Right after the awards ceremony, Lian Sheng had to leave. Cheng Feng almost followed her out, her eyes fixed longingly on the woman’s hand – the one fitted with that mechanical arm.
Mr. Kong caught her just in time at the exit, grabbing her by the collar. “Come on,” he said, hauling her away. “I’m taking you to see something good.”
Cheng Feng was still obsessed with the prosthetic arm. The whole way there, she kept singing its praises, marveling at its elegant engineering, its flawless metallic finish, and the sheer beauty of its design.
Holding Cheng Feng with one hand and absentmindedly pinching the little owl mascot by its wings with the other, Mr. Kong mercilessly shattered her daydreams. “Stop thinking about it. That thing’s not for sale. Besides, you don’t need one.”
Cheng Feng’s mind continued to wander, and by the time she finally came back to herself, Mr. Kong had already led her out of the lift.
She looked up. Before her stood a solid black security door. Hanging across its center was a bright red ceremonial ribbon. Her lips parted soundlessly as she read the words printed on it. Then she froze again, staring blankly.
“Don’t just stand there,” Mr. Kong called, waving her over. “Come on. Set your passcode.”
It took Cheng Feng a long moment to react. Slowly, she turned to look at him, still dazed.
Mr. Kong simply grabbed her hand and pressed it against the smart lock, helping her register her fingerprint and set the code. Then he pulled the door open a crack, about to invite her inside.
Before he could say a word, a blur shot past the corner of his eye.
Cheng Feng had already rushed in.
The flat had been cleaned and furnished. All the everyday essentials were there, though the place still felt a little empty, as if it were waiting for someone to truly make it a home.
On the living room wall hung an oversized photograph: the five teammates after their team match, baring their teeth and clawing playfully at the camera in exaggerated poses.
There was another photo in the bedroom.
It captured the moment after Cheng Feng had defeated Xiang Yunjian – perched atop an armored vehicle, full of youthful confidence, her face shining with triumph.
Mr. Kong closed the door behind them and asked, “Do you like it?”
A bright, spirited voice came from somewhere beyond the wall.
“I love it!”
Following the sound, Mr. Kong discovered that Cheng Feng had already dashed into the bedroom and was jumping wildly on the bed.
“Hey! Stop that!” he barked. “Get down! You’re going to wreck the brand-new bed!”
Cheng Feng sprang lightly to the floor. Like an overexcited rabbit let loose, she shot past him in a blur and raced into the study instead.
Mr. Kong noticed the gold trophy she’d casually tossed at the foot of the bed. Scooping it up protectively, he hugged it to his chest. “Oh, Cheng Feng, you little menace! How can you just throw things around? This is a gold trophy!”
Like a whirlwind, Cheng Feng made several laps around the flat. Meanwhile, the little owl found what it deemed the perfect spot for idling or collecting data – the very top platform of the cat tree.
A fitting choice for an intelligent robot with “cat” in its name.
Once Cheng Feng had finally calmed down a little, Mr. Kong announced that he was taking her to another building.
Standing in front of another nearly identical door, Cheng Feng exclaimed in surprise, “Don’t tell me this is my home too?”
Mr. Kong chuckled. “You can think of it as your home.”
The door opened from the inside.
A woman with a warm, gentle face stepped out to greet them.
Unlike Chu Xuan, she was the sort of woman whose cheerful, open-hearted personality was obvious at first glance.
Old Kong made the introductions.
“This is my wife,” he said, “You can call her Aunt Tian.”
Cheng Feng immediately bowed. “Hello, Aunt Tian!”
Aunt Tian took Cheng Feng’s hand at once and drew her close. Then, in a gesture that felt instantly familiar to Cheng Feng, she patted her lightly on the back and shoulder before giving her upper arm a gentle squeeze.
“Hello, Cheng Feng,” she said with a warm smile. “I’ve heard so much about you for ages, but this is our first time meeting. Come, come – come on in.”
