Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 850: Chapter 94: All for You

“Let me go! Who are you people? Let me out! This is illegal detention! It’s a crime… let me go!”

Through the glass, several medical staff could be seen struggling to hold down Dr. Ferenc’s limbs—of course, it wasn’t that they couldn’t control Dr. Ferenc, but because they were afraid of hurting him, making the task particularly difficult.

This was already the third day after the experts’ panel meeting.

Mr. Ofi had a face covered with stubble; he hadn’t left the hospital during this period. His bloodshot eyes and dark circles made him look particularly haggard.

“Mr. Ofi, Dr. Ferenc’s memory has regressed again… but the activity in his brain is even more intense than yesterday.” The attending physician was looking at the report in his hand.

Mr. Ofi murmured, “His memory should be around when he was twenty-six.”

The attending physician was taken aback and quickly flipped through the various reports in his hands, “Around twenty-six?”

Mr. Ofi sighed, “He just said he wanted to take me to see Poz’s championship match, that was when I was eight, and he promised to take me as a birthday gift.”

To accurately diagnose the cause of Dr. Ferenc’s condition, Mr. Ofi had disclosed the Alzheimer’s disease and through various means, found the doctor who had been secretly treating him, obtaining Dr. Ferenc’s medical records from the past two years.

But these records still couldn’t explain the current issue with Dr. Ferenc’s brain activity.

Due to the brain’s frantic extraction of bodily nutrients, Dr. Ferenc’s waking periods were very short, and each time he woke, his memory regressed.

He was living ‘younger’… Such thoughts inevitably led some members of the experts’ panel to hypothesize whether Dr. Ferenc would eventually regress to the memory of an infant, ultimately becoming a confused ‘baby’… and perhaps, when his memory regressed to the very beginning, it might be the end of his life.

“Let me go… let me go…”

The medical staff was administering a sedative to Dr. Ferenc to slightly curb his brain activity. However, each time he regained consciousness, his brain activity intensified. This repetitive process was merely a temporary fix.

Seeing Dr. Ferenc’s half-closed eyes, Mr. Ofi suddenly shivered, “Stop… tell them to stop!”

“Mr. Ofi, if we stop now, we won’t be able to administer the nutritional supplements for the doctor, and his body can’t withstand it for long…”

“I said stop!!” Mr. Ofi grabbed the collar of the attending physician, his years in a position of power exerting a tremendous pressure, leaving the physician speechless, only able to hurriedly order the medical staff to stop.

Mr. Ofi directly barged into the intensive care unit, unlocking the restraints on Dr. Ferenc’s limbs. Witnessing Dr. Ferenc in a half-dream, half-awake state due to the body’s frantic consumption, Mr. Ofi reached for a bottle of synthetic nutrition liquid nearby.

“Listen, you want to leave here, don’t you? You want to take your son to see Poz’s match, right?” Mr. Ofi stared intently at Dr. Ferenc, “If you want to leave, I can take you out, but you must finish all of this! If you agree, nod your head!”

Dr. Ferenc nodded with difficulty, and Mr. Ofi carefully fed him the nutritional liquid.

The nutritional liquids actually contained sedative elements, so soon after ingestion, Dr. Ferenc fell into a deep sleep.

The attending physician wiped his sweat as he entered, breathing a sigh of relief, “Finally got him to take it… but the available nutritional supplements are running short of Dr. Ferenc’s demands. Mr. Ofi, maybe we should consider a backup plan…”

Each time, they used more advanced nutritional supplements, yet Dr. Ferenc’s body was rapidly adapting to the external energy supply.

Soon, the available technology to create nutritional supplements would be unable to meet Dr. Ferenc’s consumption needs… if a solution couldn’t be found by then…

Therefore, the experts proposed a final solution — cryopreserving Dr. Ferenc.

With the current technology failing to solve the issue, the only option was to cryogenically preserve Dr. Ferenc, awaiting future technological breakthroughs.

But Mr. Ofi lifted Dr. Ferenc, seemingly intending to leave the intensive care unit, startling the attending physician, “Mr. Ofi, what are you doing?”

Mr. Ofi took a deep breath, “Contact the cryonics company in Europe for me.”

Had he already made up his mind?

The attending physician watched stunned as Mr. Ofi carried Dr. Ferenc out, instinctively shouting at the last moment, “Where are you taking him?”

“To see a ball game.”

…

The car sped along the highway, followed by several identical models and a white ambulance.

