An 80-year-old man in China has filed a lawsuit suing his financially dependent son for mocking him for failing a maths quiz at a family gathering gone wrong.
The man, given the pseudonym Luo Wen by local media, from Jiangxi province, southeastern China, requested a one-time payment of 100,000 yuan (US$14,800) from his son, Luo Jun, in a lawsuit filed at a local court in May.
Luo’s suit claimed that his son has been financially dependent on him for decades, and had physically assaulted him more than once, local media reported.
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An attempt by the court to mediate the dispute resulted in tensions between the father and son escalating.
“How dare he beat me, please help me and arrest such an unfilial son,” Luo told news outlet The Paper.
“You’d better call the police, after all, it’s not the first time for you to make the call,” was the son’s reported response.
The feud began at a family gathering in May when the senior Luo boasted that he was good at maths. Luo Jun did not believe his father and demanded he prove his claim.
“I’ll give you a credit if you can solve a maths quiz for me,” the son said.
When the father failed to get the right figure when multiplying two four-digit numbers the son mocked him.
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Both men lost their temper with father Luo allegedly slapping his son while the latter pushed his father to the floor.
Luo Wen’s wife defended their son and said that Luo junior was respectful towards his parents and had never hit his father. The constant fighting between the pair was a result of Luo Jun having zero tolerance for his father’s verbal abuse, the mother said.
A further attempt to mediate between the father and son was made by convincing them to write letters of commitment to each other.
“If he is willing to draft the letter, so am I,” father Luo said.
When shown the letter written by his son, Luo Wen responded by writing that he would like to live with his family in peace and spend his final years living in harmony.
Later on, the court paid a return visit and discovered the pair getting along with each other.
The dispute between the father and son has become a source of amusement across mainland Chinese social media.
One person commented: “Like father, like son.”
Another quipped: “Are they two men or teenage boys? So childish, haha.”
Another, who said she is a daughter who likes to boast, wrote: “Every time when I talked big, my mum laughed with delight.”
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