Before the last rays of the sunset faded, we finally came to the rescue. To our great surprise, this rescue came from a scientific research ship commanded by Captain Jiang. They searched almost a few hundred square kilometers of the sea nearby, and even though many people thought we were swallowed up by the whirlpool, Captain Chiang persisted.

It's just that this is probably the most bizarre scene in the history of shipwrecks, Ding Jian and I sat cross-legged on the bottom of the overturned speedboat, arguing fiercely about the differences in different cultures' perceptions of hell, Huan Sheng lay on the ridge of the ship, trying to join our discussion, but he couldn't say a word, and a sense of dizziness made him have to turn his head and retch twice. Team Cao lay motionless on his back, as if he was asleep deeply. Only Xiao Lei still had a trace of reaction to the shaking searchlight, and shook the simple flagpole in his hand weakly.

When he found us and picked us up on the ship, Captain Jiang didn't have much surprise, as if everything was under control. After a few pleasantries, Captain Jiang told us that the other supply ship was fine, and now all the equipment on board was back to normal, and the supply ship was doing search and rescue work more than 30 nautical miles northeast of us.

I thought he would ask us more about what happened after boarding the Dongxing and where Lu Binglin and Wei Zhihua went, but strangely, Captain Jiang didn't seem to be interested in this and didn't ask a word. After finding us, Captain Jiang contacted the supply ship, and the two ships met and returned together, and I couldn't help but wonder in my heart, could it be that Captain Jiang already knew that Wei Zhihua and Lu Binglin had disappeared with the Dongxing?

But I was exhausted from more than a dozen hours of wandering at sea, and I didn't want to continue the desperate conversation with Ding Jian. I kept my doubts in my heart, hurried into the cabin, had a full meal, bathed and changed my clothes, and fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was already slightly bright, and I put on my cloak and went to the deck. The ocean in the distance faintly reveals the outline of the horizon, meandering, it is estimated that we will be able to dock in a few hours, but if you think about it carefully, it feels wrong, the speed of this research ship is too fast, when we set off, it took us three days to reach the predetermined position, how could it take only one night to return?

Pacing to the bow of the boat, Captain Jiang stood alone with a big pipe in his mouth, I walked up to him and asked, "Captain Jiang, thank you for insisting on searching and rescuing us last night, but Wei Zhihua and Professor Lu ...... them."

Captain Jiang turned his face to me and smiled bitterly at me, interrupting me: "Chang, it wasn't last night, it was the night before yesterday, and you guys have been asleep for a day and a night. ”

"One day and one night?" Captain Jiang's words shocked me a little, but if you think about it, it is very possible to stay in the chaotic mirage of time and space for a long time, and people will not be able to adapt to real time for a while.

"You don't have to thank me, if Professor Lu hadn't insisted, we might have given up a long time ago. "Captain Jiang's next words made me fall into a fog.

"Wait, Captain Jiang, you mean Lu Binglin?"

"Are there still two Professors Lu?" Captain Jiang looked at me a little strangely.

"Professor Lu was also rescued by the research ship?" I didn't know how to organize the language for a while, so I stumbled and asked, but thousands of possibilities flashed in my mind, maybe it was the moment I saw Ding Jian get off the ship, maybe the moment I untied my backpack, maybe the moment when we struggled in the whirlpool, in short, Lu Binglin had survived a long time in the chaotic cross-section of time and space, and the two cross-sections of time intersected again, and he floated on the sea again, walking with us again.

Of course, there may be a more thought-provoking possibility: Lu Binglin, like Ding Jian, has the method of shuttling through different time cross-sections, but because of the loss of the concept of time, he doesn't know it, so Lu Binglin's entry into the Devil's City is by no means what he remembered later, and Lu Binglin, who also disappeared on the East Star, is himself on the time cross-section in the Devil's City.

"It was rescued by the supply ship, not long after we rushed out of the whirlpool, the communication system was restored, at that time, the supply ship had already rescued Professor Lu and the four of them, and sent us a quick message, Professor Lu firmly believes that you did not disappear with the East Star, but drifted in a corner of the sea. Captain Chiang interrupted my musings with an understatement.

"What about Wei Zhihua? Is there any news of him?"

"Lao Wei didn't find it, I don't think I need to look for it, he didn't plan to come back when he left that day, I understand what he thinks. Captain Chiang knocked the ashes from his pipe on the side of the ship. Seeing my pensive look, he patted me on the shoulder and added: "Lao Chang, don't think about it when you are old, Wei Zhihua hasn't been home for almost five years, and he was divorced two years ago, and the child is already young, so I'm afraid I won't recognize him when I go back." Before this departure, he was under a lot of pressure from above, and if there was no result, the project would be terminated, and this was the last action. There was nothing more important in his eyes than a mirage, although he knew that nothing would come of it, and even if there were some discoveries, it would not help to pass the information back, and the only thing he could do was to bring time to a complete halt in his world. ”

"Mirage, the East Star is a dream, but for some people it is a nightmare, for others it is a sweet dream, for me it is a dream that has already woken up, not all dreams are like that, and they will always be forgotten slowly. ”

Captain Jiang's speech became very slow and tired, but I already understood that he knew far more about the mirage than we did, but at this time any language seemed extremely pale, for Wei Zhihua, it was not the best relief to let time stay at an eternal point, to stay in the world where he could gallop at will, although this choice seemed so absurd to most people, but the dream of the mirage would really fade into oblivion for me?

