As soon as the sun rose, Song Caiying climbed out of bed.
After washing up, she knocked on her son's door: "Xiaohang, get up."
A few seconds later, the son's sleepy voice came from inside the door: "It's only a little after six..."
"You forgot, we made an appointment yesterday to go to the hospital to visit Uncle Chang this morning."
"...Ah! I'll get up right away!"
It was only seven in the morning when Song Hang finished his meal and went out.
The sky was dark, and dark rain clouds covered the newly appeared sun. A fine spring rain was floating in the sky, just wetting the ground.
Song Hang glanced at his mother's expression and found that it was no different from the gloomy rain clouds in the sky.
Ever since Grandma Li passed away and Uncle Chang became seriously ill, Mom has been in a bad mood.
Song Hang was also very sad.
He likes Grandma Li Shuran and Uncle Chang Jingchen very much.
They were the perfect scientists in his mind.
They are not obsessed with fame and fortune, nor do they pursue personal gain. Instead, they forge ahead on the path of pursuing knowledge and truth, and fight for the happiness and liberation of mankind all their lives. They are unyielding seekers of truth, and are also the signposts and idols of Song Hang's life.
His dream is to become a scientific researcher in the future.
Every Spring Festival, his mother would take him to visit Grandma Li Shuran and Uncle Chang Jingchen.
Grandma Li Shuran is a very kind and gentle old lady. Although she is a national treasure-level scientist, she is not arrogant at all. She always smiles when she sees him and always listens carefully to his every idea. After hearing about his dream of becoming a scientist, Grandma Li Shuran believes that he can realize his dream even more than he does.
Song Hang had heard the story of his mother and Grandma Li from her more than once.
The more he listened, the more Song Hang admired Grandma Li.
Ms. Li is an amazing woman. She was able to escape an arranged marriage during such a war-torn era, persist in studying from scratch, and resolutely gave up the generous treatment abroad to return to China to develop science and technology when the country was in trouble.
Like her mother, she lives a radiant life.
Moreover, Grandma Li is not only a wise person in academics, but also a wise person in life!
If Grandma Li hadn't woken my mother up, she would have been a "mediocre and ugly woman who was obsessed with stupid love and gave up her ideals and career for men." Song Hang will always remember the expression on her mother's face when she said this - a kind of relief and fear for surviving a disaster.
Mom has always been Song Hang’s idol, and she is also the coolest mom in their school.
She has short, heroic hair and wears a neat professional suit. She is the boss of a foreign trade company and an absolute strong woman.
Although his mother is usually very busy, she always takes time out during the winter and summer vacations to take Song Hang to travel around the world.
Together they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and witnessed from the top the rising, fiery sun leaping out of the sea of clouds with brilliant light; together they dived into the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea, swimming among the schools of fish that swam in the light of the sky and the water; together they skied in Antarctica, and appreciated the endless magnificence of the snowy rivers... Although he didn't have a father, Song Hang had a happier childhood than many children with fathers.
When he was a child, Song Hang once asked his mother why he didn't have a father.
His mother's answer made him remember it for the rest of his life:
"Look, baby, other families need the efforts of both mom and dad to raise a child, but mom is better and can raise the baby alone, so there is no need for dad, right?"
Therefore, when Song Hang was a child, he was never sad because he didn't have a father. After he grew up, he could understand the meaning behind his mother's words more and more, and he admired her more and more.
He is his mother's only child and he only likes his mother.
His mother is the coolest, bravest and most independent woman he has ever met. His mother is his pride! His biggest dream is to become a free, independent, brave and fearless person like his mother.
So it was hard for him to imagine that his mother was once just an ordinary woman who lived a mediocre life.
…
…
Song Caiying started the car and drove towards the city hospital.
As the sky gradually brightened, there were already scattered pedestrians on the road. The breakfast shops were bustling with people, diluting the gloomy atmosphere of the continuous spring rain.
Song Caiying glanced at her son who could not help dozing off in the passenger seat and said with a smile, "Go to sleep first. I'll call you when we get to the hospital."
Song Hang forced his eyelids open and said obediently, "I won't sleep. I'll talk to mom for a while."
