Omega Manual chapter 62

Making a Wish

Perhaps due to the earlier exhaustion from the sandstorm and despair, after such an emotional rollercoaster, Shelley slept for a long time again.

When he woke up, the moon was high in the ink-black night sky, and the wind had stopped at some point. The entire wilderness was extremely quiet, with not a sound to be heard.

The sleeping bag next to him was empty. Shelley sat up from his own sleeping bag, grabbed the coat beside him, and draped it over himself. Opening the tent door, he saw Irey Halton’s back in the distance.

He had taken off his coat, wearing only a black vest in this weather, standing in front of the battered SUV, holding a toolbox. He squatted down, then stood up, opened the car hood, took out tools from the box, and bent over to work.

Shelley didn’t move forward but stood still, quietly watching his back.

Irey was very focused, so much so that he didn’t notice Shelley standing not far behind him. He tightened a few screws with a wrench, then removed the old parts and replaced them with new ones.

The car’s interior was filthy, leaving black stains on his arms, chest, and even his cheeks, but he didn’t mind at all, concentrating on repairing the damaged areas.

After tinkering for a while, he went to the driver’s seat, opened the door, started the car, listened to the engine, then returned to the front of the car.

It wasn’t until he finished all the work and closed the hood that he noticed Shelley standing there in his coat.

“When did you wake up?” Irey propped his arm on the hood and straightened up.

“A while ago,” Shelley adjusted his coat collar, “Is the car broken?”

“Not exactly broken, just too old,” Irey patted the dented hood. “It seems to have been abandoned for years, might have even been in an accident. The engine is still good, but many parts are problematic. With some patching up and replacing, it can still run, much cheaper than buying a new one.”

Shelley pursed his lips, “I can give you money for a new car.”

Irey smiled, a deep and helpless emotion flickering in his brown eyes, “Boss, your money doesn’t fall from the sky.”

Shelley frowned, wanting to say he had no use for it, but Irey didn’t give him the chance to continue.

He found a clean towel from the car, wiped the oil stains off himself, threw the towel into the back seat, put on his coat, and looked at Shelley, “Want to take a ride?”

Shelley was taken aback, “Now?”

“You can’t sleep anyway, right?” Irey said matter-of-factly.

Shelley was stunned for a few seconds, unable to think of a reason to refuse.

The moon hung overhead, the night sky at its darkest, and in the vast no-man’s-land, there was no one but them.

The wind had stopped, and it was absolutely silent, like death enveloping the world, or a fairytale, an illusion, quietly descending on their lives under the moonlight and starlight.

Moonlight fell on Irey’s shoulders, highlighting the smile at the corner of his mouth. The faint blue light outlined the Alpha’s tall and perfect figure.

Everything felt dreamlike and unreal.

Perhaps bewitched by this unreal feeling, Shelley nodded. Irey opened the passenger door for him, then walked back to the driver’s seat.

The old SUV’s interior had a faint musty smell, and the simple furnishings were minimalistic, even the seatbelts were deformed, needing several tries to buckle.

“Where are we going?” Shelley asked.

“A good place,” Irey said, stepping on the gas pedal. The old SUV made a series of sounds like it was about to break down, but miraculously started, roaring out into the wilderness.

Shelley was startled, grabbing the car door with one hand and the back of the seat with the other, nervously watching as the car sped out of the depression, moving forward. Their tent grew smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror until it disappeared.

The mountains flanking the wilderness grew closer, like giant beasts pressing in from all sides in the pitch-black night.

In the unfamiliar wilderness, with mountains blocking the moonlight, the areas beyond the headlights were pitch dark. Shelley’s heart raced, fearing Irey might crash into rocks or drive off a cliff with a single misstep.

The words “slow down” were stuck in his throat as Irey sped up. The SUV swiftly cut through the darkness, and in the next moment, moonlight suddenly poured down from above, leaving the mountain-like beasts behind them.

The view suddenly opened up, with all obstructions disappearing. The starry sky spread out like a vast silk blanket overhead, with nothing but the sky and the earth as far as the eye could see.

The off-road vehicle slowly decelerated under the starry sky and came to a steady stop. Irey got out of the car, opened the door for the still-dazed Shelley, and made a “please” gesture.

Shelley, still a bit bewildered, misunderstood Irey’s intention for a moment and grabbed Irey’s outstretched hand.

Irey was taken aback at first, then chuckled lightly, holding Shelley’s hand firmly and pulling him out of the car.

Shelley stumbled into Irey’s arms, not knowing where to look.

He had never seen so many stars in his life. The sky was filled with countless stars, like diamonds embedded in the deep night sky. A broad Milky Way spanned the starry night, flowing silently. Due to the radiation, the light from the stars and the moon had a captivating blue hue, more beautiful than any photo or painting he had ever seen.

“I’ve heard that when the radiation levels are low, the sky is obscured by mist, making it hard to see the stars,” Irey said, closing the car door and leaning against the vehicle, looking up at the night sky with Shelley. “But if the radiation levels get high enough, it forms a layer of something that becomes transparent, like putting glasses on the atmosphere, making everything extraordinarily clear.”

“Yes, it’s really beautiful,” Shelley said, a strand of hair falling over his temple, the starlight making his eyes look even clearer than usual.

Irey tilted his head slightly and gently brushed the strand of hair behind Shelley’s ear with his finger.

Shelley neither avoided nor spoke, and the two of them quietly leaned against the old off-road vehicle, gazing at the beautiful stars in the sky.

The night wind was slightly cool, and Shelley tugged at his collar and looked at Irey, “Halton—”

Just as he began to speak, Irey made a “shush” gesture, pointing at the sky, indicating not to look away.

Shelley was puzzled and was about to ask when he caught a quick falling light in the corner of his eye.

Before he could express his amazement, a second streak of light flashed across the distant night sky, traversing the entire sky before disappearing with a tail.

This time he saw it clearly. It was a shooting star.

No, it was a meteor shower.

As if by some agreement, suddenly, the night sky was filled with successive fleeting lights. Overhead, beside them, millions of kilometers away, countless streaks of light crossed the sky, some faint as candlelight, others bright as flames, silently composing a grand and splendid symphony.

“How did you…” Shelley looked at Irey in shock.

“That kind lady told me,” Irey smiled slightly, his eyes fixed on the meteors in the sky. “She said you left ten thousand cash and disappeared, and I couldn’t find you anywhere. She told me to find you quickly so we could catch tonight’s meteor shower.”

Then he turned to look at Shelley, “But you were sleeping so soundly, I couldn’t bear to wake you.”

Shelley’s lips moved, but he couldn’t say anything meaningful.

He felt he should say “thank you.”

But Irey had already done so much for him that saying those words seemed both pale and meaningless.

Or maybe he should apologize, say “I’m sorry.”

But what should he apologize for? Sorry for deceiving you, sorry I actually planned to die?

Sorry for letting you waste your life on someone who is dying, sorry for making you stay with me and watch me leave this world?

It all seemed like a cruel fairy tale, both unreasonable and absurd, stuck deep in his throat, unable to be swallowed or spat out.

Irey lit a cigarette, letting the smoke be blown away by the breeze towards the starry sky with meteors, “Do you want to make a wish? Meteor showers don’t last long. If you don’t make a wish now, it’ll be over soon.”

Shelley’s throat moved, “I… don’t have any wishes. If I must say one, I hope I can reach Mount Yinbu smoothly.”

Irey flicked the ash and looked at Shelley, “Can I ask why it has to be Mount Yinbu?”

Shelley lowered his head and laughed lightly, “You’ll laugh at me if I tell you.”

“I won’t laugh at you,” Irey said.

“My mother told me a story when I was very young,” Shelley said. “In that story, Mount Yinbu is the resting place for the souls of all living beings. It is said that at the mountain’s summit, hidden in the clouds, there is a wisteria tree that blooms all year round. The souls of the deceased ascend to heaven through this tree, with each petal representing a soul.”

Shelley took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, “It’s silly, right? But when I was a child, I firmly believed it. My mother was the only one who told me these unknown and ‘non educational’ stories. She passed away shortly after telling me this story, so I always felt that as long as I went there, I could reunite with her.”

“Not silly at all,” Irey said.

“Don’t comfort me,” Shelley smiled self-deprecatingly. “Later, I researched many texts and folklore but never found any similar stories. Mount Yinbu is just an ordinary snow-capped plateau with no human activity recorded around it throughout history, let alone any legends. My mother probably just made up the story to tell me, and it wasn’t real.”

Shelley looked up at the distant night sky, his delicate face expressionless.

“So I think setting the distant Mount Yinbu as a goal is probably because I’m too cowardly to directly end my life. Giving myself such a long reprieve makes me feel like my remaining life has some meaning,” he said mechanically. “But it’s all the same. It doesn’t matter where I die…”

“Shelley,” Irey interrupted, “no one in this world wants to end their life.”

Shelley was stunned.

Irey looked at him and continued, “What you want to end is the pain.”

In the distant night sky, the number of shooting stars gradually dwindled, with only a few sporadically streaking across.

Irey seized the last chance, leaning back on the car door with his elbows, gazing at a bright meteor cutting through the night sky. In a low voice, he said, “Maybe I’ll make a wish. I hope Shelley Manta can be free from his suffering soon.”