Is sadness a kind of physical labor? 

At any rate, when Kou Tong came out of the Projector, he stumbled half a step and fell into Huang Jinchen’s arms. Having fallen, he didn’t get up. General Zhong, coming over quickly when he heard what was happening, determined—he had fallen asleep. 

Yao Shuo was no better off than him. From beginning to end, he only leaned against the wall, silent, not saying a word. Before General Zhong could finish speaking, his eyes were already closed. 

Only Huang Jinchen met the eyes of the General Zhong and a crowd of confused technicians. 

General Zhong hesitated for a long moment, then at last managed a question: “Why are you all right?” 

Huang Jinchen silently picked Kou Tong up and put him on a camp bed next to them. Very unhappily, he said, “I’m tough, OK?” 

It wasn’t that he was tough; it was that his stamina and endurance were so much greater than those of others. Even not sleeping for over a hundred hours in a row, he could get by on only a few pieces of chocolate; lying low for a week was no problem. 

Harsh training was one aspect, and another aspect was probably the natural gifts his altered genes had given him. 

But he could still be tired. A person’s conscious activity in the big boiler was supposed to be ten times what it was outside. When he got out, Huang Jinchen at last experienced why those scrawny technicians like Kou Tong did nothing all day apart from work except for eating and sleeping. 

He was very, very exhausted—though he hadn’t fallen over as humiliatingly as the other two, he still felt about the same. His mind was practically blank; he was even about to forget how to do arithmetic. 

He pushed Kou Tong aside and laid right down in the small space next to him. He waved at General Zhong. “We’ll talk when I wake up. Get out.” 

Then, under the observation of a crowd of staring eyes, he hugged Kou Tong, rubbed against him, and closed his eyes. 

What the hell was wrong with this world…

Only Chang Dou, always half a beat slow, said in satisfaction to the goateed Wu Xiangxiang, “My plan won, huh? As a forfeit, you should shave off your annoying beard!” 

Meanwhile, in a palliative care hospital in C City, Lao Tian, who had mysteriously gone missing several days ago, inexplicably returned to his hospital bed. Under the astonished gazes of the medical staff, he got into bed and waved, refusing to be stuck full of tubes once again. 

“Have my children been here?” Lao Tian asked. 

“They have, they have. You suddenly went missing, sir. It scared them to death. They’re out in the lounge now. I’ll go call them for you…” A young nurse reacted after staring blankly for two seconds. She ran out. 

Lao Tian didn’t speak. He lay face up on his pillow, looking at the snow white ceiling, then out the window. It was all verdant greenery out there. 

He smiled, his eyes beginning to cloud over, deathly grey spreading over his face. He suddenly reached into emptiness and whispered to himself, “Let’s go. I won’t wait. What were they doing all that time? They didn’t come when I wanted them, so it’s game over. I have a strong card to play, too. Just the two of us, we’ll go…” 

A breeze blew by. The curtains moved slightly. Lao Tian’s oldest son barged into the hospital room first. Seeing his father with his back to them, facing out the window, he reached out a trembling hand. Then it suddenly became heavy and fell. 

It was as if something had collapsed in his heart. An indescribable ache spread through all his organs. He was quickly pushed aside by his siblings behind him. Then crying erupted inside the small hospital room. 

The tree may crave calm, but the wind will not drop; the child may crave support, but the parent won’t wait. 

Who’s to say that the old man couldn’t be a tsundere for once? 

The first thing Kou Tong did after waking up was to ask General Zhong to investigate the whereabouts of He Xiaozhi, Qin Qin, and Manman. This was already three days later. 

Qin Qin was very easy to find. Recently, a mental patient had gone missing in B City, and all the medical staff had been nervous for a long time, but then found that she had returned on her own, still wearing her hospital pajamas. It was said that her mental condition became much worse after her return. At first, she wouldn’t eat no matter what; later she slowly compromised. She became uncommunicative, but her aggression wasn’t so strong anymore. 

They might never be able to cure her, but who knew? This was only the beginning. 

Manman was local. Her full name was Lu Xiaoman, the same as that famous woman¹. Sadly, she wasn’t doted on in all ways all her life. General Zhong called in some personal connections, and in the end the local women’s federation intervened and got the child removed. Manman’s single mother was arrested for child abuse. Manman tested very high on an IQ test and was quickly adopted by a couple of intellectuals who couldn’t have children of their own for health reasons. 

