The Name of the Rose [Interstellar]

To connect all the events together, like a string of beads strung together.

If time adds a dimension, such time is no longer a line, but a plane.The history that takes place in such a time is not a chain of beads, but a web.

"...I can't understand." Xue Yuan shook his head, and spoke the first complete sentence.He couldn't imagine what such a world would look like.There are countless timelines on a time plane, and countless choices can be made at each time node at the same time, and countless histories will coexist—not in the way of parallel time and space, but in the same time and space.

"You don't need to understand it," said my father. "It's hard to rely on pure imagination to experience it. You have to go to such a world to understand it yourself. I have to admit that for us who live in a three-dimensional world, this is very important." It’s tempting. That’s how they persuaded me to agree to upload it.”

"Upload" again.

Xue Yuan's slightly calmed curiosity was aroused by this word again, and he couldn't help inquiring: "Well, what's going on?"

My father pondered for a while, "To use an analogy, it is equivalent to scanning a physical document into the computer to obtain its PDF electronic version. After that, the physical book still exists, but there is an extra copy of the electronic version."

When the voice appeared in his head back then, Father Xue didn't take it seriously, and even talked to them with a bit of a game mentality. They proposed to scan him and obtain his "soul copy", and assured again and again that this would have no effect on his body.So Father Xue agreed.

As they said, the scanning process is extremely fast, without any feeling.After that, Father Xue actually split into two versions: the biological version is still living the original life on the earth, nothing has changed; Life.

Later, the physical version of Xue's father died of insanity and depression, while the electronic copy did not have this memory.

Father pointed to the direction he came from: "This universe is a program, a batch upload scanning software. It sets a cycle of operation, and it is open for a period of time to receive entities coming in from the outside - that is, you When the time is up, the whole program will automatically close and start scanning. For you, this universe will collapse. Then, this universe will return your mass to the original physical universe, and the electronic version of the soul will be uploaded to the cyberspace .”

Xue Yuan was not particularly surprised.After experiencing so many things, his nerves were a little paralyzed.

He just thought about what his father had said.In the laboratory, he has been doing this for many years: build a model, set some basic parameters and rules, and let it run freely.That form of self-organization is strikingly similar to the generation and evolution of life.

If it is said that the universe in which human beings live is also a model, what is so incredible?The laws of physics are the parameters of the program.The reason why the speed of light is 30 kilometers per second is because the input parameter is "C value = 30 kilometers per second".

Similarly, computers can be used to explain why there is a difference in the flow of time inside and outside the "wall": the processor clock frequency is different.

Compared with the outside of the "wall", the universe inside the "wall" obviously has a more efficient processor, and the calculation speed has increased by 2.6 million times.

It suddenly occurred to him that the original 50 billion-year evolution process of the sun was completed in less than 20 years, and the ratio of this rate is also 2.6 million to one.

He couldn't help but question the suspicion in his heart: "Is our original universe also a program?"

"It's like this. Everything in our universe, the earth, the sun, and the galaxies, are different modules in the program. They feel that the original processor is too slow, and they want to run our universe on the new high-frequency processor. Unexpectedly, the programmer in charge of this work made a small mistake, forgot to migrate the solar system module as a whole, and only moved the solar module there. So they set up a similar operating environment, hoping to migrate humans over. "

"..." Xue Yuan was speechless.The human world is falling apart because of nothing more than a small technological error.

He immediately thought of the most critical question: "After uploading, what will happen to us? Can we return to the original universe?"

The father's expression became tense: "No, the batch uploading process is different from the individual uploading process. As I said just now, after the scan is over, this universe will return your mass to the original universe to maintain mass conservation. But only mass .Your entity is reduced to elementary particles, not life forms."

Xue Yuan suddenly realized.In short, this universe is a scanner & shredder.

Those who enter here will be scanned in batches at a certain time in the future, and the "soul" of the data body will be copied and uploaded to the cyberspace.

After uploading, the "soul" of the data body has indeed gained immortality in a sense: at the quantum level, data, as a kind of information, is indestructible.

