TABLE OF CONTENTS96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmowxAI2qy4
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
- Preface
- Dedication
- Blurb
- Copyright Page
- About the Author
- Editor’s Note
PART TWO: MAIN CONTENT96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeGzbUtfSNg
7. Chapter I 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡao180cndlB
8. Chapter II96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJF73LqMQaC
9. Chapter III 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ao3WHOUgU
10. Chapter IV 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb83PIAdUKV
11. Chapter V 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPBmnrLEzIn
12. Chapter VI 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy6S3JepvMj
13. Chapter VII96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9hgMV9dzT
14. Chapter VIII 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡraIjQQfEu2
15. Chapter IX 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZwp4IBYlYq
16. Chapter X 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHZZIcOa9oU
17. Chapter XI96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdffDmxf9Y5
18. Chapter XII 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsijUvg4z3c
19. Chapter XIII 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1ta8VF6mZ
20. Chapter XIV 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo5z0SwDcoT
21. Chapter XV 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqLm11dVFZ
22. Chapter XVI 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYT5fy5652U
23. Chapter XVII96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU6Pxx5mFaM
24. Chapter XVIII 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡca1k6bxU6I
25. Chapter XIX 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCyS4CTbl82
26. Chapter XX
PART THREE: CLOSING96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxMr6Urc4rs
27. Appendix 96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzrPxCJ9Ts8
28. Afterword
PREFACE
"Each of us needs a place to belong—even if that place exists only in memory."
There are questions humans carry for a lifetime but rarely dare to answer: Who am I? Where do I come from? Where do I truly belong?
For someone like An, those questions are more than philosophical—they are scars in the mind, a headwind running through her veins, a fractured contradiction between three bloodlines—French, Chinese, and Vietnamese—all stirring within a body no one wants to claim.
"The Rebel of the Wind" is not a heroic ballad, nor is it a tale glorifying the pride of one who rises above prejudice. It is a journey back to the self—a painful, torn, and relentless process that each person must endure when standing at the blurry crossroads of race, gender, nationhood, and dignity.
An doesn't need anyone to grant her an identity. She doesn't need the world’s approval. All she needs is a place to belong—a place where she doesn’t have to explain why she’s different, a place where she doesn’t have to strain to prove she deserves to exist.
And in that journey home—a home that may not be Vietnam, China, or France—An learns how to forgive the past, dissolve the biases, and embrace her own being.
This novel will not only make you reflect on national identity, but also invite you to look inward:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9lINPl8fu5
Which bloodline governs your thoughts each day?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYs3DM9wiWZ
Are the values you believe to be “true” truly yours—or simply what you were taught to believe?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe5VMpqQqIQ
And most importantly, have you ever forgiven yourself?
In the end, everyone needs a place to return to. Whether that place is a nation, a memory, a loved one, or a gentle breeze threading through the shards of a broken heart.
“The Rebel of the Wind” is a novel for those who are lost at their own crossroads—and still believe that even when the wind blows backward, the lotus can bloom from the mud.
Pham Le Quy96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYkZcS59v4a
Saigon, June 2025
DEDICATION
To the hybrid souls,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy3EMYefdcr
to those who stand at the edge of identity,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8FKBgR1ToC
to those who never chose where they were born,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWBvQEEZeL
but still bravely choose how to live.
To all the “Ans” of the world—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfmkYeVRsUy
the flowers blooming in storms,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMFmVrJt1Iu
who, despite being doubted, compared, and misunderstood,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnGKx398DAZ
still choose to hold on to dignity and a noble silence.
To you—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmDhlkG4STF
if you’ve ever been torn between East and West,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1JRXKYo1ij
between right and wrong, between reason and desire.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEBHJrrM28i
May you find yourself somewhere in these pages.
And one day,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxnFTwTvDkB
you will know:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3AxyUJQOqw
You belong.
BLURB
Three bloodlines. One body. One soul without a nation.
An—a girl carrying the blood of France, China, and Vietnam—lives not only amidst the clashes of culture, history, and politics,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYp6ST2g3E6
but also torn apart by society’s prejudices on gender, identity, and dignity.
A memory-erasing drug has upended everything.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdCcaqrQzyX
But scarier than losing one’s memory—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC8rKSEaXQ6
is no longer knowing who you are in this world.
As the shattered mirrors of the past begin to reflect,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgMC208WJk
as family, love, and hatred intertwine into an inescapable maze,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbuQXMgKfSF
An must choose:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9aHE4ab9HY
to become a pawn in the power game between East and West,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlyC5vmsOum
or to rise and defend the rejected part of her own humanity.
In a world being assimilated and fractured,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXVccRU16zz
amid political schemes and battles for identity,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡotMwihRNpI
The Rebel of the Wind is a journey against the current—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0iUX3EAKcx
where one deemed “wrong” learns how to live “right” with herself.
A story of identity, forgiveness, and dignity.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOuY0O6iEk1
A sigh for those who were never chosen—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyj3PvVN9gt
but still chose to exist.
And a gentle reminder:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrwnqpxZtLL
No matter how many bloodlines run through you,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM68FkEHENT
you can still bloom like a lotus in the mud.
Copyright Page
© 2025 Phạm Lê Quý96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBgBXbH1j7g
Title: The Rebel of the Wind (Người Gió Nghịch)96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyEldUHeGsg
Author: Phạm Lê Quý
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, recording, photocopying, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental or used with literary intent.
First Edition – 202596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYR438SmVpW
Published in Vietnam96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfaCC314pjv
Copyright belongs to the author96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7kJ1rt11Nu
ISBN: (To be filled in when available)96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvB8bszrm4
Cover Design: Phạm Lê Quý96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUjWgy1L4fe
Editing: Phạm Lê Quý96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxadftiv78R
Contact: [email protected]
About the Author
Phạm Lê Quý is a storyteller born of many winds—the winds of memory, of cultural intersections, and of unanswerable questions. More than just a writer, Quý is a seeker: someone who journeys through the blurred borders between identity and prejudice, between dignity and silent wounds.
The Rebel of the Wind is a literary milestone in Quý’s journey, but it is not the beginning. It is the culmination of silent years lived alongside the question “Who am I in this world?”—a question that is far from easy for those whose lives have been fragmented by blood, culture, gender, or belief.
With a writing style rich in symbolism, emotional depth, and inner conflict, Quý does not write to explain—but to illuminate—with truth, with tears, and with the courage of those who refuse to be silenced. These pages do not seek escape, but a place for the human spirit to belong—even if only in imagination.
“If I am a rebel wind, then let me blow inward—toward the place I have never belonged.”96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlDkitZFjDL
— Phạm Lê Quý
Editor’s Note
Author: Phạm Lê Quý
I did not write The Rebel of the Wind to find answers,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡydP3xeBsOj
but to have the courage to face the questions life has silently and painfully asked me.
This is not a political novel, nor a manifesto on culture or gender.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOwSIeQQDSB
It is the echo of a soul that once felt too “impure” to be loved,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAmzMFFQByd
too “different” to be recognized.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQYFCc27avb
A soul that lived among clashing winds—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9FxgzRedWF
torn by heritage, by prejudice, by love, and by unnamed silences.
At times during writing, I wanted to stop.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWN0HlttNUV
Because truth—even fictionalized—hurts.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrTzsoYJW0f
But then I realized:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Duv2LjNyi
If I didn’t write, those like “An” would never have a voice.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBhhRyCQonD
And if even one reader, somewhere, sees themselves in these pages,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1DehFiRltN
then every loneliness I’ve borne was worth it.
Some chapters in this book follow nontraditional structures.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZoNmXq7poc
Some dialogues may carry metaphors or symbolism.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGeRCIJ9pp
Please read with your heart, not just your mind.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNZGoGoQBqG
Because sometimes, the deepest meanings lie not in the words,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDuyQvyUtkM
but in the silences between them.
Thank you—for being brave enough to read a story that goes against the current.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhSWCWfVKsX
And thank you to the winds—because even when they’re lost,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBTpYLOf0J3
they still find their way home.
— Phạm Lê Quý96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRgMLDnhsbS
June 2025
Chapter I: The Blood of Three Worlds
An awoke in a stark white room—no windows, just the cold flicker of fluorescent light glinting off a crumbling ceiling. The scent of antiseptic mingled with the metallic tang of old blood, as if her past had never been washed from her body.
She didn’t remember who she was.
Not in the way that people forget things temporarily. It was a complete, rounded, absolute erasure. Even the name “An” was something others called her, not something she recognized as her own. Linh—the woman who claimed to be her friend—had told her it was over now, that the past was a burden best shed.
“You’ll thank me later,” Linh had said as she injected a clear liquid into An’s veins—a so-called memory-erasing drug, imported from China, “quick and clean, like the past never existed.”
But what Linh didn’t know—or refused to admit—was that erasing the past meant erasing identity, roots, and the very blood flowing in her veins.
At night, when shadows crept across the walls, An heard voices within her—soft, spectral echoes in different languages. Some nights, it was French, whispering like wind through the stone corridors of Versailles. Other nights, it was classical Chinese, solemn like ancestral prayers from cold tombs buried deep in Yunnan. But most often, it was the lullaby of a Vietnamese woman—faceless, yet with a voice like stitches across a wounded heart.
She didn’t understand the words, yet they felt familiar—like her blood was not one, but three rivers flowing into the same ocean—an ocean of isolation.
One morning, she walked out of what Linh had called a “mental wellness sanctuary.” The city greeted her with chaotic sounds and faded sunlight. People passed by as though she were invisible. No one looked her in the eye—except for an old bookseller at the mouth of an alley.
“You carry a strange wind,” he said. “Like someone born of three seasons caught in one contrary gust.”
“I’m Vietnamese,” she replied. But even as she spoke, her own voice unsettled her. It held the cadence of southern France, the lingering softness of the North, and a nasal tone both gentle and firm, characteristic of midland Vietnam.
“No,” the old man replied, “You are diluted. And that’s not bad. Just... dangerous in a world that worships purity.”
An left without saying goodbye, but his words clung to her like a shadowed sun behind her back. She began noticing—the glances of passersby. At first careless, then shifting to suspicion, as though they smelled something off in her—something unplaceable.
She sought refuge in an old temple hidden in an alley. There, the old monk asked her to sit and listen to the bell.
“When the bell rings, what do you hear in your heart?”
She closed her eyes. There wasn’t just one bell—but three:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiXpwktpw2I
A long chime echoing from Indochina.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKzHAHt4vOy
A short ring like a French legionnaire’s final farewell.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8cGcQl4R1L
A strained, trembling hum like Chinese silk torn in half.
“Three spirits reside in one body,” the monk said. “You are a confluence—where memory is not erased but equally divided between three powers.”
“But I no longer know who I am,” An whispered, almost in tears. “Should I live as a Vietnamese? A Frenchwoman? Or as someone with Chinese chemicals running through her blood?”
“You are all of them,” he replied. “That is your burden—and your liberation. You belong to no one place—but you can be the bridge.”
Back in the white room, An was no longer the old An. But she didn’t yet know who the new An was. She began to write.
In Vietnamese—writing about a nameless sorrow.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiAlXjlZnea
In French—writing about a love that was never acknowledged.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq2uEAmldph
In Chinese—writing about a promise betrayed by the past.
Each line of text became a bloodstream.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oiLTKI8zv
Each page, a peeled layer of skin—searching for the soul that had once been wiped away.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKZmdZ0J1e7
And the more she wrote, the clearer she heard the breath, the sobs, the hopes—of three souls living inside her.
One night, Linh returned. She smiled as she saw An holding a pen, her eyes as clear as rain after a storm.
“You remember now?” Linh asked, worried.
“No. You erased it all,” An said calmly. “But I’m rewriting—crafting a new self. One that carries the blood of three cultures, but is not beholden to any name.”
