Chapter 18 — Wind Village Robot Team

The first drop of water fell right in the middle of the main circuit board, making a small "click" sound but enough to make all five people in the warehouse startled and looked up at the ceiling.

"It's raining!" Uyen Nhi shouted, pointing at the corner of the leaky corrugated iron roof that Mr. Toan had warned about from the first day, which was now leaking water into a small stream flowing straight down to the exact location of the main desk.

Outside, the first storm of the season had been brewing since the afternoon, and by evening it was pouring down violently, the wind was whistling through the warehouse door, and the rain was lashing on the corrugated iron roof, creating a chaotic sound. Immediately after the first drop of water, the whole room was plunged into darkness - the mains power suddenly cut off, leaving only the pale blue light from the laptop screen running on the backup battery.

"Cover it! Cover the robot first!" Khanh Dan shouted, her voice urgent but still maintaining the necessary calmness in an emergency situation. She rushed forward and together with Nam pulled down the nylon tarp that was still hanging on the wall, quickly covering the entire main desk, where the robot was in the final testing phase before departure.

Phong jumped on a chair, used electrical tape to temporarily wrap another piece of plastic to seal the corner of the punctured roof. His hands shook from the cold but his movements were still agile and precise, as if this wasn't the first time he had to fight a roof leak in the middle of a rainy night. Gia Han and Uyen Nhi quickly gathered all the loose components left on the table - screws, coils of wire, extra circuit boards - stuffed them into a plastic box with a tight lid, holding them tightly in their arms like hugging a child.

"Where's the flashlight? Does anyone have a flashlight?" Nam asked, his voice loud to drown out the sound of the rain.

"Here's the phone!" Gia Han turned on her phone's flash and held it high to illuminate the group. The cold white light shone on the faces drenched in sweat and moisture from the rain pouring through the door.

It took nearly ten minutes for the whole team to stabilize the situation: the robot was safely covered under a tarp, the corner of the roof was temporarily sealed to stop leaking, and everyone sat huddled around the table, panting after a short but intense battle with the rain.

"What now, should we go home or stay?" Phong asked, looking out the window where the rain was still lashing, thunder and lightning flashed continuously on the horizon.

Khanh Dan looked at her watch, then looked out at the pitch-black sky, the storm seemed to show no signs of abating. "Returning at this hour is more dangerous than staying. Let's wait for the rain to stop."

No one objected. The group sat around the table, the only light came from two phones placed in the middle of the table as lamps, the sound of rain falling on the corrugated iron roof created a steady background music, occasionally interrupted by the distant rumble of thunder.

"Let's take the time to work." Gia Han said, opening the laptop, luckily the battery still had more than half left. "There are only twelve more days left, no time to waste."

"What can you do in the dark?" Nam asked, but was already holding a non-electric welding torch - a small gas-burning type Phong brought along in case the power went out - preparing to continue his unfinished work.

The whole group worked in the flickering light of two phones, occasionally one person had to hold up a light so the others could see the weld clearly, the sound of rain continued outside. It was a strange scene — five people bowed around a wooden table in the middle of a storm, the light flickering, the occasional flash of lightning through the window, illuminating each face for a moment and then falling back into darkness.

"Miss." Uyen Nhi spoke, her voice small but clear amid the sound of the rain. "I think this scene is exactly like a painting I drew in 5th grade, showing a few people sitting around an oil lamp repairing a windmill on a rainy night. At that time, I just imagined it, I didn't think that one day I would be in that exact scene."

The group was silent for a moment, only the sound of the rain and the clicking of the welding torch could be heard. Khanh Dan looked around - the phone light reflected on the children's faces, dirty and wet but still working without a word of complaint - and she suddenly realized that this was exactly the image she had vaguely envisioned when she decided to leave NovaTech, even though at that time she did not know what it would look like.

"You feel the same way." She said, her voice softer than usual. "At the old company, we worked in a lab with air conditioning, white light everywhere, never had to worry about rain leaks or power outages. But I've never felt like I do tonight."

"What does it feel like?" Phong asked, his hands still not stopping his work.

