CH 90

Lin Han never took his eyes off it again.

There was more than one meteorite in the Galactic Exhibition Hall, and he had seen several different kinds of stones with different meanings on the other floors, but he had only passed by them in a hurry without stopping. But now this piece — Lin Han had a strong feeling, there was a voice telling him that it was different.

The universe was so big, and the Galaxy was so vast, yet they came from the same star.

It may have lost its way at some point and finally crashed at He YunTing’s feet.

Could He YunTing really have saved it?, Lin Han thought. He probably had a simple idea at that time, or wanted to give it to him after the mission was over.

But then something must’ve happened that prevented him from sending it out, and he couldn’t know what kind of emotion he had put in it if it was really He YunTing’s. He had no idea.

He knew nothing.

But it was okay.

Lin Han’s fingers couldn’t help but clench.

He received it after all.

Lin Han then realized that he had unconsciously tensed his body because of his nervousness, and he regained his a smile, trying to make his voice clear and unfazed, and said to the young volunteer who was about to leave, “Please wait. This stone,” he saw the other man turn his face and ask, somewhat eagerly, “do you know something about it?”

And why is it here? Is there any special meaning, what does it represent? Could it be… is it really related to him?

When he thought of this, Lin Han felt that his previous innate calmness was stripped away to nothing when it came to something related to He YunTing.

The volunteer froze for a moment, not quite understanding Lin Han’s meaning, but still replied, “This? This item doesn’t reveal the consignor, nor does it state the significance of storing it here, I’m just a college student who comes here from time to time. If you have deeper questions, you can also directly find the staff — but as far as I know, for an item that has no notes has higher requirements to avoid mistakes when taking it, such as something that needs to symbolize exclusive status or something like that.”

Probably seeing Lin Han’s too obvious look of loss, the other party paused and said, “But I have a connection with this stone, it happened to be deposited when I first came here as a volunteer… I can’t believe it’s been three years.”

“I see.” Hearing these last words, Lin Han finally showed an expression of relief and bowed towards him, “Thank you.”

“But those that can be stored on this floor,” the volunteer wondered why Lin Han suddenly thanked him, “are mostly not simple things. Either the identity of the depositor isn’t simple, or the item itself.” He didn’t know Lin Han’s identity and just said to him, “For example, if you look at this stone, it looks like it’s only separated by a glass door with a password, but as long as it’s not taken out by the staff in the museum, if you pick it up from the box without permission, the alarm device will be triggered instantly.”

Lin Han nodded his head, not knowing how much he had heard, and smiled up at the man in front of him, “I see.”

At this time, a staff member wearing the uniform of the Exhibition Hall on this floor came over and greeted the young man in front of him, “Your classmate told me he was going back and he’ll wait for you on the first floor in ten minutes, just tell me if you have anything to report.”

The staff member looked much older than the volunteer, and the position plate on his chest showed that he was the manager of this floor, but he looked very kind and was whispering some work matters with the other party. While thanking the volunteer, he couldn’t help but look back at Grr, who was collapsing softly on Lin Han’s shoulder, because he really liked the little fur ball on Lin Han’s shoulder.

A strange thought suddenly came to Lin Han’s mind. When this thought first surfaced, Lin Han thought for a moment that he had become really bold, but no matter what, it couldn’t be suppressed. As he stared at the stone in the glass case, his mind raced with ideas.

The meteorite that He YunTing had given him was unique in texture, not as hard as ordinary stones, so its edges weren’t sharp, and it felt different when he touched it. The only thing left in Lin Han’s vision was the glass window in front of him, and if he could touch it to make sure it felt right to the touch, he would be able to get a conclusion that no longer swayed.

If, as the volunteer said, he didn’t need to pick the stone up, but only needed to touch it with an outstretched hand, it shouldn’t trigger the alarm device.

He began to glance around without thinking.

There weren’t many people on this floor, not to mention that an unattractive meteorite really didn’t excite people’s interest and attention.

If only he could ask for the password… 

Lin Han thought he was crazy.

He gently patted the small thing on his shoulder and said softly, “Can you do me a favor?”

