On the day she gave birth to her first child, Thủy (27 years old, from Thái Bình) returned to her husband’s home in Phú Thọ for her postpartum confinement. Her husband, Nam, worked far away as a laborer and was rarely around. Her mother-in-law, strict and sharp-tongued, often criticized her “country bumpkin daughter-in-law who doesn’t know any better.”

Seeing her daughter living far from home, Thủy’s mother, Mrs. Hạnh (55), worried and went out of her way to send her some nourishing food. Among the items was a small bag of sticky rice, with a gentle reminder:

“This rice I’ve been saving. Cook it into pork trotter porridge to have enough milk to feed the baby.”

But when Thủy carried out the bag of rice and began to open it, her mother-in-law, standing right beside her, smacked her lips and sneered:

“Good heavens, so rustic! Giving rice to a new mother—just look at those rough grains, probably moldy from sitting around forever.”

Hearing this, Thủy lowered her head, her eyes welling up with tears. Yet, as she fully opened the bag, she froze in shock: hidden among the grains were scraps of torn paper and a small plastic pouch, tightly wrapped. Inside… were stacks of old documents—debt notes and letters of appeal.

Thủy trembled and broke down in sobs. It turned out her mother had been secretly hiding the truth: back in the village, debt collectors were pressing hard. Not wanting her daughter, who had just given birth, to worry, she slipped the papers inside the rice, hoping her daughter would “accidentally find them” and find a way to help.

Her mother-in-law only scoffed with disdain:

“Looks like her family’s desperate—stuffing debt papers inside rice now?”

Unable to bear another moment, Thủy clutched her baby, boarded a bus in tears, and went straight back home—ignoring all the gossip behind her.

Three days later, just as her husband’s family was still fuming that the daughter-in-law had “taken their grandchild away,” the commune police called: the baby’s grandfather—Thủy’s father-in-law—had been summoned for involvement in a loan-sharking case, accused of asset appropriation.

The entire in-law family was left in shock. Her mother-in-law collapsed in the yard, while Thủy sat quietly cradling her child, tears streaming down her face:

“So this was destiny—placing that bag of rice in my hands, so I would know I must return to the only place where love for me is true…”