The Ring

Illustration: MINH SON

In any profession, the hotel service business is more important than the customer. Whenever there is a problem in the hotel such as a power outage, a broken shower, a malfunctioning air conditioner, etc., when encountering hot-tempered guests, they yell and scold the receptionist, forcing the hotel owner to apologize, then call a technician to fix the problem and reduce the room rental price. Therefore, since starting the hotel service business, Yen has always been worried about the inconveniences that will cause the business to fail. Before guests check in, Yen often personally checks every small detail for fear that the housekeeping staff will make mistakes that will make the guests unhappy.

Actually, Yen had never been trained before, nor had any experience in the tourism and hotel business. Due to the twists and turns of life, or perhaps fate, Yen jumped into this unpredictable business.

Born into a poor family in the northern coastal region. Yen's father was a martyr who died in the 1975 Spring Campaign to liberate the South. Yen's mother was a teacher at a village school. Yen was born after her father had already died, so Yen could only see her father's face through her mother's photo placed on the altar.

Although she was still young, her mother did not remarry but devoted herself to loving and taking care of Yen so that she could study properly. After graduating from university with a degree in business administration, Yen was recruited as an accountant at a real estate company. The company director named Hung, who had inherited a large fortune from his parents. With her attractive appearance, Yen was especially cared for and pampered by Hung right from the start of her employment. As a young girl who did not know much about life, Yen quickly fell into Hung's arms. Nearly a year later, Yen agreed to marry Hung.

As a man with a patriarchal personality and a love of showing off, after getting married, Hung said, "You are the wife of a director, with a mansion, a car, and luxurious amenities. If you go to work, people will look down on me. From now on, you just stay home, take care of your beauty, and give birth to a son for me. Let the maid do the cleaning, laundry, and cooking!" For him, his goal is a mansion, a car, a beautiful wife, and smart children so that people will bow their heads in respect.

Hearing her husband say that, Yen couldn't help but hesitate. After all, Yen still had an old mother who had just retired and had a meager salary, and who needed care and financial help. If Yen didn't go to work, would she have to ask her husband every time she sent money to her mother? Yen told Hung that she wanted to continue working, but Hung firmly declared, without further argument, from now on she had to stay home and do her duties as a wife, manage the household, deal with internal and external affairs, and help him with business.

Yen was very sad, but she understood that she could not go against her husband's wishes. Besides, young couples should give in to each other. So Yen had to accept quitting her job. The following year, Yen gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who looked exactly like her mother. She named her Binh An, which was also the young mother's dream.

Three years passed in a flash, Yen focused on being a wife and mother, her small family seemed to be forever peaceful and happy.

When Binh An was four years old, Yen considered sending her child to kindergarten to find a job, which was also a way to help her husband reduce financial pressure during increasingly difficult business times. At that time, Hung's company borrowed more than ten billion dong from the bank to invest in building a luxury apartment building with the ambition of earning hundreds of billions of dong in profit. However, due to lack of practical experience and lax human resource management, the quality of the project was poor and was not allowed to be put into use. While the apartment building was not liquid and the bank loan interest was increasing every day, the company was about to go bankrupt. Hung was afraid and panicked, often got angry, and blamed all the mistakes and difficulties on his wife. He forced Yen to go home and tell her mother to mortgage the house she was living in to borrow money from the bank to save the company. Yen refused, saying that her mother was old and only had a small pension, could not afford to pay the monthly interest, and certainly could not borrow billions. Hung cursed his wife as a useless person who could not help her husband in difficult times. For many years, he had to support his wife and children, and also provide money for his mother-in-law, which was why the company was in such dire straits. Yen was in great pain. He was the one who forced his wife to quit her job, but now he was showing off his achievements, calculating petty things, blaming Yen for the failure of the business. Then what would happen, had to happen, Yen decided to divorce, she took custody of Binh An without Hung having to send her money for support.

While Yen was struggling to find a job, her close friend from her university class who was living in a coastal city in the South called and invited Yen to help her with her hotel business. Her friend said that for the past two years she had been undergoing radiation therapy for a tumor in her breast and her health was poor. Knowing that Yen was divorced and had not found a job yet, she decided to ask her friend to help her. She said that it was also a way to change the environment, maybe her friend would find life better.

At first, Yen hesitated because she was worried about her old mother and young children. If she worked thousands of kilometers away from home, and her mother or baby Binh An fell ill, Yen could not return immediately. Who would take care of her? And she did not know what the job would be like, so Yen could not bring her mother and baby Binh An with her.

Seeing Yen still hesitating, Mom said, Bien City is where your father sacrificed himself in the last battle, Mom heard from your uncles and comrades that your father's grave was brought back to be buried in the city's martyrs' temple. Mom has wanted to go there to visit your father's grave for a long time, but hasn't been able to. Now that you have the chance, you should boldly go in, it's also a good opportunity to visit your father's resting place.

