Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 359 Old Friends Still Here
"Dr. Ding Yi, you're awake?" Lieutenant Colonel Xi Zi entered carrying some things, seemingly quite surprised.

"Miss Xizi." Ding Yi greeted the little girl and offered her a chair. After all, she was her savior. Ding Yi usually had a bad temper, but she always had to be polite to her savior.

If it weren't for Lieutenant Colonel Xizi, I would have died long ago from the millions of degrees of heat on the surface of the water droplet.

Unfortunately, the other two saviors, two lieutenants from the European and American fleets respectively, both died in the attack of the Droplets while piloting the 'Mantis'.

'Xi Zi?'

Upon hearing this, Tu Hengyu initially thought the other person was Japanese, but he quickly realized that Fleet International was not Earth International, and there was no nationality; people could have any name they wanted. However, judging from his appearance, the lieutenant colonel in front of him should be from the Asian Fleet. He just didn't know if his ancestors were Chinese.

Xi Zi said, "Dr. Ding Yi, I woke up a little earlier than you. Many space forces appeared in the memorial squares of the Great Depression near Paris, Beijing, and New York. Just like the refresh points in the game, many people from Fleet International have appeared."

I met with some of my fellow Space Force members to assist the US government with the cleanup efforts. Things are chaotic outside, and I just got back to see you.

Xi Zi looked somewhat tired, but she still forced herself to be energetic and took out some dinner she had bought from who-knows-where, which was obviously specially prepared for Ding Yi.

Ding Yi thanked him repeatedly.

Lieutenant Colonel Xi Zi seemed to have come to say goodbye to Dr. Ding Yi. She said, "Dr. Ding, the International Earth organization wants you to stay on Earth for now. The survivors of my Asian fleet have spontaneously completed their regrouping and will soon be flying to Jupiter in planetary warships to participate in the reconstruction of Jupiter's orbit. Therefore, we will no longer be able to look after you... If Dr. Ding wishes to visit Jupiter someday, I will personally receive you!"

Ding Yi waved his hand weakly, "Go on, go on. Anyway, thank you for pulling this old man out of his way. Please give my thanks to the families of the two Space Force soldiers who sacrificed their lives. I will go and pay my respects to them when I have time."

Suddenly, Tu Hengyu, who had been quiet to the side, spoke up: "Lieutenant Colonel Xizi, may I ask what exactly is going on at the Jupiter front? Earth is too far from Jupiter, and there are all sorts of rumors circulating. I really want to know the true situation at the front."

Xi Zi was taken aback when she heard this. Only then did she notice Tu Hengyu, a young man who looked to be no more than thirty or forty years old. He seemed to have come to visit Ding Yi as well, or perhaps he was a friend of Old Ding.

"You are... a senior of the people of the Common Era, aren't you?"

Tu Hengyu nodded. He wasn't surprised that his identity as a person from the Common Era had been revealed. Compared to modern people, people from the Common Era had very distinct characteristics, especially since he was wearing glasses that people from the Common Era wore.

With a complicated expression, Xi Zi explained, "Senior, the solar system fleet was almost completely wiped out, slaughtered by the nine droplets. Only more than 700 warships escaped... This news should be announced soon, but the whole Earth is in chaos right now, and governments at all levels are almost incapacitated. It will take a few more days to restore order."

Did only 700-odd warships escape?
Upon hearing this, Tu Hengyu glanced at Ding Yi.

Just as Ding Yi predicted, the solar system fleet was indeed completely destroyed by those probes... but why were there nine droplets?
"Nine? Isn't it ten?" Tu Hengyu asked.

He remembered Liu Xiu saying that the first batch of the Trisolaran First Fleet deployed ten probes, and the second batch deployed five probes. However, these five probes should still be far away from the solar system and are gliding at low light speed.

"I might have broken one," Ding Yi said quietly from the side. "That droplet had a chip in it, so it was probably destroyed by the warship later."

"It's broken?"

Tu Hengyu stared in shock at the old man on the hospital bed.