But that immortality has nothing to do with biological entities.

The biological entities will be “shattered” on the spot, and “excreted” from the exit of the scanner, to participate in the next reincarnation of mass conservation in the universe.

No wonder the subtitler who talked to them at the Quantum Effect Point avoided talking about this issue because he couldn't speak clearly.

Xue Yuan thought of those paper documents in his office very sadly, what they experienced was exactly such a reincarnation.The fleet's papermaking resources are limited, and all paper must be recycled repeatedly, continuously being printed→scanned→uploaded→shredded→made into new paper.

"What... what should I do?" Xue Yuan was full of panic.

"There is still a period of time for this cosmic collapse, and you can choose to live your life here. If you die before the scan begins, no electronic version of the soul will be produced. Or, you can choose to turn off this cosmic process. This procedure is in There's a loophole in the design that you can exploit to make the collapse come early."

Not long after, my father left in a hurry.

"Son, I have to go. I can't say more to you, but in the depths of my soul, there will always be a trace of being a father." His slightly bitter eyes lingered on Xue Yuan's face, " Vanya, I regret that you still live in one-dimensional time and can only choose the only reality. But at least you still have the power to choose."

Xue Yuan stretched out his hand, but he didn't touch anything.The father in front of him is just a piece of data without a biological entity.

He really wanted to ask his father: How are you doing now?

But this question may not make sense in two-dimensional time: an infinite number of realities exist simultaneously, neither good nor bad.

But he immediately remembered another question: "Did you send the Morse code message 'Don't look back'?"

Father once again showed a smile that made Xue Yuan feel warm: "It's me. I really want to send you more information, but my freedom in this world is restricted, and I can't send you warnings that are too obvious. In the end, I had to use A pulsar sent out a very simple set of Morse code. When I sent it, I was actually not sure if you would understand what I really mean, so I had to bet myself that you remember when I was a child. The Bible story you told."

Xue Yuan did remember.

The phrase "don't look back" is so common that unless someone is familiar with the stories in the Bible, it's hard to think of the legend of Sodom.But his father used to tell this story to him often.

My father is not a Christian, so he did not interpret it from a doctrinal point of view, but gave the story a secular meaning: "If some things are destined to be irreversible, then don't look back, don't miss it, and look for a new life in the shattered. "

Therefore, when Xue Yuan received the set of codes, he immediately recalled the story, and found the complete original text on the Internet.

At that time, Xue Yuan also secretly speculated that the sender of this code might be someone who knew his father very well.It's just that I didn't expect that it turned out to be my father himself—although it was "I" in another sense.

The author has something to say:

I'm quite dissatisfied with this chapter, sigh (≥︿≤╬) I barely justified the setting in the previous article, release it first, and fix it later, right?_?

☆, the little prince

Qi Lian picked up the washbasin, looked at a bullet hole on it through the light, and then looked back at Xue Yuan: "What's going on here?"

"They were blown down by the wind in the middle of the night, which frightened me." Xue Yuan spread his hands confidently.

"So, you just shot a hole in all our water containers? (ノへ￣、)"

"..." Xue Yuan rolled his eyes, turned his back to him and lay on the bed, and said with aura: I don't care, you are responsible for the repair.

Qi Lian had no choice but to pick up the broken pots and cans, take them to the workshop, and try to repair them.

Xue Yuan didn't tell what happened that night, keeping it a secret.He couldn't make up his mind whether to let Qi Lian know about the existence of that bug.In that way, only one person can get out of here, and the other person must pay with his life.

Of course he would not let Qi Lian sacrifice his life, but he selfishly wanted to keep him with him for a while longer.It is certain that Qi Lian's natural lifespan will outlive him.The aging speed of his body cells is at most half of that of normal people. In the past 50 years, Xue Yuan would already be a grandfather who is more than seventy years old, but he may only be middle-aged.

In this case, why not let him accompany me for a longer journey.

