Chapter 21 — The Fateful Trial

If it were before, I would have panicked, would have rushed over, and would have wondered if I was being too cruel. But today I just feel cold. When she pushed my newborn child to court, she didn't ask if baby An An was in pain or not? When the archivist arrived, two keys were inserted into the lock at the same time. Click. The iron door slowly opened. Inside was not a stack of documents like I imagined. It's three boxes of files. The first box has my name on it. The second box has the name Ha Binh. The third box has no name, just a piece of paper that says: *"Unusual handling of newborn babies"*. My heartbeat stopped for a beat. The police opened the box with my name on it first. Inside are prenatal examination records, inpatient medical records, surgical records and hospital discharge payment papers. Each document is genuine. In the second box, there are additional records of Ha Binh's household registration from previous years, from photos from birth to when he became a teenager. But the most fatal is the third box. The moment the lid of the box was opened, a red processing slip appeared. The first line on the processing slip reads: Ha An An. The second line reads: Born 3 months. The third line reads: Personal information is duplicated, taking up household registration resources, request to postpone registration. My eyes darkened, I had to hold on to the closet door to keep from collapsing. The police picked up the handling ticket. Below is an unresolved application. The content of the application is to change the birth registration status of newborn Ha An An to "awaiting family confirmation". In the applicant's signature section, Ha Tuan's signature is already available. There's a blank space next to my name, still left open. But next to that empty space is a sticky note. There were only a few words written on it: *"Wait for her to sign, submit immediately"*. I stared at those words, my whole body cold. They didn't have time to destroy my son's identity. They were waiting for me to personally offer the knife. At that moment, the police pulled out a transparent evidence bag from the bottom of the box. In the bag is a card with the baby's footprints printed on it. On the card, two tiny footprints were printed very clearly. However, next to the name column, someone used a black pen to cross out all the lines. Under the erased spot, a new line of printed words appeared: *"Ha Binh, old name is Ha An An."* 17 That line was like a sharp nail, fiercely driven straight into my eyes. I raised my hand to touch the footprint card but was stopped by the police officer.

"Miss Duong, don't touch it for now. This card needs to be examined for traces."

I slowly withdrew my hand, my fingertips were cold. That footprint was printed by a nurse when An An was just born. That day, she was as small and warm as a soft cotton ball. The nurse also smiled and said, this is my first certificate when coming to this world. But now, that certificate is stuffed into a storage cabinet in the basement, and has another person's name stuck on it. I asked Ms. Ly: "Who fixed this?" Ms. Ly shook her head and cried so much that she couldn't stand.

"I don't know. I only know that Lam Mai has come here several times. The first time she went with Ha Tuan. The second time she went with Lam Quoc Cuong. The third time she came alone, holding a temporary permission form issued by the hospital."

The police officer immediately asked: "Who gave her that license?" Ms. Ly bit her lip and took a long time to utter her last name: “Director Tien. He is in charge of logistics and medical record rotation. Previously, Lam Mai introduced the construction contractor team to him. The two of them are very close." The police recorded this name. The archivist continued to search the third box. There is also a printed copy of the system operation log. The time displayed is correct on the fifth day after An An was born. The content of the operation is: *Revocation of the original birth registration notice.*