Cat and Rose - Cat & Rose - Chapter 35 - The Second Law of Thermodynamics (4)

Chapter 35 – The Second Law of Thermodynamics (4)

“I’m not prejudiced against them.” Marshal’s tone mellowed slightly. “It’s simply that we must have protective measures implemented. Every weapon with destructive power needs limits put into place, as accidents can happen any day.”

“But they were your subordinates before they were modified. You have a reason to suspect me, but must you really suspect your own soldiers as well?” Lin Si frowned. “If that’s the case, I suggest you see a psychiatrist.”

When he was in a bad mood, Lin Si spoke words adorned with needles. The Marshal was struck particularly hard by his suggestion.

But he also knew that Lin Si was someone who would not change his mind easily, so he could not lose temper with him too early on.

“When the conspiracies have not floated to the water’s surface, one must not lower their guard in front of anyone,” said the Marshal.

“Hm,” Lin Si looked straight into his eyes. “Your management of the military has always been highly strict. You’ve installed real-time security imaging in every corner, while only the two-hundred members of ‘limitless’ are out of your grasp.”

His gaze was cold and his voice was calm. “You believe the dangerous person is someone from Area 3? Why?”

“The most dangerous person on the ship is you!” said the Marshal.

The corners of Lin Si’s lips lifted unconcernedly. “I’m honoured.”

The Marshal held the microchip programme report in his hands and said coldly, “No matter what, this function needs to be implemented. This is not a request, this is an order.”

“I have the right to defy orders that are evidently unreasonable.”

***

“You only need the Marshal’s signature left.” The staff from Area 2 smiled as they handed Ling Yi a form.

“Thank you,” said Ling Yi briskly.

He arrived outside the Marshal’s office on the top floor of Area 3 and was about to knock on the door, but heard sounds of argument from the inside.

The soundproofing in the Marshal’s office was very good, but Ling Yi’s hearing was better than the regular person, and moreover, the voices from inside were not quiet at all, so he could still hear the sounds that slipped out of the door’s gaps. It seemed like the Marshal had lost his temper.

Ling Yi felt like listening in on other people’s conversations without them knowing was not a very good idea, so he planned to leave for a while, but suddenly he heard Lin Si’s voice from inside!

“If you insist on limiting them, we can use another method.” Lin Si’s voice was cold. “But I absolutely will not add this function to the microchip. Nobody’s life should be threatened over this kind of speculation. Please respect their rights as humans.”

“Human rights only exist during a peaceful era!” The Marshal raised his voice.

“Are we not peaceful right now?”

“We are at a developmental period right now!” The Marshal knocked on his desk. “You’re not ignorant to the fact that we have dangers lurking from within! We cannot leave holes where we can be exploited!”

“And you,” the Marshal said, “a paranoiac like you is the biggest hole we have!”

Lin Si seemed to let out a laugh.

The Marshal’s voice turned serious. “Going back a bit! Even during a peaceful era, human rights did not exist in the military. Lin Si, you are too naive.”

He paused, then continued, “People like you, who received good education and grew up heavily protected in a safe city, and didn’t even step outside the laboratory the entire time you were in school—you have no idea how cruel war can be! In order to prevent even more cruel things from happening, we must do some unpleasant things.”

“Apologies, Marshal,” Ling Yi could hear Lin Si say expressionlessly, “I might not have received that kind of good education you speak of, and I’ve also experienced war. My parents died from the direct radiation of nuclear weapons, and when I was ten, I had to rely on the worst-quality gene therapy outside the city to keep myself alive.”

Ling Yi stared at the door, slightly in shock.

These were things Lin Si had never mentioned before.

Lin Si seldom reminisced about the past. Even if he did, it was usually with Zheng Shu or Adelaide, conversing about memories of their student days.

From their dialogue, one could piece together the fragmented snapshots to form memories that brimmed with sunlight and pigeons.

Therefore, Ling Yi had believed this was everything about Lin Si’s past.

But it seemed like even before that, there were things he had hidden away very deeply.

