Chapter 142: Mandatory Vacation

When the final report on the UNICEF website concluded, both Lady He Ben and Henry breathed a sigh of relief.

Having resumed the UNICEF visit schedule at the end of January, they had been busy continuously for over three months without rest. Finally, as the season entered May, Lady He Ben was granted a mandatory two-week vacation.

There was no particular reason; the peacekeeping forces were already at full capacity and could not spare more personnel to coordinate the operations. Unless the United Nations increased troop deployments today; but for the sake of UNICEF activities alone, the Big Five powers would not approve such a move.

Just ask one question: where would the funding come from? The deployment of peacekeeping forces is entirely subsidized by the United Nations, not drawing on UNICEF's funds.

The United Nations' money is not printed by itself, but comes from member states' dues.

Even when interspersed with visit activities to other regions, it was the same. Any matter involving troop movements is never a trivial issue.

As a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, Lady He Ben's enthusiasm was certainly a good thing. With her as this great banner, it also facilitated some smaller operations below.

But everything has its limits, so Lady He Ben was forcibly requested to take a vacation. A two-week rest period, as long as possible, no less.

Should she stay in New York to continue holding fundraising galas, shearing the wool of the wealthy? Or return to Switzerland for a genuine two weeks of rest? The answer to this question was obvious.

So Henry was now seated on a passenger plane, accompanying Lady He Ben, sitting together in the first-class cabin. The cost was naturally paid out of her own pocket, not public funds.

The service in first class was quite thorough, with flight attendants and stewards being nothing short of meticulous.

Although Henry was not afraid of busyness, his super speed allowed him to possess more 'time' relative to others to handle matters. But when there was a chance to relax and rest, he would not shortchange himself.

Or rather, for him who possessed super speed, such behavior of wasting time did not feel luxurious, but rather precious. So he greatly enjoyed the leisure time on the plane.

The direct flight from New York to Switzerland took about seven and a half to eight hours. Henry would mostly use this time to read a book, quietly and carefully savoring it.

Sometimes he would scribble in his notebook, recording some ideas that could be used to enrich Linux's functionality.

Except for having no spare time to communicate with people online, Henry had already become a big shot among the collaborative developers, with the username CK.

Although with his knowledge of the future, forcibly seizing the dominant position in Linux's development was a very simple matter. Even Linus Torvalds, the true big shot, had once thrown an olive branch on the Joker BBS, proposing a request for cooperation.

However, Henry still did not intend to step into the public eye. This was just like Water Margin; not everyone who took to the mountains did so in order to wait for amnesty.

Today, he was reading the fourth volume of the first edition of the Russian original 'War and Peace' on the plane, covering the various events in Moscow after it was invaded by Napoleon. The content was not entirely plot-driven story, but contained much more philosophical discussion.

This book even had Tolstoy's autograph. It was one of the private collections of Lady He Ben, who also loved reading. He possessed the complete set of first-edition signed books.

Logically, such precious antique books should be properly preserved in an appropriate environment. But the lady believed that books were meant to be taken out and read to have meaning.

So regarding Henry's request to borrow it, she not only did not stop him, but even encouraged him. Partly because she herself could not read the Russian version, she felt somewhat guilty towards the book.

As for the origins of Western philosophy and whether they were fabricated, Henry had no time machine to look back. At least the thoughts described within were genuine.

Lately, he also wanted to review the thoughts of the ancient sages from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, to see if his current super brain would yield some new insights.

But the environment he was in made it not easy to find suitable books, so Henry could only temporarily set these matters aside.

Just as he was pondering how many layers of meaning lay in Pierre's groundless complaints about war in occupied Moscow, a small commotion arose on the plane and quickly spread to the first-class cabin.

Everyone leaned forward to look out the window on one side. The plane, flying above the clouds, was closer to the universe beyond the atmosphere than the ground. The sky, which had always held only the moon and stars, today presented an unprecedented spectacle.

A mass of orange firelight floated in the sky. From time to time, tentacle-like flames extended outward, its shape constantly changing.

"Is this the aurora?"

"This is not the aurora. The aurora within the Arctic Circle possesses a sense of ordered beauty. That thing is equally beautiful, but lacks the same geometric beauty."

"So what is that?"

"I don't know. Look, it's still changing."

On the plane, the discussions of the passengers naturally reached Henry's ears. Even Lady He Ben, who was also reading, noticed it and looked out through the plane's small round window.

"Henry," the lady called out to the Kryptonian who was also reading, and asked: "What do you think that thing in the sky could be?"

Looking out from another window, Henry felt the scene was familiar, yet he found it hard to connect it to a major event in his mind.

However, most radiation from space is blocked by the Earth's ozone layer. Moreover, judging by the trajectory of its changes, it showed no intention of approaching Earth, so Henry did not investigate further.

He honestly replied: "Boss, I don't know what that is either."

"You aren't clear either? That is truly rare." Lady He Ben looked at Henry and said with a smile.

Henry helplessly shrugged his hands and said: "The more one knows, the more one realizes one's own ignorance. This is a realization shared by many predecessors in the academic world."

"Is there a way to take a picture of it?" the lady asked.

Henry immediately stood up, retrieved a camera from the overhead luggage compartment, and attached a suitable lens.

Although Lady He Ben's photography skills were not very good, she was brave in trying. As for Henry's own photography skills, he had also just figured them out blindly after reading a few books, so he had no qualification to look down on anyone.

But in a situation like this, Henry handed the camera to the lady and gave her a few parameters for adjusting the aperture and shutter speed for night shooting. He himself held a large blanket, covering the window tightly, leaving only the part where the lens pressed against the reinforced glass exposed.

"For shooting through glass like this, the biggest fear is reflections and shadows on the glass. So we must block out extra light sources; only then can we capture the image."

After taking a test shot, the lady made slight adjustments to the parameters according to her own understanding and took several more pictures.

The results would only be seen after returning and developing the photos. So he handed the camera back to Henry, while he himself used his eyes and brain to memorize this spectacular scene.

Meanwhile, Henry noticed with his super vision that a space shuttle, unfortunately, approached the strange energy mass in the sky. Then, as if captured, it lost power and hovered nearby.

(End of Chapter)