The brainwashing did not affect me.
After seeing that, my heart fully cooled.
If they were going to use me, I decided, then I might as well use them.
I always dreamed of a win-win scenario.
That ended the moment I refused to carry out a particular order—the one that required me to be abusive to women.
I could not do it. Not after what my father had done to my mother.
Every woman I might harm could be someone's mother. Someone's sister. Someone's daughter.
I could not cross that line.
The government threatened me. They said they would subject my mother to the same abuse I refused to inflict.
That was the moment I understood: there would never be a win-win scenario.
Once they had used me to get what they wanted, they would dispose of me. All to gain complete access to the Piao family.
I realized then that I had no choice but to seek allies outside the Piao family.
I could not approach them—not with my existence hanging over me. Councillors of the Piao family were ruthless. They would kill me without hesitation if they learned of me.
I turned to other major families instead, hoping for support.
I found none. Only more people eager to exploit me.
By the age of seventeen, I understood the truth: the only person I could rely on was myself.
I showed them what they wanted to see.
I became the pitiable, easily controlled child.
No self-esteem. No resistance. I let them rub my head. I followed orders without question.
Never asking why.
Never asking anything.
All to protect myself and my mother.
Years passed.
Now, at twenty-one, the government gave me a new mission: to uproot the information the Piao family had hidden from the public.
They knew about the Tree of Knowledge but wanted the world to know.
Everything was in place. All I had to do was one thing: remove the protection of the Male Act.
I disagreed.
The Male Act had kept me alive all these years, shielding me amid the elite families' struggle for control over me.
Removing it was like taking away the very armor that had preserved my life.