Midsummer, Florence, 1578.

It was a relatively calm period, there weren't too many wars, but there were undercurrents. Since Martin Luther's "Reformation" 60 years ago, there has been a fierce dispute between Protestants and Catholics, and the Holy Roman Emperor, King Rudolf II of Germany, who ascended the throne two years ago, was extremely disgusted with Protestantism, pushing this already incompatible situation to a higher level.

The 26-year-old young emperor from Habsburg stubbornly pursued his own religious policy and vigorously suppressed Protestantism, while the British and French countries supported Protestantism, and religious differences gradually turned into political differences. Since then, there has been an irreconcilable dividing line between the Protestant world and the Catholic world, but at the moment this-for-tat contradiction is still brewing, and no one can imagine what the final result of this contradiction will be......

However, these things were still too far away for Galileo the Younger in Florence.

“......”

In the main hall, his father was talking to the guests, and the fourteen-year-old little Galileo was bowing his head, his face was full of boredom and boredom, and his father seemed to be arguing loudly with the guests, his face was serious, with a coldness that Galileo had never seen before.

"Copernicus, the son of the merchant, whose heliocentric words are nothing but the whispers of a madman, contrary to the teachings of the Bible......"

Old-fashioned, stubborn, with some of the pride and conceit characteristic of old-fashioned aristocrats, this is all Galileo's impression of his father. And at this moment, the somewhat stubborn old-fashioned aristocrat did not hesitate to fight with the guests, which was really a "decent" thing, which made Galileo a little curious about the person called "Copernicus".

"No, Sir Leonardo da Vinci, who died sixty years ago, had a similar argument, and I don't think you would have thought Sir Leonardo da Vinci was babbling......"

In front of Galileo's father, the scholar with two beards shook his head and said unhurriedly that when he heard the name of Leonardo da Vinci, even his father, who was as stubborn as Galileo, was speechless for a while.

Leonardo da Vinci's fame in Italy is far beyond the imagination of people in other regions, Italy is deeply influenced by Greek doctrine, and the development of printing has led to the emergence of many scholars, even if he is old-fashioned like him, he is half a scholar, known as the "all-rounder" Leonardo da Vinci has the status of a god in the hearts of scholars.

“...... Hum. ”

He opened his mouth and tried to refute something, but finally snorted indignantly, so he put aside the topic and continued to argue about the man named "Copernicus".

On the side, Galileo, who was listening carefully to what was being said between them, faintly heard words such as "heliocentrism" and "death".

"Heliocentr?"

Somewhat confused, he whispered, it was a word that Galileo had never heard before, but he had a vague sense that he was very interested in what the word meant.

......

The night was silent, but Galileo, who was lying on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes.

Lifting the futon and lightly stepping on the ground, Galileo lowered his body like a tanuki, carefully touched the door, and then gently opened it......

"Squeak......

The very small sound did not attract the attention of the servants, but it was also expected by Galileo the Younger, who at the moment did not have the spirit to notice him, and quietly left the open door, and closed it again......

Without any hesitation, little Galileo crept along, and even went to his father's study in the dark for fear of disturbing others.

And just as little Galileo expected, there was no one in his father's study, and it was pitch black, but with his own memory, little Galileo still groped for the candlestick. When it was lit, a bright light illuminated the study, revealing the many books on the shelves, and little Galileo searched for them, and finally somewhere in the corner of the shelves, he found what he was looking for.

"Sure enough. ”

Looking at the heavy book "The Movement of the Heavenly Bodies", Galileo smiled on his face.

Despite his old-fashioned and aristocratic stubbornness, his father was also a learned scholar, and even if he did not agree with Copernicus's theories, he was able to leave a place in Copernicus' study.

Of course, if Galileo went directly to his father to ask for it, it would only make the stubborn old gentleman angry, and then scold Galileo, which was something that Galileo could fully predict, so only by quietly looking at it could we avoid this contradiction.

When you turn the title page, the first thing that catches Galileo's eye is a line like this.

"First of all, we should point out that the universe is spherical. This is either because the sphere is the most perfect of all shapes, it does not need interfaces, and is a whole that can neither increase nor subtract, or because it is the largest of all shapes, and is best suited to encompass all things, or even because individual parts of the universe (I mean the sun, moon, planets, and stars) appear in this pattern, or even because all things tend to be surrounded by such boundaries, like individual droplets of water and other liquids......"

In the flickering candlelight, Galileo looked at the book, the lines of words reflected in the bright pupils, accompanied by the rustle of the paper from time to time, accompanied by the detailed and powerful inferences, in a trance, Galileo seemed to see a completely new world, a vast world that he had never imagined, far wider than the world recorded in the Bible countless times larger......

Before he knew it, the sound of a rooster was ringing in his ears, and it was then that Galileo suddenly woke up.

"Oh no! I'm going to be discovered. ”

As is customary, when the servants should get up and toil, Galileo hurriedly tried to put the book back on the shelf, but accidentally kicked something like iron, and his foot ached.

"Hiss......"

Holding his feet, Galileo endured the pain and glanced at what he had kicked...... It was a heroic statue of a woman in the hidden part of the bookshelf, dressed in armor and with a determined and fearless gaze.

Galileo had seen this before, and when they had just moved to Florence three years earlier, they had met a strange man who had entrusted the statue to Galileo's father. After that, Galileo's father never mentioned it again, and Galileo never saw it again, but he didn't want to hide it in a hidden place between the bookshelves.

Looking at those bright eyes, Galileo inexplicably had the illusion that the statue was alive, and those eyes were looking at him coldly......

But when I tried to look closely, I didn't feel that way, it was just an extremely beautiful sculpture.

Although there was something strange in his heart, Galileo had no time to think about such a thing at this moment, so he had to put the book back on the shelf, extinguish the candle, open the door of the study, and then quietly close it, and lie down on the bed again while the servant was still awake.

"Fortunately, nothing went wrong......"

Thinking so in my heart, the tiredness of sleepless nights immediately hit like a tide, and the relaxed spirit could no longer support this sleepiness, and I fell asleep, but in a trance, a pair of cold eyes seemed to appear in front of me......

In the dream, I seemed to be lying on the earth, and the boundless earth made people unable to distinguish the direction, and looked blankly, only the sun above my head was the same.

Suddenly, the earth trembled, as if it were a living thing, and the "earth" carried itself past the clouds, over the aurora, over the sky, until it reached an infinite expanse of dark void......

In that dark void, it seems that the moon is "not far away", Mars and Venus are a little farther away, and even Mercury, and ...... It is unimaginably large, even terrifying, spitting out countless blazing stars.

The many stars as far as the eye can see revolve around the star, millennia, ten thousand years, billions, silent and eternal, eternal and unchanging......