Chapter 4 — Broken Pearls Are Hard to Heal

"That's right. I heard from a relative who worked as a translator in the district. Last night, sir, he closed the official seal in the night and sent a whole team of servants carrying swords and horses to ride non-stop back to his old hometown in Duong Chau, arresting Mother Trieu, who had served the old lady for decades. This morning during the interrogation, the public hall's door was tightly closed, and a faint sound of crying could be heard inside. It was scary to hear."
I was holding steel scissors cutting a piece of blue fabric, when I heard that my fingertips slightly stopped. Another woman lowered her voice, her face full of surprise.
“What crime did that mother commit that makes you no longer care about your family's dignity?”
"I don't know. I just heard that at the end of the interrogation, there was a sudden silence inside. Immediately after that, I saw the guard next to you rushing to invite the best doctor in the city. I heard that the district attorney was too excited and angry, right in the public hall he spat out a large mouthful of blood and fainted."
The women all cooed endlessly, patting their breasts and muttering.
“It's truly cruel.”
I stood behind the counter, mechanically repeating the movements in my hands, neatly folding the fabric I had just cut. The chatter around was like a tide gradually receding. In my ears, only the words remained.
"If you're angry, you'll vomit blood on the public street."
It turns out he went to investigate. An intelligent and perceptive person like Quy Hanh, once he discovered from my words clues like "a letter of separation" or "your wife", how could he sit still. But Quy Hanh... What if you investigate? The slaps he suffered in the Buddhist hall that year, his knees kneeling to the point of numbness under the hot sun, then Tong Van Am feverishly unconscious in the ruined temple, desperately crushing the letter of separation... he died four years ago in the winter. The only person alive now is just a widow guarding the Tham family's fabric store, whose heart has become as cold as ashes.
"Miss Shen Tu? Miss Tham Tu?"
The guest's call pulls us back to reality. I forced a moderate smile and accepted the copper coin.
“Here is your cloth, please take it.”
In the evening, the sky suddenly turned dark and heavy rain poured down. People on the street soon ran away. Rainwater flowed along the fabric store's awning and hit the blue stone floor, shooting up white mist that was high above a person's head. I moved the last sheet of cloth into the accounting room and was about to close the heavy wooden door. As soon as I raised my head, I discovered that in the darkness in front of the door, I don't know when, there was a person standing there. Amidst the white rain, Quy Hanh stood quietly on the steps in front of my store. He did not cover himself with an umbrella, letting the cold rain water drench his whole body. The official uniform symbolizing majesty was also soaked and hanging down on his body. The thin lips that always carried a sarcastic smile were now pale and bloodless. In his arms, he clutched an extremely primitive wooden box.
“Sir, the store is about to close.”
I grabbed the door latch, my voice strangely cold in the rain. Quy Hanh gently moved his chapped lips, his weak voice was almost drowned out by the sound of the rain.
“Ah Am… I found it.”
His trembling hands slowly opened the wooden box and brought it in front of me. That moment... My breathing completely stopped. Inside was a pile of woven bamboo toys that were broken to the point of no longer having any shape. There are bamboo dragonflies, a small fabric tiger, and a bamboo horse with a broken leg. These are all old dishes from Duong Chau, I sat under the oil lamp, knitting little by little, happily making them for him. Back then, Mother Trieu once said that these cheap things were hated by Quy Hanh, trampled on and thrown into the dirty sewer long ago. Yet now... Those shattered fragments were clumsily reassembled bit by bit using extremely thin gold threads. At the place where the thread broke, there were still dried blood stains. Perhaps there have been people who have had their hands punctured and torn by needles countless times, yet still go crazy trying to patch them back up.
“They burned all the letters I wrote to you.”
Quy Hanh stared at the wooden box, his voice was soft like a child who had done something wrong, choking up.
“You know… why I left you a letter of separation.”
"But I didn't know about my cousin... it was all made up by them..."
“Ah Am… the words I said to you before…”
“I really deserve to die.”
“I have investigated the truth.”
“But the mastermind who caused it all… was me.”
“It's our noble family.”
“Ah Am…”
He raised his eyes to look at me. His voice trembled so much that he couldn't make a sound.
“Teach me…”
“What should I do… to make her willing to look at me again?”
I stood inside the door, quietly looking at the man who was being tormented by the truth until it was almost broken before my eyes. In my chest, the place that used to hurt so much because of him... Now only a piece of numbness remains.
“Your Excellency…”
“Please come back.”
I calmly looked at him. There was no longer any resentment or blame in his voice. Only silence leaves people in despair.
“Heavy rain is harmful to health.”
“In this world, there are things that you already know the truth about, so it's better to keep not knowing.”
Stop talking. I slowly closed the two heavy wooden doors right in front of him. ... After that heavy rain, Quy Hanh did not appear for half a month. Listening to the people who came to the store to buy fabric, the district governor, after a serious illness, coughed up blood and fell into a coma for three days in the hospital, almost losing his life. But after recovering, he seemed to turn into a different person. Every day he is as cold as water, his tactics are several times more cruel than when he first took office. In just half a short month, he used lightning tricks to deal with a few gangsters who were raging and raging and accumulating blood debt in the district. The trick shows no blood, but can peel off three layers of the opponent's skin. The people of An Duong district secretly spread the news to each other.