"Does the second phase of treatment need to be extended?"

In the glimmering laboratory, Schiller stood in front of the freezer, holding a notebook, and asked Victor as he wrote.

Standing at the back of the freezer to debug the equipment, Victor said, "I feel a lot better and maybe go straight to the third stage of treatment." ”

"The drug regimen for the second phase of the treatment may need to be adjusted a little bit, and let's finish it with another week." Schiller raised his eyes, wanting to go to see Victor, but saw that in the freezer, Mrs. Fries's fingertips moved slightly.

"Am I wrong? Her fingertips seem to be reacting? ”

Schiller squatted down and looked into the freezer, and Victor also walked to the front and said, "It shouldn't be an illusion, last night, I saw Nora's eyelids move a little......"

"I haven't adjusted the power of the freezer, so it's probably not her voluntary activity, but the brain-active agent at work."

"Do you want to increase the dose of nerve repair potion a little? After all......" Schiller turned his head to look at Victor, who looked a little old in the cold light of the freezer.

"You've been waiting so long."

Victor shook his head and said, "It's because I've been waiting so long that I don't mind waiting longer." ”

"Schiller, I know you want to help me, but that's enough." Victor sighed, a strand of gray hair on his sideburns reflected blue by the freezer light.

"There have been more changes recently than in many years combined, Nora's condition is no longer getting worse, and the kind of nerve healing potion you provided has allowed her nervous system to gradually repair."

"After solving the problem of brain activity in the frozen state, many of the sequelae that may occur due to long-term hypothermia have been eliminated......

He pressed a hand on the freezer, looked at the freezer with an affectionate and focused gaze, and then he turned to Schiller and said, "It's not early, Professor Schiller, you go back first, I'll debug the freezer again, and we'll see you tomorrow." ”

Schiller raised his hand and glanced at his watch, it was already 1 o'clock in the morning, and he said, "I have morning class tomorrow, and it's too late to go back to the manor now, so let's stay here and have a chat." ”

Victor didn't say much, but the corners of his mouth pursed up led the lines on his face, and it seemed that all the moving emotions were hidden in his heart.

Schiller walked to the other side of the table and sat down, and while sorting out his thesis materials, he asked, "How is the vocational school doing?" I heard you went to extra class last night? ”

"To be honest, it's better than I thought." Speaking of this topic, Victor sighed with some relief: "Although those little bastards don't obey discipline, they still learn things quite quickly." ”

"When will those gang bosses find a teacher for basic education? You can't just keep teaching a bunch of elementary school students as a college professor, right? ”

"Actually, it's nothing, I have experience in children's education."

"When Nora and I lived in Florida, Nora also used to substitute teach in middle school, and at that time, before I became a professor, I took the kids with Nora to activity classes and taught them how water condenses into ice......

Victor's voice was full of nostalgia, and if there was anything wrong with his interpersonal interactions, it was that no matter what topics he talked about, he could always recall his previous life with his wife.

But this is not offensive, because the stories he tells are always full of sincere emotions, and those little things in life can always make people feel the happiness of two people in those calm and beautiful days.

"At that time, I lifted the water pipe like this, and I asked, 'Do any of you know how water freezes?' , you know, it's the tone of coaxing children......"

"The water pressure in the hose attached to the fire hydrant was very high, and I had just opened the valve when a kid who ran over was flushed."

"They didn't think it was dangerous at all, they thought it was fun, and they lined up and rushed to the water pipe, and Nora was angry because her good class turned into a water fight, and she complained about me for a week......"

Victor spoke in a brisk and gentle tone as he debugged the equipment, and Schiller sat at his desk finishing his paper, but at this moment, a series of rapid ringtones interrupted the peaceful atmosphere in the laboratory, and Victor picked up the phone and said, "Hello? Oswald? What's wrong? What? …… Okay, don't worry, I'll be over right away......"

Schiller turned to him and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

"You know the student at the vocational education college, right?" Victor put down his tools and stood up, and then began to change his clothes, looking like he was about to go out.

"It's the diminutive Oswald, Oswald Copot."

"What's wrong with him?"

"His mother committed suicide, but it was an attempt, and the situation should be urgent now, but he is not equipped enough to deal with this, I have to go over ......"

"I'll go too."

Schiller also put on his coat, Victor went downstairs to drive, and when the car drove to the road, Schiller, who was sitting in the passenger seat, asked: "Your relationship with Oswald seems to be very good, I only knew that you admired him before." ”

Victor drove behind the wheel, the streamer outside the window reflected on his face, and he said, "Oswald is a rare good student, unlike those little bastards whose parents are gangsters, he has a clear goal, he is easy to learn, and he learns quickly." ”

"I think he's a little bit like when I was a kid."

Schiller looked at Victor and said, "I remember you saying that you came from a middle-class family, and you were a good student with excellent grades since you were a child. ”

"Yes, my father worked in shipping, and the children of his business associates, who had been on ships with their parents at a young age, knew their family business very well."

