Chapter 12 — The Code in the Tangerine Garden

The sound of the chainsaw woke Lam up at eleven minutes past two.

He slept on a folding chair in the packed house, the camera placed next to his feet. At first he thought he heard the sound of a car on the street. But the sound repeats each beat, sharp and even, transmitted through the concrete floor.

Lam turned on the flashlight and ran out.

Three figures are in the north bed. A small truck parked close to the fence, lights off. The eighth tangerine tree had most of its trunk cut off, leaving only a strip of wood remaining. The person holding the saw wore a silver reflective vest.

"Stop!"

The figure turned its head. One person threw a flashlight at Lam, then all three ran. Lam chased him to the north gate, tripped on an iron stake and was pushed sideways. When he stood up, the truck ran off the road.

Thu and Mrs. Man ran behind. Quan is still at the hospital with Na, but his phone is not picked up.

Lam pointed to the cut tree. “They are destroying the garden.”

Letter did not respond. She looked at the sawdust, the cuts, and the oiled bark. Near the base there is a stake painted red, tilted into the ground. On the stake is a survey number that does not match the company map.

Mrs. Man touched the tree trunk. “This tree is an old variety.”

“They chose it on purpose?”

“If it can be lowered, the machine line will go through the tank.”

Letter calling the commune police. While waiting, Lam ran to get the camera. He filmed the entire area, from tire tracks to paint piles. The machine vibrated because of his hand, but every time he tried to stop, he remembered his father's words: keep the whole person, not just the light.

A police officer arrived with the village chief. They made a scene report, measured the tree trunk and asked the family if they could identify anyone. Thu said a person was wearing a reflective vest, his face could not be seen clearly. Lam gave a short video recording he took while running away.

The village chief looked at the survey stake. “Does the company have an entry permit?”

“There is a written approach,” Thu said. “There is no right to cut down trees.”

The police called the company representative. Ms. Van arrived forty minutes later, without Huy. She looked at the minutes and said that the other group of people could be subcontractors, acting on their own.

“So the company knows they're here?” Thu asked.

“We do not mobilize trees to cut down trees.”

“But the survey pile carries the company's code.”

“That pile was probably taken from the warehouse.”

“Your people use reflective vests.”

“It's common equipment.”

Thu holds the camera in her hand. “We will send everything to the competent authority.”

Ms. Van looked at her. "If you make a big deal out of it, the company will suspend the offer. The family will bear the debt and land protection costs themselves."

“The offer to buy is not a favor.”

“I'm just a warning.”

“Warning by sending people to cut trees in the middle of the night?”

Ms. Van curled her lips. “You don't have that proof.”

Lam turned on the recording. Khai's voice in the video under the tank rang out: "If you find the original, you must get it before the signing date. Otherwise, just destroy the pipe and record it as damaged old work."

Ms. Van's face changed very quickly, but enough for Lam to see.

“This part is cut,” she said.

“Maybe,” Thu replied. “But the company should explain why the person in the video appeared in the survey area.”

Ms. Van did not speak anymore. The police asked the company to keep the data intact and summoned Khai to work.

It was almost dawn when everyone left the scene. Thu and Lam tied rope around the cut tree and propped it up with stakes. Mrs. Man gathered the sawdust into a bag and told her to keep it for oil testing.

“What will you do?” Lam asked.

“You will fix the tree and not say who will do it.”

"Why?"

“Because he hates it when other people get dragged in.”

Lam looked trunk. “That's why now everyone can say they don't know.”

The letter did not refute.

Huy called at six o'clock. He said the company suspended the survey, but it's not certain the contractor stopped. Thu asked him if he knew where Khai was.

"Are not."

“Does Van know?”

“She didn't say.”

“Where are you standing?”

“Outside the company gate.”

“Are you fired?”

“No. But I can't go in.”

Thu heard the sound of a car on the other side. “You can come here.”

Huy arrived at eight o'clock, carrying a new file. In it is the contractor hiring contract, the name of the intermediary company and a list of survey personnel. Tran Khai is not a company employee, but is the person in charge of "ground coordination". The approval signature belongs to Ms. Van.

“I got it before it was locked,” Huy said.

The letter turns each page. The clause allows the contractor to “clear vegetation obstacles in the pilot construction area”. There is no area map attached.

“One sentence without a map is enough for them to destroy the entire garden,” Lam said.

“Because they were going to say the tree was outside the conservation area,” Huy replied.

Ms. Man pointed to the data section. “They counted the trees.”

In the appendix, the number of old tangerine trees was recorded as fourteen, but in reality it was seventeen. Three trees with symbols were removed from the list.

“They don't want to pay for these trees,” Thu said.