The moment Mr. Kong stepped into his own home, the tension seemed to melt out of him. He carefully set the gold trophy upright on the coffee table with a relieved sigh, peeled off the restrictive suit jacket that had been constraining him all day, and tossed it over the back of the sofa.
Then he waved Cheng Feng over. “Remember where we live. If you ever don’t have anything to eat, just come over. We’re practically next door anyway, and Aunt Tian is an excellent cook.”
Aunt Tian hurried to a corner of the living room and dragged over several large shopping bags, piling them at Feng’s feet. She opened each one to show her the contents.
“I heard you like the snacks from this shop, so I bought a bit of everything they make. And this other store has even better reviews online, so I picked up some from there too.” Beaming, she added, “Congratulations on coming first!”
Mr. Kong immediately held up three fingers.
“The three-MVP Golden Cup,” he corrected. “Don’t leave out the important part!”
Aunt Tian glanced back at him. “Didn’t she come first?”
Mr. Kong met her gaze. For some reason, his confidence instantly evaporated. His voice dropped several notches. “…Yes.”
She clicked her tongue. “Then what was all that unnecessary nonsense for?”
Most of the bags were filled with freshly prepared braised delicacies and cakes – foods with a fairly short shelf life.
Cheng Feng tugged lightly at Aunt Tian’s sleeve. “There’s too much. I won’t be able to finish all this.”
“Oh, don’t be polite with me.” Aunt Tian turned back with another radiant smile, gently ruffling Cheng Feng’s hair. “I know cadets eat a lot. If you can’t finish it all, just share it with your roommates.”
Cheng Feng felt that Aunt Tian had a slight misconception about the appetites of military students.
But that was all right.
She had plenty of friends now.
She picked up one of the boxes and was about to open it when Aunt Tian caught her hand and led her towards the kitchen instead. “You probably didn’t have time to eat dinner, did you? I’ve made a whole table full of late-night dishes. Come and see what I can do.”
The moment Mr. Kong heard the words whole table full, he hurried after them at top speed.
They didn’t finish eating until well past ten that night. The three of them remained around the dining table the whole time, chatting about this and that.
When Cheng Feng finally got ready to head back to her dorm, she picked up her optical computer and discovered dozens of unread messages in the group chat. As she unlocked the screen, Jiang Linxia’s profile picture popped up with a new message.
What’s Good About Summer: [Image] @Ye Guicheng, are you guys done celebrating yet? If you’ve got time, come over. Otherwise, you probably won’t see us tomorrow.
The image showed their luggage neatly packed in the center of the frame. Not far away sat a stack of red gift boxes – the congratulatory presents the four of them had prepared in advance for Cheng Feng’s victory.
They could have sent everything over using a shared delivery robot.
But gifts somehow lost their meaning if they weren’t handed over in person. Besides, once they graduated, no one knew when they would meet again. They had fought side by side as teammates, after all. Before parting ways, they ought to say a proper goodbye.
Ye Guicheng: Where are you guys going?
What’s Good About Summer: Off to the military for selection training. We already postponed it for a year. If we wait any longer, we’ll have to start calling our own classmates “Senior.” [Numb emoji]
What’s Good About Summer: We delayed it by a whole year and ended up nurturing a once-in-a-generation prodigy. Not exactly how we’d planned things, but somehow we still accomplished our mission in the strangest way possible. At least we won’t embarrass ourselves when we report for selection training. [Sigh]
My Family’s Got a Mine: Except Xiang Yunjian.
Cheng Feng tapped Xiang Yunjian’s name.
A Little More Reckless: Xiang Yunjian’s crying.
Ye Guicheng: Seriously?
Ye Guicheng: I want to see.
A Little More Reckless: @Xiang Yunjian, look what you’ve done. The kid’s turned out like this. This is all because of you lot.
No one knew what Xiang Yunjian was doing. He never appeared to defend himself.
My Family’s Got a Mine: @Ye Guicheng, if you don’t come over tonight, I’m taking your gift back home with me.