"But I've been a nerd since I was a kid, obsessed with all kinds of chemical experiments, and I have no interest in doing business."

"Oswald and I, the two of us are like lettuce in a carrot field, thinking completely different from the people around us."

"And I don't think he's bad by nature."

Victor twisted the steering wheel, turned an intersection, and continued: "His father died too early, and his mother had no ability to take care of herself, and it was already difficult for him to take care of himself, but he still had to take care of his mother, so it was a blessing that he could survive Gotham, and no one could ask him for more ......."

"Or rather, he's one of the few normal people in Gotham." Schiller went on to say to Victor: "Just like you. ”

"Me? Of course I'm a normal person! …… Okay, actually, I know you're a little crazy about me freezing my wife in the freezer, but I'm confident in my skills, and it's getting better, isn't it? ”

"I don't think there's anything crazy about it, maybe in the future, this will become a very normal medical treatment, popularized into thousands of households."

Victor turned his head, his eyes were full of weathered vicissitudes and childlike hope, and he said with some anticipation: "If there is a day, maybe I can take Nora back to my parents, in fact, I miss them very much, but ......"

Victor's voice was low, and Schiller looked out the window at the scenery and said, "Actually, they understand you, but you don't want to go back, right?" ”

"I don't want this kind of shocking behavior to cause them to become aliens and monsters in the mouths of my neighbors."

Victor is always very good at expressing his emotions directly, he always uses words to describe his state of mind very clearly, which is why Schiller and he can talk very well, Victor is the kind of rare person who will not be duplicitous and self-deceiving when facing him.

"They loved me very much, and in the early days of my research on freezers, my father sent me a lot of money, and my mother and sister wrote to me, and they wanted me to go back, but I knew it wouldn't work......"

"There's no way I'm going to move such a freezer and a big living person frozen inside back to my home, so my family will all live in the eyes of other people looking at monsters, and I know very well how hurtful that gaze is."

"But I can't give up Nora...... Victor's voice carries a little sadness, "just like she didn't give up on me when I had an accident in my research and was dismissed from school." ”

"It'll get better soon." There was always a calm power in Schiller's tone, and then he changed the subject.

"I remember you said earlier that you and your wife didn't have a wedding, what's going on?"

"Oh, that's it." Victor's tone was a little guilty, and he said, "Didn't I say it before, when I was just promoted to professor, an unexpected experimental accident caused me to lose my job, and at that time, Nora and I were already preparing for a wedding, but you know, there is no fixed job, no projects and no funding, so ......"

"It was Nora who was supporting me at the time, and we really couldn't afford to have a wedding."

"After that, I was hired by a cryogenic laboratory in Los Angeles, and when things got better, I wanted to surprise her, but that's when she was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease......"

"Even if we had health insurance, it wouldn't cover the cost of traveling to the states to get medical care, and if it weren't for my father's funding, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to make the first freezer."

The car drove slowly, and soon, a light rain began to fall in Gotham, but the rain was not heavy, it was a little gentle, and when it slapped on the window glass, it did not interrupt the atmosphere of conversation in the car.

"Sometimes I think, I've been really lucky, there are always people who come to help me when I'm in trouble, Nora is there for me when I lose my job, my dad has been there for me when Nora got sick, and when research stalled again, you have ......"

"That's probably what people are." There was a warmth in Victor's voice.

"No matter how bad the situation is, as long as you see a little hope, you will feel satisfied."

"The important thing is this hope." Schiller also lamented: "Even if you are already in hell, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, you can still live as a human being, instead of falling into hell as a devil or a complete madman." ”

"I like to compare this hope to a campfire in the snow." Schiller adjusted his position in his chair, and he and Victor often talked about literary and philosophical topics without feeling stiff or embarrassed.

"A traveler who has been in the snowfield for a long time, on the white earth, there is nothing to see but snow, and every snowflake here makes him feel colder......"

"But once a glimmer of fire appears in the distance, no matter how fierce the wind and snow are, it can't stop him from moving forward."

"When he walked to the campfire, he felt warm, as if the snow was not terrible, but he knew that it was because the last traveler had lit the campfire."

"So, before he left, he took out the few pieces of wood and threw them into the fire, which would not be extinguished, whether the next traveler arrived or not."

Victor steered the car to slow down, smiled and said, "You can sum this up in one word, and that is charcoal in the snow." ”

Schiller shook his head and said: "Sending charcoal in the snow inevitably carries the mercy of the successful from above, I always think that this world does not need a savior, and Gotham does not need it." ”

"If I could, I would prefer to be the traveler who left the campfire, the latecomer from any direction, who could stay here, and if they really want to thank anyone, it would be to thank themselves for the long journey and not giving up."

With that, Schiller pushed the door open and got out of the car and stepped into the rainy night.

Victor was silent in his seat for a second, then retracted his expression, then turned around, pushed the door open and got out of the car, walking into the cool rainy night.

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