Page 18
At the time, Minh didn’t understand what was happening.
He only heard his mother whisper softly, “Please don’t do it anymore.
Your body can’t take it.”
His father replied, “It’s okay.
Just this once.”
His mother’s voice trembled.
“You said ‘just this once’ last time too.”
Minh stood behind the door, his heart pounding.
He heard his father cough quietly before saying, “He needs to pay his tuition.”
That memory suddenly returned with heartbreaking clarity.
Minh remembered how cold his father’s hands had been that day.
Even so, his father still smiled and gently patted his head.
“Study hard, okay?
Minh believed him.
He took the tuition money without ever realizing that it had been bought with a piece of his father’s health.
Only years later did Minh discover the truth.
His father had been selling his blood.
Not just once.
Whenever the family ran out of money, he would quietly leave and return home with a pale, exhausted face.
His mother would always get angry, but after his father fell asleep, she would sit beside him and gently rub his arm.
Neither of them had ever told Minh how much they had sacrificed just so he and his sibling could stay in school.
Minh broke down in tears inside the small rented room.
He struck his chest lightly.
Hạnh stood behind him, tears streaming down her face as well.
Minh lowered his head, his shoulders trembling.
“Father only said he had the money…
Mother only said everything at home was fine…
They always said everything was fine.”
He remembered the days when his father had become so weak that he could no longer lift a sack of rice, yet he still hid his trembling hands behind his back whenever Minh asked.
He remembered his father saying,
“Just focus on your studies.
Leave the hard work to me.”
He remembered the old shirt, the worn-out sandals, and every meal where his father insisted that he had already eaten.
Only then did Minh realize that his entire childhood had been built upon the gentle lies of his parents.
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