She paused, then her eyes lit up.

“Your parents love Ethan so much. There’s no way they’d just sit back and let those people ruin his reputation, right?”

My brother let out a cold snort.

“What can they do? They don’t have any money.”

“My mom used to spend her pension on that pretty-boy streamer she follows. What’s his name, something like ‘Top Scholar’? Throwing him expensive virtual gifts until she didn’t even have enough left for food.

“And now my sister collects their pension every month and gives it back to them bit by bit. Mom doesn’t even have a cent to spare anymore.”

At the mention of me, my sister-in-law gritted her teeth in anger.

“Your sister is really something. She’s so petty. Ethan played a little joke on her daughter once, and she’s held a grudge ever since. Now she won’t lift a finger to help.

“She’s shameless too, taking your parents’ pension like that. Who knows if she’s really giving it all back, or secretly keeping half for herself?”

My brother sighed.

“What can we do? She bought that house for them. Her name’s still on the deed. They have no choice but to listen to her.”

“The house?”

My sister-in-law suddenly slapped her thigh, an idea forming.

“We’ll just say Ethan needs a place in a good school district. Your mom won’t risk his future. She’ll definitely pressure your sister into transferring the house to us!”