The midnight bell tolled across the hillside village, its chimes echoing through the darkness.
On a night when rain lashed as if the sky itself were wrathful, the world was swallowed by shadows and relentless downpours.
In a small cottage lit by a flickering lantern, Mae Plaew—the kind woman who had raised three children with love—lay breathing her last.
The sobs of Nunna, Kongphop, and Kimh rang out, competing with the fury of the storm, yet nothing could alter the destiny decreed by the heavens.
"From tonight onward… you must be strong. Never let anyone trample over you."
These were the final words of a woman who was not their birth mother, but the one who had given them a new life.
---
The next morning, they were sent to an orphanage.
Seven-year-old Kimh's eyes burned with stubbornness and unspent anger.
Six-year-old Nunna gritted her teeth, swallowing her pain, secretly vowing to protect her younger brother at all costs.
And five-year-old Kongphop, the most fragile of the three, possessed a gentleness that belied his tender age.
---
Months and years passed, and hardship struck without end.
What little hope the orphanage had offered was swallowed by harsh reality—
Kimh had to work immediately after finishing secondary school.
Nunna and Kongphop followed, scraping by with odd jobs and meager earnings.
One night, they huddled together under a bridge, in a land ravaged by hunger and cold winds.
In the darkness, the stars revealed a faint light,
as if the heavens and earth themselves were pointing the way…
"Their fate was not only one of suffering, but also bound by curses and bonds set upon them from birth."