The night outside the courtyard was dark, and the light in the room was dim. The electronic sound of medical equipment beeped like an old-fashioned clock, urging people to leave or return. There was no movement in the shadows in the corner of the room. Only the thick, dark green curtains swayed gently in the wind of the internal circulation ventilation system. No cat walked by, but it seemed like a cat did.
There was a long period of silence, like a blank space suddenly appearing in the human mind. They didn't know the specific minutes and seconds, but they knew that it existed and was long.
Then, a voice rang out from the shadows.
"No, this is not my home. You forgot, our home is behind the mountain, four kilometers away from the body cultivation center. There are no neon lights, no such big private lake, and no hundreds of stupid soldiers as bodyguards … This is only your home, the tomb of the living dead built for you by the Federation, the cold palace."
Feng Yu's voice was as hoarse and indifferent as it had been many years ago. There was a sense of mockery and frivolity that was difficult to imitate. It sounded like a young hooligan who was riding a vintage motorcycle and screaming in the midst of young girls, but it also had the coolness of someone who sat cross-legged on the peak of Mount Yueyue and narrowed his eyes at the S1 cotton candy storm.
Li Pifu quietly looked at the shadows in the corner of the hospital bed. His gaze was calm and weak, but for some reason, his voice had a lot of mockery. As the War God of the Federation, in his long life, it was probably only in front of this person that he could feel true equality, so he also had a kind of freedom.
"We haven't seen each other for decades, and this is probably the last time we see each other. I don't want to repeat those boring quarrels with you."
The old man painfully frowned and waved his hand in annoyance. "You chose to see me for the last time, but you're not here to argue with me about right and wrong again."
"Why not?" The voice in the shadows rang out very quickly, with a hint of sharpness that made people's eardrums a little uncomfortable. "You're going to die soon, so of course I have to take advantage of the time before you die to clarify these things. Otherwise, after you die, who can I find to reason with? Your son? Your grandson? Or that sissy president who smears black shoe polish on her face every day? By the way, old man, do you think that sissy president really thinks she can look more manly by smearing her face black? Or is he really addicted to pretending to be a miner? "
Although he could not see the expression of the person in the shadow of the corner, he could imagine how relaxed and mocking his features must have been when he said those words.
"I don't want to talk about these boring things with you." The old man on the hospital bed resolutely stopped the conversation from developing in this direction, although his arms were trembling violently. "I started fighting when I was seven or eight years old. I don't want to fight when I'm seventy or eighty years old … I'm about to die. I want to keep the right to not listen to your nonsense. If you insist on continuing to fight, then I might as well die."
"Don't try to scare me with death, and you don't have to play dead. I know you the best in this universe. Even if you only have one breath left, that breath of yours will definitely support you to jump out of bed and slap me again."
Feng Yu sat calmly in the shadow. He could not see the outline of his body at all. He could only vaguely capture a certain existence through the light of the stars outside the window and the voice. When Li Pifu calmly said that he was about to die, his sitting posture leaned forward slightly, and then it turned into mockery in the end.
"I have to admit, when it comes to fighting, no one in the universe is your opponent. I'm not either, so I have to keep a sufficient distance from you. Otherwise, if you really jump out of bed and kill me with one slap, you will die with me because you used up your last breath … Brother dying on the same day, this kind of ending is too melodramatic. I don't want to accept it. "
With a snap, a lighter was ignited, illuminating the corner of the wall. The dark green curtains seemed to have become bullets bound by blue flames under the warm light of the fire. The face under the hat, which was still young despite the vicissitudes of life, disappeared in a flash, leaving only the cigarette butt flickering in the darkness.
"Actually, I've been thinking, if you really came to see me for the last time, should I set up a trap to catch you, or kill you … This might be the last chance. After I die, there probably won't be anyone who can deal with you."
Li Pifu's withered hands gently stroked the white bedding, his hoarse and tired voice echoing in his shriveled chest.
After pausing for a moment, he smiled with difficulty and continued in a low voice, "But I didn't do that, because … even if I had a plan, I couldn't be sure if the troops could catch or kill you. More importantly, I've done enough for the federation in my life, and I should be qualified to live the life of an ordinary person in the last bit of time I have left."
The old man looked at the motionless red light in the dark corner and said calmly, "With my last breath, I don't want to fight with you. I just want to talk to you."
"Old man, you're still so narcissistic. In fact, you've been alive for several decades, but you couldn't kill me. As for the universe after you die, it's actually much more interesting than you think. Your grandson, Huai Fuchai, that ridiculously strong girl, and Xu Le might be able to deal with me. The problem is, other than a stubborn old man like you, who would think about dealing with their own brother every day? "
The man in the shadows stiffened and then took a deep drag of the cigarette. His voice was light and mocking, filling the room with the smoke.
Then he bent the middle finger of his right hand, pinched the lower end of the filter of the cigarette with his thumb, and flicked the burning cigarette toward Li Bofu, who was lying on the hospital bed, just like the missile that flew through the air at high speed on that Imperial planet.
