"All the brilliance in life must be repaid with loneliness after all..." Xian Qianhua muttered to herself as she leaned against the window and looked at the vast stars.
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by García Márquez?" Yan Sichen raised his head and asked with a smile.
"Well, this is my favorite sentence."
"Well, I also like this book very much, but this sentence sounds so sad... I still like that one better... If you knew me in the past, then you would forgive me now."
Xian Qianhua looked back at Yan Sichen and said, "Are you running away?"
"Um?"
"It seems that what you just said...is what it means...you came here not just for photography, right?"
His thoughts were guessed, and Yan Sichen smiled a little sheepishly. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Yes, in order to avoid my mother and my home that doesn't feel like home at all."
"Why?"
Yan Sichen did not say any more. He had already sent the observation data. Whether the earth could receive it or not would all depend on the fate of mankind as a whole.
"I don't like silence." Xian Qianhua said and looked out the window: "I like places with sound, especially the seaside. I can fall asleep listening to the waves and sleep soundly."
"Then... you are really special. I can't help it. I can't sleep even if there is a little noise." Yan Sichen stood up and sat next to Xian Qianhua.
"It's just a matter of personal habit. Besides, waves are not noise, are they?"
"Well, I admit that." Yan Sichen picked up the crystal plate and said, "Tell me... what exactly is this thing?"
That is a simulated imaging of a set of observational data.
A thin layer, but enough to cover the entire sun and plunge the entire earth into darkness, is slowly passing through the solar system.
At first, its speed was very fast, but the closer it got to the center of the solar system, the slower it became, and even gradually showed signs of "braking".
After several days of continuous observation, Xian Qianhua and Yan Sichen obtained very important data, but after all, this is just an escape capsule, and they have no ability to do more. Can the data even be successfully sent back to the company that sent the distress signal?
The earth cannot be received.
"Maybe it's the spaceship of the Curtain Stars." Xian Qianhua was the first human to call this thing "Curtain".
I have to say, it’s really quite vivid.
Yan Sichen smiled: "Then can the two of us go down in history?"
"Oh? What should I say?"
"Look, if this is really an alien curtain, wouldn't we become the first humans to achieve 'third kind of contact' in human history?"
"Haha... Why can't I be happy at all?"
Yan Sichen smiled happily and said: "Don't be so pessimistic. Everyone is destined to die. It may be heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather. The sum of our great achievements must at least... be Mount Everest!"
"Hey! It's less stinky! It's even on Mount Everest! Whether the earth can receive it is another matter!" Xian Qianhua poured down the basin of cold water. Not only did Yan Sichen stop laughing, but Xian Qianhua herself felt very sad.
Silence... another long silence...
I don’t know how long it took before Yan Sichen started singing again.
His voice is surprisingly good, at least much better than the tone-deaf Xian Qianhua.
Xian Qianhua had joked with Yan Sichen before: "If you were thirty years ago, you would have been a big star!"
Yan Sichen was also really popular and immediately sang several songs for Xian Qianhua.
That was really the happiest day since they were trapped.
But today, Xian Qianhua was very quiet. She leaned against the window and looked at Yan Sichen quietly.
Yan Sichen looked out the window, singing intermittently, wondering what he was thinking...
A song that has been sung for a long time...
Xian Qianhua suddenly whispered: "I had a dream...a very real dream..."
"Hmm? What kind of thing? Tell me about it?"
"Well... in the dream... I seemed to have been rescued... I saw a very kind old man, a very beautiful little house painted with white paint, located on the seaside... The sky was blue and the breeze was blowing...
The sound of the waves is very familiar...but only...I actually forgot your name." Speaking of this, Xian Qianhua blushed a little shyly.
Yan Sichen was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said: "It's normal to forget that I am not a famous person."
Xian Qianhua didn't smile when she heard this. She glared at Yan Sichen.
Yan Sichen was a little embarrassed. He coughed and asked again: "What happened next?"
"Later... later I kept looking for my companion... but I just couldn't see him... I seemed to be trapped in that sweet dream, which was repeated every day... Although it felt good, there seemed to always be something in my heart.
A voice reminded me... I still have something very important to do, and I can't just forget it... Then... I woke up." Xian Qianhua said, raising her hand and saying: "But... that dream was really special.
…”
"special?"
"Hmm... It's so real... It's like... it's not a dream at all."
"Forehead……"
"Oh, I don't know what to say...it's just...it's not like a normal dream, where you feel hazy after waking up. Do you understand what I mean?"
Yan Sichen didn't say anything. He frowned as if he was thinking about something.
Xian Qianhua didn't notice this, and she added: "And in the dream, I asked the old man why I couldn't leave here to see my companions and family even though I was well. But he didn't want to answer.
I just smiled... My smile was very kind... But the more I looked at it, the weirder it became... This was one of the reasons why I was able to wake up later."