He breathed in slowly and was about to raise his hand to knock on the door, but hesitated once more.

During this moment of hesitation, he heard the Marshal’s voice ring out again. “I’m very sorry.”

The Marshal continued, “You’re very sharp, but you can’t be reasoned with at all. I don’t understand what exactly you’re so insistent on. I am only insisting on my request.”

“Then you can understand why I am insistent on opposing you,” Lin Si said coldly. “I object. You can ask Zheng Shu to install a program on the Skeleton that would make it instantly lose effect, but you cannot ask me to implant microchip bombs into people’s brains.”

The Marshal had clearly realised that his communication with Lin Si had failed—in truth, their communication had never once been effective before.

“I’ll think about it more.” He made a small compromise.

Afterwards, the room went silent for a long time.

Then Ling Yi lightly rapped on the door.

“Come in,” said the Marshal.

Ling Yi clutched his form, walking in. “Good afternoon, Mr Marshal.”

“Hm,” the Marshal’s tone was more mellow than before. “Hello, little one.”

“I’m applying for a room in Area 3 and I need your signature.” Ling Yi blinked at Lin Si, and went to stand in front of the Marshal’s desk.

“You’ve really grown so big.” The Marshal expressed offhandedly, taking a pen to sign his name on the form. “It’s all done.”

“Thank you Marshal.” Ling Yi took the form and thanked the Marshal.

“If you don’t have anything else,” Lin Si said flatly, “we’ll take our leave.”

The Marshal waved his hand distractedly. 15

Lin Si led Ling Yi out of the office.

Lin Si saw that Ling Yi’s room application was completed and said, “Let’s go tidy up your new room?”

Ling Yi nodded.

Ling Yi’s room was allocated within the living areas for “limitless”, which was very close to the Colonel and Svena. Even luckier was that his room was next to a window, so the moment he raised his head, he could see the boundless sea of stars outside.

As if they were made of glowing threads, nebulae floated in the sea of stars in large groups, gradually shifting and stretching out. The stars and their starshine scattered among like a diamond necklace, gently glittering and glowing. When all his items were organised and his bed was made, Ling Yi turned off the light and burrowed into his duvet.

“Are you sleeping here tonight?” asked Lin Si.

“You sleep here too,” said Ling Yi.

“Okay,” said Lin Si.

Ling Yi gazed at the sea of stars close at hand. The light of stars a few hundred light years away passed through the window, faintly shining upon himself. He felt like his entire body became lighter, as if he was sleeping inside the sea of stars itself.

He noticed Lin Si had come over, and hugged his arm.

Lin Si noticed he was silent for a long time, and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“I heard you and Marshal talking today,” Ling Yi thought for a moment, then spoke about the incident.

“Yeah,” said Lin Si, “the Marshal always thinks of impractical things.”

“I also heard you talk about some of your past…” Ling Yi’s voice sounded upset. “War, your parents, those things…”

“It’s fake,” said Lin Si. “How else could I deal with the Marshal then?”

Ling Yi was doubtful. “For real?”

“Mm-hm… it’s obviously impossible for me to not have received a good education,” said Lin Si. “My family was not bad, so my childhood was still relatively happy. After that, the war happened very suddenly…my parents did in fact die in the war, and there was a period of time where I was struggling a bit outside the city, but it got better.”

But early on, Ling Yi had already known about the situation on Earth at that time from various books and stories told by other people.

Wars were frequently occurring in many places in the world, nuclear weapons were reaping countless lives every day, and the scarce resources were unable to sustain the resource consumption outside a few giant cities. Outside cities, there was no electricity, no clean water. The soil was unable to grow crops, not only because it was heavily polluted, but also because the thick dust clouds had blocked the sunlight, and the pale, weak seedlings that lacked sunlight were only able to survive for several hours.

Even more frightening was radiation pollution—apart from a few cities that had complete protection measures, other places simply had more or less, so day after day, the radiation dust accumulated became deadly.

