25

Date …

The Quiet Poplar Garden Resort was opened dated 03 January 1997. What a happy date! The flower baskets of friends, companies and partners were arranged in close proximity to one another. Hundreds of colorful balloons and a flock of pigeons which brought a red silk band with the yellow words “Quiet Poplar Garden Resort” written on it were released.

The tables were set on the lawn. A live band was playing in a boisterous brouhaha. Champagne was poured like a stream and glasses were flowing with it.

The mistress Hai Yen was in “the Queen” clothes and was standing on a high platform. The beautiful employees in short skirts showing their spotless white arms and thighs were carrying food and drink. They were moving around.

Vu Hung, Duc Ham and Hue were talking, smiling, getting about and sharing the happiness with their descendants.

Viet Thieu was a “hero” at that time. He sent a flower basket as his celebration despite he didn’t attend party.

The resort had run for several years. People flocked to there during the first period of operation and on Saturday and Sunday specially. They avoided the noise and the cramped space in the cities, the bustle in the companies and the monotonousness in their families … and came there, hired a small house in the shade, baited the prey on the fish-hook and dropped it into the lotus pond, walked with deliberate steps in the artificial mountain area which was somber and had man-made waterfalls, alone sat on a small boat and a waitress would row it to the centre of the vast pond. She would disguise herself as a fisherwoman who turned up her trouser-legs up to the pink white groin and her undershirt was so loose that the damsel’s breasts were protruded. Staying there, they could see the images of their childhood with ancient houses, roofs of cottages, rows of areca trees, earthenware vessels for water and corpulent “widows” who were taking an afternoon nap. The summer wind blew and made their blackish skirts worked up showing their big thighs as white as a barked trunk of banana. There, they could see the century-old temple with its tiled roof grown with green moss. The arrangement of the tiles looked like “the dense lines of folk-song verses”. They could recall the image of country girls who “doffed their palm-leaf conical hats in order to take a look at the temple whenever passing by it. The more tiles the temple had the more love they gave their sweethearts”. They could see “a shirt whose owner was a young male villager was left on the lotus flowers”. He equivocally showed his love. For instance, “the seam on the lap of my shirt has been broken”, I would give you “a basket of glutinous rice cooked with split peas, a fat pig and a bottle of high quality rice spirits” when “you got married” if you help me with your sewing (that meant he would bring with him the above mentioned objects as his wedding offerings to the girl’s family so as to marry her).

To be fair, the Quiet Poplar Garden Resort had won its own strength. The richer and more modern people were the more they missed their popular original point in a manner choked with sobs …

However, the business in the Quiet Poplar Garden Resort became more and more retrograde and its owners couldn’t understand the reason why. It seemed to have had a “misfortune” since the date Thieu received his death sentence though Thieu had never involved in any operation in there. Perhaps they were fed up with the scenery in which there was a “sleeping widow” and a “shirt on the lotus flowers” although they viewed them only once in their lives. There wasn’t any drilled mineral spring as a swimming pool whose water was erupted from the earth’s womb. There weren’t nude girls who were bathing in the pond like a flock of swans so that people could have a look. At night, there wasn’t any woman of easy virtue who was ready for customer’s stroke. Sex was the “soul” of debauched flesh-pots. And sexual activities could bring money to Hai Yen. She discovered such a universal truth and had made the “investment” right away. She emptied all her capital into such kind of business in which I and Lu were outsiders and didn’t want to be involved. Tens of young girls in remote mountain villages were recruited. They spontaneously took “women of easy virtue” as a career so that they could escape their secluded and monotonous villages. The process of SPA was set up including all the steps from A to Z, even “the last stage”. The “shows” were taken place at any time, day and night, whenever customers felt needs. After “eating and drinking well”, the guest would received the knocks at the door “clip-clop” while taking a rest. The door was opened. A female employee appeared and performed a change of bed-linen and she didn’t forget to show her white plump and tall thighs as well as make a test lie in which her legs were raised and all her “precious objects” were displayed.

-       I’m a service woman but not a professional good-time girl.

The phrase “isn’t a prostitute” was more attractive to customer. That was Yen’s insidiousness in the way she taught her staffs to play-act.

The “Quiet Poplar Garden” Resort appeared to be brimming with vitality. The large dance-hall was opened. Pop music was switched on at loudest sound. “The night-club singers” screamed and sawed the air on the stage. That caused the stimulation among hundreds of couples in the dance floor. They seemed to be “dissolutely getting into a trance”. What the hell the life was! How they were accounted modern once they didn’t gesticulate, shouted and weren’t on the loose. The whole people on the world abandoned themselves to a life of pleasure, not excepting them. Several couples sprang at each other just like green grasshoppers. They showed their bare belly-buttons and thighs under the light of colorful bulbs which was flickering. The brassieres were crazily torn performing silky and velvety bodies which were being rocked like a flock of war-horses attending battle. The gangs were infatuated and bewitched. That was called life and the youth. They named what they did was to help “Jiao Zhi girls” with the revenge for thousands of years during which they had to live according to the principles of Confucius and Mencius. With such sort of performance, the youth were counted themselves to integrate into the world and not to be behind the times.