When Yan Sichen heard this, his eyes changed.
He raised his head and looked at Xian Qianhua seriously and said: "Qianhua, is there a painting in the small white-painted house in your dream?"
Xian Qianhua was stunned for a moment, then frowned and said, "How did you know?"
Yan Sichen suddenly felt a chill running down his spine. He did not continue to ask or answer Xian Qianhua's question, but hurriedly stood up and walked to the operation core of the escape cabin.
Xian Qianhua noticed Yan Sichen's abnormality. She stood up and followed her: "Why don't you speak?"
"I want to confirm something."
"Confirm what?"
"Confirm whether we are alive or already dead..." Yan Sichen turned his head and looked at Xian Qianhua, but what he saw was a figure wrapped in light.
At that moment, Yan Sichen's whole body froze.
His limbs were out of control. Only his eyes could see things, his ears could hear breathing, his nose could smell a strange fragrance of flowers, and his body could feel the sun-like sense of tolerance.
But he couldn't speak, couldn't even think smoothly, and could only watch helplessly as the light swallowed up everything he was familiar with, and the figure gradually faded and disappeared.
Almost at the same moment, there was only light left in Xian Qianhua's world, but unlike Yan Sichen, the light in her world was a dispersing figure, and the figure was surrounded by boundless darkness.
Xian Qianhua felt that the figure had a sense of déjà vu, as if...as if...
…
"Are you awake?"
The sea breeze was still there, and the sun fell on my forehead, giving me a slightly anxious burning feeling.
Xian Qianhua squinted her eyes and subconsciously covered them with her hands.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I saw that the weather was nice, so I just basked in the sun for a while."
The sound of the curtains being pulled came, the dazzling sunlight disappeared, and the ambient lights in the room turned on, making the cold-toned space very warm and comfortable.
Xian Qianhua slowly sat up after adjusting for a while.
The kind-faced old man sat on a chair by the window and looked at Xian Qianhua with a smile. Behind him stood a silver-haired girl who looked like a nurse.
The girl's skin is very white and does not match the beach at all.
Xian Qianhua was a little confused. There was something strange in her heart, but she couldn't remember what happened.
"I...where...is this?"
"In a dream." The old man replied with a smile.
Xian Qianhua was stunned when she heard this: "In a dream?"
"Yes, you have been floating in space for too long and your body has been severely damaged, but your brain is still intact. In order to save you, we have developed a very special dream-reality interactive system to help you recover.
"
Xian Qianhua looked at the old man blankly, closed her eyes after a long time, pinched her eyebrows and said, "Wait...I'm a little confused...you mean...I've been rescued?"
"Yes, that's pretty much what it means."
"almost?"
"Well, when we found you two, you had been floating in space for more than a hundred years. Logically speaking, you should be dead... However, a very talented scientist said that you are still alive... so...
We decided to give it a try, and judging from the results..." The old man smiled, and the meaning was already clear.
After hearing this, Xian Qianhua was still in a daze. After a while, she asked: "Then...am I considered dead or alive now?"
"Consciously, you are alive, but physically, you can be considered dead."
What he said... Xian Qianhua couldn't accept it at all.
She frowned, and after a long time she looked up at the old man and the girl behind him and said, "What about you?"
"This is a dream-reality interaction system. We are all people who exist in reality, but now we are communicating in dreams just like you."
When Xian Qianhua heard this, she couldn't help but think of the classic science fiction movie "Inception".
Many people think that the description of dreams in this ancient classic movie is too random, just like a bus stop. Anyone can enter someone's dream anytime, anywhere, and then can be at a certain stop anytime, anywhere.
get off.
Simply put, it's a bit too much.
But Xian Qianhua, who was born in the 2140s, has learned from various channels that "dream reality" is actually not as far away and nonsense as imagined.
On the contrary, based on the realization of consciousness of the human brain, with the help of external neuron stimulation and the assistance of some special drugs, the human brain can completely present dreams.
But sharing dreams was still a technical difficulty in Xian Qianhua's time.
However, if according to what the old man said, Xian Qianhua has been floating in space for more than a hundred years, then this technical difficulty must have been overcome, and it is not surprising at all.
only……
All these settings came from the mouth of this strange old man, and Xian Qianhua would not believe him so easily.
She asked again: "Does that mean...all my family and friends are dead?"
This is a very sensitive topic. The old man was slightly startled, and then said: "I'm sorry that it took so long to bring you two back to my hometown."
The old man used you, this is a very crucial detail.
Xian Qianhua, who had a keen mind, suddenly felt that she might really be a little nervous... She got out of bed, tentatively moved her hands and feet and asked: "Then from now on... can I only exist here?"
The girl said: "No, the interactive treatment at this stage is mainly to help you restore your complete ideology. At the same time, we hope to use this system to help us review the past and find out some of the advanced civilizations that have brought painful lessons to mankind.