I could only stand beside Captain Jiang wordlessly, watching the sunlight slowly pour out of the sky, giving this sea a faint layer of gold.

Three hours later, we returned to a military port on the southernmost tip of Hainan Island, where we finally joined up with the supply ship. When we landed, Lu Binglin was waiting for us on the pier, he looked like he was ten years old, his temples were a little gray, and he lost his previous resolute look, replaced by a faint sense of amazement.

"Lao Lu, if you hadn't insisted on searching and rescuing us, I'm afraid we would still be floating on the sea now. I walked up quickly, and as soon as I grasped his hand, I had a strange thought in my heart, I couldn't hold it, and I found that I had an empty grip, and then I woke up from the dream, right?

"Often, when we rushed back to the side of the ship, we found that your backpack was gone, and the speedboat was not there, I guess you returned, fortunately, although the Dongxing was dilapidated, but the lifeboat was still there, we put a lifeboat down, afraid that the waves of the whirlpool were too big, so we tied ourselves to the boat, so we picked up a life and came back. When I was rescued, I heard that you had not been found, and I knew that you could not be on the Eastern Star, so I insisted that the research ship continue the search and rescue, and you were fine. ”

Lu Binglin's tone was a little cold, obviously resentful of us leaving him on a speedboat, but it seemed to prove that he, like Ding Jian, had a memory on the East Star erased.

"Lao Lu, what did you find on the East Star? At that time, the situation was urgent, believe us, we also insisted until the last moment, and we had to leave. "Having said that, I was entangled in my heart about whether to take out the notebook in my backpack, Lu Binglin should be able to recognize and recall some things when he saw the note he left, right? I just picked up the backpack, and one of Lu Binglin's hands was already pressed on my hand, and I patted it lightly twice.

"Chang, you and I believe it, and I can understand what kind of choice I make in that situation, nothing. Besides, when Wei Zhihua decided to board the ship, when we decided to chase him over, we had already put life and death aside, but, after such an experience, it doesn't seem to make much sense to have an answer, these are the questions I have already thought about in Devil City, why bother to come again, isn't it?" Lu Binglin nodded to me with a wry smile, and greeted the Cao team behind me again.

At this time, I saw Ding Jian walking at the back of the line, for some reason in the past two days, he suddenly had an unusual interest in religion, and he soaked around me for everything and everything, and chatted almost all the way. After all his questioning and fanciful thinking, I also seem to have a vague belief that both heaven and hell may be real, but in a completely different way than we once thought.

At that moment, the bright morning sun just happened to sprinkle on Ding Jian's body, but his body was like a sponge covered with thick ink, wantonly devouring the light around him, and it seemed that the light was deliberately avoiding him, making a detour, leaving a huge shadow on him. In short, maybe it's my hallucination, Ding Jian's face is becoming more and more unclear, his figure has become a little rickety and old, a kind of gloom and desolation for no reason permeates his heart, he has already reached into the backpack, and the hand holding the notebook can't help but freeze.

I smiled self-deprecatingly, took a deep breath of the somewhat sticky sea breeze, and crossed the trestle to step onto solid, gracious ground.

(Heaven and earth are not all-powerful, saints are not all-powerful, and all things are useless.) Therefore, the vocation of heaven is repeated, the earthly vocation is carried in the form, the priesthood is edified, and the material vocation is appropriate. However, the sky is short, the earth is long, the holy is not, and the things are connected. What is it? Those who are born cannot be carried in form, and those who are carried in form. Those who cannot be indoctrinated cannot be indoctrinated, those who are educated cannot go against what is appropriate, and those who are suitable should not be in their positions. Therefore, the way of heaven and earth is not yin and yang, the teaching of the sages is not benevolent and righteous, all things are appropriate, and if they are not soft, they are rigid: these are all suitable and cannot be out of place. Therefore there are living beings, living beings, tangible beings, tangible beings, vocal beings, vocal ones, colored ones, colored ones, colored ones, flavorful ones, tasteful ones. Those who are born are dead, and those who are born and born are not finished, those who are formed are real, but those who are formed are not tasted, those who are sound are heard, but those who are sound are not tasted, those who are colored are revealed, and those who are colored are not revealed, those who taste are tasted, and those who taste are not presented: all of them do nothing. Ignorance is also incompetence, and ignorance is also impossible. --"Liezi")