Chapter 5 — Six Sticks Change a Life

The judge's expression changed slightly. Tran Tam Dao's sister under the auditorium stood up and screamed: "She deliberately took revenge! She must be punished severely!" The judge tapped his gavel. Final verdict: Imprisonment for 3 years and 8 months, without parole. Tran Tam Dao's family exploded on the spot. Her mother hugged her breasts, her sister cried pitifully. I looked back at Tran Tam Dao. She sat in a wheelchair, her eyes staring at the floor, not moving. The other two legs will never move again. Pretty good, very well proportioned. As I was being taken away, I passed her. I stopped for a second. Say nothing. She raised her eyes to look at me. We looked straight into each other's eyes for three seconds. Then I turned and walked away. There are debts, no need to open your mouth, both sides understand clearly in their hearts. * Once there, the days passed surprisingly peacefully. Prison is not like in the TV series, at least the cell I was in was not. Everyone has their own job, everyone lives their own way. I signed up for a law course, and followed a former chef to learn a few dishes. The prison warden in charge of the labor group, whose last name is Truong, is a woman in her 50s. She doesn't talk much, but every time she sees me, she nods. One day she asked me: "Did you do business before?" "Yes." She said "yes" and didn't say anything else. I later learned that she secretly looked at my case files and knew my situation clearly. Three months later, Ta Chau sent a letter. First letter. The letter paper is light yellow, written with a fountain pen, the writing is very beautiful, each stroke is neat. He said he changed jobs, quit school, and became an editor for a publishing house. Tell him he is raising a yellow tabby cat named Nhi Binh, who has a rough personality and is an expert at bullying him. He said he had just opened a noodle shop downstairs. He went to try it, it was terrible, not as good as the noodles my mother cooked in the past. The last sentence is: "Don't think too much, just stay in there for good, get out and everything will be okay again." I folded the letter and stuffed it under my pillow. That night, I slept the best I've had in months. Letters went back and forth. You write, I answer. He told me that when he bought a new bookshelf, he twisted his back while carrying things and had to be bedridden for three days. I asked why didn't you call someone to help you when carrying the things? You said call someone, call Nhi Binh, at most it just circled around you. I said, is there anyone around you who can call? He hesitated for a few days before sending the letter back. In the letter there was only one line: "Hurry up and go out, there will be someone." I stared at that line for a long time. Something in my heart stirred slightly. But I didn't think any further. Time is a very strange thing. If you deliberately count it, it will flow slowly as if attacking a person. You didn't pay attention to it, bowed your head and busied yourself with your work, looked up, and in the blink of an eye, half a year had passed. Five and a half years passed, I heard news about Tran Tam Dao. It was when lawyer Chu came to visit that I casually mentioned it. "Tran Tam Dao has been discharged from the hospital and is now at home. I heard that her condition is not very good, she locks herself in her room all day, her mother said she shows signs of depression and is seeing a psychologist." I said "yeah". Lawyer Chu glanced at me and did not continue talking. No need to continue. That news reached my ears, neither making me happy nor sad. Just a very faint feeling of confirmation. Everything should be like that. Another year passed, and Tong Nghieu also had some incidents. His story with Tran Tam Dao ultimately went nowhere. Listening to lawyer Chu, after something happened to Tran Tam Dao, Tong Nghieu took care of her for two or three months and then ran away. It's unbearable to say.