The Blind Heir’s Spy
Author: Phong
(Translator’s note:
amounts are in Vietnamese đồng. As a rough guide for readers, 20 billion đồng
is around eight hundred thousand US dollars, 10 billion đồng around four
hundred thousand, and 30 million đồng a little over a thousand.)
Chapter 1: The Last Gift
“You’re really not going to sign this report?”
Mai Ngoc’s voice cracked across the living room of the
Lam household, so strained it nearly split in two.
Out in the hallway, Khai Minh froze mid-step. The
little plastic knife in his hand, the one meant for cutting his birthday cake,
tightened in his grip.
“No. I won’t sign it.”
Nguyen Thanh Ha answered slowly, but every word landed
clean and sharp.
“D-17 caused visual hallucinations. Auditory
distortion. False memories. Violent nerve pain once patients came off the drug.
It’s all written right there on the pages in front of you, case by case. And
you still want me to certify that it’s fit to move on to the next phase?”
Mai Ngoc stepped forward and planted both hands flat
on the table, holding her older sister’s gaze.
She was still in her hospital coat, hair pinned back
at the nape of her neck, her once-delicate face now worn thin by too many
sleepless nights.
Vinh An Hospital was drowning in debt. The banks had
already sent notice that they were tightening its credit line. The wages of
several hundred staff would last another month at most.
And right on cue, the Truong Sinh Bio-Pharmaceutical
Group had dangled a twenty-billion-đồng lifeline, around eight hundred thousand
dollars, along with a promise to guarantee the rest of what the hospital owed.
“You keep going on about side effects. But have you
thought about the hospital at all? Twenty billion is only the first
installment. Truong Sinh has committed to opening a new credit line, keeping
every last employee, and continuing to invest in Vinh An. If you turn them
down, the doors could close this quarter.”
“And if I do sign, what exactly do I get in return?”
Thanh Ha slid the file across the table toward her
sister.
“In return, we doctor the trial results. We turn
people who suffered because of D-17 into a handful of numbers too small to
matter in a report. Is that it?”
“It’s not doctoring.”
Mai Ngoc lowered her voice.
“We’re only adjusting how it’s presented. Every drug has
side effects. Truong Sinh will take responsibility once the product hits the
market. Vinh An is just the partner running the trials.”
Right then, Mai Ngoc’s phone began buzzing against the
table, over and over.
The screen lit up with a name: Vu Minh Quan, her
husband, and the Deputy CEO of External Affairs at Truong Sinh. She stared at
the name for a moment, then flipped the phone face-down. But Thanh Ha had
already seen it.
“Quan told you to come here and talk me into it,
didn’t he?”
“He only said that if Vinh An walks away now, the
banks will pull the credit line immediately. The decision is still yours.”
“Ngoc. You’re a doctor too.”
The room went dead silent.
Khai Minh was thirteen that year. He didn’t understand
half the numbers in those files, and he understood even less how a sum of money
could turn his mother and his aunt, two sisters who had once been so close,
into two people staring at each other from opposite edges of a cliff.
All he could tell was that his mother’s voice was
sadder than usual, and that Aunt Mai Ngoc was breathing too fast, the hand on
the table beginning to tremble.
“It’s because I’m a doctor that I know what
happens if Vinh An collapses. How many patients lose the only place treating
them. How many doctors lose their jobs. You keep talking about conscience, but
can conscience repay a bank loan? Can it cover payroll? Can it buy medicine for
patients who have nothing?”
Thanh Ha looked at her sister for a long time.
She didn’t lose her temper. She didn’t slam the table.
She simply closed the file and laid her hand flat on its gray cover.
“A hospital can go bankrupt. But a doctor is never
allowed to sell a human life cheap.”
Mai Ngoc turned her face away. For a few seconds, she
couldn’t get out another word.
Thanh Ha walked out of the living room, and the
instant she saw her son standing just outside, every hard line on her face
melted away. She bent down, took the cake knife gently from his hand, and
smiled, though the exhaustion still clung to her eyes.
“Minh, why haven’t you cut the cake yet?”
“I was waiting for you.”
“Where’s your father?”
“On the phone in his study. You and Auntie were
fighting again, weren’t you?”
Thanh Ha smoothed his hair and didn’t answer. She led
him toward the dining table, where the birthday cake still sat untouched,
thirteen little candles guttering sideways in the draft slipping through the
window.
“Grown-up problems don’t always have an easy way out.
Just remember this, some things you lose can be earned back. But if you hurt
someone for the sake of money, no amount of time will ever put it right.”
Khai Minh looked up at her, understanding and not
understanding all at once. Then he held out his hand as she drew a small,
dark-blue box from her coat pocket.
“Happy birthday, my love.”
Inside was a leather-strapped watch, round-faced,
silver-rimmed, far plainer than the expensive gifts relatives had been sending
since morning.
Khai Minh slipped it onto his wrist at once, tilting
the face beneath the light, and broke into a radiant grin.
“It’s beautiful. Where did you buy it?”
“I had it made.”
“Is there something special about it, Mom?”
Thanh Ha’s hand, still adjusting the strap on his
wrist, went suddenly still.
She looked at her son, her lips parting as if to tell
him something important, then she only clicked the box shut and set it aside.
“When the time comes, you’ll know.”
“Now you’re just making me more curious.”
“Then keep it safe. Don’t take it off and toss it
somewhere like all those toys of yours.”
“I promise.”
Lam Gia Huy stepped out of his study just as his
wife’s phone rang again. Thanh Ha listened to only a few words before her
expression changed. She grabbed her handbag and turned to her husband, unable
to hide the tension in her voice.
“There’s a problem in Lab Seven. The night guard says
someone’s tampered with the data storage system. I have to get to the hospital
now.”
“Let me drive you.”
Khai Minh trailed after his parents.
“I want to come.”
“The rain’s coming down hard, sweetheart. Stay home
and cut the cake with Aunt Ngoc.”
“I don’t want to stay. I’ll go with you and come right
back.”
Thanh Ha was about to refuse, but Gia Huy had already
fetched their son’s coat, and said mildly:
“Let him come. Once we’ve sorted it out, we’ll come
home for the cake. And if it runs late, I’ll throw you another party tomorrow.”
Mai Ngoc was still standing in the living room. She
watched the three of them move toward the door, and the sharpness from before
had drained out of her face, leaving only an unease that was hard to read.
“Ha.”
Thanh Ha turned back.
Mai Ngoc looked at her sister for a few seconds, then
dropped her gaze, her hand clenching a fistful of her own blouse.
“It’s late already… Don’t go to the lab…”
“It’s fine. Huy’s coming with me.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Mai Ngoc didn’t finish. Out in the yard, the car horn had already sounded. Thanh Ha managed only a nod toward her sister before leading her son out into the night.
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