Lessons From (a new) Vietnam

Report from a month among the builders there.

Painting: A Big World Seen From Young Eyes - Vietnamese Artist Xeo Chu, Age 14

“Tiến bước chậm nhưng không dừng lại" (“We just keep moving forward – sometimes it will be slow, but we do not stop.”) – Vietnamese saying from a friend

“The biggest difference between our soldiers and yours during the American War can be summed up like this. We were trained – it was like a law – that for every three bullets we fired, one had to hit. As far as we could tell, you would shoot thousands to hit once. It was clear that you had to want this more than us if that was your strategy. That was not possible.” - North Vietnamese Army veteran from the Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1970-1975 interpreted in my interview.

“Don’t ever underestimate us, man. We have guerilla deep in our DNA for centuries. We just keep coming.” -- Vietnam tech CEO with operations now globally.

I asked a long-time consultant in Hanoi what he thought Americans get most wrong about this beautiful and vibrant country and he smiled at me and said: “You people are obsessed with the Vietnam War. Everyone who visits talks about it in their speeches. Half the population was born two decades after it. They want to talk about the future.”

Notwithstanding, I will start with two war vignettes from my near month in the country that stuck with me as I assessed the ever-rising tech and business ecosystem there.

First, I visited Dien Bien Phu, the site of one of the most important and least remembered battles of the 20th century. I should say, least remembered in the States – but it is the 70th anniversary of the battle and I was surrounded by Vietnamese, many of whom were veterans of subsequent wars and their families.

It is important in that it effectively ended the French colonial presence there once and for all and thus opened the door for another two decades of war with America. It is important because pretty much the entire colonial world, psychologically, saw that western nations could be taken on and beaten. It is important in that it says so much about the entrepreneurial creativity and tenacity of the Vietnamese today and for centuries.

The French had chosen a valley in northwest Vietnam with thousands of their best men and equipment as a way to stop opposing forces from expanding into neighboring Laos. The miles of hills and mountains surrounding the base was for the French a guarantee of safety. The now legendary General Giap of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam Army had a different idea. He entpreneurially, slowly, methodically, and with the help of tens of thousands of his countrymen piece by piece brought heavy armaments, ammunitions, and supplies all but undetected across these hills. When the first artillery shells landed on the airfield in March of 1954, the French knew how badly they had miscalculated. Some 56 days later, with terrible losses on both sides, Giap had won a great victory by doing something the world thought not only impossible, but unthinkable.

Second, I interviewed several veterans from what was then North Vietnam in what is known there as the American War. There were lessons galore from hours with each of them, but one man who personally dug tunnels to move supplies and harass and kill American and South Vietnamese forces an hour from Saigon has stuck with me.

He had lost an arm in 1967. He stayed in the tunnels and dug and rehabilitated them until AFTER 1973. With ONE arm. How he maintained the tunnels, created systems and latches for when Americans tried to flood them, developed code and processes of communications at night were as innovative as stunning. He showed us flip-flops made of rubber from discarded American vehicles, whose soles were shaped in a way that their footprints would leave utter confusion as to whether they were coming or going.

I thought of these experiences regularly as I met with dozens of executives, entrepreneurs, investors, students and more across the country.

In many ways they are foundational stories representing the builders I met.

The Macro level: A New Vietnam Open for Business?

Certainly, among locals, Americans, and global business execs there was a clear sense that the country is open for business.  I was cautioned repeatedly that while certainly the country is significantly centrally planned and top down, and the party is essential -- it is not Xi’s China. Power is not in the hands of an individual and for the moment there is no sign of that changing. Shared power and consensus is the watchword among leadership, and while this can make change and processes slower, it also can mean that there will be fewer mercurial-seeming or abrupt changes. The consensus today is it is a historic moment for growth. And as one tech executive said to me, “Once they make up their mind, they make things so.”

What is in consensus, however, can take time in application. I didn’t have to scratch hard to hear stories of how the government “lost” Intel – assuming their existing presence guaranteed their expansion, but for host of reasons Poland was able to woo them away. Netflix, I was told repeatedly, threw its hands up in frustrations in trying to get through regulations and while having a sizeable market there has relocated regional production elsewhere in the region.

