Chapter 23: I know, I love you.

Grandpa's weapons research room was Tang Bai's childhood playground.

The weapons research room he remembered was large, so large that it was a universe of its own, with silvery-grey walls painted in starburst oil to his liking, and a cold floor covered in his favourite thick wool carpet.

He likes to run around the weapons research room barefoot and on his tiptoes, reaching out to touch the weapons held in the floating sphere.

The weapons are cold to the touch, with sharp lines and monochromatic colours, the ultimate mechanical and violent aesthetic, each one suspended in a shimmering floating sphere, like an endless planet in a vast universe.

Tang Bai loves to lie on the soft wool carpet and stare at the 'starry sky' his grandfather has built for him.

Grandpa said that the universe began with only two elements, hydrogen and helium, and then more elements were created by fusion reactions in stars, and that gold, a heavy metal element, came from supernova explosions, and that the gold mines they saw were actually the glory of a planet hundreds of millions of years ago.

Tang Bai then gleefully picked up the solid gold long-life lock around her neck and said, in a milky voice, "So I'm wearing the star on my body?

However, when the boy wore the omega's neck ring, he never said anything stupid about wearing the star on his body again.

Looking at the familiar and unfamiliar research room, Tang Bai was in a trance. The display was the same as when she was a child, but there were more weapons on the shelves, stacked in a dense pile, except for the first row of shelves, which was empty, with only a simple butterfly robot.

Out of place compared to the other weapons in the Weapons Research Room, this butterfly robot is simple to make and comes in a fantastic colour scheme, a unique pink and purple.

Beautiful as an ornament, it is the first and only anthropomorphic robot that Grandpa Tang taught Tang Bai to make.

At the age of six, Tang Bai is already capable of making an anthropomorphic robot on his own, and his grandfather has asked Tang Bai to choose an animal as a direction.

Tang Bai has so many favourite animals, he loves kittens, bunnies, puppies and birds ......

Why are there so many cute things in the world? Why doesn't anyone have bunny ears on their mech helmets? Why hasn't anyone considered making battle light brains meow when they activate? Why doesn't anyone paint their starships pink?

He had so many whys, and his grandfather told him helplessly that no one had ever done this before.

So Tang Bai stuck his finger up proudly and swore to the uninteresting world: "Then I'll be the first master weapon maker to do so!"

A pretty butterfly landed right on his fingertips, perhaps mistaking the rose-style photocell ring for a real flower, or perhaps Tang Bai smelled like one.

It was a pink butterfly.

Tang Bai happily decided to make a butterfly mimetic robot.

He drew up a design with his grandfather's guidance, bought the raw materials with his own petty cash and managed to make the butterfly robot in his grandfather's company.

When he was done, he deliberately manoeuvred the butterfly robot to fly towards his mother and then boasted that she smelled so good that she attracted all the butterflies to her.

He chose the iron stand with his grandfather, who said that the stand was bought especially for him and that he would put it on the stand for every piece he completed in the future.

That was the deal between them. ......

Tang Bai reached for the flimsy butterfly robot, he always thought as a child that the iron shelf was so high that he needed to carry a small ladder to reach the top and it would take him ages and ages to fill the shelf.

But now he touched the top floor with just a flick of his hand, just as he looked around this weapons research room and realised it wasn't as big as he remembered.

Tang Bai walked slowly towards the production table and was almost there when he almost tripped over something and looked down to see that it was a small stool.

It is a small stool formerly reserved for the little Tang Bai.

Because the weapon making table is so high, little Tang Bai has to step on a small stool to reach it.

At that time, my grandfather would nervously hold him up for fear that he would fall and hit his bottom.

But now he doesn't need this little stool anymore.

Tang Bai stands in front of the wide and elongated weapons making table, wistfully gazing from the bending force press bending bed, the electric railing locking bar, the smart cantilevered beams ...... The eyes flow over them one by one.

These highly sophisticated tools are hard to come by on the market, and for years Tang Bai has had to buy some low-level alternatives to get by.

He ......

He had actually dreamed of being a master weapons maker countless times -

Turning cold metal into bullets that pierce the chests of the enemy, building battleships grand enough to hold the souls of their forefathers, and inheriting the weapons institute that was the brainchild of their grandfather.

He will be admired, given the soul of metal and go down in history as a master weapon maker.

His innovations could change the entire age of weapons, his will could shake the Federation and the Empire at war, and at his command, the vast weapons institute would immediately be set in motion to slice the long night of the Empire with a thunderbolt -

He had dreamed of these magnificent and glorious splendours countless times.

Fingertips glide over a cold tool, moving so gently that they fear disturbing a dream.

Tang Bai gently picks up the long-lost mechanical pliers and finds an old photograph pressed against them, its edges dulled and furred, as if it had been rubbed regularly.

