Chapter 10 — Justice, Six Years Later

Every single word had once been a weapon she wielded to crush others. After reading the notification from her hospital bed, Dao demanded to see me. The nurse relayed her message with a cold, detached tone.

She says she will give you only ten minutes.

My response was brief and final.

I will not go.

Lu Kieu, I can prove that Hang still has a cache of money hidden away.

Dao lay in her hospital bed, speaking to me through her lawyer. I switched the phone to speaker mode. My father-in-law and Lam were both present in the room. Dao's voice was significantly weaker than before, yet she remained trapped in the habit of negotiating from a position of authority.

You must convince Old Chu to sign a letter of forgiveness. In exchange, I will hand over the offshore accounts for the charity fund.

My father-in-law stared at the phone, his expression unreadable. You want me to forgive you?

Old Driver Chu, in the old case, you did not suffer any direct financial loss.

Lam laughed, a sharp, bitter sound. My father sold his home and lost his pension. You call that no loss?

The decision to terminate the contract was made by the passenger transport company, Dao countered coldly. Legally, the consequences cannot be pinned solely on my report.

Your forged documents were the catalyst for everything.

The company itself was at fault as well.

She paused, her breath hitching. I am willing to reimburse the eight thousand in hospital fees that were advanced that year, plus interest.

My father-in-law asked, And what about my six lost years?

There was silence on the other end of the line. Time lost cannot be quantified.

Then there is nothing more to say.

Old Driver Chu, a letter of forgiveness could significantly influence the sentencing.

I am aware of that.

You have always been a kind man, have you not?

Finally, a note of impatience crept into Dao's voice. I have lost the function of my right hand, and my legs are ruined. Is that not enough for you?

My father-in-law pulled the phone closer to his face. Your limbs were damaged because you chose to flee and met with an accident. I did not strike you. What exactly do you want me to forgive?

If you had not chased me, I would not have run.

I remained silent. Even now, she was capable of shifting the burden of her own accident onto me. My father-in-law chuckled softly.

You are right.

What?

Rules are rules. You committed a crime; the court will handle you as the law dictates. Your disability is the result of a traffic accident. The two matters are not the same.

Dao’s breathing became ragged and heavy. Are you all determined to destroy me?

My father-in-law looked down at his own calloused hands. Six years ago, you used fifty thousand to destroy me. It is not I who is destroying you now. It is the recordings, the transaction logs, and the videos—they are all coming to collect their debt.

Evidence is open to interpretation.

Keep those interpretations for the courtroom.

With that, my father-in-law hung up. Dao’s lawyer called back twice, but no one answered. The results of the review regarding the old case were released shortly thereafter. My father-in-law’s driving was classified as emergency assistance, permitted under the direct supervision of traffic police, and did not constitute a violation. The passenger transport company’s process for terminating his contract was deemed unlawful, based on false facts. The company issued a public apology, restored his pension, and paid out over one million eight hundred thousand in compensation. The management team that had authorized his firing was also held accountable. The twelve passengers who had accepted bribes to give false testimony were investigated in turn.

After the petition with forged signatures was made public, the family of Quang Sinh sued Dao for infringing upon the rights of the deceased. The scholarship committee stripped her of her titles, and her name was scrubbed from the school’s wall of honor. The university clawed back eighty thousand in prize money and demanded she cover the costs of the investigation. Her social media channel, dedicated to peddling her self-righteous rules, was permanently banned. Brands she had once collaborated with filed for damages. Two of her properties were seized by the court. The accounts of the consulting firm under her mother’s name were frozen, sparking a crisis over unpaid staff salaries and mounting debts.

Though the company had existed for less than three years, the books showed tens of millions in transactions. Once the tax authorities intervened, they discovered widespread fraudulent invoicing. The House of Dao had collapsed entirely. In a desperate bid for a lighter sentence, Hang confessed to the entire scheme of splitting the funds. He even handed over a project ledger created by Dao herself. It listed the next group of people she intended to report: a female employee who exceeded her break time while breastfeeding, a technical manager who kept the internal account of a deceased colleague, and a janitor who used the company printer for a sick child’s medical records. Beside every name was a projected profit margin. She had turned the struggles of others into a price list.

On the day of the trial, the public gallery was packed. The cafeteria aunt she had once reported was there; she had lost her job simply for serving an extra spoonful of meat. It was later revealed that Dao had filmed the incident and sold it to an anti-waste media account for twenty thousand. The dormitory manager sat beside her. The manager who had once paid out of his own pocket to reimburse customers stood in the very last row, watching as the architect of their misery finally faced her reckoning.