23

Date …

The Zin vehicle was steered on the expressway for Moscow. The street was unpopulated. The truck which was laden with goods and was running at full speed was roaring like a ferocious tiger.  

Viet Thieu and Sergey were sitting in the cabin. They were thoughtfully looking at the scenery on the other sides of the road from Xvetlop in the central province Ural to there. They were owners of bonded goods. Two stone-cold six-shooters under the belt of their pairs of trousers were used as weapons to protect their goods, the boxes of expensive metals.

Thieu had stopped being a petty trader who sold several suits of Thailand jeans and T-shirts, the bad quality products such as Citizen wrist-watches and sunglasses in order to get in touch with rings of big business since the date the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was broken up.

It was strange that some members of “a Soviet industrial flock of chicken” rapidly grew into gangs of mafia and Thieu had to co-operate with them so as to expand his business. That consignment was a “bilateral benefit” co-operation between Thieu and Sergey – a mafia “godfather minor” in the central province Ural.

-       You know! – Sergey proceeded with their conversation while the wind kept zooming when their truck was rending the air and crossing the immense fields in Russia – I used to study in the university where Boris Yeltsin attended. It was more contingent when I also worked in an organization which he used to work after graduating. It was called the Institute of Design and Construction. However, he belongs to political field no matter he hadn’t been admitted to Communist Party until he was over 30 years old. The history had chosen him carry out the Democratic Revolution in Russia while I am just a normal person who has to earn money in order to support my civilian life. That’s all! On the other hand, why I had to be a civil service employee, bend my back by the desk to draw many designs of projects and receive the fixed salary while Yeltsin made a strong impact on the whole Russian country. Therefore, I was immediately disillusioned. I “followed” my oldest brother Yeltsin’s example. Thanks to the oldest brother Yeltsin who created a new environment for me to start operations. I must be a leader of a small organization which is so-called mafia because Yeltsin is a president of a country. So much the worse for the people who gave me any name but the truth is that I’m still a human being and I want to have money so that I can live like a lord and “experience” what Yeltsin can come in for a share of society’s products. How he can eat much food than I. How he can have two loads of bread and wear two lounge suits at the same time. And one more detail is that he doesn’t dare to have sexual relations with prostitutes, surely. Conversely, I can whore at my pleasure. That means I can’t “deliver a speech” like him and he can’t embrace good-time girls like me to the contrary …

Sergey made an extremely delighted laugh.

So did Thieu. There was something similar in the human’s law of thinking. Previously, Thieu was a soldier who devoted his life to the cause of national liberation which was quite high moral value. The war was over. He ought to have been an economic scientist who should make a contribution to the cause of building the country. However, he no longer followed the planned way but shifted to the new one after experiencing all the events happened in the Soviet Union from the period of doing reform up to then. The new orbit he belonged to wasn’t exactly the same to Sergey’s one but it basically had the same origin and target. He couldn’t keep on his earthly life beside the heroic symbol though the history had chosen him as a soldier in the struggle for the cause of national liberation. He was a lively entity which had aspirations and sexual desire. So, he had to seize the opportunity to satisfy the thirst for the instinct of human race …

Living there, Thieu enjoyed the socialist paradise with an uncontrollably tremble attitude during his first days. Moscow was a really typical heaven in comparison with portions in Hanoi such as 13 kilograms rice a month, 5 meters fabric a year, the rations tickets for changing some grams meat and sugar … How great the seven tower buildings as impressive as Lomonoxop University were! What a marvelous labyrinth Metro! Those were the second to none which mankind could create. The vast streets performed a pinnacle of understanding of life. The Soviets were tall of stature, pinky-white, beautiful, handsome and upright. They had absolutely united against chauvinism and racial discrimination and in particular loved Vietnamese people. Moscow became legendary in Thieu’s point of view and seemed to be the mankind’s highest point of wealth. The supermarkets were full of sugar, milk and meat of all kinds. The variety stores where miscellaneous goods were sold were brightly-lit. The lecture theatres in Universities where estimable professors – the embodiment of scientific knowledge – were teaching were solemn. Leaving bamboo hedges, straw, sweet potatoes, rice ration tickets, food stamps, bicycles, clothes with many patches, the 5-cents-bowls of sweetened porridge, the rolled cigarettes, the speaking-trumpet hanging at the beginning of the hamlet and the garrets in the city … Thieu seemed to be in the dream when living there.

Leaving the Red River,

The verdant pastoral scenes,

Bamboo hedges, paddy fields,

The warm golden sun in the South,

I’m here in the afternoon

In Moscow. With snow,

I always feel cozy

And overjoyed.

I’m at Red Square in the afternoon.

Like a pilgrim,

I look up the Red star

On the Kremlin tower

Which looks like a bright sun

Enlightening the whole world.

Thieu composed the above poem full of emotion at that time.

However, Thieu little by little recognized there was something unstable in the stores whose buyers were standing in very long queues. With the floods of goods, people still couldn’t buy what they needed. Hundreds of thousand Vietnamese “co-operative workers” there couldn’t manage to get pressure-cookers, electric irons and sewing machines. Instead of conforming to the law that the more people bought the more goods should be produced to sell and get profit, the “planned economy” or “command one” strictly forbidden. The output was the planned quantity, no more, no less. Nobody could want the impossible.

Millions of Soviet Union handsome youths and beautiful girls were itching for jeans and T-shirts … that they weren’t able to have. Why? It was because the socialist planned economy “insisted” on giving no “plan of state” to manufacture those products. The “bureaucracy” was beyond “measure” in leadership framework and created a soulless economy like stocks and stones in the lively world. That came of the hard and fast rules of the collectivism. The Soviet Union gentlemen and gentlewomen were penniless despite of their imposingly corpulent appearance. In the pay-day, the payers precisely counted ruble by ruble such as 1 ruble, 2 rubles, 10 rubles, 100 rubles in front of their recipients without mistake and the receiver could keep them alive within a month with those amounts which were just sufficient to cover the spending on milk, meat, vegetables, bread, books, flowers, taking trolley-buses and metro … the whole Union of Soviet Socialist Republics seemed to be earners working for the government. In other words, the whole people were subsidized by the State. Their lives were neither deprivation nor more than enough but barely in minimum needs like food, wear and traveling. The whole population became “industrial chickens”. During the last 70 years, the people grew slothful after generations. They didn’t have any notion of feathering their nests as the wealth was accounted bad, hateful and contemptible according to the orthodox concept. Therefore, nobody was so stupid to enrich themselves. The private trading wasn’t allowed. One-man business was impossible thing since it was accounted reactionary and would be annihilated. The examples of the whole bourgeoisies and culacs that had been under lock and behind bars while their property was confiscated after the revolution in 1917 had frightened them.

By the same token, everybody was too smart to get rich and receive imprisonment. They led a happy-go-lucky life and depended on the government subsidization. How leisurely and unoccupied! In the socialist society, the whole population was “The Princes and Princesses”, only that those Princes and Princesses would be out of money every end of the month.

