Chapter 4 — Five Missed Registrations

She said there was a friend of yours, all conditions were very good, asked if I wanted to meet once.

“Don't worry, I've checked for you, there's nothing wrong with your dignity.”

She said so. Dignity is no problem. I believe. Not only do I believe, I'm also grateful to her. For the past four years, every holiday I have given her gifts. When she was "heartbroken", I was by her side and drank wine with her. When she said, "I'm so jealous that you have Co Dien Chu", I seriously comforted her, "You will eventually meet the right person." It turns out — When she said “I'm so jealous of you”, what was she thinking in her heart? Is it “This stupid woman is still being fooled until now”? I stood up, went to the bathroom, turned on the cold water faucet, and splashed water on my face. The cold water pulled me out of that suffocating vortex. Drying my face, I looked at myself in the mirror. The eye sockets are slightly red, the lips are pale, but the eyes - Unusually alert. I sat back down on the sofa, picked up my phone, and opened the note file. Under the heading 【Five Times】, I added a line:

“Bach Linh, is his wife.”

After that, I started reviewing the other five lines of notes. Every time a marriage registration fails - Bach Linh is present. Not "present" in the literal sense, but every time she appeared at exactly the right moment. The first time, Co Dien Chu said the company had something to cancel, that morning Bach Linh asked me "Do you have to go to the Civil Affairs Department today?" The second time, he said his ID had expired. The day before, Bach Linh invited me to go for a walk around the city. I blurted out, "Tomorrow I'm going to register my marriage," and she smiled and said, "It's so romantic." The third time, he suddenly had a stomach ache. That day, Bach Linh called me before we left the house and chatted for nearly twenty minutes, almost making me late. Fourth time, system maintenance. Bach Linh sent a message to the working group one day in advance: "Tomorrow morning the system will be upgraded, have you seen the notification yet?" The fifth time — it was yesterday. Bach Linh texted me within two minutes after I walked out of the Civil Affairs Department.

"Are you done registering yet? Take a photo for me to see!"

How did she know at that time I should have “already registered”? I never told her exactly what time we had an appointment. I just told Co Dien Chu. Cold sweat dripped from my back inch by inch. It's not a coincidence. It's never been a coincidence. Every time the marriage registration was canceled - she knew clearly, even had a hand in it. Five times. Five times, she played the role of my psychological best friend, offering comfort when I felt weak, helping Co Dien Chu calm me down when I began to doubt.

“He's just crazy about work.”

"The relationship between the two of you is so good, there's no need for a piece of paper."

“Next time it will definitely work.”

Those gentle words are now replaying sentence by sentence in my head. Every sentence is like swallowing a shard of glass. I closed my eyes. Open up. Take a deep breath. Then, I opened WeChat and clicked on Co Dien Chu's friends circle. Scroll up to see each article one by one. His personal page is very clean, mostly sharing about work. Occasionally there are photos of us together — selfies on my birthday, photos of going to Sanya beach. There was no trace of Bach Linh. Look at Bach's personal page again Sacred. Just as clean. Sharing work, checking in on food, sometimes taking photos with me. There is no Co Dien Chu. They erased each other's existence on social networks — spotless. It's like a marriage that doesn't exist. Are not. Not “like”. They are covering up a real marriage. Use me to cover up. That night I didn't sleep. At three o'clock in the morning, I sent another text message to Luc Tu: