Passed Away

"What is it, Old Ge?"

"Come here, listen to me..." Old Ge said weakly. "Take my respirator off..."

Xu Chen was startled. He stared at the blood oxygen reading on the vital signs monitor beside the bed. It was already low and had dropped even further. If he really dared take the respirator off, he would be charged with murder.

"Old Ge, I can't take the respirator off. You'd better keep it on," Xu Chen said with a wry smile.

Old Ge drew a labored breath. He seemed to want to take it off himself, but in the end, he gave up. He realized that he apparently couldn't even raise his hand anymore.

The effort left him gasping as though he had just run a hundred meters, and it took him a long time to catch his breath.

Throughout that bout of exertion, Xu Chen had kept his eyes fixed on the monitor. The readings had already been abnormal, and they had just jumped wildly up and down. If they hadn't settled now, Xu Chen would have had to call a doctor for emergency treatment immediately.

"Then come closer to me..."

Xu Chen obediently moved closer.

"Let me tell you about the dream... I used to have every day when I closed my eyes..."

"A dream?" Xu Chen frowned. "Old Ge, what you're talking about... you..."

The readings on the monitor fluctuated.

"All right, all right, I'm listening. Don't get worked up, Old Ge."

The readings steadied.

Old Ge began to murmur, "I can't describe what I saw in the dream. It was boundless, chaotic and wonderful... Matter and time solidified into little pieces, scattered... like the stars..."

A look of lingering wonder appeared on his face. "It was... magnificent."

"Old Ge? Old Ge?"

Old Ge didn't answer. He seemed to still be immersed in his own consciousness, with only instinct left to murmur, "He was like starlight in the night, a lamp on the road at dusk, dazzling and warm... It was like the pursuit of my life..."

Xu Chen frowned as he looked at the monitor beside the bed. Old Ge's heart rate was rising abnormally slowly, and even with the life support equipment, it would put a severe strain on his overburdened heart.

As Xu Chen worried, perhaps because a threshold had been triggered, the Drug Pump mounted on the wall beeped twice and pumped some kind of drug into Old Ge's body.

Then the monitor readings settled down.

Old Ge seemed much clearer again. He blinked with difficulty, pulling himself out of that state. "Phew, again... almost..."

"Old Ge? What exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm describing... my dream to you, but describing it seems too dangerous..." Old Ge looked at Xu Chen with regret.

Xu Chen was completely baffled. What could be dangerous about a dream? He frowned at Old Ge.

"Let me tell you how I felt in the dream." Old Ge composed himself. "When I first saw that indescribable thing, I was overjoyed... That feeling, that feeling... I can't forget it. It was a joy... far greater than when I built a missile back then. No one could refuse..."

"I had an urge to devote everything to it... I longed for that thing... No living being could refuse..."

"But what was it? What exactly was it...?"

A puzzled expression appeared on Old Ge's face as he murmured, "How strange... I seem to have forgotten something..."

He seemed to be in very poor condition. His mind was very likely in extreme confusion, and he could only speak unconsciously about what he was feeling at that moment.

But no matter how hard Xu Chen tried to make sense of it, he couldn't understand what Old Ge was trying to express.

"Old Ge... get to the point."

"This is what I want to say..."

"If it's about this, you could have told Captain Chu and the others. Why call me over?"

Old Ge suddenly stared at Xu Chen. "No, that won't do. You're... more solid than they are. You're not afraid of being washed away..."

Xu Chen looked at Old Ge without understanding, confusion in his eyes.

Solid... washed away... what do those mean?

Old Ge saw the confusion in Xu Chen's eyes and grew anxious. He seemed to have something to say, but no matter what he did, he couldn't get the words out.

His heart rate began to rise again on the vital signs monitor beside the bed, and an alarm sounded.

Xu Chen glanced at the monitor and grew anxious as well. He wanted to do something, but had no idea where to start. He could only keep reassuring Old Ge. "Don't get worked up, Old Ge. Whatever it is, take your time. I'm listening."

Old Ge grew even more anxious. His heart rate soon crossed the medication threshold, and the Drug Pump beeped twice and administered a dose.

Xu Chen had thought the injected drug would soon bring Old Ge's heart rate back to normal, but to his surprise, it kept rising. He thought the Drug Pump had malfunctioned, so he hurried over and tried to administer the drug manually.

Then a withered arm caught Xu Chen's outstretched hand. Xu Chen looked down and saw that it was Old Ge. He seemed to have used tremendous effort to tear the respirator off his face, and he stared fixedly at Xu Chen, his grip astonishingly strong.

Xu Chen had never seen anyone with a gaze so frenzied and yet so calm, contradictory yet strangely harmonious.

The Drug Pump beeped twice more and administered another dose.

"Xu Chen, listen carefully. That thing is... indescribable... beyond words... cannot be seen or heard. All things rejoice at one who understands..."

Old Ge's mouth kept moving after he said this, but no sound came out. He didn't seem to realize it and continued telling Xu Chen something.

The Drug Pump beeped twice more and administered another dose.

Xu Chen suddenly understood what Old Ge was trying to express. Even though he hadn't heard the rest of Old Ge's words clearly, a look of disbelief appeared on his face.

Old Ge saw Xu Chen's expression and realized that his words had finally reached him. Only then did the frenzy gradually fade from his face, replaced by an expression of relief. Xu Chen felt Old Ge's arm lose all its strength, like a machine whose power had been cut.

The Drug Pump beeped twice more and administered another dose.

Old Ge looked helplessly at the Drug Pump beside him. His arm no longer had the strength to hold Xu Chen, and, still in that position, he collapsed, as though he had exhausted every ounce of strength and could no longer support himself.

The Drug Pump beeped twice more. Xu Chen saw that the markings on the syringe had changed, and he immediately realized that if the Drug Pump was working properly... then it had already administered an overdose.

He hurriedly and clumsily pulled the syringe from the Drug Pump, pinched the IV line tightly to stop the drug from flowing in, and then called for a doctor...

"Old Ge died of cardiac arrest caused by an overdose of propofol. The root cause was a design error in the Drug Pump... Because of the patient's own condition, resuscitation was unsuccessful. We... did everything we could."

Xu Chen said nothing. He had indeed seen the Drug Pump injecting drugs endlessly, but he had never been a doctor and hadn't realized that the thing could kill as well as save lives. Otherwise, Xu Chen would have pinched it off when the second dose was administered.

But the more important reason for his silence was that the faint sense of danger seemed to have returned.

At that moment, all the uniformed soldiers wearing caps in the conference room began taking them off one after another. The civilians who remained were also silent, and then grew solemn.

"Old Ge... he lived under an assumed name for our country for decades. Our country's vital Osprey System was entirely his work. The ocean is several times larger than the land; the territory he expanded for our country amounted to far more than a few hundred or a thousand li... Lian Gaoming."

"Yes, sir!"

"Call the central government... tell them Old Ge passed away from illness today. The whole nation mourns!"

"Understood!" After the officer in charge gave the order, a noncommissioned officer beside him took out a communicator. Its communications capabilities were far more powerful than a mobile phone's. It used a military satellite communications system exclusively for the armed forces, did not depend on ground-based communication towers, and was highly resistant to interference and attacks.

"The Nanhua Military Region is calling the central government... At 10:24 on the fourth, he passed away from illness at the Nanhua Military Region Hospital..."

"Heaven and earth mourn together; the mountains and rivers share in grief!"