Key memories, and then...when these are completed, we will respect your choice and prepare two options for you."
After hearing about this slightly utilitarian rescue, Xian Qianhua should have been angry, but to her, the past hundred years were as indifferent to her as a joke in an unknown novel, so she didn't care.
An idea, after all...there is no free lunch in the world.
"Which two options?"
"The first option is just like what you just said. You can choose to stay here and become the founder of the dream-reality interactive system. Of course, you don't have to worry that such a life will be boring, because as the technology matures in the future
, we believe that more and more people will be willing to join this system, and then you will have a new life experience that is close to reality but beyond reality."
Xian Qianhua blinked her eyes, then thought about it carefully and said with a smile: "This choice is quite tempting."
"Yes, the dream reality system is different from reality after all. We are currently only trying to build it in Kaiyuan, but it will definitely become another hometown of mankind in the future."
Xian Qianhua nodded, and then asked: "What about the second option?"
"The second option is that we will prepare a bionic prosthesis for you. This bionic prosthesis is made of mechanical skeleton and marine algae synthetic bionic structure. Its comprehensive strength is higher than that of ordinary people, and the energy intake required by the body is
It is also different from ordinary people, but we will prepare a new identity for you in advance according to your specific requirements that is allowed in the principle."
"Within the principle? What does it mean?" Xian Qianhua was a little curious.
"Actually, this is easy to understand, just like... you can't ask us to let you become a big star or the leader of a certain region when you return to the real world, can you?" the girl said with a smile.
Xian Qianhua understood, and she also smiled, but she was thinking in her heart: 'If this system is really so powerful... there is no guarantee that you won't do this...'
The old man seemed to see what Xian Qianhua was thinking. He coughed softly and said: "Well, um, Ms.
You can tell us your ideas directly, and as long as they are reasonable, we will definitely respect your wishes."
Xian Qianhua glanced at the old man, smiled secretly in her heart, then opened the curtains and said: "Forget it...just do what you want...Besides...in the short term...these choices should not be realized yet, right?"
After the old man and the girl looked at each other, the girl said: "Yes, your judgment is very accurate. This technology is currently in the development stage, and the international community is also in a wait-and-see state with reservations about the 'Dream Reality' interactive system.
So... I can’t make any promises to you yet.”
"Well..." Xian Qianhua took a deep breath of air. I have to say that if the old man hadn't said in advance that this was just a dream, Xian Qianhua would have been more willing to believe that this was reality.
The slightly salty smell in the seaside air is really charming.
"Okay..." Xian Qianhua chose to accept. She turned around and looked at the two of them and said, "Oh, by the way, I was a little too rude just now. You are my saviors, but I haven't even asked your names yet.
.”
After hearing this, the old man and the girl didn't care at all. Instead, they said humbly: "You are too polite. Compared with your contribution, we are not worth mentioning at all."
Not worth mentioning? Not worth mentioning, but okay...
This was the first time that Xian Qianhua heard someone describe herself as unworthy of mention.
When I was about to say something, the door to the room opened and a young man who looked to be in his twenties walked in.
He has a handsome appearance, a tall and straight figure, and a steady pace, giving him a somewhat military demeanor.
Xian Qianhua has been very fond of soldiers since she was a child, so when she saw this young man coming in without knocking, she didn't feel too disgusted. Instead, she seemed to be a bit of a nymphomaniac.
As soon as the young man entered the room, the old man and the girl immediately respectfully called him: "Sir."
"Sir? What kind of weird title is this? He teaches?" If it weren't for the old man calling him that, Xian Qianhua might have thought he was the girl's husband.
The young man called Sir entered the room and nodded to the old man and the girl, then bowed deeply to Xian Qianhua.
Xian Qianhua was startled and quickly went to help her. As a result, the other party only bent down and bowed to salute, not to kneel down.
This is a bit embarrassing.
Fortunately, Xian Qianhua reacted quickly enough. She immediately took back her hand and asked, "Um... well, what are you doing? Why are you bowing to me?"
The young man smiled slightly and said: "My name is Su Shiqing. The gift I gave you to Ms. Xian Qianhua just now is firstly to respect your character and your righteous deeds of saving the world, and secondly... If there hadn't been the message sent back by you and Mr. Yan Sichen, maybe our Su family would have been there as early as
It disappeared more than a hundred years ago, and I will not appear here."
After hearing this, Xian Qianhua understood, but this made her feel even more embarrassed.
"Oh, you don't have to be so polite. In fact...if there were other people who survived at that time, I believe they would have done the same."
When Su Shiqing heard this, he said seriously: "This is different, Ms. Xian, although I also believe that every astronaut working in the Shanhai Space Station at that time might make similar choices in this situation, but what you sent back
Data is unique! It has saved at least one billion lives! For this alone, you deserve everyone’s respect!”