13.
—Finding the Truth—
1.
I, Phan Lạc Lạc, was born in a mountain village where boys were valued over girls.
My mother had a history of mental illness. She was probably tricked into being sold here.
I suffered abuse from the day I was born.
After my younger brother was born, my living conditions improved a little.
But it was all just wishful thinking.
My family had never considered me human.
Only when my younger brother humiliated me in front of everyone did I finally understand.
But the cruelest truth was yet to come.
2.
Because my younger brother was gravely ill, my whole family took their anger out on me.
I was abused every day, and there wasn't a day I wasn't terrified.
Even my mother, who had always loved me quietly, began to resent me.
I realized there was no one left in the world who loved me.
So I wanted to die.
But when you're desperate, even the smallest glimmer of hope is something anyone would risk everything to seize.
I was no exception.
Mrs. Trần's arrival was the first time I had ever felt kindness and love from someone else.
This precious affection made me feel as if I were dreaming.
But every beautiful dream must come to an end.
Mrs. Trần's death and the cold indifference of her relatives left me shaken.
The affection I treasured so deeply was treated like garbage by others.
And so the faint light in my heart gradually disappeared into the long night of reality.
The sudden spark of malice let me taste the joy of revenge.
I… learned to use killing to protect myself.
14.
The young man's calm narration now felt like a thousand arrows piercing my heart.
I felt like I was drowning, barely able to breathe.
“Stop talking!”
I cried out in desperation, trying to stop Dương Phong.
But his expression remained cold and indifferent, just like my mother's had been back then.
“Do you remember the first thing I said?”
Terrified, I staggered back several steps.
“That year, if your younger brother hadn't died so suddenly, someone like me, second in line, would never have gotten this heart.”
Dương Phong pointed to his chest. “I was in the same hospital room as your younger brother, in the bed right next to his.”
“Your younger brother was spoiled by the whole family until he feared nothing and respected no one. I… didn't like him either.”
“He loved following me around, saying he had a wonderful big sister who loved him very much.”
“Someone who'd willingly trade her life for his.”
“So I was very curious about you.”
“The night you tricked him into coming outside, I was right there.”
I stared at him, unable to believe it.
The young man shook his head with a bitter smile. “I saw how it all began with my own eyes, but I couldn't predict how it would end.”
“I told you, the murderer in this case could also be considered… my savior.”
“I came to see you today only to find out the truth.”
“I mean you no harm.”
When I saw him suddenly soften, his face earnest and trustworthy,
I knew I had nothing left to hide.
After a long silence, I said, “The truth… is even more horrifying than you guessed.”
15.
—The Bloody Truth—
1.
After my younger brother was hospitalized, I was the one who suffered all the abuse.
That was true.
My mother was beaten and cried out all night, her mind crumbling.
That was true, too.
Dad and Grandma wanted to sell me to pay for my younger brother's treatment.
That was true as well.
But they weren't selling me to human traffickers.
2.
Back then, I was led to the traffickers without knowing what was going on.
Only later did I learn they weren't trafficking people.
They were trafficking organs.
The organ trade was far more profitable than human trafficking.
All the organs in my body would have been enough not only to pay for my younger brother's treatment,
but also for his postoperative medication, with plenty left over.
The authorities were conducting strict inspections then, and the traffickers didn't want to buy living people.
Accepting someone who had died suddenly carried less risk.
And “suicide” was a low-risk way for someone to die suddenly.
That was why I was so badly abused back then.
At last, I understood why my mother had wanted to escape this place.
But I couldn't escape. Even if I got away, I wouldn't survive.
After all, I was only eleven.
That eleven-year-old girl finally couldn't take it anymore. Alone, she ran up the mountain, intending to end her life.
3.
Mrs. Trần saved me.
She also planted in my mind the desire to keep living.
When I was once again faced with vicious beatings and inhuman curses, I decided to endure.
All because of something Mrs. Trần had said: Don't let your life slip away so easily.
Until one day, Mrs. Trần quietly died in her sleep.
By the time she was found, her body had gone rigid.
Seeing the faces of her unfilial children and grandchildren, I was consumed by hatred.
