Chapter 1 — Summer On The Terrace

The sign “RESTRICTED AREA — NO ENTRY IS EXEMPT” lies sideways next to the basil pot. Someone had tied it with wire to the railing, but the hot wind made the corner of the sea rattle against the iron post. Thao Vy put her pencil on the drawing and heard the metallic sound repeating like an out-of-tune reminder.

The terrace of the old lecture hall is larger than half a basketball court. Half is covered with a corrugated iron roof, the other half is covered with trays of soil, empty paint cans and vines built by students over three years. At noon, the heat from the concrete rose to the point where the phone automatically said it was too hot. But under the luffa trellis, Ngoc Ha is still distributing vegetables to the dormitory kitchen.

“Vy, can you help me sign the vegetable delivery form,” Ha called.

Vy took the sign, signed it, and put it back. “Is today enough?”

"Enough for one hundred and twenty servings. Without a garden, the kitchen would have to buy more vegetables at double the price."

“I know.”

“If you know, don't draw a new truss.”

Vy looked at the sketch. She just drew a light wooden path, connecting the planting area with the water collection tank. "This rig is not heavy. The army has already planned it."

"The military calculates the load, and you consider the aesthetics. The two of you combined don't count the money."

Vy was about to argue, but her phone vibrated. The email from the school administration office has the subject line "Notice of temporary use of terrace area C". She opened. Short content: within thirty days, all items must be relocated to serve the project of installing advertising signs and steel frame systems. The garden will be dismantled. The person in charge of contact is Ms. Nhan from New Sun Company.

Diem My was recording next to the water tank and immediately took off her headphones. "What is up?"

Vy handed over the phone. My read, then looked at the garden. “Will they take it all off?”

"They say relocate. It means remove."

Ha held a handful of vegetables and stood still. “Has the kitchen been notified yet?”

"Not yet."

My turned to the recorder. "I have a podcast about the garden. If I post it now—"

“Don't post without asking the user,” Vy interrupted. “Stop turning people into stories to save our drawings.”

My looked at her, a bit surprised. “You talk like Ms. Huong.”

“Miss Huong is right.”

The sound of an iron door opening. Minh Quan walked up the stairs, a tool bag slung across his shoulder. He wore a reflective vest from the maintenance team, his hair was wet with sweat. Quan looked at the new sign, then looked at the email in Vy's hand.

“I heard what Uncle Sau said,” Quan said. “They want to put up an eighteen-meter-long advertising frame.”

“Eighteen meters above this roof?” Vy asked.

"If the specifications are correct, the load is concentrated on the four legs of the frame. The roof is not designed for that."

Ha put down the vegetable basket. “So are they allowed?”

“Permitted if there is appraisal and reinforcement.” Quan opened his bag and took out a laser measure. “But the notice did not include drawings.”

Vy looked at him. “Can you check?”

"It's possible. But if we detect danger, we don't arbitrarily stop construction. There must be records."

“I need records.”

Quan raised his eyebrows. “Do you need a nice drawing or a technical report?”

"Both."

“So start by not adding a trellis.”

Vy hated Quan's deadpan voice, but she knew he was often right about the parts that bored others. She put away the sketch.

Do Bao Long arrived later with a student union shirt. Long read the notice and sighed. "The board of directors has signed a memorandum of understanding. The company pays rent for the rooftop so the school can renovate the library."

“Why do you know?” My asked.

“I'm in charge of sponsorship.”

Vy asked: "Is there a cancellation deadline?"

Long looked at the email. "Have Terms of review if the project does not meet safety requirements or affects learning activities.”

“So we have to prove both.”

“For thirty days?”

“For thirty days.”

Quan placed the laser ruler on the concrete floor. “Not just safety. If you want to maintain a garden, you must have an operating plan, a budget, and a responsible person. The school will not keep a garden without knowing who will water the plants when students are on summer break.”

Ha said: "The kitchen can accept vegetables, but cannot pay the full price."

My brought up the recorder. “I can record user comments.”

Quan looked at her. “After recording, who has the right to use it?”

My hung up the phone. “I asked each person.”

Vy saw the group standing around an email, each person pulling it in one direction. She took chalk and wrote on the wall: "30 days - safety - value - rights".

“Day one,” she said. “Today we measure the status quo, no posting, no signing.”

Quan looked up. “You just made up your own rules?”

"Correct."

“What if the law is wrong?”

“You fix it with data.”

A very light smile passed through the corner of Quan's mouth, so quickly that Vy thought she was mistaken. He started measuring the distance between the columns, the thickness of the soil layer and the location of the water tank. Vy wrote it down in the notebook, Ha marked the vegetable tray, My asked each person if they wanted to join a self-management group.

At the end of the session, they went downstairs at the same time. The heat from the terrace still clings to my hair and collar. On the second floor, a poster of the New Sun company was posted: “New summer on the old roof.”

Vy stopped. The illustration is of a brightly lit billboard with no trees.

Quan looked at the poster and said: "They finished the design before asking if the roof could handle it."

Vy pulled out a pencil and circled the date on the email. Thirty days suddenly became much shorter.