In the leading car, Mr. Ofi, who was driving, glanced at the box on the front seat, filled with high-concentration nutritional supplements taken from the hospital.

“Oh… I don’t like this flavor, is there an orange-flavored one?”

In the passenger seat, Dr. Ferenc frowned, wanting to spit out a pill he had just swallowed, but Mr. Ofi covered his mouth, “You need to swallow it, or I won’t take you to the stadium.”

“Alright, nagging Matthew.” Dr. Ferenc reluctantly swallowed.

It seemed it wasn’t just memory regression; his memory was also confused. Dr. Ferenc mistook Mr. Ofi for one of his old companions, Mr. Matthew, the curator of the science museum.

“Hey, Matthew, were there always so many buildings around here? Why don’t I remember?” Dr. Ferenc excitedly looked at the scenery outside the window.

Mr. Ofi didn’t know what world Dr. Ferenc saw in his eyes; he could only follow along with whatever Dr. Ferenc said, so he replied with resignation, “The world changes every day. You’re always in the lab, of course, you don’t know what’s happening outside.”

Dr. Ferenc sneered, “Nonsense! The world changes because of technology. Without us science guys in the lab developing technology, where would these changes come from? We know better than them!”

“I didn’t mean to deny it.” Mr. Ofi shook his head.

Dr. Ferenc suddenly frowned, “Matthew, are we going to be late? Is Ofi already waiting for me at the stadium? Oh, it’s all my fault for forgetting things, if you hadn’t reminded me, I’d still be grading papers in the office!”

This ‘time’ period for Dr. Ferenc was when he was still a teacher at the national university, far before he was recruited into the national research institute.

“When did I remind… Oh, right, I did remind you.” Mr. Ofi sighed, “You always forget family because of work.”

“There’s no other choice, right? Our professor is choosing an assistant, which will be helpful for me.” Dr. Ferenc shook his head, “You, someone without a family, wouldn’t understand.”

Mr. Ofi chuckled bitterly, “But have you ever thought that Ofi… he might not actually be happy seeing you so busy. Perhaps he’d rather you stay home and spend more time with him, even if it’s just a simple afternoon playing soccer?”

“Talking about this makes me angry. This kid, his birthday wish this year is actually to watch a soccer match, and he even says he wants to grow up to be a great soccer player!” Dr. Ferenc said through gritted teeth.

Mr. Ofi was taken aback, “Becoming a soccer player, that’s a great dream. Isn’t that how kids are?”

Becoming a great soccer player… that was a dream from many years ago.

Dr. Ferenc shook his head without saying a word, just squinted his eyes and leaned back in his chair without a sound… Mr. Ofi quickly opened a box filled with nutritional pills and pushed Dr. Ferenc’s shoulder, “Ferenc, Ferenc, don’t sleep. We’re almost there! Ferenc, have some candy… Ferenc!”

“Matthew! Leave me alone.”

Dr. Ferenc suddenly opened his eyes and gave Mr. Ofi a hard pat, complaining, “I’m so sleepy, I finally managed to catch a nap… You just ruined my good dream, you know? I was dreaming that Ofi had grown up, taken a beautiful bride, and was accepting the wedding ring from my hand, damn it! You chose now to wake me up! You’re going to face the wrath of every father in the world! I curse you to be single for life!”

I… I have already taken it from your hand… father.

“Is that so… I’m really sorry.” Mr. Ofi suddenly choked up.

At this moment, Mr. Ofi’s Bluetooth earpiece suddenly rang. He glanced at Dr. Ferenc, who had squinted his eyes again, saying he wanted to continue the dream where Ofi got married.

“Sir, it’s been arranged. However, due to time constraints, we could only ask the club Poz was with back then to select a team of reserves. Their main players are currently playing elsewhere… Recreating the match from back then is really…”

Mr. Ofi glanced at Dr. Ferenc again and then lowered his voice, “Listen, I’m fifteen minutes away. Make sure the players are ready.”

…

There weren’t many people inside the soccer field. Mr. Ofi suddenly felt a sense of luck – thankfully, the player he liked as a child played for an obscure club, lingering in the second division leagues. Otherwise, he really wouldn’t know where to find a crowd of spectators for the scene.

Still, they brought in a lot of extras to avoid the place being too empty – just like back in the day.

“Oh… has it started?” Dr. Ferenc opened his eyes.

In fact, he now seemed like a narcoleptic patient, falling into a near slumber with every few steps, yet for some reason he always woke back up.

