In the midst of the mighty march into space, the sudden retreat of the marwillow leaf was only an inconspicuous wave, a fleeting return: but I still cherished it and preserved it in "A Hundred Years of Collecting Shellfish". I think the contradiction it shows is profound, a struggle between human instinct and reason.

——Excerpt from "A Hundred Years of Collecting Shellfish", written by Yu Leshui

1

Three years have passed.

Even in a person's short life, three years is not too long. But these three years are three years of intellectual explosion and three years of scientific and technological explosion. The new spacecraft for the purpose of "surfing on the seaside" was successfully built at an astonishing speed, and after a worldwide vote, it was finally named "Noah's Ark". The name is too old, but all things considered, only this name that has precipitated a strong historical and religious connotation is barely qualified. The "Goldfish" completed its historical mission ahead of schedule, accumulating a lot of data during its three-year flight around the earth, and now in order to no longer occupy the precious synchronous orbit, its orbit has been raised and it has become an eternal satellite 50,000 kilometers above the ground.

The cross-section of "Noah's Ark" is circular, with a diameter of 500 meters, which is limited by the diameter of the wormhole. After the spacecraft is changed to multi-point synchronous excitation, the diameter of the wormhole can reach nearly 600 meters, and if it is expanded, the technical difficulty is too great. The longitudinal section of the hull is a middle rectangle with two ends and a semicircle, with a total length of one kilometer. This is to minimize the curvature of the particle-accelerated orbit within the limits of the diameter of the wormhole. Numerous magnetic accelerators are still installed in the open air on the outside of the spacecraft. In order to achieve a sufficiently long acceleration orbit on this smaller hull, the orbit circled the hull several times, like the meridians on a globe, but instead of converging at the "north and south poles" (i.e., the head and tail of the spacecraft), the meridians crossed each other at different altitudes.

The head of the spacecraft was originally intended to have a convex fish head that collects light energy, but the designers realized that it was actually the product of mental inertia and was completely unnecessary. Because this kind of spacecraft is different from the previous spacecraft, it can be easily parked at any time, without acceleration and deceleration phases and corresponding energy consumption, so that you can go to a certain planet to replenish liquid hydrogen at will. Hydrogen fusion technology has been very mature and miniaturized, and hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and planets like Jupiter are made up entirely of oceans of liquid hydrogen. Comparatively speaking, the light energy produced by spatial annihilation is very small and not worth collecting. A concave parabolic antenna with a diameter of 500 meters was added to the tail of the spacecraft in order to maintain contact with Earth for as long as possible. The tail position of the old ship had to be reserved for the tail nozzle, but the newer ship does not have this at all, which makes it possible to have a large tail antenna. Of course, communication can only take place when the spacecraft is suspended.

Eight "little bees" lurk around the perimeter of the antenna frame, which is the affectionate name of the crew. They are small ships, designed for twenty people, with miniaturized fusion devices and extremely powerful power. They have a dual role, which can be fixed on the mother ship to realize the conventional power drive and attitude adjustment of the mother ship; He can leave the mothership and take off and land on the planet alone. Although the wormhole spacecraft can be isolated from gravity and can be used to take off and land on the planet more easily, it unfortunately has a large cover door - it cannot accelerate and excite particles in a non-vacuum environment, unless it is a continuous flight. Because of this cover door, on a planet with an atmosphere, the mother ship can land but cannot take off in a wormhole flight, which is obviously not possible. In order to replenish energy on the way, the spacecraft must frequently go to the liquid hydrogen planet to extract hydrogen, and such planets have a dense atmosphere with hydrogen as the main component. To this end, the spacecraft is specially equipped with eight nimble "little bees", which will leave the mother ship to go to the ground to "collect honey".

No less enormous work as building a ship is the selection of the crew. 1,000 crew members were selected after voluntary registration and rigorous selection, and immediately engaged in arduous training. Half of the cost of building the spacecraft came from United Nations grants and half from private donations. According to the practice formed by the "Chu's", Ji Renrui reserved a hundred tickets for those who contributed the most. Surprisingly, however, all of these tickets were invalidated for different reasons: some donors wanted to live out their old age on earth because they were old, after all, the cataclysm would come hundreds of years later; There are also many donors who, although they very much want to become crew members, do not want to be specialized, do not want to stain the sacred crew qualifications with copper stench, so they voluntarily give up the tickets they have in hand, and instead participate in the campaign like ordinary people. This made the "Friends of Music", including Ji Renrui, Yu Leshui, Chu Tianle, etc., very pleased. They couldn't help but think of Chu Guifu, and the coffin was concluded that he was a great man, but he had a relatively heavy mark of the old era. Today, the spiritual world of the people is very different.

The first captain of the "Noah", and arguably the first chief of this small tribe, was Alex for a four-year term that did not require an election. He ceased to be the captain of the ship thereafter. The next captain he recommended is He Zizhou, but it will ultimately be decided by election. In reality, He's election is less likely, and a society where women are an absolute three-quarters majority is more likely to be a matrilineal clan, and it makes more sense to elect a female chief – unless He Zizhou works four times harder than others.

