I gave this memoir to the murderer's son in the early morning of my 100th birthday, so the astonishing information that Secretary-General Croswell has since reported does not appear in the text of "A Hundred Years of Shellfishing".

——Excerpt from "A Hundred Years of Picking Shells, Continued", by Yu Leshui

1

On the first night of Yu Leshui's 100th birthday, a technical team came to her home in the mountains. A big boy and a big girl, both tender enough to pinch out the water, both men and women with shaved heads. This is the fashion of a new generation of youth, born of the worship of the four "space tribes". They were flying in an electric car, fueled by a new invention brought back from the Noah: metallic hydrogen. Instead of using hydrogen fusion to generate electricity, this popular tool uses fuel cells to generate electricity, which is cheap, lightweight, pollution-free, easy to operate, and has a range of more than 1,000 kilometers. It has been completely popularized, suitable for all ages, and the nanny Sister-in-law Liu went home for vacation today, and she drove this kind of flying car alone.

Two technicians brought an instrument, placed it in the nearby He family, and set up an antenna. Every ten years or so, the "Goose Whistle" will go deep into the interior of the solar system in an elliptical orbit with a large eccentricity, so that it can investigate the Earth nearby. This year, they carefully selected the time and orbit parameters, which will be just in time for 0:00 in the evening of the centenary of Yu Leshui's birth, and will pass by at a distance of 300,000 kilometers from the earth, and Chu Tianle will celebrate the birthday of his beloved wife at that moment.

The "Goose Whistle" has been flying at half the speed of light, and there is an observable relativistic effect in two spheres outside its wormhole, with a time rate of 0.861 of the Earth. The communication waves are also strongly distorted by the Doppler effect, and this device corrects these factors to restore them to normal calls. Of course, there are some factors that cannot be corrected, such as a time delay of at least two seconds between the two conversations, which can only be left alone.

The two eldest children were very sensible and knew that the hostess must be excited tonight, so after adjusting the machine and giving a wireless microphone to the hostess, they said goodbye politely and hid quietly in He's house without showing up. After dinner, the moonlight was very good, and Yu Leshui went out for a walk, and subconsciously walked to the three graves. The joint burial tomb of Ji Renrui and his wife was added here. Miao Ji chose to be buried in his later years, which made Ji Renrui a little embarrassed. He wanted to be cremated, and it was on the crematorium above. That's where the Mars ascended to heaven; It was also there that the bodies of Tianle and Elaine were cremated; If Tianle's head can return to the earth, it will definitely choose that place as its destination; Needless to say, a hundred years later. Although Ji Renrui is a complete atheist, he still feels that it is convenient for a few close people to be cremated together and chatter in the future. In the end, he decided to be cremated there after his death, but the ashes were buried with his wife, so that he could do both.

Since the "Tianma" went to the sky, the Ji couple moved to the mountains and lived in the He family. "Friends of Joy" provided nannies for the two retired presidents, but they said that they didn't need two, and only one sister-in-law Liu was left. After that, the two actually became one family, and each reserved a room for the other, and they didn't leave until they chatted late at night. Not to mention, they all eat together. After seven years of teaming up, 83-year-old Miao Ji left first, and then the two continued to work together. Ji Renrui's personality has changed a little after he gets old, and his thinking is clear as usual, but he is a little fragile emotionally. After Miao Qi left, Ren Rui was very fond of fish and water, and used Liu's sister-in-law's quip: Just like a child loves his mother. The most direct manifestation is that he has lived here since then and will never go back to that house. Every night before going to bed, he must say goodnight to Yule Shui, otherwise he will not be able to sleep. During those years, they lived like friends and like a platonic couple.

During this period, Ji Ren sharply made a suggestion, wanting to carve a few words on the cliff next to the crematorium, which can be regarded as a memorial for the deceased, the deceased and that era. He said: "Mr. and Mrs. Ma and Tianle both advocate simplicity, and I am the same, so let's have the simplest inscription, just two words: alive." Yu Leshui agreed. So, Ji Renrui called and invited Chen Baige, a student of Ji Dake, who was fifty years old and good at calligraphy and carving. He came as soon as he heard the call, and he was very respectful of Ji and Yu, a "senior" in one bite, and stated in advance that he would never charge. Ji Renrui just said: "Then how can it be done?" He replied with a sentence: "I will be anxious with you about the money you mention again!" Ji Yu and the others had no choice but to leave it to him.

