Tata's electronic voice rang out in place of an alarm clock, and Bai Ling opened his eyes.
The little machine was squatting beside the couch. The expression on its screen shifted from "-v-" to "^_^," and its tiny camera pointed straight at his face.
"…What time is it?"
Tata's screen blinked and displayed a precise set of numbers.
Bai Ling sat up and rubbed his eyes. On the floor beside the couch, Ivon's slippers lay in a messy sprawl—one pointing east, the other west. The blanket on the bed had been rolled into a lump, and the person who should've been inside it was nowhere to be found.
From a corner not far away came a faint, sharp hiss, followed by a wisp of white steam.
He walked over and saw Ivon at the stove, spatula in hand, frying something. She wore loose pajamas; her pink hair fell down her back in a careless curtain; her tail swayed lightly from side to side.
Hearing his steps, she turned her head.
"Awake?"
"Yeah."
"Almost done." Ivon flipped the eggs. "What do you feel like eating today?"
Bai Ling glanced at the ingredients on the counter.
"Whatever you make, I'll eat."
Her tail lifted a little, clearly pleased by that answer.
"If it were just me, I could get by with anything," she said, sounding almost smug. "But now that you're here… I should cook properly."
A moment later, breakfast was on the table—fried eggs, bread, hot milk, and a small dish of lettuce they'd brought back from the outpost yesterday.
Ivon sat across from him, eating while flipping through her data slate.
"Any progress?" Bai Ling asked.
"Mm." Ivon nodded and pushed the slate toward him. "Look—there's a pattern to the hyperdomain energy fluctuations. It isn't perfectly precise, but it's enough to roughly predict when erosion events might occur. The conclusion still isn't stable, though. I need more work."
Bai Ling took the slate and studied it seriously. The curves and numbers were too dense for him to interpret in detail, but the tendency of the energy to cluster toward the end of each cycle was something he could sense even in his own way.
"Needs field verification?"
"Yep." Ivon blinked. "I want to run tests at the hyperdomain proving ground near the Power Supply Highlands. That slash Talulah left through the area changed a lot, but the hyperdomain conditions there are still useful as reference data."
"When do you want to go?"
"This afternoon—come with me?"
"Of course," Bai Ling said. "I'll arrange things on my side as quickly as I can."
After breakfast, Bai Ling headed to the outpost as usual. Ivon stayed behind to organize equipment. They agreed to meet again at noon and depart together.
The outpost was livelier than usual today.
The moment Bai Ling entered, he saw a swarm of children gathered in the open space. Amo was running at the front with her little teddy bear. When she spotted him, the children immediately rushed over.
"Big brother! Big brother!"
Amo grabbed his hand first, her small face bright with expectation. "Big brother, we're planting flowers today!"
Bai Ling paused and looked toward the edge of the clearing. Several bags of soil were stacked there, along with a bundle of seedlings. Norman stood beside them, waving him over.
"Mr. Bai Ling, these were delivered from the hub yesterday," Norman said as he walked up. "The kids said they wanted to plant flowers, so I put in a request."
"…They're like seeds," Bai Ling murmured. "Hope, growing in the rubble."
As soon as he finished, Amo tugged him toward the soil pile.
"Big brother, plant with us!"
"Alright," Bai Ling said. "Together."
He spent the whole morning planting flowers with the children—placing seedlings, packing soil, watering, repeating those simple motions again and again.
Amo stayed close to him the entire time. Her teddy bear sat on a nearby rock; she insisted it had to watch the flowers grow up too.
Halfway through, Bai Ling noticed the old man.
He sat at the doorway of a prefab room, holding that unlit pipe, eyes narrowed as he watched from afar. Sunlight fell across his face, the wrinkles deep as dried riverbeds.
"Sir."
Bai Ling called to him and walked closer. The old man turned, his cloudy eyes studying Bai Ling as if confirming who he was.
"Young man," he said at last. "Planting flowers?"
"Mm."
"Kids like flowers. That's a good thing."
He nodded, a faint smile working its way into his expression. Bai Ling crouched beside him.
"How are you feeling today?"
"Fine." The old man's voice was slow. "Last night I dreamed of my old woman. She said she wants to see the flowers here."
Bai Ling didn't answer immediately—something about that sentence sat wrong in his chest.
The old man fell silent for a moment, then pulled a small cloth bundle from inside his coat.
"Here. Hold this for me."
Bai Ling looked down. It was a bundle like the one that had held the photograph before.
Seeing Bai Ling's confusion, the old man shook his head.
"Not a photo. It's a little something I saved up. I want to leave it to the kids." He pressed the bundle into Bai Ling's hand. "Split it among them. Buy some candy. Buy some toys."
Bai Ling opened it.