During the three years of intensive training, the 1,000 crew members of the "Noah" (excluding the chimpanzees Azi and Maru) were combined into 250 monogamous families based on free association and computer selection. In the marriage of sailors, there is an unwritten but practical practice that people of all races, nationalities, and countries should be "evenly mixed" as much as possible, so as to improve the homogeneity of Noah's society, and it is also good for genetic optimization. For example, He Zizhou's family is: a yellow husband, a white ** son Ofla, a black ** Ken Dora, and a yellow ** Ma Liuye. After three years of hard work, Liu Ye finally passed the strict selection. She relied entirely on her own efforts when she passed the selection level, but she got He's help in becoming He Zizhou's wife. In the past three years, although many women have proposed to marry with him, he has kept a wife's position "vacant" until Liu Ye's exam is passed. At that moment, He Zizhou was very happy, and Ovra and Kembora were also happy.

Ji Jichang and Emma failed to become the crew of the "Noah", and Alex and He Zizhou intended to keep Ji as the captain of the next ship.

The course of the spacecraft was also set, and like the "Chu's", Arcturus was also used as a lighthouse for the trip, in order to find the "Chu's" on the way and make some new arrangements for it.

The ship's departure is imminent, and the crew members take a collective oath. The ceremony was very pompous and attended by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, heads of state, the Pope of Rome and the representatives of the "Friends of Music". There is another reason why this ceremony is important: everyone in the circle knows that Mr. Ma Shiqi, one of the discoverers of the "Chu Ma Discovery", had a deep conversation with Chu Tianle before he died, and the two made an agreement at that time: Before the "Noah" went to the sky, Chu Tianle would announce an important discovery. It is said that this discovery may contain ominous implications, because Chu Tianle had imprisoned himself on Human Egg Island for several months for this, but—again, what could be a greater disaster than "falling sky"? People in the world already have enough psychological capacity. Moreover, in the excited, cheerful, festive, and cheerful atmosphere in front of the sky on the spacecraft, it is not easy for the "gloomy" to hide.

However, there was a small accident before the collective oath - Ma Liuye, who finally became Noah's crew member after tenacity and hard work, suddenly quit the group, and of course gave up his marriage to He Zizhou and went back to the mountains alone.

2

Ma Liuye calmly returned to her home in the mountains, first with her mother with a "hoop broken bones" hug, then with her sister-in-law, and then hugged her little niece Cao'er into her arms and kissed her for a while. Cao'er, who was more than two years old, did not recognize this strange aunt, screamed and ran away, standing at a distance to look at her. But it was only after lunch, and she got acquainted with her little aunt. It's a pity that Liu Ye didn't see Brother Tianle, and he went to Rendan Island to live in seclusion again. This time it has nothing to do with "psychological autism". The "Noah" was about to set sail, and he was going to make the important news at that time, and he wanted to take advantage of the next few days to work with Pauli to make a detailed account of the matter and form a written speech.

After lunch, Liu Ye didn't stop in the house for long, and went to the crematorium to pay tribute to his father. Soon, Tianle Ma and Yu Leshui, who stayed at home, heard a shout from the direction of the crematorium, and their voices were high-pitched and desolate:

"Dad-Dad-Willow Leaf-Return-Willow Leaf-Return-It's-"

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the house listened to her shouts silently. When the mother sighed in a low voice: "Why is this child? ”

Liu Ye's decision to quit was too abrupt for the family to figure it out. Both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law know that this will not be because of the reasons of "the little couple is angry" and "the three wives are jealous", as the crew of the "Noah", they have a far more detached realm. But why exactly? If her daughter can stay and not leave, she is naturally happy to be a mother. But intellectually speaking, she still hopes that her daughter can "get married" smoothly, even if she marries to the ends of the earth (this idiom is not an exaggeration at all now), even if she never has a chance to see each other again for the rest of her life, because - this is life. What's more, although the journey of the "Noah" is full of thorns, its goal is to escape from the cataclysmic area, and only by escaping can it survive.

Before dinner, He Zizhou's phone called, and Yu Leshui answered the phone. Greetings:

"Sister Shui, where's the willow leaf?"

