Chapter 9 — Lottery Ticket Without Name

Ms. Sau did not deny the signature. She said she withdrew money to pay hospital bills for an injured worker, before there were official regulations.

Quan was angry because he feared the new fund would become a place where everyone made their own decisions. Ms. Sau replied that if she waited for enough papers, the patient could die.

Nhi checks the hospital bill. Money is used correctly, but it needs to be recorded as support, not hidden.

The group argued all night. They agreed to repay the fund monthly, without fining Ms. Sau, but adding a supervised emergency process.

Thanh was put on trial for arrest, but his testimony helped clarify the situation. Khanh received a sentence of embezzlement and falsifying death records. The foreman was prosecuted for concealing the accident.

Lam refused to accept fake insurance money and asked the company to properly compensate the injured.

Quan used his small portion of money to open a general machine repair workshop, without borrowing from Thanh. Nhi retains the right to inspect the book.

An investor offered to buy their story to make a movie. Lam refused because the injured worker did not want to appear.

Quan said a story is not a product if the person in it does not agree.

The ticket is presented to receive the prize under the name of the group representative, without the individual's name. Money transferred to locked account.

When receiving the confirmation, Quan saw that on the back of the ticket was a finger-shaped streak of blue ink. The fingerprints are Lam's, not his.

Lam smiled: "At least this time the paper is right."

But Quan looked at the withdrawal list. A new transaction appears from the fund account, the recipient is a company that has never been mentioned.

That company is "Tan Mechanical", registered at the same address as the foreman's old workshop. The legal representative is Khanh's younger brother, a person who has never appeared in union records.

Nhi asked the bank to keep the transaction intact and invite an independent auditor. Ms. Sau wanted to meet the representative herself, but Quan stopped her. Too many times they let kindness come before evidence.

Hanh checked the fund server and discovered that the withdrawal order was created from a computer in the cafeteria while Ms. Sau was at the hospital. The camera shows a person wearing a helmet sitting in front of the machine, but his face is covered. The fingerprints on the keyboard belonged to Khanh, even though he claimed he did not enter the factory that day.

Khanh denied, saying the computer could be used by someone else. Nhi showed the login schedule and authentication code sent to his phone. Khanh has no reason other than poor account security.

The representative of Tan Mechanical Company did not come to the meeting. The registered address is just an empty warehouse. In the warehouse, police found dozens of sets of debt documents, including copies of IDs of ticket contributors and debt purchase contracts with fake signatures.

Quan recognized a contract with his signature. The signature was the same as the one on the "ticket recipient" paper, but the date of signing was the day he was repairing the motor at the workshop. He held the paper without tearing it.

“They've been doing this longer than we thought,” he said.

Lam looked at the paper. “So the ticket just scared them because this time the number was too big.”

Ms. Sau admitted that in the past she used to keep loan documents for workers. She thought helping them was the right thing to do, but didn't realize that each copy of her ID could be used as a lanyard. She agreed to hand over all old books to the auditor.

The team decided not to withdraw the prize money immediately. They set up an escrow fund, in which money is transferred only in four categories: installment repayment, accident assistance, protection legal and vocational training. All amounts over ten million need to have their invoices made public.

Quan proposed to remove his name from the representative group. Everyone objected, but he said: "Just because I bought a ticket, doesn't mean I know how to manage money. If we want to be different from Khanh, don't choose someone who is good at holding paper. Let's choose a mechanism where no one holds it alone."

Nhi was elected legal coordinator, Hanh is in charge of data, Lam is in charge of safety, and Ms. Sau holds emergency procedures. Quan only kept one key to the safe, along with eleven other people.

On the day of receiving the prize, the lottery agency asked Quan and Lam to present documents. Lam's name was not on the ticket, neither was Quan. They provided the group agreement, verification minutes and contribution list.

The staff asked who owned it.

Quan looked at the twelve people behind him. "We share responsibility. Money is only received under a signed representative."

The ticket is scanned one last time. Valid serial code. The money is transferred to a locked account and no one can touch it for thirty days.

As soon as she stepped out, Nhi's phone received an anonymous email: "If you divide the money, remember there is a thirteenth person who contributed."

Attached to the email was a photo of a worker who went missing three years ago, along with a ticket donation form signed by him.

The person in the photo is Son, a welder who worked on the same shift as Lam. Records say he returned home after the factory reduced payrolls, but his family said Son did not return and his final salary was never paid.

Quan remembers Son used to stand next to the water vending machine the day he bought the ticket. He contributed money and asked Lam to keep it for him, because he did not have a bank account. If Son were still alive, the list of twelve people could become thirteen.

Nhi checked the exit records and saw that Son used his old ID to work at a coastal factory. They went looking for the same auditor, without disclosing the reason to avoid debt buyers knowing in advance.

Son initially refused to meet. He thought Quan came to ask for the money or wanted to use his name as evidence. When Lam made a video call, Son opened the door. The two were silent for a long time before Son asked: "Are you really back?"

Lam replied: "I'm back, but I still have to learn to trust people."

Son showed an old food coupon, proving he had contributed one hundred thousand. He did not ask for equal division; he just wanted enough reimbursement to take his mother to the doctor.

The auditor recorded the testimony, then asked Son why he was missing. Son said that after accusing the foreman of deducting his salary, he was pushed to a brokerage company, had his identification kept and had to work undercover. His name was used to sign for insurance even though he never knew it.

After listening, Quan understood that the factory did not just make a person "die" on paper. They erase the lives of people who don't have time to protect themselves.

The group agreed to pause disbursement for another three days to review the entire list. Some people worry that if they pay late they will lose interest, but Lam said a profit is not worth the price of forgetting someone who contributed to them.

When Son's profile was confirmed, the group account received another notification: a fourteenth person was submitting a request, but there was no donation slip, only a recording of Lam's voice calling their name.

Quan asked Lam if he remembered that person. Lam looked out the window, his face showing true fear for the first time.

“That person did not contribute money,” he said. “That person kept me alive.”