Lu An stood in front of the window for a few minutes, and there was no sign of recovery in the darkness outside, so he had to return to the sofa with the faint light of the holographic projection of the brain.

As soon as I sat down, I heard a soft "bang", and the box that had just been placed on the table unexpectedly popped open a lid by itself.

The surprise on Lu An's face was not fully revealed, but he saw that the lights in the room were bright in an instant, and the dazzling light came instantly, which stabbed Lu An and quickly closed his eyes.

"So coincidentally?"

After his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, Lu An opened his eyes, looked at Zhi Brain, and sure enough, the synchronous network connection was restored.

At this time, it was the time after summer dinner, and the reaction of the Chinese people in the thirteenth district to the incident on the Internet was simply boiling, and various communities were noisily paying attention to the matter.

Even now, it's only been ten minutes, and there are already various speculative versions circulating on the Internet.

What kind of mysterious organization's revenge on the headquarters of the coalition government, what kind of incident deliberately provoked by the Martian government, what alien creatures invaded the earth......

In short, it was a mess.

Lu An pursed his lips, retreated from the network, and sent Anna a communication connection request.

"Anna, are you alright?"

"It's okay, it's just that I was shaken in the eye just now, and it's a little ......sour."

"Does it matter?"

"It's much better now."

"Well, it's past ten o'clock, you just got out of the hospital today, rest early."

"Okay, good night brother."

Lu An hung up the connection with confidence, and was about to reach out to pick up the box on the table that popped open the lid, when Zhi Brain trembled slightly, and someone sent a connection request.

"Uncle Liu."

"I just saw the news, are you okay?"

"It's okay, I'm in my dorm. It has now been restored with no problems. ”

"Okay."

"It's ...... over there now," Lu An looked at Zhi Brain's display, "It's only four o'clock over there, so don't wake up grandma, tell her in the morning." ”

"Well, got it. You should rest early, too. ”

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Everything finally returned to normal, and Lu An picked up the box on the table.

Maybe it was the moment the call came just now, and the box happened to be energized, so the lid popped open.

A finger-wide metal box, unscrewed from the lower right corner, contains a stacked sheet of paper. Lu An picked up the paper and found that there was a metallic gray card underneath.

Pour the card out of the box, make a "dang chang" sound on the table, and the card is face up, lying quietly on the table.

On the card, a clown is holding a mask, covering half of his face, and the other half of his face is revealed, as if he is smiling rather than laughing, as if he is crying, and looks like he is taking off his mask and is putting on a mask.

On each side of the card, a line is written in English, "JOKER".

"This is a playing card?"

Although Lu An has never played poker, he is no stranger to playing cards, and this JOKER is obviously a ghost card in poker, and he is also regarded as a big king and a small king.

It's just that this card is glowing with silver-gray light throughout, and there is no distinction between color or black and white, so it is impossible to tell whether this is the king or the little king.

Lu An looked at the card several times in confusion, but found nothing useful, so he had to put it aside for the time being and opened the folded paper in the box.

On top of the paper is a handwritten string of numbers, all of which are "0" or "1".

Lu An is no stranger to this situation, as a student of the Department of Space Intelligence Information Collection and Confrontation, he often faces these numbers, and the simplest explanation of "0" and "1" is binary numbers.

On closer inspection, the numbers on the paper were roughly divided into four parts, separated by a few lines of blank space.

"What's going on?"

An inexplicable alloy box with an inexplicable playing card card in it, and a piece of paper inexplicably filled with numbers.

Lu An was completely confused, and he put the paper on the table with his hand a little dazed, covering the alloy box.

"Huh?"

In the corner of Lu An's eyes, he saw that there seemed to be a black mark on the back of the paper.

He picked up the paper and turned it around, and suddenly froze, and then as if struck by lightning, his whole body began to tremble.

It was probably because the paper was folded up before, and the two lines of handwriting on the back were folded inside, and when Lu An put it in his hand, he was gently padded by the box, and the handwriting flashed.

And Lu An saw those two lines of words at this time, and his hands trembled so much that he could barely hold the paper.

"Happy birthday, sons."

"Happy birthday, brother."

One line is the handwriting of his father Lu Yingbang.

One line is the handwriting of his brother Lu Ning.

After Lu An buried his brother Lu Ning, when he sorted out his relics, he had seen such handwriting countless times; Later, when selling his parents' villa, Lu An also saw his father Lu Yingbang's handwriting several times in the items sorted out.

Like Lu An, Lu Yingbang and Lu Ning both like to write down some information on paper, rather than keeping it in their brains. Of course, Lu An's habits were just pure imitation at first.

Happy birthday.

August 25 is Lu An's birthday.

It's just that since Lu Yingbang died ten years ago, Lu An has never had a birthday, because Lu Yingbang died at 0:17 on August 25.

