⚠️ SPOILER ALERT!! ⚠️
This post contains a detailed spoiler for a date that has not been released in EN yet! Feel free to notify me if there are any mistakes in the translation~
Although it’s already spring, it’s still a bit chilly in the suburbs at night.
I quickly set up the camera in the open space and recorded all the researchers who were busy carrying experimental samples.
In order to participate in the Folklore Preservation Campaign held by Loveland City, my company cooperated with Lucien Bioscience Research Center to develop pollution-free fireworks.
After many experiments, we finally succeeded in sending the first batch of fireworks into the sky.
I slowly move the camera to Lucien, who was checking the fireworks, dressed in the institute labcoat, it looks slightly thin in the night wind.
It is basically his credit that we were able to keep the project going despite it being almost a wreck.
Lucien : Each person should observe the fireworks separately. Although several experiments during the day have been successful, just in case the data at night should also be recorded in detail.
Perhaps because the experiment was going well recently and the atmosphere was quite relaxed. People were talking and laughing, and it felt like they came out to set off fireworks during the Chinese New Year.
After explaining the precautions, Lucien walked to my side. The hem of his coat brushed against my cuff, carrying a scent of laboratory that I was already familiar with.
Lucien : Today’s experiment during the day was relatively successful, and they couldn’t wait to check the results at night.
MC : After all, a new year is not complete without fireworks, it is an experiment about whether we can celebrate the new year happier in the future or not.
MC : Do you think we’re a bit excessive?
Lucien slightly bowed his head and his eyes fell gently on me, with a trace of inquiry, but there was no sign of displeasure.
Lucien : Human nature is not something that’s strange or excessive.
Lucien : But for me, the biggest “incompleteness” of the new year is not the absence of fireworks.
I opened my mouth to say something when the researchers in front were ready.
Ice crystals rushed up into the night sky like a fountain and fell like diamond rains. Coloured lights painted them in the night sky with dazzling colours.
Alternating between green and purple, sometimes even flashing bright red…
MC : …What do you think? I think this colour is a bit wrong.
Researcher A : Oh, hell. Who is responsible for the lighting?
Researcher B : It’s me… But I looked it up for a long time on the Internet, and chose the colour palette that art students often use!
The crowd fell silent, and Lucien’s expression was a little troubled.
Lucien : The effect of this batch of coloured lights appears to be a bit too much.
Lucien : It seems that the next week, we need to continue to study the adjustment of the light colour scheme.
I thought for a moment and made my decision.
MC : No, professionals should do their job. Just leave the lighting to me! Our company has special lighting experts.
Looking at my confident look, Lucien raised the corner of his mouth.
Lucien : Then let’s listen to the producer, and let’s have fun dividing up the work.
After I mentioned the requirements to the lighting experts in the company, they quickly gave out several versions of the simulation plan.
After contacting Lucien, I knocked on his door with these plans.
There were two cups of steaming coffee on the desk, and Lucien was attentively watching the proposal presented on the screen.
MC : These plans are based on the fireworks styles we have developed to present the fireworks atmosphere during the Chinese New Year.
Lucien : As expected of a professional, it is indeed no different from the fireworks seen during the Chinese New Year.
MC : The first time I saw these plans I also thought they were very good, but… I always feel like something is missing.
Lucien looked at the plans on the screen again, his gaze was clear.
Lucien : Do you think these are too similar to ordinary fireworks, missing their unique points?
He hit the nail on the head, and I hurriedly nodded.
MC : Yes! I want our fireworks to make a unique impression on everyone.
MC : But if it is too different from traditional fireworks, it has little to do with folk customs.
Lucien : I feel that since we are studying a new concept of fireworks, there is no need to follow the tradition.
Lucien : It can be made into any landscape you want to present to everyone.
Lucien : Why not rethink what this firework means to us?
Seeing my frustrated look, he laughed a little and minimized the plan window on the screen.
Lucien : If you really have no idea, you can use the easiest way – choose the scenery that you think looks good, and then develop from that.
Lucien : The visual impact can bring new inspiration to the brain.
I thought back to the beautiful scenery I had seen before and my head felt a little bit dizzy.
MC : Isn’t that too much…..
Lucien : Take your time. It’s still early. I’ll stay with you.
His voice carried a reassuring frequency, diluting the sense of clueless floating in my heart.
I pulled out my photo library from my computer, and the photos were densely lined up.
MC : Does Professor Lucien have any materials that I can refer to?
Lucien : Yes, there are, but they may not come in handy.
He took a box out of the bookcase and picked up some photos that had been developed.
Lucien’s photos are all very professional, and each one can be used as a postcard.
We began a huge photo screening work, Lucien looked at my photos one by one with great interest, using the computer screen.
Lucien : It turns out that the scenery seen by people can really have a big difference.
On the screen is a sunset view of the park next to our apartment that I have photographed.
There is a running child in the large orange background, and he looks a little blurry with the spinning windmill in his hand.
Lucien pulled out a photo he took, which was also a sunset with the same scenery.
In his photo, an old man sits on a park bench and looks into the distance, as if waiting for something.
