They managed to pitch the tent before sunset, following Old Li’s video manual, and then leaned on each other, silently watching the sun disappear behind the mountains and the moon rise up into the bright sky, until the stars were thickly strewn across it.
The entire mountaintop was already deserted.
It was as if they owned the whole mountain.
Even the entire night sky seemed theirs.
The only issue was.
It was a bit cold.
While Li Zheng was setting up the telescope, Lin Yujing, curled up in front of the tent, couldn’t control her chattering teeth.
Li Zheng just chuckled and turned around.
Under the glow of the portable light, Lin Yujing was shivering so much she almost seemed to blur.
"Cold?" Li Zheng asked.
"Uh-h-h…" Lin Yujing hugged herself even tighter, "I thought a long-sleeve sportswear would be enough…"
"Heh." Li Zheng slowly walked over, exaggeratedly lifted the collar of his thin down jacket, then with a glare, he zipped it all the way up to his chin, "and I, am not cold at all."
"..." Lin Yujing glared at him venomously.
It’s back.
The urge to strangle him returned.
Li Zheng just bent down, and lifted his chin high, "Did I not say it would be cold on the mountain?"
"Uh…" Lin Yujing turned away fiercely.
"Did I not say to bring a down jacket?"
"Tsch!" Lin Yujing bared her teeth and cursed, "I’d rather freeze to death… get away!"
"Not likely." Li Zheng grabbed his own collar, "Inside, I have a wool sweater, and under that, thermal underwear. Just tell me if you want them, how would I know if you don’t tell me?"
Lin Yujing, infuriated, dove into the tent, "I’d rather freeze!"
"Hmph, still the same, always so stubborn." Li Zheng shook his head with a smile, then pulled out a down jacket from Old Li’s enormous hiking backpack, "I knew you would be too lazy to prepare. In a relationship, there always has to be one person pushed to their limits."
Then, with a swing and a drape, he laid it over Lin Yujing,
Li Zheng spoke softly with a smile, gently smoothing her hair, "I was probably born to make up for what you lack."
"Uh…" Lin Yujing was first stunned, then turned her face away, but suddenly, with a grimace, she flung Li Zheng’s down jacket away.
"Hey…" Li Zheng began to frown, only to see the down jacket perfectly covering the lamp.
Then, she pushed him over.
He was just about to frown.
But was swiftly covered by Lin Yujing.
At that moment, in this instant of lost sight and lips touching,
A thought suddenly slammed into Li Zheng’s mind.
No.
I need to be on top!
Then, with a jerk, he flipped over.
No time for protests, a true, absolute vacuum kiss sealed everything off.
This time, Li Zheng let Lin Yujing know.
What it means to be the head of the family!
That was 100% initiative, 100% confidence, 100% control, and 100% dominance.
15 minutes later.
When they separated,
Lin Yujing was left gasping for air, her mind completely blank.
On the surface, such a result seemed no different from their previous experiences of shortage of oxygen.
However, the process was entirely different.
The former empties; the latter fills.
Just as Lin Yujing tried to prop herself up, she unfortunately heard the somewhat heavy, sexy breathing of Li Zheng.
This moment stirred up all kinds of recollections.
So, she fell back down again...
Covering her face, curling up her body, she collapsed tinglingly onto the blanket.
It was over.
From now on, just hearing him was too much to bear.
She would never be able to look at that face again...
It was just a kiss... but why did it feel like...
Mmm mmm mmm...
Lin Yujing rolled around with her face covered.
As for Li Zheng.
He just gently wiped at his crooked mouth.
"He who controls XX controls the family."
— Li Yi
The struggle for status had settled.
Hmph, who would have thought that the final contest was just a matter of skill and physical strength.
On the other side, Lin Yujing still curled up away, her voice trembling unconsciously like a superstring.
"It’s cold outside... why don’t we go into the tent..."
"How can that be, we agreed to star gaze," Li Zheng said as he got up with eyes wide, "Now’s the perfect time; Mars is at perigee, a rare opportunity indeed."
With that said, he suddenly stood up and tossed Lin Yujing’s down jacket over to her.
Suddenly, with the lights bright, when Lin Yujing stood up shielding her eyes, she only saw a figure frantically adjusting the telescope stand.
Things were like this, some people, even the best of skills couldn’t save them.
Lin Yujing, seeing Li Zheng like this, couldn’t get angry; she just lowered her head, smiled helplessly, and put on her down jacket to join him.
"I thought you wanted to keep me company with the telescope..."
"Who doesn’t love astronomy?" Li Zheng looked up, made a strange gesture towards the starry sky, calculated for a moment, and then squinted to adjust the angle, "Just like space travel, behind a moon astronaut is a nation’s decades of effort in science and industry. If everyone becomes a romantic astronomer, who will make telescopes?"
"Hmm..." Lin Yujing sighed, not really interested in observing more of the starry sky, she just gently hugged Li Zheng from behind and closed her eyes feeling secure against his back.