Thieu recognized the starts of the Soviets when receiving the “policies of deflation” from Gorbachev’s reform. The start also arrived in the person of Thieu when he appeared to understand the simplest universal truth of matter values whose waves strongly poured in the real life like rain-storms. That resuscitated the human mentality which valued matter, property and money, loved the wealth more than the bundle of vain ideals or fantastic things. The history always operated and its new landmark was coming. Thieu witnessed with his own eyes the change in color in the “cathedral”. Thieu became the witness of what happened in the most special days, the strangest days in the history …

The Russian proletarian had to have struggled for tens of hardship years to seize power. They had shed their blood as much as the waters in the river or a spring. Feudal and capital classes had performed their opposing ability and had never accepted their loss until the last minutes. The Soviet power had not only been able to resist the disturbance of the enemy at home and the invaders abroad after the year 1917 but also confidently built its country by mean of collectivization spirit during the last 70 years. Even so, their proletarian government had then left political arena automatically. The “democratic” tsunami had wept away their career. The history had handed over the mission to the construction engineer coming from Sverdlovsk in the central province Ural as a fresh arrival in Moscow. He named the new society Democracy. And thus, the whole population in Russia and the rest 15 nations in the Union Republics blindly followed him. Even the armed forces with well-equipped weapons and KGB policemen with iron will had blindly followed their mass and let their people alone to overthrow the institution for which the population had a cordial dislike due to its officialdom, sluggishness without abiding by the natural law.

Thieu was disillusioned. He felt great anguish and regretful. Then, Thieu waked up to something. There was something as if the Ruler of Heaven left its throne when the leading role of Soviet Union Communist Party was announced to paper its end on Moscow television. What a genius strength the Creator had! It was quite unusual talent the history was! Sinking in such operation of the history, the swagger-stick with its one red end in Thieu’s brain was inclined to the good but made a volte-face to the contrary …

The Zin truck braked so sharply that the screech of its tires was sounded. It parked by a roadside store and under the shadow of a verdant luxuriant silver poplar. Thieu and Sergey got out of the car. In the cold snow scenery, nothing but glasses of Russian Vodka could make them warm.

-       Wish our business successful – Sergey raised his glass – What a poor Soviet Union! A huge common property such as oil fields, manufactures and fields … that were created during the process of nationalizing in 70 years of trying to save everything from a nail, a grain of wheat to a bulb of potato was then divided among gangs of authorities by means of gifts, selling at low prices as though they were fortunes of authorities’ ancestors.

The “privatization” of national property was easily taken place like cutting a cheese cake into big and small pieces of all kinds before falling into the hands of the big wheels. All the resources and national property swiftly dropped into their pockets. Was it a true buying? How they could have enough money to buy. Meanwhile, they have just been tavarits who have received their salary grades based on their personnel classification scale. How they could suddenly have so much money that they could buy an oil field, a cast iron and steel union and some industry. Hem! How strange!

Correspondently, what’s the use of not “making a robbery”. Being robbers even, we can only get the tiny “pieces of cake”. How big their pieces of cake were! Their ways of robbing were quite terrible.

Sergey rocked with laughter but he quickly turned out to be absorbed in thought. The apples of his eyes were as very blue as those of the cat’s ones. He made a very far look which nobody could know the meaning. The horizon reflecting in his eyes expressed a melancholy, resentment, a wild aspiration to earn money, regret about a simple truth or a thirst for absolute truth. What a creepy glint! The look of a wild beast had just got out of its cage.

During the last 70 years, the people of many generations in Soviet Union were educated that there was neither Allah nor Jehovah but human with his labor hands which could create everything. As human beings, they should have moral ideals and live for the sake of everybody …

The above tenets were then collapsed and human became bare without being afraid of anything. Nothing could dominate over them, even a supernatural force. They didn’t have their own spiritual world. They didn’t believe in the law of cause and effect or sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. Human was just like wild beasts in the wild fields in the primitive age. That was the reason why the bloodthirsty phenomena, savage actions and inhuman behaviors had happened in those years. The Russian mafia dared to do everything because no force including the God could hold them back. The mankind was ruled by means of law and religion for a long time. The law there was vain as well. The people were called upon to follow the ideals and political dictatorship. Both above mentioned instruments were then collapsed. That made human like wild beasts which had just got out of their cages. They could do anything. Thieu reminded himself that he couldn’t be trifled with them but seriously did business and strictly conformed to the law of the underworld beside the consciousness of his “alien” condition. He would try to “co-operate” with them as long as he could. He would take advantage of the confusion period to earn money and quickly escape that ground. A cock was valiant on it own dunghill. Russian forest was the house of Russian tigers. They hadn’t had the time to recognize his “condition” due to their “inertia of being against Chauvin” only. Later on, they would soon “wake up to that aspect”. Everybody there would perceive their freedom once their thought was completely affranchised in that democratic revolution. His life would be no long ensured by the comrade friendship. Up to then, he had to leave that country without hope to return in order to come back Vietnam …

-       My dear Thieu! – Sergey unseemly added while his hands were gripping on Thieu’s shoulder – You are a liberation hero. How glory you are! You had killed so many American invaders. You marched in and liberated Saigon. So did my father. He marched in and liberated Berlin. Standing in front of the collapsed German National Assembly building, he happily called my name: My beloved son! Sergey! The echo of my name was resounded as a signal for the decline of fascism despite I was just several months old at that time.

I and you are living on smuggling. What an objectionable thing! Extremely wrong! However, we will wide open our mouths, always be in hungry condition day after day and be as poor as church mice and be looked down if we don’t be contrabandists. Oh, no! We must be the rich. We must be heroic and wealthy. What a hell! We used to scold and accuse the American people of pragmatism, savageness and cruelty. They used dollars to value everything. They counted dollars above everything. What a shit dollars were in comparison with our moral standards, ideals and culture! Ridiculously, what we naturally do now are the same to them. Dollars are everything. Long live dollars!

Sergey’s drunkenness made Thieu fearful. His straight saying was uttered when he wasn’t sober. Frankly speaking, what he said was correct. However, such thinking should be kept in mind in spite of its right which would turn out to be wrong if it was the words. It was a terrible mistake. It was a basically shortcoming. The wrong was so serious that it was accused of reactionary guilt. Even so, we had to do … exactly like that when we had to perform our action no matter how wrong it was. Nobody but a stupid would follow the universal truth which was preached in the books or on the forums. Nobody talked about the absolute truth which was kept in mind …

The thoroughbred Russian innkeeper was big, tall, spotless white and beautiful. She who looked slightly like the character Aksinia in the film named The gentle Winter River served at their table and poured out glasses of alcohol. Sergey clung to her neck and gave her some kisses. She laughed good-humouredly showing her even white teeth while standing apart. What beautiful and suggestive Russian girls! Thieu was flabbergasted. He seemed to see a block of polish pearl but not a complexion.

The innkeeper actively clung to Thieu’s neck and kissed him as she guessed Thieu was going to be a payer but not Sergey. Besides, she had to “clear away” the Asian men’s psychology which was often felt a complex and jealous.

They were chattering when leaving. The Zin truck went on slowly moving its wheels. The innkeeper waved goodbye to Thieu and gave him a caressing look full of promise. The glint was as romantic as the autumn golden sun in Russia. Meanwhile, she just gave Sergey “the rules of propriety” as she knew such “ringleader” considered her as worthless person and no one but that “Vietcong” guy respected her. All the men like him always counted the white women as angels. They were not only “as wise as an owl” and well-to-do but also very open-handed once they were “madly in love with a girl and gave way to her temptation”.