"After lunch, I went up the mountain and went to the crematorium to pay tribute to my father. I should have been back by now, probably at your house. ”

When He Lao was the first director of the "He Guoji Office" here, he built a simple mountain house near Ma's house. During the holidays, Yangyang often came here for vacation, and his grandfather reserved a room for him. And as long as Brother Yangyang is here, Xiao Liuye spends more time playing there than in his own home. Yu Leshui concluded that Liu Ye was there at the moment, quietly licking the wounds in his heart in the atmosphere left by Brother Yangyang. He Zizhou on the other side of the phone sighed and said briefly:

"I'll go back tomorrow. Make one last effort. ”

The spaceship set sail in three days, and at this moment, as the deputy of the captain of the "Noah", he must have every opportunity, and he can take the time to make a special trip back at this time, which is enough to show that Yangyang attaches great importance to Liu Ye. Yu Leshui couldn't help but remember that when Liu Ye took the initiative to show his love, He Zizhou was so frightened that he retreated, but it was not that he didn't like Liu Ye, but that he couldn't complete the transformation from "brother" to "lover" for a while. Now, it was Liu Ye who suddenly retreated and He Zizhou came to catch up, it was really a three-year feng shui rotation. However, due to the inherent tragedy of this incident, Yu Leshui couldn't laugh, she shook her head and asked carefully:

"What is the reason, can you tell me?"

"Of course, I want you to tell you, I hope you and your aunt can untie the knot in her heart. Her sudden withdrawal has nothing to do with secular reasons, but because - Sister Shui, do you remember one thing: when Liu Ye was about five or six years old, I once watched "Animal World" on TV with her, a TV film about a pair of African cheetah mothers and daughters, and after watching it, she suddenly cried inexplicably. Do you remember? ”

"I remember, I was very impressed."

Essentially, that's why she quit suddenly. Sister Shui, do you understand what I mean? ”

Yu Leshui sighed, "Needless to say, I understand." I'll advise her. ”

After Liu Ye came back from the crematorium, he went directly to He's house. Since the old man passed away and Yangyang grew up to be busy with work, the He family's mountain residence has been empty, but it has always been kept tidy. Liu Ye often came here to clean before going abroad, and after she left, Sister-in-law Xu often came to clean up. One of the rooms is exclusive to Yangyang, with traces from his youth, with space science fiction paintings, colorful photos of football and basketball stars, kites and a giant bee nest hanging on the walls. There are also a lot of graffiti left by willow leaves on the wall, and there is a painting of a spaceship, and on the driver's seat are two small people holding hands, and they also use childish handwriting to note "This is Brother Yangyang, this is me". The young Yangyang is already an astronaut in his heart, which also affects Xiao Yanagiye's hobbies.

Willow Leaf sat cross-legged in front of her childhood graffiti, and the past came flooding back.

She has been a vigorous child since she was a child, full of emotions and extremely sensitive feelings. She loves to watch science fiction movies with her brother Yangyang and watch the "Animal World" column. There is a short film that tells the story of a cheetah mother and son. For the sake of her children, the female leopard dragged her weak body after giving birth and risked catching a sturdy adult antelope. But the greedy hyenas came, and they always relied on their powerful teeth to prey on the cheetah, and the mother leopard did not dare to fight with them, because the two little children were waiting for her at home, and she could only leave with hatred and despair. The tired mother leopard returned home, but her son had been killed by a group of lions passing by, and the mother leopard sniffed the little corpse sadly, pushed it with her nose, and tried to wake it up, and finally had to leave sadly.

The lions may not have gone far, but the female leopard cares no less about the danger and anxiously calls for another little female leopard, her daughter. Finally, the little one ran out of the deep grass happily, and the mother and daughter rolled on the ground in ecstasy.

At that time, five or six-year-old Liu Ye really experienced the joy of the leopard mother and daughter, and clapped her hands happily:

"Brother Yangyang, look, Mother Leopard has found her daughter! Look how happy they are! ”

Little did she know at the time that the real tragedy in the cheetah family had not yet begun. Soon, the little female leopard grew up, but the mother and daughter, who were dependent on each other, turned against each other. The daughter was still very close to her mother, but as soon as she got close, the mother leopard bared her teeth fiercely and drove her away. This "hot and cold" situation lasted for a short time, and finally the little leopard knew that she had to leave. It wagged its tail and departed, and its lonely figure disappeared into the wilderness night, a sight that was heart-wrenching.

The little female leopard is very lucky, has survived the life and death barrier, and has her own territory. On this day, the mother and daughter met by chance outside their respective territories, and they glared at each other gloomily and yelled. At this time, it was no longer the unilateral hostility of the leopard mother, it was already more vicious than the mother's strong daughter, and finally the leopard mother had to retreat under the intimidation of her daughter.

Yangyang, who watched the show together, had no obvious emotional agitation, but Liu Ye's young heart was hit strongly, so that he cried. She wept and said over and over again:

"Why is this so, why does it have to be like this?"

There was no subject in her question. Perhaps her young mind has intuitively realized that the real reason for the cheetah mother and daughter's rebellion is not in themselves, but on a higher level than them, in the "God" or "God of Evolution", it is the heavenly strip in the dark that makes the cheetah mother and daughter destined to turn love into hatred and break up forever on the way of life. Brother Yangyang was stunned by this inexplicable crying, and he didn't understand why Xiao Liuye was crying at all - in fact, Liuye himself didn't know. She only vaguely felt that the breakup of the leopard mother and daughter was a very sad and destined ending that could not be changed, and the blood love, family happiness and affection between the mother and daughter were poisoned by the cold "survival rules" and could never return.

