Luc Lang Han stared at the jade pendant on my chest with absolute confidence.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
“Nhan Nhien,” he said, lowering his voice, “stop pretending.”
Lam Vi folded her arms.
“Exactly. Five years have passed and you’re still playing these childish games.”
I smiled.
“Major Six, you’re right about one thing.”
Lang Han’s expression softened immediately.
“The jade does belong to the Luc family.”
“I knew it.”
He stepped toward me.
“But you forgot something.”
I touched the pendant lightly.
“The Luc family has more than one unmarried man.”
His smile disappeared.
Before he could ask what I meant, several military vehicles stopped outside the terminal.
The atmosphere around us changed immediately.
Officers straightened.
Security personnel moved toward the entrance.
Lang Han turned.
“What happened?”
A young officer approached quickly.
“Major Luc, Commander Luc’s aircraft has landed.”
Lang Han immediately became serious.
“My youngest uncle?”
“Yes.”
I checked my phone.
A message appeared.
【Where are you?】
I replied:
【Terminal entrance.】
Seconds later, the crowd near the restricted passage separated.
Luc Tram Chau appeared.
Five years hadn’t softened him.
He was tall, composed, his dark military uniform immaculate, his expression carrying the quiet authority that made entire meeting rooms fall silent.
Lang Han straightened instinctively.
“Youngest Uncle.”
Tram Chau barely glanced at him.
His eyes found me immediately.
Then he walked straight past his nephew.
Toward me.
“You waited.”
“I was about to leave.”
“Sorry.”
His voice softened.
“The meeting took longer than expected.”
He took my handbag naturally from my shoulder.
Then his eyes dropped toward my shoes.
“Your ankle still hurts?”
“A little.”
“I told you not to wear those.”
“I like them.”
A helpless expression crossed his face.
“You never listen.”
Lang Han stared at us.
Lam Vi’s face had become completely blank.
Finally Lang Han spoke.
“Youngest Uncle… you know Nhan Nhien?”
Tram Chau looked at him.
The question seemed to genuinely confuse him.
Then he placed one hand lightly against my shoulder.
“She is my wife.”
Silence.
Complete silence.
Lang Han’s face lost all color.
“What?”
Tram Chau frowned.
“Five years in the mountains damaged your hearing?”
I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing.
Lang Han looked at me.
Then Tram Chau.
Then the wedding ring on my hand.
“No.”
He shook his head.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because she was engaged to me.”
Tram Chau’s expression cooled.
“Was.”
One word.
Enough.
Lang Han’s jaw tightened.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
The answer struck harder than anything else could have.
“Five years…”
His eyes widened.
“You married immediately after I left?”
I finally spoke.
“The wedding venue had been reserved.”
“The guests had already received invitations.”
“And Grandpa Luc didn’t want to cancel everything.”
Lang Han stared at his youngest uncle.
“So you just married her?”
Tram Chau’s eyes became dangerous.
“No.”
He paused.
“I agreed to marry her.”
There was a difference.
And Lang Han understood it.
Lam Vi suddenly laughed.
“This is ridiculous.”
Everyone looked at her.
She stepped forward.
“Commander Luc, surely this marriage was only arranged to protect the reputation of both families.”
Tram Chau looked at her as though she were a stranger speaking about classified matters.
“And?”
Lam Vi faltered.
“You can’t possibly…”
“Miss Lam.”
His voice remained calm.
“What happens between my wife and me is not something you are qualified to question.”
Her face turned red.
Lang Han stepped between them.
“Youngest Uncle, Vi Vi didn’t mean anything.”
Tram Chau’s gaze moved to him.
“You disappeared from your assigned responsibilities for five years.”
“You returned today.”
“And your first concern is defending Miss Lam in front of my wife?”
Lang Han froze.
That sentence was painfully familiar.
Five years earlier, he’d done exactly the same thing.
I turned away.
“Tram Chau, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
He took my hand.
Behind us, Lang Han suddenly shouted:
“Nhan Nhien!”
I stopped.
“Did you ever wait for me?”
The airport seemed strangely quiet.
I turned back.
“For three months.”
His eyes flickered.
“Only three?”
“Yes.”
The first month, I had been angry.
