In all my stories, I try to explain the essence of their content as briefly as possible so that readers do not lose much time to read.

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 In my childhood I very often came out to the forest to pick woods mainly consisted of dry stems of bamboos in length about 10-15 m, and diameter at the place of truncation near the root – 10-15 cm. The dry bamboos had been tied in bunches of 6 – 10 stems and dragged to the river Nam Thi in the distance about 1 – 2 km where I gathered them in a raft, sat on which and floated to home.     

 I often went about 6-8 km not far from the town Lao Cai, sometimes I ventured further and further, about 10-12 km high up to the river’s Nam Thi origin, where its streams dropped from mountains. The river Nam Thi ran along the mountains ranges and served as the border between Vietnam and China. From the tops of hills on the both sides – Vietnamese and Chinese, the water in the river looked still and transparent in the winter that it was hard to believe there was any at all. Fishes crabs and all the other kinds of water creatures drifted over the smooth pebbles or the sandy wrinkled bottom as though they suspended in the air. During my explorations far from the town into the depths of forests I met a fascinating man, lived under his shelter of branches, he made, in the forest so tangled that it was only with difficulty jaguars, snakes, tigers, bears and other creatures managed to get through. Because I was frequently meeting him I got to know him very well, his name is Tu, and could introduce myself to him. One day occasionally I came to this forest and he invited me to his tent. He greeted me: “Good day! Some weeks you didn’t attend this forest, I took it that maybe you’ll not come for gathering dry bamboos and now I am glad that you’ve arrived again.” This time he told me: “I had secluded here among the wild nature already 20 years ago from Lao Cai town for I got bored to live there. As he talked I studied him covertly. He was tall, but looked strong: his muscle bulged in his arms, as I could see. He was dressed in tore at knees trousers, his worn sombre shirt without tie and large solid boots to go in the forests. He had a well-shaped nose, straight black eyebrows under which his eyes keen with twinkles in them looked the forest; at the both corners of his eyes there were some little wrinkles that argued his wisdom. I asked him: “How old are you?” He said: “You try to guess.” I brooded a little and said: “You are about 25.” Then Tu laughed loudly: “You’re wrong, now I am 55.”

 https://gioau.com/en/no_sugar_salt_en.htm

 I was most surprised and asked: “What do you eat that you’re looking quite young.” Then Tu began to tell me about his life: “My life was terribly hard, I was born in a poor family, so poor that we hadn’t money to buy salt. Many years previously I lived in the town Lao Cai, there ardent bands of teenagers, youths, among them I was, divided into groups and hated each other. Every group considered the town was its inhabiting place and so we waged a constant war against each other, sometimes using the cold weapon as knives or swords”.

 Among his stories there was such an event: “One time, in a heavy fighting, I was captured by our opponents and held without foods and water for several days in a ditch, in those days closed at hand to the Province’s Party Headquarter, covered by branches and intended to be a trapdoor for wild boars. One day the leader of the opponents by name Tran Tu ordered to his people to fetch me out for an interrogation. My hands and feet were tied so I could not run away and only the devil knows what they were going to do with me. Having known I had never eaten sugar, salt and ready foods, like tinned meat, vegetable, fish, this man was surprised and said: ‘That’s why you’re looking very handsome, I even would say very nice, I can’t expect our enemies to have a man like you. We’ll have a lesson from you how to live. I let you go and order my people no longer to pursue and catch you.’ ”  

 https://gioau.com/en/no_sugar_salt_en.htm

 Having listened to this story with suppressed excitement I left him and returned home that time without woods. Some days later I was dumbfounded as if I had lost my soul, thinking about this story. Since day I decided: “No longer I’ll eat salt, sugar and ready foods made by other people”.

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Vu Vanminh recorded according to the story Ninh A Vinh. 09-07-2019.

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