Huang Jinchen thought that Kou Tong’s voice over the phone was slightly different from his voice when he spoke normally. He couldn’t say what kind of feeling this was. As a sniper who aimed from the shadows, in certain respects he was much more sensitive than an ordinary person. 

When Kou Tong’s voice came over the phone amidst chaotic background noise, Huang Jinchen suddenly felt that he seemed to have returned to the first time they had met; hearing this voice, it was as if he could obtain some kind of mystical peace and tranquillity from it. 

“General Zhong wants us to go over today—Dr. Kou, how’s your beggar’s chicken leg¹?” 

“Not bad. In another couple of days, the hospital will break the mud, and then it’ll be ready to come out of the pot.—Where are we meeting? I’ll take a taxi over.” 

“No need, I’ll pick you up on my way.” Huang Jinchen draped on a jacket and casually asked, “Where are you? Not at the hospital, right? Why does it sound so busy?” 

Kou Tong paused, then gave him an address. 

Huang Jinchen said, “…What are you doing?” 

Kou Tong gave a dry laugh. “Resting. Just resting.” 

Huang Jinchen picked up his keys and went out. On his way out, he automatically felt for the cabinet in his living room. On opening it, there was a drawer full of handguns, rifles, and cold steel. He stared blankly for a moment, then remembered that in the future he wouldn’t need these old mates. He couldn’t resist clutching his head. He was suddenly a little at a loss. Then he shook his head and smiled. In the end, he couldn’t resist hiding a little handgun under his pant leg. Then he opened the door and went out. 

Kou Tong was in a foul-smelling gaming hall. When Huang Jinchen found him, he discovered that the white-clothed angelic Dr. Kou of his imagination, with his crippled leg, was showing a strong will despite his disabled body and playing mahjong. Never mind the mahjong, there was also a stack of playing cards by each person’s hand. 

What? The pure and honest children don’t understand? 

Huang-ge understood at a glance, anyway. This Dr. Kou, who despite being a little inattentive towards his duties passed at any rate for a government employee, wasn’t using his fingertips to draw circles on a bald head like Ikkyū²—he was gambling. 

Dr. Kou was blowing out a string of smoke rings with his leg in its cast sticking up, pushing a handful tiles with soaring heroic spirit. He knocked on the table. “Mahjong! Comrades, pay up!” 

A bushy-bearded fellow next to him, his facial features bitter, counted out some playing cards and gave them to him. A horse-faced middle-aged man was pointing at him and laughing. “That’s great, Lao Xiong! How much of your money is Kou Tong walking away with tonight?” 

The bushy-bearded fellow looked pitifully at Kou Tong with dark, liquid little eyes. “He’s always laying traps!” 

“You’re always giving up winning tiles.” Kou Tong turned his head and nodded to Huang Jinchen, then stood up leaning on the table. “Come on, come on, settle up, settle up. I’m not playing anymore today. Work to do.” 

Lao Xiong looked at Huang Jinchen with tears of gratitude, as though he were a Goddess of Mercy helping the needy. 

However they counted up the money, Kou Tong collected his winnings from the circle and tucked away a handful of red Grandpa Maos. He once again put on a brilliant and insolent smile like a lucky cat’s and swaggered off after Huang Jinchen. 

Huang Jinchen helped him into the car and put his crutch aside. “You have a knack for making money. Good work.” 

Kou Tong gave him a meaningful look. “Little comrade, come along with me, and there’ll be meat to eat.” 

Huang Jinchen turned his face and smiled very naturally at Kou Tong. Kou Tong himself spent all his time wandering around and was the type to make himself at home everywhere. Huang Jinchen’s sideline was in busking on the subway, so unfortunately he was also the type to make himself at home everywhere. As if they had known each other for years, the two of them rambled nonsense the whole way to the place where General Zhong was picking them up. 

To the outside world, the ST Base was a very mysterious place. Although, when the structure of government had failed entirely, it had become the final contact base in the war with the Utopia terrorist organization, in peacetime it was only an unknown “relevant department.” Its location was extremely remote. It had the most cutting-edge technological equipment…as well as the most rustic living conditions. 

For example, for a stretch of the road leading to the base, not even the highway could get through. There was nothing but a dusty dirt road. Going along it was like riding a roller coaster. Behind the base, there was a stream and farmland, as well as a few scattered villages whose inhabitants made their living primarily through farming. 

When they arrived, it was already very late. The Lao Yao General Zhong had spoken of would only arrive the next day. Kou Tong went to adjust his equipment. Huang Jinchen squatted in the yard for a while with his head raised, looking at the clear sky, feeling that the air in this mysterious base in the valley was much better than in the city. It was as if the stars had been rinsed clean with water. 

He took a deep breath, sat in the middle of the yard, and pulled out an apple. Not even washing it, using his sleeve to wipe it, he began to munch, suddenly feeling a little bewildered. 

Kou Tong adjusted the base’s equipment. This huge Projector was also called the Multidimensional Frequency-Altering Space. It could cast a person’s consciousness into a special frequency space and could even take the person themselves inside. Compared to the little Projector he normally carried on his back, it was the difference between an air gun and a cannon.

