Chapter 17 Rhine Village

Bright moonlight filtered through the dense jungle in scattered fragments.

Lin Xian and CC had traveled from Queenstown, hiking for about an hour and a half, to reach Rhine Village by the river.

The oil lamps in every household in the village were extinguished, leaving only a pile of burning charcoal in the middle of the village, with a pot of hot water steaming above it, surrounded by a few night watchmen talking in low voices.

Normally, at this time, Village Chief Grandma Zheng Xiangyue would not be asleep.

CC had said that Zheng Xiangyue usually took advantage of the quiet early morning hours to organize materials for the next day, grade homework for the children, and plan the village's future. She was a very competent and conscientious person.

The two crossed the river, preparing to enter the village to look for Zheng Xiangyue, but unexpectedly discovered—

"Village Chief Grandma?"

CC saw the white-haired figure at the entrance of the village from a distance.

It was indeed Zheng Xiangyue, but why was she still outside so late?

Zheng Xiangyue heard CC's voice and turned her head.

She smiled in relief, "CC, you're back."

CC nodded and went to meet her:

"Village Chief Grandma, why are you guarding here?"

She suddenly realized,

"Were you waiting for me?"

"Hehe."

Zheng Xiangyue, addressed as Grandma, smiled kindly:

"You've never been back this late before. I was worried that something had happened to you outside, so I came out to take a look."

"It's good that you're okay. There are often wild animals in the forest outside. It's best not to come back so late in the future. Is there anything that can't be done during the day? Right?"

Having said that,

She looked at the young man who had come with CC:

"And this is?"

CC turned to introduce him:

"Village Chief Grandma, this is my friend, Lin Xian."

Hearing this name,

Zheng Xiangyue couldn't help but widen her eyes:

"You... you are—"

"That's right."

Lin Xian stepped forward:

"I am Lin Xian, the person written on your wish list. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long."

He looked at the centenarian and smiled slightly:

"Xiangyue, I've come to find you."

By the stone well in Rhine Village,

It was quiet and warm. As the bright white moon gradually climbed into the night sky, the cicada chirps in the distant forest also weakened a bit, and everything returned to peace.

Lin Xian and Zheng Xiangyue sat on the stone steps beside the well, holding the wish list that Zheng Xiangyue had treasured for over a hundred years, a list that had existed in this world for six hundred years:

Things to do after waking up from hibernation!

1. Bury my brother on the moon.

2. Repay Brother Lin Xian properly.

3. Be a kind and loving person.

"You wrote this before entering the hibernation pod."

Lin Xian looked at the laminated paper in his hand and said softly.

"At that time, you were very young, actually just over fifteen years old, not even sixteen. But your mental age was probably only eight or nine years old, exceptionally pure and innocent."

"So, at that time, you didn't have any concrete idea about amnesia, and you didn't think of it as so bad. Naturally, you didn't make any preparations, and you didn't leave as many notebooks and videos as other people."

Zheng Xiangyue listened silently, closing her eyes: "I see."

"I've always been curious as to why other people who woke up from hibernation would get a lot of notebooks and video materials, but I only have this one piece of paper, which caused me to know nothing about my past self. Now that you say that, I understand, so that's the reason."

"For so many years, I've been thinking, why didn't I leave any memory records before hibernation? No matter how I look at it, there's probably only one reason: the me before hibernation must have been living a very miserable life, so I wanted to forget my past and start over. Therefore, I didn't leave any memories."

"Hehe, it seems I was overthinking it."

Lin Xian was silent for a moment.

He continued:

"Actually, the responsibility isn't entirely yours. There were many adults around you who cared about you at the time, but before you went into hibernation, almost everyone tacitly kept silent. Everyone deliberately didn't remind you to leave a memory diary."

"How should I put it, it's hard to say whether this behavior was an imposed kindness or superfluous goodness. But at the time, I actually had the same idea. I knew very well that this wish list you wrote wouldn't work at all because these wishes were written too simply and too vaguely. When you woke up from hibernation, you definitely wouldn't understand them."

