Eating, Sleeping, and Problem-Solving

The rhythm of life in the space capsule slowed down significantly.

The four of them worked together: Li Chun cut cards from the remaining sketchbook, Song Qinglan was in charge of drawing, and Ji Yushi began learning the bearded man’s language by matching symbols to pictures.

Ji Yushi indeed had a remarkable talent for languages. He only needed to go over the symbols and their meanings, along with the pronunciation, once, as if he were a human tape recorder.

With such efficiency, the bearded man was visibly excited. Although Ji Yushi planned to study for only two hours at a time, the bearded man would often extend the session, much like a high school teacher who loved to hold students back after class.

During the remaining time, Ji Yushi and Song Qinglan would engage in analysis. They calculated the time flows of the rainforest, the space capsule, and the city, trying to find a balanced value.

Ji Yushi employed various algorithms, projecting them on his communicator. As the equations grew longer and more complex, Song Qinglan found it increasingly difficult to keep up.

In the fissure, time seemed meaningless—aside from the mechanical clock still ticking, it was hard to distinguish when it was time to rest.

Occasionally, Song Qinglan would notice that Ji Yushi had fallen asleep while calculating.

Ji Yushi’s desire to return to their own time was intense and unwavering.

At the “transit station,” the Sky Vault system had explained why they were chosen: they were a team with a win rate above the average for all Guardian squads.

Song Qinglan knew well that this high win rate was largely due to Ji Yushi’s participation.

Two days later, in the afternoon, Zhou Mingxuan indeed fell into the junkyard.

After a deafening crash, the bearded man prepared the chains and cart, ready to scavenge.

Song Qinglan accompanied him and stopped the bearded man from chaining up Zhou Mingxuan, saying, “No need, I’ll take care of it. Anyone dragged by you would lose a layer of skin.”

The bearded man didn’t understand but seemed to get Song Qinglan’s meaning. He grumbled, “Monkarawu Lichi!” and then turned and left.

Song Qinglan wasn’t sure why the big guy was upset, but knowing the man’s quirky personality, he didn’t pay it much mind. He lifted Zhou Mingxuan into the cart, and on the way, Zhou groggily opened his eyes.

Despite the low temperatures, Zhou Mingxuan’s physical condition was good enough for him to speak: “Captain Song… why is it so dark?”

Then, he fell unconscious again.

As the aurora shimmered and the glowing flowers bloomed on either side of the road, Song Qinglan suddenly had an idea.

Back in the space capsule, Li Chun excitedly helped settle Zhou Mingxuan, while the big guy was nowhere to be seen.

Ji Yushi was still writing formulas, with a can of coffee next to him.

“Captain Song,” Ji Yushi looked up, “what’s going on?”

Song Qinglan was still standing. From his angle, with Ji Yushi tilting his head upward, his eyes appeared rounder and more animated than usual.

Unintentionally, that peculiar feeling arose in Song Qinglan’s heart again.

He composed himself and sat down next to Ji Yushi, saying, “Our mission is to repair time, to fix temporal anomalies. But what if this mission isn’t actually about time flow?”

Sitting side by side, Ji Yushi looked puzzled. “Not about time flow?”

Song Qinglan smiled slightly. “I’m wondering, Consultant Ji, if we’ve been overestimating Sky Vault. Maybe it’s not as smart as we think.”

Song Qinglan believed that the so-called “Time Restorers,” like the “Darkness Pursuers” they had to become in the previous Ouroboros mission, had a much simpler and more straightforward goal.

“A system is still a system. Even if it has self-awareness, it wouldn’t play guessing games with us in a mission,” Song Qinglan explained. “At most, it’s just rigid in task instructions, using machine-like language that’s unnaturally concise.”

Ji Yushi took a sip of his coffee, unconsciously licking the residue off his lips.

Song Qinglan averted his gaze. “When I found Old Zhou earlier, I suddenly thought of something: Why is it relatively dark around the space capsule, with no mirrored reflections, while the other places are the opposite?”

Around the space capsule, it was dark, with no mirrored projections up or down, left or right. The rainforest and city, on the other hand, were bright and had mirrored projections. The time flow near the space capsule was normal, while it was abnormal elsewhere.

This question sparked a new line of thinking in Ji Yushi. He let out a small “ah” in realization. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Clearly frustrated with himself, Ji Yushi furrowed his brows, forgetting to drink the coffee still at his lips.

After thinking for a moment, Ji Yushi asked, “Why is the area around the space capsule normal?”

Suddenly, a possibility occurred to him, and his eyes lit up. “Could it be because of that darkness?”

He turned off the formula projection on his communicator and started drawing in the air, much like when he was conceptualizing the Ouroboros ring, helping others and himself to clarify his thoughts.

The new idea quickly began to take shape in his mind: “Based on our experiences and your observations over the past few days, we can confirm that the area around the space capsule is enveloped by a completely dark substance. Whenever we travel to places with different time flows, we must pass through it. The space capsule is surrounded by glowing flowers, which emit a unique light that illuminates the environment, keeping the time flow around the capsule normal. So, this difference must be related to that patch of darkness we pass through.”

Song Qinglan listened quietly, not wanting to interrupt Ji Yushi’s train of thought.

