Chapter 13: Chapter 13 Village festival night — Where the Sun Returns

The July full moon village festival in the highlands has a quiet and mysterious beauty, completely different from the noise of the city.

There are no flashing LED lights, no ear-splitting music. Along the cobbled village road leading to the communal house, red and yellow glass paper lanterns swayed in the cold night wind, casting a gentle light onto the road.

Miên wore a simple white linen dress and a thin cardigan. She hasn't worn elaborate makeup for a long time, only wearing a little light pink lipstick. But it is that simplicity, combined with her skin that is shiny and full of vitality thanks to breathing fresh air for the past two months, that makes her exude a strangely pure and attractive beauty.

She stood in front of the rusty mirror in the room, turned around to look at her outfit a few times, and smoothed her hair loosely tied at the back of her neck. This was the first time in weeks that she found herself worrying about looking pretty or not before leaving the house, a feeling both strange and familiar, making her heart beat faster than usual for no apparent reason.

Hoàng Phong stood waiting for her outside the alley. He no longer wore the muddy protective suit, but instead wore a neat checkered shirt and dark jeans. Under the bright full moonlight, the angle of his face looked even more masculine and sturdy.

"I thought you were going to wear evening clothes like you were going to an event in the city," Phong teased as Miên walked out.

"I'm not crazy," Miên pouted, but the corners of her mouth couldn't hide her smile. She naturally walked forward, walking parallel to him.

The two leisurely walked to the village communal house. Everywhere were the sounds of children playing and chirping, and the sound of lion dancing drums echoed from afar. In the communal house's yard, mothers and grandmothers are setting up offerings, the scent of incense blending with the smell of fresh green rice and the passionate scent of grapefruit flowers.

Miên pulled Phong's hand through the crowd, excitedly pointing at the street vendors selling tou he and candy. She bought a huge cotton candy and ate it while walking, smiling like a child.

"See? Peace is sometimes only worth five thousand dong per cotton candy," Miên proudly held up the candy in front of Phong.

Phong looked at her radiant smile, his heart softened. He nodded slightly, agreeing.

They weaved through the crowded crowd, occasionally stopping to say hello to a few acquaintances. Uncle Bảy, the village chief, patted Phong's shoulder and smiled, asking about the progress of the test plot; Mrs. Tu passed by and nodded to say hello, no longer had the sarcastic look in her eyes like the first days, and even gave Miên a package of her own hand-wrapped banh it with gai leaves, saying "try it and see if it's as delicious as the vegetables with holes in them". Miên held the cake package, smiled and thanked her, silently realizing how much the distance between her and this village had narrowed in just a few short months.

They stopped to watch an old artisan shape turtles out of colorfully dyed sticky rice dough. His hands quickly turned lifeless dough into the shapes of roosters and cute little fairies in just a few minutes. Miên was delighted and asked him to make her a jade rabbit holding a bouquet of flowers, while Phong was given a golden buffalo by the old man for free, saying "give it to the young engineer to remember his farming roots",The two laughed, carefully holding those two tiny dough toys like treasures the rest of the way.

After watching the lion dance performance, Phong led Miên to the shore of the lotus lake at the end of the village. This is the most special performance of the festival night: Releasing flower lanterns to pray for peace.

The lake surface is quiet at night like a giant mirror reflecting the silver moonlight. On the shore, groups of people are carefully lighting tiny candles placed in pink and red lotus-shaped paper boats, then letting them float on the water.

Phong bought two flower lanterns and gave one to Miên.

"They say, write your wish here and drop it into the lake, Mother Nature will make it come true," Phong said in a low voice.

Miên took the brush, bowed her head to think for a moment, then neatly wrote a small line on the paper flower petal. Phong also did the same.

The two of them walked down to the water's edge. Phong carefully supported Miên's hand so she wouldn't slip and fall into the mud. The gentle touch of skin made Miên's face heat up, her heart pounding continuously. Confused, she withdrew her hand and hastily dropped the flower lantern into the lake.

Looking at the hundreds of small, shimmering spots of light drifting out into the middle of the lake, Miên felt absolute serenity.

"What do you wish for?" Phong asked softly, his eyes were not looking at the flower lantern, but were staring at the girl next to him.

"The wish that was said won't come true anymore," Miên turned away and replied shyly.

She didn't tell him, she just wished that Wood Farm would always be peaceful, and she... would be able to stay here forever.

"Hey," Phong's voice suddenly became serious. He turned around, facing her. Under the glimmering light of the lanterns, his eyes were deep and filled with an intense emotion that he had tried to suppress for a long time.

"You once asked me, why did I leave the prosperous city to come back to hide in this corner?" Phong took a step forward. "At that time I answered that I was looking for peace."

Miên held her breath and looked up at him.

"But I realized, that peace does not come from the land, not from the sprouts or fresh air," Phong's hand slowly raised, gently stroking a strand of sideburns that was falling on Miên's forehead. "True peace... is when I have someone to hoe the ground with, shelter from the rain, and eat a simple meal with after a tiring day."

Miên's heart was beating so fast that she felt like her whole body was shaking with each beat. Around them, the sounds of people chatting and children cheering gradually became distant, as if the whole world was left with only the two of them standing on the banks of the lotus lake filled with lantern light.

She looked into Phong's deep eyes and realized that this was the first time she had seen him completely reveal his weakness, without the calm, rational shell he still wore every day in the garden. A feeling of both nervousness and trembling rose in her chest, as if she was standing on the threshold of something great, unable to turn back.

He bent his head closer, his warm breath smelling of mint gently brushing her cheek. "Miên, are you willing..."

*FENCE... FENCE... FENCE...*

Just as the romantic confession was about to be uttered, a terrible sound suddenly tore through the quiet atmosphere.

Not thunder. That was the sound of water rushing down from the hillside behind the village communal house. The shrill siren from the village's loudspeaker system rang out continuously.

"Report urgently! The upstream Dragon Waterfall Dam has broken the auxiliary culvert! Water is pouring into the downstream crop area! Request people to urgently evacuate and protect property!"

The village chief's panicked voice through the loudspeaker caused all the people attending the village festival to run away in panic.

Phong was stunned. The hillside downstream... that is the area where all the farmland of the people of Đồi Thông village is concentrated, and is also where Trại Mộc is cultivating tens of thousands of tomato seedlings along with the experimental land of the head of Bảy village!

If floodwaters sweep through, all efforts will go down the drain. The opportunity to persuade villagers to practice organic farming will also drift down the muddy waters.

The romantic atmosphere was wiped away in the blink of an eye. The flower lanterns still float quietly on the lake, but no one has the mind to look at them anymore. Phong grabbed Miên's hand tightly, no longer an awkward grip, but a grip that pulled her running towards the farm.

"Run quickly Miên! We have to save the Farm!"

The biggest storm of trials since Mộc Farm's founding was coming at them, more ferocious and cruel than anything. The romantic village festival quickly turns into a life-and-death battle with nature.

Halfway through the run, Miên turned her head to look back at the lotus pond, where the light of the lanterns was still sparkling in the distance as if she had never realized the impending crisis. She suddenly remembered the wish she had scribbled down just now, and wondered if Mother Nature was testing her sincerity. But there was no time to think anymore, Phong's hand was squeezing her hand tightly, pulling her into the night, straight towards the roar of the water becoming clearer and clearer.

Around them, the people of the village were also frantically running towards the fields, the sounds of calling each other, the sounds of children crying in panic mixed with the sound of sirens still wailing endlessly. The bright full moonlight from earlier was now half obscured by dark clouds, only casting down a pale, ghostly light, causing the whole village's scene to instantly change from poetic to suffocating panic.