Inside were a few wrinkled banknotes and some coins—not much. Some of the money was old and out of circulation, but it was obvious it had been saved slowly, stubbornly, over a long time.
"Sir…"
The old man waved him off. Before Bai Ling could say anything more, the man turned away, eyes returning to the seedlings in the dirt.
"No use keeping it," he said. "Those kids… need it more than I do."
"…Alright."
Bai Ling closed the bundle carefully and tucked it into his pocket, his movements unusually deliberate.
When noon came and he left the flower patch, Bai Ling glanced back once.
The old man was still there in the sun—no longer warm, perhaps, but at least not cold. It looked comfortable.
When Bai Ling returned to the Originium Research Institute and pushed open the door, Ivon was squatting on the floor in front of a heap of equipment, looking troubled. Tata rolled in circles beside her, its screen showing ">_<".
"What's wrong?" Bai Ling asked.
"Too much stuff," Ivon said, lifting her head to look at him with exaggerated pitiful eyes. "I can't carry all of this alone. Help?"
Bai Ling stared at the pile.
Measuring instruments, data slates, portable power packs, compact analyzers… it really was a lot.
"My strength isn't great," he warned. "I might not be able to take much."
Her eyes lit up and her tail lifted.
"Good!"
They loaded everything onto a transport cart and set out for the Power Supply Highlands.
Along the way, Ivon was bright with excitement, chattering nonstop about her research—fluctuation curves, periodicity, predictive models. Bai Ling understood maybe half a sentence out of ten, but he listened closely anyway, and when she asked questions, he actually paused to think before answering.
Halfway there, Ivon suddenly slowed down.
"Bai Ling."
"Mm?"
"If I really can predict when hyperdomain activity will happen… would it mean we could save a lot of people?"
Bai Ling looked at her.
In the sunlight, her eyes were shining—hopeful, a little anxious, wanting someone to tell her that she wasn't dreaming too big.
"Of course."
He said it without hesitation.
Ivon didn't answer, but her driving became noticeably steadier, as if the road itself had smoothed out.
The hyperdomain proving ground at the Power Supply Highlands looked even more desolate than the last time they'd been there.
That massive blackened slash was still carved into the landscape, stark and unmistakable. The surrounding ruins had been cleared a bit, but reconstruction hadn't begun.
Ivon pulled out her instruments and started collecting data. Bai Ling stood beside her, using his own perception of energy to help her read the environment.
"The residual energy is heavier on the left than on the right," he said.
"Got it!"
They worked like that—one collecting, one guiding—until the sun tilted toward the horizon and the data slate filled with numbers and notes.
When the sky began to darken, Ivon finally packed up her equipment and let out a long breath.
"Enough, enough—this is days' worth of analysis."
Bai Ling looked at her with a small smile.
"Tired?"
"Not tired!" Ivon's tail wagged. "With you next to me, I'm not tired at all."
Bai Ling didn't respond. He simply took some of the sturdier, cumbersome items from her hands and carried them.
On the ride back, Ivon leaned against the window and stared into the dimming world outside.
"Today went by so fast," she murmured. "And there's still so much research to do."
Bai Ling turned his head to look at her. Sensing his gaze, her tail stiffened slightly.
"No need to rush," he said. "Not for a single day, and certainly not for a single moment."
Her tail relaxed again and began to sway softly.
By the time they reached the institute, it was late. They ate only a little. Ivon sat at her desk immediately afterward and started organizing the data.
Bai Ling sat on the couch with a bottle of soda in his hand, watching her back.
Tata crouched in the corner, its screen shifting from "-v-" to "^_^," camera aimed at the two of them.
After a long while, Ivon spoke again.
"Bai Ling."
"Mm?"
"Are you going to the outpost tomorrow?"
"I am."
"Then I'm going with you."
"What about your research?"
"I'll do it," Ivon said, turning her head with a mischievous blink. "But I can do it there too. It's noisier, sure, but it won't affect anything. And…"
She hesitated.
"I want to check on that old man."
Bai Ling didn't answer. He simply nodded.
Yes. In a disaster, the ones who lost everything were never only one person. The old man was just one refugee among many.
Late at night, Bai Ling lay on the couch, staring at the ceiling.
The cloth bundle in his pocket pressed uncomfortably against him.
He still didn't take it out.
That was half of the old man's life. It was normal for it to have sharp edges.
The next day, they went to the outpost together.
Ivon set up her equipment in a quieter corner and continued analyzing data. Bai Ling went to the warehouse, checked supplies, and made a round through the clinic.
At noon, he went to see the old man.
The man was still sitting at the doorway, still holding the unlit pipe.
But today his eyes were closed, as if he'd simply fallen asleep.
Bai Ling walked over and crouched beside him.
"Sir?"
No answer.
Bai Ling reached out and lightly touched the man's wrist.