Ji Yushi drew a circle representing the space capsule on the projection, then drew a ring of black material around it. Suddenly, a smile appeared on his face. “I think Einstein would be rolling in his grave.”

He turned to Song Qinglan. “Captain Song, general relativity suggests that massive objects cause spacetime to curve. Dark matter, for instance, is such a massive object, but it doesn’t interact with electromagnetic waves, so it doesn’t emit light, making it invisible to our eyes and instruments. Of course, our current situation is different, but we might be able to borrow from this theory.”

Ji Yushi quickly sketched and explained, “Look, it’s very dark near the space capsule, and it feels heavy when you walk into it because it’s surrounded by a lot of this material. If this ring of black, unknown substance is indeed the ultimate cause of the spacetime distortion—”

If they thought about this world using general relativity, Einstein might indeed be rolling in his grave.

“We need to disperse it,” Song Qinglan grasped Ji Yushi’s point and didn’t mind the wild idea. “We need to fill that darkness with the same kind of light as around the space capsule.”

And the source of that light was the inconspicuous glowing flowers.

“There are lots of holes in this theory,” Ji Yushi admitted, “but it’s worth a try.”

The nearest test site was the city outside the outer hatch. Stepping through the hatch, they were immediately confronted by a patch of darkness.

Everyone quickly got to work. Before Zhou Mingxuan even woke up, they were already outside collecting flowers.

What was supposed to be a journey of discovery in a strange world had turned into a flower-picking expedition, which everyone found somewhat comical.

But there was no harm in trying. Before long, they had gathered all the glowing flowers they could find and brought them back to the space capsule.

The bearded man had returned and was visibly upset when he saw them preparing to open the outer hatch again, yelling in frustration.

Ji Yushi was now able to communicate with him a bit. After a brief exchange, the bearded man grudgingly held back his temper and followed them to observe.

Li Chun volunteered to do the heavy lifting. As soon as the bearded man opened the hatch, Li Chun began tossing handfuls of glowing flowers into the darkness.

The faint light gradually accumulated, soon illuminating the short stretch of dark pathway, revealing the mirrored scene of the city on either side.

It seemed there wasn’t enough light yet, as the darkness wasn’t fully dispelled, and the effect wasn’t clear.

Li Chun asked, “What now? We’ve picked all the flowers nearby. Even if we gather the ones from the junkyard, it still won’t be enough.”

The bearded man seemed to grasp that they were conducting an experiment and began gesturing to Ji Yushi.

Ji Yushi translated, “He’s saying if we need more, we can plant them.”

“Plant them?” Song Qinglan, standing at the hatch, didn’t quite understand.

“Oh man, how many would we need, and how long would it take?” Li Chun was shocked. “By the time we’re done, we’ll all be old and gray!”

“The bearded man says these flowers bloom in a week,” Ji Yushi explained, “but that’s a week near the space capsule. What if we take them to the rainforest?”

Time in the rainforest moved nearly 24 times faster than here.

That meant they could harvest the flowers in less than a day.

“Let’s do it,” Song Qinglan agreed without hesitation. “Li Chun and I will gather the plants, and when Zhou Mingxuan wakes up, we’ll all go together.”

Planting flowers in a time-space fissure—a thoroughly baffling human endeavor.

Yet, everyone felt that nothing was impossible anymore.

Song Qinglan, armed with his Shenmian, didn’t look like a newly minted florist but rather someone off to battle.

Ji Yushi stayed behind to continue his language lessons with the bearded man.

He needed to find out why the bearded man and his group had come here, as he had a hunch that the man held many more clues waiting to be discovered.

The bearded man opened a new can of beer, chugging half of it, leaving foamy bubbles in his beard.

This time, they were going to discuss how many people the bearded man had encountered here and where those people had gone.

“Knock, knock.”

Both of them froze.

The knocking continued.

They simultaneously looked toward the small room where Zhou Mingxuan was still unconscious, making it impossible for him to be the one knocking. Yet, the sound was undeniably coming from within the space capsule.

The bearded man blinked his blue eyes and watched as Ji Yushi pulled out a silver handgun from under the sofa cushion, leaving him stunned.

Ji Yushi had already noticed his Diamond Bird.

The bearded man’s attempt to hide things was futile against Ji Yushi’s keen observation.

Ji Yushi signaled for silence, efficiently loading the Diamond Bird. Despite his seemingly delicate appearance, the sight of him handling a gun was oddly captivating.

They followed the knocking sound, eventually arriving at the outer hatch.

Ji Yushi remained on alert while the bearded man abruptly pulled the door open.

Standing outside was a young man, appearing to be around Ji Yushi’s age. He wore a black combat uniform with the number 12 on his chest. He looked slightly surprised, asking, “Who are you?”

Ji Yushi was equally taken aback.

At that moment, footsteps approached from behind, and Li Chun came rushing in, shouting anxiously, “Consultant Ji! We’re in big trouble!”

His tone was filled with panic, almost to the point of hysteria.

Ji Yushi had no choice but to leave the newcomer with the burly bearded man and quickly returned to the control room.

There, he was greeted by the sight of a shrunken version of Song Qinglan, who looked no more than seven or eight years old, with a distinctly sour expression.

For the first time in his twenty-five years, Ji Yushi truly understood the meaning of a commonly used expression: feeling like his head was about to explode.