Chapter 1 — In This Life, I Must Keep My Distance from My Ex-Husband

After being reborn, I was determined to meticulously avoid every interaction with Phu Nguyen Thanh. When he secretly tried to alter my university preferences, I immediately changed them to the Guangzhou University of Economics. When he took his entire salary to help Trieu So So pay her rent, I promptly listed my house for sale and threw him out. When he pitied Trieu So So for being lonely and helpless, eventually giving her a child after a one-night stand, I decisively broke off our engagement. In my previous life, I spent my fifties lying on a hospital bed, dying of stomach cancer, while my own son and that family of three pressured me to sign divorce papers: "Mom, you are going to die anyway, why not just let Dad and Aunt So be together? Can't you give me a complete family... please?"

1

"Nhu An, are you certain about this choice? This is a lifelong decision. You are enrolling in the Guangzhou University of Economics, correct?"

I nodded solemnly at my teacher, formally resubmitting my application forms.

"You and your fiance, Mr. Thanh, are certainly an odd pair. In the morning he comes to change your preferences, and by the afternoon, you come to change them back. Fortunately, we are still within the deadline; any later and it would have been impossible to amend."

As I stepped out of the faculty office, the immense weight that had crushed my chest for so long finally lifted. After this afternoon, Phu Nguyen Thanh would never be able to tamper with my future again. In this life, I would never marry him. I would sever every single tie that bound me to him.

2

In my previous life, my entrance exam scores were quite good, and I intended to apply to a local economics school. However, when the results were released, I discovered that the day after I had submitted my forms, Phu Nguyen Thanh had abused his position as my fiance to change my preferences to a local teachers' college. When I confronted him, he insisted, "If you study education and become a teacher, your schedule will be flexible, making it easier for you to care for the children and the home. What is wrong with that? What good is an economics degree for a woman?"

Back then, I was young and blinded by romantic illusions, so I did not argue. I married him shortly thereafter. Before my first year was even over, I was pregnant. The morning sickness was debilitating, forcing me to pause my studies for half a year. After giving birth, I juggled my classes while dragging my young child to the market to earn extra money. To my horror, in my third year, I became pregnant again. One day, while pushing a baby stroller up a steep hill, I slipped and fell. I lost the baby. Exhausted by the burden of supporting the family and raising children, I was forced to abandon my education entirely. Because I lacked a degree, the teaching position I had been promised at an elementary school was snatched away by someone else.

Years later, I discovered that while I was busy holding my child with one arm and pushing a heavy cart with the other—selling snacks in the pouring rain just to survive—Phu Nguyen Thanh had taken his entire salary to rent a house, buy a refrigerator, and purchase jewelry for Trieu So So. The teaching position I should have secured had been funneled to her through his connections. Eventually, Trieu So So moved away with her daughter, and Phu Nguyen Thanh was transferred to the North. My son followed him. He told me he wanted to buy a house in the North, so I sold my ancestral home in Ha Thanh and sent every cent to them. I moved to Guangzhou to start my own business.

It was only much later that I learned the truth: that house was purchased for Trieu So So and her daughter. My son grew increasingly distant from me. The four of them lived happily in the home I had funded with my sweat and blood. I never understood why Phu Nguyen Thanh was so devoted to Trieu So So's daughter until, at fifty, lying on my deathbed, the truth emerged. That child was his biological daughter. My son wrote me letter after letter, begging me to divorce his father, claiming the family was long broken and asking why I couldn't just "grant them peace."

Lying in the hospital, I looked at the four of them. Trieu So So remained youthful and beautiful; she had taken excellent care of herself, and time had left no mark on her face. Her daughter smiled and said, "Aunt, you can pass away in peace. My mother will take care of Dad now."

My son looked at me without a hint of hesitation: "Mom, you are going to die anyway, just sign the divorce papers. Grant them their happiness and give me a complete family, can you not do that much?"

No, I could not. I stared at Phu Nguyen Thanh with pure hatred. This man had dragged me through a miserable existence, deceived me, and ruined my entire life. How could I ever be expected to grant him his peace in my final moments? "Even if I die and make you a widower, I will never let you marry her with a clean conscience."

He had cheated on me long before we married. He had been secretly involved with Trieu So So all along, and their daughter was nearly a year older than my own son. He had drained every drop of my life away. I wanted to drag them all down with me. A mouthful of blood surged from my throat. I refused to let go, slowly closing my eyes. But the heavens were merciful, granting me a chance to start over. I returned to the time before I married him, to the final moments before submitting my college applications. Everything was still within my reach.

