Chapter 17 — World Chess Game

He was kneeling on one knee next to the driver's seat, his fingertips gently grasping something extremely small from the metal rail that slid under the seat, so small that it was almost invisible if he didn't touch it. It's a super small, black memory card. It is skillfully glued to the inside of the rail, and the outside is also covered with a layer of paint of the same color, camouflaged to almost perfection. If I didn't have to use my hands to go through it... I wouldn't have discovered it for the rest of my life. In the end, Trieu Thien Thanh's group... still took a careless step. And that step… is the point of death. 18 Card from Hell That little memory card, like a black tinderbox. In the cold palms of mine and Lam Phong, it rekindled a fragile but burningly strong ray of hope. We returned to base at the fastest speed. Chu Ky waited until he was crazy. When he saw the card in Lam Phong's hand, his eyes flared up as if he had seen light in the middle of the night, and almost immediately grabbed it. He placed it into the specialized reader, manipulating it carefully as if he was touching something that could change life or death. The whole room fell into absolute silence. No one dared to breathe loudly. There was only the sound of pounding keyboards and our heavy heartbeats. A decrypted data file appears.

“There is a password!”

Chu Ky frowned, his voice tense.

“High-level dynamic lock… takes time to break!”

“We don't have time!”

I looked at the clock, my voice almost breaking.

“Less than fifteen minutes left!”

“Tham Hao's life hangs on every second!”

“What is the lock… what should the lock be…”

Chu Ky was sweating and his hands were shaking.

“That person left this card… definitely left a way to open it!”

Lam Phong's eyes swept across the room like sharp knives. Then stopped at the digital photo taken from the terrace railing.

“Use this.”

He pointed straight at the number line.

“Not the cabinet code.”

“This is the real key.”

“Ly Thien left two classes.”

Chu Ky paused for a second, then immediately entered. The progress bar sped up. The file opens. My heart felt like it was being squeezed. Inside… what will it be? Cycles opens the first file. A video. Dark image, secretly filmed in the office. A man sat behind the desk, making a phone call. Just one look… We all realized. Trieu Thien Thanh. In the video, he laughed, so cold it was chilling.

“...Don't worry, everything has been handled cleanly.”

"Old Truong is now just a living corpse, unable to cause any trouble."

“And the driver, Tham Hao, is as dumb as a cow, very easy to control.”

“And her cousin, Tham Nguyet, I have prepared for her a ‘perfect death’.”

“At that time, all the evidence will be closed on him.”

“No one suspects us.”

The video ends. That's all. But enough is enough. This is a confession. By his own mouth.

“Send it! Send it now!”

I almost screamed. Just this… we can change people. Tham Hao can be brought back. But at that moment... Chu Chu's face turned pale. He looked at the screen like he was having a nightmare. A trembling finger pointed to the next file. I followed. Second file… Not a video. It's a recording. It was a recording that had been processed with specialized software, separating and amplifying the voice on the other end of Trieu Thien Thanh's call—what was previously obscured by noise, now appeared with chilling clarity. A male voice rang out from the speaker, flattering to the point of being disgusting.

“General Trieu's business Then of course I feel secure.”

"As for the matter discussed before... after the work is done, ten percent of Hoanh Dat's shares..."

“And my useless son… and that annoying niece…”

“Please General Trieu… help me clean it up.”

That sentence, like a bolt of lightning from heaven, hit me straight in the head. I was dumbfounded. That voice... The voice I've heard for more than twenty years, so familiar that it's engraved into my bones— It's my eldest uncle. Tham Hao's biological father. Tham Chi Cuong. He colluded with Trieu Thien Thanh from beginning to end. For money, for shares... He personally pushed his own son into a pawn. And to clear the way, even me—his biological nephew—he wanted to kill without hesitation. From the beginning, all the "natural" things that forced me to bear the crime were never stupid greed. It's a bloody conspiracy, calculated step by step. My world... completely collapsed. Just as my mind went blank, I could barely breathe— The screen suddenly popped up with a new window. A live video call. Caller: strange ID. Chu Ky's hands shook and he pressed accept. The image appears. Trieu Thien Thanh. His smile... was like a devil in human form. Behind him— Is my living room.