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Chapter 9
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Causality
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At 2 a.m., the suburban clock tower rings out, while the high-pressure streetlights on both sides of the road continue to illuminate the sparse houses. Three hours earlier, the residents fell asleep after a long day of hard work.
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Now, only the green villa remains brightly lit. The owner of the villa, a woman in her fifties, paces back and forth inside, occasionally looking up at the clock before glancing toward the door, her eyes full of expectation.
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The food on the traditional dining tray has been reheated multiple times, yet her son has not returned. At 9 p.m., he calls to say he will be home late. By 11:55 p.m., she receives a message:
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Mom, I’m at the hospital. It’s not convenient to call. The patient’s condition is worsening, and I can’t leave the little girl right now. Please eat and rest first!
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Years of separation meant that mother and son could only meet through screens. Now, even if it means waiting until dawn, she stays up all night waiting for her son’s return.
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She had waited for hours, yet her son still hadn’t returned. She called repeatedly, but he didn't pick up. Worried her son had been in an accident, she decided to try one last time. If he still didn’t pick up, she would rally his friends and athletics teammates to help her search.
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Just as she is about to dial, the doorbell suddenly rings. Overjoyed, she runs to the door to greet her son. But when she opens the door, her smile instantly freezes, and her face turns pale with fear.
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Standing outside is not her son, but a man dressed in a faux leather jacket and wrinkled khaki pants. He looks imposing and commanding. This is her former lover—the man who used to favor that outfit. His sudden appearance leaves the unfaithful woman stammering, unable to utter a word:
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- JK... Why... Why... did you come here?
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JK carefully examines his former love from head to toe. After all these years, her life has become much more leisurely than before. The woman who once devoted herself entirely to caring for her child has now learned to take care of herself as well.
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Her hair is no longer tangled and unkempt but neat and smooth, carrying the fragrance of soap pod. The once sloppy and foul-smelling clothes have been replaced with a black velvet dress embroidered with white daisies.
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JK squints, gazing at the silhouette that once enchanted him. Thirty years ago, her figure was a masterpiece—an hourglass shape, flawless and alluring. But time spares no one. The waist he remembers is now buried beneath layers of excess fat; the once-hot curves have vanished, discarded for those who wish to forget the past—a body where all three measurements are nearly equal.
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Pursing his lips with disdain, JK grows weary of watching the crow’s feet crack the beauty of the woman who once mesmerized him. Her hair is now almost entirely white, and her once flower-like face and powder-smooth skin have faded with the hardships of the years. Time is a merciless hourglass—once the sand runs out, beauty dissolves, affection dries up, leaving behind only emptiness and resentment.
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- Do you often welcome guests on the street like this?
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Thanh Hang is the first to make mistakes. Before she can repay her emotional debt, she has already paid a heavy price. All mistakes are now in the past—she feels a nagging feeling toward the man she has betrayed, but she feels no shame.
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For decades, JK has never appeared, but now, he suddenly comes to her home, making her feel afraid:
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- Why are you here?
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- Too harsh—the mother of a world-famous star is even more arrogant and extravagant than her own child, both mother and son are as vile and hypocritical as a cur. Tomorrow, I will publish this news on the front pages of newspapers across the world!
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Thanh Hang has endured all kinds of hardships. The only concern of this strong woman is her child. Children are both the strength and the weakness of their parents. When JK mentions her son, the mother feels uneasy but still struggles to maintain her composure.
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- After all, what do you want?
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JK shrugs:
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- I just want to ‘have a chat’ with you...
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Thanh Hang refuses coldly:
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- I have nothing to say to you.
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JK remains expressionless, pulls out his phone, and opens a photo of her son sitting with his head bowed:
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- Oh? But your son has something to say to his mother...
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Since the day she betrayed JK, Thanh Hang has lived in fear—especially after her husband’s family went bankrupt, that fear grows even stronger. Over the past four years, Hoang Kim has become a global star, while JK’s worldwide fame only deepens her unease. She fears he will take revenge by destroying her son.
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Thanh Hang glances briefly at the soulless Hoang Kim, and a turbulent wave surges within her. The poisonous wind sown thirty years ago has now become a tempest. A storm called karma, which does not punish the one who sowed the wind, has instead fallen upon an innocent child.
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- You… what the hell are you up to now? - Thanh Hang roars - Let my son go!
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JK watches as she flies into a rage, her face turning a purplish-red, her eyes burning with fury as she glares at him. He winces, and casually picks at his ear:
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- You'll make me deaf. Want to wake the neighbors? This has nothing to do with them - don't drag outsiders in, or you'll suffer karmic retribution again!
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Her son's safety in JK's hands, Thanh Hang seethes at his mockery but dares not react excessively.
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- If you want revenge, aim at me...
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JK demands they talk inside, leaving Thanh Hang no choice. He orders his bodyguards to stand watch outside, then follows her in and sits across from his former lover on the sofa.
