Chapter 16 — The Bride Strikes Back: Exposing the Liar

An intimate photo. Those three words were like a needle piercing straight into my ear, stuck firmly in my brain, making my whole body stiff and unable to move.

"Du Du? Are you still there?"

Truong Vi's voice pulled me out of the cold feeling of falling into hell.

“Class rep…”

“That photo… do you still have it?”

There was a soft rummaging sound from the other side, then he responded in a hesitant voice.

“Let me try to find it, we all saved it back then, it's probably still on the computer.”

Every second of waiting felt like I was being stabbed one by one, my heart was beating so crazy it felt like it was about to burst out of my chest. I was afraid of seeing it, but at the same time I longed to know what the thing that could destroy me looked like.

“Found it.”

“I sent it to you.”

I hung up the phone, opened WeChat, and saw his icon appear with a blinding red mark. Taking a deep breath, I pressed open the photo with shaking hands. The image immediately enlarged, covering the entire phone screen. The setting is a Tibetan-style motel room, with dim yellow lights covering everything in a layer of gloom. A tall man sat on the edge of the bed, wearing a dark traditional shirt, sharp facial features, and deep eyes. And I... am in his heart. Not sitting, but half lying down, the whole person leaning against him seemed to have lost all consciousness. My head rested on his shoulder, my eyes closed tightly, my cheeks were red, like I was sleeping but also like I was completely unconscious. My hands hung limply, without any strength, my whole body was as limp as a puppet whose strings had been untied. One of his arms wrapped around my waist, the other held a wet towel, gently pressing it on my forehead as if he was taking care of me. The shooting angle was extremely shady. From the outside looking in, we looked exactly like an intimate couple in a private space. His eyes looked at me calmly and gently, and I leaned on him as if I had complete trust. This is To Thanh's trump card, the thing that can push me into a deep abyss with no way out. If this photo is posted online with some malicious headlines, my life will be crushed with no way back. Chu Duyet stood behind and saw, took a deep breath, and his whole body was speechless. The damage of the photo was so great that even I had a moment of doubting myself. Is the person in the photo... really me, or a part of my stolen memory? Had I really ever been that close to a strange man? My mind was blank, my memories were lost like a thick fog, surrounding me and making it impossible for me to escape.

“Du Du, calm down!” Chu Duyet squeezed my shoulder, his voice shaking with worry.

“There is definitely something wrong with this photo, it can't be real the way they say!”

I shook my head very slowly, my eyes never leaving the screen.

"It's not a collage, every detail matches the items I used to use."

“That outfit, that bracelet… it's all real.”

This is not a fake photo, but a real moment cropped and turned into a knife. To Thanh buried this bomb three years ago, just waiting for the perfect moment to detonate.

“So what to do now?” Chu Duyet almost wanted to burst into tears from despair.

“Are we going to let her keep threatening us with this thing?”

I didn't answer, just enlarged the photo little by little, as if wanting to dig through every detail to find a way out. The man's face is clearly visible, high nose bridge, deep eyes, tanned skin healthy sunshine. Thin lips tightly closed, exuding quietness and restraint. The hand on my waist had clear joints, long fingers, and a string of dark red beads on the wrist. My gaze suddenly stopped. Right next to the rosary, on the back of his hand, was a small crescent-shaped scar. Something inside my head felt like it was exploding, the tightly locked memories suddenly cracked a small crack. I remember, not much but enough to make things start to take shape. In the noisy bar that day, someone bumped into me and the wine glass fell to the ground and broke. A hand pulled me back, very quickly, very firmly, just in time before I fell. That hand was big, warm, and on the back of the hand… there was exactly this crescent-shaped scar. It was him, the man in the photo, who also kept me that night. But why was I in his arms, why was he taking care of me, and what was To Thanh doing in the middle of all this. All clues point to a single point, that man is the key to all truth. I must find him, at any cost, otherwise I will forever be engulfed in this trap. My gaze gradually stabilized, fear replaced by an almost stubborn determination. I looked up at Chu Duyet, my voice no longer trembled but became cold.

“Book me a ticket to Tibet, as soon as possible.”