"But even though I knew all this, I still held back and didn't say anything. My thoughts were the same as the doctors'. We all thought that such a tragic and pitiful memory was better off forgotten. Because at the time, you were in a state of having nothing, and you would still have nothing after waking up from hibernation. What's wrong with starting over?"

Zheng Xiangyue slowly opened her eyes and turned to look at Lin Xian:

"So, Mr. Lin, has your thinking changed now?"

"Are you willing to tell me about my past, my real life before?"

Lin Xian nodded:

"Today, I met a friend who is also from Mars and is also looking for memories, looking for himself."

"His name is strange, but the things that happened to him are magical. He used to hate his name, then he forgot his name, and then he doubted his name, even doubted himself. But in the end, he fell in love with his name."

"Because that name, which sounded ridiculous, was to a girl who loved him for over two hundred years, from ignorance to growing old together, a name that was on par with Ultraman Tiga, a light that illuminated the world, a name as great as a hero."

"It sounds comical, but this is a fact that just happened. So my thinking has indeed changed. A person's life and even memories can't be smooth sailing and perfect. But memory itself is not a movie clip that is forgotten as soon as it is seen. It has emotions in it, with joys and sorrows, and the essence of life."

"Are you ready, Xiangyue?"

Lin Xian also turned around, holding the laminated paper in his hand, letting the side with the words face the elderly woman, letting the moonlight shine on the three wishes:

"Behind these three wishes are all sad and heartbreaking cruel realities, but at the same time, they also contain three different kinds of love, enthusiasm, and kindness."

"If you're ready, I'm going to start telling the story. It's a past that happened 600 years ago. Even after the river of time has washed away for 600 years, many things still haven't been smoothed out."

Zheng Xiangyue stared at the laminated paper, staring at the childlike words.

Finally,

She nodded:

"Mr. Lin, please tell me."

"The life I once experienced, and the things that happened around me."

Lin Xian revealed everything.

The death of her and her brother's parents, Zheng Chenghao being bitten by a dog, the two leaving their hometown and relying on each other to come to the East Sea.

After that, Lin Xian did not explicitly say that Zheng Chenghao joined the Seven Deadly Sins, but only told Zheng Xiangyue that her brother had found a generous boss who was able to earn money for her to be hospitalized for treatment.

According to news reports, it was a car accident after all. This was what the original teenage Zheng Xiangyue knew, and the law did not convict Zheng Chenghao, so Lin Xian naturally would not either.

Including the ticket to the moon, Jask's agreement with her, and the missing Ogo on the moon, Lin Xian told her everything in detail.

"In the end, you agreed to enter the hibernation pod for hibernation."

Lin Xian handed the laminated paper in his hand back to Zheng Xiangyue:

"You wrote these three wishes on the hospital bed. At first, there were only the first two, but then I told you that kindness needs to be passed on. You could spread the repayment and gratitude to me again. If you have the ability, repay the motherland; if you don't have the ability, build the hometown."

"I really didn't expect that even if you lost these memories, you would still travel millions of kilometers from Mars to Earth, and once again build Rhine Village on the ruins of the East Sea."

Lin Xian finished speaking.

As he had imagined, Zheng Xiangyue didn't have a particularly big reaction.

Even telling these stories again, Lin Xian's personal feelings were greater than Zheng Xiangyue's.

Because he had personally experienced these things.

But for the current Zheng Xiangyue,

What she heard was just an outdated movie from 600 years ago.

How many people still watch early black-and-white movies now?

And how many people will watch Chaplin's silent films from the earliest days?

It was understandable that Zheng Xiangyue didn't empathize.

Because the life she had just described was too far away from her, and she couldn't relate to it at all.

The reason why Angelica had a desire for revenge;

Was because she had been constantly self-suggesting and self-hypnotizing over the past few decades to allow the memories to have emotions and gradually become real.

The reason why Grandpa Wei Shengjin was moved to tears by past memories;

Was because the name Liu Shiyu had become a bridge connecting the past and the present.

Then,

What about Zheng Xiangyue?