At that time, Leshui, who also had a keen heart, understood the reason why she cried best, and she held Liu Ye in her arms and patiently comforted her. Afterwards, she said to her family:

"Our little willow leaf heart is made of dewdrops."

At that time, the "Chu Family" was about to go to the sky, and half-grown boys like Yangyang had become a space race in advance. During his vacations, even in the mountains, he often participates in or organizes discussions about space navigation through the Internet. Liu Ye is eight or nine years younger than Yangyang, and she can't fully enter that future world, but of course, the passionate Yangyang brother has a subtle influence on her. After all, this kind of passionate vision resonates most easily with the child's heart. By the time Liu Ye was eight years old, she was able to participate in these technical discussions, and they often talked about the same topic day and night, designing and refining the vision, technical solutions, and even the social conventions of the space tribe again and again. It can be said that the Noah's Convention has taken shape in that child society.

Later, when 21-year-old Ma Liuye was taking the selection exam, an examiner asked her:

"Despite the powerful technology behind this expedition, you are dealing with a strange wilderness where any extreme situation can arise. If one day, survival and human morality collide, what would you choose first? ”

At that moment, a sentence that Brother Yangyang often said came to mind. She shrugged her shoulders like Yangyang and said indifferently:

"Survival, of course. It's a matter of common sense. ”

The examiners smiled and ended the interview with her.

Intellectually, she thought that this answer was indeed correct. It was only in the formal training that followed, when the instructors refined the written view into specific questions, that she realized the cruelty it contained. At that time, they often trained on interactive environmental simulators. When the trainer puts on the helmet and enters the future space environment, the computer will randomly select some possible danger situations to see if the trainer can react sharply enough - and in many cases, the first thing to see is whether the person has strong psychological qualities and whether his heart is cold enough. These include:

The ship's prolonged claustrophobic closure led to collective hysteria, and even the captain went insane. As the only one who is sober, you can only use thunder to smash the leader and quell the riots;

Now that the spaceship has landed on a high-gravity planet, upright walking is no longer suitable, and the only way to genetically modify humans to turn them back into reptiles is to do so;

There was a major accident in the spaceship, and only two brothers and sisters were left (Liu Ye, who was tested, was the younger sister at the moment), and they could only marry between blood relatives to maintain the reproduction of the race;

……

It is not because of the instructor's perversion that these questions are set, but because they are really possible in space life, and the instructors must temper the minds of the astronauts beforehand. Ma Liuye endured repeated mental saws in these trainings, and finally survived. In the last training session, the computer chose a relatively mild question for her, this time not in the space environment, but on Earth, in the jungles of Africa 100,000 years ago.

…… This is in the Alpha Basin, next to the Great Rift Valley, where dense forests have turned into savannahs due to climate change. There had just been a bloody battle between the tribes, and the Mata tribe had been defeated, and only fifty or sixty men had fled into the jungle. They were all tired and asleep. But the victorious Aum tribe quietly followed, and surrounded them with stone axes and bone knives. At the head was a black female chief, named Lucy, who could be regarded as the common female ancestor of all races. Lucy is tall and strong, with a leaf skirt wrapped around her waist, and her plump ** is exposed, and her appearance is quite close to that of modern black people, but the body hair on her body has not yet faded. She motioned for the others to stop, and she quietly approached the mata, only a teenager following her. The teenager, named Saipan, had a much lighter complexion, presumably due to some kind of genetic mutation.

Lucy swooped in, closing in on the sleeping group and finding a Mata man. But she didn't move, just looked at him silently. This man is a burly man, with a majestic appearance, his body is scarred, his face is stained with blood, and unlike everyone, his complexion is much lighter than that of ordinary people, but he is close to the young man behind Lucy, and the two look very similar. Lucy looks at him, then back at Saipan - and then the subject in the virtual environment, Marieus, learns the truth: this foreigner is Saipan's biological father, and one of Lucy's wild encounters with him gave birth to the child. In matrilineal clan societies, hierarchical group marriages are practiced, and people know their mothers but not their fathers, but this father has left a clear label for the father-son relationship because of the genetic mutation, and Lucy and the people know this.

Lucy snorted, and the mata man (who could be regarded as the male ancestor of the brown, white, and yellow races) was awakened, roared, and jumped up from the ground. His people were also awakened, and they all rushed to grab the weapons around them. They saw the encirclement, knew that there was more than one bad luck, and their faces showed a desperate ferocity. But instead of letting her men attack, Lucy spoke sharply to the man, her language bearing traces of the ancient African tongue, and her words were mixed with a rattling tongue.

