Chapter 8 — My Mother-in-Law Forced Me to Give Birth at Home

I preserved that sentence in my heart. It was cleaner and more honest than any hollow claim of acting out of concern for my own good.

Chao Xuan Binh finally collapsed entirely on the fifth day following my delivery. That very morning, an attorney transmitted a critical update to Nghien Chu. The online platform was actively clawing back every penny of profit she had accumulated through unauthorized product sales and her private fee-based messaging groups. Furthermore, the hospital was preparing formal litigation against her for violating patient privacy and severely disrupting medical order. Relatives of several expectant mothers whom she had dangerously misled also stepped forward, filing police reports to demand a thorough investigation into her illegal practice of peddling uncertified home-birth programs. Most devastatingly, Nghien Chu officially demanded that she refund the one hundred and fifty thousand yuan he had provided for maternity preparations. The health supplements she had already purchased were non-refundable, and the debts she had cleared for her younger brother could never be recovered. Meanwhile, the organizers behind the get-rich-quick home-delivery coaching seminar had already vanished without a trace. Overnight, Chao Xuan Binh transformed from a thrifty, well-meaning mother-in-law into a public fraudster condemned across the entire internet. She was utterly incapable of accepting this ruin.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, she burst aggressively into the inpatient ward. Her hair was a disheveled mess, her face still smeared with unblended foundation, and she clutched a cheap plastic basin tightly against her chest. Inside the basin lay sheets of ritual joss paper, red yarn, a pair of rusty scissors, and several printed photographs of newborn infants. When the security guards moved to block her path, she dropped heavily onto the floor, wailing at the top of her lungs.

Give me back my grandson!

This hospital has switched my daughter-in-law's baby! That infant does not belong to the family!

I was sitting in the hospital room, nursing my newborn, when those words pierced the air, sending an immediate chill straight down my spine. Nghien Chu pushed the door open and stepped out into the hallway, his expression darkening to a terrifying degree.

Chao Xuan Binh, what is it that you are trying to do now?

Upon catching sight of Nghien Chu, her eyes flashed with a frantic, unsettling light.

Nghien Chu, you must wake up! Every single one of them is deceiving you!

Oanh Duong underwent major abdominal surgery, and the child they pulled out cannot possibly be our bloodline. The hospital has secretly swapped the baby!

The corridor instantly erupted into murmurs and commotion. Nghien Chu’s face turned glacial.

Shut your mouth, Mother.

Yet Chao Xuan Binh seemed completely deaf to his warning. With a sudden, dramatic motion, she snatched the scissors from the basin and pressed the sharp blades directly against her own wrist.

If you refuse to believe your own mother, I will die right here to prove it!

The security guards dared not make a rash move. Nurses hurried to evacuate the surrounding maternity patients and their anxious families. I handed my baby over to the postpartum caregiver, feeling a sharp, agonizing pull across my fresh surgical wound. Su Le reached out to steady me.

Do not go out there, she urged.

I stared fixedly through the doorway. In my past life, Chao Xuan Binh had gambled with my very life. In this lifetime, she was staking her own performance. She remained convinced that if she made enough noise, if she caused a large enough spectacle, everyone would inevitably grow frightened, make concessions, and once again yield to her whims. But this time, no one was left to coddle her. Nghien Chu immediately dialed the emergency police hotline while instructing a nurse to notify the psychiatric emergency department.

Are you attempting to have your own birth mother arrested? Chao Xuan Binh shrieked hysterically. You have completely fallen under Oanh Duong's spell!

Abruptly shoving past the guards, she lunged directly toward my hospital room.

I must see the child! I demand a paternity test!

Nghien Chu intercepted her at the threshold, and in the scuffle, the sharp edge of the scissors slashed deeply across the back of his hand. Blood welled up instantly, staining his skin. The color drained from everyone's faces. Finally, two security guards tackled her from both sides, pinning her down. As she thrashed wildly against the floor, her voice never ceased its frantic screeching.

I have done nothing wrong! Everything I did was for the sake of the family! Oanh Duong is trying to destroy me! The hospital is trying to destroy me! All of you want me dead!

The police and psychiatric medical personnel arrived swiftly. Because she had brandished a weapon, inflicted injury, threatened self-harm, forced her way into a restricted medical zone, and displayed unmistakable symptoms of persecutory delusions alongside a profound loss of behavioral control, the attending physicians conducted an immediate on-site evaluation and recommended her transfer to a mental health center for comprehensive observation and treatment.

As they strapped her securely onto the stretcher, Chao Xuan Binh desperately twisted her neck to look back at Nghien Chu.

My son, save your mother! You cannot let them take me to a place like that!

Nghien Chu remained rooted to the spot. The blood from the back of his hand dripped steadily onto the linoleum floor. He did not move a muscle, nor did he offer any intercession on her behalf. Terror finally seized Chao Xuan Binh. Her desperate pleas devolved into venomous curses directed straight at me.

Oanh Duong! You bringer of misfortune! Are you satisfied now? You stole my son and threw me into a psychiatric ward, and you will never come to a good end!

I stood at the doorway of the ward, my hand gripping the doorframe, watching her with absolute calm.

Chao Xuan Binh, you are the one who walked yourself through those doors.

Even as the elevator doors slid shut, sealing her inside, she continued to struggle violently. The face that had once worn expressions of gentle martyrdom, grievance, and righteous persuasion was now twisted into something resembling a piece of crumpled paper.

Later, the psychiatric facility issued its formal diagnostic assessment. It confirmed clear fixed persecutory delusions, severe loss of behavioral control following an acute stress reaction, and an imminent risk of harming both herself and others, necessitating involuntary inpatient treatment. Nghien Chu signed the admission papers in his capacity as next of kin. Phuong also signed. Their pens moved slowly across the documents, but not a single person uttered those familiar words ever again:

She only did it because she wanted what was best for you.