Chapter 2 — Fascinated by the Rooster Farmer Raising His Children

The family lawyer's office was located on the second floor of the villa, well soundproofed, with only the steady sound of the pendulum clock tapping on the wall. Khanh Vy sat across the mahogany table, her hand on a thick file, still confused about this morning's meeting.

"Eldest sister, take a look and sign here." Lawyer Dam, who had served the Chu family for more than twenty years, pushed the file towards her, his voice monotonous as if he had repeated this procedure hundreds of times. "This is just a document recording the results of the preliminary meeting, confirming the candidate that your grandmother and family have agreed to choose for you, and is morally binding before the official wedding."

Khanh Vy held the file and glanced at the first page. Her name was printed clearly: Chu Khanh Vy. But she did not have time to read the contents carefully, because her grandmother spoke from the armchair next to the window.

"You don't need to read it carefully, my child. This is just a formality. I've looked it over, everything is fine. Sign it, we still have to prepare for the dinner party."

Grandma's voice carries an invisible weight that Khanh Vy had been accustomed to obeying since childhood. She glanced at her father standing behind her grandmother. Mr. Trong Nghiep nodded softly, his eyes still avoiding him like in the morning. There was a very brief moment when Khanh Vy felt something was wrong, but the pressure from the whole family's eyes focused on her made her dismiss that premonition and sign the last line of the document.

Only when she put down her pen did lawyer Dam turn to the appendix page, where the name of the selected candidate was clearly written.

"Dinh Vinh Khang."

Those three words hit Khanh Vy's eyes like a hammer blow. She raised her head, looked at her grandmother, looked at her father, then looked at the file again, trying to find some mistake.

"Grandma, is this... is this some mistake? I thought I was signing the marriage documents with Khai Van."

Grandma did not answer immediately. She poured a cup of tea and slowly brought it to her mouth, letting the silence last long enough to make Khanh Vy feel a chill down her spine.

"There was no mistake." Finally she spoke, her voice cruelly calm. "I have considered very carefully. Nha Dinh is more suitable for the To family - her personality is lively, good at communication, and will help the group's business relationship with that party. As for you, you are calm, mature, capable of managing, I believe you have enough bravery to... stabilize a family with many difficulties."

"Stabilizing a family is still difficult?" Khanh Vy repeated, her voice shaking with anger. "Grandma is saying I will marry a widowed farmer with children of his own, while letting Nha Dinh marry the richest person on the list?"

"Don't say that." Grandma put the teacup firmly on the table. "Dinh Vinh Khang has land, is well educated, and is a decent person. You will not suffer any disadvantages. This marriage is also beneficial to the group - Tan Hoa land is in our expansion plan, having someone in the family holding land there will be much more convenient."

Only now did Khanh Vy understand the whole truth. She was not chosen because she was suitable, but was pushed into this marriage as a pawn to serve the family's land calculations. She turned to look into her father's eyes, hoping he would speak up to defend her, but Mr. Trong Nghiep just bowed his head, his voice so low it was almost a whisper.

"Listen to your grandmother, Khanh Vy. The matter is decided."

Khanh Vy looked at her father for a long time, trying to find in his eyes a trace of torment, some explanation more worthy than that short sentence. But he was just silent, his hands clasped behind his back, the posture of someone who had been accustomed to yielding to his mother since he was young.

"Does dad also agree with this?" She asked, her voice no longer holding its usual calmness. "Dad knows exactly what I expected from today's meeting, knows how much I mentally prepared myself to enter an arranged marriage, but why did you let things happen like that?"

"Dad... you only found out about this exchange this morning." Mr. Trong Nghiep replied, his voice trembling slightly, for the first time revealing a bit of confusion in front of his daughter. "Grandma has decided, Dad has no right to object in this family, you know that."

That answer, although somewhat honest, made Khanh Vy even more heartbroken. She realized that even her biological father, who should have been the strongest support, was just another weak link in her grandmother's power apparatus, lacking the courage to stand up and protect his daughter from such an unfair decision.

Lawyer Dam, standing between the two sides, bowed his head to collect papers, trying to maintain a professional neutral expression, but his eyes flashed a bit of guilt when he glanced at Khanh Vy. He had witnessed many arranged marriages in this family over the past twenty years, but he had rarely felt as impatient as he was right now.