The buds’ bodies were the most precious things in the world. Thanked to the Most High, the very hairy shoulders of female chimpanzees were smoothed down and changed into the girls’ bare shoulders as silky as the moon on the night of the fifteenth of the lunar month over millions of millions years. They would like such the most precious things displayed instead of being wrapped them in the swaddling clothes which were ragged and dirty. There they were. Their nude arms looked like the spotless white clouds on the sky. Their breasts seemed to be swans fully spreading its wings. Their thighs were as white as waterfalls …

Howl … howl … howl … the howls were raised and drowned the sad and solemn music resounding. Like the howls in primitive time, they expressed the lust for sexual desire at the dawn of mankind. That meant what could cause the reproduction of human beings. That was the thirst for creating the life on Earth. Without such the so-called wish, the Earth was nothing but either the Mars or cold Pluto. The universal would be lonesome and meaningless because of having no Owner. Our ancestors were the most sincere persons who worshipped the “lust” as religions named linhga, suga and traditional reliefs …

With the doctrine of “right things”, how counterfeit “their” virtue was! “Not to be a bloody damn” existence of the earth if sexual activity wasn’t performed. Without the ravishing beauty of the women, the Earth would be gloomy and the human was just like the blind worms feeling their way.

However, the stranglehold of policemen “eliminating social evils” was secretly tightening while the “modern angels” were dancing and were absorbed in philosophizing and Hai Yen was smiling due to the boom of the turnover in her Resort.

One night whose landscape had “gusts of breeze and clear sky”, a delegation of policemen attacked the Resort with a pincer movement: blocked the entrance and barred the back doors no matter how much Yen bribed the local policemen. How she could have enough money to grease the palm of all the policemen in all routes. All the youth who were dancing with nothing on but tiny clothes were taken roll-call. So were the couples who were kissing and cuddling in their rooms.

-       Sign in the minutes! – One special major ordered Yen.

-       What kind of crime is happening in my Resort? – Yen seemed to go mad – The dance-hall business and massage operation are allowed in the whole world but not this country. What hypocrisy! How advance and integration can be implemented. That’s the reason why this place couldn’t develop for ever more. People sleep with each other. People rub their things together. How you can forbid them. How about your thing, the “revolutionary” official?

-       Madam! Do you know that the whole world has to restrict prostitution and the “freedom” isn’t permitted – Replied the major.

-       You shouldn’t ban the prostitution in my Resort but the undisciplined and dirty one on a large scale. Here, people perform cultured dance and go to bed with each other in a luxurious manner. All couples have affection for one another. They are all happy and spontaneously rub their things so that they can satisfy their desire.

-       Do you still have the same point of view as the owners of the similar spaces like this one or you fiercely ask us to chastise them if your daughter was one of the taxi-dancers over there? – The Major kept gently explaining.

Right on that day, the Resort was closed. The police post was swarmed with Hai Yen’s employees. She had to use her last pennies to “buy” her freedom otherwise she would undoubtedly receive the imprisonment due to her indictment of sex industry.

Date …

One summer day in the afternoon, I returned The “Quiet Poplar Garden” after it was closed three months ago. I would like to know the situation there.

The large gate all over which bindweed luxuriantly crept and was in blossom with dark purple flowers was locked with an iron chain which was stained and rusty under the effect of the weather. An image of “A Squirrel” – a symbol of the Resort which was painted in a corrugated iron sheet was faded and covered with dust.

My car had to get in the house through the secondary gate. The gravel path was overgrown with grass. It was quiescent in the immense villa whose windows were shut very tight. The dead leaves densely scattered on the office building. There was no longer the murmur of the waterfall on the range of the Artificial Mountains because it was dry. The row of “Country” houses which were made of bamboo trunks soaked in water and roofed with thatch looked more devastated. The surface of the pond on which there wasn’t any boat lightly undulated and reflected the light of afternoon sun.

The whole Resort area which use to be in an eager bustle then looked like a village destroyed by a cholera drive. Nobody survived, not excepting the domestic animal.

I appeared to vaguely hear the sound of wooden bell being struck and the delicate perfume of burning incense pervaded the air while I was alone strolling.

I suddenly remembered that there was a small pagoda in the other end of the Artificial Mountains area. Approaching it, I saw Hai Yen in monk’s brown clothes was sitting under the streak of yellow afternoon sun. She was closing her eyes and striking the wooden bell while saying prayers. The voice of bamboo tocsin being slightly struck had a sluggish sound. The mutter of her saying prayers sounded as if the wind was murmuring. I couldn’t believe in my eyes. The girl who was very beautiful, brimming with vitality, full of struggling energy, didn’t know how to make any concessions, used to go out in the freeze in Russia to earn every ruble, had the extreme enthusiasm in love with arms whose muscles were firm and brawny breasts, received a PhD degree in literature in Lomonoxop University, had enough knowledge to perceive the love and the life just like the most modern lady living in Western countries, used to alone swim in the pond under the moon light with nothing on at her will and pleasure, victoriously and loudly laughed and always enjoyed life … was sitting and striking the wooden bell while saying prayers.

