Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My father had his back to me, bent over as he scooped rice into bowls.

The half layer of rice left in the pot was just enough to fill the two earthenware bowls in his hands.

It was the last of our family’s food.

The mother and son stood beside my father, watching his every move with hungry eyes.

No one noticed me.

I hid the hoe behind my back, took a few steps toward them, and called out, “Dad, there’s nothing else to eat at home.”

Without even turning around, my father said, “Oh, if there’s nothing at home, we’ll go up the mountain later and dig up some wild vegetables to make soup. Look at them, a widow and her orphaned child. Are we supposed to just watch them die?”

It was the bitterest part of winter, and snow was still falling outside. Forget wild vegetables-even finding grass roots meant digging three feet into the frozen ground.

Besides, we weren’t the only ones starving. Even if we went looking for grass roots, we’d have to fight others for them.

But my father seemed completely unaware of that.

He carried the steaming bowls of rice to the table and called to the mother and son, “Quick, miss, come eat while it’s hot.”

The fragrance of rice filled our small room. Ah Yun tumbled down from the pallet bed and stumbled toward us.

As she ran, she called, “Rice, eat… rice.”

It had been a long time since our family had eaten rice like this. To stretch our food for as many days as possible, we used only a little rice each day, mixed with a pot of water, cooking it into thin gruel that barely filled our stomachs.

Ah Yun was only three. The moment she smelled rice, she couldn’t help craving it.

She had just gotten close to the wooden table when the little boy, already clutching a bowl and wolfing down the food, shoved her away viciously. “Go away! This is for me!”

The woman watched her son’s movements, then looked away and kept eating as if it had nothing to do with her.

Ah Yun fell to the ground and burst into tears with a loud wail.

My father grew a little impatient. While saying to the mother and son, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. She’s just a child and doesn’t know any better. You eat, go on and eat,” he shouted at me, “Why haven’t you carried your sister away yet?”

I helped Ah Yun up and glanced at my father, who stood by the table with a kind smile on his face.

Then I looked at the mother and son.

The little boy glared at me defiantly while shoveling rice into his mouth.

My hand tightened around the hoe hidden behind my back.

I asked him, “Is it good?”

As I spoke, I edged a few steps closer.

He probably thought I was craving it too. He rolled his eyes at me. “Even if it is good, you don’t-”

I didn’t wait for him to finish.

I brought the hoe down on his forehead.

I wasn’t as tall as him, but I’d helped with farmwork since I was little, and I wasn’t weak.

That little brat didn’t even have time to make a sound before he went limp and collapsed.

His mother sat across from him, watching with her own eyes as the blood from her son’s head splashed onto the table and into the bowl.

For an instant, her expression went blank. Then she started screaming.

She looked at me as if she were staring at a ghost. “You… you people… killed… killed…”

She couldn’t care about eating anymore. She scooped up her son’s body and tried to run outside, shouting, “Help… ah!”

I swung the hoe again, chopping straight into her leg.

My father stood frozen to the side like a block of wood. Only then did he finally come back to himself. “Ah Yu, what are you doing? Stop it!”

He snatched the hoe from my hands. “Are you insane? You… you killed someone!”

I let him take it.

The woman lay on the ground, crawling toward the door. She was already in so much pain that she barely had any strength left, but she was still struggling to cry out, “Help…”

“Miss, don’t be afraid! I won’t hurt you!”

My father lunged toward her. Faced with the blood covering her leg, he was utterly panicked. “Don’t move, don’t move. I’ll go get someone right now…”

“Dad!” I shouted, throwing myself forward to stop him.

“If you go find someone to save her now, she’ll definitely tell them we killed her son. Once this blows up and the authorities get involved, will our family still be able to live?”

I asked him, “Will you still be able to live?”

My father froze.

I picked up my little sister, who had cried herself into a daze, and sat down off to the side.

He looked at the woman, then at the hoe in his hand.