The photograph shows a kindly old man holding a three- or four-year-old child in his arms, standing in front of a silvery-grey weapons institute rising from the ground.

They looked like ordinary grandparents and grandchildren who had come to take pictures, and one old and one young were both smiling immensely.

--Tang Tang, this is grandpa's weapons institute, from now on it will be handed over to Tang Tang, okay?"

-- "Then I'm going to paint it pink!"

Halfway through the day, a teardrop smashed into the photo.

*

"Dad, shall I call Tang Tang to come out?" Mama Tang asked softly when she saw Grandpa Tang's face was not right.

Grandpa Tang gazes in silence at the figure of Tang Bai operating in the research room, and in a trance he seems to see the powder dumpling who stepped on a small stool and threatened to fill the entire shelf with his work.

At first, he thought it was an alpha grandson, an alpha grandson who had perfectly inherited his talent for weapon making.

His name is Tang Rong and he is a master weapon maker who has gone down in history books.

At the time of the Commonwealth uprising, he was known for his prodigious weapons-making talents, and he alone was responsible for a third of the arms of the Commonwealth's rebel army.

The Federation was so poor that one energy crystal had to be broken into two pieces, and for this reason he developed low-consumption combat mechs.

The Confederation was so short of talent that it could count on its hands the number of highly skilled technicians, for which he taught thousands of students throughout his life.

He was known to the Empire as a mobile arsenal, his head was worth a hereditary title, and the Empire's men went to great lengths to kill him, while the Federation desperately tried to protect him so that the Empire had nowhere to go.

During those war years, his assistant was by his side, looking after his work and his life.

It was a female beta, quiet, gentle and kind, thin and not stunning looking, but he thought she was pretty.

They're together.

There was no proposal, no wedding, not even an "I love you", but his wife married him willingly.

Because of his special status, she cannot even call herself Mrs. Tang.

His wife worshipped him, adored him and saw him as a hero, and although he was always busy with his work and devoted almost all his time and energy to the Federation, his wife had no complaints.

The fertility rate in beta is very low and they were forty years old before they had a child.

Late that night, his wife had a terrible stomachache and, fearing to disturb his work, went out to the hospital alone, moving gently without waking the light-sleeping children.

Naturally, he was not alerted to his ambulatory work.

Many a midnight dream later, he wanted to drag his work-obsessed self out of the room and punch him in the face.

His wife has been captured by the Empire and a traitor has emerged from the Federation who reveals his home address and information about his wife.

The Empire knew he loved his wife dearly and tried to kidnap her to coerce him into betraying the Federation, then ......

To spare him the embarrassment, his wife chose to kill herself.

He dedicated his life to the Federation.

His wife, however, devoted her life to him.

His wife leaves behind only one child.

His wife said she wanted their children to be heroes like him.

He tried so hard to teach their children, forcing that child to study hard in mechanics, forcing that child to give up his dream of being in business. His children were suffering, his children tried so hard to study, but they could never do anything right.

He pushed that child for twenty years, and that child was about to be driven mad by him, to jump off a building, to cut off his father-son relationship.

The line that hurt him the most was when the boy said, if my mother were alive, she certainly wouldn't have pushed me so hard!

Is it?

Is that right?

His wife's silhouette came to him, those amber eyes moistened with tears looking tenderly at him, and then she laughed and cried.

She cried with that same smile when they went to get their license.

A marriage certificate that reads "In good times and bad, in wealth and in poverty, in health and in sickness, in happiness and in sorrow, I will always love and cherish you and be faithful to you for all eternity".

She gave her life to honour her vow.

He didn't have time to say "I love you".

He was always too busy with his work and his career to take care of his wife and their children, and when he tried to make amends afterwards, there was a life and death between them.

He was tired.

Looking at the child who hated him, he shuddered and let go of his hand.

His children went into business as they wished, and his children were very business-minded and became business tycoons.

And then he had a grandson.

His grandson has the same amber eyes as his wife, and his grandson shares his prodigious talent for weapons making, if not his youthfulness.

He had poured so much of his heart and soul into this grandson that he thought he could finally fulfil his late wife's last wish, but the heavens seemed to have played a joke on him.

This is an omega grandson.

He had always known Tang Bai was good, but he knew better than to be an omega; being a maverick invited criticism, and the path to becoming a top weapons maker was too hard.

On the day of the differentiation results, a huge argument broke out between him and his son.

He was disappointed that Tang Bai was unable to follow in his footsteps.

His son pointed his nose at him and cursed, "Dad! Even if my son is an omega, he can still have a good life! I'll work my ass off to save him a huge dowry! I will give him a happier life than anyone else in the world! Can you please stop sighing in front of Tang Tang? Please don't think of succeeding you as the most important thing in a child's life! Not everyone wants to live according to your ideal!!!"