I looked Yen straight in her eyes but it seemed not to be Yen. Her face looked as if it was completely covered by a curtain of enigmatic spirit. She lost the faith in life. Was it because she witnessed what existed at first but later on passed into nothingness? Where were her rubles which she got when she was in Soviet Union? Where was her husband Nguyen Viet Thieu? How was her dreamlike Resort?

-       Yen! It’s me! Trung! What’s wrong with you? – I asked with a churlish attitude.

-       I’m very sad.

-       I’m always with you. What the hell this closedown Resort is! Don’t worry! I will manage to open it again.

-       You will! And at that time … it will be your property but not mine.

-       It’s ours! You, I and Lu.

-       No! I want to be “the big boss”.

-       Of course! You will go on being the big boss. Your son Viet Thanh is an informatics expert who is writing software for Google firm in Silicone valley in America. He will give you enough money so as to restore the Resort and then you will be able to make your fortune. You won’t be uncomfortable.

-       But I’ve already been advanced in years. I’m too tired to do anything else.

-       Since when have you been aged?

-       It seems that I was still young yesterday but I become old today after just one night.

-       What nonsense!

I embraced Hai Yen in my arms. She was big and tall. I perceived her carnal desire was billowing. Nevertheless, I myself felt tired and I remained no indulgence.

I fondled her with affected manners. Then, I artificially showed beloved behaviors with a confidential attitude like a brother.

-       What do you want now?

-       Nothing!

-       Yes! You want money! You want a lot of money …

-       But I will never get it.

-       But you have lots of money for what. You can’t eat ten times a day. Content with what you are having! Come on! Enjoy your life!

I knew what I had just talked with her was a sham. Even so, I kept speaking. I would have an embittered heart and would sit in somewhere in order to strike the wooden bell while saying prayers like Yen if I lost all my property and became penniless.

-       Move to Hanoi and live there! Right now! Don’t stay here alone. Remember that you are an owner of a beautiful façade house in Can Team Street. Besides, you also have a successful son working oversea. Everybody on the world wish they were you. What else do you want?

I went on “consoling” Yen. I had to help Yen with her escape from her “depression” and despair due to the failures in her business. Many millions of dollars-entrepreneurs were so tired of the world that they dropped themselves to their deaths from the 8^th floor when they were brought to ruin and lost all their money. On the contrary, others could also overcome their plights and accepted the normal life with “simple happiness and common demand”.

I had had an attachment to Yen for years. We had had long-term affection and gratitude since we were in Moscow. Living in poor condition, we were always side by side and shared every ruble. But then, our sentiments still remained unchanged despite we couldn’t share property but encourage and console as something called a bit of affection.  That was all! However, how to pour comfort into her heart while we were no longer “side by side and joined forces” with each other as before. Each of us had our own way to earn money which became the most meaningful object of our lives and I was secretly throwing myself in a formidable game just like a gambling …

PART FOUR

26

Date …

I was strolling in the park. I was there alone. There wasn’t any people but trees, a pond, winter sun in the afternoon, gusts of wind and a swan solo swimming in the limpid pond.

On that day, the sky seemed to be torn into many pieces. All the planets turned out to go mad when they performed as if they were changing their orbits. I became another person. I didn’t look like the man named Trung who used to be the soldier in Truong Son battle-field and the postgraduate in Political economy Department.

I no longer kept in promiscuous touch with anything in the goddamned Quiet Poplar Garden Resort which was boisterously opened in the first instance but later on was “stopped trading” due to the loss of its owner’s capital. I neither carefully discussed the purse-strings spent to make the film “The family’s chronicle” with Lu nor exchanged angry words with him all day long anymore.

I had just arrived in a dream-world. A rain of gold and silver had just showered down on me from above and I had used my flap to catch such precious things. I wrapped and placed them on my shoulder. I would have a new life from now on. I would renounce all my common mentality and boring social relationships. I would fly. I would walk in my sleep. I was as happy as the day was long.

It was 12 o’clock at noon. I received a new: One American software firm had just provided funds to buy the holdings in the Head of informatics software company AVZ in bulk. By way of consequences, the share in that company increased 60 points. That meant there was a 60-time growth in value.