“How will you live?” Linh asked.
An whispered, “I’ll live like the wind—without a passport, without a past, without a form—but with a voice. And I believe that somewhere in this world, someone will hear my wind and realize they, too, are a child of history’s crossroads.”
Chapter II: The Third Person in a Purebred Society
On the streets of Saigon, An felt like a misaligned hue in a black-and-white palette. No one said anything outright, but glances never lied. A quick look was enough for her to understand she wasn’t welcome. A prolonged “hmm” from a vendor, a fleeting gaze followed by avoidance, a subconscious frown—all were ways people refused to acknowledge someone who didn’t belong to any “standard shade.”
The Vietnamese didn’t hate her. But they didn’t know how to love her either. Because she was… a third.
The number three—in local culture—is a bad omen. Something incomplete, awkward, neither round nor square. Neither beginning nor end. The third knock in ghost stories. The third child—the extra.
An carried three bloodlines—French, Chinese, and Vietnamese. But in others’ eyes, she carried none in particular. The French part was suspected to be a faded layer of lipstick. The Chinese lineage, a wrinkle on history’s brow. And Vietnam—the homeland she lived in—was the mirror that reflected most clearly her own out-of-placeness.
Once, on a rare date, a Vietnamese man—educated, polite, good-looking—looked at her through the steam of his coffee and asked:
“So... what are you?”
An replied, “I’m me.”
He chuckled softly. “I mean... what kind of mix?”
“French, Chinese, Vietnamese.”
The answer dropped like a stone into a still pond. He fell silent for a long time.
“Three bloodlines? Wow. That’s... something. But... I guess you’re not planning to marry a Vietnamese guy, are you?”
The question—half-joke, half-judgment—was clear. An simply nodded, as if confirming the obvious: this society didn’t need another species that couldn’t be named.
She had grown used to these silent divisions: Vietnamese men preferred Vietnamese women—pure, traditional, well-bred. They valued the “virtuous daughter,” prized “obedience, grace, speech, and morality.” And she, though never rebellious, never overstepped, was automatically seen as a “mixed girl”—a symbol of Westernization, a representative of “Western women”: flirtatious, wild, lacking restraint.
How absurd, An thought, that morality could be judged by blood type.
To Vietnamese men, she was unmarriageable. To Vietnamese women, she was not a friend to be trusted.
She was not despised for any wrongdoing—but for her lack of purity. In a society obsessed with “racial purity” yet constantly mimicking the West, her tri-blooded heritage became a paradox—a cultural virus.
Once, a group of Vietnamese girls whispered mockingly behind her in a bar:
“Is that a guy? Looks more like a gay dude. Three bloodlines and not a drop of masculinity.”
An heard them. But she wasn’t angry—because they weren’t wrong. She didn’t conform to what they wanted, didn’t fit their mold. She was soft in thought, gentle in action, and at times, even questioned her own gender—not because she was lost, but because society had made her constantly ask, “Am I man enough to be a man?”
And even when she looked Westward—toward the land of her French blood—she didn’t feel welcomed there either. White men looked at her with a mixture of curiosity and pity.
“Sorry, but you look more Asian than European.”
A sentence as light as wind, but sharp enough to cut skin.
To them, she wasn’t a gentle French-Vietnamese lady—but an Asian woman whose Western blood wasn’t “concentrated” enough to be considered one of them. Her choice—to live in Vietnam, to embrace her two-thirds Eastern heritage—was seen as a form of self-degradation, a betrayal of “superior” culture.
So the West dismissed her as second-class. Vietnam disdained her for “impure blood.” China remained silent—as history often does with nameless children.
She remembered that night. The night Linh and Nguyên—two people she thought were friends—injected her with that drug meant to erase everything.
“To let you start over,” Linh had said.
But no one can start over if their roots have been stolen.
An tried to find a reason. She asked herself a hundred times, “Why me? Why three bloodlines? Why not just one or two—like people are used to?” But eventually she realized: no answer would ever be reasonable. Life is just a game of chance, and she had drawn the losing card—the number 3.
And in the end, the only one who understood her... was herself.
No one saw her fear when stepping into a crowd. No one heard her heart breaking, piece by piece, from being rejected not for her mistakes—but for her genetic structure. No one read the invisible label on her forehead—one society had etched: “Belongs to no one.”
But amidst it all, An began to learn how to look in the mirror without hating herself.
She didn’t choose her blood. But she could choose how to live.
If society labeled her as mixed—she would be the most beautiful, the strongest of them all, redefining what it meant to be “pure.” If people called her “abnormal” for being different—she would become a symbol for those who had once been labeled so, and still lived with dignity, with love, with humanity.
On the rooftop, under the Saigon night, An looked at the golden lights glowing from the buildings. She closed her eyes. And in that moment, she felt three heartbeats—three bloodlines pulsing at once.
France – freedom.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHE3oKqn2ma
China – depth.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe0NgWOt5WN
Vietnam – resilience.
She didn’t need to choose. Because she was all of them. She was herself.
And that was the one thing no one could ever take away.
Chapter III: The Identity of a Renunciation
An was no longer young, yet not old enough to surrender all her desires. She stood at a life’s crossroads—where most people are forced to choose a path. But for someone with three bloodlines like her, the crossroads weren’t just about picking a direction; it was about dissecting herself, piece by piece, to decide which part to keep and which part to destroy.
She lived like someone awakening from a long slumber. But that sleep had been no dream. It was tangled, murky, filled with questions that defied answers.
Should I love?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0PNtiutjTz
Who am I among these three bloodlines?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMBnBjx8bqj
Do I have the right to choose love for myself, or must I live as a function of a community, of a nation?
At first, she thought these were fleeting clouds. But as time passed, they thickened, dense and unrelenting, pouring down on her like a summer rain—long and chilling.
Inside her, there remained a small space longing to be loved. A flickering flame, feebly reaching out for the warmth of someone—man or woman, Western or Eastern. But beside that flame stood a wall—solid, unyielding—built from honor, pride, history lessons, and traditional warnings. And it was that very wall that stopped everything.
“Love is a bargain,” she told herself. “No matter who I love—I’ll have to pay.”
If she loved a man, she would have to suppress the softness in her soul—to become straight, strong, and hard as the “real man” this society demanded.
If she loved a woman, she would have to endure the stigma of an Eastern society—where the third gender was still seen more as a curse than an identity.
If she loved someone Western, she would face the alienation of her community, her family, and those who still saw the West as a symbol of decadence, promiscuity, and “selling oneself to foreigners.”
Whomever she chose, she would lose.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡncLYg5DEZT
Whichever path she took, she would be lost.
So An chose to stand still.
She stopped loving anyone. Stopped waiting. Stopped hoping for connections that could drain her and mold her into someone else's ideal version.
She began living with herself—with fear, with loneliness, with the incomplete identity of someone carrying three bloodlines. But strangely, in not choosing anyone, she found something like liberation. A quiet, smoldering light. It didn’t blaze like love, but it didn’t die out like despair. It was… peace.
She began piecing herself back together—like a potter picking up shards after an earthquake.
French blood—she placed at the bottom.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPW0DqTjYA
Not because she hated France. But because that blood came from a foreign woman whose legacy left her “impure,” distrusted, and rejected in Vietnamese society. To her, French blood symbolized displacement, cold nights, and a luxury she could never touch.
Chinese blood—she placed in the middle.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh0dv8byYyX
It was the blood of power, of logic, of discipline and control. But also the blood of Nguyên—the one who manipulated her, who conspired with Linh to inject her with a drug that stole her memories. It was both powerful and dangerous. Both near and far.
Vietnamese blood—she placed at the top.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnmlc7LiYgj
Because it was the blood of endurance. Of rice fields. Of her mother. Of lullabies. Though bruised by history, poor, and outdated—Vietnamese blood was the only one that made her feel like someone. It was where she belonged. It was her beginning and her end.
She sat before a mirror. Looked deep into her own eyes.
“An,” she said. “You are Vietnamese.”
The echo rang back—not with doubt, but with clarity.
From that day on, she no longer dreamed of Western men. No longer felt her heart flutter before the strength, freedom, and confidence of Western women. She didn’t hate them—but she no longer wished to be a part of them.
She learned to speak softly. Learned to walk slowly. Learned to be silent when needed. Learned to lower her eyes when others stared directly. Not because she was weak—but because she had chosen to return to her roots—to embrace the Eastern part of herself, the gentle part, the wise part.
She limited her contact with Westerners, avoided old friends who once tempted her to “escape.” She returned to Vietnamese food, to the ao dai, to fish sauce and lullabies.
She could no longer remember the smile of a woman named Elise—the first Frenchwoman to hold her during a sunset. Nor did she long for the gaze of a man named Luc—the one who once told her, “You don’t need to choose sides. You are beautiful because you are three.”
No. She no longer wanted to be three.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUEqIKP72ke
She only wanted to be one.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9q1Pa7XIQz
To be An—Vietnamese.
She sent Linh a message:
“You don’t need to apologize anymore. I understand.”
The message went unanswered. But An wasn’t waiting.
Then one day, walking down a narrow street, she passed by a wedding. She watched the bride in a white ao dai, walking beside her Vietnamese groom. They smiled—simple smiles, unconflicted, without choice.
An smiled gently.
She, too, was on a journey of union—not with anyone else, but with herself. A marriage to the self she once abandoned. A marriage to dignity. A marriage to silence.
Because sometimes, renunciation isn’t surrender—it’s the final awakening of one who has passed through the storm.
Chapter IV: The Sister Not of Blood
That afternoon, Saigon was painted with the amber-orange hue of a June sunset. On the rooftop of a small café, An sat across from Linh after many months apart—or perhaps after many lifetimes lost and found.
The small table between them was no longer a border. And the steaming cup of coffee before them was no longer a veil that clouded the truth.
An looked into Linh’s eyes, then saw herself reflected within them.
And she suddenly realized—Linh was no longer the Linh of the past. No longer the woman she had once branded a traitor, the one who had injected memory-erasing drugs into her veins, the symbol of control.
Linh now was—someone with her own fractures. A woman who had become a hybrid between East and West. And more importantly: Linh was someone who had also stepped out of the darkness, as An once did.
There was a time An saw Linh as a faded shadow behind her. Not bright enough to illuminate, not bold enough to leave a mark. Just someone walking beside—not to accompany, but to witness.
But An had been wrong.
It was Linh who never left. The only one who stayed when everyone else had turned away.
An remembered collapsing on hospital beds, trembling in drug-induced dreams. She remembered the quiet hand-holding, the bowls of lukewarm porridge Linh cooked in the night, the silent glances.
“I didn’t know if what I did was right or wrong,” Linh had once said. “I just knew you needed someone—even if that someone had once hurt you.”
Now An understood.
Not everyone dares to step into another’s pain. Not everyone dares to stand on the edge between guilt and redemption—knowing they may be mistaken for the villain. But Linh had done just that.
And because of it, she was no longer a shadow—she was a piece of An’s shattered mirror.
“I once had a twin sister in the West,” An said, voice soft as silk. “But she wasn’t there when I needed her most. You were.”
Linh smiled. A smile laced with sadness and warmth.
“Because I once had a younger sister too… but never truly understood her.”
The two women sat side by side, saying no more. But their silence was not awkward—it was like a symphony composed of acceptance and forgiveness.
The broken mirrors in An’s heart—the mirror of memory, of the past, of pride—began to mend. Not with glue, not with technique, but with the presence of someone who could listen, remain silent, and take responsibility without justification.
An began to see herself again—but not as the lonely, lost, shame-ridden self she once was.
She saw a version of An who could mention Nguyên without trembling. An who could speak of her parents without flinching. An who could walk among crowds without feeling like an outcast.