On the day of the engraving, both old men went to the scene. The autumn wind is bleak, and the pine waves are gusting. The ashes under the cremation stacks have been washed away by the wind and rain, and the re-stacked pine wood has dried. Ji Ren pointed sharply at the firewood stack and said with a smile: "Leshui, this place must be the first place." Leshui retorted with a smile: "That's not necessarily, but if you really use it first, I won't complain." ”

In the clear percussion sound of the chisel, two large characters one zhang square gradually took shape. The font is wild grass, big open and close, premature like a dragon, Chen Baige said that only by choosing this font can it reflect the strength of life. Ji Ren looked at these two words firmly, forty years of wind and rain stirred in his heart, and he couldn't help but feel helpless, so he chanted four small poems by the way. Chen Baige, who was concentrating on his work, had very sharp ears, and when he heard it, he immediately said:

"Senior Ji, the poem you chant is very interesting, I'll engrave it too."

Ji Renrui refused with a smile and said, "I'm also a poet?" Spoil the saints. My IQ has never included literary cells, and you don't want me to lose face for generations. Chen Baige said with a smile:

"It's hard to say, people outside poetry can inadvertently sing famous sentences through the ages. Just like Cao Jingzong, a military general of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, once drunk and forced to sing peace with celebrities, he wrote the only bold poetry of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. It's the song 'When you go, your children are sad, and when you return, you will compete with drums.' By asking passers-by, how can Huo go to illness'. [Note 1] Senior, this little poem of yours is also desolate and dignified, very poetic. ”

Yu Leshui also instigated to engrave it, and in the end Ji Renrui had to give in, but he was not allowed to indicate the author. Chen Baige said that he would do it, and immediately carved out a new area next to it, thought about it before engraving, and said: "This little poem uses Wei tablet style, which can be regarded as a contrast with the wild grass over there, because life is both strong and vigorous, but also soothing and dignified." So, next to the original inscription, there was a nineteen-character poem with these two words as the title of the poem:

alive

Life is a passerby,

And death is eternal;

But the Grim Reaper sighed

- You win.

Ji Yu and the two have been together for four years. The day before Ren Rui died, he had already realized that his life was coming to an end. He resolutely refused to let Le Shui and Sister-in-law Liu inform the "Friends of Joy", saying that he had always advocated that people should die with dignity, so he didn't want to go through the comfort treatment of those tormenting people. That day, he asked Leshui to accompany him by the bedside, slowly talking about the past fifty years. He listened quietly with bright eyes, interjecting only occasionally. At night he said in a weak voice:

"Leshui...... You're tired, go back to your room...... Good...... Get some sleep. ”

"Okay. You get a good night's sleep, too. ”

Ji Renrui smiled slightly, "I didn't say it, I slept this time...... Certainty...... Sleep soundly. Leshui, 'Wild Goose Whistle'...... Greet me when you return...... Tianle and grass. ”

Yu Leshui said softly: "Definitely." ”

"Changchang, Yangyang, and Liuye...... If you have a letter, come to my grave...... Said said. ”

"Definitely."

"I'm looking forward to it...... There is an afterlife, but it's a pity...... Go ahead, but can you kiss me before you go? A smile tugged at his lips, "A lover's kiss." ”

Yu Leshui smiled and leaned down, leaving a lover's kiss on his lips. The two said goodnight to each other and went back to their rooms to sleep. That night, Ji Renrui died peacefully.