The whole country was stunned by the wonderful explosion of securities market in Vietnam. In the first instance of establishment, it was as feeble as a child who was born prematurely. But then, it became the incarnation of a hero Phu Dong when he was moving his shoulders and turned himself big and tall after the spectacular changes of situation in that period beside the prospects of violent foreign investments whose capitals were tens of billions dollars and the development of economy. Once, the Vn-index was up 144%. The stock exchange was either “hot” or “feverish”. It was above the threshold of a thousand points. With all the economists’ warning of implicit risks as well as the seriousness of the event that it would be fallen in “balloon” phenomenon, it still developed just like a restive horse.

As a result, the shares in AVZ firm took the highest position with a 60-time growth.

I couldn’t remember clearly what I had performed my activities. It seemed that I was controlled by either some sacred influence or one supernatural force. My father Ham just hummed and hawed when I discussed my idea with him at that time. He was a person of the past but not a “subject” of the contemporary market society. Therefore, he was completely “backward”, or rather, totally ignorant. Did he perfectly lose his keen ability? The Hoang Lan villa which belonged to nobody else but I and my father cost more than a million dollars at that moment. Even so, who dares to sell it? It passed by inheritance from my grandfather Duc Nguyen to the three siblings Duc Vinh, Duc Ham and Lan Vien. Uncle Duc Vinh had evacuated and stayed in the South of Vietnam before he received his prison sentence and migrated to United State of America. Mrs. Lan Vien submitted to her husband and “came into his fortune”. By the same token, my family temporarily looked after it. Frankly speaking, the three-floor house which was 200 square meters large only, was roofed with Dap Cau tiles and had been built since the beginning of twentieth century wasn’t a voluminous building at all because it was made of the mixture of treacle and lime without having either steel or cement in its structure. It was only because all houses in Hanoi were so cramped that the price of “façade” domiciles was increased at that time. The offspring of the “farmers” who were accustomed to staying in thatch cottages with walls made of the mixture of mud and straws and then became “architects who had the right to plan the structure of the city” didn’t know how to follow the boulevard style in which all the villas should be divided into plots (or they had to build multistoried houses due to insufficiency of the ground). As a result, Hoang Lan had a very high price in the market like that.

-       Daddy! I will take the “land use right” of this villa to the Bank and give our house as security for the loan of one million dollars in order to buy the shares in the Head of informatics software company AVZ. The informatics software is the future industry. The American corporations such as Microsoft and Intel … are planning to invest in Vietnam where AVZ is going to be their partner and thus the holdings in companies whose business activities belongs to informatics field will be highly increased … I’m sure we will have profit within several years and we will sell them at that moment. We will pay the principal to the bank and spend the interest. How about your idea?

-       Actually, I’m a person of subsidized structure and command economy. I didn’t have any knowledge of market economy at all, let alone stock and shares. So, it’s up to you but be very careful.

-       As a member of board of directors in the Head of company AVZ, I have my own standard and thus I have the right to buy holdings in bulk. Certainly, we will have profit from 5 to 10 percent at least.

-       People say that the securities market in Vietnam was still at a start and worthless.

-       Yes! But it will become strong in the long run. Our society will be operated in accordance with market economy. Vietnam is a member of World Trade Organization WTO. With a stable environment of security and politics, the overseas investors will flock to Vietnam and the index of informatics shares will be never down but up. We will never lose our capital.

-       Does it look like a gamble?

-       Oh, no! It is totally different. We buy holdings which the investors will buy back at higher prices when they are listed on the electronic board in the stock companies. As a result, we have profit.

-       What will happen if we are losers?

-       That event will never take place unless the Head of company AVZ completely goes bankrupt. However, the informatics software is dominating the modern life. Bill Gates whose property costs 50 billions dollars is not only the owner of a Microsoft corporation but also the richest person in the world. He has chosen AVZ as his partner so as to invest in Vietnam market. The AVZ firm will develop just like a mythological story. We can’t get any different things but profit when we invest in this company.

-       I perfectly have no ability to judge this problem. Market economy is your time. Let you determine everything.

-       OK. Thank you for your permission.

The last days of one year in the first decade of twenty first century were my wonderful period. The securities market in Vietnam was exploded with its mythological steps. It was considered as a gold-mine of overseas and domestic investors. It became “a new pet” of investors all over the world. It could be counted as the most developmental stock exchange in Asia. At closing-transaction, the shares in company AVZ was up 60 points. In other words, the value of the holdings had been increased 60 times. It meant that with the starting share capital of one million dollars, I then had 60 millions dollars whose value was equivalent to 60 villas like Hoang Lan. I had become a dollar millionaire …

I was trying my best to prevent myself from going mad. It wasn’t a child’s play at all and people could be as crazy as a March hare indeed when unexpectedly had 60 millions dollars in their hands. Nevertheless, I was in possession of all my senses. I sometimes gave my arm a pinch to see whether I still feel a pain …

Date …

I got out of a taxi and sat on a park bench on the bank of Sword Lake. The early wind was gentle. The surface of the lake was limpid and was rippling. I want to see turtles swimming. I heard on the grapevine that they often appeared on either “marvelous times” or “sacred dates”. That day was my holy date. By way of consequences, the tortoise had to be on the float. I wanted it to float and it would have to rise to the surface. I was no longer a common person. I wanted to have 60 millions dollars and I had had it …

There were some bright circles from a far distance and something was gulping the air on the surface of the pond. It was a turtle itself. It came to meet my wish. However, I didn’t have a long look but a quick glance at it and imagined a real tortoise because perhaps it was just a big fish If I looked on it with carefulness.

