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There was a soft laugh from the assistant driver:

“It's not wrong, brother, we go this route every day. There! Just go down and "rin"!".

Without having time to look back at the group of passengers still sleeping soundly under their warm blankets, Phuong both confidently and suspiciously walked out the door as the bus gradually slowed down. And it stopped, the cold of the late winter night mist enveloped Phuong immediately. The car left, and Phuong was shocked.

Is this your hometown? Just 4 years ago, it was still a corn field, corn pollen flying in the wind, hitting the cheeks of motorists on the side of the road. The rice tree at the intersection where his village road intersects with the national highway is definitely a landmark that cannot confuse anyone, as long as it is still there. It is now 4 am, Phuong calmed down after a few seconds of bewilderment on the side of the road. There, about ten meters behind, is the rice tree. It stood there, still standing there, the first familiar person in his hometown to welcome Phuong back.

Standing there for a while, looking at the factory buildings that were brightly lit and making two types of sounds, one clanging and the other rumbling, Phuong began to walk. An industrial park had been established, with some areas in operation on a strip of rice fields along the national highway between Phuong and Hai villages. In just four years, it had changed the face of her hometown so quickly that Phuong could no longer recognize it. If she had stayed home, in the past four years, both Phuong and Hai might have become workers for one of those companies that were or were about to start operating.

Arriving at the rice base, Phuong stopped, paralyzed, leaning her back against the bumps roughened by wounds from war bombs, children, and adults. Throughout their childhood, the village children and Phuong were both curious, afraid, and respectful of the rice plant due to rumors about it. Yet, unexpectedly, when she was in a strange land, every time she remembered her homeland, Phuong remembered her first rice plant.

Placing her backpack beside her, Phuong sat down on the concrete floor of the village road that was stuffed close to the rice roots. There were motorbike lights coming from the village. Probably the traders are transporting goods to the wholesale market. On the highway, night buses are rushing to the station. Phuong quickly hugged her backpack and moved to hide behind the tree so that people from the village wouldn't recognize her.

***

“It's very cold, billions of times colder than me. The first time I came, I had to wear dozens of coats but I was still cold."

Tien spoke softly, looking at the red nose of his newly arrived compatriot. That's when the two stopped next to a big fire on the side of the road before entering the farm. Phuong smiled bitterly, looking across the vast area engulfed in gloomy winter. A rural area. Anyway, I don't have a choice. Being able to live and make money is very lucky.

“It's even more backward. To be frank, at first I was also shocked. But then I'm so busy all day, I don't have time to look outside!

Tien used a long stick to stir the coals below to rise, radiating more warmth. He said he left Vietnam 5 years ago, he came straight here from the passenger ship port, and from there, he only went to that exact port five or seven times to pick up his people, but otherwise he didn't have time to visit. There are animals everywhere, the beauty of the human world imagined at home is forever just an imagination.

The camp had seventeen people, all Vietnamese. The owner is local, but he only visits the camp a couple of times a year, and works entirely via phone, email, and camera.

That's convenient, just do your job, don't be lazy, don't break the law - Huan, the eldest brother, the camp leader was blunt during the first meal to welcome Phuong.

"So we're living underground. If it's not illegal, then what is it, brother?" - a guy with shoulder-length hair smiled and nibbled. Everyone laughed, a few women seemed to choke. The first night in a foreign land, Phuong slept deeply because of fatigue. But the second night and many nights after, he had difficulty sleeping and had sleepless nights.

***

That night, Phuong was assigned by Huan to pick up someone from his side. The last one, because of the possibility that after this trip, the line will break. Phuong accepted the assignment, her heart was indescribably emotional. It's the same path that Tien led Phuong on dozens of days ago, now it's summer, the green vegetables are beautiful. But, when she met the compatriot she was assigned to welcome, Phuong felt gloomy inside. All the excitement of the summer landscape I had just admired had disappeared. The compatriot who just got his feet wet from the train is Hai.

"Sea! Hai! Why did you die? Why? Why?".

Three months after meeting at the dock, Phuong shook Hai's stiff body in the farm yard. That night, Hai went out to call his wife, but for some reason he never woke up again.