Perhaps the old man’s gaze is too lonely, which makes the colour of the whole photo look familiar.
Lucien: It’s the same scenery, but your photos are more vivid
I picked up the picture he took and put it next to mine.
Two similar landscapes are stitched together, and it looks like the child is running toward the old man.
MC : Does this make it more complete?
After being stunned for a moment, Lucien smiled.
Lucien : When I shot it, I didn’t expect it to become a new landscape in this way.
His fingers gently stroked the junction between the photo and the screen, and a shimmer passed through his eyes.
Lucien : When one goes to see the world, no matter how carefully one looks, there are always corners that one cannot see.
Lucien : It seems that they are all waiting for you to fill them up.
Friday afternoon, I came to the Institute to continue shooting fireworks experiments, by chance, I also want to show Lucien the adjustment of the lighting scheme.
Everyone was busy with work, and only the sound of my footsteps echoed in the corridor.
The grey-white walls and doors of the Institute’s corridors render the place with a cold sense of indifference.
The eyes swept through the windows and doors on both sides, and the figure I was searching for suddenly came into view.
The door to the lab was closed. I walked up and looked at him more clearly through the glass in the door.
Lucien restrained his usual softness, and his white coat perfectly blended him into the cold tones of the laboratory.
Like a gleam of snow on the distant top of the mountain, those dark eyes became the only bright colour in the entire room.
I was suddenly curious, what kind of world did he see under the microscope?
What was in the petri dish in his hand, could it be some kind of seed that could cure human diseases?
I quietly took out my phone trying to record this scene.
Unexpectedly, as soon as I pressed the button to shoot, the person in the lens noticed my sight and raised his eyes slightly.
I hurriedly hid my phone, and waved at him tactlessly, motioning him to continue working and ignore me.
The experimenter on the side seemed to have asked him something, and his eyes swept over where I was, the corner of his mouth was slightly raised
I waited outside the door, and not long after, saw Lucien come out of the lab.
Lucien : According to the regulations, the experiments that we contracted to be allowed to film should only be the fireworks experiments.
I raised my phone and showed him the picture I just took
MC : Is there a problem if it’s just for personal appreciation?
He looked at me meaningfully.
Lucien : I certainly have no problem if this photo only appears on your phone.
Today’s experiment and shooting went very well. After finishing work, Lucien called me.
Lucien : I wonder if Miss Producer MC has time to stay for a while and help me complete a small experiment.
MC : Me?
Watching him take out new reagents and containers from the cabinet, I held up my rubber-gloved hands and smiled.
MC : Is Professor Lucien planning to take me back to the middle school lab class?
Lucien : Middle school laboratory teachers shouldn’t take you to do this kind of exciting experiments.
I followed Lucien’s instructions and filled the beaker with the white powder.
Lucien : The operation is very standard, I can see that you should have a good grade in the lab class.
MC : To be praised by Professor Lucien is not the same as the teacher’s teaching to me back then.
As the liquid in the dropper fell into the conical flask drop by drop, pink lilies kept appearing in the bottle, just like peach blossoms falling in spring.
Lucien : This is the reaction of sulfuric acid diamond and sodium carbonate to form carbonated diamond precipitation. I wonder if this student has learned it.
MC : Learned! Can I apply to learn something else?
Lucien : Of course, the teacher will not refuse the request of a good student.
It is difficult to feel the change of time in the laboratory. When we have four Erlenmeyer flasks with different “landscapes” in front of us, the sky is already full of stars.
In addition to carbonated diamond “flower candy”, we saw solids such as copper sulfate and iron oxide, which “grown” in sodium silicate solution.
Also made a “golden rain” of the lead solution, and a weather bottle full of snow-like ice crystals…
- [T/N] copper sulphate growing in sodium silicate (chemical garden) and golden rain are legit reactions and it looks neat~
I moved my stiff shoulders and placed several bottles in sequence.
MC : Thank you Professor Lucien for helping me with the wonderful material for my fireworks lighting.
He has become accustomed to this kind of tacit understanding, Lucien didn’t ask much, and his soft eyes fell on my face.
Lucien : I have no idea that this method can bring you some inspiration.
MC : Of course, after all, these four small bottles contain four seasons!
Lucien pushed a beaker containing clear solution in front of me, and handed me a glass rod dipped in white powder.
Lucien : Here’s another one, the scenery I want to give you.
I put the glass rod into the solution, and almost instantly, a little golden precipitate spread out from the glass rod toward the solution.
It was like a firework stick magnified in water, and I couldn’t bear to take my eyes off it for a moment.
- I’ve been trying to see if there’s any chemical reaction that looks like this in real life and there’s isn’t any. It would be cute if Lucien just made a new chemical reaction pun intended just for her-. And a little bit bittersweet too bc it is basically referencing fireworks date :”D.
Lucien’s unhurried noise came from her ears.
Lucien : The scenery in the laboratory rarely appears in front of people’s eyes
Lucien : But whether it is the change of reagents in the bottle or the microorganism under the microscope, it is the “scenery” that pushes people to the future.
Lucien : I hope that the unique scenery of my life can help you bring unique inspiration.