Listening to her mother, Yen decided to leave her child with her grandmother to go to the coastal city to find a new job.

Setting foot in the coastal city, Yen had a strange sense of familiarity. On the very first day, she went to the Martyrs’ Temple on Ngoc Tuoc hill to pay her respects to her father and the heroic martyrs. Yen stood still, tears streaming down her face. Dad, I have come to you so you can see clearly the child you have not yet seen… Yen whispered to her father, listening to the sound of the wind whistling on the pine hill.

The scenery of the coastal city is wonderful. The two mountain ranges along the coast embrace the city center with many spectacular ancient temples. This is a famous tourist service center in the South. In the dry season, the climate in the provinces in the region is often hot, but here the sea breeze is strong, the weather is always cool and pleasant. On weekends, tourists from Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring provinces flock here.

Yen's friend owns a 15-room hotel near Thuy Van beach, an ideal place for tourists who love the feeling of rolling on the white-capped waves. The number of guests renting rooms is always busy, the hotel business is bustling and bustling. At first, Yen worked as a receptionist to learn about this new business field. Yen felt attached to the city, attached to the job. Yen's friend's husband works in the oil and gas industry, her family is well-off, so she wanted to hand over the hotel to Yen so she could focus on her medical treatment.

Yen's hotel business seemed to be very effective. In the first month, Yen earned a profit of nearly twenty million VND. So Yen decided to stick with the profession for a long time. To limit costs, Yen only hired one room attendant and one security guard to work by the hour, while other tasks such as reception, marketing, and relations with the room sales team, or brokers, Yen did everything herself.

The Penthouse on the 6th floor is the most luxurious apartment, the rent is two to three times higher than normal rooms. Therefore, Yen often checks carefully when guests check in and check out. The day before, the guest checked out late, so the housekeeping staff had to clean the room all evening to prepare for a group of guests from the Central region to rent the room this afternoon. The Penthouse is nearly 100 square meters wide, has two bedrooms, two toilets, and a large living room, so it is easy for mistakes to happen.

Yen checked through the two bedrooms and then opened the cupboard under the sink. Oh my god, how did the housekeeping staff clean up that they left behind a bag of trash filled with shrimp and crab shells, giving off a strong smell. Yen picked up the bag of trash, placed it on the sink, then used a wet towel to clean the cupboard. When Yen pulled the towel out, she saw a metal object fall in front of her. Yen bent down to pick it up. It turned out to be a gold ring with a diamond face. Yen secretly guessed that this ring must have cost several hundred million dong. The owner of the diamond ring might be the tenant who had just checked out of the Penthouse yesterday. Thinking so, Yen cleaned the ring and put it in her pocket, waiting for the owner of this precious object to come back and find it so she could return it to them.

Carrying the bag of trash from the elevator, Yen walked out to the reception room, intending to throw it in the trash can. Suddenly, a man appeared before Yen's eyes, walking next to a woman, looking dazed. He hurriedly asked:

- Are you a hotel employee? I have important business to meet with the hotel owner.

Yen looked carefully and realized that the man standing in front of her was Hung, Yen's ex-husband. He had changed so much after just a few years of divorce, his face was flabby and his belly was big like a pregnant woman. The plump, white woman walking with him was probably Hung's new wife. She looked older but had the appearance of a rich lady. Yen was wearing a mask and black glasses so Hung didn't recognize his ex-wife. Yen gently said, if you need anything, just tell me.

- You are just a hotel employee, how can you handle our request?

- Don't worry. The hotel owner has assigned me to take charge. Just explain everything clearly, I will definitely solve it.

He hesitated for a moment, then he said in a serious voice, yesterday my family rented a Penthouse room at the hotel. When checking out, my wife forgot a diamond ring worth nearly a billion dong. We want to get that diamond ring back. She told the hotel owner that the diamond ring was a large asset, if I couldn't find it, I would have to report it to the police so they could investigate.

Yen silently looked at her ex-husband and thought to herself, he had changed a lot in appearance, but his arrogant and pragmatic personality had not changed. Yen calmly said, she thought it was something terrible, but it turned out to be just a trivial matter.

Saying that, Yen took out a diamond ring from his pocket and gave it back to his wife.

- This ring, right? Such a valuable item, you should take good care of it. Luckily, I found it in a drawer under a bag of trash. If you don't come back to find it, I will turn it in to the police and ask them to find the owner and return it. Our hotel does business properly and takes reputation as the most important thing.

Hung bowed his head and thanked her profusely. Looking at her ex-husband's cowardly appearance, Yen let out a sigh.

Short story by TRAN QUANG VINH

Source: https://baobariavungtau.com.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202504/chiec-nhan-1038823/