He owed so much to his son, who was the one who interfered with his life back then.

His son says that it is up to Tang Tang to choose his own path for the future, without anyone interfering.

But he rejected his son's proposal.

He locked himself in the weapons research room for a day and a night, he kept thinking about how the path to becoming a top weapons maker was so difficult and dangerous, how the war between the Federation and the Empire never stopped and how the hunt for weapons makers never stopped, how Tang Bai, as an omega, would be even harder than a normal alpha if he took this path.

He needs to work dozens of times harder and better than alpha to be able to plug that yo-yo, to be able to block the open and dark arrows.

Tang Bai should have had a stable and happy life, he would have grown up without any worries, married without any worries, had lots of children later and lived an easy life.

Why choose a road full of thorns?

He had already made his son hate him, was he going to make his grandson hate him again?

So he chose to dust it all off, hoping that Tang Bai would live a life of ease and happiness, free from the overwhelming expectations of an old man like him, free from the censure of the rest of society, and free from the fear of his life in the future.

He was a failure as a husband, a failure as a father, and in the end did he have to be a failure as a grandfather?

He told himself that it was right to let Tang Bai be a carefree omega, and without ever talking to Tang Bai about why, he just rudely took away all the mechanical toys.

He thought he was doing the right thing.

Just as he once thought it was right to force his son to study mechanics.

Just what he thought.

Would everything have been different if he had asked Tang Bai what she wanted and really got to know her preferences?

It turns out that his son really wasn't wrong to scold him; he was, from the beginning to the end, a bad old man who had no regard for the feelings of others and made up his own mind.

Cloudy eyes gazed silently at the figures operating in the weapons research room, tears blurring his vision, and in a trance he seemed to see his wife's figure.

She opened her lips slightly as she pressed the hidden self-destruct button.

-- "I'm boring, cynical, inconsiderate and won't have time to take care of you in the future, are you sure you want to be with me?"

-- "I know, I love you."

At the end of her life, she said I love you.

*

"Dad?" Mama Tang was taken aback by Grandpa Tang's tearful appearance, she had never seen him cry before and her hand trembled slightly as she handed him a tissue.

What a shame! My Tang Tang has made my old man angry! Crying! He's crying!

"I, I'm calling him out!"

"No, since he likes it, let him be." Grandpa Tang hunched his back as if he had aged ten years at once.

Mama Tang faltered and pulled out her quick-acting heart pills, ready to hand them over.

Grandpa Tang waved his hand and sat on the sofa in silence, Mama Tang didn't dare to speak either, so she sent a message to Papa Tang: "Honey! Tang Tang has gone into Papa's weapons research room by herself and Papa seems to be angry with Tang Tang and crying! What am I supposed to do now?"

After waiting for most of the day and not hearing from her busy husband, Mama Tang was in a hurry when the lights in the weapons research room dimmed and Tang Bai emerged from the room with a beautiful 'butterfly' resting on his fingertips.

Grandpa Tang's gaze sharpened as he fixed his eyes on the transformed butterfly robot, his cloudy eyes suddenly bursting with light.

He had thought that all these years of wasting Tang Bai's amazing weapons making talent would be a waste, but the freshly baked work before him is a reflection of Tang Bai's prowess!

Mama Tang doesn't know how to identify the quality of a weapon's finish with the naked eye, she just feels that the Tang Bai in front of her is suddenly strange and different from what she used to see before, but she can't tell where this difference comes from.

" Tang Tang, what are you going to do?" Mama Tang asked cautiously.

Tang Bai, who was bending over a sack, said softly at the sound of her voice, "Hitting someone."

Mama Tang: "......?!"

My son's rebellion! It breaks my heart! Damn it I'm going to cry from Tang Tang too!!!

Tang Bai had found a discarded bag and was about to leave the house when he was suddenly stopped by an old voice.

" Tang Tang ."

Tang Bai's footsteps stopped in place, his fingers twitching as he clutched the sack, not looking back as he could guess what his grandfather was going to say again, the "omega code" that had worn his ears to the bone, the shackles that had been placed on him over and over again... -

"You like mechanics, don't you?"

Tang Bai clenched his fists and said sullenly, "No?"

Not allowed?

Can't I like both Palulu and weapons making? Can't I live the way I want to? Can't I use law and violence to punish the bad guys?

I don't want to be twenty years old and lose the right to choose my future because of my gender. I'm not afraid of failure now, I'm afraid of what I could have been.

Then he heard Grandpa Tang's trilling response, "Of course."

"As long as you like it, then let it go, and whatever you do, you'll have my old bones to cover for you."