Coming into life with empty hands and a long, unclear path ahead, what do people experience?
Tien's luggage for life was an excellent agricultural engineering degree, carefully laminated and placed at the bottom of the suitcase his mother bought him when he first left for the city to study.
Tien's path was a winding one. Tien was once walking on clouds when he received the news of passing the university entrance exam. More than four years later, he returned home in the drunkenness of happiness, graduating with the title of valedictorian. The "first place winner" returned home to pay respect to his ancestors without a crown, a belt, or a carriage. It was enough for her to stand at the entrance of the village to greet Tien with a smile like a flower. Then there were the days when Tien eagerly knocked on the door to ask for a job, and the partners responded with a shake of their heads. Tien felt resentful, bored, ashamed... The range of emotions of failure tormented Tien without mercy. In the final days of that sorrow, she got married to a tycoon. Tien was like someone waking up from a dream, suddenly stiffened by the shock of human affairs and suddenly got up with a backpack on his shoulder.
Standing in front of the vast green grass field like a velvet carpet stretching far and wide, Tien immediately thought of the plump dairy cows, the industrialized shepherds moving by electric cars controlling hundreds of white cows with black spots, gracefully grazing. He remembered the beautiful smile on the lovely face and the elegant voice of the head teacher in the university lecture hall: "From now on, you will be the ones to bring technology to help grow sustainably, safely, and be environmentally friendly in the process of growing and raising crops, contributing to reducing the burden on farmers". Where is that belief now? Perhaps it is just a memory of a memorable time. He was like a shooter with his hands hanging limply in front of fixed targets in a competition. The guns on the shelf were just for watching, his hands could not reach. Tien did not blame that person for rushing into marriage when the expected answer was disappointment. How many first loves have blossomed and come to fruition as the couple had wished? He left behind his old mother and sister who had lost their youth because of worrying about his education. The vast grasslands were like a smooth, tolerant embrace, awakening the nostalgia that there was still much hope in this world. Every step of life was just a challenge. If he had a project to develop livestock farming in this endless resource area, wouldn't those lonely pink horses just be a sight for tourists to take pictures?
The “horse racing track” sign near Tien’s stop was still brand new, not knowing when it had been “nailed down” was such a waste. The sunlight gently spread a layer of golden honey on the sparkling dewy grass. A blink of an eye was enough to feel regret when the beautiful scene passed by. The years he spent studying in school, hoping for a day as bright as the magically glowing grasslands. Tien hated the plump, well-fed face of the administrative department head at that agency: “We are planning to streamline the payroll. You should go find a job elsewhere!”. Who needed to teach him to find a job elsewhere? With a strong and healthy body and available knowledge, couldn’t Tien support himself? Over there, there were people diligently hunting for photos on the steppe, alongside them were people working in the “take a photo and get it right away” photo service. Tien used to be an English tutor during his years of wandering in the city to reduce the pressure of earning money for his mother and sister.
Coming into life with nothing but bare hands and a long, dark road ahead, what do people experience? First of all, finding a way to survive. Is an intellectual who does manual labor any better than a professional porter? Tien stopped in front of the VAC (garden - pond - barn) model of a young man younger than him. His agricultural blood arose. After a while of exchanging theory on one side and practice on the other, they met at the similarities. That night, Tien slept in a watchtower raising freshwater fish near the orchard full of fruit trees. The young man asked Tien to stay and together develop VAC.
That autumn, Tien wandered around the mountains and rivers as a self-practice in the field he was trained for. Wherever he went, he was admired by farmers for his in-depth knowledge. They invited Tien to consult on new knowledge about converting crops and livestock. He thought that his wandering steps would help him forget his personal feelings. Unexpectedly, the old memories were still full in his memory. They were as beautiful and sparkling as diamonds that he thought would disappear when buried in the dust of time, would dissolve into the soil and rocks, would be carried away by the water and flow to the ocean. Those were the summer days when Tien and his close friends conquered Phoenix Mountain, his hometown. The boys volunteered to carry pots, pans, bowls, mosquito nets, and food up the mountain, and even though they were exhausted, they still hummed and sang for the beautiful girls to rate the men's endurance. Where his friends stopped to build makeshift tents with dome-shaped mosquito nets was a flat grass field halfway up the mountain. Tien happily stretched, looked up to the sky to breathe the freshest air on the planet, then turned to the mountain and howled like a wild gibbon. The howl echoed off the steep cliffs, the sound lingering for a long time like a loudspeaker amplified at full power, then his friends responded in unison like a series of cheerful machine guns. They set out the specialties they brought, lit the stove to cook, ate, and sang happily. Couples fell in love with each other from the exciting picnic. They did not hesitate to come together when the alcohol became a bold and talkative matchmaker. The girls leaned their heads on the shoulders of men with enough citizenship to talk about love. Nhung, who was usually as playful as a boy, suddenly became gentle and passionate: "I know that Tien, who was sitting at the desk behind me, was not concentrating on listening to the teacher's lecture but was staring at the back of my neck with the soft, silky hair, right?" He did not know if it was Nhung or the alcohol, but it was so accurate that he could only laugh to cover his embarrassment. That was the last picnic of the 12th grade, the last school year, and then each person chose for themselves a path of examinations "learning talent, taking fate". The day Tien left for school, when the car was about to depart, Nhung said as if crying: "I will wait for you until the day you graduate and return. I will be faithful to you for the rest of my life". The words that today's young people call "romance" sound cheesy, but at that time Tien felt extremely warm in his heart. Nhung had instilled in Tien a belief. Many years of studying in the bustling city with so many beautiful women in front of him still could not change his heart.
