Free The Zenith by Duong Thu Huong Page B

a bottle of French perfume, which I see you bring home from every trip abroad. You carry a suitcase full for your primary and secondary ladies inside and outside your home.”
    “Igive up,” Sau had politely replied but then added: “You need to be more understanding of others. Not everyone can live like a monk as you do. Men are like roosters; they must know how to show off their combs and wiggle their tail feathers.” At this, he smiled faintly and left. The other delegates had sat dead still while shuffling their chopsticks and passing bowls around…
    Three weeks after this, Vu’s oldest brother came up from the countryside. He didn’t rest after the drive and together they went to the flower garden by West Lake, where the rock jetties are covered with duckweed roots and dead ephemera. Right away, without any hesitation, his brother said:
    “Someone told me everything. Do you plan to die?”
    “I am still alive because I don’t fear him. Otherwise, my grave by now would have been covered with green grass.”
    “He is an unusually dangerous type. His kind only comes along once in a while. Have you already forgotten the lesson of Le Dinh?”
    “I have not. But I am not in the same situation.”
    “I am very worried for you…If something should happen to you…”
    Vu squeezed his brother’s hand and looked at his face with great warmth and trust:
    “Dear brother, in such a situation, we can only rely on family loyalty. We will do all that we can. Success or failure is up to heaven.”
    The elder brother choked with emotion: “I only worry about you; as for me, I will pass. In our family, you are the only one with hair, I am bald. They won’t pay any attention to me.”
    “I am no different from you. We have no line of retreat.”
    They held hands and said nothing more, because at that moment, from the Quan Thanh temple, a couple emerged. They crossed Co Ngu Street and walked toward the brothers.

    Sau’s voice suddenly rose and startled him: “Why, by now you must be able to assess things accurately, yes?” Immediately Vu put down his cup of coffee.
    “Good! Indeed, it’s very good.”
    Sau leaned completely back against the chair, in a posture of commanding nonchalance, his arms positioned symmetrically on the arms of the chair.
    “Are you hooked on coffee or on tea?”
    “I like both, but I’m not hooked on anything. Now, tell me what you have to say.”
    “Obviously something’s up.”
    He stopped as if waiting for Vu to continue asking.
    Fully familiar with Sau’s tactics, Vu distractedly looked out the windows,as if he had forgotten the matter, or the subject was nothing to be concerned about.
    Finally, Sau drank the last of his coffee and said:
    “The office just informed me that the Old Man has requested to go down the mountains and visit with some citizen.”
    “What citizen?”
    “A woodsman who fell into a ravine and then died on a stretcher on the way back to the village. I’ve asked you to come so that you can go and advise the Old Man to give up this idea. Right now we are in the middle of a hundred, a thousand things to do. The Old Man shouldn’t complicate matters.”
    “The Old Man is president of the country. He established the Party…How can I mentor him? Who came up with this weird idea?”
    “This is not a weird idea but an intelligent recommendation. Brother Ba has decided on this. It is also Ba who had the idea, right now, that you are the only one who can explain things to the Old Man.”
    “Explain things to the Old Man!”
    Vu dropped the cup of coffee and sprang up. An anger burned away inside his body, spread to his veins, pulled at all his muscles, and tightly squeezed his heart. He suddenly found himself shaking, his voice also shaking accordingly.
    “What are you saying? For me to tell the Old Man what to do?”
    “No…No…I apologize.”
    Sau also jumped up and he suddenly stuttered, out of some confusion:
    “I spoke badly…I forgot the right