Chapter 18 — Never Blame a Janitor

After the successful rescue night, Dac Long did not allow himself and his loved ones to wait another moment. Anh Thu, although still in shock after the incident, was taken to a safe house arranged by Ho Trong Nhan, with Nguyet Ha standing by his side to take care of him both physically and mentally, along with a security team that strictly guarded him for twenty-four hours. Dac Long, after making sure his daughter was absolutely safe, immediately embarked on the final step of the plan that he and his colleagues had been preparing for eight long years.

The next morning, on the day the Board of Directors of Hac Thinh held a regular quarterly meeting - a meeting that was originally scheduled to simply discuss quarterly financial reports and the progress of some ongoing projects - Dac Long, along with lawyer Lam Gia Bach and the entire evidence file that had been firmly consolidated over the years, appeared at the skyscraper headquarters of Hac Thinh Group, a place he had not set foot in for eight long years.

Standing in front of the towering building named after the corporation he founded, Dac Long stopped for a moment, looked up at the top of the building, memories of the old glorious years rushing back strongly. He wore a black suit prepared by Lam Gia Bach, his hair was neatly combed, no longer the shy, bowed look of a school security guard, but the dignified, majestic demeanor of a leader who once headed thousands of employees. Under the crisp white fabric of his shirt, a layer of gauze was tightly wrapped around his forearm and left shoulder, still bleeding faintly from last night's knife and bullet wounds, but he didn't show any signs of pain on his face — eight years of training in hiding his emotions in front of cameras and partners had taught him how to put physical pain aside when necessary.

"Ready?" Lam Gia Bach asked, standing next to him, clutching a briefcase of documents containing all the evidence collected over the past eight years.

Dac Long did not respond immediately. He looked up at the shiny Hac Thinh sign above the glass door, where the three letters of the corporation's name had been printed on every business card he had given out for fifteen years, then gently adjusted the collar of his vest, a small but decisive gesture, as if he was putting on a layer of armor that had been taken off for too long. "Ready," he replied, his voice calm but filled with an unshakable strength. "Let's go."

Thanks to Huynh Bao Toan's prior arrangement, the two were allowed to enter the building without any obstacles from the security team, going straight to the thirtieth floor, where the meeting of the Board of Directors was taking place with the full participation of all senior members, including Tang Bach Nguyen who was sitting in the position of actual chairman, although Huynh Bao Toan still held the position of Chairman in name.

When the meeting room door opened, all eyes in the room simultaneously turned to the two men who had just entered. A dead silence covered the room as many older members of the council, those who had worked directly under Dac Long, immediately recognized the man standing there, even though eight years had passed, even though his face was somewhat more weathered, even though there was a faint scar on his temple.

“No way,” an elderly council member muttered, standing up from his chair. "Zhe Dac Long? Are you... are you still alive?"

Tang Bach Nguyen, sitting at the head of the table, his face flashed with extreme shock for a split second before regaining his familiar fake calmness. But Dac Long, with a keen eye that had observed thousands of tense negotiations in the past, clearly recognized his hand clenching the pen on the table, his knuckles turning white from the too strong grip - an undisguised sign of a real panic behind the calm facade.

"Zhan Dac Long," Tang Bach Nguyen spoke up, trying to keep his voice calm, "it's surprising to see you appear here, after all these years. But you don't have any authority to attend this session anymore, you sold all your shares eight years ago."

One corner of Tang Bach Nguyen's mouth slightly raised, a thin smile full of meaning that only Dac Long, in the entire room, was enough to understand the source. "By the way, Dac Long," he added, his voice deliberately lowered to sound like harmless gossip, "I heard there was a little trouble last night somewhere in the suburbs. I hope your daughter doesn't panic too much."

The whole room, which was buzzing because of Dac Long's sudden appearance, no one realized the true weight hidden behind that seemingly careless statement. But Dac Long understood better than anyone — it was a naked threat, a cold reminder that his daughter could still be a bargaining chip any time he wanted. He didn't let any muscle on his face betray the true emotions swirling in his heart, just slightly curled his lips, a cold smile no less sharp. "My daughter is fine, Mr. Nguyen. Much better than you can imagine. But we'll talk about that later, when the time is more appropriate. For now, let's talk about eight years ago."