I didn't even need to poison their food myself.
All I had to do was protect Đại Hoàng and watch them in silence.
I watched them collapse to the ground in agony, struggle helplessly, and slowly breathe their last.
4.
When I continued to refuse to kill myself despite the abuse, Dad and Grandma came up with another cruel plan.
They forced and threatened my mother into killing me.
They kept brainwashing my mother, telling her that if she killed me, my younger brother would live.
And she could live, too.
During that time, my mother, driven mad by the pressure, seemed to have truly been brainwashed.
Whenever my mother looked at me, her eyes were like a hunter's fixed on its prey.
Every night I woke with a start, I saw my mother leaning over me.
She kept muttering something.
It made my blood run cold.
I was terrified.
5.
At last, I overheard their new plan.
On New Year's Eve, they put something in my food to drug me.
While I was unconscious, they would make my mother slit my wrist.
They would stage it to look like a suicide.
Then the organ traffickers would pose as doctors and openly carry my body away.
They would take advantage of the moment I stopped breathing, while my body was still warm, to turn me into a luxury commodity.
When I saw my mother nod,
my heart shattered.
6.
On New Year's Eve, I deliberately went to the hospital.
I told my younger brother, “I might die soon.”
My younger brother didn't seem to care. He smiled and said to me, “I'll live well for you.”
Seeing my younger brother's innocent, cheerful face, I was terrified.
That's right. My younger brother knew everything.
Dad and Grandma had never hidden anything from him.
I knew my younger brother wanted very badly to live.
What about me?
I wanted to live, too!
7.
In that moment, I made up my mind.
Just as Dương Phong had seen.
I started coaxing my younger brother, telling him New Year's Eve would be lively this year.
He'd been stuck alone in the hospital for so long, with no one to play with, and was bored out of his mind.
Sure enough, my younger brother came up with a plan.
At first, he begged me to take him home in secret.
When I refused, he started threatening to tell Dad and Grandma.
I pretended to be scared and had to nod in agreement.
He thought he was so clever and came up with an incredibly detailed plan.
He would change into my clothes and just hide until nightfall.
Under cover of darkness, he could slip out and celebrate New Year's Eve.
8.
He claimed all the sumptuous food that had been prepared for me.
After spending so long eating plain porridge and watery soup in the hospital, he now buried his face in the rich, greasy food.
He didn't even plan to leave me a single bite.
Not long afterward, Mother came into the kitchen with a knife and sat beside me.
I saw her eyes swimming with tears as she sobbed.
“Hurry up! Can you do it or not? It’s a tiny thing, and you’re dragging your feet!”
Outside, Dad’s voice rang out, urging her on and scolding her.
At last, Mother raised the knife and, weeping, slashed my younger brother’s wrist.
“I’m sorry…”
Mother cried as she gathered my younger brother in her arms.
If my younger brother hadn’t pretended to be me,
then I would have been the one Mother was holding for the very first time over there…
16.
By the time I remembered all this, I was crying too hard to make a sound.
Dương Phong was silent for a long time, then sighed.
“So the rest of the story is what you told the police?”
I looked up at him and shook my head gently. “No. I was still lying.”
“Oh?” Dương Phong’s eyes brimmed with curiosity.
17.
—Mother’s Final Act of Love—
Mother immediately realized that the dying child in her arms was my younger brother.
With the knife in hand, Mother found me, its blade still streaked with blood.
Terrified, I huddled in the corner, crouched against the wall, afraid to move.
Tears streamed down Mother’s face as she asked me, “Do you really want to keep living like this?”
I nodded, tears welling in my eyes. “I want to get out of here! I want to run far away!”
When Mother heard that, she gazed intently at me, then suddenly smiled.
It was the first time I’d ever seen Mother smile.
Mother knelt before me and asked me to help her.
As I used firewood to set the house ablaze, Mother hid behind the door.
Who would have thought that the first person to come in wouldn’t be Dad, but Grandma?
When Grandma fell, her eyes were still full of disbelief.
Then Dad stormed in, blazing with rage.
A strong man like Dad quickly gained the upper hand.