Ye Guicheng: I’m coming right now! I’m already on my way!
Cheng Feng pulled out a tissue to wipe her mouth. Amid Mr. Kong and Aunt Tian’s reluctant farewell, she grabbed her gifts and hurried out the door in a whirlwind.
Mr. Kong glanced towards the living room out of the corner of his eye, suddenly remembered the trophy, and quickly snatched it up.
“Your gold trophy!” he shouted towards the stairwell. “You’re not taking it? Why are you running so fast?”
Cheng Feng’s voice drifted back from somewhere below. “Leave it with you! Find some time and donate it to UFU for me!”
Mr. Kong was still leaning over the stair railing. Hearing this, he slowly turned around and exchanged a long, meaningful look with his wife.
After receiving the affirmative look in her eyes, his fingers tightened around the base of the trophy. His face showed a mixture of surprise and delight.
But the words that ultimately left his mouth were a laughing curse. “That little spendthrift…”
Cheng Feng jogged all the way there, carrying three bags in each hand, and arrived at the bottom of the men’s dormitory building.
Normally, entry and exit for each dormitory building was automatically verified by machines. However, because several military academy dormitories had caused quite a commotion that morning, the school had specially assigned teachers to supervise and verify identities, just in case this bunch of little troublemakers were left unchecked and started running wild.
Cheng Feng paced back and forth outside for a while, thinking about calling Jiang Linxia down.
Coincidentally, the duty teacher came out from the depths of the corridor to make his rounds. When he spotted the figure outside, he approached the glass door to take a closer look.
Cheng Feng gave him an embarrassed smile and was about to step away.
But the male teacher simply nodded back at her. Then, pretending to be casual, he placed his terminal on the nearest desk, curled his fingers, and tapped twice against its surface before turning into the emergency passageway next door.
The door opened.
Cheng Feng entered hesitantly. She looked around, making sure there was no one nearby. Only then did she move beside the desk, tilt her head, and sneak a glance at the optical computer.
It was a map showing the distribution of students in the dormitory building.
She immediately searched for each of their names and recorded their room numbers one by one.
Among them, Zhong Yijie’s dorm room was the closest – it was on the second floor.
Normally at this hour, plenty of students would be wandering around the corridors.
But with a teacher stationed here tonight, all those little “monkey kings” were obediently staying inside their rooms.
Cheng Feng reached her destination without any trouble and knocked three times firmly on the door.
“Who is it?”
The sound of flip-flops slapping against the floor approached.
Zhong Yijie had just finished showering. He was only wearing a pair of loose shorts when he came to answer the door. The moment he opened it and saw Cheng Feng standing outside, he didn’t know whether it was from the cold or from shock, but he gave a violent shudder, and goosebumps immediately erupted all over his body.
“F…!”
He instinctively raised his arm and tried to shut the door again, but Cheng Feng was faster. She stuck her foot in the doorway and stopped him.
“This is for you.” She shoved a bag into his arms. “A gift.”
Zhong Yijie’s brain was completely fogged over. He accepted it reflexively, still looking bewildered. “How did you even get up here?”
“Don’t you just need legs for that?” Cheng Feng replied.
As she spoke, her eyes drifted down to Zhong Yijie’s chest a few times, confirming with some curiosity that he really was completely white from head to toe.
Just before he could become embarrassed and angry, Cheng Feng withdrew her gaze and prepared to leave. Then she suddenly remembered something. She lifted her foot and blocked the door again.
Seeing her hand him another bag, Zhong Yijie immediately became annoyed. “What are you trying to do now?”
“Help me give this to Chen Huayue.”
Chen Huayue had started his trial training early and was no longer living at UFU. He was attending the evening event today and had temporarily borrowed a room in a classmate’s dormitory.
There was something about him that gave off the air of an older brother or an elder, so Cheng Feng felt awkward about going over and disturbing him. And if she happened to run into another person who wasn’t wearing clothes, that would just be too embarrassing.
