Chapter 14 — The Tea House at the End of the Street

The payment system problem at Suong Mai Tea Lab turned out to be more serious than Viet Khuong thought, forcing him to stay until nearly midnight, working with the technical team to restore faulty transaction data. When everything was okay, he looked at the clock. It was too late to go back to the tea room. He had to send a short message to Nhien, apologizing for not being able to come back as promised, and meeting her another day.

Nhien read that message the next morning, a slight disappointment crept into her heart even though she understood that work sometimes has unavoidable situations. She texted back a short, sympathetic sentence, then continued her daily work, trying not to let her mind get too caught up in unfounded speculations.

That afternoon, another envelope from the bank appeared in the crack of the iron door - this time a notice repeating the remaining twenty days, accompanied by a paper introducing the "debt restructuring consulting" service, which Nhien read and immediately understood was just an understatement for the process of preparing to liquidate assets. She called the consultant again, trying to negotiate more time, but the answer remained the same: if at least thirty percent of the principal debt could not be paid in the next twenty days, the bank would officially launch the collateral handling process.

She called Ms. Ngoc Tram, not to ask for advice on selling the house like her aunt often suggested, but to ask if the family could borrow more from somewhere. But Ms. Tram's answer, even though it came from genuine concern, still made Nhien choke.

"I don't have much to spare, I still have to save money to take care of my old age. As I said, the fastest and easiest way is to sell the house, pay off all the debt, you're still young, you can still start over. You keep stubbornly keeping that house forever, you'll end up miserable." Ms. Tram sighed into the phone. "I love you, but I can't help you with money right now. I sympathize with you."

Nhien hung up the phone and sat silently at the desk, feeling like she was standing in the middle of a siege with no way out, tightening a little more with each passing day.

Meanwhile, at the regional executive office of Dong Xuan Group, about three hours' drive from On Xuyen town, Mr. Dong Ba Tuan read through his son's proposal to delay progress, his face gradually turning into a dissatisfied look.

He called immediately. "Viet Khuong, I just read your proposal. I do not agree with the delay."

“Dad, I think we need more time to—”

"There's no time to waste," Mr. Ba Tuan interrupted, his voice decisive. "Dad has received information that another real estate group is also eyeing that area. If we don't act quickly, this opportunity will be lost to our competitors. You must contact the tea house owner directly this week and make an official offer."

Viet Khuong felt a suffocation rising in his chest. “Father, I think this approach is not appropriate. We should learn more about their situation before—”

"Who are you protecting, Viet Khuong?" Mr. Ba Tuan asked, his voice full of doubt. "I've heard reports that you've been frequenting that area at night lately. Are you in a personal relationship with someone there?"

Viet Khuong was dumbfounded for a moment, not expecting his father to have received that information. "I... I'm just studying the market more closely," he replied, trying to keep his voice calm even though he was panicking inside.

"I hope so," Mr. Ba Tuan said, his voice stern. "Viet Khuong, I have assigned you this project so that you can prove yourself worthy of inheriting the position of leader of the corporation. If you let your personal feelings influence business decisions, I will have to reconsider entrusting this responsibility to you. I give you one more week to complete the preliminary negotiations. We cannot delay any longer."

The call ended, leaving Viet Khuong sitting alone in the office, feeling cornered from all sides. He stood up, walked to the window, looked down at Nguyet Tra street bathed in the afternoon sunlight, trying to find some way out of this dilemma.

He thought about outright refusing the assigned task, but knew full well what the consequences would be — not only would it affect his position in the company, but it could also cause his father to assign the negotiation task to someone else, someone who wouldn't have any consideration or hesitation when putting pressure on Nhien. At least, if he was the one directly negotiating, he could still find a way to delay and protect her to the extent possible.

But at the same time, he also understands that continuing in this role means he has to face Nhien directly, as the official representative of the company that wants to buy her tea house — a situation much worse than simply admitting his real job.

That afternoon, Viet Khuong decided to call his grandfather again, trying again to find a clearer answer. This time, Mr. Khai Vu answered the phone faster, his voice seemed to have calmed down somewhat compared to the previous call.

"I've been thinking about what you asked," Mr. Khai Vu said, his voice low and somewhat tired. "Viet Khuong, there is a story he has never told anyone in his family, including you and your father. It is a story he is not proud of, and he has carried it with him for the past fifty years like a burden he cannot put down."

"Can you tell me?" Viet Khuong asked, his voice trembling slightly.

"Not over the phone," Mr. Khai Vu replied. "This is something that needs to be talked about directly, face to face. Can you arrange to visit him? The sooner the better."

"I'll come as soon as I can, grandpa," Viet Khuong replied, a vague relief creeping into his heart despite knowing that the truth about to be revealed might be even heavier than he imagined.

The call ended, Viet Khuong stood still for a moment, looking out the office window, filled with bad premonitions. He knows he is standing at an important crossroads — if he doesn't find a solution in the near future, he will have to face losing either his family, or the girl who is gradually capturing his heart, or worse, losing both at the same time.

He sat down at his desk, opened his personal schedule, crossed out two unnecessary meetings on the weekend, and rearranged his entire schedule so he could leave as soon as possible. In his mind, the image of his grandfather with a trembling voice on the phone kept appearing mixed with the image of Nhien with angry eyes when telling about the betrayal in the past. Those two images overlapped each other, creating a heavy pressure that words could not fully describe.

He decided to arrange a trip to the plantation this weekend, before the one-week deadline set by his father ended. He needed to know the complete truth before facing Nhien as an official negotiating representative — a role he knew would completely destroy the trust she had placed in him, unless he could find a way to turn danger into opportunity, to transform that painful truth into a path of reconciliation instead of destruction.

That evening, a text message from Nhien appeared on his phone: "Are you okay? You seem very tired today." Viet Khuong looked at that line for a long time, his fingers hovering over the keyboard, trying to compose an answer that was both sincere enough to not have to lie, and vague enough to not have to reveal everything that was torn in his heart right now.

Finally he typed: "I'm fine, it's just that work is a bit stressful. I have to visit my grandfather this weekend, I have family matters to take care of. I'll tell you when I'm done, okay?" He re-read that sentence many times before sending it, feeling it was just real enough to not betray her trust, and discreet enough so that he had time to mentally prepare for the meeting with his grandfather, before having to face the most difficult thing - telling the whole truth to Nhien himself.

A few minutes later, she texted back: "Okay, just take care of family matters first. I'm here, come by when you're free." Just a short, simple sentence, but enough to make his heart sink with guilt. That trust without any doubt, he knew, he did not deserve to receive so fully, at least until he had the courage to say it all.