Chapter 2 — Lac Lac's Sunny Day

Please, do not take this tone with me. Can we have a civilized conversation for once? Just go back home first, all right? Regarding my mother, I will talk to her properly. I will make sure she apologizes to you and the child.

It is too late now.

Forty-eight hours. The clock has already started counting down.

Su Tinh!

He was provoked once more, his voice rising in sudden fury.

Do not push me past my limits! Exactly where are you right now? Do you truly believe that just because you took Le Le away, I am incapable of finding you? Do you want to test whether I can board the next flight and drag you back by force?

You are welcome to try.

I hung up on him immediately. Without wasting a second, I searched through my contact list and dialed another number.

Lawyer Wang? Yes, it is me, Su Tinh. I require your assistance with two specific matters. First, draft a formal divorce agreement. Second, tomorrow morning, go to Apartment 1201, Building 3, Cam Tu Hoa Dinh residential complex, and formally notify whoever is currently residing inside that they must vacate the premises within the stipulated deadline.

Lawyer Wang paused at the other end of the line for a brief moment before instantly resuming his professional demeanor.

Understood, Ms. Su. Regarding the evidentiary documents...

I have all of them in my possession.

After ending the call, I stood by the window, gazing out into the thickening night. Chu Hang, you will never be able to track me down. From the exact microsecond I resolved to take Le Le away, I had already set my entire master plan into motion. As for you and your toxic family, you were nothing more than a pile of unwanted refuse that needed to be swept away in the very first phase of my operation.

The following day dawned bright and clear, bathed in brilliant sunshine. Le Le and I spent the morning playing in the shallow waters of the hotel's children's swimming pool, her innocent laughter washing away the final traces of gloom lingering in my heart. Suddenly, my phone buzzed against the table. It was a message from Lawyer Wang.

Ms. Su, I have delivered the notice to the occupants. The opposing party became extremely agitated, but acting under your authorization, I have already replaced the front door lock with a brand-new digital keypad. All of their previous fingerprints and access codes have been completely deactivated. Once the forty-eight-hour window closes, I will bring a team to conduct the official inventory and handover.

Thank you for your hard work.

I replied with those four brief words and locked my phone screen. Giving them forty-eight hours was the ultimate display of basic decency on my part. Yet, I was certainly not naive enough to believe they would comply quietly and obediently. Changing the locks was a necessary precaution against them turning desperate and vandalizing my property.

As I sat by the poolside, helping Le Le build a magnificent castle out of wet sand, a new friend request popped up on my screen. It was from my younger cousin, Su Manh. I accepted it instantly, and she immediately flooded my chat with a string of screenshots followed by a frantic voice message.

Cousin! You need to open our extended family group chat right this second! Your mother-in-law has completely lost her mind! She is throwing a wild, abusive tantrum in the group!

I opened the screenshots. It was a sprawling family chat containing over a hundred relatives. The avatar of Truong Thuy Lien flashed repeatedly across the screen as she unleashed a barrage of malicious messages.

Everyone, you must come forward and judge this injustice for yourselves! I poured my heart and soul into raising my son and finding him a wife, and now this ungrateful woman is staging a rebellion!

She lacks the basic capability to give birth to a son, and now she cannot bear to see another family's granddaughter living a peaceful life! She has actually abducted my granddaughter and God knows what remote, desolate mountain village she has dragged the child to!

This woman is utterly venomous at heart. Before the marriage, she deceived our Chu Hang into believing the apartment belonged to both of them. As a result, the ownership certificate bears only her name! Now she is attempting to sweep our entire family out onto the street with nothing!

She even has a man on the side! There is no doubt she has looted our family savings and eloped with some other scoundrel! My poor, pitiful son and granddaughter!

Attached below were several candid photographs of myself and a single picture of Le Le. She was deliberately weaponizing the most vicious falsehoods imaginable to utterly ruin my reputation, hoping to use public pressure and moral blackmail to force my surrender. Unfortunately for her, she had severely miscalculated.

With a completely expressionless face, I screenshotted every single message and saved them securely to my device. Then, I replied to my cousin:

Manh Manh, do me a favor. Capture full-page screenshots of all these chats, including every single word uttered by the relatives who are blindly taking her side. Do not omit a single sentence.

Are you alright, Cousin? Do you want me to step in and start a fight with them in the group chat?

Unnecessary. Let them spew their venom. The filthier their insults, the better.

I replied with absolute composure. Every single one of these vile messages would serve as magnificent, irrefutable evidence before a judge. They would conclusively demonstrate how Truong Thuy Lien actively set out to assassinate my character and simultaneously prove that the Chu household was a toxic, utterly unsuitable environment for a child's upbringing. This would ultimately become the heaviest weight on the scales, ensuring I secured full custody of Le Le.

Just as I was deep in thought, another message arrived from an unknown phone number. It was Chu Hang.

Su Tinh, check Le Le’s kindergarten class group chat right now. Teacher Liu just sent out an emergency notice stating there is an outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease at the school, and everyone must be tested immediately! Take Le Le to the hospital without delay!

My heart instantly plummeted like a heavy stone. I immediately opened the kindergarten group chat, which I rarely ever bothered to check. The interior of the group was dead silent, the most recent message being the routine dismissal notice sent yesterday afternoon. There was not a single trace of any announcement concerning hand, foot, and mouth disease. Frowning deeply, I dialed the homeroom teacher, Liu, directly.

Good morning, Teacher Liu, this is Chu Le Le’s mother.

Ah, Le Le’s mother! You two took a leave of absence to go on a trip, didn't you? Are you having a wonderful time?

Teacher Liu’s voice sounded warm and cheerful.

Yes, thank you for asking, Teacher. I wanted to inquire whether any of the children in the class have fallen ill recently.