Chapter 1 — Mother and Twin Daughters

My ex-husband shoved our twin daughters right in front of me, declaring that upon our divorce, I was only allowed to take one of them. Just as I instinctively reached out to grab my elder daughter, who was weeping like a torrential rain, a series of blood-red commentary lines materialized vividly right before my eyes.

【Absolutely do not take the elder sister! She is rotten to the core by nature, and later on, driven by greed for family assets, she will push you down the stairs with her own hands!】

【Take the younger sister instead! Right now she looks dull and timid, but she will eventually awaken and become a top-tier lawyer, helping you throw every single member of that bastard’s family into prison!】

I froze in place, turning my head slowly to look at the younger sister who was huddled defensively in a dark corner, biting her lips so fiercely that she did not dare make a single sound.

"With your miserable beggar’s salary, you can barely feed yourself as it is. Hurry up and pick one of them, then get lost."

My ex-husband grew impatient, shaking his leg while urging me relentlessly. I let out a cold, cynical laugh, took a step forward, and shielded both of my daughters securely behind my back.

"The children were brought into this world by me. On what grounds should I leave any of them behind for a scumbag like you? I am taking both girls with me. As for child support, don't even dream about shorting me by a single penny."

Chen Canh Xuyen looked as if he had just heard a hilarious joke. He leaned back against the sofa, raised a hand to casually flick at his trouser leg, and swept his gaze from my face over to the two children, finally letting it rest on the divorce settlement papers clutched in my hands.

"Khuong Le, stop putting on this pathetic act of profound maternal love in front of me. Kieu Kieu is always crying, and Tinh Hoa refuses to utter a word; both of them are nothing but a nuisance. You want to take both? What are you going to use to raise them? Are you relying on that paltry salary from your stall inside the shopping mall?"

My mother-in-law sat beside him, still cradling the insulated thermos that Lam Man had given her. Lam Man was the woman Chen Canh Xuyen kept on the side. She was three months pregnant, and though her belly was not yet protruding, she had already brazenly sent me her medical examination slips, claiming that the child in her womb was the truly precious, legitimate heir of the Chen family. Previously, I had felt nothing but pure nausea. But right now, looking at the floating lines of text streaming across my vision, the palms of my hands turned ice cold.

【Don't soften your heart! In the original storyline, the elder sister Kieu Kieu was thoroughly spoiled rotten by the Chen family. After growing up, driven by the desire to snatch your small apartment, she genuinely pushes you down the stairs.】

【The younger sister Tinh Hoa, after being left behind, was cursed at day in and day out and forced to take care of her half-brother. Later on, she was almost beaten to death, which is precisely why she went mad and threw herself into studying the law.】

【If this mother can manage to take both children away, who knows, perhaps there is still a chance to save them.】

I lowered my head to look at my two daughters. My elder daughter, Chen Kieu Kieu, was wearing a pink dress, residual teardrops still clinging to her eyelashes while her little hand clutched tightly onto the hair clip Chen Canh Xuyen had just bought her. Ever since she was little, she knew how to cry effectively; every single time she wailed, even the neighbors would find their hearts softening. My younger daughter, Chen Tinh Hoa, stood silently in the corner of the wall, the sleeves of her school uniform washed until they had faded completely. Her face bore no expression at all, yet her lips were bitten raw by her own teeth. They were seven years old this year, twins whom I had carried in my womb for ten arduous months before bringing them into the light. In the past, the Chen family favored Kieu Kieu, praising her sweet mouth and her ability to address people nicely. Tinh Hoa disliked talking, and if she took even a tiny bit longer to finish her meals, my mother-in-law would scold her as a "jinxing face." It was only today that I truly understood: neither of these two children had ever experienced a genuinely good life.

I tore the divorce agreement straight down the middle. The scattered paper fragments fluttered to the floor, and Chen Canh Xuyen’s expression instantly turned pitch black.

"Khuong Le, have you lost your mind?"

"Not at all."

I pulled out my phone and tapped open an audio recording.

"The two hundred and sixty thousand yuan you transferred to Lam Man, I have all the bank statements. Your mother used my ID card to apply for credit cards, and I still have those text messages saved as well. You committed adultery during our marriage, transferred joint assets, and refused to fulfill your parental duties in raising our children. Are these pieces of evidence sufficient for me to slowly drag you through court?"

The living room fell into an absolute, suffocating silence. Lam Man’s expression shifted dramatically. My mother-in-law abruptly shot to her feet.

