Chapter 1 — Fake Lover Turns Out to Be Fiancee

The morning mist was still hanging across the slopes of Vo Danh mountain when Ky Bach Dang stood in the middle of the stone field in front of Tieu Dao Coc, his rough cloth sleeves flapping with each slow blow filled with power. For twenty-five years of living on this mountain, he knew every stone, every old pine tree, and every small stream that wound through the ravine better than he knew his own face by heart. He could not remember the faces of his biological parents; he only remembered being picked up as a child from the stone steps at the foot of the mountain by an old man with white hair and beard, and raised with medicinal porridge and with boxing and kicking exercises that were harsher than any child could imagine.

That old man was Dao Huyen Van, the third generation sect leader of Tieu Dao Coc, the person Bach Dang had called "master" for the past twenty-five years, more respectfully than the way people call their biological father.

"Standing still so wobbly, are you planning to go down the mountain and make fun of people?" The voice rang out from the valley gate, carrying the sound of a bamboo stick tapping on the stone.

Bach Dang withdrew his fist, turned around, clasped his hands and bowed. "I did not intend to go down the mountain. What are you talking about, Master?"

Master Huyen Van stepped forward, his figure was thin but his eyes were still sharp as knives. He looked at his students from head to toe, his eyes were both satisfied and somewhat unpredictable. "It's been twenty-five years. Why do you think I raised you on this deserted mountain? Letting you hang around old pine trees like me all your life?"

"Disciple, it's good to see that." Bach Dang scratched his head, honestly not understanding what his master meant. "It's quiet on the mountain, there's no fighting or taking, the master teaches the disciple, he learns, full food and warm clothes, what more do you need?"

Daoist Huyen Van sighed, a sigh contained a lifetime. He sat down on a large stone slab in the middle of the yard, signaling his disciples to sit next to him. "Bach Dang, do you know why I named you Bach Dang?"

"When I listen to my master, I hope that I will be like a light that doesn't go out for a hundred years, illuminating the way for those who are lost."

"That's right. But I haven't finished talking yet." He looked far into the horizon, where white clouds crossed the mountain. "No matter how bright a lamp is, if left alone in a dark cave, it can only illuminate four cliff walls. It must be taken out of the cave for it to truly be a lamp."

Bach Dang was silent. I feel like today's story is not as simple as everyday conversations.

"This sect Tieu Dao Coc, up to my lifetime, has only accepted one disciple in three generations." Master Huyen Van continued, his voice lowered. "You are the last hope of this valley. But a sect without people going out to interact, without people interacting with the world, will eventually die out like a lamp running out of oil. I am already old, Bach Dang. I need you to lower the mountain, not to leave the mountain, but to bring the reputation of Tieu Dao Coc out of this stagnant pond."

"Master..." Bach Dang lowered his eyes, his hands clasped in front of his chest suddenly tightened, his thumbs rubbing the sleeve line over and over as if looking for a place to hold on to. "I've never gone down the mountain before. I don't even know what the city down there looks like."

"You have to go." Master Huyen Van stood up, waved his sleeves, looking like a fairy in an ancient painting. "I have already made all the arrangements. Go down the mountain and find Ho Chi Minh City. There is a sect there... well, some unfinished sect work from many years ago that needs you to complete on my behalf."

Bach Dang raised his head, his eyes shining with curiosity. "What is it, master? I will definitely complete it well."

Daoist Huyen Van was silent for a long time, long enough for Bach Dang to feel something was wrong in his master's eyes, a look of both guilt and forced laughter. But then he just shook his head, turned and walked into the ancestral temple, leaving a sentence hanging in the air.

"Just go down there and you'll understand. The road is difficult, the people are dangerous, you have to learn how to cope on your own. That's also part of the challenge."

That afternoon, Taoist Huyen Van called Bach Dang into the ancestral master's temple, where incense and smoke lingered all year round. On the altar, in addition to the majestic statues of the ancestors, there is also a small wooden box covered with the dust of time.

"This." He opened the box, took out a yellowed envelope and a piece of jade pendant in the shape of half a bird, the bird's wings were neatly broken in a straight line, as if it were originally half of a complete block of jade. "I bring these two things with me. Wait until it's really necessary to open and read the envelope. Don't be in a hurry. As for this piece of jade, keep it with you, don't ever lose it."

Bach Dang picked up the piece of jade and felt its strange warmth in his palm, as if someone had been holding it for decades. "What is this, master? Why do I find it so precious?"

"When the time comes, you will know." Master Huyen Van folded the envelope and stuffed it into Bach Dang's sleeve. His eyes flashed with something distant, almost nostalgic. "I only tell you one thing. Once you get down from the mountain, no matter what happens, don't rush to lose trust in others. The city down there is not like the mountains and forests, not everyone is as sincere as your fellow disciples think."

