Chapter 1 — Little Grass Under The Sun

My father is a black market man (human trafficker), and my wife is the only daughter of the Tran Quoc Cong palace who was kidnapped by him. When the officials came to find him, he panicked and ran away and fell down the cliff. My wife and I, who were crazy and crazy, were taken back to the Wen family's house with high walls and wide doors. My mother was mentally unstable. As soon as she saw me, she screamed in fear and tried to push me: "I have never given birth to that person's evil race!" Grandfather was so angry that he trembled: "The Wen family does not tolerate this kind of wild species." That very night, I was stuffed into a carriage and taken to Nam Son library in the suburbs, where all the children of princes and aristocrats studied. The little overlord in the library pressed my head down in a corner of the hall (dining room), pushing the bowl of rice mixed with shredded meat that was used to feed the mastiff dogs in front of me.

“Your father is a sewer rat, you only deserve to eat this.”

I bowed my head to taste a piece. Then it was useless to shed tears. In the past, in the village, even rice husk and bran cakes had to be eaten by counting each piece. No one told me that rice for mastiff dogs... could be this delicious.

01

When Ton Nhi pressed my head into the bowl of dog rice, the fragrant smell of meat rushed straight into my nose. I looked at the tender lamb rib stew and the shiny pieces of chicken in the bowl. I couldn't help but lick a piece. The salty, fresh meat juice melted on the tip of the tongue, making the whole body tremble slightly. In my entire life... I have never tasted such a delicious taste. I ignored the pressure on my head, just buried my face in the bowl and swallowed, my tears mixing with the rice and meat sliding down my stomach.

"Oh my god..." Ton Nhi panicked, let go of his hand and stepped back, "It, did it really eat it?"

Giang Lam Phong, who was sitting cross-legged on one side, was also stunned, using his elbow to nudge the round-faced classmate: "Trieu Vien, is your dog food clean? Is it not rotten? Why does it make people eat so stupidly?" Trieu Vien was also stunned: "I'm watching over the kitchen that just finished cooking! To humiliate him, the lamb chops and young chicken are all leftovers from yesterday's party, evil enough... but the bowl is a new bowl." While they were talking, I scraped the bottom of the bowl, raised my tear-stained face, and timidly asked: "Yes, is there any more? I haven't eaten anything in three days..." Giang Lam Phong kicked over the pipe stool, showing a fierce expression: "Are you still used to eating?!" But I'm not afraid. My father weighed two hundred pounds. Whenever he was drunk and hit someone, his fist fell like a sledgehammer. One time when she wanted to escape, he used a barbed whip to break more than a dozen of her bones. I rushed to protect my wife, but he swung his pickaxe and slashed straight at my forehead. That scar has not faded to this day. No matter how ferocious they are, they are not as ferocious as devils crawling back from hell. Flower garden (library beauty queen) To Van Nguyet passed by carrying a tray of food and lightly sneered: "Idiot. Wouldn't it be enough to give her the things you hate as a reward?" Saying that, she put all the bitter mixed vegetables, the bland boiled spinach and a few pieces of fatty pork on her tray into my bowl. The surrounding students suddenly woke up. Very quickly, my bowl piled up into a small mountain:

“I hate this fish!” "Give it to you, this deer's tendon is too tight." “Steamed crab is so troublesome, reward for you.” “This hoof is so sick, I'm sick of it.”

I blankly looked at the leftovers in the bowl: lightly steamed cinnamon fish, pork leg stewed with rock sugar, deboned quail... This is truly my Dao Tri party.

“Are these... really all for me?” I asked carefully, afraid they would change their mind.

“Idiot.” Ton Nhi grumbled and walked away, but before turning around, he threw another roasted goose leg into my bowl.

Trieu Vien stared at my bowl, muttering: "Phong brother, that dog rice... is it really that fragrant?" Giang Lam Phong gritted his teeth and growled at me: "If you don't eat it all, you can't go!" After saying that, he turned around and kicked Trieu Vien: "Do you also want to ask the dog for food?" Waiting for the crowd to disperse, I carried the bowl of dog rice and crawled into a corner of the hallway. The sunlight shines on the rice tray, each grain of rice sparkles. I used my hand to pick up the soft, trembling skin of the pig's leg and stuff it into my mouth, then scooped up a spoon full of sticky rice soaked in meat juice, my cheeks bulging like a mouse hiding food. It was the most delicious meal I've ever had.

02

When she was awake, she used to mutter to me that in the past she was good at playing the guitar. But her ten fingers are now broken and deformed, and she doesn't even have the strength to hold my hand. Since I began to have memories, she has been locked in a room (woodshed), her neck chained with an iron rope, the other end nailed to a rock. She often screams, sings nursery rhymes that we don't understand, sings and then cries loudly. As soon as she had the chance, she tried to escape. At first, she always brought me with her, because in this house, I was also a redundant person. Because she was a female, no one took her seriously when she was born. That man, until now, still only calls me "Lam Tien Nu" (the vile daughter of the Lam family). When I was eight years old, Lam Dai Dung took me to register for civil registration. Ly Chinh (village head) asked for their names, he impatiently replied: "Lin Tien Nu." Ly Chinh was stunned: "If this name is recorded in the book, it will be very difficult to change it later."

“Just like that damn bitch, does she even deserve a name?”

Ly was so angry that his hands were shaking, but he still wrote the words "Lam Tieu Thao" on the paper and asked him if this name was okay. Lam Dai Dung was illiterate, so he nodded haphazardly. I cowered at the edge of the table, until I saw the words on the notebook, then silently breathed a sigh of relief. When leaving, Ly Chinh secretly stuffed a string of copper coins into my palm. I turned my head to look at him deeply, walked a long distance, and when Lam Dai Dung wasn't paying attention, I bowed my head in that direction and bowed my head in gratitude. That night, he got drunk. I clutched the string of money and the stolen key, groping in the dark to the living room. It was cold in December, and the lady was only wearing a tattered singlet, curled up in the corner and shivering. The scarred scabs caused by the chain rubbing on the neck had formed layer after layer, turning dark red to black.

“Auntie, please run away.”