"A woman like you, how can you be so viciously calculating? Living together as one family, and you were secretly hoarding evidence behind our backs?"

I burst out laughing.

"You people went ahead and knocked up a mistress, and now you have the audacity to talk to me about being one family?"

Chen Canh Xuyen lunged forward, attempting to snatch the phone right out of my hand. Tinh Hoa, the child who had always remained silently mute, suddenly hurled herself in front of me, spreading her frail, skinny arms to block his path. Her voice was exceptionally tiny, yet it trembled visibly.

"You are not allowed to hit Mom."

In that fleeting instant, a stinging sensation pierced the bridge of my nose. Kieu Kieu began to cry even louder, wrapping her arms around Chen Canh Xuyen's trouser leg as she wailed:

"Daddy, don't scold Mommy."

Yet her eyes remained fixed unwaveringly on the brand-new schoolbag resting on the sofa. Chen Canh Xuyen gnashed his teeth as he glared at me.

"Fine, you want to make a scene, don't you? Take them both. Let's see how many days you can hold out before crawling back. When that time comes, don't you dare kneel and beg me to take them back."

I grabbed Tinh Hoa by the hand, and then reached out to take Kieu Kieu as well.

"Rest assured, even if I have to open a street stall selling wontons, I will never let them return to this rotten cesspool."

That very evening, I led the two children and moved into a rundown, weathered apartment complex located in the southern part of the city. I had rented this place in advance; it consisted of only a single bedroom and a living room, the walls were slightly peeling, and the tiny kitchen was so cramped that one could barely turn around inside it. As soon as she crossed the threshold, Kieu Kieu burst into tears.

"I don't want to live in a place like this. Daddy's house has a giant television, and it has my princess bed too."

Tinh Hoa placed her small schoolbag down into the corner of the wall, and without a word, picked up a rag to quietly wipe the table clean. I crouched down in front of Kieu Kieu, looking directly into her red, swollen eyes.

"You are allowed to miss your father, you can miss your old room, and you can even cry. But you must remember one thing: you are never permitted to use your tears to force other people to submit to you."

Kieu Kieu stared blankly. The floating commentary lines paused momentarily before scrolling past one after another.

【Can she even understand that? She's only seven years old.】

【Even if she doesn't understand, it still has to be said. Some children, because no one ever teaches them properly, become more and more warped as they grow older.】

I stopped paying attention to the comments. That night, while bathing the two children, I discovered a dark bruise on Tinh Hoa’s arm. I asked her how she got it. Instantly, the child instinctively pulled her arm back.

"I fell down."

Kieu Kieu, sitting on a small plastic stool, suddenly piped up in a small voice:

"Grandma said the younger sister is stupid, and she has to be pinched so she can remember things."

The hot steam rising from the bathroom hung heavily in the air, yet I felt so bitterly cold that I ground my teeth together. I pulled both children into a tight embrace, speaking to them with absolute clarity and firmness:

"Starting from today, no one is ever allowed to hit you casually. Your father cannot, your grandmother cannot, and neither can I."

Tinh Hoa remained rigid for a long time before gently resting her forehead against my shoulder. Kieu Kieu burrowed into my arms as well, her voice laced with leftover tears as she asked:

"Then... will I still get to wear pretty dresses in the future?"

Her question left me feeling both exasperated and amused.

"Yes. On the condition that you don't sell out your younger sister just to get a pretty dress."

Kieu Kieu sniffled.

"I would never do something like that."

The floating text reappeared before my eyes.

【Let's hope she actually means it.】

I hoped so too. But I knew all too well that taking the children away was merely the first step. The genuinely difficult task lay ahead: dragging a child who had been spoiled rotten back onto the right path, while simultaneously lifting up a child who had been beaten down to the point of terror, helping her stand tall once more.

The next morning at four o'clock, I was already wide awake and kneading dough. Back in her youth, my mother used to sell wontons at the head of the alley, and her culinary skills were quite commendable. Before the divorce, I had secretly studied under her for half a month. Chen Canh Xuyen had always assumed that without him, I would be utterly incapable of surviving. He had completely forgotten that before marrying him, I was someone who knew how to endure hardship. I rented a small food stall right beside the vegetable market; in the mornings I sold wontons, during the daytime I worked at the shopping mall, and at night I returned home to prepare the fillings for the following day. Initially, Kieu Kieu could not handle it. She complained that the vegetable market smelled foul, that our rented apartment lacked a children's bedroom, and that she couldn't get along with the students at her new school. Tinh Hoa, on the other hand, never uttered a single complaint. Yet the more well-behaved she was, the more my heart ached for her. She would always stealthily pick out the largest shrimp from her bowl and place it into Kieu Kieu’s, while she herself lowered her head and quietly drank the plain broth. Kieu Kieu accepted this as a matter of course, acting as though it rightfully belonged to her. By the evening of the third day, I set my bowl down.

