Chapter 8 — Forty Billion And People Only Ask For A Kitchen

Ngoc Han stopped me in front of the apartment door on a hot afternoon.

She was wearing a thin coat and holding an unlit cigarette in her hand. The face is thinner, but the eyes are sharper than before.

“Sister-in-law, where have you been lately that you lose face every day?”

“I work.”

“What work do you do without getting paid?”

I was going to go over. She stepped in front of her.

"The lottery point said that that day a woman like me bought a winning ticket of more than forty billion."

“How many women in this city wear shirts and carry cloth bags?”

“I don't need proof.”

“So what do you need?”

Ngoc Han looked around, lowered her voice:

"Five billion. I'll take it to pay off the debt, you won't have to worry about anyone knowing."

I laughed.

“What if I don't have money?”

“I will tell Minh Khang that you hid tens of billions from him.”

"He will know you didn't give me the money. As for whether you won or not, I still have no proof."

Ngoc Han crushed the cigarette in her hand.

"Do you think your husband will choose you? I'm his mother, you're his biological sister."

"Minh Khang chose not to mortgage his house. You should remember that."

She raised her hand as if to slap. I stepped back and opened my phone camera.

“If you touch me, this recording will be sent directly to the lawyer.”

Ngoc Han stopped. She's not afraid of me; she is afraid of evidence.

“You will regret it.”

“I just regret letting Mr. Khang suffer for so long.”

She left and got into a technology car. I stood still until the car disappeared. After that, I called the lawyer to report the incident.

That night, Minh Khang came home with a scratch on his hand. He said Duc Tai pushed him in the parking lot when he refused to sign bail.

“Did you report it to the police?”

"No. I don't want to make things bigger."

“It's all big now.”

I cleaned his wound, more gently than usual.

"Of course," he said, "if you're hiding something from me, you can tell me. I don't need to know the amount, I just need to know if it's dangerous."

I looked at him for a long time.

"Yes. But I'm handling it."

He nodded and did not ask further.

For the first time, I saw clearly: you don't need money to be with me. I just need to know which story I'm in.