Every year on this day, Lu An would make an appointment with his mother and brother to visit his father at the Honorary Military Cemetery, and later he had the habit of visiting his mother with his brother on this day, and then he had the habit of visiting his brother.

"Happy birthday, sons."

Lu An and his brother Lu Ning's birthdays are not on the same day.

Such a blessing should have been written by Lu Yingbang a long time ago. And just below, it was embellished by Lu Ning again.

"Happy birthday, brother."

Yesterday was Lu An's twentieth birthday.

If Lu An's intuition is not wrong, this is the twentieth birthday greeting written by his father Lu Yingbang to the two brothers. Four years ago, my brother received this gift, and I added a 20th birthday greeting to my brother below.

When did your father write this sentence?

Fourteen years ago, when he was six years old, before his father Lu Yingbang stepped on the battlefield, did he write it a long time ago? Maybe at that time, my father, who was forced to enlist in the army, was ready to sacrifice?

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When Lu An was a child, Lu Yingbang was a well-known expert in electronic information technology on the earth.

In the year 398 of the galactic calendar, in accordance with the "Emergency Mobilization Law for Human Space Development" previously promulgated by the headquarters of the coalition government, Lu Yingbang was conscripted into the army by an emergency mobilization order.

Originally, as a technical expert who enjoys immunity under the law, Lu Yingbang could have refused. However, as the son of the three generals of the Joint Command, Lu Yingbang's right to refuse to apply was severely deprived by his father Lu Yong.

In the 400th year of the galactic calendar, the first interstellar space war in human history broke out. Lu Yingbang had already been promoted to the captain of the reconnaissance ship at this time.

In the year 402 of the galactic calendar, the United Space Fleet and the Outer Planet Joint Defense Fleet launched the first space fleet Armageddon in human history at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point. Lu Yingbang also participated in the unprecedentedly large-scale and extremely tragic space fleet decisive battle.

In the year 403 of the galactic calendar, the United Space Fleet and the Outer Planet Joint Defense Fleet launched the second fleet Armageddon, and in that decisive battle, Lu Yingbang was seriously injured, and Lu An remembered that his father was sick and recuperated for half a year.

In the year 405 of the galactic calendar, Lu Yingbang led the fleet to carry out a space assassination plan, raided the space fortress of the asteroid belt, Titan, bypassed the outer planet joint defense fleet, and went straight to Europa, forcing the coalition government of Europa to surrender with empty defense forces.

In the year 406 of the galactic calendar, the Martian coalition government announced its withdrawal from the war and signed an armistice agreement with the headquarters of the coalition government. Three months later, on his way back to Earth, Lu Yingbang lost his trace in the asteroid belt and was found dead twenty days later, just one day before he was found, at 0:17 on August 25, Earth Zero Standard Time.

Lu An recalled the past, and a question kept popping up in his chaotic thoughts: When did his father leave this birthday wish for his brother and himself?

Was it after the outbreak of war?

Was it before that Lagrange fleet Armageddon?

Was it before the Second Fleet Armageddon, where he was most wounded?

Or was he prepared for the worst, before embarking on a journey to complete the space assassination program?

However, this birthday wish that travels through time and space and life and death, no matter when it was written, made Lu An, who received this birthday wish at this time, cry like rain.

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When my brother received this birthday wish, did he ever do it like himself?

Probably not.

His brother is so talented and quick-witted, and he has been different from his naïve and naïve self since he was a child.

When his father's body was escorted to the airport in Shanghai-Hangzhou City by the United Fleet, Lu An himself cried hoarsely, and Lu An's mother even fainted, but it was his brother who quietly handed over all the formalities and took his father back home.

Later, when his mother broke up with his grandfather and refused to attend the funeral, it was his brother Lu Ning who accompanied his father to complete the funeral alone, and buried his father in the honorary military cemetery in a grand military salute.

At that time, Lu An, because of fear, didn't even dare to send his father on the last ride, he was afraid that he would see his father lying in the crystal freezer again.

At that time, he even naively hoped that his father was just joking with himself, maybe he couldn't see himself in the crystal cabin, so he would reluctantly get up and come to him.

Later, his mother died, and he cried to death, while his brother silently completed his mother's burial alone.

His brother, so good, so strong, how could he cry so ugly like himself at this time? He never had any weak face in front of him.

In the past, when he was young and ignorant, he impulsively ran away from home with Anna, if he didn't have a brother, I'm afraid he and his sister would have starved to death in their parents' villa.

In Lu An's impression, his brother Lu Ning is even more omnipotent than his father Lu Yingbang with a blurred face.

How could he cry?

The elder brother four years ago would smile slightly, pick up the pen under his father's words, and add a sentence:

"Happy birthday, brother."

Ten years ago, his father, Lu Yingbang, wrote this sentence: "Happy birthday, sons." ”

Four years ago, my brother Lu Ning added a sentence "Brother, happy birthday." ”

And their birthday wishes, through ten years, through four years, but they are all a day late.

"It's all my fault."