Chapter 7 — Wind and Snow Falling, Ancient People Return

Wordless Resentment

The encounters between Diep Khanh and Bach Du gradually became more frequent when the beautification project entered the phase of collecting opinions from business households on the street. Every week, at least once a week, Bach Du appears in the area near Diep Suong shop, sometimes to monitor the progress of reinforcing the front of the house next door, sometimes to directly discuss with business owners about sidewalk improvement plans.

One afternoon, when Diep Khanh was rearranging the wedding flower display shelf outside the door, Bach Du happened to pass by and stopped to observe her for a moment before speaking.

"Ms. Khanh, is the store doing well these days?"

That seemingly harmless question seemed to touch the smoldering wound in Diep Khanh's heart. She looked up at him, and in that moment, all the pent-up frustrations over the past five years suddenly surged out uncontrollably.

"Do you really care, or are you just asking?" Her voice was sharper than she expected, surprising even herself.

Bach Du was stunned, not expecting his social question to receive such a harsh reaction. "I asked sincerely."

"Honestly?" Diep Khanh laughed faintly, a laugh without any joy. "You disappeared for five years, without a message, without a call, and now you come back just for work and ask me if I'm okay as if nothing had ever happened? Do you think I'd forget everything so easily?"

The words poured out like a flood that she could no longer stop, even though she also understood in her heart that this was not the right place to express emotions, when right in front of the store, a few passersby began to pay attention to the somewhat tense conversation between the two.

"Diep Khanh, please calm down." Bach Du reached out his hand, intending to touch her shoulder but then pulled back, afraid that action would make things worse. "There are many things I don't know..."

"Is there something I don't know about?" She interrupted him, her eyes were red but she still tried to keep her tears from falling in front of him. "You want to find your own future, I understand that. But at least you should have the courage to tell me directly, instead of silently disappearing as if I never existed in your life."

"You didn't just disappear quietly." Bach Du's voice also began to sound a bit harsh, partly because he was also carrying his own resentments for the past five years. "I'm the one who texted you telling you not to contact me again."

Diep Khanh paused, his hands hanging down at his sides, his lips parted but it took a few seconds to utter a word. "I never texted you like that."

"Don't deny it anymore." Bach Du smiled bitterly, his eyes filled with long-held hurt. "I still remember every word in that text message, right before I left for the airport. You told me to just go, don't contact me again, I don't want to get in your way."

"I actually didn't send any such messages." Diep Khanh shook her head continuously, her voice trembling with panic mixed with anger. "That night I was at the hospital with my mother, my phone ran out of battery since the afternoon, I didn't even know you were leaving, I..."

She suddenly stopped, as if she had just realized something important, but the thoughts in her head were too chaotic to be arranged into a clear logical flow. She only remembered that night, after waking up from a light sleep on the hospital waiting chair, she saw her phone lying on the table, fully charged, even though she clearly remembered that she had let it run out of battery before. At that time, she simply thought that someone kindly helped her charge the battery, without the slightest doubt.

Bach Du looked at her truly confused face, a question began to stir in his mind, vague but refusing to go away. During the past five years, he had never once doubted the authenticity of that message, because it came from Diep Khanh's own phone number, with a writing style he thought was familiar. But the look in her eyes right now, the shock that couldn't be faked, made him shake.

"If it wasn't you who sent it, then who could..." He left his sentence unfinished, not daring to continue thinking about the possibility that he himself felt shuddered when it crossed his mind.

"I do not know." Diep Khanh hugged her head, her temples twitched, the sound of traffic on the street suddenly seemed distant as if echoing from behind a thick layer of glass. "But I know for sure I didn't send that message to you. As for you, you didn't text me anything during those days, I only received silence, and then one day I heard someone else say you had gone to France."

"Who told you that?" Bach Du asked, his voice tense.

Diep Khanh tried to remember, but the memories of five years ago had been eroded by time and pain, and the specific details became vague and difficult to grasp. "I... I don't remember clearly anymore, it seems like it was a mutual friend of both of us. At that time, I was confused about my mother's affairs and didn't have the mind to remember the details."

The two stood there, in the middle of a bustling street, each with their own piece of memory about the same event, but those pieces didn't fit together, creating a suspicious void that neither of them had enough clues to fill.

A few passersby were still glancing at them, whispering, making Diep Khanh suddenly realize that she had let her emotions overwhelm her too much in public. She lowered her voice, trying to regain her composure, even though her hands were still shaking slightly from the pent-up emotions that had just been released. She looked around and saw a few familiar neighbors standing in front of a nearby grocery store. Their eyes followed the two people's conversation with undisguised curiosity, making her even more embarrassed.

"We shouldn't stand here talking about this anymore." Diep Khanh said, her voice was less harsh, but there was still a hint of unresolved hurt. "Anyway, what's done is done. I think it's best for us to keep our relationship at a business level."

"I need time to think things over." Bach Du said, his voice was low, his eyes full of complicated feelings. "Perhaps we misunderstood each other more than either of us thought."

"Whether there was a misunderstanding or not, it's been five years." Diep Khanh said, trying to regain her coldness, although her voice was still shaking. "It's over, I don't want to bring it up again."

Having finished speaking, she turned and walked into the shop, leaving Bach Du standing alone in the middle of the street, his eyes following her back disappearing behind the door, his heart filled with hundreds of thoughts that could not be untangled.

That night, Bach Du did not return to the apartment immediately but drove around the familiar streets of Da Lat, trying to rearrange the chaotic memories in his head. He remembered the old text messages, trying to visualize every word, every punctuation mark, trying to find something unusual that he had previously overlooked because it was too painful to analyze carefully. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that there were a few small details in the texting of that message that were not completely similar to the way Diep Khanh usually texted him, a strange solemnity that he had previously unintentionally overlooked because he was too focused on its heartbreaking content.

He stopped the car on a deserted street corner, looking out at the dark space in front of him, filled with confusion. If that message was not really sent by Diep Khanh, then for the past five years, he had lived with a terrible misunderstanding, and lost the girl he once loved most deeply just because of believing in a text of unknown origin. And if there was indeed someone who deliberately interfered in their love life in the past, then the biggest question now was who that person was, and what was their motive.

The cold night wind blew through the gap in the car door. Bach Du tightened his grip on the steering wheel, his steady eyes gradually forming amidst his chaotic thoughts. Whatever the truth, he knew he couldn't continue living in this ambiguity another day. He needs to find the answer, not only for himself, but also for Diep Khanh, who has had to carry a false complaint for the past five years without knowing that the truth could be completely different.

He drove slowly through familiar slopes, his headlights penetrating the thin fog that was gradually thickening by the minute. He remembered how he felt on the night he received that text message five years ago - his hands were cold even though he was clutching the suitcase handle tightly, his feet walked with inertia but could no longer remember which direction his plane gate was located in the crowded crowd. During his years in France, he tried to bury that feeling, burying himself in work, studying, and building a career as a way to avoid the pain, but it never really disappeared, just temporarily subsided under the cover of a calm, successful man.

The car stopped in front of a small cafe that was still open late, warm yellow light shining from the glass window. Bach Du walked in, ordered a cup of black coffee, sat alone by the window, looking out at the empty street, continuing to think about what had just happened. In his mind, the image of Diep Khanh with truly bewildered eyes as she denied sending the text message kept appearing, an image completely different from what he had imagined of a girl who proactively let go without regret.