—

Lin Han approached the volunteer who had just finished handing over to the staff on this floor and turned to leave.

Grr looked much more excited than before and was very attractive to the eyes, hugging Lin Han’s neck and making a slight squeaking sound from time to time.

“Is this your pet? Very cute.” It was obvious that the uniformed staff also had some interest in this little guy and spoke to Lin Han.

Lin Han nodded with an apologetic expression, “Yes, it was so excited just now that it accidentally fell off my shoulder and hit the glass combination cabinet in front of it. I’m really sorry. Would you like to see if the glass cabinet is damaged?”

During the conversation, Grr did seem to fit the description of ‘active’, jumping off him and rubbing himself against the staff very fearlessly.

“It’s okay, don’t worry.” The other’s tone is full of certainty, “These glass cabinets are special, it’s impossible to open them without entering the password correctly, and they aren’t ordinary material glass, it’s very hard. What you should worry about is whether your pet is injured.”

Lin Han chuckled, rubbed Grr’s fluffy head with his hand and said softly, “It didn’t hurt, did it?”

Grr seemed to be reluctant to pay attention to him, but instead had a great interest in the strange staff member he was meeting for the first time.

“I don’t think he’s hurt.” Lin Han said, his tone revealing a hint of helplessness, “But there’s a bump and he seems to be angry at me.”

A few moments later he looked up and sincerely extended his hand, smiling as he placed it in the other’s hand, “If there’s something wrong with the glass code cabinet because of it, you must tell me. By the way, do you have a pet room here?”

【This gentleman is very polite. How could a little guy break the combination cabinet?】

【Not to mention that the password on this floor is much more complicated than several floors downstairs…】

After this heartfelt statement, it seemed that the staff’s occupational disease raised its head, as the other party recited a long string of characters in his mind, under Lin Han gaze, quickly finishing.

“Yes, I will take you there.” The staff member said.

Lin Han nodded and smiled lightly, said “Okay”, and was about to go with him when he noticed that the small thing’s hair on the staff member’s body stood up, seemingly not wanting to let him come near.

“Sorry.” Lin Han took his hand back, still repeating the string of code in his mind, but the words that came out had nothing to do with it, “He’s still mad at me. Can you please take it? I’ll be right over.”

The staff member also didn’t expect this little thing that he had met for the first time to be so clingy towards him, and for a while he felt some compassion and agreed, “Okay. The pet room is just around the corner on the right, very close, you can find it as soon as you turn around.”

Lin Han didn’t go up again.

Grr was still excitedly lying on the other side, and happily squeeking something, the other side was so wrapped up in it that he couldn’t help but laugh, and his attention was all on this little guy for a while.

The moment the other party turned around, the smile on Lin Han’s face instantly disappeared, as he quickly walked back to the glass cabinet, found the light screen of the password box, and smoothly entered the complex and lengthy string of characters one by one.

The location of the meteorite was so remote that as long as he didn’t set off the alarm, no one would pay special attention to this corner, and Lin Han turned sideways to block his hand from keying in the password so that he would look like a man standing in front of the glass case, dazed.

Click…

A soft sound.

The special glass, which was said to be extremely hard, opened in front of Lin Han.

Lin Han’s hand was very steady when he entered the password, but now it was shaking a little when he reached out again.

Just a touch, just a touch… 

He was so nervous that his heart was in his throat, and the next second, he put his hand over it.

—

Three minutes later, Lin Han found the pet room that the other had just mentioned.

Grr wasn’t ‘angry’ anymore, and jumped up of his own accord, rubbing against Lin Han’s palm.

“Okay, I’ll go on with my business now that you’re here.” The staff member smiled and was just about to stand up when he felt Lin Han’s face was a bit white and asked with concern, “Sir, are you not feeling well?”

Lin Han moved his lips, his expression was a little stiff, “…I’m fine.”

The other thought for a moment and said, “Then I’ll get you a glass of water for you to relax?”

“No need.” Lin Han’s eyes didn’t converge on a specific point, as if he was dazed and lost in thought, and the blood on his lips seemed to have faded a bit, but he still shook his head politely, “I… I’ll go back first.”