The second, humiliated.
By the third, exhausted.
Then Tram Chau returned from an assignment and found me sitting alone outside Grandpa Luc’s study.
He hadn’t comforted me.
He had simply sat beside me.
Later, when I told him the wedding proposal had been impulsive and he could refuse, he answered:
“I know.”
“Then why agree?”
“Because I don’t intend to make you wait for someone who already chose to leave.”
Five years later, I still remembered every word.
Lang Han looked at our joined hands.
“I told you I’d return.”
“And I never promised to wait.”
His face stiffened.
“I went because Vi Vi needed me.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you blaming me?”
“I’m not.”
That surprised him.
“I stopped blaming you years ago.”
Sometimes indifference hurts more than hatred.
I watched him finally understand that.
“You made your choice.”
I squeezed Tram Chau’s hand.
“And eventually I made mine.”
We left.
But Lang Han apparently couldn’t accept it.
Three days later, he appeared at the Luc family residence.
Grandpa Luc was drinking tea when Lang Han entered.
“Nhan Nhien really married Youngest Uncle?”
Grandpa didn’t even raise his head.
“You finally noticed?”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
The old man slammed his cup down.
“Tell you how?”
His voice thundered through the room.
“You abandoned your assignment and disappeared into the mountains.”
“When I sent people to contact you, you refused to return.”
“You said Miss Lam needed you.”
Lang Han went pale.
“I thought Nhan Nhien would understand.”
“She did.”
Grandpa looked at him coldly.
“She understood perfectly that she could not build a life around waiting for you.”
Lang Han’s shoulders stiffened.
“And Youngest Uncle?”
“What about him?”
“Why would he marry her?”
Grandpa stared at him for several seconds.
Then he laughed.
“You really don’t know?”
Lang Han frowned.
The old man leaned back.
“Your youngest uncle had liked her long before she became your fiancée.”
That evening, Lang Han came looking for me again.
I was in the garden.
“Is it true?”
I didn’t pretend not to understand.
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“Not when we married.”
Tram Chau had told me two years later.
He’d never interfered with my previous relationship.
Never confessed.
Never tried to compete with his nephew.
Even when I proposed that absurd replacement wedding, he had asked me three times whether I was certain.
Lang Han’s voice became bitter.
“So he took advantage of me leaving.”
“No.”
I looked directly at him.
“You’re still doing it.”
“What?”
“Making your decisions someone else’s responsibility.”
He fell silent.
“Tram Chau didn’t make you leave.”
“I didn’t make you leave.”
“Your grandfather didn’t make you leave.”
“You chose.”
I paused.
“And choices have consequences.”
A car entered the driveway.
I recognized it immediately.
Tram Chau was home.
Lang Han looked toward it.
For the first time, there was no arrogance left in his face.
“Nhan Nhien.”
I looked back.
“If I hadn’t gone…”
I interrupted gently.
“But you did.”
That was the only answer that mattered.
Tram Chau approached us.
He didn’t ask why Lang Han was there.
He simply held out a paper bag to me.
“Chestnut cake.”
My eyes brightened.
“You remembered?”
“You mentioned it yesterday.”
Such a small thing.
But Lang Han’s expression changed.
Perhaps he finally understood.
Love hadn’t been proven by grand promises before disappearing for five years.
Sometimes it was remembering a cake mentioned casually yesterday.
I took Tram Chau’s arm.
“Let’s go inside.”
As we walked away, Lang Han spoke behind us.
“Youngest Uncle.”
Tram Chau stopped.
Lang Han remained silent for several seconds.
Then, finally, he lowered his head.
“Youngest Aunt.”
The words were barely audible.
But I heard them.
I smiled.
Five years ago, Luc Lang Han had promised to return and marry me.
He kept only half that promise.
He returned.
But by then, the woman who had once waited for him no longer existed.
I had become someone’s wife.
Someone’s equal.
Someone who had learned that being chosen today was worth far more than being promised tomorrow.
And the funniest part?
Luc Lang Han had spent five years believing that when he returned, everything would continue exactly where he’d left it.
Instead, he came home only to discover that the woman he once called his fiancée…
was now the woman he had to respectfully call his youngest aunt.
