CAT Chapter 7: To The Distant Home Planet(3)

— No matter whether the mother star saw them, one person definitely did not see Lin Si.

Lin Si remembered the little one he had left behind.

He walked out of the ICU, turning off the “Do Not Disturb” mode on his communicator. To his slight surprise, there was no flood of messages as he had expected.

There was only one unread message in his inbox, from Ling Yi.

The message was sent an hour ago: “I’m not playing with you anymore.”

A sense of unease settled in as Lin Si scrolled up to the read messages list, and sure enough, he found a message from Ling Yi from two days ago: “When are you coming back?”

At that time, his communicator had been bombarded with messages, and this brief note had been drowned among the rest.

Lin Si felt a pang of guilt.

He sent a communication request to Ling Yi.

No response.

A little worried, Lin Si switched to the location feature.

The location showed Ling Yi was still in his room. Lin Si then inputted the command to display the activity path.

A few seconds later, the screen showed Ling Yi’s movements over the past two days. It was as erratic as Brownian motion¹, but he remained confined to the room, not stepping out even once.

Lin Si furrowed his brow.

He found a contact named “Adelaide.”

Adelaide was the only psychologist on the entire ship, and also Lin Si’s roommate and close friend from school.

The communication was connected, and a young man appeared on the screen. Adelaide was from Northern Europe, with platinum blonde hair always tied in a ponytail and green eyes, often sporting a playful grin.

“Well well, my Lin,” he raised an eyebrow, “you haven’t contacted me in a while, finally decided to get some therapy?”

Lin Si replied, “I’ve adopted a child.”

“Are you kidding? A child on the ship?” Adelaide laughed, “Picked up from a black hole?”

Lin Si didn’t take his joke, instead saying, “I left for two days and didn’t contact him. Now he’s not responding to my communications, and during this time, he hasn’t left his room.”

“His age?”

“Physically fifteen, but his situation is quite special.” Lin Si gathered his thoughts, “He lost all his memories, and all basic knowledge of life needs to be relearned. He cries and gets angry a lot, and I’m having trouble understanding his behavior.”

“So,” Adelaide narrowed his eyes, “you left a little one, who knows nothing about the human world, alone in a room for two whole days? If this happened on Earth during peacetime, you’d be sued for child neglect as a parent.”

“He sent me a message, but I ignored it,” Lin Si said, “I feel sorry.”

“Do you really think he could go outside? A young kitten, just brought home, abandoned by its owner with no attention—of course, it’ll curl up in a corner and lick its fur.” Adelaide shrugged.

“How should I apologize to him?”

“Go find him, now.” Adelaide said, “Given that you’ve never interacted with a human child in your twenty-seven years of life, I recommend you consult an older woman after you’re done with your business, or read some books on how to be a competent guardian.”

Meanwhile, Ling Yi was asleep.

A hazy dream returned, continuing from where it had been interrupted before.

“What are you going to do?” he asked the blurred figure of a woman.

“Daddy and Mommy have important work and need to leave for a while. You’re still small, so Mommy asked someone else to take care of you. They’re a good person, you need to get along with them.”

He tugged at the woman’s sleeve, asking, “When will you come back?”

“Sweetheart…” The woman suddenly lost control, pulling him into a tight hug. Her gentle voice turned sad, tinged with tears, “Sweetheart, live well. No matter what happens, live well…”

Ling Yi felt a heavy weight in his chest, overwhelmed by a sadness so intense it felt suffocating.

When the pain reached its peak, he woke up again in the dream.

He stared blankly at the silvery-white ceiling, taking a long time to regain his senses. The room was empty, with no other sounds, and it felt very scary. Lin Si had said to wait for him, but a long time had passed. He sat up in bed, hugged his knees, curling into himself for some sense of security.

— This was the scene Lin Si saw when he opened the door.

The small body curled up. Even his beautiful black hair seemed to have lost its shine.

A strange feeling suddenly welled up in Lin Si’s heart.

