Chapter 11 — Old Street Corner Gold Shop

Nearly two weeks after the meeting with lawyer Su Dinh Khang, on an unusually crowded Friday afternoon, Mr. Uong Chi Thanh appeared directly at Tan Phat gold shop, without prior notice and without an appointment like the time his lawyer did.

Vy was serving two regular customers who were choosing to buy earrings as wedding gifts when the shop door opened, a man in his fifties walked in, tall and thin, dressed in the typical overseas Vietnamese style - plaid shirt, khaki pants, shiny leather shoes that were not suitable for the sweltering sun of the old town. His eyes scanned the shop space with a searching look, then stopped at Vy, sharp as a blade.

"Are you Thuc Vy, Khuong Tan Phat's niece?" he asked directly, his voice full of harshness, without waiting for Vy to finish serving the two guests present.

Vy stopped and immediately realized that this was Mr. Uong Chi Thanh. "Yes, I'm Vy. Excuse me, could you wait a few minutes for me to finish serving the guests?"

"I don't have much time to wait," Mr. Chi Thanh said, his voice louder, causing the two customers who were choosing products to look up with surprise. "I've been waiting for justice for my family forty-five years, how much longer do you think I'll be patient?"

The atmosphere in the shop was immediately tense. The two guests, sensing something unusual, hastily left. One of them even took out his phone, seemingly intending to record the ongoing situation - a familiar reflex of the social network era that Vy had not yet noticed in her confusion.

"Mr. Chi Thanh, I understand you are very upset, but I hope you calm down so we can talk civilly," Vy said, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart was pounding. "We are also actively finding out the truth about this incident."

"Find out the truth?" Mr. Chi Thanh smirked, his voice full of bitterness. "Your family has had forty-five years to 'find out the truth'. Before my father died, he was still tormented because my great-grandmother's jewelry, the only thing left from a once wealthy family, was now taken over without an apology!"

"We have never appropriated anything," Mr. Thinh, as soon as he heard the noise from upstairs, quickly walked down with his cane and spoke, his voice shaking with both weakness and indignation. "My father is the kindest person I have ever known. If you really have concrete evidence, please present it, we are ready to confront you."

"Proof?" Mr. Chi Thanh turned to look at Mr. Thinh, his eyes filled with contempt and pain. "The evidence is my father's last words before he died. Do you know what it means for a person who is about to die to still have to carry that injustice? My father died without being able to close his eyes and feel at peace, just because his family refused to return something that did not belong to him!"

Mr. Chi Thanh's voice became increasingly louder, attracting the attention of passersby outside. A few people stopped to look through the glass window, including the person who had been holding the phone to record video, the lens pointed straight at the increasingly tense confrontation.

"Mr. Chi Thanh, I understand your pain, but making accusations without concrete evidence is unfair to my family," Vy said, trying to stay calm even though her voice was shaking. "My grandfather also passed away a long time ago, and cannot speak for himself to explain what happened that year. We need time to find the most objective truth, instead of just relying on emotions and making hasty conclusions."

"You sound very good," Mr. Chi Thanh replied, his voice full of sarcasm. "But your family has enough time. I won't wait any longer. If next week there is no move to refund or compensate satisfactorily, I will bring the case to public attention, so that everyone knows that this 'three-generation prestigious' gold shop is actually built on property appropriated by others!"

That harsh accusation rang out in the space of the shop, and at that moment, Vy realized that the person holding the phone outside was still recording video, the lens never leaving this tense scene. She felt a wave of dizziness come over her, realizing that no matter what she said next, this image would be spread in a way that would not benefit her family.

"Mr. Chi Thanh, please calm down," Vy tried to say, her voice lost due to stress. "Going public with an unverified story could harm both of our families, not just mine."

"I don't care anymore," Mr. Chi Thanh replied, his voice softened somewhat but still full of determination, as if the anger that had just erupted had exhausted him. "I've waited too long, Vy. My father lived all his life in regret because of the unrecovered debt. I don't want to repeat that tragedy for another generation."

Having finished speaking, he turned and walked out of the store, leaving behind a heavy silence, mixed with the whispers of a few passersby still standing and chatting. Vy stood rooted to the spot, her hands shaking, feeling like she had just experienced a real storm in just a few short minutes.

Mr. Thinh stepped closer, put his hand on his daughter's shoulder, his voice filled with worry. "Are you okay, Vy?"

"I'm okay, dad," Vy replied, although her voice was still shaking. "But I'm worried that the scene just now will be posted online. If so, things will get even more complicated."

Just as she was worried, just a few minutes after the shop was temporarily empty again, Thanh Tra, who had just returned to the shop after school, ran in with a pale face, holding her phone in her hand and showing it to Vy. "Miss Vy, there is a clip of the scene just posted on social networks, it has dozens of shares and comments already!"

Vy took the phone and looked at the short video recording the exact moment Mr. Chi Thanh loudly accused her family, accompanied by a sensational caption: "A 'reputable' gold shop of forty years is accused of appropriating customers' property since the war?" There were dozens of comments below, most of which were speculative, some even hastily concluded that her family was guilty without knowing any more details.

She put down the phone, feeling like the ground beneath her feet was shaking. The storm she once feared was now truly coming, no longer vague signs or private meetings behind closed doors, but had become a public story, spreading rapidly beyond her control, threatening to sweep away everything her family had worked hard to build for three generations.

Thanh Tra stood next to her, her face still pale, not knowing what to say to comfort her teacher. "Ms. Vy, should I ask someone to correct me? Or tell the social network manager to take down the video?"

"There's no time to undo it anymore, Thanh Tra," Vy replied, her voice tired. "Once someone has watched or shared it, even if the original video is removed, people may still have saved it and reposted it elsewhere. I think the most important thing now is to stay calm, not overreact, and focus on finding real evidence."

Mr. Thinh sat down on a rattan chair, his face pale from the emotion he had just experienced. "I didn't expect things to go this far. I thought this was a family matter that could be resolved privately, but now it has become something everyone is talking about."

Vy sat down next to her father, holding his shaking hand. "Dad, don't worry too much. Your health is not good. I'm afraid you'll be more tired. Let me take care of it. I'll call Khoi right now. Maybe he can handle it."

She pulled out her phone and immediately called Khoi, her voice still shaking as she recounted the entire incident that had just happened. On the other end of the line, Khoi listened quietly, occasionally asking for more details. His voice maintained the necessary calmness that Vy so needed right now.

"Calm down," he said after hearing the story. "I'll go over now. Don't post anything to respond online right now, it's easy to be misunderstood or edited in a more unfavorable way. Just let me see the situation and then we'll discuss how to handle it."

Hanging up the phone, Vy sat quietly for a moment, looking out at Ngan Lu street which was gradually lighting up. The light from Hao Kim was still as bright as ever, in complete contrast to the gloomy atmosphere that was covering her family's small gold shop. She wondered how many of the regular customers had been watching that video, and what they would think about her family after watching Mr. Chi Thanh's angry accusations without knowing the other half of the truth. A vague fear crept into her heart - fear that no matter how completely the truth was found in the future, the first impression in the public's eyes would always be the image of a denounced gold shop, which would be difficult to wash away.