“Or don't want to have them present when making documents,” Huy said.

Quan called from the hospital. Na must stay and watch more. He heard the news of the tree being cut down, remained silent, then asked:

“Is there still a water line?”

“Still,” Thu said. “But they are trying to make it a broken pipe.”

“I'll take a photo and send it to you.”

After the call, Thu received a text message from an unknown number. A photo of Quan in the hospital hallway, with a department name board behind him. Accompanying text:

"Sell it to take care of your children. Don't turn a family matter into a village matter."

Mail removes the photo from the desktop but keeps the copy. She did not tell Quan immediately.

Lam saw her face change color. “Who sent it?”

“He wants us to be afraid.”

Huy picked up her phone, read the news, then paused. “I have never sent anyone the hospital address.”

“Does the company have your profile information?”

"Have."

“So you know what to do.”

Huy called a lawyer he knew in the district, asked for instructions on data protection and reported the threat. The lawyer said the text message was not conclusive enough, but the phone number and time needed to be kept intact.

In the afternoon, a woman named Mai came to the garden. She was in her fifties, wearing a thin raincoat, holding a cloth bag in her hand. She introduced herself as Mrs. Luu's daughter.

Mai looked at the fallen tree and said: "My mother also had her valve cut off."

The letter invited her into the house. Mai didn't sit down, just put the cloth bag on the table. Inside is a small notebook, the cover is rotten.

"My mother is not very literate, but she remembers the day the country opened. She asked someone to help her write it down. I kept it from the day she passed away."

In the book there is a list of people who dug ditches, the number of working days and names of households who received water. At the end, Ms. Luu wrote in scribble:

"If they ask for land, say the land can be exchanged. If they ask for water, ask who dug it."

Mai looked at Thu. "My mother didn't want the money. She just wanted her name not to be erased."

“We will put your name on the record.”

“Don't promise for others.”

Thu understands that sentence is not just for Mrs. Luu.

The second night, no one slept. The felled tree emits a fresh resin smell. Under the light, Thu saw that the cut body had a black circle at the wood core. Army called from the hospital video, instructions on how to apply glue to save trees.

Na lay next to him, eyes still open.

"Miss Thu," she said, "people cut down the tree but didn't take the root. Why?"

Quan looked at his child.

The letter replied: "Because under the tree there is something they haven't found yet."

Na thought for a moment and then said: "Then don't dig up the spot they marked. Grandpa usually hides it where no one can see."

Outside the door, Mrs. Man suddenly called out loudly.

A patch of soil below the cut tree trunk just collapsed. In the root cavity revealed a green ceramic tile, with six dots and a long red streak on its surface.

Thu used gloves to pick up the brick. The back has old lime and a small numeral. Quan sent a photo from the hospital, saying this brick could be a pipe marker cap and should not be uprooted without recording the location. Lam measured the distance to the base of the tree, then to the survey stake. The two points are nearly a meter apart.

“Their piles don't follow the old mark,” he said.

Huy looked at the photo. “If they use new stakes, they can push the construction area boundary into the tree.”

The village chief called back, told the survey team there was no order to cut down trees and asked the family to leave the scene intact. Letter sent him photos, videos and maps. She didn't want to post the news online without checking it, but she also didn't want to let a cut disappear in the rain.

Mrs. Man used a towel to wrap the brick. She said that in the past, Thu's father used green ceramic tiles because it was easy to see when water caused the ground to sink. Six dots are six houses, the long streak is the portion reserved for the person opening the ditch. Mrs. Luu used to lay bricks by hand, although at that time no one recorded her name.

“Are you sure?” Thu asked.

"I see."

“Why are we telling this today?”

“Because before, no one wanted to hear about land not being in the name.”

Lam discovered a piece of silver clothing stuck on a fallen tree branch. The fabric smelled of oil and a drop of dried blood. The police took samples, but did not promise quick results. Letters are photographed before delivery.

Huy looked at the blood stain. “The person who ran last night was injured.”

“Or the one who dug under the roots,” Lam said.

Thu phone received a call without a number. At the end of the line, there was only the sound of a chainsaw running, followed by the sound of a person saying: "The next tree doesn't need to be cut down. Just uproot it."

Thu turned on the speaker for everyone to hear. The police asked her to keep the call and not call back. The army from the hospital said to fence the entire area with the symbol.

Na looked at the brick on the screen. “Grandpa said green is something that cannot be lost.”

Letter placed the brick in the evidence box. She knew they weren't just protecting the tree tonight. They had to defend the reading of marks that had been in the ground longer than all the people vying to sign.

The red streak is not paint.

It was blood from someone's fingertip, not yet dry.