Chapter 8 — Leaving You, I Shine

"Uncle, I already have the divorce papers. It's not a matter of doing anything."

"I know. But you understand Hanh Hanh's personality, he reacts slowly, he always realizes things late about love."

“Realized six years too late, too late.”

Tham Van pursed her lips and changed a different angle.

“About the 3 million in your name, he told you, right?”

“The bank informed me. He then mentioned one sentence.”

"That money was sent in 2019, saying it was a bride price for me. When we got married, he didn't buy anything for me. In his heart, he understood clearly, he just didn't say it out loud."

“What's the use if you don't say it?”

"Human Hanh Hanh..."

“Uncle.” I interrupted her.

Tham Van looked at me.

"I don't want to hear any more explanations about him. Regardless of what he thought back then, or how he regrets it now, it has nothing to do with me anymore. The divorce papers have been sealed, we are strangers."

The room was silent for a few seconds. Tham Van lifted the teacup and took a sip, put it down, her eyes looking at me changed - from begging to investigating.

“Chieu Chieu, what if one day he personally comes to look for you?”

“That's his job.”

“Didn't you leave any escape route?”

“When he signed, he didn't leave any way out.”

Tham Van did not say anything more. This meal lasted 40 minutes, most of the time passed in the sound of quietly chewing food. When leaving, she asked the driver to take me home, I refused and called a taxi myself. Before getting in the car, Tham Van stood in front of the restaurant door and said the last sentence:

“You've changed so much.”

I closed the car door and didn't respond. It's really changed. The previous Lam Chieu would say "Thank you for your concern", would say "I also have something wrong", and would arrange the stairs for the other person to walk down satisfactorily. Now, that won't be the case anymore.

—

Three days after the presentation, the Marketing Director of the other F&B chain actually called.

"Director Lam, we are recently working on a brand repositioning project and would like to find an outside consultant. Are you interested in discussing it?"

I reported to boss Chau, he was very comfortable: "You can accept it, as long as it doesn't take up company resources. It's considered your own job." This is my first outside job, signed a 3-month consulting contract, fee 120,000 yuan. Not much, but completely mine. It's not "doing it for Co Hanh", it's not "acting in Co Hanh's name", but Lam Chieu himself accepted the job, signed it himself, and collected the money himself. I told this story to Phuong Du, who was even more excited than me: "In the future, you will follow the path of independent consulting, which is better than working as an employee."

“Slowly, just accumulate projects first.”

That series of days had a very good rhythm. During the day I go to work, at night I spend 1-2 hours doing consulting planning, on weekends I sometimes go to Luc Dich's gallery - I went to his monthly exhibition twice, purely because I liked the quiet of that space. Luc Dich rarely spoke and did not actively start a conversation, but every time I came he would come over and say a few words and hand me a glass of red wine. Phuong Du told him to pay attention to me. I said: "You think too much." But I admit, being able to talk to someone who doesn't know Co Hanh, doesn't know my past, is a very relieved feeling. No need to explain why you quit, no explanation needed why divorce? Just talk about paintings, designs, and recently read books. A clean and platonic relationship. The sixth week, Co Hanh took action. Not looking for me, but looking for my new company. At 10 a.m. that morning, boss Chau called me into his office.

“Lam Chieu, there is someone looking for you at Co Thi Real Estate.”

My heart skipped a beat: "What do you mean?"