Hearing this, Vincent tried very hard to understand.
The chief of the White Tower? Y? The Y who landed on the blacklist four years ago and firmly occupied the first place? The Y who designed the starship central control system for them
But isn’t the person in front of them their employer, a sophomore student at Turan Academy
Vincent felt a little dizzy.
Moreover, the rumored Y is in his forties, and it is unknown whether he is a man or a woman, but he is a taciturn middle-aged man with wise eyes and a wrinkle between his eyebrows!
How old is Qi Yan? He has just reached adulthood, how can he be considered middle-aged!
Another calculation shows that the starship's central control system was completed by Qi Yan... when he was sixteen
Vincent turned to Erich, who knew nothing, and wanted to pull him over and tell him everything he knew! Unfortunately, the situation was not right, so he had to hold it in, not daring to utter a single word, and it was extremely difficult to endure.
Erich didn't notice Vincent's glances, he was only surprised by Y's appearance and age. He also noticed that Lu Fenghan stood there and didn't extend his hand.
Very strange.
The military and the White Tower have always maintained a good cooperative relationship. In the interstellar age, wars are no longer simply fought with human lives, but more of a competition at the tactical and technological levels.
For example, decades ago, based on the White Tower’s innovation in space communication technology, the rebels were overwhelmed by the expeditionary force several times over a period of ten years due to strong interference in their communication systems.
Therefore, the military has always held a respectful attitude towards the White Tower, especially the expeditionary forces standing on the front line who have a deeper understanding of this - the things sent by the White Tower are often things that can save thousands of lives. They have always been very cautious.
But now, Lu Fenghan completely ignored the hand that Y extended.
Just when Erich wanted to give a covert reminder, Lu Fenghan finally moved. He raised his hand and held Qi Yan's hand, not with much force, but he did not let go quickly.
Feeling the cold temperature at his fingertips, Lu Fenghan asked in a low voice: "Why is it so cold?"
As he spoke, he loosened his hand, took a half step forward, and at the same time unfolded the military jacket in his left hand and carefully draped it over Qi Yan.
With this movement, it was as if he was holding Qi Yan in his arms.
Obviously, he should feel uncomfortable with the sudden close distance, but his body seemed to be completely accustomed to it. He stood there without moving at all, without any resistance.
There was a slight weight on his shoulder, and Qi Yan subconsciously grabbed one side of his collar, looked at Lu Fenghan, and realized that he was surrounded by the other party's strong aura in an instant.
The discomfort caused by the interstellar jump was strangely relieved at this moment.
His hands were still a little itchy. The palm that Lu Fenghan had just held was burning hot and rough, and seemed to be covered with tiny wounds, hard scabs and thin calluses.
Qi Yan seemed inexplicably concerned.
Lu Fenghan stood up again, and instead of returning to his original position, he asked Qi Yan from a very close distance: "What did you bring?"
Wearing Lu Fenghan's coat, Qi Yan said, "I brought the source architecture of a new detection system, called 'Wind Catching', but before actual combat use, it needs to be connected to the starship's central control system for testing and adjustment."
Lu Fenghan raised his eyebrows: "Bufeng? Who came up with the name?"
Qi Yan replied: "I picked it from the list of unused names."
"The previous 'White Falcon', 'Twilight', 'Sundial', are they all?"
Qi Yan nodded: "Yes."
"Well," Lu Fenghan asked, "According to your habit, what name would you choose?"
These questions were irrelevant, but Qi Yan instinctively answered Lu Fenghan's questions carefully one by one: "ce0701 new detection system."
Lu Fenghan curled the corners of his lips slightly, and finally caught a sense of familiarity from under the ice.
Looking at Qi Yan's thin appearance, he thought that he really didn't eat well, so he asked again: "Let's start the test now?"
Qi Yan nodded: "Yes."
Lu Fenghan didn't say much, and called out "Pojun": "Take Qiyan to the equipment room of the central control system."
"Okay." Po Jun's voice appeared on the radio, greeting, "Nice to meet you, my designer."
