Jiang Ling paused and continued, "So, let me summarize his symptoms. His memory is abnormal. He can't remember how many times he's had a set meal, but he still remembers the taste. His eyes are out of focus. This is what I've observed. If there's a chance, you can keep an eye out for him tomorrow. He's overexcited. Of course, it could just be his personality. By the way, do you know what he does for a living?"
"He is now working as a ship-borne drone maintenance technician, and is with drones all day long. I'll tell you in secret, he hasn't taken the astronaut exam." Big Windmill replied.
Jiang Ling nodded in understanding and continued, "That's right. A maintenance worker is definitely not a careless person. Not having an astronaut certificate isn't a big deal. He must be frequently on long-distance missions. Even if he's caught by the space police, he'll only be penalized a few points. And then there's the chronic insomnia and medication ineffectiveness. To me, his so-called regular sleep schedule is more like a coma. Is he under a lot of pressure?"
The windmill shook its head.
"I'm not sure about that, but now that I think about it, there's something very special about him—he keeps talking about his wife. It's like an obsession. But this is someone else's family matter after all, so I was just mentioning it casually!"
"Well. Let's put it this way. If you see him again tomorrow, try to persuade him again. It would be best if you can persuade him to come back. If you can't, it's not your responsibility. By the way, how old is he this year?" Jiang Ling asked again.
Big Windmill replied, "If I remember correctly, he was 49 years old this year. I was born after that, so I'm 31 this year. How about you, brother?"
Jiang Ling no longer cared about her age. She answered casually, "65."
"Fuck!" Big Windmill cursed. "You're still capable of playing this game at your age? The best my elders can do is watch holographic movies. They can't handle that kind of excitement anymore."
"It shouldn't be that serious, right? Old Biden from my era was over eighty years old, and he could still go out and find a mistress!" Jiang Ling said happily.
"Xiao San is...what?"
"It's about a stepmother who hasn't been married, or a girlfriend who was paid for... Uh, how should I put it? Those things don't seem to be popular these days. You can ask Big Bird later; he should have seen them." Jiang Ling tried to explain to a serious person, but it seemed that in this era of gender equality, it was really difficult to find a ready-made example. So she laughed it off and brought the topic back to the original point. "You said he's 49 this year, so he should have participated in orbital training, right? I remember that the Space Force joined forces with the Education Bureau and mobilized all the eligible young people in the Magic City. Unless he slipped through the net."
The full name of this "orbital training" is "Universal Civilian Orbital Survival Training (Trial Version)." Its primary purpose is to prevent ordinary citizens from becoming overwhelmed and losing their lives after entering space. From Years 2015 to 2017, this program trained approximately 400,000 space pioneer volunteers and nearly 2 million outstanding reserve team members.
"So it's called orbital training? I only heard about it from my family elders. They called it 'military service'. Before I started at the United Mining College, I thought everyone had to participate." Big Windmill suddenly realized.
"What did they say?"
"In four words: waste of time and money."
"Oh, then they definitely weren't the first people to enter space." Jiang Ling recalled, stroking his chin and said, "Your family only moved to space in recent years, right?"
"You really are... so predictable! To be honest, I'm currently working at the geosynchronous orbit station, and the seniors here are all comrades who retired in the previous batches and found new jobs." Dafengche stood up from his chair and bowed to Jiang Ling.
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