Chapter 5 — The Enemy's Daughter

“Can I call you mother?” The wind blew very cold, but a warmth rose in my heart. I closed my eyes. "Call." "Mother." "Yes." He called again: "Mother." "I heard." He still called: "Mother." I tapped on his forehead. "Haven't you called enough yet?" He smiled foolishly and called out again. "Mother!" The Marquis disintegrated. I took Khuong Can back to the small house that belonged to the Bui family's dowry. The house is not big, there are only two hospitals front and back. In the yard there is a curved apple tree. Khuong Can likes it very much and goes out every day to count the apples. Xuan Dao advised him: "Miss, the apple is not yet ripe." Khuong Can did not think it was right: "You can take it first." I had a headache listening to it. After switching to calling me mother, it was like becoming a different person. Clinging to people during the day, clinging to people at night. I looked at the books, he moved the small chair to sit next to me. I drink tea, it stares at me. I went to bed, he hugged my pillow. "Don't you have your own bed?" "Yes." "Then why did you come?" "I'm afraid my mother will miss me at night." "Who misses who? When he was seven years old, I invited a female teacher to teach him to read. He learns very slowly, writing like a crab. The teacher was so angry that he wanted to quit teaching. Khuong Can felt sorry for himself and asked: "Mother, am I very stupid?" I looked at the word "human" he wrote, a stroke and a mark separating each place, silent for a moment. "Yes..." His eyes immediately turned red. I hastily added: "If you're stupid, write more." He sniffled. "So how much should I write?" "Write until I'm no longer stupid." He crawled on the writing table all night, and the next day his wrist was swollen. "Mother, look." The handwriting is still very ugly, but it can be recognized. "There's a bit of a human shape." He happily jumped up. "So I'm not stupid anymore?" "Not far." So he sat down again to continue writing. In those years, life was very tight. More than half of my dowry was used to make up for the Khuong family's old debts. Khuong Can was so heartbroken, one time he hid his silver bracelet under my pillow. I asked him: "What is this?" He pretended to be stupid. "I don't know." I returned the bracelet to him. "The family is not yet poor enough to have to sell your things." "But I don't want my mother to work too hard." "Man Man, you have to remember, being poor is not shameful, being ugly is shameful." He nodded. "Then in the future you have to be a good person who knows how to make money." I laughed. "Mother believes you." When he was twelve years old, the capital was opened for women. study, only accepting daughters of mandarins. It wanted to go, but it was no longer the golden Marquis Palace. The business card sent has been returned. Khuong Can held the refusal paper and stood in front of the door in a daze. 12 I changed clothes and took him to the girls' school. As soon as the matriarch saw me, her face turned cold. "Madam Bui, the rules are like that." "Is it written in the rules that girls are not recognized as sinners?" She choked on her words. "Even though she didn't write, but..." I interrupted her. "His father is guilty, his mother is not guilty, he himself is even more innocent." "If the female students also cooperate, then it's better to close the door early." There were already quite a few people gathered in front of the door, and the matriarch couldn't save face. During the struggle, a gorgeously dressed lady stepped out from inside, the eldest princess of the court. She looked at Khuong Can. "Do you know how to write?" "I know." "Write a word." Khuong Can squatted on the ground and used a tree branch to write the word "forbearance". The princess looked for a long time. "Why did you write this word?" "I like this word." "Your mother said, patience is not about swallowing anger, but secretly gathering strength, waiting until you can win before taking action." My eyelids twitched, did I say that before? It seems like it was. Princess Truong burst out laughing. "Receive." Khuong Can was stunned, I was also stunned. Princess Truong looked at me. “Bui Thanh Loan,

This child has been raised very well by you." On the way home, he happily jumped up and down. "Mother, I have entered the girls' school!" "Yes." "Mother, the eldest princess praised me!" "Yes." "Then you should also praise me." "Don't dream." He snorted, after a while he ran to hug me. "Mother, I will make you proud." When Khuong Can was fifteen years old, he was the same height as me, the last written word. can also be seen. Among the female students, he was not the smartest, but he was the most diligent. Others memorized three times, he memorized ten times. Another wrote one lesson, he wrote five. That day, the eldest princess held an essay exam. When she returned home, she immediately rushed through the door. "Mother!" I was preparing the books, and the abacus beads scattered. "Be more mature." me. "First place!" I took a look. "Oh." He was frantic. "Oh, what do you mean?" "It means not to lose face." He was so angry that he stomped his feet. "Mother!" Finally, I still couldn't help it and burst out laughing. "Okay, okay, you're very good! Our Man Man family already has a future."