Classmates - Thai Nguyen Electronic Newspaper

Hung was a very good student so he was elected as the class monitor for all three years of high school. He was cheerful and sociable so his classmates loved Hung very much.

Illustration: Thanh Hanh

Everything was going well until the end of grade 12, a disaster suddenly struck the family. Hung's father unfortunately had a work accident and passed away. That year, Hung graduated with a very high score, enough to enter the Programming Department, University of Technology. But at that time, Hung's family only had his mother and two younger sisters, so Hung had to give up his dream of going to university. Hung became the main breadwinner of the family, replacing his father, helping his mother do all the farm work to raise his two younger sisters. All his friends felt sorry and sympathized with Hung, but they were helpless.

After her father passed away, Hung's mother was partly shocked by her husband's sudden departure, and partly because of worrying too much, her heart disease relapsed. After a while, she also left Hung's three brothers behind to follow her husband. Not long after, both of her younger sisters got married, and Hung also got married and struggled with daily life without any thought of studying anymore. Hung considered it as fate's arrangement.

Hung's wife runs a small business in the countryside market. The couple and their little daughter live in an old house left by their parents. Hung cultivates 3 acres of rice fields, raises chickens and a couple of pigs, but only has enough food for the family and cannot save anything. All expenses mainly depend on his wife's small business income, so they are always short of money and cannot improve.

Many times, seeing his wife and children in need, Hung did not know what to do. His wife dreamed of having some capital to open a grocery store at the market, but she could not do it either. They just lived a miserable life like that.

One day in late autumn, the wind was turning cold. Hung and his wife were renting a harvester for the early rice crop, planning to plant vegetables after harvesting to wait for Tet. Suddenly the phone rang, Hung quickly picked up. Some strange numbers:

- Hello! Is this Hung? Come home now, someone needs to see you!

- Who are you? What's up?

- You will know when you come back. Leave everything behind and come back right away!

Hung hurriedly loaded the bags of rice onto the car and drove home with his wife. As soon as they reached the gate, they saw nearly ten cars parked from the alley to the yard. Hung and his wife were still confused and didn't understand what was going on when they saw Sen from the house next door running out. When she saw Hung, she eagerly asked:

- Where are you coming from, Hung? A few guys came over to ask about your house a lot, and then told me to give them your phone number to call you.

Before he could regain his composure, a group of people from the yard rushed out, calling Hung's name. One person ran over and grabbed Hung's hand and dragged him into the house. It took Hung a few minutes to calm down before he realized that the person pulling him was the class president Trung from that day. The people around him took turns calling out their names and holding Hung's hand. Quy Can, Hung Lem, Cuc Hoa Hau, Quynh Tieu Thu, Lan My Mieu, Hau Lo Xa, Hoai Hay Cry, Tuan Muong Mo, Tuat Ba Hoa, Ngu Cu Non, Hoai Mo Mo... leaving Hung to be confused because he didn't recognize them and didn't understand why they were here, 37 people in total.

Hung and his wife were surrounded by everyone. Before Hung could say anything, Trung spoke up:

- Well, today is a day off, so we came to visit your family and let them know about your situation. Now, according to the plan, you and your wife have 20 minutes to shower and change clothes. Then we will go to the restaurant in town. Okay, you guys hurry up. We have already booked the party.

So after picking up their child from kindergarten, Hung's family was taken by his friends to the restaurant "Vietnamese Kitchen" - the largest restaurant located in the center of the district town.

Friends met each other, happy and sad, they talked about old stories, everyone avoided mentioning Hung's current family and only talked about memories of school days... The story of Quy Can opening a book and being caught by Ms. Nguyet, the story of Tuan flirting and sending a love letter to Miss Cuc and being caught by Mr. Kha, the story of Tuat bragging and Ngu Cu Non stealing chemicals from the lab to make fireworks and being caught and reprimanded in front of the whole school... laughter and chatter continued to erupt after each story.

Now they are businessmen, managers, engineers, young doctors. The fun lasted until late afternoon, at which point Trung, the class president, stood up and loudly declared:

- Actually, over the years, our class has always cared about you very much, but because of the difficult work situation of each person, it was not until today that we could visit your family. When we met the neighbor earlier, we asked and learned that you were also having difficulties. We are also luckier than you, our business is also developing well, so we have a little gift for you and your wife, so that you and your wife have more motivation and some capital to do business. I hope you accept the affection of the whole class 12D.

While speaking, Trung took a neatly wrapped nylon bag and gave it to Hung and instructed:

- You can only open this when you get home.

Trung told Quy to take Hung and his wife home. When they said goodbye, everyone shook Hung and his wife's hands and promised to see them again next time.

That night, when Hung's wife came home, she opened the package and was surprised to see it was full of money. She was even more surprised when she counted the amount of 500 million. She was confused and told her husband:

- Bro, exactly 500 million dong, that's a lot of money! They gave me so much!

Hung was also extremely surprised, he did not expect his friends to give him such a large amount of money. He held his wife's hand, pulled her into his arms and lovingly said:

- It's been so long but your friends still haven't forgotten me. Please use that money to spend wisely so as not to let down your friends' trust in us.

She buried her head in her husband's chest and sobbed. Then she said firmly:

- Yes, I know! I will use this money to open a grocery store. I believe I will succeed!

The autumn night was cold but their hearts felt extremely warm because friendship was so precious!

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