The flight attendant nodded again. Owen Sutton hurriedly expressed his thanks, saying, “Thank you for your comfort. I feel much better now. Without you, I really don’t know how I would have managed this journey.”

“This is my duty, sir. I wish you a pleasant trip. Goodbye.” The flight attendant smiled sweetly and reached out to turn off the call button above Owen Sutton's head. Once again, he caught a whiff of that sweet, locust-blossom-like fragrance.

This flight was certainly long—twelve or thirteen hours in total. During the journey, flight attendants moved about constantly, but Owen Sutton noticed that the one who had comforted him earlier never appeared again. While eating, Auerbach asked the attendant distributing the meal boxes and learned that the previous flight attendant was the chief purser of the crew.

“What’s her name?” Owen Sutton asked.

The flight attendant with flaxen hair gave him a polite smile and said, “For that kind of question, it’s better if you ask her yourself.”

Unfortunately, all the way until disembarking, Owen Sutton never saw that understanding flight attendant again.

They transferred at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Due to the time difference, Toronto in the Western Fifth Time Zone is more than twelve hours behind Kyoto in the Eastern Eighth Time Zone, so it was still nighttime.

As soon as they got off the plane for the transfer, Owen Sutton was stunned the moment he looked up. The brilliant Milky Way was like scattered gems on black silk, the sparkling stars varying in size but all shining with the same bright and gentle light.

The boundless darkness and the ever-present starlight formed the main theme of the infinite sky. Standing on the earth, Owen Sutton was unexpectedly moved.

This was the starry sky—familiar yet strange. Looking up, Owen Sutton suddenly felt as if he were standing alone on the vast land. He wondered, when the ancestors of Yan and Huang first saw the clear night sky five thousand years ago, were they as awestruck as he was now?

Actually, when he was a child, Owen Sutton could still see such a starry sky back in his hometown. In those summers, there were no fans or air conditioners at home. At night, the whole family would take small stools and benches and sit with the neighbors in the village threshing ground to cool off.

After playing with his friends until he was tired, Owen Sutton would lie on the warm, flat threshing ground and foolishly gaze up at the stars.

So many years had passed—he thought he had forgotten those days. Now, seeing this dazzling starry sky in faraway Canada, he realized that the childhood years carrying his most beautiful memories had never left him; they were just hidden deep in his heart!

Owen Sutton kept taking deep breaths and said, “The air here is nice.”

Toronto is the largest city in Ontario, and the name Ontario comes from the indigenous language, meaning “sparkling water.” True to its name, this place has Hudson Bay to the north, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River to the south, and is famous for its humid, fresh air.

But Auerbach disagreed. He laughed and said, “Toronto’s air is nothing, trust me, young man. When you get to Farewell Town, you’ll find the air there is sweet!”

They boarded another plane, and the next stop was St. John’s.

On the plane, Auerbach took the opportunity to give him a quick briefing. St. John’s is the capital city of Newfoundland and Labrador Province, and the nearby waters are home to the famous cod fishing grounds. The Daqin Fishery he was to inherit was part of the cod fishing grounds.

Canadian cod is world-renowned. Owen Sutton remembered from his middle school geography class the textbook’s description of the Newfoundland fishing grounds—a land so rich you could “walk ashore on the backs of cod.”

He had never eaten cod before, and now he was eager to try. Once he got to the fishery, he planned to cook up a couple of cod right away—steamed, braised, boiled, bring it on!

The plane landed just at dawn. When the plane was flying low, Owen Sutton could just about tolerate the altitude. Looking out the window, the first thing he saw was the endless expanse of deep blue sea.

In the bay area, rows of colorful wooden houses were built haphazardly, giving off a lazy, laid-back vibe.

St. John’s Airport is about ten kilometers from the city center, and there were very few taxis—unlike the bustling airports back home. Owen Sutton had already noticed this while on the plane: this so-called provincial capital was rather small, not at all bustling. Taking a taxi into the city, the wide, clean streets had only a few pedestrians here and there.

But the city’s scenery was beyond reproach. As soon as he got out of the car, a fresh sea breeze with a faint fishy scent greeted him. Everything Owen Sutton saw felt novel and exciting. When he got to the dock and boarded a fishing boat, he even saw chunks of floating ice drifting and swaying in the current.

“Your fishery is to the southeast. That’s a great spot—the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream meet right in your fishery.” Auerbach said with a smile, standing on the deck.

Owen Sutton was filled with excitement. As they neared the fishery, he felt a kind of nervous anticipation at returning home. Standing on the deck, the fierce sea wind blew against him, but he didn’t feel the cold at all.

At that moment, the sun was just rising. A gentle orange-red glow drifted up from the east, like a shy girl’s smile. Then the brilliant morning sun leapt into the sky, and countless rays of dawn shone over the sea, instantly dispelling the last trace of darkness.