‘The quarrelsome’ rebuilds his life by planting lotus

Hai’s lotus pond in Dai Hiep commune, Dai Loc district was flooded by an unusual flood at the end of March, causing heavy damage. After a month of his efforts, in mid-April, the water surface is covered with green leaves, pink lotus flowers.

Hai is the son of a single mother with a disability, dropped out of school in 9th grade and opened a local barber shop. At the age of 17, Hai made money and was famous in Dai Hiep commune.

In 2014, a young man called his lover but dialed the wrong number on Hai’s phone. The end of the line suspected that Hai was his lover’s girlfriend, so he cursed. Both sides challenge. Hai often fought, so Hai came to his house and seriously injured him.

Hai’s extravagance and thug had to pay the price with a 2-year prison sentence Crime of intentionally causing injury in Binh Dien prison (Thua Thien Hue). In 2017, Hai finished serving his sentence and returned to the locality. Originally a playboy, now returning from prison, many people look at him with cautious eyes. Many people discriminate, stay away.

Seeing her mother thinking and grieving about her son’s future, Hai was determined to “remake her life” for her mother’s peace of mind. He was facilitated by the government to lease out 2.7 hectares of lake located in the middle of rice fields by the Vu Gia river, for initial debt. Hai borrowed a relative to hire a excavator to scoop up land along the shore to create a deep water area for fish farming, in the middle of a lake to grow lotus.

After each harvest, Hai had a little capital, so he rented 10 more acres of land from people around the lake to grow bananas and 500 coconut trees.

With lotus, Hai initially cut flowers and leaves to sell to traders, but the price was not high. Knowing that they bought them to import for Spas in Da Nang, he brought flowers and leaves to the introduction and committed to provide the required quantity. From selling a spa they trust, many other spas order for a price of 2,500 VND per cotton; 1,000 VND/leaf.

Every day late in the afternoon, Hai harvests about 400 flowers and 200 leaves for his motorbike. At around 4:30 a.m. the next day, he ran from his home to Da Nang more than 20 km to deliver goods to customers. “Before Covid-19, every year I sold flowers and leaves and earned 150 million dong,” he said, and for a long time the spas were closed and turned to harvesting seeds.

Under the lake, he raises carp and red driftwood every year, minus the cost of collecting about 70 million VND; banana 20 million dong. “I am building houses to make pubs, where check-in in the lotus season attracts tourists,” he said and cherished in the future an ecological area will be formed.

The 43-year-old man, now married and has a son, confided that he used to be impulsive, used to drink alcohol, then mess with and fight. Realizing his mistake, Hai changed completely, his frivolous personality gradually disappeared.

Recently, when faced with two people using electric stimulators to the pond to steal fish, Hai chose not to “confront” but reported to the commune police. “One person challenged me, saying, ‘The guy who gets out of prison won’t dare to hit me’. The other person tried to electrify me,” Hai said.

Chairman of Dai Hiep Commune People’s Committee Do Thanh Cang said that the commune government guaranteed with the district policy bank for Hai to borrow 30 million VND. In the spirit of “beating those who run away, no one will beat people to run back”, the government always creates conditions for Hai to rebuild his life.

He assessed, Hai used to be a rioter, but now has changed markedly; no longer hot-tempered, quarrelsome.

Dac Thanh