Khanh Dan was silent for a moment, looking for the right words to describe. "It feels like everything I'm doing is really necessary, not just to complete a report or hit a certain target."

No one responded right away, but Nam nodded softly, his eyes still glued to the unfinished weld, and Gia Han smiled alone in the dim light of the laptop screen.

Near midnight, the rain began to gradually subside, and the sound of the wind also subsided somewhat. The power still hasn't come back on, but the team has finished welding all the joints to the reinforced frame, something that would have normally taken two evenings to complete. Khanh Dan looked at the clock and decided it was time to disperse, so everyone could get home safely before it rained again.

When the group cleaned up and prepared to leave, Nam suddenly spoke up, his voice had a rare hesitation.

"Miss, after the exam is over, whether we win or lose, will we still keep this warehouse as a gathering place?"

That question made the group pause and turn to look at Khanh Dan, waiting. She looked around the shabby little room, the plastic tarp still covering the table, the rainwater stains on the cement floor, and four children's faces waiting for an answer that she knew had much greater meaning than the question itself.

"I can't promise anything far in advance, because I don't decide alone." She said, honestly. "But I promise, I'll do my best so this place doesn't disappear just because the competition ends."

It was not an absolutely certain promise, but it seemed that for all four children standing in the light of their phones in the middle of a rainy night, that was enough.

On the way home, Khanh Dan walked with the group to the intersection, where each person turned in a different direction. The red dirt road had now turned into mud after the rain. Every step had to be careful not to slip and fall. Gia Han's phone vibrated continuously - five missed calls from Ms. Xuyen, along with a hastily written message: "Why aren't you home at this hour? Mom is so worried." Gia Han called back immediately, her voice reassuring her mother through the phone while still walking in the mud, and Khanh Dan could even hear Ms. Xuyen on the other end of the line, her voice still trembling with worry but calmed down when she knew her daughter was safe.

Approaching the house, Phong separated from the group first, running quickly through the muddy yard toward the small house with a flickering oil lamp shining from the door. Mr. Tu was sitting waiting on the porch, holding an old raincoat, when he saw his grandchild he stood up.

"Why did you come back at this hour? You already planned to look for me." He said, his voice was serious, but he quickly put the raincoat on Phong's shoulders. Even though he had been soaked for a long time, the shirt now had no use other than the remaining warmth from his body. "What are you doing coming back at night, in this wind and rain?"

"Our robot is almost broken because the warehouse roof is leaking, the whole team has to stay behind to cover it." Phong replied, his voice still excited even though his body was shivering. "But we were able to keep it, and we also took advantage of the time to finish soldering the broken parts."

Mr. Tu looked at his grandson for a moment, his eyes under the oil lamp light, it was difficult to tell whether he was blaming or proud, then he sighed and pushed him into the house. "I'll tell you tomorrow. Now take a warm bath so you don't catch a cold. If you get sick in how many days, everything will be ruined."

Not far away, at the car repair shop at the beginning of the market, Uncle Duoc was also standing in front of the door looking out at the dark street. Seeing Nam's shadow appearing from afar, he waved loudly, his voice full of relief and a little irritation of someone who had just gone through an anxious evening. "You're back, you devil, I kept you waiting for an hour."

"I'm sorry dad, we had to save the robot from leaking water." Nam replied, his voice still excited as he recounted what had just happened even though his clothes were soaked and covered in mud.

Uncle Duoc shook his head, but the corner of his mouth curled up into a smile that was hard to hide. He pulled his son into the house, closed the door behind him, and let the last remaining rain fall on the old corrugated iron roof of the whole small hamlet.

Khanh Dan was the last person to leave, walking alone on the deserted road leading to the dormitory, her shoes were long soaked, but she did not feel as tired as she should have after an evening of struggling with the rain and storm. She remembered Nam's question from earlier — whether the warehouse would still be kept after the competition ended — and realized it was the same question she was asking herself, only slightly different: whether she, after this one-year contract ended, would still want to stay here or not.

She didn't have an answer yet, but for the first time since arriving in Long Phong, that question no longer made her feel like a heavy burden to decide, but like an open door, waiting for the right moment to open itself further.