——Even if it’s only ten years, I only want ten years of your life.Then, you still have a long life to forget me.

Xue Yuan thought about it secretly.

He hated the feeling of having a secret.A secret is like a stone in a person's heart. It is not sharp, but it will always bite you with its edges and corners, so that your heart cannot be firmly put to the end.

The mysterious four-dimensional world also puzzled him.It is like a rational lunatic, a kind killer, and a violent but loving father.

It seems to be a patriarchal civilization, with mind control as its direction.But there, there are also some relatively friendly individuals who have a certain degree of sympathy for humans, so they do their best to warn humans in the form of hints.The father, and the subtitle in the quantum effect point, are such individuals.

The subtitle has repeatedly stated: what he said only represents the standpoint of an ordinary individual, and does not represent the civilization behind him.Perhaps, this is what ta wants to express.

There are infinitely many choices, infinitely many realities, and the morality born out of such an environment must also be infinitely chaotic.I don't know whether for the residents of that world, there are more or fewer confusions in their lives.

It rained almost all day.Later in the afternoon, the rain eased to a patter.The sky turned a thin, dark, transparent blue-gray, like the gloomy face of a lover pretending to be angry.

The two of them took the bags and went to the vegetable garden to gouge mushrooms.

The irrigation ditch was high and full of water, flowing into a gurgling stream.Xue Yuan reached in and touched the water, the water was cool.

In such weather, it is very tempting to take a bath in the stream.After a little hesitation, he decided to do just that.He needs to adapt himself to this completely free-wheeling pastoral life as soon as possible, and gradually forget the rules of secular civilization.

He quickly took off his clothes, tied his hair into a ponytail with a headband, and stepped into the stream downstream.

Seeing his actions, Qi Lian stopped what he was doing and stared intently.His figure is delicate and strong, like an elegant fox.Qi Lian had never seen his naked body under such bright light, and his eyes were full of curiosity.

Although he has a good mentality of "returning to primitive people", Xue Yuan still can't help but feel embarrassed when he is stared at nakedly like this: "What are you looking at, have you never seen a handsome guy taking a bath?"

Qi Lian curled his mouth when he heard this.Xue Yuan thought he was going to say something like "I like it very much" again, but unexpectedly he said, "Little Fox Jiji, humiliate him."

"Yo, you've even read "Book of Changes"?" Xue Yuan raised his eyebrows, half surprised, half changing the subject so that he wouldn't be so embarrassed.

"Yeah." Qi Lian nodded, "If you let me read "Le", I'll read all the six classics."

When he said this, he seemed to have returned to the silly and cute big boy who only Xue Yuan obeyed.Xue Yuan couldn't help teasing him: "Then do you remember, puppy Qianji, what's wrong with you?"

As expected, Qi Lian wrinkled his face and thought hard: "I haven't read this sentence before."

"You'll know when you come and try." He waved to him.

Qi Lian didn't realize who the "little dog" referred to at all, but looked at the bag with difficulty: "But mushrooms..."

"Mushrooms are big, and they can't run away!" Xue Yuan said impatiently, "Come here quickly."

"Oh." Qi Lian stood up, patted the mud on his knees, and neatly folded the clothes he had taken off on the edge of the field, and got into the water next to Xue Yuan.It didn't even stir up a little splash, just like a big slippery fish.

With the help of the buoyancy of the water, Xue Yuan hugged him with both arms.He was as light as a feather shining in the sun, and his wet skin was coated with a layer of crystal and lovely moisture by the light.

For a moment they just stood there in the water, body to body, cheek to cheek.Surrounded by turbulent waves, the water flows on the skin like time.

He bit Qi Lian's ear gently with his sharp teeth, and said softly: "I read a novel before, the hero and heroine were in the pool XX. I always wanted to do that once and try it out .”

As he was putting his thoughts into action, a thought flashed through his mind: Maybe someone was watching them from a four-dimensional space, like looking at a picture or reading a book.

Perhaps, what those people see is more than that: "they" can not only see their present at this moment, but also see their past and future, and know all their fate and ending.

