Chapter 2 — The Beggar Husband Turns Out to Be a Dragon

Three days later, Bach Tranh was able to sit up and eat porridge without anyone feeding him, and his face was much rosier than the night he was taken to the hospital in a life-threatening condition. Tuyet Nhi took advantage of her lunch break to visit him every day, bringing fruit, books, and sometimes some new clothes quickly bought at the store near the hospital.

"You don't have to come every day." Bach Tranh said, his eyes staring at the bag of fruit she had just placed on the table, his voice still a bit stiff and distant. "I've bothered you enough."

"You're not bothering me." Tuyet Nhi sat down on the chair and smiled. "Besides, I also want to make sure you fully recover before leaving the hospital."

"And then what?" He asked, his sharp eyes looking straight at her, as if wanting to test whether she was really thinking about "after that" or simply a momentary philanthropic impulse. "Are you going to let me go back to the streets?"

That question made Tuyet Nhi pause. In fact, she had wondered about this many times in the past few days. Looking at a person with a bright face, speaking in moderation, and eyes containing a not-so-ordinary wisdom like Bach Tranh, having to return to the scene of heaven and earth, her heart could not bear it. But bringing a completely unknown stranger home, in a family that values face like the Giang family, is clearly not a simple matter.

"I haven't come up with an exact plan yet, but I definitely won't let you go back to the streets." She replied, her voice more determined than her inner confidence. "At least, I will help you find a temporary place to live and a suitable job."

That night when she got home, Tuyet Nhi couldn't sleep. She thought of Bach Tranh's story, or rather the complete lack of a story, because every time she asked about his past, family, hometown, he was evasive or gave short answers. That ambiguity should have made her more wary, but somehow, her intuition told her that behind that silence was not a cunning fraudster, but a pain too great to describe.

The next morning, she decided. She went to the hospital to complete Bach Tranh's discharge procedures one day earlier than expected, after the doctor confirmed that his health condition was stable, then took him straight to the Anh Duong villa.

"Are you going to take me into your house?" Bach Tranh asked when the car stopped in front of the villa's tall iron gate, his voice mixed with surprise and caution.

"For now, until I find a stable place to live and have a job." Tuyet Nhi replied, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart could not help but feel nervous. "My house is large and has an empty living room. If you stay temporarily for a few weeks, it won't affect anything."

As soon as the car parked in the yard, the villa's housekeeper, Mrs. Khuyen, was waiting on the steps, looking at Bach Tranh from head to toe with a clear look of scrutiny. Even though he had been cleaned and dressed in new clothes, his skinny appearance and calluses on his hands still betrayed his not-so-luxurious background.

"Miss, this is..." Mrs. Khuyen looked at Tuyet Nhi, her voice was reserved but her eyes implicitly expressed her dissatisfaction.

"This is Mr. Bach Tranh. I saved him on the rainy night the other day. He stayed at my house for a few weeks." Tuyet Nhi replied, her voice decisive, leaving no room for argument. "Would you mind clearing the east living room for him?"

Mrs. Khuyen did not dare to argue with the young lady's face, but when she turned away, she still could not hide her soft sigh and glanced at Bach Tranh full of contempt. A few other maids standing nearby also gathered together, whispering loudly, occasionally looking at the two people with both curiosity and disdain.

Bach Tranh did not show any signs of discomfort or confusion before those eyes. He stood straight, looking strangely calm, as if the whispers behind his back were nothing compared to what he had experienced. That made Tuyet Nhi even more curious about him, a curiosity that gradually turned into an emotion that was difficult to name.

That afternoon, when she took Bach Tranh on a tour through the villa's areas, they happened to encounter Giang Bao Son, Tuyet Nhi's younger half-brother, who had just returned from university. Bao Son looked at Bach Tranh, his eyebrows furrowed, his voice full of contempt that he did not bother to hide.

"Second sister, what did you bring into the house? It looks like you just picked it up from the landfill?"

"Bao Son, speak properly." Tuyet Nhi glared at her younger brother, her voice stern. "This is the benefactor... no, the person I helped, he will be staying at my house for a while."

"What benefactor is so ragged?" Bao Son pouted, his eyes glanced at Bach Tranh with disdain, as if looking at a dirty thing that was not worth paying attention to. "Can you please think about your family's dignity? If anyone sees, they will laugh and make the whole Giang family lose face."

Bach Tranh remained silent, only his deep eyes flashed with a cold light, fleeting very quickly and then disappearing, so quickly that only Tuyet Nhi, who was standing closest and accidentally turned to look at him at that moment, could notice. She didn't understand why that look made her shiver, a feeling of both fear and strange attraction.

"Bao Son, that's enough." Tuyet Nhi spoke sternly, pulled her younger brother's hand to a corner, lowered her voice but was still firm enough. "You don't have to like him, but at least you have to respect my decision. This is my house and I have a part, it's my right to help whoever I want to help."

"Just wait and see what mom says." Bao Son snorted, threw Bach Tranh one last look full of contempt and then walked straight upstairs, the sound of heavy footsteps echoing in the large hallway.

Tuyet Nhi turned around and saw Bach Tranh still standing still, his face showing no obvious emotions, but she still felt a certain dull hurt hidden behind his calm exterior.

"Sorry about my brother." She said, her voice a little guilty. "It's just a temporary impulse, there's no bad intention."

"No problem." Bach Tranh replied, his voice surprisingly gentle. "I've been used to those looks for a long time. You don't need to apologize for anyone else."

That sentence, instead of making Tuyet Nhi feel relieved, made her heart ache with an indescribable feeling of sadness. She wondered what a person who had to be so "accustomed" to contempt to be able to calmly respond like that had to go through in her life before she met him.

That evening, just as Bao Son predicted, Tuyet Nhi's stepmother, Mrs. Lam Bich Van, heard what happened and called the whole family into the large living room for a "serious talk". But that's a story for tomorrow, but tonight, Tuyet Nhi just quietly brought a warm blanket to the east living room, where Bach Tranh was sitting by the window looking out at the dark garden.

"It's a bit cold tonight, I'll cover this up." She placed the blanket on the bed, then hesitantly asked more. "Do you need anything else?"

Bach Tranh turned back to look at her, his eyes seemed to soften in that moment compared to his usual cold and alert look. "You've given me more than I dared to hope for. I don't need anything more."

"Then you should rest well. Tomorrow will probably be a little noisy, but don't mind it." Tuyet Nhi said, looking at him with apologetic eyes first, as if trying to warn him about the storm that was about to come.

"I'm not afraid of noise." Bach Tranh slightly curled his lips, a rare thin smile flashing across his always serious face. "The only thing I'm worried about is whether you'll have to endure any more trouble because of me."

"I take responsibility for my own decisions." Tuyet Nhi replied, her voice firm. "Don't worry."

That night, when returning to her own room, Tuyet Nhi stood by the window looking down at the garden, where the light from the living room to the east still cast a warm halo. She didn't know exactly why she was so determined for a stranger, but one thing she felt very clearly: behind that rough, ragged appearance was a person with dignity, self-esteem, and a deeply suppressed pain that she, somehow, wanted to soothe.

She could not have imagined that a seemingly impulsive decision on a rainy evening would lead her to a long journey where she would have to confront her entire family, learn to trust a person who has almost nothing to prove to himself other than who he really is, and in the end, would discover a secret so big that it could turn both worlds upside down, the human world in which she has always lived, and another world whose existence she never knew existed. at.