"Tinh Hoa, do you want to eat shrimp?"

Tinh Hoa was startled for a moment before shaking her head.

"My sister likes eating them."

"I am asking you."

The child gripped her chopsticks tightly, and it was a long while before she finally whispered:

"I want to."

I picked up the remaining pieces of shrimp and transferred them straight into her bowl. Kieu Kieu immediately pouted.

"Mom is being biased."

I looked steadily at her.

"Just because your sister yielded things to you in the past doesn't mean she didn't want them. From now on, whatever we have in this home will be divided equally. If anyone wants more, they have to ask the other person for permission first."

Kieu Kieu's eye sockets instantly turned red. In the past, whenever she made that face, the entire Chen family would surround her and coax her. I refused to coax her. I took a piece of white paper, stuck it onto the refrigerator door, and wrote four simple characters: Reason rules here. Kieu Kieu didn't recognize the word for "reason," so she raised her head and asked:

"What is this?"

"It means that from now on, our family won't compare who cries the loudest, nor will we compare who has the sweetest mouth. Whoever can state things clearly and produce evidence will be in the right."

Tinh Hoa stared intently at that piece of paper with fierce concentration. The first minor conflict erupted shortly thereafter. On Saturday morning, I went out to purchase ingredients for the stall. When I returned, the small electronic payment speaker on the table had been smashed to pieces. That was the speaker I used when running my business, purchased for sixty-eight yuan. To the Chen family of the past, that amount was utterly negligible, but to me in my current situation, it was critically important. Kieu Kieu sat on the floor, weeping bitterly.

"It was the younger sister! The younger sister broke it! I told her not to touch it, but she wouldn't listen!"

Tinh Hoa stood near the doorway, her complexion deathly pale. She stated softly:

"It wasn't me."

Her voice was exceptionally faint, as if she had already mentally prepared herself to take the blame for something she didn't do. I looked at the dark plastic fragment stuck to the cuff of Kieu Kieu's sleeve, and then lowered my gaze to the shattered plastic shell of the speaker lying scattered on the floor. I did not scold them. Instead, I brought over three small plastic stools and instructed the two children to sit down.

"Family meeting."

Kieu Kieu's crying hitched abruptly.

"What meeting?"

"The family's little courtroom."

Kieu Kieu didn't understand, but Tinh Hoa raised her head sharply. I pointed directly at the broken fragments.

"Kieu Kieu, you said your sister broke it. Therefore, you need to explain clearly when she touched it, how she touched it, and why there is a piece of plastic from inside the speaker stuck to your sleeve."

Kieu Kieu's face turned sheet white. She stammered incoherently for a long time before finally bursting into tears.

"I didn't mean to! I just wanted to hear the payment notification sound. It kept saying 'payment received, payment received,' and I thought it sounded fun."

I asked:

"Then why did you say your younger sister did it?"

Weeping, she looked up at me.

"Because in the past, whenever I cried, Grandma would scold the younger sister."

Those words struck my chest like a dull blade, weighing heavily upon my heart. Tinh Hoa lowered her head, her fingers nervously picking at the stitching along the seam of her pants. I gathered up the broken speaker and turned to Kieu Kieu:

"Broken items can be replaced. But lying to make someone else take the blame for you is a far more serious matter."

Kieu Kieu sobbed tearfully, asking:

"Then... does Mom not want me anymore?"

My heart gave a sharp jolt. So the child was terrified as well. It wasn't that she didn't know she was wrong; rather, she had simply been conditioned to use tears as currency to buy a sense of security. I softened my tone.

"Mom still wants you. But you must take responsibility for your own mistakes. Tomorrow, you are coming with me to the stall to help me wipe down the tables until you've earned back sixty-eight yuan."

Kieu Kieu wailed even more pitifully. Yet Tinh Hoa suddenly spoke up:

"I'll go too."

I looked down at the younger girl. She added in a quiet murmur:

"If she goes alone, she'll be scared."

Kieu Kieu was stunned into silence.