NOVEL NEXT 76
Chapter 76: Never stop loving
Xi Tian had read the memoirs of the Four Sages before. According to the surviving three, aside from Song Huishan, Song was already taller than ordinary males when he reached adulthood, but not as tall as females. However, two or three years later, he inexplicably grew to be as tall as a female.
During his ten years in power, Song Huishan was decisive and ruthless, making his opponents fearful. His public speeches still exist in the “Top 100 Famous Speeches in History,” listed as a must-read for everyone.
In his later years, the then-president said in his memoirs that Song Huishan was an excellent politician who, had he not died young, would have become the leader of the country, leading Zerg Star to new heights.
Over the past two hundred years, Zerg society seems to have deliberately buried Song Huishan, lightly skimming over his related information and deeds. People only knew he was the head of the Four Saints, very beautiful, and very outstanding. That’s it.
Xi Qisi, his father, was the living Song Huishan.
Could it be that he was reincarnated and came into this world again?
But no two people would look completely identical without reason.
Xi Tian clutched his head, filled with too much chaotic and unsolvable information.
The research institute explosion thirty-five years ago, Song Huishan two hundred years ago, his father Xi Qisi, and the past of his mentor.
Just one crucial element was missing to link them together.
After this, it seemed like a huge secret was hidden, and once uncovered, there would be no turning back.
The family terminal was broadcasting news, featuring the conservative male entering further into old age, with graying hair at his temples.
“According to media reports, conservative presidential candidate stated that if successfully elected, he would immediately deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes. He also claimed that illegal immigrants ‘stole’ the jobs of Zerg Star immigrants and other Zerg Stars, thus gaining support from Zerg Star voters.”
The screen showed him waving to the camera, smiling with crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes.
No, it shouldn’t be like this.
He should be younger, with a more rigid and unnatural expression when he smiles.
Xi Tian suddenly realized that he had seen this person before; it was the elderly man he saw on his first trip off the home planet, talking to Ellis across the aisle.
He thought the old man was strange back then. His expression when smiling wasn’t natural, suggesting some special disguise was used to cover his real face.
This person had once gone to the pioneer planet under disguise to undertake some project.
In December, the presidential candidate list was already out. Why did he go to the pioneer planet at that time?
The cold key on his chest came into Xi Tian’s view.
His mentor had asked him to help bring back something stored here before leaving.
Xi Tian hurriedly inquired with Svet, who told him that the only place offering storage services locally was the safe deposit box service at the local bank.
Xi Tian rushed to the bank before it closed, provided the key and password proof to the staff, and finally retrieved the item stored in the heavily protected safety deposit box.
It was a square, antique-patterned box with an old four-digit combination lock.
Xi Tian couldn’t care less. He carefully recalled important numbers from his mentor’s daily life, but none worked.
Xi Tian decided to take a brute force approach, trying every possible combination.
Coincidentally, Svet called him for dinner. On a whim, Xi Tian entered the year from thirty-five years ago.
With a ‘click,’ the box opened.
Inside was a soft, thick blue fabric, aged with a sense of antiquity.
Peeling back layers of thick fabric and removing two sheets of newspaper wrapping, he uncovered a thick red notebook.
The notebook was old, its pages darkened and slightly yellowed, made from recycled paper popular thirty years ago.
Opening the notebook, the first page featured elegant, flowing handwriting: “In memory of my beloved husband and our unborn child,” signed: 74.
74, Xi Qisi, this was his father’s notebook!
Ellis came up again to urge him downstairs for dinner. Instinctively, Xi Tian put the notebook back in the box, closed it, and didn’t want anyone to see it.
Ellis turned and left, and Xi Tian locked the box again, scrambled the combination, and hid it under the bed before heading downstairs for dinner.
Lance’s family was large, with his adopted sons grown up and having their own families. The kitchen couldn’t accommodate a table, so they moved it to the living room, where the whole family sat together happily.
At the table, Grandpa introduced Xi Tian to everyone, and Xi Tian greeted his elders with tea.
His mind was entirely on his father’s notebook.
The timing clearly indicated it was written after his dad’s death.
Twenty-four years ago, his dad Lake found out he was pregnant on August 12, and the accident happened on December 28.
After receiving the news, his father Xi Qisi became despondent and chose to commit suicide on May 4 the following year.
In the same year, on the summer solstice, June 22, Xi Tian hatched and came into the world.
When Fu An recounted these dates, the atmosphere at the table became heavy and silent for a moment.
Fate was indeed cruel.
Svet quickly changed the subject, asking why Xi Tian, being an orphan, inherited his father’s name.
“My name was chosen while I was still in the egg.
The hospital nurse left a photo of me in the egg, in the incubator, with my name written on the eggshell. The person who wrote it seemed worried about the toxicity of the pen ink and specially used a green, harmless pen.
Along with the egg, there was also a tape recorder containing two recordings: one of a lullaby to soothe a child, and the other a twenty-minute recording of a heartbeat.”
Xi Tian smiled as he spoke, but his eyes couldn’t help but moisten.
The incubator needed to play the father’s heartbeat continuously to simulate the incubation environment for the child.
Why did he ever think his father didn’t love him?
His dad carried the recording of his father’s heartbeat while on duty, prepared in advance. After giving birth to him, fearing he wouldn’t recognize them upon hatching, they wrote his name on the egg and recorded a lullaby for him.
The tape recorder was lost during a relocation when he was four, and he forgot about it.
How could he think they didn’t love him and abandoned him?