CAT Chapter 49: Limitless (2)

The silhouette of the Expeditioner flickered like a comet across the horizon, slowly disappearing, and as it did, the crowd fell silent.

Lin Si turned off his communicator, suddenly feeling a darkness in front of him. A faint dizziness lingered, unwilling to dissipate.

It was probably the pressure from the past few days. His body was showing signs of strain.

Everything that had just happened felt like an illusion. Ling Yi… had suddenly left, heading off to a place in the vast universe that Lin Si could not see—a very dangerous place.

The events had unfolded so quickly and unexpectedly that it almost felt like they hadn’t happened at all.

Lin Si unfolded the page of the diary Ling Yi had left behind, wanting to understand why he had made such a decision.

Why did Ling Yi say he couldn’t leave him?

By the time the crowd dispersed after the farewell, he still didn’t know the reason.

Su Ting, not sure when she had arrived, stood beside him and said, “I hope they can return victorious.”

Lin Si replied, “Ling Yi is also on the Expeditioner.”

Su Ting was a bit surprised.“I thought he would stay with you.”

“It’s my fault,” Lin Si said, “I didn’t find a chance to tell him I decided to stay. He found out about it in Zone 3. He was really angry last night, then when I was asleep, he slipped me a dose of sleeping agent and went to the Colonel to board the ship by himself.”

“You made him run off?” Su Ting smiled slightly. “Actually, Ling Yi is a very independent kid. I’d rather believe he had his own reasons.”

Lin Si responded with a quiet “Mm.”

Su Ting fell silent for a while, then said, “…He must come back safely.”

Lin Si naturally felt the same way.

Before all this had happened, when he first decided to follow the Expeditioner, he had thought of many things—discovering strange minerals, research-worthy samples, perhaps even finding habitable planets. But after Ling Yi left him, he realized that all he wanted now was for Ling Yi to return safely.

The thought of the Expeditioner potentially being lost in the vast sea of stars left him with a blank mind.

Su Ting seemed preoccupied today. As they were about to part ways, she suddenly said, “Shixiong, I found something today.”

Lin Si, “What is it?”

Su Ting led Lin Si into her laboratory, took out a hastily written list from a drawer, and handed it to him.

“The people in Zone 9 don’t welcome you, so you probably have very little contact with them… You must not know this,” Su Ting said as she passed the list to Lin Si. “Because Zone 6 is reducing its numbers, yesterday I went to report to Zone 9… You know, because of Ye Selin, I’ve been wondering what exactly happened back then, how the virus spread to the spaceship. I took the opportunity to use their search system while in Zone 9. I was originally trying to find any oddities in the Wilkins Laboratory personnel, but after I set the virology keyword, I found some names.”

Lin Si took the list, and as soon as he saw the first name, his brow furrowed.

“Richard Lanster, I remember him, and He Po…” He continued looking down the list, and after finishing one page, he stopped, flipping the list over and placing it face down on the table. He didn’t say anything, his eyes filled with a deep exhaustion.

Su Ting’s expression also darkened. She slapped her face a few times to snap herself out of it, then put the list into the shredder.

“When Ye Selin kept the laboratory running, she must have been under immense pressure…” She covered her face, her voice breaking as she continued, “We didn’t notice it at all, we just thought those people had gone missing.”

Richard was an excellent scholar from the UK, and had spent some time at the Berlin laboratory. Lin Si recognized his name. He Po specialized in virology and was at the forefront of research.

There were others… All well-known figures.

Lin Si recognized their names. Back on Earth, Ye Selin had sent emails to these people.

At that time, the Berlin virus had spread across almost all of Europe and was rapidly advancing outward. The virus was so bizarre that no one knew how to handle it.

Ye Selin had established the Wilkins Laboratory, inviting top researchers in virology and genetics to join. Many excellent people gathered around her, but many messages seemed to sink into the void, with no response.

Now, those whom they had thought were lost due to the chaos or had died from the virus appeared on the Voyager’s sleep roster.

Perhaps they had already received the Voyager‘s invitation before Ye Selin sent hers, boarding the ship early and entering sleep.

After all, the environment on Earth was so harsh, with political chaos in the massive cities. Leaving on an interstellar ship had become a dream for many, and with the virus spreading so rapidly—almost no one could refuse the Voyager‘s invitation.

Ye Selin must have received it too, but she never mentioned it. At that time, she was likely competing with the Voyager for personnel.

The existence of the Voyager had always been a secret that most people were unaware of. Lin Si only learned about it after receiving the invitation.

It turns out that from the very beginning, even before the virus started spreading, it had already begun selecting candidates to board the ship, planning to leave Earth.

