Chapter 96 — The Medicine Bearer Through the Chaos

Return to Dong Hai

The journey from Yen Phung capital to Dong Hai town lasted nearly half a month, passing through lands that had begun to revive after the war - fields were gradually being plowed again, small villages were rising from ruins, groups of refugees had now found their way back to their old hometowns. Tinh Yen sat on the horse-drawn carriage, observing the scenery changing with each step. A feeling of both familiarity and strangeness arose in her heart when the first signs of the East Sea began to appear - the characteristic salty air, the distant sound of ocean waves, the coconut trees leaning in the wind.

Her group this time was not as large as on previous trips — only Ngan Ba Thuyen, Nhuoc Lan, Ton Ba Nghi, and baby Tep, now much older than the first day she met him at Ben Lau refugee station, always eagerly looked out the carriage window whenever something new appeared on the road.

When the carriage stopped at the outskirts of the area that used to be Lach Dua village, Tinh Yen got off the carriage and stood still for a long time before moving on. The trail leading into the village, even though more than eight years had passed since the night she ran wild, still had a few familiar features in her memory - the rows of trees along the roadside, the large rock where children often gathered to play, although now the trees were more luxuriant and wilder than the image in her mind.

Going around the final bend, a scene that made her heart ache appeared before her eyes - not the pile of abandoned ashes she had imagined all these years, but a small village that was gradually being rebuilt, although still sparse and simple. A few new thatched houses, a dug well, and in the distance, the silhouettes of a few people working on small fields.

"Someone has returned." Ngan Ba Thuyen spoke softly, standing next to her, his voice could not hide his emotion at this unexpected scene.

A middle-aged man with tanned skin and the muscular build of a longtime fisherman was repairing the roof nearby when he suddenly stopped when he saw a group of strangers appear. He squinted his eyes to look closer, then suddenly froze, dropping the tool he was holding.

"Tinh... Tinh Yen?" The man called, his voice shaking with surprise, walking quickly towards her. "Is it you, Tinh Yen?"

Tinh Yen looked closely at that face. The features were much more mature and weathered than in memory, but there was still the familiar straightforwardness of a boy from years past. "Dang Van Kinh?" She asked, her voice choked with unexpected emotion.

"It's you!" Dang Van Kinh shouted, ran to grab her shoulder, his eyes filled with tears. "I thought you were... Oh my god, I can't believe it, after all these years, you're finally back."

The two hugged each other for a moment, letting their pent-up emotions over eight years of separation finally be released. Dang Van Kinh recounted that, on the night the village was burned, he and a few young militiamen fought to the end, luckily survived, but had to flee deep into the mountains for many years, only returning to Lach Dua for more than a year now, along with a few other surviving families, determined to rebuild their homeland from the ashes.

"What about Mr. Tu Dien?" Tinh Yen asked, her voice trembling slightly, afraid of the answer she might receive.

Dang Van Kinh bowed his head, his face gloomy. "He didn't survive that night." He said softly. "But he was able to bring many old people and children to safety before falling. We have set up a small stele commemorating him, along with the others who died that night, right on the old ground of the village communal house."

Tinh Yen followed Dang Van Kinh to that place, kneeling in front of a simple stone stele engraved with the names of the deceased, including Ms. Khue's name, which the survivors recorded from memory even though they could not find the remains for a proper burial. She lit an incense stick and placed it in front of the stone stele, letting her tears finally fall on the land that gave birth and raised her in her early years.

"I'm back, grandma." She whispered, her hand gently touching the cold stone surface. "I've been on a very long journey, and now, I want to bring what I've learned back to this place, so that no one else has to suffer the same loss as what my family has experienced."

Dang Van Kinh stood silently behind, giving her space to express her emotions. Then when she stood up, he spoke, his voice regaining its familiar directness. "You are now a great physician of the court, but you still remember this place." He said, a bit proud and touched. "The villagers will be happy to know you have returned, and even happier to know the reason for your return."

"I want to build a medical shop here, or nearby." Tinh Yen said, her eyes looking across the village scene that was gradually reviving. "Not only to treat the villagers, but also to teach medicine to qualified children, like my grandmother once taught me."

Dang Van Kinh clapped his hands and shouted with excitement, unable to hide his joy. "If you need any help — manpower, wood to build a house, or anything the villagers can contribute — just say so. This will be Lach Dua's greatest pride, to have a medical clinic built by the village's own daughter, bringing knowledge back to the place that nurtured it."

While chatting, Tinh Yen couldn't help but ask about old Bay Cheo, the person who took her away from Lach Dua sea the night the village was burned. Dang Van Kinh pondered for a moment before answering.

"Old Bay Cheo passed away three years ago, due to old age and weakness, in another fishing village where he anchored his boat to take refuge." he said. "Before he passed away, he often told people in the neighborhood about the little medicine girl he had saved on that terrible night. He always proudly said that she would definitely do great things."

Tinh Yen closed her eyes for a moment, letting a gentle sadness flow through her heart, mixed with deep gratitude for the boatman who gave her the opportunity to survive to get to this day. "I wish I could meet him again, to personally thank him." She spoke softly.

"I know you're grateful to me, even though you don't need to say it." Dang Van Kinh replied, patting her shoulder to comfort her. "People like Mr. Bay Cheo, do good deeds not to expect to be thanked, but simply because it is the right thing to do."

Meanwhile, baby Tep quickly made friends with the children in the village, running together along the nearby beach, crisp laughter resounding in the middle of the sunset. Tinh Yen stood and watched that scene from afar, suddenly remembering her own childhood years, running and jumping on this same beach with Dang Van Kinh and Dang Thi Van, before the chaos took everything away.

"She suits this place." Nhuoc Lan commented, standing next to her and observing. "Perhaps, this will be a good place for him to grow up, instead of having to wander forever with us."

"I think so too." Tinh Yen replied, smiling as she looked at the small figure playing in the sunset, dyeing the beach yellow. "Perhaps, our new clinic will not only be a place for medical treatment and vocational training, but also a real home for children like her, children who have lost so many things because of the chaos."

That evening, the whole group was warmly welcomed by the villagers in a simple but warm meal, under the flickering light of oil lamps among the newly built thatched houses. Tinh Yen sat among strange but strangely familiar people, clearly feeling that something was gradually closing the circle of her life - from the place where she had lost everything, now she returned to bring something to give back, not to make up for the past, but to open a new future for those who remained.

After the meal, when the villagers gradually returned home to rest, Dang Van Kinh led Tinh Yen to see an empty plot of land right near the beach, not far from the old ground of the village communal house, where you could see both the sea and the mountains in the distance - the same view that in the past, Mrs. Khue once told her was "the most beautiful place to put a house, because heaven and earth can see through the hearts of the people living in it".

"This is probably the right place." Tinh Yen said, standing silently looking at the land under the moonlight, imagining the shape of a future medical shop that would stand here. "Near the sea so fishermen can easily get there, close to main roads so people from other areas can also come, and far enough away to have space to grow their own medicinal garden."

"Do you have a name for it yet?" Dang Van Kinh asked, curious.

Tinh Yen pondered for a moment, looking out at the night sea sparkling with reflected moonlight. "Te Sinh Duong." She spoke softly, as if testing the sound of the name on her tongue. "A place of mercy for lives. I think, that is the most worthy name to start with."