Chapter 3 — From Today I Only Speak the Truth

Taking advantage of the chaos, Luong Uyen Ninh pulled an old cloth bag from the bottom of the food cupboard. The outside of the canvas bag is patched in three layers and the straps are very tight. Seeing it, my mother tried to stand up. "Don't touch it!" Luong Uyen Ninh immediately hid the cloth bag behind her back. "Luong Tue, why are you all rushing?" "If there's no problem inside, why don't you show me?" My father walked up to her and said in a deep voice: "Give me the things." Luong Uyen Ninh raised her face. "Uncle, one hundred thousand." Everyone in the room was stunned. She wiped her tears. "You two gave me one hundred thousand, as compensation for the compensation money that was taken all these years." "I will not continue to talk online, nor go to Luong Tue's school to complain anymore." "If not, I will report it to the higher ups now. By then, with a criminal record, the person whose future will be ruined will be Luong Tue." My mother seemed to not understand, her voice trembling: "One hundred thousand?" The most valuable thing in my house is the agricultural vehicle. The procedures have not yet been fully supplemented. Even if I sell it, I can't collect a hundred thousand. My mother sat on the ground, her fingers swollen and purple, muttering: "Uyen Ninh, where will we get a hundred thousand?" Luong Uyen Ninh turned away. Hua Nghien looked at my father and added: "You can write a loan note." "If this matter gets reported to the supervisory team, it won't be good for anyone." My eyes turned red and I rushed to argue: "You guys are blackmailing!" But my dad pulled me behind. He looked at Luong Uyen Ninh, his whole body seemed to have grown several years older. "Then report to the police." "You want the truth, I will give it to you." The investigation team arrived very quickly. They asked my father: "According to comrade Luong Uyen Ninh's reflection, after her parents passed away, there may be a compensation sum under your care. Is this true?" Dad stood in the middle of the yard. His pant legs were covered in mud. He slowly spoke: "No." Luong Uyen Ninh's tears immediately fell. "Do you still refuse to admit it?" She turned to the interrogation team: "Since I was a child, I lived in their family's house, and was always taught to be grateful and not to ask about my parents' affairs." "But I'm an adult, I have the right to know the truth." Hua Nghien, standing next to her, added: "If there really was an act of property appropriation, what she denounced Her relatives destroying the forest could subject her to retaliation.” The person from the investigation team frowned. Luong Uyen Ninh gritted her teeth: "Eldest uncle, now the people from the investigation team have arrived. If you haven't done anything against your conscience, then take out the old cloth bag for everyone to see." "That's enough." My mother walked out holding the old cloth bag, her face terrifyingly pale. "Don't you want to see it?" "Let me see today." When the cloth bag was opened, no one in the yard spoke. There was no cash inside. There is also no savings book. There was only a stack of yellowed papers. My mother's fingers were bent, unable to take out each sheet. I walked over to receive it. The first sheet is a receipt for emergency payment from the town hospital seven years ago. When Luong Uyen Ninh was ten years old, she had pneumonia and had a fever of forty degrees. My father is the one who paid the advance. The second sheet is a boarding receipt from high school number one in the district. The third sheet is the university entrance exam registration fee. The fourth sheet is the university entrance health examination fee. On the back there are also receipts from the civil service exam preparation class, accommodation deposit, bus tickets and drug money. On the back of each piece of paper, my mother wrote down the date in crooked handwriting. Not because I want to collect debt. She was just afraid that she remembered wrongly, afraid that if Luong Uyen Ninh wanted to know later, she wouldn't be able to explain clearly. Luong Uyen Ninh's face became more and more stiff. Hua Nghiem tried to reach out to get it, but I pushed him away. "Don't touch it." My father took one out from the bottom.

cowhide paper bag. The mouth of the bag is sealed, the corners are frayed. He held that bag, his hands shaking violently. "Uyen Ninh, I originally planned not to let you see it for the rest of my life." Luong Uyen Ninh smiled coldly. "You finally took it out?" Dad didn't look at her. He gave the paper bag to the investigation team. Inside is a record of accident liability determination. There are also court settlement minutes of that year, compensation receipts and documents for payment in installments. The person from the investigation team flipped through a few pages and his expression changed. Luong Uyen Ninh also realized that something was wrong. "Let me see." My father closed his eyes. "That year, your father was not stabbed to death." The wind blew through the yard, the garlic leaves rustled. "He was driving a three-wheeled vehicle that had expired, without a license, in the middle of the night carrying stolen wood down the mountain. To avoid the patrol, he went in the opposite direction onto the district road and crashed into a truck. "The car overturned into the ditch, my parents couldn't save me." "The document determining responsibility clearly states that my father must bear full responsibility." The blood on Luong Uyen Ninh's face immediately drained away. "Impossible." My father's voice was very low. "There is no death compensation." "Only the compensation your father still owes."