Time passed in her memory, and it was now eleven o'clock at night. Sister-in-law Liu, who was visiting the house, was not worried about this, and she also knew that Yu Leshui had always slept late, so she called to say hello. Yu Leshui said: "Everything is fine, because I was waiting for the call at twelve o'clock, so I simply didn't sleep." She went outside alone and looked up at the dark blue starry sky. She found the bright Arcturus in the constellation of Shephur, which was still unharmed, accompanied by five beautiful substars. Noah's smashing of Arcturus was 33 years ago, but the eruption will not be seen until three and a half years later. For Yu Leshui, who had witnessed that scene, the thirty-six and a half years of waiting was too long, and sometimes, in the trance of the old man, she would feel that it was just a dream, and Arcturus should be intact, and should have walked through its days like this. Of course, this is impossible, and the destroyed Arcturus will never be reborn.

At this time, the "Goose Whistle" is almost "home". Over the years, she has maintained close contact with Tianle, but after all, the distance is too far, under normal circumstances, the call will be delayed for nearly a day, so she can only "exchange letters" like the ancients, and cannot have direct conversations, and there are very few opportunities like today.

The hundred-year-old Yu Leshui is already as calm as water. Her life can be described as colorful and colorful, and now the splendor is dull, and her only job is to finish writing the book "A Hundred Years of Picking Shells". Now that the manuscript is complete, perhaps with the addition of tonight's experience, it can be tied up with a ribbon and placed in the safe. Her intelligence has long passed its peak, which is a normal physiological change for her age. But the intelligence of all mankind has long passed its peak. Tianle's genius was flying in that era, and all kinds of breakthroughs were splendidly sprayed like ceremonial flowers, but now that the jet was nearing the end, the light was much dimmer. Such a general decline in intelligence can only be explained by the transformation of the vacuum from dense to sparse (forty-three years have passed since the peak of the dense vacuum), so that the Pauli formula, although not experimentally verifiable, is undoubtedly correct.

At this moment, the manuscript rested on her lap, and she sat on the rocky ridge and looked up at the starry sky, her hands gently caressing the soft and creamy leather cover of the notebook. She could have written the manuscript directly on the computer, but when they broke up, her husband, who had only one head, made a joke. He said: "You can write for me, it's inconvenient for me to 'write' again." Since her husband said so, she decided to really "write". She uses a special pen, which can not only leave clear handwriting in carbon ink on the diary, but also synchronize the content of the writing into the computer, and send it to her husband after each chapter is completed, which is also the husband's request back then.

The manuscript of this book records her 100-year-old life in a calm tone, mainly the seventy-five years after her second encounter with Tianle, because it was also a period of sudden catastrophe, several deaths and several lives, great sorrows and joys, and great ups and downs in human society. It is no exaggeration to say that these 75 years have condensed the thousand-year-old history of mankind and achieved scientific and technological breakthroughs that can only be achieved in thousands of years. God's inadvertent quiver made hundreds of millions of his people as anxious as ants, and the magnificence of life was sublimated among them. Now the waves have receded, and the beach is only covered with shells. Now she carefully picks up the remnants and silently admires the natural iridescence on the remnants.

The moon rose in the hollow of the mountain, the light was cold and dreamlike, and the scene of a lifetime flashed in the hazy moonlight...... Tianle sat on the luggage roll and blew bubbles, and said seriously: I blew horizontally into a big bubble that was blown, it should have broken, but it didn't break, and it was divided into several small beautiful bubbles, and there was the hand of God interfering here...... Uncle Ma said calmly: Man lives to enjoy the pleasure of living, not to escape death. Because no matter whether it is an individual, a human species, or the universe, nothing can escape death...... Tianle slept on the bed, she leaned over and kissed him, and said with a smile: I won't stay. But when I'm tired and feel that living with you is painful rather than happy, I'll leave immediately, without snorting...... Tianle's mother said in confusion: My God! After a long time, it turned out that the sky was falling and it was just a pee tremor from God? …… The in-laws, and then Ji Renrui, all turned into curling white smoke on the crematorium, and the white smoke hid the souls of the three people, and a goshawk flew to carry them away and ascend to heaven. The husband and Elaina were only cremated in their bodies, and their souls should still be in two brains...... Liu Ye, Yangyang, and Changchang stood side by side in front of her, and explained seriously: We have been wrapped in a wormhole for the past thirty years, and we have no way to contact you. But we've put a dozen drift bottles, have you received them? ……

Yu Leshui suddenly woke up. It turned out that she had fallen into a light sleep, mixing real memories and dreams. These memories sent ripples through her always calm heart. This year is the one hundred and fifth year since the universe began to contract, and in another nineteen years, the contraction wave will end, and the universe will return to its original vacuum of gentle expansion (strictly speaking, zero vacuum). Next, the isolated wave of the surge is about to begin. Will it really bring about a collapse of human intelligence? If so, what will human society become?

