Chapter 4 — Tears in the Frost

Lăng Bách Việt sat in his private office, the only light from the desk lamp illuminating his face in the darkness that had long fallen outside the glass door. On the computer screen was a brief financial news, only a few lines, but enough to make him sit motionless for nearly an hour: "Hằng Phát Investment Fund is about to launch in the domestic market, directly run by Ms. Tống Khả Di - who has many years of experience in the field of international finance."

Three years. For three years he believed that name would forever be just an old scar, painful but healed, no longer capable of bleeding again. Yet just one short message was enough to make that scar seem to be torn apart, exposing all the memories he had tried to bury deep.

He clearly remembers every detail of the nightmare three years ago: his father, Mr. Lang, lay unconscious on the office floor from a sudden heart attack after receiving news that Việt Thịnh's internal financial reports were leaked, causing shareholders to panic and sell off their shares in just one morning. He remembers the suspicious eyes of the board members looking at him, remembers the feeling of helplessness as he stood in the middle of the hospital emergency room, his hands still stained with blood because they tried to give first aid to his father before the ambulance could arrive.

And he remembers, more clearly than anything else, the moment Tống Khả Di - the person he thought would be his life partner - sat across from him in her family's emergency meeting room, smiling gently and proposing a "solution": the two families would merge by marriage, in return the Khả Di family would use their financial influence to reassure shareholders, saving Việt Thịnh from the brink of collapse.

Only he, with the intuition of someone who had read thousands of contracts, realized that it was not a sincere request for help. It was a trap set in advance, so that the Khả Di family could legitimately take control of Việt Thịnh through that marriage - once he nodded, all important decisions of the corporation would no longer be completely in the hands of the Lang family.

He had forty-eight hours to find a way out before the extraordinary shareholders' meeting took place, where the marriage merger plan would almost certainly be approved if there was no other alternative.

And he thought of Thư Nhã.

*

It wasn't because she was the most convenient choice, although later he still let her understand that tacitly to avoid having to explain too much. The truth is, among all the people around him at that time, Thư Nhã was the only one he absolutely trusted not to take advantage of the situation for personal gain, the only one brave enough to play the role of a wife in the eyes of the public without revealing any loopholes that could be exploited by the opposition.

She had worked by his side for two years before that time, always displaying incredible integrity and reticence. He knew her father was in debt for a large hospital bill. He knew she needed money, needed a stable life. And he, in the most urgent situation of his life, made a cold and cruel proposal: a contract marriage, in exchange for financial security for her and security of power for his family.

He never told her the truth behind that decision. He let her believe that she was just a pawn chosen at random for convenience, because he was afraid—an unreasonable fear that he couldn't fully explain—that if she knew she had been chosen for her absolute trust, knew how important she was to saving an entire corporation, she would feel the weight of responsibility on her shoulders, would no longer behave naturally like a normal employee.

That's the legitimate reason he kept telling himself for the past three years. But tonight, when the name Tống Khả Di suddenly appeared again, he suddenly realized there was another, deeper reason, that he had never dared to face: he was afraid that if Thư Nhã knew the whole truth, she would see the remaining truth - that during those three years, his feelings for her had silently grown far beyond the limits of a contract, to the point that he was sometimes frightened by his own feelings.

*

The next morning, at the office, Bách Việt tried to maintain his usual calm appearance, but Thư Nhã - who had memorized every little expression of his for three years - immediately noticed the difference. He answered questions during the briefing half a beat slower than usual, his hand unconsciously tapping the table top, a habit that only appears when he is suppressing something.

"Mr. Viet, a shareholder of a foreign investment fund, wants to reschedule the meeting to tomorrow afternoon." A sales manager reports.

"Okay," Bách Việt replied briefly, but his eyes briefly glanced towards the window, where he could see part of a large billboard on the street that had just been erected this week, introducing the official launch of a new investment fund in the city.

Thư Nhã followed his gaze and caught a glimpse of the words on the billboard, but before she could clearly read the name of the investment fund, Bách Việt turned back and continued the meeting as if nothing had happened. She kept that detail in her mind, adding another small piece to the vague picture of his recent instability.

In the evening, at the apartment, Bách Việt came home later than usual, the smell of alcohol wafting on his shirt - something that rarely happened because he was very disciplined with himself, almost never drinking alone outside of mandatory work parties.

"Are you okay?" Thư Nhã asked, placing a cup of warm water mixed with honey on the table, a habit she still maintained whenever he came home late.

"Fine," he replied curtly, sitting down on the sofa, gently rubbing his temples. After a while, as if he couldn't hold back, he let out a sentence that had no beginning or end: "Have you ever thought that some things in the past, even if you think they've been resolved, can still come back when you least expect it?"

Thư Nhã froze, looking at him with questioning eyes. This is the rare time Bách Việt proactively opens up about something personal, not directly related to work. "Did something happen?"

He was silent for a long time, long enough for Thư Nhã to think he wouldn't answer, then shook his head and stood up. "Nothing. It's just that work has been a bit stressful lately. I'm going to take a shower first."

She watched his back disappear behind the bathroom door, her heart heavy with a feeling of being left out that was hard to name. For three years, she got used to Bách Việt keeping all her emotions to herself, not sharing, not complaining. But tonight, there was something different in his eyes—not just the usual tiredness from work, but a deep anxiety, as if a ghost from the past was standing right behind him that she couldn't see.

She placed her hand on her still flat stomach, wondering if her secret and his secret, both silently hidden under the same roof, were both waiting for a moment to explode. And she, who had always controlled every variable in her life with meticulousness and calculation, for the first time felt completely helpless in the face of what was about to happen, like standing in the middle of a snowstorm without knowing which direction was the safe way out.

She remembered his careless question just now, about things in the past that were thought to be over but could still return when people least expected it. Perhaps, she thought, she was also living in a similar situation - her past was a marriage contract that she was confident would end peacefully on time, but now entangled with a small life that was not included in any of the terms. As for Bách Việt's past, she had a hunch that it was definitely not simply a passing old love like he was deliberately minimizing.

Lying awake unable to sleep, she quietly opened her phone and typed in the name of the investment fund that had just appeared on the billboard on the street that she had memorized, but the search results only showed a few lines of sketchy information, not enough for her to piece together anything clear. She turned off the screen, sighed, and told herself that she would learn more about it tomorrow, even though an unnamed insecurity arose in her heart.

Outside, the winter night is getting colder and colder, and the large billboard on the street is still brightly lit, proudly introducing the return of a name that is about to turn everything upside down.