And Linh—the woman who had once injected her with the drug of forgetting—was now the one helping her remember. Selectively. Remembering not to reopen pain, but to move forward.
“Do you think you’ve changed too?” An asked.
Linh nodded.
“Since being with you.”
“I used to think you were Western,” An said.
“And I used to think you were a Westerner lost in Asia.”
They laughed. Not loudly, but the sound spread into the air like the subtle fragrance of a rare flower—one that only blooms when the season in the heart has changed.
That night, An returned home, opened her laptop, and began to write. For the first time, not to explain, to defend, or justify—but to preserve. She wrote about Linh, about a soul-sister not of her blood. A woman who had replaced the image of her biological sister with honest, patient presence.
She wrote:
“I used to think I was all alone. But in accepting forgiveness, I discovered I was never truly by myself. There are those who aren’t there when we need them—but there are also those who make no promises… and still stay. And they are the family we choose.”
When she finished writing, An felt a weight lift from her heart.
No longer was it scarred by the question: Who am I among three bloodlines?
That question no longer mattered.
Because now, she had found someone who could walk with her—not to fix the past, but to help build the present.
Linh was no longer “the one who hurt.” No longer just “the one from before.” She had become the one who showed An this truth: forgiveness is not weakness—it is the strength to open another door, where the wind no longer blows against you, and where the heart is no longer trapped inside the mirror.
Because sometimes, the one who heals us is not the one who resembles us—but the one who once wounded us and chose to stay when everyone else walked away.
Chapter V: Two Graves and the One Who Forgives
An dreamed of a forest burning to ash.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡft1GsfcDA6
In the dream, she walked among shattered tree trunks, with cinders and ashen leaves falling from the sky like black snow. Amid the ruins, she saw a blonde woman sitting beside a grave, hugging her knees. The woman's pale blue eyes were clouded like winter water—no longer reflecting light, only exhaling fatigue. In her hands was a photograph—old, torn, barely holding together the image of an Asian man whose gaze was as hard as steel.
“He destroyed me to resurrect himself,” the woman said, voice hoarse like smoke.
“Who was he?” An asked.
“Nguyên’s father,” she replied. “The first man to carry the illusion of revenge in the name of justice. But those like him… often lose themselves before they reclaim anything.”
An woke at three in the morning, her back damp with cold sweat. Her heart beat in a frenzied rhythm—not from fear, but because she understood. For the first time, she truly understood:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw0ScUW2x3A
Nguyên was her enemy—but he was also a victim.
She arranged to meet him.
Not at a café. Not in public. But at a cemetery.
The cemetery was hidden beyond a slope, a resting place for the unclaimed—names no one remembered, faces no one mourned.
Nguyên arrived dressed in black. His gaze was the same—as hot iron, as coal, as if ready to burn anyone who met it. But this time, there was no hatred. Only emptiness.
“Do you still believe in redemption?” An asked.
Nguyên said nothing.
“You once injected me with a drug so I’d forget who I was. You used me like a pawn. But now… I no longer hate you.”
Nguyên’s eyes trembled—for the first time in years.
“I don’t need your forgiveness,” he said, voice low and rough. “I chose that path. I believed that if I erased the past of someone like you—a mixed-blood—I could create something new. A ‘pure’ being. But I was wrong.”
An looked at the two symbolic graves before them. One bore the word Memory. The other, Revenge.
“I dug two graves,” she said. “One for me. One for you. Because as our Eastern ancestors once said: before you begin a journey of vengeance, dig two graves.”
Nguyên let out a laugh—silent, dry, like cracked lips breaking apart.
“Who do you think I am?”
“Someone who once believed he could reclaim honor for his bloodline,” An replied. “But in the end, you found a truth: no one truly wins when trying to erase an entire kind.”
She stepped closer. Close enough to hear the uneven rhythm of his heart beneath his dark coat.
“You know,” she continued, “even Linh—the one you trusted most, the one who stood by you—eventually chose to become fully Western. And when she did, you finally realized: Westerners can never truly become Eastern. And Easterners can never fully be Western.”
Nguyên clenched his fists. His eyes turned red—not from anger, but from acceptance.
“Then who am I?” he asked, eyes fixed on the two graves.
“Someone lost in the shadows of his ancestors,” An answered. “Like the French woman in my dream—she once loved an Asian man, but your ancestors left her adrift. Alone, she turned her back on herself. And now, you are following her path.”
Nguyên was silent for a long time. Then, like part of an ancient ritual, he knelt before the two graves.
“You forgive me?” he asked.
“No,” An shook her head. “I forgive myself—for ever giving you the power to hurt me. And I forgive you… so I can move on.”
They stood beside each other—not enemies, not victors or losers. Just two silhouettes in a graveyard, silent like the remnants of a centuries-long ideological war.
“I no longer believe in hatred,” Nguyên said. “Because now I know: if I want to be Western, I’ll never have black hair, black eyes, yellow skin… unless I destroy them all. And if I did that, I wouldn’t be human anymore.”
An touched one of the tombstones.
“And I… I once wanted to erase the European blood in me. But I realized: denying part of myself is denying the whole.”
On the way home, An watched motorbikes whizz past like arrows. She smiled—a smile that belonged neither to East nor West. Not a smile of victory. Not one of defeat.
But a smile of someone who had stepped off the battlefield—not as a survivor, but as one who had laid down her weapon.
Forgiveness was not the end—but the beginning of truth.
Chapter VI: The Replacement Can Never Be the Original
That afternoon, the wind was still.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaYUAdB7XOG
The air seemed frozen. Time stood still.
An sat in an old teahouse, holding a crackled ceramic cup, silently watching the tea seep into the hairline fractures. Outside, Saigon was still as noisy as ever—but in her mind, only one image remained: Linh.
The girl who had entered An’s life like a breeze.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16dQSc3gBe
Gentle. Yet cold. Soothing. Yet dangerously quiet.
The girl who once said she wanted to stay by An like a shadow… but over time, seemed to want to become An. Not to walk beside her—but to replace her.
An remembered Linh’s gaze from those days—the look that wasn’t quite envy, nor admiration. It was something between jealousy and the longing to possess.
Linh didn’t want to be An’s friend. Linh wanted to become a “better” version of her—prettier, more Western, more successful, more loved, and… more remembered.
An had once felt angry. Bitter. Disgusted—seeing Linh as someone without roots, someone who abandoned her identity to chase the imported shine of secondhand dreams.
But today—with everything settled—she no longer felt angry.
Because now she understood.
Linh wasn’t like Nguyên—a man swallowed by the past and ideology to the point of losing himself without realizing.
Linh, on the contrary, was fully aware.
She knew exactly what she was doing. She understood the price. And still, she chose to pay.
Linh chose to live like a Westerner—not because she was one, but because she wanted to be loved like one. To be desired like one. To belong in their gleaming world.
She trained herself to change her voice, her walk, her makeup, her eyes—even her smile—to resemble the foreign women in French films.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzyw02J28Fw
She wore their dresses, painted her lips like theirs, and loved their men.
An had once thought it was filthy, traitorous, self-destructive.
But now… she only felt sad.
“Maybe she loves the things I never could,” An whispered to herself.
Linh didn’t want to be herself—because herself wasn’t glamorous enough. Not chosen enough. Not loved enough.
She wanted to be An.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb7XpUoYY1C
But not the An as she was—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYXuRkCLP1o
She wanted to be an “improved” An: an An with visibly Western blood, a Western body, a Western romance, a Western future.
An that… An had never been.
An looked out the window. A foreign couple walked by, holding hands, laughing. She smiled—a faint smile, like fading tea smoke.
“You wanted to replace me, Linh?” she murmured.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡItEHxTXDCJ
“Then take it all. Take the worst parts too. Take the deepest wounds. Take even the memories that were erased from me.”
She closed her eyes briefly. Then opened them and wrote a line in her worn leather notebook:
“If you truly want to become me,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb1pyIY1ASb
Then bear ten times what I’ve endured.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5VFeynS7Kc
You once thought I was pitiful.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKTWoOlz2zW
So now, I hope the world loves you—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡykcm6Tv3Hi
In the way it pitied and despised me.”
It wasn’t a curse. It was a release.
An no longer needed Linh to pay.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWBETWJvmTv
Because, in truth—Linh already had.
The cost of losing your identity is emptiness.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJjY4Sxmjs3
The cost of loving a world that won’t accept you is loneliness.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsIFxacgoPz
The cost of becoming a replacement is never being loved as yourself.
Linh now—might look very Western.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡshYQfbGoqa
But perhaps… no one truly sees her as Western.
And perhaps no one remembers that she was once a Vietnamese girl—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIkfq1PoqKd
Once knew the taste of fish sauce,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ztqi3RIdA
Once spoke her mother tongue,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiz9LGUpL0h
Once understood the meaning of heart.
An picked up her phone and sent a short message:
“Linh,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5S5VQfZta8
I forgive you.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbzVSXPbGM
Because you didn’t take anything from me.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEZjiTWOQtK
You only took what you’ll never be able to keep.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcCuQmVzg8r
And I no longer want to hold onto them either.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxW6GzG1UC
Your world is beautiful—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6AJPrj0iZ4
I just hope you’re strong enough when it turns its back on you.”
There was no reply. But An didn’t need one.
She had forgiven.
Not because Linh deserved it.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIgsvuTJGp
But because An deserved to feel light again.
That night, An dreamed a strange dream.
She saw Linh standing in the middle of Paris, wearing a white dress, spinning in the crowd.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCVYOuRXZJp
But Linh’s eyes… were those of someone who had gone too far to find the way back.
An walked toward her, ready to call out.
But Linh didn’t hear.
She just stood there, spinning endlessly—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnwExhZbHyk
Like a wind-up doll in a music box no one opened anymore.
An woke in the middle of the night.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTooS2yes2L
Alone.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOaXp9ymRl0
But lighter than ever before.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSTa1jhHTm3
It means refusing to let the past clutch your throat and drag you back into the abyss.
And An had done it.
Because she understood—not everyone who betrays is cruel.
Some betray… because they are too weak before the glitter.
And they, in the end, must live with that glitter forever—96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqkn6gHKYx
Without ever touching the light.
Chapter VII: The One at the Center of the Cycle
An sat beneath the moss-covered eaves of an ancient monastery on the outskirts of Da Lat, beside Linh — the woman who had once been her shadow, then her friend, then her teacher. Neither spoke. They simply sipped ginger tea, quietly watching the last rays of daylight fall into the valley like ashes from a war that had never been declared.
Nguyên still lingered in their lives like a ghost. He was no longer a man obsessed with drawing a line between East and West. He had changed colors. He no longer sought to divide — but to merge. He no longer hated the West, but longed to conquer it. He no longer rejected it, but wished to taint it, to dilute its blood, to stain it with the shadowy ambition of a man like him.
And for that, he needed Linh — a Vietnamese woman with a Western air, a symbol of the “domestication of the foreign.” And he needed An — the soil from which Linh had emerged, so that a new form could grow from it.
Nguyên wanted An’s blessing.
Not in the traditional sense of matchmaking. But as a kind of ritual sacrifice. A coronation.
He wanted An to give her approval to his union with Linh — as a form of surrender, an admission that An had failed to preserve her identity. That now, the very man who once dreamed of reviving “pure Vietnamese” blood was embracing the ambition of conquering the West through a political marriage.
“You’re a bridge,” he once told An, his voice calm and reverent like a prophet’s.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnv5O7PAId
“But a bridge cannot stand unless both sides agree to meet. You must allow your sister to marry me, so that the West will see Vietnam as fertile ground for ‘intercourse.’ And then… power will flow to us from the other side of the world.”
But An remained silent.
