Early the next morning, when we finished washing up and went downstairs, Qiao Zhijun was already waiting for us in the living room.

"Mr. Xu, Secretary Chen is waiting for you. Qiao Zhijun was as polite as ever, but not smiling.

When we followed Qiao Zhijun to the small building where we had dinner last night, he pointed to the inside and left with Xiao Zeng. Walking inside, Tina was already waiting for me at the top of the stairs.

Tina accompanied me to the rooftop and turned away, a beautifully arranged rooftop garden, with a tablecloth table in the middle, a sun umbrella and small English courtyard tables and chairs on one side of the garden. I looked at Chen Cuihua sitting at the table, which was filled with millet porridge, wowotou, steamed buns and pickles.

"Let's do it together!" Chen Cuihua's language was still refined.

I pulled out a chair and sat down, picked up a nest head and took a bite. Said: "It's still the taste of childhood." ”

But she laughed and said, "I make it myself, and sometimes it's fun to cook." ”

I stuck out my thumb and said, "Great!" She laughed, but didn't speak, and watched me eat two wowotou and drink a bowl of millet porridge.

Pulling out a napkin and wiping her mouth, I looked up at her without speaking. But she got up and walked to the courtyard table and chair in front of the garden, picked up the teapot and poured two cups of tea, one in front of her and one on the other side, then pointed to the other chair next to the garden table and said, "Sit down." ”

I walked over and sat down, picked up the teacup and took a sip, very good black tea, soft and pure, and the tea fragrance was pleasant. "This tea is pretty good. I said.

"Yes, authentic Indian black tea. She said lightly, and then said, "Can we start?"

I frowned, raised my head, looked at the clear blue sky, thought for a moment, and said, "First of all, I have to ask a few questions." She held out her hand and made a "please" gesture.

I sorted out my thoughts and said, "The old wizard and Tina are both brown, is Tina a descendant of the old wizard?"

Chen Cuihua, who was listening attentively, suddenly heard this question, was stunned for a moment, and then smiled dumbly, stared at me for a while, and said, "No." After a pause, he said: "There are a lot of brown people in the tribe, in fact, this tribe is a mixed tribe, they have many different languages and habits, for example, Qiao Zhijun is much darker than Tina, and his habits are different, but the Chinese of the two of them should be taught by the old wizard, of course, Chinese is the common language here." ”

"Okay. I nodded in agreement and continued, "Your abilities...... What do I mean about the power of the Immortal Flower?"

She smiled and said, "It's just that you've always been so young! You mean the one who conjured up the starry sky, I don't know how it came about." I've been able to do it anytime for so many years, just like now, I can conjure up that space out of nothing just by thinking about it. I've been looking up sources for decades, mainly about time and space, and I've consulted a lot of scholars and experts, but they can't say why, of course, I haven't demonstrated this ability in front of them. ”

"One last question. I held up a finger and said, "Why did you come to me?" I'm not an expert or scholar, and I don't have much research on space and time. I asked.

Chen Cuihua looked at me, laughed, and said: "Liu Mingdong said that this story should be explained in a reverse thinking way, find some children or writers with some imagination, it happened that Tina told me that his boss is a very interesting person, so I invited you to come with the intention of trying it, but after seeing you yesterday, what the old wizard said suddenly appeared in my mind, so I told you the story about me, and you were the first person to hear the full version." ”

She stopped, stood up, walked to the fence, and looked at Hilla Peak in the distance.

I said, "God's chosen one?"

She turned to look at me and laughed, and said, "Yes, I haven't remembered those four words for a long time." I am a staunch atheist and have never doubted my faith. ”

I laughed and said, "Okay then." I'll just share my thoughts. First of all, what I said may conflict with some theories in time and space, but I can't prove it, so I can only put forward hypotheses based on my current knowledge. ”

She sat down at the table, nodded, and said, "I know." ”

"After hearing the beginning of this story yesterday, I made some assumptions, first I assumed that this valley is a space-time singularity, if this is a space-time singularity, then your title of immortal flower can be explained, but I immediately overturned this hypothesis. I said.

