Chapter 7 — Floating Market Without Water

Mr. Nam opened the roll of paper on the boat-building table, amidst the smell of sawdust and wood glue.

The drawing was drawn in blue ink, with many areas smeared by water. It is not a cadastral map. That is the diagram of the channel, valve and sedimentation tank that Mr. Nam drew himself twenty-two years ago, when the town did not yet have a concrete embankment.

“I don't draw for records,” he said. “I draw so the boat doesn't get stuck.”

An bent down. The main branch of the river runs from upstream, past the pumping station, then divides into three paths. One line maintains the water level for the market, one line brings water to the filtration station, and one line runs to the factory.

The third branch is circled with red ink.

“South branch,” Khai said.

Mr. Nam pointed to the words written next to it: "auxiliary sedimentation tank - do not discharge when water is low".

“Where is the settling tank?” An asked.

“Under the old embankment.”

“The old embankment has been filled in.”

“On the ground.”

He used a wooden ruler to measure the distance from the old wharf to pile M-07. The numbers match the drawings. He then measured from M-07 to the factory. The south branch does not run straight into the industrial park as An thought; it looped around a low ground where the town had built a temporary residential area.

“If the sludge comes out of the settling tank, it goes through here,” he said.

Khai looked at the red line. “What date does the drawing show?”

“Time for commissioning.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“Pumping station.”

“Then why don't you submit it?”

Mr. Nam smiled unhappily. "Back then I built boats. People needed boats to run, they didn't need me to understand where the mud went."

An took the drawing. Mr. Nam used his hand to cover a corner.

“Don't give this part.”

"Why?"

“Names of signers.”

The paper corner has a list of station chiefs, town representatives, cooperatives and contractors. The last signature belongs to a person named Lam, Duy's father. An has known Duy since childhood; His father used to work as a construction officer, then went to run a factory project.

Khai read the name and remained silent.

“Do you know Mr. Lam's signature?” An asked.

"I knew he was there. I didn't know what to sign."

An saw that in Khai's eyes there was not only fear but also shame. He worked under these people, signed incomplete sheets, and then left when the project went into factory hands.

Ti stood outside the factory door. He took a picture of the drawing through the slit, but the camera's battery ran out. Mr. Nam gave him a spare battery.

“Take the whole hand,” he said.

"Why?"

“If a drawing is changed, people still remember who kept it.”

An called the district records office. She asked for records of the pumping station and secondary sedimentation tank. The staff said the records were there, but the technical drawings were marked "not published because of construction safety concerns". She asked for a quote and was given a three-day appointment.

“Three days is too long,” An said.

“You can officially apply.”

“I will submit.”

Khai asked Mr. Nam if there were any other versions. He shook his head, but took a small piece of paper from the nail holder. That is a water color chart written by an engineer named Lam, with columns "turbidity", "smell", "sediment".

The indicators in the male branch are much higher. Next to it is the line: "Do not use for the market after 2:17."

“Why is the market still accepting?” An asked.

Mr. Nam did not respond.

Khai put his hand on the board. “Because the water return door of the south branch connects to the market branch when the pressure increases.”

“That means mud can get into the channel.”

“If the operator opens incorrectly.”

“Or on purpose.”

Khai looked at An. “Don't be so quick to call it intentional.”

“I was talking about possibility.”

“This possibility could cause people to smash the factory.”

"If I don't say anything, who will they beat? The people on the boat?"

In the afternoon, a man named Vinh came to the factory. He wore a jacket with the factory logo, stood outside the door, and did not enter. Mr. Nam recognized him, but no hello.

“I want my drawings back,” Vinh said.

“My drawing,” Mr. Nam replied.

“Project documents.”

“I draw it myself.”

Vinh looked at An. “The factory will pay for copies if you need them.”

An held up the phone. “Can you clarify what rights the factory has over this drawing?”

Vinh did not answer. He just told Duy he wanted to meet An.

“Tell him to meet in a public place,” An said.

Vinh left, Khai followed. “Vinh used to be on night shift.”

“You said he worked for the factory.”

“He does it both times.”

Zoom in on the drawing on the computer. On the bottom edge there is a fingerprint stained with red ink. He measured the size of the fingerprint with a ruler, then realized the fingerprint was on the smeared part.

“Someone dragged squid through the south branch,” Ti said.

Mr. Nam looked at him. “Doesn't water cause smudging?”

“The stroke of the pen goes against the direction of the water.”

An notes. The boy did not prove responsibility, but saw how one fixes the story on paper.

That night, Mr. Nam locked the workshop with three locks. Before An left, he called her back:

“If you write, write me too.”

“Because you kept the drawings?”

“Because I kept it too long.”

Out in the river, the dry mud cracked into pieces. Under a crack, Ti saw a number line stamped in metal:

M-07 / SOUTH BRANCH / SUB SEDIMENTATION TANK.

Right next to it, there is the new mark of a pair of protective shoes.