But, I was reminded regularly, these lessons have not been lost at the highest levels and efforts are being made to discuss them openly and make change. Global companies, and American tech companies in particular, have made clear that the sine qua non of investing deeply here will be access to energy, access to globally competitive talent, and ever clearer and predictable rule of law. Vietnam understands in an era of global supply chain reshuffling any enterprise worth its salt has above all choice. As one local consultant said to me, “Let’s face it, Poland did everything right and has a strong and responsive play book. Vietnam is learning – and will learn – that to attract any industry, let alone tech for the 21st century like chips manufacturing, they are on a clock. Vietnam will rise regardless in its own momentum, but its ability to reach maximum potential will be getting the basics right quickly – even 18 months.” Arizona-based chip maker Amkor Technologies just made an over $1.6 billion bet here last October and Nvidia announced further expansion plans in customer partnership and manufacturing at the end of last year.

Efforts of anti-corruption are a two-edged sword, and I was there just as the President was forced to resign among a host of allegations. At one level, global investors salute the effort to tap down the cancerous effects of corruption that haunt economic growth anywhere. At another level it can slow down change. One investor told me he was thrilled at some of the pace of change he has seen but cautioned “we have been in a period where folks were acting and willing to ask some forgiveness later. Maybe in all this we might enter a period of needing permission rather than forgiveness.”

Books have been written about the long and complicated history with China, and both that history but also an admiration for what they have built came up often. No one expressed any interest in poking anyone in the eye, but across sectors I met with – tech, tourism, defense, energy and more – there was an eagerness here as I’ve seen across rising markets to have optionality. There is wariness about too much reliance on Chinese infrastructure, such as Huawei. I saw very little evidence of Chinese consumer brands outside of Tik Tok, and only a few Xiaomi phones and alike. Several told me in affect that it will always be AWS’s battle to lose in Vietnam’s recent “cloud first” initiatives as compared to anything from Ali Cloud. Japan and Korean tech and pop culture were repeatedly embraced across my trip – it is Japan, not China, that is building high-speed train system here and entrepreneurs told me they eagerly embrace active tech investment from both. But as one student said to me: “Everyone, if they could, would have a smart phone.”

There is, of course, a long history with Russia and I was advised repeatedly that US business and policy makers should not overreact to this. I was told also that reliance on Russian defense equipment and supply of spare parts was “mixed at best,” opening new opportunity not only for traditional manufacturers in America and Australia, but for the new tech innovators like Palantir and Anduril, especially in data science and drones.  I was told there is not only a desire to upgrade defense systems, but an unprecedented openness to discuss vulnerabilities and needs. As one diplomat told me, “The significance of this should not be understated.”

If there is a watch word for the 21st century global economy, it is “co-authorship.” The days where the act of an American company – particularly tech company – showing up and winning a market out of sheer marketing force is challenged by choice. Today the best way to compete is, in fact, to compete. I likely heard the term “reciprocity” more than any other.

American business will size up Vietnam as it compares it to all of Southeast Asia as well as Eastern Europe and Latin America, and Vietnam will invite their own market choices. If America will make choices based on access to energy, talent and rule of law, Vietnam will do so based on what one executive called “the durability of American commitments.” The Trans-Pacific Partnership and our withdrawal came up repeatedly in discussions, but so did how America met its commitments to deliver over 44 million doses of Pfizer vaccine during Covid. He was also quick to point out that Vietnam quickly delivered masks for Americans and that local electronic vehicle manufacturer VinFast is excited to build EV facilities in North Carolina which, with some early bumps, has committed to create over 6,000 jobs in America.

One of the high points of my trip was visiting Fulbright University and spending half a day with its astounding students in Ho Chi Minh City. The school whose creation was driven by War veterans like Tom Vallely, John McCain, John Kerry and Bob Kerrey and supported by the US government and donors is one of the best things the US has done here - heavily focused on critical thinking and liberal arts but will integrate top areas of science and tech. It is a pro-active engagement on developing talent. I told the CEO of a large tech company that if I were he and I would simply storm their senior class and hire them all. He smiled at me and said, “We already do all the time.” American universities and tech juggernauts are looking to expand programs to upskill talent in the country for chips and AI.

Reciprocity is good for business, and it builds trust. There is a $110 billion trade surplus for Vietnam so there is great incentive for more of it.

