Chapter 50: The Window
In the year 2615 of the cosmic calendar, mankind has opened the way to and from the asteroid belt.
The number of meteorites in the asteroid belt is beyond people's imagination, some are so large that they can accommodate tens of thousands of people, and some are so small that they can only accommodate one person. The biggest beneficiary is the space construction company, whose detachable and airtight capsule is extremely popular, and coupled with the cheap price, it suddenly monopolizes the building materials market.
Xiao Yang is a trainee technician employed by an ordinary private construction company. Every day's work is to sit in front of the computer and look at the plan, look at the drawings or something, and ask others if you don't understand. In the past few days, the company has taken on a big job of building a local hotel on a huge meteorite star. So, Xiao Yang followed the company for aerospace training.
Xiao Yang, who can get motion sickness even when he sits in a car, is even more unsuitable for the weightless environment. In the first few days of training, Xiao Yang vomited several times, and he couldn't stand it anymore, so he could only apply to quit. His boss, who was also an engineer at the company, saw him uncomfortable, smiled, agreed to Xiao Yang's withdrawal, and returned to the company's headquarters.
Xiao Yang, who has wanted to go to space since he was a child, is very unhappy, he has motion sickness medicine for motion sickness, but he can't take medicine under weightlessness, what should I do? Xiao Yang racked his brains, tried his best, looked for help from the Internet, looked up a lot of information, and people have different ways to overcome the feeling of vertigo in a weightless environment. Xiao Yang found a solution that suited him.
Free fall is also a state of weightlessness.
He bought a parachute, climbed a very high cliff, jumped from it, and opened it when he was still some distance from the ground.
At the beginning, Xiao Yang had a hard time climbing this cliff, and he needed to rest on the cliff for half a day before he was willing to move, on the one hand, he was tired from climbing up, and on the other hand, he was afraid of jumping down and landing in the air. Xiao Yang hesitated on the cliff for a long time, checked the parachute over and over again, and after making sure that it was foolproof, he slowly stood up, just stood on the edge of the cliff and looked down, Xiao Yang felt that the sky suddenly fell, his eyes were dark, and he directly retreated and sat on the ground.
Lying on the ground, Xiao Yang gasped for breath and gently rubbed his eyes and temples.
After a while, a bright light was ushered in in the dark world, like a window that opened up and down, ushering in light.
After adjusting to the light coming from the sun a few minutes ago, Xiao Yang decided to give up. He was afraid that he would faint during the landing, and he would not be able to open the parachute at that time.
Later, Xiao Yang learned that he still had a fear of heights. Oh my God, this is going to kill him. Now it's not one puzzle to solve, it's two, maybe there's a third one to follow!
In order to solve the fear of heights, he has to go to some high places often and look down. For this reason, he came to the roof of a two-story building, after all, he came up secretly, and it was not advisable to stay for a long time, just lie on the edge of the eaves and take a few looks.
Just like taking medicine to cure a disease, you have to come step by step, Xiao Yang is not in a hurry to go to some very high places, but starts with some two- and three-story buildings. Just adapting to the height of the two-story building has already made Xiao Yang miserable. The fear of falling from a height has always haunted Xiao Yang's heart, and he doesn't think about tea and food all day long, which is very uncomfortable.
It took three days to get used to the new heights and prepare to take on the next level of difficulty.
Xiao Yang is still solving the problem of fear of heights, and the staff of the company are ready to go.
Xiao Yang stood on the roof of a building more than 20 stories high, watching the distant sunset and the launch pad on the ground, where people who had once been his colleagues had already sat in rockets and were ready to go to another country.
A sense of loss struck, and Xiao Yang sat on the warm roof of the building, and tears of sadness couldn't help but flow from his eyes.
There are more than 100 people working there in the asteroid belt, and there are five waves to be transported, and there will be a week between each wave, and now is the first wave, so Xiao Yang still has time.
Regaining his strength and climbing the peak, Xiao Yang decided to take a risk and return to that cliff.
