Your home

Lien’s hair was yellow, but it was definitely not dyed. Lien’s toenails were also yellow, but they were the color of alum from thousands of days wading in the rice fields. Standing in front of Sao Mai Hotel, Lien exclaimed:

- This is where we used to eat, right?

- That's right, but at that time it was not called Sao Mai Hotel but Lien Co Restaurant.

Eyes wide open, mouth agape, Lien pounded the shoulders of the kids she recognized. This Dung, this Hai, this Nga. Here she is, the class president. She spun around among her friends whom she had met again after thirty years and said loudly:

- You guys are so lucky! Everyone is beautiful, rich, and happy. Only I am a real farmer. Then he laughed loudly.

I traveled with Lien nearly forty kilometers to visit her house, located on the border between Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province, the house that she spent most of the meeting talking about and I imagined it was a paradise. Lien said boldly:

- You have traveled more than a thousand kilometers to the South for a class reunion, but with only about forty kilometers to go, can’t you come visit my house? Come, whatever you want to eat, I will cook for you to make up for the hungry days before. Vegetables, fish, chicken, duck… I have everything at home!

Lien’s house had everything. Rows of Malabar spinach, Vietnamese coriander, and fish mint surrounded the well yard. A raft of water spinach with stems as big as chopsticks floated on the surface of a pond covered with green moss. On the concrete yard that was peeling in some places, a flock of chickens and ducks rushed in to eat the rice that was drying. A few hens even jumped onto the bed to find a nest. Lien rolled up her pants, waved her hand, and the chickens and ducks scattered all over the yard. And immediately, a plump Muscovy duck quacked and struggled in her hand.

Lien excitedly introduced me to her husband:

- This is my high school roommate. He came all the way from the Central region for a class reunion.

Lien's husband awkwardly tried to stretch out his curled shorts and nodded to greet the guests.

- Leave him alone, he's very gentle, whatever his wife says or does is fine.

Then Lien pointed to the picture of two young men trying to act cool but still looking rustic on the wall. Her eyes sparkled:

- That's my biggest asset. The older one is a technical worker, helping mommy earn three million dong a month to support his younger sibling. The younger one is in his final year of college studying music and art. My husband and I are farmers, but we gave birth to a child with a knack for art. I failed my studies, now I have to worry about my children's education.

Leaving Lien’s house, I suddenly felt a sense of jealousy for no reason. Lien was the most disadvantaged in the class. She failed the university entrance exam, stayed home to work in the fields, then got married, had children, and lived a hard life in her hometown. Nearly fifty years old, Lien had never been on a plane, only twice by train. She worked hard all year round on nearly an acre of rice fields, but her house was still empty. Yet Lien swore to me, our house has everything!

My family's villa is much bigger and more luxurious than Lien's house because my husband is the director of a business. But while Lien is busy lighting the fire, Lien's husband is washing rice to cook after a tiring day of working in the fields, I am alone, eating a bowl of rice in the cold and empty house. The children are away at school and working. My husband often has to entertain "partners" every evening.

Spirituality

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/van-hoa/chao-nhe-yeu-thuong/202510/ngoi-nha-cua-ban-42a17b6/