-       Can I buy this Sword Lake as my own pond? – I asked the nearest flamboyant tree.

-       Of course! – It replied.

-       But I will purchase the sky reflected in the lake instead of buying the lake – I pointed at somewhere on the lake. The clouds seemed to gaze at me.

-       Do you want to buy me?

-       How much?

-       30 millions dollars. It’s a half of your amount.

-       It’s too expensive. My bargain is just 15 millions dollars.

-       How terrible your “negotiation” is!

Leaving the lake, I went along the most beautiful avenues. How much was the real estate on that street…? It should have been over 60 millions dollars at least.

Some old female peddler with a flat winnowing basket on her hand ran after me. She sold cooked peanuts and several bulbs of sweet potatoes. On catching me up, she solicited me for her goods:

-       One thousand a gram! Buy it, please!

-       Too expensive! But it’s OK! Give me two grams. Remember to scale them correctly.

-       Sure! If I’m poor, I will ask you for help but not commit a fraud.

I took a bulb of saffron sweet potato. It looked delicious. I lifted it up and down as though I was estimating its “weight”.

-       You can weigh it again when you come home if you don’t believe in me. It isn’t short of any gram at all otherwise I will offer you the whole bulb free of charge.

I skinned the bark of the bulb and raised the condition:

-       I will return it to you if it tastes bad.

-       Accept! – The seller confirmed with a decisive tone. She admitted “economic risks” once the contract had been signed under the payment term of “deferred” L/C.

I chewed a piece of potato and then I delectably enjoyed the whole bulb before giving her a 100 thousand-dong note.

-       I don’t have enough 98 thousands as a change.

-       No! This one cost 100 thousands.

I winked at her and smiled.

She appeared to understand. Her eyes dewed with tears.

-       You are a humane person. Thank you!

I turned on my heels and walked faster …

The darkness felt. The lights in the city were sparkling. I bought an ice-cream. I was eating and strolling like a kid. Never mind! The Russian girls whose beauty was just like fairies were spontaneously licking ice-cream and walking in Moscow, the resplendent city as well …

I got in a splendid shop Chanel whose all products were top-ranking. A lounge suit cost some thousands dollars. A bottle of perfume was several millions VND. A watch was some thousands dollars. Even a necktie or a bag cost the amount of money used to buy rice for one year eating in the common family at least. That store was the destination of overseas and domestic billionaires or ladies who didn’t what to do with their money but spent. There, one dress cost 100 times more expensive than the one the common people wearing.

I had passed by there many times but I didn’t dare to get in but looked through the window. However, I had already been “a member of billionaire club” from that day on. Therefore, I would like to experience the feeling of “a billionaire who was going shopping”. Actually, the amount of 60 millions dollars was still the value of my shares which hadn’t been sold to get the real money. In spite of it, I kept spending my “own money” first since I always had ready in my house some hundreds of millions VND beside one or two billions in the bank.

-       Give me this lounge suit. Wrap and send it to Mr. Duc Ham living in the house no. 15 Bis Quan Thanh Street.

I wanted to offer my father a present as a remembrance so that he could see the different between the lounge suits bought from the store Chanel in Hanoi under time of market economy and the one issued by the government when he worked for the State as “the Provincial Party Committee Secretary”.

Leaving the shop Chanel, I dropped into a show room displaying the Mercedes Ben cars. The new models were wonderful. Mercedes was a luxurious symbol despite there were many other cars with high-grade brand names which were penetrating the Vietnam market and they of course cost a million dollars such as Mayback, Hummer and Lexus. But Mercedes still kept its popular symbol.

I called a shop-assistant and phlegmatically booked a black one as if I had just bought a sheaf of vegetable.

I went on strolling on the streets after finishing the procedure of deposit and specifying the date and the place of delivery as though I was an Arab dollar billionaire who was getting in a plane and traveling the whole world from end to end with no luggage except for the clothes on his body and an international credit card in his pocket.

What an extremely beautiful night in the city! I was walking and thinking about the philosophy of life. I had been accustomed to those streets since I was a child who used to go to school with a satchel on my back. At that time, a pair of nice soccer shoes could be my desire as well. How happy when people had a thirst …

In my life, I had wanted so many things including study tours in the Universities such as Carbon Xooc, Oxford and Harvard. The names of the universities were as sparkling as stars on the sky. My problem was money. In the final analysis, I didn’t have enough money.

