Neung Ta Wan Pan Dao

This is the story of Dao, a 12-year-old girl who lost her father and was left by her mother in the care of a neighbor. Her mother never had the chance to return to look after her, sending only occasional money for expenses. Although the neighbor provided Dao with education, they treated her half-heartedly and made her work like a servant.
Missing her mother deeply, Dao often wrote letters and poems to her, pleading for her to come and take her away. Eventually, her dream seemed to come true when she received her first letter from her mother, saying she had found a job and asking Dao to take a train to Bangkok to meet her. Her mother strictly warned her not to speak to strangers until they met.
Dao followed her mother’s instructions carefully, but when she arrived at the train station, there was no sign of her mother. Unbeknownst to Dao, her mother had died in a car accident on the way. Dao waited at the platform overnight, refusing to speak to anyone. People assumed she was deaf and mute. Because she was a cute and pitiful child, passersby brought her food and water, which made her realize that staying silent worked to her advantage. Combined with her anger and heartbreak over her mother breaking her promise, Dao decided never to speak again.
During this time, Namning, an elderly housekeeper of Tawatchai—a wealthy widowed businessman who owned Harmony Radio—returned from visiting relatives and found Dao still waiting at the station. After learning her story from vendors, she took pity on Dao and brought her home, hoping Tawatchai would adopt her.
On the same day, Ailada, a widowed woman with a daughter named Irene—who was Dao’s age but spoiled and self-centered—arrived at Tawatchai’s house to plan their upcoming marriage. While Dao was waiting in the garden, Irene, having heard that Dao was deaf and mute, played a prank by bursting a powder-filled balloon near her ear. Tawan, Tawatchai’s only son, rushed in to help, but the balloon burst, covering both him and Dao in powder. Dao was touched when Tawan kindly wiped her face.
Ailada pretended to scold Irene and supported the idea of letting Dao stay, hoping to appear kind in Tawatchai’s eyes. Starved for maternal love, Dao admired Ailada and wished she could become her mother. However, behind Tawatchai’s back, Ailada revealed her true feelings, resenting having to please a street child she believed to be deaf and mute.
After Ailada married Tawatchai and moved into the house, Dao felt hopeful that her wish might come true. She tried especially hard to please and obey Ailada, while Irene constantly bullied her. Ailada ignored the mistreatment, but Dao was protected by Tawan, whom she grew to admire and secretly love, though she kept it hidden, knowing she was only a servant.
Eventually, Tawatchai decided to send Tawan abroad to study. Before leaving, Tawan gave Dao a clever puppy named Cupid to keep her company and protect her, and he asked Namning to look after her. Because everyone believed Dao was deaf and mute, she overheard many secrets within the household and even in the Harmony Radio company, as Ailada made her a personal servant who followed her everywhere. Dao learned about gossip, betrayals, and schemes, but kept everything to herself, expressing her feelings only through conversations with Cupid and the poems she wrote.
As Irene grew older, Ailada became determined to have her marry Tawan to keep the family wealth secure. She constantly pressured Irene to write letters to him, but Irene, being popular with many admirers—including Karn, the son of a major sponsor and shareholder, and Songklod, an ambitious finance officer at Harmony—had no interest. Out of laziness, Irene made Dao write the letters instead, after discovering her talent for poetry.
Every letter Dao wrote gave Tawan comfort and encouragement while he was abroad, leading him to mistakenly believe that Irene was the one who truly cared for him.
Five years passed. Whenever Dao missed her mother or felt troubled, she would return to the train station to wait, holding onto the hope that one day she might finally see her mother again.