Don't go to the moon, there are gods on the far side of the moon.

"Three knocks?"

Lu Chengong stared at the screen, his expression as if he had heard someone asking him to go to space and knock on a door.

"Who will knock?"

Lin Jibai was silent for a moment.

"If I'm not mistaken, it wasn't a physical knock."

Xu Wangshu has already retrieved the early design drawings of Xuan Niao No. 3.

The miniature experimental satellite was small, shaped like a bird with a broken wing. Two of its three solar panels had already failed, leaving only the last one maintaining standby power at extremely low levels. It lacked sophisticated weaponry, powerful communication arrays, and even the automatic docking interface commonly used in modern commercial maintenance satellites.

But it has three old-fashioned manual confirmation lanes.

Number 1: Ground short code.

Number Two: Echo of the Lighthouse.

Number 3: Near-field mechanical contact.

Xu Wangshu looked up.

"Knock three times to confirm the three channels."

Qin Lan quickly made the assignments.

"The ground short code is issued by the space city."

Xu Wangshu continued: "The lighthouse echo is controlled by Lin Jibai, at low power, and is not connected to deep space."

Lu Chengong looked at the third item.

"What about the close-range mechanical contacts?"

The technician looked grim.

"Tianheng is the closest planet to it."

The atmosphere in the main control room suddenly became tense.

In other words, Wen Qingyue might snatch the third attack.

Wen Qingyue had obviously seen the design drawings as well.

Her channel popped up.

[The Tianheng maintenance satellite can perform third-channel confirmation.]

To prevent the fire from getting out of control, please authorize access.

Qin Lan said coldly, "No authorization."

[Failure to authorize will result in missing the contact window.]

Wen Qingyue's words were devoid of emotion, yet they felt like a knife pressed against everyone's throat.

She wasn't being unreasonable. She did indeed possess the closest mechanical contact point. If the official human authorities had no alternative, they would either let her tap a third time, or watch as the Xuan Bird No. 3 was deemed unacceptable by the Zhu Rong Platform.

Lin Xiaoman suddenly asked, "Can I use the DreamNet?"

Xu Wangshu shook his head: "The DreamNet is not a mechanical contact."

Lu Chengong glanced at the broken bow stabilizer, his eyes flickering.

"Hou Yi's arrow shadow is acceptable."

Everyone looked at him.

He raised his hand and pressed it on the personal confirmation field.

"Zhu Rongtai just tested my arrow shadow. That thing can pass through shadows and also touch track fragments. If I only fire a non-lethal arrow shadow, could that be considered a mechanical contact?"

Xu Wangshu did not immediately deny it, but instead quickly calculated.

"The risk is that the arrow's shadow could be ignited by a spark in the opposite direction."

"The insurance is still valid."

"It's too far away."

"Zhu Rongtai just provided the link."

Lin Jibai suddenly said, "Okay, but you can't be the only one firing the arrows."

Lu Chenggong frowned: "You want to tie up another bunch?"

"right."

Lin Jibai relayed the Tianzhu Echo to the Moonbeam Lighthouse, his voice tinged with obvious weariness.

"First short code on the ground, Qin Lan taps."

"The second echo of the lighthouse, I strike it."

"The third arrow of Hou Yi struck, Lu Chen struck with his bow, but Lin Xiaoman listened in and gave a warning. Xu Wangshu refused to use the mat to cover the core, and the physical interruption was suppressed."

Wen Zhaolin added in a low voice, "I can provide the old calibration frequency of Xuan Niao No. 3."

Qin Lan looked at him.

"cost?"

"There was no cost." Wen Zhaolin paused. "If I had to say something, I would admit that Tianheng failed to find it back then because Lin Wangchuan didn't trust us."

No one laughed at that statement.

Qin Lan gave the order.

"Execute the three-knock agreement."

First time.

The ground station in the space city emitted a string of ancient short codes. The outer shell of Xuanniao-3 gently lit up.

The second time.

The lighthouse on the far side of the moon emitted a low-power echo, and Lin Jibai's heartbeat visibly faltered for a moment, its stability dropping from 64% to 63%, before being pulled back by the three human anchors.

The third time.

Lu Chen released a thin, almost invisible arrow.

