At the same time, in Civil Quarantine Zone 5A, Mai was sitting in a small room enclosed by frosted glass.
The two children slept soundly, their heads resting against their mother's lap.
Outside the window, a holo light projected news bulletins about the hero of Võ Văn Kiệt Boulevard, the image of Trần Trung standing amidst the flames repeating endlessly.
Mai clenched her hands tightly, her fingernails digging into her skin.
She felt both proud and terrified.
"He's no longer the Trung that belongs just to us," she whispered. "He's become something... bigger than just a person."
The younger child, Lan, groggily woke up and quietly asked:
"Mom... is Dad in pain?"
Mai's voice choked:
"Yes, my dear. But your dad is very strong. He endures pain better than anyone."
Tùng looked out the window, where the holo projection showed a flag waving.
"Dad is just like the heroes in my stories."
Mai managed a smile:
"Yes, but a hero... is also someone who knows fear, my dear. Your dad was only brave because he was afraid of losing you."
The door opened. A tall, thin shadow entered a man with round glasses and a slight limp.
"Hello, Mai. I am Professor Phạm Minh Khải."
Mai stood up:
"Professor... the one who used to work on the neural energy restoration project?"
"That is correct. I worked at the Institute of Bionic Research, before it was dissolved."
The Professor placed a small silver box on the table. "Your husband... might be the man I have been searching for over the past decade."
Mai frowned:
"Searching? What do you mean?"
"In this century, technology has touched the human soul at least, it can model emotional frequencies. But there is one type of energy that machines can never replicate: the will to survive for others. Your husband did what no one, not even a machine, could simulate."
Mai stood in silence.
"And... what do you want from him?"
The Professor looked out the glass door, his eyes seeming to hold the past:
"I don't want anything. I need to save this country from the very technology we created."
In the afternoon, Professor Khải appeared in Trung's room with the silver box.
The light reflected off his face, which was thin but glowed brightly, as if there were fire in his eyes.
The Professor looked at the prosthetic leg hanging silently on the wall a ready item, reflecting the light like a second watchful eye.
"I came at your wife's request, Trần Trung. I have this."
He opened the box. Inside, a leg frame made of silver-shining titanium alloy, with small, flexible joints like real muscle.
"This isn't just a machine leg. It can connect directly to your central nervous system, and if you allow it, I will implant a piece of energy from the Tam Đảo stone core into the sympathetic nexus."
"Tam Đảo stone?"
"A type of crystal recovered from the ancient layer of the Tây Thiên Quốc Mẫu (Western Heaven Holy Mother) where it is traditionally said the 7th Hùng King established a temple for the Holy Mother. We discovered it resonates with the Vietnamese brain ten times more strongly than with people from other nations."
Trung looked at the leg, the silver light catching his eyes, forming a small glint. He looked into Khải's gaze and asked quietly:
"Professor... do you believe in fate?"
Khải paused, looking up at him, speaking slowly:
"I don't believe in fate, but I believe in those who choose how to face it. And I once worked in France, researching artificial neural interference, but then I realized people don't just need to walk again... they need to believe they haven't lost anything."
That statement anchored itself in Trung's heart.
"I don't need to walk to live," he said slowly. "I need to walk to continue."
The Professor smiled slightly, extending his hand:
"Then let us take this step together, Trung."
A clink sound echoed as the titanium joint was connected to the real bone joint, beginning the process of transplantation. This was the first step toward becoming a body of steel.