This thought brought him a moment of discomfort, but it was fleeting, and even turned into a performance-like excitement.It doesn't matter, just watch it if you want to see it.If a person's life is a script that has already been written, why bother about being interpreted and interpreted by anyone.

That night, they slept together again.

The air that has rained is very cool, as if living in a humid mountain.Qi Lian's face was half-hidden under the blanket, making Xue Yuan feel that he was a small animal hiding in a cave and poking around, making him unable to help but want to grab him hard.

"I can't sleep, tell me a story." Qi Lian said softly.

Xue Yuan was a little embarrassed.The fairy tales he knew were limited, and most of them were blurred.

After thinking for a while, he salvaged an old story from the deep sea of ​​memory, a Russian folklore.Whenever a snowman is built in winter, my mother will tell this story.

So he stroked Qi Lian's hair and asked, "Shall I tell you "Snow Maiden"?"

In fact, he couldn't remember the content clearly, so he weaved many other stories together.But when he was about to reach the end, he hesitated.

At the end of winter, the snow girl who fell in love stayed in the village for her beloved, and did not leave with Grandpa Yan Han.When the spring blossoms, she melts and dissipates in the sun.

——Do you want to tell Qi Lian about this ending?

"What's wrong with you?" Sensing his hesitation, Qi Lian raised her head from his arms and asked.

"I'm reminiscing about the ending. It's been too long and I've forgotten it. Let me think about it and tell you another day." Xue Yuan kissed his lips.

Qi Lian's eyes became a little confused, like a dog who didn't quite understand his master's commands, not sure if this was a hint of teasing.So Xue Yuan kissed him again, this time on the forehead, so that he could understand that it was a goodnight kiss that had nothing to do with lust.Qi Lian understood the meaning of this, and obediently remained still.

Xue Yuan turned off the light and stared into the darkness in silence.

Is there a happy ending?

The snow girl does not need to melt away, nor does she need to leave her lover, the ending of a happy life for two people.

Qi Lian breathed softly in his embrace.He pulled one of his hands to his chest, as if embracing a precious promise.This little prince did not save all mankind, but he really gave him a small planet, a place with volcanoes and roses, a place where he could die.

He has made a decision.

He's not going to do that thing, that thing that would collapse this universe.

He is just an ordinary person who doesn't want to abandon himself to be the savior of mankind.In the rest of his life, he and Qi Lian will spend their lives here peacefully.That's the only reality, and it has to be.

Summer passed quickly, and autumn light began to cover the earth.

Qi Lian didn't have to go to the fields anymore, so he took on all the housework.Xue Yuan has nothing to do, eats and sleeps every day, feeling cute.The rest of the time, they are like animals in estrus, venting their excess energy between the beds.

Life is highly repetitive, but not static.

Compared with when Xue Yuan first arrived, the furnishings in the room have changed a lot, and it really looks like a home: the simple iron bed has been transformed into a double one, with two identical pillows placed side by side; The sofa made of chairs is wrapped in several blankets to make it softer and more comfortable, and Xue Yuan's ingenious fabric decorations made of towels are placed on it.

The surrounding environment is also changing.Corn is now planted in the wheat fields, and autumn radish and rapeseed have also been replaced in the vegetable garden.

The only thing that hasn't changed is the garden full of gorse flowers at the back of the house, and Qi Lian's habit of engraving letters on the "Xue Wall" day after day.He would always come to the white wall at dusk and when the sun was not glaring, solemnly carve a stroke, and then stand by the wall, watching the sunset for a long time.The great gorse swayed around him, singing silent poetry in the evening wind:

Nowall around isoneruin,

Now everything is gone

where you root, gentle flower, and as though

You are a gentle flower, but here you take root

commiserating with others' loss, send

as if pity for the misfortune of others

Aperfume of sweetest fragrance to heaven, that consoles the desert.

Soothe the desolation and send sweet fragrance to the sky.

