Chapter 19 — Wind Village Robot Team

"Just be gentle, just be gentle!" Gia Han shouted when she saw Nam intending to lift the cardboard box containing the robot as casually as carrying a bag of rice.

The whole team spent an entire morning packing the robot — now complete with a full frame, sensors, gripper, and "Wind Eyes" — into a sturdy cardboard box obtained from a grocery store, lined inside with dry rice husks borrowed from Mr. Tu's neighbor, and inserted foam pieces cut from old TV boxes to absorb shock during the more than one hundred kilometer trip to Yen Binh city.

Uyen Nhi stuck a small piece of paper on the lid of the box, neatly writing the words: "Fragile GOODS — THIS IS OUR ENTIRE SUMMER", along with a small drawing of a smiling robot, making the whole group laugh when they read it, but no one suggested taking it down.

Mr. Nghia stood watching from the beginning of the morning, holding a signed and red stamped work confirmation form, which would help four students and one teacher take two days off from regular classes without being counted absent. He arranged a school bus - an old seven-seat car that was still used to transport the inspection team every time there was an inspection. The driver was Mr. Tuyen, the school's long-time driver, who was quiet but agreed to get up at four in the morning to take the team there in time to register for the exam.

"Put the box in the middle of the car, secure it with a rope, don't let it move when going over the pass." Uncle Tuyen advised, personally checking each knot before nodding in satisfaction.

When everything was ready, almost the whole school came out to the yard to say goodbye - not a loud send-off with banners and flowers, just a small crowd of students from other classes watching curiously, a few teachers took advantage of break time to wish good luck, and Ms. Hien brought a bag of homemade cookies to push into Gia Han's hand to "eat along the way to gain strength".

"Miss Dan." Teacher Nghia called back when she was about to get in the car. His voice was a bit different, no longer his usual seriousness. "I don't expect you to bring home the first prize. I just hope you bring all four children back intact, healthy, and..." He hesitated for a moment. "And I hope the children are treated fairly, not looked down upon just because they come from a deprived school."

"I promise to do my best, teacher." Khanh Dan replied, and for the first time, she saw Mr. Nghia nod with a real smile, not the social smile of a manager, but the smile of a person with sincere hope.

Mr. Tu arrived a little later, riding his bicycle from home, with a small cloth bag tied on the back saddle. He found Phong standing next to the robot box, thrust the bag into his nephew's hand, and didn't say much.

"What is it sir?" Phong asked, opening his bag to look.

Inside is a set of small screwdrivers of all sizes, with wooden handles that have become glossy due to many years of use. It's clear that the tool set he still uses every day to repair fans and water pumps for the whole commune.

"I don't have anything precious for you to take with you." Mr. Tu said, his voice was low, his hand still holding his nephew's shoulder for a long time. "There's only this set of tools, I've been using them for decades, and have never let you down once. Take them with you. If the robot has any problems along the way, you can fix it right away without having to wait for anyone."

Phong held a screwdriver set in his hand, much heavier than its actual weight. His eyes were red but he tried not to let his tears fall in front of everyone. "Please keep it carefully. When I'm done, I'll give it back to you."

"No need to pay." Mr. Tu shook his head and gently pushed his grandson towards the waiting car. "It's yours now. Go, before you're late."

Ms. Xuyen was also present, carrying a plastic bag full of hot sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, pressing it into Gia Han's hand, giving her all sorts of advice about eating, staying warm, and not staying up too late. Uncle Duoc patted Nam's shoulder firmly, not saying much other than "do it right" but his eyes couldn't hide the pride he was trying to suppress.

When the whole team was seated in the car, the robot box was carefully tied in the middle of the row of seats, Khanh Dan sat in the front seat next to Mr. Tuyen, turned to look at the faces of her four students - Phong clutching his grandfather's tool bag, Gia Han still holding the bag of warm sticky rice in his lap, Nam looking out the window with an expression trying to appear calm but with his hands clasped tightly together, and Uyen Nhi holding a sketchbook, staring at the Gio Long Pass that was gradually appearing ahead.