Natasa (the innkeeper’s name) – she used to be a tractor-operator in the ex-state-run plantation. The collective farm was dissolved. The fields became the farmers’ property. She didn’t want to drive the tractor anymore. She had very blue eyes, a golden hair and a complexion as white as snow. She was beautiful just like a fairy. Why she had to get in the tractor, listen to its chug sound and sit down under the smell of mazut. Previously, she was always an advanced Komsomolskaya member due to her driving tractor achievements which were beyond all expectations. However, she soon recognized her un-wisdom and her narrow escape from wasting her life in the very cold farm. How fortunately she was! The ex-Russia was collapsed. The new Russia was established and its market started developing. She was one of the trailblazers. She was the person of “new age”. Her romantic inn which was under the shadow of the century-old silver poplars and was the gateway to Moscow was a “red address” of long-distance drivers. She sold alcohol, coffee and even her glints, smiles and kisses at exorbitant prices …

Fast driving the Lada, Thieu returned Natasa’s inn after finishing his business. Natasa assigned the tasks to her staffs before following Thieu to a house with wooden walls and wooden roof designed under the Russian classical style in a luxuriant maple garden which was half a kilometer away from her inn. How a woman of easy virtue could have a true love. Ridiculously, Thieu kept thinking that was a true love and he treated her like his real sweetheart. In return for his kindness, Natasa seemed to forget her prostitution career to spend the short space of time when a Russian bud was enjoying the love in the bottom of her heart. They play-acted so excellent that they seemed to have a true love. And they threw into ecstasy to make the most of their parts.

What could be considered as poetic as a courting couple was performing their love by a flickering stove in an ancient Russian house with walls made of oak wood and the bright yellow maple leaves in the garden …

Natasa in her birthday suit was lying on yellow leaves cover under the moonlight. Her complexion was as bright as a moon. Thieu was bobbing on the very cool “moon boat”. Both were actor and actress in the play named “a family hearth”. Thieu took the waters from the well. Natasa played the role of a responsible wife who was preparing Russian traditional dishes. The strong aroma of cooked cabbage, onion, potatoes, mustard and smoked meat pervaded the air. The plates of soup were delicious. The samovar pot spread heat. Thieu carried “his better half” in his arms and paced up and down. The very heavy block of gem made him tottering just like an athlete performing his exercise. Natasa burst out laughing. The action was permuted: She snugly carried him in her arms. She was bulky with the breasts as huge as a pair of white porcelain balls. She swayed her figure as though Thieu was her child who was lulling to sleep in the ancient Russian folk-song.

Becoming trite with performing the same play, Thieu gave money to Natasa before saying goodbye. She saw him to his car:

-       I seemed to fall in love with you!

-       I vaguely feel a sincere from you!

-       See you again! – Both simultaneously spoke the same English sentence while their hands were tightly holding together.

The Lada rushed at high speed and she lost sight of him. Thieu turned round. The shadow of Natasa’s red coat stood out from yellow pine forest like a flake of fire. Thieu felt a bit melancholy. He couldn’t name his real emotion.

Thieu had long since been infatuated with Russian women’s luxurious and miraculous beauty although he had never dared to dream. His female schoolmate postgraduates looked like angels who made him choked with sobs. He had a hopeless sad when he couldn’t gently kiss the Tsar’s princess. However, he could experience a “connubial space” with a Russian girl who was among first-class girl in the world in a family way within three consecutive days when the “democratic capitalism” and market economy were applied in Russia. He had spent a large sum of money which made him rather painful but he could soon gain back. Previously, he not only had never managed to own such amount but also had never parked in front of any house and spent a night with female owner phlegmatically.

Thieu kept smiling all his way coming back Moscow. The universal truth which he learned was more and more consolidated: Everything could be done with money. He would have everything if he had money. All his works were to earn money. He had to have a lot of money. He had to make money at any cost.

Socialism considered ideal as elevation which help people with their existence. But then, people existed to get money …

He would bring his “new truth” with him to live in Vietnam …

Date …

Golden sun and blue clouds were above Thieu’s head while the snow was under his feet. The flickering sunshine was reflected on snow background. The sunlight seemed to cheerfully hum a tune with the snow.

Thieu warmed himself with a fur coat and walked with deliberate steps in the streets in Moscow. He went for a last stroll because he was going to leave that city and it was long to see it again.

The clock in Kremlin palace struck and its bell echoed in the air. There was something sacred in the sound or in Thieu’s imagination. The Russian flag with its blue, white and red colors fluttered in the wind on the roof of Kremlin palace where the two-head eagle flag was replaced with the red hammer and sickle flag in 1917. The wind had made the hammer and sickle flag waved with a flapping noise during the last 70 years. The exactly figure was 74 years from 1917 to 1991. The hammer and sickle flag which was the symbol of revolution and half a world was following was outlined against the blue sky. The hammer represented the working class. The sickle which was used to harvest the paddy represented the peasant class. The red color represented the blood of revolutionary soldiers. The flag was assumed to be stood out from the mankind sky forever. On the contrary, nobody expect a real condition like that …

Thieu got out the Cudonhetmoc Metro station before getting in Mayakovsky one. Mr. Maya’s status was still there. It was lucky of him. His poems escalated the revolution and mentioned a lot of revolutionary slogans. He was still beloved in Russian country – the poetical nation despite the revolution had been turned a cat in the pan.

Thieu was waiting for taking a trolley-bus to be back Ostankino hotel. He made a trip by snatches. Thieu had many memories in Ostankino hotel. It was popular hotel in spite of its largeness. Vietnamese delegations which were often arranged to stay there in the first days were shifted to the higher-grade hotels so that Vietnamese people could dazzle when experiencing the luxurious and modern conveniences in a short time and thus they would acknowledge allegiance to Moscow before coming back. Thieu usually went to Ostankino in order to buy jeans, T-shirts, digital watches and sunglasses that Vietnamese people brought with them whenever they came there. Ostankino, a name recalled the memories …

A taxi collected Thieu in Ostankino and sent him to Proxbec Miara – Peace Thoroughfare. Proxbec Miara – its pronunciation sounded forth in clanging peals and vibrated. During the first period of staying there, the phrase Proxbec Miara kept modulating in his mind and gave him a sensation of enthusiasm, animation and brilliant future … Thieu saw that Russian language was quite interesting with its chatter, clanging peals sound and deep hollow notes …

Thieu went on strolling under the snow of early season. What a glamorous day! The spotless white snow flakes which represented the chasteness and pureness in a human’s life seemed to resound in the air. The snow flakes stayed on the Russian girls’ cheeks, made them pink – That was a wonderful symbol.

Thieu raised his hands to catch falling snow flakes which perched like white butterflies. Thieu had experienced something clean and virginal in his life. Then, the snow was thawed. The cleanness and chasteness in his life were muddied because of his desire instinct as a human. He used to be as chaste as the snow flake when he participated in the war fighting for his national liberation. He used to be as chaste as the snow flake when he arrived in Moscow as a Christian believer who was making a pilgrimage to the cathedral.

Later on, he was what he was that day. He did trading and dealing with Russian mafia. He became a swindler, a false person and a robber in order to have money which was dirty, slippery and unethical. And then, he was going to bring such amount as his capital with him to his country and use it to “buy” a position, a so-called economic manager. He would rush into the process of earning money in the context that Vietnamese State was implementing the open-door policy and the invested capital from international corporations was coming in great quantity. Such “revolution” would create a generation of “red bourgeoisie”. Many big wheels had in their hands tens of millions dollars or hundreds of millions dollars though they had to eat the rice got by changing the ration tickets the day before. That became an unavoidable “law”. “Corruption” was considered as one of the ways to accumulate capital in the stage which was the same to the so-called “before capitalist” in the West in the old days. The beneficiary which was created in the process of receiving the waves of investment like that could be counted as nothing in comparison with what had happened in Russia after the year 1991. All kinds of mines, resources, state-run manufacturers were legally robbed with a move called “privatization”. He had witnessed that process. That was his most precious and valuable knowledge he had learned during the time he studied abroad. The knowledge wasn’t mentioned in any professors’ curriculum but in the real life in Russia after the year 1991. And that was his “greatest property” he brought with him when he was back Vietnam.

