A ray of pale blue daylight shone into Titan, and it was Ruan Lin's second morning back on Mars.

Ruan Lin rubbed his eyes and opened the sleeping pod. Staring at your watch: It's 6:19 a.m. Earth International Time — if the Earth still exists.

A mean solar day on Mars is 24 hours and 39 minutes, about 39 minutes longer than on Earth.

Or maybe it's 5:40 a.m. Martian time. This is exactly when the sunrise will be visible on Mars.

While the sun on Mars is a fascinating pale blue illumination. But Ruan Lin is more accustomed to the sunrise of the earth: the sky gradually changes from the white of the dawn to a pale blue, and then the fiery red sun slowly rises over the horizon, and most of the surface of the day hemisphere is illuminated by the sun, and it is a new day, and humanity is about to start the day's work.

Every moment on Earth there are stories that take place, some of which are hilarious and some of which are heartbreaking.

Humans are social animals, but Ruan Lin can only feel endless loneliness and sadness at this time. Carrying the knowledge of all mankind is a blessing for Ruan Lin, but also a great sorrow.

Ruan Lin sometimes wants to express his feelings, but finds that after carrying all the knowledge, his thinking is too logical.

He also sometimes wants to live as an ordinary person.

If you want to wear a crown, bear its weight first.

He would even ask himself why he was emotional, and where the source came from, before he wanted to cry.

WIT started the early morning report at this time: "Dr. Nguyen, after nearly 16 hours of construction. We already have 2 outdoor bases. 103 excavation robots, 42 survey robots and 26 refining robots. There are now 12 assembly lines. ”

Then came a bad piece of news from WIT: "The purification concentration of the refining robot you designed is too low, only 71% of the target index. This requires you to make subsequent improvements. ”

Ruan Lin was extremely annoyed when he thought that he had not consulted the complete information when he had designed the previous design.

Then he sat in the center of the main control room and began to retrieve further information: after 1.2s of retrieval, the improved method of the gas centrifugal separator completely appeared in Ruan Lin's mind.

At this time, Ruan Lin saw the signature under one of the papers: Zhong Zhaoping. This is my mentor when I was in graduate school.

Ruan Lin remembered what he had been like when he was a student of the Department of Archaeology and crossed the exam to the Department of Astronomy. I couldn't help but raise the corners of my mouth slightly.

Initially, Ruan Lin was interested in science fiction warships in movies, and secretly stayed up late every day to read science fiction novels in high school.

Ruan Lin was so excited about the war of civilizations in the universe depicted in the novel that it kept him awake at night.

After entering university, I studied archaeology and learned various things about the universe in private. After learning about the concept of ephemeris for the first time, it was like a chicken blood, and I frantically absorbed the knowledge from all kinds of cosmic popular science books.

This also prompted Ruan Lin to have the idea of taking the postgraduate examination across majors.

Ruan Lin felt as if he had returned to the scene of his first encounter with his mentor, which pulled him into his memory.

Ruan Lin's chosen research direction at that time was theoretical astrophysics.

Ruan Lin and his mentor Zhong Zhaoping met in the school library. When Chung heard that Ruan Lin had crossed over from the Department of Archaeology to the Department of Astronomy, and after seeing his photo, he asked to meet with him by name.

I didn't expect that the first meeting with the tutor was the other party's initiative!

Ruan Lin was restless in his seat at this time, his palms couldn't stop sweating, and his hands were tightly clasped into his jeans, hoping that this would reduce the tension in his heart.

Ruan Lin was afraid that the mentor, whom he had never met, would ask him some very difficult questions, so that he could persuade him to go back and continue his studies in archaeology.

A bald man in his sixties, dressed in a vintage suit from the eighties, sat directly across from him.

Ruan Lin could feel the thumping of his heart in his ears.

Ruan Lin became more and more nervous when he thought of the difficulties he might make for himself in the future: "Director.. Hello Tutor! I heard you were going to see me, and I'm sorry I didn't visit you first time. My name is Ruan Lin and I was a former student in the Department of Archaeology. ”

The mentor sitting directly opposite him asked a question that Ruan Lin could never forget in his life: "What do you think, what is the end of the universe?" ”

Ruan Lin thought to himself: It's coming! Sure enough, it came. This is to make it difficult for me to go back and study archaeology.

Various theories came to mind, and the defense began: "The universe is expanding every minute and every second, and the precisely measured Hubble constant is about 70 kilometers per million parsecs, indicating that the entire universe is expanding faster than three times the speed of light." In other words, there is no end to our universe. It is like a circle that can be extended infinitely. ”

Ruan Lin saw the mentor sitting on the opposite side, as if he was looking at himself, and he seemed to smile: "If you have the ability to leap to the very edge of the universe's expansion and exceed its expansion speed, what kind of scene do you think you will see?" ”

Ruan Lin was stunned for a moment: This is not written in the textbook!

Ruan Lin began to fantasize: "First of all, there is no condition of the time required to reach the 'edge of the universe'. If I can exceed the speed of the expansion of the universe, then my spaceship is at least 4 times the speed of light, and the expansion of the universe may be like us blowing a round balloon, it is like a three-dimensional circular infinite expansion, and my spaceship is like a mosquito in a balloon... Without the help of other forces, I could not reach the outside of the inflated balloon. Am I going to be bounced back by it? ”

Ruan Lin also questioned his fantasies.

I saw that the tutor sitting on the opposite side began to snicker: "Your idea is very interesting!" Balloons and mosquitoes. Studying astronomy requires students to have good thinking skills and the ability to imagine things. It not only requires you to think about textbook knowledge, but also to make bold fantasies! And verify it step by step. ”

His voice is mesmerizing. Magnetic: "My name is Zhong Zhaoping, and I am your mentor for the next three years. ”

Ruan Lin knew that this was the mentor's acceptance of him.

At this moment, Ruan Lin seemed to have won the lottery jackpot: "Thank you!" Teacher Zhong, I will study seriously in the future, I will definitely reach the edge of the universe when I study with you! ”

Zhong Zhaoping hadn't laughed like this for a long time, but in the library, he still suppressed his laughter.

Recalling this, Ruan Lin had already shed tears uncontrollably that he hadn't seen for a long time.

Ruan Lin's perspective has long been blurred.

He was raised by his uncle since he was a child, and he never met his so-called parents. Mr. Zhong gave countless help during his graduate studies, and after Ruan Lin graduated, he still maintained his care for Ruan Lin.

"Thank you! Mr. Zhong, I still remember telling you about reaching the edge of the universe. Trust me, one day, I will definitely go to see you with the answer. ”