Chapter 15 — The Secret Pages of Room Seven

During the third meeting, when Diệu Kỳ was almost completely awake, she told Nhã Vân everything she remembered about the night of the incident. Her voice was monotonous, as if she were narrating a movie she had watched many times in her head so as not to burst out emotionally.

"That night, my mother went on a business trip, and I stayed home alone to study." Diệu Kỳ began, looking down at her clasped hands. "Around ten o'clock at night, I went to the kitchen to get water and heard a strange noise coming from Uncle Điền's office. The door was slightly open, I looked in and saw him standing in front of the fireplace, holding a stack of papers, preparing to burn them."

"Can you see those documents clearly?" Nhã Vân asked, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart was pounding.

"I just saw a few very large numbers on a page, and a company name I couldn't remember clearly, with the word 'investment' in it." Diệu Kỳ frowned and tried to remember. "Uncle Điền discovered me standing at the door. His face changed color immediately, no longer as gentle as usual. He yelled at me to go into the room, lock the door, then grabbed my shoulder and asked me what I saw and what I heard."

Diệu Kỳ's voice began to tremble. Nhã Vân squeezed her hand to comfort her, signaling that she could stop at any time if she felt too overwhelmed. But Diệu Kỳ shook her head and continued talking.

"I was so scared, I tried to explain that I didn't see anything, but he didn't believe me. He tightened his grip on my shoulder, his voice full of threats, saying that if I dared to tell anyone, he would make both me and my mother regret it. I tried to get away, pushed him to escape, he staggered, his head hit the edge of the stone table... then fell down, lying still, not moving anymore."

Nhã Vân hugged her sister tightly, clearly feeling Diệu Kỳ's body tremble because she had to relive that horrifying moment again. "It's okay, Kỳ. It was me defending myself, it's not my fault."

"But after that, I don't remember anything anymore. When I woke up, I was already at the police station, everyone looked at me as if I were a cold-blooded murderer." Diệu Kỳ sobbed. "I don't understand why things turned out like this, sister."

Nhã Vân stroked her sister's hair, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart was seething with anger. The entire story Diệu Kỳ just told fits perfectly with what she and Bách Nguyên had deduced before - Mạc Vĩnh Điền was destroying financial evidence related to the money laundering network when Diệu Kỳ accidentally caught him, and while controlling her to silence her, he was injured due to her own self-defense, not an intentional murder like what was staged later.

"I believe in you, Kỳ," she said, her voice steady. "And now I know exactly what happened. Uncle Điền didn't die that night. He faked his death to frame you, to avoid responsibility for a huge financial crime he committed over the years."

Diệu Kỳ looked up at her, her eyes wide open, filled with surprise and anger. "He's still alive? So why...why did he do this to you?"

"Because you're the only surviving witness to his face that night, and because the easiest way to neutralize you without killing you is to turn you into a murder suspect locked up in the very medical system he has control over," Nhã Vân explained, trying to speak slowly so that her sister could receive this entire complex truth. "He and his accomplices used his family's own hospital to detain her, injecting drugs that made it impossible for her to calmly tell the truth, while he leisurely hid in some secret place, continuing to operate the money laundering network from the shadows."

Diệu Kỳ was silent for a long time, her face gradually changed from horror to a cold indignation that Nhã Vân had never seen in her gentle sister before. "So what do we do now, sister? We have to expose him."

"I and a friend have collected quite a bit of evidence," Nhã Vân replied, squeezing her hand tightly. "But I need your testimony, exactly what you just told me, to completely piece this whole picture of the truth together."

That evening, when she met Bách Nguyên again, Nhã Vân recounted everything Diệu Kỳ had just revealed. He listened attentively, quickly taking notes in his notebook, his face gradually becoming more serious as each detail was pieced together.

"So we have the three most important pieces of the puzzle," he said, his voice filled with determination. "Diệu Kỳ's direct testimony about the night of the incident, records of Mạc Vĩnh Điền's secret transfer to an internal treatment facility not made public, and evidence of an illegal financial network in Room Seven directly linked to Chu Bảo Hạnh."

"There's still one thing missing," Nhã Vân said, her voice was thoughtful. "We still don't know exactly where he is hiding, and there is no direct evidence that he is still directing this network from the shadows."

"I think we need to find a way to verify the address of the villa in the northern suburbs that we found in the records," Bách Nguyên said. "If he is really hiding there, or if it is a place he still frequents to direct work, that will be the final and most important evidence." Nhã Vân nodded, clearly sensing that they were standing at the threshold of the final stage of this investigation. But she also knew that the closer she got to the truth, the greater the danger, and with Diệu Kỳ starting to regain consciousness, the possibility of the controllers noticing an unusual change in her condition would also increase significantly with each passing day.

"We don't have much time left," she said, her voice determined. "We need to act faster, before they discover that Diệu Kỳ has regained consciousness, and before they have a chance to erase any remaining traces." Bách Nguyên nodded in agreement, his eyes looking at her equally filled with determination. "Then we'll start tomorrow. It's time to end all of this," Before leaving the garden that night, Bách Nguyên suggested that they both piece together Mạc Vĩnh Điền's entire motive, to have the most complete and convincing picture when presented to the investigation agency. He turned over the pages of old notes, the numbers he had silently collected about Mạc Vĩnh Điền's personal financial situation before he remarried Nhã Vân's mother.

"I have partly learned, through public records, about the investments he has participated in the past," he said, his voice low. "About seven years ago, he poured a huge sum of money, almost all of his private assets, into a small-town resort real estate project. That project completely collapsed after just two years, leaving him with a huge debt that, if made public, would destroy his entire reputation and career."

"And that's why he needed to remarry my mother, needed a position in the corporation," Nhã Vân said, her voice bitter. "Not because of love, but because it requires a large enough resource to make up for that debt."

"I believe so." Bách Nguyên nodded. "And when the debt continued to grow with interest rates, he was forced to look for more illegal methods to rotate the cash flow, eventually leading to the entire money laundering network hiding in An Tâm's shadow that we discovered."

Nhã Vân remained silent, clearly feeling an indescribable bitterness when realizing that the entire tragedy of her family, all the pain that Diệu Kỳ and so many other victims had to endure, ultimately only stemmed from the greed and cowardice of a man who did not dare to face his own financial failure, choosing to hide it with crime instead of bravely admitting it and suffering the consequences.

"How cruel people can become, just because they don't dare to look directly at their own mistakes," she spoke, her voice gentle but heavy. "He was willing to destroy an entire family, the entire lives of countless innocent people, just to protect his own ego and safety."

Bách Nguyên looked at her, his eyes full of sympathy. "That's why we can't let him escape this responsibility. Not just for Diệu Kỳ, but for everyone who has and is still paying the price for his greed." Nhã Vân nodded, tightening her hand holding her code book. That night, when she returned to her room, she felt a new determination, stronger than ever, urging her to go to the end of this path, no matter what dangers she faced ahead.