Under pressure from his uncle, Mr. Bui Viet Trung was forced to abandon his younger brother at a hospital. For over 40 years, he lived in guilt and anguish - until the day they reunited in tears on the program As if we had never been apart.
A painful childhood
In the 1980s, Mr. Bui Van Kho and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Bau moved their five sons to a new economic zone about 20 km from Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province, to start a new life.
During one trip to the forest, Mr. Kho stepped on an unexploded landmine and was killed. A few months later, Mrs. Bau passed away from blood loss during childbirth.
At the time, the children left behind were Bui Viet Trung (13 years old), Minh (11), twins Duc and Hanh (6), and Nghiệp (4).
Orphaned, Mr. Trung, now 56, brought his younger brothers to stay with their paternal uncle. But their life there was marked by abuse and hardship.
Mr. Trung recalled how the children mostly survived on forest vegetables and fruit. Despite their poverty, the uncle frequently beat and scolded them. One day, Mr. Trung came home to find his youngest brother crying with a broken arm. His other siblings told him the uncle had kicked Nghiệp, causing the injury.
Mr. Trung and his siblings waited decades for the moment they would be reunited with their long-lost brother.
When Mr. Trung confronted the uncle, he was berated and told to abandon the boy - or be beaten to death himself.
“He was our uncle, but he constantly beat us,” Mr. Trung said. “He ordered my aunt and me to leave Nghiệp at the hospital. Everyone was afraid of him, even my aunt, so we followed his orders.”
Mr. Trung took his little brother to the hospital, told him to wait there, and promised to come back. He never did. “From that day on, I cried every day,” he said.
“I kept imagining him waiting, hungry, alone, wondering if someone would feed him. Even now, I still cry whenever I think about it.”
Two weeks later, Mr. Trung ran away from home and traveled 20 km to the hospital to look for Nghiệp. But a nurse told him the boy had already been adopted, and the adoptive parents had left no contact information.
Back home, Mr. Trung and his brothers continued to suffer abuse. One time, after not weeding thoroughly enough, Mr. Trung was beaten so badly he needed medical attention. Around that time, his brother Duc also ran away.
Mr. Trung returned to the same spot where, over 40 years ago, he left his brother behind.
Mr. Trung found him at a market, exhausted and starving. They decided not to return to their uncle’s house and began begging for food and shelter.
Eventually, a kind stranger took them in. A year later, Mr. Trung contacted Minh and asked him to join them in Nha Trang.
In 1989, they managed to find Hanh, who had been adopted by their father's first wife’s family in Ba Ria - Vung Tau. The four brothers were finally reunited.
In the following years, Mr. Trung worked as a rubber tapper while his brothers took various odd jobs in Xuyen Moc district.
Even after so many years, Mr. Trung never stopped looking for his lost brother. Every year, he returned to the hospital, hoping for information - but always left empty-handed.
A reunion filled with tears
Mr. Trung said he feared his brother would resent him, but he never gave up searching.
In 1983, after being abandoned, young Nghiep was left alone in the hospital. A fellow patient took pity on him and gave him food.
Shortly afterward, an elderly couple, Huynh Cau and Pham Thi Mau, visited the hospital to care for their grandchild. When they saw Nghiệp, they decided to adopt him.
Already in their senior years, with six grown children, they raised the boy as their own grandson and renamed him Huynh Minh Trung.
Mrs. Mau doted on her adopted grandson. She gave him two gold rings so he could learn a trade and even enrolled him in martial arts classes to protect himself from bullies.
Wanting to stay close to his adoptive grandmother, Mr. Trung declined to study far away and instead worked as a bricklayer.
Throughout his childhood, he suffered from bullying due to being adopted. The pain built up into resentment. He blamed his biological parents for abandoning him and never tried to find them.
Mr. Nghiep, lost at age 4–5, had no memory or information about his birth family.
But once he had a family of his own, he finally understood a parent’s love. Over time, the resentment faded.
Still, he didn’t know where to start looking for his origins. It was only when his brother-in-law wrote to As if we had never been apart that a search began.
“Now that I’m older, I no longer feel anger or bitterness,” Mr. Trung said. “I just want to know where I came from. If I do find my family, I only hope we can live together peacefully.”
“If I did something wrong in the past that made my family abandon me, I hope they can forgive me. I hold no grudges.”
Eventually, the program confirmed that Huynh Minh Trung was in fact Bui Viet Nghiep, Mr. Trung’s long-lost brother. On the show, Mr. Trung admitted he had lived in guilt for decades.
Even though he feared his brother would reject him, Mr. Trung continued searching.
The emotional moment Mr. Trung embraced his brother again after four decades apart.
But when they finally met, Mr. Nghiep ran into his brother’s arms. Both men wept uncontrollably.
Their three other brothers - Minh, Duc, and Hanh - soon joined the emotional reunion, embracing the sibling who had endured so much pain. All five cried in joy.
After composing himself, Mr. Trung said: “Today, I am happy. Decades of effort and waiting have paid off.”
“Whether or not you forgive me, I am grateful. Just seeing you here, alive and well, brings me peace.”
Mr. Nghiep replied with tears in his eyes: “I hold no anger - only happiness and gratitude.”
“Even though we’ve lost our parents, I still have you - my brothers. And that’s enough to move forward in love.”
The five brothers finally reunited, overwhelmed by tears of joy.
After 17 years on the air, As if we had never been apart has created a powerful database to reconnect separated families. On its website haylentieng.vn, viewers can search for missing loved ones using names, birthdates, and hometowns.
Thanks to this system, thousands of families have been reunited.
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