I hurriedly dragged Vũ Huyên outside, but her voice only grew louder:
“Tiểu Mẫn, don’t stop me! I’ll burn them all to death. The children are grown now. If I trade my life for their whole family, it’ll be worth it!”
When the clan chief saw Vũ Huyên actually pull out a tinderbox, he dropped to his knees and kowtowed in apology:
“I promise I’ll withdraw the accusation. Please spare us!”
Just as promised, the accusation was withdrawn.
But it was too late. The prefect who had caused my father’s death took advantage of the situation and asked the Ministry of Personnel to revoke my younger brother’s eligibility to sit for the examinations.
I was frantic with worry, and Vũ Huyên was so troubled that her hair turned white overnight.
Just then, Sister Hong stepped forward again.
“Over the years, plenty of court officials have come here to enjoy themselves for free. If the prefect wants to take us on, then we’ll fight him to the bitter end!”
I cried as though my heart would break.
Every time disaster struck my family, it was Sister Hong who came to our rescue.
Overnight, Sister Hong sold off all her possessions and brought out every trump card she had kept hidden for years.
I told her I’d give her all of Zhao’s Cloth Shop.
Sister Hong punched me.
“You think you’re the only one allowed to be loyal?”
Vũ Huyên once told me that Sister Hong had also led a hard life.
But Vũ Huyên never told me what Sister Hong had suffered. She only said that Sister Hong and she were very much alike.
Three days later.
My father’s wrongful conviction from ten years ago was overturned, and my younger brother’s eligibility to compete for the title of Martial Champion was restored.
The only regrettable thing was that the old case was never sent back for retrial. The prefect and his brother-in-law, both criminals, remained at large.
Sister Hong said:
“There are still corrupt officials at court—powerful ones!”
I said:
“Thank you, Aunt Hong. This is enough.”
It would be best if I were the one to avenge my father’s blood debt.
28.
My younger brother lived up to everyone’s expectations and passed the martial examinations as the Martial Champion.
Those words sounded simple, but no one knew how much hardship my younger brother had endured.
My younger brother smiled and said:
“It wasn’t hard. Not as hard as it was for you and Mother.”
Only we knew that in the past ten years, there hadn’t been a single patch of skin on my younger brother that wasn’t scarred.
That evening, the three of us met up with Sister Hong and opened a jar of fine wine.
When Vũ Huyên left Tàng Mộng Lâu, she’d lifted her ban on alcohol and made an exception by drinking a large bowl.
But as soon as the wine touched her lips, she broke into a violent coughing fit.
Vũ Huyên wasn’t feeling well, so we had to end our dinner early.
The next day, the emperor summoned my younger brother in person.
At sixteen, my younger brother stood before the imposing palace gates in fine clothes, mounted on horseback, and bowed to me with his hands clasped.
I was weeping so hard I was a complete mess.
In that instant, I felt that everything had been worth it.
I only wished Vũ Huyên could have come to see my younger brother off, too.
She deserved his bow more than I did.
The emperor asked my younger brother what reward he wanted.
My younger brother had only one request:
“Grant my mother, Lady Triệu Lâm, an official title.”
The imperial decree was carried from the palace all the way to the rear courtyard of Tàng Mộng Lâu.
Guards cleared the way as palace maids scattered flowers.
The imperial musicians played horns and drums.
What a spectacle.
At that moment, Vũ Huyên wept as if she’d gone mad.
“Who could have imagined that a hoodlum like me would raise a son who became the Martial Champion—and even earn an official title myself? Ha ha ha…”
She laughed and cried at the same time.
The local officials waiting at the door didn’t dare say a word.
Only Sister Hong scolded her:
“How practical!”
Then she edged a little closer.
“What does an imperial decree look like? Let me see.”
29.
The imperial decree had arrived, but my younger brother still hadn’t returned.
The emperor sent my younger brother straight to the northern frontier, where he was placed under the command of the Grand Marshal Who Guards the State.
For three months, there was no word from my younger brother.
Vũ Huyên and I grew thinner and thinner.
To be closer to my younger brother, Vũ Huyên and I moved to the capital together.
Fortunately, my hometown was near the capital, too.
That still wasn’t enough. To find my younger brother, I opened Zhao’s Cloth Shop branches across half the north.
Another five months passed, and late autumn arrived. It must have been even colder on the northern frontier.
But there was still no word from my younger brother.
The emperor sent one wave of reinforcements after another. I heard that in the end, even the palace guards at his side were sent to the front.
But supplies and provisions were dwindling.
The national treasury was likely close to empty.
Worse still, as the capital’s defenses grew weaker, a rebel army suddenly appeared outside the imperial city.
The rebels surrounded the entire imperial city.
The emperor was like a beast trapped in a cage.
But the young emperor was still full of spirit.
He issued an edict to the entire realm:
“The rebels in the capital are like fleas on our skin—not worth worrying about.”
“The unrest on the northern frontier is the real threat to our hearts.”
“I ask the people of the realm to help the northern army defeat the foreign tribes, and my own crisis will resolve itself.”
