July 17, 2021.

For most people, it's just another day in many ordinary days.

People wake up in the morning and turn on their phones to read the news while brushing their teeth. For breakfast, leave the TV on as background sound. On the way to work, turn on the radio and listen to it without a ride to relieve the irritability of traffic jams.

It's business as usual.

A message flashed quickly on the interface of the mobile phone, on the TV screen, and on the radio, and it seemed so insignificant in the complicated minds of all people. However, for the characters who appear in this book, this message is so important! This day is so important!

At 5:25 p.m. today, the Shuguang-16 will depart from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center to realize the Chinese nation's dream of traveling into space again. This time, the manned spacecraft will stay in orbit for a record-breaking 60 days.

Jiuquan is usually a lonely place.

This city, built on the vast Gobi Desert, has neither fragrant springs nor liquor, only huge satellite towers, a large number of instruments and equipment, and workers hurrying through it.

If you come here with the imagination of "glow-in-the-dark glass of grape wine, you will be disappointed because these cold houses and machines do not look romantic, let alone the scientists and employees with serious expressions".

However, when you look up, down the tens of thousands of steps of the tower to the top, and look at the high, far, and deep blue sky, a sudden current of heat will grab your heart.

How romantic!

A person as small as a speck of dust has the wisdom, strength and courage to fly into the blue sky and into the unfathomable universe! It doesn't get much more romantic than that.

On July 17, 2021, we once again witnessed this great romance that was otherworldly.

The Wentian Pavilion at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center was crowded with people. Don't look at the heroic name of this room, in fact, it is not a large area, and it is impenetrable if there are a little more people coming.

Now the room is airtight.

Reporters from the world's major media outlets arrived, and everyone desperately put the microphone under the mouths of the few people sitting on the stage. The cameramen held up the machine in a fit of stitches, and the flashlights crackled.

There were three people seated on the stage.

Sitting on the left is Pan Wanli, the commander-in-chief of this mission. If you don't meet in person, it's hard to imagine that a battle-hardened commander would be so ordinary. He is not tall, with a dark face, and his figure is even slightly fat. Facing such a middle-aged man on the street, no one dared to guess that he had been in space.

Sitting next to him was a man of about forty years of age, with a stiff face and a calm expression that made people look dependent. The sign in front of him read: Astronaut Gu Xinghe.

Mrs. Gu also came to Wentian Pavilion today.

There was also a good story about their acquaintance back then: Mrs. Gu, who was still studying, went to the amusement park with her classmates to ride a roller coaster, and Gu Xinghe, who was also pulled by a friend, sat in the back row. In the rolling of the roller coaster, everyone cried wolf, and the girl only heard a yawn from the back row, and answered a phone call in the middle. The car stopped, and a sentence floated in: "Our route to the park just now is not very reasonable, I looked at the whole park at the highest point and redesigned it." ”

The girl was amazed and fell in love with it.

A female reporter raised the microphone high and asked, "Commander Gu, as China's most experienced astronaut, this is your fourth space trip." If you could only say one word to Earth in outer space, what would it be? ”

Gu Xinghe's gaze crossed the female reporter, looked at the first row of the audience, and said with a smile: "Don't lick your teeth!" ”

Everyone was stunned.

"I mean for my daughter."

All eyes are on the first row.

The little girl with two pigtails was snuggling in her mother's arms, looking at her father with a big grin, and a big black hole in her front teeth made her smile particularly eye-catching.

The little girl suddenly found that everyone in the audience was looking at her, blushed embarrassedly, and subconsciously licked the empty gums with her tongue, looked up at her father, and quickly covered her mouth, but her eyes smiled slyly.

Gu Xinghe couldn't help but step down and pick up his daughter.

"Don't you always ask Dad where he's going on a business trip? Heavenly. Daddy can see you at any time in heaven. So, don't lick gums! Two months later, Dad picked a star for you and came back. ”

The female reporter who asked the question let out a sigh of approval and took the lead in applauding.

In the tidal applause of the audience, the mother of the child who had just handed over her daughter to Gu Xinghe smiled very reluctantly, and her eyes turned red when she smiled. She pretended to turn her head to look at the person next to her and secretly wiped her eyes.

The seat next to it is empty. This is the only empty seat in the first row. She couldn't help but look at the astronaut sitting on the far right on the stage - why didn't his family come?

Astronaut Ma Fei also looked at the empty chair in a daze.

He looks a little young, but when he calms down, you will feel that there is the same light in his eyes as Gu Xinghe, which makes people trust and rely on him. No, it was a brighter light than Gu Xinghe's eyes, in addition to trust and dependence, cast into something more enthusiastic.

"Hello Ma Fei, this is your first space mission. Do you have something to say to your family? We noticed that the seating seats were empty, are your family there? ”

Pan Wanli raised his head and looked at Ma Fei with concern. Gu Xinghe hugged Cha Cha and looked at him. The reporters looked at him, then at the empty chairs in the first row, and began to talk to each other.

Ma Fei looked at the empty chair and was distracted. Images were whizzing through his mind. Shadows, voices, intense, tender ...... Roaring.

"Ma Fei? Ma Fei? ”

Ma Fei smiled: "My mother always said, why don't you go to heaven if you have the ability?" Mom, I did it now. ”

The audience burst into laughter. Ma Fei restrained his smile and became serious.

"There is also a very important relative who told me that life is like archery, and dreams are like arrows. What's the point of drawing a bow every day if you can't even find a target? Thank you! I'm going to launch my dreams. If you're watching TV right now......"

He suddenly leaned closer to the microphone: "X, Y, Z." ”

“X，Y，Z？ What do you mean? Is it coordinates, or is it some action code or something? ”

Ma Fei smiled and blinked: "When I return victoriously, I will announce the correct answer." ”