They didn’t look at each other again, walking step by step back to the elevator without looking back as they left. The staff felt that this gentleman was a bit strange, he was obviously fine just a moment ago. But he didn’t think much of it, and went back to the lobby of this floor to continue his work.

Everything was the same as when he came.

Nothing was different, all the exhibits were well displayed in their glass case.

Including the unattractive stone.

When Lin Han arrived, He YunTing hadn’t returned yet.

Grr felt that his acting skills were so good today that he could almost compete with those people on TV, and was now gloating with a piece of food in his mouth, nibbling it carefully while turning on his favorite dogblood drama.

Lin Han sat on the bed and didn’t calm down for a long time.

He looked down at his hands.

The meteorite was indeed exactly the same as the one He YunTing had given him, and it was absolutely certain that they came from the same planet.

But that wasn’t the point.

That volunteer was right.

Those that could be placed on this floor weren’t simple items.

When Lin Han was working, he had heard that some meteorites fell into the M system and produced a huge amount of energy, some dissipated quickly after contact with the atmosphere, while others could remain in the stone for a long time, and after reasonable treatment, they could even be reused for other purposes. One of them, the meteorite to maintain the long-sealed energy, was named it “cosmic source crystal” by the person who discovered it.

But he didn’t expect that something could really be stored in it through the cosmic source crystal inside the meteorite.

He didn’t expect that, probably because there were a lot of source crystals left in the meteorite, and probably because there were too many things stored in it, the moment he put his hand on it, he heard and saw the “mind” of the meteorite almost like reading it—

It was He YunTing’s long lost memories, but they were related to him.

Although the time was too short, Lin Han wasn’t able to hear and see everything. He saw He YunTing at that time, when his expression wasn’t so indifferent, and his eyebrows could still find the vigor that belonged to that age. He saw the young man wearing a mecha college uniform, standing in the early morning sunlight with everyone else, taking the oath.

And when he turned his head, he didn’t take his eyes off the slim young man bathed in the warm morning light.

Lin Han had forgotten what he looked like when he first entered the school.

Had they met so early?

He saw the man, who could almost be called emotionally mute, always leaning on his mecha after a heavy training session, and then carefully, like a thief, opening the light screen, on which was his speech when he first enrolled.

He saw that the other side wouldn’t even deliberately create a chance encounter, and could only tragically really wait for a chance encounter — but when it really came to meeting, he had to actively pretend to be indifferent and turn a blind eye.

He saw several classmates who used to feel sorry for themselves in college, the day after they disliked their origins and mocked them for coming from the common area. They were found by each other in some way, cowering and apologizing to the man in front of them with cold eyes.

He saw him trying to pay attention to him, but didn’t dare to get too close.

Later there were fewer images.

He himself continued his education, and the other man entered the army.

He saw that the man no longer had a great deal of time on his hands and could only occasionally find him in the reports or news from the college. Sometimes he would stare at them for a long time, sometimes he would purse his lips and say to the lively young adjutant beside him, “You’re thinking too much”.

He saw him ascending and crowning himself with great success, but every time he passed through the central park in triumph, he would look across the mecha, one by one, in the crowd full of cheers, with a faint hope to see him.

Later, when he entered the Institute, he saw that the other party would always take advantage of the half-day public holiday at the base, parked not too far away in his flying machine, but he didn’t come down, only stayed silently for a while, then left again by himself.

He saw the other side finally being talked to by his adjutant and asked, then if you want to meet with Mr. Lin, you should do this for the first time to go well.

He saw him come back covered in blood fighting, but with a not so nice meteorite in his pocket. He saw He YunTing’s messed up hair, as he was leaning back in the cockpit to calm his breathing. Even though the combat uniform on his body was stained with sweat and blood, the other man’s face was still handsome.

He saw the man’s eyes reopen, but in his hands he was fondling the unimpressive “gift” he had prepared for the first time. He saw the Erinnerung Nebula appear for the first time in the border area, and saw the purple tulips in the courtyard change from season to season, blossoming and dying.

He saw that He YunTing really loved him for so many years with tenderness and silence.