I used to be hungry for a happy family and set it as my target which I was about to win by loving and staying with Vera – the Russian – when our love was broken because I didn’t have enough money to provide the “socialistic girl” who waked up suddenly like “a Phoebe sleeping in the forest”, enjoyed and led a life of debauchery in the new market when the Komsomolskaya organization was no longer existent just like a fish swept away to a big sea at a very high speed. We parted. The socialism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was collapsed and the love between I and Vera was also broken accordingly …

In conclusion, it was because of money. How correct the materialism was! What greatness! The matter played a decisive role in our mentality. That would affect the life of each individual person.

I had 60 millions dollars at that moment. That amount was nothing to the bosses in Europe or America but it was a colossal fortune in Vietnam …. My only regret was I was too “old” to go on study tours in Xoocbon, Oxford and Harvard. I couldn’t “make my way in the world” anymore but lived my later half of my life. We craved and had a passion for everything when we were poor including work and promotion. We weren’t sure that we could try and be crazy about anything once we had a lot of money from the outset – I used casuistry and criticized myself – Let’s took an observation. The poor children who had to live in the countryside and ate manioc and sweet potatoes tried their best to buy houses, build happy families and win high social standings after graduating from university. Meanwhile, the rich ones who had been indulged since they were born didn’t study well in school at all, tried to do nothing and became second to the poor ones in the long run. Most successful people who win achievements weren’t descended from extremely wealthy families or hadn’t been lived in the lap of luxury since they were born. It was because people wouldn’t be deeply interested in trying to get anything once they were exceedingly rich right from the start. What was the purpose of their struggle? By way of consequences, that became nonsensical. What a tragedy! Everyone would get stuck either too poor or too rich …

I “revolve” a problem in my mind in order to confirm: It was accounted reasonable and opportune but not late at all when I didn’t have 60 millions dollars up to then.

I passed by Town hotel in Hanoi. With 60 millions dollars in hand, I could “compete” with “that guy”. I had long since wished to own a big hotel. Was it a right time to carry out my desire? I would buy a large ground which was a little bit far from the centre of the city. I would build a stylish hotel on it. The interior decoration of the hotel had to satisfy my aesthetic liking. Vera would be from Russia and I would let her worked as a receptionist. We would have a cute baby, a mixed blood kid. Vera would absolutely obey me without daring to be sour and scornful as before. Even so, Vera was only a “lover”. Her spring time was over no mater how beauty she was. I would look for a thoroughbred girl who was Vietnamese person, young, had her own ideal as my official wife so as to maintain our purebred race of Nguyen Duc from the Great Oldest Uncle to Duc Nguyen – Duc Ham – Duc Trung …

Date …

The early snow had come while the yellow maple leaves were still scattering in bulk on the boulevards in the autumn. They were crumpled under the heels of passers-by’s shoes. The Verona birds were sadly making rustle sound and “wa … wa …” voices while they were flapping their wings. Vera was wandering and sometimes contemplated herself in the mirrors of the windows. She looked corpulent and plump after several years had passed by. She no longer looked suggestive like either a dancing girl or a model as before when Duc Trung was still there.

It wasn’t cost big amount for her to sell the Camry which was used as much as she could. The money had been spent all while living standard was higher and higher. She couldn’t dress perennially fashionable clothes as before. She couldn’t also use domestic cosmetics. Her lipstick, powders, beauty products and skirts and dresses in the latest fashion were Paris, New York and London origins. They cost a year amount spent for eating in a family. Even so, Vera wanted them and she had to have them. She had to do everything to have them. Duc Trung had been living in Hanoi. He didn’t send her any “grant” but email as a communication at times.

The overseas press reported that: “600 retrograde and degenerate Bolsheviks had stolen 70% of the whole property which the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had accumulated during 70 years of building its socialism”.  Nobody knew whether what the press said was correct but the fact was that all the resources and industrial units which were the public properties were then the private ones. The “shock” solution named Europe – American economy had made the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics broken in the emergency program Privatization within 500 days and the national properties were sold to the new Russian owners. They were “Tavarits” who used to receive monthly salary. How could they have enough money to buy such costly properties? But then they appeared to have a lot of money. How strange! They owned huge industrial units and became dollar billionaires. They were in the list of ten richest persons in the world. Meanwhile, the properties with the cost of billions which capitalists in countries such as Europe, America and Arab owned were the results of their ancestors’ business. They had to work with the sweat of their brow through generations. Or, they were members of the royal family. They were the King’s powerful siblings. Perhaps, they were excellent businessmen running their operations under the structure of capitalism. All of them didn’t know what the collectivization was …

On the contrary, those “Tavarits” who had “a new color” had easily stolen the national properties in front of 140 millions Russian people. That came of their authorities, influence and the “un-wisdom” of the “situation”. Such irrationalness was the second to any other unreasonableness.

There were many wealthy people who had money to burn in Russia at that time. The rich who were named “the new Russian” created extremely upper strata just like dukes, earls and barons that had farms and thousands of serfs under tsar time.

