After that, I lived like a real old woman: going to the market at six every morning, sitting in the hallway to bask in the sun every afternoon, and gossiping with the neighbors.
The most dangerous one was little Tiểu Chí.
He’d often run up, wrap his arms around my waist, and shout, “Grandma~ Guess who I am!”
Once, he nearly yanked my wig right off.
I was so scared I broke out in a sweat.
“You little rascal…” I pinched his nose, then pressed a piece of candy into his hand.
As soon as he ran off, ông Tằng looked at me with a smile. “You clearly don’t eat candy. Why do you keep buying it?”
My heart gave a little pang…
Because once, that was the candy Mrs. Li had bought for her “Tiểu Mãn.”
But thankfully, no one realized that inside an old woman’s body… was the soul of a girl in her twenties.
Trần Diêu was two months late.
The day she rang the doorbell, I had already laid out a whole table of food—all dishes she hated: too salty, too sour, half-raw.
“Mom!”
Trần Diêu rushed over and hugged me, the scent of her perfume mingling with her hurried breaths.
I stiffened and let her hug me.
Phùng Cương stood nearby, scrutinizing every corner of the house. His gaze lingered for quite a while on the trash can, where the fake syringe lay.
“It’s good you’re home. Wash your hands and come eat. It’s all food you liked when you were little.”
During the meal, Trần Diêu picked up a piece of sweet-and-sour pork, but the moment she chewed it, she grimaced. “Why is it so sour?”
I played dumb and ladled her a bowl of soup. “Mom’s getting muddleheaded… I must’ve added too much vinegar by mistake. Have some soup, dear. I made this just for you.”
I gave Phùng Cương a bowl, too.
As I watched them finish every drop of soup, the stone in my heart fell away.
By the time they realized, it was too late.
Trần Diêu convulsed, her nails digging into my arm, her pupils dilating as white foam spilled from her mouth.
I crouched down and yanked the diamond earrings right off her ears.
She screamed in despair, her whole body trembling violently.
“Do you remember?” I lifted her chin, forcing her to look at me.
“Ten years ago, you came home for a visit. Your mother made sweet-and-sour pork. You said it was too sour and dumped it all in the trash.”
“I was sitting at the corner of the table that day. You didn’t look at me once.”
Phùng Cương was curled up near the door, trying to crawl away.
I walked over unhurriedly and stepped on his wrist.
“Those worthless nutrient injections of yours… You injected Mrs. Li for two whole years. In the end, she couldn’t even remember who she was.”
I took a syringe from my pocket. It looked just like theirs, but the medicine inside was… completely different.
I jabbed it into the artery in his neck and slowly pushed the medicine in.
His face gradually turned deathly pale.
“Does it hurt? This is how Mrs. Li lived out her final years.”
Trần Diêu was still convulsing, her eyes filled with terror.
At last… she recognized me.
“Y-you… you’re… Kiều… Vân… Mãn…”
I smiled faintly and smoothed her disheveled hair.
“That’s right. It’s me.”
I leaned close to her ear and whispered as if sharing a secret: “The girl you treated like she was invisible all those years ago… has come back to settle the score for Mrs. Li and Mr. Trần.”
Tears and cold sweat ran down her cheeks together.
I gently wiped them away.
“Don’t cry. It won’t hurt for long.”
Fifteen minutes later, everything was silent.
“Was it worth it?” Officer Lục asked, his voice rough.
I looked at the red marks from the handcuffs on my wrists and smiled faintly. “Officer Lục… have you ever seen someone driven mad by what they’ve been put through?”
I tilted my head back and looked at the camera mounted in the corner of the wall.
Its red light blinked.
“The last time I saw Mrs. Li alive… she held my hand and said, ‘Tiểu Mãn, there’s some candy I just bought in the cupboard…’”
Officer Lục gripped his pen so hard it left a smear of ink across the notebook. Then, without warning, he slid a photograph toward me.
It was a photograph of Trần Diêu’s freezer overseas, packed with bags of stored organs.
“Do you know… how many people she killed?”
His voice trembled.
His eyes were red-rimmed.
“Why didn’t you call the police? Why did you have to kill her yourself?”
I closed my eyes and let out a long breath.
“Because I wanted to… send her to hell with my own hands.”
The room fell utterly silent.
A long while later, he spoke again. “When we searched Phùng Cương’s belongings… we found a recorder hidden in the lining of his suit jacket.”
He pressed play.
Phùng Cương’s voice came through: “We need to take care of that old hag this time. She’s starting to get suspicious.”
It was Trần Diêu’s voice: “What’s there to be afraid of? A few injections and she’ll be an idiot.”
“No. This time we have to finish it for good.”
Phùng Cương hesitated. “We’re almost out of your father’s body. We’ll have to try something else.”
There was the sound of paper turning.
Then Trần Diêu’s voice, cold as ice: “Use this. It’s a new drug trial. Even if she dies, no one will investigate.”
After hearing that, my whole body shook violently.
So they had come back this time intending to actually kill Mrs. Li.
Officer Lục gathered the case files and stood up.
At the door, he turned back. “That old man who brought the food earlier… his grandson is waiting for you.”
The handcuffs jingled.
I looked at the red marks around my wrists.
I thought of Tiểu Chí innocently calling, “Grandma, Grandma!”
My voice caught in my throat. “Tell him… Mrs. Li… has gone far away.”
Three months later, international police dismantled a transnational organ-trafficking ring.
On the day I went to court, the area outside was packed with people: the victims’ families, Mrs. Li’s neighbors, and ông Tằng holding Tiểu Chí’s hand.
I saw Tiểu Chí look up and ask, “Grandpa… who’s that pretty lady?”
ông Tằng burst into tears. “She’s Mrs. Li’s granddaughter.”
After the prosecutor read the charges, the judge asked me, “Do you have anything you’d like to say?”
“I plead guilty.”
When I stepped out of the courthouse, the sunlight was so bright I had to squint.
For a fleeting moment… I thought I saw Mrs. Li standing among the crowd, smiling at me, just like she had on that snowy day when she gave me my first piece of candy.
The day before my execution, Officer Lục came to see me.
“Is there anything you still wish to do?”
“Bury Mrs. Li and Mr. Trần… together.”
The prison van drove along the morning road.
I saw ông Tằng and Tiểu Chí standing by the roadside, holding something up.
As the van drew closer… I could make it out…
It was an A4 sheet of paper with a picture of me at fifteen, sitting in the yard drying chilies for Mrs. Li.
The sunshine was beautiful that day.
The two of us were both smiling.
-THE END-