Chapter 3 — Don't Touch My Limits

When I got home, I put the phone on the tea table. The screen stopped at the exact moment Truong Nguyet Cam and Cao Hieu Quyen were carrying the box. Clear to every detail. Cao Trung Dan stood next to him, confused and didn't know what to do. He looked at me and then at the phone, before stammering out a sentence:

"La Mai... don't be angry. I'll call my mother right away and tell her to come over here and ask about this clearly."

I said nothing. Just lean on the sofa, close your eyes, trying to suppress the anger rolling in your heart. I want to see... How Truong Nguyet Cam will explain today. Cao Trung Dan picked up the phone and went to the balcony to call his mother. I couldn't hear what he said clearly, I just heard his voice getting quieter and quieter, more and more helpless. In less than a few minutes, he hung up and turned back:

“My mother said… she will be over soon.”

He sat down next to me and said cautiously:

"La Mai, my mother will come later... don't get too excited, can you say something slowly? She's old too, if something happens if she gets too angry..."

I opened my eyes, looked at him, and laughed coldly:

"Gao Trung Dan, please calm down. Now she's the one who stole my things, I didn't make her angry! Does she have the right to take my things when she's old? If she's so angry that something happens... then she deserves it! I'm not angry enough to get sick yet!"

“I don't mean that…” he quickly explained, “I'm just… we're all family, don't make things too tense, it's not good…”

“One person?”

I looked straight at him.

"Does she consider me a family member? A family member will secretly open my lock and take away the things my mother bought for me, without saying a word? A family member will bring his daughter and clean up my things? Cao Trung Dan, stop using the title of 'family member' to cover up your mother."

He was speechless when I talked to him, bowed his head, and did not dare to speak further. In less than half an hour, there was a knock on the door. Cao Trung Dan quickly stood up and opened the door. Truong Nguyet Cam carried a cloth bag, smiled and walked in. As soon as she entered the door, she said:

"Trung Dan, why are you calling mom so urgently? Mom is at home wrapping dumplings. Has Lam Mai returned from a business trip? Are you tired?"

She acted as if nothing had happened. The smile on her face was brighter than flowers, just like a gentle mother-in-law who only came to visit her children. Looking at that pretend appearance... Anger inside me flared up fiercely. But I still don't get it. Just raised his hand and pointed to the phone on the table, his voice cold:

"Mom, wait a minute. Come here... look at this."

Truong Nguyet Cam paused for a moment, then walked to the tea table and bowed her head to look at the screen. When she saw the image of herself and Cao Hieu Quyen carrying boxes... The smile on her face immediately stiffened. A flash of panic flashed in his eyes. But very quickly, she regained her composure, raised her head, and pretended to be bewildered:

"What is this? What are you filming? Mom... I don't understand."

"Not understand?"

I smiled coldly and pressed the play button. The video plays back from beginning to end. The image of the two of them carrying boxes one trip at a time... is so clear that it cannot be denied. The video ends. I looked straight at her, word by word:

"Mom, I'll ask again. Where are the ten flower delivery boxes in my spare bedroom...?"

Truong Nguyet Cam's eyes dodged for a moment, then quickly stabilized. She sat down on the sofa, her voice calm:

"What do flowers deliver? I don't know." These past two days, I only came to clean the house, open the door to air out, clean the table and sweep the floor, I didn't take anything from the children."

Still... continue to deny. I looked at her and said:

“Mom, the camera is so clear. Mom and Hieu Quyen, trip by trip, brought the boxes down from my house and loaded them all into her car. A total of ten boxes, not one box missing. Now you're saying you don't know?"

“Ah, you mean those barrels!”

Truong Nguyet Cam seemed to have just remembered, patted her thigh and said:

“I thought it was something! I saw those boxes in the warehouse taking up space and gathering dust. I thought they were things you no longer used, so I just took care of them."

I was so angry that I was shaking.

“Those are delivery flowers my mother spent eighty thousand yuan to buy for me to nourish! I locked it in the warehouse because I was afraid others would touch it. Mom said it's trash? Truong Nguyet Cam, do you think I'm stupid?

“Why do you talk like that?”

Her face immediately changed, she slammed down on the tea table, stood up, and pointed straight at me:

“I am your mother-in-law! Trung Dan's mother! You dare talk to me like that? Don't know from above! Isn't it just a few boxes of food? What are you making a fuss about?”

“How many boxes of food?”

I looked straight at her.

“Eighty thousand yuan! It's the retirement money my mother saved up all her life to buy me health care! Did you even ask me a question? You secretly gave it all to your daughter, but you still said it right?

“What are you sneaking in?”

Her voice grew louder and louder.

“This house is my son's house! My son's things are mine! It's natural for me to take things from my son's house and give them to my daughter! Do I need to ask you? You are an outsider, what right do you have to manage our family affairs?

“Outsiders…”

Hearing those three words, my heart turned cold. Five years of marriage. For five years, I took care of this house, saved every penny, paid off debt with Cao Trung Dan, and lived day by day together. In her eyes... I'm still just an outsider.

“Yes! You are an outsider!”

Truong Nguyet Cam bowed, looking arrogant.

“My son paid the deposit for this house! The loan is what it pays! Everything in this house belongs to him! But what's mine is mine! I can take whatever I want, I can give it to anyone I want, you have no right to interfere!”

“Deposit?”

I laughed coldly.

“Truong Nguyet Cam, do you still feel ashamed? My parents contributed half of the deposit for this house! Loan, every month Cao Trung Dan and I pay together! My salary is also spent on family expenses! I have half of this house! On what basis did she not ask my permission and take my things?"

“How about your parents contribute half?”

The more she spoke, the more absurd it became.

“You married my son, so you are a member of the Cao family! Her money, her things, of course also belong to the Cao family! Is it wrong if I take something from the Cao family and give it to my daughter? That's natural!”

I looked at her. I was so angry that I was shaking all over and couldn't say a word. I've never met anyone so brazen. Taking someone else's things, not only does he not admit his mistake, he turns around and says he's completely right. At that moment, Cao Trung Dan finally spoke. I used to think… At least he would say something fair. But no. He walked over, pulled my hand, his voice full of awkwardness:

“La Mai, stop it, stop arguing. We're all family members, so it's unsightly to argue for the neighbors to hear. Mom didn't mean it either, she just said I didn't know this item was so precious, it was just a misunderstanding."

I pushed his hand away and looked straight at him. His eyes only left disappointment.

“Cao Trung Dan, can you hear me when you say that? Misread? The camera filmed so clearly, she even brought his sister along, each trip carrying ten boxes. You said she didn't know this was valuable? She did it on purpose! And yet you still tell me to stop?"

“So what do you want?”

Cao Trung Dan also got angry and raised his voice:

“That's my mother! The one who gave birth to you and raised you! Is it just because of a few flower boxes that he has to turn against her? Lap Mai, can't you be a little more generous? Think for me a bit? After all, we are all family members, we see each other every day, working so hard, how can we survive in the future?

"Generosity? Understand?”

I looked at him, tears almost falling.