Chapter 2 — The Husband in the Household Registration Book

I need to prepare a perfect set of documents, without any loopholes, that can prove my innocence. Starting from eight thirty tomorrow morning, right when the civil service opens. I have to fight a tough battle. A battle can only be won, absolutely cannot be lost.
03
As soon as it was dawn, I was waiting in front of the civil service office. I'm the first. At eight thirty, the rolling door was pulled up and I went straight to the marriage registration office.
“Hello, I would like to request to cancel the marriage registration.”
I handed over the printed bank note and my ID. The employee working is a middle-aged woman. She looked at me, then looked at the documents.
"I don't know? The signature was faked?"
It was clear she had never handled so many cases, her face was full of surprise.
"That's right."
"This matter requires handwriting assessment, a very long process."
"No need." I took out another set of documents from my bag, those were the ones I prepared at the printing shop last night.
"This is a scan of the signatures on all my credit card bills, rental contracts, and employment contracts over the past five years. You can compare the signatures on the marriage certificate that I was 'registered with'. The handwriting is completely different."
"In addition, here are my work records, airline ticket information, and confirmation of my hotel stay on June 12, three years ago. That day I was in Guangzhou, a thousand kilometers away from here. I cannot appear at the registration location here."
I pushed a thick stack of documents over. Each document is labeled with date and use. Clear, transparent, unquestionable. The woman was stunned. She looked at me like she was looking at a monster. Perhaps she had never met anyone who could prepare such a complete chain of evidence in just one night. She called the person in charge over. The person in charge looked at the documents, compared my identification many times and then made a few phone calls. An hour later. He gave the answer.
"Miss To, the basic situation has been verified. The truth about the forged signature and illegal use of identity is very clear. We will immediately initiate the process of annulment of your marriage relationship."
I received a receipt with a red seal.
"Thank."
I didn't stop for even a minute and took the car directly to the police station. Still the same young police officer from yesterday. Seeing the receipt in my hand, he widened his eyes.
“That fast?”
“I'm in a hurry.”
I gave him the receipt.
“Can I do the procedure to erase my household registration now?”
He received the documents and immediately started working.
"According to regulations, in cases of fraudulent household registration transfers like this, after verification, forced removal can be carried out."
He typed on the system, his eyebrows furrowed tightly.
"But if you simply delete your household registration, the information will still leave traces on the system. Some unnecessary troubles may arise later."
“Is there a way to solve it once and for all?” I asked.
He pondered for a moment.
"There is a special process. For civil status information that is confirmed to be fake and registered with malicious intent, when the evidence is authentic, the status can be marked as 'deceased' to delete the data. Thus, the entire card Bank, phone SIM and immigration permits related to this identity will immediately lose validity."
“Let's do that.” I didn't hesitate at all.
“This… is a bit extreme.”
“For someone who wants to ruin my life, that's not enough.” My voice carried no temperature at all.
He looked at me, finally nodded.
“Okay.”
He marked the special option in the suggestions section. Submit, review, and approve. A dialog box appears on the screen. 【Confirm change in status of civil status information of person named "Phuong Vien" to "deceased" and proceed with deletion? This operation cannot be undone.】 The police officer raised his head and looked at me, giving me one last confirmation. I nodded.
“Confirmed.”
He pressed the Enter key. On the computer screen, the information page belonging to Phuong Vien turned gray, with a bright red stamp written "deleted" on it.
“It's done.” The police officer said, “Within seventy-two hours, the system across the country will be updated synchronously.”
I let out a long breath. These three days, I didn't go home. I stayed in a hotel very close to the company. Every day, I still go to work, leave work, and exercise as usual. Like nothing happened. But I know an invisible net is gradually tightening. Tuesday afternoon, I was in a meeting. The phone started vibrating continuously. An unknown number calls over and over again. I turned on silent mode and continued the meeting. When the meeting ended, the phone had twenty-seven missed calls. They all come from the same machine number. I went to the fire escape window and called back. The phone was picked up almost immediately.
“To Tinh! What the hell did you do with my household registration?!”
On the other end of the phone was the angry scream of a man.