Bixing Lu had a clean and tidy appearance, but in fact he was a messy man in private. He messed up his workshop like a trash can. Two dismembered robots with their components piled up together and four mechanical legs stood on his desk in a line. In order to make him a place to take a nap, he piled all the chips into two unstable stacks. At the time he sat up with great shock, the two mountains of chips fell down, almost burying him down.
Sat.u.r.day gave him an unbearable look, "You really look like an old man, dumped by a wife, curling up in thestudy room."
Bixing Lu was still trapped in a grieving mood from after that nightmare which almost caused him chest pain. But he forced himself and wiped his face with a murmur, "Untrue, I am a single young man at my best age - what"s wrong?"
Sat.u.r.day became serious, "We put detectors on the periphery and one brought us that there is a wave of high-energy particles approaching here; about 50 hours later, it will arrive at our base. You know, magnetic field and gravity here are man-made, and they are really fragile. We don"t have that kind of planet stable magnetic field. Once it got disturbed, maybe ten millions of people here will be exposed to the s.p.a.ce environment. It"s certainly too late to build the protective net now, so your dad let me ask you what shall we do."
Bixing Lu woke up just now and his brain was in a whirl. Hearing the "high-energy particles approaching", he naturally considered it as the solar storm of the Eighth sun, and he thought, "Protective net? That old protective net was thinner than silk stockings, even couldn,"t resist the attack from particle cannon. What can it do? How did it survive from the solar storms before?"
But the next moment, he understood and raised his head in shock.
"This stream of energetic particles came from the nearest habitable Planet Egret." Sat.u.r.day"s young face looked gravely. "Actually, Egret is not too close to us, but there is no another planet suitable for human beings in the Eight Galaxy. When I was delivering goods, I had landed on the Planet Egret. I think it is just a rural place, why those nuts even bombed there?"
"Because when the IU Armed Force came in 136, Planet Egrets was their first base." Monoeye Hawk, topless, stepped in and chewed a toothpick, "It was also the breakthrough for them to enter the Eight Galaxy, so it is one of sad places of Prince Cayley."
"But that was more than 140 years ago," said Sat.u.r.day, "How long is the average life span of the Eight Galaxy? Besides these old fools here, how many people can live over 140 years? It has already been another f.u.c.king generation. Is there something wrong with that pirate somewhat Feng"s head? "
Monoeye Hawk, who accidentally lived beyond the average life span and received scolding unfortunately, broke into anger, "You p.r.i.c.k! Who did you refer as the old fool?"
Sat.u.r.day looked up with innocent face, "Aha? Bro... oh well, Uncle Hawk, have you already been 140-year-old?"
The whole Eighth Galaxy knew about Monoeye Hawk as a great gun runner. His personal brand occupied an indispensable percentage in the guns market. Sat.u.r.day was just an ignorant peasant from the middle of nowhere. Therefore the middle-aged Persian cat who was up to 200 years old couldn"t answer his question. He would rather catch up with his lost youth if he could.
He turned his head away and didn"t want to even have a look at Sat.u.r.day. "In your plan," he knocked on Bixing Lu"s desk, "even if we ask all the people in the base to work over 500 hours without any rest, we can"t finish the project at the end. So what would you do now? Is it possible to just simplify the design of protective net as a temporary shelter, and we can go further after the magnetic field interference...What"s wrong?"
Bixing Lu jumped up and said, "Lin is still outside."
Monoeye Hawk was confused at first, but he realized what he meant, "Who? Jingheng Lin?"
Bixing Lu turned to the Communication Centre of the mech station. The mech Beijing used to stop by the station, hanging with intranet. As long as there was a subtle signal, he could try to contact with Lin.
"Hey!" Monoeye Hawk was about to grab him, "He would never die! How could he die! I have told you hundreds of times that even the explosion of Eighth sun would not blow him up, let alone a b.l.o.o.d.y small dozen of particle streams. Easy, boy!"
Bixing Lu missed his stretched hand, "You two will fight with each other as long as you meet. Where did you get that kind of unbelievably strong confidence on him?"
Monoeye Hawk shrugged, "Jingheng Lin is such an a.s.shole but only with his valuable ability. If he doesn"t have that, wouldn"t he just be a bad a.s.s?"
Bixing Lu looked unhappy, "Dad."
Monoeye Hawk gazed at his expression, feeling his concern had become true. He wasn"t good at making discreet inquiries, so he spat out his toothpick, took a deep breath and spoke straight, "Bixing Lu, I"d like to say that I"m not a reasonable person. But I"ve always been pretty indulgent with you. Never had I put a limitation to you, right? When you were a teenager, I told you that Cayley has such a number of chicks whom you can play or date with. Except getting promoted as a grandfather at my young age, I won"t meddle in your business."
Sat.u.r.days was forced to listen their private family conversations. He didn"t want to listen to it but was embarra.s.sed to interrupt them. He noticed that Monoeye Hawk still boasted himself as a young guy, he couldn"t help but swallow and admire him.
Lu felt strange and confused about his words, "What are you talking about?"
"It is indeed my fault that I didn"t realize you want to "go vegan". If you prefer a man, I can"t appreciate it but I will never interfere with you." Monoeye Hawk looked deeply at Sat.u.r.day.
Sat.u.r.day was frightened and shocked, he tied his shirt up to the top b.u.t.ton in a flash, raised his hands and swore, "I"m not gay!"
"Who cares about you? Don"t flatter yourself." Monoeye Hawk rolled his eyes at Sat.u.r.day, and then he turned to aim at Lu, "But for Jingheng Lin, don"t you dare even think about it!"
"Whoa," Sat.u.r.day was stunned and thought, "A single dad is breaking up a matched set."
Bixing Lu was also shocked by his 200-year-old father"s soap opera story. He opened his mouth as if to protest, but couldn"t help feeling that explaining was kind of embarra.s.sing. Now all he wanted was to open his father"s head and confirm if he lost his mind.
He was stuck dumb for a while, and he pointed at the door to speak as calmly as he could, "Would you please find a clinic to heal your menopausal delusions?"
After those words, he kept a murderous smile and moved away quickly while elegantly.
Monoeye Hawk was furious but had nowhere to release his anger, he looked around and found that Sat.u.r.day was still there. He was about to call some bad name, and Sat.u.r.day slipped away, "Well, bro... sorry, I mean, uncle, I still have something to do so I have to go now and have a good day."
Bixing Lu controlled his anger and headed for the communication center. His temper was always easy to come and easy to go. Before he arrived at the communication center, his anger had flown away and gathered at the skin between his neck and ears, where it was about to burn.
He seemed to discover a seedling he had never known before, full of doubts and curiosity. He did not know whether it would be a rare flower or plain weed after growing up. He was afraid that others thought him to be dramatic, so he sheltered it from the storm carefully, only taking a glimpse at it sometimes. He doubted, he hesitated to make a decision whether to let it grow. But here came an unfriendly cat, turning it over to expose it with a claw.