The little prince in the fairy tale said that one day, he saw the sunset 43 times. "When people are very depressed, they always like sunsets."

Xue Yuan really wanted to ask his little prince, did he feel depressed?

It was only later that Xue Yuan realized that Qi Lian was actually calculating the Kepler orbit of this planet at that time.He may not know that this universe is a program, but he has keenly discovered where the bug is.

☆, the little prince

The first snow of this winter quietly fell a few months after all the gorse had withered.

When Qi Lian walked out of the room that morning, a thin white fluff fluttered on his hair.There was already a thick layer of snow around the hut, and more snowflakes were falling from the leaden dome.Another long and harsh winter has arrived.

He returns to the room.

Indoor heating is adequate.Hearing the sound of footsteps, Xue Yuan lazily raised his head from the white quilt, his blue eyes narrowed slightly, like an arctic fox curled up behind his tail.Since late autumn, his body has gradually become not quite right, he always feels tired frequently, and his spirit is also a little listless, but he can't tell what is wrong.

Qi Lian sat down by the bed and touched his forehead: "It's snowing outside, do you want to go and have a look?"

Xue Yuan glanced out the window and sat up from the bed.He was still lazy, but he knew that Qi Lian wanted to make him happy.

Qi Lian fetched winter clothes and a thick blanket, and wrapped him up layer by layer.The winter suit was remade from his previous spacesuit, which gave him the illusion that he was about to leave the cabin and land on an ice comet.

And the scene outside the house deepened this illusion: this place has become a strange planet.The ground is covered with frozen snowfall, reminiscent of the vast plains of the northern Siberian lowlands that have been covered by ice for many years.

He squatted down and grabbed a handful of unfrozen snow, let it fall from his gloved fingers, and said, "Let's build a snowman for fun. You build it and I play it."

"Okay." Qi Lian seemed to be very happy. I don't know if he was interested in the snowman, or he was happy that Xue Yuan's spirit had improved.He quickly gathered a huge snowball and placed it facing the window.

"What do you want to pile up?"

"The snow girl, the little prince, and the fox." Qi Lian replied briskly, patting the snowdrift tightly with his hands.Xue Yuan never told him the ending of the story of the Snow Maiden, and he didn't pursue it.

"You're really greedy. Well, let me add something for you." Xue Yuan took off his gloves and put his hands on the snowdrift.With a slight movement of the fingertips, a rose bloomed in the air with a "flutter".

He hasn't played this little trick for a long time, and the technique is very unfamiliar.Qi Lian picked up a small snow bag as if she had found a treasure, and carefully inserted the fake flower on it, as if it was a real rose.

Xue Yuan was about to say something, but a burst of cold air was inhaled into his lungs, and he couldn't help turning his face away and coughing softly.Qi Lian hurriedly turned to him, using her body to shield him from the cold wind, "Go back to the house, I'll pile it up for you to see."

Xue Yuan nodded.His head began to ache again, and he felt nauseous again.Regarding his own symptoms, he had a vague idea in his mind: From the looks of it, eight out of ten were "radiation sickness".

After re-arranging Xue Yuan in the house, Qi Lian went back to work outside.He must have carefully calculated to place the snowman at an angle so that he could see it clearly while lying on the bed.The clothes on his body were still thin, no different from summer, his white and strong forearms were exposed in the cold air.His constitution is invulnerable to cold and heat, and he will not get sick no matter what.All the physical pain came to him, as if the water had encountered a rock, and had to take a detour.

Xue Yuan sighed, feeling envious.His chest hurt badly, as if the cold had frozen in his lungs.But he understood that it was not because of the cold, but because his body was failing.

The excessive gamma rays from the sun's eruption and the nuclear radiation produced by the self-explosion of the "Greek Sun" may have caused hidden and irreversible damage to his body.Ordinary people are exposed to intense nuclear radiation, and may show symptoms within a few days or even a few hours.But he was a special soldier who had undergone "devil training", and his physique was much stronger than that of ordinary people. The symptoms appeared late and slowly, so that he once thought that the radiation did not cause him too much damage.

