Chapter 1: Enter Uncle, and the World Suddenly Brightens

Growing up, I was used to the daily screaming matches between my parents over money. My mother constantly sneered at my father for being a useless failure who couldn’t bring home a dime. My father retaliated by mocking her for “not having the womb for a boy,” claiming she was driving our family line straight into extinction.

When I turned six, my mother hit the jackpot. She managed to snag a wealthy factory owner, successfully leveling up to become his third wife. Not to be outdone, my father caught the eye of a rich, older woman who’d already burned through four husbands. He was all set to embark on a glorious life as a kept man. To both of them, this was a windfall straight from heaven. Finally, they wouldn’t have to claw each other’s eyes out every day over pennies.

Our family owned a self-built house and a beat-up motorcycle. They liquidated both at lightning speed. But after the cash was safely in hand, they turned to look at me… and the triumphant grins melted off their faces.

For one simple reason: neither of them wanted me.

In their eyes, I was nothing more than an inconvenient piece of post-divorce collateral damage. Whoever took me would risk ruining their shiny new life. In the end, the responsibility was dumped on my father. But if the law hadn’t held him back, he probably would have wiped my name off the family registry just to clear his conscience.

Since he was preparing to move into a heiress’s mansion, he was even less inclined to drag along a little parasite like me. So, the day before he was scheduled to move into his new home, he threw me on his bike and drove me to my late grandparents’ old house in the mountains. It was roughly thirty miles away from the city, tucked deep into a deserted wilderness of towering peaks.

My grandparents had passed away years ago, and the house had been abandoned ever since. Most of the neighbors had long moved out, leaving only a few lonely elders scattered across the village.

My father shoved me into the courtyard. “You live here now.”

He turned on his heel to leave.

Terror seized me. Shaking violently, I threw myself forward, grabbed the hem of his jacket, and collapsed to my knees, weeping and begging him not to leave me behind. But he didn’t care to listen; my cries were just a nuisance. He slammed a heavy kick directly into my stomach, grabbed a handful of my hair, and flung me violently to the side.

“Useless trash!” he spat, cursing at me as he left. “Why don’t you just drop dead and do me a favor? Don’t stand in the way of my fortune!”

I lay on the cold ground for a long time, the pain so intense I couldn’t move a muscle. As my consciousness drifted, the last words ringing in my ears were: It’d be better if you just died.

When I woke up, the sky was pitch-black. The silence surrounding me was terrifying. I curled up against the base of the wall, clutching my stomach, which burned so fiercely with hunger it felt like it was eating itself alive. I hadn’t eaten a single bite in almost two days.

My eyes welled with hot tears. They really didn’t want me anymore. They both had brand-new lives… and I had been tossed out like garbage.

Just as I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness, a beam of light cut through the gloom at the front gate. I couldn’t tell if it was someone coming to rescue me—or something far more terrifying. Panic surged through me, and I frantically crawled deeper into the shadows against the wall, holding my breath, not daring to make a sound.

The next second, the courtyard light flipped on with a sharp click. Warm arms gently lifted me off the ground.

“Hey there, little one. How about Uncle takes you home?”

I forced my heavy eyelids open. It really was my uncle.

The moment I recognized a familiar face, all the pent-up heartache and trauma exploded inside me. I buried my face into his shoulder, clinging to him for dear life as sob after ragged sob tore from my chest. He patted my back softly, his voice a steadying balm.

“It’s okay now. I’ll take care of you from now on.”

He had ridden his motorcycle all the way out here to get me. I sat behind him, wrapping my arms tightly around his waist. His back was so broad and sturdy. For the very first time in my life, I felt like I actually had someone to lean on.

Before we pulled away, I glanced back at the old house one last time. Strangely enough, it didn’t seem scary at all anymore.

…

My uncle was my father’s younger brother, twenty-four years old. Truth be told, I hadn’t been very close to him before. We hardly ever saw each other, save for a brief encounter during ancestral grave visits or holiday gatherings back in the countryside.

My parents had always looked down on him. Because he walked with a limp, they assumed he’d “never amount to anything,” so they didn’t bother keeping in touch. But I had overheard snippets about him before. Word was, he injured his leg while saving someone’s life. Others might have looked down on him, but in my eyes, my uncle was a true hero.

The night wind whipped past my ears. Wrapped in a rare, golden sense of safety, I leaned into his back and drifted off to sleep to the rhythmic rumble of the engine. By the time the bike came to a halt in front of a small diner, I blinked my eyes open, groggy.

He gently lifted me off the seat and patted my hair. “Hungry, aren’t you? Let’s get something into your stomach first.”

I looked down and patted my caved-in tummy. I’d been starving for so long it felt like my stomach was stuck directly to my spine.

Uncle went into the kitchen and whipped up a large pot of noodle soup for me. And then… he sat there and watched in sheer disbelief as a six-year-old child inhaled five bowls of noodles without taking a breath.

He leaned his forehead against his palm, chuckling helplessly. “Well, then… looks like I’ve adopted a little greedy pig.”

Having spent my whole life walking on eggshells around adults, I could tell the difference between fake kindness and real love. My uncle truly wanted me. Finally… I had a home.

Home was a modest rented apartment in the local town—one living room, two bedrooms. Simple, but cozy. Claiming that I was a girl and deserved the best, he gave me the larger bedroom.

Since my father had dumped me in the countryside in such a hurry, he hadn’t even bothered packing a spare set of clothes for me. By the time we finished eating, it was late and all the shops were closed, so Uncle told me I’d have to make do for one night.

When I stepped out after taking a bath, I saw him still sitting in the living room. In his hands was a massive book, thick as a brick. I recognized it—it was a Xinhua Dictionary. The neighborhood kids back home used to say those were for learning words.

Seeing me walk out, Uncle immediately waved me over. “Hey kiddo, how about I give you a brand-new name?”

My eyes lit up, and I nodded vigorously.

He flipped through the dictionary with utter seriousness, now and then knitting his brows in deep thought or muttering candidates under his breath. After a long while, he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, meticulously tracing two characters: 【Bui Chi】

I was so young back then that I was completely illiterate. He smiled gently at me. “The word ‘Chi’ means pure and clean. It also carries the promise of a peaceful, worry-free life. I hope your future is filled with nothing but happiness.”

I was so overjoyed that even when I crawled into bed, I kept the slip of paper with my new name tucked tightly in my small fist.

Before I drifted off, my uncle softly applied soothing ointment to the dark bruises on my stomach. Half-asleep, I heard him grit his teeth and whisper a harsh curse: “Absolute scumbag.”

I had never told him that my father hit me. But he must have guessed it from the way I kept clutching my belly in pain.

As sleep finally pulled me under, only three thoughts floated through my mind:

First: From this day on, my name was no longer Bui Muoi. I was Bui Chi. A name that practically dripped with love.

Second: I was going to live with my uncle now. Did that mean he was going to be both my dad and my mom? Yeah, it definitely did.

Third: My real parents didn’t want me anymore. Which meant… I didn’t need them, either.