She nodded and said, "Time and space have no meaning in the singularity of space-time, that is, time can pass quickly, or it can become very slow, or even stagnant. But I'm the only one here who is an immortal flower, so this assumption doesn't hold. ”

I continued: "Putting aside the immortal flower in advance, when I heard the old wizard disappearing, I had another hypothesis, that is, the parallel space theory, maybe for some reason, you arrived in another parallel space after leaving the valley, so your identity is gone, and there is no old wizard in the valley. The reason for the spatial transformation is definitely the old wizard's doing, and the biggest possibility is that the dark room in the cave is a space-time control device. ”

Hearing this, she leaned forward, her face showed a contemplative expression, and after a few seconds, she said: "It's not that I haven't thought about parallel spaces, but how can I explain that when the old wizard reappeared later, the cave was gone? I took people to see it, it was a cliff, it turned out that there were several big trees growing in front of the cave door, and the tribesmen said that these trees had been there for hundreds of years. ”

I smiled and said, "So I have revised the previous assumption again, that is, the space-time machine can change the space-time relationship at a fixed time, which also explains why you have been in parallel space for three years. ”

I took a sip of tea, looked at Chen Cuihua, who was still looking at me motionless, and said, "Now we can go back to the topic of immortality." I watched a science fiction movie that I forgot about the storyline, and it talked about the future of quantum teleportation, which is to disassemble things into quantum states, and then teleport to another place and reassemble them. If things are okay, what about people? I think it's okay if there is a theory to back it up, and this theory can even explain the ghost upper body incident. That is, the spirit enters the mind of someone else in a quantum state, and then gets rid of the spirit of the original person. So you can assume that if it's not not not here, but it enters another time and space, and keeps putting you in a quantum state, you're constantly being decomposed and reassembled, and the process is like a machine overhaul, and you imagine that if a machine is reassembled every day, is it new every day? Of course, you can say that the material is corrosive and durable? This is not effective for the material in the quantum state. If you think about it, do you feel like you're reborn every once in a while? If not, it's that you've been quantizing and recombining. ”

I stopped and watched her reaction.

She nodded thoughtfully and said, "Although what you said is a bit messy, I probably understand what you mean, you mean that my current state is Schrödinger's cat in a certain state?"

I laughed and said, "Maybe I'm not expressing it well, but that's probably what it means." When we and ourselves see you, you are the young and beautiful you, and when we and yourself do not see you, you are in the quantum state. ”

"If I leave this valley according to your assumption, will I grow old normally?" she said. “

You really never left this valley?" I asked, surprised.

"Nope. She said. "I'm afraid I won't be able to come back after I leave. Those three years had such a profound impact on me. She replied.

"Understandable. I nodded, a woman who fled to Africa at the age of twenty-two for murder and experienced war and death will have some shadows in her psyche in the final analysis.

"But you can try to travel, if you are afraid that you will not be able to come back, you can go out with me, and it is acceptable to grow old for ten days or a month at a time, right? And it can be seen from the construction situation here that you must have your own financial resources, and you are not a pedantic person. I laughed.

She laughed too, and said, "If it weren't for Tina saying that you weren't a bad person, I would have thought you for a weird uncle who was interested in an old woman who was almost eighty years old." "She actually played a joke on me.

After laughing, she said: "No matter what, I am more satisfied with your speculation or explanation, I will think about it, and then try to get out, according to the experience of the last time, this valley is definitely there, if it doesn't work ten times, I don't believe that there are countless parallel spaces, there is always a limit." She laughs. “

Can you let go of everything here?" I asked.

She looked at me, turned her face to Hilla, and said leisurely: "You must think that I am a woman who is greedy for power, it is true that I have a very large influence here, and even in the whole of East Africa, but this is not my intention, I have always thought that it was the handiwork of the old wizard, and I still have not figured out why." In the past few years, I have calmed down and carefully reviewed my life, and I have found that I don't really have that much desire for power. ”

Turning her face, she said to me: "The people here revere me like a god, and Qiao Zhijun even thought that I liked my life in China decades ago, made this place what it is now, and gave me the title of secretary to the outside world." Actually, where do I look like a leader?"

She smiled self-deprecatingly, and continued, "Most of the people here have grown up under my watch, and many of them are my students. I led them into civilized society, but I could not change their deep-rooted feudal mentality. This time I called you, and they even thought I was choosing a concubine. So I thought, it's time for me to get out of here and live my own life. ”

I didn't speak, but looked at the woman quietly, the morning sun shining on her short hair and face, giving off a golden glow.

