Chapter 14 — Between Two Worlds: A Bride Exchanged for a Dumpling

In another era, an immeasurable distance away from the time when Thua An was struggling with sleepless nights in Bai Tro village, in a busy street of a modern city, Kieu The Vy sat in her private office, eyes never leaving the computer screen displaying the results of an auction that had just ended. The ancient ceramic item sold from Van Nien Antiques Shop last week reached a price many times higher than the initial estimate of experts, making the entire antique collecting community in the city stir.

As a famous antique dealer and also a direct competitor of Pham Dinh Nam in the collector world for many years, Kieu The Vy could not help but pay attention to the unusual rise of this antique shop, which is only on a moderate scale. In less than a year, Pham Dinh Nam has continuously launched a series of rare antiques on the market, with strangely vague dates and origins, but their quality and authenticity are undeniable - leading expert appraisers he knows have all confirmed they are genuine, even though the origin does not match any previously recorded collection or family.

"Such a small shop, how can it continuously have such a high-quality supply of goods?" Kieu The Vy muttered, his fingers tapping on the desk, his eyes flashing with the familiar calculating gleam whenever he smelled a big business opportunity. He was not a person who easily overlooked anything that could bring profit, and the sharp intuition of a sharp dealer told him that behind Pham Dinh Nam's unusual success, there was definitely a secret worth discovering.

He began to quietly investigate, first by spending money to bribe a former employee who used to work for Van Nien Antiques Shop, to get some fragmentary information about Pham Dinh Nam regularly handling some special shipments himself in the back room, not allowing any other employees to enter. Next, he hired someone to secretly monitor the schedule of entering and exiting the store, noticing that there were certain times, often at night, when the light in the back room was on even though the store had been closed for a long time.

One night, taking advantage of when Pham Dinh Nam left the shop to go home earlier than usual because of family matters, Kieu The Vy personally broke into the shop through a back door that he had been secretly researching for weeks, breaking the lock professionally thanks to his acquaintances in the not-so-clean world. He sneaked into the back room, his heart pounding with excitement and excitement, only to witness a scene that made him hold his breath: the old wooden cabinet in the corner of the room suddenly emitted a strange pale blue light, and right before his eyes, an ancient ceramic item seemed to appear from nowhere on the shelf, still covered in dust from some distant place.

Kieu The Vy stood dumbfounded, unable to believe what her eyes had just witnessed. He quickly retreated to a dark corner, pulled out his phone and filmed the entire strange phenomenon before the light went out, leaving the room returning to its usual silence. In his mind, a series of hysterical thoughts rushed in—this was not simply an ordinary secret source, but something far beyond his normal understanding, a portal, a miracle, or whatever name suited this extraordinary phenomenon. And most importantly, this was a huge source of profit that only Pham Dinh Nam was monopolizing.

Before coming to meet in person, Kieu The Vy spent a whole week carefully researching the Pham family and the three-generation history of Van Nien Antiques Shop. He knew that Pham Dinh Nam was a cautious person who valued family honor above all else, so any attack needed to be aimed directly at that weak point. He searched through old records, searched through a wide network of acquaintances in domestic and foreign antique collectors, and finally found clues about a deal many years ago - when Pham Dinh Nam, then a young man who had just taken over the store from his father, accidentally bought an antique from an intermediary network, which he later discovered was distantly related to a case of the loss of antiques from a private collection abroad. Pham Dinh Nam himself at that time did not know the true origin of the item, but if this story was exposed, the reputation his family had built over three generations would certainly collapse, leading to many legal problems.

Firmly holding two cards in hand - a video recording a strange phenomenon in the back room, and a file on an antique with a shady origin in the past - Kieu The Vy leisurely arranged to meet Pham Dinh Nam privately at a quiet tea shop, opening with innocuous social conversations before suddenly changing direction. "Mr. Nam, your shop has been doing very well recently. Where do the items you sell really come from? I'm very curious." As he spoke, he held out the phone, replaying the video recorded the night of the break-in, his eyes full of threats.

Pham Dinh Nam turned pale and immediately realized he had been discovered. He tried to deny it, but Kieu The Vy had prepared another, even more dangerous lever: an old file about an antique of unclear origin that Pham Dinh Nam had sold many years ago, when he was still inexperienced, accidentally helping an antique trafficking ring of questionable origin without even knowing it. "I have enough evidence for both of these things," Kieu The Vy said, her voice cold. "You can choose to cooperate with me, sharing the profits from the strange thing in your back room, or I will publish everything, causing your shop to collapse, and your three-generation family's reputation to be destroyed."

Pham Dinh Nam clenched his hands, his heart filled with tears. He couldn't reveal the whole truth about Thua An and that mysterious gate — it was a promise of honor to his grandfather, and more importantly, he felt the responsibility to protect a strange person who placed all his trust in him from another era. But in the face of a specific threat and clear evidence from Kieu The Vy, he could not completely deny it.

After a period of painful deliberation, Pham Dinh Nam had to make a partial concession. "Okay, I'll let you in on these items," he said, his voice heavy. "But you must promise me one thing: absolutely do not try to directly contact or interfere with the other side. That person is in danger in a situation I cannot explain clearly, and I will not let anyone harm them."

Kieu The Vy nodded in agreement, but in his eyes, another glimmer of intention had begun to flare up. He was not the type of person who was easily satisfied with a small portion of profit when he knew that the real source was much greater. That night, as he left the tea shop, he told himself that this was just the first step — sooner or later, he would find a way to take full control of that magical secret for himself, regardless of whether Pham Dinh Nam agreed or not.

Returning to the store that night, Pham Dinh Nam sat absent-mindedly for a long time in front of the silent wooden cabinet, his heart heavy with guilt. He remembered what his grandfather had told him before he passed away: to be sincere, to protect the person on the other side at all costs, and not to let people's greed taint such a rare miracle. Now, even though he didn't completely betray that advice, he did let a greedy person like Kieu The Vy get in the way, and he doesn't know if he has the strength to control the situation before things get out of hand.

That night, when the gate opened according to the familiar cycle, Pham Dinh Nam carefully wrote a letter to Thua An, trying to choose clever words to warn without causing excessive panic. He wrote that there had been some small fluctuations in his business recently, advised Thua An to be more cautious in upcoming transactions, and promised to find a way to control the situation smoothly. He did not dare to write clearly about the secret being revealed, afraid that the news coming at the time Thua An was facing many troubles in his time would only make things more confusing, but in his heart, he knew he was delaying a truth that had to be exposed sooner or later.

Folding the letter and placing it in the gate along with a few items as usual, Pham Dinh Nam looked at the pale blue halo of light gradually closing with his heart full of confusion. He wondered if he was making the same mistake his grandfather had warned him about — the mistake of letting greed and human weakness creep into something that should be preserved with all sincerity. But it's too late to turn back. Kieu The Vy knew, had the evidence in hand, and from tonight onwards, the secret of the parallel wooden cabinet no longer belonged only to the Pham family.