Chapter 16 — The Code in the Tangerine Garden

Dung woke up at the medical station with his wrist bandaged.

He did not say for whom he escaped through the sewer line. It was just that the rain caused the ground to slide, the door opened on its own and he was swept down. The police recorded the statement, confiscated the reflective vest and confiscated the phone. When asked about the paper copy, Dung said he only picked up one piece.

Thu didn't believe it completely, but she didn't force it. A false statement will destroy other evidence.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Man took out the green book to check. The middle seven pages are still torn, but the cover has moisture marks unlike when Lam found it. The glue on the spine is loose and the edges of the paper are bulging.

“Someone had a bowel replacement,” Lam said.

Letter placed the book under the lamp. The remaining pages record the sweetness level and watering schedule, but the pen strokes on the last three pages are thinner than the word cha. The circle mark was drawn with a red pen, while dad always used blue.

Quan called from the hospital. “Where is the original book?”

“Maybe this is a fake.”

“So the real version?”

Mai remembers going to the breeding station. She said a copy of Ms. Luu's records was made on the same day as the tree delivery record. If someone changed the notebook, they could have taken the real copy from the packer and inserted another copy.

Huy called Mr. Nghiem. He answered weakly, saying that Ms. Van had come to ask to buy the documents but he refused. Then, his daughter-in-law discovered a stranger entering the warehouse behind the house. That person did not take money or belongings, only the country calendar.

“Do you still have a copy?” Thu asked.

“Yes. But I don't know which version is real.”

Mr. Nghiem asked his daughter-in-law to bring all the documents to the medical station. Of the three calendars, one has a green cover like Thu's. When placed side by side, they discovered that the pinholes on the edge of the paper matched, but the content on the seventh page was different.

Mr. Nghiem's version states: "On the day of opening the bracelet, invite someone to take the name of Mrs. Luu."

The inscription in the garden reads: "On the day the ring is opened, no outsiders are needed."

“This is the changed sentence,” Thu said.

Huy looked at Dung through the room door. “He knows.”

Dung turned away.

The letter requested the police to seal the copies. The district attorney instructed them to make a comparison table: the original paper in the tank, Mr. Nghiem's copy, the breeding station book, the father's video, statements from the households and water samples. No evidence alone is sufficient, but they form a continuum.

“But the court will ask why the original paper is in the tank,” the lawyer said.

“Because the water line is part of the deal,” Thu replied.

“It is necessary to prove that the tank is still operational and the location has not been changed.”

Quan sent water pressure data before the contractor entered. I saved it on the meter. The indicators coincide with the old irrigation schedule. An irrigation expert in the district confirmed that the pipe is a water distribution system, not the family's private pipe.

Na, even though she was still in the hospital, sent a photo of her sketchbook. On one page, she accidentally wrote the "opening" date in a circle with seven dots. Thu zoomed in and realized that the seventh dot was outside, exactly where Mrs. Luu was.

“Where did you draw from?” Letter of inquiry via video.

"Grandpa showed it to me. He said the one who scored outside was the one who had to be invited in."

Quan smiled sadly. “I miss you more than dad.”

That night, a stranger called Thu. Distorted voice:

“You are holding a paper copy that has no value.”

“Who are you?”

“People who know the signers have died or changed land.”

“So do you know why they signed?”

"I know. They signed because they needed water."

“What do you want?”

"I want you to hand over the original. In exchange, the company pays your sister's hospital debt."

The letter was not answered immediately. Quan was standing next to him, listening clearly through loudspeaker.

“Where are you calling from?” Thu asked.

"Not important."

"Important. Because if you tell the truth, you will know we have no right to sell other people's shares."

The end of the wire is silent.

“Do you think keeping the paper means keeping the garden?”

“No. But handing over the papers will give someone else false authority.”

Letter hung up. Quan sat down, his face tired.

“What if they really pay the hospital bills?”

“They will use that to buy silence.”

“Na needs money, not principles.”

“Na needs both.”

Quan looked at her for a long time. “Easy for you to say.”

"I don't say it's easy. I say it because if we accept it, they will come back and demand another part. Today it's paper, tomorrow it's water, then Na's rights in the garden itself."

Lam heard it and walked in with a box.

“I found it on my dad's camera.”

In the box was an old recording tape and a label with the date. Lam said he found all the equipment his father used. The tape was recorded before the “Final Season” video. They listened in a dark room.

Father's voice and a woman's voice.

"Mr. Tan, I don't accept money. I need you to write down my name."

“I will write it down.”

"Not in your book. In the paper that the buyer must read."

“I'm afraid the paper will be lost.”

“So you write down three places.”

“Mrs. Luu, I can't keep it forever.”

"You don't need to keep it. Just don't hide it while there are still people alive."

The tape ends with Ms. Luu's laughter.

Mai burst into tears when she heard her mother's voice. She said she hadn't heard from her since the day her mother passed away.

The next morning, Mr. Duoc from the district cadastral office arrived. He brought the digitized records and confirmed that the person who took the copy two months ago was Tran Khai. This time in the loan book, the purpose is written: "compare irrigation works".