It was already midnight when I left the institute, and only the silent streetlights added some warm orange light to the dark road ahead.
I stepped on the narrow curbstone and slowly walked forward.
MC : This road doesn’t seem to have changed much since I can remember.
MC : On the right-hand side, there is a long-established store that makes sugar mangrove, and on the next corner, there is a store that repairs leather goods by hand.
The streetlights lengthened and shortened our overlapping shadows.
Lucien : If there is no large-scale urban construction, there may be no changes in the past few decades.
MC : Wouldn’t it be nice if there were no changes?
I looked up at him, my body swayed, Lucien quickly grabbed my hand.
We continued to move forward like this, and he spoke slowly.
Lucien : Don’t you think that unchanging scenery can be scary sometimes?
Lucien : It is evident that time does not stop, but it is as though they are frozen in time.
The warm-coloured light has softened the coldness and alienation in him, and he is completely different from the unreachable him in the laboratory.
However, the slightly indifferent words blurred the boundary between him and the night.
MC : In that case, why do you accept the idea of making fireworks?
MC : Doesn’t it count as staying in the past to save folk customs?
Lucien : I just want to see how these folk customs will add light and colour to the future.
MC : The future….
I recalled the four bottles filled with different scenery in the laboratory just now.
Lucien also slowed down, patiently waiting for me to come up with the answer.
The thoughts that have been somewhat stuck in my head are now becoming clearer.
MC : Lucien, are you going to work overtime on Saturday?
Lucien : No such plans for now, but that’s a different story if you have other arrangements.
MC : Let’s go back to the lab and get a sample of the condensed fireworks
MC : There is a place I want you to accompany me to see.
We drove the car all the way to the outskirts.
Lucien : I seem I know what you’re going to show me.
MC : Oh? Tell me about it.
Lucien : It has a wide field of vision and no obstructions, so it is a good place to watch the sunrise.
- Again, another reference to one of their past dates, Sunrise Date :”D
Lucien : Combined with the condensed firework samples you asked me to bring from the Institute, the answer is obvious.
Lucien : Should I congratulate you on finding the idea for the fireworks?
MC : It’s all thanks to Professor Lucien.
MC : I’ve always thought that our fireworks are a way to pass on old customs, but I’ve ignored new possibilities.
MC : -I’ve ignored the “future”. The “future” is what I see in my eyes.
Lucien : It’s really MC’s style.
I turned my head. The night enveloped us, and I could only see the outline of his face through the moonlight.
But the little smile that flickered in those eyes became clearer in the darkness.
Lucien : It’s just that the night before dawn is very long, and you need to wait patiently.
MC : After the whole night, it will look more beautiful when the sky is shining. and-
MC : It’s not like I’m waiting alone.
Recently, we are always in a hurry. We seem to have endless things to do, and it’s been a long time since we sat and chatted together like this.
I told Lucien about the recent events, and he responded with a few words from time to time. In that gentle and low voice, I couldn’t help yawning.
Lucien : It seems that MC can’t stand the long night.
Shallow breathing accompanied by a chuckle came from the side, adding a touch of warmth to the night.
MC : I can….
My eyelids feels heavy, and I tried to keep my eyes open with the last of my perseverance.
A hand gently covered my eyes, and the drowsiness wiped me out in an instant.
Lucien : Just sleep for a while. You can save enough energy to better meet the dawn.
When I opened my eyes again, the sun’s morning light had washed away the night.
There was no one in the driver’s seat beside me, I suddenly woke up and subconsciously searched for Lucien’s figure-
He stood in front of the clearing and looked back the moment I looked at him.
The rising sun broke through the horizon the next second, tracing a layer of light on his silhouette.
The first light of dawn, accompanied by his figure, was like a photo framed by the shutter, deeply reflected in my eyes.
I opened the car door and walked towards him in the light.
MC : Why didn’t you wake me…
Lucien : I think compared to the end of the night, what you want to see is the morning warmth.
Lucien : All preparations are done.
Lucien : Now, we can witness the brilliance of the future in your heart together.
Lucien started the fireworks device, fine ice crystals like a fountain burst out.
Without the illumination of the colorful lights, the diamond star dust in the sky will reflect the circles of colorful rays of light in the morning, refracted the most original colors between heaven and earth.
This “honeysuckle” in the color of the morning glow, shimmering with shreds of light, falls on us like the fragments of the moon scattered in the dust.
MC : Professor Lucien gave me the most beautiful view of the future in his eyes, and this is my gift in return.
I looked at Lucien, who was shrouded in the morning light. The scene of dawn was like a puzzle that finally found the lost piece and become whole.
MC : The futures we see are different, but they will merge together and become more complete, just like the present.
I gently hooked Lucien’s fingers, as if this would connect the future with us.
Lucien’s palm pressed against the back of my hand and slowly tightened.
Lucien : For me, there is one more element that is indispensable to make the scenery that I see complete.
The way he stared at me were more dazzling than the morning light.
Lucien : -She is right in front of me.
- [S2 DATES NEVER DISAPPOINT, he’s basically saying that he wants her in his future asjsajsdkksdkl🥺]