Dow and Carbon-Based Monkey Breeding Guidelines

Chapter 990: Shooting Down the Stars (Part )

That night they actually watched a movie, three or four in a row, all silly horror and suspense films, so fake that they could make people laugh. Yu Xiaorong drank three cans of ice beer in a row, and she didn't know when she learned to chew chicken racks. In the middle of the movie, she pointed at the corpses and blood on the screen in an unseemly manner, and wanted to bet with Luo Binhan which shot would kill someone next. Luo Binhan threatened to report her drinking and gambling to her parents, so she kicked him across the table.

None of them asked any sensitive questions, at least not to delve into them. Yu Xiaorong asked how he got injured, and Luo Binhan just said it was an accident on the way to a business trip; Luo Binhan also asked her why she suddenly went out with Fina in her arms, and she said she just wanted to take Fina out for a walk.

"You have a little secret," Robin said. But the movie had already started, and he wanted to let the last few hours of the day pass quietly. So he changed the subject and asked her where she put the medicine box in the bedroom.

Yu Xiaorong thought for a while and said, "In my room. In the drawer under the closet."

"What are you doing with this?"

"I had a cold last week, and I put it here when I was looking for medicine."

"you caught a cold?"

Yu Xiaorong nodded impatiently and told him not to delay the movie. Luo Binhan also let the matter go. The missing medicine box was not the main cause of the incident in the afternoon, but he himself was. But he didn't want to waste time in regret tonight, because he had hardly spent time with Yu Xiaorong during this period of time. She couldn't stay here for long, and she would have to return to her hometown. And then? She would grow up soon, be independent from her parents' family, and have her own life. The time they spent together like tonight will eventually be hard to find.

They kept quarreling until after 3 a.m. In the end, Yu Xiaorong lay on the sofa with her arms and legs spread out, and fell asleep peacefully accompanied by the screams of the movie protagonists. Luo Binhan called her several times but she didn't wake up, so he first smeared her face with sweet and spicy sauce, then turned off the TV and quietly went into his room to pack up his things.

The matter of Shi Qi was a lesson. He checked his personal belongings again and went through all the things he had brought from the Silence. There was no problem with the clothes, and he did not take most of the souvenirs from the ship, such as the stuffed pigeon that loved to talk nonsense, the everlasting flower that Mi Gula left for him, the pot of echo flower that Lan Que gave him (it was terrible, and he still didn't know how to call it silent until he left), a bunch of woolen dolls that Momolo knitted for him (even more terrible, there were giraffes and asabamu among them), and the thick introductory textbook on the wishing machine that Jing Huang threw to him... These things took up a lot of space, were not easy to hide, and didn't seem like they should be placed in his home. But now he thought that his decision at the time was too hasty. In a few decades, he would definitely start to miss these things and hate himself for not moving them all into a warehouse.

Or he should have taken nothing. From those deadly candies to the scimitar given to him by Yaleliga, and even Fina, Miffy and Li Li, he should have left them all on the Silence. This was the course of a wise and decisive person. He didn't need any weapons for self-defense, because Fak and Jing Huang both felt that he was safe here - now he kind of understood what was going on. It wasn't because their country place had suddenly become so secluded, but because there was Zhou Yu here, the unfathomable Pajamiya and his mysterious organization. Although Zhou Yu was not his 24-hour bodyguard, and Zhou Wenxing had had ten thousand opportunities to tear his head off, it seemed that no one really took it seriously, not even himself...

He felt a little drunk and his thoughts were really messy, so he shook his head, leaned against the bedpost to rest for a while, and picked up two special items he had just found: a small round lens inlaid with light red colored stones, and a gold pocket watch in the shape of a sun.

When he first returned home, he had thrown them into a box of odds and ends under his bed, along with extra data cables, a bunch of old game cartridges and CDs, and all sorts of weird stuff that the kids of distant relatives had given him. He had done so because they seemed harmless, small, and toy-like, and they blended in with the handmade souvenirs Malcolm had given him. But after today, he would no longer be so careless. These things still needed to be carefully stored.

The small lens seemed much dimmer than in the past under the light. Luo Binhan wanted to take a look at it, but suddenly he lost the courage. He still remembered the first time he used it. Momolo told him that it was a seven-color telescope, which could be used to view the encyclopedia information of various items; in the same port, he also learned how to use the simple four-image instrument. The funny thing is that these two pieces of novice equipment that should be practical were completely wasted. He didn't use them properly on the Silence. Most of the time, Momolo was his living encyclopedia, and he usually didn't really want to know how different the place in front of him was from his hometown.