And me, I still remain “unchanged” with an up-to-date jean clothes on my body in this whirlwind as an outsider. I used to be a Vietnamese television announcer working for Moscow broadcasting station which had closed down and thus I will no longer receive monthly salary from now on. Why can’t I “buy back” the Moscow broadcasting station so that I can be “a new Russian”?

Vera recognized the wrinkles of agedness on her beautiful face in the mirror of the window. She was offered such precious present by the years “Russia became a capitalistic country”. Her very blue eyes like a surface of the lake in the autumn became more opaque and sadder. Her wonderful moon became overcast. Her “achievements” during the last years were the depraved games when she busied herself with being a slave to the Western waves. Her “colorful” loves were just like fragile balloons no matter how luxurious they were. She performed suggestive dances, terrible sexy shows and she experienced the nights in which her precious wine appeared as much as a stream and overflowed her thighs placed side by side with each other.

Everything became the past. And then, she became nonchalant with all the things she used to be infatuated.

The time had changed me into a marble which was revolved and lay about in life. Who am I? How am I?

Moscow became more and more splendid, beautiful and magnificent. What a mythological Moscow! But, my innocent girlhood was lost.

If anyone could return me my youth,

I would give back the life everything,

My present “fame” included

So that I can get back my pure life …

What kind of “fame” I have to make a change. I have nothing but “the memories of my first tranquil love” with a Vietnamese man Duc Trung. Those “memories” now become valuable because I have just received an email from Trung saying that: Come to Vietnam with me! I have enough money for you to spend at the moment. I will make you silk-stocking countess Vera full of exquisiteness … 10 thousands dollars which were transferred into my account proved what he had written in his mail was true. Vera thought she was dreaming. Is it possible that Duc Trung still loves me without taking any offense towards my unfaithfulness in love? How Duc Trung can become so rich that he dares to give me such a promise while nobody in Moscow dares to say a sentence like that: make me “countess” Vera.

The sweet memory made Vera recalled the moment of twenty years ago. The bud Vera was 18 years old. She appeared like an angel in classical pictures. She came to Moscow from her countryside just like a bird which was flying in a high blue sky. One day, she and Duc Trung learning in Lomonoxop University, Economy department made friends in a Student gala evening.

Vera easily “accepted” Trung’s love. Trung was tall, big and handsome. Her Vietnamese branch of learning was one of the bridges making their love closer.

Trung was madly in love with Vera and Russian country. He wrote the poem “the yellow maple leaf” which he had composed since the first days arrived in there in Vera’s handbook.

It was Moscow on that day.

I was here the first time in my life with strange daze.

There was a sparrow in the yellow maple garden.

We were seeing the clear sky.

I had just been acquainted with a Russian girl.

The language difference restricted our conversation.

***

I go to school by trolley-bus.

The black eyes strangely look at the blue ones.

I’m alone strolling on the avenue

Like a yellow maple leaf aimlessly blown by the wind.

The early snow falls into my collar.

Varona birds are pecking snow on both roadsides.

***

Moscow overwhelms with ice and snow.

The rows of birch-trees witness my love with Russian girl

Whose curls of golden hair are sparkling under the sun light.

The shadows of sparrows flying on the sky reflect in her eyes.

I’m restless by Pushkin statue

And write sweet verses which describe Russia

***

I feel every stones on the ancient citadel.

The age-old Russia seems to whisper with me.

The yellow maple leaves used to tremble

Due to the effect of upheaval tornadoes.

The Russian girls stand out from the country fields.

They remain unchanged through generations …

***

The gold-inlaid roof of the church looks like the afternoon sun which never has a setting.

The abbey is solemn. Virgins appear and disappear.

Tulips, white cassia flowers whose trunks are full of thorns

And Russian literature becomes blood and flesh of my childhood.

I’m sadly watching a flock of cranes flying to the South to avoid the chill

They seemed to carry the idyllic features in Russia …

Vera knew Trung’s poem by heart. She translated it into Russian language. She seemed to see the image of Trung in the context of Moscow at that time whenever reading it. Vera and Trung joined in the orbit of “super-modern love”. They lived in the same house as if they were husband and wife without marrying. That was called a try life. Their way of living was just like a real spousal couple.

