1.

"1, 10, 100, 1000 monkeys.

Countless monkeys are tapping on keyboards.

None of the monkeys knew what they were doing, and neither did Laika.

It is knocking on the keyboard because the other monkeys are also knocking.

Don't "monkey" and it won't stop, because it's so weird.

After a long, long time, the humans who had made them type on the keyboard suddenly cheered, and Laika never had to type the keyboard again. ”

【.--/.. /.../..../】

The dustpan was shaking, the chaff was sifting through the cracks, and the ground seemed to be raining gold.

Li Lijuan wiped the sweat from her forehead, put the dried millet on the ground, and turned around and walked into the back room. There's a knock on the door.

"Here we go."

When she opened the door, Li Lijuan was stunned for a moment.

"Dao Chief...... And Miss Liu? ”

Liu Yanshi smiled, and bowed slightly:

"Aunt Li, long time no see."

Li Lijuan didn't know why, but when she saw Shi Zuocai in civilian clothes, her face was still a little panicked:

"What are you going to ......?"

"We'll talk about that later, but we'd like to ask you to come with us somewhere." Liu Yanshi pursed her lips, her eyes firm.

"Where are you going?"

"Huai County." Shi Zuocai took a breath and said.

2.

"Laika became the first monkey in the world to know Morse code.

Because when it was typing on the keyboard, it accidentally spelled out a word called "LOVE".

Laika found it inexplicable, and he didn't even know that he was typing not a keyboard, but a telegraph.

But people see it as a hero.

Carrying the honor of "hero", Laika will next have to become the first monkey in the world to go to outer space.

People built rockets and sent them up.

"The outside world must be exciting, you have to do it."

Laika didn't understand, since they hadn't been outside, how could they know that the outside world was not exciting? If they really like the outside world so much, why don't they get on a rocket and take a look at it themselves?

Don't understand. ”

【-.--/---/.. -/】

The last train to Huai County swayed on the mountain road. Li Lijuan sat in her seat stiffly, her eyes glancing at Liu Yan beside her from time to time and Shi Zuocai, who was silent in the seat.

"Miss Liu, what are we going to do in Huai County?"

Liu Yanshi smiled embarrassedly: "Actually...... It's about your child, He Siming. ”

Hearing that name, Li Lijuan's body stiffened obviously, and forced a smile:

He ...... What's wrong? ”

"Actually...... We want to take you to meet someone. Liu Yanshi pondered the words and whispered: "When you see it, you will know." ”

"Before that, can you talk to us about He Siming first?" In Li Lijuan's eyes, the "Lan Silin" Daoist who seemed to be a different person and was silent throughout the whole process suddenly asked.

Li Lijuan was silent for a while: "Can it be...... What do you want to ask? ”

Shi Zuo turned his head.

"How are He Siming's grades in school?"

Li Lijuan pinched the seam of her pants uneasily, thought about it, and said:

"The kid...... Be smart when you're young. He went to primary school in the town, and he was always the first in his class, and he was admitted to Guangzhou's Xiaoguang, which was also recommended by the top students...... We've always been proud. ”

At this point, her eyes began to redden slightly:

"But when I got to high school, nothing was the same."

3.

"Phew-

The rocket flew into space.

Laika is so excited! It fumbled around the rocket, and after a while, the whole person was floating in the capsule.

The little monkey was so naughty that it took a long time for him to remember that he had a task to complete.

"You have to take a good look at which star is the roundest, biggest and most beautiful, and tell us by telegraph that we have to move in, the earth is too narrow."

People say.

The little monkey understood. It immediately leaned down to the window and looked around, and then floated to the familiar telegraph machine and banged.

It likes the sound of the telegraph so much, one button is "Didi" sound, and one horizontal button is "Da Da" sound, and it keeps on and on, just like music. It thought that maybe it was the sound of the stars.

But Laika didn't know that there was no sound in outer space.

