Chapter 32

Just like that, another week passed by in a flash.

Zhang Yuan’s days were almost the same—staying in the dormitory, making a trip to the library and ending it by going to the canteen. It was very fulfilling. It could be also said that his life had never been as fulfilled.

At those times, Ye Kaifu would always be following behind him. Even though he would voice out complaints, he enjoyed the torture deep down.

This type of lifestyle was too exciting. Never had he ever imagined that he would encounter such a madman in the last few days of his vacation. Moreover, he had also turned crazy as he was led around the nose by the madman.

What kind of situation was this!

However, it finally came to the day where they must bid farewell to each other.

The space elevator’s daily passenger capacity was limited. Half a million astronauts couldn’t be sent up all at once. Hence, they would be split into different batches.

Zhang Yuan and Ye Kaifu were not in the same batch, and as Ye Kaifu’s vacation had come to an end, he was about to go up to space before Zhang Yuan.

“Do you know of the economic policies and job hierarchy inside the spaceship? Even though it has yet to be completely established, I believe that we will systematically study all these policies when we board the ship. It’s good to make preparations in advance such as writing a thesis, preparing for postgraduate examinations, and so on.”

“Alright, alright. I understand. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Ye Kaifu said jokingly, “I’m an eighth-grade fitter at the end of the day. For now, my position is still higher than yours by several notches. A second-grade worker like you can only maintain cleanliness around the spaceship and nothing else.”

Zhang Yuan replied in an impatient tone, “You’re right. You’re much better than me… Let’s meet again in the future.”

Ye Kaifu suddenly widened his eyes and said loudly, “Zhang Yuan, even though it was tiring following your pace, it was very fulfilling. If only I’ve met you earlier, I would definitely be…”

Zhang Yuan felt all his hair standing up on end from the cheesiness. The surrounding people also cast them strange looks.

“Scram! Quickly get lost! You’re still trying to make me sick even though you’re about to leave!” Zhang Yuan cursed.

“Hahaha, idiot. Look at your reaction! I’m 100% straight. Who wants to be with you?!”

Ye Kaifu felt extremely happy and refreshed at that moment.

‘Have you seen the expressions of all those ladies who are about to vomit? Hahaha!’

Zhang Yuan looked at his phone calendar which displayed: Remaining vacation: 5 days.

As the day approached, a strange sense of urgency became more apparent.

That feeling was hard to describe in words. It was as if his last moments in life were about to an end. Tension, fear, and unease were mixed together, forming a complicated emotion.

“I’ll be going now. Bye!”

Ye Kaifu left with a bag of luggage. With his back facing Zhang Yuan, he waved in a manner in which he believed that made him appear very handsome.

He left alone, abandoning his mechanical harem. He abandoned the fantasy of his harem and everything in his life to travel light.

When his silhouette was gradually mixed in together with the orderly group of astronauts, he appeared very small.

Perhaps it was the case for everyone to appear very small before the massive space elevator.

“Bye!”

“Goodbye.”

The sun slowly rose from the East. This should be the last sunrise these batch of astronauts would witness on Earth.

It was also the fifth last sunrise Zhang Yuan would ever witness.

After Zhang Yuan saw Ye Kaifu passing the safety inspection and walking into the space elevator, he wiped his eyes with the corner of his sleeve.

Following which, he wiped a second time, and maybe also a third time…

Many other astronauts were doing the same. Once they went up to space, they would never step on the solid ground of their mother plant again.

Ever.

He could not help and said with a sigh. “What a fool.”

No, it was a bunch of fools.

…

Zhang Yuan turned around and went back to the university. Once again, he was all alone.

It was inevitable for him to feel a sense of loneliness living in a dormitory all alone. His thesis was more or less complete. There were only some details such as the word choice and sentence structure that needed to be modified. He probably only needed one night to make the changes.

Zhang Yuan felt that he could take a day off and have a good rest.

He laid on his bed with the intention to doze off for a few minutes. However, he realized that he seemed to have a lot on his mind and thus could not fall asleep.

He opened the social app that had been neglected for a long time and there were tons of red dots inside.

“Li Zhendong, how’s it going with the girl you’ve asked out?”

Li Zhendong replied with his usual haughty voice, “I’ve already ended things with her long ago. Her photo is fake and her face is covered with acne. I couldn’t get past it and dive in. Oh right, where’s your fitter roommate?”

“He went up.”

“So early?”

“Yea, we are in different batches.”

After they had a casual chat, Li Zhendong’s mood did not seem to be pretty good as the boarding time soon approached. He started talking more seriously and was no longer as crazy as before.

“… I’m currently traveling with my family, and I’m trying to persuade my parents to have another child.”

“My mom would often hide herself and cry. I have no idea how to console her. In fact, she just wishes to cry. I guess this is how mothers are. Mine is not an exception…”

Zhang Yuan laid down and sighed. “Oh well, you should accompany them more in these last few days. Don’t come here too early.”

After ending the call, Zhang Yuan suddenly recalled the forgotten bucket list.

He had nearly forgotten about it during the time he spent writing the thesis.

In terms of experiencing more beautiful memories, there was a lot more he could do.

Zhang Yuan walked into a supermarket and bought a 38 yuan popsicle to eat. It was cream flavored.

The taste was merely so-so and he had no idea why it was priced so expensive.

He then checked one of the tasks on the bucket list which said: Eat a popsicle that its price tag would make you feel heart pain.

“Complete!”

After boarding the spaceship, he reckoned that he would not get to eat a popsicle ever again. After all, where would the spaceship have space for a popsicle factory?

“No wonder Ye Kaifu kept eating popsicles before he left… So it turns out, he was completing his bucket list.”

What should he do next? Well, he had no idea.

Zhang Yuan felt slightly lost. He suddenly took a break and it seemed like he had nothing to do.

‘Should I go back studying? After all, there’s no end to learning. No, I shouldn’t. Today’s a rest day,’ Zhang Yuan thought.

“… I feel like eating that BQ icecream,” a girl somewhere near him said.

The boy next to her said in a pampering tone. “That’s too expensive. I’ll give you two choices. It’s either to have one BQ popsicle or two milk teas. If you pick the latter, I can also have a cup.”

“Then I’ll get two cups of milk tea… See, aren’t I so nice to you?”

When Zhang Yuan saw the pair of couples, he suddenly recalled his ex-girlfriend for some reason.

How many years had passed since then?

Zhang Yuan tried to recall his previous memories but came to a sudden realization that he could not even remember her appearance. Just remembering her name alone took several seconds.

He only remembered that she was rather adorable and was slightly short-tempered. Her grades were average and due to the pressure from her studies, she had to be cajoled every day for her to study.

They were still high-school students during that time. They had no money nor were they allowed to play with their phones. Whenever they went out, they could only use the old types of paper money.

During their dates, the girl would always pass all her money to Zhang Yuan, with the reasoning that it was too troublesome for her to constantly take out money from her wallet.

As a result, Zhang Yuan held onto one to two hundred federal dollars with his left hand and a pretty lady with his right. He owned nothing under his name at that age but he felt very content as if he possessed the whole world.

“Even though I turned into a retard after falling in love, I was happy then.” Zhang Yuan sat on the steps and recalled his past.

That girl who found spending money to be troublesome should have grown up by now, right?

‘Should I give her a call?’

After he thought about it, he ultimately shook his head.

‘Forget it, it has been so long since we’ve last contacted each other and there’s no longer any feelings between us. What remained are only pleasant memories, similar to art paintings which have been beautified.’