Ye Selin was one of the last to stay, agreeing to Madam Chen’s request only when research on the vaccine was progressing rapidly and the cure for the virus was within reach. She accepted the tickets along with Su Ting and a few other students.

The earliest recipients of the tickets had long since fallen into sleep in Zone 9. One day, they would wake up, only to find that the journey had gone smoothly, and everything would start anew. The virus on Earth mutated, and Earth fell. The Voyager truly became the last ember of human civilization, continuing its original mission of preserving humanity’s legacy, flying toward a beautiful, peaceful, and hopeful new world.

Even though Earth was already considered hopeless and it was necessary to expand into new territories, if the Voyager hadn’t recruited those brilliant scientists so early, the vaccine might have progressed faster, the virus might have been quelled, and those left on Earth should not have had to die.

The truth had long been buried, and they would never know the rationality and coldness with which the Voyager completely abandoned Earth.

Lin Si didn’t say anything further. He had long known of this coldness. Now, it was just another layer added to the wound.

Su Ting collapsed on the table and cried, murmuring Ye Selin’s name.

Ye Selin was Madam Chen’s close friend, she knew everything, yet still maintained that ocean-like gentleness. Even when she knew Earth had been entirely abandoned, she still encouraged everyone in the laboratory to continue vaccine research to save the majority suffering in endless pain. At her core, she was still a doctor.

She didn’t die from the virus. She died at the hands of the Voyager.

The Voyager, this ship, carried not only endless hope but also countless debts of blood.

“Shixiong,” Su Ting grasped Lin Si’s hand, “I don’t want to stay here. I want to fall asleep too…”

She choked a few times, then said, “But I won’t go. I want to find out why Ye Selin contracted the virus.”

Lin Si patted her shoulder, and she cried on him for a long time.

Perhaps Ye Selin found peace, but Su Ting could not, nor could Lin Si.

“I’ll give you my authority,” Lin Si said to her.

Su Ting wiped her tears and nodded.

Lin Si was about to tell her that, if necessary, she could seek help from Zheng Shu or Tang Ning. But then he reconsidered. Now, with so many conspiracies aboard the ship, and with everyone potentially a suspect for betrayal, the more people involved, the greater the danger. In the end, he simply said, “Take care of yourself.”

“I will,” Su Ting forced a smile, “The Voyager system will be watching over me, and Mr. Ling will protect me.”

Although it was just self-comfort, those words did bring a sense of reassurance.

The Voyager‘s original system was written by Ling Ning, Ye Selin’s husband, and Ling Yi’s father.

Living under the watch of this system felt like being watched over by a senior.

Lin Si returned to his room, only to find it had been rummaged through. He couldn’t help but laugh bitterly, opening the cabinet and drawer to check what had been taken, whether Ling Yi had packed enough supplies, and if anything had been forgotten.

Upon inspection, it was clear that when Ling Yi packed, he had considered everything carefully. He hadn’t forgotten anything essential. He had even taken a packet of catnip seeds and a bottle of perfume that he hadn’t used much.

Clearly, he had been very clear-headed at the time. This was a well-thought-out departure, not a spontaneous runaway.

And so, he left.

Lin Si gazed at the empty room, suddenly overcome with a feeling of emptiness.

His communicator lit up with a work message from his subordinate’s laboratory.

He didn’t want to open it.

The spaceship felt like a massive tomb, and the busy work seemed unrelated to him. The silver-white rooms and corridors pressed down on him like a flood, suffocating him at every moment.

Lin Si’s mind floated in the air, and after a long while, he began to feel a little better.

It wasn’t his body that was in trouble, it was his mind.

He opened the message and started replying one by one. This feeling was all too familiar. It was like he had returned to the state he was in a few years ago, before Ling Yi came into his life, living under the shadow of the past. Adelaide had called it “stress response” and would check on him every week to see if he could still live like a normal person.

After raising Ling Yi, this state had miraculously disappeared.

That little thing had a vibrant vitality, like a box of spilled paint, painting his entire world in a lively, soft hue. Every time he heard his heartbeat thumping, it felt like being reborn.

He was so good, almost every beautiful word could be used to describe him—except for this heart-wrenching departure.

And after he left, there was nothing left on this tiresome spaceship to miss.

Lin Si expressionlessly sent his cryostasis request.

He would sleep for several years or even longer, until Ling Yi returned, or until the Voyager faced a dilemma related to his field—perhaps the Berlin virus returning, or something similar.

And when Ling Yi returned, he would surely have grown up.

Lin Si couldn’t quite imagine what Ling Yi would look like as an adult. Would he still like to be spoiled by him, as he did when he was a child?

But… since it was cryostasis, no matter how many years passed, he would still be young when he woke up. No matter how Ling Yi had grown millions of light-years away, he would be able to handle it.