Chapter 50: Memory: The Study Tour
Fluffy, fine snow danced in the sky. Some flakes slipped into Romeo’s collar, melting against his skin from his body heat.
Romeo shivered and rubbed his hands together. The weather had been relatively warm the past few days, but the temperature had plummeted last night, and this morning, it had started snowing. He thought to himself, It’s still a long time until the snowy season. Why is it suddenly snowing today?
Romeo hunched his shoulders and sat on a chair, watching the priest stand beside the heavy, black coffin. The priest held a thick book and recited prayers with a solemn expression—all rhetoric about going to heaven, God’s blessing, and the like.
Not many people attended the funeral. Besides his father’s second partner, there were a few of his father’s friends from when he was alive. Romeo’s biological father did not attend the funeral. This didn’t seem strange, and Romeo didn’t expect him to.
At the funeral, besides the priest, almost none of the other guests spoke. Romeo just stared at his father’s portrait. His father in the portrait looked much more presentable than he had in life, with full cheeks, no dark circles, and a gentle smile.
This version of his father felt a little strange.
Romeo lowered his head.
Forget it, none of this matters. He had already made his choice. They were strangers now—strangers in every sense of the word: by blood, spiritually, physically, theologically.
The funeral was long, but it eventually ended. After it was over, just as Romeo stood up from his chair, someone suddenly called out to him.
It was the man. The man’s face was stern, and Romeo couldn’t tell if he was sad for his father.
The man told Romeo to come with him. Just a moment ago, Romeo’s father had contacted the man, saying he had arrived and was here to take Romeo home.
Just like that, Romeo moved into his father’s new family.
No one had asked for his opinion. Everyone assumed his thoughts were irrelevant. Romeo was used to this kind of life. To him, it was the same everywhere. He was a ball being kicked around, a rat scurrying across the street that everyone secretly despised.
After divorcing his father, his father had quickly formed a new family with an Omega.
His father, who had been addicted to cheating, had suddenly matured after a failed marriage. He had a new child with the Omega and saw this child as the beginning of a new life. He started mixing formula, changing diapers, and no matter how busy he was with work, he would make time to take the baby out for a walk in the stroller every day, and throw out the trash on the way.
And Romeo’s arrival was like a birthmark carried from the womb. It had clearly been surgically removed, yet it would always relapse at certain times to make its presence known.
These conflicts were not obvious when Romeo was a twelve or thirteen-year-old child. But when Romeo fully entered puberty and became a teenager, all the conflicts exploded at once like landmines.
Later, his father really couldn’t stand Romeo turning his new life into a quagmire. But due to the Interstellar Empire’s protection laws for unpresented teenagers, his father couldn’t do anything to Romeo.
In the end, his father sent Romeo to live with a distant relative.
This relative was a retired veteran of the interstellar army. He had retired due to a semi-paralyzing waist injury, but the Interstellar Federation government had provided him with a domestic robot to take care of his daily life, so Romeo did not have to bear the responsibility of caring for him. He just needed to stay in the relative’s house until he came of age, and the relative would receive a large sum of money from his father every month for his foster care.
The relative had a strange personality and would often lose his temper with the domestic robot for no reason. Fortunately, he usually didn’t make things difficult for Romeo. Most of the time, he would just treat Romeo as an invisible person, or a moving portrait in the house that didn’t speak.
Good. Romeo couldn’t ask for more. Although such a life was a bit lonely, it was at least peaceful. Just like that, a few years passed, and Romeo finally graduated from high school.
A few years of peaceful life had allowed him to focus all his attention on his studies. His grades soared, and he was admitted to the best-ranked university in the main city of Capital Star with excellent results.
Until a graduation study tour shattered Romeo’s seemingly peaceful life.
After a two-hour interstellar flight, Wen En had just stepped out of the flight station when the bright sunlight hit his face without ceremony.
He put down his suitcase, took a few deep breaths of fresh air, stretched, and rolled his shoulder joints, then hailed a taxi.
“Where are you headed?” the taxi driver asked after helping Wen En put his luggage in the trunk.
Hearing this question, Wen En looked up at the sky. In the distance, spacecraft shuttled through the atmosphere, leaving white streaks behind.
“Home,” Wen En gazed at the sky. “I want to go home.”
The taxi driver: “…I mean, give me a specific address.”
“Oh,” Wen En recited an address, then added, “Sorry, I just watched a movie called ‘City of Melancholy Love’ on the flight. I got a little too into it.”
It was a recently released arthouse musical film. It was said to have good reviews, and the romance between the two protagonists was very moving and tragic, making countless Alphas fall silent, Omegas shed tears, and Betas sigh with emotion.
“I know,” the taxi driver opened the back door and gestured for Wen En to get in. “Ever since this movie came out, I’ve had several artsy young customers who couldn’t remember their home address.”