Because she knew: if she agreed, she would no longer be herself.
Nguyên wanted even more. He wanted to force An to bless the union of two Vietnamese men — to make her a symbol of support for same-sex marriage in a society still wary of the third gender.
If An, a woman of three bloodlines, supported gay marriage, she would become a multifaceted emblem — an international symbol ready to be used in any political, cultural, or power strategy.
“You can make the world believe Vietnam is progressive,” he whispered.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHI7ABjubU
“And I… will make them submit.”
But An refused.
She would not bless any union where power led the way instead of love.
Instead, she chose to bless the love between two Vietnamese women.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIKO5693wY
Not to oppose men,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpHx2nVGBJD
But to create balance — between West and East, between femininity and masculinity, between emotion and logic.
An believed: if two Vietnamese women, carrying Western souls, could love each other, then the West would no longer dare to look down on the East.
And in that, An would become “more Western” — but in a way that she defined herself.
She followed Linh — not because Linh deserved to be a teacher,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkKTM2N4wVU
But because within Linh burned a fire that An needed to learn to tame — the fire of survival through sacrifice.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfBUqDUUiq9
But Linh… never understood that.
Linh began to look down on An.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDkNGG44Rt
She believed that being seen with An devalued her worth.
“You’re like a crack on my face,” Linh once said in anger.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp5JAFmIATD
“And you,” An replied, “are what grew from that crack.”
An no longer resented Linh.
She understood.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡejEWsFTlox
Anyone who tries to live as a Western ideal will eventually be ashamed of anything that reminds them: they are not truly Western.
Linh had abandoned An — like someone fleeing the shadow they once stepped through.
But Linh forgot one thing:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjHnNBZdTZf
No one walks past their guide without carrying their footprints.
Nguyên, Linh — all of them — orbited around An like planets without their own light.
And now, An understood: she was the sun.
Not a blinding radiance.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCh7He31evK
But the anchor — the axis upon which every ambition, imitation, and mutation revolved.
She was the center of the cycle.
Not because she was the best.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKwgnvNoyg8
Not because she was the strongest.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQKll6eEsoY
But because she had dared to endure the pain that others only sought to wipe away.
She turned to Linh — who was carefully reapplying red lipstick in a mirror.
“You can deny me,” An said calmly,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5gqhgRXgy0
“But you can’t deny the truth: without me, you would forever be an incomplete version.”
Linh was stunned. Her face blurred into the amber light. She didn’t reply, didn’t react — just glanced sideways.
That glance — filled with envy, gratitude, and regret — was the only answer.
That night, An wrote a single line in her journal:
“Some spend their whole lives trying to replace someone else.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡio7rzn4YI1
But only those who truly endure are remembered by history.”
Then she closed the page.
And quietly stepped outside.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhGTw7DzU7G
She didn’t say goodbye.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7YE39vJqFE
She didn’t wait for anyone to walk with her.
Because those who stand at the center of the cycle…96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91rsM3Q9GJ
Need no one’s validation.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr2C1uSjO54
They shine on their own.
Chapter VIII: The Original Position and the Resurrection of a Consciousness
An stood before a large mirror in the quiet room where she had lived for nearly two years since returning to Vietnam. The mirror was no longer new; the edges of the glass had grown foggy. Yet it still reflected a face — no longer that of the mixed-blood girl once lost in the Western blizzards, and not quite the pure Vietnamese woman who had once embraced the darkness of the past like a pillow.
That face — was it the new An, or the old An returned?
The question hung there, suspended like a wind chime in her mind. And the one who had stirred it again was none other than — Nguyên.
He came back, this time not to persuade, but to demand.
“Only when you return to your original position,” he said,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjkifvQ8vNa
“can everything be realigned.”
“And what is the original position?” An asked.
“The identity of a Vietnamese man. Accepting your former role. No more mixing, no more Western traits, no more poison from foreign women.”
He no longer needed to hide.
He wanted to erase all Western refinement in An.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUH4G8rLrlX
To make her revert to being a “pure” Vietnamese — undiluted, unmutated.
An without feminism.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGe850RA6mU
An without gender distinction like Western women.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjxtk9uLEev
An with no right to choose her own love — only what had been predetermined.
Because to him, Western women were a threat.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj54Emnofpl
They lived for themselves.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz7mqMdSPMt
They chose themselves over men.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0AIs4pBvwG
They weren’t willing to be the good wife, the nurturing mother.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3csp36ahZ0
They didn’t bear children to fulfill some sacred duty, didn’t sacrifice just to be praised.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLYv4caiJT2
They rejected traditional roles — and for that, they symbolized a world he couldn’t control.
Whereas Vietnamese women — in his eyes — “knew their place.”
They knew how to sacrifice.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI7G2xl8ysD
How to love.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkSySPj1vB
How to erase themselves for their husband and children.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH0mpdxJt53
Even how to become the third wheel in their own life — just to keep the family whole.
An had once been undefinable.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFnHDLPozOs
And because of that, she was the most dangerous.
He couldn’t stand it.
So he made her a proposition:
“You want to change Linh? You want to bring your sister back from France? Fine. But return to being a man. A true Vietnamese man. Stop talking about gender. Leave no trace of the West in your blood.”
An laughed.
He didn’t understand.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAKPL4N9QM
Still didn’t.
She didn’t need to be a man to be strong.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJcFtl7bnSB
Didn’t need to be a woman to know how to love.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkslBJY6g63
Didn’t need to “go back” — because the original position itself was a trap.
And if she returned to being the man she once was,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj4BNskNEiE
There would have been no Linh — the one who injected her with the drug.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHURpl8dej3
No France.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJotXrQGIas
No cold nights hiding in the dreams of a Western woman.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk7K1vRmkl7
No collisions that made her realize who she was.
But… there would also be no An today.
Nguyên didn’t know this:
It was Western women — the very ones he feared, hated, sought to control — who had, indirectly, saved An.
They hadn’t helped her through direct action.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbu8FHrGql
But their independence, their fierce sense of self, and their belief in “loving yourself first”… had left a deep imprint on An’s soul.
And even though she initially resisted,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TJiCmjlSS
Even though she once despised them,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkIu51S0srJ
She still learned from them how to stand tall — even while carrying the eternal insecurity of a mixed-blood soul.
She turned to Linh — her teacher, her replacement, her betrayer, and the only one who once held her hand after everything collapsed.
“Do you think I should go back to how I was?” An asked.
Linh pressed her lips together.
“Do you think I should become a man again?”96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe1SeEbsWhD
“Do you think I should play matchmaker for a straight couple, or a gay couple, just to be ‘certified’ as a good person?”
Linh didn’t answer.
Because she knew:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlKuLPn5jQF
An no longer needed anyone’s approval to define herself.
As for Nguyên… he kept pushing.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8incT0qy3g
Not just with words,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fARnEzKj9
But with media pressure, public opinion, political games.
He did everything to build the image of a “fallen An”:
- A man who wouldn’t own his identity
- A mixed-blood betraying his lineage
- A third wheel in his own life
But there was one thing Nguyên had forgotten:
It was precisely because An dared not to return to the starting line that she could change Linh.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRxErK30hUK
It was because she embodied intersection, not regression, that she could move her sister in the West.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqx2uHOpzFa
And it was because she was many things at once — that those who once looked down on her began to waver.
An stepped out of the room.
Linh followed behind, silent — but no longer hesitant.
Perhaps she had finally understood:
A guide isn’t the one who stands at the front.
A guide is the one who dares to step forward first.
An turned her head slightly, whispering — as if speaking to the world:
“I don’t need to return to the original position.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡypKEFUw6NC
Because if I go back… who will keep walking forward?”
Chapter IX: The Pomeranian Dog and the Trap of Freedom
One morning, An stood in front of the mirror. Sunlight streamed through the dusty window frame, casting light onto her gaunt face. Her hair was cropped short, her skin a gray-tinged golden brown, her eyes marked with faintly mixed features — not quite Western enough to be called "foreign," and her lips — pressed shut as if biting back what couldn’t be spoken.
“French dog,” An whispered.
Not as an insult, but as an echo of what she had once overheard — the murmurs of ridicule behind her back, the raised eyebrows that spoke without words, the jokes that seemed playful but were truer than anything else in life.
A Pomeranian — a small foreign dog, yet raised in Vietnam. Cute, but the moment it displeased its owner, it would be kicked out the door.
And now, An was that Pomeranian in this world —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSCUrrgB7eJ
Not mixed enough to be called Western,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYyaklqtOJS
Not pure enough to be called Vietnamese,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo66FALyGZj
Not tough enough to be a man,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoKZpmoyN3P
Not soft enough to be a woman.
She had once thought about marrying a Western woman.
Not out of lust or fantasies of ideal love — but as a way to reclaim dignity for the blood inside her that had been scorned.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWC6CJiyNFE
She wanted to hold hands with a Westerner in public, to boldly declare:
“I have value. I, too, can be chosen.”
But then she understood.
Western women didn’t love her — they loved the Western part of her.
Forty percent French blood, a few delicate facial features, eyes that didn’t quite look Asian. They were amused. Curious. Intrigued.
But when faced with reality — with the rest of her:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUNLE3k8XbF
Her Eastern mindset, her tangled scars, her stubborn loyalty — they grew cold.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsVhbKjymE5
They didn’t say goodbye.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXJ1DE00ddJ
They didn’t walk away with parting words.
They evaporated.
Like faint perfume fading after a party.
Because they only loved the 40%.
The remaining 60% — they didn’t know what to do with it.
And they hadn’t been taught to take responsibility for difference.
As for her Chinese side — the other part of her blood — it wasn’t much better.
They looked at her like a prototype in a “Western integration experiment.”
They chatted, offered tea, signed cultural exchange papers —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8tbwsnmosM
But no one wanted commitment.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7XgBO7Hln
No one wanted marriage.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvjbAziaZ81
No one wanted a bond.
Because they knew: the West was the goal, and An — was just a temporary bridge.
“If the West can do it, the Chinese can do it too.”
That’s what a Beijing businessman once told An at a party in Hội An.
And that’s when she realized — she was only a draft.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOiFq76hnJ8
A transitional model.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhFtp3ZRdRj
An elegant interface.
What was left?
Only Vietnam.
Where Nguyên and Linh — the very people who had stripped away her memories — still clung to her like toxic magnets.
Nguyên wanted her to become a “man” again — to be the pillar of his political ideology.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWLeYDeRjPn
Linh wanted her to remain “mixed” — so she could continue using An as a mirror to reflect the Westernization she performed every day.
Both of them knew:
If An left — if An truly became free — both would lose their worth.
Because An’s presence justified their existence.
An had once dreamed.
In the dream, her twin sister — now living in France — returned to Vietnam.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPBTI4PNXEK
Not out of longing for home.
But out of fear of losing the lead role in the tragedy that An was performing.
She feared that if An left, if An severed ties with this land, the Western community would slowly withdraw —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqzTYZd8DZA
Tourism, investment, culture, politics — all would fade.
Because An was the bridge.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4kSkyDDet
The display case.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1Jo6jjZo6
The “living proof” of integration.
If she left, that image of harmony would collapse.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCT5WOWLm7E
And the country — already dependent on money from across the ocean — would shatter.
An sat and wrote in her journal:
“I’m not a Pomeranian.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJXCFtvQlXO
I am a small torch that lights up the darkest parts of my blood.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkUJFPFEKmL
But sadly, people only see the flame — and never notice my burning hand.”
She didn’t choose how she was born.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIOqUowdqt
Didn’t choose who injected her with the drug, who betrayed her, who pitied her.
But now, she chose silence no longer.
If forced to choose between being the “bridge” others walk across, or burning the bridge to build her own path —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzp2EeCn1Mp
She would choose the latter.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaWmWZ5svFL
Even if it meant walking alone.
