Chapter 527: Chinese New Year’s Eve
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As the Martian biological samples arrived at the Spire one by one, a small team was specially formed in the Spire to further probe into the life forms from Mars.
Although they had been studied on Mars for a long time, this could not be compared to a top laboratory such as the Spire no matter in terms of equipment, manpower or energy. The team leader in charge of this matter was James Watson, the father of DNA.
At this time, Chen Chen had not partic.i.p.ated in such research work for a long time. His task all day was to read the reports and exercise his body and Field ability.
On the other side of things, the Ares parked at the s.p.a.ce base had already opened its door at this time and a group of blank-faced, non-human-like workers was constantly transporting something into Ares’ cargo area under the cover of night.
These were huge containers. These workers used forklifts and cranes to transport them to the cargo area little by little. Next to the Ares, the same blank-faced soldiers in black stood guard.
Both the workers and soldiers wore the logo of Blacklight on their uniforms.
When the containers had been transported, the workers boarded the Ares s.p.a.cecraft one by one. Then, the s.p.a.cecraft’s engine started again. Without too much delay, it rose toward the sky again.
The Ares flew to Mars again and no country in the Earth Federation was aware of all this...
...
One month later.
Time had gradually reached the end of 2028.
The Eco Science City was close to Sandwich Bay on the Atlantic coast. Gorgeous high-end villas stood on the coastline.
Just a few days ago, many villas were filled with Christmas trees, symbols of European and American holidays. On New Year’s Eve, those villas that had never celebrated Christmas began to hang festive red ornaments outside their doors, on which there was also the gleaming golden Chinese character for “fortune”.
The air of Christmas quickly dissipated and the festival for Han Chinese was about to begin...
In one of these vast villas, it was very lively. A dozen old and young people were laughing loudly. The TV was turned on and the voices of adults calling to children could be heard.
“Little Yu, don’t run so fast!”
A young woman of about 30 years of age powerlessly chased after a three or four-year-old child, watching as he sprinted in the living room on short legs, holding an airplane toy in his hand and shouting playfully, “Fly, fly!”
The entire living room was filled with the sound of childish enjoyment.
“This little guy, he’s crazy!”
On the side, a beaming 30-year-old man clapped and laughed. Next to him, there were several men and women. One of them was a wretched-looking little man who was somewhat plump, who smiled flatteringly. “Uncle, little boys have to behave in an unruly manner so that they’ll work up an appet.i.te later!”
Next to him, there was a woman with a cold expression and in front of the woman stood a boy of almost the same age. At this time, he was staring with dark, glittering eyes and watching the other boy running around in the living room.
“Little Tong, do you want to play with him?”
The wretched-looking man turned his head and looked at the boy in the woman’s arms. “Little Tong, why don’t you accompany your uncle and have fun?”
“I won’t!”
The boy in front of the woman quickly turned around and buried his face into the woman’s lap
“This poor kid...”
The wretched man murmured and touched his nose unhappily.
“Okay, based on the time, Little Chen is coming back soon. Hey, dear, let the nanny take care of Little Yu. Everyone’s finally got together, so come over here and talk to the adults too. It’s not easy for them to have traveled all the way here.”
The young-faced man in his thirties called out to the young woman chasing the child and urged her to stop.
“Alright. Sigh, this little goblin...”
The young woman sighed. Although she looked very young, she spoke like a middle-aged person in her fifties or sixties. She called to the Filipino maid wearing a servant’s attire and asked her to take care of the children, then sat down beside the man.
“Eh, in the end, it’s your Little Chen who did so well...”
Seeing that the young woman had sat back down, several other people started rushing to talk to the two of them. One of them, a middle-aged couple, said, “In Earth Federation now, who hasn’t heard about Blacklight Biotechnology? They’ve even gone to Mars. I heard that aliens have also been found!”
“Hahaha, it’s not aliens, just alien life.”
