Self-Denial
Chinese title: Hou Gum Tong Tin
Vietnamese title: Lòng Hiếu Động Thiên
English title: Self-Denial
"Self-Denial" is divided into 4 separate different stories, each one having to do with the unconditional love of a son/daughter for their parents.
Ada’s story is about her filial piety for her father and how it came to relieve her father from his dead sentence. The story started on a cold, snowy night. Ada was up on the mountain, where she met a young couple fleeing away from home since they were forbade by their parents to be with each other. Feeling sorry for them, she gave them some food and showed them the best escape route. Unfortunately, unbeknown to Ada, the young girl was actually the daughter of a high-positioned, evil officer (Wong Wei) in the palace. In the past, Wong already had some feuds with Ada's father. Thus, after he found out Ada has lent a hand in helping his daughter with her elopement, he decided to get her family into trouble for revenge.
Ada lived with her father (Wu Fung), a highly-skilled doctor, and her adopted brother (Gary Chan Ka-Fai), who loved and cared for her immensely. She was never allowed by her father to mention or ask about her mother, thus, the story of her mother pretty much remained a mystery to her throughout childhood.
Soon, Wong ordered for Ada to be sent to a foreign country and marry a duke. To prevent this from happening, Ada's father gave her a potion that made it seem as if she was having smallpox. Unfortunately, Wong later discovered his plan. At the same time, Wong’s son was terribly ill. Hence, he did not arrest Ada's father, but only under the condition that the man must successfully cure his son's illness.
Wong’s son was a complete pervert. While staying at Ada’s place to be cured by her father, one day he snuck into Ada's room while she was taking a bath and attempted to rape her. Luckily, Gary came to the rescue in time. During the fight, Wong’s song accidentally fell onto a hot stove and burned himself badly. As a result, he could no longer "do it" and Wong completely went ballistic at this. He immediately arrested Ada’s father and put Ada and Gary to many hardships.
In trying to help her father, Ada went searching everywhere in the city for generous officers to help with her father's case. She finally found Loi Man, an officer with great power and a good heart – but the only problem was that Loi and Ada's father used to love the same woman in the past. So Loi refused to help at first, but he was touched by Ada’s filial piety and changed his mind after seeing her kneel down in front of his palace for three days and three nights.
With Loi’s help, Ada’s father was released. It was also during this period of time that Ada discovered her mother was actually Loi’s wife. She loved Loi, but was forced by her parents to marry Ada's father, hence created the feud between the two men. But Ada did not get a chance to reunite with her mother for very long, because her mother died very soon after their reunion while trying to save Ada from being kill by Wong’s son. Ada was devastated by her death.
After her mother passed away, her father was being falsely accused of treason by Wong once more. This added to his sins and he was announced with a dead sentence. Ada did basically all that she could to clear up her father’s name. She went through numerous hardships, sacrificed everything within and beyond her reach... so much that even the king was apprised of her father’s case because of its impact. Moved by her filial piety, the king then agreed to let Ada face the palace’s three challenges, which included walking barefooted on red coals, rolling over a nail bed, and drinking poisonous wine. He promised if she could overcome all three, he will retract her father’s dead sentence.
The three challenges event was the climax of the story. Ada’s filial piety managed to get her to overcome all rigors and her father was finally released under the order of the king. In the end, Ada and Gary helped the king to find his long lost mother. Afterward, the two of them and of course, Ada’s father, all happily headed back to their village. The king also granted Ada a wooden frame, carved by the king himself the four characters "Hou Gum Tong Tin" (filial piety that touches the heart of Heaven).
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