Standing on the roof of the Aerospace Tower, Lu Hai stared at the fast-moving Chinese sun in the sky, and under its light, the capital's high-rise buildings cast countless fast-moving shadows, making Beijing seem to be a big face that rotates with the Chinese sun.

This is the last time that the Chinese Sun will orbit the Earth, and it has reached its second cosmic velocity and will fly out of the Earth's gravitational field and enter an orbit around the Sun. There were 20 people on this first manned starcraft of mankind, and in addition to the water baby, the others were selected from millions of volunteers, including three "mirror farmers" who have worked with the water baby for many years. The Chinese Sun has even reached its goal before it has even set off: the enthusiasm of human society for extrasolar space exploration has reappeared.

Lu Hai's mind went back to that sweltering summer night twenty-three years ago, in that northwestern city, where he and a rural boy from an arid land boarded a night train bound for Beijing.

As a farewell, the Chinese sun casts its rays on the major cities in turn, allowing people to see its light for the last time. Finally, the light spot of the Chinese sun casts on the great northwest, and the small village where Shui Wa was born is in the light spot.

On the side of the path at the edge of the village, Shuiwa's father and mother watched the Chinese sun flying to the east with the villagers.

Shui Wa's father shouted: "Baby, do you want to go to a far place? ”

The water baby replied from space: "Yes, Dad, I'm afraid I won't be able to go home." ”

Shui Wa Niang asked, "That place is far away?" ”

Shui Wa replied: "Far away, mother." ”

Daddy Water asked, "Is it farther than the moon?" ”

Shuiwa was silent for a few seconds, and said in a much lower voice than just now, "Yes, Dad, farther than the moon." ”

The father and mother of the water baby don't feel particularly uncomfortable, the baby is doing big things in a place farther away than the moon! Besides, it's been a remarkable year, even people from the far corners of the world can talk to him at any time, and you can see him on a small TV, which is no different from face-to-face. But they would not have imagined that as time passed, the son on the small screen would become more and more sluggish, and he would have to think for a long time to answer his father's and mother's concerned questions. He thought for only a few seconds at first, and then it got longer and longer, and after a year, every time his father asked a word, his son would be dumbfounded for more than an hour before he could answer. Eventually, the son will disappear, and they will be told to sleep with the water baby, and this sleep will be more than forty years. After this, Shuiwa's father and mother will spend the rest of their lives to continue to take care of the once barren and now fertile land, and live their life full of hardships but already very satisfied, and their last wish will be: one day in the distant future, the son who finally returns home can see a better home.

The Chinese Sun is flying away from the Earth's orbit, it is darkening in the eastern sky, and the blue sky around it is slowly shrinking to a point, and finally, it will become a star and dissolve into the stars, but long before the dawn of the stellar sun will completely drown it out.

The path in front of the village was also illuminated by the dawn, and now it was lined with two rows of aspen trees, and a small river ran parallel to it not far away. Twenty-four years ago, in the early hours of the morning, in the same light, a child from a peasant family in the northwest faded away on this path with a hazy hope.

At this time, the sky in Beijing was already bright, and Lu Hai was still standing on the roof of the Aerospace Building, looking at the last place where the Chinese sun had finally disappeared, and it had embarked on a long road of no return. The Chinese Sun will first enter the orbit of Venus, getting as close as possible to the Sun for greater acceleration pressure and longer acceleration distances, which will be achieved through a series of complex orbit-changing flights that will travel much like a sailboat sailing against the wind during the Age of Discovery. Seventy days later, it will pass through the orbit of Mars; One hundred and sixty days later, it will pass Jupiter; In two years, it will fly out of Pluto's orbit and become a starship, and everyone on board will go into hibernation; Forty-five years from now, it will pass the constellation Centauri, the astronauts will wake up briefly, and a century after the departure of the Chinese sun, the Earth will receive their detection of the constellation Centauri; At this time, the Chinese Sun is on its way to Sirius, and due to the acceleration of the constellation Centauri, its speed will reach 15 percent of the speed of light, and it will reach Sirius in 60 years, that is, a century after the departure from the Earth, when the Chinese Sun passes this binary system composed of Sirius A and B, its speed will increase to 2/10th of the speed of light, and fly deeper into the starry sky. According to the time limit of the hibernation system of life on board the spacecraft, it is possible for the Chinese Sun to reach the constellation Pojiang-ε, and possibly even (though this is very unlikely) finally to 79 Cetus, which are thought to have planets.

No one knows how far the Chinese sun will fly, what kind of magical world they will see, and maybe one day they will make a call to the earth, and it will take thousands of years to get an echo. But Shuiwa will always remember a country called China on the mother planet, a small village in an arid land in the west of that country, and the path in front of the village, from where he started.