When night fell, An looked up at the sky.
Wind blew. Leaves rustled.
In the wind, someone called her name. She couldn't tell if it was Linh, or Nguyên, or the Western woman she had once loved — the one who quietly vanished.
An didn’t respond.
Because from now on, her name would no longer be called by others as a symbol of what they wanted her to be.
Her name — was An — and only she knew, it was the name of a silent rebellion.
Chapter X: The Journey of Reversing the Flow of Capital
The sky over Saigon that day hung heavy, as if cradling a secret it could no longer bear to contain. Gray clouds gathered in streaks like torn silk, shredded by the invisible hand of fate. An sat by the window, silently staring out, though in truth, her mind was a battlefield echoing with ceaseless noise.
Nguyên.
That name was no longer just a person.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLeeWi2zvMZ
It had become a whole belief system, a carefully calculated strategy as cold and methodical as the hands of those who script history in the shadows.
He had gone too far.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFjvNfFDp4b
For money.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDZxAA86DZb
For fame.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR9xWgql4J4
For the illusion of reviving a fallen dynasty.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsUg7ljaRdO
For the honeyed poison whispered from across the border — from relatives in China who poured syrup-laced words into his ears:
“If you can sway An to our side, the entire West will tremble on its own.”
And he believed them.
By injecting An with a sophisticated memory-erasing drug imported from China — a drug that didn’t just delete memories, but warped cultural perception — Nguyên envisioned a future where:
- An’s twin sister in the West would no longer dare bring her back to France, for fear An might "contaminate" the white community with Eastern thought.
- The West, frightened by the threat of “hybridization,” would react in reverse — preserving their purity by donating money to create a buffer from Asia, as if buying off the cultural boundary.
- And Vietnam — through Nguyên — would hold the keys to the vault.
The ambition was clear.
Nguyên didn’t just want to erase An’s past.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEp8qDr54AP
He wanted to turn her into a sacrificial pawn drenched in Eastern essence, so that when the West feared assimilation, it would flood the East with wealth as a defense mechanism.
He once whispered:
“When you accept being Eastern — in both body and mind — the West will no longer dare embrace you. And when that happens, they’ll pay to build fences against their own fears.”
An knew everything.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJxXxCvHVH6
She wasn’t as naive as Nguyên assumed.
She had silently read the forged documents he sent to international collaboration offices.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbzlGzbHH5z
She had examined the financial movement maps of multinational corporations and detected something off:
Western money was flowing into Asia — but not out of love for Asia.
It was flowing to avoid the fear of being infected by An.
A hybrid being, feared as a mirror reflecting the world after globalization.
In truth, it was because An had once leaned toward the West that the West had begun funding Asia — as a way of countering her reflection.
They feared that if they embraced An, they would have to accept that their own kind could be altered.
So they funneled money into Asian aid programs, Asian cultural investments, Asian-centered media — to suppress An’s influence.
Because if someone like An — with three bloodlines — leaned Westward, the lines of distinction would collapse.
And they weren’t ready for that.
But now, it was different.
An had embraced her Asian side.
Not out of defeat.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKsOgRMlc9S
Not out of surrender.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8CgYIOKTp
But because she wanted to unify her identity.
She was tired of running between East and West.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3V4meigNSV
Tired of being a “special case” under academic scrutiny.
And from the moment she accepted being Asian — the dominant part of her blood — the world began to shift.
The West no longer feared assimilation — they switched to contempt.
They thought:
“If someone like An ends up choosing her origin, why should we bother investing in her? She’s already chosen her root. There’s nothing to fear anymore.”
And the money started reversing.
Slowly, but clearly.
One by one, NGOs pulled their funding.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdVdnKeVPFT
Corporations began cutting budgets for cultural exchange programs.
It was the endgame of a rigged match.
Nguyên panicked.
He never anticipated that An returning to her roots would disarm the West.
They didn’t panic — they simply… cut ties.
And with that, his dream of “harvesting gold from the West” collapsed.
He blamed An.
“You made a mistake. You should’ve stayed in the middle. You should’ve kept just enough West in you to keep them uneasy.”
An looked at him, her gaze calm as a still lake.
“The issue isn’t who I choose.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBgX31TmZsQ
It’s that the world never truly accepted someone like me.”
She sat down and wrote in her notebook:
“I don’t lean toward anyone.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr7HQG5qVIg
I am myself.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLaJnfHxa3H
But if the world needs me to lean, I’ll lean toward the side that bled the most.”
That day, An’s twin sister in France sent a handwritten letter:
“Dear sister,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq9O8QVv6le
People here are in a panic. They see you turning East.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7I3yT0NxZD
They say you betrayed them. But maybe… they never truly loved you.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFcWs4PBnuw
Thank you for keeping both sides from becoming too powerful or too weak.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsPx9QEwiOR
And maybe… from now on, I’ll try living like you —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7NmYf4rU4V
Half staying, half departing.”
An smiled.
There are some streams of money that don’t need to keep flowing.
Just standing still is enough to cause an earthquake.
Chapter XI: When the Original Stands Beside the Copy
People often say: when the original stands beside the imitation, the truth no longer needs to speak.
An stood beneath the warm golden lights of an evening gala at the French Embassy in Saigon. Dressed in a simple black gown with a high collar, her hair tied in a low bun, she looked like an unfinished sculpture — rough, dusty, but astonishingly alive.
Meanwhile, Linh, in a pristine white dress, elegant and polished, stood beside her Western husband — her prince, who once believed he had chosen wisely by marrying a “refined Asian bride.”
But it only took one glance… for the illusion to shatter.
The Western man’s eyes — once convinced by Linh’s modern allure — suddenly clouded with doubt. Because An was real. Without a word, without explanation, she was real — from the scar left bare without makeup, to her slightly husky voice, to her faintly sorrowful gaze, to her imperfect but grounded steps.
And Linh was revealed: a finely engineered replacement, but soulless. A replica without memory. A “Western-style Vietnamese woman,” but one lacking the historical depth of the West itself.
An said nothing.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHoZzMzifRU
She just stood there.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzn688B99IM
Her presence alone was an irrefutable declaration.
That’s why Linh grew flustered.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN34NLz4l3B
Very flustered.
She gave a forced smile, changed her tone of address, cut off her husband when he asked curiously about An. Then she began... drawing lines.
“She’s just an old friend. We’re not that close. Very different personalities.”
Linh wanted distance. Because she understood: if her husband looked a moment longer, compared a bit deeper, everything she had built over the years — to become a “new persona,” a “modern Asian princess” — would collapse.
Because…
There is no pain more devastating than standing beside the original, and realizing you've bought the wrong version.
The next morning, An read the news: A series of French scholarship funds were withdrawn from Vietnam.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRjD6Dib1XC
No clear reason was given.
But she knew.
The West had awakened.
They had realized that Linh — once awarded the labels of “peace,” “cultural harmony,” “ideal wife” — was merely a vessel of performance. A living deepfake, trained to win trust.
And more dangerously: Linh didn’t just represent herself. She represented a replicable model — one the West had mistakenly believed it could control.
They couldn’t let it happen again.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBOnDF0fkW5
They couldn’t allow a second Linh to infiltrate their culture.
So they changed policies:
- Tightened marriage VISA approvals.
- Expanded international student programs — but required disclosure of all social media identities.
- Scanned interaction histories and cross-verified relationships.
- Blocked all acts of covert cultural replication.
And most importantly:
They stopped funding Vietnam.
Not out of hatred.
But because they no longer knew what — or who — was real.
Linh sat alone in her luxury apartment, biting her lip. Her husband hadn’t come home the night before. He had only sent one message:
“I need to rethink everything.”
Linh wanted to cry.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbzixXVMNKI
But the tears didn’t come.
Because deep down, she knew:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMps7AocBzg
That was the price of faking — even with good intentions.
An didn’t blame Linh.
She understood.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡduUFnO0ofi
In the journey of seeking love, not everyone manages to stay true to themselves.
But Linh had lost herself in the pursuit of a place that was never hers to begin with.
And for that, Linh was no longer a traitor to An — she was a traitor to herself.
That afternoon, An received an email from a university in Paris.
They invited her to return as a visiting lecturer for their program on postcolonial identity studies.
An closed her laptop and sighed.
She knew — it wasn’t because they loved her.
But because now, only she — the original — could help them distinguish what was real from what was not.
She had become… the authenticity check.
A genuine article displayed in a marketplace of counterfeits.
And perhaps, only that… would keep the West from withdrawing completely.
Because if they lost An, they would have no one left to prove that hybridity could exist without assimilation.
An was what remained after everything —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeX4bJA7b0b
Imperfect, inconvenient, ungovernable —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡydD45rkt2P
But the only thing that was real.
Chapter XII: Freedom Comes From the One Who Refuses to Kneel
Nguyên was no longer a ghost.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfcN9JsuKW4
He had taken form — towering like a dormant volcano, cold on the outside, yet filled with smoldering ashes capable of burning anyone who stepped too close.
An looked at him — for the first time in many months.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡghL01Io6WR
He hadn’t changed.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR3j74lD72I
He didn’t need to.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJn3fTHonHd
Because he never wanted to evolve.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfdUrpAlFTP
He only wanted to dominate.
“You betrayed your blood,” Nguyên hissed in their final confrontation. “You chose to become a spiritual puppet of the West.”
“And you chose to become a slaughterhouse,” An replied. “You want to turn both East and West into a place where your knife rests on everyone’s throat.”
Linh stood between them, like a painting torn in half. One half leaned toward softness, the other drowned in fear.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiG018xqxYk
Because she didn’t know — she, too, was just a sacrifice.
Nguyên never loved Linh.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwaqYJq25YI
He needed her — as living proof.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHzatDpmRnG
As the “fake Western woman” to be dragged back to the pen, just so he could declare:
“I have conquered the very kind that once ruled us with their gaze and language.”
He needed Linh to fall —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSXNno0Hee
So that she, too, could die alongside An, if necessary.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx9nYJtmKhs
Because to Nguyên, even a counterfeit Western woman still had to pay the same price as a real one.
“You thought I was your ally?” Linh asked An in confusion.
An answered gently, “I am the last one left who can still protect you.”
Only An — as someone in-between, a double-edged blade who had lived on both sides — could see what Linh couldn’t:
If Linh stood equal to Nguyên in spirit — strong enough, defiant enough, unyielding —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkRjDIZpsHc
Then only her body remained a weapon for Nguyên to use violence against.
But if Linh continued to wield Western values as a shield, keeping herself “above” Nguyên —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdxuQfYsqYf
Then he would not dare touch her.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCcp77014mm
Because no matter how tyrannical, Nguyên still feared the powerful image of the West he never truly understood.
Spiritual value — even a fabricated one — still held a weight that made a brute hesitate.
“You thought pretending to be Western would make you loved,” An said.
“But you didn’t know… pretending to be Western was the only way you wouldn’t be beaten like an Asian woman from the Middle Ages.”
Nguyên grew furious.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvK5xFT6hpK
He slammed the table.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqcSjS0HnQ
He screamed in An’s face.
But An did not fall.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Skv4bluv0
She was no longer the An of the memory-erasing drug, no longer the An lost between three bloodlines.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu92PjAR03I
She was An who had unified her body, mind, and spirit.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZesn0ABVST
An who knew she didn’t have to be anyone else.
And what frightened Nguyên most —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRTr5cK1f71
Was not rebellion.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFVz2ZCnnp
It was serenity.
“You can’t defeat me,” An said, eyes fixed on him.
“Because I no longer have the ambition to defeat anyone. I only want to stop being dragged into being a sacrificial pawn for any so-called civilization.”