Unbeknownst to it, it didn't know how to use a telegraph. ”

【-.-/-./---/.--/】

Huai County is not as good as Hejia Town, although it covers a larger area, but the town planning is not done well, the old asphalt road is full of potholes, and there are old brick buildings everywhere.

Shi Zuocai dodged the oncoming tricycle while checking the navigation on his phone. Li Lijuan grabbed her arm from Liu Yanshi and followed behind with a worried face.

After walking for about 20 minutes, the three of them finally stopped at another house.

knocked on the door, and it was a middle-aged couple who looked honest and honest to open the door. The couple knew Liu Yanshi and Shi Zuocai, Liu Yanshi stepped forward to say hello, pointed at Li Lijuan who was confused in their ears and whispered for a while, the two couples nodded, and raised their heads to look at Li Lijuan, with a complicated look on their faces.

The woman trembled forward, knelt down in front of Li Lijuan with a plop, and wailed.

"Benefactor ......"

Li Lijuan was like a thunderbolt.

4.

"Which is the prettiest star?

Laika was a little confused.

This red one is too hot, the green one is too small, and this yellow one is too monotonous.

It can't find its favorite star. If you don't like it, you shouldn't like it either.

It was so anxious that it scratched its ears and cheeks, and flew around the capsule, and the cameras in the capsule followed it, and everyone watching TV was confused by it.

At this point, Laika accidentally glanced out the window and froze.

It finally found the most beautiful, beautiful, beautiful star. There is a blue sky and white clouds, and the thing called the land is the same color as the banana.

That star is called Earth. ”

【.-.. /---/...-/./】

"Last month, my baby and her friends secretly ran to the mountains to play, but they got separated from others, got lost in the woods, and couldn't get out until night......"

Later, he got entangled with a monkey in the woods, ran and fell, and accidentally rolled into the river. My baby doesn't know how to water, so he almost drowned......"

"At that time, it was your benefactor's child who happened to hear him shouting for help, so he jumped into the river to rescue him...... As a result, my family's short-eyed baby was lucky to hook the branches, failed to drown, and later when the rescue team went up the mountain, they could not find the benefactor of your child, and the rescue team said that they were afraid that they were in shock when saving people, and they were washed downstream by the river......"

"My man ran in the mountains with the rescue team for a night, but he still couldn't see your child's figure, my child was frightened again, and was in a coma in the hospital for half a month, and when he woke up, he asked him if he knew what your child looked like, and he couldn't ask why, only said in a daze that he remembered that the little benefactor seemed to have taken off a pair of binoculars......"

The middle-aged woman cried and cried to Li Lijuan about the ins and outs of the matter, Li Lijuan sat on the chair next to the bed, staring blankly at the child who was still asleep on the bed and was rescued by He Siming, and after a while, she burst into tears.

Shi Zuocai kept standing outside the door, silent. Liu Yanshi looked at this scene, and couldn't help but turn his head slightly, covering his mouth, and his eyes were red.

She cautiously walked behind Li Lijuan and gently put her hands on her shoulders:

"Auntie, Siming has never hated you, and he didn't commit suicide in anger...... He's really a nice, nice guy. ”

Li Lijuan choked up, forced herself to hold back her tears, and looked at the child sleeping peacefully on the bed, refusing to even blink her eyes. She reached out again with a trembling hand, and with great care ran her fingertips over the face of the child she had never known.

The movements are so gentle that they feel like they are stroking their own children.

5.

Laika sprang to the telegraph.

It thinks that human beings are really stupid, and the earth is the most beautiful star in the first place! Why would they go looking for other stars?

It had to get the word out as soon as possible, because Laika liked humans - and although humans were a bit stupid, they were kind to him, and they gave him bananas, telegraphs, and rockets......

It was pounding excitedly on the telegraph, pressing day and night, trying to tell people about its great discovery.

Tick tock, tick tock......