But it came anyway.

If back in the Federation Fleet, there might be a way to heal.And here, there is only one result.

He didn't want to tell Qi Lian the truth.If you can last one day, you can last one more day.When he couldn't hold on any longer, he activated his secret plan: close the universe and send Qi Lian back.

What happened after that was no longer relevant to him.

He imagined how long Qi Lian would spend after leaving him.No disease, no pain, no desire, no desire.He is the continuation of his own life - in this sense, he is indeed his father, although he is certainly not a qualified father.

He then thought of his father and that high-dimensional civilization.

That civilization is the father of human civilization.

Just as man created artificial intelligence with himself as a template, that civilization created all things in the human universe with its own code.

But don't understand that fatherhood with human emotion: it is the father of humanity, but it doesn't love humanity.Quite the contrary, it harbors a fear of human civilization—just as humans fear the technological singularity.

One of the characteristics of the gods in Greek mythology is that they gained dominance by banishing their fathers: Kronos exiled his father Uranus, and was exiled by his son Zeus.

This may be the history of that cyber civilization itself.

It exiled its parent civilization, survived in the universe, and now fears that human civilization will exile it.So it says: Civilization does not care about good and evil, but only about survival and expansion.

For a moment, his mind was seized by an absurd idea: Maybe one day, the surviving human civilization will confront that high-dimensional civilization head-on, and stage a battle of the gods across the universe.

However, that must be a long time later, so long that it may have surpassed the concept of "time" itself.

Qi Lian carefully shaped the three snowmen with the attitude of creating works of art handed down from generation to generation.As the sky turned purple and the ground faded to twilight, three delicate snow statues appeared outside the hut.The "Snow Maiden" with long hair looks like Xue Yuan from the side, with a slender waist and a handsome face. "Little Prince" is facing a glass dome, inside which is the rose conjured by Xue Yuan. "Fox" squatted on the other side of the glass cover, with a long mouth and pointed ears, but very fat.

Qi Lian explained that the arctic foxes he had seen in the pictures were all fat. "Besides, I also hope to make you fatter, so that you look better." He stroked Xue Yuan's chin, like stroking the fur of a fox's neck.Because it was very comfortable to be touched like this, Xue Yuan did not pursue the serious question of who raised whom.

They stand there all winter.

The severe cold gradually deepened, and slowly warmed up again.Xue Yuan became weaker and weaker.As the damage from the radiation grew more powerful, he began to develop ulcers.It was as if an invisible termite nested deep in his body, causing the embankment of his life to collapse from the inside.

His hair was also falling out at an unusual rate.Every morning when I wake up, there will be a withered golden color on the pillow.Qi Lian was very distressed, and collected all those strands of hair, reluctant to throw them away.Every night when he was sleeping, he would gently hold Xue Yuan's hair ends, as if this could prevent them from leaving the other's body.

Because of exhaustion, they no longer have sex, they just depend on each other.In this time-accelerated universe, Xue Yuan feels that his life is also decaying quickly: from "young couple" to "old companion", only an inch of time from summer to winter has passed.

Although he saw his life declining, he felt a strange sense of security in his heart.

Even if the passion is lost, even if the love|desire is lost, the feeling of solidity still exists.Like the faint stars, they may not be visible, but they will always guide the direction in my heart.

Many years ago, when he was still a child, he walked into a church ignorantly, saw a ray of sunlight through the cracks in the stained glass in the organ music, and felt that he was filled with tranquility.

Now he's back to that moment again.But what filled him was not only tranquility, but also sweetness.He knew that he had been saved.

Well, it's time to wrap up.

Xue Yuan secretly made some preparations.One morning when the cold winter was coming to an end, he called Qi Lian over.

During the days when he was ill, Qi Lian stayed by his bedside and tried his best to take care of his lover, but it could only make him a little more comfortable, but could not relieve his illness.