"Ready?" Khanh Dan asked.

No one answered verbally, but all four nodded, a simultaneous and firm nod.

The car rolled slowly out of the school gate, through the red dirt road leading to the highway, across the foot of Gio Long Pass where the wind still blew steadily like every day, gently shaking the homemade windmills scattered on the hillsides. Uyen Nhi pressed her face against the glass window, watching the familiar scenery gradually recede behind her, until the car climbed to the top of the pass, where she could see the panoramic view of the Long Phong valley stretching below for the last time before disappearing completely behind a bend.

"Goodbye." The girl whispered, not sure if it was to the village, or to the fear she was leaving behind, or to the timid person she used to be before joining this robot team.

The car continued to roll down the other side of the pass, where the highway stretched towards Yen Binh city, carrying five people and a cardboard box containing almost everything they had built together over the past few months, moving towards something none of them knew how it would happen.

For the first hour or so, no one said much, only the steady hum of the car engine and the low sound of Mr. Tuyen's radio playing an old folk song. But when the car had traveled half the distance, going through all the zigzag turns of the mountains to enter the plain, the atmosphere in the car gradually became more comfortable.

"Miss, how big is Yen Binh city?" Uyen Nhi asked, her eyes still glued to the scene of rice fields stretching on both sides of the road, different from the familiar terraced fields in the countryside.

"It's not the biggest city, but it's probably many times bigger than our commune." Khanh Dan replied, turning to look at the girl. "There are high-rise buildings, traffic lights, lots of people passing by. You will find it strange at first, but you will get used to it quickly."

"I've never been out of my district." Uyen Nhi confessed, her voice mixed with confusion and excitement.

"Me too." Nam said, although he tried to keep his voice calm, his eyes still couldn't hide his curiosity as he looked out the window at new things passing by - a large gas station, a bright electronic advertising sign, new cars lining the road.

Gia Han opened the bag of sticky rice her mother packed and divided it equally among the whole car, including Mr. Tuyen, who waved his hand in refusal a few times before accepting a small handful with a gentle smile. The fragrant smell of sticky rice spread throughout the car, mixed with the smell of new plastic from the cardboard box containing the robot, creating a strange mixed smell that the whole team will probably remember forever when thinking about this first trip.

Near noon, the car stopped at a roadside restaurant for everyone to rest and eat before continuing their journey. While the group sat down to eat, Khanh Dan took the opportunity to open her laptop and check one last time all the documents that needed to be submitted to the organizing committee - school confirmation, list of team members, and the technical description of the robot that Gia Han had painstakingly written for three consecutive nights.

"Is there anything missing?" Phong asked, watching her scroll through each item on the list.

"Nothing is missing." Khanh Dan replied, closed his laptop, looked out at the empty lot in front of the shop where several other cars were also stopping, one of them had the logo of a private school in the city, students got down wearing matching sports uniforms, carrying shiny aluminum boxes containing equipment.

Uyen Nhi followed her gaze, also recognized the other group of students, and she was silent for a moment before speaking, her voice small but no longer trembling like before. "They have genuine aluminum boxes. I have cardboard boxes with handwritten letters. But that's okay, as long as the robot inside runs well, right?"

Khanh Dan smiled, nodded, and the group went back to finishing their lunch, no one paying much attention to that shiny aluminum box anymore.

The car continued on its way immediately after that, it took more than two hours to arrive. Khanh Dan sat with her head against the glass door, watching the scenery pass by, and in that rare moment of quiet, she allowed herself to think back on all the journey that had passed since the first morning standing in front of six half-dead computers in the computer room without power. She was no longer the tired woman who tidied up her desk for forty minutes in the middle of the city earlier this year, although she also wasn't a completely different person. She was just herself, but put in exactly the right place where she was needed, doing exactly what she thought she had lost the ability to do — not writing perfect lines of code, but seeing the potential in things others had overlooked, whether it was a machine, or a child.

She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the sound of the car engine lull her into a nap, Uyen Nhi's words from earlier still echoing in her head: as long as the robot inside runs well, it's fine.