Dr. Ferenc didn’t bring up Ofi again. Originally, Mr. Ofi had arranged for a child actor to temporarily play “young Ofi,” but it seemed unnecessary now.

The child actor, standing on standby a short distance away, watched the extras draw banners and shout with all their might in boredom, and then tugged at Ofi’s secretary’s sleeve, “Even if I don’t go on stage, I still get paid, right?”

The secretary gave the kid an exasperated look, thinking to himself: This little rascal is going to be wealthy in the future.

He shook his head with a wry smile, then looked over at Mr. Ofi, not knowing what his boss and Dr. Ferenc were talking about at that moment.

“Hey!! Poz! Give it some strength! Didn’t you eat?”

Like a young man, within the ancient, almost collapsing body erupted the vitality of a robust male. Mr. Ofi worriedly held back Dr. Ferenc, who was eager to rush out of the stands, “Ferenc, buddy, can you be a little more civil?”

“Oh… sorry, got a bit excited.” Dr. Ferenc plopped back into his seat and glanced around, “Matthew, did you see Ofi? He seems to be missing!”

With that, Dr. Ferenc anxiously stood up again – Mr. Ofi was stunned, seeing that his father had just “remembered” the matter.

He hesitated for a moment and abandoned the idea of letting the secretary call the child actor over, speaking directly, “Did you forget? Ofi went to the bathroom.”

“Oh… is that so?” Dr. Ferenc nodded, then sat down again, shaking his head, “Honestly, watching this frustrates me so much, I’d rather stay at school grading papers or doing experiments.”

Mr. Ofi smiled wryly, “You never liked sports anyway.”

Remembering when Dr. Ferenc brought him to watch this match back in the day, only for him to sleep through the entire second half amidst the chaos, made Mr. Ofi unconsciously smile.

Dr. Ferenc shook his head, mumbling, “What can I say, Ofi liked it. You’ll understand when you’re a father.”

Dr. Ferenc gently tapped Mr. Ofi’s shoulder.

“I don’t understand.” Looking at Dr. Ferenc, Mr. Ofi felt a resonant chord in his heart, “I don’t understand why you’re always talking about Ofi, yet all he sees is your back, or why, in the end, your heart is all about satellites.”

“Is that so… you don’t understand, don’t understand…” Dr. Ferenc murmured, seemingly remembering something.

Mr. Ofi keenly sensed something different about Dr. Ferenc. His heart suddenly became a bit excited, only to hear Dr. Ferenc suddenly shrug, “Of course you don’t understand, because you’re not a father, hahaha!”

“Yeah… I’m not.” Mr. Ofi exhaled deeply, looking at the players on the field below, “Indeed, I can say the same to you… actually, I’m the same myself, all these years.”

“What’s got you so down all of a sudden?” Dr. Ferenc asked with curiosity.

Mr. Ofi turned his head, patting Dr. Ferenc’s leg, then smiled and shook his head, “Nothing, just… just suddenly thought of my own father.”

“Oh, Old Matthew must’ve given you lots of fond memories.” Dr. Ferenc nodded.

Mr. Ofi’s body trembled suddenly. He realized he needed to do something, a nearly instinctual impulse made him stand up abruptly. Looking at Dr. Ferenc, he said, “You’re right, they’re playing terribly. I really should give them a good yelling.”

“Oh?” Dr. Ferenc was taken aback.

At this time, Mr. Ofi grabbed the railing with both hands, nearly tumbling forward, shouting, “Hey! Poz! Shit!! Use every ounce of your strength, you weakling! Crap!!”

So loud, so piercing, even people far away could hear it… The ever-ready secretary and a team of medical staff looked at each other in dismay – the secretary even felt somewhat relieved. Thankfully there were no journalists around, otherwise, Mr. Ofi, being a public figure, behaving like this in public would surely damage his image.

“Haha! Crap!! Poz, you’re just a lump of crap!” Now Dr. Ferenc also stood up laughing, mimicking Mr. Ofi’s posture, also leaning out, “Crap!!”

“Crap!!”

“Go to hell!!” Mr. Ofi intensely threw his air-filled baton onto the field.

“Crap! Go to hell!!” Dr. Ferenc, elatedly mimicking Mr. Ofi, also threw his air baton.

The two of them suddenly burst out laughing.

…

…

After this, Dr. Ferenc fell asleep and couldn’t be woken up.

The accompanying doctor hurriedly went forward, sent Dr. Ferenc to the ambulance for examination, concluding that during this outing, Dr. Ferenc’s condition had deteriorated drastically, requiring immediate transfer back to the hospital.