Just then, Watermelon came out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in his mouth, but Cheng Feng had already left. He hadn’t heard the conversation, but when he saw the gift bags piled in Zhong Yijie’s hands, he looked envious.
“I want to trade my IQ for good looks too. Life would be great. Someone would still come all this way to bring me food this late at night.” He paused, then looked at Zhong Yijie. “Wait, have you started attracting male fans now too?”
Zhong Yijie turned around expressionlessly.
With perfect clarity and emphasis, he spat out two words. “Get lost.”
Xiang Yunjian’s dorm room was on the fifth floor, so Cheng Feng simply took the lift straight up.
Jiang Linxia had been ready to come down and meet her at any moment. He was fully dressed, and when he saw Cheng Feng standing outside the door, he was completely stunned.
“How did you get up here?”
Cheng Feng replied, “Try asking a more original question.”
Jiang Linxia stepped aside.
“Come in first.” Then he called into the room, “Guys, pay attention to your appearances! Cheng Feng is here!”
Amid the rustling sounds from inside, Yan Shen and Xin Kuang emerged from their rooms.
The living room was almost impossible to walk through. Mechanical parts, models, and sports equipment were spread all over the floor.
Cheng Feng carefully picked her way inside and stopped near the sofa.
The little owl, however, was far less polite. It flapped its wings and immediately made itself at home – on top of Yan Shen’s head.
“Tsk.” Cheng Feng muttered quietly. “What a mess.”
When the four of them had first arrived at the post-war planet, they had actually complained about how messy her room was.
Considering that she liked collecting discarded mechanical parts, their habit of collecting “trash” was honestly no different from hers.
“They’re all useful, okay?” Jiang Linxia protested. “We’re currently figuring out how to sort them by shape and organize them so that we can minimize the amount of space they take up.”
He roughly swept the things off the table. “Wait here for a moment. Most of this stuff belongs to Finance. We’ll tidy it up.”
Standing behind Yan Shen, Xin Kuang secretly reached out, trying to pluck a few feathers from the little owl.
Cheng Feng looked around but didn’t see the person she was looking for. “Where’s Xiang Yunjian?”
Jiang Linxia straightened up and immediately tattled. “He is too delicate!”
Yan Shen followed along. “He is too delicate.”
Jiang Linxia continued, “This afternoon he said his biological clock was messed up and he couldn’t sleep. Then just now he complained that we were too noisy, so he went up to the rooftop.”
Cheng Feng put the gifts down. She kept the dozen or so bags of chips hanging around her neck, along with the two boxes of small cakes that her dorm could finish among themselves. Then she exchanged a glance with the little owl and prepared to leave.
“I’ll go check on him and then head straight back. Don’t wait for me. Just put the gift boxes in the storage locker for me. Bye.”
Jiang Linxia felt that she was incredibly heartless, but at the same time, he couldn’t help finding it a little funny. “Bye? That’s it? Don’t you have anything you want to say to us?”
Cheng Feng generously gifted them seven words. “Good luck. Stay safe on your journey.”
After the little owl flew over, inspiration suddenly struck her, and she added five more words. “See you if fate allows.”
And with that, even her token politeness had reached its limit. She patted her backside and ran off.
Behind her, Jiang Linxia shouted furiously, “Is there seriously no one who can deal with her?!”
There were only two floors between the fifth floor and the rooftop, so Cheng Feng simply took the stairs.
The metal door was left slightly ajar. Cheng Feng slipped through the gap and immediately saw the person lying beneath the orange-yellow glow of the lights, resting quietly.
The little owl flapped its wings and flew over, expertly landing on Xiang Yunjian’s face.
Cheng Feng had no idea when this bad habit had developed. But it was undeniably effective when it came to waking someone up.
Sure enough, Xiang Yunjian immediately raised a hand.
The little owl sensed the danger and proactively jumped down onto the ground. It stood beside his head, the light in its eyes dimming as it switched into standby mode.
