Cat and Rose - Cat & Rose - Chapter 23 - Lost Course (5)

Chapter 23 – Lost Course (5)

Ling Yi had been under Lin Si’s tutelage for a long time, so he had knowledge of coding to an extent, and could tell Tang Ning used an extremely old and complicated language that little people would learn.

However, no matter how far technology developed and programming language simplified, there was one truth that could not be changed—the simpler, easier-to-understand language one used, the weaker control one had over technology. Hence, there was a particular reason Tang Ning used this type of language—it was not that he wanted to trouble himself.

Meanwhile Ling Yi himself had always felt a sense of familiarity, from the movements to the codes that rolled across the screen and the interface displayed behind the codes.

He definitely knew someone like Tang Ning before, before he came onto the spaceship.

The Colonel told him that he had definitely received professional training in fighting, and even had a military-style to his movements. But who was the one that taught him?

As he grew older, he wanted to know more regarding his own past, but his memories would always come up empty.

Tang Ning asked him as he coded, “How many days are you staying this time?”

“I’m here to help test the Skeletons.”

“Sure,” said Tang Ning.

Ling Yi and Tang Ning’s relationship was not bad. Their ages were not too far apart, with only five years, and they both grew up on the spaceship. Tang Ning was the only one who didn’t call him “little baby” or “little cutie” like the other seniors—of course, that had a lot to do with his personality too.

Ling Yi looked at the codes that danced across the screen, then asked Tang Ning, “Is there anyone else who can use the same language as you?”

“Barely anyone,” said Tang Ning without even raising his head. “Its efficiency is quite low.”

“Then why have you been using it this whole time?”

“I didn’t use it back when I was on Earth, but later, I came to know of a brilliant system that was written in this language.” Tang Ning’s tapping speed slowed a little. “It was the first system installed by the Voyagers, also named ‘Voyager’. At that time, Area 1 hadn’t invented the Lundis force field, so when we entered the warp space we had to collectively go to sleep. But on the ship, much of the life support equipment still needed to function normally, and there were many issues with the voyage…the energy requirements were also very high. It was that system that operated the ship all by itself. Although I programmed Lucia, the military still uses Voyager. It seems like our authority levels and our core database are still being supported by that system.”

Ling Yi was slightly surprised. Tang Ning had been transformed into a legend by the people, but in Tang Ning’s own words, the person who programmed the system was even greater.

“Are they on the ship?”

“I don’t think so,” said Tang Ning. “He was a legend in my field.”

“What’s his name?”

“Ling Ning. He’s Asian,” said Tang Ning. “I respected him, so I took the same Chinese name.”

He finished speaking, then after half a beat, said, “Hm. I think one letter of your name is the same as his.”

Without warning, Ling Yi realised his heart was pounding loudly, and it was beating faster and faster.

He remembered, when the nuclear incident occurred in Area 1, Mr Lambert had also mentioned this person, and even said…

…said that “a combination of zero and one” was the name he came up with for his own son.

He asked, “Is this surname considered common?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never looked up your surname before. Let me write a programme to grab the info.” Tang Ning opened a new window, typing away as he spoke. “If you’re interested in him, you can ask Lin Si. They’re very close.”

“They’re close?”

“Probably. Lin Si’s mentor was Dr Ye Selin, who was married to Mr Ling.” Tang Ning’s programming speed was very quick, running it wasn’t slow either, so the results already showed in a short span of time. He told Ling Yi, “Your surname isn’t very common.”

For a moment, Ling Yi’s mind went blank.

His surname was very rare. And this person named Ling Ning had previously said he wanted to name his son Ling Yi.

His wife was Lin Si’s mentor.

Ye Selin—this was a name he had also heard before.

In that interview Lin Si participated in, the reporter’s first line was, “Here I am in the Wilkins Laboratory, founded by Dr Ye Selin.”

A laboratory founded by Dr Ye Selin, where the spokesperson was Lin Si. So Tang Ning was indeed speaking the truth.

If the truth really was what he thought, then did he and Lin Si know each other in the past as well?

After receiving a large load of information, Ling Yi was a little stunned.

Tang Ning said, “You okay?”

Ling Yi sat down beside him, calming his turbulent thoughts. “…We might be related by blood.”

“He’s from the military, and I was still very young back when I was on earth, so I didn’t have the opportunity to approach him and didn’t know much about his family.” Tang Ning was expressionless. “I think it’s unlikely. If he was your family, Lin Si would’ve told you long ago.”

Ling Yi thought about it; it was true that Lin Si never brought up anything regarding his birth. When he asked, Lin Si only told him there was no age limit set on the experiment sample randomiser, and when he discovered an underage child had become an experiment subject, he was already going through preprocessing and could not reverse the experiment. Afterwards, perhaps due to a child’s body being unsuitable for experiment, or perhaps it was something that went wrong with the experiment itself, Ling Yi never woke up until he was mutated by the black hole’s radiation.

That was why he had always thought Lin Si had no connection to his past.

But he really—

—really believed that the person that Tang Ning spoke of had a connection with him.

The feeling he had right now was like the times when Lin Si came to the training grounds, where the one chord floating in the back of his mind would be suddenly struck.

Tang Ning turned his face over. Seeing Ling Yi’s dazed expression, he relaxed his voice and said, “I can hack into the database to search, but it’s very heavily protected, so it’ll take a long time.”

Ling Yi thought that hacking into the database was a bad thing to do, but the temptation was too big.

“Thank you…” he said. “Do you know anything else? About Mr Ling and Lin Si.”

“I was only fourteen when I left Earth and didn’t know anyone at that time,” Tang Ning replied after a moment’s thought. “I was frozen afterwards, and only then did I get closer to them.”

That meant Tang Ning also did not know about the other things that happened.

Ling Yi asked, “Then do you know about the Berlin virus?”

“I know,” Tang Ning said. “Lin Si and Dr Ye Selin were studying it. After I woke from cryogenic freezing, I heard the virus had mutated again, and in the end they still couldn’t find a way.”

Ling Yi nodded. “That seems to be the case.”

Tang Ning frowned. “Why don’t you ask Lin Si?”

“I…” Ling Yi pondered, his eyes downcast. “Lin Si probably has unhappy memories. If I asked, he’d be sad, so I won’t.”

Indeed he wanted to know of the things that happened in the past, especially at this moment, for Lin Si most likely knew himself before they left earth, or perhaps they even knew each other. It was like a claw scratching at his heart—he wanted to know, even more so than who his parents were. But…if Lin Si would feel sad because of it, he would not ask.

Lin Si definitely had his reasons for not telling him.

Furthermore, he now desperately hoped that he was not even a tiny bit related to the thing from the past that made Lin Si upset. It would be best…it would be best if it was like the present where they were very close, Lin Si was good to him, he was good to Lin Si, and simply being together would make them very happy.

Tang Ning heard his answer but did not comment. He only said calmly, “Many people on the ship have secrets. I’m not interested.”

Vivian poked her head out at this moment, the tone of her voice lively. “Well, it’s ‘cause Tang Ning’s only interested in keyboards and Zheng Shu.”

*

The author has something to say:

A little wolfdog will fetch its secret to its owner and lay it out, but a little cat will sneakily hide the secret, lie on top of it and tuck in its little paws~

Thank you for reading on myeasynovel.com