After reading this thin booklet, I don't know how long it took, Huan Sheng had changed hands countless times, and his arms were almost unable to lift. All the texts indicate that the author of the text did not know who the author of the illustrations was, at least at the time of leaving them. But I knew that this person had been close to us, and now it was as far away as a world away.

Ding Jian must have spent a long time on the East Star in the polar night, and if the straight stroke represents one day, then he has been trapped on it for at least half a year since the last drifting bottle was found. But I really can't think of when he boarded the Eastern Star. Apparently, he had lost his memory of that experience. On the research ship, Ding Jian seemed to recall some things at that time, and then became in a trance. It is likely that he saw the illustration in the logbook and realized that he had left it behind, and fell into a deep confusion.

Then he could only be that the Dongxing was already on the ship when it disappeared, but how could Wei Zhihua not know? And there was no name of Ding Jian in the relevant documents at all?

When I fell into deep thought, Huansheng also hurriedly read the general content of the kraft book, he handed the flashlight to my hand, clumsily took out a pen and paper from the bag, and hurriedly wrote a sentence: "If the painting in the drifting bottle was left by Ding Jian, then he didn't release the drifting bottle to ask for help." “

I drew a circle above my head and spread my hands, waiting for further explanations.

"He's verifying something, like the reality of the world he's in. After writing this sentence, Huansheng raised his head and looked at me blankly.

After many years of friendship, I have no doubt about Huansheng's intuition and insight, if he had not been born in this era, he would have been a master of the Tao or a country witch. Perhaps the highest level of learning is to jump out of the rules and regulations of learning itself, and to find the origin of things in another way. If Ding Jian, who exists in our world, can find any drifting bottle, can he open the dusty memories and have different choices for the encounter? It can also be determined that the mirage is not only a mirror image of light and shadow, but also a mirror image of everyone's behavior, consciousness and even the historical process? Maybe everyone's redeemer in a desperate situation, the guide on the way to the lost is also the future self?

Thinking about Zhou Cheng's discussion of sleepwalkers, can we also look at this question in reverse, Ding Jian on the East Star is the real self? We are all just a fantasy dream of Ding Jian? This is a headache-wrenching problem, and I really don't have the courage to continue thinking about it, so as to destroy my understanding of subjectivity and objectivity.

And it was precisely the development of the matter itself that did not give me time to think further.

I felt a series of vibrations from the planks beneath my feet, from far and near, from light to heavy, and then the vibrations became chaotic and came one after another. In an instant I understood that it was a series of footsteps, the sound of chasing each other.

Through the helmet, I could even hear a faint shout, which I knew was coming from above the cockpit. Could it be that Team Cao and Xiao Lei bumped into Wei Zhihua and them, but why did they chase back and forth so frantically?

I gestured to Huansheng, picked up my flashlight, and prepared to drill back into the cockpit. The moment we turned around, we noticed that the Eastern Star had completely stopped, but the thick purple mist had no intention of stopping, and a huge black hole had formed in the center of the purple mist, and the mist was like countless huge vines stretching around, as if it was about to involve everything around it. And the East Star and the Purple Mist are only a stone's throw away.

I realized that we were running out of time, so I hurriedly dragged the rejuvenated life and went straight into the cabin.

The bridge of the East Star is about 15 meters high, with a total of five floors up and down, and there are stairs on both sides of the bridge, but the staircase passage is very narrow, and only one person can go up and down. The bridge tower is not a lonely building on the ship, from the bridge tower to the gantry crane in the center of the ship, there is also a two-story warehouse, which can be reached without passing through the outer deck, along the passage in the warehouse, you can also reach the stern.

After entering the hatch of the bridge, I realized that the research ship was almost a copy of the East Star, and the shape and pattern of the buildings on the ship were almost identical, except that the research ship was one size smaller. It seems that Wei Zhihua told Lu Binglin that the Dongxing is not a simple container ship, and its original design must have been for the purpose of maritime investigation and search and rescue.

The inner cabin structure of the East Star is very complex, and after entering the outer hatch, it is a three-way fork, and on the left side is a spiral staircase leading to the cockpit on the top floor. The passage in front is wider, connected to the main cabin on the first floor, and the same position on the scientific research ship is the central instrumentation center, testing center and laboratory, and it is estimated that the same layout is also on the East Star, but all the hatches are hidden, and it is pitch black inside, so I can't see clearly. On the opposite side of the hatch, there is a staircase that extends to the bilge. There is also a narrow passage on our right, more than a meter wide, which should lead to the gantry crane.