The creations of nature were not always beautiful.
The night wind sometimes shrieked sharply and sometimes softened into a gentle murmur, playing a distorted melody together with the rustling leaves of the distant trees.
Xiang Yunjian looked back at her with one eye still closed. He freed one hand and pointed to the space beside him.
Cheng Feng took the bags of chips hanging around her neck and tossed them over. “For you.”
Her tone was so generous and grand that Xiang Yunjian couldn’t help checking several times to see whether these were perhaps not ordinary chips, but chips wrapped in gold foil.
Cheng Feng lay down beside him.
With the railing blocking most of the wind, the night breeze became gentler, flowing over their bodies like a stream of water.
Neither of them spoke.
Under the night lights, the sky was hazy and indistinct. The drifting clouds resembled spreading smoke, while the stars behind them were neither clear nor bright.
The nights on the Post-War Star were often like this.
Only colder.
And far more bleak.
Xiang Yunjian’s mind drifted back to that old, dilapidated house – and the person inside who had been as withered as dried grass.
She had worn clothes that didn’t fit her, her face hidden beneath an oversized hat. Crouched beside the remains of a broken robot, she had carried out tedious, meaningless basic training in a corner where the lights had been switched off.
She had worked so hard, and stubbornly fought to survive. Yet all she could manage was to scrape by.
Somehow, for some reason, she simply had no way of handling the ordinary rules of human society. The only way she knew to cope with loneliness was to place an old blanket over that abandoned robot.
That calm, motionless figure always carried a kind of loneliness that seemed to have nowhere to land.
Although her face seemed to say that she didn’t care about anything, she was still someone who made people unable to stop worrying about her. Her eyes seemed to contain nothing at all, yet somehow they revealed an overwhelming sense of sorrow.
Xiang Yunjian closed his eyelids.
That faint image faded away into the darkness.
The wind, carrying dust with it, stung his eyes slightly.
He stretched out his arm and rested it across Cheng Feng’s shoulders. With a quiet laugh, he said, “What is it? Can’t bear to part with us? Or are you going to feel unsafe once we’re gone?”
Before Cheng Feng could answer, a sudden shout came from downstairs.
“Where’s Cheng Feng?!”
“Cheng Feng came to our dorm?!”
“Shut up! Are you crazy? Do you still want to get lectured by the duty teacher before graduation?”
The two of them stood up at the same time and leaned over the railing to look down.
The group below seemed to be getting even more reckless.
“Let me touch Cheng Feng’s gold trophy!”
“Sir, he’s not from our floor! He ran down from upstairs! They’re framing us!”
Footsteps echoed chaotically.
More voices joined in:
“I’m not afraid! It’s not even lights-out time yet. At worst we’ll just be punished with cleaning duty! Cheng Feng, where are you?!”
“Jiang Linxia, open the door! How dare you lock the door when there’s a girl in the dorm?”
“Why are you all so shameless? Cheng Feng, call the police!”
Xiang Yunjian laughed. Then, a moment later, he felt someone pat his arm.
Cheng Feng raised one eyebrow and said with complete seriousness, “I can already make plenty of friends on my own.”
She was already able to live a good life.
Xiang Yunjian curved his lips into a teasing smile. “Congratulations. You’ve secretly learned one of the essential skills of being human.”
Cheng Feng opened her mouth, wanting to respond, but found herself momentarily speechless. After hesitating for a while, she moved a step closer to him. “I heard that when friends are about to part ways… they can shake hands or hug.”
With great solemnity, Feng extended her right hand.
Xiang Yunjian lowered his gaze, his eyes carrying a hint of amusement as they fell on her outstretched hand.
But instead of taking it, he slowly reached out and pulled Cheng Feng into his arms. Holding her close and pressing a hand gently against her back, he spoke in an incredibly soft voice:
“Welcome to human society.”
[The End]
Translator’s Words:
Two extras to come!