Qi Lian was helpless.His Snow Maiden was about to melt away, and he watched helplessly that he was losing her, but he didn't know what to do.Like caring for a snowflake held in the palm of your hand,

Xue Yuan raised his hand to touch his face.Making this simple action already made him feel a bit strenuous.

"Don't make such a gloomy expression, I'm not dead yet." He managed to make his voice sound a little angry, "The weather is fine today, go and do something for me, take the 'Argo' and the 'Lover' Get it outside."

Qi Lian didn't understand what he wanted to do, but obediently followed his orders.

Most of the hull of the "Argo" was used for construction and living materials, but the cockpit and engine were preserved and stored in the warehouse with the "Lover".Qi Lian took them all out and piled them up on the flat ground in front of the house where the snow had just melted.

Xue Yuan fiddled with it for a while, trying to connect the circuit board and the control unit, but they still worked.Fusion fuel is also abundant and should be able to carry out his plans.

In order to avoid Qi Lian getting suspicious prematurely, Xue Yuan didn't mention those machines again for the next whole day.He cooked a sumptuous brunch, wheat bread, vegetable salad, mushroom sauce, and opened a large bottle of their own wine.

At the dinner table, he "inadvertently" brought the topic to his own plans: "Killian, have you lived here for so long, have you noticed something a little weird?"

Qi Lian, who was spreading mushroom sauce on the bread, stopped.

Xue Yuan pointed to the ground under his feet, "The orbit of this planet seems to be irregular."

Qi Lian nodded: "Yes. The Argo expedition team also discovered that there are actually two 'suns' in this star system, but the other sun is a companion star, just like Sirius' companion star β."

He didn't continue talking about this topic, and put the spread bread in Xue Yuan's hands.

The mushroom sauce is specially made by Qi Lian, rich and mellow.During the fleet's special training, he secretly read a lot of recipes, because he saw that Xue Yuan's meals were always very simple, so he secretly fancied that one day he would cook a lot of delicious food for him.As a result, these recipes became one of the most useful pieces of knowledge in The Wall.

Xue Yuan took a bite of the bread, but couldn't concentrate on the taste of the mushroom sauce.He swallowed the bread hastily with a sip of fruit wine, and asked again: "Then have they discovered that the orbit of this planet is shrinking?"

For the first time, Qi Lian didn't answer the conversation immediately, but stared at him, as if trying to see through his true thoughts.

Xue Yuan couldn't bear that look for a while, like a person who will never go home again wants to lie to his child and say "Daddy is on a business trip and will be back soon".He almost gave up on his attempt, but the pain in his chest stopped him.If he dragged on, he was afraid that he would not have the strength to do it.

The author has something to say:

☆, the little prince

After staring at each other for a while, Qi Lian took the lead to look away, lowered his eyelids and shook his head: "I don't know, I've never paid attention to it."

Normally, Xue Yuan could easily detect that he lowered his eyelids, deliberately hiding the flickering eyes, because he was lying.

But today Xue Yuan's mind was in a mess, and he never noticed this.He was preoccupied with how he could tell his lie better: "I'm worried about it. If the orbit keeps shrinking, the planet will fall into the sun sooner or later. When the weather is good, I think Use the parallax method to calculate the distance between the sun and the earth, I hope it's just my own illusion. I can't do it alone, so you can help."

This time Qi Lian only said one word: "Okay."

After that, no one spoke again.The two ate in silence with their own thoughts.

Qi Lian would not know that those two suns were one of the bugs in this cosmic program: their mass parameters were set to an extremely unstable variable.

Because the mass of the star is changing, the orbit of the planet they are on is also changing.It can be calculated from the gravitational value that the masses of both stars have exceeded the Chandrasekhar limit (※).Because the mass is not conserved, the space-time around them is also inhomogeneous.If disturbed by high-speed objects, they may transform into supernovae at any time, explode into neutron stars, and then collide to form black holes.

(※ "Chandrasekhar limit" is the critical mass of a star that transforms into a white dwarf. If the mass of the star is higher than this critical value, it will collapse into a neutron star or a black hole)

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