For a long, long time, Laika kept banging on the telegraph.

Humans don't seem to understand what it does.

The horn in the capsule makes a sound, and it's human.

"Why don't you keep looking for the stars!"

"Don't knock anymore! We don't understand it at all! ”

"Aren't you a monkey who can send Morse code?"

"We didn't build rockets to make you mess around!"

"Stupid monkey!"

Laika froze. ”

【.. /.../】

After Siming went to high school, I didn't know why, I became obsessed with astronomy, and every day I said on the phone that I wanted to save money to buy astronomical books and telescopes, and I wanted to become an astronomer in the future. Our Family...... Things haven't been good all these years, so ...... I told him not to do such a boundless thing, and said that he ...... Plaything Demoralization ......"

It was late at night, and in the taxi swaying to the mountain road, Li Lijuan had red eyes and talked about He Siming intermittently.

"The boy was so stubborn that ten cows couldn't pull it back...... No matter how much we nagged, he still bought books and binoculars for himself. ”

"I also learned later that in order to buy these things, he didn't eat or drink at school all day, and didn't go back to the dormitory after school, and went to a small restaurant in the neighborhood to wash dishes and work part-time...... Slowly, his spirit became worse and worse, and he couldn't keep up with his studies. ”

"We quarreled with him a lot in our family about this...... I also cried many times in front of him, always saying, "How did a child become like this......"

"Because we have always felt that this child is rarely qualified to study, and if he doesn't take the university entrance examination, become a civil servant, become a white-collar worker or something, he will not be able to support his family in the future, and we have always been good for him......"

Shi Zuocai listened silently, and suddenly asked:

"Do you think so now?"

Li Lijuan was silent for a while, and smiled bitterly:

"The person is gone, and it's useless to think about it. I just regret it now, why did I have to quarrel with him that night, if he hadn't argued, he wouldn't have run away from home......"

Speaking of this, Li Lijuan couldn't help choking again, Liu Yanshi was a little unbearable, held her hand, Li Lijuan held her hand tightly, and her body was trembling.

That night, Siming told me that he did not apply for an undergraduate university in Guangzhou as promised, but applied for an astronomy department in Hunan...... Say he's not our son, and tell him to get out of this house......"

Liu Yan's eyes closed slightly, a little gloomy. Shi Zuocai sat in the co-pilot, silently looking at the night sky outside the window, and did not speak.

Li Lijuan wiped her eyes with a tissue, and then asked:

"Miss Liu, Lan Dao Chief, are we going back to the town?"

"Not yet." Shi Zuocai paused and said:

"He Siming left you something."

6.

In the days that followed, Laika began to pound on the telegraph day and night.

It wants to show humanity that the most beautiful stars are at their feet.

But humanity does not understand, but it does not use a telegraph.

The horn in the capsule rang day and night,

The humans in the horns are scolding "stupid monkeys" day and night!

Laika was angry and sad. It yelled at the horn, but humans only heard the sound of "whoa, whoa" because humans are not monkeys and they can't understand monkeys.

It was so anxious that it jumped up and down in the capsule. Knock on the wall. Press and go on the telegraph.

It found itself unable to do anything. It wanted to go back to Earth and tell people that they were wrong, but now it was a lonely monkey, sulking in the boundless expanse of outer space.

It can't do anything.

It can't do anything.

It can't do anything.

The camera is pointing at it, humans are expecting it, scolding it, it can't do anything. ”

【-./---/-/】

The taxi stops halfway up the mountain. Shi Zuocai carried his bag and led the two through the woods, there was no moonlight tonight, and they walked forward in the darkness. After a while, they finally came to a relatively open cliff - this is the same place where Liu Yanshi and Mr. Demon camped for the night.

Li Lijuan asked with a little uneasiness:

"Master Dao, let's ...... What's to be done? ”

Shi Zuocai did not explain. He crouched down, unfastened his backpack, rummaged for a while, and retrieved a telescope from it.