At this point in the training, the subject was actually in character, and the twenty-two-year-old yellow girl, Marlius, had become a forty-year-old wild Lucy, and began to think the way Lucy did—I knew that if I gave the order, it would be bloody. My tribe has the absolute advantage in numbers, and in a few moments we will win, killing them all and roasting and eating human flesh around a campfire (the idea caused Willow to struggle in pain in the training chair). But I was reluctant to do so, after all, this man had been my man, and had left behind a light-skinned son. I just told him to get out of the way with his people at once, and get out of the way, and don't get bumped into by me again, or I'll kill them all.

The Mata man didn't speak, glaring at me suspiciously. I slowed down and said, "If you leave here, you can go north, because the legend of the old generation says that some of our ancestors went north a long time ago and never came back, and you should be able to find a place to settle down there." "The Mata man took my word for it, knowing that there would be no more killings here, and his face slowed.

Then I pushed the boy behind me and said to the Mata man, "Let's go, take your son with me, he must be your son, he can't be wrong." The man Mata was a little surprised, and the young Saipan glared at me in shock, he did not expect that I would give him, his own son, to a foreigner. I ignored him. I can't keep him, his skin is lighter than the others, and his father is a foreigner, and he has always been regarded as an outlier among the Aum. Wizards often say privately that this evil-skinned child is the scourge of the Aum and is destined to bleed the Aum people. Because of this gloomy prophecy, the people of the tribe are deeply hostile to Saipan, and no one dares to kill him because of my prestige, but what about after I die? He had only one way to live: to leave the Aum tribe and follow his father. That's why I'm after this man today.

Saipan knew that my decision could not be reversed, so he went over to his father, who now looked at me with the same hostility.

The Mata man obeyed my arrangement, called out to his people, and prepared to leave the place with his light-skinned son, whom he had unexpectedly obtained. I told my people to spread out and stare at them in silence. At that moment, a voice suddenly sounded from the depths of my brain—it was the voice of God. God said,

"Lucy, I have opened the Eye of Heaven for you, you can see what will happen in 100,000 years, now you can see. Look at it. ”

So I was suddenly opened to the eyes of heaven, and I really saw what happened 100,000 years later. I saw the mata man, followed by Saipan, with this small group of men walking north along the seashore, where they first stopped at a place called the Middle East, where a large tribe arose. Then some people went southeast, and came to a place called South Asia, where a large tribe also flourished. Then they separated again, and one burst towards the island, eventually becoming brown; The other settled in East Asia and formed the Mongolian race, a small group of which crossed the Bering Strait through Siberia to the Americas and became Eskimos and Indians; The other branch moved northwest to Europe, where it eventually became white. Their physiognomy has changed greatly, but their skin is much lighter than that of the blacks.

Then there was the massacre that lasted for tens of thousands of years. Before they dispersed to all continents, there were already different Homo erectus people in various places, such as Neanderthals in Europe and Wushan and Javanese apes in Asia. They also came from Africa, but two million years ago. Now, with stone and bone weapons, latecomers with the ability to speak are more powerful than the native Homo erectus, sweeping away the indigenous peoples on every continent. These newcomers took root on continents, established their tribes, established their own nations, and then slaughtered each other with hatred among peoples and nations.

Until one day, the terrible prophecy of the sorcerer of the Aum tribe was finally fulfilled. One of Saipan's descendants, the white men of evil complexion, rode in sailboats or steamships, armed with muskets and cannons, and slaughtered their ancestral courts, against the uncivilized blacks, who were the blood relatives of the invaders from the tree of evolution, and they were the firstborn sons of God. I saw my descendants huddled in the dark and filthy bottom cabins with long wooden flails or "civilized" metal shackles, and they all died of illness and were thrown into the sea to feed the sharks. In North and Central and South America, black men and women were naked in slave markets, and traffickers boasted to buyers about their teeth and genitals, and boasted about the reproductive power of "mother animals." During the 400 years of the slave era, 10 million blacks were sold to the Americas, and another 10 million died in wars or transports to raid slaves.

I saw it all. A late Homo sapiens 100,000 years ago, a black female chief who was not in ignorance, understood all of this because of divine inspiration. Then God said,

"Lucy, will you let them go? Do you put light-skinned Saipan away? He is destined to be the plague of the black people, and if you let him out of Africa, you will have to let your descendants suffer like this. But if you kill them, maybe humanity will remain confined to Africa. Decide for yourself, your decisions will affect the course of humanity in 100,000 years, and you yourself will be responsible for your decisions. ”

The real history I saw, and the eyes and wisdom that I could understand it all, converged into an incomparably heavy nightmare that weighed me down. I don't know what to do. For the sake of my descendants, I should kill all the Mata tribes, but I can't make up my mind. It's not just about the son named Saipan, but also because I know that this future is predestined and shouldn't be changed. If humanity wants to survive and reproduce on this planet, it will have to bear these original sins.

