Chapter 4 — Fake Lover Turns Out to Be Fiancee

After Mr. Duong Khac Nguyen left the restaurant, Gia Khue pulled Bach Dang to sit down at the table, his eyes still lingering on the smile from just now. She looked more closely at the man in front of her, and the more she looked, the more strange things she saw. The rough clothes, the stiff way of clasping hands in ceremony, and especially the clear eyes without any calculation, were completely different from the men she had met in the business world, where each look contained a hidden purpose.

"Mr. Bach Dang, thank you again for helping me." She took out a leather wallet from her bag, pulled out a few large bills and placed them on the table. "Here is five hundred thousand as promised, please take it."

Bach Dang looked at the papers with unfamiliar images, picked them up and turned them in his hands with undisguised curiosity. "Is this money? It looks different from the silver bars I usually use."

Gia Khue raised his eyebrows, not understanding the meaning of the sentence. "Silver silver? What are you joking about?"

"It's not a joke." Bach Dang replied honestly, his voice a bit sad as he recalled the past. "Yesterday, just coming down the mountain, I had a few taels of silver that my master was preparing to pay, but a man named Phat tricked me into taking it all away. He said he would exchange it for money to help me. Then he left and never came back."

Gia Khue was stunned, looking straight at Bach Dang to see if he was making up a story to get more money, but his eyes when telling the story were completely without any calculation, only the naive warmth of a person who had just been cheated for the first time in his life.

"Are you saying you don't have any money left?" She asked again, her voice a bit incredulous.

"That's right." Bach Dang nodded. "I haven't eaten anything since morning, and I don't know where to sleep tonight. But don't worry, I have no intention of taking advantage of this to ask you for more money. You just asked, so I'll answer truthfully."

That sentence, seemingly simple, made Gia Khue pause for a moment. For many years living in the business world, she has become accustomed to the fact that every word has an underlying purpose, every action is aimed at a certain benefit. But the man in front of her spoke the truth nakedly, without any calculation, as if saving face or taking advantage of opportunities had never entered his mind.

"You really are strange." She shook her head, unable to help but laugh for the second time that night. "Okay, just take this five hundred thousand, consider it as wages. As for the matter of you being cheated, I'll call someone to handle it later."

Bach Dang took the money, carefully folded it and put it in his chest, next to the envelope and the jade pendant. "Thank you. So we're done, right? I'll take my leave."

He stood up and was about to walk away, but Gia Khue felt something was wrong when he saw him preparing to leave the restaurant in the middle of the night, with no place to rely on, no one he knew in this strange city.

"Wait." She called back, she didn't even understand why she did that. "Where are you going now?"

Bach Dang stopped walking, turned back to look at her, a little confused. "I don't know yet. Maybe find a corner of the park to sleep temporarily, like last night."

"You slept in the park?" Gia Khue frowned, an indescribable feeling of guilt arose in her heart. Even though it wasn't her responsibility, she was the one who dragged him into this drama, and now seeing him preparing to wander in the middle of the night without a place to stay, she couldn't bear to leave him alone.

"It's OK." Bach Dang smiled, a strangely relieved smile. "In the mountains, I often sleep outdoors when I go far away to pick herbs. I'm used to it."

Gia Khue looked at him, the corner of her mouth suddenly raised even though she tried to keep her usual serious look. She took out her phone, intending to call the hotel manager she knew to book him a room for the night, but then hesitated, her finger hovering over the screen, suddenly realizing that she was hesitating not because she regretted paying for the room, but because an unfamiliar hotel was not necessarily as safe as keeping an eye on this naive guy at her fingertips.

"Okay, I'll follow you." She spoke, her voice somewhat determined, as if she had just made an important decision. "For tonight, just sleep in the guest house of my villa and continue tomorrow morning. Think of it as repaying me for helping you escape that troublesome blind date."

Bach Dang looked at her in surprise, not expecting someone who had only known him for less than an hour to be so willing to help him. "You're really kind. But I don't want to bother you."

"Don't mind." Gia Khue stood up, put her bag on her shoulder, her voice calm again like her usual nature. "It's just for one night, I'll plan my way tomorrow morning. Do you have anywhere to go in this city?"