“He has the right to take copies,” Mr. Duoc said, “but he is not allowed to edit them arbitrarily.”

“Where is the original appendix saved?” Thu asked.

"Part of it is in the warehouse, part of it has been transferred to the seed station because it's related to seedlings."

Mai immediately called the station. The staff checked and said the original had a fold mark in the right corner and was stored in a tangerine-like file box. But that box was requested by someone to be moved to the central warehouse last week.

“Who asked?”

“A person named Dung.”

Dung was sitting in the medical station and immediately pulled the blanket when he heard the news. Huy looked at him.

“You took the book because of Ms. Van?”

Dung whispered: "I don't take it to sell."

“So what for?”

“I want my mother's name back.”

Everyone shut up.

Dung said Ms. Van said the original had Ms. Luu's name, and if revealed, it would cause the project to be suspended. Dung took a notebook and paper to erase his name, but then discovered that the file did not only contain his mother's name. It has water rights of many households. He panicked, changed the inside of the book, and then hid the real copy in the seed station warehouse. Khai found out and forced him to take it back. The night he destroyed the tree, Dung only intended to find a file box, not wanting to cut down the tree.

“Who cut it?” Thu asked.

“Khai.”

“Who placed the phone?”

"I."

"Why?"

"I know I'm wrong. I don't have the courage to stand up, so I let the camera speak for me."

Lam looked at Dung. “You think the camera can protect you?”

"Are not."

Huy asked: "Miss Van knew you ordered?"

Dung nodded.

“She said if I didn't get the real copy, she would say I was vandalizing the building.”

The lawyer prepares a record of testimony. Dung agreed to hand over the file location and testify about the contractor's survey. In return, he must be responsible for the act of intrusion and modification; No one promises to erase your mistakes.

In the evening, they arrived at the central warehouse. The file box is opened in front of the officer. Inside is the original appendix, no words are missing. The last page lists her name Pomegranate, right to name and require six households to be present.

There was a small orange stain on the paper, similar to the color of dried tangerine peel.

Thu used a magnifying glass to see. The orange streak forms an arrow, indicating the date.

The opening day is only three days away.

Thu does not want to hold a meeting just because of one sentence in the appendix. She rescheduled according to actual conditions: six households or authorized persons must be present, Mai must be invited as the person holding the name of Ms. Luu, Ms. Man must confirm the tank's current status, and Quan must have water pressure data. The lawyer reminded that if the company continues the survey, they need to submit temporary minutes before the meeting date.

Quan said he could return home from the hospital if Na's treatment schedule allowed. Thu said he didn't need it, but Quan replied:

"I left the circle once because of my child. This time I want to say my own part."

Na heard it and said she would bring the seven-point board.

Mai calls old households. Mr. Bay's household agreed, Hoa's family sent their son, Nam's family was far away but sent a power of attorney. The sixth household is Huy's house. His mother is in the hospital, not sure if she can sign. Huy said he would apply for proper authorization and not use the old signature on her behalf.

“Do you need my mother's signature or mine?” he asked the lawyer.

"If the land has been transferred, the current owner needs to be named. If the old rights belong to your father, inheritance must be determined."

Huy hung up the phone and sat by the window for a long time.

Thu gave him a list. “This is when you can tell mom.”

“I'm afraid she'll think I wasted the medicine money.”

“You have the right to be angry.”

“I don't want you to have to choose.”

"Everyone is choosing. The difference is whether they say it or not."

Huy went to the hospital. His mother listened to everything, then only asked how much support he had to pay. She took the wooden box from under the pillow and gave him a receipt with Ms. Van's signature. It clearly states that the money is "priority for negotiation", not treatment support.

“I read it,” she said. “I still signed because I thought you needed the job.”

Huy said he would refund.

"If you can pay, then pay. If you can't pay, then say clearly. Don't let people say your mother sold the country."

She signed authorization for Huy to attend the meeting, and added a line: "Do not agree with the project affecting the common tank."

At the breeding station, Thu compared the original with the fake book. Each edited place is related to a name: Mrs. Luu, Huy's family, a household that has moved away. The person who changed the book did not erase the irrigation schedule, only erased the lines that turned landless people into people with rights.

Lam returned the edited pages under a simple microscope. Under the new layer of ink is the old handwriting. He discovered that the person who wrote the sentence "no need for outsiders" used the long "g" letter, similar to the words in Khai's survey form.

“Not enough to conclude,” Thu said.

“But enough to ask.”

Dung, after waking up, handed over another recording file. In it, Khai told him that if he got the book, he should leave a fake copy with the sentence about "outsiders". Dung couldn't record Ms. Van's voice, but heard her name.

The lawyer suggested sending the file to the police and not using it in the meeting as an accusation. Letter of consent. She didn't want the meeting to turn into a place of revenge.

At night, Mai took out Mrs. Luu's tape to clean it. She said her mother used to say that the day the ring is opened is not the day the door is broken down, but the day everyone stands around an object that no one can take alone.

The letter looks seven dots on the original. The outermost dot does not represent land, but represents an invitation.

"On opening day," she said, "we don't open the door to the company. We open the door to people who have been left out."

Three The next day, the district cultural house was scheduled.