• **VietWriter – 10/09/2015 → 30/09/2026** Có lẽ đây là bài viết khó nhất tôi từng viết trên VietWriter. Không phải vì tôi không biết phải viết gì. Mà vì tôi biết, sau những dòng này, sẽ không còn bài viết nào nữa. Ngày **10/09/2015**, VietWriter bắt đầu. Khi ấy, tôi chỉ nghĩ đơn giản rằng mình muốn tạo ra một nơi để mọi người có thể viết, có thể chia sẻ, có thể gặp những người cũng yêu con chữ giống mình. Tôi không nghĩ nơi này sẽ đi cùng mình lâu đến vậy. Hơn 11 năm. Một khoảng thời gian đủ dài để một người thay đổi rất nhiều. Đủ dài để những người từng là học sinh trở thành người đi làm. Đủ dài để những người từng có rất nhiều thời gian viết lách giờ phải bận rộn với gia đình, công việc, con cái và cuộc sống riêng. Đủ dài để những nickname từng xuất hiện mỗi ngày dần trở thành những cái tên đã lâu không còn sáng đèn. Và cũng đủ dài để một diễn đàn từng đông vui trở nên ngày càng yên tĩnh. Từ **vietwriter.com** đến **vietwriter.one**, VietWriter đã đi qua rất nhiều lần thay đổi. Có lúc đông vui. Có lúc im ắng. Có lúc tôi từng nghĩ sẽ làm lại thật lớn. Có lúc tôi nghĩ chỉ cần giữ nó ở đó thôi cũng được. Không cần phát triển thêm. Không cần ai biết đến. Chỉ cần nó vẫn còn. Bởi đôi khi, chúng ta giữ một website không phải vì nó còn giá trị về lượt truy cập, về tiền bạc hay về công nghệ. Chúng ta giữ nó đơn giản vì ở đó có ký ức. Có những đêm thức khuya sửa lỗi diễn đàn. Có những lần chuyển server, backup dữ liệu, sửa từng thứ rất nhỏ. Có những bài viết mà giờ đọc lại thấy ngây ngô. Có những cuộc trò chuyện tưởng như chẳng có gì đặc biệt, nhưng nhiều năm sau nhìn lại mới nhận ra đó chính là tuổi trẻ. Có những người từng rất thân. Rồi không còn nói chuyện nữa. Có những người từng nói rằng sẽ ở VietWriter thật lâu. Rồi một ngày cũng biến mất. Không trách ai cả. Vì cuộc sống vốn là như vậy. Mỗi người rồi cũng phải bước tiếp trên con đường của riêng mình. Chỉ có diễn đàn là vẫn nằm ở đây. Âm thầm giữ lại dấu vết của tất cả mọi người. Từng bài viết. Từng bình luận. Từng tài khoản. Từng ngày tháng mà có lẽ chính người viết cũng đã quên. Và rồi hôm nay, đến lượt tôi phải là người kết thúc nó. Tôi đã nhiều lần mở trang quản trị lên. Nhìn những dữ liệu đã nằm ở đó suốt hơn một thập kỷ. Và thật lòng, tôi không nỡ xóa. Một cái database có thể chỉ là vài gigabyte dữ liệu. Một tên miền có thể chỉ là vài dòng DNS. Một diễn đàn có thể chỉ là code, server và những bảng dữ liệu. Nhưng tôi biết rằng trong đó có hơn 11 năm của VietWriter. Và cũng có hơn 11 năm của chính tôi. Có lẽ điều buồn nhất khi đóng một diễn đàn không phải là website biến mất. Mà là khoảnh khắc mình nhận ra: **một thời của mình thật sự đã đi qua.** Ngày **30/09/2026**, tôi sẽ tắt VietWriter. Sau ngày đó, có thể khi bạn gõ lại địa chỉ quen thuộc, sẽ chẳng còn gì xuất hiện nữa. Không còn trang chủ. Không còn những bài viết cũ. Không còn những nickname từng quen. Không còn dòng chữ báo rằng có ai đó đang online. Chỉ còn một cái tên từng tồn tại trên Internet. Nhưng trước khi mọi thứ biến mất, tôi muốn nói một lời mà có lẽ suốt hơn 11 năm qua tôi chưa từng nói đủ: **Cảm ơn.** Cảm ơn tất cả những người đã từng bước vào VietWriter. Dù bạn ở đây nhiều năm, vài tháng, vài ngày hay chỉ vô tình ghé qua một lần. Cảm ơn những người từng đăng bài. Cảm ơn những người từng viết truyện. Cảm ơn những người từng bình luận. Cảm ơn những người từng cãi nhau rồi lại làm hòa. Cảm ơn những người từng giúp VietWriter vui hơn, đông hơn, có sức sống hơn. Và đặc biệt, cảm ơn những người dù đã đi rất lâu nhưng đã từng để lại một phần tuổi trẻ của mình ở đây. Tôi không biết mọi người bây giờ đang ở đâu. Đang sống thế nào. Có còn viết nữa hay không. Có còn nhớ VietWriter hay không. Nhưng nếu một ngày nào đó bạn tình cờ nhớ lại cái tên này, tôi hy vọng bạn sẽ nhớ về nó bằng một chút dịu dàng. Rằng đã từng có một nơi như vậy. Một diễn đàn nhỏ. Một góc nhỏ của Internet. Nơi một nhóm người từng gặp nhau chỉ vì cùng thích viết. Chúng ta đã từng ở đây. Thật sự đã từng ở đây. Và như thế là đủ. Ngày **10/09/2015**, VietWriter bắt đầu bằng một cú click. Ngày **30/09/2026**, VietWriter cũng sẽ kết thúc bằng một cú click. Chỉ khác rằng lần đầu tiên tôi nhấn nút với rất nhiều háo hức. Còn lần cuối cùng… có lẽ tôi sẽ ngồi nhìn màn hình lâu hơn một chút. Trước khi nhấn **Delete**. **Tạm biệt VietWriter.** Tạm biệt **vietwriter.com**. Tạm biệt **vietwriter.one**. Tạm biệt một phần tuổi trẻ của chúng ta. **10/09/2015 — 30/09/2026** Cảm ơn vì tất cả. Và nếu ký ức cũng có một nơi để đăng nhập lại, hy vọng một ngày nào đó, **chúng ta sẽ lại gặp nhau.**