Kou Tong saw her twice. Though she was making slow progress and still had slight obstacles in communicating, she was slowly learning to speak. 

This little lady was like a young but staunch plant. Though malnourished and at death’s door before, it only took a bit of sunlight and water to make her better. 

Her adoptive parents were very good to her. Her above average IQ made her little inner world much more complicated than those of her peers. If there were only people who were sincerely good to her, who merited it, she would try her hardest to use means that they could understand to call them “mom and dad.” 

But some things weren’t so satisfactory. When they found He Xiaozhi, he had already jumped off the roof of a mental hospital. 

When he had ended up in the big boiler, he had been sneaking up to the roof to jump off. When he returned, he was brought back to his original spot. 

It was said that he didn’t even hesitate. Traces on the scene attested that as soon as he got there, he cast himself into space without hesitation, yearning for death, arousing the greatest latent strength of his life; even the exhaustion of the fierce operation of his consciousness couldn’t impact his glorious jump. 

Sometimes, a sudden turn can’t change a person’s fate. Going around and around through accident after accident, he would still reach the same end by a different road. 

Though he had experienced such a beautiful dream, had known love, concern, and all the feelings of being needed and valued, though he himself had desperately wanted to live…

It still wasn’t enough. 

There was nothing that was certain to defeat another thing. Dropped into the same mire, some people, with only a piece of driftwood, could climb out themselves, while others, even if everyone tried their hardest to pull them out, would still slip away and sink. 

Though everyone hoped for and expected a happy ending, these were the facts. 

Kou Tong returned to the base and saw that Yao Shuo’s wife and son had come to meet him. According to General Zhong, though he was freed from suspicion, all his many little problems added together were still enough to get him in trouble and be temporarily relieved of his post to do some soul-searching. But he was a public servant of many years’ standing, and the problems weren’t so big. In a little while, when the wind had calmed, everything would be all right. Though there was no hope of promotion afterward, at least he could still steadily muddle on until retirement. 

A helicopter picked the family up from the base. When Yao Shuo boarded the helicopter, he looked back at Kou Tong. Perhaps he wanted to say something. Then he tripped and his son deftly held him up. 

The young man had the particular spareness of adolescence and some new pimples on his face, but he was growing fast. Yao Shuo turned to look at him and felt that the brat seemed to have eaten fertilizer; he was even taller than last time…he would soon be taller than he was. 

He was suddenly inexpressibly moved. He patted his son on the shoulder and squeezed into the helicopter. 

In the remaining half a month, Huang Jinchen shot nearly all the birds in the vicinity of the base. Kou Tong began to lead people in repairing the big boiler’s program. But as for the little program that had created the problem this time, he didn’t completely delete it. Instead, he took a mobile hard disk and secretly backed it up, prepared to put in the real safe in his home. 

Huang Jinchen had the luck to glance at the label on the mobile hard disk: Heaven Reserve.

Yes, Kou Tong’s mom was still happily and valiantly living inside. Kou Tong hoped that the scratches on her arm would heal as soon as possible and not impact the taste of her cooking. 

And as for the person he had once predicted wouldn’t remain long…

Stomping with fury, General Zhong poked him in the spine and said, “This is an ecological park! An ecological park, do you understand! Do you have any culture! Do you know what environmental protection is! Do you absolutely have to eat roasted birds! Is the base starving you? Are we starving you? Well, are we? Kou Tong! Take that guy and—fuck—off!” 

There was no need to instruct Kou Tong. He had already packed his bags. He dejectedly pulled two suitcases as he trotted out, still sporting a head of messy hair, beaming like a lucky cat. On his way, he stuffed a bag into Huang Jinchen’s hands and said to General Zhong, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, he’s a disgrace to the family, badly raised. How embarrassing for me. We’ll be going, sorry for bothering you…” 

“And don’t come back!” General Zhong flared up. 

Huang Jinchen said, “Tut—as if anyone would want to look at your wrinkled old face…” 

Kou Tong held down the back of his head, cutting off his words. Before General Zhong could stomp with fury once more, he pulled Huang Er-Pang away…

This movement, a very long time after, trained the strength of Dr. Kou’s inactive arms. Of course, that’s a story for later. 

And after—after, the knight and the princess lived a life as unreliable as thoughtlessness and unhappiness…fine, a happy life. 

They lived sometimes normally, sometimes teased by literary destiny, earnestly and with boundless idiocy. 

The facts bear it out: divinity is insubstantial; idiocy is benevolent governance.