Chapter 9 — Shrimp Street Without Name

That evening, Hai Yen did not intend to visit her mother's house, but after sitting alone in the motel room for a long time, looking over and over at the last line in her father's notebook, she realized she could not decipher everything on her own. She needed someone who had lived through those years, had been close to her father long enough to remember the details that papers never recorded.

The road from Mrs. Tu's boarding house to her mother's house is about two kilometers long, running along a small canal that brings water from the main river into the shrimp ponds of households in the neighborhood. Hai Yen walked instead of taking the car, wanting more time to rearrange in her mind what she would ask, what she should keep and not say hastily. On both sides of the road, the lights from a few houses were weakly emitted, interspersed with the sound of frogs croaking every time the wind blew through the water hyacinths floating on the canal bank. She passed by an abandoned shrimp pond, the pond's edge had collapsed, weeds were overgrown, the old sign with the name of the pond owner had peeled off most of the letters, leaving only a few blurry lines not enough to read the entire name. She didn't know who that pond belonged to, but its image reminded her of the story Mrs. Tu told at noon, about the inspection teams that came and then quietly withdrew without leaving any trace.

Mrs. Sau was mending an old net under the neon light on the front porch when Hai Yen arrived, surprised by her daughter's unannounced appearance at this hour.

“What's happening so late at night?” she asked, setting down the net.

“I need to ask mom something,” Hai Yen said, sitting down on the steps next to her mother, opening the notebook to the last page with hastily written words. "Mom, look at this line for me. When did you write it?"

Mrs. Sau held the notebook, brought it closer to the light, her eyes squinted both because of her age and because she was trying to remember something that had been hidden for so long. After a while, she sighed and put the notebook down on her lap.

“This line you three wrote about a week before... before everything happened,” she said, her voice slow as if she was groping through a path covered with weeds. "I remember that night he sat and wrote for a long time, not saying anything, his face was very tense. When I asked what was wrong, he just said he had something to deal with at the cooperative and didn't want her to worry."

“What's going on, mom?”

"I don't know clearly, Yen. Your father is not the type to tell his wife about work. But I remember in those days he often left early and came home later than usual. One time he came home smelling of alcohol even though he didn't drink much and said he had to entertain guests." Mrs. Sau stopped, her eyes distant. "One evening, I heard him arguing on the phone with someone, his voice was very harsh, I had never seen him like that. I only vaguely heard him say, 'If you do that, you will kill someone, I won't sign anymore.'"

Hai Yen tightened the notebook in her hand. “Do you know who he was talking to?”

"Not sure. But..." Ms. Sau hesitated, as if considering whether to continue speaking or not. "There was a young boy who worked at the laboratory at that time. He often came to our house to visit. He called his father uncle. He was very close. I don't remember his name clearly. It seemed to be Son or Sang. He and his father knew each other through work, because our cooperative often sent samples to the laboratory where he worked."

"Paint?" Hai Yen repeated the name, feeling like a puzzle piece had just fit into its right place. "Do you remember his face? Tall, short, black and white?"

Mrs. Sau squinted her eyes, trying to find an image covered in dust over time. "At that time he was still young, probably in his early twenties, skinny, spoke very politely, every time he came he would fold his arms to greet his mother before going into the house to look for his father. One time he even fixed a broken table fan for his mother. He spent the whole afternoon hanging out in the yard. When his mother cooked and invited him to stay and eat, he was embarrassed. He ate lightly and then went home. Who would have thought that such a gentle person..." She trailed off, shaking her head as if she didn't want to believe her own guess.

"Do you know where that person is now?"

"I don't know. After what happened, he disappeared and was never seen again. I remember hearing people say he quit his lab job and went to work somewhere else with a higher salary. But I'm not sure, it was so long ago." Mrs. Sau looked at her daughter, her eyes clearly showing concern. "Why do you ask so carefully? What have you found out?"

Hai Yen considered whether to tell her mother about the code TS-04, about the match between the old records and the new records, but in the end she chose to withhold most of the details, saying just enough to not make her mother more worried.

“I think there's someone who was involved in your case who's still involved in the work I'm doing,” she said. “I need to find out who that person is.”

“Yen,” Mrs. Sau grabbed her daughter's hand, her voice shaking. "I beg you, be careful. If that person is really still involved in the old matter, and is still alive and healthy, doing business properly, then that person is definitely not simple, and not alone. Your father in the past was just a person who wanted to do the right thing, in the end..."

She didn't finish the sentence, but Hai Yen understood the rest. In the end, her father paid the price with his life.

“I promise to be careful,” Hai Yen said, even though in her heart she knew how fragile that promise was given what she was about to face.

Before leaving, she asked her mother a question that she had cherished for a long time but had never dared to ask directly. "Mom, the money that Ms. Hao said someone paid to buy my house before I came back, do you know who wants to buy it?"

Mrs. Sau paused, her eyes avoiding looking at her daughter. "Mom... I don't know. Ms. Hao is the broker, I only heard about it. Why do you ask about that?"

"Nothing. I'm just curious." Hai Yen did not press further, but she noted her mother's reaction in her mind as a detail to come back to later. There was something about the house, about the person who wanted to buy it, that made her mother uncomfortable, and her professional intuition told her it was no accident.

She looked around the house once before leaving, her eyes stopped at the wooden door frame that had some termites in it, and at the small altar with her father's picture next to a bowl of incense steaming with half-burnt incense sticks. This house, if someone really wants to buy it, is probably not because of its material value - a rundown four-level house, deep in a small neighborhood - but perhaps for some other reason, a reason related to the location of the land or to something still hidden inside these four old walls.

On the way back to the boarding house, she called Kien, recounted the name Son that her mother had just provided, and asked him if there was any way to look up whether there was anyone named Son in Dai Duong's current management team who had a background in the testing industry.

“Let me try,” Kien said over the phone. "I have a few acquaintances in the industrial park's human resources department. I can ask for public resumes of several middle management positions, without touching confidential files. But Ms. Yen, I think you should Prepare yourself mentally, if this person really still works at Dai Duong, it means Mr. Bao knows very well about his own company's past, knows more clearly than what he shows on the outside.

“I know,” Hai Yen replied, her voice low. “But if I don't find that person, I will never be able to prove that the TS-04 code is not a coincidence.”

“I will also try to look up the public business registration records,” Kien continued over the phone. “If this guy holds some management position at the company, his name will no doubt be in some public documents, business registration or annual report. Just let me take care of that part, you focus on the official audit, don't let it be obvious that you're looking for a specific name.”

“Thank you,” Hai Yen said, her voice a little more relieved after a long and stressful day. “If it weren't for your help comparing things at the port, I probably wouldn't have been able to piece together all these clues.”

“We have the same reason for doing this,” Kien replied, his voice sincere. “I just hope you finally find the answers you need, and I find the answers for my family.”

They arranged to meet again the next morning to update each other. When she hung up, Hai Yen looked out the motel room window, the streetlight shining in, creating flickering streaks of light on the opposite wall. She opened her father's notebook one last time before going to bed, reread the last line, and for the first time, she felt that the line was no longer a distant mystery, but was gradually emerging into the shape of a story with a name, a face, and perhaps, a price that her father could not pay off before everything collapsed.