Chapter 3

During a holiday, with my wife’s agreement, I invited Hàn Vũ to eat with us.

She touched none of the meat.

Distractedly, she lifted mouthfuls of plain rice.

Eating seemed only a way to remain alive.

While my wife washed the dishes, she told me:

“Since Tiểu Kỳ died, I keep hearing her.”

“Sometimes I feel she’s hiding behind me, playing hide-and-seek.”

“Every time I turn around full of hope, reality knocks me down again.”

“She’s gone.”

“She won’t be naughty anymore.”

“Won’t scatter flour everywhere.”

“Won’t ever call me Mommy again.”

Her voice caught.

“I thought revenge would heal the wound.”

“So I killed Lưu Khải.”

“But it hasn’t closed. It only gets deeper…”

“Did I do the wrong thing?”

I wanted to comfort her.

But she was in a worse state than I had imagined.

Killing went against human instinct.

Even trained soldiers were often trapped in guilt after a war.

Hàn Vũ was merely an unfortunate mother.

Anger had driven her through revenge, but the collapse of her mind and sense of self might only be a matter of time.

She wiped her tears.

Suddenly, she said:

“I want to do something for Lưu Khải.”

I instinctively thought she meant surrendering.

“Are you mad? My daughter isn’t grown yet. I can’t go to prison!”

“I can’t worry about all that.”

“I have to do this.”

Her decision robbed me of sleep and appetite.

If she confessed, I would be implicated.

At least five years in prison.

And that was the optimistic outcome.

If the police pursued my obstruction, concealment, or treated me as an accomplice to murder…

I might not even make it to my daughter’s wedding.

In Hàn Vũ’s condition, nothing she did would surprise me.

I couldn’t rely on reason to persuade her.

If the worst happened…

Perhaps I would have to deal with her too…

I hurriedly crushed the thought.

But one terrible thought followed another.

People…

Were selfish after all.

My father-in-law wasn’t well.

My wife decided to take our daughter to stay with him for a few days.

I was alone in the shop when Hàn Vũ messaged.

A light had failed. She couldn’t reset the residual-current breaker.

Could I come and look?

I opened a drawer, took out a pair of gloves, and put them in my pocket.

I would try one last time to persuade her.

If possible…

I absolutely didn’t want to do it.

But I could only choose myself.

At the bakery, she said the electrical box was in a small room.

It had once been a toilet. No window. Pitch-dark.

I used my phone’s torch and searched, but found no box.

Suddenly, the door locked behind me.

Startled, I pounded on it, demanding to know why she had shut me in.

She said nothing.

Instead, she secured it outside with a large padlock.

My heart hammered.

Had she guessed what I intended?

Locked me in and called the police to confess?

Damn it.

I kicked the door hard several times.

Then footsteps sounded downstairs.

Two people.

I dared not make a sound.

It was an old toilet door with a ventilation opening below.

I lay flat and peered through.

The midnight visitors weren’t police.

They were Lưu Khải’s parents.

I couldn’t understand.

Why had she called them?

Did she mean to atone with her life?

But they weren’t fools.

Even if she confessed, they wouldn’t lose control and kill her.

They could simply call the police.

Their love for him had been pitifully small.

Nothing like hers for Tiểu Kỳ.

Hàn Vũ poured them tea.

Then brought out two dry loaves.

The kind she had been eating lately.

His mother slammed the table.

“Where have you hidden my son? Hand him over! Don’t blame me for what happens today!”

“I haven’t been holding him,” Hàn Vũ replied calmly.

“He hid here himself.”

“He said he didn’t want to see you.”

“Because you don’t love him.”

“You don’t deserve to be parents.”

The woman flushed.

“Bullshit! Who says I don’t love my son?”

“Prove it.”

“These loaves are a failed batch.”

“So hard they’re difficult to swallow.”

“Eat them, and I’ll believe you.”

The couple looked at each other.

Finally, they broke the bread and ate it with tea.

Before long, both loaves were gone.

Hàn Vũ stood, leaned close to the mother’s ear, and whispered.

The woman went berserk.

She lunged at Hàn Vũ and gripped her throat.

His father picked up a thick, heavy rolling pin and struck her head repeatedly.

With each blow, her limbs twitched reflexively.

From beginning to end…

She didn’t resist.

I clamped a hand over my mouth.