Tien fondly remembers the rainy winter days when his father and his boat swayed on the fields, casting a sharp net to catch the first batch of fish from the river. Tien's sister, shivering in a palm-leaf raincoat and carrying a basket of rice, tiptoed through the rain to find her father. After Tien's father had cast the net, he found a bamboo grove to pull the boat into to shelter from the rain. Tien kept aiming for the bamboo grove and kept moving forward. When his father passed away, the boat and the nets became souvenirs. Many people asked to buy the tools for fishing in the fields, but his mother firmly refused to sell them: "My son Tien loves his father's sharp net. Who knows, he might still use it in the future." The person who wanted to buy the net burst into laughter: "Your son is in college. When he becomes an engineer, will he still cast a sharp net?" His mother clapped her hands on her forehead and burst into laughter: "Oh, right! He's an engineer, but when will he still have time to go fishing in the fields?" Then the mother saved herself: "No matter how much money is sold, it will all be spent. Just keep the boat and net there for the little boy to look at and remember his father." The mother and sister put all their trust in him, but he disappointed and worried his loved ones.
Tien set off again, to the regret of the farmers who were actively following the market whirlwind. The place Tien arrived at was the coastal plain of the Central region, with endless brackish water white-leg shrimp farming ponds. He instructed everyone on the application of high technology to raise white-leg shrimp on the beach sand with a solution that did not pollute the environment. On bright moonlit nights, by the electric lights on the shore of the shrimp pond, the young engineer enthusiastically explained shrimp farming techniques to the farmers who were eager to get rich. They seemed to absorb every inspirational and humorous sentence he said. They secretly pooled their money to pay him for four months to experience shrimp farming under his guidance.
What kept him in the fishing village was not the generous wages but the humanity. Every day, each person took turns treating him to a meal with unique seafood dishes. The song “Fate” was also a specialty of the sea for him: “… Don’t bite every ripe banana into three, every fresh orange into four, every half eggplant into five. Now you take the rotten fruit and sleep with it, you ignore the loneliness and spend the night alone. Now the corners of my eyes are trembling, tears of sadness, tears of misery are flowing out of the jar…” The plaintive, tragicomic lyrics of a middle-aged man with a haggard face suddenly made him miss Nhung terribly. She must be living in luxury and luxury now? Tien wasn’t angry with Nhung, he was only angry with himself.
The shrimp season was finally coming to an end. Wow, a series of white-leg shrimp ponds had incredibly high productivity. Cheers rang out as each batch of shrimp was pulled up. People gathered around to carry him right to the shore. The thick envelopes of money stuffed into Tien's shirt and pants pockets by the shrimp pond owners made him more embarrassed than happy. Dozens of shrimp farming households held a party to celebrate. They invited Tien to join the fun. The continuous fun made him linger in the fishing village even though the shrimp season had ended.
More than once he met strangers. They were well-dressed, drove billion-dollar cars, and spoke gently and affectionately. The tall, middle-aged man with a goatee smiled friendly: “I really admire you, a talented young engineer. We rented land along the coastal village to raise white-leg shrimp. The high-tech shrimp farming project has been approved by the province. Our Thuan Phat High-Tech Agriculture and Forestry Company invited you to be the head of the business department. Tien, please help me.” He looked at the uninvited, luxurious guests in amazement: “Oh, how did you know I was an agricultural engineer?” The man smiled and winked at the driver. The driver said nothing and went straight to the car parked nearby, picked up a brand-new newspaper, and handed it to the middle-aged man. He flipped to the first page, smiling: “Read it.” Tien went from one surprise to another. The title of the report: “The Adventures of an Agricultural Engineer” immediately caught his eye. Emotions surged. He could not believe that a reporter named Tran Quang understood him so thoroughly, and even had photos of him standing on the grasslands, next to freshwater fish ponds, looking very worldly.
Folding the newspaper, he felt as lost as he did when he received his university entrance exam notice. Just then, the car with the blue license plate slowly stopped. Two men got out of the car and walked towards Tien. He was stunned when he saw the man with a chubby face. The man took the initiative to approach, held Tien's hands, bowed his head, and whispered: "Uncle Tien, please forgive me. I was so heartless to you back then." Before he knew how to respond, the man following him looked at the representative of Thuan Phat High-Tech Agriculture and Forestry Company and laughed heartily: "Wow! Wow! I have consulted the leadership to approve the shrimp farming project for you, now you plan to kidnap engineer Tien? I have proposed to the competent authority to attract him to work as a talented person. If you want him to advise on shrimp farming, use his time outside of work hours. That way, both sides will be even." Everyone burst out laughing.
Short story by TRAN QUOC CUONG