The arrow's shadow passed through the Zhurongtai link, crossed the preemptive orbit of the Tianheng maintenance star, and gently touched the mechanical contact of Xuanniao No. 3.

thump.

On the main screen, a sliver of light appeared on the shell of Xuan Niao No. 3, which had been dormant for ten years.

The Tianheng maintenance satellite simultaneously extends its robotic arm.

Wen Qingyue's cold voice came.

[The contact window is open; Tianheng is proceeding with a safe recovery.]

But the next second, a message popped up inside Xuan Niao No. 3.

Before the three-step agreement was implemented, Xu Wangshu asked everyone to reconfirm the termination boundary.

This seems very slow.

The Tianheng maintenance star was approaching, and the window for the Zhurong Platform was shrinking. Every second in near-Earth orbit was as precious as burning metal. Yet she still insisted that Lu Chenggong finish reading the right to refuse to fire, that Lin Xiaoman confirm that she would listen in but not dive, and that Lin Jibai confirm that the lighthouse echo would only knock on the door and not open the box.

Wen Qingyue gave a cold reminder over the channel.

You are wasting windows.

Xu Wangshu's reply was very brief.

We are retaining personnel.

Upon hearing this, Lu Chengong suddenly smiled.

He used to hate procedures the most, especially these seemingly slow-paced reviews. But just now, when Zhu Rongtai burned his shadow, it was precisely these slow-paced things that saved him.

He raised his hand and waited for the physical interruption switch to be pressed into a safe position before releasing the arrow.

Just before the arrow left the bowstring, Lin Xiaoman suddenly shouted, "Wait!"

Everyone's heart tightened.

Xiaoman stared at the orbital images in the dream network.

"Behind the robotic arm of the Tianheng maintenance star, there is another layer of old signals."

Wen Zhaolin's expression changed drastically.

"Fragments of the Nine Suns?"

"It's not awake yet," Xiaoman said, "but it's listening."

Xu Wangshu immediately incorporated this warning into the three-step agreement.

[Third tap additional restriction: The Nine-Day Fragment active verification must not be triggered.]

Lu Chengong took a deep breath.

"Can we knock now?"

Xiaoman nodded.

"Be gentle."

Lu Chengong, unusually, did not retort.

"Know."

Before knocking for the second time, Lin Jibai briefly requested Xu Wangshu to open his father's work badge anchor.

Xu Wangshu hesitated for a second.

"risk?"

"It will hurt," Lin Jibai said, "but it should be able to stabilize the lighthouse echo."

Lin Xiaoman gripped her employee badge tightly.

That employee badge, from the very beginning, was like a silent stone, weighing heavily on the hearts of the siblings. Their father left behind too many mysteries, and too many choices that were never explained. Now, Xuan Niao No. 3 needs Lin Wangchuan's manual logic, and also needs Lin Jibai himself to knock on it a second time.

Xiaoman placed her employee ID card on the table.

"Brother, use it."

The heartbeat in the toolbox paused for half a second.

"Thanks."

As the lighthouse echoed, a faint, old silver light shone from the edge of the work badge. Lin Jibai heard his father's indistinct voice—not a message, but a familiar, long-forgotten admonition: "Disconnect the power before fixing anything. Don't be reckless."

He smiled.

"It's too late."

The second tap revealed no complete interface of the Moonbeam Lighthouse; instead, it illuminated the old message "Wait for someone to tap three times" on the outer shell of the Xuan Niao III.

After the third arrow was launched, Lu Chen's right hand never left the physical interruption confirmation zone. He also positioned himself within the interception zone. If the arrow showed even the slightest tendency to pursue the fire, the guillotine would first sever the connection between him and the broken bow fragments. This posture was undignified, but it reassured Xu Wangshu somewhat.

As the arrow's shadow crossed the final section of its trajectory, everyone held their breath. It wasn't an attack, nor a capture, but merely a knock as soft as possible. For the first time, Lu Chen Gong realized that the Hou Yi sequence didn't necessarily require destruction as proof.

Xiaoman nodded gently on the listening end and recorded the knocking as "non-lethal touch" to provide evidence for the later review.

Lin Wangchuan's voice rang out.

"If you hear this, it means someone is trying to make decisions for humanity again."

"After the third tap, don't open the box."

"First ask if the fire is willing to wake up."