Chapter 7 — Youth Returns to You

Luc's mother was so angry that her lips trembled: "This is the person you want to be responsible for?" The other end of the line finally realized something was wrong: "Mr. Tri?" Ba Luc directly hung up the phone. The next second, a slap echoed throughout the living room. Luc Tri was hit sideways. Ba Luc pointed at his nose and scolded: "You bastard!" Luc Tri did not argue. His eyes went past my parents and fell on me. For the first time in those eyes, there was no order, only panic. "Nam Chi, I didn't know she would say that." I looked at the red half of his face. "I know." He opened his mouth. "I just don't care." The edges of Luc Tri's eyes turned red. Luc's mother immediately transferred eight thousand six to me. When the announcement of receiving money rang out, Luc Tri seemed to be awakened by the sound. He rushed forward to hold my hand, but was stopped by my mother. "Nam Chi, can you not go to Bac Thanh? I broke up with Niem Niem, now I break it off immediately." He panicked and opened his phone, pulled Hua Niem Niem into the blacklist, and deleted the "responsibility" status line. The movement was so fast that doing so could wipe out the entire summer. I saved a screenshot of receiving money. "It's late." Luc Tri stood in the middle of the living room, his white shirt wrinkled into a ball. Before the door closed, he suddenly knelt down in the hallway. The sound of the knee hitting the ground was very heavy. "On Nam Chi, you are wrong." The elevator door opened. Neighbors poked their heads out and looked at him in surprise. Luc Tri's eyes were red, his voice was hoarse: "You are really wrong." I pressed the close button. His face was cut little by little by the gap in the door. In the end, only bloodshot eyes remained, staring at me. A week before going to Bac Thanh, Hua Niem Niem came to find me. She wore a faded, washed dress, standing in front of the apartment complex gate, holding a box of cookies in her hand. When the security guard called me, I was carrying my luggage. After going downstairs, she immediately showed a familiar look of self-pity. "Chi Chi, I want to apologize to you." The hot sun shone on the cement surface, and her forehead quickly began to sweat. I stood under the shade of the tree, not accepting that box of cookies. Hua Niem Niem said in a low voice: "I know you don't want to see me, but I really don't intend to hurt you. I'm just too afraid of being left behind." She said this many times. Afraid of being left behind, I grabbed my passenger seat. Afraid of being left behind, so I took over my birthday. Afraid of being left behind, so he wanted me to give up college. She wrapped all her greed in a pitiful look, so she could comfortably reach out her hand. "Hua Niem Niem, you don't have to be afraid of being left behind." She raised her teary eyes. "You're afraid there's no one left for you to choose from." Her expression suddenly changed. "How can you say that to me?" Someone walked in and out in front of the gate, her crying immediately became a little louder. "After my parents divorced, no one took care of me. Brother." Tri is good to me, I can't help but rely on him. I know your home conditions are good, your achievements are good, everyone likes you, but I have nothing." A few aunts walking by walked slowly. She cried even harder, as if the next second I would kill her. Before, I was most afraid of this scene. Afraid that others will say I'm cold, afraid that she will really fall apart, afraid that Luc Tri will be awkward in the middle. Now I just feel tired. I took out my phone and opened the recording. In the living room of Luc Tri's house, her words "Can On Nam Chi's money not be paid temporarily? His house is not lacking" clearly rang out. Hua Niem Niem's cry was stuck. The eyes of the aunts passing by also changed. She reached for the phone: "Are you recording?" I stepped back. "Before talking, you should think about whether the other person left evidence or not." Hua Niem Niem's face turned red and white. "Chi Chi, we've known each other for three years, do you have to destroy me like that?" "This is what you said yourself." She squeezed the cake box.

Quy, her knuckles were white. "Are you happy now? Luc Tri doesn't pay attention to me, my exam preparation money is gone, I have nothing left." "It's not that you have nothing anymore." I looked at her. "It's you who took someone else's things, and in the end you have to return them." A motorbike suddenly braked on the side of the road. Luc Tri took off his helmet and rushed to block between me and Hua Niem Niem. Hua Niem Niem's eyes lit up and instinctively called out: "Brother Tri!" But Luc Tri didn't look at her. He stared at me, his voice tight: "She came to trouble you again?" Hua Niem Niem froze. "Brother Tri, I came to apologize..." Luc Tri turned his head, his eyes cold and strange. "Don't call me Mr. Tri." The expression on her face completely shattered. "You weren't like that before." Luc Tri smiled bitterly. "I also said this to Nam Chi." The wind blew through the sycamore tree in front of the apartment complex's gate, the leaves rustling. Luc Tri took out an envelope from his briefcase and gave it to me. "In here is money from my part-time job during the summer, not much. I know you're not lacking, I just want to pay a little." I didn't accept it. "The money has already been paid." His hand stiffened. "So can I walk you to the station?" "No need." His throat moved: "I won't come close to you, just follow from afar." Hua Niem Niem suddenly collapsed. She threw the box of cookies on the ground, the cookies shattered all over the ground.