Su Huilan later asked Situ and Qingmu why they waited until after Petru and Mrs. Larry's wedding to tell them, even though they had already thought of a way to leave the Spacetime Stasis Zone from the moment Ivan and Petru appeared.
Situ said, "Sometimes we feel that happiness is easy to obtain, yet difficult to satisfy, because we rarely experience true despair in life. True happiness is the happiness that can still be felt in despair. And only those who are happy can more bravely face despair and cherish the visible hope."
Su Huilan laughed at him for stealing the philosopher's thunder, then looked at Qingmu, "So what about you? You're not just too lazy to talk, are you?!"
Qingmu shrugged, neither confirming nor denying, as if to say, "That's exactly right." Seeing Su Huilan's disdain, he laughed and said, "Isn't being a little lazy better? If I told you, do you think there would still be such a romantic wedding?"
After careful consideration, Su Huilan wholeheartedly agreed. If they knew there was a way to escape this frozen space-time controlled by death, given Mrs. Larry's personality, no matter how turbulent her emotions were, she would never mention marriage; and the others probably wouldn't be in the mood to attend any wedding, let alone meticulously prepare those beautiful flower petals and romantic floating bridge.
Sometimes, life truly requires a leisurely attitude and slow-paced moments to avoid regrets. If we are always rushing around in a hurry, with our minds restless and thinking only about survival and fame, we will only cloud our wisdom and forget the essence of life and our original aspirations.
She looked at Situ and Qingmu with curiosity and asked, "Why can you two come up with the same idea without discussing it first?"
The Crow said, "You're wrong! They didn't think the same thing, quack! One thought too much, and the other didn't think at all. Sometimes, thinking too much and not thinking at all seem to lead to the same result, quack!"
When new hope appeared, people knew they were unlikely to die of old age there, and their desire to live and their passion for life were rekindled. They happily took their food, lit torches, and filed into the ship's cabin, entering the not-so-spacious hangar.
The Apache helicopter was still parked quietly in the hangar. Except for the cannons and wheels, it looked brand new, as if it had just flown in from the Hawaii naval base.
"How long do we need to stay here?" Petru asked.
"It's impossible to say for sure right now. Maybe ten days, maybe a month. It depends on the width of the Spacetime Deep Well and Ramla's speed of travel within it," Situ said.
"So we're just going to wait like this?"
"No need for that. You can go out and see the world often. Even if you stay outside for fifty years, you'll only be here for ten days or so."
"If we stay inside for ten days or half a month, wouldn't a thousand years have passed by the time we get out? Won't the ship rot and sink?"
"That's possible, so we'd better pray to Gaia that Ramla doesn't spend too much time passing through this Spacetime Stasis Zone."
Petru grinned, his Redbeard twitching, and whispered in Mrs. Larry's ear, "I think a honeymoon on the deck of a frigate wouldn't be bad."
Mrs. Larry lowered her head and whispered, "I'll do as you say."
Petru beamed, took his wife's hand, stood up, and walked towards the hangar door. Then, turning back to the others, he said, "Let's go upstairs and get some fresh air; it's really stuffy in here!"
People smiled without saying a word, watching Petru and Mrs. Larry walk out hand in hand.
"Let's eat something, and then put out the torches. We can light them again if needed," Situ said.
They spread out the fruit and dried fish they had brought down from above on the open space in the corner of the hangar, but just as they were getting ready, before Crow could even swallow a piece of dried fish, they heard Petru's voice:
"Hey ladies and gentlemen, how have you been? Look what I brought you—freshly grilled fish, still steaming hot!"
Petru was radiant, his complexion as healthy and vibrant as his hair, as if he had just taken a bath at a public bathhouse and had his whole body scrubbed by a masseur.
Mrs. Larry was beside him, and she looked much better. The marks of her previous hardships and misery had disappeared; her cheeks were fuller, and her skin was much softer.
Even the Crow forgot the temptation of the grilled fish and exclaimed, "Wow, this is truly amazing!"
Petru, noticing everyone staring at them, asked curiously, "What's wrong, guys? Why are you looking at us like that?"
Su Huilan asked with a smile, "How long did you stay up there?"
Petru shook his head. "How would I know? Those four blurry Sun aren't going to set. The stars do move, but they're completely different from what we see on Earth, and there's no pattern to them."
The Crow said, "Caw, no need for all that complicated stuff. Just by looking at your waist, we can tell how many days it's been."
"What?" Petru looked down at his waist. "From where?"
"Oh, I meant kidneys, not the back, kidneys, you know, quack!" the crow cawed. "Just think about how many times you do it in one night, how many times you do it in total, and you'll know how many days have passed, quack quack quack..."
The Crow Guagua and laughed as it flew over and snatched a grilled fish from the still bewildered Petru, then flew to a corner to enjoy it with Hanran.
Amidst laughter, Mrs. Larry's rare display of shyness, and Petru's bewildered groans, people began to happily enjoy their meal.
After Petru finally understood what the Crow meant by "waist," he quietly leaned close to Situ and asked, "Use your consciousness atomic clock to calculate how long we were up there?"
Situ said, "About a minute and a half."
"That's so long!" Petru seemed dissatisfied with something. "If twenty seconds is ten days, then a minute and a half is forty-five days, forty-five days..."
He suddenly fell silent, for he saw Crow craning its neck, eavesdropping on his words.
The Boss Coal didn't hear the secret he wanted to hear, but after the meal he raised a very serious and thought-provoking question: What do you do when you need to use the toilet?
After thorough democratic discussion, it was decided that the problem of hetushu. com. com could be resolved outside on the top deck. For safety reasons, at least two people had to go out together. Of course, there was no need to rush back; one could breathe some fresh air and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Then, Situ suggested extinguishing the torches temporarily and using them again when needed.
Qingmu walked to the helicopter and pulled the torch from the cockpit door. The flame flickered on the curved surface of the cockpit glass, illuminating his and the Crow above him in distorted shapes, as if in a dream.
The Crow suddenly tapped his head with its claw and asked, "Hey, is this plane really out of fuel?"
"Yes, if we had oil, we wouldn't need to conserve fire," Qingmu said.
"I wasn't talking about the fire." The Crow shook its head vigorously. " Guagua, not to be nosy, but I just wanted to ask... um... if I haven't even finished a piece of dried fish here, Redbeard can have a honeymoon up there, then... who came in and took the fuel from the plane?"