Genius Club

Chapter 162: Chapter 9 Make a Wish Chapter 162: Chapter 9 Make a Wish The next day.

Liu Feng did not go out to attend classes or deliver takeout, which took Li Qiqi by surprise as she sat in her wheelchair:

“Aren’t you going out today?”

In the past two years, Liu Feng had never taken a day off, working tirelessly like a perpetual motion machine.

Li Qiqi had advised him many times to no avail.

So seeing the man she loved actually staying at home for the day had Li Qiqi convinced the sun must have risen from the west.

Liu Feng shook his head with a smile and bustled about the kitchen, making food for Li Qiqi:

“I won’t go out these few days, I’ll stay home with you.

I feel like we’re being haunted by a madman, and I’m worried about your safety.”

Li Qiqi burst into laughter:

“Are you talking about Lin Xian?

He doesn’t seem like a bad person…

If he were, he would have acted long ago.”

“Besides, we have nothing of value for anyone to covet with our stark poverty.”

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“He seems to be unusually obsessed with ‘Introduction to the Cosmological Constant’; I don’t understand where his confidence comes from.”

“I clearly told him that the material is flawed, yet he refuses to believe…

It’s bizarre indeed.”

“The bag of money he gave us, I will return it to him next time we meet.

I do not accept rewards for no merit, and since I cannot give him what he wants, I naturally won’t take his money.”

“What did he say to you yesterday morning?” Li Qiqi wheeled herself to help set the table and looked back at Liu Feng:

“I saw from the window that you two talked for quite a while.”

“…”

Liu Feng did not speak.

He silently served the food from the pan onto plates, came out of the kitchen, and placed them on the table:

“Nothing much, just chit-chatted about this and that.”

…

That entire day, Liu Feng stayed home with Li Qiqi.

Only then did he truly realize the extent of Qi Qi’s illness…

She was taking painkillers almost constantly, as if they were her meals, handful after handful.

Still,

Every so often, Li Qiqi would be pale with pain, sweating from agony.

All along, Liu Feng had been oblivious to these facts!

He was out early and back late every day, and the only times he was home, Qi Qi seemed fine.

He naively thought that she was the same all day long.

Liu Feng was filled with regret.

For such a long time…

he had not noticed the deterioration in Li Qiqi’s condition to such a degree.

He picked up the large bottle of painkillers, shook it, and saw that it was nearly empty.

“Qi Qi…” Liu Feng’s heart ached:

“When did it get this bad?”

Li Qiqi coughed dryly and smiled:

“Isn’t this how cancer is…

It’s just a little pain, nothing else.”

“You should have told me,” Liu Feng said with a complex expression.

“I’m really fine, it’s not usually this frequent.

It just so happens that today it’s a bit severe, and you happened to see.”

Liu Feng looked away.

They had come a long way together since college, and he knew Li Qiqi all too well.

These were just her kind lies.

She must have been eating painkillers like meals for a long time now…

And to keep him from worrying too much, she always showed her best during the limited time he was at home.

But when he was not home, how agonizingly must Qi Qi have been enduring day after day?

At that moment, Liu Feng finally understood Qi Qi’s somber expression when she heard about the meteor shower at the end of the year.

Considering the situation…

Qi Qi definitely wouldn’t make it till then.

Her condition was even more serious than what the doctors had said.

“I was planning…”

Liu Feng’s voice choked up as he took Li Qiqi’s hand:

“I had planned to propose to you during the meteor shower.”

“We are not children anymore, why would you propose!”

Li Qiqi was at once tearful and amused, leaning forward to embrace Liu Feng:

“How could I hold you back…”

…

In the evening.

Liu Feng wheeled Li Qiqi out into the yard, and they both instinctively looked up at the sky in silent agreement.

They both knew the meteor shower wouldn’t come.

No matter how many times they might look up.

The formation of a meteor shower still largely depends on the debris left by comets as they pass through their orbit…

These particles are attracted by Earth’s gravity, entering the atmosphere at extremely high speeds of tens of kilometers per second, burning up in a very short time to create fleeting streaks of light.

Meteors might occasionally be encountered, but meteor showers don’t just materialize out of thin air.

Neither of them spoke a word.

Liu Feng had also never told Li Qiqi about what Lin Xian had said.

Because he knew very well…

That inducing a meteor shower was impossible, no matter what, and Lin Xian’s bizarre confidence in it was just like his misplaced confidence in “Introduction to the Cosmological Constant”, unrealistic.

But now, Liu Feng, who believed in the absolutes of mathematics and physics, also held onto a faint hope, beginning to wish that Lin Xian could really bring about a meteor shower.

He knew the idea was absurd.

But should Qi Qi really leave this world with such regret?

If he could allow Qi Qi to fulfill her greatest dream, to witness a meteor shower before she died…

Liu Feng was willing to do anything.

“Let’s go back inside, Qi Qi, the wind has picked up,” Liu Feng said, looking down.

“Okay.”

Li Qiqi nodded gently, closing her eyes.

…

In the days that followed.

Lin Xian never appeared.

The man who had been like a persistent plaster, just disappeared without a trace.

Every morning after getting out of bed, Liu Feng would be the first to walk out the front door, looking towards the wall that the man had leaned against.

He didn’t know what he was expecting.

But the sense of loss that hit him each day also made him feel Qi Qi and this world drifting further apart.

…

Another week went by.

Liu Feng didn’t know if it was an illusion or he was just realizing it late, but he felt that Qi Qi’s physical condition was getting worse and worse…

Like an old bellows, like a candle flickering in the wind.

“Maybe I should spend more time with you.”

