Chapter 22 — The Machine of Dreams

While the team was hard at work machining a new spindle for the robot arm, Hoàng Nam still had to face another equally difficult challenge - the conversation with his parents that he had postponed for too long. That night, when the group took a break to eat and drink before continuing to work until late, Bảo Châu pulled him to a corner of the empty hallway, holding two cans of soy milk.

"When do you plan to talk to your parents?" she asked, handing him a carton of milk.

"I don't know," Hoàng Nam admitted, holding the milk carton but not opening it to drink, just twirling it in his hand as a habit to relieve stress. "Every time I think about saying everything, I feel blank and don't know where to start."

"Then let me help you prepare," Bảo Châu suggested, her eyes lighting up with an idea. "Let's rehearse together first, just like how we practice technical presentations for the judges."

Hoàng Nam looked at her, a light smile flashed across his lips at that unexpected creativity. "Do you think that will really help?"

"If you don't try, you won't know," she replied, pulling him to sit down on the familiar steps, the place that had witnessed so many important conversations between the two throughout the school year. "Just pretend I'm your mother. Tell me what you really want to say."

Hoàng Nam hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath, trying to immerse himself in the hypothetical situation. "Mom," he began, his voice hesitant, "I know you and dad sacrificed a lot to raise me, and I know medicine is a precious tradition in our family..."

"Stop," Bảo Châu interrupted, shaking her head. "You're apologizing before you've even said what you really want. Don't start with defensiveness. Start with your true feelings."

Hoàng Nam paused and thought for a moment before trying again. "Mom, I love robots," he said, his voice still shaky but much more sincere. "Not as a temporary hobby. Every time I stand in the factory, watching an idea gradually turn into reality through each screw, I feel truly alive, truly myself, in a way that I have never felt anywhere else."

"Much better," Bảo Châu encouraged, smiling. "Go ahead."

"I know you worry about my future," Hoàng Nam continued, his voice growing steadier as the words began to flow naturally from the heart instead of being carefully crafted in the head. "But I don't want to live a life chosen for me by others, even if it's my parents, the people I love the most. I want to try, pursue the path of Mechanical Engineering, build a career from my own passion. If I fail, at least I will know it is my own failure, not regret for never daring to try."

His voice choked on the last sentence, and Bảo Châu realized that Hoàng Nam's eyes were filled with tears, even though he tried to blink to hide them. She placed her hand on his shoulder, a gentle gesture of comfort.

"That's exactly what you needed to say," she said softly. "It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to have every answer ready for every question your parents might ask. Just be honest."

"What if my parents still don't listen?" Hoàng Nam asked, the familiar fear appearing in his voice again.

"Well at least you tried," Bảo Châu replied. "And I think, sometimes people need to hear something sincere, very profound, before they are ready to change their perspective. Maybe your parents won't agree right away, but at least, they will know clearly who their son really is, what he really wants, instead of continuing to live in the illusion of a Hoàng Nam that they drew in their heads."

Hoàng Nam was silent for a moment, thinking about what she had just said. "You know," he said finally, his voice filled with gratitude, "I think if it weren't for you, I would never have had the courage to think about talking frankly to my parents like that. I would have just kept avoiding it, kept letting everything simmer until it exploded in the worst way."

"You are much stronger than you think," Bảo Châu said, smiling at him under the dim hallway light. "I'm simply someone standing next to you, reminding you of that."

They sat there for a while longer, not saying anything else, simply enjoying the rare quiet amidst the recent tumultuous days. Finally, Hoàng Nam took out his phone and looked at the screen for a long time before deciding.

"I'll call my mom right now," he said, his voice a little shaky but full of determination. "Not to say everything over the phone, just to ask for an appointment to talk seriously, face to face, this weekend, before the whole team leaves for the national finals."

"I'll be here," Bảo Châu said, squeezing her hand again as a silent encouragement.

The call was brief, Bảo Châu only heard one side of the conversation, but she could feel the tension in Hoàng Nam's voice gradually calming down as the call progressed. When he hung up the phone, he let out a long breath, as if he had just relieved some of the burden he had been suppressing for many weeks.

"Mom agrees," he said, his voice still a bit dazed. "This Sunday, before the team leaves, the whole family will sit down and have a serious talk."

"See," Bảo Châu said, smiling brightly. "The first step is always the hardest step."

Hoàng Nam looked at her, his eyes filled with a deep respect that no words could fully express. "Thank you," he said softly, then unable to hold back, he gently touched her cheek, a gentle, hesitant but sincere gesture that made Bảo Châu's heart beat in a completely new rhythm. "For everything."

That moment, short but meaningful, was interrupted by Tấn Phát's call from inside the workshop, announcing that the new spindle was completed and ready for test assembly. Both stood up, no one said anything more about the moment just now, but in the hearts of both Bảo Châu and Hoàng Nam, something silently changed, more certain and warmer than ever, as they walked back to the factory together to continue the fight against time, now no longer two people carrying individual burdens, but two true companions, ready to face all the challenges ahead together.

All the way back to the workshop, Bảo Châu couldn't help but glance at Hoàng Nam from the corner of his eye, noticing that his appearance was completely different from the gloomy, tired boy of a few days ago - shoulders straighter, steps more steadfast, as if daring to tell the truth, even if it was just a small first step, had given him back some of the strength he had lost during the weeks of being immersed in fear and silence.

Upon entering the workshop, the whole team gathered around the workbench, where the new spindle, meticulously machined from light alloy at Bảo Châu's suggestion, was waiting to be installed into the robot arm. Đức wiped the sweat from his forehead, smiling tiredly but proudly. "It's done, now just waiting for assembly and testing."

"Then let's get to work right away," Hoàng Nam said, his voice full of new energy, taking off his uniform jacket and hanging it on the chair, rolling up his sleeves and ready to get to work. "Tonight, we will finish the assembly before anyone goes home."

The whole group cheered in agreement, and in the bustling but warm atmosphere of that night, Bảo Châu clearly felt an important transformation taking place — not only in the robot that was gradually being reassembled from broken pieces, but also in the whole team, where the relationship between her and Hoàng Nam, was all being rebuilt, stronger, more sincere than ever.

Nearly ten o'clock at night, when the new spindle was completely assembled and the robot arm began to move smoothly again under Tấn Phát's careful control hand, the whole team stood still and watched, no one dared to breathe heavily until the robot completely completed the operation of stacking three blocks of objects without any problems.

"Alright!" Đức shouted, punching his fist in the air in celebration, and the group once again hugged each other, laughter mixed with tired but happy tears after a long and challenging day.

Teacher Vinh, standing and watching that scene from the corner of the room, could not hide his warm smile. "There are two more days left to complete the final details and test again and again," he reminded, although his tone was no longer as heavy with worry as before. "But I believe, with this spirit, you can do it."

When the team finally left that night, exhausted but full of hope, Bảo Châu cycled home under a sky that had cleared after the afternoon rain, the rare stars sparkling again, like a silent promise that the best things were still ahead, as long as they were brave enough to continue moving forward together.