Thieu collected a yellow maple leaf which was rolling on the snow cover due to the blow of wind. What a marvelous nature in Russia! The yellow maple leaf looked like a plot of afternoon sun. The yellow maple leaf seemed to be a part of his soul. The beauty there made him sobbing. What yellow maple leaves, snow and Russian girls with golden hairs and blue eyes! Admittedly, Thieu loved that country so much. The Russian people were truthful and upright. They led very light life with the sublime thinking wings which made them dreamlike and fantastic. All of a sudden, their romantic wings were broken by the realistic windstorm when they were bossing the show in the sky with their owners who then had nothing but their feet standing on the ground. The dream of “The Princes and Princesses” in socialist society where the State was feeding them was over. They became the normal people who had to earn their living by themselves. It was the first time in their life they had to “face” the “evil and illiberality” matter which they long since “despised”. Their mentality violently changed after that event. Then, they discovered themselves with a start in the second time: Previously, they were fools.

He was just like the above mentioned Russian people. The chaste snow flakes were thawed and remained the smart beside the aspiration to make money. He became emotionless. Everything was no longer important, even the affection and gratitude. Hai Yen and he used to be a very happy couple who were always side by side in the routine trading including jeans and T-shirts and saved every ruble. The tulips were always arranged in their small space. Their little kid Nguyen Viet Thanh was born and attended Russian kindergarten. He could speak Russian language as well as Vietnamese one. Then, the child whose family name was Nguyen Viet was sent to Vietnam and was fed by his grandmother Thu Hue. Thieu was terror-stricken with a start when he realized that he had completely neglected his lad due to busying himself with doing business, getting money, caring for his life in the context of the largest-scale changes in social respect in the history. He rarely thought of his offspring though money was regularly sent. His love for Hai Yen was too. It bit by bit became an inconstant love without his knowledge. By mean of money, he madly kept in touch with beautiful purebred Russian girls and gave way to their temptations. He was so passionate and dull-witted that he neglected Hai Yen. The Russian girls like angels whose virtue he could use dollars to “buy” made him ecstatic. How stupid the Chinese king Tang Minh Hoang long time ago. He shouldn’t let his court go to ruin and his country trouble no matter how extremely wonderful the Royal second-rank wife with Duong last name was. On the contrary, he lost all his real authority and his throne because of loving Royal second-rank wife with Duong surname.

How Royal second-rank wife with Duong last name could compare to 18-year-old Russian angels at that time. What honest Tang Minh Hoang! He only loved Royal second-rank wife with Duong surname and neglected his 3000 pretty girls and imperial concubines. He would love no one, or rather, 3000 pretty girls and imperial concubines if he was Tang Minh Hoang. Each person had her own beauty. Strangeness was also one of factors named beauty …

Hai Yen was my wife in the true sense of the word in a certain period. But then, he was “state-of-the-art Tang Minh Hoang”. My dollars had attracted the Russian women of easy virtue with bodies just like polished blocks of pearl. What he wanted was the blocks of pearl but not the so-called soul which was abstract and couldn’t touch by hands. His hands could only feel the polished blocks of pearl and the contact between two complexions would create a feeling …

The taxi dropped Thieu off near the statue of Pushkin. Pushkin! If the soul of Russia was a stringed musical instrument, he would be a player who created melodious rhythms. What a great Pushkin. However, how he could condescend to exchange shots with a military officer who loved his wife. Weapons were the officer’s familiar expert instruments but not his whose tool was just a pen. How he could compete with such officer. It was very easy for his spirit to be harmed. His pride and self-respect was more valuable than his life. How sublime, holy, righteous and innocent he was! As a genius and with his greatness, he still very naïve without considering and thus he lost his costly life. How quite extreme his action was! Nobody but him, the people in the olden times were so unaffected like that. Then, there was no one like him …

Thieu asked the taxi to send him to see all the statuses whose names were Lev-Tolstoy, Sekhop and Exenhin … They looked like superb mountains. Thieu was interested in 19^th-century Russian literature. He wished for noble way of living which Lev-Tolstoy described in his work named War and Peace. Thieu perceived the evil spirits of life in Dotoievky’s writing. Thieu could understand Russia under the views of those authors. Next was Solokhop. His “The gentle Winter River” cheerfully stayed in Thieu’s mind with the images of the vehement love between Gregori and Aksinia … Thieu’s love for Russia was increased due to the books of those men of letters.

Like a somnambulist, Thieu set out from the morning and hadn’t been back till evening. Moscow lighted up. He said thank-you and good-bye to Moscow …

Date …

Hai Yen saw Thieu to Sheremetyevo II international airport. It was minus 10 degree Celsius. The height of ice and snow were as thick as a span. The crowbars were used as a manual method to pull up the stones and prepare the ground. It was so white and cold that it could frighten anyone. Everything seemed to be fossilized due to the ice. Walking on the streets, people’s feet grew numb and insensible and they had to drop into some magazins whose electric heaters could make their feet be back to normal.

The taxi carrying Thieu was running at very high speed. The car was empty with a few things on it. Thieu didn’t bring cumbersome luggage with him when coming back Hanoi. It was a 20-kilogram baggage which was neat and light and met the free luggage standard. His portable thing was just a laptop saving the business information. It was a big different from the old days when he had to carry tons of goods which were packed in carton boxes and covered by nests made of catgut at a time.

Thieu quickly finished all the procedure. His papers were enclosed a 10-USD note whenever presenting at any place. The more serious the socialist officials were the more pettily corrupt the Russian democratic ones were then. Without the bribe, they would find fault whenever proceeding with the flight procedures. There were some cases that Vietnamese people were pulled in the official’s private room to check their papers when the flying time was coming. They invented the events to check. Receiving no black-hander, security guards and customs officers left the flight participators there, shut the door with a bang and walked out for a whole hour. The outdoor plane was starting the engine while the indoor confiners were losing their senses. The “cong” fellows hadn’t been released so as to get in the plane on time till the last minutes when they weren’t able to give any cent (due to having no money at all) because there was “no reason” for their being placed in confinement …

Thieu looked at Vietnamese people who “were being checked” in the airport with a feeling of pity. The Russian policemen even struck their truncheons on customers’ heads. It was quite a “trouble time” in Russia. Customers could be counted as heavens in many places in the world. Meanwhile, they were there ill-treated more ignominiously than dogs in Moscow immigration control. The order of the old government was broken while the new regulations hadn’t formed. That made the society as “wild” as the trouble time in 1917 when the democratic regime was slowly changed into socialist one. And then, the reverse was happening. The socialist was collapsed and democracy was still a green born in the society …

Thieu had experienced all the bitter tastes in that stage although he could earn some money. He “mumbled” someone’s verses which was quite in accordance with his circumstance:

The cold of snow I taste

Without knowing the last day.

