Chapter 165
Chapter 165: Chapter 11 Closed Loop_2 Chapter 165: Chapter 11 Closed Loop_2 “`
Those blurred dots…
like teardrops falling while writing, dampening the paper.
Lin Xian knew that this little card must have been Li Qiqi’s final message to Liu Feng, which he had seen in the future, 600 years later.
Only, the card he had seen then was filled with regret for not having seen the meteor shower, but now that Li Qiqi had finally seen the meteor shower, surely the contents of the card ought to have changed?
Lin Xian tentatively glanced at Liu Feng, seeking consent.
Liu Feng nodded, silently giving Lin Xian permission to look at the card.
Lin Xian pulled out the palm-sized card, the handwriting on it delicate yet trembling…
In this moment, it seemed as if time and space from 600 years in the future overlapped with the present scene, letting Lin Xian truly understand what is called a love miracle that transcends 600 years:
[Dear Feng Feng:
Hehe, I’m so happy!
I actually got to see such a beautiful and spectacular meteor shower.
Of course, I know this meteor shower is fake…
But to me, it’s even more real than a real one.
Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ƝονǤο.ᴄο
Feng Feng, I’m sorry I can’t be with you anymore, but I look forward to the day when the “Introduction to the Cosmological Constant” will be recognized by the whole world.
That day will definitely come.
Thank you to the person who gave us this meteor shower.
Go with him, Feng Feng, perhaps…
he is your meteor, coming especially for you, to take you back to a more sparkling starry sky.
Hehe, I’ll just watch over you from heaven.
The distance between us won’t be far anymore.
—Forever loving you, Qi Qi]
…
Lin Xian silently slipped the card back into the book cover.
He admitted that when he saw experts 600 years later calling this work a love miracle that crossed 600 years…
he was somewhat scornful at the time, finding it somewhat inexplicable.
But now, having truly encountered Liu Feng and Li Qiqi, he somewhat understood and somewhat empathized.
It was an indescribable emotion, a feeling difficult to articulate.
He handed the only copy of “Introduction to the Cosmological Constant” in the world back to Liu Feng, who bent down to carefully place the book inside the coffin, next to Li Qiqi.
“Won’t you leave a memento?” Lin Xian asked.
Liu Feng shook his head:
“Let’s leave it for Qiqi.”
Bang.
The coffin lid closed, and Liu Feng lifted the first shovelful of soil, sprinkling it onto the brand-new coffin lid.
This handful of soil separated the worlds of the living and the dead.
At the same time…
It completed the [historical closure].
The appearance of this unique book made Lin Xian understand the origin of the “Introduction to the Cosmological Constant” from 600 years later—
For some reason, at some point 600 years later, the place where Li Qiqi was buried was discovered by archaeologists.
Due to complicated geological conditions, the coffin seemed to be well-preserved, and this only copy of the “Introduction to the Cosmological Constant” was thus revealed to the world again.
But after verification by scientists from 600 years later, this book remained worthless, riddled with errors throughout, just as the academic community had judged it 600 years before.
And in this state, the book was thrown away like trash, ending up being picked up by the young Lee Cheng at the Garbage Factory, then delivered to Big Face Cat’s father.
Ultimately, after more than a decade of research, Big Face Cat’s father finally calculated the answer to the cosmological constant—
42.
History…
Lin Xian inexplicably felt the weight and wonder of history.
How many coincidences were needed for this unique book from 600 years ago to make its way into the hands of Big Face Cat’s father 600 years later?
Lin Xian picked up another shovel and joined Liu Feng in shoveling all the piled-up soil back into the pit, and finally leveled the ground.
With a few pats, dust to dust, soil to soil, the muddy soil covered everything.
𝑛𝘰𝘃𝕘𝗼.co
In a few days, after another rain…
no trace of excavation would be visible here.
At this moment, Liu Feng cried.
He understood.
Li Qiqi was really gone.
…
Click!
“`
Liu Feng lit a cigarette with his lighter, took a drag, exhaled, and watched the smoke dissipate.
