Chapter 24 — The Child You Never Knew

She sat down and opened the interview. Very long. Lots of details. In a calm, recitative tone, the former assistant recounted the entire elaborate plot to harm him three years ago. The timeline is as follows: After learning that Pho Tu Nien was about to divorce Khuong Niem, On Tam Duyet thought his opportunity had come. But she was not content with just replacing Khuong Niem's position, she wanted to make sure that Khuong Niem could never raise her head again. So she staged the "bullied" play. First, she ordered her people to intentionally stumble and knock over a glass of water that Khuong Niem left on the table at an event, splashing her all over. Instinctively, Khuong Niem pushed the person closest to her away, and that person happened to be On Tam Duyet. On Tam Duyet immediately fell to the ground, crying bitterly. This entire scene was recorded with a phone from three different pre-arranged angles. During the post-production cut, they only used one angle. That angle happened to not show the scene of the glass of water being intentionally knocked over, but only saw Khuong Niem pushing someone and Wen Tam Duyet falling down. The former assistant recalled that when planning, On Tam Duyet hesitated once. Not because of a guilty conscience, but because she was worried about what would happen if Khuong Niem wasn't there that day. The old assistant proposed a backup plan, but in the end there was no need to use it because Khuong Niem indeed appeared that day.

“She once told me something.” The former assistant said in the interview, "She said Khuong Niem's biggest weakness is her face. The more proud a person is, the less she can stand being splashed with dirty water in front of a crowd. Therefore, just by taking action in public, Khuong Niem will definitely react violently. At that time, just cutting off that reaction will be enough."

Khuong Niem finished reading this paragraph and placed the phone face down on the table.

“Mom, the soup you cooked is spilling out.” Tieu Chau reminded.

Khuong Niem walked into the kitchen. The lid of the pot was pushed open a small gap, the soup spilled out along the side of the pot, onto the kitchen counter. She turned off the stove, picked up the rag and wiped it twice, her hand movements seemed a beat slower than the thoughts in her head. Three years. She spent three years waiting for this truth to be told. It wasn't her who said it herself, but someone from Wen Tam Duyet's faction who said it for her. She threw the rag into the sink and returned to the living room. Tieu Chau had finished solving the problem and was tilting his head to look at her.

"Mom, your hands are shaking. Not like shaking from cold, but like shaking from anger."

Khuong Niem looked back at her hand. Truly shaking. Slowly, but I can't stop.

“Mom is a bit angry.” She said, “But not angry at you.”

“I know.” Tieu Chau climbed down from the tea table, walked to her side, and pressed his small hand on the back of his mother's hand. The palm of the hand is warm and small. "Once you're angry, Mom won't tremble anymore."

Khuong Niem's hand gradually stopped shaking. The phone rang again. This time it's not La Dong. It was a phone number she had saved but almost never proactively called. Deputy Tu Nien. She looked at that name for five seconds, then picked up the phone.

“Have you seen it?” Pho Tu Nien's voice was very decisive.

“Already seen it.”

“Before that interview was published, I didn't know.”

“So what?”

The other end of the line was silent for three seconds. "I owe you an explanation. Not about the trust fund, not about the baby, but about what happened itself." came out three years ago.”

“What is the use of you saying these words now?” Khuong Niem's voice was very steady, as calm as the surface of water without any ripples, "Three years ago, if you had spent ten more minutes looking at the original documents, the events that followed would not have happened. I don't watch. He chose to believe her. Because trusting her is easier than trusting me.”

Pho Tu Nien did not object.

“During those three years, I gave birth alone, I alone breastfed my child, and I alone taught my child how to walk and talk. At the same time, I had to endure curses from all social networks, had to move across three cities, and change five jobs. And what are you doing? I'm buying hot searches for Wen Tam Duyet, clearing the way for resources, and hiring the best management team." Khuong Niem's voice did not rise from beginning to end, but each word was like nails, hammered in one blow at a time, "Now you say you owe me an explanation. Fu Tu Nien, what you owe is not an explanation. But you owe me a life.”

There was a very soft breathing sound from the phone.

“You're right.” Pho Tu Nien's voice was deeper than any time she had ever heard, "I have no right to ask for forgiveness. But there is one thing I can do.”

“I will prosecute Wen Tam Duyet's case to the end. Not because of her, but because of the nature of this incident. A person who falsifies evidence to ruin other people's lives, no matter what relationship she had with me in the past, deserves to be prosecuted and must be prosecuted."

Khuong Niem did not immediately respond.

“There's one more thing.” Pho Tu Nien said, “In the interview, the former assistant mentioned a detail. Before planning to make that video, Wen Tam Duyet used an intermediary to probe my attitude. That intermediary is the person next to me. I'm investigating who it is.”

“If you find it, will you let me know?”

Khuong Niem hung up the phone. Tieu Chau still stood beside her, his hand had not left the back of her hand.

“Mom, was that man calling?”

“Did he say anything to make you stop being angry?”

Khuong Niem thought for a moment. “Not really. But he said something that wasn't that stupid.”

“What question?”

“He said, if you deserve to be prosecuted, you must be prosecuted.”

Tieu Chau nodded, as if savoring the weight of this sentence. “So before, he refused to prosecute, right?”

"So now he has investigated, does that count as progress?"

Khuong Niem was teased by her son's logic and the corners of her lips curled up. “Also consider it a small progress.”