Chapter 402: See you tomorrow, Mom

Garbage Star, a true place of exile, except for the lord of Feitu City who can contact the outside world, no one else can even think of it.

It can be said that once you arrive on this planet, all interstellar exploration has nothing to do with you.

But today, the human female's communications device suddenly lit up....

That was originally an inconspicuous small thing, palm-sized, looking no different from the surrounding wasteland junk.

But when a blue light curtain suddenly appeared, Zhang Jie knew this thing definitely didn't belong here.

That ringing, leisurely and cheerful, sounded like a death knell, and Zhang Jie could only feel that something was wrong.

At this moment, the human female who was constantly mixing fuels suddenly froze, slowly turning to look at the communications device behind her.

"Impossible...."

She hurriedly got up, grabbed the communications device, gave Zhang Jie a look of indescribable complexity, and then walked straight out the door.

"What's wrong?"

The human female didn't answer, strode out the door, and shortly after, fierce arguing could be heard outside the shelter.

Zhang Jie leaned against the door trying to hear some information, but the shelter's soundproofing was good, so he could only catch scattered, disjointed words.

"How could you find this place?"

"Why won't you let me go!"

These two sentences were the clearest words Zhang Jie could hear; afterward, the human female's voice gradually faded until Zhang Jie could hear nothing at all.

Zhang Jie:.....

His heart involuntarily felt a surge of agitation; he knew something bad was bound to happen next.

"Sure enough, not long after, the human female came back with tears on her face, silent."

"She just gently stroked your head, silently shedding tears, saying nothing, and you didn't take the initiative to ask; if the human female wanted to say something, she would have already told you."

"Yet she ultimately concealed all this, not telling you a single unnecessary word or a single unnecessary matter; all she did was supervise your study of starship construction more earnestly each day and gather materials more diligently."

"Her petite frame repeatedly took you shuttling across the wasteland; a submarine-sized starship gradually became more complete over time, but it still had a long way to go before completion."

"Age 11: A year has passed, the thing you've been worrying about hasn't happened yet, but you clearly know it's silently waiting for you not far away; whenever you try to relax, that memory jumps out to attack you, forcing you to keep going."

"Now you're almost taller than the human female; many things she can no longer do, only your strong body can accomplish."

"Of course, aside from being a bit stricter, the human female is still the same gentle and lively person, except her words now carry a hint of melancholy."

"The process of hand‑building a starship is tedious and difficult; even a small starship is not easy to assemble by hand."

"Moreover, some tasks can only be done by the human female; much of the knowledge is too profound for you, so aside from physical labor, you can't help much."

"For the first time you felt mediocre; your agile, intelligent mind, when faced with these symbols as inscrutable as ghost‑drawn talismans, always left you feeling utterly powerless."

"Although the human female kept praising your talent and your learning speed, that sense of helplessness still clung to you, making it hard to breathe."

"But in fact, for an eleven‑year‑old child to achieve this is already a miracle; you deserve the title of genius, yet you are ultimately just a human, not a god, with no cheats; everything you can do exists only within the limits of humanity and cannot be surpassed."

"Fact shows that rather than anticipating that unknown starry sky, it's better to live well in the present; this tight, painful life continually wears down your obsession with the stars, and if possible you'd rather live a plain, ordinary life with the human female."

"Fact shows that the crystallized technology formed from countless people's wisdom, relying solely on hand‑building, could never be achieved in one attempt."

"As time passed, the starship's completion progress gradually became rounded, but theory and practice always differed; even though the human female had abundant theoretical knowledge, what you built still had many mismatches with the data."

"You should know that this is actually a high‑density large star cluster, where the distances between the individual star systems are very close; they only need to build a starship capable of escaping Garbage Star's gravity, and the plan is already more than halfway done."

"But every test flight ended in failure, and this made the human female increasingly anxious; from her various signs you can tell that the day something goes wrong... is probably not far off."

"After sensing this, your heart grew ever more uneasy; the situation the human female faces is likely not something you, a little kid, can resolve, just like when you were six years old and wanted to go find the human female."

"But even so, you must try; even if you aren't the human female's true‑meaning child, what does it matter? The grace of upbringing outweighs everything."

"Finally, one day, after experiencing the failure of the final test flight experiment, the human female finally gave up on something."

"She no longer reviewed the reasons for the failure, nor did she urge Zhang Jie to keep working; instead she pulled him aside and said many things."

"She knew that such a smart child as Zhang Jie must have noticed something."

"Although this damned child is stubborn, and although he sometimes causes her a lot of trouble, he understands everything yet says nothing, which makes the human female feel ever more heart‑ached."

"Mom, tomorrow, will I still be able to see you?"

"In the last moments before sleep, Zhang Jie asked the human female this question."

"Faced with this question, the human female fell silent for a moment, then ultimately chose to smile and pat Zhang Jie's head."

"Damned child, what are you talking about? How could you possibly not see me?"

"Really?"

"Mm."

"The human female affectionately rubbed Zhang Jie's head, her gentle tone seeming not to be lying."

"Zhang Jie wished that this time, like before when she hadn't come home for a day and a half, it would just be a false alarm."

"The human female reached out and hugged Zhang Jie, unaware that a tiny positioning device had silently stuck to her back."

"Go to sleep quickly, little Jie."

"Mm."

"The human female turned off the night light in Zhang Jie's room and then left."

"In the darkness, Zhang Jie gazed at the tiny red dot blinking on the human female's back, then slowly closed his eyes."

"Well, then let it be like this."

"See you tomorrow, Mom."