What did she have?

She had nothing.

Several chirping birds flew over Rhine Village and landed on the wooden waterwheel outside the village.

They lowered their heads to drink water, and then gradually rose with the rotating waterwheel, landing, flapping their wings, and flying away again, disappearing into the moonlit forest.

"Alas—"

Zheng Xiangyue sighed and shook her head in disappointment:

"I've guessed about 70 to 80 percent of the stories you've told me these years. I can roughly guess that the ticket to the moon was a gift from you, which is why I wrote 'Repay Brother Lin Xian properly' in the second wish."

"But how much I want to empathize with these things, whether it's for my brother who I've never met and have no memory of, or for you who have helped us so much, bought me a ticket, and sent me to sleep in a hibernation pod. I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, but I don't want to just say a thank you without any empathy like this."

Lin Xian smiled slightly.

He shook his head:

"You've already done very well. Even if you don't talk about making the perfect moonlight shine on the earth, just the fact that you voluntarily returned to Earth from Mars to build your hometown, this kindness and greatness is enough to move and gratify me."

"I never thought of myself as a very amazing person,"

"But I didn't expect that a casual remark could actually build a Rhine Village on Earth 600 years later. This is the greatest and best reward you can give me, and it's also the highlight of my life."

"Ah, I forgot to talk about the Rhine Cat. When you were a child, you really liked the Rhine Cat doll. The super-large Rhine Cat doll you had was the birthday present I gave you. And do you know why Jask searched for so long and couldn't find the same model of this doll, or even promotional images?"

"Because that super-large Rhine Cat doll itself was not for sale. It was only made as two samples, and then the project was shelved due to cost reasons, with no follow-up. The only two samples were given to the true little princess of Donghai City and the other was in your hands."

Hearing this explanation,

Zheng Xiangyue suddenly understood:

"No wonder."

"Mr. Jask told me that when I woke up from hibernation, the Rhine Cat doll that had been placed for 600 years had completely exploded. The cotton inside had turned black and rotted, not to mention that the packaging cloth outside had all faded, cracked, and turned into powder."

"So, it was very difficult to repair, and there was no way to start. Therefore, I could only search for the same model based on the only clues. But like you said, there is no same model on the market, and there are no promotional images in history. Who would have thought that an ordinary little girl like me could have one of the only two Rhine Cats in the world?"

"In the end, there was really no way. Mr. Jask asked the restorer to use the only little colored fragments to evoke the original appearance of the doll and then repair it. In the end, it formed a Theseus Cat. I have always carried that cat doll with me, and I have also brought it to Earth."

"But I'm still sorry, Mr. Lin. I still can't recall the feeling of liking this cat. I can feel how important this cat is to me, and I can also feel how much I liked this Rhine Cat before. But I can't help it. I can't remember that feeling of liking it."

Zheng Xiangyue's words were full of helplessness.

Lin Xian could understand the contradiction in her heart.

She had carried the Theseus Cat with her for over a hundred years, mending it over and over again. She had never let it leave her side even when she came to Earth, and she had even named the village Rhine Village. This all showed that she was indeed trying to like this cat, but when facing memories and feelings, humans could never deceive themselves.

"I've seen your cat," Lin Xian said with a smile:

"But the appearance of that cat is not the one I originally gave you at all. Of course, this is not the restorer's fault. He has obviously tried his best. Without a prototype or original image as a reference, he will inevitably repair it in the wrong direction."

"The Rhine Cat I originally gave you had puffed cheeks and looked angry and cute. But the one you have now has been repaired into a smiling one with squinted eyes. So, strictly speaking, it can't be called a Theseus Cat. It should be called another cat."

"Do you have a pen and paper here?" Lin Xian asked, reaching out his hand:

"Since I promised you that I would tell you all the truth, that naturally includes the Rhine Cat that you once liked the most."

"If you have a pen and paper, I'll draw the original appearance of that Rhine Cat for you. The design drawing of that Rhine Cat itself came from my hand. I remember every cat I've drawn clearly in my heart."

Afterwards, