Chapter 16 — The Test Has No Name

Acquaintances You Don't Want To Meet

The evening before the opening ceremony, the school held a small party at a restaurant near the hotel to welcome honored guests and sponsor representatives. Nguyen intended to refuse to attend, citing fatigue after the trip, but Nhat Khoi convinced him to be present, at least to grasp the event's atmosphere before stepping onto the official stage the next morning.

The banquet room is small and cozy, tables and chairs are arranged in round clusters, each table has about six to eight people. Nguyen and Nhat Khoi were seated at the same table with the school board of directors and several major sponsor representatives. As soon as he sat down and poured himself a glass of water, a familiar voice rang out from the door, making his whole body stiffen.

"Sorry for being late, my car had some trouble on the way."

The entire banquet room turned to look at the door, a few people lightly clapped to welcome the scholarship fund representative who had just appeared, considering it a normal etiquette for an important sponsor of the event.

Chu Dinh Vy walked in, in an elegant suit, with the confident demeanor of a senior executive. He greeted a few acquaintances in the room before his eyes stopped at the table Nguyen was sitting at. There was a brief moment, the two looked straight into each other's eyes, and in that moment, fifteen years seemed to disappear, leaving only two students standing in the middle of the exam hall from that year - one was led out humiliated, the other sat back to take the exam with shaking hands.

"Nguyen," Vy spoke first, stepping closer, trying to keep his voice natural. "Long time no see. Are you...are you okay?"

"Still fine," Nguyen replied, his voice calm to the point of coldness, not standing up to shake hands as common courtesy would require. "I didn't expect to see you here again, in this role."

"I've been in charge of a scholarship fund for several years now," Vy said, somewhat confused by Nguyen's apparent coldness. "When I heard that you were invited to be the keynote speaker, I was also surprised."

"Probably not as surprised as I was to hear that your foundation sponsored an event about school integrity," Nguyen replied, his voice still calm, but each word carried a sharp blade hidden beneath the polite shell.

Those words made the atmosphere around the banquet table slacken a beat. Fortunately, the other people at the table were engrossed in chatting with each other, no one noticed the unusual tone in the conversation between the two people. Nhat Khoi, sitting next to Nguyen, gently squeezed his friend's hand under the table, an implicit signal reminding him to stay calm.

Vy stood there for a while, not knowing whether to sit down or retreat, and finally chose to sit in the remaining empty chair at the same table — perhaps because withdrawing now would make the tension between the two even more obvious to those around them. The waiter brought each plate of food, but both Nguyen and Vy only lightly touched the dish in front of them with their chopsticks, no one was really in the mood to enjoy anything at this elaborately prepared party.

"Have you had time to prepare your speech thoroughly?" Vy asked, trying to maintain the conversation at a social level, his voice trembled slightly even though he tried to hide it, his hand unconsciously turned the glass of water in front of him round and round, a tense gesture that Nguyen still remembered clearly from the common review sessions last year.

"I'm still considering how much to say," Nguyen replied, looking straight at Vy, without blinking. "There are stories that, once started, will be difficult to stop at the right time."

That vague but meaningful statement made Vy pale for a split second, though he tried to suppress it right after, nodding as if he was just listening to a normal social conversation. "I believe your speech will be very meaningful, no matter what you choose to tell."

"Thank you for your trust," Nguyen replied, his voice lacking any real gratitude.

At the chairman's table near the small stage, Khanh Thu sat next to the principal, performing the role of chairing the welcoming party according to her duties. From her position, she could see the entire development at Nguyen's table - not clearly hearing the content of the conversation, but enough to recognize the tense body language between the two men, the unusual silence lasting too long after each short exchange.

Her heart sank when she saw Vy choose to sit at the same table as Nguyen, and it tightened even more when she observed both of their stiff faces throughout the rest of the party. She wanted to stand up and find a way to intervene, but her role as host forced her to stay in her seat, smile at the right time, speak at the right time, while her mind was completely drawn to the banquet table not far away.

"Miss Thu seems a bit distracted," the principal commented quietly when it was her turn to thank the sponsor but misread the name twice in a row.

"Sorry teacher, I'm a bit tired from preparing for the event these past few days," Khanh Thu replied, trying to regain her composure, re-reading the missing content.

The party continued with short welcoming speeches from the board of directors and words of thanks to the sponsors, but Nguyen could barely hear anything clearly, his mind kept spinning with the image of Vy sitting just two chairs away from him, smiling and talking to the people around him as if nothing had happened fifteen years ago.

He remembered every little detail of that fateful afternoon - Vy's panicked eyes when the proctor opened the stack of papers, his unusual calmness during the three hours of exam work that followed, the news that Vy had passed the scholarship just a few weeks after he was suspended from the exam. Each piece of the puzzle, after fifteen years, now when looking back with more mature eyes, became so clear that it was difficult to deny, even though he never had any specific evidence in hand.

At the end of the party, when everyone started to leave, Vy deliberately stayed behind, waiting until Nguyen was alone near the exit, before meeting Nhat Khoi who was taking the car.

"Nguyen," Vy called, his voice low, no longer as social as before. "I know you still suspect something about me. But I hope you understand, whatever happened that year, I've lived with it for the past fifteen years, not without paying the price."

"How to pay the price?" Nguyen asked again, his voice cold. "With a scholarship to study abroad, a successful career, a respectable position in an educational scholarship fund? Do you call that paying the price?"

Vy was silent, there was no answer enough to answer that question. He bowed his head, his shoulders sagging slightly, revealing a rare moment of weakness amid the shell of confidence he had maintained all evening.

"I don't expect your forgiveness," Vy said, his voice low. "I just hope you know, I've never for a single day felt relieved about what I've done."

"Then you should do something about that feeling," Nguyen replied, turned and walked out the door, not waiting for Vy to say more. "Instead of just carrying it around as a private secret for the rest of your life."

He walked out of the restaurant, without looking back, took a deep breath of the cool night air of Vong Khe town, feeling like his body had just gone through a mental battle more intense than any business negotiation he had ever faced. Nhat Khoi drove to pick you up. Seeing your face, you immediately understood that something had happened there.

"See Vy?" Nhat Khoi asked.

"Yes," Nguyen replied, sitting in the car, looking out the window where the restaurant lights gradually disappeared behind. "And I think, tomorrow will be a lot longer than I thought."

In the restaurant, when the guests had left one by one, Khanh Thu stood back with a few staff members to finish cleaning up the banquet room. She saw Vy still standing alone near the door, his expression blank, completely different from his confident demeanor when he first entered. She approached, walking slowly on the shiny tile floor of the empty restaurant, not necessarily out of politeness but because of a hunch that something had just happened between these two men.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice cautious.

"I'm fine," Vy replied, but his voice was not fine at all. "I just talked to Nguyen. He's still angry, as I expected."

"He has the right to be angry," Khanh Thu said, unable to hide the frankness she rarely showed before Vy. "We both owe him an explanation, no matter how late."

Vy looked at her, his eyes slightly surprised by that unexpected frankness, but did not respond, just nodded and left the restaurant, leaving Khanh Thu standing alone in the middle of the almost empty banquet room, filled with bad premonitions about what would happen on the upcoming opening day.