Now these two things are useless. He didn't really want to know how the aliens numbered and described the creatures in his hometown. It can be imagined that everything in this place is probably "extremely low-hazard", except Zhou Yu and Li Li. So he put down the small lens and opened the cover of the four-image instrument to take a look. At this time, the numbers on the four dials were all zero. He was in his hometown, and there was no deviation in the four indicators of history, biology, cosmic phenomena and supernatural. This small instrument will be useless in the future. He stuffed it into his pocket, thinking of taking it to Zhou Yu's place tomorrow for temporary storage - or he would eventually change his mind and keep them as a souvenir. Leaving these two things will not cause trouble like banned candy, right? He didn't even take the pepper shaker and pistol-shaped space storage device from the ship because the shape of that thing was too easy for children to like. If Yu Xiaorong was excited to play with it, it was hard to say whether he would pour something out.

After finishing the inventory, he finally fell asleep peacefully on the bed. He had expected this to be a nightmare, but it turned out to be okay. It was almost eleven o'clock when he woke up, and it was Fina who woke him up with her tail. He opened his eyes and looked at it in confusion: "What do you want?"

Fina crawled to the door to urge him to get up, and after he left, she went to wait in front of the refrigerator - I really don't know what Yu Xiaorong has taught her during this period. Luo Binhan finally realized that she was hungry, so he opened the freezer and saw that Yu Xiaorong had already cut the raw meat into portions. He took out a portion and put it in hot water to thaw it, and then he noticed that there was a note on the refrigerator door, written in a very unfamiliar Chinese character that looked like a sticky drawing: Go out shopping, go home at night.

He went to the entrance to check the shoe cabinet, and found that Yu Xiaorong had gone out again. This girl was a little suspicious, but he didn't have time to care about her today. He packed the instrument, telescope and the four remaining candies in a small wooden box for tie buckles, and put them into his backpack along with the weapon bag and the black box with the card. After packing all the foreign objects, he glanced at Fina who was concentrating on her meal, and decided to let her stay at home. Before leaving, he also picked up a pen and added a line of words on Yu Xiaorong's note: Going out to meet friends, and will be back late.

Today he planned to drive to No. 206 Dongyun Road. Since Li Li had been on the run for a whole day, she must have communicated with Zhou Yu and colluded with them. It would not make any difference if he went there early or late. So he did not rush to the industrial park, but turned around and drove in the opposite direction, leaving the two men alone for the time being and letting them discuss things furtively.

Of course, he was not going to the company, but to the flower and bird market. He had not been here since his date with Shi Qi. Today was a workday, and he did not expect to see her around here, but he just wanted to take a walk on a whim. The weather was perfect for wandering outside: it was mostly sunny, but the sky was filled with thin clouds that drifted slowly in the wind, so the sun was not very strong. The strong wind made the ice-blue plastic roof of the flower and bird market tremble constantly, and there was a constant clicking sound from somewhere, as if a group of invisible birds were circling around the roof.

Luo Binhan walked slowly along the stalls. He passed the shop where he bought fish, and the nearby aquatic plant shop. The wall with various glass bottles of aquatic plants hanging on it was now sparse, and instead, various succulents and chrysanthemums were everywhere. It seemed that everything was changing on its own, and it did not stop developing just because he was busy with his own things, but stayed where it was and waited for him.

He strolled through the entire market and returned to the teahouse where he and Shi Qi had reminisced about the past. He did not push the door open and continued to stand outside, thinking about Shi Qi. He had run into Shi Qi here before, and she said she was on a blind date, although the location was not in the teahouse, but in a nearby restaurant. There were many restaurants nearby that cooperated with the blind date group, and they probably often held social activities in those stores. He had never been to those restaurants with Shi Qi, but he and Yu Xiaorong had accidentally walked into one of them a while ago. To be honest, he felt that it would be awkward for real couples to go to such places, because the atmosphere there was too deliberate.

What was Shi Qi thinking when she was on a blind date? He didn't know. In fact, he always doubted whether Shi Qi had really been to a blind date. It was very likely that she had never been there once, but was just pretending to be there for her family, so they would bump into each other repeatedly in the flower and bird market. At that time, she was in a difficult situation, busy thinking about work and medical treatment. How could she have the patience to get to know a stranger from scratch in a romantic theme restaurant. What are your hobbies? Where did you graduate from? What is your family situation? The last question was particularly fatal. At that time, she had to think that all this was a waste of time. Of course, she could not say it first. She could "pretend" first. Adults cannot do without "pretending". But this is the problem: because Shi Qi is an extremely serious person, he even dares to say that she is a paranoid person. What she cannot accept is that the motivation at the beginning of something is not pure enough, whether it is a heroic plot to save a princess in distress, or a marriage promoted by a terminally ill mother with her dying wishes.

