Chapter 14 — Secret Explosive Burning of Cow Dung

At the same time, Nguu Dai Dung's connection screen on the other side, which was dark, suddenly lit up again. This time, there was no Niu Dai Dung in the camera. There was only the old lady with a cane earlier. The old lady leaned closer to the screen, her voice hoarse.

“That lock was not stolen by Bach Tieu Nhiem.”

"It was Duong Thuy Phuong who took it from Nguu Vinh Phuc."

“Because the person who carried the child away that year was Nguu Vinh Phuc.”

10 As soon as the old lady's sentence ended, the livestream was like being thrown into a pan of fire. The dense comments poured in, so fast that I couldn't read a complete sentence. Tham Kieu's hand holding the script turned pale.

“Grandma, what did you just say?”

The old lady leaned closer to the lens. Her face was slightly distorted by the phone, but her eyes were bright.

"I said, the person who hugged Van Duong that year was Nguu Vinh Phuc."

I heard my heart pounding straight into my eardrums. My mother was crying on the phone without making a sound. Nguu Dai Dung's voice echoed from outside the frame.

“Mom, you're crazy!”

The old lady turned her head and scolded.

“I'm not crazy.”

“The crazy person is my father.”

“Crazy people are you people, using dead people as cannon fodder.”

Nuu Dai Dung rushed forward and tried to steal the phone. The lens shook violently. The old lady used a stick to tap the ground hard.

“If you dare touch me once, I will hit my head and die right in front of the door.”

Nuu Dai Dung was stunned. In the studio, no one dared to say anything. Even Bach Nhiem sat down on the chair, his face gray. Tham Kieu asked in a low voice: "Grandma, what kind of person are you with Nguu Vinh Phuc?" The old lady gasped twice.

“I am his wife.”

This time, the scene was even quieter. I looked at that old face and suddenly remembered seeing her when I was a child. She often sits in the sun under the eucalyptus tree in the village. The day I blew up the wall, she was there too. She didn't scold me. Just looked at me for a long time. At that time, I thought she missed the wall. Now that I think about it, what she was looking at was not the wall. It's me. The old lady said: "That year when Nguu Vinh Phuc brought the child home, I saw it."

“A tiny baby girl, crying hoarsely.”

“Inside the diaper there is a silver lock, the word Duong An is engraved on the lock.”

"I asked him where he got the child. He told someone in town to take him for a while."

“I asked again where to take it.”

“He said to take him to Van's house.”

My mother spoke hoarsely.

“So Duong Thuy Phuong brought the child to my house, not the first?”

The old lady shook her head.

“No.”

“The child went to Nguu Vinh Phuc first.”

“After that, Duong Thuy Phuong picked him up.”

My fingers clenched the edge of the table, my joints aching.

“Why did he do that?”

The old lady looked up at me.

“For money.”

“And also out of fear.”

She coughed a few times, as if each word scraped blood from her chest.

“That year, the medical station in town was very chaotic.”

“Duong Thuy Phuong used to work there.”

“She and Nguu Vinh Phuc had an inappropriate relationship.”

“Later, she took the child and came to him, telling him that someone would give him a large sum of money and asked them to take the child away for a while.”

Bach Nhiem stood up.

“Don't slander my aunt!”

The old lady didn't even look at her.

“Whether she is your aunt or not, you know for yourself.”

“That year, she took her to Lien Thuy village to escape debt, and also to find Nguu Vinh Phuc to collect her debt. hush money.”

Bach Nhiem's lips were white, his hands clenched and trembling.

“I was just a kid then.”

“These things have nothing to do with me.”

I looked at her.

“If it's unrelated, why did you sell the silver lock?”

Bach Nhiem's tears flowed again.

“I told you, I didn't know it was yours.”

“I've been wearing it since I was little, I thought it was my thing.”

The old lady smiled faintly.

“When your aunt put it on for you, didn't she tell you that this lock should not be shown to anyone else?”