Cat and Rose - Cat & Rose - Chapter 40 - Cycle and Begin Again (2)

Chapter 40 – Cycle and Begin Again (2)

Lin Si no longer spoke. The Marshal was also silent, then after a while he finally said, “Let’s head back.”

Lucia accepted the command and the spaceship steadily returned on their route, gradually flying further away from the giant hole within the dust clouds that had been disintegrated by the antimatter weapon.

Afterwards, Mr Lambert went to find the Colonel to discuss some problems regarding usage, and also left the master control room.

The Marshal looked outside the window and opened his mouth, “It’s not that I can’t understand your adamant disagreement.”

“I simply believe we should have a bottom line.”

“You people also said that before,” said the Marshal. “A decade or so ago, another batch of scientists already discovered results for that…a way to combine human tissues and machines, so the whatever other neurochip programme that started couldn’t be used. Though it was also vetoed in a discussion.”

“I didn’t know about that,” said Lin Si.

“You weren’t defrosted back then,” said the Marshal.

“Human tissue?” Lin Si thought for a moment. “Did you use the tissues of living humans?”

“The frozen human bodies from Area 9, sometimes they would die,” said the Marshal. “I saw the project proposal for that experiment. If you fused tissues and machines together, they could produce miraculous results. The last batch of people achieved it, but too many people objected, so in the end it was not put to use.”

“If it were me, I would also be against it,” said Lin Si. “If this kind of technology continues to develop, we will encounter a big ethical problem.”

The Marshal laughed coldly. “But your genetic modification programme won’t?”

“I don’t believe they are of the same nature,” said Lin Si. “You seem to feel disappointed that that programme was shelved, but you always firmly disapproved of my genetic modification programme.”

“I also don’t believe they are of the same nature. When your genetically-modified bodies increase in numbers, they will form a group, and if there is someone who leads, separatism will sprout. But we can always control machines, regardless of whether there are human tissues inside,” said the Marshal coldly.

The atmosphere between the two of them only seemed to mellow out a few minutes ago, but now it looked like they had their swords out and bows drawn at each other again.

But the two seemed too lazy to continue debating the nature of “limitless”—this sort of debate never reached a conclusion, and would always turn into sarcastic snipes and jeers.

“On one hand, you want your military to improve, while on the other hand, you reject their improvement because of your doubts,” said Lin Si flatly. He frowned. “Sometimes I feel that you’re contradicting yourself, and this contradiction must be due to some reason you can’t say.”

“You should also see a psychiatrist,” the Marshal replied coldly.

Lin Si narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Marshal.

Regarding the danger lurking on the ship, the Marshal must have taken certain precautions, but why was he particularly so cautious of his own people in the military?

Was it because he thought the danger came from Area 3? Why?

However, even if it were the case, he would not be able to obtain any information from the Marshal—the military had always adhered to their secrets.

His words turned sharply, arriving at another question the Marshal did not expect.

“Mr Marshal, I’ve always had this question in my mind,” said Lin Si. “Why did Ling Yi appear on the spaceship?”

The Marshal looked at him deeply, then said, “Ling Ning actively requested to accompany his wife off the ship, and gave his vacant seat to their son. Our friendship lasted over twenty years, I could not refuse him.”

“Mr Ling and Ye Selin vacated two places in total.” Lin Si’s tone was calm, but it seemed to hold hostility. “But Ling Jing didn’t come either.”

“The time was tight! We already put all our efforts into searching for Ling Yi and bringing him on the ship.” The Marshal raised his voice. “Furthermore, did you really think your vacancy appeared out of thin air?”

“I believe so.” Lin Si stared directly at the Marshal, no sign of conceding. “Are you telling me that I willingly walked on the ship?”

“When will you understand the concept of ‘prioritising interests of the whole’?” The Marshal’s tone was almost harsh.

“I will never understand.” Lin Si’s chest heaved. “At that time, there were still 500 million alive on Earth. What are you calling ‘prioritising the interests of the whole’?”

“Even if we survived that disaster, Earth was already no longer a place for humans to live. We needed to leave!” said the Marshal.

“The planet we currently reside on is also unsuitable for humans to live, but why are you not advocating to leave?” said Lin Si. “You have been contradicting yourself this whole time. You face two similar situations, but have two different attitudes. It’s very odd.”

He paused, then continued, “I don’t know if your decision was right or wrong… I only can’t accept the fact that you knew the vaccine was going to be completed soon, so why couldn’t you have stayed on Earth for a little while longer? Why did you not leave even a bit of hope for Earth? I know the wormhole activity was very suitable for travelling that day, but…”

His voice was no longer as aggressive as before. Instead, it was lowered, and even appeared to have brief pauses of speechlessness, until after a while he continued, “…waiting a few more years, was it that difficult?”

He looked into the Marshal’s eyes, and asked this question once again.

