Chapter 21 — Mist Peak Rescue Team

"Miss Khanh Van!" Nam was the first person to see her enter the hospital room, jumping up from the chair next to the bed with such excitement that the nurse standing nearby had to remind him to keep quiet.

Khanh Van smiled, entering the district hospital room, bright with sunlight shining through the window, where Bao Anh was lying on the bed, her face was much rosier than the pale image she remembered from the night in the cave. Son sat next to the bed, still holding her hand tightly, as if he hadn't left since they arrived at the hospital.

"Hello everyone," she said, setting down on the table a bag of fruit she had brought with her. "I stopped by to see how things are going."

"Much better, thank you." Bao Anh sat up a bit, leaning against the pillow. Her voice was now steady, without any weakness from that night. "The doctor said I have a type of arrhythmia called... I forget the exact name, but they said if I treat it properly and don't put my body under too much pressure like that day, I can live a completely normal life."

"She'll have to have a small pacemaker inserted in the next few weeks," Son added, his voice still a little worried despite being much more relieved. "But the doctor said it was a simple procedure with a very high success rate."

"So that's good news." Khanh Van sat down on the empty chair next to her, feeling a genuine sense of relief when she saw that all three people in front of her were fine, all safe, and all on the road to full recovery.

"I have to apologize," Bao Anh said, her voice low, her eyes avoiding looking directly at Khanh Van. "If I had told the truth about my illness from the beginning, maybe things wouldn't have been so dangerous. I hid the severity from Son, even myself, just because I didn't want to be seen as weak, didn't want to ruin the trip he was looking forward to."

Khanh Van shook her head gently. "I understand that feeling better than you think. Sometimes we hide what we're afraid of because we don't want others to see us differently, don't want to be prevented from doing the things we want to do. But the lesson here is not that you were wrong in wanting to go trekking, but that next time, let your loved ones know the truth, so they can prepare better, not to stop you."

Son looked at Bao Anh and squeezed her hand tighter. "I never want to stop you from doing what you like, Bao Anh. I just want to be by your side, knowing everything, so I can protect you better."

Bao Anh nodded, her eyes filled with tears but not because of pain this time. "I promise, from now on I won't hide anything from you anymore."

Nam, sitting in the corner of the room, spoke up, his voice somewhat shy. "Miss Khanh Van, can I ask you a question?"

"Ask, Nam."

"How to become a member of the rescue team like you?" He asked, his eyes shining with sincere curiosity. "I think... I think after this, I want to learn how to do what you did."

Khanh Van looked at the teenager, feeling a warmth spreading in his heart at that question — a new seed, sprouting from the painful experience he had just gone through, towards something much more positive.

"First of all, you need to learn to swim well, run well, and most importantly learn how to stay calm in difficult situations," she said, her voice serious but warm. "Then, when you're old enough, you can sign up for basic rescue training courses. If you really want to, I'll help you learn more about that path."

Nam nodded strongly, a bright smile blooming on his lips - the first smile Khanh Van had seen from him since they met in that dark and cold cave.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice filled with a sincerity deeper than his sixteen years. "For everything."

"You don't need to thank me, Nam." Khanh Van looked at him, her eyes were gentle. "I just hope you remember one thing, if you really follow this path in the future — always listen to your body, always be honest with your teammates about anything that could affect the safety of the group. The biggest lesson from the last trip was not only about being saved, but also about never hiding important things, whether out of fear or because of not wanting to bother others."

Nam nodded seriously, as if he was engraving every word she said into his mind.

"You should tell yourself that too," Son interjected, his tone half-joking, half-serious, making the whole room laugh lightly. Khanh Van looked at him, surprised by that unexpected sophistication, then laughed too, a comfortable laugh that she rarely allowed herself to show outside of work.

"You're not wrong," she replied, admitting gently. "Maybe I'm learning the same lesson again, in my own way."

The door to the hospital room opened, and Kieu Thanh Hien walked in, carrying a bag of snacks, stopping when she saw Khanh Van sitting in the room. Her face lit up immediately.

"Miss Van!" She quickly put the bag down on the table, walked over and grabbed Khanh Van's hand with both hands, her voice shaking with emotion. "I still haven't had a chance to thank you properly. You saved my son, my younger brother and his girlfriend."

"You don't need to thank me that much," Khanh Van replied, a bit embarrassed by that sincere gratitude. "It's a team job, not just me."

"But you're the one who leads that team." Thanh Hien did not let go of her hand, her eyes filled with tears. "I stood at Heaven's Gate station all that afternoon, watching the sky get darker and darker, hearing the weather get worse and worse, and I thought... I thought I might lose my son forever. You have no idea what you gave me in return."

Khanh Van was silent for a moment, feeling the weight of those words, a weight that she had learned to carry not as a burden, but as a source of motivation. "I know, Hien. I know exactly that feeling."

Thanh Hien looked at her, seemingly realizing there was something deeper behind that simple statement, but she didn't ask further, just gently squeezed Khanh Van's hand again before letting go, so she could continue the conversation with other people in the room.

The conversation continued for a while, revolving around future plans — Son talked about how he and Bao Anh planned to get married next spring, earlier than originally planned, because the recent experience had made them both realize that they shouldn't delay the important things in life. Nam talked about how he had researched online about survival training courses for teenagers, and his eyes lit up every time he mentioned that topic.

"Remember to invite the whole team to the wedding," Bao Anh said, smiling. "Not only you, but also Mr. Kien, Uncle Tong, Ms. Uyen Nhi, everyone participated in saving us that day."

"Sure," Khanh Van replied, feeling a warmth spreading in her heart at that sincere invitation. "I believe the whole team will be happy to participate."

The nurse walked in, gently reminded that it was almost time for Bao Anh to rest according to the treatment schedule, and Khanh Van understood that as a sign for her to end today's visit.

"I'll visit again when I'm free," she said, stood up, and gently squeezed Bao Anh's hand one last time before leaving. "Remember to get enough rest, don't rush anything."

"I will remember." Bao Anh smiled, her eyes were now full of vitality that just a few days ago seemed to have almost completely extinguished.

Khanh Van stepped out of the hospital room and walked down the bright white hospital hallway under the fluorescent lights. Her heart carried a feeling of completeness that she rarely felt after each rescue case - not only the relief of having completed the mission, but also the belief that the people she had saved would continue to live more fully, more meaningfully, thanks to the experience of almost losing everything they had just gone through together.

She walked out into the parking lot, the afternoon sunlight shone across the hospital grounds, and in her heart, for the first time in a long time, everything seemed to be in its right place.

Khanh Van smiled, stood up and prepared to leave after chatting for a while more about the recovery and future plans of all three people. Before leaving the room, she turned to look at them one more time — Son and Bao Anh holding hands, Nam sitting next to her with hopeful eyes, Thanh Hien standing nearby with a relieved smile that had rarely appeared on her face since that fateful day — a completely different image from what she had witnessed on that cold dark night, and it was that difference, more than anything else, that was the reason she continued to do this job every day.