I knew that Team Cao Xiaolei must have gone to the cockpit, so I didn't think much about it and hurried up the stairs on the left.

The helmet of the radiation protection suit is very well insulated, blocking almost all sounds from the outside world. In the dark passage, the only light left was the flashlight in his hand. After going up a dozen steps, a sense of isolation and loneliness slowly crept into my heart. Maybe it's the vacuum-like silence that amplifies the sound of the heartbeat and even the flow of blood infinitely, or maybe it's the strong smell of rubber mixed with chemicals on the upper breathing apparatus of the radiation suit, which makes the brain sluggish and drowsy. In short, people's nerves are tightened more and more, and there is a possibility of disconnection at any time.

Similarly, the vibration of the floor under my feet also made me feel more clearly, at first it was just some chaotic footsteps, and soon, I could tell that it was three people in front and behind, and one of the footsteps was softer, and it was more messy, and it seemed a little panicked. The other two footsteps seem to be very calm, and they seem to be alternating back and forth with strategy, this should be the footsteps of Team Cao and Xiao Lei, even in any danger, long-term professional training still makes them calm and unusual, but who are they tracking?

I had just gone up two floors when Huansheng behind me suddenly grabbed me, and I stopped as if trying to listen to something. Then he pointed upwards and shook his hand again. I leaned down, my helmet almost on the ground, my hands on the steps, carefully discerning the faint information from the sense of touch. Soon, I could discern the spatial location of these vibrations, and I understood why Huansheng had stopped.

These vibrations do not come from the top of our heads, but from our feet, from the narrow corridor leading to the gantry crane on the other side, farther and farther away.

After glancing at me, the tacit understanding was born, Huansheng turned around, and we ran down again. After walking once, the path was somewhat familiar, and there was much less sediment in the cabin than on the deck, we slowly began to trot.

The passage to the gantry crane was actually only twenty or thirty meters long, but the darkness stretched its distance, and with each step, the vibration of the deck hit the heart hard, and we couldn't go far, we were already extremely hypoxic and out of breath, and we had to stop and hold on to the wall to rest. When the flashlight shone on the exit of the hatch in front, he suddenly found that the previous footsteps had disappeared.

Could it be that Team Cao had already left the cabin and returned to the deck? We didn't have time to think about it, and hurriedly walked to the cabin door.

Similar to the structure at the entrance to the hatch of the bridge, there is also a horizontal passage connecting the two sides of the corridor, and we stand at the hatch and use a flashlight to shine outward.

Outside the hatch is an empty central deck, with two tall gantry cranes on either side, the arms of the towers stretching out in our direction, the metal frame no longer reflective metal, densely covered with moss, aquatic weeds and the remains of unknown aquatic plants, which sway silently in the sea breeze. But from our point of view, the gantry crane looks like it is about to overturn. Under the gantry, in the middle of the deck, was the helicopter that Wei Zhihua had just ridden, the door of the cockpit was open, but there was no one inside.

Just as he was about to step out, the sound of vibration under his feet came again, but it was obviously clearer and more powerful than before, and the rhythm was faster. Needless to say, those guys have already arrived near us. Through sound, people can easily identify the direction, but according to the ground vibration, although they can distinguish the distance and proximity, but for the judgment of the direction of the sound, ordinary people are completely unable to do it.

I completely subconsciously turned the flashlight to the horizontal channel next to me. Suddenly, I saw a figure running towards us, less than two meters away from us. It was not so much a figure as a human-shaped aperture, and the beam of light from the flashlight did not reflect effectively, but it seemed to turn into a liquid and slid to both sides. So I couldn't tell if this shadow was a human or a ghost.

The distance of two meters may only take less than half a second for those who run, but for me, from seeing, to reacting, to making movements, it is never too late, I only have time to turn sideways, and raise my right arm to block it.

The shadow and I collided hard, and the only thing I knew for sure was that it wasn't an illusion, but a real person. Especially at the moment of impact, although I still couldn't point the flashlight at the figure, I had a sense of déjà vu in the messy light and shadow.

(Beihai Ruo said: "Jing Mo can't speak to the sea, confined to the void; Xia Worm can't speak to the ice, and he is devoted to the time; Qushi can't speak to the Tao, bound to the teaching.") The water of the world is no greater than the sea, and all rivers return to it, and they do not know when they will stop and not make profits; the tail is discharged, and they do not know when it has been empty; spring and autumn are unchanged, and the water and drought are not known. The flow of this river cannot be counted. - "Zhuangzi")