I was tormented in pain, rushing left and right, with no way out. Twenty-two-year-old Ma Liuye's consciousness could not bear such a weight and finally collapsed. She ripped off her helmet and fled from the plot with tears streaming down her face. At that moment, Liu Ye repeated in his heart what he said when he was a teenager:

"Why is that? Why does it have to be like this? ”

Later, Liu Ye learned that such interactive training was a very painful experience even for mature leaders like He Zizhou. In the face of sharp moral torture in a hypothetical situation, it is impossible for a person who is numb to be indifferent. But all the participants in the story, after suffering terribly, made the same choice - let Mata and Saipan go. Later, He Zizhou sighed and comforted Liu Ye:

"Willow leaves, this is inevitable, survival is like this. The flow of the river of civilization never depends on the choice of a wise man, not on moral constraints, but on the impulses of the group. Just like in the society of wild geese, their migratory behavior is stimulated by the migratory excitement of the group, and the head goose can only be regarded as the leader of the predetermined destiny at best. If a free-willed head goose refuses to migrate, can it stop the impulse? Impossible. The flock of geese will definitely abandon it and choose another goose. Humanity is actually in the excitement of fleeing now, and no one can stop it. Human history has to develop 'like this', and there is no way to change it. Let's make an assumption: If Africans had not expanded outward 100,000 years ago, and had been hiding in place, killing captives and eating human flesh, would history have been cleaner? It's not like that. Your heart is very sharp and compassionate, but – too poetic. ”

Brother Yangyang's words made Liu Ye speechless. It was as if he had suddenly set up a huge mirror in front of Liu Ye's eyes, allowing her to see another structure with opposite chiral qualities but completely reasonable. She sincerely admires Alex, He Zizhou, and Ji Jichang. These space races, which seem to seem fanatical and cold on the surface, are actually deeper, wiser, and more insightful than themselves.

But it was after that training that Marioye decided to quit unusually resolutely, even if he had to give up love for it.

At night, Yu Leshui coaxed the grass to sleep, handed it over to Sister-in-law Xu and her mother-in-law to take care of, and pulled the willow leaves to the outside of the courtyard. Liu Ye grew up in front of her, and there are many similarities in personality traits, the two have always been very close, it can be said that they are half sister-in-law and half mother and daughter. They sat down under a pine tree, the willow leaves tightly nestled in their sister-in-law's arms, quietly watching the moon rising in the hollow of the mountain, and listening to the sound of pine water in the mountains. Yu Leshui thought, Liu Ye has really matured in the past three years, and her heart must be like a knife at this moment, but her expression has remained calm. Yu Leshui knew that Liu Ye's decision might not be able to be persuaded to change, but he still wanted to try his best. She smiled and said:

"Liu Ye, Yangyang will come tomorrow."

Liu Ye said calmly in her arms: "Let him come, I just want to see him for the last time." ”

"Liu Ye, sister-in-law doesn't want to affect your decision, I just want you to think as carefully as possible before giving him a final reply. The fact that he can come to see you at such a time shows the weight of you in his heart. Don't forget that you took the initiative to chase him back then, and he was so scared that he didn't dare to go home, and now this movie is played upside down, it's so funny! "Yu Leshui deliberately joked in order to create a relaxed atmosphere," Yangyang said that the real reason for your sudden withdrawal was the separation of the cheetah mother and daughter, right? ”

"Yes. Sister-in-law, I am reluctant to break up with Brother Yangyang, and now too, I think of parting with him in life and death. There are no personal reasons involved in my decision. ”

"I know roughly why you're there. But let's talk about it, tell my sister-in-law. ”

"It's hard to put into words." Liu Ye spoke in a flat tone about his mental journey.

She said that over the years, human society has been crying out for "the great escape of mankind", and she only recently realized that the word was wrong, it should be "life flight" — but not "this" human being. Let's take a look at the history of human civilization. Only by frequent exchanges and interactions within various ethnic groups can we maintain cultural homogeneity and the centripetal force of ethnic groups, otherwise they will be alienated and hostile to each other. Genghis Khan built a super-empire, and it took about three months to run back and forth on a fast horse, but it quickly collapsed; Britain built an empire on which the sun never sets, and it took about three months to travel back and forth by car and boat (think Verne's Around the World in 80 Days), and it quickly collapsed. It was not until the invention of modern transportation and communication that the geographical distance between people was shortened that mankind established a unified global village. Therefore, the geographical distance of the species flow can be maintained, which is the most important condition for maintaining the homogeneity of the population.

But what about now? "Noah" left the Earth at the speed of light, but without the means of communication at the speed of light, they were practically completely cut off from the Earth and would soon be alienated beyond recognition. Cultural alienation is only one of the dangers, and even more dangerous is physical alienation. The differentiation of species on the earth is mainly due to the reproductive isolation of various species due to geographical isolation, so that red squirrels and gray squirrels cannot mate, and lions of the same ancestor slaughter antelopes. But at least all animals live on the same earth, with the same gravity, magnetic field, light, air pressure, oxygen ratio, fresh water, and green plants. Taken together, they set a big constraint on the differentiation of species, so that differentiation cannot cross the thunder pool, but we are in it and do not know its preciousness. But on the spaceship and the alien planet, all restraints were lost overnight, creating an unusually steep fault. The result? It is likely that in a few hundred years, the space migrants scattered from Earth will no longer be human. If the Earth hadn't been destroyed, those new humans would have been able to easily go home and visit the Ancestral Court in a faster-than-light spaceship, and whether the spaceship would be carrying flowers or weapons, at least the mirror of history would not support cheap optimism.

