Chapter 21 — Old Street Corner Gold Shop

On the fateful weekend morning, Tan Phat gold shop put on an unusual appearance. Thanh Tra had been cleaned up since the night before, the glass cabinets were polished, and a vase of fresh lotus flowers was solemnly placed on the reception table - a flower that, according to Mr. Thinh, grandmother Vy loved very much. The lotus-infused teapot was prepared by Vy early, spreading a gentle fragrance throughout the shop space.

At exactly nine o'clock in the morning, Mr. Ky Thi Doan arrived first, and was helped into the shop by Khoi. Her figure was small but her eyes were full of determination. Vy welcomed him into the most comfortable chair, near the window with soft light, and poured him a cup of hot tea.

"Thank you," Mr. Doan said, his voice trembling with both age and emotion. "She's been waiting for this day for a long time, even though she didn't expect it to come this way."

Fifteen minutes later, a car stopped in front of the store. Mr. Uong Chi Thanh stepped down, followed by lawyer Su Dinh Khang. He wore a more formal suit than before, but his eyes remained cautious and wary as he crossed the threshold of the store.

"Hello Mr. Chi Thanh, hello lawyer Khang," Vy spoke up, trying to keep her voice as calm and friendly as possible. "Thank you both for coming. Please sit down."

Mr. Chi Thanh nodded, his eyes swept across the shop space, stopping for a moment at the lotus vase on the table, then at Mr. Doan sitting quietly in the corner of the room. He seemed surprised to see the presence of an elderly stranger in a meeting where he thought there was only two parties arguing.

"Who is this?" he asked, his voice still wary.

"This is Mr. Ky Thi Doan," Khoi replied, his voice solemn. "She is Mr. Khuong Tan Phat's childhood friend, and is also the only person alive who witnessed directly what happened that night in 1979."

Hearing that, Mr. Chi Thanh stopped, his eyes looked at Mr. Doan with a mixture of skepticism and undisguised curiosity. He slowly sat down in the chair, lawyer Khang sat next to him, both of them maintained a serious posture, ready to listen but not completely letting go of their defense.

Mr. Thinh, despite having difficulty walking, still tried to sit upright in his chair, his eyes firmly looking straight at this special guest. "Before we begin, I want to say one thing," he began, his voice slow but heavy. "Our family understands very well the pain he has been carrying for so many years. A father's last words at his deathbed are sacred, not easy to doubt or let go. We did not come here to prove him wrong, but to join him in finding a fuller truth, which I believe, both his father and my father, if still alive, would like to know."

That sincere opening statement eased the tense atmosphere in the room somewhat. Mr. Chi Thanh was silent, but his eyes were less sharp, replaced by a deeper contemplation.

"Then please," he said, his voice less harsh. "I'm ready to listen."

Vy took a deep breath and began to present in the exact order that she had carefully prepared with Khoi. She opened with a story about her grandfather's diary, re-reading the unfinished paragraph mentioning "Mrs. Tuong" asking to send jewelry during a panicked night. She is careful and slow, giving each detail enough time to penetrate the listener.

Next, she invited Mr. Doan to retell the story. Mr. Doan, although his voice trembled due to age, still recounted in detail and vividly as if the incident had only happened yesterday - about the night when the power went out in heavy rain, about the image of Mrs. Tuong kneeling down to beg, about the sudden sound of the car horn, about the inspection team rushing in to confiscate the jewelry, and about Mr. Tan Phat being escorted away that night.

Mr. Chi Thanh listened attentively, his face gradually changing through many emotions - from skepticism, to surprise, then to an emotion that was difficult to hide when Mr. Doan told the part where Ms. Tuong - his mother - knelt down and cried to beg Mr. Tan Phat.

"My mother..." he whispered, his voice choking, "my mother never told me these details. She only said briefly that the family had left the property with a trusted acquaintance before leaving, but never described such a specific scene."