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This is JK’s first time here, so he isn’t in a hurry to get to the main point. The old bastard wants to see what this doghouse looks like first. Its exterior boasts a modern Western-style architecture, with each floor featuring stacked squares and rectangles.
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Inside, however, it is classically ornate. The ceiling is made of pomu wood, intricately carved with waves, water, clouds, and sky motifs, while the floor is paved with lemon-blossom patterned tiles.
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The interior furnishings display only a few antiques from feudal times. The wooden shelf in the living room emits a soothing fragrance. The art carving on the left depicts pine tree and bamboo with drooping branches, while to the right, chrysanthemums and plum blossoms reveal their splendor. The Four Seasons envelop the ink wash painting, depicting the nation's splendid and majestic landscapes. Statues of ancient generals from the Prehistoric Kingdom surround the bookshelf, exuding historical and cultural gravitas.
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Hoang Kim isn't short of money - he could afford more luxurious furniture, but worries his mother needs to dust them daily, so he keeps the decorations simple. The old man notices this and sneers at Hoang Kim's so-called filial piety. With nothing left to watch, JK bounces his butt to test the elasticity beneath the leather-covered sofa.
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- Nice sofa. Bought with Hoang Kim's match-fixing money?
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Thanh Hang grows impatient with the old man's antics and urges him to get to the point. JK leisurely taps his smart phone, revealing a live feed of a mother and her two daughters.
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- Do you know who they are?
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Thanh Hang squints at the three girls huddled in the corner, sobbing while embracing each other. Thanh Hang catches a glimpse of a lifeless Hoang Kim—it seems the girls are enduring the same pain as him. She notices the young woman bears striking resemblances to her younger self. As Thanh Hang hesitates between certainty and suspicion, JK reveals the truth:
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- That girl looks exactly like you in your youth. Her name is Thanh Ngoc - she's your biological daughter!
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Outside, lightning descends upon the earth, while the mother’s spirit echoes with a thunderbolt of shock. She can't believe it, scrutinizing JK. He tosses her the genetic test results:
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- You abandoned her at the orphanage over thirty years ago. - JK presses his demonic face close to his former lover - You thought she burned to death in that fire back then. You were wrong. She narrowly escaped death. A Southern nun from the orphanage took her to an orphanage there. At fifteen, she married and went on to have three daughters. Those two are her daughters. The youngest has been terminally ill for three years now, lying in hospital awaiting death!
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The matching genetic sequences confirm JK's words. The undeniable truth stands like a supreme judge condemning her conscience. This initial revelation condemns her past sins. Although her late husband forced her to abandon the child, Thanh Hang cannot entirely shift blame onto the deceased—if she had resisted and raised the child alone, she would not spend nights weeping in regret, missing her child. Now, the karmic pain inflicted on her granddaughters crushes the old woman's heart.
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JK watches Thanh Hang choke back tears as she mouths apologies while caressing footage of her descendants on her smartphone screen. Triumphantly, he pulls a USB drive from his pocket and plugs it into the laptop on the table. From prior investigations, JK knows that Hoang Kim's mansion is completely soundproof—even if they argue loudly, the neighbors won’t hear, let alone the entire area soundly asleep. He turns the speakers to maximum volume and quickly pins Thanh Hang into the chair to prevent her from smashing the laptop.
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- I have a little offering for my former lover!
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She struggles futilely against JK's grip:
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- What do you want? Let me go!
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Her voice is drowned out by the soft moans from the laptop. While she is still arguing with JK, her arms suddenly helplessly hang from the chair. The video shows Hoang Kim and Ngoc making love, while the two granddaughters writhe, lost in their lust. What begins with shy fear grows bolder by the second—these descendants, devoid of shame, sink deeper into depravity. Every lurid pose of their naked bodies, every passionate kiss accompanied by lustful moans, defiles the very meaning of "relatives" and taints family bloodline.
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Each incestuous scene is a tempest, plunging the mother into an abyss of regret. She lets the bottomless void consume her soul. "As you sow, so shall you reap"—yet the retribution falls upon the descendants. The mother refuses redemption, willingly embracing eternal damnation in this hell of agony.
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JK leans in, lowering his head to peer at Thanh Hang's face, eager to watch his betrayer writhe in agony. She neither complains nor weeps. JK merely sees tears of regret stream ceaselessly down her vacant, expressionless face.
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- Parents create bad karma, descendants must suffer the karmic retribution. I always despised that stupid moral doctrine, yet it became prophecy: This world is not fair, but cosmic justice exists!
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JK mocks his enemy's pain repeatedly:
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- How do you rate your descendants' performance in bed? All four outclass the world's top porn stars, don't they? - JK's lips curl into a vicious grin - This heartwarming family film runs a full four hours. Enjoy it... till dawn! Hahaha...
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With a mocking farewell, JK blows his former lover a kiss.
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- Ngoc is your daughter!
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