Chapter 9 — Never Blame a Janitor

Three empty chairs were lined up opposite the disciplinary council table, and before anyone could sit down, Dac Long knew that just by looking at the faces of the three children about to enter the room, he would immediately recognize which one was lying. Principal Dao Thi Minh Chau convened a disciplinary meeting on a Tuesday afternoon, after the results of extracting security cameras from the Lam Vien tourist area, along with the initial testimony from a waitress who saw Trinh Bao Nam lingering unusually near the drinking area, were enough basis for the school to officially invite the parents of the three involved students to work. Dac Long, as the victim's parent, was invited to attend as an observer according to school regulations.

The small meeting room on the third floor of the administrative area was filled with people: three students Trinh Bao Nam, Vu Bao Long, Dang Minh Khoi and their parents sat on one side of a long table, opposite were principal Minh Chau, homeroom teacher, and a school consulting lawyer invited to ensure the legal process. Dac Long sat quietly in the corner of the room, not speaking, just observing, his sharp eyes never leaving the smallest expressions on the three children's faces.

Initially, all three steadfastly denied all responsibility, citing "just passing by the drink table to get snacks". But when principal Minh Chau showed the video extracted from the security camera, the image clearly showed Trinh Bao Nam standing for an unusually long time near the water bottle with the name "Anh Thu" carefully labeled in accordance with school regulations. His jacket sleeve had a suspicious, furtive movement, and his face in the video turned pale. Bao Nam's mother, sitting next to him, burst into tears and turned to shake her son's shoulder.

"Tell me, did you do that?"

Trinh Bao Nam, after a tense silence, finally collapsed, tears rolling down his eyes. "I'm sorry... I don't want to do that, but Khai Phong said if I don't do it, he will tell my dad that I failed the semester exam, and it will cause my dad's company to lose the contract with Tang Phat. I'm so scared, I just thought it was a mild sleeping pill, I didn't think it would be that dangerous..."

That confession was like a bomb exploding in the meeting room. Bao Nam's father, a middle-aged man with the austere expression of a small-time businessman, turned pale and bowed his head, not daring to look at anyone. He understood better than anyone the cost of his company losing the contract with Tang Phat - that was his family's entire source of livelihood for many years, and now, his son had become a tool in a dangerous bullying game just because of that fear.

The two remaining students, Vu Bao Long and Dang Minh Khoi, after seeing Bao Nam's testimony, also admitted their roles in turn - they did not directly quit smoking, but stood watch and kept watch to ensure no one discovered Bao Nam's actions, and confirmed that the entire plan was masterminded by Tang Khai Phong, planned in detail a week in advance.

Dac Long sat quietly listening to the entire testimony, his hands clasped tightly on his thighs. He couldn't help but be indignant at the act of endangering his daughter's life, but at the same time, looking at the three children trembling and crying in front of their parents, he also realized a bitter truth: they were, in a way, just victims of a system of power and oppression much greater than what a sixteen-year-old child could fight against.

After the meeting, when the meeting room gradually became empty, Dac Long asked principal Minh Chau for permission to talk privately with Trinh Bao Nam's family for a few minutes. The father, when he saw Dac Long approaching, bowed his head tremblingly, preparing himself to receive anger, or even the threat of lawsuits, from the victim's family.

His hands were clasped together until they turned white. "I'm sorry for what my son did to your daughter. I know it's an unforgivable mistake, but please, don't make my family lose the only remaining business. We will take all forms of discipline from the school, but please don't report it to the police, my child still has his whole future ahead of him."

Dac Long looked at the man in front of him for a long time, then looked at the boy Bao Nam who was standing behind his mother, his eyes full of fear and remorse. In that moment, he remembered himself eight years ago — also a victim of someone with greater power, also forced to do things against his will because of inevitable economic dependence. He understood better than anyone that the person who deserved the harshest punishment in this whole story was not the boy trembling in front of him, but the person behind the scenes pulling the strings of the whole thing.