New Snare of Love

  • Chương 14

Chapter 14: No Longer Understand Her​





















“What are you talking about?” Dolores was even more confused.


Matthew got up from his chair and strode towards her while being silhouetted by the lighting in the room. His footsteps were steady and slow. In the end, he loomed over Dolores and said, “You are still my wife in name, so you should refrain from being intimate with other guys.”


He didn’t care about what led to their marriage. As long as they were a married couple, he couldn’t tolerate being cheated on!


This was his limit, and it was also his dignity as a man!


Dolores couldn’t really process his words. Since when was she being intimate with other guys?


She retorted immediately, “Didn’t you sleep with other women here as well? Should I be demanding on you as your wife too?”


Matthew’s creases on his forehead deepened, “I didn’t sleep with other women.”


Dolores was stunned momentarily. She was sure that Helen had spent the night here yesterday.


Who would believe that they didn’t end up sleeping together?


However, she suddenly realized that whether he did or didn’t sleep with other women, that didn’t have anything to do with her anyway.


Matthew’s expression was getting uglier by the minute. What was he thinking?


Dolores didn’t want their relationship to turn sour. She softened her tone, “I will try to abide by your demands. Then I shall…”


She waved the documents in her hands to indicate her intentions, fearing that she wasn’t already obvious enough.


Matthew mumbled a response, but he failed to conceal the tinge of anger in his voice. He wasn’t mad at Dolores, but instead he was mad at himself!


Why would he explain himself to her anyway?


Was he crazy?


He was really irked by his response to her nowadays! That feeling of discomfort almost morphed into one of disgust!


Since Dolores had secured a job working at a restaurant, she had to finish translating these documents as soon as possible.


When the clock struck midnight, she was only halfway done. However, her energy was already waning.




In order to freshen herself up, she carried the documents and headed to the living room. At that timing, the whole villa was shrouded in a deep silence. Matthew and Carol was probably sound asleep at that moment.


She placed the documents onto the table and poured herself a cup of lukewarm water in the kitchen. She put the cup onto the table and sat down onto the mat while continuing her translation task.


Matthew felt rather thirsty, so he came downstairs to pour himself a glass of water in the middle of the night. Seeing that Dolores was still translating his documents, he couldn’t help but frown.


However, he didn’t say anything as he passed by her. Dolores noticed his presence, but she didn’t immediately greet him.


Matthew was used to living alone, so when he saw a cup of water on the table, he instinctively picked it up and started to drink it.


“Hey—“


Dolores wanted to remind him that she was using that cup, but to her dismay, Matthew was already gulping water from it. She wasn’t able to continue her sentence anymore.


Matthew eyed her briefly and saw that she was hesitating about something. His gaze stayed on her face for several seconds before shifting to the cup in his hands. Under the faint glow of the light, he saw a faint smudge of lipstick on the edge of the cup.


His lips had touched that part of the cup just now.


