Cold sweat ran down my forehead, as if countless people were calling my name—worried, anxious, concerned, urgent. Their voices grew louder and louder.
A brilliant golden light shone down on my body, warm and radiant… Could this be merit?
I felt utterly bewildered.
“I found the ones fate loves! It’s those five children!”
“Tiểu Thu will take good care of them. As long as they form a bond, she’ll definitely be safe when she turns twenty-six…”
“Lương Hạ, take good care of Tiểu Thu.”
“I saw our eldest brother today. He’s accumulated so much merit in this life. The master said he’ll have good fortune in his next life… If only you could be the same, Tiểu Thu.”
“Tiểu Thu, that boy named Tống Thước you’re looking after is a little like you. But why is he loved by fate while you’ve been abandoned by it…?”
“Your second brother misses you so much. He misses our eldest brother, too.”
“Miss Hạ, who do you think I meant when I said the other members of the Ultraman clan? I’m not that generous.”
“Tiểu Hà, the children you raised really do love you. Now I can go tell my senior. They want to change your fate for you, so you’re guaranteed to live to a hundred.”
“Auntie, please wake up.”
“Auntie, didn’t you say this lucky cord could protect us? I only want it to protect you…”
“Auntie, didn’t you say we’d celebrate your twenty-sixth birthday together?”
“Auntie…”
“Auntie, Lục Chiếu said our fates are very good, and helping you change yours won’t affect us at all. Please don’t be mad at us.”
“Auntie, thank goodness Uncle Xuân Lai found me. Thank goodness I could help you. I was so scared…”
“Auntie!”
“Tiểu Thu!”
“…”
I felt as though someone had let out a long sigh. The book called “the Encyclopedia” crumbled completely into ash, as if some heavenly way, after struggling to resist, had chosen to give up.
Overwhelmed by so much merit, it had become a flawed version of “the Encyclopedia.” It had clearly wanted to lead me to ruin my own fate, but because my eldest and second brothers had changed theirs, and because the five children had grown so close to me, it could only fall silent.
Now, at last, it had disappeared from my world. Perhaps from this point on, it could no longer bind my fate.
But I had bought this changed fate by trading away the things I treasured most.
I used to think my blood ties were fragile.
Was that really true?
Were my blood ties really that fragile?
Or had someone, somewhere I couldn’t see, fought fate with all their might—sacrificing everything, yet putting on a show of fragility so I wouldn’t be heartbroken?
I felt as if my soul had split in two, one half reproaching my own oblivious self.
Hạ Thanh Thu, how could you be so presumptuous?
How could you think you’d only ever been loved?
How could you think your eldest brother was too busy to love you, and your second brother too tired to love you…?
They had poured every ounce of strength into loving you, into changing your fate.
How could you think your happy life now was all thanks to good luck?
You, abandoned by fate, had only made it this far by feeding on your own family’s flesh and bones.
How could you—how could you… think they didn’t love you?
(10)
I opened my eyes and realized I was lying on a soft bed, surrounded by panicked faces.
Light from the window revealed the dark circles under their eyes from staying up all night.
I parted my lips and managed a weak smile. “Stop shouting. I’m fine…”
But a tear suddenly rolled down my cheek and soaked into the pillow.
As if a gate had opened, a second tear fell, then a third, then a fourth…
I sobbed miserably, trying to stifle the sounds, feeling as if the whole world were turning upside down before my eyes.
I was so overcome that I couldn’t get out a single complete sentence.
One hand after another gently stroked my head, just as I used to do for them.
“Auntie, it’s okay.”
“We’ll always be here with you.”
“…You had the nerve to change fate,” I said hoarsely. “…Weren’t you afraid you’d be tricked…?”
“Even if we were tricked, it was worth it.” Trang Du leaned against the headboard. “Auntie, please get better soon. Uncle Lương Hạ said he’d come see you when you woke up.”
“Uncle Lương Hạ said that if you didn’t wake up, coming to see you would only hurt you,” Lâm Diệu Diệu added. “So right now, he’s praying at White Crane Cemetery.”
White Crane Cemetery was where my eldest brother rested.
My voice nearly choked with emotion. “I have to go find him… I have to find them…”
“We’ll go with you.” Tống Thước gently helped me sit up. “We’ve already called a car.”
“Auntie, we’ll try to do more good deeds from now on,” Lâm Diệu Diệu said. “Then your next life, and the one after that, and the one after that, will all be happy.”
“We’ll always be by your side.” Hà Diệc Dương draped a coat over me and whispered, “Even if you kick me out, I won’t go anywhere.”
“How could I kick you all out?” I pulled myself together. “Aren’t you angry? Back then, your eldest brother adopted you all, but really, it was because of me…”
“Auntie, no matter the reason,” Từ Như Đồ interrupted, “Uncle Xuân Lai took such good care of us, and so did you. No amount of gratitude could repay that.”
“Meeting you was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.”
Trang Du smiled at me. “I’m so grateful to Uncle Xuân Lai.”
“Me too.”
“…I feel the same way.”
Meeting you was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.
…
At the entrance to White Crane Cemetery, I stared blankly at the young man nearby.
For decades, his was a face I couldn’t recognize, a face I always forgot no matter how hard I tried to remember it—a blank space in my memory that had never been filled.
But now, it was like a painting bursting with color, so vivid I could hardly believe it.
…It seemed my face blindness was cured.
“Tiểu Thu,” he said with a smile. “Long time no see.”
The children standing behind him all raised their five hands in unison, red cords tied around their wrists.
—“Auntie, guess who I am?”
I looked at the photograph on the gravestone.
The young man smiled gently. His handsome face matched the images in my memories perfectly.
This time, at last, I had… recognized his face.
-END-