I pity my life when holding a pie

In foreign country, I went through the hardship way …

Well! It was the most suitable time for Thieu to turn back Vietnam at that moment. Among “a group of three persons” Thieu, Trung and Hai yen, he was a pioneer …

Trung and Hai Yen were still busy with some works. However, they perhaps wouldn’t “stay” there any longer …

The superannuated Russian IL 18 plane was swallowed up by the curtain of snow on the sky. Hai Yen hadn’t taken a taxi to come home till looking at it for a while. She had a nonchalant feeling. She didn’t look like a wife seeing her husband to their hometown. Day by day, their relationship was step by step turned from a crevasse to a cracker. They had had different “orbits” since several previous years up to then and there was no way to bend them to their common orbit anymore. It turned out to become a law which no one could manage to be against and they both had to scientifically accept it.

They had “quickly fallen in love with each other” when Thieu had just arrived in there. They eagerly built their happy future.

Hai Yen was preparing a PhD thesis in Literature at that time. Literature! What an immense stuff. There wasn’t a fine line between sufficiency and deficiency. The topic of her thesis was “The influence of Soviet Union literature on Vietnam”. With that topic, her “higher authorities” immediately approved.

How was the impact? It was very easy to write. Since the years 1930 – 1940, the Vietnamese intelligentsia had read the novel The Mother written in French language and composed by Maksim Gorky – the founder who created the general trend of socialist realistic literature. The event that the Russian working class carried out the revolution and overthrew capitalist class was mentioned in the work The Mother. During the time when a war of resistance against the French colonialists happened, Vietnamese younger generations had read That was the so-called tempered steel composed by Leon Trotsky whose main character of the book was Paven Coocsaghin, a typical hero in that time. The revolutionary heroism was used to educate Vietnamese younger generations. There was a group of sentences which was learned by the heart of everybody: Everyone has one life only. Therefore, we mustn’t perform a waste life and thus we can proudly say that we had devoted and sacrificed our whole life for our Country when we launch into eternity.

The equitable mandarin Quan Van Truong or Guan Yu was an ideal typical hero in feudal time. Paven Coocsaghin was a typical hero in revolutionary time. He had lighted up the fire of revolutionary heroism in the hearts of Vietnamese younger generations.

Although Hai Yen had already been tired for writing a long time, she couldn’t list out all the evidences such as The gentle Winter River, a great epic written by Solokhop, Aleksey Tolstoy The hardship road, Phadeev’s The defeat, Erenbua’s The time will support us …

It wasn’t enough to analyze all the details which were even written on some hundreds of pages.

How about Vietnamese side? Since you weren’t born/ The world had been still sobbed/ The human couldn’t be called a person/ That was a cruel time without hope. Those were Vietnamese verses. The word “you” here meant the Socialist Soviet Union.

How Vietnamese laborers thought of the revolutionary Russia. They who were “exploited” persons:

Then, leisurely yawn

And dream of Russia …

Hai Yen’s thesis was high valued with no comment. She easily received red certificate. Meanwhile, the other thesis in natural sciences industry was facing big problems because there weren’t any socialist mathematics, physics and chemistry but the common ones in the world. Perhaps, everybody got the same difficulties to receive the PhD degrees in mathematics, physics and chemistry in every country.

Hai Yen kept deliberately prolonging her study time in University. Year after year, she prepared the Master of Sciences thesis and PhD thesis there. Half of her time was used to trade in jeans and T-shirts. Thieu followed political economy industry which was rather easy. What he needed was to be strong in Russian. What the professors taught about the planned economy, the command economy and the collective economy were engraved in his mind. The lessons weren’t the mathematical, chemical and physical formulas whose difficulties seemed to make the learners’ heads broken.

Thieu spent half of his time in trading as well. Then, the time used for trading was gradually increased up to ¾ and became “full time” at last. Even so, he still had enough ability to receive the “Master of Sciences” degree. Thieu was lower than Hai Yen in academic distinction respect. By the virtue of the event that Hai Yen had studied there in advance for six or seven years before Thieu and Trung came. Therefore, Yen got PhD degree while Thieu and Trung got MSc degree only. But then, the diplomas had “no meaning” at all. They were used for what. The basic thing was that who could earn many dollars?

During the first stage, the spousal Thieu and Yen were living in poor condition. They were the one. They “combined efforts”. They spent and shared what they had earned. But later on, Thieu became venturesome and more hazardous. He smuggled tobacco and got several tens of thousand dollars. His capital turned out to be too big in comparison with Yen’s “petty one”. He started concealing his own money.

They both hurriedly lived together as husband and wife and were delivered of a child without clearly understanding each other. By the same token, they had an inconstant love. They weren’t matched due to their incompatible characters. Both were sinewy and no one wanted to make concessions. Thieu went mad with the aspiration to get money. So did Yen. They had the same conception of money which could ensure their life. They seemed not to have any value without money. Although Yen’s way of earning money was that “little and often filled the purse”, she also had a remarkable capital which prevented her from depending on Thieu. Yen led a perfectly “independent” life without scaring any contingency. Thieu had never let Yen knew how much he had. Yen hadn’t either. They had dollars in the banks in Russia and Vietnam. Yen sent her money to her mother and asked her to buy lands and houses in Hanoi under her name. Thieu did too.

Yen considered the event that Thieu had Russian girl friends as a normal thing without showing her jealousness. She knew that such Russian girls didn’t give Thieu any true love despite they could spend a night with each other. They “liked” Thieu since he gave them money. That was all! Thieu could deal with proper workers and students. The sex revolution and the “super-modern” lifestyle created an advantageous environment which helped the couples with loving as easy as parting. They counted sex as a basis of everything. They took the objects which the Creator gave them for a “constant capital”. They didn’t harm anybody and they lost nothing. The thirst for sexual pleasure which was considered as human’s instinct was what the Creator scattered so that human race could be existent after all. How human race could exist once men and women didn’t lust after each other. The mankind would disappear from the earth within a century if two opposite sexes were indifferent one another. Thieu’s thirst for having sexual relation with Russian girls wasn’t accounted worth shaming. On the contrary, she assumed him to make sacred and extremely great actions when he strictly conformed to the law of existing among the human race.

Beside female workers and students, Thieu also had carnal knowledge of “courtesans”. Some Russian prostitutes were statuesque. Thieu considered beautiful face much less important than suggestive body which had a silky and white skin like porcelain, a pair of firm breasts, buttocks, legs, arms and thighs. The models’ lanky legs and arms made Thieu bored most. He assumed the people who outdid one another in honoring the raw-boned girls as tall as cranes in the garden and took such girls for beauty standard to be very stupid because such girls had nothing to be accounted beautiful, according to his point of view. He thought they were all foolish and combined with each other to form a doltish line, a silly disease which looked like a contagion. He said no. Thieu counted the girls who were charming with firm bodies, beautiful faces and silky and white skins as real beauty queens.

In the “special night-club”, the minutes of waiting for a girl taken to serve the customer were exceedingly interesting. How was she like? Was it a classical beauty like the Virgin Mary of a modern one full of sexual passion? How white she was? How silky she was? Or how fat she was? Was it anything more palpitating than the time a man waiting for a strange girl to share the bed? With 100 dollars only, he could be as happy as a king. Long time ago, the kings sat on goat-drawn carriage and traveled around three imperial palaces and six blocks of dwellings every afternoon. The king’s wives always let young green fodder grew in front of their doors. The king would spend the night with any woman whose patch of grass was the place the goat stopped to graze. How “humorous” the kings were when they followed an opportunity by accident. The Eunuch had to carefully record the name of imperial concubine, the date and the time the king slept for future purpose which was used to confirm the event in case she had a baby …

It was true that Thieu was as happy as king and he thought he was a king at that time. Thieu was sitting in a room and waiting for a completely strange girl. When she appeared, he looked at her and he felt her. A change would be made in case he hadn’t satisfied. At times, the restaurant displayed tens of girls who paced up and down as though they were in the fashion show. Their bare bodies, breasts and buttocks were so white that his eyes were dazzled. Thieu looked at them with a pensive expression before choosing his most favorite one. Thieu didn’t pay much attention to factors such as waist and effeminateness. He always collected the girl who was tall, fat but firm and soft white.