In this moment, within the Marshal’s eyes, he saw an image of himself, and this image overlapped with the one of that young doctor, before the Voyager took off.

Many years later, he still remained the same as that moment—unable to forgive the ship, unable to forgive himself.

And once again, he was not given a proper answer to this question.

The Marshal’s lips quivered, but in the end he only spoke a sentence. “The situation at the time was very complicated; we certainly didn’t make the most perfect choices.”

Lin Si shook his head. “You kept things hidden all this time. What else are you hiding that I don’t know?”

The Marshal did not answer. He only patted his shoulder. “Rest well.”

***

Ling Yi, Svena, Adelaide, and a few mechanics were playing Texas poker together, along with Tang Ning who seldom joined the group and had just returned from Area 1. Poker originated from the western areas of the USA several hundred years ago, and was a card game that was difficult to win through probability calculation and mathematics models, truly testing the participants’ psychological qualities and coordination ability. Even so, Tang Ning’s chance at victory was the largest. Adelaide was second, as the psychiatrist’s professional knowledge also had some usage in this kind of entertainment.

Therefore, when Zheng Shu entered through the door, continuing from the previous time he saw a large on-site fighting arena, this time he saw a large on-site casino instead.

Zheng Shu: “…”

He sat at the table too.

“Lead by example! Boss, where is your lead by example!” The mechanic called out.

“I believe it’s necessary for you to experience how unpleasant these games can be.” Zheng Shu’s smile sent shivers down their spines. “So that all of you will focus on your work.”

Zheng Shu was right.

In the next few rounds, over half the chips somehow ended up in Zheng Shu’s hands.

Adelaide had folded three times consecutively. He sighed, “We played a bit of everything when we were young, including this game too. Brother Zheng had never lost once.”

Ling Yi was curious. “Does Lin Si play too?”

“He does,” Adelaide answered him, “but he never goes on the table.”

Ling Yi said, “Then how does he play?”

Adelaide was about to respond, but the door was pushed open again; this time it was Lin Si who came back.

He looked at the scene in the room, then looked closely at the chips on the table.

“No-limit?” He raised his eyebrow. “You really know how to play, huh.”

“Come quick.” Adelaide waved to him excitedly.

Lin Si made an affirmative noise, bending his finger joints to tap three times on the light switch. The brightness in the room immediately lowered by three degrees, turning slightly dim.

He walked up to one of the mechanics who was thrown out to become the dealer after he lost miserably the previous round, and said flatly, “Let me shuffle.”

The mechanic, suddenly granted relief, cheerfully went back to the table.

The dim light rays stained Lin Si’s white dress shirt, creating an ambiguous lustre in its colour. The reflection of his silver bracelet also coloured the atmosphere, but he remained his expressionless, cold aura as usual, only the movements of his hands were dizzying.

Ling Yi looked at the ten beautiful fingers that elegantly and skillfully shuffled the cards, unable to move his gaze away once again.

Within the half-bright and half-dim surroundings, Adelaide leaned against the back of his chair contentedly. “Yeah, that’s the feeling—when Lin Si is here to shuffle the cards, you just feel like you’re sitting at the best casino in Las Vegas, and at any moment you can win a thousand gold at one throw of the dice.”

Lin Si said, “So what are you gambling for?”

“Sweeteners.” Adelaide, who truthfully had no money to toss, suddenly deflated.

Newly produced by Area 2, they were flavouring powders that allowed nutrient packets to taste better, which included flavours such as grape, tomato, and so on.

As the nutrient packets truly tasted awful, they were in great demand.

“That’s why, Boss, you should go easy on us,” the young mechanic said noisily. “What are you even going to do with all those sweeteners?”

Zheng Shu pondered. “I can give them to Tang Ning…I remember, you like strawberries right?”

Tang Ning did not respond.

Wearing a red princess gown, the little AI Vivian appeared out of nowhere. “Tang Ning likes grape flavour!”

Zheng Shu smiled apologetically. “I remembered wrong then.”

Quick-wittedly, Adelaide diverted the subject, thoughtlessly asking, “Lingling, what flavour do you like?”

“I don’t know…” Ling Yi pondered, then said, “they all taste good.”

“A little darling like you who’s not a picky eater is so good to raise,” Adelaide praised Ling Yi.

Svena interrupted. “But Lingling lost quite a lot just now. Lin, I’m afraid you have to teach him how to play a good hand.”

“Hm,” Lin Si said flatly, “it doesn’t matter if he loses. Sweeteners can be made in my lab, and any flavour can be done.”

“So it’s like that!” Svena yelled out enviously.

Ling Yi only smiled wordlessly.

He did not need to be afraid of anything, as long as Lin Si was here.

Lin Si glanced at the bright and clear laughter inside Ling Yi’s eyes, a shadow of a smile appearing on his face too.

Adelaide’s gaze swept back and forth between Lin Si and Ling Yi, intrigued, then made a “tsk” sound.

*

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