"Hey, I can’t align properly like this," Li Zheng complained, "Every centimeter of deviation here can cause a discrepancy of several light years."
Lin Yujing, however, remained tightly pressed to him, not moving an inch, "Don’t talk, let me lean for a while, just a little while."
"... Mmm..." Li Zheng finally realized something and stiffened, not daring to move anymore; after struggling for a while, he asked, "Can I talk now...?"
"Then say it quick."
"I thought... it’s just that I thought," Li Zheng swallowed, "being hugged in this position, I would feel a pair of symmetrical fluids pressing against my back... but there wasn’t any."
"...... Mmm..." Lin Yujing’s leisurely mood instantly shattered, and she simply bit him.
"Ouch." Li Zheng struggled a bit.
"Serves you right! Scum Chap!! Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!" Lin Yujing spat before scolding, "I understand now, you were just deliberately bullying me!!"
"Was that bullying?" Li Zheng turned around innocently.
"Mmm rrrmmm..." Lin Yujing started grinding her teeth again, "I’m going to tell Grandpa when I get back, he’ll sort you out!"
Thinking of Shen Yuecen’s face, Li Zheng truly panicked.
"That won’t do, I’ll stop talking, isn’t that enough?" Li Zheng hurriedly bent down to continue adjusting, yet unaware that after that last fiasco, he had just aimed perfectly at a bright star; without a second thought, he zoomed right in, "Saturn!! I can see Saturn!!"
"Hmm?" Lin Yujing also momentarily forgot everything, carefully moved closer, afraid to touch Li Zheng which might cause the lock to fail, "Can you see the rings?"
"Yes, very clearly, and I can feel it moving slowly," Li Zheng said excitedly, "It’s actually this simple... I should have bought one when I was a kid."
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As he spoke, he stepped back and ushered Lin Yujing in front of the telescope.
Lin Yujing squinted and immediately exclaimed with a "wow."
"Wow! So... so beautiful!" she exclaimed, jumping excitedly as she watched, "You see the small yellow dot next to it? That should be Titan."
"Sounds familiar, is it that ’Titan’?"
"Yes!" Lin Yujing described animatedly as if she had been there, swinging her arms, "It’s the only celestial body found outside Earth that has an atmosphere, lakes, and rain... Just don’t know if it’s sunny or raining right now... Can we zoom in any more?"
"No chance, this is the limit of a civilian telescope," Li Zheng said, gazing at the barely visible bright spot in the starry sky and sighing with a smile, "It’s wonderful, still raining there..."
"The other satellites are really invisible..." Lin Yujing immediately turned her gaze to Saturn’s rings, "It’s kind of funny, although it’s called Saturn, it’s a gas giant. I think the ancient name ’Imperial Star’ suits it better."
"Imperial Star... hmm, sounds intriguing." Li Zheng pointed to the sky and said, "Then study hard. If you’re badass enough, do whatever you want, and you can change its Chinese name."
"Haha, that would be too much to do whatever I want," said Lin Yujing, reluctantly moving aside, "You take a look... it shouldn’t be just me watching..."
"No worries, there’s a photo function, and I’ve already taken some," Li Zheng gestured for her to proceed, "You look at the stars, I look at you. That’s enough for me."
"Mmm..." Lin Yujing felt a tingling sensation all over, and the sensation she felt earlier began to resonate again.
"What’s the matter, still cold?"
"Scum Chap..." Lin Yujing quickly bit her tongue tip, eagerly putting her eyes back to the telescope.
"Speaking of which, you love stars so much and are determined to study astronomy, why haven’t you ever owned a telescope?"
"Mom’s too busy, and I don’t feel right asking Grandma for one..."
"Not enough pocket money?"
"I have enough, but you can’t see anything in the city... the lights are too bright, and the fog too thick."
"Ah, you could also go out alone, or with friends."
"I’m scared on my own, my friends... well... never mind." Lin Yujing then asked, "We have limited time, shall we change to another one?"
"Why don’t you give it a try?"
"Me?" Lin Yujing stepped back in surprise, looking at the large telescope tube and feeling very unsure, "Although I love astronomy... I’ve never used this before... "
"It’s quite simple." Li Zheng stepped forward, embracing her as he raised her hand, "Follow me, first find the Big Dipper, which shouldn’t be hard for you, then use that as a base, position your left hand like this... "
"Mmm..."
"Speaking of which, we in the northern hemisphere have always used the Big Dipper for location since ancient times... so naming it the navigation satellite really is clever, haha."
"What next, what next?"
"Next… I... I feel like kissing again..."
"??? Mmm-u-u..."
Thirty minutes later.
Li Zheng also felt a bit dizzy and gave up the naked eye method, resorting to the power of technology.
Stellarium!
A stellar mapping tool.
On this software, you only need to enter the time and place to display the entire star chart.
Using it, they easily located Jupiter.
Just like Saturn’s rings, the storm cyclones on Jupiter that resembled annual rings were also visible, and even its three larger moons were faintly visible.
Next was Mars; at this point it was just a small orange dot, and it was hard to make out any more details.