That strangely calm answer caused a moment of confusion to cross Tang Bach Nguyen's face — not because he believed his threat had failed, but because he completely couldn't understand why Dac Long was so calm in the face of a suggestion that should have made any father tremble.

Dac Long's voice echoed throughout the room, full of authority that had not diminished even after eight years of separation. "I don't come here as a shareholder. I come here as a victim of an organized property appropriation plot, and as the father of a child who almost lost his life because he was targeted by his own son and those under him."

He motioned to Lam Gia Bach, who immediately opened the briefcase, distributing carefully prepared copies to each board member — evidence of the fake resolution, the shady bank transactions, the notarized testimony of old witnesses, including a detailed report from Phan Trong Nghia, the former head of the accounting department whom Ho Trong Nhan had finally successfully persuaded to cooperate just two days earlier.

"This is all the evidence that, eight years ago, Mr. Tang Bach Nguyen colluded with three other shareholders and a partner bank to falsify the Board of Directors resolution, creating a fake liquidity crisis to force me to sign and transfer the majority of my shares," Dac Long continued, his voice not shaking even though he was recalling the most painful memories of his life in front of the entire board. "And the night I discovered the truth, a group of people he hired broke into my house, causing my wife — Dinh Thao Ngan — to die while trying to protect our daughter."

The room was filled with a heavy silence, mixed with the shocked whispers of the council members as they flipped through each page of documents, comparing what they remembered about the past incident. Tang Bach Nguyen stood up, his face no longer calm, red with anger and panic.

"This is blatant slander!" he shouted, his voice sharp. "These documents have no legal value at all, they are just baseless accusations fabricated to defame my reputation!"

“Then maybe you should explain,” Dac Long said. His voice was cold as he pulled out a small tape recorder from inside his jacket and placed it on the shiny conference table. "Why is it that in this recording, your voice directly directs the staging of a fake liquidity crisis, recorded from your own office eight years ago, by an honest accountant who was then afraid and secretly kept in case of need?"

Dac Long pressed the play button, and the voice of Tang Bach Nguyen from eight years ago, younger, but unmistakable, rang out clearly in the silent meeting room, giving detailed instructions on each step of the usurpation plot. Each sentence, each word, was like a knife cutting into the fake calm that Tang Bach Nguyen had tried to maintain for the past eight years in front of the Saigon business world.

Tang Bach Nguyen's face turned pale, his eyes glanced around the meeting room, seeing the eyes of the entire board of directors, those who once respected and even feared his power, now looked at him with extreme horror and contempt. He knew, in just a few short minutes, the entire empire that he had painstakingly built for eight years on the foundation of betrayal and lies, was starting to collapse before his eyes, unable to be saved anymore.

"Mr. Toan," Dac Long turned to Huynh Bao Toan, who had been sitting quietly from the beginning, his eyes full of pain but also determination. "As Chairman of the Board of Directors, I request you to immediately convene an urgent vote of no confidence against Mr. Tang Bach Nguyen, and temporarily suspend all of his positions at the corporation until the investigation agency completes the process of clarifying the case."

Huynh Bao Toan stood up, his voice trembling but full of determination. "I agree with this proposal. Council as a whole, we need to vote now."

Tang Bach Nguyen stood up and pushed the chair back so hard that it fell onto the polished tile floor with a deafening noise. All the last fake composure he was still trying to maintain had completely collapsed, revealing the true nature behind the cover of "exemplary businessman" over the years. "Do you think that defeating me today will be the end of the matter, Dac Long?" he hissed, his voice trembling with both anger and a fear he could no longer conceal. "Your daughter. The woman you're seeing. As long as I have a free breath out there, not a single one of them will have peace in their lives, do you understand?"

That blatant threat, uttered publicly in front of the entire board of directors and the reporters standing outside the glass door, left the entire room silent in horror — none of them could doubt the true ruthless nature of the man they had admired for the past eight years.

