Stardust Memory Sphere
Concrete fragments groaned and crumbled under the excavator's iron claws, the dust rising like startled ghosts, swirling wildly in the afternoon sun. Ayu instinctively covered her mouth and nose, and through her fingers, she saw the old waiting room, which had witnessed countless partings and reunions, like an old cake gnawed by time, slowly peeling away and collapsing.
"Watch out!" Zhong Hua's voice, metallic in tone, cut through the noisy construction noise and pulled her back sharply.
A rusty sheet metal billboard fell from mid-air, crashing with a loud thud where they had just been standing. The flying pebbles hit Ayu's trouser legs, leaving several dusty marks.
"Thank you." Ayu patted her chest, still shaken, but her gaze was drawn to a strange light on the ground not far away.
It was in the gaps between a pile of steel bars and broken bricks that something seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, not with the cold, hard reflection of metal, but with a warm, life-giving luster. She pulled away from Zhong Hua's hand, carefully pushed aside the sharp debris, and squatted down.
It is a water droplet.
A peculiar water droplet, suspended a few centimeters above the ground. Unlike ordinary water droplets that are round and fleeting, it possesses an almost solid, perfect crystal-like texture, completely transparent yet with a faint iridescent halo flowing within, as if the entire sky's glow has been condensed inside.
"Zhonghua, look!" Ayu exclaimed in amazement.
Zhong Hua walked over and was stunned when he saw the crystal water droplet floating there, defying all logic. He reached out to touch it, but just as his fingertips were about to touch its cool surface, the droplet seemed to sense something and trembled slightly.
"Buzz—"
A faint, yet seemingly resonant sound echoed deep within the soul.
Then, an unbelievable scene unfolded.
The crystal-like water droplet exploded without warning. It didn't shatter into droplets, but transformed into countless tiny particles, like released sprites, dancing in the sky—stardust, real stardust! Each particle was only the size of a pinhead, yet each emitted a soft and unique light, weaving a dreamlike mist of light above the chaotic construction site.
“This is…” Ayu held her breath, looking at the swirling stardust, a strange tremor rising in her heart.
Just then, a stardust radiating a warm golden light seemed to be guided, slowly drifting towards Ayu and finally gently landing on her outstretched palm. Upon contact, the stardust transformed into a stream of light, projecting a clear image.
It was a familiar room, soft light filtering through the window and falling on a table covered with blue-and-white printed fabric. A graceful figure sat at the table, her fingers deftly moving, the silver needle gleaming in the sunlight, each stroke embroidering a lifelike peony petal onto the pristine white satin. It was her mother, her mother in her youth, her eyes focused and gentle, a faint smile playing on her lips. The traces left by the silver needle were light and graceful, as if weaving a silent poem. Ayu's eyes instantly welled up with tears. It was one of her most profound childhood memories: her mother's embroidery room, forever filled with the scent of silk thread and sandalwood, and those tireless silver needles embroidering peonies.
"Ayu?" Zhong Hua's voice carried a hint of surprise and shock. A speck of stardust also landed in his palm, the stardust displaying a deep sea blue hue, and as the light flowed, an image appeared.
It was a wooden boat bobbing on the waves, the cabin dimly lit, a kerosene lamp flickering. An old man in old-fashioned sailing clothes was hunched over a yellowed nautical chart, his compass turning gently, the needle pointing steadily north. The old man's fingers were rough but strong, marking something on the chart along the compass's markings. That was Zhong Hua's grandfather, the grandfather he had never met, an old navigator who spent his life with the sea. Zhong Hua had heard his father mention his grandfather's logbook and that old compass; now, the image in the stardust was so clear, as if transporting him back to that era filled with the salty smell and the spirit of adventure. The turning of the compass needle seemed to be turning the gears of time itself.
More stardust danced in the air, some reflecting the magnificent sunrise over Qinghai Lake, where the rosy glow painted the lake red; some showcasing the sparkling moment when ice shards shattered and splashed as the icefall cascaded down in Yubeng Village; and others recreating the winding footprints left by camel caravans in the Dunhuang desert... Each stardust is a treasured memory, a moment buried by time.
These swirling stardust particles seemed to possess their own will, slowly gathering after a brief period of drifting. They were no longer scattered individuals, but rather, as if drawn by some powerful gravitational force, they gradually converged and merged. Warm gold, sea blue, orange-red, indigo… the light of various colors intertwined, no longer dazzling, but instead forming a harmonious and warm halo.
Finally, all the stardust coalesced into a sphere about thirty centimeters in diameter, hovering above Ayu and Zhonghua's heads. It resembled a miniature, living planet, its surface shifting with light and shadow, its interior seemingly containing the mysteries of the entire universe.
"Look inside!" Zhong Hua pointed to the core of the sphere, his voice filled with disbelief.
Ayu looked in the direction he was pointing, and her heart skipped a beat.
At the core of the sphere, a starry sky clearly appeared—the same starry sky they had gazed upon on the shores of Namtso Lake! Under the deep night sky, countless stars twinkled, but the most striking were the clearly visible Big Dipper. But this was no ordinary projection of the night sky; the position of each of the Big Dipper's main stars corresponded to a tiny, luminous point. The distribution of those seven points was precisely the location of the seven rest stops they had stayed at during their road trip along the Yunnan-Tibet Highway! It was as if the Big Dipper had lit a signpost for their journey in the night sky.
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