"You didn’t sell it today either?"

His wife looked at the exhausted Dr. Fabric. The large case in his hand looked exactly the same as when he had left that morning.

Although she already knew the answer, she asked out of habit, hoping for good news.

Dr. Fabric said, embarrassed, "Baron Bein thought it was pretty good, and the Lid Commerce Association asked me to bring it over tomorrow. The expo isn’t over yet, is it? And even if it is..."

"Let’s eat first. I’ll go heat up the food," his wife interrupted Dr. Fabric.

"Okay." He deflated instantly.

He took off his coat, hung it on the wall, and gently placed the suitcase next to the cabinet.

It was his only hope of changing their lives.

"Are the children asleep?"

"Not yet. They’re lying in bed, insisting on waiting for you to come home before they sleep."

Dr. Fabric forced a smile, crossed the narrow room, and went to the bedroom door.

"AWOO! The big Warg is here to eat the little children who won’t sleep!"

"Haha, don’t let the bad wolf in." The children’s laughter came from inside the room.

"Wah! A tiny wooden door can’t stop my wolf claws."

"Ah! Brother, quick, help me block the door."

"AWOOO—"

"Oh no, the city gate is about to fall."

"Moonlight, grant me strength!"

The bedroom door was suddenly pushed open. The Doctor grabbed the doorknob to slow it down, preventing it from swinging open too fast.

"Run, the bad wolf is in!"

The sister grabbed her little brother, and they jumped onto the bed, wrapping themselves in the blanket.

"Hiding is useless. A Warg can smell you. Are you in the wardrobe? No. Under the table? Not there either..."

Dr. Fabric crouched down and tiptoed, pretending to be sniffing the air.

A gap opened in the bundle of blankets on the bed, pointed right at him.

"Ha! I know! You must be in this bundle of blankets!"

The bundle of blankets on the bed trembled twice.

"Got you!" Dr. Fabric lunged forward.

"It’s a trap!"

The brother and sister threw the blanket at their father.

"Take this!" The two children grabbed their pillows and smacked Dr. Fabric, who was now tangled in the blanket.

"Ah! I’ve been caught!" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Giggles and laughter filled the small bedroom.

Ten minutes later, Dr. Fabric tiptoed out of the bedroom, gently closing the door, afraid of making a sound.

He returned to the dining table.

"The children are asleep."

"They’re asleep."

Dinner was not lavish: black bread, low-quality jam, a few pickles, and a watery soup. The family hadn’t had meat or fish in a long time.

The kerosene lamp flickered.

"It’s time for the children to start school," his wife said, breaking the silence.

The hand Dr. Fabric was holding his spoon with paused. He kept his head down and said, "I know." Then he went back to sipping the watery soup, one spoonful at a time.

"I found a job at the textile mill."

Dr. Fabric looked up in surprise. "What about the children?"

"I’ve already taught them how to take care of themselves."

"I..."

Dr. Fabric instinctively wanted to object, but he suddenly realized he had no right to say anything.

He gripped the black bread in his hand so tightly that coarse crumbs fell onto his plate.

"I’ll go work as a laborer at an Alchemy Workshop." He used the bread to mop up the crumbs on his plate and stuffed it all into his mouth.

"Aren’t you afraid your friends and relatives will laugh at you?"

"You can’t eat dignity."

"So you’re giving up on selling the picture tube."

"I’m giving up." As he said this, Fabric felt like a deflated ball.

"Don’t you have a junior from your school days who made a name for himself at the Zog Group? Why don’t you let him take a look? Maybe he could help you find a suitable buyer."

"Which junior?"

"Yuno! Yuno Stone! He even came over for dinner at our place before. He must be earning at least Ten Silver Coins a month by now."

"He’s a genius. He wouldn’t be interested in my little trinkets," Dr. Fabric said self-deprecatingly. "I’m not selling it. I’ll just keep it as a memento."

With that, he gathered the bowls and washed them one by one in a bucket of water.

It was a sleepless night.

Dr. Fabric stared into the darkness. The night felt as if it had weight, pressing down on him until he could barely breathe.

’I’m a failure of a doctor.’

