Chapter 28 — Where Old Elephants Rest

Ha Lam's hunch turned out to be correct. A few weeks after the gru title ceremony, on a weekend evening when the full moon hung high above Chu Rinh peak, Tuan Khoi suddenly asked her to walk with him to the stream bank area, where the two of them had their first conversation about the threat from Hoang Kim when he first arrived at the camp.

"I want to show you something," he said, leading her to an empty space by the stream, which he had silently prepared in advance—a few dozen small candles placed along the path, shimmering light reflecting on the sparkling water under the moonlight.

Ha Lam stood still, his hand covering his mouth in surprise. "When did you do this?"

"I asked Xuan Mai and Y Khun to help prepare from the afternoon, taking advantage of the time when you were busy meeting with the extended appraisal team," Tuan Khoi smiled, took her hand and led her to the middle of that sparkling candle yard. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. It's just that there are always so many things happening that I haven't found the right moment."

He knelt down on one knee, took out a small box from his pocket, inside was a simple but delicate ring, carved in the small shape of a baby elephant.

"Ha Lam," he said, his voice trembling with emotion no matter how many times he had prepared it in his mind, "from the day I set foot in this land, I found more than I ever expected — a place to stay forever, a community to belong to, and most of all, a woman who made me believe that real love is not about protecting each other from the storm, but standing together in the midst of it. Do you agree to be my wife?"

Ha Lam's tears flowed uncontrollably. She knelt down to his level, holding his face with both hands. "I agree," she said, her voice choked with happiness. "I agree, a thousand times yes."

Tuan Khoi put the ring on her finger, then hugged her amidst the flickering candlelight and the sound of gurgling stream water and the chirping of night insects blending into a perfect background music for the moment that both of them had been waiting for throughout a long and arduous journey to get here.

"Do you know," Tuan Khoi whispered in her ear, "the first day I met you, you looked at me with wary eyes as if I were an enemy?"

Ha Lam laughed through her tears. "At that time, I was afraid that you would evaluate my camp as unqualified, causing me to lose a valuable sponsorship opportunity. Little did I expect, the person who came to evaluate the camp would become the most important person in my life."

"I also didn't expect," he replied, "that a normal evaluation business trip would completely change my life like that. I thought I would forever be a person on the move, with no place truly like home. When I met you, met Sao Mai, met the whole community here, I realized that home is not a fixed place, but a place with people who make my heart want to stay."

The two sat by the stream for a long time, telling each other about their future plans - about the wedding that would be held combining the traditional rituals of both families, about the small house they would build together right on the camp grounds, about future children who might grow up among the elephants just like Ha Lam herself grew up.

When the two returned to camp, the good news quickly spread everywhere. Xuan Mai, who knew in advance of Tuan Khoi's plan, ran out and hugged Ha Lam, screaming with excitement, causing the whole camp to wake up. Bay Kinh hurriedly brought out the precious bottle of wine he had kept for special occasions, and opened it to share joy with everyone that night.

Mr. Thach, when he heard the news, could not hide his emotions and hugged both children - because for a long time, he had considered Tuan Khoi as a son in the family. "I'm just sorry," he said, his voice both happy and a little sad, "your mother is no longer alive to witness this happy day of yours."

"I think mom is still somewhere, watching over us, dad," Ha Lam replied, holding his father's hand tightly. "Just like Sao Mai has always been here, witnessing all the ups and downs of her family over the years."

News of the upcoming wedding spread quickly throughout Chu Rinh village, bringing a common joy to the entire community that has been closely attached to the camp for many months. Ama Not, when hearing the news, laughed loudly, saying that this would be an opportunity for the whole village to organize a truly grand festival, combining both the traditional wedding customs of the M'nong people and the rituals of the Kinh people, marking the complete harmony between two cultures that had had problems in the past but have now found a common voice.

The next morning, when the good news spread throughout the camp, Y Khun was one of the first people to come to congratulate him, bringing a small jar of wine as a private gift. "A while ago, I thought, maybe your family will always be outsiders and traffickers," he said, his voice was rarely sincere. "Looking back now, I'm glad I was wrong. Congratulations to you, Ha Lam, and Mr. Khoi too."

"Thank you, Khun," Ha Lam replied, holding his hand and squeezing gently. "Without your change, and my whole life, perhaps I wouldn't have such complete happiness today."

In the following days, the whole camp and Chu Rinh village were busy preparing for the upcoming engagement ceremony. Women and mothers in the village volunteered to weave a special brocade as a wedding gift, while young men planned to set up theaters and prepare gongs for the festival night. Xuan Mai, with her familiar media role, also proposed to record the entire preparation process to share with the online community following the camp's story, turning the upcoming wedding into another vivid testament to the harmony between modernity and tradition, between different cultures.

Mr. Thach, although still in poor health, enthusiastically participated in the preparations, especially in drafting a speech for his daughter's engagement ceremony — a speech that he said would tell the complete story of thirty years of the camp, from the difficult early days, through mistakes and lessons, today, when love and reconciliation have blossomed in the most beautiful way he ever dared to dream of. Some nights, he stayed up late writing and rewriting each paragraph, carefully crossing out and erasing, determined to choose the right words that could fully describe the journey the whole family had gone through.

That night, after everyone had gone home to rest, Ha Lam and Tuan Khoi lingered by the elephant field, sitting next to Sao Mai who was resting under the moonlight. She raised her hand, admiring the beautiful little ring on her finger, her heart filled with a feeling of peace that she had never dared to dream of when she began her turbulent journey not long ago.

"Thank you Morning Star," she whispered, placing her hand on the old elephant's head, "for leading us all to this day, even though you had no idea how important you were."

Tuan Khoi sat next to her, put his arm around her shoulder, and looked at the old elephant sleeping under the moonlight. "I think, in the future, when I tell my love story to my children and grandchildren, I will have to start with the sentence 'once upon a time there was an old elephant named Sao Mai'," he joked, making Ha Lam laugh out loud.

"That's right," she replied, resting her head on his shoulder. "Without it, I wouldn't have met, I wouldn't have stayed here so long."

They sat quietly like that for a while longer, enjoying the rare silence of the night, listening to the wind blowing through the leaves, the endless gurgling of the stream, and the regular breathing of the old elephant sleeping peacefully. For Ha Lam, this is the image she has always dreamed of since the darkest days of the war against Hoang Kim — a future where love, family, community, and even the old elephants can all live in complete peace, no longer afraid of anything that threatens their existence.

Before leaving the elephant field to return to rest, the two lingered to look at the starry sky one more time, as if wanting to completely engrave this happy moment into their memories, so that later, no matter how many new challenges life brings, they can still return to the image of the moonlit night on the banks of Chu Rinh stream, where a lifelong promise was made between the sound of flowing water and the peaceful breath of an old elephant who has lived through many ups and downs of life, and then walked together. continuing into a new chapter, more peaceful and steadfast than anything they had ever dared to imagine.