All it took was one glance for him to spot me, the source of all the trouble.
Those big, rough hands clamped around my throat.
Dazed, I saw Mother, covered in blood, charge at him.
Mother stabbed him in the back, opening a path for me to escape.
As the beam came crashing down, Mother looked up at me and silently mouthed one word—“Run!”
I stood frozen outside the door, watching with my own eyes as the flames consumed everything.
18.
I stared at the unfamiliar young man sitting across from me. “That’s the whole truth.”
Dương Phong sighed. “Cruel, and yet thrilling.”
“All right. If you want to expose the case or report me to the police now, I won’t resist.”
“After all these years, this is the first time I’ve felt at ease, like I can finally let go.”
19.
Dương Phong looked at the milk tea in his hand. The cup was empty.
“Did you kill anyone yourself?”
I was taken aback, then shook my head. “But I was responsible for those crimes.”
Dương Phong stared at the deserted intersection in the distance.
“If that’s the whole truth, why would I expose you?”
“After all, those people died because of the crimes they committed.”
“You just wanted to live.”
Dương Phong pointed to his chest again.
“To be honest, I wouldn’t have lived this long without you.”
“I came here today just to learn the truth and put to rest something that’s weighed on me since before I died.”
I stared in shock at Dương Phong’s chest, but he just shrugged as if it were nothing.
“I’m lucky to have made it a few more years.”
I was about to say something else when the young man waved a hand and stood up.
20.
“Don’t let your life slip away so easily.”
“I really like that line.”
Dương Phong’s voice drifted over from far away. When I looked up, the young man’s figure had disappeared beyond the intersection at the end of the street.
—Bonus Chapter: A New Life—
01.
I’m Dương Phong, a promising young reporter.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much longer to live.
This heart has kept me alive for all these years, and I’m grateful enough for that.
Because the truth is, this heart was never meant for me.
Back then, I was on the brink of death.
But a miracle happened unexpectedly, and I found myself given a new life.
Behind that miracle, though, lay a bloody tragedy on New Year's Eve.
I decided to uncover the truth about what happened that year.
At the very least, before I died, I wanted to know who had given me a new life.
02.
After investigating again and again, I discovered many suspicious details about that New Year's Eve tragedy.
I wanted to find out the truth.
The most important clue lay with the only surviving witness—Phan Lạc Lạc.
At first, she didn't want to tell the truth either. She wanted to bury the past.
After I pressed her, she finally told me the truth.
A cruel and thrilling truth.
It was deeply moving.
03.
A month later, by chance, I found myself near that milk tea shop again.
The nearby high school had just let out, and groups of students were walking together.
Seeing the vitality brimming from those kids, I thought again of that poor girl's face.
Two schoolgirls walked past me, sipping milk tea and chatting.
“Have you seen *Chìa khoá vạn năng*? The twist was so wild—I was scared after watching it.”
“It was good, but so confusing. Why did the bad guys make it all the way to the end?”
…
I’d seen that movie too. The beginning was utterly ordinary, but the later twists were terrifying.
The plot wasn’t all that complicated.
It was about two fortune-tellers who used magic to steal other people’s youthful bodies, then took over their identities and lived new lives.
“Hey, try the milk tea shop’s new pastry. What was it called? Thousand-layer apple preserves cake or something.”
“Yeah… Hey, this is amazing! So good!”
“Right? I heard it’s really hard to make, too. You need decades of experience to get this flavor.”
“That’s impressive, then. The shop owner is so talented, and she’s still so young.”
The two girls had gone far away, but I was still frozen in place.
It was the middle of summer, and yet I felt as if I’d fallen into an ice cellar, cold all over.
My heart pounded in my chest like a drum.
Dizziness closed in, and my vision went dark.
I raised my head and hesitantly looked toward the milk tea shop not far away.
Phan Lạc Lạc was clearing the tables when a frail old yellow dog came out.
“Tiểu Hoàng, what are you looking at?”
Phan Lạc Lạc followed the old dog’s gaze and saw me.
The next second, the youthful Phan Lạc Lạc broke into a strange, knowing smile.
(The End)