wandering planet

The location of Building Zero happens to be in the center of a large area of ​​ruins around here.

The ruins are densely covered everywhere like mountains, rising and falling.Ovid climbed up and down, following Jiang Che all the time.

His footsteps were very light, and Jiang Che couldn't find him.The starlight fell on the ruins, and the worms with green luster came out of the ruins and flew around. Ovid stared at Jiang Che's back, and had an illusion for a moment: as if he was not in any place. Familiar world.

There is a meandering small river among the ruins, and it is also pitch black at this time, with only some fragments of luster flashing.The ground was wet, as if it had rained during the day, and the grass blades had the reflection of round water droplets.

Jiang Che sat down by the river.

Ovid quickly stopped and sat on the ruins.

Jiang Che lowered his head and raised his arms, as if wiping tears.

Ovid stared at his back, Jiang Che's every movement seemed to grab his heart, causing an inexplicable pain in his chest.

He didn't know how to answer the question Jiang Che asked himself before, he couldn't explain why he paid so much attention to Jiang Che, he just wanted to cling to him, cling to him, and be happy to see him.

Is this like it?He quietly asked Tang Mo: You have sung so many songs, is there any song that you have said like this before, do you like it?

Tang Mo thought he was very funny, so he sang a bunch of songs with him.

What's the matter?The little girl with short black hair shook her head and said cheerfully, "What's the matter? What are you afraid of? Love has thousands of forms, but you just met one that is not easy to describe."

Ovid sat behind Jiang Che, watching his back silently.

He knew Jiang Che from a pickled vegetable and beef pie.This taciturn cleaner makes delicious food.

Later, it was discovered that although Jiang Che was taciturn, he was a very unprincipled and kind-hearted person.He gave him drunken eggs, chicken feet, all the delicious things he could get and make, gave him a bed, gave him a safe space, and told him his stories.

"I am a killer!" - Ovid told him so.But he wasn't surprised or scared at all, he just threatened him not to do anything to Linney.

So funny, so tender.Ovid thought more than once that he was special to him, and he should also be special to him.

Jiang Che picked him up and Jiang Che raised him.The acquaintance on Faust was not too long, but it was enough for Ovid.

There is an old story that says that no matter what you keep, it is special to you.

The two sat in silence for an indeterminate amount of time, when Jiang Che suddenly stood up again.He stepped on the water with a splash, crossed the stream, and continued to stagger forward.

Ovid quickly got up and jumped off the ruins, and was following closely when Jiang Che suddenly tripped and fell heavily to the ground.

Ovid was startled, and immediately ran towards Jiang Che.

He didn't dare to approach, stopped a few meters away from Jiang Che, and called his name in a low voice: "Jiang Che?"

Jiang Che didn't answer, he kept lying on his stomach without making a sound.

Ovid was so nervous that he didn't dare to worry about whether Jiang Che would scold him or be angry with him, so he ran to his side in two or three steps, and squatted down carefully.

Jiang Che lay on the ground, and Ovid put his hands on his shoulders.Jiang Che's shoulders were shaking.His hands grabbed the grass roots and rocks on the ground, digging tightly, Ovid even smelled a trace of blood.

He held Jiang Che's hand and made him relax little by little.This is the palm that was bleeding from his grip just now, and now his face and fingertips are covered with wet and sticky blood.

"Jiang Che?"

Jiang Che grabbed his hand, and before Ovid understood what he meant, he had already slowly got up.

But he didn't stand up, but kept his kneeling posture, bowed his waist, and lowered his head in exhaustion.

Ovid felt bad too.He even wished that all the pain Jiang Che endured would be transferred to himself, and he would be able to bear it with his rough skin and thick flesh.But Jiang Che couldn't do it, he knew Jiang Che couldn't do it.When talking about Jiang Mu, he saw Jiang Che's eyes at such a close distance.That girl was his only relative in the world, the family he wanted to protect with all his might.

But she is gone.In such a cold and empty cosmic wilderness, it is not even known where it will end up.

Ovid touched Jiang Che's forehead, he was afraid that he just fell and would break.

There was nothing wrong with his forehead, but under his eyes, his palm touched a warm water mark.

Jiang Che knelt on this strange land, facing the vast starry sky, weeping silently.As soon as Ovid's mind became hot, he opened his arms and hugged the man into his arms.

He stroked Jiang Che's hair lightly with his hands, and didn't speak, just stayed silent like Jiang Che.

They took off their warm clothes in Building Zero, and both of them were wearing thin shirts.The Black Sea is not cold, the land has absorbed the heat during the day and is releasing it at night, Jiang Che even sweated because of running and agitated emotions.He rested his head on Ovid's shoulder and said nothing, but Ovid knew that his shoulder was soaked with his tears.

"... Ovid." Jiang Che said in a muffled voice.

