“Su Qing, Su Qing, you guys, stop, don’t go any further!” 

This was a narrow road in the countryside, not much wider than a one-way street. To either side were sparse trees, farmland, and wilderness. 

Su Qing very naturally let the car slide a dozen meters, then stop. Then he jumped out and rolled his sleeves up high, revealing forearms with well-proportioned muscles. He had a cap gone pale from washing on his head. There were two buttons open on his dark blue shirt. Somehow the color of his skin had become very dark, and in a very natural way. He really looked like someone who was always out on the road. 

“Why would it break?” he said, pretending to wildly rummage around under the car, pounding and clanking. 

Just then, Chang Dou said into his ear over the communicator, “We’ve detected an enormous spatial field over there. You’ve already reached its edge. This spatial field is very strange. Ordinarily speaking, forcibly manufactured spatial fields are all unstable, for example, the one we tested with Zheng Wan. But this one is actually a stable field. The two spaces are merged. I have no way to determine what will happen if you two go in.” 

Su Qing’s hand paused. He stuck his head out from under the car and yelled to Ji Pengcheng inside: “Hey, old man, how much farther is it?” 

Chang Dou stared. Hu Bugui quietly explained: “He’s asking how far they are from our target area right now.” 

“Oh…oh!” Chang Dou caught up, thinking that going out in the field was too stimulating. You had to have a quick brain. “Rough estimate, you’re still around twenty kilometers from our target area.” 

Ji Pengcheng cooperatively stuck out his head. He had a cigarette in his mouth. He slowly said, “Huh? It’s still early, why are you in a rush? Listen, kid, are you doing all right?” 

Su Qing cursed and got up off the ground, then went to open the trunk, saying as though talking to himself, “Is the toolbox here?” 

Chang Dou absolutely couldn’t tell whom Su Qing was talking to. He went blank again. Hu Bugui had to stand next to him and translate: “He’s asking whether you have some tool that can probe the spatial field.” 

Chang Dou was reverent. “Oh, there are some plans. Try setting off a gravitational probe and see what happens, it’s in the pocket watch I gave you. Pick the gravitational probe release program, then you won’t have to mind it anymore. If an unusual space or field appears, it will automatically roll over.” 

Under cover of the car, Su Qing quickly pulled out the pocket watch and pressed it a few times. An “oil droplet” as clear as water rolled off the side off the watch and fell on the ground, quickly breaking into several small granules almost invisible to the naked eye. They stopped for a moment, then simultaneously rolled forward. 

Su Qing waited for the results of the analysis while wasting time tinkering in the back. Ji Pengcheng, who might have been incredibly idle, stuck his head out to tease him. “Listen, kid, have you found the toolbox yet? Or can’t you fix it? If you can’t, then say so. I won’t make fun of you for being an inexperienced man too young to grow a beard. I won’t tell your wife.” 

As Su Qing listened to reports of all kinds of data from the outside of the space coming over the communicator from the main engine, he took some time out of his busy schedule to stick his head out and raise his middle finger at him. 

Chang Dou looked nervously at Hu Bugui. “Captain Hu, what kind of secret signal is that?” 

Hu Bugui: “…” 

From a neighboring field, a somewhat aged man with the look of a farmer walked out. He seemed to want to rest nearby. Ji Pengcheng shot Su Qing a look. Su Qing pushed his cap brim up and walked over carrying a wrench, familiarly putting on a brilliant smile. “Brother, let me ask you something, how far is the nearest place that can repair a car?” 

The old villager looked at him. “What, did your car break down?” 

“It won’t go.” Su Qing shrugged. 

The old villager smilingly suggested, “Give it a kick!” 

“Oh, all right.” Su Qing raised his foot and gave it a kick. Then…it bounced back. He clutched his hair and twisted his head back with a simple-minded look. “Brother, it didn’t help!” 

The others were watching the performance. Lu Qingbai couldn’t resist laughing. Smacking Chang Dou on the back of the head, he said, “He’s imitating you. He’s so good at using local materials.” 

