Chapter 38 — Shrimp Street Without Name

Ten days after Kien's accident, the news that the group had been waiting for for weeks finally arrived: the provincial investigation agency officially sent a summons to Mr. Dang Quoc Bao, related to many contents at the same time - the illegal detention of Ms. Ut Phuong, Ms. Sau's testimony about the settlement money ten years ago, and even questions related to Kien's car accident.

This news, although not yet an official accusation or an arrest warrant, still created a huge stir throughout the Nam Can area. For the first time in many years, a powerful figure like Mr. Bao had to officially appear at the police headquarters to explain, an image that almost no one dared to imagine before.

Hai Yen was not allowed to be present at the meeting, but she waited for news outside with Kien, lawyer Hoang, and Minh Khang, who was quietly present near the police headquarters to grasp the situation for her article in preparation, although it had not been publicly announced.

The meeting lasted nearly four hours. When Mr. Bao walked out of the headquarters, his face no longer retained the familiar confident and calm look he always had when appearing in public. He walked quickly towards the waiting car, avoiding all cameras and surrounding eyes, a marked change from the image of a successful businessman always smiling confidently on the pages of local newspapers.

The lieutenant, after seeing Mr. Bao off, met with Hai Yen and her team to briefly inform, within the allowable scope, the results of the meeting. “He denies all allegations of direct involvement,” he said, his voice cautious. "But there are some points in his testimony that contradict what we have collected from other witnesses, especially about the timeline when he knew about the security team's activities related to Ms. Ut Phuong's case."

“So what happens next?” Hai Yen asked, trying to keep her voice calm even though she was filled with anxiety.

“We will continue to investigate and collate more evidence before deciding on the next step,” the lieutenant replied. "This is a complicated case, involving a highly influential figure, every step needs to be extremely careful to ensure solid legality, and avoid giving the investigated party the opportunity to refute due to procedural errors."

Although not a complete victory, the fact that Mr. Bao had to officially face the investigative agency was still an important milestone, a sign that the protective wall that he had painstakingly built over the years was starting to show the first cracks.

In the evening, when the group gathered to celebrate privately and cautiously before this step, Minh Khang shared another piece of information that made the atmosphere more complicated.

“I heard from a source that after leaving the police station, Mr. Bao had a very tense call, lasting nearly an hour, with a number with an international area code,” he said, his voice serious. "I'm not sure, but it's very possible that he is reporting the situation to Mr. Vinh, or to someone higher up in the investment consortium."

That information made Hai Yen suddenly worried again. If it is true that the people behind Mr. Bao, with resources and relationships far beyond the local scope, begin to directly intervene in the situation, things could escalate. in ways that her small group could hardly have anticipated or coped with.

“We need to prepare for the possibility that they will counterattack more strongly in the near future,” lawyer Hoang commented, her voice serious. “It could be more legal pressure, it could be more sophisticated tactics to slow down the investigation, it could even be an effort to get some witnesses or evidence out of the reach of authorities before it's too late.”

Hai Yen nodded, clearly aware that, although they had just achieved an encouraging step forward, this war was far from over, and perhaps, the most difficult challenges were still ahead, waiting for them in the coming days.

When everyone had left, Hai Yen received a late call from Mr. Duc, who was still diligently completing the official audit report even though he had handed over the main role to him. His voice was somewhat unusual, serious and a bit hesitant.

“Miss Yen, I found something I think you need to know,” he said. "While reviewing all the old audit records of the area, to compare the consistency of the certification system over the years, I came across an audit record from eleven years ago, before the three sisters' case, conducted by the Center's predecessor organization for Kenh Ba cooperative."

“What's unusual about that file?” Hai Yen asked, a bad premonition began to creep into her heart.

“There was a small note, almost ignored, about a small batch of goods flagged as suspected of having increased chemical residue, but it was finally approved after additional confirmation from the cooperative's director,” Mr. Duc said, his voice careful as if he was weighing each word so as not to cause unnecessary hurt. "That additional confirmation signature, Ms. Yen, is your father's signature."

Hai Yen sat silently, feeling as if the ground under her feet had just shaken. “Are you sure?”

"I carefully compared the signature with other documents you showed me before, quite similar," Mr. Duc replied, his voice softer as he felt the shock in her silence. “I don't say this to conclude anything, I just think you should know before anyone else, especially the other side, finds out and uses it to your disadvantage.”

Hai Yen thanked Mr. Duc, her voice tried to stay calm even though her heart was in intense chaos. She hung up the phone, sat quietly in the darkness of the room, her hand unconsciously found her father's notebook on the table, flipping back the last pages where there was a hastily written line: "Can't let this continue. Must say it, even if it means losing everything."

For the first time, a question she had tried to push aside for weeks now returned with a weight that could not be ignored: had her father, before he became a victim, been, even once, part of the very system he was later determined to fight?

She remembered Mrs. Tuyet's words, the question she once avoided and didn't want to answer right away: "I'll talk about that another time, okay?" She remembered her mother's strange reaction every time she asked too deeply about the last days before the cooperative collapsed. She remembered the very words in her father's notebook, the words she always interpreted in the light most favorable to the image of an absolutely pure father: "This cannot be allowed to continue." Continue What, if not something that he himself had, at least once, closed his eyes to?

She sat there for a long time in the dark, without turning on the light, letting the fragments of memories and speculations linger in her head, colliding with each other, building up and breaking down over and over again an image that she had carried with her for ten years about her father. She didn't want to believe, but she also understood that, as an auditor, she had no right to believe only what she wanted to believe. She could only follow the evidence, no matter where it led, even if it shattered the image she had always cherished of the man who taught her how to measure the salinity of water with a homemade instrument made from plastic tubes and glass marbles when she was ten years old.

She decided, that night, not to tell anyone about this discovery right away, not even Kien, until she herself learned more, verified it more clearly, before letting it become a burden for anyone other than herself.

She copied the information Duc had just provided onto a separate page in the notebook, marked it with a symbol that only she understood, then closed the notebook and placed it next to her father's notebook on the table. The two notebooks lay side by side in the pale darkness, like two pieces of the same story that had never been fully told, waiting for her to have the courage to put them together, no matter what the final result would be.

She lay down on the bed but couldn't sleep, her mind kept spinning with the image of her father sitting and signing the year's confirmation form, weighing principles and compassion. She wondered if she were in that situation, would she have the courage to make another choice, or would she also fall into the same dilemma that her father had faced, between cold principles on one side and the true fate of flesh and blood people on the other.