The moment she saw the telescope, Li Lijuan was stunned.

He carefully handed the telescope to Li Lijuan, and in his usual calm tone, began to tell the story of the matter.

It turned out that before finding Li Lijuan in Hejia Town, Shi Zuocai first went to Davis Mountain with Liu Yan - because when Mr. Demon pretended to be a Taoist priest to tell Li Lijuan's fortune, he asked for the information "He Siming wore a telescope when he ran away from home", and the stuffy oil bottle had a guess in his heart: He Siming was drowned, and after the body was found, he couldn't see the telescope, so a possibility cannot be ruled out, that is, He Siming was not forced to fall into the water, but took the initiative to go into the water for some reasons.

So, Shi Zuocai walked all the way upstream along the river, and sure enough, he found a binoculars under the roots of a tree on the edge of the riverbank. "The telescope was covered in an envelope, which shows that He Siming did not throw it away next to the tree roots in a hurry, but because something happened that made him decide to put down the telescope before going down to the river - he cherished the telescope."

It was with this detail that I guessed that he might be trying to save people. So, I called the rescue team at Mount Davis......"

Li Lijuan rubbed the telescope carefully, and couldn't help covering her mouth with her hands, crying.

"This kid ...... This kid ......"

Shi Zuocai glanced at her deeply, and suddenly said:

"Don't you wonder why your son went up the mountain with a telescope?"

Li Lijuan raised her head with teary eyes.

Shi Zuocai closed his eyes, sighed, and took out a notebook from his backpack.

"It's the last thing your son left you."

Li Lijuan trembled and took the note and opened it. The content of the notes, except for the excerpt from Kant's sentence and the sentence "I want to be a star", is just a short fairy tale.

"Little Monkeys in Space".

7.

Later, Laika in the capsule came up with a solution.

That must be the most powerful and romantic way to do it!

Laika thought as her heart pounded.

Everything will be fine, Laika said to herself.

"Because, I love humanity to death, and I love the stars to death!"

【.--./---/.../..././.../.../.. /...-/./】

Li Lijuan's fingers trembled violently, stroking every handwriting on the note, inhaling softly, her eyes were like a collapsed embankment, and tears kept flowing. After reading the last line and seeing the envelope sandwiched at the end of the page, she looked up in despair and helplessness, and choked up at Shi Zuocai and asked:

"This ...... What does it mean......"

Shi Zuocai let out a silent sigh from the bottom of his heart, and then took the telescope that was handed to Liu Yanshi, handed it to Li Lijuan, and asked:

"Do you know how to stargaze?"

Li Lijuan was a little surprised. Shi Zuocai didn't explain, knelt beside her, and began to teach her how to observe the stars with a telescope.

"Facing northeast, the angle is about forty-five degrees, and if you look over there, can you see a fog-like light? That's a nebula. Did you see five particularly bright stars, arranged in the shape of a 'W'...... Yes, that's Cassiopeia. ”

Shi Zuocai pursed his lips, looked up at the deep and brilliant starry sky, held Li Lijuan's shoulders with both hands, and said in a calm tone, word by word:

"Now, I want you to move a little to the left, very slightly, and put the leftmost star in the shape of the W in the grid in the upper right corner."

"Now, don't move, I'll help you with magnification."

Liu Yanshi quietly looked at the backs of Shi Zuocai and Li Lijuan, her eyes were red, and she covered her mouth with her hands and sniffed quietly.

"Did you see a very small, very faint star? You have to be very careful to notice, because the magnification of this pair of telescopes is not high enough. ”

Li Lijuan was silent, and in the field of vision she saw through the telescope, there was suddenly a small and dim star swaying slightly in the night sky. It had been cowering in the corner of the nearby shining nebula, like a weak and sickly child, often bullied. But in this moonless autumn night, stubbornly emitting a faint light, just like the flashing eyes of a lover.

