Chapter 7 — Fake Lover Turns Out to Be Fiancee

After the incident at the warehouse, Gia Khue's attitude towards Bach Dang changed clearly. No longer the reservedness of a boss towards a new employee, she began to observe him with undisguised curiosity, paying attention to every small gesture that seemed meaningless but revealed a lot about the real person behind that bewildered appearance.

In the morning, when they both had breakfast in the villa kitchen, Gia Khue noticed that Bach Dang held his chopsticks in a strange way, his fingers were placed precisely on certain acupuncture points, and every time he picked up food, his movements were gentle but contained an absolute control, without any excess.

"Mr. Bach Dang, why are you holding the chopsticks so strangely?" She asked, deliberately starting a conversation.

"Master taught me to hold chopsticks in a way that moves energy through my fingers, to practice internal strength even while eating and drinking." Bach Dang replied calmly, as if it was something obvious that everyone knew.

Gia Khue thought to himself, indeed not everyone can consider eating a meal as an exercise. She continued to observe, noticing that every time there was a sudden noise, whether it was a phone ringing or a door closing loudly, Bach Dang had the reflex to lean slightly towards the source of the sound for a split second before realizing it was not a threat, a deeply ingrained habit that only people who had seriously practiced martial arts for many years had.

"Hey man, I'm very curious." She put down her chopsticks and looked straight at Bach Dang. "My Tieu Dao Coc, what kind of sect is it really? How many people are there? Why did you choose to live in seclusion in the mountains in this modern age?"

Bach Dang thought for a while, trying to find the easiest way to express it. "Tieu Dao Coc is a small sect, counting my master's generation, it is the third generation. The whole valley has only master and me, no one else. Master said that our ancestors chose to live in seclusion in the mountains because they wanted to stay away from fighting over rivers and lakes, focusing on cultivating, not caring about worldly fame and profit."

"It's just the two of you?" Gia Khue was surprised. "So how do you know so many martial arts?"

"Master taught me all the techniques accumulated over three generations of sect masters, pouring all his heart and soul into me alone." Bach Dang replied, his voice a bit thoughtful when mentioning his master. "Maybe that's why my master decided to push me down the mountain, so as not to waste what he taught."

Gia Khue nodded, but the biggest question - what was the relationship between director Huyen Van and her father - was still hanging in the air before being able to say it out loud. She took another sip of tea, intending to continue asking, but the phone rang at the right time, announcing an urgent meeting at the company, so she had to swallow the question again, putting the unfinished matter aside.

In the following days, Gia Khue took advantage of every opportunity to learn more about Bach Dang. She noticed that he had an amazingly deep knowledge of herbs. Once by chance, passing by the housekeeper's small garden of medicinal plants, Bach Dang immediately pointed out three types of plants that were grown incorrectly, explaining in detail the uses and proper care of each type, making the housekeeper, who had many years of experience, admire him.

"Where did you study medicine?" Gia Khue asked when she happened to witness that scene.

"Master teaches. On the mountain, there is no hospital, every wound, every illness must be cured with herbs." Bach Dang replied, his voice calm as if he were telling a normal story. "Misidentifying a plant can cost you your life, so I have to study very carefully."

The more Gia Khue learns, the more she realizes Bach Dang is an incredibly rich treasure of knowledge and skills, completely contrary to her initial bewildered appearance when he first entered her life. She began to wonder if such a person, coming from an almost lost sect, had a connection to her family, to her father, who always appeared to be a pragmatic businessman, never mentioning anything related to martial arts.

One evening, after work, Gia Khue invited Bach Dang to the villa's balcony to enjoy the fresh air, bringing two cups of hot tea. The city sky sparkled with lights, different from the starry sky that Bach Dang was familiar with in the mountains.

"Do you miss home?" She asked, her voice rare and gentle.

Bach Dang looked up at the sky, with a hint of nostalgia in his eyes. "I remember. I remember the sound of the flowing stream, the scent of the pine trees, and the lessons my master taught every morning. But I believe, when I fulfill the wish my master gave me, I will have the opportunity to return to visit again."

"That wish, do you think it has anything to do with my father?" Gia Khue asked directly, her eyes searching.

Bach Dang was silent for a moment, then nodded honestly. "I think so too. Ever since I read the letter, I've been thinking about this. But Master didn't say it clearly, and I don't dare to make wild guesses."