He had lived a life of no communication beyond work for so long, and now, suddenly, there was a small life that needed his care and demanded his companionship.

This vibrant little life was full of energy, yet fragile at the same time. It hadn’t grown up yet, and didn’t know how to face difficulties and loneliness.

Lin Si stepped forward, knowing that with Ling Yi’s sharp perception, he must have already sensed his presence.

But the little one remained still, obviously sulking.

“I’m back,” he said, standing by the bed.

Ling Yi remained motionless.

Lin Si smiled helplessly, reaching out to rub his soft black hair. “It’s my fault.”

Ling Yi rejected his touch, shrinking back and shaking his head furiously.

Lin Si reached under his arms and lifted him up.

Ling Yi wrapped his arms tightly around Lin Si, biting down on his shoulder.

—This wasn’t the first time, but this time the little one controlled his strength, only biting down hard before releasing. There was no breaking of skin, no blood.

He buried his face in Lin Si’s neck, afraid that he might be abandoned again.

Lin Si patted his back and held him for a long time, eventually calming him down.

“Why weren’t you talking to me?” Ling Yi asked quietly.

“I have very important work,” Lin Si replied. “Once it’s done, I’ll play with you.”

Ling Yi suddenly remembered his dream. The woman in the dream had said the same thing—she had very important work to do.

He recalled the scenes from his dream, a little confused, and murmured, “Lin Si, have we always lived on the spaceship?”

“No,” Lin Si replied gently. “We used to have a home on Earth.” 

“It was very big.”

“How big?”

“You can walk around the entire spaceship, but you’ll never finish exploring all the places on Earth.” Lin Si looked through the open door, seeing the vast sea of stars beyond the window. His usually indifferent gaze seemed to drift, as if looking past the countless stars to a distant place.

“Then why are we on the spaceship?”

Lin Si remained silent for a long time before answering, “When you were very small, many bad things happened on Earth. War, radiation, and viruses killed many people.”

The concept of death was too distant for Ling Yi. He tried to remember, but all he could recall was the gray, hazy sky from his dream.

He asked, “Did my mom and dad die like that?”

This time, Lin Si remained silent for even longer, and ultimately did not answer. Instead, he said, “If you want a family, you can call me gege.”

Ling Yi huffed.

Lin Si didn’t have much free time, and already, someone was calling for him.

He planned to leave, but Ling Yi held tightly onto his sleeve, not letting him go. Lin Si remembered how helpless the little one had seemed when curled up in the room alone, and his heart softened. In the end, he took Ling Yi with him.

—At this stage of treatment, there was no need for high-energy instruments. There was no concern about radiation harming the child’s body. Moreover, Ling Yi’s quiet personality wouldn’t disturb others’ work.

Thus, it was only natural for Ling Yi to take over Lin Si’s desk, where he could always see what Lin Si was doing. People coming and going soon remembered the pretty, quiet little boy who couldn’t be parted from Dr. Lin Si.

Mr. Lambert, who was recovering from an illness, was in high spirits due to the results of his experiment. If Lin Si hadn’t refused to provide any tools, he would have disregarded his health and stayed up all night writing a detailed report.

Already in a good mood, Mr. Lambert became even more fond of Ling Yi when he saw him.

He kindly asked, “Pretty little darling, what’s your name?”

Ling Yi was still not used to interacting with strangers and stiffly gave his name.

The gentleman clearly had some knowledge of Chinese, and he looked at him appreciatively. “What a wonderful name!”

Ling Yi tilted his head. “Why?”

Mr. Lambert replied, “This opinion comes from a friend of mine, who just happens to share the same surname as you! He served in the military, and was a legendary computer scientist. We once had a casual chat, and he said the best name he could think of for his son was this! Zero and one, the binary code used by all machines and systems. With binary, we have everything!”

He shook his head again. “But for some reason, he’s not on the Voyager’s list. It’s truly strange. You see, the internal system that the military still uses today, flawless and error-free, was his work. If he didn’t get a ticket, it’s impossible for those researching Lucia in Zone 5 to have one.”