Bach Dang suddenly remembered the letter his master told him not to open yet, so he nodded. "Yes, but I haven't opened the letter yet to see the address. Master told me to open it only when absolutely necessary."

"Then let me open it tomorrow and see, then I can help you find your way, as a way to repay the favor." Gia Khue said, secretly surprised at her own unusual generosity. She was not someone who easily opened up her heart to help strangers, especially after many years of being taken advantage of by many people in the business world. But there was something about this man that made her feel strangely safe, as if her instincts told her he wasn't a bad guy.

On the way home, sitting in Gia Khue's luxury car, Bach Dang turned his head to look out the window, watching the high-rise buildings passing by with bright lights, still overwhelmed by the prosperity of this city.

"Miss Gia Khue, in the city everyone has to see each other's eyes to get married, right?" He asked, his voice genuinely curious.

Gia Khue laughed, this time a more comfortable laugh than before. "Not everyone is like that, but my family has that tradition. My dad is afraid that I'll be single, so he arranges to meet one person after another all day."

"You don't like that?"

"It's not that I don't like it, I'm just not ready yet." Gia Khue looked out the glass window, her voice lowered a bit. "Besides, I don't believe that arranged love stories like that can go anywhere."

Bach Dang nodded. Although he did not fully understand the deep meaning of her words, he felt a certain loneliness hidden behind this girl's cold exterior, a loneliness somewhat similar to his own, when they were both facing adult expectations that they did not fully understand.

The car stopped in front of the gate of a large villa, bright garden lights illuminated the neatly trimmed flower bushes. Bach Dang got out of the car and looked up at the massive building in front of him with undisguised eyes of surprise.

"Is this your house? It's so big."

"It's normal." Gia Khue replied, her voice was light as if she had been used to this luxury for a long time and no longer felt its specialness.

She led Bach Dang to the small guest house located behind the garden, separate from the main house, the room was simple but fully furnished.

"You can stay here tonight. The bathroom is inside, there are towels and personal items available." She gave vague instructions, then remembered something and stopped to look at Bach Dang. "Ah, are you hungry? Let me ask someone to bring food over."

"Thank you very much." Bach Dang bowed his head, his voice sincere. "I haven't eaten anything since morning."

Gia Khue shook her head, both amused and a little sympathetic at the rare sincerity of this man, whom just a few hours ago she had never known, and now became a reluctant guest in her family's guest house.

That night, after finishing the hot meal brought by the maid, Bach Dang lay on a comfortable bed for the first time after two consecutive nights of sleeping on a park bench, feeling both grateful and idly thinking about what had happened today. He took out his master's envelope, placed it on his chest, thinking to himself that perhaps this was the right time to open it, but then hesitated, putting it under his pillow, telling himself he would open it tomorrow morning when his mind was clearer.

In the main house, Gia Khue sat in her private room, absentmindedly twirling the jade half-bird pendant that she had always worn with her since she was a child, the only memento of her deceased mother. She looked at it, suddenly remembering Bach Dang's eyes when he told about being tricked, remembering the rare sincerity emanating from that person, and wondering if fate was arranging something for this chance meeting.

The answer to that question, even though she didn't know it yet, was lying right in the chest of the man sleeping in the guest house behind the garden, folded neatly in a yellowed piece of paper, just a few dozen steps from her room.

Outside, the night wind gently shook the trees in the villa garden, bringing with it a rare gentle coolness in the heart of the sultry city. Gia Khue stood up, walked out to the balcony, looked down at the yellow light shining from the window of the guest house in the distance, where the strange man she had just met a few hours ago was sleeping. She wondered where he would go tomorrow, what he would do, whether the address in the envelope was where he really needed to go, and why a stranger like him made her, someone who was always cautious about everything related to trust, so easily open up to help after just one short evening.

She shook her head, laughing at herself for her endless thoughts, then closed the balcony door and went back to bed, but sleep that night came to her later than usual, mixed with fragmentary images of a young man wearing a rough shirt, clasping his hands in ceremony in the middle of a luxurious restaurant, with clear eyes that had never been caught in dust.

Down in the guest house, Bach Dang was still sleeping soundly, one hand resting on his forehead, the other hand still holding the envelope and piece of jade under his pillow as if the habit of vigilance for twenty-five years had never been broken, although tonight, for the first time since coming down the mountain, his sleep was not restless.