*

In the hallway, Nha Dinh stood behind the half-closed door, listening to the entire conversation with a smile that she tried to hide behind her sleeve. She had been worried for the past two weeks, afraid that the last minute plan to swap documents would be discovered, afraid that her sister would read the document carefully before signing. Fortunately, Khanh Vy's absolute trust in her grandmother became a fatal weakness.

Her and her grandmother's plan was surprisingly simple: taking advantage of the fact that Khanh Vy always trusted her grandmother absolutely, never doubting what the adults in the family decided, they swapped the appendix page with the candidate's name right before the signing ceremony, putting the name "Dinh Vinh Khang" - the candidate that no one wanted - into Khanh Vy's file, while the real file with the name To Khai Van was transferred to Nha Dinh.

Grandma had her own motives: the land branch of Dinh Vinh Khang's family in Tan Hoa was located in the planning area that the group was targeting, and a marriage would make land negotiations much easier than normal negotiations. For her, this was a wise business move, not a punishment. But Nha Dinh's motives were much simpler and more selfish: she wanted To Khai Van, a rich, handsome man with social status - and she did not want her sister, who was always considered the standard in everyone's eyes, to continue to stand above her again.

*

Returning to her private room, Khanh Vy sat down on the bed, covering her face with both hands. She didn't cry, but there was a feeling of emptiness spreading throughout her body, as if the ground beneath her feet had just collapsed. She had trusted her grandmother all her life, believing that the family always puts the interests of their children and grandchildren first, even though sometimes the way they express it was somewhat strict. But today, she realized that she was just a pawn on the scale of interests, and the people willing to sacrifice her the most were her blood relatives.

She opened her phone, intending to call the only close friend she trusted to give objective advice — Vuong Vu Dang, a lawyer, her college classmate. But her finger stopped on the screen, and in the end she didn't press call.

She knew that no matter how much legal advice she got, the signed document was still honorably binding on the entire family. If she breaks it now, not only her, but also her father's position in the corporation, and the family's public reputation would be seriously affected. Grandma had calculated this very carefully — she knew Khanh Vy would never let her family's honor be damaged because of her.

That night, Khanh Vy stood by her bedroom window, looking at the sparkling city lights in the distance, thinking about the calm face of the man named Dinh Vinh Khang she had met this morning. He had no idea he was being—or rather, was—chosen to be her husband. He came to the meeting just because he thought it was about land.

She wondered how that man would react when he knew the truth. Will he be happy because he suddenly "married" a girl from a tycoon, or would he also feel taken advantage of like she was feeling right now?

She didn't know the answer. But she knew one thing for sure: from tomorrow, her life would turn in a completely different direction, a direction that she had never been mentally prepared to face.

She turned on the computer and searched for the name "Dinh Vinh Khang, Tan Hoa commune" online, hoping to find something that would help her understand more about the man who was about to become her husband. But the search results were almost empty, with only a few lines of sketchy information about a small farm registered as an individual business, no photos, no detailed description. Unlike the other candidates on today's list, whose profiles were full of achievements, relationships, and assets that were publicly displayed on all platforms, this man left almost no trace in the digital world.

That emptiness, instead of disappointing her, evoked a strange feeling of curiosity in her. A person who lives so quietly that he did not care about building his own image on social networks, in an era where everyone tries to show off everything, must have a personal story worth learning about.

She turned off the computer, lay down on the bed, pulled the blanket up to her chin even though it wasn't cold at all. In her mind, the image of that man's calm face and unobtrusive eyes in a room full of judges appeared clearly, mixed with a vague fear of what lay ahead.

Outside the door of the room, Nha Dinh stood still for a moment, her hands clasped tightly on the stair handrail, listening to the soft sigh coming from her sister's room. A strange feeling arose in her heart — not exactly remorse, but more like a satisfaction mixed with a vague sense of insecurity, as if she knew she had just sparked something bigger than she could control.

She shook her head, dispelling that feeling, then walked away, thinking of the gorgeous wedding dress she would wear at her engagement ceremony with To Khai Van next week.