Chapter 7 — The Code in the Tangerine Garden

Mrs. Man put the oil lamp on the table and pulled the old map to the middle of the house.

“Before asking where the original is,” she said, “you have to know why it doesn't just belong to your father.”

Thu looked at the map. The paper was yellowed, the lead lines around the garden were blurred like blood vessels. The northern strip of white land runs through six small plots of land before falling into low fields. An Loc's house is only located in the middle, but on the old map, it is where the main valve is located.

“When did you become a valve keeper?” Quan asked.

"Since the year your grandfather passed away. At that time, six houses had ditches, but each drought season they quarreled. The house at the beginning of the ditch opened first, the house at the end of the ditch had no water left. Tan made a calendar, marked by the day of picking tangerines."

“Why not use normal dates?”

"The dates can change. Tangerine season can be seen on the trees."

She pointed to each symbol. The leaf shape is a piece of land with fruit trees. The water drop is the valve opening point. The circle is where the six houses must be present together if they want to fix or change the direction of the water. The accompanying letter is the contributor's name, not necessarily the current landowner's name.

“So the letter T is father,” Thu said.

“A T is Tan. There may be another T.”

Quan held a piece of paper from the box on the roof. “Who sent this copy?”

"He wanted you all to know that the original was lost, but he didn't want to show his face."

Lam stood next to the window. “Or someone who wants to push us to doubt each other.”

Thu looked at him. “Do you know where the original is?”

"Father once told me to film him hiding a stack of papers under the packing house. But the video was cut."

“Do you have the full version?”

"I don't know."

“Lam.”

"I really don't know. Dad sent me the file after filming. Part of it was wrong. I thought he was just trying to record it."

Quan pulled the chair. “Play that part.”

Lam opened the laptop. In the video, Dad walks from the main valve into the packing house, placing a tin box under the sixth brick from the door. He looked straight into the camera:

"This box is not a place to keep paper. It is a place to keep promises. Paper can be torn, someone must remember the promise."

Then the image is noisy. There was the sound of my father coughing, another person asking "Do you still have that copy?", then the phone turned off.

Rewind letter. “Who asked?”

“No face.”

Quan looked at Lam. “You heard it but didn't say it?”

"I didn't listen to the whole thing. I just watched this part today."

Mrs. Man covered her mouth with her hand. “That voice is Mr. Suu.”

“Which Mr. Suu?” Thu asked.

"The person who bought Huy's land for the first time. He died a long time ago."

“So it's not the one who cut the power.”

“But it started with him.”

She said that year, after a drought, Mr. Suu wanted to fill a ditch to build a workshop. Father Huy, when he was still alive, sold the strip of land adjacent to the ditch because he needed money for medical treatment. On paper, he only sold land, not water rights. Mr. Tan kept the agreement signed by six families and a handwritten sentence: "Whoever receives the land must keep the way for the country."

“No notarization?” Thu asked.

“There is the seal of the old commune.”

“Is a handwritten sentence legally valid?”

"She doesn't know. Tan isn't sure either. But he said if people don't understand it with paper, they will understand it with the drought."

Quan bowed his head. “Dad always thought he could keep things together by not talking.”

Letter is silent. She used to hate that silence the most. When my mother passed away, my father did not talk about his illness until there was no way to hide it. When she went to the city, he only sent money on time, never asking if she needed anyone by her side. He thought silence was the way to keep his children from worrying. Now she understands that silence only transfers worry to the person who comes next.

The next morning, Huy arrived with a woman wearing a survey jacket. He introduced her as Ms. Van, the company's legal representative. Thu did not invite them into the house, just talked under the canopy outside.

“Tran Khai is on a business trip,” Huy said.

“Did he get the cadastral records?”

Ms. Van opened the book. “The company has the right to request copies for project evaluation.”

“The copy is missing the appendix.”

“The dossier given to us has no appendices.”

“So who signed it?”

Ms. Van looked at Huy. Huy answered instead: "Document warehouse employee."

Thu put the map on the table. "The company knew the water line was under the garden. The contract had the right to access the water. Company people entered the garden at night. Now the original certificate is lost."

“You're jumping to conclusions too quickly,” Ms. Van said.

“I'm listing what happened.”

Huy looked at the symbols on the map. His eyes stopped at the blacked out word.

“Uncle Tan still keeps this copy,” he said.

“You know?”

"I saw it when I was a child. My father and he argued over the land next to the ditch."

“So tell me.”

Huy rubbed his face. "My father sold the land to Mr. Suu. Then Mr. Suu wanted to fill the ditch. Uncle Tan objected. The two of them went to the commune. Finally, there was a temporary agreement: the ditch went underground through the garden and my house still received water. My father signed, but after that he never mentioned it."