“Want one?” Liu Feng offered the cigarette pack to Lin Xian.
Lin Xian shook his head:
“You smoke is fine.”
The two sat on a rock, watching the sun gradually set on the other side of the horizon.
The fiery red clouds were neatly arranged, stretching from east to west, majestic and solemn like a matrix.
“Thank you for accompanying me today,” Liu Feng said, holding the cigarette between his fingers, gazing straight at the sunset:
“I haven’t smoked in a long time.
It’s still so bitter.”
“It’ll get better after a while.”
Lin Xian said with a smile:
“The smokers around me treat smoking like eating candy.”
Liu Feng couldn’t help but laugh, taking several quick drags, then he threw the half-smoked cigarette onto the muddy ground and stamped it out with his shoe:
“Lin Xian, you came to me because of the cosmological constant, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Lin Xian admitted honestly.
“Is it that important to you?
Can you tell me why?”
The sunset cast a bloody red light on Liu Feng’s face as he turned to look at Lin Xian and continued:
“Everyone thinks it’s wrong, Teacher Qi Yan, Einstein, even I have done many experiments to verify it…
All of them are contradictory and irreconcilable.”
“It’s supposed to be an academic trash, meaningless and wrong…
Why do you do so much for it and have such belief that it’s right?”
“This is what I think, Liu Feng,” Lin Xian said, his gaze fixed on the sun halfway below the horizon:
“Just like you said, I really don’t understand math, and I understand the cosmological constant even less.
From the perspective of your academic world…
if something is wrong once, then it is undoubtedly wrong.”
“But I believe that many things in this world, in the universe, aren’t so absolute.
I think many things—”
“[Even if they’re wrong a thousand times, ten thousand times, a billion times, but if they’re right just once, then they’re right!]”
Liu Feng looked at Lin Xian, stupefied:
“Like what?”
“Many things.” Lin Xian said, looking at his fingertips:
“Like the emergence of life on Earth, the synthesis of the first amino acid, these are the results of billions of years of countless complex reactions, the only correct one, which miraculously led to life on Earth.”
“To be precise, the production of the first amino acid on Earth should be an error in a chemical reaction,” Liu Feng clarified strictly.
“Right and wrong are relative,” Lin Xian said indifferently:
“Whether it’s right or wrong, in the end, the miracle and accident of life appearing on Earth indeed required just one right, or wrong, instance.”
“Just one is enough,” Lin Xian said earnestly, looking at Liu Feng:
“I think the cosmological constant may be a similar thing…
Even if everyone says it’s wrong, even if for decades, centuries, everyone believes it’s wrong, even if it really is wrong, I think it doesn’t matter…”
“[Because it might just need to be right that one crucial time to be enough.]”
Liu Feng’s mouth half open, he watched Lin Xian.
It seemed as if he was persuaded by Lin Xian’s flawed argument, or perhaps he was simply confused:
“Lin Xian, if what you say is true, and the cosmological constant is only right that one time…
What use is that one right time?”
“It’s hard to say.”
Lin Xian watched as the sun completely disappeared below the horizon.
He recalled the primordial Earth, billions of years ago, ravaged by torrential rains, tidal waves, and thunder, where the first amino acid formed by chance in a lightning strike.
He thought back to hundreds of millions of years ago, that brave fishapod crawling out from the ocean onto land.
He remembered the little creatures that barely clung to life in the crevices of lava and haze after the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs.
He envisioned an ape looking up at the sky for the first time, standing upright on its hind legs on this planet.
He remembered the skyscrapers that rose from the ground, the steam engines, the internal combustion engines, the industrial revolution, the electronic era.
He thought of the Big Face Cat’s father’s room, which was filled with the number 42 covering the walls and every tiny gap on the floor.
He recalled the blinding white light on August 29, 2624, at 00:42, which destroyed the world.
“Perhaps your cosmological constant needs to be right just once…”
Lin Xian closed his eyes and murmured softly:
“to save the entire world.”