"Perhaps, the pain of that night was too great for her to recount in detail," said Mr. Doan, his voice full of sympathy. "She only remembers the fear and haste, not what happened after his family left. But she, the observer, witnessed the rest of the story - the part that perhaps neither his father nor Ms. Vy's grandfather had a chance to tell anyone."

Vy continued to present, showing the old receipt, explaining that the content clearly stated the intention to repay, not to seize. She showed it to Mr. Chi Thanh directly. His hand trembled as he held the yellowed paper, his eyes glued to each faint handwriting.

“This is a real receipt,” he said, his voice shaking. "But... why didn't my father ever mention signing for something? Why didn't you try to contact him again to claim it?"

Khoi spoke, his voice gentle but full of logic. "Perhaps because of the harsh circumstances of the border crossing, his family had no safe way to contact the country for many years afterward, and perhaps his father did not know for sure whether Mr. Tan Phat still kept his property or not after that night, when he himself was arrested shortly after his family left."

Mr. Chi Thanh placed the receipt on the table, holding his head with both hands, a posture of a person struggling to rearrange everything he had believed in all his life. The whole room was silent, except for the sound of the wall clock ticking steadily, as if counting the rhythm for a moment in history that was gradually being rewritten.

Lawyer Khang, still maintaining his professional composure, spoke up to break the heavy silence. "I appreciate the careful preparation of the gold shop. But I also have to make it clear that although these documents are very interesting, they are still not absolute evidence; other possibilities cannot be completely denied."

"I agree that nothing is absolute yet," Khoi replied, his voice still respectful but firm. "But lawyer, in a case that's forty-five years old, when most of the witnesses and original documents are gone, I think the best thing we can do is look at all the independent sources of information to see if they point in the same direction. And here, the accounts of direct witnesses, the content of the receipt, the scientific appraisal of the date of the earring, and the historical documentation of corruption in property inspections during that period — it's all the same. towards a unified conclusion."

Vy took out the small box containing the earring and placed it gently on the table in front of Mr. Chi Thanh. "This is the remains that my family found in the safe, which had been lying silently for many years without anyone in the family knowing the origin, until we began to learn about this story."

Mr. Chi Thanh raised his head, his eyes fixed on the earring sparkling under the light. He reached out his hand, but then pulled it back, as if he didn't dare touch it, afraid that this was just a dream that would vanish as soon as he touched it.

"Is... is this really from my jewelry set?" he asked, his voice trembling with emotion, different from the harshness of previous meetings.

"We asked the appraisal expert at the city museum of fine arts to confirm," Vy replied, adding an official assessment with a confirmation stamp. "The manufacturing technique and date both match the description in your statement about your family heirloom jewelry."

Mr. Chi Thanh picked up the assessment, read each line, his hands shaking uncontrollably. Then, as if he couldn't hold back any longer, he raised his hands to cover his face, his shoulders shaking with each choking breath. Lawyer Khang, witnessing this scene, also remained silent, no longer able to maintain his cold, professional expression as at first.

Mr. Doan, from the corner of the room, slowly stood up, leaned on his cane and walked closer to Mr. Chi Thanh, placing his thin hand on his shoulder gently, like a grandmother comforting her hurt grandchild. "Son," he said, his voice gentle, "I know your father is a good person, who suffered too much loss that night. But Mr. Phat is the same, also a good person, who tried his best in a situation that no one could have chosen. The two of them, if they have the chance to meet again, I am sure they will understand and forgive each other, without any resentment."

Mr. Doan's simple but empathetic words seemed touch the deepest part of Mr. Chi Thanh's heart. He raised his head, his red eyes looked at him, then looked at Vy and Mr. Thinh, his eyes were completely different from the harsh, defensive look when entering the shop.

"I... I need time to calm down," he said, his voice still shaking. "What I just heard and saw is completely different from what I have believed all these years. I need to think more clearly."

"We understand, sir," Vy replied, her voice gentle but sincere. "You just take the time you need. We don't want to force you to accept right away. The most important thing to us is that the truth has been fully presented. The rest, please let you feel and decide for yourself."