Thieu didn’t think that “courtesans” usually had disease. It was wrong! The “high-grade” good-time-girls always cared for their health. They were first sufferers if they caught a disease. By using French letter, he would be safe from disease. The protective was quite a great invention which saved the whole mankind and thus Thieu was scared of nothing. Thieu’s hobby was to see a high-grade woman of easy virtue with nothing on in his room. He would fondle her and contemplate marvelous beauty on the girl’s body without having any sexual intercourse with her. Thieu’s target was to contemplate 100 Russian girls’ bodies. If the king had 3000 “local” wives, Thieu had to have 100 “foreign” girls. Based on some coefficient, he wasn’t inferior to the king. He talked to himself: I led an extremely debauched and trouble life. However, I shouldn’t be blamed. I had “scrounged” a sum of money when the country was in a state of chaos and the regime was shifted. Meanwhile, all the conception of live in the society was made a volte-face. The money which had been “scorned” for a long time was then “risen up” and started revenging. The hypocritical beauty preparations were peeled off.

The more the things were repressed the more they were rebound. The more Thieu curbed his lust for women the more overenthusiastic he gratified it. His natural instinct was gross self-indulgence.

Hai Yeu clearly knew about Thieu’s “debauchery”. She was rather melancholy at first. But then, her heart was little by little hardened and under the scientific look, she counted his behavior as a law in accordance with human’s instinct. Yen wasn’t ugly. She was tall, big with a well-proportioned body and firm muscles. She had a large face, bright eyes. She always smiled and phlegmatically spoke without having any diffident and embarrassed performance. Yen was a Doctor of Letters whose knowledge wasn’t inferior to anybody. She could earn money by herself as well. So, she had to be in the blues and hopeless for what. Thieu loved Natasa, Olga and Lena … while Hai Yen loved Ivan, Paven and Boris … Both got fun and there was no solution to the problem. The Russian fellows had the bodies as handsome as statuesque figures.

How happy “the life in the new condition” was! The husband had his own “co-ordinate” and “orbit”. So did the wife. Thieu and Yen after all shared the room, lived in sin and had a baby. They weren’t Vietnam classical married couple. Therefore, it was reasonable for them to part. Thieu went back Vietnam in advance due to his inconvenient business situation in Russia. Later on, Hai Yen would return as well. However, they had their own plans of doing business in Vietnam and they would never stay under the same roof no matter they were both in Hanoi. By the same token, it could be assumed that they had officially parted in the meeting at the Sheremetyevo II airport that day …

Date …

The city had lighted up when I reached the Metro Xmolenxcaia. The snow reflected light and made it twinkling. Dropping into some shops, I bought some boxes of Smetana milk, a kilo of Kiev grapes, a kilo of Bulgarian apples, half a kilo of cucumbers, a kilo of beef … that made my hands laden.

I had become a “houseman” for a long time and I had to do cooking and go to the market to get food and all other stuffs. Meanwhile, Vera missed from home so frequent that she had forgotten her cooking vocation and I had to be in charge of that job. Vera would never attend the meal unless it was ready. She seemed to eat at the stores or somewhere.

Our hired apartment was 40 m2 large near Metro Xmolenxcaia. Our family could be accounted happy. We hadn’t got any child as Vera didn’t want to have a baby. It seemed that the women living in cold countries like Russia had problem with reproduction, let alone insisted on following “birth-control” methods like Vera.

The interior of our room looked quite beautiful due to Vera’s decoration. Admittedly, she had an aptitude for that aspect. She was praiseworthy. What an extremely tidy and clean apartment with very nice curtains hanging above the windows! The fresh flowers were always arranged on the table. The bed was neat and smooth all the time. The kitchen was as clean as a new pin. The salt-pot, pepper-pot and mustard-pot were in good order. She was usually absorbed in thought by the table, looked at the yellow maple leaves and the snow through the window and sipped sweet-smelling coffee in mouthful every morning. That was just like a “ceremonial” beside the cigarette smoke which was almost indispensable. She requested a lot of delicious dishes in the meal no matter how very waste we were when we had to put the balance food in the rubbish bin due to the abundance of it. She dilapidated and never regretted our property. How she could suffer once she had never earned her living by the sweat of her brow like me who used to stay in the snow in order to make money. She assumed my responsibility to get money and she could know nothing but spend. We had lived in sin for years. We threw into ecstasy during the first period. It had not only snow but also cold wind and yellow maple leaves rolling outside. Meanwhile, Vera was in a very thin short dress showing her legs and arms with glossy and fair-complexion like porcelain and her breasts just like the moons rising in the daytime under the bunch of luxurious lanterns in our warm space. Her face had a European classical feature of integrity. Her hair was as golden as sunshine. Her eyes were as very blue as clouds. I was infatuated in her beauty. I worked indefatigably like a “servant” in our house without letting her touched anything. I washed her dresses and skirts and stockings while she laid her back on the sofa and read newspaper. I not only did cooking hurriedly and set the table but was afraid of her derogative remarks on my skill as well.

During the first time, I gave her all my money and repeatedly reminded her: Try to spend it! She “didn’t behave badly” towards my will. She really threw my money at the point of satiety about everything but cosmetic such as boxes of face powders which cost two monthly food expenses each, and lipsticks made in Paris and bottles of French perfume which cost a monthly food expenses each, jewelries and clothes in particular.

Seeing my way of serving my love, Hai Yen and Thieu both warned:

-       You should have your own money instead of giving all to Vera. You shouldn’t let her know how much you have otherwise it’s impossible for you to fathom the consequence in future.

Which danger to my life was it? I was too dull-witted to realize. However, I started hiding her and sending money to my mother in Hanoi so that she could buy lands. No one but my mom could receive my money and directly negotiate the land transactions without the acknowledgement of my father Ham. He mighty abhorred the things like that on the whole. We had an immense villa while tens of thousand people lived in a hustle in cramped houses. By the same token, we had no reason to buy more land, according to his opinion. He couldn’t allow us to speculate in that field and earn profit when the price had remarkably increased. My mummy kept silently trading and urging me to send her more money so that she could extend her business without bothering about him.

Wondering when the amount I gave Vera became less, she asked me:

-       Have you got less profit recently?

-       Yes, I have. My business had become more and more difficult – I replied. Vera smiled with a disregard attitude which showed her pity for an unsuccessful person. I could read her thought through her eyes. Therefore, I hastily cleared myself of a charge:

-       But set your mind at rest! My good fortune will return soon!

-       When?

-       In the immediate future!

However, Vera’s behavior had giving me food for thought and made me melancholy as well as very astonished. She seemed to show contempt for me just because the money I gave her became less. I started worrying and considered that event as brain-teaser.

-       You have a mania for such a Russian lady too much to think anything else – Hai Yen “delivered” rapid-fire words – Your weight is zero without money. Human life would never be ensured by anything but gold. You will win other people’s hearts if you have your own weight and your life is guaranteed by gold otherwise you will become a rag which can be used for nothing but throwing out of the window.

It seemed that what Hai Yen said was correct. I restricted Vera’s unreasonable expenses and she recognized my mean at once. She raised a question:

-       Why do you change your manner? Didn’t you love me anymore?

