The boy in the photo frame

After reading it silently, Lorraine pressed reset button over the sword hilt to turn on a photo frame that had been dusty for years.

As natural as it were living images appeared in front of her.

All were photos of everyday life, a woman with gentle appearance and a man with distinctly cold personality. There were single and couple photos.

She was growing roses in garden, telephoning in bedroom, reading news in study room...

He was exercising in training room, driving spaceship, exploring primitive planet...

On the meadow, they were holding hand while walking. In conference room, they were head-to-head eating together. On battleship, she looked tired and leaned on his shoulder...

Suddenly, a picture of a baby appeared. They both each held a small hand and smiley stared at each other.

The baby grew up day by day, from a toddler to being able to run and jump. He was in almost every photo. When father doing strength training, he carried him on his shoulders. When mother was reading documents, she held him in her arms...

Looking at each photo one by one, there would assume that as time goes by, it would surely see the little boy grew into teenager with his parents by his side through youth time.

However, everything came to an abrupt stop.

The child in the photo never grew up and stayed at six years old.

The last photo showed him running from his mother to his father who just got off from a spaceship, father half squatted down and reached out to hug his son, but his eyes were looking at his wife. Family of three was full of affection and smiles on their lips.

Chen Sha actually could laugh!

Lorraine was staring at the photo blankly when a knocking sound on the door suddenly came through.

"Lorraine."

It's Chen Sha. Lorraine stuffed photo frame into drawer with her hands and feet in confusion then calmed down and said, "Come in."

Chen Sha opened the door, walked to Lorraine's front, and said coldly: "Tomorrow you must receive rehabilitation training!"

"Don't mind my business!" Because of guilty conscience, Lorraine's expression was not apathetic to the extent of pushing away thousands miles. Instead, because similarity afflicted people to pity each other, she was a little softer as if pleading helplessly.

Chen Sha was taken aback. His tone was soft: "Legally, you are my wife. I am responsible for you."

"You had promised me that you would divorce me when my strength level reached."

Chen Sha said little but did a lot: "You exercise your arms and truly become a level strongman first, then we will discuss about divorce again."

Lorraine still wanted to say something but her personal terminal rang suddenly.

The incoming call displayed that it was Feng Lin. Lorraine hesitated for a moment and connected to the video.

Feng Lin wore white overalls currently working in her office. She casually waved her hand at Chen Sha , stared at Lorraine, and viciously asked directly to her head and face, "Your vacation was over long ago. Why haven't you come back to work?"

"I..."

"'I' what? Didn't you just missing an arm! Chu Mo told me that the surgery was very successful. You quickly get back to me. There are patients waiting for you!"

"Patient?" Lorraine head was fogged with water, completely confused about the situation.

Feng Lin didn't talk any more nonsense, and directly commanded intellectual brain. The intellectual brain displayed data images while presenting the patient's condition.

The patient's name was Zeni, 18 years old, and had been sick since 7 years old. Up until now he had suffered from illness for 11 years. It was a genetic disorder caused by off-target effects and immunocompromised. A minor illness might be able to take his life.

When Lorraine saw his childhood image, she couldn't look away anymore. She knew this child, a child from Alikata orphanage.

In the orphanage, sick children had to stay indoors most of the time. When Qian Xu had free time, he often visited them, told them stories, and played games with them.

Lorraine dared not to appear in front of children because she was afraid of her identity being exposed, but when she chatted with Qian Xu, she often talked about children's illness.

Feng Lin said: "Originally, Zeni's illness would not be in our hand, but didn't you submit a gene restoration paper before taking leave to Big Twin Moon? According to your theory, we can repair his disordered genes."

Lorraine said nervously, "That, that's just a theory."

"I know your style of doing things very well. If you are not sure about it, you will never write it out. Another good news is that 13 senior professors of the Genetics Committee had read the papers and 7 professors think that it is feasible."

"But..."

"But what? You get back to me quickly. The patient can't wait any longer!"

Lorraine stared at the screen behind Feng Lin. Zeni was lying in the sterile ward, wearing a breathing mask, and even the air he breathed must undergo special treatment.

Feng Lin said sincerely: "It's not that I can't perform this operation alone, but you are the theory proponent and know everything the best. Just in case anything unexpected happened and I could not deal with it properly, not only I would kill a patient, but the newly birth theory would be rejected by academic community. When that time comes, patients who could have recovered would die because they were untreated. You must be here for this operation!"

Lorraine asked: "How long can the patient waits?"

"At most is one month."

Lorraine stared at Zeni's picture and made up her mind: "See you in one month."

Feng Lin laughed: "I'll wait for you!"

Lorraine cut off video connection and looked at Chen Sha as if she wanted to say something but then hesitated. She was just told him to not mind her business, but now she wanted to turn her head to ask him to mind her business.

She only had one month to recover the newly regenerated arm to be able to operate gene repair surgery. An average person would definitely not be able to do it so she could only ask Chen Sha for help.

Chen Sha did not embarrass her, and said flatly: "Tomorrow I will accompany you to the training ground."

Lorraine's face blushed with shame and asked embarrassedly, "Now it's not that late. Do you have time?"

Chen Sha was silent for a moment: "I have."

Lorraine picked up a bottle of nutrient and fawningly handed it to Chen Sha: "Let's go to the training ground now." Time was limited. The sooner she started the better.

Chen Sha looked closely at her and asked puzzled: "You didn't even want to save yourself, but because you want to save a child, you suddenly changed you mind. Why?"

"He is not just a child who has nothing to do with me. He's a child that Qian Xu had taken care of. He definitely wished for Zeni to recover. And..." Lorraine bit her lip and stared at Chen Sha, "I was not arrogantly made a random promise. I did not want to accept the worst result and because I wanted to fight for the best result. I told Qian Xu that I would cure his disease. But he was like you, would not really believe in me. Now he had broken his promise. I...I will definitely make him regret it!"

Before her tears fell, Lorraine turned and strode towards the door.

A month later, Lorraine took the spaceship back to Alicata.

As soon as she got off the spaceship, she immediately dialed Feng Lin's communication number.

Feng Lin asked: "Did you get off from the spaceship?"

"Um, how is the patient's condition?"

"Everything is stable. The operation is at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."

Lorraine asked nervously, "I had read all the patient data you sent me. What else do I need to prepare?"

Feng Lin laughed: "It's not your first time in the operating room. What are you nervous about? You have been preparing for this day for ten years. Now the best preparation is a good rest."