Song Caiying couldn't help but smile at her son's thoughtfulness. She tried to persuade her son a few more times, but when she found that it didn't work, she gratefully accepted her son's kindness. Talking to someone now really made her feel better.
She habitually turned on the radio in the car, listened to the morning news, and chatted with her son.
"Let me start with a breaking news: Comrade Chang Jingchen, winner of my country's highest science and technology award and aerospace expert, passed away in Beijing at 19:52 last night at the age of 36. As an expert in my country's manned space technology, Chang Jingchen made outstanding contributions to the launch of my country's Shenzhou series of spacecraft..."
Song Caiying was stunned.
She looked at Song Hang in confusion, "Xiao Hang, did I hear it wrong?"
Song Hang was also in shock and confusion. He asked blankly, "How could Uncle Chang die? Isn't he only in his thirties?"
Song Caiying nodded blankly and said in a daze: "Yes, how could it be..." She is still alive, how could that person die?
Song Caiying didn't know when she regained her sanity. She mechanically turned the steering wheel, stepped on the accelerator, and drove towards the hospital at full speed.
Along the way, she seemed to be thinking about a lot of things, but also seemed to be thinking about nothing.
Compared with her gratitude to Mr. Li Shuran, Song Caiying has always had complicated feelings towards Chang Jingchen.
In the first 22 years of her life, she and Chang Jingchen had no intersection at all, and she had only heard of him but never seen him.
It was not until she was 23 years old that she accompanied her then boyfriend Li Yian to the hospital to visit Mr. Li Shuran who was ill that she met Chang Jingchen for the first time. But at that time, she actually did not have a deep impression of Chang Jingchen, and her whole mind was immersed in the words of Mr. Li Shuran.
Mr. Li Shuran's few words completely changed the trajectory of her life. She completely broke free from the ideological constraints imposed on her by her previous life and had a clear goal for the first time.
At first, she just wanted to live up to her university certificate, make use of her advantage in English major, and become an independent woman who could support herself.
Relying on her university certificate and professional advantages, she joined a foreign company after returning to China from Singapore. From then on, she was refreshed and realized for the first time how vast the world was and how insignificant she was.
Compared with this magnificent and wonderful world, the "love" between her and Li Yi'an was not worth mentioning and was vulnerable.
The more people she met, the more she felt that Li Yian was just so-so.
She even began to wonder if she was out of her mind before, to actually think that Li Yian, this second-generation rich man, was perfect and a good man who could stand up to the sky?
Therefore, the breakup between Song Caiying and Li Yi'an became inevitable. Although she didn't say it, Song Caiying actually thought that Li Yi'an was not worthy of her at that time.
But even after breaking up with Li Yi'an, Song Caiying still shamelessly visited Mr. Li Shuran frequently. She was full of gratitude and admiration for this female teacher who changed her life.
So whenever she achieved a little success or encountered a problem that she couldn't solve, she would visit the female teacher. Even just talking to the female teacher for a while would bring her great encouragement and support.
So she would occasionally meet Chang Jingchen, who accompanied Mr. Li Shuran, Mr. Li Shuran's nominal brother. Although he was a brother, Mr. Li Shuran treated him with natural intimacy. The always respected lady would even act like a little girl in front of him. Whenever this happened, the young man would always smile gently and indulgently.
The way the old and the young get along with each other in such a reversed age group is indescribably harmonious in Song Caiying's eyes.
Slowly, Song Caiying and Chang Jingchen became familiar with each other. Chang Jingchen would occasionally give Song Caiying some advice on some of the difficulties she encountered in her career, and Song Caiying would often admire his clear cognition and incisive views.
In this context, it was ridiculous that she thought Li Yian would be more promising than Chang Jingchen when they first met. This also fully proved how shallow she was at that time.
But she finally lived a rich life.
This life is worth it.
It is not entirely true to say that Chang Jingchen and Song Caiying have a good relationship.
Unlike Mr. Li Shuran's kindness, Chang Jingchen's attitude towards Song Caiying has always been gentle and distant. It should be said that Chang Jingchen is very cold to everyone except Mr. Li Shuran.
However, because of Mr. Li Shuran's relationship, and the fact that he did help Song Caiying, Song Caiying has always been grateful to him, and she would return the favor by giving him gifts from time to time to express her gratitude.
