It all comes to the same

A message alert sounded and Hương opened it.
"It's me, Vũ. I'm using this number. I'm sorry for everything. I was wrong."
Hương did not reply, holding back her emotions. Another message came:
"I remember all our memories from our days at the village school together. The bamboo bridge, the muddy rice-field banks, ripe hog plums, the little ferry on the canal where we used to swim to look for wildflowers..."
Hương's eyes welled with tears, but she still did not reply. Another message came:
"I loved you with an innocent, pure love. Everything was like a fairy tale."
Hương remained silent. Another message came:
"When we went to the city for university, we were poor but we had each other, sharing every sweet potato and every loaf of bread. But perhaps because we were so poor, in my heart I craved wealth."
Soon another message came:
''Yến was rich and proud, many young men were infatuated with her, and she unexpectedly liked my rustic manliness. I was both greedy for wealth and satisfying my competitive pride, and I betrayed you to marry Yến. Everyone said I had good luck, marrying a rich wife, like a mouse falling into a jar of rice.''
''Only now do I understand that what is not yours is still not yours. Other people's property remains other people's. As the son-in-law I am nothing more than a servant. Anyone in that house can bully and shout at me, including my wife.''
''Even holding my own child in my arms is not easy. It is as if I were only a hired hand so that they could have a grandchild to hold, and once they have the grandchild, the one who helped create the grandchild is no longer of any value.''
''Now that I'm in this situation, I have only one place to think of, one place to feel remorse, one place to love, one place to kneel down and repent. You understand what I mean.''
''I wish Heaven would punish me very severely, condemn me to be burned in agony in hell, and then let me go back to the old days when I was with you, poor but happy.''
''I wish the two of us could go back to the countryside now and open a smart garden farm growing clean vegetables and fruit, like we learned at university. In the afternoon, after work and eating, I would set up the hammock for you to rest, and sing vọng cổ for you.''
''I would live only for you, and die only for you.''
Hương burst into sobs 🙇‍♂️

Everyone needs and likes money, but what matters is whether that money comes from one's own merit. If money does not come from one's own merit, it will never be one's own. If people give it to us, it is only a debt to be repaid later. A debtor stays in the lower position, dependent, and very easily looked down on.
A person who understands moral principle, who has wisdom and ethics, is very afraid of using other people's money. Money we did not earn is still not ours. If there is real love between people, each must contribute a great deal of effort to deserve the money they enjoy. Nor should we think of going to live in a rich country to enjoy abundant welfare benefits. The taxes of its people are their sweat, bones and blood; if we have never contributed anything and only look for ways to immigrate and benefit, we will have to repay it later at enormous hardship.

The best view is still to live in order to contribute: wherever we go, contribute there, and for every moment we are alive, contribute with all our strength, and leave the benefits for heaven and earth to reckon, rather than be greedy and hope for them. It may sound passive, but it is the truth.
When we have merit because we have contributed a great deal to life, then joys, happiness, good fortune and even money will come to us naturally, with respect and dignity, even if we guard our self-respect very closely. By contrast, if we scheme this way and that to take things for ourselves, we may succeed for a while at first, but later we return to the starting point.
To be reserved when there are benefits, to be enthusiastic when there is a chance to contribute: that is the wisest.