Ovid replied immediately: "Yes."

"I don't have a sister anymore." Jiang Che raised his head, and Ovid saw his red eyes and distressed face under the starry sky.

Jiang Che seemed to want to talk to someone, but he didn't know where to start.

"When she was born... she was very small, premature, so she was small and thin..." Jiang Che said intermittently while trembling.He didn't look at Ovid, his eyes seemed to drift away without falling. "She liked me very much. I was very bad when I was a child. I hated her for not being able to run fast...I didn't let her play with us. She...she waited for me by the river, and took her home after we finished swimming. River water It was very deep, she was afraid that I would drown, and walked alone by the river, and called out "brother" after walking for a while... I have to answer her, otherwise she would cry... Her hands are so small, holding my clothes... Really She's very small, she's small, she can't eat enough, she's sick, she's extremely thin..."

He couldn't speak anymore, tears rolled into his nasal cavity and into his throat, choking him and making him unable to make a sound.

"I'm sorry for her... I'm too bad, I'm sorry for her... She's so scared, alone, so dark, I should be with her..." Jiang Che lowered his head, holding Ovid's shoulder tightly , finally cried out.

Ovid did not have any siblings related to him by blood.He came from one cell, and the other cells that had the same DNA as him produced humans who had the exact same face as him, but they had never had a heart-to-heart relationship.Ovid only saw himself, many of himself, in the pit where the corpses were piled up.

But he embraced Jiang Che, and at this moment, it seemed that he could share the same sadness and pain as Jiang Che.

After Jiang Che left, Song Junxing asked the rest of the people like nothing happened: "Then shall I continue?"

"Don't you need to check on Jiang Che's situation?" Pierre said.

"But Lin Ni seems to want to know what I will say next." Song Junxing stared at Lin Ni, "The memoir is in the hands of General Lee Swright. Cicero has read it, but you definitely haven't."

Lin Ni originally wanted to chase out with Ovid, but Tang Mo grabbed him by the corner of his clothes and refused to let him leave.Lin Ni hesitated and sat down, he didn't know what to say to Jiang Che.

Hearing Song Junxing's words at this time, his attention was drawn back.

"Why didn't he show me?"

Song Junxing took the chopsticks and ate the few peanuts left on the plate one by one.

"Because the situation has changed. He chose a better Cicero to do this, and then used this method to protect you." His tone was relaxed, but there was no warmth in his eyes, "Linney, including After Cicero died, he issued a statement to sever ties and not allow anyone to go to court-martial, and he was also protecting you. The situation was very serious at that time, and the purifiers revived."

"Purification faction" is only formed under special extreme circumstances.With limited resources and unknown destinations, the people headed by April are full of worries about the future, so they only want to keep "excellent" people and remove those who fail to avoid competing for limited resources.

The people of the Leeswright family took the memoir and have been looking for the people and descendants of the Purifiers based on the vague information on it.

The Purifiers are hidden very, very deep, their mission is over, so they won't surface again.

But the situation has slowly changed—with the current production level of human beings, the resources on Marseille simply cannot bear such a large development intensity. Over the past 500 years, resources have continuously issued red line alerts.In order to find new resources and energy sources, Marseilles constantly builds science ships and goes to the galaxy's nuclear bulb to explore.

"Why don't we turn back? We passed many resource-rich planets on the route of the 'Great Retreat', and even the Earth, we can also use them." Many people questioned, "Why is the Marseille fleet unwilling to retrace our path? "

It's not that I don't want to, but I dare not.

If you want to go back to the road, you must call up all the data of the "Great Retreat" of the year: the path, the planets discovered, the passing of the stops, the enemies encountered, the accidents that occurred... and among them, there will inevitably be "purification" Pie" activity traces.

It was the hesitation and non-response of the Marseille fleet that made General Lee Swright, who was still young at the time, discover the fact that among the decision makers of the Marseille fleet were descendants of purifiers.

That's normal: just as his forebear, the suicidal Colonel Leesright, wrote his memoirs and confessed his crimes, so a truly committed Purifier may leave a record of his greatness for posterity.

Different people have inherited different beliefs, and they are all in Marseilles, silently fighting to keep or unlock a certain secret.

Long before the Marseille Star Travel Agency developed the "Journey Back Home" project, there were already voices in the Marseille fleet that wanted to close the Earth route.

The person who spoke is the same as the descendants of the Purifiers dug out by General Lee Swright.

He did not agree to this proposal, and personally signed the document to open the 18th route, allowing Marseille to open the road to the earth.

Faust was the first civilian ship to fly on this route. General Lee Swright once believed that it could reach the earth safely. He even set up a special docking station for Fausts and ships at the Black Sea transfer station.

But Faust unexpectedly disappeared.

