The Simpson cage consumed vast amounts of electricity, while the capacity of the wind turbines was limited. Every day, it could only be turned on for two hours. The rest of the time, Pauli did other things. Sometimes, he taught An Zhe some physics or biology concepts, such as how everything was made up of molecules and atoms, and atoms could be split into electrons, protons and neutrons. However, that was far from the end. As for what exactly made up the basis of the world's matter, nobody could see it.
"If a blind man wants to perceive the world, he can only reach out and touch things, but what he feels is obviously not the thing's entirety. Our understanding of the world is as shallow as the blind man's, doomed as we are to only see the facades. We have a lot of assumptions, but we're unable to verify whether they're correct or not," Pauli said.
As he spoke, the howling north wind on the mountaintop pushed open the laboratory window. The brown-skinned Indian man got up to close the window, and Pauli Jones gave An Zhe's scarf an upward tug.
The scarf wrapped around An Zhe's entire neck. Buried in the soft and warm fabric, he asked Pauli, "Are you not cold?"
"At my age, many parts have become dull." Pauli Jones looked at him with those warm gray-blue eyes, and An Zhe could see his own reflection within them, all wrapped up in white. But he didn't look for too long before he bowed his head and started coughing. Although it was so cold outside, it was like a fire was burning painfully in his lungs.
Pauli stroked his back, then held out the warm water that was on the table to him.
"Do we have any antibiotics left?" he asked the Indian man, whose name was Rum.
"We still have some."
After An Zhe finished coughing, he took the medicine while trembling. A charcoal brazier had been lit in the room, but he still felt very cold.
"I can't find the cause of your illness." Pauli wiped away the fine layer of cold sweat from the side of An Zhe's forehead with his fingers. With pain evident in his gray-blue eyes, he murmured, "And there aren't any advanced instruments here… I apologize."
An Zhe shook his head. "It's all right."
Pauli had said that humankind's understanding of the world would always be shallow, and sometimes An Zhe also thought that his own understanding of humans was only a facade. When he had returned to the Abyss, he never expected to receive such hospitality from humans.
For example, Pauli was no medical expert, but because of An Zhe's body that was weakening day by day, he began to read the medical literature contained in the database. Rum helped with the search as well.
Sometimes An Zhe felt guilty because of their sincerity since he was not human. It was like he stole these acts of kindness while draped in a human skin. He began fearing the exposure of his original form on the day of his death.
He once told Pauli that there was no need to take such troubles. At the time, Pauli felt the temperature of An Zhe's forehead with the back of his hand and murmured, "You're like my own child."
When Pauli wasn't around, he asked Rum in a roundabout way why Pauli would be so kind to him.
Rum's reply was that Mr. Pauli loved everyone here.
"Before I came to the research institute, half of my body was broken and mildewed, and I was not lucid." Rum rolled up his pants legs, revealing sturdy lower legs that were covered with hideous scars and earthworm-like protrusions. The usually taciturn man spoke a lot. "Regardless of day or night, Mr. Pauli treated me for half a year. In the past, I did not believe there could be such a person in the world either."
Then he said, "I used to not be a good person. When I was a mercenary, I hurt my teammates. Now I've saved three compatriots from the outside, which counts as my atonement. It's not bad to be a good person, and it's better to be a person than a monster. Many people in the research institute are like me. No one disrespects Mr. Pauli."
An Zhe clearly remembered that at that time he had suddenly thought of Lu Feng for no reason—an inexplicable association. He was thinking about how Lu Feng was doing now. Then he shook his head, driving the shadow of that guy who was Pauli's polar opposite out of his mind.
Rum was an amateur music lover. When he had nothing else to do, he would practice playing the harmonica while looking at an old music score. Sometimes he taught An Zhe as well, and the sound was pleasing to the ear. But Rum said that humans used to have instruments that were thousands of times more wonderful than the harmonica, and together, they could perform symphonies of unparalleled grandiosity.
When he said that, Pauli came over to them and said jokingly, "If Rum had been born a hundred years earlier, he would have definitely been an outstanding musician."
The always reticent Rum smiled. Then he would take out a shabby old radio, turn the tape over, and press the play button, and intense or gentle rhythms would come out from the rusty machine. It was the sound of countless types of instruments being played together, each with their own timbres and melodies that combined together to form another magnificent sound. The music flowed and reverberated in this laboratory with the burning charcoal. At the bottom of the white building, a man whose left arm had transformed into a beast's paw waved in their direction, and Rum hung the radio on the handrail outside and turned up the volume.
Airy and flowing music traveled through the window that was covered with blooms of frost. On the tape, there was an announcement before the music played. This was Beethoven's Spring Sonata. With cheek resting in hand, An Zhe listened. Springtime in the Abyss was also very beautiful, but he probably could not see it anymore.
It was at this time that he received a short message from the Northern Base.
The communication channel, which had long been silent, flashed with red light—in the address list, there was only one anonymous party.
An Zhe pulled up the communication interface. The short message sent by the anonymous party contained only two lines made up of ten or so words.
"Winter has come."
"The monsters' behaviors are different. Stay safe."
An Zhe enlarged the words and turned back to look at Pauli. "Sir."
"A message from the Northern Base's Dr. Ji," Pauli said. "Over the past several years, only he has been constantly communicating with me in secret."
The words "Dr. Ji" sent An Zhe into a daze. He asked, "… Do you want to reply?"
"Yes," Pauli said warmly. "Please reply for me."
The Northern Base.
The communication channel lit up. It was a short reply from the Highland Research Institute.
"Message received."
"Thank you for the reminder. Please be sure to stay safe as well."
The doctor walked past the communication screen.
"Colonel Lu, tsk." The tone of his voice lifted up. "It's hard to imagine that the Arbiter would do such a thing. You're unexpectedly still a good person."
Lu Feng's gaze was flat as he looked at the words on the screen.
"Who is the other party?" he asked.
"Someone you definitely couldn't have thought of," Dr. Ji said. "Pauli Jones."