What did she think of him when they first met? No matter how much the hazy feelings of the early years had faded, he felt that Shi Qi liked him more after all. But at certain moments, she might have had a less pure thought: this would indeed be a way to have the best of both worlds, which would not only satisfy her mother and avoid being unfilial, but also find someone she liked. Isn't this God's will? But now he really understood. He once thought that Shi Qi was a bit like Yu Qingshu, but in fact he was just looking at flowers through the fog. His mother could be very strategic when necessary, but Shi Qi would not allow others to put on a false show, and she would not even allow herself to put on a false show. Not everyone could stand being treated like this by her...but she would not be so harsh on everyone.

He continued walking along the street, trying to find the coffee shop he and Yu Xiaorong had mistakenly walked into. He could no longer remember the name of the shop, and his cell phone was still turned off until now. He mainly didn't want to listen to Li Li's advice to repair the relationship. Although she would definitely use more beautiful words than before, he had to look at this matter completely independently. Before the end of today, he had to sort this matter out carefully. This was not only about a relationship, but also about what kind of life he planned to live in the future. He had to determine his position first, and then he could decide how to face Zhou Yu and Li Li, and to what extent he should be involved in the endless secrets of No. 206 Dongyun Road.

The coffee shop should not be difficult to find, because it is also very close to the flower and bird market, and there is a small open-air square with a flower bed outside the window. Luo Binhan walked along the nearby streets for about ten minutes, and indeed saw the small square in his memory. He walked into the square along the narrow path between the lawns, and saw a three-meter square fountain pool in the middle of the square brick floor. There were several lily pads floating in the pool, and there was also a stupid turtle statue standing. He walked over to take a closer look and found that there was a red-painted stone under the left foot of the turtle statue, which read "Wishing Well".

Luo Binhan leaned his head to look into the pond. The bottom of the pond was filled with mud, and only about seven or eight coins were half exposed in the mud. They seemed to be quite old. He couldn't help but shake his head at the turtle statue. This is your fault, he said to the turtle in his heart. Most of the people who come here to make a wish are couples, and you are squatting here to ruin other people's fun.

The turtle still stood there with a sad face. At this moment, the sun suddenly came out from the clouds. Luo Binhan adjusted his sunglasses, sat down by the pool to rest for a while, and continued to think about his own problems.

What happened yesterday was a disaster. In the short term, it was. What Shi Qi said to him was not without reason, and it was very sharp. He had never seen such an intense side of her, so he was a little too surprised and had no ability to adapt. But after a night's rest, his spirit has now recovered from the fatigue of over-exhaustion, and her voice no longer makes him feel uneasy. If you think about it calmly, Shi Qi was just stating the facts in her own way: first, he was always a little absent-minded after he came back, and he didn't focus on the life in front of him; second, at least at the moment of confession, he didn't really love her - or it should be said that he loved her very strongly, it could only be regarded as a kind of love mixed with appreciation and sympathy, so he didn't want to disappoint her.

These two points are true, and she is absolutely right. But how to interpret the facts is another matter. Shi Qi felt that he was completely escaping, yearning for myths but unable to achieve them, and would always be immersed in the romantic plot of rescuing the princess in distress. This part was just her own interpretation, and it was a judgment she made after being extremely frightened and excited. In that situation, it was completely understandable to think of everything in the worst direction.

However, that does not mean that this is her final conclusion. Humans are just animals shaped by the environment - at least the people on this planet are still, which means that they do not have any innate, unchangeable nature. If there is something that can be regarded as human "nature", it is nothing more than the cause and effect accumulated by one choice after another. Go or stay? Principle or profit? That's all. Their respective motivations at the beginning may not be pure enough, but there are many things in the world that start by coincidence. Some parents do not give birth to children because they want them, but they still become good parents after having children; some people choose their careers purely by following the crowd, and in the end they can devote themselves to their careers... Of course, there are also many completely opposite examples. Because people cannot change something that has already happened, they can only make choices based on the current situation.

He tried to understand Shi Qi at that moment yesterday: of course she was angry - she was almost killed by a strange candy of unknown origin, and she was shocked - was he clear-headed when he first saw the alien? But the most important thing was fear, because she even compared him to her father in prison. This was her knot, what she was most afraid of repeating, which made her think of everything in the worst direction. But her fear was also justified, because he was too erratic recently, and it was all the fault of that beast Zhou Wenxing.

  How would things turn out in Shi Qi's eyes? If she hadn't revealed everything yesterday, he would have continued to pretend to like her very much and worked tirelessly to solve her problems. Maybe one day they would get married and even have offspring, but people can't pretend to be affectionate for a lifetime, and sooner or later their true selves will be exposed. So one day, when their lives become dull and boring, and there is not even a trace of miracles or romance, he will stop acting. He will look for new excitement and let her face life alone, or worse - he will regret choosing to live an ordinary life, missing the bizarre, crazy, and borderless country outside the sky all day long, and then he will blame everything on her: I did this to save you, and for your happiness I sacrificed my life, which should have been extremely wonderful. What should she do then?