The Russian autumns with golden sun took turns to stand on the window of their apartment. They were quite warm and happy no matter how cold the winter was outside. The perfume and spotless white color of the Russian girl’s complexion changed their apartment into a room in dream-world. That made Trung intoxicating. A couple of swans which were knitting their beaks together were flying on the blue sky …

Their life ought to have kept being pleasant and peaceful like that. Everyday, Vera melodiously read the Vietnamese news-bulletin, dropped into a shop after work to buy yoghurt, smetana, Kanbasa pork-pies, Bulgaria sweet and crispy apples, Kiep ripe and succulent grapes, Bradin yellow lemons whose juice was applied whenever drinking black tea before coming home for dinner preparation. With an American jean and a Thai T-shirt, Vera still looked quite beautiful. There was no need to do anything else. Meanwhile, Trung finished his study in political economy department, received MSc degree and wrote a PhD thesis by the way. Beyond the framework of convention full of favorable conditions signed between Soviet Union and Vietnam, the oldest brother Soviet Union stood Vietnam and by way of consequences, ten thousands of Vietnamese youth learned in Soviet Union free of charge. Many things in Soviet Union were worth to study and no one could know them all no matter that one was studying and would study forever …

Vera and Trung became the symbol of the friendship between Vietnam and Soviet Union. It was accounted extremely beautiful to have such a happy hearth named Vietnam – Russia in the friendship atmosphere among the nations without paying any attention to the strength of their countries.

Later on, everything changed. The social structure changed. Collective ownership was broken and was replaced with private one. Market economy accepted the overwhelming appearance like a waterfall of the luxurious goods from overseas countries. That made Vera amazed. She no longer accepted to eat Russian Kanbasa pork-pies half of which was flour, wear skirts made of normal linen with flower patterns and apply Soviet Union low quality powder …

She was hungry for beauty products made in Paris, costly animal feather coats, sparkling jewelries made of diamond and gold, Japanese Camry or German Mercedes cars. She spent most of her time in studying English as fast as possible so that she could make conversations with Americans in all the streets in Moscow. She suddenly recognized that Duc Trung was nothing. The Doctor of Economy was nothing. The happy “family” in a try life like her turned out to be meaningless. Nothing but those Americans who were walking, catching the yellow maple leaves and snow in Moscow and having millions dollars in their accounts were valuable.

The “happy” family was broken. They parted. Vera completely forgot Trung during the first years. But, how strange! Some years later, Vera appeared to miss him. The sweet and peaceful memories were relived in her. The years of their love which was as magnanimous as a moon was appeared when the clouds were dispersed. The bitter feeling of foul and dissolute life in the circle of dollars trading sensual loves, the presumptuousness of the wealthy and the illiberality of the poor people beside their capitalistic bosses made Vera burst into tears at nights.

The cosmetics whose brand name was Chanel was nothing in comparison with her pure complexion as white as snow. Beside her wonderful girl heart, Dollar was nothing. She had to be worshipped by a noble lover. She wasn’t just a “partner for fun” of the rich who view the life with hoity-toity eyes.

The white wings of the swan named Vera used to soar in the blue sky but then, they were tired and were soaking in a pond of troubled waters. She was astonished to recognize her change. Vera stood contemplating herself in the mirror with nothing on while remembering Trung’s verse “You have a pearl of body”. She took a good look at the wrinkles on her skin and the flabby muscles of her body.

Vera turned back hometown in Manopxkaia village in order to see her secondary school where 15-year-old girls as beautiful as angels were amusing themselves and singing. Then, she escaped the landscape of Russian countryside, incarcerated herself in her apartment in Moscow and looked for Duc Trung’s photographs in their albums.

Trung’s email appeared right at that moment. 10 thousands dollars was counted as a “guarantee” for his sentences in the email. Dollar wasn’t accounted extremely important by Vera anymore. Unfortunately, she was accustomed to spending it. She didn’t feel sure without it.

Vera had been given her marching orders by Vietnamese department in Moscow broadcasting station for long. By the same token, she had forgot a lot of Vietnamese words and her speaking skill was no longer good because she didn’t use Vietnamese language during the last years.

In spite of that, Vietnamese language and Duc Trung remained her first love, the generous love in Vera’s girlhood. And Vera would like to return her point of departure after making a circle.

That was life. Nobody was a God. The circumstances changed the human beings just like clay statues which were kneaded as well.

Sitting in front of the screen of her laptop, Vera wrote: “Brother Trung! My bloom of youth …”

Vera prepared her luggage so as to travel Hanoi. What she should bring with her. What was being sold in Moscow market but not in Hanoi one would become precious presents. There wasn’t anything at all. The contemporary Hanoi had everything after 20 years of carrying out reforms and the most high grade goods which had American and Japanese brand names included. Contrast with the past when Hanoi people always brought maixo electric wires, iron, ice buckets, pressure-cookers, sockets, Anagin medicine, black and white films, aluminum pots and even the long inner part of biro with them whenever they had a chance to come back Hanoi from Moscow. That meant there wasn’t anything in Hanoi at that period. One time, a man of letters living in Soviet Union brought even safety-pins with him as presents when he visited Writers’ Society in Vietnam. The safety-pins were very valuable as well …

Then, Vera brought nothing but a light bag carrying her hygiene things. It was accounted “backward” as well if a bar of chocolate made in Russia was chosen as a gift when she traveled Hanoi as there were full of much more delicious chocolate whose brand names belonged to German, French and Danish companies. What was the use of “carrying many things at a time” …