"I won't report to the police," Dac Long said, his voice calm but stern. "But I need your son to write a detailed, complete, signed statement about everything that happened, including how Khai Phong threatened and coerced him. That report, I will keep as evidence, only using it when absolutely necessary to protect my daughter and other children who may become that boy's next victims."

The father nodded vigorously, tears of gratitude. "Thank you, thank you very much. We will cooperate fully."

Regarding official discipline from the school, principal Minh Chau decided to suspend all three students for one week, along with a requirement to participate in a mandatory psychological counseling and moral education program. For Tang Khai Phong, who was identified as the main mastermind, the disciplinary action was expected to be more severe — a two-week suspension and a warning to the entire school — but as soon as this information was announced, a phone call from the Tang family's private lawyer's office went directly to the principal, citing "the right to a fair trial" and "lack of direct evidence against student Khai Phong," threatening to sue the school if disciplinary action was imposed without concrete evidence. beyond the testimony of other students.

Dac Long, when he heard this news from principal Minh Chau on the phone that night, was not surprised. This is exactly the familiar tactic that he has witnessed Tang Bach Nguyen use many times in the past - using power and a powerful legal team to stifle all efforts to seek justice from those with a weaker voice than him.

"Ms. Chau," he said over the phone, his voice calm but determined, "I understand the pressure the school is facing. But please don't let them let this whole thing sink. I will prepare all the necessary evidence myself, and when the time is right, I will ensure justice is properly served — not only for my daughter, but for the other children who have been under pressure from that family."

Before hanging up, principal Minh Chau added another detail that caught Dac Long's special attention: "Mr. Phuc, I noticed that during this afternoon's meeting, Bao Long's father mentioned something, basically saying that Mr. Tang Bach Nguyen himself personally called to instruct their family to 'be reasonable' before the disciplinary meeting took place. I find it a bit strange, because normally parents of violating students have no reason to receive direct instructions from such a big businessman, except when there is a deeper business relationship between them than what I know."

That detail, seemingly small, reinforced the growing doubt in Dac Long's heart: Tang Bach Nguyen was not on the sidelines like a father who accidentally got his son involved in school trouble. He was watching closely, actively intervening to control the situation, and that could only be for one reason — he wanted to know exactly who was behind his son's victim, and how much danger that person could pose to the entire Tang Phat empire.

That night, after sending Anh Thu to bed, Dac Long told his daughter, gently and selectively, the results of the disciplinary meeting. Anh Thu sat quietly listening, his face slightly surprised when he learned the real reason behind Bao Nam's actions.

"So he was also forced," she said, her voice low, "I didn't expect Khai Phong to be so cruel, using his family to threaten him."

Dac Long looked out the dark window, his distant eyes as if looking back to something far away in the past. "In this world, there are people who are willing to use anything at hand to achieve what they want, including the fear of others. You must remember this carefully, Thu. Not everyone who does bad things is inherently bad. Sometimes they are just weak people, pushed into situations where they have no other choice."

Anh Thu nodded. Although she did not fully understand the depth of her father's words, she felt a great concern weighing heavily on the shoulders of the man she had always considered the strongest support in her life. She did not know, and could not know, that those words were not only for Bao Nam, but also contained the pain of his own father, who had once been in a similar position, having been betrayed by his best friend just because of greed and weakness before the temptation of power.

After his daughter was asleep, Dac Long sat alone in the living room, reopening the evidence file that he and Ho Trong Nhan had collected over the past eight years, adding the new report received from Trinh Bao Nam's family. He realized that, even though he had punished those who directly harmed his daughter, the real war was still ahead - because Tang Khai Phong, even though he was the direct instigator of the bullying, was just a pawn, a tool in the hands of a much larger force, a force that he knew well, had not hesitated to take the life of the wife he loved the most just to achieve his goals.

And if his hunch was true, if Tang Bach Nguyen had truly begun to doubt his true identity, then punishing these tool children would only be the beginning of a much larger war, a war that he, despite eight years of preparation, still felt he was never truly ready to face.