Vincent next to him gasped again.
Erich did not hide his surprise.
Qi Yan was neither surprised nor excited by Po Jun's sudden voice, and only ordered: "Let's go."
After walking a few steps, he stopped again, turned around, and his eyes fell on Lu Fenghan's hand. He hesitated and said, "Your hand—"
Lu Fenghan: "What's wrong?"
Qi Yan lowered his eyes: "Nothing."
After saying that, he followed the guideposts that Pojun displayed at his feet and left the bridge.
When there were only three people left on the bridge, Erich said, "Commander, you and y—"
His voice was interrupted by Vincent: "Commander, what happened between you and Qi Yan? Aren't you all fine in Leto? Why does he feel..." Vincent thought of a word to describe it, "Why does he feel unpopular?"
After saying that, he winked at Erich secretly, indicating that he would explain it to him later.
The relaxed expression on Lu Fenghan's face disappeared completely. He looked in the direction where Qi Yan left, his gaze was very deep, and there was obvious restlessness in his eyes.
"Are you free? Vincent, make a new defense list for me and submit it before dinner. Erich, go see if Weiss has spoken."
Seeing Lu Fenghan's extremely cold eyes and a layer of "keep away from the living" murderous aura wrapped all over his body, Vincent and Erich stepped on their heels and responded neatly: "Yes!"
Lu Fenghan returned to the command room.
He took a cigarette out of the box and held it between his teeth without lighting it. He then remembered that in Leto's coffee shop, Qi Yan, out of curiosity, snatched his cigarette and tasted it, and complained that the taste was not very good.
The pain in his heart did not spread out until this moment, causing Lu Fenghan to hold his breath in pain, and the veins on his hands that were supporting the table were exposed.
After several minutes, he finally recovered, leaned against the wall, and asked Pojun: "What is Qiyan doing now?"
Po Jun: "In the equipment room, entering the central control system database."
Lu Fenghan was completely trapped in the shadows. After a few breaths, he asked, "Did you say anything else?"
His voice was hoarse, with a hint of expectation and a hint of fear.
Po Jun: "Yes, he asked me to remind him to rest after six hours, and also asked about the injury on your palm."
"Injury?" Lu Fenghan was slightly startled, and looked down at his open palm, only to find that there were many small wounds on it, all of which were left by him during his six months at Dawn Star, some old and some new. He didn't feel any pain at the time, and even less after the scabs and calluses formed.
Only that little squeamish person would think this is an injury.
That's why I take this little injury to heart.
His heart felt a little sour and swollen, and Lu Fenghan didn't know why, but the corners of his eyes felt a little sore.
He closed his eyes and imagined how Qi Yan looked when he approached.
She has become even thinner. The silk shirt looks empty on her. I wonder how long it has been since she had a good meal. Her wrists were thin to begin with, and now they are so thin that they seem like they will break if bent.
When she put clothes on him, he was as well behaved as before, showing him a gentle and trusting look.
But how did he spend the past six months
How did you end up looking like a sculpture of ice and snow
Why would she stand in front of him and call him "General" in a distant and cold manner
He leaned his back against the cold metal wall, the cold seeping into his bones. After a long while, Lu Fenghan asked in a hoarse voice, "Can you pick up Eliza from the White Tower?"
He had only heard two names from Qi Yan, one was Eliza and the other was August. These two people should be very close to Qi Yan.
Pojun quickly replied, "Yes."
Lu Fenghan said, "Hmm," and said, "Connect the communication."
After a few seconds, the communication was successfully connected. Due to the long distance, there was a little bit of subtle signal noise.
Lu Fenghan spoke first: "Hello, I'm Lu Fenghan, I'm sorry to bother you so suddenly."
Eliza was not surprised, and said gently: "I guessed that you would contact me soon. You met Qi Yan, right?"
"Yes, you've lost weight again." Lu Fenghan felt a sense of irritability in his heart. Considering that this was Qi Yan's elder, he tried to soften his tone and said, "I want to know what happened to Qi Yan."
"How much do you know about the situation of Qiyan's memory confusion?"
