Chapter 8 — Heir to the Little Station

Mai found the petition to close the station in an old file drawer. The first signature is from her father.

The application states that the station should be moved to the district to reduce costs, and the Da Trang land should be used for a commercial center. The date of signing was eight years ago, right at the time my grandfather was hospitalized.

Mai calls her mother. Her mother said her father was forced to choose between keeping his job and keeping the station. If he doesn't sign, he will be moved out of the mountains and won't have enough money for his grandfather's medical treatment.

“So you really want to close the station?”

"My father wanted to repair the bridge, but no one provided the money. My grandfather refused to sell the land, but my father thought that at least changing the station would save people."

Mai folded the application. Khoa said the resort is a life-changing opportunity. Her father once thought changing stations was the way to save the community. The promises are different, but they all start from the same fear: not enough money.

Tung saw that she was silent and did not ask about her family. He just gave a new schedule, in which the test shipment was changed to a time frame with few people.

Mai guessed it wasn't a coincidence. If the test fails, the company will have another reason to close the station.

She sent notices to the villages, asking anyone who had goods or needed a medical examination to register in advance. Vy created the form on her phone, and Mrs. Ly posted the information at the restaurant.

Khoa said she is turning the station into a campaign. Mai replied that she just wanted the train to run with real data, not a pre-arranged stage.

That night, Mai placed her father's petition next to her grandfather's will. She didn't know whose decision she was correcting, she just knew she couldn't make the decision for them with anger.

Mai reread the petition three times. Father's handwriting leans to the right, unlike grandfather's straight and heavy handwriting. The application does not say “close the station immediately”. It proposed moving the stop to the district to collect costs, then use the land sale money to build a small commercial center for four villages. The last part has the signatures of eight people, including Mrs. Ly and one person who is now deceased.

Mrs. Ly looked at the scan and recognized her name. She doesn't remember signing.

“Maybe at that time people said this was an application to repair the gas station,” she said. "I didn't read carefully. I just heard that you need a signature to ask for money."

Mai doesn't blame her. She asked who else was on the list. Ms. Ly said several people had moved away, one person was illiterate, one person signed for his wife because she was in the hospital. A document has a signature but does not necessarily have the same meaning to each signer.

Vy made a list to verify. I suggest not calling to ask "do you agree to close the station", because the question already contains a conclusion. I will ask them which meetings they remember, who explained the content, and if anything changed afterward. Mai agreed, but asked for permission before recording.

Tung brought the test shipment schedule. The company changed the departure time from 4:00 pm to 1:20 pm, right when the tea pickers were still on the hill. If they are undersubscribed, the report will show low demand. Mai called the dispatch room and was told that this was a temporary schedule due to main line maintenance.

“Is there a maintenance document?”

“The system calendar has been updated.”

Mai did not accept that sentence. She asked to send the change code and approver. The listener said he would forward the request. Khoa listened to the call and told her that if she made it public that the company was making things difficult, they might cancel the trial trip. Mai said she did not make the accusations public; She just asked for proof of the reason for the time change.

Khoa remained silent, then used the project's authority to ask the traffic department about the road temporary. He discovered that the maintenance date did not coincide with the time change schedule. He sent the information to Mai, without asking her to credit the source as the project. Mai asked if he could use it. He said if necessary, clearly state "documents provided by the Faculty".

A meeting was held in the waiting room. Khoa sat on the same side as those who asked for explanations, but he did not become their representative. He said the project also needs a train line, because if the road to the resort collapses, guests will have to use the station. One person asked if he still wanted to buy land. Khoa replied yes, but wanting to buy does not mean you are allowed to erase the history or push the cost to someone else.

Mai's mother called again. She said her father was being treated in another province and did not want to be asked about the situation over the phone. Mai asked if she should meet him. Mom said it's up to you, but don't go just to hear a confession.

Mai decided not to go yet. She still had thirty days left, and her family couldn't become her way of avoiding what was going on at the station. She sent her mother a summary of the application, masking the names of others, asking her mother if she had any documents to prove the context. Mom replied that there was a box of paper at home, but it took time to find it.

That night, Vy gave Mai the first interview list. An old lady said she signed because she thought the station would be fixed. A man said to sign because the village chief told everyone to sign. A teacher clearly remembered Mai's father objecting to the land sale but still signed to request the budget. The accounts vary, but they all show that the decision was communicated in many ways.

Mai did not conclude that the application was fake. Isolate a new column: “comprehension level when signing”. This column does not translate into points; it just reminds the reader that the signature needs context.

Before going to bed, Mai heard that the test shipment was still scheduled at 1:20 a.m. She sent a new notice, asking households to register if they could in time; At the same time, make a plan to transfer the goods to the afternoon trip if conditions are met. No trip should be made into a test of people's morality.

At the end of the notebook, she wrote: "Do not use your father's mistakes to turn the company into an enemy. Do not use the company's promises to erase your father's mistakes." That sentence was heavier than she thought, but it helped her get through the night without having to choose someone to be angry with.

The next morning, Mai received an anonymous call. The caller said her father not only signed the application but also received "consulting" money from an intermediary company. Mai asked if they had documents. The caller went silent, then sent a blurry photo. She did not forward the photos to anyone. She wrote down the time, saved it as it was, and asked her mother if the family had ever received any money.

Her mother answered no. Dad used to work part-time repairing machines, so there were bills for all the money in the house. Mai thanked the caller and requested that if there is evidence, it should be sent through legal channels. She didn't want a rumor to turn into an attack on her father, even if she disagreed with him.

Vy suggested checking public land records, but Mai told her not to look into family matters. I replied that if the money involved determines the community, it is no longer just a family matter. Mai agrees with the limit: only check transactions with the unit's name, not personal accounts.

Khoa heard the story and said that the project was also rumored to have purchased land before environmental assessment. He did not ask Mai to defend the project. He just gave her the process to complain about false information and told her to use it if needed. Mai asked why he didn't use it before. Khoa said the company often sees rumors as media costs, until real people are called out consequence.

At the waiting room, people debated about the test flight time. One group said that Mai was trying to make things difficult to prove the company wrong. Mai invited them to look at the time table and command codes. They didn't understand it all, but one person noticed the schedule was changed before the maintenance announcement. She asked them to sign a request for the coordination room to explain, not to draw conclusions on their own.

Ms. Ly said people are tired of having to ask too many questions. Mai said she was tired too, but if they didn't ask, they would only hear the written answer. Mrs. Ly put more tea on the table, saying that each person would only ask one question, but ask until someone signed the answer.

In the afternoon, Vy met three former students who had signed the application. One person remembered Mai's father saying there would be a new station, one person remembered the village chief saying the old station would be repaired, the third person only signed because everyone signed. Vy did not write "cheated"; I write down how information is transmitted. Mai reads the minutes and sees that this is the reason why the co-signers may have different understandings.

Khoa proposed that the project publicly disclose its entire land purchase history. Mai says making too much personal data public can be harmful. They agreed to disclose the legal entity's name, transaction date, area and purpose, while account information and private addresses were concealed. An independent lawyer reviews it first.

At night, Mai placed her father's petition next to the photo of the red stake. She rewrote the question for the meeting: “When a decision is signed by someone lacking information, where is the responsibility of the person explaining it?” The question didn't make her feel any better, but it took the discussion away from choosing her father or grandfather as the most trustworthy person.

She put the phone face down, checked the door lock and wrote down the duty time in the book before taking a break.

Outside the yard, the signal light turned yellow.

Tomorrow wait until the light turns green before closing the window.