Enter the New Breed

The stunning and sprawling campus of VNG – one of the great tech companies not only in Vietnam but in the world – is evocative of an energized Silicon Valley office but very reflective of the founder and pioneer of the tech ecosystem in Vietnam Le Hong Minh. It is open and transparent and expects both hard work and commitment – located just outside of the more central parts of Ho Chi Minh City – but is inviting and has not only extensive space for collaboration and ideation but the requisite food and health facilities for mind and body. It began creating games in 2004, and now is a leader in online entertainment more broadly, social networking and ecommerce, and created one of the largest chat, mobile shopping and  payment platforms Zalo Pay.

Minh has lived the changes. “Vietnam today is a tech-dynamic and approaching middle income country, a stark difference comparing to 2004 when we started. GDP has grown four to five times over the last 20 years and went from a 2% PC penetration to nearly 80 million smart phone users and among the largest countries in the world in terms of tech usage. Coming with this the hardest thing for us is always access to talent, capital and experienced people to build the “next level” products or businesses.”

Huong Tran likes the trends. She is a venture partner from one of the more exciting tech venture capital firms across Southeast Asia, Monks Hill Ventures. Her story is one of the many remarkable journeys of the new Vietnam. She was born well after the War, was the first Vietnamese student to attend Stanford Graduate School of Business after the War ended, spent a decade in industry and startups in Silicon Valley and Southeast Asia and Vietnam and is helping the next generation do the same. She told me there are at least four factors that have transformed the Vietnamese entrepreneurial landscape.

First, there's a noticeable increase in the quantity, quality and caliber of entrepreneurs. Half of its population is under 30. They have fresh ideas and have gravitated to startups and tech companies and simply know how it is done. Additionally, Vietnam is one of the top 10 producers of engineers globally, according to the World Economic Forum, producing over 50,000 IT graduates annually. Vietnam sends almost half of the entire Southeast Asian international students to study abroad in the US. Many of them after having gained valuable skills and networks abroad may return home and increase the quality of the talent pool.

Second, Vietnamese entrepreneurs nowadays are more ambitious in their visions for scale and size.

Within Southeast Asia, Ho Chi Minh City bears an interesting resemblance to the next Silicon Valley: a strong STEM educational system, a relatively inexpensive pool of engineers, and the recent wave of overseas Vietnamese home comers or foreign founders moving to the country accelerating Vietnam’s digital economy. It has become increasingly common to see globally distributed teams with engineering hubs in HCMC or Hanoi, especially after COVID.

Third, the availability of capital in venture capital investment in Vietnam has increased significantly in the past 10 years, from $46 mil invested in 2014 to $634 mil in 2022. While last year saw a drop from the hyped-up go-go days of investment found in markets everywhere, there is growing attractiveness as an investment destination and reflects the confidence of investors in the country's economic prospects.

Lastly, Vietnam's commitment to enhancing the rule of law has become increasingly apparent, bolstering its status as a favorable destination for foreign investment. Vietnam was ranked of 70 out of 190 countries in the World Bank Group's Ease of Doing Business report for 2020 and boasts 15 active Free Trade Agreements with an additional four under negotiation. These agreements serve as catalysts for expanding market access, promoting trade liberalization, and enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese industries on the global stage.

Jeff Lonsdale has had extensive entrepreneurial and investment experience in Silicon Valley and the US, but also across Asia and now Vietnam where his Starstorm Ventures is discovering unobvious shifts in the region. He told me that among the greatest shifts people underestimate is that today’s entrepreneurs have the advantage of an established infrastructure.

“There are solutions for logistics and payments for the people building the next round of companies today. There may be better solutions to be built in these spaces, but they can build their own companies without doing a lot of things in-house and customers are trained to already understand how ecommerce and other modern businesses work.” In addition, today’s best entrepreneurs in Vietnam are thinking global day one. “One way to filter for founders who have greater ambition is to focus on founders who have spent a lot of time overseas. Whether this is from an overseas education and some time working in Silicon Valley, or other Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnam) returning to Vietnam after growing up abroad, these are the entrepreneurs by default have a vision to win beyond just Vietnam's markets.”

My old friend Christopher Nguyen is my go-to for anything in deep tech, global thinking, thinking on life more broadly and certainly Vietnam. Chris’ life story is a book in and of itself, as he escaped as a boy by boat from Vietnam in 1979 through Malaysia. Impossibly he built a storied Silicon Valley career – PhD at Stanford in Engineering, the highest-level leadership roles from Google Apps to a host of startups and successful exits. He was into serious data science and AI before it was fashionable and is most recently bridging the power of the US market and Vietnam talent in his AITOMATIC which translates domain knowledge from natural language to ML models, for industrial companies. I spent an evening with his team in Ho Chi Minh City who would be coveted by any company in Silicon Valley.