Just then, Su Qing’s gaze fell on the old villager’s wrist. His gaze suddenly paused, and his pupils contracted. He made a hair-clutching gesture, his fingers brushing against the communicator. Lu Qingbai said, “I saw it, that bracelet he’s wearing is very much like the ones the Dong family had. Don’t touch it.” 

The old farmer put down his farm tool and came over to look with an affected air but didn’t see anything. He assessed: “This car…is kind of lousy.” 

Su Qing: “Heh-heh.” 

“Well, that’s trouble,” said the old farmer. “Do you have a what-do-you-call-it…a phone? My son says if you use the phone, you can call people to tow your car away.” 

“Oh, that’s right!” said Su Qing, who was being possessed by Chang Dou. He reached his hand into his pants pocket to fish for his phone. When he had it, he found a precise spot on it and pressed lightly—when he took it out, it was a phone with a black screen. Tilting his head, he knocked the phone against the automobile, looking astonished. “Huh? Why won’t it light up?” 

The battery had been hit by an energy blast and roasted—

Su Qing and the farmer stared at each other in dismay. Finally, the warm-hearted village uncle promised to think of a way to help them when his son got back. So the two of them squatted by the road side by side, chatting back and forth. After a moment, Ji Pengcheng also got out of the car, ostensibly to scold Su Qing, but he seeded a lot of tricks into his language. In hardly any time, the old villager had cheerfully handed over eighteen generations of his ancestors. 

Fang Xiu sighed. He looked at Su Qing on the screen playing dumb, then looked at the truly dumb Chang Dou, and thought that the latter was after all more pleasing to the eye.—This Su Qing, he thought, really is too hard to handle. Captain Hu truly is worthy of his rank. He has to choose a high difficulty level even in romance. 

Su Qing pretended to only just now notice the bracelet on the old villager’s arm. He blinked and said in surprise, “Uncle, a grown man like you, why would you be wearing a bracelet?” 

The old villager gave a cough, took the half-transparent bracelet off his arm, and offered it to Su Qing. It was naturally picked up for observation by Ji Pengcheng. 

“This is medicine,” the old villager said shockingly. “Before, we had some of that what-do-you-call-it…sleeping sickness, right, that’s it, that sickness where you fall asleep and won’t wake up. Everyone was in a panic, and later the government sent a medical team and gave this to everyone, one for each person. If you wear this, you can avoid getting the sleeping sickness. And afterwards, it’s true that it didn’t happen again.” 

“Everyone has one?” 

“That’s right.” 

“Copy,” Chang Dou said over the communicator. “This kind of external energy crystal that passes through a unified hub can prevent sleeping sickness—wait a minute, you two be careful. A gravitational probe has already entered the target area, and we’ve lost contact now.” 

“I think I understand the basic reasoning behind this bracelet,” Cheng Weizhi said, pushing up his glasses. “At heart, the sleeping sickness is caused by the large-scale absorption of the patient’s emotions, exceeding the limits of human tolerance. With this thing like an external energy crystal, you can create something like a ‘static screen’ to counteract the emotional ‘field.’” 

“The car you drove in there is also on the same prin…” Before Chang Dou could finished his sentence, the computer in front of him suddenly sounded a sharp alarm. 

Everyone was startled. On the big screen, they saw the area not far from Su Qing where the two spaces were folded together suddenly surge towards them like a tide. 

“What’s happening?” Zhong Shiliang pushed aside a few people blocking his way and came to stand at the front, frowning. “Have they disturbed something?” 

“I don’t know whether it was the energy blast he just used to stimulate the battery or the gravitational probe.” Chang Dou grabbed the communicator. “Su Qing, Su Qing, listen to me, withdraw from there at once, the spatial field has just been disturbed, I didn’t expect it to be so sensitive, it’s coming towards you as though it’s been activated.” 

Su Qing stared. Ji Pengcheng had also heard. The two of them quickly exchanged a look. How to withdraw? Get in the car now? Too phony, no? 

Su Qing suddenly asked, “Brother, how much longer will it be before your son comes back?” 

This time, before Chang Dou could ask, Hu Bugui quickly said, “He’s asking you how long before the field spreads to him. What’s the speed?” 

“Very fast. A conservative estimate is within ten minutes,” Chang Dou said. 