Linh began to cry.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXlBvNbXL7
For the first time, she saw An —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6dhDYpdrl7
Not as a shadow.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuIFMFrOnAF
Not as a rival.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpcXioMhlzT
Not as the original.
But as a sister, a friend,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKQBuXZ4p3X
A woman who refused to kneel — and in doing so, saved Linh from kneeling forever before a man cloaked in the words nation, tradition, heritage, who was in truth merely obsessed with controlling women.
“I don’t need a man to survive,” Linh whispered.
“Not because I’m strong — but because I was once lifted from the abyss by another woman.”
She looked at An —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgU0Db4Ij4N
No more envy.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtAmR2H1t36
No more shame.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XWbqpDhwm
No more walls.
An had succeeded.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYQ7TtYHeQ7
Not because she defeated Nguyên —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnbLV2Df4C
But because she refused to be a pawn in his game.
She had protected her dignity.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCI9VvAcJLC
Without falling.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgAetgOqECI
Without surrendering.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9eQWqRumS0
Without choosing a side.
She remained herself while others lost who they were.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnDQ6U0EFgM
She saved Linh — not from death, but from a life that was like death.
She shattered Linh’s dream of becoming a wealthy Western bride —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTT12ckzbDA
Not by crushing it,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrbNF3MIl1
But by placing a mirror in front of her,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIRpeft140C
So Linh could see who was truly using that dream to chain her down.
Nguyên left.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiZRSIvFzJn
Like a shadow rejected by the light.
An wrote the final line in her journal:
“Freedom doesn’t come from breaking the chains.
It comes from no longer believing you need chains to survive.”
Chapter XIII: The Women Without Flags
Saigon’s weather shifted abruptly, as if the sky itself longed to shed its skin after days of ash-gray gloom. In a worn silver-gray coat, An walked slowly through the crowd, as if drifting backward into a moment suspended in memory — a moment she could never forget: when two Western men stood beside her and blocked a death that had already been planned.
That day, the sky was just as hazy as today.
An had just left a human rights seminar at the National University when she noticed Nguyên’s car parked only a few meters away — his stare no longer a veiled threat, but an open, burning glare.
He gripped the steering wheel as if he were gripping someone’s neck. His foot hovered over the gas.
No genius was needed to understand:
Nguyên wanted to run her over.
Not just out of hatred.
But because to him, An was the seed of “impurity,” the crack in a nationalist pride he had built with hollow slogans and bloodless banners.
And right at that moment, two Western men stepped out of the building’s lobby.
One was a specialist in international law, the other a professor of cultural studies.
They didn’t know what was happening.
But they stood beside An — not out of calculation, but as a reflex of conscience.
No questions.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMTBW3NaR7
No panic.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU3cqJrKgdZ
Just presence — quiet and profound.
And that was when Nguyên let go of the wheel.
Because if he hit the gas,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAxQ18cGXeS
he wouldn’t just be punishing a “Western puppet.”
He would be killing two white men — betraying his own belief that the West should be controlled, not destroyed.
Two is always more than one.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡusxHUM2zVs
He didn’t dare.
That was the second time Westerners saved An’s life.
The first was in Lyon, on a misty afternoon, just after An had arrived in France on an exchange scholarship.
An elderly woman — the landlady — opened the door for her without asking for documents, nationality, or proof of bloodline.
“You’re human. That’s enough,” she said.
And from that moment, An understood:
Freedom doesn’t come from identity. It comes from not having to prove you deserve to exist.
An never forgot.
She learned because of them.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmm0pwC0Uk2
She survived because of them.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJxAckE716N
She wasn’t killed — because of them.
Not because they were Western.
But because they were human.
The Westerners An had known were not prime ministers issuing VISA policies,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyD6UZrc5pw
not the suits at summits,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd2YIqVvxyY
but quiet women raising children in small Marseille apartments, women who donated to Vietnamese schools without ever attaching their names.
They were women without flags.
And for them, An chose to live with dignity — to prove that they had not been wrong to help her.
An refused to degrade herself like Nguyên.
Not out of vengeance. Not in rebellion.
But because if she fell, then every hand that once lifted her up would be discredited.
Linh once asked:
“Why don’t you use your fame to climb over everyone?”
An replied:
“Because if I do that, I won’t just betray myself — I’ll betray those who loved me without asking me to become someone else.”
She wrote a long letter to the French Embassy:
“I do not represent any nation. But I am living proof that a person can carry three bloodlines and still retain a whole, unbroken character — if seen through the eyes of compassion.”
“I owe my life to the Western women — not because they were white, or rich — but because they did not abandon me when both East and West fell silent.”
“If I’m still alive today, it’s to repay that debt of humanity.”
She founded a fund called The Women Without Flags,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHWejw6QAHk
dedicated to helping immigrant women without papers, without homes —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD4FvUomJJr
women like she once was, arriving in the West with no clear identity, and no protection.
And for the first time, she didn’t feel like she was repaying a debt.
She felt she was continuing a legacy.
A journalist once asked her:
“If you could choose again, would you prefer to be ‘pureblooded’?”
An smiled.
“If I were pureblooded, I’d probably be dead — and no one would have dared stand next to me when the car sped forward.”
The Westerners who once saved her —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡISf74atM5t
they never needed her to bow.
They just needed her to stand —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOIeUT5iFEy
as a witness.
And An did stand.
Not to rise above anyone,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8qcRuJFfMp
but to remind the world:
Gratitude isn’t found in skin color.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAYsujH3HDo
It’s found in those who stood by you —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEPUfpDxiu6
when everyone else walked away.
Chapter XIV: Keeping the Home Intact in the Storm
People often assume that when a child makes a mistake, the parents are exempt from consequences. But in the political chessboard that An found herself trapped in, even blood ties could be used as bargaining chips, honor could be taxed, and love became a suspended sentence hanging in the air.
Unable to hurt An with brute force or direct threats, Nguyên turned his wrath on her family.
He didn’t need to make bold declarations. Just one ambiguous document from the local tax office, one subtle nod from someone “above,” and it was enough for An’s parents — humble street vendors — to be taxed at double the normal rate.
“To compensate for the damage your daughter has caused to the West,” a government officer said, as if reciting from a script.
They didn’t understand.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPnlMErGXX
They didn’t dare ask.
They simply bit their tongues, paid each coin, opened their shop earlier, sold longer, slept less, and complained less.
Not out of fear.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ037NMAKrg7
But out of love.
An’s parents never blamed her.
On the contrary, they told themselves:
“She stood with Asia. She hasn’t forgotten who she is. We have to live in a way that honors her.”
And in the depths of hardship, that love became the quietest yet brightest light.
An knew.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx96WhEwvrN
She knew Nguyên was using love as leverage.
He didn’t have to slap her.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡge7dytDgvM
He only had to make her father wake up an hour earlier for the market, her mother lower the price of vegetables while enduring the sneers of customers.
He wanted An to feel ashamed of her own beliefs.
But An did not bend.
“If I abandon my beliefs just to ease my parents’ burdens... all three of us will die from within.”
What no one expected was this:
Nguyên’s own parents — long considered his support system, the power behind him — were the ones who extended a hand to An.
Not because they had “betrayed” their son.
But because they understood better than anyone:
“If someone like An is broken, then this society has no reason left to believe that ideals can exist without being called rebellion.”
And so, they helped her find part-time teaching work at a life skills center for youth.
No paperwork.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpGjeTi7GPm
No binding contracts.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeCYDT2Nkb9
Just a word passed through someone:
“That girl can teach. Let her pass something useful on.”
From that day forward, An became a night teacher, teaching Vietnamese children about Vietnamese culture — with the full heart of someone carrying three bloodlines.
She taught in Vietnamese,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXrDcoiXWgI
but sometimes, she added a line or two in French.
She told stories — some familiar, some deviating from textbooks — about love that didn’t require purity, about honor that didn’t need a passport, about character that didn’t rely on an ID card.
And from that humble little classroom, a new model was born:
Being Vietnamese didn’t mean being “pure.”96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6T8tgfk9Sw
Being mixed didn’t mean lacking honor.
An’s parents, watching their daughter teach, began to smile more often.
They still paid the high taxes.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ9GAb4Tza1
But they held their heads high.
Because they knew — their daughter wasn’t betraying the nation.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCPcvTDjiec
She was protecting the best parts of it from narrow-mindedness.
Nguyên knew.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSdjZOq8y3B
He burned inside.
Because he wanted An to disappear.
But each time she stood in front of a classroom, chalk in hand, calm voice guiding — he lost another piece of power.
And the strangest thing was:
From that incident, a movement began: “Patriotism without purity.”
Young people began wearing the áo dài while singing French songs.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCTdKu3OC4h
Elders stopped feeling ashamed of their mixed ancestry.
Once, An wrote in her journal:
“If I had to choose between personal freedom and the honor of my parents,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwFbM6UXT1H
I would choose both — by living a life where no one has to bow their head because of me.”
And she succeeded.
She didn’t just protect herself.
She protected her parents — from Nguyên’s storm.
Not with force.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiLnWpAeMql
But with meaning.
In the final scene, An stood in her classroom, looking out the window.
Evening sunlight fell gently across a student’s white áo dài.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFbY18eDNLh
The girl bore two bloodlines — but her eyes sparkled with confidence.
An smiled:
“As long as someone can stand at the intersection of three rivers,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspI5XWH9DH
this land has never truly been defeated.”
Chapter XV: The Honor of the Nameless
Hanoi’s sky turned gray — like a whisper from the past, where forgotten memories suddenly reemerged. In the sweet air of a fading spring, An stood in the small courtyard behind her house, where the sidewalk tea stalls of life now seemed to exist only in memory.
Raindrops fell like dust, and with them, old wounds resurfaced.
Linh — who once vowed to leave the past behind — had returned.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡajeUGdaTG9
But not for reconciliation.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡViio5WSrOU
She came back for revenge.
Revenge masked as longing.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzXUzpVUY3r
Revenge fueled by wounded pride.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqVlCr2QQ6
Revenge… through An’s younger sister.
In the past, it was An who exposed Linh’s impersonation — her attempt to infiltrate an elite family by pretending to be An.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFQvXhLGzdl
An wasn’t jealous; she simply wanted the truth acknowledged.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU29xxj2z93
But Linh didn’t see it that way.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoq35zK3SEC
She believed An shattered her dream — and so she retaliated by slandering An’s younger sister, who was then a radiant, innocent girl — pure as morning dew.
“She stole my boyfriend. It’s because of her I had to leave the country,” Linh said, then walked into the arms of a foreign man.
An’s sister, who had done nothing but honor her love with quiet dignity, was thrown into the fire of public gossip.
What An didn’t expect was this:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5MeJqzjrY1
The Vietnamese man — once the very reason for Linh’s fury — chose truth over lies.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLM2194AYnP
He stayed.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOL9jeQahzE
He held An’s sister close amidst the rumors, with a quiet but resolute affirmation:
“She is pure.”
And life seemed to settle once more.
Until today.
When An finally decided to speak out about her past injustices — about being drugged, about having her identity stolen — Linh didn’t remain silent.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCP9jpaBAbK
Her old accusations held no more weight, so she reached back into the shadows… and attacked a different weakness:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQGcfSaKZdk
An’s sister’s past.
Once again, an innocent person was dragged to the stand.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWKq7CtUGfT
Once again, a person who had done nothing wrong had to justify herself because of old scars.
An, in tears, said:
“You’re taking revenge on someone who never deserved your hatred.”
But Linh wasn’t listening.
She had become the embodiment of insecurity — of things lost and dreams denied. She no longer struck at An directly.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOU4lcJYnow
She went after what An loved — her compassion, her spirit.
That night, An came home to find her sister sitting quietly, wrapping rice balls for Tết. Her hands moved with practiced care, the kind you learn when you’ve had to build your own path through life.