“We're seeing a new wave of younger returnees who left Vietnam only in the past 20 years, and they're bringing a unique perspective to the table. These people have a much easier time plugging back into the country, compared to the refugee generation, while they also come with valuable experience from working in global corporations and start-ups abroad.”

At the same time, the growing start-up ecosystem within Vietnam has produced a group of very resilient entrepreneurs, what he calls the "real entrepreneurs" who have had to navigate the challenges of finding genuine product-market fit while managing cash flow effectively. “It's a tough journey, but it's also what makes them so effective at what they do. The combination of globally minded returnees and battle-tested local entrepreneurs creates a unique and promising environment for start-ups to flourish in Vietnam.”

It Don’t Come Easy – Building A New Ain’t for the Faint of Heart

To a person, people I met were realistic by the head winds. The size of the market is large (at over 100 million people) but not that large say like Indonesia. Southeast Asia, as I’ve written here, is not really a traditional “market” marked by shared culture, language, religion, rule of law per se – the most successful “regional” companies, like the mobile/superapp juggernaut Grab are as much holding companies country by country. The history of successful “global” expansion of local tech companies overseas is still early. The era of “copycats” – local companies taking successful models and building them for home markets seems passed and those building outside of the box will need to show significantly more traction and better unit economics potential to be able to raise capital to reach scale. One entrepreneur noted that a cultural strength also may be a hindrance in the 21st global/tech economy: “Focus can be a challenge. Vietnam has a great hustle culture where people are building a lot, but when employees all have side gigs or entrepreneurs who aren't Elon Musk find it normal to try and build multiple companies, it makes it hard for any one company to be extremely successful.”

Huong told me what remains the hardest challenge is figuring out how Vietnam can leapfrog and avoid the Middle-Income Trap - when countries struggle to advance beyond middle-income levels due to structural constraints. The jury is still out in places like Thailand and Indonesia, but success in South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore are encouraging models. “Vietnam's leapfrogging past the trap requires a multifaceted approach involving various sectors and policies. Vietnam's journey to economic prosperity rests on three pivotal pillars: dynamic human capital development (especially in STEM, critical thinking and mentoring/entrepreneurial experience), effective technology promotion and transfer, and favorable investment infrastructure.

Nguyen adds, the three most significant obstacles are: (1) navigating government regulations (complex web of bureaucracy and rules too often also defaults to “no” when startups are tying to get things done, (2) overcoming VC pattern-matching when investors from abroad have their own mental models and experiences on how to build missing the unique aspects required to succeed in Vietnam, and (3) availability of experienced professional management who have operated businesses at scale. But in all this he sees opportunity: “We will see more streamlined regulations, a better understanding of the market among investors, and a growing pool of professional managers. In the meantime, entrepreneurs who can navigate these obstacles will be well-positioned to succeed in Vietnam's dynamic and growing market.”

Luke Nguyen is the great founder of the highly successful mobile gaming enterprise Athena Studio and now runs an innovative fund in climate tech Earth Venture. He agrees that scale, and the mindset to scale, and skills/talent are essential and wells as linguistic diversity that can help bridge communication gaps across Southeast Asia and beyond. “Normally, I see the successful teams always have a diversified background,” he told me. But he added another basic one – have you built the right tool sets in a market where the cost of starting a venture has never been lower, more global competition is a click away and may be located anywhere.

They all see these challenges addressable – and in this addressing lies opportunity.

How will AI change the Game for Vietnam – Will It?

How the newer worlds of deep tech and AI will affect all this is still a question. One entrepreneur said to me there will be a tradeoff here but across rising markets: “To make this explicit - building a foundational AI company out here seems foolhardy, though building a company that utilizes AI to solve sector specific business challenges, or build devtools for people working with AI, would be a very interesting approach.”

