Chapter 5 — The Path I Chose

I had truly believed that everything had finally come to an end. Yet, to my utter dismay, Chu Diem Diem appeared at the entrance of my apartment the very next morning. The polished, glamorous veneer she had worn just days before was entirely gone; her eyes were swollen and puffy from hours of weeping, and her hair was a tangled, disheveled mess. She blocked my path at the doorway, her gaze fixed on me with a raw, piercing hatred.

"Liang Zhi Ye, you must be feeling awfully smug, aren't you? Because of you, Pho Thanh Tay finally dumped me!" she spat out, her voice trembling. "What is it about you that is so special? What could you possibly possess that makes him cling to the memory of you, unable to let go even after all this time?"

I had no desire to involve myself in her histrionics, so I reached to pull the door shut. She was faster, however, throwing her weight against it and wedging her hand into the frame. Suddenly, she broke into a chilling, solitary laugh.

"Since our high school days, I never once managed to surpass you. My grades were inferior, my popularity was nowhere near yours. We started at the same place, yet by what right did you always manage to tower over me, leaving me in your shadow?" She stared at me, her eyes glistening with malice. "You know, when Pho Thanh Tay finally asked me to stay by his side, I foolishly thought I had finally defeated you. I never imagined this dream would shatter so quickly."

"Do you even know what it feels like to be cast down from heaven into the depths of hell? That is exactly where I am now, and I owe it all to your ‘generosity.’ Just you wait—I will never let you off the hook for this!"

Three months later, the quiet, orderly life I had meticulously built was torn to shreds. As I returned to my apartment building after finishing a late shift, two shadowy figures lunged at me from the darkness. Before I could even process the threat, a familiar, grating voice sent a jolt of ice straight to my heart. My mother and my brother had cornered me. Upon catching sight of me, she began to shriek, her voice thick with hysterical rage. "Liang Zhi Ye, you ungrateful wretch! I raised you for eighteen years! How dare you hide from your own family and sneak abroad to live a life of luxury while we rot!"

"Do you even have a shred of conscience? While you’re out here spending money like water, do you have any idea how we have been suffering back home?"

Instinctively, I tried to shake her off, but my brother, Liang Tieu, pinned me down with a heavy grip. He glared at me, his tone dripping with contempt. "What? Did you think you could just flee to the United States and we wouldn't find you? Liang Zhi Ye, don't try any of your clever tricks on me. Let me tell you this: you were born into the Liang family, and you will die as one of us. You will never escape us as long as you live."

"I hear you’ve been working various jobs here for years, and with the high wages abroad, you must have saved up quite a bit. Here is the deal: hand over eight hundred thousand, and we will consider forgiving you."

"If you refuse, we will haunt you like specters. We have already found you once; what makes you think you could possibly hide again?"

My heart constricted, suffocated by panic. "How did you even find me here? You need a visa to enter the United States—how did you manage to get one? Do you have any idea of the legal consequences of illegal immigration?" I demanded, my voice shaking.

He let out a cold, mocking scoff. "Illegal? Don't look down on us so much. We entered this country through the front door, perfectly legitimate. Liang Zhi Ye, I hate to say it, but your character is truly pathetic. You abandoned your own family to live in luxury overseas, even your own classmates couldn't stand to watch it."

"Let me tell you something! It was that high school classmate of yours, Chu Diem Diem, who came to our house and gave us your location. She even handled our visas and paid for our plane tickets!"

"Rest assured, if you don't meet our demands this time, we will make it a point to visit you quite often from now on!"

As he finished, my mother lunged forward, grabbing me by the hair. She hissed, "You ungrateful traitor, my efforts in raising you were a complete waste. Do exactly as your brother says. You will cough up those eight hundred thousand, or I will go to your school and cause a scene! I’ll go to your workplace—"