Its disappearance also directly led to the questioning and closure of the 18 route.Later, the Black Sea transfer station was abandoned, and General Lees Wright was gradually deprived of his power, but he still sat firmly in the position of the highest person in charge by virtue of his military achievements and reputation.

"He must be in that position." Song Junxing said, "Otherwise I have to go back to Marseilles. The Black Sea will be truly abandoned, and no one will come over. And all routes in this direction will gradually be closed. The Purification School does not want any People discover the horrors that have been committed in the 'Great Evacuation'."

Linney was silent for a long time.

The "General Lee Swright" Song Junxing said was very different from the father he remembered.

"What about brother?" Linney asked, "What secrets does he have?"

Lin Ni couldn't immediately think and analyze the truth of Song Junxing's words.He was eager to know what happened to Cicero, why he committed suicide, and why he told himself about Greia F and Virgil as if he could predict it.

Song Junxing finally finished eating peanuts.He reluctantly put down his chopsticks and pushed the plate away from him.

"I personally think that choosing Cicero to read memoirs and do things is the biggest mistake." He said, "Cicero is too good, so he is very conspicuous. He started his real activities after graduation, but Soon the Purifiers were after him."

Cicero was the captain of a warship at the time.His ship, like the Luge, was a military ship with a patrol mission, and the patrol position happened to be near the Sirius planetary belt and the Black Sea.

Cicero was famous, and he had many supporters at the Marseille Academy of Aeronautics and even among the young people in the fleet.

If Cicero discovered what the "purifiers" did, if Cicero revealed the secret of the "Great Retreat"... Each of these ifs is very scary.

But what is really frightening is that not only the Marseille fleet, but even the most direct manager of the fleet, the joint parliament of the Marseille countries, also believes that the secret of the "Great Retreat" cannot be revealed.

Is it a wrong thing?Yes.

Is it an unimaginably great evil?Yes.

Once revealed, will it have a terrible, even devastating impact on the current Marseilles?

--Yes.

Therefore, it cannot be exposed, it cannot be made public, and it cannot continue to be investigated.

General Leeswright was clean and innocent.He is loved and admired by the people and has become a symbol of the Marseille fleet.

So the general can't move.

If you want to make an example of others, you can only start with another person.

Lin Ni shook his hand and knocked over the porridge bowl in front of him.

The spoon twirled twice, fell to the ground, and shattered.

"...Didn't he commit suicide?"

"Why did he commit suicide?" Song Junxing asked back.

"He... didn't commit suicide..." Lin Ni lost his strength, whether it was because of anger, pain or ecstasy, his hands trembled, and he bit his lips tightly.

"You have been to a military court, and you should know how they slandered Cicero in court." Song Junxing said calmly, recalling what the old man told himself, "They said that Cicero's private life was chaotic and his beliefs were weird. Religion, extravagance, fake grades from college."

Of course Linney knew this.He's right there!He was in that huge circular room, and all the vague-faced enemies sat high around him, looking down at this young and sad youth.They gave him no opportunity to defend himself, nor heard a word of testimony about Cicero.The whole room was filled with the humming of human voices, thrown like heavy stones, burying Linney in them.

Song Junxing often sees Lin Ni who is angry because of his one or two sentences in the video screen of the communicator.But now Lin Ni is very weird. He is obviously full of grief and anger, but he can't find a crack to vent it.

"So your father fell silent, in order to protect you." Song Junxing thought for a while, as if he wanted to ease Lin Ni's current emotions, and said something that was not funny, "So he called me to replace Cicero to the Black Sea. live."

Sitting on both sides of Lin Ni, Tang Mo and Pierre both stretched out their hands and patted Lin Ni's shoulder lightly.

Lin Ni bowed his head in silence for a moment, and when he raised his head again, although his eyes were red, he was not particularly excited.

"What on earth are you, or Cicero, planning to do in the Black Sea?"

Song Junxing narrowed his eyes.He seemed to think of something interesting that pleased him.

"Cicero—no, or in other words, there are really too many interesting people in the Marseille fleet." He licked his mouth, "The ship that took Faust away is called the Rouge, it is Right? Rouge used to patrol the same route as Cicero's ships."

Linney had heard Bering say this before.Cicero called Samuel his brother, and Samuel was his senior in the fleet and had helped him a lot.

"Actually, on the route that Samuel and Cicero are active on, there are a total of 24 fixed patrol military ships." Song Junxing lay on the table and lowered his voice, as if sharing a terrible secret with them , "The captains of these 24 ships are all young people, and the oldest is probably Samuel of the Luge. This is not the point. The point is that they have done a great thing by means of relay. "

Linney was very irritated by the rhythm of his storytelling: "Can you finish it in one breath!"

Tang Mo and Pierre were very supportive: "What a big deal."

"They found an old ship that disappeared into the universe 500 years ago, and dragged it back to the Black Sea." Song Junxing said mysteriously.