If there is a candidate for the Godfather of the Vietnamese tech ecosystem, Vu Lam would be among them. Like Chris Nguyen he escaped from Vietnam as a child and has had an astounding career in America, studying in Illinois and Indiana. He told me that as early as 1995 he felt something was missing in his life, and he had to go back to Vietnam and figure out how he could make a difference. As things opened up, he began to leverage his relationships in the States and Vietnam building enormously successful tech global consulting enterprises leveraging and growing tech skills in Vietnam. He shrugged when I asked him, he noted: “AI provides benefits across all markets so I don't see Vietnam having any special skills/affinity that can leverage this technology as a differentiator.”

Minh concurred but noted the big questions need to be discussed. “We are thinking what the impact to the country workforces is if foreign language is no longer a barrier as near-perfect real-time translation will be available in a few years. At the same time, if everybody in the world has the same access, what will be the values of a knowledge worker from Vietnam. There is not a clear and easy answer.”

Huong is optimistic, embracing her conviction that skills and talent are the north star. “Vietnam has great potential to leapfrog in AI the same way mobile payments leapfrogged credit cards, and mobile phones leapfrogged desktop in the past decade. Vietnam can position itself as a key player in the global AI landscape, by focusing on AI talent development, innovation, and entrepreneurship. She added that embracing AI could potentially propel Southeast Asia’s GDP by nearly $1 trillion by 2030, as reported by the Financial Times. She added that in markets like Vietnam, numerous industries still rely on archaic pen-and-paper methods, this “Creates huge potential for AI to leapfrog where previously untouched by software revolutions, in more traditional sectors that are magnets for foreign direct investment.”

Chris Nguyen could not agree more on leap frogging across all industries central to Vietnam in the future. “I have believed this since 2012 when we first set up an office for our Big Data/Machine Learning start-up there. It does take time, but the fundamentals of an economy with 70 million young people under 35 with strong cultural commitments to education point to a strong opportunity to leapfrog with any technology that can leverage that human capital. The same thing cannot be said for economies around that region, either in quantity or quality. In the past ten years, a budding ecosystem has formed, thanks to the likes of VinAI (research), FPT AI Center (development), New Turing Institute (vocational).

He adds: “The way I know there is an ecosystem is that (in my company) we are now starting to be able to hire highly qualified AI people directly from that ecosystem, with the pipeline coming directly out of these institutions. In fact, you don’t have to take my word for it. This is the same human-resources bet that is being made by Japan, by South Korea, by Thailand, by Singapore, etc.”

So, the World is Lining Up, Right?

A friend who is both an investor and a beekeeper told me he thought Americans in particular would do well to work with his hobby. Novices assume the minute you open a beehive, the bees will be focused on you. And it’s always wonderful and humbling to note that they never seem to notice the outside at all – they are too busy building on their mission.

One of the most interesting questions I asked dozens of people I met was actually how much comparison one could make between the rise of the Vietnamese tech ecosystem and the juggernaut north in China. Is there, I asked, a 996 mentality here – the famous Jack Ma and Ali Baba philosophy of working from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM six days a week. To a person I was greeted with puzzled expressions. They aren’t going to build the Chinese way any more than they will build the American way. There are lessons to be learned everywhere, and the best in Vietnam – as globally minded as the best are – are focused on building in their way and their terms.

Minh almost, but patiently, chastised me. “Companies and VCs in the US normally focus on the 'big' opportunities, both in the US/EU and in a few very large Asia markets (previously China, and now India, for example). Most people not living in this part of the world will not have a knowledgeable understanding of the mid-sizes and smaller countries (like Vietnam), both in terms of the market potential and differences, as well as the capabilities of our people and companies. For me it is normal and very much a benefit to us, as it will allow us to truly build our deep knowledge and capabilities for markets like Vietnam (and similar countries).”

The American Lonsdale doubles down: “None of the countries in Southeast Asia are the next China, but outside of their neighbor in India (where valuations are high and competition in the investment market is even higher), it is one of the few places we can identify in the world where it is low risk to assume that there will be significant economic growth over the next ten years.”

Luke and Vu reminded me that larger global players usually start focused on partners that solve some low-cost outsourcing. The culture of math-heavy education for a long time created a good workforce in technology even globally from Grab to Yahoo, Samsung, LG, Intel, Bosch. “The workforce here is generally better educated than other ASEAN countries, highly motivated, and fast learners. Vietnam as a market is good and growing.  But the real value is being able to leverage the workforce here to perform high-skill jobs at a competitive cost would be a great way to help grow your own business/ideas.”

We are beyond that phase now.