There is only one way to eliminate her fear. He must make a choice, and it may take years or even decades to prove this choice, to prove that what she said yesterday was wrong. Admittedly, he didn't like her that much at the moment of confession, but people's feelings are accumulated by continuous choices, and there is no uniqueness. It doesn't mean that he sympathizes with her, appreciates her, and is attracted by her story, and at the same time, there is no love. The fact is just the opposite. The former emotion will turn into the latter as time goes by.

This choice required him to make a choice. A very clear choice. If one day, a few years later, the Silence suddenly dropped from the sky and wanted to take him on another trip through the stars, he would refuse without hesitation, and it must be a completely voluntary refusal, and he must not be indecisive. He could not shout that he just wanted to live an ordinary life and did not volunteer to take risks when he encountered monsters and demons; nor could he complain that life was not exciting enough in the days of firewood, rice, oil and salt, and wished to be a god among mortals.

He wanted to tell Shi Qi about his own feelings. It was because people had no nature that they could grow up. He did not need to rely on her to satisfy his desire to be a hero, because he also had his own story. He himself had a pair of parents whose marriage failed, and he had witnessed how men and women who were brought together by romantic stories and passion for life and death were corroded by time and life. He would not suddenly feel that he was so insignificant in his later years that he needed a few obedient and gentle admirers, and he would not blame her for the boredom of life and the aging of his body. Because just as she did not want to repeat her mother's mistakes, he also had to prove that self-selection was more important than so-called fate. He wanted to surpass the person that people thought he was most like. Because that person was completely obsessed with whitewashing himself, but he created the most vulgar and hypocritical god, so he would never make the same mistake. From now on, he would live sincerely and seriously, not a boring and tedious life.

Two people walked up to the pool, waking him from his thoughts. He looked up at the two people: a couple, grinning strangely at the turtle statue. The man pretended to take a coin out of his pocket, but the woman clapped her hands and knocked it away. They walked away with a muffled laugh, leaving only a slight ripple on the water. Luo Binhan lowered his head and continued to think. Now he finally felt peaceful and full of tenderness.

He had to go to Shi Qi to explain the situation. It was only a matter of time. They didn't say anything final yesterday, and he was not a fool. Shi Qi still liked him very much, or to put it bluntly, he loved him very much. Did he need any proof? Yesterday he talked so much about aliens and cosmic crises, and she had just escaped death. The first question that came to her mind was that his feelings were not sincere - how could such a woman survive more than three episodes in a horror movie! He couldn't leave her alone to Li Li, the Cyber ​​King Xuan would not argue with others about this.

In short, Shi Qi will forgive him sooner or later, at least he is very confident now. Although yesterday's incident was a disaster in the short term, for true partners, living together without conflict is more dangerous, which can only mean that they are just living together, but have never fully revealed their values ​​to each other. If we put it on the time scale of several decades, yesterday was just a necessary friction for them to truly understand each other, and it can even be said to be a good thing. Although he has great shortcomings, he is not without advantages, such as he is very good at entertaining people, and his reflection in sunglasses is very handsome.

It's a pity that Shi Qi can't see it today. Today, he will go to Zhou Yu to settle accounts with him in sunglasses. But to be honest, he is not that annoyed with Zhou Yu at this moment. Because the basic principles of interpersonal communication are the same: if a person has extremely unusual advantages, it is inevitable that he will also have the most rare defects. Since he thinks that Shi Qi can forgive his defects because of his advantages, then he should also forgive Zhou Yu's mistakes. And he can't really leave Chilabin's affairs to Zhou Yu to solve, because there are too many strange things in this whole matter that are difficult to explain, and he still has to help Zhou Yu keep an eye on it. He will not officially say goodbye to the Yongguang tribe until Chilabin surrenders and Momoro returns safely from the moon - it's hard to say whether it's a real farewell, maybe Momoro will ask to preside over his and Shi Qi's wedding first. In general, the ending of the story is nothing more than this... But then again, why is the address of Dongyun Road and Chilabin's name left on that card?

As Luo Binhan pondered this question, he stretched out his hand towards his reflection in the water. Suddenly, several shiny objects flew over from the side and smashed his shadow first. He looked closely and found three brand new coins sinking into the water - someone actually made three wishes in a row in the turtle pond, what a scab-loving habit - and then he saw the fourth object clearly. A familiar cat's eye marble, with a pattern inside like a golden red flame.

He turned his head and looked to the side. Not far away, under the shade of osmanthus trees, stood a smiling young man wearing a white shirt and a guitar case hanging on his back. It was Zhou Wenxing.

(End of this chapter)