Liu Feng embraced Li Qiqi from behind in her wheelchair, as if he could no longer feel her warmth:

“It seems like I’ve solved a problem incorrectly…”

He said softly:

“I’ve been desperately earning money, trying to cure you, but in the end, I not only failed to heal you, but I also wasted all that time that I could have spent with you.”

“Judging by the results, it seems I’ve chosen the most wrong option, leaving nothing behind.”

“Life isn’t a math problem, there’s no such thing as a correct answer.” Li Qiqi’s trembling hand reached out, touching the face of the lover behind her:

“Not every question has an answer, and not everything can be clearly labeled as right or wrong.”

The dinner on the table remained untouched by Li Qiqi.

She had no appetite, not a single bite.

Outside the window, the moon climbed atop the trees, shrouding the world in darkness.

The moonlight was bright tonight, not good weather for star-gazing:

“I really…

really want to see a meteor shower…”

Li Qiqi closed her eyes.

Two tears flowed from the corners, drip-drip, onto the collar of white fleece, vanishing into the silk fabric.

How much she wished to make a wish…

This was the only thing she could do for Liu Feng.

Ding-a-ling-a-ling ding-a-ling-a-ling ding-a-ling-a-ling ding-a-ling-a-ling…

The sudden ringing of the phone.

Liu Feng looked at his vibrating cell phone on the dining table.

It was an unfamiliar number…

The caller ID showed the location:

China, East Sea.

Could it be…?

Liu Feng’s eyes widened as he hurriedly picked up the phone, pressing the answer button:

“Hello?”

“Liu Feng, wheel Qi Qi out to the yard,” Lin Xian’s voice was somewhat ethereal, as if the signal wasn’t very good, but still clear enough to hear:

“Remember to look towards the southern sky.”

Beep-beep.

And with that, the call ended.

Liu Feng was utterly bewildered, exchanging a glance with Li Qiqi.

Nevertheless, he did as Lin Xian instructed, wrapping Qi Qi in a thicker blanket before wheeling her wheelchair out into the yard.

Together, they looked up at the southern sky.

The moonlight was bright, making the whole night sky seem dim…

Liu Feng was perplexed.

How could anything be seen clearly under such bright moonlight?

Even if there were really a meteor shower, it would be impossible to see.

However!

The wheelchair suddenly shook!

“Feng Feng…

look, look!

Meteors!

It’s meteors!”

Li Qiqi’s excited voice came through, instantly choking with tears!

Hearing her, Liu Feng turned his gaze to the right side of the sky.

He stood frozen for a moment, eyes wide open, in disbelief—

A meteor with a yellow tail was descending from the sky!

Like a firework flying in reverse, its tail sparkled brightly, gliding at a faint angle nearly parallel to the Earth’s surface towards the distance!

This…

How could this be possible!?

Liu Feng couldn’t comprehend the bizarre spectacle before his eyes!

What on Earth was this!?

It certainly wasn’t a meteor!

It was too slow…

and lasted too long…

Normal meteors travel tens of kilometers per second, gone in a flash.

But the gliding meteor in front of them was moving too slowly…

lingering in the sky for dozens of seconds, and it was still horizontally gliding!

Then.

Before Liu Feng could figure out what it was…

An even more spectacular event unfolded!

One!

Three!

Five!

Ten!

Dozens!

Hundreds!!

Countless yellow meteors suddenly appeared in the sky, trailing long fireworks tails, igniting the whole night sky like sparks from stars!

Hundreds of meteors crisscrossed through the sky from the south!

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The entire world was enveloped by yellow meteors!

Liu Feng and Li Qiqi gaped, the reflection of the meteor shower filling their pupils, stunned beyond words!

This wasn’t an ordinary meteor shower!

This was the kind of meteor shower that appeared only in fairy tales and apocalyptic movies!

Its presence either meant the destruction of the Earth or it was answering a girl’s prayers, fulfilling the purest of human wishes!

“A meteor shower…”

Sudden tears blurred Li Qiqi’s vision, the reflected light from the meteors through her tears making it seem as if she were basking in a holy light:

“Make a wish…

you have to make a wish quickly!”

Li Qiqi hurriedly closed her eyes, pressing her hands together in front of her chest, muttering prayerfully.

Liu Feng, however, continued to stare dumbfounded at the gliding meteors and trailing fireworks…

He didn’t understand how Lin Xian had done it.

But this fake meteor shower was more spectacular than all the real meteor showers in the world combined!

No natural meteor shower could produce hundreds of meteors falling at the same time!

And each one lasting nearly a minute!

By the time Li Qiqi opened her eyes after making her wish, the shower of hundreds of simultaneously falling meteors still hadn’t ended.

Their trails wove a yellow dreamcatcher across the sky…

capturing the girl’s wish, replying with hundreds of ‘received’.

“This isn’t a real meteor shower…”

Ultimately, Liu Feng, always the rigorous science student, couldn’t help but articulate his conclusion.

However…

Li Qiqi, a graduate in astronomy, couldn’t have failed to realize this, right?

At that moment, it was as if all her pain had vanished.

She looked down with a smile, took Liu Feng’s right hand, placed it on her face, and spoke with happiness and contentment:

“This is a real meteor shower.”

“Just like the meteor shower I imagined…”

“It’s wonderful, allowing me such a long wish.”

Liu Feng looked down at Li Qiqi:

“What did you wish for?”

Li Qiqi shook her head:

“Wouldn’t the wish no longer come true if I told you?”

She looked up with a giggle, the pupils of her eyes reflecting the gradually fading meteors, and looked at Liu Feng:

“Actually…

I’ve had a gift prepared for you for a long time, I just never found the right moment to give it to you.”

“What is it?” Liu Feng asked, a bit surprised.

“Wait for me, okay~ And no peeking!”

Li Qiqi wheeled herself back into the house…