Chapter 5 — My Children Suffer, You All Pay the Price

"Zhao Lei."

"Open your eyes and see clearly."

"This house was my personal property before marriage."

"It has nothing to do with you."

"It also has nothing to do with anyone in the Trieu family."

"I've let you guys live all this time, out of respect for you."

"That's gratitude."

I lowered my head to look at him. The voice was cold to the bone.

"But now..."

"There is no more love between you and me."

"I only speak according to the law."

Trieu Loi looked at the pile of papers on the ground. The whole person turned to stone. He squatted down. Shaking hands picked up the agreement. The clear terms and my signature seemed to constantly remind him of that cruel truth. He completely collapsed. Seeing that reason did not work, he began to appeal to emotions. Trieu Loi pulled my hand. The voice even carried sobs.

"Thong Thong..."

"Can we not be like that?"

"We've been together for so many years."

"From college until now..."

"Have you forgotten how happy we were before?"

"Just because of such a small thing, do you want to destroy our entire relationship?"

He mentioned the past. Memories once sparkled in my heart. Those times I thought were the most beautiful. This moment is like a black and white silent movie. There is no more authenticity left. I calmly looked at him.

"Zhao Lei."

"From the moment I let my mother abuse Noan Noan..."

"Since you said the words 'It's just eating Mantau cake, no one will die'..."

"The good things between us are dead."

I looked straight into his eyes. Say each word clearly.

"It's you."

"And your own family."

"Killed it myself."

Every word I say feels like a blunt blade. One stroke at a time. Cut into his heart. Trieu Loi was completely silent. In the end, I could only sit down on the ground. At that moment, my phone rang. It was Vuong Que Phuong calling with a strange number. I turned on the speakerphone. As soon as the connection was made, a deafening scream rang out on the other end of the line.

"Luu Thong!"

"You bastard has no conscience!"

"You want to force our whole family to die, right?"

"I tell you!"

"That house is mine!"

"It's my son's!"

"You want to chase us away?"

"Unless I die in there!"

She screamed until her voice was hoarse. I calmly replied:

"Okay."

"If you really want to die in my house..."

"Remember to give me an hour's notice."

I paused for a moment and then coldly added:

"But the funeral money..."

"I won't pay anything."

I hung up the phone directly. I saw Trieu Loi's body sitting on the ground suddenly shaking violently. He raised his head. Look at me with eyes like looking at a stranger. There was fear in those eyes. There is despair. What I want is that fear. It's that despair. I want the entire Trieu family to experience for themselves the feeling of losing their economic breadwinner. Losing an ATM that they can exploit and trample on at will. Let them know... How uncomfortable that feeling is. It's just the beginning. The one-week deadline stated in the lawyer's letter quickly passed. Sure enough, the Trieu family never moved. Not only did they not move, they also came up with a more shameless trick. Saturday morning. Vuong Que Phuong called all of them Goods from far away from home come. There were aunts, uncles, aunts and uncles... More than a dozen people came loudly, directly blocking my door. That day I had just brought Noan Noan back from the hotel, intending to get some of her daily necessities. Unexpectedly, as soon as I got out of the car, I was stopped right at the door. Distant relatives that I normally only met once or twice during Tet now all expressed their indignation towards the cause, surrounding me in the middle. A chubby aunt was the first to open the show.

"I say, daughter-in-law of the Trieu family, you can't do this."

"If husband and wife live together, who doesn't argue sometimes?"

"How can you kick your husband's parents out?"

"If this story spreads out, where will we have the face of the Trieu family?"

Right after that, a tall and thin aunt chimed in:

"That's right!"

"Que Phuong has worked so hard to help her take care of her child."

"Even if there is no merit, there is still hardship."

"Now that you're successful and become a city person, you look down on us country relatives, right?"

"Even my mother-in-law can't handle it anymore?"

This person has one sentence. One sentence from the other person. Every word is criticizing me for being unfilial and cruel. Vuong Que Phuong sat on a small plastic chair he brought with him. One hand holding a tissue. One hand continuously wiped away tears that did not exist. The mouth cried bitterly:

"My fate is so miserable!"

"Raising a son is so hard, but now that he's married, he'll forget his old mother!"

"Even the place to stay won't let us two old people go anymore!"

"It wants to force us to die!"