Yu Leshui sighed. Anyway, she couldn't see that scene anymore, but Tian Lecan. Due to the relativistic effects of the half-light speed ship, coupled with the careful maintenance of him (his head) by the life-sustaining device, he could live for at least another eighty years, which was when the evacuation vacuum reached its peak. Maybe he will live a century and a half and see the universe restored to its original state. With him acting as a goose whistle for humans, Yu Leshui can rest assured that he will be able to stare—as long as Tianle himself always maintains his intelligence and personality.

The time was almost up, and Yu Leshui returned to the house. When the clock strikes zero, the call starts on time:

"Leshui, I'm Tianle. I'm 310,000 kilometers from Earth now. ”

The image flashed through Yu Leshui's mind: a "chaotic fish" galloped deep into the Earth's orbit around the sun, and then swept over the Earth with a great curvature. The two spheres of the "Goose Whistle" are theoretically visible, and at this time, all the astronomical telescopes on Earth are aiming at their position. But they don't emit light and are too fast to be detected. "Tianle, I hear you. How are you now? I know that when you sweep over the earth in great curvature, the centripetal acceleration increases considerably. ”

A two-second delay.

"It's okay, I can handle it in a short time. Leshui, according to the old rules, take it easy before calling. "He's going to play a little game of intelligence, but it's actually an examination of the other party - to see if the other party still has normal intelligence after the change in the secret vacuum. The intellectual game is very simple, because the investigation only needs to verify that the other party has "normal intelligence of ordinary people", and does not need to verify that the other party is a genius. "Let's guess the anagram of a Chinese character first: one word is made of ten strokes, no vertical and no horizontal."

"I'm a hundred years old, my brain is as dull as a snail, and you're really embarrassed for me." Yu Leshui complained with a smile, then thought about it and said, "It's the word 'dad' for mom and dad." ”

A two-second delay.

"You guessed it! What do you say about being dull-minded, I don't think it's dull at all. Another mystery: Qingming went to the grave, and the two cried one person. One is crying is the son-in-law of the old father-in-law, and the other is crying is the son-in-law's father-in-law. Ask what the relationship between the two is. ”

"This question can't fail the Chinese, you'd better use it to make it difficult for Westerners." Yu Leshui smiled and said, "It's a man and a woman." The man is the woman's brother-in-law or brother-in-law; The female is the man's sister-in-law, that is, the sister of the male **. She paused, "This answer is not good, my brother-in-law took my sister-in-law to the grave together, which is not in line with Chinese customs." Then change the answer: it should be a husband and wife who go to the grave together to pay tribute to the woman's ex-husband. ”

A two-second delay.

"That's right! Now it's your turn to give me the question. ”

This kind of intellectual examination has always been a two-way street. Yu Leshui smiled and said, "I have no doubts about your intellectual state, let me test your memory." Do you remember the night we spent at the crematorium? It was on that night that you discovered that there was no reverse turbulence at the boundary of the local collapse, and that humans could escape. ”

A two-second delay.

"Yes, of course I remember, it was you who carried me, you said that it was Sun Dasheng who carried the red child."

"You tried to grasp the inspiration that this sentence brings, made a breakthrough in understanding, and then fell asleep again."

"Yes."

