Chapter 8 — Divorced and Reborn: My New Beginning

She craved a marriage with Lu Tranh, intending to leverage his promising career as a ladder to reach greater heights. Now, however, Lu Tranh had turned his attention toward me and my daughter, Tang Tang, and she was beginning to panic. I looked her in the eye and said, "Then go and tell him to stop bothering us."

Her gaze hardened, turning vicious. "To Hoa, do not push me."

I stepped forward, closing the distance between us. "If you want to play dirty, aim your grievances at me. But if you dare to touch my daughter, I will make you regret the day you were born."

Diep Dung flinched, visibly shaken by the intensity in my eyes. She stumbled back half a step, her fear quickly curdling into an indignant, humiliated rage. "You are so vulgar!"

"Still cleaner than you," I retorted.

She spun around and stomped away, consumed by fury. That very evening, my shop received a massive order. The local mechanical factory was hosting an awards ceremony and requested three hundred portions of my braised delicacies. It was a significant commission, and I spent the entire night working alongside Phung Tieu Mai to fulfill it. But when we delivered the food the following morning, disaster struck. Someone accused us of selling poisoned goods. Outside the gates of the factory, a woman was writhing on the ground, clutching her stomach. Her husband pointed a finger at me, shouting, "You heartless, greedy merchant! Your food has poisoned my wife!"

A crowd began to gather, their murmurs growing louder by the second. My first reaction was not fear, but a cold realization of how suspiciously convenient this timing was. I crouched down to examine the woman. Her complexion was perfectly rosy, and she was surreptitiously gripping half a packet of sunflower seeds in her hand. Her performance was amateurish at best.

"Which portion did you eat?" I asked calmly.

Her husband bellowed, "She ate all of it! Everything you sold is toxic!"

"I supplied three hundred portions," I noted, my voice steady. "If the food were poisoned, why is she the only one suffering?"

He was momentarily silenced, and the crowd began to exchange skeptical glances. I pressed the advantage. "If she is in such agony, why are you not at the clinic? Does rolling around at the factory gate act as some miracle cure?"

The woman wailed even louder, "You are a bully as well as a poisoner!"

I turned to the factory’s security office. "Call the police and take her to the clinic immediately. Seal the food samples and the receipts—nobody is to touch them."

The husband’s face drained of color. "There is no need to involve the police! Just pay us the compensation and we will call it even!"

I stared at him, unblinking. "Didn't you claim your wife was dying? If we don't call the police, what happens if she actually dies?"

The bystanders turned their suspicious gazes toward him. He began to break into a cold sweat. Not long after, the police and medical staff arrived. The investigation confirmed that the woman had not been poisoned, and the food was perfectly safe. Under police questioning, the man crumbled, confessing that someone had paid him five dollars to cause a scene. The person who had paid him was Diep Dung’s cousin. When Diep Dung was brought in for questioning, she still attempted to play the part of the innocent victim.

"I have no idea what my cousin has done," she insisted.

I recounted every word of the threats she had made against me earlier that day. Her face turned ghost-white. With representatives from the mechanical factory present, the news spread like wildfire. At the art troupe, Diep Dung was promptly suspended from all performances. When Lu Tranh finally arrived, she clung to his sleeves, sobbing, "Lu Tranh, you have to believe me. I never intended to harm her."

Lu Tranh pulled his sleeve away. "Diep Dung, I have tried to preserve your dignity until now."

Diep Dung went rigid. Lu Tranh’s voice was frigid. "From this day forward, do not appear in front of To Hoa or Tang Tang again."

She finally collapsed in despair. "What is wrong with loving you? I went on missions with you and silenced the rumors for your sake! Everyone says we are a perfect match! How is it that the moment she returns, you stop looking at me entirely?"

Lu Tranh looked down at her. "She didn't return. I was the one who lost them."

I stood nearby, watching the scene, and felt that the entire ordeal was profoundly absurd. Affection that arrives too late cannot force open a door that has already been bolted shut. Following the fallout of Diep Dung's schemes, my business only continued to flourish.