The next wave of global attention has begun to realize that Vietnamese, at their essence, are builders and what is really needed is partnership. As Huong notes that “unlike in the US, where financial backing may suffice, Vietnamese companies seek investors who can offer strategic guidance, serve as sounding boards, and provide tactical support.” And, in turn, this also makes the American view of Vietnam as a geopolitical ballast very short-termist. It is simply not a role Vietnam wants to play, and the more we try to force the issue, the worse it would get for us. Better to treat Vietnam on its own terms with the respect it deserves, regardless of temporary economic might. “By recognizing and harnessing this untapped potential, Silicon Valley and the broader US market can unlock valuable opportunities for collaboration and investment in the Vietnamese ecosystem.”

Chris Nguyen I think takes some pleasure at setting me straight somewhat less patiently, and others who he thinks have often naïve understandings of Vietnam in Silicon Valley more broadly:

“Viet Nam sees itself as having a unique aspirational moment for the first time in 4,000 years. Americans are often very surprised to learn why the Vietnamese are so America-friendly (67% trust America would do the right thing vs 20% for China, in the recent ISEAS survey), despite the recent history of the and the subsequent devastating embargo. This defies all data points from the last 70 years, or even 200 years.

He adds, “the only way to understand it is to widen the aperture to thousands of years. The young people of Vietnam have a kind of wizened, entrepreneurial confidence about the future that come from being liberated, quite literally, for the first time in modern history. They know their history, but they think and act largely ahistorically. So, to say that Vietnam is “too small” a market ignores that minimum fifty-year time span, during which time the country will have become the most important in the region, bypassing Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, even Australia and Japan. By then Vietnam will have become a “global country”, with its citizens already forming diasporas throughout the region in increasing numbers.”

Simply See For Yourself

No one has helped me to understand the beauty, history and opportunity among the youth in Vietnam than Nguyen Lan Anh, the founding Managing Director of Endeavor Vietnam. For someone who had an astonishing, hard-nosed career as a reporter and executive editor at Forbes Vietnam, she is disarmingly soulful. And she was an inspired choice to take that combination skills to create one of the most important networks of mentorship and support for startups in Vietnam – as Endeavor Global has done in over 40 countries.

So much of my reflections and experiences in Vietnam were arranged by her, and she patiently would respond to my questions on the journey to keep my focused. Her own reflection piece on the ecosystem is better than mine here and all you have to do is search the companies she and her board and mentors have selected in Vietnam here, and you have a map of what is coming.  

The journalist in her has beaten on me for years in all my travel that no homework, no impression from elsewhere in Asia will capture a new day in Vietnam like simply showing up. There is no substitute.

She also hosted a global competition for startups based on a principle Endeavor Co-Founder Linda Rottenberg was the first to make me understand – that that which is shared among great entrepreneurs in rising markets is greater than that which they share with Silicon Valley, New York City or Beijing. The winners of this year reminded me of that lesson.

And the Vietnamese winners stood toe to toe globally among them all.

Coda

Chris Nguyen created this beautiful rendering of a stanza from the great Vietnamese poet from the end of the Le Dynasty Ho Xuan Huong (1772 - 1822), appropriately from the generative AI service Midjourney.

In the Spring-Watching Pavilion, destiny’s whispers intertwine,

A gilded instant, its significance boundless.

A sacred vow, a lifelong pact to keep,

Shedding myriad selves, burdens released from the deep.

Though the Tô Lake may run dry, our fated bond persists,

The Yellow River swells with love and affection.

No matter the intensity, I dare not question this appointment,

For this crimson ink seals our destiny’s anointment.

As he notes, in this interpretation, the encounter between the poet and their friend at the Yellow River is portrayed as a fateful meeting, an "Appointment with Destiny." The poem suggests that this moment is not merely a chance occurrence but a significant event that has been preordained.

The Spring-Watching Pavilion becomes the setting where destiny's breath intertwines, emphasizing the idea that their paths were meant to cross. The golden moment they share is imbued with boundless significance, hinting at its pivotal role in their lives.

The oath to remember and the shedding of burdens underscore the transformative nature of this encounter, as if it marks a turning point in their journey. The enduring bond between the friends, symbolized by the Tuo River and Yellow River, is characterized as a fated connection that withstands the tests of time.

The final lines emphasize the poet's unwavering acceptance of this appointment with destiny, sealed by the crimson ink that represents the indelible mark of their shared fate.