At this point, the civilian telescope had reached its limit for September in Jijing.
Further away, whether it was Uranus, Deneb, or Vega One, it was all the same, no matter how much they zoomed in, they were just larger glowing dots.
They also tried aiming at some star clusters and nebulae, but they were only faintly veiled by a thin gauze around them. Although they could make out the subtle differences between them and the stars, they couldn’t see the magical myriad of colors like in the photos.
After several hours of tinkering, they switched back to Saturn.
This was probably the "scale of despair" that Lin Yujing was talking about.
Outside the Solar System, no matter how magnificent it all seemed, it looked just like a little dot.
As for those vibrant, spectacular images of distant galaxies, most were not captured by optical telescopes, but were indirect reconstructions based on other technological observations.
The endlessly beautiful universe lay before them.
Yet even setting foot on the nearest Moon was an ultimate extravagance.
Li Zheng seemed to be accepting Lin Yujing’s argument.
Now, all they could do was take solace in the stars within their sight.
In the following hours, they gazed at Saturn time and again, feeling its delicate drift through the starry sky and imagining the tales embedded in the dust of its rings.
This was perhaps the only romantic indulgence a commoner could recreate from the vast expanse of space.
When they finally packed up the telescope, it was already two in the morning.
They themselves had just realized that they had actually spent a good five or six hours watching just a few stars.
As Li Zheng packed up the equipment, Lin Yujing began boiling noodles in a pressure cooker for a late-night snack, still not over the excitement.
"Do you remember ’Her Journey’?" Lin Yujing asked.
"Yeah, I could never write such a good essay," Li Zheng carefully removed the lens tube, "Where is she now?"
"Still in the Kuiper Belt, about 21.1 billion kilometers, 0.0022 light-years away," Lin Yujing gestured with her hands, "It’s still a long—very long way to the Oort Cloud, and an even longer way out of the Solar System."
"In any case, we can’t wait that long," Li Zheng shook his head and smiled, "They really need to make a faster one."
If it had been earlier, Lin Yujing would have scolded such ignorant statements, but now she was too tired to bother, and just watched the boiling pressure cooker, bitter-smiling and sighing lightly, "Power issues, her scientific instruments have started to shut down, most of them have been offline for a while now, only the basic communication functions are left, but even that won’t last long. By 2025... we won’t be able to contact her ever again..."
"Hmm..." Li Zheng pressed down on the tripod, "Then, we’ll need a better battery in the future, not just... a reactor might be more realistic."
"Oh my..." Lin Yujing leaned back, supporting herself, tilted her head back and sweetly smiled, "But seeing all this today, I’m already satisfied, commendable indeed!"
"Are you sure it’s Saturn that satisfied you?"
"...What do you mean?" Lin Yujing blushed and stomped her foot, "Don’t you dare say anything when we get back! Especially not the details. Especially not that I... I started..."
"Haha." As Li Zheng finished packing up, he nonchalantly took a stack of papers out of his bag.
Lin Yujing trembled.
Could it be? He’s really going to do it...
"Just kidding." Li Zheng quickly stuffed the papers back, sat next to Lin Yujing, and together they looked up at the sky, saying, "Let’s skip studying for today, we’ll double up tomorrow."
"Wow..." Lin Yujing finally breathed a sigh of relief, patting her chest, "So, did you figure out an approach for condensed matter?"
"Not yet, no rush, we can think about it together." Li Zheng pointed to the stars, "Though Voyager One is going offline, at least that old craft from over forty years ago could fly beyond Uranus, given our time and targeting Uranus is not too much to hope for."
"Well... that was a once-in-a-millennium gravitational slingshot chain. Normally, it would be quite presumptuous, probably really needing a reactor."
"Well, reactors aren’t conjured from thin air either. Whether it’s electron microscopy or working with condensed states, both are just indirect ways of spurring this process," Li Zheng embraced Lin Yujing, "Set a small goal, let’s send a probe to Uranus first, create a state of condensed matter as an offering."
"Here you go again..."
"Just asking if you’re up for it?"
"Didn’t I already say it feels miraculous?" Lin Yujing turned away, saying.
"Haha, see?" Li Zheng laughed heartily, "You know what needs to be done, you’re just afraid of losing face if you fail after saying it out loud."
"Scum Chap, talking about ’small goals’ is already embarrassing enough."
"That’s why I’m only telling you," Li Zheng smirked, "just like you only kiss me..."
"Wait... today... today already... hmm..."
Half an hour later.
Lin Yujing never got to eat her noodles.
She fell asleep in the tent.
Meanwhile, Li Zheng silently cleaned up the cookware and garbage.
Then adjusted the lighting.
And once again, he took out the stack of papers from his bag.
Under the dome of the deep mountains, under the expanse of deep space.
He quietly started to study.
For him, not even the smallest goal could be delayed.
Especially given the study in such a romantic scene.
From ancient times to the present, how many could truly appreciate its beauty?
Li Zheng smiled wisely as he started on his graduate papers.
As always, that never changed.