Chapter 18 — Floating Market Without Water

The final map is in a wooden chest buried under the old wharf.

Duy took An, Khai, Ti, Mrs. Sau and Mr. Nam there when the water dropped further. He said his father used to keep documents in the materials warehouse, but after the new wharf was built, the warehouse was razed. Duy found the location following an old pillar with its head still exposed.

Khai used a shovel to dig. Mud filled the hole, mixed in with nails, pieces of board and bottles. Ti recorded each layer, not allowing anyone to throw dirt aside.

After nearly an hour, the shovel hit the wood.

The box is not locked. There are drawings inside, but the edges are rotten. Duy took out one of his father's notebooks, and Mr. Nam recognized the signature.

“Mr. Lam used to come to the station every week,” he said.

The map is incomplete. There are pieces that have been cut, but the south branch is still enough to connect M-07 to the sedimentation tank and an additional outlet behind the residential area. The secondary outlet is not listed in town records.

“If this door is real, muddy water does not necessarily pass through the tank,” Khai said.

“Where does it go?”

Mr. Nam pointed to the temporary residential area. “Come here.”

Duy read his father's book. Each time he discharges, Mr. Lam writes down three words: "notified", "filtered", "closed". But some lines are marked with question marks. The day the factory expanded, there were more questions than confirmations.

An asked Duy if his father knew that the sedimentation tank had been leveled. Duy said that in the book there is a line: "If the wharf foundation is filled, the side door must be kept. The water cannot be allowed to move as usual."

“He gave a warning?”

"Have."

“You know?”

"Today."

Khai used old maps and public measurements to reconstruct the route. They don't rely on a drawn line. From the dock, they measured the pipe direction; from the tank, measuring altitude; From the testimony, determine the time the water changed. The three sources do not exactly match, but point to the side door.

Ti found a small roll of film in the trunk. Mr. Nam has an old reader at the factory. The image shows the old wharf before embankment, children bathing in the clear water. A short while later, the camera pans across the construction site, where workers lay the M-07 pipe. Can't see the factory, but see the project sign and approval signature.

Just watch, don't say.

Ms. Sau looked at her young self standing on the boat receiving a life jacket. She said that year everyone was happy because of the new wharf, no one asked about the water line.

“Do you remember who read the appendix?” An asked.

"Father Duy read it. He said everything would be safe."

Duy bowed his head.

Khai said we need to invite an independent measurer to determine the side door. Do not dig further yourself. They called the group of students who participated in measuring the current. The group agreed to use positioning devices and altimeters, but required residential records.

The measurement took place the next day. Six people stand at six different points, each holding a map. They did not immediately agree on which point belonged to the old bank, but when they connected the coordinates, a curve appeared under the residential area.

“The map doesn't belong to one person,” An said.

Mr. Nam replied: "The map belongs to the person who works hard to stand in the right place."

Duy signed the measurement sheet as a factory representative. He notes: “The factory has not confirmed responsibility for the side door.”

An doesn't fix it.

Ms. Sau signed as a cooperative, recording: "The cooperative knew the discharge schedule but did not know the side door."

Khai signed, recording: "I have accepted M-07; the elevation in the minutes needs to be reviewed."

An's mother gave her a pot towel. She said don't forget to write down people who were not present during the measurement session: households that had to be relocated, night shift workers, people buying fish from upstream.

An added a column "affected people".

That afternoon, the factory proposed a public dialogue meeting at the new wharf. They agreed to be filmed, but wanted a lawyer and a management agency.

“At least once Hey, the door's not closed,” Ti said.

Khai looked at the river. “An open door doesn't mean the water is clean.”

An kept the map in a waterproof bag. Under the old wharf, a wooden pile was exposed when the mud receded. Three words were engraved on the stake:

“MARKET FIRST – WORKSHOP AFTER.”

But the arrow on the stake was turned upside down.

Khai used the compass to check. If you turn the arrow in the right direction, it points towards the old market, not the factory. If left unchanged, it points to the side door. Someone turned the stake to turn the shared waterway into a private road.

Mr. Nam said the piles were driven before the embankment, when both banks still used the same channel. Arrows are not signs of ownership; It indicates a safe direction for the boat.

“So who rotates?” Ti asked.

“I don't know,” Mr. Nam replied.

“Every story has someone who doesn't know it.”

An looked at him. “Are there any questions you want to keep?”

Be quiet, then take the stake.

The group remeasures in three layers. The first layer is the current coordinates, the second layer is the old map, the third layer is the testimony. They mark overlaps and deviations. The secondary outlet exists in all three layers, but the outlet location changes according to tank leveling.