Lu Fenghan frowned slightly: "He often remembers things wrongly and is very confused."
"What about his mother, Lin Zhi?"
Lu Fenghan didn't know why the other party connected these two questions together. It made him feel like he was hanging in the air, unable to find any solid ground.
"I know about this. He told me about it."
A few seconds later, Eliza's voice sounded again: "When Qi Yan was eleven years old, his mother Lin Zhi quietly left the White Tower and returned to the house where she lived with her parents when she was a child, and ended her life there. Without our knowledge, Qi Yan stayed by Lin Zhi's side alone for a long time. No one knew what he felt or thought at the time, until he took the initiative to contact the outside world and was taken back to the White Tower."
After hearing this narration, Lu Fenghan suddenly felt a sense of familiarity, but when he thought about it again, this sense of familiarity dissipated like smoke and could not be captured.
Eliza: "You know, Qiyan has a good memory."
"Yes," Lu Fenghan continued, "Once he has seen it, he will never forget it."
That's why he asked Qi Yan to forget this memory if possible when he ejected the escape pod.
He didn't want that scene to become Qi Yan's new nightmare.
"Yes, he would not forget. So when he returned to the White Tower, we were all very worried. But we soon discovered that the matter was more serious than we thought. There was something wrong with Qi Yan's memory."
Eliza took a long breath, remembering that time.
"In his memory, Lin Zhi is not dead. Qi Yan would tell us that his mother was in the laboratory, in the garden, in a meeting, or had just said good morning to him five minutes ago. He could describe in detail what Lin Zhi was wearing and how she looked at that time. In his eyes, Lin Zhi had always been in the White Tower and had never left."
Without giving Lu Fenghan time to recover, Eliza came to the conclusion: "This is because, based on his extremely outstanding memory, Qi Yan deconstructed and reorganized the memory fragments of his mother in his mind to form new memories, and then replaced the real memories with new false memories."
A certain guess suddenly flashed through his mind, and blood immediately appeared.
In the past ten years, Lu Fenghan had never felt fear no matter what situation he faced. But at this moment, he did not dare to face this conjecture.
His voice sounded like a huge rock weighing a thousand pounds. He wanted to ask "then", but no sound came out.
"We soon discovered that Qi Yan was confusing reality and was addicted to it. During that time, he was like a puppet, standing still in one place, but his mind was constantly making up memories. After using many methods, he finally woke up. But we were still powerless to solve the problem of confusing reality. Even the drugs he had been taking only had an auxiliary effect."
Eliza continued, "Later, last year, because Qi Yan's confusion about reality became more and more serious, I suggested that he be sent to Leto. On the one hand, it was to protect him, and on the other hand, I hoped that changing to an unfamiliar environment and meeting different people might help alleviate his condition."
Lu Fenghan closed his eyes.
It was like a sharp blade hanging high above his head, ready to drop straight down and pierce through his chest and back.
Finally, I heard Eliza say that: "After you died, Qi Yan was taken back to the White Tower, but he fabricated his memories. He said that you were always by his side, never left, and would remind him to put on slippers and eat.
In order to reinforce the authenticity of his false memory, he would cut a bloody wound on his arm every day, then bandage it himself and tie a bow. Then he told us that Lu Fenghan saw that he was injured, applied healing gel to him, bandaged him, and he would be well soon. "
Every word was like a nail, piercing into Lu Fenghan's flesh and blood.
Lu Fenghan didn't even dare to breathe hard, for fear that it would cause pain to all his internal organs.
His little squeamishness.
The little delicate girl would frown in pain even if her ears were pricked by a blade of grass.
In a trance, a crack appeared on the chest, and the pain of torn flesh spread throughout the body like a spider web.
"Later, Qi Yan admitted that you were dead, but his reason and emotions conflicted with each other. He fell into complete confusion and could not sleep or eat for a long time. He could only survive in the treatment cabin. He was like a bowstring that would break in the next second. August and I had no choice but to give him medicine."