“Haha, is that so,” Wen En scratched his head and smiled.
His home was far from the flight station. The taxi drove for two hours before finally arriving. Fortunately, the journey was not boring.
The driver was a talkative person. He also had a side job as a pop music producer. There was a box of CDs next to his car stereo. Heaven knows, in this era dominated by streaming music, how rare physical CDs were.
Just like that, from the golden oldies of the last century to the latest chart-topping music, Wen En was forced to listen to everything, successfully catching up on the latest music trends.
The driver was very satisfied with this passenger. He had thought this customer was another lunatic who had watched too many art films, but he turned out to be quite normal. Every time the driver expressed his musical opinions, this customer would listen with a very serious expression, instead of looking down at videos or interrupting him and telling him to shut up. The driver was very satisfied. After dropping Wen En off at his destination, he even gave him two music CDs he had produced.
“Thank you,” Wen En smiled. He didn’t really want the CDs, but the driver was so enthusiastic that he accepted them out of politeness.
“Remember to follow me on social media,” the driver reminded him before leaving.
“No problem,” Wen En replied with a smile. He didn’t really want to follow this musician on social media either.
Watching the driver wave goodbye and the license plate gradually disappear from his sight, Wen En finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He turned around and looked at the place where he had grown up, feeling both familiar and strange.
His home was in a community near a forest park with a nice environment in the main city. The air was fresh, the seasons were distinct, and there were many small animals. Especially in the summer, the elk from the forest would always visit their home and eat all the grapevines his mother had planted in the garden.
Two neighbors passed by, and seeing Wen En back, they greeted him.
Wen En smiled and waved back. He picked up his luggage, walked up the two steps of stone and cement, and knocked on the door.
It was familiar because this was his home, and strange because he hadn’t been home in two years.
Two years ago, a branch of the interstellar army Wen En was in had gone to a planet for a two-year mission. During the mission, they were not allowed to contact the outside world. After the mission ended, Wen En was given a two-week vacation.
Many of his comrades used this vacation to travel, but Wen En just wanted to go home and spend time with his family.
Wen En knocked on the door, and it soon opened.
Wen En thought it was his younger sister, Wen Yuan. He was about to call her name, but he realized something was wrong.
“Hmm? Who are you?” Wen En looked at the strange face in front of him with confusion.
He was one hundred percent sure that this stranger was not his sister—first, this stranger was a male. Second, his sister had very Eastern features, while this young man had blond hair and blue eyes, a complete Westerner. Also, his sister was only eight, no, ten years old! This young man looked like he had just turned eighteen.
“I…”
The blond young man was about to say something when a series of excited barks came from behind him, “Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!”
The young man stepped aside, and a shadow shot over like a bullet. Wen En almost failed to catch it and was knocked over.
“Xiao Bo!” Wen En hugged a tricolor, long-haired dog and laughed loudly, “You’re still so boisterous.”
The Bernese Mountain Dog’s tail was wagging like a fan. It flicked its tongue, and slobber covered Wen En’s face. “Alright, alright,” Wen En said, letting go. “Get down now.”
After all, this dog was too heavy, like a stone block. Its tail was also very strong, whipping Wen En’s legs like steel rebar. It was really a bit much.
Hearing the commotion, Wen En’s parents came out of the house. They looked at Wen En, their faces filled with surprise and joy.
“When did you get back?” After hugging his mother and father, his mother touched Wen En’s cheek and asked.
“Just arrived,” Wen En said.
“Oh, why didn’t you tell us in advance?” his father patted Wen En’s shoulder.
“Of course, it was because I wanted to give you a surprise,” Wen En said. “Hey, where’s Wen Yuan?”
The moment he finished speaking, a little girl in a black top, a black skirt, and with black hair appeared in the doorway. The little girl was like a ghost. She gave Wen En a gloomy look, then floated away.
“Wen Yuan! Get over here! Your brother is back!” His mother was already used to the little girl’s strange behavior. She shouted Wen Yuan’s name several times, “If you don’t come out on your own, I’ll personally go and get you.”
Hearing this, the little girl in black appeared in the doorway again. This time, her eyes were red, and she looked pitiful.
“Aww, you really did miss me, didn’t you?” Wen En took the initiative to go forward and pull the little girl into his arms. He stroked his sister’s head and said, “You’ve grown a lot.”
“I also lost a few teeth,” Wen Yuan said sullenly.
“Hahaha, that’s great. It means you’ll be a grown-up soon,” Wen En said with a smile.
“Hey, where did he go?” Wen En’s mother looked around, as if looking for someone. When she saw the blond young man, she smiled and said, “Romeo, come here.”
Only then did Wen En shift his attention from his sister back to the blond young man. Romeo? Such a familiar name. It’s like… like I’ve seen that name in a movie somewhere.
