The Journey of Our Fathers

Deep in the mines of Gaia-9, Guan Shan, an ordinary miner who was struggling to pay for his daughter's medical expenses, accidentally obtained a mysterious black stone. The stone was not the key to a miracle, but a bargain with the universe, a scale that held all the world he knew on one end, and an incomprehensible vastness on the other. When cracks began to appear in his left eye, and dark red marks were branded on his palms, Guan Shan found that he had become a "monument keeper", carrying the pulse of a dying planet, the logical tombstone of a dead civilization, and the rules of the scale to measure all things. Every breath is consumed, every choice is traded, and his daughter's life support has become his only anchor. From mining disaster rescue to interstellar travel, from personal struggle to the survival of civilization, Guan Shan answered the ultimate question of the universe with six hours of breathing, 287 credit coins, and a flesh and blood body under a thousand-pound support: When everything can be quantified, are you still willing to die for something that cannot be priced? The wall is cracked, not the end, but an invitation. And a father wants to take his daughter to an appointment.