Dared not make a sound.

Afterward, they didn’t even clean the scene.

They fled in panic.

I immediately called the police.

Called 120 for an ambulance.

Then kicked the door again and again.

At last, the hinges gave.

I squeezed through and hurried to check her.

Too late.

The back of her head was severely deformed.

Thick blood and brain fluid ran from her ears and nostrils.

Strangely…

Though beaten to death, she was smiling.

Her hands weren’t clenched in resistance.

They rested loosely.

As though calmly embracing death.

The police arrived quickly.

I gave them every clue and piece of evidence.

Hours later, Lưu Khải’s parents were arrested.

They were prosecuted for murder.

His father received a death sentence.

His mother, life imprisonment.

Strangely, when the prosecutor asked why they had killed Hàn Vũ…

Both remained silent.

Not a word.

A few days later, my daughter gave me a letter.

Hàn Vũ had left it for me.

By the time you read this, I may be dead.

Please don’t grieve for me.

I’m happy I can finally join Kỳ Kỳ in the next world.

For me, death is the best release.

I kept asking whether my revenge meant anything.

Lưu Khải’s death gave me no comfort.

Only endless emptiness.

But finally, I understood. As a mother, I had to wield that butcher’s blade forged from love.

It was my mission.

I don’t need other people or the law to judge me.

In the end, I still couldn’t forgive his parents.

If they had loved their son even a little more, perhaps I wouldn’t have suffered this tragedy.

Even if the law wouldn’t punish them, I couldn’t let them live beyond its reach.

I will use my own life to punish them.

It is the only thing I can do for Lưu Khải.

She left money for her funeral.

Asked me to place her ashes beside Tiểu Kỳ’s.

I fulfilled her wish.

Every year, on their death anniversaries, I take my daughter to their graves.

Burn incense.

Pray they can be together again in another life.

My daughter grew old enough to understand death.

She was always regretful.

She said she should have followed them.

Should have warned Tiểu Kỳ to stay away from Lưu Khải.

Perhaps the tragedy could have been prevented.

I gently stroked her head.

“There are many dangers we can’t foresee.”

“But Daddy can’t protect you forever.”

“You must know how to protect yourself.”

“Otherwise…”

“Even if it costs my life, I’ll avenge you.”

She held me tightly.

“I don’t want you to avenge me.”

“Don’t worry, Daddy.”

“I’ll be all right.”

After that, my noodle shop gained a regular.

Ngô Tranh.

His superiors moved him from fieldwork to a desk.

He left the force and became a private investigator.

He treated my shop as his personal canteen.

Whenever he was free, he came for noodles.

He even had the cheek to ask for a membership card.

“Come on, top graduate.”

“Can you tell me?”

“Was my reasoning wrong back then?”

His favorite question.

Eventually, tired of the pestering, I decided to answer.

“Your reasoning was completely correct.”

“You just searched the wrong place.”

“The crime scene wasn’t in Hàn Vũ’s shop.”

He stared.

“How?”

“I thought she must have killed him in her own bakery to comfort her daughter’s spirit.”

I smiled.

“She did.”

“But she had two shops.”

“The other was right next door.”

“Same equipment. Same layout.”

Her landlord had kept raising the rent as her business prospered, forcing her out.

She had found new premises long before.

After killing Lưu Khải, she moved immediately.

Moved the sign.

With the identical layout, even Ngô Tranh hadn’t noticed.

Who had time to count which unit along the street was her bakery?

Understanding dawned.

“All right.”

“Even if I missed the scene…”

“Why couldn’t I find his ashes?”

“At his weight, however completely he burned, there should have been about two kilograms.”

“I searched the drains and rubbish bins. No sign of disposal.”

I shook my head.

“I don’t know.”

“She dealt with the ashes.”

“That question may never have an answer.”

Disappointed, he left.

She had never told me what she did with them.

But I could roughly guess.

Perhaps…

She mixed all the ashes into flour and baked them into bread.

After killing him, she gnawed dry bread every day.

Taking little sips of water to force it down.

It must have been dreadful.

Perhaps containing fragments of bone and teeth.

Yet she ate it all.

The last two loaves, she saved for his parents.

Tricked them into eating.

That…

Was a mother’s final revenge.

— The End —

Author: Starbucks on the Run (星巴克在逃咖啡)