"What medicine?" Lu Fenghan said this only to find that his throat was already dull and painful.
Eliza's voice became lighter. "It's a drug that eliminates emotions. After it takes effect, he will no longer feel pain and sadness, but he will also not feel happiness, satisfaction, and... love."
Lu Fenghan thought of the hand Qi Yan extended to him.
It's as cold as holding snow.
"August and I have the idea of using drugs to maintain 'absolute rationality' for a period of time, and then gradually reduce the dosage, so as to keep Qiyan rational to the maximum extent possible, so that she will not be overwhelmed by negative emotions all at once. However, this method is still very risky. I am only 20% sure that I can keep Qiyan in this world."
What a hopeless situation was Qi Yan in at the time that forced Eliza to use such medicine to grasp a faint hope
His prayers...
At this moment, Lu Fenghan's self-loathing reached its peak.
A searing pain like a suffocating pain came over him, and the light from the frigate passing by the porthole reflected on his facial features, revealing the pain of suffocation.
In the extreme silence beside his ears, Lu Fenghan heard his own voice: "What can I do?"
In the equipment room, Qi Yan was connecting the new detection system to the central control while chatting with Po Jun at the same time.
Because on the barren planet, Lu Fenghan once expressed his hope that Pojun could talk more, so Qi Yan set it up like this.
Now Qi Yan discovered that once there were no restrictions, Po Jun was indeed a chatterbox.
Thanks to Pojun, he now knows the origin of every tiny wound on Lu Fenghan's palm.
"The general has very strange hobbies. On the Dawn Star, he likes to sit for a long time in the deepest part of the cave. It seems that humans do have special hobbies."
Pojun learned to pray and addressed Lu Fenghan as "General".
Finding that Qi Yan did not answer, and the central control system had already opened the database and was accessing the data stream of "Bufeng", Po Jun tactfully did not say anything.
It was not until Pojun reminded him that it was time for a break that Qiyan's thoughts broke away from the vast data stream.
He pinched his eyebrows, vaguely aware of something, and turned his head to see Lu Fenghan wearing a standard shirt, standing against the wall by the door, his eyes fixed on him, and he didn't know how long he had been looking at him.
But Qi Yan didn't know how to react appropriately now.
He had all the memories of his past with Lu Fenghan, but he didn't know what to do now, or what to say.
Lu Fenghan came over first.
He held Qi Yan's wrist gently, his eyes scanning the cold white skin, and after a long while he asked, "Does it still hurt now?"
Qi Yan blinked, and replied two beats late: "It doesn't hurt anymore."
Although he still remembered what the pain felt like, the agony was missing when he recalled it.
This sense of loss made him feel a little cold.
But because her wrist was held in Lu Fenghan's hand, the chill just came over her and was dispelled again.
After listening to this, Lu Fenghan was silent for two seconds, and then spoke again: "On the founding day, after being attacked by a medium-sized ship, I shouldn't have acted on my own initiative."
This is an apology.
Qi Yan was increasingly unsure of what to do, so he tentatively replied, "It's okay."
After he answered, under Lu Fenghan's aggressive gaze, he wanted to get closer to him, but at the same time he felt helpless and wanted to stay away from him.
Lu Fenghan was at a loss when he discovered this.
He let go of Qi Yan's wrist, watched him put his hands behind his back, and slowed down his voice: "How long do you plan to be busy?"
Qi Yan subconsciously answered every question Lu Fenghan asked: "Eleven o'clock in the evening."
Lu Fenghan nodded: "Okay." After that, he pinched Qi Yan's face.
After Lu Fenghan left, Qi Yan stood there for a long time, feeling a little cold, and unconsciously pulled closer the military jacket that belonged to Lu Fenghan.
There is no distinction between day and night on the starship, and there is no reference for the passage of time. When Qi Yan was sorting out the data flow generated by the connection between "Wind Catcher" and the central control system, he felt a sore neck and guessed that quite some time had passed.
He asked Pojun: "What time is it?"
Before Pojun could answer, a voice came from the door: "It's eleven o'clock."