He had enrolled in the Alchemy Department, only to later discover he couldn’t distinguish between similar colors, making it difficult to identify many materials.

He had thought about changing his major, but transferring required top grades in the department, and he couldn’t even identify many of the materials.

In the end, he relied on his theoretical scores to advance step by step, becoming a graduate student and then a doctor.

He thought the best outcome for him would be to stay and teach at the academy, but his lack of talent was a threshold he could never cross.

Even though he was the hardest worker among his peers, he still took an extra six years to graduate. It was only because his advisor bent the rules that he managed to scrape by with a doctorate.

Because of his unimpressive resume and physical limitation, it was nearly impossible for him to find a respectable Alchemy job in Twin Tower City.

He was thirty-five that year, surviving on odd jobs. If not for the house his parents left him, he would have found it hard to survive in Twin Tower City.

Meanwhile, Yuno, who was ten years his junior, had already designed a prototype for a camera system that very same year.

He knew right then that the kid was destined for greatness.

Inspired by Yuno, he decided to design a specialized alchemical device for displaying camera recordings.

By the time he finished, *Holy Mountain Journey* was released.

Its visual effects far surpassed his own creation.

His black-and-white, small-screen picture tube with its low resolution and fifty-hertz frequency was a joke compared to the Shadow of Evil projected by the Illusion Technique.

At the crack of dawn, while his wife and children were still asleep, he got up, washed his face, and prepared to head out early to apply for a job at an Alchemy Workshop.

As he reached the door, as if guided by some unseen force, he once again saw the suitcase by the cabinet.

It was the only presentable achievement he had.

Instead of going to the Alchemy Workshop, he picked up the case and went to the Zog Potion Factory.

He had heard Yuno’s laboratory was also here.

He squatted by the side of the street and waited until that familiar figure appeared on a bicycle.

He stretched his numb legs, repeatedly giving himself a mental pep talk, and finally spoke up just as Yuno was about to pass by.

"Yuno!"

"Senior Fabric!" Yuno was pleasantly surprised to see the man on the side of the street. Back when he was a poor student, his senior had taken good care of him. He just hadn’t heard any news of him recently.

"I... I’ll treat... treat..."

"Let me treat you to a meal! I’m telling you, there’s a meatball noodle shop nearby that’s amazing. If I didn’t have to work, I’d definitely have a drink with you."

Dr. Fabric was unaccustomed to Yuno’s warmth. It had been a long time since anyone had been so enthusiastic with him.

In the noodle shop, Yuno noticed his senior hemming and hawing, as if he had something he wanted to say.

He was familiar with this look. His senior had always been thin-skinned, unable to bring himself to ask for a favor.

He glanced around and noticed the case that had been sitting by Fabric’s feet the whole time.

"Senior, have you invented something new again?"

"It’s nothing special, just a little gadget."

Dr. Fabric wiped the sweat from his brow and opened the suitcase.

On the black-and-white screen, a short instructional video of Toto’s Yo-Yo tricks was playing.

After watching for a few minutes, Yuno’s expression turned serious.

"Have you registered the patent?"

"Not yet."

"Then come with me first. We’ll go register the patent later."

"Where are we going? The food..."

"Forget the food! There will be plenty of chances to eat later."

Half an hour later, a small, 12-inch screen was placed in front of Zog.

Zog watched it several times, not to see Toto’s Yo-Yo video, of course, but to understand how the device worked.

"How much?"

"Huh?" Dr. Fabric didn’t react at first, his fingers nervously fiddling with the case’s handle.

"The price!" Yuno nudged him quickly.

"F-Fifty Silver Coins," Dr. Fabric said, desperate for the money to pay for tuition. "Lump sum."

"A lump sum might be a bit difficult."

"If you really can’t pay..."

"How about Fifty Silver Coins a month?"

"Huh?" Dr. Fabric was stunned again. This time it wasn’t that he failed to react; he thought he was hearing things.

"What ’huh’? Welcome to the Zog Group. Of course, you can refuse if you want..."

"I accept!"

His voice was loud, as if he were shouting out all the frustrations of the past several years in a single cry.