But the old farmer didn’t know of their private anxieties. He unhurriedly answered, “Are you in a rush? It’s early for him, he won’t be here before dark.” 

Ji Pengcheng’s face immediately took on a look of reluctance. In deadly earnest, he said, “Oh, that won’t do—kid, give me the toolbox, I’ll get out and have a look.” 

Then the old man took the toolbox and squeezed under the car with extremely expert movements, holding a flashlight in his mouth. Three minutes later, Ji Pengcheng’s furious scolding came from under the car: “Do you have any brains in your head, kid? You can’t fix this? Here I thought it was some major fucking breakdown. Honestly, you’re… The wheel’s still turning, but the hamster’s dead.” 

Su Qing grinned “simple-mindedly” and thought, Just you wait, old fart. 

Ji Pengcheng displayed seemingly expert care repair skills, deftly resolving the “problem.” He climbed into the driver’s seat with a foul look, and the car quickly started. 

Though it was very phony, the sole member of the audience still applauded. 

The old villager even commented, “If you’d known before, you could have done that earlier. One veteran really is worth two novices!” 

Su Qing said goodbye to him and opened the passenger’s side door. Just then, he suddenly raised his head and looked to the side. There was an ear-splitting alarm coming over the communicator in his ear with Chang Dou’s voice mixed in: “Ahhh, why would such a stable field suddenly revolt! Su Qing, you inhuman, how does something always go wrong with you?!” 

Su Qing ignored him. He had “seen” that thing—it didn’t look like a tornado, and it didn’t look like the tide. He could see the place not far away where there seemed to be a line no one could detect. He couldn’t “hear” any noise from beyond the line. It was…a place in another world. 

Su Qing quickly got the car moving and locked the doors. A transparent control panel popped up in front of the seat. He quickly tapped on it a few times. Just as the space quickly flowed over the whole car, the highest level protective system came into being.

The communicator signal cut off amid the sounds of rustling and static. 

For a moment, the ST Base was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop. Chang Dou had gone completely blank. He had his mouth open for a long moment, forgetting to close it. He was pushed aside by Zhong Shiliang, then quickly pulled up a map of the whole area. The coordinate point belonging to Su Qing had disappeared. 

“We alter the plan according the worst calculations,” Zhong Shiliang ordered. “Maintain a protective umbrella to guard against explosions. Squad One will enter the target area to clear out the residents. Everyone wear protective clothes. The others, surround the area. Don’t act rashly without my orders, and don’t activate any energy equipment!” 

“Also, deploy helicopters with sufficient demolition tools,” Kou Tong added, his face grave. 

Hu Bugui’s hands clenched, nails digging into his flesh. His whole face was tense, drawing out a fierce arc. 

But in the end, he didn’t say anything. 

Su Qing and Ji Pengcheng sat in the car. For a full half a minute, no one said anything. Fortunately, after half a minute, nothing had happened. Ji Pengcheng slowly stepped on the gas pedal and drove the car away. “The highest level protective system held… Now what?” 

Su Qing didn’t speak. He pointed to the boxes of light and heavy weaponry in the backseat. “The connection is broken, and we don’t know what this damn thing’s principle is, don’t know how it was disturbed, and don’t know whether we’ve alerted the enemy already. Captain Hu and the others will probably act according to the worst calculations—drive forward—this time…we have to stake it all on one throw.” 

Ji Pengcheng glanced at him. 

With his voice low and his expression steady, Su Qing said, “They’ll likely think of a way to invade or blow up the whole area. It’s dangerous on the outside, too. It’s better to cooperate with them and go have a look at what kind of demon this amazing thing that’s hijacked the world is.” 

Ji Pengcheng laughed softly. “What, you think that he’ll disregard where you live or die?”  

“Nonsense. There’s no need for him to attend to whether I live or die.” Su Qing raised the thin membrane over his cap and face, revealing the pale skin underneath. He briskly rubbed a few times, and the “simple-minded” face from before was all gone, revealing a slightly arrogant smile. “The people inside receive more blessings if they save themselves.” 

“Hey!” Ji Pengcheng sighed with emotion. “The little whelp has grown up. You’ve grown some guts.”