Mute Mom's Silent Smile, My Lifelong Regret

In a small village, a girl grows up as the daughter of the mute outcast everyone calls a tramp. She watches her mother clutch crumpled bills, endure stones and insults, and smile through blood, and from that day she stops calling her Mom. She studies without rest, determined to escape the valley and the scandal that follows her to school.

On the day her college acceptance letter arrives, police surround the village. Her mother is led out in chains, accused of stabbing the town leader, Mr. Hayes, seven times. The neighbors whisper that the college girl is now a murderer's daughter. At the station, her mother gestures desperately about money and school, begging her to leave, but the girl slaps her and tears up the letter.

After the death sentence is passed, the girl sells the land and the house. Under the bed she finds a rusty tin box packed with small bills, twelve thousand dollars in all, enough for four years of college. She keeps it, telling herself it is what her mother owes her.