This enormous Projector, from planning to final perfection, had had a great deal of his heart’s blood poured into it. When Kou Tong saw it, it was as if he was seeing his own wife. He ran over to tinker with hearts in his eyes. 

General Zhong followed him, steadying him when he saw that he couldn’t find his footing. The two of them seemed to be old partners; they had a kind of wordless tacit understanding. When the instrument was just about adjusted, General Zhong suddenly spoke: “I transferred Huang Jinchen over to you without consulting you…” 

“Oh…yeah?” Kou Tong stared for a moment, then carelessly said, “Don’t worry, he’s pretty easy to get along with.” 

General Zhong stared at his back in silence for a moment. “Huang Jinchen wants to be discharged from service. The higher powers don’t want to let him go. When Lao Yang mentioned this to me, I suddenly thought of you. You…well, you’re all grown up, and you’re always on the move. If you have a slightly more reliable person to take care of you in the future, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.” 

Kou Tong unblushingly said, “I’m pretty reliable.” 

General Zhong slowly pointed at his beggar’s chicken leg and said, “How did you do that?” 

Kou Tong didn’t speak. He kept his head down, adjusting the instrument. After a while, he suddenly laughed. “Anyway, he won’t stay long. I don’t have any objections.” 

Kou Tong swayingly reached for his crutch. General Zhong held him by the elbow, helping him stand firm. Kou Tong looked out the window. Huang Jinchen was just brandishing an apple core, taking aim at a little bird in a tree. The little bird hopped and bounced, taking absolutely no notice of this man who seemed like a mental patient. The outcome was that a fierce wind suddenly attacked it, and it unfortunately turned into a bird tragedy—it was hit on the head by an apple core bumpy from nibbling and fell right down from the fork in the tree. 

“He’s a person of great ability,” Kou Tong commented, arms crossed in front of his chest and eyes narrowed. “In his teens, when other children are still in their rebellious phase, he went to that place alone and grew up bit by bit all on his own. He’s spent all these years surrounded by carnage, and now that he’s suddenly come back, there must be a disparity. I’ll keep him for a few days. When he’s accepted the situation, I’ll send him to do what needs doing.” 

General Zhong followed his gaze and nodded. “Thank you.” 

Kou Tong lowered his eyes and laughed. “Instructor, why are you being polite to me? If you need my help with anything, just say the word. I won’t argue. Just as long as Your Majesty doesn’t entrust his son to me on his deathbed again.” 

General Zhong’s expression softened. “That…” 

Kou Tong turned his head, leering. “But entrusting your wife to me is no problem.” 

General Zhong slapped him on the back of the head. 

Huang Jinchen was just deliberating whether to stew or roast the bird he had knocked down when he heard movement behind him. He turned to look and saw General Zhong nod to him and leave. Kou Tong was leaning by the door. He beckoned to him. “007, come here, come here!” 

With one look at his joyous smile, Huang Jinchen felt that everything was just fine. He dusted off his butt and got up in a very good mood, eagerly strolling over. “What is it, handsome?” 

“Let me show you how we’re putting food on the table.” 

Full of interest, Huang Jinchen went in a circle, observing the world’s greatest Projector. He very pertinently commented, “It looks like a big boiler.” 

Kou Tong instantly felt that he had met a kindred spirit. “That’s right. It’s my design. I used the dining hall’s big water boiler as reference.” 

Huang Jinchen thought that Dr. Kou truly was a genius. He went over and touched the thing a few times, then asked, “How do you use this thing?” 

Kou Tong stood beside the big boiler with an evil smile. He quickly brought up a control panel on the “big boiler” and entered a program. 

Huang Jinchen felt dizzy. He seemed to have been crushed flat and quickly dropped into a black hole. He was surprised and automatically crouched down into a ball, ready to roll away at any moment, his hand feeling beside his foot. 

But he didn’t fall heavily at all. He came lightly to the ground and found that he was on a stretch of soft sand. Huang Jinchen raised his head in astonishment. Kou Tong was standing not far from him. The strange thing was that the crutch he had been holding was gone, and he was standing firm, as though he was perfectly intact. 

The two of them were standing on a deserted island with white sand at their feet. Occasionally a seabird floated by. 

The island was very small. There was only a small forest on it. But in the middle there was a tower. The tower was very thick and heavy. It had no doors or windows. Whoever had built it, it was extremely tall, so that people standing at the bottom couldn’t see the top of the tower even tilting their heads back. It seemed to poke into the clouds. 

All around was boundless ocean. A faint salt breeze blew. Everywhere was the sound of waves. Sea and sky were the same color. 

Huang Jinchen slowly relaxed and turned his head to look at Kou Tong, who was staring at the tower. “Is this…inside that big boiler?” 

“You could say that.” Kou Tong was standing very upright. “The Projector is a special spatial instrument. It can take people into different spaces. The frequency of the spaces is adjusted according to a set program. It matches up to the thinking of the people who enter. Just now, I adjusted it to target everyone who entered the space. In other words…” 

He smiled inscrutably. “This space is the outcome of our two consciousnesses overlapping.”