If nothing unexpected happens, the relationship between Song Caiying and Chang Jingchen will always be so ordinary.
However, an accident happened.
Mr. Li Shuran, the life mentor whom Song Caiying respected and loved the most in her life, passed away.
This incident was a devastating blow to Song Caiying. She almost fainted from crying at the time. She also lost her appetite in the following days and was immersed in great grief.
It was under such circumstances that her feelings for Chang Jingchen were sublimated - he was Mr. Li Shuran's favorite and closest person during his lifetime. Seeing that he was still alive, it was as if Mr. Li's life had been continued.
Unfortunately, fate is unpredictable. Not long after Song Caiying cheered up, she heard the news that Chang Jingchen was also seriously ill.
His organs were rapidly failing and his life was in danger.
It was as if Mr. Li Shuran’s death had taken away all his vitality, and he was about to follow Mr. Li Shuran.
The moment she heard the news, Song Caiying only felt boundless loneliness and confusion.
She seemed to have turned into a little girl of a few years old, standing at a busy crossroads, not knowing which direction to go.
…
Song Caiying drove the car into the hospital parking lot, officially ending her long memories.
She held her son's hand and walked towards the hospital ward like a wandering soul.
She stood at the door of the ward and saw the empty bed. She felt dizzy.
From the nurse, she learned that Chang Jingchen's body had been sent to the funeral home for cremation last night.
According to Chang Jingchen's last words, his ashes will be raised into the sky on the newly launched manned spacecraft, and the astronauts will follow his will and scatter his ashes into the vast universe.
The nurse said with emotion: "As expected of a space expert, he even wants to die in space. How romantic."
Song Hang choked up and cried silently.
Song Hang, the future chief aerospace designer, saw off two of his most respected scientists at the age of eight. From then on, he embarked on the path pioneered by his predecessors, moving forward courageously, singing as he walked.
Many, many years later, when Song Hang has become a white-haired grandfather, he will lie in a rocking chair and describe to his bright-eyed grandchildren the amazing glimpse he had of two stars in his childhood. He will describe how dazzling and radiant those two stars were. In the end, he will always use this sentence to describe the brilliance of the two stars - "They are the ideals of the world in the scorching galaxy."①
The grandchildren would nod in confusion, and then ask Song Hang in a baby voice, "And then?"
"Then." Song Hang narrowed his eyes and smiled. His expression did not show the sorrow of his childhood, but the indifference of a man who had seen through the world. "Then the stars returned to the sky."
"Eh?" the little grandson asked curiously, "Are the stars happy to be back in the sky?"
"I didn't know when I was young." Song Hang touched his grandson's head, his smile was complex and enlightened, which the children could not understand. "But now I slowly understand that when the stars return to the sky, they should be unhappy, because they will worry that there will be no more stars born in the world in the future."
The granddaughter asked in confusion: "But aren't there a lot of stars in the sky? So it doesn't matter if there are no new stars!"
"The sky has always been full of familiar stars, and they get lonely too." Song Hang suddenly blinked his right eye mischievously, smiling like a cunning old fox, "So promise grandpa that you will become a star, okay? That way the stars in the sky will never be lonely."
The grandchildren looked at each other, then nodded as if they understood, and said in a baby voice: "Okay~"
"That's great." Song Hang was very pleased. "So we made an appointment," he said softly, "Grandpa and the other stars are waiting for you in the sky."
That is the story of another star in the distant future.
At this moment, Song Hang was just a child who was immersed in confusion and sadness and at a loss.
One day in the future he will set sail, start his own business, and at the end of the journey, turn into a star and return to the universe.
But it will take many, many years before his time comes.
But no matter in the past, present, or the distant future, there will always be shining stars in the world.
There must be stars.
The author has something to say:
① Paraphrase this sentence: The stars are blazing, you are the ideal of the world. Because it has been overused, the origin is unlucky.
I think this extra chapter pretty much covers everything... Are there any extra chapters you guys would like to see? I'll see if I can write one now. If there's nothing I want to write, I'll just move on to the next world.
The next world is the story of violent Buddhist monks as described in the copywriting (…)
Le Jing will have an amazing golden finger, hehe.
When people are in trouble, Buddha comes out of retreat
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