An independent engineer said the current tank does not have enough capacity to receive sludge, but the inside must be surveyed. The factory agreed to open in the presence of the community.

Duy volunteered to stand in the time recording group. He doesn't hold the key, just notes who holds it.

Vinh handed over the key to the environmental officer. The ticket has your name, pick-up time and return time. Ms. Sau requested to add the "open purpose" section. No one objected.

Door M-17 opens. Inside there is thick mud, layers of color piled up. The group took mud cores at each depth. Do not name the substance, just write down the color, smell and location.

A layer of mud with black particles similar to sample M-07. Another layer has an organic smell. The officer said he needed a laboratory.

An asked if the factory had corresponding cleaning schedule data. Duy gave the board, but there were three days missing. He said this is the data that was lost from the server.

Ms. Sau gave her a paper book. The book has the hours of those two days. Hanh wrote it by hand.

“So paper books and computer data complement each other,” An said.

“If the book is real,” the lawyer replied.

Hanh signed to confirm the handwriting. She no longer wanted to stand outside.

Khai measures the height of the side door. It was seventy centimeters lower than the record, exactly like before. Duy looked at the numbers and said the factory could not continue to use the old version to operate.

“Will you sign the confirmation?” An asked.

“I will write it down.”

“Is there a different signature?”

"Have. But this time I will sign the part I witnessed.”

The community map is completed on a large canvas. Each line has a color, each point has a measurer, each gap has a question. No one should remove space to make the map look good.

An's mother sat outside, helping to record the names of affected households. She knew clearly who lost fish, who lost porridge, and who had to take their children to the doctor. An added that list to the file, even though it was not hydraulic data.

“They will ask for numbers,” the lawyer said.

“Data are meaningless if you don't know who is impacted.”

The factory proposed to hire a sludge treatment unit. The cooperative requires a contract that does not include exclusive operating rights. The government requested to make the results public. The three parties have not yet agreed on the price.

Duy said the factory can advance money, but needs a responsible repayment mechanism.

Ms. Sau replied: "Do not turn advance money into lanyards."

An wrote down that sentence.

Later in the day, the team found the seal under the oil wrapper. The seal is a picture of a boat and the words:

“MOC THUY FLOATING MARKET COOPERATIVE – COMMON THREAD.”

The map has lost its corners, but con the mark proves that the southern branch was once considered a general category.

When they opened the M-17 door, they discovered that the new gasket had deformed. The gasket sample is sealed to compare with the material code in the file. Vinh said this is the type used for low pressure, not suitable when the tank rises. Khai does not call that the only reason.

“A wrong gasket can cause a leak,” he said. “But to leak into a large flow, there must be pressure and a path.”

An records both conditions.

The group measures tank capacity. The leveled section caused the tank to lose nearly a third of its capacity. The old drawing clearly stated the warning, but the subsequent acceptance records did not have a volume column.

Duy looked at the numbers. “The factory used tanks according to old records.”

“The cooperative also allows it,” Ms. Sau replied.

No one takes responsibility.

People in low-lying areas are invited to look at the map. One man said the land belonged to a residential area, and one woman said she used to grow vegetables there. The two words are not mutually exclusive. The land changed its name, but the water flow still followed the old foundation.

An recorded their testimony in the "use history" layer, separate from the "technical coordinates" layer.

Ti took a map from above. He used rope to tie the four corners so the wind wouldn't blow it away. A strong wind blew the canvas, causing the southern branch road to shift. He corrected it, but did not delete the wrong photo.

“The wrong photo shows strong winds,” he said.

Mr. Nam nodded.

The factory offered to renovate the tank with their own money, in return for ten years of operating rights. Ms. Sau refused the exclusivity condition. Duy proposed separating the two issues: the factory can contribute money, and the right to operate must be managed by the common council.

The lawyer said it was necessary to redraft the support contract and register access rights. Cannot be resolved with promises.

Khai proposed scheduling valve openings according to purpose, each item has a color: tank rescue, water supply, inspection, cleaning. Do not use the word "coordination" in general.

An's mother asked who would call if there was an incident in the middle of the night. The Council agreed to have three people on rotation duty, one person from the factory, one person from the cooperative, and one person from downstream. No one opens it on their own except to save lives.

An looked at the calendar and found it long and annoying. But that very lengthiness makes responsibility appear.

Duy signed the measurement plan. His signature is below the line "witnessing on behalf of the factory, not on behalf of the community".

Ms. Sau said to keep that sentence.

At the end of the day, the community map is posted at the dock. Passersby can see side roads, unknown areas and council phone numbers. Ti used chalk to circle the space, not letting anyone fill it in.

An kept the original seal in a common box. For the first time, she saw that an object that was once hidden could become something that forced people to sit back.