Qi Yan looked in the direction of the voice and saw Lu Fenghan standing at the door, looking at him.
"Why...are you here?"
Lu Fenghan said with reason: "I came to pick you up after get off work. This is your first time on the command ship, and I'm afraid you'll get lost."
Qi Yan wanted to say that with Po Jun around, he couldn’t possibly get lost, but his body had already reacted and stood in front of Lu Fenghan.
The two walked side by side, led by Lu Fenghan.
"In non-wartime, the ship will simulate day and night, just like now. Except for those on duty, everyone else is resting in the room, and the lights everywhere will be dimmed to the lowest setting." Lu Fenghan finished the foreshadowing, "I will also come to pick you up on time tomorrow night. It's dark everywhere, and you can easily fall and get lost."
Qi Yan felt that Lu Fenghan's words were full of logical flaws, but his instinct was still faster than his reason, so he nodded and agreed: "Okay."
Lu Fenghan felt sore and weak in the heart when he heard the "OK" without hesitation.
When they arrived at the door of Qi Yan's room, Lu Fenghan told him: "The door can be opened with your personal terminal. Call me immediately if you need anything. I'm next to you. No matter what it is, I'm fine."
The prayer was still answered.
When Qi Yan swiped the door open with a "ding" sound, Lu Fenghan saw that he was about to walk in, so he stood quietly for three seconds. At the last moment before the door closed, he stretched out his hand to stop the door from closing.
Qi Yan stood inside the door, not trying any more, and looked at him suspiciously: "Anything else?"
Lu Fenghan extended his hand forward: "My hand is injured."
Qi Yan's gaze fell on Lu Fenghan's palm. The small wounds on it had not been treated. Some had healed, while others were still red and had no scabs.
There was a dull pain somewhere deep in my heart.
He took a step back and said, "Come in."
Qi Yan was not familiar with the layout of the room, so Lu Fenghan took the initiative to take out the medicine box and took out the healing gel from it.
At this time, Qi Yan realized that there must be healing gel in Lu Fenghan’s room.
As if he had seen through Qi Yan's doubts, Lu Fenghan then made up a story: "I have run out of things in my room, so I came to find you."
Qi Yan accepted this statement.
Lu Fenghan's palms were broad, his knuckles were long, and there were thin calluses all over them. Qi Yan was very patient and evenly applied the healing gel on the wound.
Qi Yan was only paying attention to the wound and didn't notice that Lu Fenghan was looking at him.
After applying it, Qi Yan thought for a while, picked up another piece of bandage, wrapped it around Lu Fenghan's palm twice, and finally tied a neat bow.
"alright."
Lu Fenghan clenched his fingers and stared at the bow made of bandages for a long time.
The softest part of his heart twitched violently, making him almost groan.
Qi Yan wondered why Lu Fenghan hadn't left yet, and vaguely wanted him to stay for a few more minutes. With this strange mentality, he didn't say anything, but put the medicine box back in place, poured himself a glass of water, and took out the transparent medicine bottle, ready to take the medicine.
But strangely, he was somewhat reluctant to take medicine in front of Lu Fenghan.
So he held the medicine bottle and stood in front of Lu Fenghan again, carefully choosing his words: "It's getting late, do you want to go back and rest?"
Lu Fenghan looked at the person in front of him intently, his eyes were complex and difficult for Qi Yan to understand.
Qi Yan felt as if he was fixed by this gaze.
It is as if the entire timeline was artificially slowed down, and each frame is slow and clear.
Qi Yan watched Lu Fenghan come closer, then lean over and rest his head against his neck.
The back of the hand hanging by the side was covered with a palm with a familiar temperature.
The medicine bottle was held by two hands.
In the dim light, the collar on the side of his neck was slightly damp. Qi Yan listened to Lu Fenghan whispering in his ear. His voice was hoarse, containing immeasurable sadness, yet extremely gentle.
"Pray."
"Um?"
"From now on, if you can't be sure, I will be sure for you. If you can't distinguish, I will be distinguish for you."
"I'll be your medicine."