"Song Junxing's ship, have you seen it? It's on the left hand side of the exit from Building Zero." Ovid spoke softly, "It's very small, smaller than our lifeboat. I guess even if it is stolen, it won't way to reach Earth."

He sat side by side with Jiang Che, a rare intimate gesture.

Jiang Che had stopped weeping and crying, and just sat there without saying a word.

Ovid found something to talk to him himself, trying to distract him: "Aren't you afraid of the dark now? Or is it because this is not a sealed space? There is a legend in my hometown that people who walk at night if a lamp When it is gone, just say a mantra in your heart, 'Ovid, Ovid, Ovid'. Then the God of Light will appear from the darkness, come to him, give him kisses and..."

"There is light over there." Jiang Che said suddenly.

Ovid was interrupted before finishing the story he made up, and he immediately picked up Jiang Che's words: "Where?"

Jiang Che pointed to a forest in front of the two on the right.

They had walked away from the ruins and were sitting on a slightly higher grassy slope.Except for Building Zero, there is no artificial lighting on the Black Sea, but fortunately, the stars are bright, and the two closest stars to it—Michelangelo [-] and Michelangelo [-]—are emitting light.

Where Jiang Che pointed, there was a faint light.

The light was very strange. They couldn't see the light source, but they could vaguely recognize that it was a reflection with a very large area.The bushes separated their exploring sight, and the light was hidden in the depths of the dense forest, like a hidden and mysterious banquet that did not invite outsiders to participate.

Ovid stared blankly for a while, then asked nervously, "Are there... are there any aborigines on the Black Sea?"

"never heard of that."

"Or there are elves?" Ovid said, "There are also such legends in my hometown. In the forest full of starlight and moonlight, the number of elves will be particularly large. They like moonlight..."

Jiang Che stood up suddenly, and walked forward without saying a word.Ovid hurriedly followed behind him, stepping across the shallow water and grassland, walking towards the forest.

The closer to the forest, Ovid gradually felt that this light was somewhat familiar.

At the moment before entering the forest, he finally remembered - he had seen a similar reflection.

In the curriculum of the Marseille Aerospace Academy, the first lesson for new students is to visit the Marseille fleet.The day Ovid entered school coincided with a heavy rainstorm, and the group waited indoors for a whole day, and finally arrived at the take-off and landing ground of the Marseille fleet after nightfall.

There are countless ships taking off and landing in the landing field.They are covered with water droplets, and under the light, the smooth hull reflects a bright and soft luster.

The forest is very dense.The closer it gets, the brighter the light becomes.

They eventually came to the edge of a huge canyon.

The shape of the canyon is very similar to the place where the Griya worker bees inhabit, but the one in front of it has obviously undergone countless man-made repairs, and there are even countless steps on the mountain wall.

In the depths of the canyon there is a ship parked.

It is very large, more than ten times that of Faust, like a smooth and round bullet. The color of the spray has become mottled, but the original orange-red color can still be clearly seen in the starlight.

Ovid was stunned, and reached out to grab Jiang Che's corner of his clothes, but failed to catch it.He turned his head and saw that Jiang Che was already running on the edge of the canyon.He was running to the front of the ship.

The ship faithfully reflects the starlight, and it is buried deep in the canyon like a treasure that has been carefully preserved and restored.

"Jiang Che!" Ovid ran forward following Jiang Che.

He knew what Jiang Che was looking for.

The designation of the ship is always painted on the front of the hull.

"Ship? An... old ship from 500 years ago?" Pierre murmured and repeated, suddenly startled, "Didn't they all crash!"

"Of course not. Some ships are just missing. Like this one, it was lost on the way to being attacked by alien creatures." Song Junxing looked at Pierre, his eyes moved down, and fell on the blue badge on his chest , "It was not easy, but we finally found it."

A genuine smile finally appeared on his face.

"And it's... the most important one."

He pointed to Pierre's left breast.

Around Linney's neck hung a pendant identical to the insignia on Pierre's chest.It is also a badge, a badge of outstanding graduates, but it is orange-red, bright and eye-catching.

Tang Mo was a good listener, and she asked at the right time, "Which ship did you find?"

Linney had already guessed the answer.He clutched his pendant, and the insignia bearing the ancient ship seemed to be warming in his palm.

Jiang Che and Ovid finally ran to the other side of the canyon.

They gasped, looking at the pattern on the ship.

The starlight fell on their heads, and all the paintwork on the ship had become mottled and unrecognizable, but only the circular pattern on the side of the ship was always clear.

It was a flying red bird with long and brilliant tail feathers, burning vigorously.

At this time, in Building Zero behind them, Tang Mo had just asked his own question.

"Our vanguard ship." Song Junxing said, "The most important vanguard ship in the 'Great Retreat', Phoenix."