"You still talk in your dreams after you fall asleep. You say: I'm sorry I can't satisfy you sexually, don't be bitter about yourself, find a good man to accompany you. Do you remember this dream phrase? ”

Delay in the return call. Yule Shui is separated by a distance of more than 300,000 kilometers, listening carefully to her husband's heart. The question was not asked casually, she did not doubt her husband's intelligence, but she was worried about his mental state, after all, he was alone in a sealed solitary cage in the state of a head. She believes in her husband's kindness and kindness, but she is also listening intently for any abnormalities in her husband's psychology. She deliberately stimulates her husband with "private feelings" today because she wants to observe his stress reaction, because a man's jealousy is one of the most powerful instincts and can reveal his true psychological state the most. A two-second delay passed, and the husband still hadn't answered. But maybe it's because the spacecraft is getting farther away from Earth at the moment. Three seconds passed, and finally there was an answer from there:

"How can there be such a strange test method as yours to test the memory of dream words?" He smiled and said, "But I just remember." It's true that I said it in my dreams, but it can also be said that I said it intentionally in my dreams, so I can remember it. But I know that you've been suffering from yourself ever since, and you haven't had an extramarital affair. You may have had an interest in Ji Renrui, but in my opinion, you two didn't take this step in the end. Leshui, I'm too selfish, intellectually I should have sung 'Sister, you boldly go forward', but the emotional entanglement made me not say it in the end. ”

Yu Leshui came to a judgment: her husband's psychological state is still normal. She smiled and said, "Okay, thank you for your 'rational opinion' and understand your 'emotional entanglement'." Your conjecture is right, when I wanted to fulfill the agreement of 'separating love from **), I did belong to Ji Renrui, but in the end we did not cross the bottom line of friends, because later I gradually felt that love and ** still cannot be separated. Tianle, time is precious, let's get down to business. ”

It's still a three-second delay. It seems that the increase in delay just now is indeed due to the increase in distance, not the husband's hesitation before answering.

"The biggest thing to do today is to wish you a happy birthday. I asked the staff of Friends of Joy to order a birthday cake and flowers, which will be delivered tomorrow. ”

"Thank you. Tianle, your 100th birthday—according to Earth time—is also approaching, but I may not be able to make it to that time. ”

A four-second delay.

"I think so. It doesn't matter if you don't make it to that day, in your state of mind, the line between life and death is already blurred. It's a pity that you don't approve of that kind of life out of the flesh, otherwise I would really want to copy your mind and merge with me. ”

Yu Leshui smiled and said, "There is no need to talk about this. By the way, before he died, Brother Ji asked me to apologize to you, saying that he occupied the Chu family's crematorium without permission. He said that although he does not believe in the immortality of souls, he is still willing to die with our parents, you, and me, and continue to stay in another world. ”

A five-second delay.

"I didn't say it, but unfortunately I was cremated there with only a body and no head, so I can't talk to him right now. After a hundred years, the Goose Whistle will return to Earth and have my head cremated there. ”

The spaceship was about to move away from the earth, and Chu Tianle hurried to report some of the situations he had monitored. These contents have been communicated to the earth in the form of compressed information, but Tianle is willing to tell his wife about the important part of it in person. Although the "Goose Whistle" has been flying in a wormhole, it has been observing the universe through two spheres in the universe. The period of that compressed solitary wave has been precisely determined to be one hundred and twenty-three .61 years, and will completely pass in nineteen years and three months. At present, the stellar blueshift value has dropped significantly, and its change is in line with the formula. According to his tests, the intelligence of earthlings is still normal, but it is clear that it has passed its peak and is about to return to the normal level before the space collapse. The intelligence of the crew of the "Goose Whistle" remained at a high level; Other spacecraft: "Noah" and the three spacecraft of "Heaven", "Earth" and "Man" are all in a continuous wormhole state, and it is impossible to have any contact with the outside world, so their situation cannot be known. "Okay, I'll not say anything. Elaine wants to say a few personal words to you, so I'll cut off the communication from here. Goodbye, Leshui! ”

The intercom turned to Elaine. The delay in the dialogue between the two sides is a little longer, and it is getting longer.

"Sister Yu, hello."

"Sister Elaina, are you alright?" Yu Leshui asked cautiously. Elaina's call to avoid Tianle made her feel uneasy.