Xi Zi corroborated Ding Yi's words: "Although the situation is still somewhat unclear, based on my conversations with the survivors of Fleet International, this should be the truth. The droplet that Old Ding smashed must have been targeted by the 'Natural Selection' in a counterattack, crossing tens of millions of kilometers to successfully destroy it. Old Ding deserves great credit. If it weren't for the destruction of this droplet, which created a gap in the droplet encirclement, the number of surviving warships might have been reduced from over 700 to just 12." Survivors from Fleet International have already recounted the events: if one more droplet had been added to the encirclement, forming a complete encirclement of 10 droplets, then apart from the escaped warships led by 'Natural Selection' and some escaped warships disguised within the pursuing fleet, such as the 'Ultimate Law' and the 'Bronze Age', they would have been completely wiped out.

Apart from the twelve escaped warships, none of humanity's solar system fleet will survive.

It can be said that Ding Yi's hammer blow and the Natural Selection's counterattack together saved the remaining 700-plus star-class warships.

"So this is ah……"

Tu Hengyu muttered to himself, then thought of Liu Xiu's prophecy that the water droplet was absolutely invincible and that the solar system fleet would be completely destroyed, and a chill ran down his spine.

Both Liu Xiu and Ding Yi's prophecies were correct.

but……

Why did Earth, whose solar system fleet was destroyed, achieve the final victory over the Trisolaran world?
After answering Tu Hengyu's question, Xizi quickly packed her things in the ward. Just before leaving, she seemed to suddenly remember something and asked, "Old Ding, do you know Captain Jiang Xingchen?"

The familiar name made Ding Yi pause for a moment.

Tu Hengyu, who was standing to the side, didn't seem to recognize the name.

"Old Jiang? He's still alive?" Ding Yi said in disbelief.

Xi Zi was packing her things when she heard this and was a little surprised: "Oh, you really know him? Captain Jiang really wasn't bragging when he said he was an ancient soldier. He was the captain of the 'Mount Everest' star-class warship. After the 'Mount Everest' was destroyed by the water droplet, he was one of the survivors who respawned in the Great Low Valley Plaza. I am a diplomat from the Asian Fleet who came from the Mount Everest. He was my old captain."

Xi Zi looked thoughtful: "I remember... Captain Jiang mentioned you many times. He told your story and about the 2005 Pacific macro-fusion crisis. He seemed to really want to contact you, but he seemed to have some concerns... Never mind, I'll give you his contact information. If you'd like, you can contact Captain Jiang yourself."

Xi Zi took Ding Yi's antique phone, frowned, and tried to operate it for a while, but found that she couldn't figure it out. In the end, Tu Hengyu helped her enter Jiang Xingchen's private contact number into the phone.

"Thank you, senior." Xizi said to Tu Hengyu.

After Xi Zi had completely left, Tu Hengyu asked Ding Yi, "Elder Ding, why do you look so unhappy? Our friends from the Common Era are still alive; isn't that a good thing?"

Ding Yi sighed: "Jiang Xingchen is a naval general. I didn't expect him to participate in the support. His future plans include becoming a space force officer, and even becoming the captain of the 'Mount Everest' star-class warship... It's quite a coincidence that he's matched up with his 'Mount Everest' aircraft carrier. He was the captain 200 years ago, and he can still be the captain 200 years later. He's truly worthy of the name."

Tu Hengyu, observing Ding Yi's reaction, said, "But I can tell you have mixed feelings. Do you not get along with him?"

Ding Yi shook his head: "There's nothing wrong with it. It's just that a crazy woman almost set the Pacific Ocean on fire. Now it's all good. Old Jiang is still alive. I just don't know if that kid Dr. Chen is still alive. If Dr. Chen is also alive... then we old bones of Ball Lightning will be all gathered together."

Ding Yi looked out the window, and the originally semi-transparent window changed to one-way transparency as his gaze fell upon it. Outside the window, the survivors from Fleet International were lining up, and at the very top of the sky, a few planetary warships were hovering.

"It's all like a dream, everything is just like in the dream..."

(End of this chapter)