-       Oh, yes! I love you! But you have already had enough jewelry! We should save some money and buy real estates in Vietnam.

-       We are living in Moscow. We buy immovable properties in Hanoi for what?

-       To get profit once the price goes up.

-       When will the cost become higher? What an impracticable hope!

From the horse’s mouth, the prices of the land along the West lake shore and in Hanoi were increased so quickly that the profit getting from trading in Russia wasn’t a patch on investment in houses and land, according to my calculation. The property market became eventful when Hanoi was in reform stage and was rising in the market economy. The human beings became more and more crowded while the land was constant. The officials and businessmen from surrounding provinces flocked to Hanoi to buy land as “revolutionary bases” in the Holy ground. My mother advised: One more plot of land needed to be bought. So, I should send her money right after I had had some. “The lotus thread still remained unbroken despite the lotus rootstock was picked”. Thieu gave Yen a phone call: “Take all your money to buy land in Vietnam right away as it will be more expensive in future” although he had already settled his life in Vietnam and they had parted.

I seemed to go mad with such an opportunity. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. I had to spare money to do business and serve Vera’s expenses. How I could have a lot of money to make real estate investment.

-       Cut down Vera’s waste spending! Give her bare amount so that she could cover her everyday needs such as food, clothes and other expenses – Hai Yen always got close to me and gave directions.

Vera wasn’t a Vietnam diligent woman who saved one more dim to get one more dong. She would claim what she wanted for all she was worth. Admittedly, my Lada looked quite ugly. However, Vera asked for replacing with Japanese Camry though the mentioned Lada was still in good condition and looked new as well.

I had to brainstorm so as to soothe Vera into obedience:

-       Try to use it in this temporary time, my dear!

-       No! I don’t want to get in a car in the time of Mr. Brezhnev. What a shame! Can’t I drive a common Camry while my friends are traveling by BMW and Mercedes?

A car with its Camry brand name cost me a big amount while it wasn’t suitable to my work. I hummed and hawed and slid over the matter without making any concession. At night, Vera’s face looked the wall and stated weeping and sniffing noisily when I got in our bed. How extremely beautiful she was even when she cried! All the girls looked quite nice in the way they shed tears no matter they were Russian or Vietnamese. Her strands of golden hair were wet with tears. She threw my hand aside when I touched her shoulder.

-       What a parsimonious “cong”! Save your money! Embrace your money! Nhet opnimai menda! (Don’t touch me!).

-       Don’t be so impatient like that! Let me consider! – I continued touching her hand. She bestirred herself, quickly stood up, came out and sat on the sofa.

-       Nhet kasaida menda ot tradaida ot menda … (Don’t touch my body) …

I didn’t expect to see her desperate resistance like that. I was lying there, dumfounded and was deep in thought. With 50 thousands dollars, I could buy either a Camry or a piece of land with 100 m2 large in Hanoi where my capital would be twice within one or two years.

-       Later on, I will buy you a BMW or a Mercedes, let alone Camry which is nothing to me!

-       Nhet redomo, nhet gui gui nebilisa. Ia khochu Camry sdecha de. (Don’t seduce me by sweet promises like a kid. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I want a Camry now).

-       Kakaya ty ratochitenatsa. Nedaleko bednot. (With your way of enjoying life like that, we will be soon brought to ruin and be beggars someday).

The day later, Vera was in a very serious wear without showing her arms, let alone her chest though she stayed inside. She performed a close-mouthed face and a firm sense of decorum and pretended to read a book at times. She made me burst out laughing. How puerile she was! She knew I loved seeing her bare spotless white arms, thighs, legs and the interstice between her breasts as bright as the light of the fluorescent lamp. She “gave me a dose of my own medicine”. Vera slept in another room. That made me tossed and turned in bed all night. I was accustomed to curling up in her arms. What a wonderful feeling! My sleep led me to a dream-world. She was so beautiful that her beauty was the second to none. Her shoulders were round. Her breasts were plump and firm. The curved lines of her waist and back looked like waves. And her thighs were as white as a waterfall in which I day after day slipped my head at my will and pleasure without having any satiety. But then, she “issued an embargo”. She torpidly conversed with me for form’s sake during the meal.

“The war” had tensely taken place for a month. I couldn’t stand anymore. I swore under my breath: How stupid she was! If she could go without a Camry at that moment, she would later on drive a Mercedes. It would be much better. On the contrary, she didn’t understand. She couldn’t help eating until the fruit was ripe and quite delicious but tasted the green one which was pretty acrid. What a fool! It was quite “a dull-headed Russian girl”! However, I would be exhausted got out of breath if such situation kept prolonging like that. I loved her so much! I was my unique beloved! Well! I didn’t care for “houses and land” stuff anymore but immediately bought her a Camry. An amount of 50 thousands dollars was just like a dust of the wealthy. In American film A discourteous suggestion, there was a detail stating that: Changed one million dollars for an intercourse. What a deal! It was mercy that the Infinite gave me the most perfect marble statue in the world. How I could go on “arguing about the price”. Everything would become nonsensical without her love. I “laid down my arms” to surrender on the 40^th day of “the war”. I took her out for getting the Camry. She drove the car. Her head was inclined a little. Her hair was as dazzlingly bright as the autumn sun. My angel was flying. I clung to her neck and kissed her. After 40 days of receiving the “embargo”, I hadn’t been touching her complexion till that day. After 40 days of the power cut, the dazzling light hadn’t been back to normal until that day. She clung to my head while clasping the “Xpaxpo”. She whispered:

-       Moi sami dorogoi. (My most favorite lover).

We made a tour on the thoroughfares in Moscow. Her way of controlling the car looked quite ceremonious, flowery and talented. Sitting behind her, I seemed to be full with seeing her.

Hai Yen pounded the floor and fetched me some light blows when seeing me: “You will die if you remain so weak character like that. You should remember that you are Vietnamese and you can only be such lady’s owner once you have money. You spend your money to please her but she will show you the door as if you are bad rubbish once you are out of money. She doesn’t have any connubial affection and gratitude at all. She isn’t diligent and doesn’t share weal and woe like our Vietnamese people”.

“Weren’t you and Thieu Vietnamese people? Do you share weal and woe?”. I unexpectedly gave her an opponent in my mind without daring to orally say. It was only because Hai Yen worried about me. We “attached” each other to that place. We protected, helped and showed our interest in one another. We taught each other how to do business only. As a matter of fact, she needn’t have any responsibility or duty on me. How strange! Among us, Hai Yen was the most provident person. Being the same Vietnamese race, Yen cared for me as if she was my mother.

-       I still remain some money. I haven’t spent all! – I informed Yen.

-       How much will be enough? Do you still strong enough to struggle against a surge wave? We are here just like a small bamboo craft which is sailing at sea. How insecure we are! It isn’t good at all for you to let Vera abandon herself to a life of pleasure. With a luxury Camry, she will happily keep driving to look for fun. Who knows whether is there any monkey business? Anyway, She is the West lady who has a big different with our Orient people. Don’t you scare that the upper class Russian guys will get round Vera?

-       She will thank me for the current condition I have given her.

-       What you have just told me is the logic of our Vietnamese boorish conception. Meanwhile, the modern life is different. She possibly considers you as something like a platform for her to take a run-up. I’m totally against you and warn you. I will part company with you if you keep mollycoddling her. So much the worse for you! Don’t blame me once you are in trouble.

It seemed that Hai Yen was rather jealous of Vera. Sure! She was actually envious but the main purpose was her excessive interest in me.