Mr. Nam told Ti not to step on the shoe prints. He went around to the side, placed a wooden ruler to keep the scale and took a photo. The sole has three horizontal grooves and a chipped metal piece. Khai said this type of shoe is used in the tank area, but many workers can wear it.

An called Duy to ask if the factory had a list of protective shoes. Duy said yes, but personnel data cannot be shared. An asked if he could at least confirm the base model. Duy did not answer.

Mr. Nam partially rolled up the drawing. He showed An a torn corner, where the year the sedimentation tank was renovated should have been written. Beneath the paper is someone else's ink:

“If the old embankment is removed, the south branch must have its own outlet.”

“Who wrote?” An asked.

“Engineer Lam.”

“Father Duy?”

"YES."

“Is he against the leveling of the tank?”

Mr. Nam looked out the door. "He said the tank can hold one season's sludge. It can't hold the entire factory's sludge."

“So who decides?”

"Payer."

The answer is too short. An continued asking, Mr. Nam Moi said that the new wharf project initially planned to dredge the channel, but the contractor proposed to level part of the tank to create a staging area. The cooperative needs a wharf before the tourist season, the factory pays extra for progress, and the government wants to inaugurate on time. The tank shrunk meter by meter without anyone re-measuring it.

“Sister Sau knows?” An asked.

“Everyone knows the lot is bigger.”

“But I wonder if the tank is smaller?”

“That's how people don't know.”

Khai receives the drawing and compares it with the operating table. The south branch has two doors, M-07 and M-17. Door M-17 is located behind the leveled tank. If the tank no longer has enough capacity, every cleaning will cause back pressure.

“Was the project accepted after leveling?” An asked.

Khai turned over the file. "Have."

“Not measuring again?”

“There is no volume measurement.”

An wrote it down in the book. A design may be correct when built, but wrong when the land has changed.

Ti asked Mr. Nam why he didn't submit the drawings. The old man was silent for a moment, then said that his factory had received a contract to build boats for the factory. Not much, but enough to pay for his wife's medicine. When he said there were problems with the drawings, the contractor said he was just a worker and did not understand the planning.

“I was called a troublemaker,” he said.

“Are you still afraid now?”

“Afraid. But afraid for so long it becomes a kind of lie.”

An took a photo of his face, but he asked not to post the photo without asking. She agreed.

Vinh returned to the workshop, this time without asking for drawings. He asked Mr. Nam if he saw a red-covered book. Mr. Nam said no. Vinh saw Ti copying photos and told him not to save them to the school computer.

“Why?” Ti asked.

“The machine is not safe.”

“You know?”

Vinh looked at An. “I know someone is looking for data.”

“Did you report it?”

“I'm reporting.”

“Tell who?”

Vinh did not answer, but took an old access card from his pocket. On the card was his name and the words “interdisciplinary engineering”. Access to the tank expired three months ago, but the system still accepts it.

Khai asked who extended it. Vinh said he didn't know, just saw the card working.

An takes a card. Vinh asked her not to mention his name.

“I don't have a reason to hide it yet,” she said.

“I do.”

He left the factory. Mr. Nam looked at him and said that Vinh was a very quick learner in the past, but the longer he worked, the more he realized he had no right to ask.

In the evening, An placed the drawing, discharge schedule and Ti's photo next to each other. The pipeline on the drawing runs lower than the existing embankment. When it rains heavily, water will flow to the south branch. When the factory cleans, the mud will find the nearest door.

Right next to the shoe print, a new piece of metal was hammered into the ground. On it is written:

“M-17 – DISCONTINUED SINCE 2019.”

Khai touched the piece of metal. The underside is still warm.

Khai put the piece of metal in a separate bag and did not immediately hand it over to anyone. An reminded him that evidence must have a chain of custody. He took off the bag, wrote his name, pick-up time and location found.

“Do you mind?” An asked.

“Yes. But it's better to bother than to let others say I took it myself.”

Mr. Nam said the shoe prints could belong to the embankment repair team, not necessarily Vinh. They called an old worker to come look at the base model. This person said the shoes were common, but only realized that the chipped metal was caused by walking on sharp rocks.

An also records indeterminate results. I wonder if everything is "unknown" when will it come true?

Mr. Nam replied: "When enough people work hard to eliminate each possibility."

In the evening, Duy sent a partial list of protective equipment. The factory distributed boots of the same type to four teams, including Vinh's team and the tank maintenance team. The listing does not identify the shoes, but demonstrates that many people can wear them.

An no longer uses shoes to refer to a person. She shifted her focus to the fresh paint on the metal piece and when it was sealed.

Khai measured the temperature of the piece of metal and said it was still warm because it had just been in contact with his hands or had just been lying in the sun. Take a photo of the meter, then clearly state that this is just an observation, not the pile driving time.

The drawing is still in the middle of the table, the southern branch is smeared, but underneath the ink there is an additional pencil line pointing towards the residential area.