Vy took a photo of the poster, but did not post it. She sent it to Ms. Huong, asking if the lecture hall had ever signed a similar agreement. Ms. Huong only replied: "Come to my room at eight o'clock." Don't bring outsiders."

My wants to go along because she is in charge of the content. Vy refused, then realized she was repeating the way others decided for her. She texted My that the meeting would only be her, Quan and Ms. Huong, and that she would inform her in full later.

Quan listened and said: "You don't need to turn everything into small groups."

“I'm afraid the information will be leaked.”

“Information was leaked because there was no process, not because there were many people.”

Vy recorded it, even though she didn't like it.

Before getting off, they checked the restriction sign. The back has the administrative office seal and date. Quan took the document number, Vy wrote down the location. Ha walked by and asked if the garden was still open.

“Open until further notice,” Vy said.

Ha looked at the sign. “So don't let people think we are against the school. The kitchen needs them to use water.”

Vy understands: keeping a garden is not just about saying no. They must continue to work with those who have the power to turn off the taps.

In Ms. Huong's room, the map of area C shows that the terrace is located above the computer room and library. If the frame is placed, the shadow will fall on the skylight and the reading room will reduce the light. Ms. Huong said the advertising contract may have a provision to compensate the library, but no one has asked.

Quan asked to see the old download. Ms. Huong said she had to ask for an archive. Vy wrote down the name of the person in charge and did not take the photos herself.

“You have thirty days,” Ms. Huong said. “Don't use the first day to prove you're right. Use it to know what you're standing on.”

After the meeting, Vy and Quan returned to the terrace. He measured the thickness of the soil layer, she asked each group of trees. A tray labeled “empty "but Ha said it belonged to a graduate student. No one knows the ownership.

“If I remove it, who decides?” Vy asked.

“Ask the community, don't keep it to yourself.”

Vy wrote a notice and placed it next to the tray: "Whoever takes care of this tray, please contact before Friday."

At the end of the day, someone replied with a piece of paper: “Don't abandon the mulberry tree. It is my grandmother's variety.”

Vy read and saw a garden with too many stories to put on a poster. She folded the paper and put it in the notebook.

Quan asked: "Do you still want to fight the whole company?"

“I want them to ask before taking it.”

“What if they ask and everyone disagrees?”

“Then they have to look elsewhere.”

Quan looked at the building, then said: “Okay. But first prove that the roof does not collapse.”

A door lock sounded down the stairs. The new sign shook in the wind. Vy wrote on the corner of the drawing: “Day 1 — starts with rights.”

Vy even returned to the terrace once before leaving. She re-measured the distance between the water tank and the exit, even though she knew Quan would do it tomorrow. She didn't want the drawing to start with a number she heard from someone else.

In the vegetable tub, Ha placed a new label: "Caretaker unknown." Vy asked if she needed to remove the tray. Ha said to wait until Friday, because whoever owns the tree has the right to decide.

My stood by the door and asked if she could record the sound of the wind. Vy can speak if she doesn't use a human voice. My put the device on the floor, recorded for thirty seconds and then turned it off.

Quan called from downstairs, saying the laser ruler had run out of battery. Vy brought down the spare battery. He accepted, said thank you, then asked if she wanted to measure together.

“I thought you wanted to do it alone.”

“I want to do it right.”

Vy nodded. They went back to the terrace, measuring in the afternoon light. The first number written on the board is not pretty, but it belongs to both of them.

Before locking the door, Ms. Huong called Vy back to the foot of the stairs. She didn't ask if the drawing was beautiful, just asked who knew what the group was doing. Vy opened the sharing list on her phone and realized she had sent the photo to three people she had never met. She removed access rights, apologized to each person, and kept a public folder containing only the agreed parameters.

“If you keep waiting for everything to be perfect before speaking, someone else will speak for you,” Ms. Huong said. “But speaking before the person in the story agrees is also a kind of taking away a voice.”

Vy wrote that sentence in her notebook. She asked about the notice posted on the door. Ms. Huong said the school had only received a copy and had not yet made an official decision to dismantle it. Maybe this is a push, maybe the process is running somewhere else. Therefore, the group must clearly distinguish between what they know and what they have only heard.

Troops from above called down that the western sensor had a reading two degrees higher. Vy ran up and saw him using a cardboard cover to shade the device. He explained that the metal surface of the water tank reflected heat onto the sensor, skewing the data. The two of them moved it to a wooden post, recording both the old and new positions so that no one would mistake the two series of numbers as the same measurement.

My looked at the board filled with arrows and asked if it needed to be redone to make it look better. Vy said no. The tables are ugly because they're just getting started, and that uglyness reminds everyone that the data has a history. My smiled and picked up the phone. She only took a panoramic photo, not taking close-ups of anyone's face.

When leaving the terrace, Vy heard the sound of water dripping from the irrigation pipe. A leaky joint creates long streaks of moisture on the ground. Ha marked it with chalk and promised to fix it tomorrow morning. Nothing major happened on the first day, But Vy understands that this roof can only be saved by doing small things right, over and over again, before any presentation can make an impression.