"Not good." Elaina said bluntly, "I've been living in prison for too long, thirty-three years. I'm in a bad mood and irritable. I can't adjust myself. She added, "I hid it from Chu, but he definitely noticed it." Sister Yu, it seems that I overestimated myself. I thought that my strong love for Chu was enough to support me in overcoming the boredom of prison life, that it was platonic love, that it was a rational thing, that had nothing to do with the flesh and **, and that it could remain evergreen in the loneliness of space. But I was saddened to find that when I lost my body, my sexual organs and gonads, my rational passions gradually faded. ”

Yu Leshui didn't know how to comfort her for a while, and the other party's words surprised her even more: "Sister Yu, you said in that famous interview that people live to enjoy the pleasure of living. Since life has no fun for me, I thought it would be better to end it. Even though I don't have the hands or feet, I can design and carry out suicide, and that's fine. I'm just worried that this will cause Chu too much pain, after all, we have been comforting each other for the past thirty-three years. ”

At this time, Yu Leshui had already thought about how to answer, and said with a smile: "Since you have such worries, it proves that your passion has not withered." Elaine, of course you know the limits of physiology in sports. When the limit comes, the athlete will be on the verge of collapse, but as long as he survives the limit, he will get back on the road. Now what you encounter is the psychological limit, get through it, and happiness will return to your heart. In this way, you hold on for another five years, and I will insist on living for five more years, and when we talk on the phone five years later, we will verify this sentence, if you still can't get out of the shadows, I will commit suicide with you - I don't suffer, I was already a hundred and five-year-old old spirit at that time. What do you think? ”

After a five-second delay, Elaine said calmly, "Well, I agree to the agreement. Goodbye, Sister Yu, hurry up and talk to Cao'er. ”

"Goodbye."

Yu Leshui talked to Cao'er again. Cao'er's son Yu'er is twelve years old, and her daughter Zhou'er is ten years old, Cao'er asks them to call their grandmother, but the two children are obviously very unfamiliar with this grandmother who has never met. It is not surprising that although Yu Leshui has visited the life of the "Noah" and even stayed on the "Pegasus" for a short time, she still can't really imagine how the "Goose Whistle" has come step by step in the 33 years in the "Goose Whistle" tightly wrapped in wormholes. Maybe Yu'er and Zhou'er have become rational paper people without seven emotions and six desires like angels? She felt distressed at the thought of this, but there was no way to do it, you can't ask "rootless" astronauts and rootless earthlings to have the same personality. She told Cao'er to take good care of her father. Subsequently, she seized the time to chat with her son-in-law Xi Mingzhe, who was a man with a steady personality, and he could rest assured that he entrusted her husband and Cao'er to him.

The conversation dragged on for a long time, and finally they had to say goodbye. This goodbye may well be goodbye.

The "Goose Whistle" turned around a sharp bend in the elliptical and accelerated away from Earth. The call is over. The two technicians packed up their devices, said goodnight to the hostess, and left in the air electric car.

After Yu Leshui sent them into the air, he did not go back to the house immediately, but stood quietly in the mountain breeze and the moonlight. Elaina's outpouring added to her worries about the crew and husband of the Goose Whistle. The crew is much better, they have a healthy body, a group life of 1,000 people, and the most worry-sharing children, so they should be able to maintain their mental health. But what about husbands? He and Elaine can be said to be in the same condition, of course, her husband's willpower may be stronger than Elaina's, but even high-strength alloy steel will be tired.

Suddenly, a figure appeared from the shadows, calmly approaching her in a startled gaze. This is a man in his fifties. She suddenly remembered a familiar scene: the murderer who wanted to kill her husband back then was hiding in the shadows. As a result of this memory, she immediately recognized the identity of the person who came—the son of the murderer, because the two looked alike. Although she spent a short time with the murderer and was in extreme shock, Yu Leshui has always had a super memory for people's appearance.

The man looked at her calmly. Yu Leshui asked, "Are you ...... The man's son? ”

"Yes. You don't remember his name? ”

Yu Leshui said apologetically: "I'm really sorry, I did forget." After all, it was fifty-five years ago. "There's his grave over there, but there's no monument, otherwise I might remember." ”

The man said coldly: "It seems that his death is really not worth it, and even the victim can't remember his name." After a pause, he said, "I have seen his grave, it is well maintained, and there is a bouquet of flowers on the top of the tomb, which should be placed on the Qingming Festival." Thank you. ”