3.Awakening of a tired teacher
Thứ wakes up early in a school room in the suburbs, sitting on a divan and looking over textbooks for his morning classes. Having taught for two years, he knows the curriculum by heart, but he is deeply weary of the exhausting profession. He works eight hours a day, speaks continuously, grades papers at home, and works up to ten hours daily, all for a meager monthly salary of twenty dong.
The school was originally opened by Đích, a cousin of Thứ, who partnered with a colleague named Oanh. When Đích passed a civil service exam and moved away, he left Thứ in charge with vague promises of better pay as the school grew. Initially, Thứ was deeply devoted, working hard and successfully increasing student enrollment. However, his satisfaction faded when he realized his workload had doubled while his pay remained unchanged, forcing him to struggle while supporting his wife and child in the countryside. Calculating the school's income, Thứ realizes Oanh profits heavily while he does all the hard work.
Oanh frequently reassures Thứ that she will eventually return the school to him once Đích saves enough money to marry her, which once gave Thứ grand dreams of reforming the institution. He had imagined expanding the curriculum, creating a proper library, and fairly compensating his fellow teachers. Over time, however, he lost faith, realizing Oanh and Đích will never give up a profitable venture. Hearing Oanh bicker with a servant inside, Thứ steps out onto the veranda where another teacher, San, frantically studies French geography for an upcoming exam. San makes a vulgar, flirtatious comment about a young girl named Lan, which disgusts Thứ. San then complains bitterly about having to endure Oanh's nagging bossiness despite leaving his own wife behind.
4.Chapter 4
San comes from a relatively wealthy rural family and was given a limited education before his father made him return home to manage local affairs and marry into another prominent family. Thu previously despised San for yielding to family pressure and becoming subservient to the corrupt local gentry, particularly the powerful village tyrants who ruthlessly exploited the poor. Thu's own background was marked by deep bitterness toward these oppressors, fueling his youthful ambitions to study, acquire knowledge, and use his intellect to fight injustice.
Unlike San, Thu resisted family expectations, leaving home to live and work in Saigon where he struggled through various manual jobs and studied passionately, hoping to travel abroad and prepare himself for a future intellectual struggle. However, a near fatal illness forced him to return home to a devastated family and a deeply impoverished village. He found his family ruined, his parents broken, his siblings suffering in squalor, and his wife Lien burdened by debt and hardship.
Upon returning, Thu discovered that the village remained trapped under the cruel tyranny of powerful figures like ba Kiến while ordinary villagers suffered from economic ruin. Meanwhile, San had fully adapted to rural life, eventually sinking into local corruption by doing favors for his influential in-laws and participating in petty gambling. Disgusted by San behavior, Thu cut ties with him, viewing his actions as a shameful surrender to moral decay.
Later, Thu learned that San had moved to Hanoi to teach at the school run by Dích. When Thu eventually encountered San at the school, he found that San had transformed into a loud and jovial urbanite. Although Thu dislikes such superficial displays, he ultimately acknowledges that this new path is still preferable to San former life of rural degradation.