Did Dung know her husband died after the phone call in the middle of the night? Phuong choked with tears. Phuong cried for Hai's death. Really? It's real! Phuong's tears have never fallen for anyone other than her parents, even for Dung, his ex-wife, the person who stabbed thousands of traitorous knives into Phuong's heart.

“Now, what if Dung thinks you're planning to harm her husband? Does he know that Hai and you live together?

The camp leader's question made Phuong quiet. Phuong also did not know this. From the first day he arrived here, Hai boasted to his wife at home that he was enthusiastically welcomed by his compatriots. Among the following times, did Hai ever mention Phuong? Sometimes, whether intentionally or unintentionally, Hai let her crisp, harsh laughter resound in the small room.

If only every time they talked to each other, she wouldn't laugh, like that painful afternoon when Phuong opened the door to the apartment room of his wife and some company friends and saw a passionate man intoxicated on the bed. my wife's belly.

That man, the girls in the neighborhood said was the foreman of the factory where Dung worked. Think about it, he is separated from his wife, and they are also separated from their husbands, in fact it is just a business relationship.

Business relationship?

Yes, any woman who refuses him and insists on being faithful to her husband will be assigned to a harder job with lower incentives and will not be given priority to work when work is scarce.

Are not! Phuong couldn't stand that scene. Phuong couldn't understand why hundreds of husbands who were cuckolded by their wives could see that it was a normal thing. You have to sue that damn foreman, you can't give him the privilege of riding on someone else's honor like that.

Phuong's denunciations through the security gate of his wife's company forever passed into silence. They will not cause chaos in the company's entire labor system because of a husband who does not accept humiliation like him. They just need productivity and work efficiency. They don't care.

That wound kept rubbing Phuong's bleeding heart. How Phuong loved his wife, how he betrayed his parents to marry her. Now, she uses the excuse that "meeting a bastard like that, many women have to bear it, not just me".

The day his wife told him to go work in an industrial park, Phuong was not satisfied. The industrial park is fifteen kilometers away from the village. Normally, they go home in the morning and come home in the evening, or come home in the morning, but when the goods are in a hurry and overtime, going back and forth like that is very difficult. If it's hard, we rent an apartment, just for a place to sleep.

***

Hai's body was cold in the corner of the factory, all seventeen people were confused. It was natural to report back to Vietnam the news that Hai had died. We can't let him suddenly disappear like that. Reporting the news of Hai's unexplained death is difficult enough, but this is also an extremely delicate matter. What will Dung think when she learns that her new husband has been living with her ex-husband on a remote farm in a remote part of the country, and then with her unrealistic female reasoning, will she think it's a murder?

There weren't many days of living together, but there were many opportunities to share and talk, but Phuong never asked Hai about his married life, for example why he decided to marry Dung, a man. She was left by her husband because she stuck a bunch of horns on his head. Of course, Phuong never accepted that she would open her mouth, because it would make him even more uncomfortable. Hai also never expressed any thoughts, perhaps, just unintentionally showed Phuong that he made the right choice and was happy.

Happy? Phuong sneered many times, when Hai fell asleep and laughed hysterically at night, sometimes even saying very long sentences. Phuong doesn't remember what Hai said after waking up every morning, she only remembers the feeling of extreme discomfort, like wanting to use a sharp knife to stab the head of the bed into her chest that was already heaving because of the traitorous woman who once belonged to her. that's me.

Hai's body must be cremated. But how to burn? Is it possible? Is there a better option?

“Better than a monkey! If I'm alive, no one will know, what else can I worry about when I die?

Huan screamed, his eyes red, as if he were a cornered man, and in front of him were his pursuers, everyone's faces filled with murderous intent.

That's when people were surprised, confused, sad, and scared at Hai's sudden and mysterious death. Is there anyone who just goes out to talk to his wife on the phone and then falls over dead, the devil doesn't know, the god is not as good as Hai?

Now we can't report to the authorities, and we can't do an autopsy to find the cause of death. If just one of them is arrested by the authorities, the risk of exposing the "nest" is obvious. It is not easy for people to leave their home, wife and children to come here. It's not like going to another country to do business in peace like people back home think. Going out means not being able to do business honestly, not being able to return home in a dignified manner.