"Disciples don't have any other peers besides the master." Bach Dang smiled, the clear smile of a person who has never been dulled by life.

Daoist Huyen Van looked at his student, his old hand gently clasped the bamboo stick behind his back, the rough skin of his palm rubbing against the bamboo knuckle was so familiar that he didn't need to look to know where it was worn. He knew he was hiding something important, knew that if he told the truth from the beginning, this upright student would probably refuse to go, or would be so embarrassed that he wouldn't dare face the person he had to find. But he also knew that there were some things that if you talk about them in advance, they will fail, so if they happen naturally, they will truly last.

"Master, how long will it take for you to return?" Bach Dang asked, his voice a bit nostalgic as he looked around the coc yard, looked at the familiar stones, looked at the old pine trees that had grown up with him.

"When your wish is fulfilled, you will automatically know the way home." Master Huyen Van patted his student's shoulder, his hand was thin but still unusually warm. "Go. At the foot of the mountain, someone will be waiting to take you to the bus station. From there, you have to take care of everything yourself."

The next morning, when the sun had not yet had time to tear through the layer of fog covering the mountain top, Bach Dang stood in front of the Tieu Dao Coc gate, carrying a simple cloth bag on his shoulder containing a few sets of clothes, a few small pieces of silver coins that his master had given him as a fee, along with an envelope and a piece of jade pendant carefully hidden in his chest.

"Master, I'm leaving." He knelt down, bowed his head three times according to the sect's rituals.

Master Huyen Van stood on the high stone steps, watching the student's silhouette disappear behind the mountains, feeling both relief and sadness in his heart. He muttered to himself, his voice blown away by the mountain wind, leaving only a few fragmentary words.

"Twenty-five years ago, Brother Duong and I made a promise... now it's time to repay..."

Bach Dang, of course, did not hear that sentence. He just engrossed himself in walking down the winding stone steps, feeling both excited and nervous about a completely strange world waiting ahead. From childhood to adulthood, he had never left Vo Danh Mountain for more than a day. His world was limited to the sounds of birds singing, the sound of flowing streams, the sound of wind blowing through the rocks and his master's voice. Now, for the first time in his life, he was about to enter a world called the city, where his master said there was "unfinished business" waiting for him to resolve.

That unfinished business, he will soon learn, turns out to be a girl — and the meeting to come will change his entire life in a way that no amount of kata on the mountain could have prepared him for.

At the foot of the mountain, there was indeed a middle-aged man driving an old truck waiting, following his master's instructions, to take him to the nearest town's bus station. All the way, Bach Dang sat quietly in the cockpit, his eyes wide open, watching everything passing through the window. The tall electricity poles, colorful advertising signs, and motorbikes gliding on the asphalt, all were so strange that they both scared and excited him.

"Is this your first time going down the mountain?" The driver asked, his voice a bit curious when he saw the bewildered look of the young man sitting next to him.

"Yes, this is the first time." Bach Dang replied, his eyes still glued to the scene outside. "Uncle, what are those columns for? Why are they so high?"

The driver laughed, not with contempt but with laughter because he saw the boy's adorable innocence. "That electric pole is to carry electricity everywhere. Are you sure you don't have electricity in the mountains?"

"This sect mainly uses oil lamps and wax candles." Bach Dang answered honestly, making the driver laugh even harder.

Arriving at the bus station, the driver showed Bach Dang how to buy a ticket, how to find the right bus to the city, and also kindly added a few words about keeping money carefully and not revealing it in crowded places. Bach Dang nodded repeatedly, grateful for the kindness of the first stranger he met in his life, thinking to himself, perhaps the master is worrying too much, the people in the mountains are not as cruel as he said.

He did not expect that, just a few hours later, that gullibility would cost him a small price.

The passenger car rolled, taking Bach Dang away from the familiar mountains, towards the horizon where a city with bright lights was waiting. Somewhere inside that bright light, a girl carrying the remaining half of the jade pendant is living a completely different life from him, having never heard of the name Ky Bach Dang, but fate has silently arranged for those two paths to intersect.

On the bus ride that shook with each turn of the pass, Bach Dang took out the envelope his master gave him to look at, but remembering the advice "don't rush to open it", he carefully put it in his chest, next to the unusually warm piece of jade pendant. He didn't know that inside that envelope was a name, an address, and a few short lines that could change his whole life, if he opened it and read it sooner.

But perhaps, because they were not in a hurry to open it, the story of Bach Dang and Duong Gia Khue had the opportunity to begin in an unexpected way, full of funny and sad misunderstandings, before they realized the truth that had been predetermined twenty-five years ago.