Liu Yanshi walked over softly and quietly, squatted down, and said softly:

"That star belongs to you. Its name is 'Lijuan'. ”

Li Lijuan took off the binoculars blankly, and Liu Yanshi took the envelope in Shi Zuocai's hand again and solemnly handed it to her.

Inside the envelope is a certificate of asteroid nomenclature issued by the International Astronomical Union.

It indicates the latitude and longitude of the designated star, the constellation to which it belongs, and also indicates that the naming rights have been transferred to the discoverer.

The name of the asteroid is "Lijuan".

The discoverer is, He Siming.

Along with the certificate, there was a small sticky note.

"I bought a star for you, Mom.

There are more than 6 billion people in the world, and less than 1 in 10 million people are named by stars.

I want to make you the most special one.

This star, called Lijuan, is very well hidden - it can only be observed on Mount Davis on moonless nights in early October.

From now on, this star will always be with you. Maybe you can't see it when you look up, but it's always there.

That's what I understand as stars. It doesn't allow me to eat, earn money, and feed my family. But sometimes, it's better than that.

Because this is where my love is placed.

I love you, mom.

- Laicarliu in Space"

【-.../.. -/-/】

Li Lijuan held the note, knelt on the ground, slowly lowered her body, touched the ground with her forehead, and cried heartbreakingly. The cry was so touching that even Liu Yanshi couldn't help but cover her nose and wipe her tears.

Shi Zuocai got up silently, walked to the lawn behind and sat down, looking at Li Lijuan, who was crying, and was completely distracted.

The cry of a complete collapse after the emotional tension reached the limit was extremely moving, Li Lijuan seemed to be crying to the point of death, pouring out all the tears in her life from her body.

For some reason, just looking at it so blankly, Shi Zuocai felt that a warm current surged from his lower abdomen to his whole body, and his nose was inexplicably sore.

Thousands of feet high in the sky, there are still countless stars swaying and twinkling in the night sky. They move along the arc of the sky, hundreds of millions of light-years away, casting a twinkling gaze at the people of this planet.

The story about the child who likes stars in Hejia Town has come to an end. But He Siming will never disappear, he is like the faint and stubborn little star in the corner of the nebula, appearing in this world at the beginning of October every year, silently accompanying Li Lijuan, exhausting all her life since then.

This is indeed the most romantic companionship he can think of.

Although there are regrets along the way, this understanding between mother and son is not absent after all.

The warm feeling was like a small spark beating in Shi Zuocai's chest. He has always been indifferent and impersonal, and when the two women can't see it, he quietly hooks the corners of his mouth.

Then, he froze again.

"Why...... Why...... Why, why, why!! ”

"I worked so hard to raise you so big...... Why do you do this to me! ”

"There's nothing left at home...... I'm tired of saving this money so that you can go to school...... Why do you have to study astronomy? ”

"If you didn't study astronomy, your mother wouldn't have quarreled with you at all, and there would be no such thing at all......"

"It's gone...... It's all gone...... My son is gone...... The family is gone...... I'm done with my life...... He Siming...... I've worked so hard for so much...... Why are you dying......"

"Why...... I want to learn astronomy......"

Liu Yanshi was stunned and lost his mind for a while.

Shi Zuocai looked at the hysterical, yelling back in a daze, feeling that something seemed to be burning in his chest, and he couldn't suppress the strong desire to retch from his stomach. In the depths of my heart, it seems that something is collapsing silently and quickly disappearing without a trace, like a sand castle overflowing by a tide.

He fell backwards feebly, his eyes wide open.

As far as the eye can see, there is still an endless starry sky.

【-.-./---/-./-/.-./.. /-.../.. -/-/.. /---/-./】

At a certain moment, he suddenly realized that perhaps the so-called understanding and understanding between all parents and children in the world is nothing more than a pretended decent compromise.

But the stars are not wrong. Never.