It was a cloudy day with a light breeze, and there were already a lot of dark clouds in the sky, and it seemed to be the rhythm of rain, but Xiao Yang didn't want to go home, he thought that as long as it didn't rain much, there would be no problem. After waiting for a while, Xiao Yang didn't see any rain, so he didn't wait any longer, and was ready to run to the edge of the cliff and jump down directly.
Facing the wind, Xiao Yang jumped down, looking at the vast land below, a sense of dizziness and helpless fear came to his face, and Xiao Yang suddenly felt uncomfortable in his stomach. Sure enough, within two seconds, Xiao Yang vomited, as if he was spraying water, some food scraps and unknown liquids were in free fall in the air, due to air resistance, so all the vomit was connected up and down in a line behind Xiao Yang, and he vomited for four or five seconds in a row, and before he could finish vomiting, Xiao Yang fainted. A spectacle arose, and a man with his eyes closed fell into the air, spitting out something from his mouth as if an open can was landing.
When there were still more than 200 meters from the ground, the parachute automatically opened, and with a hula, Xiao Yang was tightly pulled by the parachute and slowly fell to the ground.
Xiao Yang lay on the ground motionless, and at this time it began to rain lightly in the sky.
After more than ten minutes, Xiao Yang slowly woke up, got up from the ground, looked at himself, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The rain was already falling, and he was soaking wet and didn't plan to go home, just like looking for a place to hide from the rain first. Dragging the heavy parachute, Xiao Yang found a big tree, hid underneath, put the parachute away and folded it again, ready to go up the mountain again after the rain stopped, ready to jump again, and didn't feel the feeling of falling just now.
As if God was against Xiao Yang, he refused to stop the rain for a long time. Seeing that it was about to get dark in an hour, Xiao Yang no longer hesitated, and now started the second cliff jumping challenge.
The rain was still falling, and every now and then a flash of lightning suddenly appeared, lighting up the entire sky.
The rain-soaked slopes are a bit slippery and difficult to climb, so it's basically three steps up and one step down. Over time, Xiao Yang was a little exhausted, so he stopped halfway up the mountain, rested for a while, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery around him by the way.
The rainy earth is shrouded in a gray mist, the jagged trees dot the vast land, and the mountains are creeping among the trees, deep and mysterious, quiet and distant.
After resting for a few minutes, feeling almost over, Xiao Yang set off again, ready to climb to the top of the mountain in one go.
The rain finally stopped, the moment Xiao Yang stepped onto the top of the cliff.
After carefully checking the parachute, Xiao Yang took a deep breath and took a few steps back, ready to jump off the cliff with the acceleration of the run-up.
Whether it was the wind, or the wind, the wind that came in his face couldn't stop Xiao Yang from landing.
This time, he didn't vomit, probably because he had vomited before. He didn't faint, he really witnessed the whole process of his fall, and experienced the feeling of powerlessness in his heart, the feeling of swelling of his limbs, the fear of falling to the ground and becoming shattered, and the feeling of wind blowing into the atrium, against his heart, making it difficult for him to breathe. Before he landed, he might only be in the air for a few seconds, but in Xiao Yang's opinion, it felt like he had spent his entire life.
The first time he overcame his fear of heights, the first time he didn't have vertigo, Xiao Yang succeeded! It's as if the world has reopened a window and made him find another life again.
He decided that he would definitely make a jump once a month in the future.
However, man is not as good as heaven, and the window was closed by a stone.
On that day, the wind was not very strong, Xiao Yang had read the weather forecast, there was no rain, and there would be no seven or eight winds. Everything was prepared in an orderly manner, Xiao Yang climbed the cliff with anticipation, and the moment he jumped out of the cliff, the stones under his feet that had been exposed to the wind and sun for a long time were loosened, so that Xiao Yang did not jump far and began to land. The cliffs here are not completely vertical to the bottom, but have a gentle slope when they are still more than 500 meters above the ground. Yang tried to control the direction of the flight, and although he was already trying hard to change the direction of the flight, it was too late.
It was found five days later that Xiao Yang's body had been almost eaten by some wild animals, but fortunately he was equipped with sturdy equipment.
People carved these words on his tombstone: God closed a door for him, he tried to open a window, the world outside the window was beautiful and also dangerous, he took this window as a door and went out, and the result was lying here unconscious.
Finish.