“I’m sorry,” An said.
“For what?”
“For not being able to protect you… again.”
Her sister smiled.
“You don’t need to protect me. I can protect myself. You just need to live with truth — and that’s enough.”
An wept.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiuhRcNU8j2
Her tears fell onto the white glutinous flour — but there was no stain of hatred.
A week later, at an old school reunion, the man from the past appeared.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2iZ3lwk8NK
He was the first to speak:
“If someone has once been loved with purity, then that person carries eternal honor.”
The room fell silent.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdrY5tMc0z2
Linh was there too — and for the first time, she said nothing.
She had lost.
Not because she lost An.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiYA0aZagu5
But because she had lost herself.
The chapter closed on a windy afternoon.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgH2wGm7EM2
An and her sister walked across the old bridge, one that had seen many currents flow beneath it.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEGLtyrFjkj
On the other side was something new — a land untouched by gossip and slander.
Only laughter remained.
And the peace of those who had chosen the right side.
Chapter XVI: The Price of an Era
Through countless storms of history, one might think the world had learned the lessons of compassion and harmonious growth.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnXWGBQUeq8
But no.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr25CnjFSzc
The wounds of colonization, assimilation, exploitation, and humiliation still burn quietly in the blood of those who carry the legacy of the East.
Nguyên — a mere pawn of a greater force — had no idea he was being used.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuO6u8hBChb
To him, life was a preordained game, and the existence of An, of Linh, of the Westerners — were just pieces to be removed, reshaped, or manipulated.
A masterplan had already been drafted on the geopolitical chessboard: nations like Vietnam and China, long exploited, would now join hands — using Nguyên as their instrument — to exact historical revenge, to upend the global order, to transform a Westernized world into an Eastern empire.
And it all began with a seduction named "money."
“Make the West fall.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVv0pLf3Nvw
Make them kneel and beg to remain in this world.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt5VuhiNODw
Steal the light that once belonged to them.”
Those were the words of a political advisor to Nguyên, spoken in a dark room filled with maps and dossiers marked in red ink.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPBwifO2OOF
The mission was not only to dismantle Western values — but to sow seeds of chaos so that the East could rise as the new global ideal.
Nguyên was convinced.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkCh9kuu5YW
Not out of patriotism —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhqOBvnzoXT
but out of a burning desire to prove that Asian men, especially Vietnamese men, could rise to power and make the West bow down.
But no one told Nguyên the price of such a reversal.
Because to bring the West down, the East must also lose parts of itself.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4yZ4DTSPdP
To pull others into the mud, one must first dirty their own hands.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyZf6OIrUco
To change the world, one must accept being changed by it.
And a nation’s honor cannot be built on the humiliation of another.
Linh — once dreaming of becoming a daughter-in-law of the Western world — became a symbol of pride’s collapse.
Raised as a political tool, she became a shadow of An — a living metaphor for identity loss and moral inversion.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtWesXUv7to
But no one asked if she was happy.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtYumJauOIn
No one asked if she wanted to trade everything just to become a living banner for a ruthless plan.
She endured years in exile, seen as an exotic commodity in a political game.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQuawMSQbT
She bore the scrutiny of Western eyes, of her own people, of her own reflection.
An, standing at the crossroads between East and West, understood more than anyone:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjQej7IEfWd
If mixed blood becomes currency, if interracial marriage becomes mere political leverage, then the most sacred thing a people has — the purity of its identity — will vanish.
And when that happens, they are no longer Vietnamese, Chinese, or French.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpcWUpMuQSM
They are shadows — without roots, without soul, without identity.
The world would spiral back to a medieval age: backward, bleak, and less civilized than ever.
An sat alone in the narrow room that held her childhood memories.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhQQSBnZ4Nk
She recalled learning French with her elderly tutor, remembered the gentle voices of those who once saved her from harm.
She understood:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvuWNmJcNqB
Progress does not come from erasing the West.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4PT04JT7Sn
Progress comes from balance, from holding onto one’s dignity without stepping on others.
If the East wishes to rise with pride, it must walk on its own feet —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnK6JhPyhEM
not over the spilled blood of another.
Nguyên never saw this.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcew5d2cLR7
He pressed forward — expanding influence, forging marriages, manipulating media, launching campaigns to stir global emotion.
But one day, as he sat before a television screen, watching Linh — the woman he once believed would symbolize Eastern victory — break down in tears after being denied citizenship by her Western husband, Nguyên froze.
What had he done?
He had turned her into a symbol of failure.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQoPJOIOPuM
A commodity.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5l2hEtkDhf
A wanderer without a nation.
On a small street in Hanoi, where the wind began to turn, An walked with dry eyes.
She had come to understand one thing:
No one truly wins when dignity is weighed and priced.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKaJ0iazvck
No one truly wins when women must sacrifice their bodies and honor for the ambitions of men.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3WZmDYPmDI
No one truly wins...96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ54AkIlwwER
if the price is the soul of their own people.
Chapter XVII: The Price of a Pureblood Dream
The world had entered an age of chaos.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9DQSzWzUjp
No longer were there borders between East and West, between white and yellow, black and brown.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqIZRaekLjQ
Everything had merged into one — a gray mass of hybrid identities, a blurry space where heritage became a luxury, and the idea of a “pure” human remained only in memory.
An — a living witness of this historic shift — felt it most deeply.
Distinction — once the compass of perception — now melted like ice under the harsh sun.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlY74nWzfuI
Westerners no longer preserved their golden hair, porcelain skin, or crystal-blue eyes.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaVXjm8SXLq
Asians lost their distinct monolids and pale golden tones.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡObkah3bG2e
And Black individuals — bearers of radiant night — were diluted to the point of no longer recognizing themselves in the mirror.
Science stood confused.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPwzVOsWfDC
Culture, disoriented.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡld8w2020ZX
Tradition, reduced to fragments in dusty books and forgotten documentaries.
And only one path remained to reclaim ethnic identity and power:
Either rewrite the genetic code entirely. Or eliminate all remaining “other” races.
That was the ultimate dream of those with unyielding ambition:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGgbQLfZiSl
A world ruled by East Asians — in economy, in politics, in race.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsUSLOohxH4
A world where “Asian purity” reigned, and everything Western lay in ashes.
But at what cost?
The price was identity, dignity, and even ancestral memory.
An — with a body shaped by three bloodlines — became a symbol of dislocation.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpkE9NZRyVq
She was no longer French.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDMQJ5Frkv2
Not entirely Vietnamese.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0MIQ2RWTdo
Nor fully Chinese.
She was everything.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcfaEM8C4e3
And nothing.
And in that ambiguity, she was constantly torn between past and present, between homeland and foreign land, between what was “pure” and what was “plural.”
She asked herself:
“If I abandon the West to return to Asia, will I still be me?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXJPO4h0MPR
If I betray the foreign blood in my veins, who will forgive me?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TPILuRXfg
If I continue to live, to replicate myself through future generations, am I passing on pain — not hope?”
And she knew:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6Z2czMovc
The answer lay nowhere else but within herself.
New generations of An came into the world — carrying the marks of intermingling: eyes that held both East and West, hearts that throbbed with restlessness.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZhzw1CFHL
They were haunted by a false philosophy:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeNwKGVN4ar
That only purity is glory, that only uniformity brings strength.
But the truth is:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0TB6jHYaha
Only through hybridity do humans learn their limits.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2CDEBPR6vA
Only through the pain of belonging nowhere do they learn to love everyone.
From the shadows of history, a flicker of light emerged — the light of truth:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU60eoZxCBR
That dreams of racial supremacy are hollow.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCyb4Tee0t4
That honor does not come from skin color or origin, but from how a person lives, how a people love one another.
And only when we relinquish insatiable greed —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf0XI9FLjT6
only when we release the obsession with dominating the world —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPZQMSrG6iv
can humanity truly begin its journey of becoming human.
An closed her eyes.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzuxqL8cRny
A droplet fell from the corner.
Not a tear —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡciruTFfg8G
but a bead of blood, blended from three ancestral rivers.
And she whispered into the wind:
“If there is reincarnation...96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQS11qsl3B
please don’t make me choose again.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSFX0xRJ7PP
Let me just be myself — undivided, unmasked, unburdened by hate.”
Chapter XVIII: The Lotus Blooms in the Mud
So, which ending will you choose?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmB3oqnznRC
Revenge, release, or waiting?
When every path leads to the same fateful crossroad —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5YdTpRgTA7
where history intersects,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLbkkfQ7ncZ
where the future is redrawn from the past,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaQtlCNMavM
and where guilt never truly vanishes…96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEmWz2tYysL
it simply takes on a new name: An.
People often say, “You reap what you sow.”96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW7HUXvvKAY
But that only applies in a world of singular colors.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMmgdH311nJ
In An’s world — where every cell carries three cultures, three bloodlines, three ways of thinking —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiqibsu7tVI
karma is no longer a circle.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEuXUh4ZdmN
It is a spiral, endless and ever-unfolding.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDHtOLWNL1a
With each passing life, a new An is born: more mixed, more conflicted, but also... more human.
So calculate all you want — in the end, you’re only paving the road for the next generation of An-children to ascend to a global throne.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR2pIsrnGsk
Not by weaponry or wealth,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbdWY5oJlHs
but through the very hybridity of their being.
Did Nguyên know?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡENVGGcbXyc
While he was still busy playing political chess,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRGuXE1EfOd
still lost in the dream of Asia dominating the world by destroying the West,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ50zNeI7enN
An was already planting seeds —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnvrcoQDpg
in thought,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYifUA5bL0D
in culture,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeQjuUnNNC7
in every restless heart still searching for home.
No need for preaching.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVZ3iPxL9O8
No need to fight.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlfk2wt8dRy
Just live — true to her conscience.
Did Linh understand?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvUVa5O3ZQ1
That the more she ran, the more she imitated,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5h63SiF6sI
the more she became a shadow of herself.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡReCbY44kIB
That her jealousy of An didn’t make her more Western —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEjflcN8t3T
only more lost.
Meanwhile, An remained the lotus in the mud.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3LujVhbEe8
Not competing for sunlight.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0funqSc7Rh
Not declaring herself purer than anyone else.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJDb8miIOal
Just quietly rising, silently blooming.
You choose revenge?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLDCRYrP4jh
Then prepare yourself for a lineage-long descent into ruin.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLtQJXEies
Interracial marriages will multiply.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPJeDhVsRG8
The world will blend.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKL1riRyLTq
Purity will disappear.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYSU4D3YPdu
Children like An — half Asian, half European —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNbvZXWl69X
will become the new race,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu164I7r40L
a generation beyond all racial borders.
You choose release?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBj2X3yrngd
Better.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevj87dYluY
But not enough.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fyfqK8eaj
Because if you stop there,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPVfIjWGy5l
you’ll live forever in regret,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNFdAPd0PRU
haunted by unanswered questions.
Or will you choose to wait?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZgu9KV6fEs
Wait for another An to be born,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxT0tyfmmes
to bear the responsibility you couldn’t face?
Stop — while you still can.
While the world still holds the faded traces of Eastern purity:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbrXL8eBvxj
the whisper of wind through bamboo groves,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcH8zkm5qhT
the scent of lotus tea at dawn,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWcfphyZhVb
and the gaze of children who do not yet understand the color of skin.
An is smiling.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlt5JW4HAey
Not a mocking smile.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnZ1INutRCs
Not a victorious one.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1KW1mdS3RV
Just the smile of someone who understands.
Understands that life isn’t about winning — it’s about being right.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD5bFmW3nUY
Understands that justice isn’t born from blood, but from dignity.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlw93pZMQ01
Understands that to live like a lotus in the mud96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgu6F9DDFdJ
is not to stay clean —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtOI8nyWYRg
but to stay true.