The funeral pyre was built right in the farm yard. Huan himself lit the fire. Everyone sadly watched the tongues of fire gradually lick up the logs, each second becoming more ferocious than the previous one. Blazing, fire engulfed Hai's body, like a monster smelling its prey. Witnessing the scene of a person (albeit dead) being burned by large flames, the smell of burning flesh billowing with wood smoke, the women did not dare to look any further and ran into the house.

Phuong never once took her eyes off Hai's body being burned on the fire. No one knows what Phuong thinks, how those thoughts burn him. All I could see was that his face was wet, and he was slumped over like a young potato plant withered and collapsed by the fire.

When Phuong woke up, the cremation had burned out. People gathered Hai's remains into a wooden vase that Phuong had found in the corner of the camp's kitchen. When he saw the vase, Phuong imagined that one day he would bring it with him on his journey back home...

***

Now, after many hardships, Phuong and Hai have returned. It's just that Phuong still hasn't decided how to start. Take Hai to your house first, or go straight to Hai's house, knock on the door and confront Dung? It's strange! I didn't kill Hai, I also don't have any problems with Dung, but why haven't we decided yet?

Phuong vaguely thought about tomorrow. Once back, if Phuong doesn't apply to work as a worker at one of the companies currently or about to operate in that village, she can only go far.

“Don’t go anywhere, come back to your parents” - several times, in phone calls, my father told Phuong that. He was not accepted to work as a security guard at the company as the investors had promised before. Well, I was not professionally trained, I did not do anything, I caused loss to people, how can I compensate? My father smiled, encouraged Phuong, and also encouraged himself.

Leaving the urn of Hai's ashes next to the bed, Phuong kept drifting in and out of dreams. Since the line broke, the camp has not received any more compatriots, but has lost a few people. One person left to find another opportunity, vowing not to say a word about the "nest". When a person got married, she sponsored her husband to stay openly in this country. One person is dead, lying in a wooden vase next to Phuong. Since the day she placed the vase next to her bed, Phuong has been sobbing and afraid. Afraid that if something happens, Phuong won't be able to take it with her, Hai will lie in it, drifting and forgotten.

That night was deeply cold, the cold seemed to try to put everything into eternal sleep. There was an unusual noise, then the sound of running feet and the screams of several women. Some foreign voices rang out...

Almost the entire "group" was arrested and deported by local police. Everyone knows that if it weren't for someone breaking their promise, it would have been some misfortune long ago. There are no more restless nights, but there are still many unfinished feelings. That night, Phuong only had time to hug the wooden vase, and had to work extremely hard to protect it and bring it back home with her.

***

Returning without being welcomed by anyone, without a legitimate reputation, without money, just a wooden urn containing the ashes of an unfortunate compatriot, and an explanation for that person's family, Phuong's feet kept wandering. step yourself. The village fields have receded in memory. The village was lazily waking up with the dawn, bewildered by the strange fate of two children returning from afar.

Phuong’s feet led her to Hai’s village, to the front gate of Hai’s house. The pink bougainvillea flowers in front of the house were quietly giving off a sweet scent. After the wedding, Dung and Hai moved out to a small house on the garden land that Hai’s parents had given them. They built a small house, and also built a wall around it to ensure privacy. For nearly four years now, when Hai has been away, it seems Dung has not had much time to take care of the small family waiting for her husband to return.

There was the sound of a lock being unlocked, and as the door opened a crack, very quickly, a man slipped out.

Seeing everything, Phuong did not feel any emotion in his heart. All the feelings he had for Dung were dead. He only felt sorry for the gray-black ashes in the vase he was holding in his hands.

The man unlocked the gate covered with bougainvillea and showed his face out. Stunned when he saw a strange man standing in front of his lover's house, he was confused because he was caught red-handed doing something evil. Quietly slipping away, quickly disappearing behind an alley walled with ceramic pieces, Phuong was sure he would pick up the phone to call Dung.

Right after that, Dung, her hair loose and her nightgown thin, opened the door. She stared at her ex-husband who was suddenly standing in front of her house. Phuong looked at her silently, then hugged the wooden vase and turned away...

The sounds of the new day are each time more exciting. From the industrial park next to the village, workers poured out. They had just finished their shift and walked out of the company as the sun rose.