He could feel the heat fading—coolness already settling in.
Bai Ling stayed crouched there, unmoving, silent.
Sunlight lay over the old man's face. The wrinkles were still deep, but the expression was peaceful.
Norman came over, saw the scene, and fell silent too.
Only when the sun had shifted noticeably did Bai Ling finally rise.
"The things he asked me to do," Bai Ling said quietly, "I'll do them."
Norman nodded.
"I'll arrange the rest."
Bai Ling found Amo and the other children, and he divided the old man's money among them.
Amo hugged her teddy bear and looked up at him.
"Big brother… where's the grandpa?"
Bai Ling crouched and gently patted her head.
"He went to see his old woman."
Amo blinked, not fully understanding.
"Will he come back?"
For a heartbeat, Bai Ling had no words.
But he couldn't avoid the answer.
"No. He won't come back. But the money he left can buy candy. It can buy toys."
Amo stared at the bills in her hands, then suddenly looked up.
"Then… can we use it to buy fertilizer for the flowers?"
"…Yes," Bai Ling said after a pause. "You can."
Amo grinned, delighted. She turned and shouted to the other children.
"Then the grandpa can see the flowers bloom!"
She ran off with the others.
Bai Ling remained where he was, the sentence echoing inside him until he finally whispered:
"Yeah… he can."
At dusk, Bai Ling and Ivon left the outpost together.
On the road, Ivon suddenly reached out and grabbed his hand.
"Bai Ling."
"Mm?"
"Are you sad?"
"A little."
Ivon didn't say anything. She simply tightened her grip.
After a while, she spoke again.
"That old man… he went peacefully. The last thing he saw was the children planting flowers."
Bai Ling turned to look at her.
There was a shimmer of moisture in her eyes. She wasn't the kind of "grown-up" who could watch death without flinching.
"So," she said softly, as if trying to convince herself as much as him, "don't be sad."
Bai Ling squeezed her hand back and nodded.
"Mm."
Three days later, Ivon's research made a solid leap forward.
She sent the predictive model to the Dijiang. Pellica and the Administrator replied quickly—high praise, plus an invitation for Ivon to present her findings aboard the Dijiang and discuss further collaboration.
That night, Bai Ling's comms bracelet lit up. A message from Pellica.
"Mr. Bai Ling, work in Valley 4 can be wrapped up for now. You have a new assignment."
Bai Ling stared at the message. Ivon leaned in and read it too.
"So you're leaving?"
"Yeah."
Ivon didn't speak. She just leaned into his shoulder.
In the corner, Tata's screen shifted from "^_^" to "-v-."
Time passed—slow, heavy, unavoidable.
"Bai Ling."
"Mm?"
"Are you going back?"
"I've been staying here this whole time," Bai Ling said. "Don't you think I've been bothering you? I haven't even really lived in the room you fixed up for me."
Ivon blinked, then puffed out her cheeks.
"…Do you think living beside a beautiful girl is a bad thing?"
"How could I?"
"Then it's settled." Ivon lifted her chin. "You can come live here anytime."
She held out her pinky.
"Pinky promise."
Bai Ling looked at her, then hooked his pinky with hers.
Two pinkies clasped together.
The next morning, Bai Ling finished packing and stood at the doorway.
Ivon leaned against the frame, tail swaying lightly.
"When you get to the Dijiang, message me."
"Okay."
"And message me when you're free."
"Okay."
"And you're not allowed to never come back."
"Okay."
Ivon stared at him for a moment, then stepped forward and hugged him.
Feeling the softness against his chest, Bai Ling's hands froze in midair—then slowly rose, and he gently ruffled her hair.
In the corner, Tata crouched with "^_^" on its screen, camera blinking as it recorded.
They stayed like that for a long time.
Eventually Ivon released him.
"Go," she said, voice too steady for what she was feeling. "If you don't leave now, you'll be late."
Bai Ling nodded and turned to go.
After a few steps, he paused and looked back.
"Ivon."
"Mm?"
"Have you decided on a name for the outpost yet?"
Ivon blinked, then shook her head.
"Not yet."
Bai Ling thought for a moment.
"Then next time I come back, we'll name it together."
Ivon's eyes lit up.
"Deal!"
Bai Ling turned and left.
Ivon stood in the doorway, watching his back grow smaller and smaller.
Tata crouched by her feet. Its screen showed "^_^."
"Tata."
"Beep?"
"When do you think he'll come back next?"
Tata's screen blinked and displayed a single expression:
(-HERE-)
One expression—packed with meaning.
Ivon smiled.
"Right. He'll come back."
"And as for that painting…" Her tail swayed gently. "Maybe it's time to start."
She turned and walked back inside, mood clearly lighter.
On the table sat two unopened bottles of soda.
....
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