3

I instructed the school to send my acceptance letter directly to my aunt’s address in Guangzhou. Once I finished settling matters here, I would relocate immediately. In my past life, I hadn't moved to Guangzhou until I was forty, by which time the commercial market had already reached its peak. Now, arriving twelve years earlier, I would be perfectly positioned to capitalize on the opportunities ahead.

Returning home, I found the house empty. I entered my room and marked a big red X on the calendar for the day of my departure. Only ten days remained. In these ten days, I had to finalize everything. This sixty-square-meter apartment had been my parents' home. After my father passed and my mother remarried, she left it to me. In my previous life, I had married and raised a child here with Phu Nguyen Thanh. We lived in my house, and the money came from my hard work, while he siphoned his salary away for Trieu So So. Later, he even pressured me to sell this place to buy them a home in the North. In this life, I would not allow him to take a single penny from me.

4

At dinner time, Phu Nguyen Thanh returned. I placed the stir-fried tomato and eggs on the table just as he walked through the door.

"Why are we having this again?"

I didn't bother looking at him. "Meat is expensive, and it doesn't keep well."

"Then I’ll go to the market tomorrow and buy just enough for the two of us."

I glanced at him coldly, dishing out my rice without asking if he wanted any. Since Trieu So So arrived in Ha Thanh, I had never seen him bring home any meat. Most of the time, he would take her out for lavish meals or buy ingredients for her to cook at her place, then lie to me, saying he had been eating with colleagues. I didn't care anymore. Only ten days left. Ten days until I would be entirely free. Seeing me serve only one set of utensils, he pursed his lips and went to the kitchen for his own. As I ate, I could feel him trying to start a conversation, his usual stuttering and hesitation, but I felt nothing.

In my past life, I would have been the one chattering away, sharing every detail of my day, desperate to make him feel included. He, however, was always cold. I had once convinced myself it was because of his impoverished upbringing. Until I saw him with Trieu So So—his smile was so fawning, like a puppy waiting to be petted. The memory made me feel sick; I physically shifted away from him.

As I finished eating, he finally spoke: "Nhu An, my salary this month... Ms. So has some urgent matters, I..."

I bit into a piece of tomato, chewed slowly, and nodded.

"What about the gold necklace you promised to buy me?"

"Wait until next month, I’ll buy it as soon as I get paid. It’s our wedding gift, after all, it must be done."

"The seasons are changing, and Ms. So needs some new clothes. You know how it is, she isn't like us; she has liked dressing up since she was a girl, she..."

"Snap!"

I slammed my chopsticks onto the table, stood up, and carried the plates into the kitchen. I said only one word: "Fine."

Phu Nguyen Thanh held his empty bowl, staring at the bare table in shock.

5

He followed me into the kitchen, clearly baffled by my lack of reaction. "It’s good that you are so understanding. Ms. So just moved here and doesn't know anyone. After we get married, we will have to take even better care of her."

Understanding? Take even better care of her after we marry? Was his brain rotted? If not for my desire to avoid trouble before leaving, I would have smashed the plate over his head. How could I have been so blind as to choose such a man? Now I realized that everything he said was just a form of psychological manipulation, a way to brainwash me into sacrificing my identity for their sake.

Trieu So So was from the neighboring town and had been his university classmate—the class beauty, they said. Her family had been purged during the Cultural Revolution; her father died in prison, and she fell from grace. Once, she had given him a piece of braised pork when he was starving, and from that moment on, she became the unreachable moon in his heart. If he wanted to dedicate his life to her, why did he have to drag mine into the abyss?

Shortly after dinner, I was in my room organizing my things when I heard a knock at the door, followed by the sound of Phu Nguyen Thanh letting someone in. Through the gap in the door, I heard the faint sobbing of Trieu So So. "Nguyen Thanh, I'm so scared..."

"Don't worry, I'm here."

Then, the door closed. They left together. I looked at the calendar on the wall and realized that in my previous life, the exact same thing had happened today. He had been called away and didn't return all night. The next morning, he was a changed man because Trieu So So had become pregnant. That child was his.

6

I recalled his birthday two months ago. I had spent all day cooking his favorite dishes and prepared a fountain pen as a gift. I waited until one in the morning, but he never came home. The next day, he claimed he had been playing cards at a friend's house and fell asleep there. That was when everything began to shift. He was ecstatic about the pregnancy on one hand, yet felt a pang of guilt toward me on the other.

In my previous life, lying on my deathbed, I had asked him, "Why did you treat me that way?"

He bowed his head, his voice dropping low: "Nhu An, I love you. It is precisely because I love you that I don't know how to face you."

I laughed coldly. Love? It was nothing more than a desire to have everything. I didn't bother giving him another thought. I went back to packing my things, lay down, and drifted into a deep, peaceful sleep until morning.