“Do you have a copy?”

"Are not."

“Do you know what the company is looking for?”

Huy looked towards the well. "I know they need the right to draw water. I don't know how far they will go."

Ms. Van frowned. “Huy, we don't have time for family matters.”

“This is a legal matter of the land,” he said.

“And the company hired you to handle it.”

Thu realized for the first time that Huy was placed between two sides. He was not the one who directly took the paper, but he brought the land price with all the information that the family did not have.

Quan asked: "Where does the company plan to drill the new well?"

Ms. Van replied: "I do not have the right to reveal the design."

“Right above the tank,” Quan said. “Coordinates are in the appendix.”

Huy turned to Ms. Van. “That addendum has not been approved yet.”

“But it was investigated.”

“Huy,” Ms. Van warned.

“If you drill there, the water pressure of the whole area will change.”

Ms. Van closed the book. "The company will comply with regulations. If the family does not want to sell, they can refuse. No one will force them."

“So why did your people cut off the power to my house?” Thu asked.

No one answered.

After the two left, Quan led Huy to the well. He opened the valve cover and showed Huy the water currents weakening as they changed direction. Huy squatted, noticing a new connection.

“This doesn't belong to my father,” he said.

“Do you recognize the lace pattern?”

"My father used to work as a mason for the irrigation team. He didn't use this type."

Huy removed the connection. Inside there is a piece of black rubber, on which the company logo is printed.

Thu raised her phone to take a photo. Huy looked at her and did not object.

“I'll ask Tran Khai,” he said.

“Are you asking as a member of the company or as a son of a land contributor?”

Huy did not reply.

In the afternoon, Mrs. Man took Thu to Mr. Bay's house, one of the old households. He is eighty years old, has poor eyesight, but clearly remembers the days of opening the valve. He took out an old calendar from the cabinet, inside each month were six colored marks.

“This is Tan's writing,” he said. “But the last version is no longer available.”

“Do you remember who got it?”

"No one took it. Tan gave it to each family to copy and collect."

"Why?"

“He was afraid that people would tear a page and think it was him have rights.”

Mr. Bay signed a confirmation of the letter composed, but hesitated before pointing.

“If you sell, what will happen to the water line?”

The letter does not lie. “We don't know yet.”

“So don't sign before you know.”

On the way home, Mrs. Man showed Thu six tree stumps with symbols that were covered by new bark. She said her father once marked them on a rainy night, after receiving news that Huy's family had sold their land.

“Tan said if one person leaves the circle, the remaining five people must remember how to pull them back.”

“What if you can't pull it?”

“Then at least know where they left off.”

When they arrived home, Lam was standing in front of the breeding room. The door was wide open, the belongings inside were ransacked. The laptop containing the video lies on the floor, the screen cracked.

Na ran from the back of the house, her face covered in dirt.

“I saw someone running toward the north gate,” she said. “That person is holding a blue notebook.”

Thu turned to Lam.

The blue notebook has disappeared.

Lam did not ask who took it. He ran to his desk and opened the bottom drawer. It contained memory cards, charging cables and an empty envelope. He poured it all out onto the floor.

“I locked the room,” he said.

“Lock doesn't mean no one can get in,” Thu replied.

“But I set up a camera.”

Camera card has been removed. Only the camera housing remained facing the wall, recording twelve hours of silence. On the base there is a blue streak that resembles a notebook cover.

Mrs. Man looked at the traces. “The person who took it knows where the book is.”

“Did you tell anyone?” Quan asked.

“I don't.”

Lam took a pencil and placed it next to the dirt track at the gate. The runner's footprint has one heel dragging. Same design as the silhouette in the camera footage before the power outage.

“Khai,” Huy said over the phone, he had just called back.

“Are you sure?”

“He has pain in his left leg due to an old accident.”

“So why not say it from the beginning?”

“Because I don't want to make accusations without evidence.”

Thu picked up the fake notebook. If Khai gets the real copy, he doesn't just want to clear Ms. Luu's name. He wanted to know what dad had written down about the valve opening dates. In those days, it could be proven that the company had tested the water before asking for permission.

Mai called and said she had just found a piece of paper her mother had hidden in a photo frame. It says: “The green book is not a key. It just shows who is holding the key.”

Thu looked at Lam. “What are you holding?”

Lam took the memory card out of his pocket. “Part of the ending.”

"Open."

“Not here.”

“Again?”

Lam looked towards the north door. “If the person who took the book is still out in the garden, I want them to think we don't know.”

Outside the tree line, there was the sound of dry branches being trampled and broken. A shadow flashed past and then disappeared.