"So let me ask my dad directly." Gia Khue decided, her voice was determined. "The longer this goes on, the more confusing it becomes."

The next morning, Gia Khue decided to ask Tang Bao Tran, his trusted assistant, to quietly search the group's old archives, looking for any documents related to Mr. Duong Khac Nguyen's business trips to the northern mountains about thirty years ago.

"Miss Khue, what are you looking for these things for? Is it related to Mr. Bach Dang?" Bao Tran asked, her mischievous eyes could not hide her curiosity when she saw her boss suddenly interested in files that had been gathering dust for decades.

"I'm not sure about anything yet, there are just a few things I need to verify." Gia Khue replied, not wanting to reveal too early the vague doubts in her mind.

After half a day of rummaging, Bao Tran brought an old cardboard box containing a few discolored work notebooks, along with an envelope containing a few black and white photos of pristine mountain and forest scenes. In a photo, Gia Khue recognized the figure of his father in his youth, his young face full of enthusiasm, standing next to a young man wearing a rough cloth shirt, holding a long sword, with an unusually calm demeanor. On the back of the photo is a faded handwritten note: "With brother Van, Vo Danh Mountain, autumn."

Gia Khue's heart beat faster when she saw that photo. She brought it back to her office and placed it next to Bach Dang, who was cleaning a wooden sword he had made himself in his spare time.

"Look, is this person your master when you were young?" She showed him the photo, her voice nervous.

Bach Dang held the photo, looked at it intently for a long time, his eyes gradually widened. "It's true that my master, although much younger than now, I recognized this aura immediately. Is that person standing next to you your father?"

"It's definitely my dad." Gia Khue nodded, further confirming her growing doubts. "So your father and my master really knew each other, a long time ago."

The two looked at each other, and a thoughtful silence suddenly fell in the air. Each new piece of the puzzle found makes the overall picture clearer, but at the same time raises more questions about the true meaning behind that mysterious relationship.

That afternoon, when Gia Khue had to go out to meet his partner, Bach Dang was alone at home. He happened to meet Do Tuan Kiet, the kind technology driver who helped him in the first days of his loneliness in a foreign land, who now stopped by the villa to deliver a package to the housekeeper.

"Hey, Bach Dang, long time no see. Have you been doing well lately?" Tuan Kiet shouted with joy when he recognized his old friend, the person who shared a loaf of bread with him on Bach Dang's first night wandering without shelter.

"Very good, thank you for still remembering me." Bach Dang smiled and invited you inside for a drink. "If it weren't for you teaching me how to use the phone and how to order food through the app, I would probably still have a hard time getting used to life here."

"It's nothing, I saw you were so confused so I just helped." Tuan Kiet laughed, then lowered his voice curiously. "And I heard that you're now a bodyguard for this rich lady? Looks like you're moving on quickly."

Bach Dang scratched his head and briefly told a few things that had happened, of course leaving out the secret part about the engagement and the jade pendant. After hearing this, Tuan Kiet just shook his head and smiled, patting his friend's shoulder generously.

"In life, who can expect the unexpected? Just keep that honest personality, I believe one day you will encounter only good things." Tuan Kiet said, then quickly left because he had to run a few more trips before dark.

Seeing his friend off at the gate, Bach Dang stood silently watching the shadow of the motorbike disappear, secretly grateful that in this strange and calculating city, he still found a few sincere hearts like Tuan Kiet, like the old lady selling sugarcane juice, and now, perhaps, even Gia Khue.

That night, after sending Bach Dang back to his room, Gia Khue sat alone, absentmindedly twirling the jade pendant around her neck, an unconscious habit whenever she thinks deeply about something. Suddenly, a faint memory from her childhood flashed in her mind, an image of her mother, before she passed away, saying something about "friends in the mountains" and "old promises", but at that time she was too young to understand, and that memory had been buried all these years amid the busyness of adult life.

She stood up, went to her private office, opened the drawer where her mother's few memorabilia were kept, and pulled out an old diary that had not been opened for a long time. She flipped through the yellowed pages, trying to find clues to the questions piling up in her head, but most of the content was just daily diary entries about family life, nothing directly related to the mystery she was looking for.

She closed the diary, sighed, put it back in the drawer and slammed it shut harder than necessary. But her hand, before leaving the drawer, unconsciously reached up to touch the piece of jade still resting on her collar - the same piece of jade that she had worn for nearly twenty years, touching it countless times every day, never once did she think to turn it over to see the back.