Yen’s warning made me really worried at times. However, I had “a beauty slavish habit” in my blood and it kept staying in my body. What was bred in the bone would come out in the flesh. Then, Yen’s prediction progressively became true. The more I “got close” to the happy goal the more she “was drifted with our orbit” unheeded. With the new car, she traveled for pleasure all day long and even all night. She kept running on the streets without getting tired. She drove to dance halls and clubs in order to enjoy being with people, meet friends, play picnic at her heart’s content while I had to manage with the old Lada, visited every place to “gain quickie” and earn our daily bread.

Her requests became higher and higher. What an extraordinariness it was! During the time of Soviet, we “lived in sin” and were spontaneous and unprejudiced. What we needed was the satiety of our basic needs. I supplemented my income by trading but the most important thing was trying to study and looked after our happiness. Then, the thirst for money had become a movement which was so strong that it bossed all the show. It was so simple and obvious that it could make people happy or make people’s faces as cold as an ice. The people couldn’t even touch each other without money.

Hai Yen analyzed:

-       The love and the money had gone abreast “before the capitalism appeared”. The love will be never everlasting once money is counted as a main basis to maintain it. By the way of consequences, it will sooner or later break out as well. Even if the money was bamboo leaves or shells but we kept wastefully using them, the mountain was also caved, let alone the household budget.

I saw that the more money Vera asked for the more she changed her characteristic. She turned out to always fret in her daily activities. She spoke scornfully of me because of my sluggishness, topsy-turvy, dirty way of living, untidiness and bad knowledge of “organizing a life”. To tell the truth, I was really pell-mell and slovenly as well. Without any deliberate intention, I always threw everything in utter disorder whenever I had finished using it. I never put back the knife on its shelf, the books on their drawers. I pressed my clothes at random in the linen cupboard instead of hanging them all the time. I was accustomed to the manner of a “soldier” who used to sit on the paths at edge of rice-field whenever having meal and sleep by the brushwood during the war time. All the soldiers had eaten by spooning out the rice carried in their own mess kit and refreshed themselves with drink by holding a mug of water, knocking back it with many swallows. How we could sit like Vera, carry a cup of coffee with full stretch of her little finger, sip and vacantly look at the yellow maple leaves outside the window.

Vera often shrugged her shoulders and showed her nausea whenever seeing my filthy shirt on the divan. I sometimes “bettered my conduct” due to my compunction. But then, habit was the second nature. The Western people always had a fussy and clean disposition which had already become a gene in their blood since very long time up to then. One the contrary, we had a “simple” and “unstudied” habit which was formed by the indigent way of living. I smacked my tongue. Later on, I was cross with her in my mind: “How you can have free time to lead a clean and tidy life without receiving the money of mine as your father’s”.

Vera had given me a true love before the Soviet Union was come apart. The Soviets like her had been educated the spirit of fighting against chauvinism (the big country discriminated against the small one) since she was a kid. Stalin, a citizen of Grudian nation whose population was 6 millions people only had governed the whole Union of Soviet Socialist Republics whose population was several hundreds of millions people. Anybody who had chauvinistic thought would be accused of reactionary. All the nations were equalitarian. What a wonderful policy! I was a citizen born in Vietnamese country where was called an advance post of socialist side and was in opposition to capitalistic side. I was counted as one of the heroes in that time. My halo was shining. Just like Paven Coocsaghin, I who was rewarded so many medals entered into Lomonoxop lecture theatre in Moscow from the battlefield of fire and sword.

The chauvinistic spirit – the human’s dyed-in-the-wool vice had taken advantage of the collapse of Soviet Union as an opportunity to be back and quickly developed. I became a person coming from an “underdeveloped and small country” and was “earning my living” in a developed country. My halo was getting dim in front of Vera’s eyes. It was reasonable for her to be gradually fed up with me despite she still lived on my “sacrificial” money and my Camry everyday …

… I put milk, meat and fruit in the refrigerator before doing cooking in the kitchen. After several manipulations, my work was finished within some minutes. It didn’t take much time at all. In Vietnamese countryside, it took quite long time for farmers to finish a meal. They had to take the straw to place in the stove, come to the small wooden pier over a pond and wash the rice, pick the vegetables, sit in the stiflingly hot kitchen with one hand slowly pushing the handful of thatch and another hand holding a “stick” to make the fire evenly burning. Meanwhile, the smoke kept rising and seemed to stay in every corner of the kitchen. What a deadly uncomfortable feeling! On the contrary, I did nothing but switched on the gas oven to cook a pot of vegetable and another pot of meat. The meal had been done within 5 minutes. Nothing could make me lazier. She was afraid of “wasting” her 5 precious minutes which she used to sit with her full length on the sofa and to count how many breathing rates she had made.

I prepared the roast meat in the microwave oven although I hate that dish so much. However, that was Vera’s taste. I turned out to unexpectedly wait for Vera to have dinner with me that day despite I was sure with 99% that she would be out all night. I still prepared the feast in spite of my hopelessness without knowing the reason why.

From the horse’s mouth, Hai Yen informed me that: Vera was making “friend” with a businessman who belonged to “new Russian class” and was as old as her father.

I received that information with calm. I didn’t turn mad because of jealousness. What I should do then. Should I scream or make clear everything? What was the purpose of doing like that? Our process of parting would become faster. Or, I kept silent, pretended to know nothing to prolong our current situation … Which solution I should choose.

According to Hai Yen, the Russian businessman was a normal person. He could only go about with her but couldn’t make any offer of marriage as he had already got married and had two children. Meanwhile, Vera didn’t want to be his “concubine” due to his age. What she needed was his money. “His eyes were bigger than his stomach”. His male vigor was like a battery out of energy or a dry oil-well so that he couldn’t perform many significant actions no matter how much he loved the young girls.

So, the problem seemed to have a temporary solution. Nothing could be accounted very “urgent”. “The polished block of pearl” was still in my hand and I was still her “owner”.

I accepted the new condition with a “peaceful will” as I still wanted Vera. However, I seemed that my image in Vera’s eyes was “directly proportional” to the explosion of “capitalistic” way of living in the West overwhelming in Russia. She “couldn’t more and more to accept” my existence. I was painful as if the ground under my feet was subsided. Even so, how I should manage then. The gangs of Russian mafia discriminated against the other nations. Some Vietnamese student was rounded up and stabbed to death by a shaven headed clique when he was coming home from school. Ridiculously, the local court cleared the criminals from an accusation. A message was launched and everybody should understand that: “Russian country belonged to Russian people”. The farther the pendulum reached the one side the farther it reached the other side. The more Moscow in the old days was the symbol of friendship among all nations the more it showed its racial discrimination. The racial segregation had taken place right in my apartment and made my happy hearth broken.

I made an unusual effort day after day and month after month. The frequency of Vera’s absent from home became higher and higher. I was accustomed to that thing and I had to accept it.

What had to happen would happen …

Hai Yen repeatedly informed me about Vera’s “troubled relationship” with her new “friends” who were wealthy …

Even so, she was still kind enough to officially get my permission when she wanted to “stop our relationship” in “a temporary time”. She asked me to offer her the “Camry”. How a honorable like me could refuse her request.

-       We will have a temporary part in a short time, my dear! – Said she – You should turn back Vietnam as soon as possible. The condition becomes more and more extremely dangerous. The racial discrimination gangs of close-shaven head guys are bossing more and more shows. She gave me a promise: You can come here when the condition is in “peace” and we will meet again …