The man immediately laughed, his eyes filled with joy. “Big Brother, if they found aliens, that’d be something. Won’t we have to start Star Wars then?”
“Hahaha, that’s right!”
The middle-aged couple immediately laughed self-deprecatingly. “This brain of mine, it’s becoming duller the older I get!”
Everyone roared with laughter.
At this moment, the boy running wantonly in the living room was holding the plane. He happened to run to the front door of the front hall, but at this moment, the door suddenly opened with a crash, and the boy directly ran into a pair of legs in a black suit.
“Little Master, slow down...”
The maid chasing behind saw that the boy was about to hit the door and she was about to yell. She was relieved when she saw the boy was stopped by a person.
The little boy did not feel any pain when he b.u.mped into the person. He giggled and tried to push the person back, but found that the person did not move back as he wanted. Only then did he raise his head and look at the person.
As he raised his head, an angular face filled his vision at once.
This person’s eyes were as dark as ink, gazing at him calmly, but after seeing the other’s eyes, the little boy suddenly showed a look of horror. He subconsciously stepped back and then plopped back down on the ground. At the same time, he started wailing in tears!
“Oh, Little Master, this isn’t a stranger, this is your brother!”
The maid behind him immediately stepped forward and was about to squat to help up the little boy.
“Don’t coax him, let him get up by himself.”
Chen Chen said lightly.
“This...”
The maid looked consternated.
At this time, hearing the crying from the front hall, a man and a woman in their thirties rushed over. The voices could be heard before they even arrived. “Little Qiu, what’s going on, why is Little Yu crying?”
“Master, it’s okay, it’s just that Young Master came back...”
The maid quickly explained.
At this time, the group of people also came to the front hall and immediately saw Chen Chen standing here in the front hall.
“Little Chen!”
“Brother.”
The people behind the middle-aged couple suddenly looked elated and they came up, greeting. For a while, even the crying child sitting on the ground was forgotten...
“Big Uncle, Big Aunt, Aunt, Uncle, Cousin Chen Zheng...”
Chen Chen nodded and then looked behind everyone. “Dad, Mom, I’m back.”
“Good to have you back. Come, come and have some dumplings!”
The middle-aged man guffawed suddenly and led Chen Chen into the house.
In addition to Chen Chen’s elders, there were also people of Chen Chen’s generation. At this time, Chen Chen sat next to Cousin Chen Shan. He looked at the little boy in front of Chen Shan and then asked, “How’s life recently in China?”
“Very good. Although I’m taking care of my child full-time now, I have a very fulfilling life.”
Chen Shan nodded and she patted the boy’s head with some affection. “It’s a pity that my parents left us so early. Otherwise, surely they’d be very pleased to see that I have a child now?”
“As long as you’re doing well.”
Chen Chen nodded then glanced at the wretched-looking man who was constantly rubbing his hands.
“h.e.l.lo, cousin, h.e.l.lo!”
Zhang Heng nodded and smiled immediately.
“Treat my cousin well.”
Chen Chen nodded and said casually.
After Chen Chen came back, almost everyone in the room was paying attention to Chen Chen. At this time, Big Aunt took advantage of everyone’s pause and quickly asked with a smile, “Little Chen, you’d be 29 years old after the Chinese New Year. When are you going to get married?”
“Right, Little Chen!”
Chen Chen’s other uncle on the side also chimed in. As he spoke so suddenly, his voice made everyone jump. “This year you’re 28 years old, so it’s time to start a family, right? When your father was this age, he had already given birth to you!”
“Yeah, yeah...”
Instantly, many people voiced their agreement.
“Little Chen, do you have a partner?”
Seeing that her topic got a response from everyone, Big Aunt secretly breathed a sigh of relief and then she squeezed out a bigger smile. “If you don’t, I know of a few candidates. Would you like to take a look?”
“Sheesh!”
Another uncle hurriedly said, “Hey, Big Sis, you should forget about whomever you have in mind. What kind of guy is Little Chen now? Could they even possibly be well-matched?”
