Chapter 8 — Old Street Corner Gold Shop

In the days after the meeting with Mr. Doan, life at Tan Phat gold shop still passed with a familiar rhythm, although Vy was always anxiously waiting for new news from Khoi. The store's revenue continued to decrease slightly compared to previous months, but not to an alarming level, largely thanks to loyal customers who still trust them by stopping by, along with a few orders to restore heirloom jewelry that Vy began to proactively promote through word of mouth.

One afternoon, when Vy was instructing Thanh Tra on the technique of embossing patterns on a silver bracelet, the shop door opened and a middle-aged woman walked in, her appearance austere but her eyes full of hope. She introduced herself as Hoa, worked as a vegetable seller at a nearby market, and came to ask about repairing a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant that had been broken on a hook long ago.

"My husband gave me this when we first got married. Now that he's passed away, I want to repair it so I can wear it to keep him with me," Mrs. Hoa said, her voice choked, her hands trembling as she took the necklace from a small cloth bag and gave it to Vy.

Vy held the necklace and immediately realized that this was not an expensive item - just raw gold, the material value was not much, but she clearly understood how great its spiritual value was to the woman in front of her. She gently reassured Mrs. Hoa, promising to repair it carefully, and especially not to charge extra fees beyond the materials that needed to be replaced, although Mrs. Hoa seemed hesitant about her ability to pay.

After seeing off the guests, Thanh Tra turned to Vy with touching eyes. "Miss Vy, why don't you charge more money this time? Fixing the lock and mending the broken part also takes a lot of work."

"There are orders that shouldn't be counted in money, Thanh Tra," Vy replied, her voice gentle. "This job is not only about business, but also about how we preserve stories and memories for others. If you only think about profit, you will lose the very thing that makes your shop valuable."

Thanh Tra nodded, remembering that teaching as a valuable lesson not included in any school curriculum. She carefully watched Vy repair Mrs. Hoa's necklace right after that - the process of welding the clasp requires high precision, because young gold can easily melt if the temperature is not well controlled, possibly damaging the already fragile heart-shaped pendant.

That evening, as Vy was preparing to close the shop, her cell phone vibrated — a text message from Khoi. "Miss Vy, I found some interesting information about the Uong family in this area before 1979. Do you have time to meet me this weekend to discuss?"

Vy's heart beat faster when she read the message. She texted back and agreed immediately, making an appointment to meet on Saturday afternoon at a small coffee shop near the bank where Khoi worked.

At the appointment, Vy arrived at the coffee shop a few minutes earlier than planned, choosing a quiet corner table. Khoi arrived not long after, carrying a thick stack of photocopied documents, placing them on the table with an expression both excited and cautious.

"I contacted a friend who works at the city's civil status records department," he began, his voice somewhat low as if he was considering how to present sensitive information. "It was not easy to find, because the records at that time were not fully digitized, many parts were lost through warehouse transfers. But I found a few clues."

He flipped through the file, pointing to a faded copy of an old household registration page. "This is the household registration list of Ngan Lu neighborhood in 1978, including a household with the surname Uong, the head of the household named Uong Khai Tuong, a cloth trader, quite wealthy by the standards of that time. The family had a wife and two children, a boy and a girl."

Vy stared intently at the faded copy, trying to read each word clearly. "So are there any notes about them leaving?"

"Here's the fun part," Khoi said, turning the page. "In the file, there is a handwritten note in the margin, the content is quite vague, but it does mention the phrase 'absent without reason, suspected of illegally leaving the country', dated late November 1979. This matches what my grandmother told me — it seems that the Uong family left that night, and the local government unofficially recorded them 'disappearing'."

Vy was silent for a moment, piecing together the new information with what she already knew. "So does that mean the Uong family actually crossed the border that night, right at the time they brought the jewelry to send to my grandfather?"

"There's a high possibility of that," Khoi nodded, his eyes serious. "And if that's true, then maybe your grandfather didn't appropriate anything at all, but it's very possible that he was the one caught in the middle of an unexpected situation — holding property for a family that was about to leave, and then suddenly being inspected by the authorities."

Those words made Vy's heart feel both relieved and heavy. Relieved because it reinforced her belief in her grandfather's innocence, but heavy because she realized this story was much more complicated and heartbreaking than a simple property dispute - it was associated with a tumultuous period of history, with families torn apart, destinies caught up in the flow of time that no one had the right to choose.

"If the Uong family left in 1979, then who is looking for my family now?" Vy asked, her voice filled with worry. "If this is related to border crossing, why are they only now coming back to demand it?"

Khoi pondered, not having a definite answer. "I don't know for sure, but it's possible that the descendants of that family, after many years of settling abroad, now have the opportunity to return to learn about the past. Sometimes, stories passed down through many generations will be somewhat distorted, especially when the narrator is no longer alive to correct important details."

Khoi flipped through a few more pages of documents and showed Vy another list - a declaration of assets of business households on Ngan Lu Street in the period 1978-1980, including the name of her grandfather's gold shop, recording the amount of raw gold in inventory by quarter. “I notice something unusual here,” he said, his finger stopping at a line of data. "In the last quarter of 1979, the store's gold inventory decreased suddenly compared to the previous quarter, but there was no specific reason noted, nor did it match any sales orders recorded in the official trading books. If it is true that there was an inspection and confiscation of assets occurring at that time, this number would match our hypothesis."

"So that means my grandfather didn't keep that jewelry for himself, but most likely the government at that time confiscated some of it?" Vy asked, her voice shaking with emotion.

"That's a possibility worth exploring further," Khoi nodded, careful not to assert anything with certainty when the evidence was incomplete. "But I need to find more records of administrative violations or asset confiscation records of the area police at that time to verify. These types of records are much more difficult to access, because they are related to security, not everyone is allowed to see them."

Vy nodded, realizing that the road to finding the truth was still very long ahead, but at least now she had the first reliable clues to start. "Thank you so much, Khoi. I don't think I would have been able to find this information without your help."

"Nothing," Khoi replied, a gentle smile appearing on his lips. "To be honest, I feel somewhat responsible in this matter, because it involves my grandmother as well. Besides..." he hesitated for a moment, "I also want to help you, not just because of work."

That unfinished sentence caused the air between the two of them to drop an indescribable beat. They were both silent for a moment, their eyes met and then quickly looked away. Vy felt her cheeks heat up and quickly bent down to take a sip of coffee to hide her embarrassment. She wasn't sure she was ready for something beyond a friendship or a working relationship, especially when her mind was occupied by worries about the jewelry store and family secrets, but she couldn't deny that Khoi's presence brought her a rare sense of peace in these tumultuous days.

On the way home, Vy sat on the bus, looking out the window, the streetlights passing through the alternating dark and bright spaces. She thought about her grandfather, about the image of the thin man in the black-and-white photo, wondering what he must have gone through that chaotic night - the fear of being questioned by the authorities, the torment of not being able to find the family that had trusted her, and perhaps the loneliness of having to carry that secret with her for the rest of her life without daring to confide it to anyone, not even her own son. The more Vy thought, the more she felt sorry for him, and the more determined she was to find the complete truth, not only to protect the honor of the gold shop, but also to give him the justice he deserved after many years of silence.