Chapter 7 — Fascinated by the Rooster Farmer Raising His Children

While Khanh Vy was gradually adapting to life in Binh Xuyen village, in Saigon, Chu Nha Dinh was enjoying the days she considered the pinnacle of her life. The engagement ceremony between her and To Khai Van was held at the most luxurious five-star hotel in the city, with the presence of business and media elites invited to cover the news.

The camera lens flashed continuously, recording every carefully choreographed moment of the couple, who was considered the most prestigious couple of the upper class that year.

"I'm so lucky to have a sister who knows how to sacrifice for her family like that." To Khai Van said, his arm around Nha Dinh's waist as the two stood taking pictures in front of reporters' cameras, their smiles flawless and radiant. "I heard that Ms. Khanh Vy agreed to marry a farmer to give me the best rate."

Nha Dinh smiled charmingly, without correction. "She's inherently kind. She always thinks about her family first."

She enjoyed every admiring look, every compliment about her beauty and luck. In her mind, the image of her older sister living in a four-level house in the middle of a field, making friends with mud and a child who was not her biological child, brought an indescribable feeling of satisfaction - the feeling that she had finally overcome the large shadow of her sister who was always considered the standard in the eyes of the whole family.

Grandmother Chu Le Phuong sat at the honor table, looking at the scene before her eyes with satisfaction. For her, this was proof that her decision was right — Nha Dinh was more suitable for the upper class world, and Khanh Vy, with her calm personality and management ability, would help stabilize the Tan Hoa land that the group was aiming for.

Many guests, who were long-time business partners of the Chu family, repeatedly praised the gorgeous beauty of the future bride, not forgetting to mention the "noble sacrifice" of her absent sister. Nha Dinh accepted those compliments as an inevitable part of her current glory, without a trace of guilt entering her mind, even though she knew better than anyone else the truth behind the embellished story.

"You are so lucky to have such a sister." An older woman, a close friend of Ms. Le Phuong, said to Nha Dinh when she came to congratulate her. "Not everyone is willing to give in to their sister to that extent."

"Yes, I'm always grateful to my big sister for that." Nha Dinh replied, her voice was sweet without any ripples, while inside she secretly laughed at the gullibility of the people around her.

*

After the party, when most of the guests had left, To Khai Van pulled Nha Dinh to a deserted corner, his voice whispering with intention.

"Hey, after the wedding, can you tell your dad to help me get a loan from Chu Thi Group? I have a very potential real estate project, I just need a little more capital to complete it."

Nha Dinh frowned slightly, but quickly regained her familiar smiling face. "Okay, let me arrange it. But you have to promise me that in the future when you succeed, you will treat me well. Don't be like other husbands who look down on their wives."

"I can rest assured." Khai Van gently kissed her forehead, his smile still sweet as usual. "I will give you the life you deserve."

Nha Dinh did not realize that Khai Van's eyes flashed with cold calculation right after those sweet words - the eyes of someone who was calculating how to get the most benefit from this marriage, not the eyes of a person in love.

That night, returning to her private room, Nha Dinh stood in front of the mirror, admiring the engagement ring sparkling under the light, filled with a feeling of victory. She thought about her childhood years, when her mother - the second wife considered less prestigious in the eyes of the Chu family - always had to humble herself in front of the image of her deceased first wife, and Khanh Vy, the child of that first wife, was always favored in every family decision. She grew up with the insidious belief that, to be recognized, she had to achieve the best, no matter the cost.

"In the end, I won." She whispered to her reflection in the mirror, not realizing the thin line between true victory and an illusion built on a foundation of lies.

*

A few days later, while sitting in her private office at the Chu family villa, Nha Dinh received a phone call from a friend who worked in the financial industry, warning her to carefully learn about the true financial situation of To Thi Group before getting married. But she immediately dismissed that warning, thinking it was just other people's jealousy of her happiness.

"Everyone's just jealous." She muttered to herself, looking in the mirror at the sparkling diamond engagement ring on her hand. "Khanh Vy is probably learning how to fertilize now, and I'm about to become the aunt of one of the richest families in the city. Who is the real winner?"

She opened her phone, scrolled through a few photos she secretly took from an acquaintance living near Binh Xuyen village - the image of Khanh Vy wearing simple work clothes, her hands dirty with dirt, standing in the middle of a vegetable patch with Vinh Khang. Nha Dinh looked at the photo, her lips curved into a contemptuous smile.

"Look, how far you have fallen." She whispered, even though no one heard her. "And you, you will live a life I never dared to dream of."

But deep inside, there was a small feeling of insecurity that Nha Dinh deliberately ignored — the feeling that everything was going too smoothly, too easily, as if she was building a castle in the sand without even realizing it.

She called a close friend, bragging about her upcoming wedding and the prosperous life that awaited her. The friend, although congratulating, still did not forget to cleverly mention the rumors surrounding To Thi Group's recent business situation. Nha Dinh brushed it off, firmly asserting that it was just the jealousy of those who weren't as lucky as her. She turned off the phone, threw the phone on the bed, telling herself she didn't need to care about those baseless rumors, when in fact, she had never once proactively researched her husband-to-be's true family background.

*

At the same time, at the group office, Mr. Chu Trong Nghiep sat alone, holding a cold cup of coffee, looking thoughtfully out the window. He had just received a preliminary report on To Thi Group's financial situation from the appraisal department - the numbers were not very positive, showing signs of hidden debts that had not been widely disclosed.

He intended to call his youngest daughter to warn her, but then put the phone down and sighed. He knew Nha Dinh would not listen, just as he knew he did not have the courage to protect Khanh Vy from the plots of his mother and youngest daughter before. His weakness, accumulated over many years of living in the shadow of Ms. Le Phuong's power, had become a difficult habit to break.

"Maybe I should say something." He thought to himself, but then shook his head, put the report in a drawer, and locked it carefully. "Let's see how the situation develops."

His silence, like many times before, would become one of the reasons why the consequences of the marriage exchange plot became more and more widespread, leading to many events that no one in the family could have predicted.

Outside, the afternoon sunlight gradually faded on the high-rise buildings of Saigon, while in the far away village of Binh Xuyen, Khanh Vy was gathering with Vinh Khang and Tieu Yen around a simple tray of rice, unaware of the calculations and risks that were silently forming, waiting for the explosive moment in the near future.

Mr. Trong Nghiep opened his desk drawer and took out an old photo of two sisters, Khanh Vy and Nha Dinh, when they were children, standing next to each other in the villa garden, smiling innocently, not yet entangled with adult calculations. He remembered the time before his second wife entered his life, when Khanh Vy was the only child he loved completely without needing to compare with anyone. He wondered if it was his unconscious bias in the years that followed, when trying to make up for Nha Dinh to keep peace with his new wife, that unintentionally planted the seeds of growing jealousy in his youngest daughter's heart.

He put the photo back in the drawer, the feeling of guilt smoldering in his heart but still not strong enough to make him act. It was a mistake for which he would have to pay dearly in the coming months, when all the plots arranged from that fateful family gathering gradually blossomed into consequences that no one could have predicted.