The whole universe thought that the dying old man on the sickbed was on his last breath and couldn't move. The cigarette should fall directly on his face and splash out humiliating sparks. But the reality was not so. The weak and exhausted old man on his last breath raised his right arm with difficulty, separated two fingers, and pinched the cigarette with incomparable accuracy. Then he brought it to his lips and took a puff. His old face full of scars and loose skin showed an expression of extreme enjoyment.
Their cooperation was very skillful. Probably several decades ago, at the beginning of the 37th Constitutional Era or even in the last few years of the last Constitutional Era, the two brothers greedily shared the cigarettes of their elders behind Mount Feicheng.
"As for the younger generation, I have to admit that you're better than me in terms of education. I'm not good at teaching people. I only know how to use facts to lead people. So in the process of teaching Li Feng, I only used bloody psychological means and unhealthy medical means to stimulate the development of his meridians. A few years ago, when I first saw Xu Le, this little guy, I found that you've already led him to a farther place. "
"Like I said, you don't need to be modest about things like fighting, because it will appear very hypocritical. This situation can only prove that your luck is too bad."
The man in the shadow lit another cigarette, still only showing his face in a glimpse. He said, "Blood inheritance has never been a stable thing. It's normal for the Li family generation to get worse and worse. When I was young, my teacher said that some people are born to practice these things. Xu Le is like that, and so is that girl in the Empire who looks like a man."
He stared at his elder brother on the bed from the shadow. After a long silence, he suddenly said, "In fact, the ten postures I taught Xu Le, in addition to stimulating Zhenqi, were mainly to restrain the Feicheng Cultivation School, which is to deal with you and your filial son and grandson."
Li Pifu's old and weak face did not show the slightest surprise. He said in a hoarse and mocking voice, "A few years ago, when I first learned of your existence, I knew that you were scheming again. George Carlin, Professor Jin, mechanic Yu Feng, Feng Yu, you seem to have been scheming all your life. But the funny thing is, it seems that none of your schemes can be maintained until the day they succeed. You always abandon them halfway. Xu Le … seems to be the same. "
"I like to play schemes?" The voice in the shadow became sharp. He said mockingly, "You're an old guy who retired from the army for more than ten years. You threw the marshal uniform in the closet to mold. You're so carefree and indifferent to fame and fortune. But you definitely won't forget to let your conservative son control the army before you die, to wait for my stupid student Xu Le to gradually grow up and to throw Du Shaoqing to the front line to fight … You've already arranged everything."
"Yes, this is my arrangement." Li Pifu gently pinched the cigarette and said calmly in a low voice, "What about you? What's your arrangement? "
"There's no arrangement." Feng Yu waved the cigarette butt in the shadow and said disdainfully, "Green Dragon Mountain? Student? These things are not fun. I've been wanting to play with them for a long time. "
Li Pifu shook his head with difficulty and said with emotion, "When I think of your life, even I can't help but feel shocked. To be honest, sometimes when I think that it's my younger brother who has caused so much trouble in the Federation, I actually feel a faint sense of pride that I can't say out loud."
"Although it's rare that you've surprised me, I still have to finish what I want to say." Feng Yu in the shadow looked at his elder brother on the bed and said indifferently, "I'm not a schemer. You're the biggest schemer in the universe."
"Are you going to continue arguing?" Li Pifu coughed twice in discomfort and stared angrily and gloomily at the dark corner. "Are you going to deny that you didn't have any schemes behind raising Xu Le?"
"Of course not." Feng Yu said, "He's just an obedient and cute little dog. He can watch the house and play for fun, so I took him home and raised him. As for discovering that he was an extremely talented little dog, that was something that happened later."
"Don't try to explain anything or hide anything." Li Pifu looked coldly at the dark corner and said, "Perhaps this proves that you also have some sort of guilty conscience."
"Guilty conscience?" That man was enraged. Waving his arms in agitation, he said, "I taught him how to repair mecha, taught him how to make mecha, taught him how to use mecha, taught him how to fight, taught him how to kill cows, taught him how to eat cows, taught him how to enjoy life. What do I have to feel guilty about? Old man, if you really feel that there's a scheme behind this, with your personality, wouldn't you investigate? "
"There's no need to investigate." Li Pifu said mockingly and disdainfully, "I also know there's a scheme."
"There's no scheme."
"There's a scheme."
"No!"
"There is!"
In the quiet room in the middle of the night, intense and childish arguments sounded like children arguing.
Li Pifu and Feng Yu were, without a doubt, the most incredible pair of brothers in the 37th century. No, it should be said that they were the most incredible pair of brothers in history. They stood arrogantly in the stars between the Federation and the Empire and influenced the world we lived in for decades.
They influenced history, changed history, and even became history themselves. They seemed to be very different in age, but in reality, they were already old and had the dust of history.
Just like that, this pair of brothers, tonight at the shore of Philadelphia Lake, on the hospital bed, in the shadows, they were like children angrily accusing each other and arguing. They could admit defeat, but they were determined not to admit their mistakes.
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