Chapter 4 — The Engagement Ordeal

This time, it was Phuong Van’s turn to have his life dismantled by the digital mob. A wave of internet users swarmed the comment section of his video, their words biting and unforgiving:

"My friend, you can lie to others, but don't try to lie to yourself. You know perfectly well whether or not you ever truly provided for your girlfriend."

"How could you even have the audacity to post this? If I had a girlfriend with a doctorate, my entire family would be treating her like a precious treasure, sheltering her from even the slightest breeze!"

"You had the nerve to look down on her family’s dowry of twenty thousand, yet you couldn't even scrape together eighty-eight thousand for the bridal gift without tearing your own house apart. Talk about being a total hypocrite!"

"What era do you think we are living in? Still obsessing over having a child to ‘continue the family line’ of pots and pans?"

"I have never seen anyone so foolish. To have a doctoral candidate as a girlfriend and not know how to cherish her—that is a special kind of stupidity."

Unable to withstand the pressure of public opinion, Phuong Van opened a livestream to defend himself, ranting about how much money he had supposedly spent on me over the years. The audience only grew more vitriolic: "Do you expect to be in a relationship without spending a single cent?" He had barely been live for a few minutes before the barrage of abuse forced him to shut it down and disable comments. He eventually deleted the video, pretending nothing had happened, hoping to continue his career as an influencer. But the internet did not forgive so easily. Every time he went live, he was instantly mass-reported, until his account was permanently banned. Every secondary account he created thereafter was swiftly hunted down and purged. It wasn't just him; his entire family suffered the fallout. They all lost their jobs, and whenever they stepped outside, they were met with the pointed fingers and whispers of their neighbors. Weeks later, perhaps having finally snapped, Phuong Van dragged himself to my doorstep, thick-skinned and desperate, begging for another chance.

11

He knelt before my door, face streaked with tears and mucus, claiming that he had finally realized the gravity of his mistakes. He blamed his upbringing, claiming he had been corrupted by a toxic family and was only repeating the patterns he had learned since childhood. He swore that if I agreed to take him back, he would cut all ties with his family. Perhaps... he was truly regretful. But that regret was born solely from the difficulty of finding work and the loss of his comfortable life, not from any genuine heartache over our ten-year relationship. Reflecting on this, I felt a mixture of pity and profound disgust. I looked at him and sighed with deliberate regret.

"Phuong Van, if only you had realized this sooner. But sadly, it is far too late now."

Phuong Van shook his head frantically. "It is not too late! Due, just give me one chance!" I shook my head, offering a cold, thin smile. "Do you really think I would return to a man who is incapable of fathering children?" His face drained of color. It seemed my suspicion was correct—he had actually gone for a medical exam. I called the building security and had him forcibly removed. There is no need to waste time or effort on someone so wretched. I later heard from others that once Chau Dinh discovered Phuong Van was also infertile, she became even more unhinged. Previously, she had been subtle about siphoning money to her younger brother, but now she was blatant. Whenever the Phuong family dared to express the slightest disapproval, she would threaten to abort their child or file for divorce. The family was forced to submit, yielding to her every demand. People told me it was karma, claiming the Phuong family deserved to be tormented by such a daughter-in-law to cure them of their delusions. But only I understood that for a family as feudal, conservative, and ignorant as theirs, Chau Dinh’s path was simply a form of self-destruction. In truth, she was nothing more than a blood bank for her own brother. Having lived in such an environment for so long, she no longer had the capacity to recognize what true happiness looked like.

As I had predicted, it was not long before Chau Dinh lost the baby. The Phuong family, finally unable to endure her antics, secretly sent Phuong Cuong to find another woman to bear a child. Chau Dinh discovered the affair and confronted him while he was with the other woman. During the ensuing brawl, she suffered a miscarriage. Her family took her back, declaring that unless the Phuong family offered a sincere apology and appropriate compensation, they would never allow her to return. By "sincere," they meant money. The Phuong family, having tolerated Chau Dinh for far too long, decided to cut their losses and filed for divorce. Once the divorce was finalized, her own family refused to let her stay for long, forcing her to rent a cramped room and live alone. As for the Phuong parents, they resumed their desperate search for brides for their two sons, hoping for a grandchild to carry on the name. Every matchmaking attempt ended in failure. They had hurt me so deeply that I could not let them live in peace. I didn't even have to lift a finger—I simply stood by and watched as no one wanted to marry into such a toxic household. Eventually, the family considered "buying" a wife, selling their own home to fund the purchase. But before they could succeed, they were swindled out of their remaining savings. The house descended into civil war; the brothers, Phuong Van and Phuong Cuong, turned on each other, each blaming the other for the loss of their prospects. In a blind rage, Phuong Cuong—once considered the mild-mannered one—stabbed Phuong Van, sending him to the hospital. Despite days of emergency care, Phuong Van did not survive. Since then, no one has known where the Phuong family disappeared to, and there has been no news of them whatsoever. As for my own life, the only period of true agony I ever endured was that time spent in the home of the Phuong family. Everything else that followed—every step forward—has been open, clear, and peaceful.