Dac Long did not flinch. He slowly reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, pulled out the phone he took from Mai Dinh Hung himself last night, and placed it next to the old tape recorder on the conference table, as if he was adding one last card to the gambling mat that he did not know existed. "You're talking about last night, right? The night you let Mai Dinh Hung and three henchmen kidnap my daughter right at the bus stop, lock her in an abandoned warehouse in an old industrial park, and threaten me to hand over all evidence within twenty-four hours?"

Tang Bach Nguyen's face turned pale in an instant, his lips slightly opened but no sound escaped.

"My daughter has returned home safely since last night," Dac Long continued, his voice still remaining coldly calm even though each word carried the weight of a verdict. "And your Mai Dinh Hung, now lying unconscious somewhere in that same warehouse, with three other accomplices. And here," he pressed the play button on the phone, letting Tang Bach Nguyen's own voice - clear, almost unbelievable, recorded just a few hours ago - ring out in the silence of the meeting room: "...just keep her there until Long turns over all the evidence, don't reveal any trace related to Tang Phat, I'm responsible for everything."

The only sound remaining in the room at this time was Tang Bach Nguyen's own rapid breathing. It is no longer the story of eight years ago, no longer the suspicions of a fake resolution that have faded over time. This is a crime that happened just last night, still fresh, immediately verifiable by the investigation agency, recorded with his own undeniable voice. Several council members jumped up from their chairs, some covered their mouths in horror, some immediately pulled out their phones, not hiding their intention to immediately notify the authorities.

Tang Bach Nguyen, realizing that the situation was turning completely unfavorable for him, tried to salvage it by turning to the shareholders who had colluded with him in the past, pleading with their eyes to speak up in defense. But these people, when they saw the clear, irrefutable evidence spread out in front of the entire council, just silently bowed their heads, no one dared to stand up to defend him in this situation, because they also understood clearly that continuing to stand by his side at this time meant putting themselves in the same prison cycle with him.

"You guys betrayed me?" Tang Bach Nguyen roared, his voice filled with indignation when he realized the complicity of his former allies' silence. "After everything I've given you over the past eight years, are you going to abandon me now?"

No one in the room answered him. That silence, more painful than any direct accusation, is the clearest answer to his completely collapsed position right in the very room where he once reigned as an uncrowned king for nearly a decade.

Dac Long stood looking at that scene, a complex feeling that was hard to name arose in his heart - not exactly the gloating of successful revenge, but a deep relief, as if the burden that had been weighing on his shoulders for eight years was finally starting to be lifted. He raised his hand, gently touched the faint scar on his left temple - a trace of the night of the massacre last year that he had never allowed himself to forget - then looked straight into Tang Bach Nguyen's eyes, his voice lowered, no longer the explosive anger like before, but a cold calmness full of weight.

"I didn't come here just to reclaim property or power," he said. "I came here to demand justice for my wife, who fell down the stairs of our house that night just trying to hold our daughter tightly in her arms, who for the past eight years I have never stopped remembering the last look she looked at me on the hospital bed. I came here so that my daughter, from today, no longer has to hide her name behind another name, no longer has to call her father 'uncle', no longer has to fear that one night, his people will came knocking on my door again. You've had everything you've wanted for the past eight years, with the blood and tears of my family. Now it's time for you to pay the price - both for what you did eight years ago, and for what you tried to do just last night."

Tang Bach Nguyen, his face contorted with anger and helplessness, looked around the meeting room one last time, seeing everything he had ever built disintegrating right before his eyes, before being escorted out of the meeting room in extreme humiliation by two security guards of the building, following Huynh Bao Toan's urgent orders, his screams of protest echoed along the hallway until the elevator door closed, completely cutting off that sound from the meeting room that was gradually returning to order.

Just a few minutes later, police sirens rang out from down the main hall — one of the council members, without waiting for any further internal procedures, silently called in as soon as the recording of the kidnapping ended. Dac Long stood silently next to the large glass window of the meeting room, looking down at the flow of traffic and the red and blue lights gathering below, knowing that from this moment, everything had gone beyond the scope of an internal meeting, becoming a criminal case that no one could hide or settle behind closed doors like eight years ago.