"Mr. Xu. She suddenly said to me in a solemn tone: "I ask you to take care of Tina, she and Qiao Zhijun are my first batch of students, but because of the old wizard's words, I pay special attention to her, and even take her with me when I eat and sleep, she is like my daughter, so I am determined not to let her become a wizard." She left here at a very young age to go to Kenya and then to study in China, and her life shouldn't be the same as mine. I want her to enjoy every day in this world. "I looked at this woman, whether I believed her story or not, and I was full of sympathy for her like this.

"Okay. I nodded, and then said, "I'll keep her in the project department until she wants to leave." ”

"Thank you. She lowered her eyes and said to me, "I told them to send you out." I was about to speak, but she said, "There is no need to keep the matter of the longevity flower secret, the longevity flower is not a secret in Africa." ”

I smiled and reached out to shake her hand. But she laughed, and said slyly, "Don't you know that you can't take the initiative to shake hands with young women?" I laughed, withdrew my hand, and said, "Okay, goodbye." ”

When Qiao Zhijun led me out of the entrance of the valley, I found that there was a large tarmac on the right side of the original entrance, and Xiao Zeng and Tina were waiting for me next to a helicopter.

On the plane, I stared intently at Tina. She was a little embarrassed by my eyes, lowered her head and said, "Mr. Xu, I didn't deliberately lie to you, he asked someone to take my mobile phone when I was taken away by Qiao Zhijun." ”

I said, "Well, since you're from this place, why do you have to go to a place like the project department to do a job of a few thousand yuan a month?"

"Because Changshenghua said that we can't rest on our laurels, every young person who does not have a position in the commune cannot enjoy the resources of the commune when he becomes an adult, and must go out and find something to do on his own. Qiao Zhijun at the door said.

"What, Immortal Flower?" I ignored Zeng's surprise. He turned his head to look at Qiao Zhijun and said, "Okay." Good bye. ”

He said, "Goodbye, Mr. Xu, Changshenghua teaches us that you are our eternal friend, and the Gila Commune is also your home. ”

I laughed and said, "Okay, do it all over again, goodbye, friend." The plane roared loudly in Qiao Zhijun's satisfied smile and slowly rose from the ground.

In the small bar in Chawei Town, Xiao Zeng and I sat face to face.

"Have you ever heard of the name of the Immortal Flower?" I asked, taking the beer from the waiter, placing a glass in front of him, and taking another one in front of me.

"The Immortal Flower is the god of the East Africans, and it is said that the people of all East Africa have received her gifts. Xiao Zeng picked up his glass as he said and took a long sip of wine.

"She is said to be immortal and youthful, and is the most famous goddess of beauty and healing in East Africa. There are countless legends about her, and many women have offered images of her gods. I heard about her a few years ago when I was in the peacekeeping forces, and there are many mothers who go to the temple under the Mt. Hira to pray for blessings before giving birth, so that they will not encounter difficult births. ”

"Hasn't anyone seen her?" I asked.

"It's not clear. However, many people have attended Changshenghua schools in various places, for example, Tina graduated from the Changshenghua School in Kenya. Xiao Zeng said.

I said, "I don't have to go around talking about yesterday. ”

Xiao Zeng smiled and said, "I understand, Brother Xu." ”

The days that followed were as calm as ever, and Tina was transferred to a city in Kenya where she had to negotiate with the local government for the next construction area of the project.

I still live a relaxed and happy life, waking up at half past six in the morning, doing ten minutes of exercise to go to work, leaving work at five in the afternoon, and then going to the town restaurant for dinner. I went out for a walk after dinner, made a video call with my son after returning to my accommodation, and turned off the TV at 11 o'clock on time to go to bed. On my days off, I would flirt with hostesses in a small bar and brag and fart with mercenaries, engineers, and salesmen from all over the world.

Until one day, when I was about to leave work, I received a letter, and when I opened it, there was only one photo inside, and I picked it up and saw a familiar figure.

Next to a few coconut trees, Chen Cuihua, dressed in a one-piece swimsuit, smiled brightly at me. flipped through the photo, and there was a line of Juan Xiu's small words written on the back: "You are basically correct, I found the pattern, don't read it!"

Putting down the photo, I said to myself, "Don't read it, I read you ghost, you bad old woman is very bad!"

Then I quietly looked at the picture of the sunset shining on the table, and laughed silently.