Obviously, he was drinking from a cup that had just been used by someone else. Coupled with Dolores’ reaction, that person was probably her.


Dolores continued to stare the floor, pretending that nothing was going on.


However, she felt her face strangely burning.


They were really too unfamiliar with each other, so this simple gesture of him sharing her cup was a little too intimate for her.


Although he didn’t do this on purpose, Dolores still felt embarrassed by this.


Matthew’s lips quivered slightly as he licked his lips. He didn’t know what to make of this situation, so he simply finished the water in the cup in one go.


He placed the cup onto the table and walked in her direction. He noticed that it was already one o’clock in the morning, so he started, “Aren’t you sleeping yet?”


Dolores continued to look at the floor, not willing to raise her head, “I’m not sleepy yet.”


Matthew stared at her for a moment before turning around and returning upstairs.






When he reached the top of the stairs, he suddenly remembered that she had mentioned about going to his company for a job interview and failing to be selected. He felt strange about the whole thing. After coming back to his room, he picked up his phone and dialled Abbott’s number.


Abbott was still deeply immersed in his sleep, so he was a little annoyed when the ringing of the phone woke him up. He grabbed the phone with annoyance and with a plethora of curse words swimming around in his head, he was about to reprimand whoever dared to call him so late into the night. However, upon seeing the caller’s name, his sense of frustration disappeared without a trace. He rubbed his eyes nervously and answered the call, “Yes, Mr. Nelson.”


“Investigate the reason why the human resources department has denied the hiring of a translator recently.”


“Huh?” Before he could totally comprehend what he was being told, the line went dead.


Abbott stared at his phone for a long time. Why did the president call him for such a trivial matter?


A distorted expression slowly formed on his face.


Wasn’t he purposely disturbing his sleep for no reason?


However, he could only keep these words of complaint to himself. He didn’t dare to delay carrying out his orders.


The next day, Carol woke up to the sight of Dolores sleeping soundly while sprawling forward on the table. There was a huge stack of papers around her, and Carol couldn’t understand a thing written on it. She just guessed that it was probably something related to her work, and she let out a sigh, “You shouldn’t overexert yourself like that without even sleeping.”


Despite not understanding Dolores’ situation, she still fetched a blanket and covered Carol with it.


At that moment, Matthew was descending the stairs. Seeing that Carol was covering Dolores with a blanket, a subdued emotion that was sharpened by the passage of time slowly overcame him.


He walked towards her and bent over to pick up those sheets of papers. There were twenty-two pages in total, and she had translated every page and written them impeccably.


She probably spent the whole night completing the translation. Did this woman never get any sleep?


Matthew couldn’t help stealing a glance at her.


Carol only let out a sigh, not knowing what she could offer.






She turned around and disappeared into the kitchen to prepare breakfast.


By the time Dolores woke up, she saw Matthew digging into his breakfast. She rubbed her eyes while trying to help herself up by pushing against the table, but to her dismay, her legs were numb.


She had to wait for that numbness to dissipate before she could finally wake properly.


Then, she headed to the bathroom to wash herself up and take a bath, trying to refresh herself.


After dressing up, Dolores emerged from her room and held out the documents in front of Matthew, “They’re all done.”


She settled into her seat to eat her breakfast. After a pause, she added, “If you’re free, remember to pay me.”


She was afraid that he would forget about paying her.


Matthew put down his coffee and stared at her for two seconds, “I don’t carry cash with me. Look for me in the company later on.”


After saying that, he got up.


Dolores took a sip of her milk and decided not to pursue this matter further. As long as he would pay him, she would have no problems with the details.


The reason Dolores had been working so hard to complete the translation was because she didn’t want anything to affect her new job today.


After Matthew had left, Dolores followed suit not long after.


She had to wear a uniform in the restaurant. Dolores was donning a white shirt and a black vest. She put on a bowtie and her figure-hugging skirt exposed both of her long and slender legs.


Helen was sitting by a table near the window. She was in high spirits since Matthew had asked her out for a meal by himself.


Although Matthew had acknowledged the nature of their relationship besides promising her that he would marry her, he never took the initiative in anything. She was the one who had done all the initiative.


“Matthew—“


“I heard that you are the only who decided not to hire Dolores for the translator job?” He had learnt about this from Abbott earlier on in the company.


It turned out that Helen was the one who had been tinkering with the hiring process.


Helen clutched the arm rest of her chair hard. How did he find out about this?


Matthew was leaning against his chair, and the sunlight outside the window was pouring onto him. He lazily propped up his chin with his hand while his gaze was one of scrutinizing.


He felt like he no longer knew this woman in front of him, who once saved her when they were young and created a potion for him.
 
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