I said goodbye to Vũ Huyên:
“I have to go help the northern army. It’s also a way to help my younger brother.”
Vũ Huyên urged me to take care of myself and said she would wait for me to return.
Her lips parted slightly again, and I stopped.
“What did you say?”
Vũ Huyên said it was nothing, and told me I had to come back alive.
Zhao’s Cloth Shop stopped selling to the public and devoted all its resources to producing warm clothes and food for the northern army.
I couldn’t trust anyone else with the job, so I went to the front myself to take charge.
Another month passed. Finally, after the first snowfall of winter, the northern army won.
As the northern army hurried back to camp, I stopped the soldiers.
“Do you know Triệu Tranh? Do you know where he is? Is he still alive?”
“Sis!”
A handsome young man in a white robe and silver armor rode up to me. His bloodstained battle robes only made him look more heroic.
Who else could it be but my younger brother?
“I captured the leader of the foreign tribes alive and drove them back three hundred miles.”
I couldn’t take in a word he said. All I could do was murmur:
“You’re alive. That’s all that matters. You’re alive.”
30.
Sure enough, once the war on the northern frontier ended, the rebels surrounding the imperial city disbanded on their own.
My younger brother was truly remarkable. On the way back to the capital, he was named General Who Protects the Nation.
He was granted the Son of Heaven’s Sword, which allowed him to wear his sword and ride his horse within the palace.
This was truly a great honor.
For its contributions in supporting the army, Zhao's Cloth Shop was also named the foremost imperial merchant.
I was also granted a gold token that spared me from execution.
My younger brother led me straight to the home of the prefect from our hometown.
More than ten thousand armored soldiers surrounded the prefect's yamen.
The prefect and his brother-in-law were so terrified they nearly lost their minds, crying out without pause:
“Sir, we’re family! We’re family!”
My younger brother took off his helmet.
“Take another look. Do we seem like family to you?”
I snatched my younger brother’s sword and lunged at them.
The two men fell to their knees and begged for mercy:
“This humble official knows he was wrong. Please…”
“It’s too late!” I couldn’t hold back any longer and hacked at them again and again.
Father, your daughter and son have finally grown up. We can avenge you now.
The only regret was that my stepmother couldn’t see it with her own eyes.
Otherwise, she would have been so happy.
I always felt she had held herself back for our sake for far too long.
My younger brother said,
“My soldiers are tired. How about we go rest at the clan chief’s house for a while?”
My younger brother wanted to settle accounts with our relatives.
I was just about to nod when Sister Hong’s maid came looking for us.
She said,
“Vũ Huyên isn’t going to make it…”
31.
My younger brother left tens of thousands of troops behind.
I left the entire trading caravan behind.
We chose the fastest warhorses and raced home like mad.
All along the way, my younger brother and I cried out in anguish:
“Stepmother, how can you not make it?”
“You raised us for ten years, and we’ve finally become capable people. You haven’t even had a single day to enjoy the fruits of it. How can you not make it?”
“I haven’t even gotten to call you ‘Mom’ myself!”
At the front door, Sister Hong was crouched on the ground, sobbing.
“Hurry inside. Your mother’s been holding on for you…”
I pushed open the bedroom door, and my younger brother and I knelt beside my stepmother’s bed.
“Mom! Mom!”
My younger brother and I called out desperately, afraid that once she was gone, we’d never get to call her that again for the rest of our lives.
My stepmother lifted her head with a smile and clasped both our hands tightly.
“You two little rascals. It took you until now to call me Mom.”
“When I was three, my parents divorced. My mother remarried, and my father abandoned me too. With no one to turn to, I was kidnapped by human traffickers. They forced me to steal; if I couldn’t, I got no food and was beaten. Eventually, I risked my life to escape. I was illiterate and couldn’t do anything else, so I could only work as a drinking girl in a tavern.”
“I thought I could really hold my liquor, but I realized I couldn’t. After drinking too much for so many years, my kidneys had been ruined long ago.”
“When I was sixteen, I fell in love with a bastard. Because of him, my uterus was removed, and I could never be a mother.”
“It wasn’t until I met you two that I got the chance to be a mother. My children, you’re the greatest gift Heaven ever gave me.”
“I have to go now. Maybe I have to return to my homeland. Mom loves you…”
My stepmother’s arm fell limp.
Vũ Huyên was finally gone…
She died just as we called her Mom for the first time.
She died just as she agreed to be our “Mom.”
Only then did I notice that Vũ Huyên was still wearing the gold ring Father had given her.
For ten years, Vũ Huyên had been saving us.
For ten years, Vũ Huyên had been searching for this ring.
32.
I suddenly realized that Vũ Huyên had loved Father.
Clutching the ring, I lay on the bed in our house in the fishing village.
So much time had passed that Vũ Huyên’s presence had long since faded from the room.
Yet countless memories of Vũ Huyên kept flooding back to me.
The extraordinary girl in Father’s stories, the little hoodlum in Vũ Huyên’s.
If there’s a next life,
I’ll call her “Mom” ten thousand times every day!
—THE END—