Mr. Ofi nodded in silence to approve.

However, not long after, while the ambulance was still on the highway, Dr. Ferenc suddenly opened his eyes, startling the nearby medical staff into a flurry of activity.

But it was clear this time, Dr. Ferenc’s memory neither regressed nor progressed, but returned to the state he was in at the research center.

Dr. Ferenc’s hands were restrained on the stretcher, the doctor trying to calm him down, but he persistently struggled.

His gaze unfocused, after realizing his hands couldn’t move, he quickly ceased struggling. Yet his lips moved rapidly, chanting some complex and profound content.

“No way… The sedative is also ineffective!” The primary doctor suddenly panicked, “How could this happen… how could this happen! The dosage was enough to sedate a full-grown elephant…”

“Do you still want to continue administering it?” Mr. Ofi angrily grabbed the primary doctor’s arm as he attempted to administer another injection to Dr. Ferenc.

“But… but if his brain doesn’t cool down…” the primary doctor said in horror, “Mr. Ofi, he’s going to die… at this rate, very soon!”

Blood slowly trickled from Dr. Ferenc’s nostrils, seemingly unaware, as he continued his verbal calculations with a vacant gaze.

But an overdose of sedatives could also be lethal.

“Materials! Give me materials! I need materials… give me materials!” Dr. Ferenc suddenly looked at Mr. Ofi, “Materials… materials…”

“What materials?” Mr. Ofi hurriedly asked.

“Materials… materials… materials…”

Gritting his teeth, Mr. Ofi suddenly shouted, “To the research center… to the research center!!!!”

…

No one knew what materials were needed, but probably no place had more materials than a national research center. When the director of the research center heard the news, he was shocked and seemed to realize something.

Until Dr. Ferenc was escorted into the research center, upon seeing his old colleague’s current state, the director’s face turned pale.

Mr. Ofi walked heavily, silently following beside the hospital bed, head lowered without speaking. When the director approached inquiring about the situation, he simply asked, “Are the materials prepared?”

“I don’t know what materials are needed exactly.” The director shook his head, “But, I’ve asked people to gather all movable items… Ferenc, what’s going on…?”

“Perhaps it’s what you want.” Mr. Ofi’s voice was very cold, suddenly stopping, looking at the director, coldly said, “I don’t allow you to miss anything!”

The director nodded heavily.

At this moment, researchers at the center had cleared a large space, categorizing the so-called materials, almost occupying two-thirds of the room. They even prepared various tools.

Under different gazes, Dr. Ferenc, initially needing support, suddenly rushed into the materials, searching frantically.

Unlike last time, writing vast amounts of advanced knowledge on the wall, Dr. Ferenc merely searched through the materials, scattering precious materials on the floor as if they were trash, causing some to frown with heartache.

Suddenly, Dr. Ferenc seemed to find what he wanted, promptly placing it on the workbench.

It was something resembling a plank.

“Is this… a plank?” A researcher bewilderedly watched Dr. Ferenc begin pounding on the plank—indeed, it was a plank, broken off from a crate containing precious materials.

Then, Dr. Ferenc began taking ordinary tools like a ruler, steel saw, and nails, starting to saw the plank.

No one knew what Dr. Ferenc intended to do.

But when Dr. Ferenc had sawed halfway, he suddenly stopped, seemingly contemplating something—he picked up an oil-based pen and started writing on the workbench.

“Go see what he’s writing.” The director frowned, instructing a researcher to go over.

The researcher nodded, cautiously approaching Dr. Ferenc under Mr. Ofi’s sharp gaze, and looked at the workbench surface.

At first frowning, seemingly puzzled, but gradually, as Dr. Ferenc wrote more, his mouth opened, and he eventually hurriedly rushed back.

“It’s… it’s… it’s…”

“Speak slowly? Don’t panic!”

“It’s a design! A design!” The researcher swiftly said, “It looks like a design for a Three-stage Propulsion Rocket… but I’ve never seen this structure before! I can’t calculate it!”

“Get someone here!” The director decided immediately.

It seemed… like the scene in the conference room before.

A large number of researchers started gathering in the place, scanning what Dr. Ferenc drew on the workbench into the computer, analyzing its structure, even creating data models to reach some conclusions immediately.

Mr. Ofi ignored the enthusiasm and exclamations of these scientists, just watching Dr. Ferenc’s back.

Such a back… always, giving him was such a back.

