[Measurement City, Residential Buildings in the Outer City]
【102km from Central Building. 】
…
"Grandma, grandma, please tell me a story." A little girl leaned next to a white-haired old lady in an old rocking chair.
The bell on the window rang, and the window next to it was sealed shut, so no black fog could leak in. In the small house, there were only the old lady and her granddaughter. They cuddled together, and the photo on the table was glowing.
"Tuantuan, what story do you want to hear?" the old lady said gently.
"I have never heard of the story of the universe since I was a child. Now the world seems to be destroyed, I want to listen to it." The little girl raised her head: "Grandma, how big is the universe? Is it as big as a big pond?"
The old lady looked up and thought for a while.
Her cloudy eyes shrank slightly.
"The universe... the universe is very big. It originated from a big bang and evolved from a state of extremely high density and temperature... Compared to it, our ruined world is just an inconspicuous planet." The old lady said: "Because the dimension was blocked many years ago, we can't leave the ruined world and go into space, but I still know that there is a vast universe above our heads..."
"Grandma. How did you know all this?" the little girl blinked.
The old lady narrowed her eyes and thought for a long time.
After a moment, she recalled:
"My mother, your great-grandmother, lived in the era before the century disaster. In that era, manned spaceflight technology gradually matured, and people began to engage in various round-trip flights in space for exploration, research, testing, production and military applications."
"My mother's memory is not clear. Humanity has had many memories erased since the Century Disaster. Not many people remember the era before the Century Disaster."
"But at that time, before the century catastrophe, she vaguely remembered that the ruins world was not called the ruins world, but the name of a planet. Human technological development was like a blooming flower, leaping forward rapidly every year. Mechanical manufacturing, bionic technology, artificial intelligence and other fields were all developing rapidly. They confirmed quantum entanglement, transplanted the hearts of genetically modified pigs, and developed elementary AI... Everything was beautiful at that time."
"People try to explore the universe beyond the galaxy and find another intelligent civilization. So, they send signals to the depths of the distant universe, carrying human text, audio and video images, hoping to find a civilization similar to theirs."
"Did they find it?" asked the little girl.
"Found it." The old lady smiled.
"Really? Great, what is that civilization?" The little girl was very excited. If humans can find a new civilization in the vast universe, it must be a very lucky thing.
The old lady touched her head:
"It's called [Tawei]."
“The universe is a Pandora’s box, and humans have unfortunately invited the devil.”
"Ding——" the bell rang slightly, and the petals of the lily drooped slightly.
The old lady picked up the group photo on the table and her rough fingers groped for a black-haired woman in the frame. The little girl looked at it with her.
The black-haired woman in the photo has long, shiny black hair, cunning eyes like a little fox, and a beautiful smile.
They watched in silence for a long time.
"Is this my great-grandmother?" said the little girl.
"Yeah." The old lady responded.
The little girl knew that the black-haired woman was her great-grandmother - her great-grandmother was very old, having lived through the Century Cataclysm and the Dawn War. She had made indelible contributions to human civilization and had led soldiers onto the battlefield in person.
My great-grandmother died in the 72nd year of the disaster, from old age.
According to the diary left by my great grandmother, when she was young, she had a habit of calling someone she admired "Xiao Shuai". However, the little girl didn't know who had received such an honor in that era, because her great grandfather had never been called "Xiao Shuai" by her great grandmother. I guess that feeling had been quietly buried by my great grandmother.
My great-grandmother's name was Xi.
She was really beautiful when she was young.
"The small universe,
"Delightful universe,
"Jumping and laughing,
"When I was a kid..."
The little girl hummed a ballad, leaning against her grandmother's rocking chair. Her grandmother sang along with her until the city-state's energy supply ran low and the ceiling lights went out.
The windows were corroded and had holes in them. Black fog seeped in through the gaps in the windows and corroded their skin, but they were still singing songs about a universe that could no longer be reached.
The little girl stretched out her rotten hand and looked at the dark ceiling through her fingers.
She thought, maybe the universe is really huge and the sky is really far away - in distant civilizations, maybe there really are civilizations similar to theirs, spying on this mysterious and dangerous universe.
Maybe it will be a new life, maybe it will be the end.
How far is the universe and what is life?
"How much the new becomes old,
"Time does not go backward,
"Today I come to you,
"There must be changes..."
…
【Measurement City, BW-03 Terminal. 】
【78km from Central Building. 】
…
"Inspection completed, the aircraft is in good condition."
"The route information and other data have been entered into the CDU (Flight Management System), the flight plan has been checked, and the engine, lights, wings, etc. have been automatically checked by the Dawn Flight Assist System."
"This is the Measurement City Aviation Administration. We have detected thirty-six flight requests from Terminal BW-03. Please flash your lights to respond. Please flash your lights to respond."
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