Preamble:
Jennifer, a Canadian teenage. She has a pair of immigrant parents from Vietnam who work to create a comfortable life for their children. Jennifer showed great athletic talent from an early age, and her parents had high hopes that she would become a figure skater. However, the good times were short-lived, and a torn ligament during a training session forced Jennifer to give up her career as an athlete. Her parents shifted their minds to her Xi and asked Jennifer to focus on her studies and excel in her grades.
However, Jennifer's results were not as good as they could have been. She had to falsify her report card to deceive her parents and was under tremendous mental pressure. Her parents were disciplining her more and more, and she felt like she was in a cage and had lost the initiative in life. Jennifer's childhood memories begin to be overwhelmed by her parents' expectations, and she longs to regain her own happiness and return to those carefree years. However, all this became out of reach under the strict requirements of her parents.
Faced with her parents' growing expectations, Jennifer chose to run away. She no longer reveals her true grades to her parents, but hides her failures. She uses lies to prevaricate her parents' doubts, trying to protect what little self-esteem she has left. However, this weak self-esteem has also crumbled over time. She felt condemned, but she had nowhere to speak of her pain.
In 2003, 15-year-old Jennifer met Daniel, who was like-minded. Daniel is a thug involved in drug trafficking, but in Jennifer's eyes, he is the only person in this world who truly understands her. Jennifer finally finds someone to talk to, and she opens up to share her story with Daniel. In front of Daniel, she no longer needs to play the role of a successful daughter because he has accepted her as she really is.
The two begin an underground romance, which is Jennifer's rebellion and her rebellion against her parents. It was only in her moments with Daniel that she felt truly free and happy. It may not be a healthy relationship, but for Jennifer, it's her way of declaring that she's grown up and can take responsibility for her choices. As long as Daniel is around, she has the strength to face her parents' expectations and disappointments.
However, the relationship is not tolerated by the parents. In 2010, Jennifer's lies were exposed, and she was forced to terminate her relationship with Daniel. Without Daniel as a spiritual support, Jennifer could no longer stand the control of her parents, and her emotions completely collapsed. She felt like a trapped beast, losing the ability to struggle under the stubborn expectations of her parents.
All the way out was blocked, and she could no longer see hope. Filled with resentment, she painfully asked herself: Why was I born into this family? Why can't I have a warm and happy home? What did I do wrong and need to endure all this pain and suffering?
After reuniting with Daniel again, a terrible idea sprouts inside Jennifer. In order to be with her lover, in order to regain the freedom that was taken away from her, she decided to remove her parents as a stumbling block forever - she wanted to kill them.
It may have been a terrible thought, but in such desperate circumstances, it seemed like Jennifer's only way out. Although she never imagined that one day, she would actually do it to the people closest to her in such a cruel way.
The poison of love
On November 8, 2010, everything was as Jennifer had envisioned. She opened the door and let the three gangsters into the house. They brutally dragged the parents from the upper floors to the first floor and pushed them to the ground. Jennifer was tied to the handrail of the stairs with thick ropes, and her parents knelt in the living room, begging the gangsters to spare their daughter.
However, the gangsters showed no mercy, they pulled out their pistols and shot their parents in the head several times. The doors were shut, and the muffled sound of bullets hitting heads and screams of parents echoed through the two-story dining room. Blood splattered the walls, and Jennifer's parents collapsed in pools of blood. The gangsters watched coldly, as if the corpses in front of them were nothing more than two meaningless dolls.
It all happened so suddenly, Jennifer hadn't come to her senses yet. In this way, she watched the death of her closest and dearest, and the murderer was created by her. Was it all more than she could have imagined? When blood stained the living room floor, when the cruel smile of the gangster came into her eyes, did she also feel fear and regret? Maybe she just watched it all happen numbly, like an outsider. Her eyes burned, but she didn't really see what was happening in front of her.
Jennifer was relieved when the gangsters left the scene with the body on the ground and the paltry amount of money. She dialed 911, and the cry of a girl pierced the silence of the night.
"Someone broke into my house...... I heard gunshots...... I don't know what's going on......" Her voice trembled a little, but maybe it was just an outburst of pent-up emotions that had been suppressed for a long time. No tears, no whimpering, just a calm and bland narrative. It was as if she was just describing a case that had nothing to do with her.
Truth
The police soon arrived and found that He Bixia was dead and Pan Hanhui was dying. There were no obvious injuries to Jennifer, she just seemed to be frightened. All indications point to a murder.
However, the police soon discovered all sorts of strange things. The robbers did not take any valuables, and Jennifer herself was unscathed. After in-depth investigation, they found a large number of text messages, photos and even remittance information exchanged with the gangsters on Jennifer's mobile phone. In the face of ironclad evidence, Jennifer finally broke down and confessed.
It turned out that everything was planned by her and her boyfriend Daniel. Years of discipline have left her depressed and rebellious, and she secretly holds a grudge against her parents and is bent on breaking free from their control. When she meets Daniel again, the idea of revenge takes shape during their conversation. In the end, for the sake of love and freedom, she chooses to realize the dark night in her heart by killing her parents.
Perhaps, the moment she saw her parents lying in a pool of blood, she would also regret it. When it's too late, what right do we have to judge a person's upbringing, and what position do we have to judge a daughter's cruel revenge without examining the long process of discipline that tormented her?
We may never know what is really going on in Jennifer's heart. But what we can't deny is that it was the oppressive growth environment and the accumulated resentment that made a daughter finally embark on the road of no return to crime. Perhaps, this tragedy could have been avoided. If her parents had found out earlier, and if they had been able to adjust their discipline in time, perhaps Jennifer could have had a normal and happy life. However, all of this came to naught.
A lesson in blood
In 2014, the court finally brought the appalling case to trial. Jennifer and her co-conspirators were all sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. This is tantamount to condemning her to no more freedom and hope in this life.
Outside the prison, a family is torn apart in this horrific tragedy. Jennifer's younger brother didn't want to have anything to do with the family anymore, so he moved out of the house early and stopped contacting his father. His father, Pan Hanhui, was shrouded in shadows all day long, and he repeatedly asked himself in pain: What is wrong with my love for my daughter? Am I also responsible for today's results? I could have cared more about my daughter and understood my daughter, if I had noticed her rebellion back then, would everything have ended differently?
However, these questions do not make up for the appalling tragedy. He may be tormented by his own regrets forever, and forever hurt by his daughter's betrayal. It may be difficult for him to trust and love the world. A complete home is thus destroyed in revenge and resentment.
As bystanders, what lessons can we learn from this tragedy? Do we also need to look at our own families? Are we too neglectful of what our children are really thinking? Are we also putting a lot of pressure on our children, consciously or unconsciously? Are we focusing too much on the results and neglecting the importance of warmth?
The tragedy may have been avoided. We also have time to re-examine family relationships, listen to our children's inner voices, and give them more understanding and love. This is not only to avoid tragedy, but also because, love, as it should be.