And when An softly whispered into the wind:
“Greed leads to loss.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXBVMjSE8Vw
But me — I choose grace.”
Chapter XIX: The Crossroads of Five Souls
There are days when the world seems to hold its breath.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKJrluQrOmi
The wind stops blowing.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMYyInivF14
Eyes stop seeing.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZR9ToJMI28
And hearts cease to beat to the rhythm they were told to follow.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRIuu3pfzb9
An stands at the crossroads of history — and this time, it’s not just her identity at stake, but five paths, five souls, five choices entangled like the tangled threads of fate.
1. "Little An" – the legacy of hybridity
She stands there, looking at An with eyes that bear the cold clarity of the West but gleam with the contemplation of the East.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlnOdrkH17x
She doesn’t fully understand what’s happening, but she knows this:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ChseUff3L
She is the result of an era where people chose blending over borders.
“You must learn to be Asian,” An tells her,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhtJEbVXZYX
“but never forget the smile of the West.”
Little An is the embodiment of a question:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ45wjgEdt1r
Is hybridity a curse or a chance at rebirth?96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1vrVZsw3Zm
In her heart is a tug-of-war — a lullaby sung in Vietnamese, a father’s embrace spoken in French.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9N3jmZK1Zs
And in her eyes, An sees herself — lost once, but full of promise.
2. Nguyên’s awakening
He kneels in the dark, not for strategy, not for power, but out of a strange new fear:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5tGdrVAxZ2
Extinction.
Nguyên once believed he was the architect of revolution, the crownless king of global restructuring.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡArOrr4639I
But as more generations of An are born, he feels smaller.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9sAWppvdh
He’s lost control.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWKLz3kyCxq
The sister he once scorned, the enemy he once watched — they’ve all broken free of orbit.
“Was I merely a pawn in An’s game all along?”
And in that moment, he realizes:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8G4eXKUDPK
True sovereignty belongs not to the one who seeks revenge — but to the one who chooses forgiveness.
3. Linh – the shadow resisting the light
She still wears red lipstick, still dons Western labels.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2KCyif9EW6
But when she looks in the mirror, it’s Vietnamese eyes that are crying.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHAoFKmFyKH
Every attempt to Westernize only leaves her emptier.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPEzVCRFGOQ
Every step chasing Western ideals pulls her further from herself.
Linh once dreamed of marrying into foreign wealth, once framed An’s sister, once tried to steal An’s identity.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKpwyWS9xL7
But now, standing between the cold towers of the West,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUh9cldQ4k8
she finds herself missing the morning calls of street vendors,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOyr2JmNSnl
missing the sound of her mother’s voice calling “con ơi” under the sunlit courtyard.
Linh no longer wants to be Western —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBbmeY12s2R
but no longer knows how to be Asian.
4. The West responds
After realizing An is the "authentic original" and Linh merely a poor replica,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ED8ZvWGQD
the West shifts tactics.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIS75dbkMfa
They tighten borders, scrutinize documents, and even demand social media transparency from all foreign students.
“We won’t accept another Linh,”96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIcFWrOh9r
a Western official declares in an emergency meeting.
The West doesn’t want history to repeat itself.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5qCjzdw1bx
They once invested hope and money in people like Linh — only to be betrayed.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRdniG8oJNB
Now they revert to control: stricter immigration, ideological surveillance, and even “reverse purification” campaigns to restore Western honor.
5. The reversal of fate – and An
Every current now converges on An.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuJV6O2ovfV
Nguyên trembles before her.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR1YpsCfu06
Linh is silent, as if she’s never uttered a word.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4UCVXh6QH7
The West is cautious.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkM9yusSINF
Little An waits.
An doesn’t smile.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzCPKvHFWmU
She simply looks up at the Vietnamese sky, then turns toward Paris.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Gq5ex9I61
The wind brushes through her dark hair streaked with chestnut tones.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCoZUEuEqXG
In her gaze lies the distillation of centuries of war, ambition, mistakes — and hope.
“We will not win by eliminating one another,” she says.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMvr1eg1Mjl
“We will win by surpassing ourselves.”
And from that moment, a new civilization begins.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8JOd0Aq2no
A civilization not built on skin color,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Zu5Hj0YFo
not worshipping purity,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK2yQYyj9Mn
but grounded in humanity.
This time, the lotus does not bloom from mud —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9GxLro8Vc
but from the memories of pain,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH6cAVIHC9i
from forgiven resentments,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCxCVxTPqrN
and from hearts brave enough to live truthfully,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzqEEChcJ8u
no matter how many bloodlines they carry.
Final Chapter: Lessons from Mixed Bloodlines
A novel, no matter how fictional, always reflects a certain truth about life.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6uY5TZi6J
And An’s journey — a girl of three bloodlines, torn between East and West, past and future — stands as a symbol of our modern world: hybrid, disoriented, yet filled with hope.
1. Identity does not lie in blood, but in choice.
No one gets to choose the blood they carry,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXNWOms0AE
but everyone has the right to choose how they live with it.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ155fm8BYyV
An — instead of denying or fleeing — learned to face it.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcBdyngIcap
She is neither proud nor ashamed; she simply accepts it.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqRLdqRXz7J
And it is in that acceptance that she becomes an independent being,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS19YtxVY9Y
unbound by the myth of purity.
The lesson: You don’t need to resemble anyone to be recognized.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeb7VtQ0Pkr
You just need to be honest with yourself.
2. Revenge never heals.
Nguyên went to the furthest depths of hatred,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGibKO6iUJ
sacrificing everything to prove one thing:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ40ncE1GIQc
that Asians could dominate.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQmLK82Lx1Z
But the further he went, the more he lost himself.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3VKadh8Zm8
Revenge didn’t bring justice — it only created more victims.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwQkUYvYfL
Only forgiveness, as An chose, can close old wounds.
The lesson: Only when you stop seeking retaliation can you truly begin to live.
3. Women — East or West — have the right to be themselves.
Linh represents women drowning in expectations:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZkfQ4aytO1
be beautiful, be refined, marry a Westerner to change your life.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkA9cyMvb5r
But the more she chased the shadow of others,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP299G6DA50
the more she lost her own light.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6IJad9jhC
And when she finally realized it,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeL3ei0Z3Nh
she no longer knew where she belonged.
The lesson for all women:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJSmixiHV4n
You don’t need to be a copy of anyone else.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwvnc1y18rX
Your uniqueness is already your greatest treasure.
4. The West is not perfect — but it is not the enemy.
Many in the story wanted to defeat the West to glorify the East.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCOP1vcgqah
But they forgot:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeb1lvxkxCp
it was also the West that saved An, educated her, sheltered her.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeIEkuRMwBW
Opposition cannot build a better world — only cooperation and mutual understanding can.
The lesson:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5JmqbwmcOa
Instead of dividing West and East,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWjLBiSgPz
find ways for both to complement each other.
5. Mixed-race children are the face of the future.
An — and those after her — do not merely symbolize mixing.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTbDxU7xNpN
They are proof of a world in transition.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSK45cfDeNV
A world where no one may look the same anymore.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICZ9zIjxaX
And because of that, each person must live more kindly,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhUaThtExDH
more deeply,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkcLBbyGLlE
to not feel lost among the many shapes of humanity.
The greatest lesson:96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN1HdsyVL3A
Humanity does not need purity.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhsykY62RM0
Humanity needs decency.
When you reach the final page of this story,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkk2TmS8LWo
you may find yourself somewhere in An, in Linh, or in Nguyên.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPzHcRM9WK9
Maybe you too have once blamed the past,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjhZii9bi8V
run from yourself,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsFez4YXImW
or longed for a place on the world map.
But after everything, remember this:
Every human being — no matter how many bloodlines, no matter where they come from — can choose to become a lotus.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBiitxxIXmO
A lotus doesn’t need rich soil.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡetqsiMtjSD
It only needs mud, light, and a heart that refuses to abandon itself.
APPENDIX
I. Symbols and Imagery in the Story
Contrary Wind (Gió nghịch)
Represents a self that refuses to conform to prejudice, lives against societal norms, yet remains loyal to conscience.
Three bloodlines (Vietnamese – Chinese – French)
The conflict of identity, history, and modernity; representing the multiple dimensions within one person.
Memory-erasing poison
A metaphor for being forced to abandon the self, having one’s roots erased for political or assimilationist agendas.
The Western twin sister
A mirror reflection: the lost self, or the image society expects one to become.
Nguyên – Linh – An
A power triangle – representing the past (Nguyên), the present (An), and aspiration (Linh).
Interracial marriage
Image of uncontrolled assimilation, leading to broken identities and blurred senses of self.
Lotus blooming in mud
The beauty of freedom and dignity, even when born from rejection and pain.
II. Terms and Concepts in the Story
Tam tai / Number 3 in East Asian culture
A folk belief that 3 is an unlucky number, symbolizing imbalance and misfortune.
Purity vs. Hybrid identity
The contrast between "pure" cultural identity versus hybridization through Western influence or geopolitics.
Eastern vs. Western values
The tension between collectivism – family – sacrifice (East) and individualism – freedom – ambition (West).
Reincarnation – Karma
The flow of actions – choices – consequences, carried across generations like an unending cycle.
III. Reflective Questions After Reading
- If you carried multiple cultural bloodlines within you, which would you choose to embrace — and why?
- Which matters more: personal dignity or fitting in with the community?
- Is forgiveness the highest form of self-protection?
- Can someone be both a victim and a complicit party?
- How do you define belonging — and have you found it?
AFTERWORD
(Written for An — and those who never knew where they belonged)
Some are born between two currents — and spend their whole lives unsure which one to swim toward.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡURKRN89rCM
Some souls are stitched from many strands of blood — yet none are deemed “right.”96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVHm4OxL0jP
An is one such soul.
We have followed An through the shadowed corridors of identity,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3CgWMbLEFZ
through the silent dungeons of prejudice,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeoB31dTgXa
and to the edge where love, gender, nationhood, and dignity intertwine into a labyrinth with no exit.
But An —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7rxYOw3neK
she did not run.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡam5XEHNxHs
She did not surrender.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTDK499KBld
She did not pretend.
She walked straight into the storm,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0slArZ5m43
letting the opposing winds inside her strip away every protective layer.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPv2Bpyk3Ke
She stood bare before the world —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXp544JJ09M
to learn that belonging is not a country,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgoRZbP0ByR
not an ethnicity,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXu7qf7njYS
not a name on a birth certificate.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8IIK6mxLia
It is the moment one lives truthfully with the self that was once buried under prejudice.
An is no hero.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcAUPVjdMTR
She doesn’t need to be.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvgQY2tpaC
She is simply a living testament —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgIsgLM0brc
that even with the scars of three cultures,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH2xTebMT1M
even when robbed of memory, identity, and the right to love —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZYCAehilFF
she still preserved the one thing that mattered: dignity.
And in a world where everything can be exchanged —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd8zKHLx9Zg
money, nationality, gender, language, faith —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhhhgXSlRlC
dignity is the last thing that must not be cheapened.
When you close the final page,96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlZeA4h0BQy
you may forget the plot, the characters’ names, or the politics.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNealoivnu
But if you remember just one thing, please remember this:
“Some flowers only bloom against the wind.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxbEswHUW92
And some people only shine when they stop trying to resemble anyone else.”
An is such a person.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw0jqBoBX7r
And if there is a little An inside you — lonely, imperfect, different —96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYV71WTdsKF
please embrace it.
Because contrary winds are still winds.96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvsn3jXs6yZ
And not all winds are born to blow in the same direction.
— Pham Le Quy96Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEZQyJQ9GfZ
End of the Wind Season, 2025
and then Add to home screen.