The Earth’s population had diminished in a short span of a few decades, from billions to only a few hundred million.

Lin Si’s tone was very casual and calm, but Ling Yi knew—War, death, leaving the city, these things were obviously unlike the pale clouds and soft breeze he had just described.16

He suddenly felt very sad. Why did Lin Si have to experience all these cruel things before he came to his side?

“Lin Si,” he called out softly.

“Hm?” said Lin Si.

“When will I get better?” He looked at the stars far away. “How big will I have to grow in order to protect you?”

Lin Si said, “Are you not protecting me right now?”

“No…” Ling Yi organised his words. “It’s the kind where…when you’re sad, I can be there for you, I can share some of your burdens, or I can make you feel better.”

He thought, then made an earnest complaint. “But I don’t know what to do, don’t know where to learn, and don’t know how to console you. Because I’ve never seen those things before, I can’t remember, and you won’t let me know about those bad things.”

“Because what you need to do right now is grow up well, and let me protect you.” Lin Si’s voice held a gentle hint of softness. “Betty said back then that lilies can’t grow on a tar road, so I didn’t teach you about many things. I hope you can understand that.”

“I understand,” said Ling Yi.

—He knew that no matter what, Lin Si would always treat him well.

But, but—

“But you’re not like that,” he blurted out.

“Hm?” said Lin Si.

“You weren’t protected by anyone when you grew up, and you even went through many painful things. But you’re still so good, you haven’t turned bad even a tiny bit.”

“Hm…” Lin Si made a sound of acknowledgement. “So you’re saying I’m that lily on the tar road?”

“No.” Ling Yi shook his head.

Compared to Lin Si’s past, whether it was his childhood, or later on with the virus incident, a tar road was too pleasant. How could that be a tar road? It was obviously a swamp suffused with blood.

Furthermore, Lin Si was obviously not a snow-white lily.

“You’re a rose…” said Ling Yi.

“…Why?” said Lin Si.

“I read this fairy tale yesterday,” Ling Yi said earnestly. “The rose in the story was very beautiful, because it had been dyed red by the blood of a heart.”

“Chemically, blood cannot dye the petals of flowers,” said Lin Si coolly.

Ling Yi made a “hmph” noise and hugged Lin Si’s waist, burying his head in his chest. He was ready to sleep.

He dreamt.

He seldom dreamt.

But he had no idea why today was different.

Ling Yi looked at his surroundings. He was standing in a piece of wreckage, the sky was very dim, the air was also polluted, and up high above was a large grey cloud that weighed down. He felt like something was waiting for himself in the depths of the rubble, so he strode on, at first a jog, then a full-on run. The building ruins on the ground were jagged and sharp, but he could not feel pain at all.

He ran and ran without stopping just like that, the string in his heart strummed fiercely, and he saw on the horizon line faraway that there was a figure standing.

Very frail, wearing a white shirt, looking at the overcast sky.

In that instant, Ling Yi felt a sort of pain and loneliness that carved deep into his bones.

Suddenly, many tears were streaming down his face.

I was too late… I’m sorry, I…

The latter half of the sentence hung upon his lips, but he did not know what he should say at all, as if he had already reached the limits of language.

I…

Lin Si felt Ling Yi’s hold on his arm suddenly tighten. Borrowing the light from the stars, he looked at Ling Yi’s sleeping face, confirmed he was only dreaming, and lightly patted his back to comfort him.

When he felt the little one calm down, he looked out at the starry sky outside the window.

The vast spread of nebulae were clustered in the centre, very beautiful, but very silent.

Sometimes, he felt like although many years passed, he was still just like over a decade ago, back when he was standing in that piece of wreckage, looking up at the sky’s dense haze.

The only difference now was that he had a nice and warm little thing in his arms, where they could depend on each other for life.

*

The author has something to say:

Morning w

The fairy tale story Ling Yi read is Wilde’s Nightingale and Rose.

This chapter I’m walking on the romance plotline a bit ww

Thank you for reading on myeasynovel.com