With that, he looked at Chen Chen and took out a bunch of photos. “Let’s look at the ones I have. These are the sons and daughters in our country’s system. Although they aren’t as good as Little Chen, they are at least clean and pure!”
This sentence immediately made Big Aunt upset. She was just about to say something when Chen Chen simply waved his hand.
The entire living room fell silent at once.
“That’s enough. We’ll talk about this some other time.”
Chen Chen merely smiled as if everyone had been talking out of their *sses a moment ago.
“Little Chen...”
Chen Chen’s father was a little embarra.s.sed.
Chen Chen ignored his father and just took the dumplings from the maid beside him. “The dumplings are already here, everyone should eat them while they are hot.”
“Okay, okay, let’s have the dumplings!”
Seeing the dip in the atmosphere, Chen Zheng on the side immediately smiled and shouted.
Chen Chen’s uncle, aunt, and the rest swiftly caught on. They laughed loudly and walked toward the dining table and the atmosphere regained a cheerful air for a while.
After eating the dumplings, Chen Chen was the first to leave the table. He bade good night to everyone and took the elevator to his bedroom on the fifth floor.
Chen Chen had long been used to this kind of thing.
Since his fortune began, many relatives had wanted to market various women to him every year. The first time, Chen Chen accepted those photos casually out of politeness, but later the other party had greedily wanted to set up a blind date, so Chen Chen started to ignore everything.
His parents still clung to their familial link to those relatives, so every year they would invite many relatives to Namibia.
To Chen Chen, the New Year’s Day and New Year atmosphere from his childhood memory had long deteriorated. Among the many relatives, the only ones of whom he still had a good impression were Cousin Chen Zheng and Cousin Chen Shan.
These affairs were like vignettes in life, which did not affect Chen Chen’s mood at all. By now, he had persuaded his parents to move to the Eco Science City, and their second child was four years old.
The second child of his parents was named Chen Zeyu, whose nickname was Little Yu.
However, for some reason, the little boy would cry every time he saw Chen Chen and this had not changed since Chen Zeyu was born.
Still, fortunately, Chen Chen only visited his parents once in a week or two.
After taking a deep breath, Chen Chen sat at the computer desk, but suddenly the computer turned on automatically, and Little X’s face appeared on the screen. “Sir G.o.dfather, I have good news for you. The ‘Ark’ has been set up on Mars!”
“So fast?”
Chen Chen raised his eyebrows. It had only been a month or so since the Ares s.p.a.cecraft had taken off. It also would take a week for Ares to reach Mars. In other words, it took less than a month for them to reach the north pole of Mars and build an underground base.
“It’s still a little shoddy.”
Little X smiled. “The main reason is that not only the gravity is weaker, so the work becomes more effective, but also that the ice sheet made of dry ice is softer. Therefore, in just a few days, we dug through the north pole’s ice sheet and reached the ground.
“Not only that, but we also happened to find a cavern in the ground. That cave meets the requirements for the construction of an underground base without any major modifications, so the construction of the underground base was initially completed in less than a month!”
“Well done...”
Chen Chen nodded. “So, now the earth and Mars are completely connected? As long as we fire up the Ark, we can travel from the earth to Mars smoothly?”
“If the Ark on Mars doesn’t malfunction, then yes.”
Little X replied, “But after all, it was a.s.sembled by a group of engineering Black Knights. Without my supervision, I’m not sure that it’ll succeed at once. Should I turn on the Ark now and try it?”
“Okay, you get ready first, I’ll come right away!”
Chen Chen immediately stood up as he said, opened the door directly, went downstairs, and walked outside.
“Little Chen, where are you going?”
His mother asked immediately with concern.
“There’s something in the company that I need to deal with. Dad, Mom, and everyone, have a good chat.”
Chen Chen smiled and then, without waiting for them to answer, he left without looking back...
...
An hour later, Chen Chen returned to the Spire Laboratory.