Yeong-seon sat at the tea table on one side of the couple’s bedroom, looking at the teacup and a pile of papers on it.

The teacup contained chrysanthemum tea that Su-yeon had prepared, and the papers were filled with information about Su-yeon.

When Yeong-seon found out Su-yeon was adopted, she was overwhelmed with indescribable betrayal and anger. She had instructed Kim, the secretary of TK Group, to gather this information.

Although Kim had acquired the information faster than expected, Yeong-seon never really scrutinized it. The first line about Su-yeon’s history of being admitted to an orphanage had made her deeply uncomfortable.

She spent the entire afternoon yesterday going through those forgotten documents.

Inside the thick pile of paper were heart-wrenching details.

As she read and internalized the content, Yeong-seon kept visualizing Su-yeon’s face.

She vividly remembered the first time she saw her, nervous and shyly greeting.

Su-yeon was more calm than lively, and her modesty somehow made her look very pretty.

Yeong-seon used to say she would have welcomed anyone with open arms if they weren’t celebrities like In-ho, so she thought she found Su-yeon pretty just because she wasn’t a celebrity.

But even after that day, there wasn’t a single moment when Su-yeon didn’t look pretty in Yeong-seon’s eyes.

Yeong-seon had observed her carefully, finding Su-yeon not very sociable as a daughter-in-law.

But instead of sociability, Su-yeon had an impressive sense of delicacy.

She might not have been chatty, but she knew how to be silently supportive.

There wasn’t a trace of cajolery, but her presence alone was comforting.

She was vastly different from the other three daughters-in-law, who excelled in sociability, conversation, and amiability.

Yet, Yeong-seon’s heart always leaned towards Su-yeon.

Perhaps because Su-yeon, like In-ho, was free from materialistic desires, unlike the other daughters-in-law who fawned for the sake of inheritance.

Su-yeon, like In-ho, always had a special place in Yeong-seon’s heart.

Yeong-seon could confidently say that Su-yeon wasn’t just a daughter-in-law but her own daughter.

She always cherished and cared for Su-yeon with that sentiment.

The profound sense of betrayal she felt was because she cared for Su-yeon beyond just a thought.

“How could I have been like this? I cherished and adored her like my own daughter. How could she do this to me?”

For days, she was consumed by this thought, unable to do anything else.

The more she dwelled on it, the deeper her sense of betrayal towards Su-yeon became.

The more she had given without reserve, the more she hated her endlessly.

Because she considered Su-yeon like her daughter, the sense of betrayal led her to treat Su-yeon worse than a stranger.
Here is the translation of the given passage:

No matter how much I hated and nagged her, she never seemed to tire, which only made me more cruel and cold.

But now, I began to think.

Did I really want that child to become exhausted?

Was that why I hated and treated her so coldly?

Yeong-seon couldn’t readily answer the question she posed to herself.

So, she tried to think about it differently.

If Su-yeon couldn’t endure the nagging and truly became exhausted and collapsed, would that have made me feel relieved?

My mind became more and more complicated by the moment.

After a long time, the conclusion I reached was ‘no’.

It wasn’t that I nagged Su-yeon because I wanted her to get tired.

I needed a place to pour out the hatred that filled my heart.

I needed a target to release the anger that surged up without warning.

To Yeong-seon, Su-yeon was just perfect for this.

She was the instigator of my anger, and yet, she stood tall like a pop-up toy, unfazed by all the cold treatment and harsh words.

All these things pulled the bowstring in Yeong-seon’s heart.

The arrow she released hit Su-yeon squarely.

Yeong-seon would readily notch and aim her arrows at Su-yeon, willingly accepting them whenever a bit of malice twisted her heart.

The hatred, no matter how much I poured out or spewed, never seemed to run out.

It seemed to continuously emerge as if from a never-ending spring.

Despite repeatedly shooting her arrows, the sense of betrayal and hatred Yeong-seon felt for Su-yeon seemed to have already been spent, yet she hated her out of habit.

Nevertheless, because the daughter-in-law always showed a consistent demeanor, she thought it was okay to do so.

Even though Su-yeon was no different from her, just another human being.

“Haah…….”

The sigh that escaped her lips had, at some point, become tinged with deep regret.

Looking back, Su-yeon never pestered her to give her something as a gift, nor did she demand to be treated like a daughter.

It was all because she wanted to.
Here is the translation of the given passage:

It was like having given my heart away on my own accord and then asking for compensation.

How should I bear this karma?

Yeong-seon clenched her eyes shut and forcibly held back a sigh that surged up.