"Sister-in-law, it may be inevitable from a group point of view, but from an individual point of view, I want to make my own choice. I decided to stay and be an 'earthling', waiting for the fate that was coming, not wanting to be an outlier in order to escape for my life. ”

Her tone was calm, but there was a deep pathos buried under the calm. The same mood swelled in Yu Leshui's heart—she remembered the other two people's indifference to the prospect of "destruction along the way" not long ago. She didn't persuade Liu Ye again, but just hugged the poor Liu Ye tightly in her arms and sat in the cold moonlight for a long, long time.

3

Early the next morning, He Zizhou came by helicopter. hurriedly greeted the Ma family, and Yu Leshui told him:

"You go to the observatory, Willow is waiting for you there." He Zizhou looked at Sister Shui inquiringly—wanting to ask if her persuasion was effective, Yu Leshui simply said, "You go." ”

He Zizhou rushed to the observatory non-stop. Since Chu Tianle and Ma Lao were seriously ill one after another, this place has been abandoned for a long time, and the equipment in the house has been covered with the vicissitudes of time. However, at this time, the observatory was in working condition, the barrel of the telescope was hanging low, facing the southern sky, and the willow leaves were in the focus cage, and she was watching "Noah". He Zizhou climbed up, the two of them looked too crowded in the cage, Liu Ye didn't speak, and leaned sideways to give him the observation position. The 1,000-meter-long "Noah" is just a small dot in the mirror, and it takes hard work to identify it to see its simple appearance. It lay quietly high in the sky, its silver-white hull reflecting the morning sun, and it looked golden. Behind the hull was a lonely backdrop of space, and even though it was early morning, one or two planets could still be faintly seen in the tubes, quietly embedded in the canopy. The light of the "Noah" is shaking, because it is slowly rotating, this is the last test of the artificial gravity system before takeoff, and it will maintain this rotation speed during the flight to create artificial gravity.

He Zizhou knew that Liu Ye was waiting for him here because he wanted to pick up the memories of his youth with him. When they were children, the two of them often observed the celestial phenomena here, in fact, it was mainly He Zizhou who observed, and Xiao Liuye, who was eight or nine years younger than him, couldn't sit still, and most of them followed Brother Yangyang to join in the fun. He Zizhou often let her sit on his lap, but Xiao Liuye was always twisting and restless, making him unable to concentrate on observation. But he knew at that time that he would accommodate this little sister, and he never reprimanded her harshly...... He Zizhou sighed, drove away these memories, and hugged Liu Ye into his arms.

"Liu Ye, come with me. It is only when you lose that you feel precious, and when you suddenly decide to leave, my heart seems to be suddenly emptied, and then I know how important you are to me. I will say goodbye to the earth, my parents, and the graves of my grandparents, and what a comfort it would be for me to have you by my side. ”

The willow leaf in his arms looked up at him. Thirty-one-year-old He Zizhou is a mountain-like man, with broad shoulders, an angular face, a resolute and confident expression, and a wise and sophisticated gaze. He would be a good husband and a good chief. He will surely be able to lead a thousand people to escape the disaster, find a new home, overcome obstacles, callouse hands, and open up a new world on the wild planet. Liu Ye knew that as long as she said the rejection below, all of this would have nothing to do with her, which made her feel bitter. But she ended up saying simply:

"Brother Yangyang, you also know that my refusal was not due to personal reasons. I really want to be your wife, even if it's because of that damn 'optimal reproduction rate' that I don't have to share your love with the other two women. But I can't bear the earth, I can't bear my parents, and especially, I can't bear 'this' human being, all kinds of love and hatred, beautiful clothes and food, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, slang songs and dances, moral customs, and so on. I know that as long as I follow you, these things will be lost very quickly. Maybe it's because my heart is too sensitive, and I don't dare to move forward boldly because of the accumulation in my heart. I envy you, you men always have the ability to quickly identify a simple goal and then abandon all baggage. ”

He Zizhou knew that her words were by no means light, and his eyes suddenly turned gray - Liu Ye in his arms really couldn't bear to look at his sad eyes! But he quickly calmed down and said calmly:

"Now that you've made up your mind, let's cherish each other. I respect your decision. ”

He said it very plainly, but the bitterness in his heart could not be concealed. Liu Ye didn't want the last meeting of the two to be immersed in this atmosphere, and she still had to fulfill an idea, which was decided last night, so she smiled lively:

"Okay, don't talk about state affairs today. Let's hurry back to your room. Liu Ye looked directly at Brother Yangyang, who was a little stunned, and smiled, "I can't go to space with you, but I can leave a bloodline for Chief He Zizhou on Earth, and today is also my conception period." That way," she said jokingly, "even if you do become an alien on another planet, at least you can still have a little more concern for Earth." ”

After saying that, she realized that this last joke was inappropriate, outlier—a scar that everyone who was committed to space migration would not want to uncover. He Zizhou understood her painstaking efforts, tried his best to relax, and said happily:

"I didn't expect me to be blessed like this. Thank you, Willow. With today, I have no regrets in my life. ”

The two hurriedly left the observatory and returned to He's house, where many memories of their childhood remained. After closing the door, He Zizhou picked up Liu Ye and put it on the bed. After the clouds and rain, the two lay quietly in the bright sunlight and did not say much. In the last happy moment before farewell, nothing is superfluous. But Liu Ye said:

"Don't forget me! and do not forget thy children. ”

He Zizhou smiled and said, "Of course I won't forget - as long as I don't forget myself." ”

Willow Leaf hugged him tightly and lay on his strong chest, listening to the man's strong heartbeat. Since everything is irretrievable, the mood of the two is completely relaxed, and in this state of mind, Liu Ye fell asleep unconsciously.

…… The man was gone, but soon returned to Earth. We still came to this room for a date, and the two of us stood across from each other, observing each other carefully. His appearance has changed significantly, his body has become flattened, and his legs are short, to adapt to the strong gravity of the new planet. The nostrils are very large, and the chest is unusually full and almost deformed, which is to adapt to the rarer oxygen on the new planet. Let's put it this way, his new form resembles a cross between a frog, a crocodile, and a human. Alien, the Yangyang brother I am familiar with has become alien, I said in my heart. However, I tried to overcome the strangeness and even disgust in my heart, and greeted him with a smile: Yangyang, why did you come back so soon? You see, the baby in my womb has not yet been born.

He looked at me expressionlessly and said coldly: You can't have my offspring. I've just quietly taken your cells and done a DNA test. Our genes have been diverged, even the number of chromosomes is different, and we are no longer the same species. Liu Ye, I'm very sorry, if it weren't for such reproductive isolation, we would still be willing to live in friendship with the human beings on the earth, and now there are only ......

I sneered, "That's what you're returning to Earth for?" Like the white people who returned to Africa back then? ”

"I'm sorry," he said, "but we're not a race anymore, and it's no longer interesting to go on and on like this." ”

He turned his head and went out, and gave an order, and countless ships in the sky aimed their guns at the earth.

Liu Ye suddenly woke up, cold sweat dripping. The man was still asleep in the sun, his brow furrowed, and it could be seen that he had not yet come out of his heavy thoughts before he had gone to sleep in his deep sleep. Liu Ye is very guilty, this man is deeply attached to him, but he classifies him as an alien in his dream. But even with the guilt, the dream ruined her mind very completely.

She quietly got up, got dressed, went out on the balcony, and basked in the sun. Thinking about the friendship and love between the two, I can't help but feel bitter in my heart.

I remember which book said that the blacks of the slave era were still very lucky, when they were taken into slavery by cousins who had been separated by tens of thousands of years on the river of genes, although the whites did not treat them as human beings (a slave American justice said: all beings are equal before God, but blacks are obviously not included), but the blacks and whites have not yet biologically undergone reproductive segregation. Tens of thousands of years of geographical isolation were too short to cause genetically significant mutations, so white farmers could leave mixed offspring when they sought out black slave girls. This is often overlooked by historians, but it was the most important foundation when later blacks were re-included in the category of "people." But what if the interval was a little longer? What if the black, brown, yellow, and white races formed different species? This is not a myth, but an inevitable consequence of the evolution of species. In fact, if you change to some kind of animal with a relatively rapid generational change, 100,000 years is enough to cause a diversion. The book concludes: If that were the case, the black people would be miserable -- there are examples in front of you, think of our earlier cousin chimpanzees.

He Zizhou also woke up, found his lover on the balcony, and hugged the willow leaves tightly from behind. Liu Ye thought, no, he is not alienated, he is still the man I am familiar with and in love, but she can't eliminate the estrangement in her heart. He Zizhou sensitively sensed the stiffness of his body in his arms, and asked with concern, "What's wrong with you?" Liu Ye turned around and smiled reluctantly:

"I had a nightmare, and all my good feelings were ruined. I'll send you back. ”

He Zizhou nodded and didn't ask more. He got dressed and called for a helicopter. The two didn't kiss goodbye, they went to Ma's house together, and said goodbye to Tianle Ma, Yu Leshui, Cao'er and Sister-in-law Xu.

Liu Ye didn't know if his seed had been left in his body, but there would never be any more joy between the two.

Leave it to fate.