Chapter 11 — Escape from the Trieu Family

"Hey, are you Trieu Minh Nguyet? The one who got 687 points? Our homeroom teacher said you were the valedictorian of our department this year!" "Wow, you're from Ha Nam? My cousin is also from Ha Nam!" "Choose your bed again, I'm sleeping on the top bunk for fear of being high, does anyone want to change——" Chirping filled the whole room. Noise. But it's noisy. The noise of life. That evening, at the end of the freshman dormitory hallway, there was a public phone. I waited in line for twenty minutes, calling Ms. Luu's number. "Miss, I'm here. Registration is complete. Everything goes smoothly." The other end of the line was quiet for two seconds. Then Ms. Luu's voice was low: "Good. You can rest assured." Pause again. "My dad later came to the school to look for you." My heart sank. "What did he say?" "Ask me where you're going. She said you've already registered for school, the manager is militarized, he can't find you." "Did he... make a noise?" Ms. Luu's voice was calm, as if she was talking about something unimportant. "He won't come again from now on." "Why do you say that?" "Because you told him a sentence." "What sentence?" "She said: 'Mr. Trieu, your daughter is now a student at a military school, under the military's management. If you dare to go to school and cause trouble, I won't kick you out, but the gendarmerie will chase you out.'" I was stunned. Then burst out laughing. "Miss, thank you." "Okay, good training. There is military training for new students in September, right? Don't get sunstroke." "Yes." Hang up the phone. Standing in the hallway, outside the window is the August night sky of Truong Sa. I can't see clearly—the city lights are too bright. But it's okay. No need to look. The ground beneath my feet is more real than any starlight. I took out my ID card from my pocket and looked at it one last time. Then store it carefully. No one will ever take it from me again. 【Chapter 9】 Military training lasts one month. Hot sun, marching, crawling, firing live bullets. Every day, I wake up at five in the morning and turn off the lights at ten at night. Tired like a dog. But I have never felt so refreshed. In my previous life, I was in a brick kiln carrying bricks, tired and desperate, drilling into my bones. The fatigue here is not the same. Every drop of sweat is my own choice. Every step I take is the direction I decide for myself. Justifiably tired. In the third week of military training, the instructor announced his shooting achievements. "Trieu Minh Nguyet, 97 rounds. Top of the entire company." There was sparse applause and whistles in the ranks. I stood on the shooting range, the gun barrel was still hot. Ninety-seven rounds. In his previous life, he carried bricks for fifteen years in a brick kiln, training him to have strangely steady hands. The hand carrying the brick and holding the gun is as steady as if it were welded together. I don't know if the hardships endured in my previous life will be considered a return in the end. Military training is over, officially starting school. Information systems and management——to put it bluntly, it is related to computers, cryptography, and information security. The difficulty of the subject far exceeds that of high school. But I have forty-three years of will from my previous life. An eighteen year old brain plus forty three years of patience, doesn't learn quickly but won't give up either. When other people nap, I'm at the library. When other people went out for a walk on the weekend, I stayed in my room to study by myself. Not competition. It's respectful. In my previous life, all these years fed on brick kilns and other people's greed. In this life, every minute is spent on me. Final exam of the first semester of the first year. Ranked seventh in the department. Not considered top, but enough. First year second semester. Ranked third in the department. Semester one of year two. Ranked first in the department. From Saturday to January, use one year. There's no secret. Just risk your life to learn. During this year, the family called several times. It was my mother calling. The content is almost the same

each other—“Nguyet, are you okay?” “This month's exam, Kien Quan has improved, ranked twenty in the class.” “Your father... your father's health has been fine recently.” “Will you come home for Tet?” I answered the previous three questions briefly. Last sentence—“Not coming back. Training schedule is full.” Actually, Tet has three days off. But I'm not coming back. I used those three days to read an entire cryptography textbook in the library. In the second semester of the second year, one day the advisor came to talk to me. "Trieu Minh Nguyet, your achievements and overall qualities are both excellent. The school has an opportunity——early selection into the key training plan of a research direction. The quota is very small, you need to interview with the professor. Are you interested?" "What direction?" "Information security and resistance. The level of security is quite high, once in, post-graduation assignment will go directly to the department." related."I didn't think. "I signed up."On the interview day, three professors sat opposite. Ask about specialized issues, ask about ideological enlightenment, ask about the family situation. "My parents are farmers. My younger brother is in high school." I said very briefly. The professor nodded and did not ask further. Three days later the results came out. Bean. Only two people from the entire faculty were selected. I am one of them. The night I received the notice, I lay on my dorm bed, staring at the ceiling.