Chapter 25 — After Doctor Diep Disappeared

Diep Nam Sanh made a bento box for him. The rolled eggs are shaped like flowers, the carrots are cut into star shapes, and the rice balls are glued with seaweed to form a smiley face. When giving him the lunch box, she will squat down, keeping her eyes level with him.

“Tu Mac, what flavor do you want to eat today?”

At that time, the boy had just learned how to speak in complete long sentences. His childish voice replied in a slurred voice: "The food mom cooks is all delicious." Diep Nam Sanh will laugh, his eyes curved. After that, Tham Moc Ngung told him that his mother didn't love him anymore. Mom only loves work, not family. Tham Moc Ngung bought him more expensive toys, took him to the amusement park, and whispered in his ear over and over again.

"Tu Mac, look, your mother is not home."

"Only mother Tham is with me."

The boy believes that. He started to stop calling Diep Nam Sanh mother. One time Diep Nam Sanh came home from work, squatted down and wanted to hug him, he pushed her away and said one sentence: "Go away, I don't need you." Diep Nam Sanh's hand stopped in midair, the smile on his face slowly faded. At that time, he felt very happy. I feel like I've won. But now. TV said she was dead.

“Mom.” Co Tu Mac's voice was very soft, so soft that only he could hear it.

And then the boy burst into tears. Three days later. Co Han Chau hugged the urn and returned to Bac Thanh. … On the other side of the ocean. An old building is hidden in an industrial park on the edge of the city. There are no signs, no windows, just an iron door. Diep Nam Sanh pushed the iron door and walked in. The lights inside were pale white, the air reeked of antiseptics and rust. A bald middle-aged man sat behind a desk, an unlit cigarette in his mouth. He glanced at Diep Nam Sanh's right hand and said in English:

“The level of nerve damage is 73%, tendons are broken in two places, bones are in the wrong position in four places.”

“If you want to restore function, you must first crush the misaligned bone, reconnect it, then forcibly stretch the tendons and force the nerves to regenerate.”

“There is no anesthetic.”

When he said the last three words, he looked at Diep Nam Sanh.

“The people doing surgery here, no one has legal papers, cannot use anesthesia. Are you sure?”

Diep Nam Sanh placed his right hand on the table.

“Let's get started.”

The man stubbed out his cigarette and took out a set of stainless steel surgical instruments from the drawer. The first step is to re-break the bones that have healed in the wrong position. The steel pliers grabbed the bone of her index finger and pressed hard. Sprinkle. The sound of bones breaking echoed in the room. Diep Nam Sanh's body suddenly tensed up, the muscles in his back contracted, and sweat broke out on his forehead. Every time she broke a finger, her lips bit her and drew another layer of blood. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth onto the table. The corners of her eyes were red, physiological tears threatened to well up in her eye sockets, but she was determined not to let a single drop fall. After resetting the bones for all four fingers, the man began using steel nails to fix the new position for the bones. The steel nail penetrated from the outside of the skin, penetrated the bone, and punctured on the other side.

“Go ahead.”

—

Chapter 15 Two years later. New York, Manhattan. On the 46th floor of an office building, ground-level glass windows look straight out to Central Park. Sitting behind the desk is an Asian woman. She wore a black haute couture suit, her hair tied neatly at the back of her head, and a very small black earring in her left ear. She used her left hand to sign the document, her pen strokes were sharp and fluent. After signing, she pushed the document to the opposite side, three white lawyers sitting on the other side received it, flipped it over and looked at it again, then exchanged glances. One of the oldest lawyers among them cleared his throat.