Beside him, the primary doctor grew increasingly anxious, unable to hold back whispering in Mr. Ofi’s ear, “Mr. Ofi… really not going to stop Dr. Ferenc? He’s been in this state for a long time, if it doesn’t stop, I’m afraid… afraid there’s really no way.”

“Didn’t you already run out of options?” Mr. Ofi glanced at the attending doctor.

He couldn’t utter a single word… The time given to him and the expert team behind him was truly too little, and there were no previous cases to refer to.

Facing Mr. Ofi’s gaze, he ultimately could only shake his head sadly.

Mr. Ofi stopped paying attention to the attending doctor and instead looked at the back of Dr. Ferenc, murmuring, “Is this… enough to satisfy you?”

Mr. Ofi sighed; he felt there was no need for him to stay… At the very least, he couldn’t bear to watch Dr. Ferenc collapse in front of him with his own eyes.

At least… let his greatness remain in his own heart.

Dr. Ferenc bore the weight of an entire team’s lives, including even his own daughter-in-law. Mr. Ofi understood this torment of guilt better than anyone. Because he had always lived under the same roof as Dr. Ferenc, sharing the closest relationship in the world.

Because of this, he couldn’t blame Dr. Ferenc… and he couldn’t help but forgive Dr. Ferenc.

Madam Maggie… is she also watching at this moment?

In a daze, Mr. Ofi seemed to see many figures that didn’t belong here… the silhouette of his wife, her colleague Madam Maggie—the ones who lost their lives long ago in the disaster.

Mr. Ofi knew this was the illusion he saw, a scene woven from the torment of his soul.

They were all around Dr. Ferenc, surrounding the workbench… what those who had left behind always remained with Dr. Ferenc.

Their spirits… their will.

“Is this what has been supporting you all along?” Mr. Ofi murmured to himself.

He seemed to see Madam Maggie looking at him with a slight smile, making a shushing gesture, and then focusing intently on Dr. Ferenc, as if to say: Look, this is our pride.

Mr. Ofi wanted to say something, but he abruptly stopped, closing his eyes, trying hard to remember this scene intertwined with reality and illusion.

“Let it be like this.” Mr. Ofi offered his blessing to Dr. Ferenc.

Suddenly he wanted to knock on the office of the research institute that had been left empty—the office that belonged to his wife, Madam Maggie. He remembered there seemed to be a family photo on the desk in that office.

Perhaps, it was time to bring back this memento as well.

“Huh, why doesn’t this model match the design blueprint?”

“Let me see… Strange, isn’t the structure of this rocket model too old? Haven’t I seen this somewhere before?”

“M901 satellite… This is the model of the rocket booster used for the M901 satellite project, I remember now!”

Amidst the chaotic voices, Mr. Ofi suddenly stopped in his tracks, turned around, and looked back… Watching that old figure carefully assembling an old-style model.

This model…

“What is the doctor doing? On one hand, promoting the latest rocket design, and on the other, working on the oldest model? They don’t match at all?”

Mr. Ofi slowly walked toward Dr. Ferenc… the figure grew closer and closer, closer than when he used to watch him leave in the morning, closer than when he hid outside the study looking at his back, unbearably close…

“Hmm… I remember now, this rocket was Ferenc’s entry in the science competition back then. It was this rocket’s structure that won him the championship. From then on, he was discovered by the research center while he was still teaching at the university… Yes, it is indeed this model.” The director of the research institute recalled memories from long ago but was puzzled as to why Dr. Ferenc was assembling this model now.

But Mr. Ofi had already arrived at the workbench.

——Ofi, what do you want for this year’s birthday gift?

——A rocket, I want a rocket!! I want to go to space, I want to be an astronaut!

——Ofi, our country can’t produce such things right now… How about something else, a new football?

——I don’t care, I don’t care! I want to be an astronaut! I want to ride a rocket!

——Alright, alright, Dad will make you one then!

…

——Ofi, look what I’ve made for you? Ta-da, here’s the rocket!

——I don’t want it; this rocket can’t fly into the sky!

——Hmm, making a big rocket takes a really long time, right now, take this one. Later, Dad will make you a real rocket, one that can take people, a satellite-launching rocket, okay?

——Really?

——I won’t lie to you.

——Promise?

——Promise!

“Promise…” Mr. Ofi slowly placed his hand on the back of Dr. Ferenc’s hand, holding it tightly, “Promise…”

Dr. Ferenc’s body trembled slightly, but he quickly continued to focus on assembling the model on the workbench.

Everything, everything.

All for you.

“Dad… don’t go! I don’t want it anymore!”