Chapter 7 — Champion Bodyguard of the Female President

At four thirty in the morning, when the whole city was still asleep, Bach Nguyen stood alone in the middle of the small terrace of the apartment building, the soles of his bare feet touching the concrete floor still cold with the night dew, taking a deep breath before launching the first move of Iron Shadow Fist. There were no sounds of wild birds, no morning dew hovering over the tops of the pine trees — only the distant sound of car horns from the avenue below, the flickering neon lights on the roof of a building opposite, and the artificial silence of the city, a silence always pierced by the sound of engines, never as complete as the silence of the mountains and forests he had become accustomed to for eighteen years. Two weeks after leaving Van Son Mon, it was still the only thing he couldn't get used to.

Other things, he has gradually adapted in his own way. Bach Nguyen moved to live in a small room adjacent to Tue Lam's apartment, fully furnished with modern amenities, but he still maintained the same simple living habits as his days in the mountains - waking up early to practice before dawn, eating frugally, and always vigilantly observing all movements around him, as if the instincts of a guard had never known the concept of complete rest.

His appearance as Tue Lam's personal bodyguard initially made many people in the company curious, but thanks to his quiet, uncommunicative personality, he quickly became a silent shadow always standing by her side without attracting too much unnecessary attention. The security team led by Pham Trung Nghia was initially hesitant about the presence of an outsider, but after several times witnessing Bach Nguyen's sharp observation and reflexes during security drills, they gradually accepted his presence.

"Where did you learn martial arts?" a young security officer once asked him during a break, his voice full of curiosity.

"In a far away place," Bach Nguyen simply replied, not wanting to reveal any more details about his background. He understood that the less people knew about Van Son Mon and his connection to the Kieu family, the better for protecting Tue Lam as well as the silent investigation he was conducting.

Every night, after escorting Tue Lam back to her apartment safely, Bach Nguyen spent hours sitting in front of the old laptop he borrowed from Thuy Linh, searching for public documents related to the fire that occurred at the Kieu villa eighteen years ago. He knew that the official investigation records were almost completely sealed, but there were still old news stories and news articles at the time of the incident that could reveal some valuable clues.

After many nights of searching, he found an old article published in a local newspaper that was no longer active, with the brief headline: "Fire at businessman Kieu's villa, two people died." The article only contained a few paragraphs, briefly describing the incident as a fire and explosion accident due to an electrical short circuit, without mentioning any possibility of intentional fire.

But there was one detail that caught Bach Nguyen's special attention - the article mentioned that, right before the fire, there was a tense shareholder meeting taking place at Mr. Kieu Thanh Nghia's company, in which a major shareholder proposed to buy back all of the company's shares at a price much lower than the real value, but Mr. Nghia firmly refused.

Bach Nguyen Luc looked deeper, trying to find out the identity of that shareholder, but the article did not specifically name it, just calling it "one of the company's founding shareholders." He noted this detail, feeling like he had just touched a thin thread that could lead to the entire tangled ball of truth.

The next night, while Tue Lam was sitting in the living room of her apartment working, Bach Nguyen walked over and placed in front of her a printout of an old newspaper article he had just found. "Do you know who were the original founding shareholders of Kieu Phat? Especially those who had conflicts with your father about selling shares?"

Tue Lam read through the article, her face gradually becoming serious. "I don't know the details, I was too young at that time. But I remember, in the company records, it mentioned that some founding shareholders withdrew or were removed from the board of directors very early. Let me check the internal archives."

She opened her laptop, accessed the company's file storage system, and searched for old documents from the early years of Kieu Phat's founding. After a while of searching, she stopped at a list of original founding shareholders, her eyes fixed on a familiar name.

"Luong Khac Viet," she read aloud, her voice shaking slightly. "He was one of the three original founding shareholders of the company, along with three of you and another person who passed away due to illness in the nineties."

Bach Nguyen frowned, remembering that name. "What position does he currently hold in the company?"

Tue Lam suddenly realized the suspicious coincidence, her voice gradually tensed. "Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. He was the one who objected the most when I was appointed to replace my father to run the company. He always showed concern for the company in front of everyone, but I always felt there was something wrong with his attitude."

"Do you know the history of the relationship between him and your father?" Bach Nguyen continued asking, his voice became unusually serious.

"I don't know the details," she shook her head, "but I vaguely remember, when I was little, I heard adults talking, that Uncle Viet had a big disagreement with my father about the company's direction, leading to him being gradually pushed out of a key executive position, only holding the formal title of Vice President for many years."

Bach Nguyen stood up, walked to the window overlooking the city at night, his mind reeling with the puzzle pieces gradually fitting together. If Luong Khac Viet really had a deep conflict with Tue Lam's father and was pushed out of power in the company, then his motive for staging a fire to eliminate his opponent, or at least put pressure on Mr. Nghia to make concessions, is completely well-founded.

"But just with what I have now, it's not enough to conclude anything for sure," he said, turning back to look at Tue Lam. "We need more specific evidence, and must be very careful. If Uncle Viet is really behind all of this, he must have carefully prepared to leave no direct traces that can be traced."

"So where should we start?" Tue Lam asked, her eyes both worried and determined.

"First of all," Bach Nguyen replied, "you need to find out more about what happened in the company right before and after the fire that year — who benefited, who lost positions, how the cash flow and shares moved. At the same time, we also need to closely monitor Uncle Viet's recent moves, especially the intermediary companies that my friend, Nha Ky, is trying to trace."

Tue Lam nodded, picked up the phone and called Chu Nha Ky that night. After briefly presenting the new discovery, all three of them — Tue Lam, Bach Nguyen and on the phone, Nha Ky — agreed on a cautious investigation plan, avoiding unnecessary attention that could alert the mastermind and erase their tracks before they could collect enough evidence.

That night, after Tue Lam fell asleep, Bach Nguyen still sat alone in the darkness of the living room, twirling the old red thread on his wrist. For eighteen years, he had wondered countless times who was the one who took away his parents, who pushed him into orphanage when he was too young to fully understand the meaning of loss. Now, when the name Luong Khac Viet suddenly appeared, associated with both his painful past and Tue Lam's dangerous present, a fire that had been smoldering for a long time in his heart seemed to have found a direction to burn again.

He looked out the window, the sparkling city lights reflected in his calm eyes but containing a steely determination. No matter how difficult the road ahead is, no matter how well hidden the enemy is, he will find the truth, not only because of his promise to protect Tue Lam, but also because of the unpaid blood debt to his parents, who sacrificed their lives to protect a family that was not blood and flesh, just because of the loyalty and responsibility they chose to carry until their last breath.

The next morning, before Tue Lam left the apartment to go to the company, Bach Nguyen called Dinh Phong Vu, asking his brother to help him look up more in the old archives of Van Son Mon, which kept a number of records about the times when the sect had secretly supported the investigation of complicated cases in the past at the request of grateful families.

"Do you really think that fire that year has anything to do with what's happening now?" Phong Vu asked over the phone, sounding somewhat surprised.

"Just trust me," Bach Nguyen replied, his voice full of certainty. "The more I learn, the more I see that things are not as simple as they seem. If you find any records related to the name Luong Khac Viet during that period, please notify me immediately."

Phong Vu promised to try his best, although the sect's archives are not arranged according to a modern system, the search may take a lot of time. After hanging up the phone, Bach Nguyen sat quietly for a moment, feeling like all the pieces of the past and present were gradually coming closer together, only missing a few final details to form a complete picture of the truth that he had been searching for eighteen long years.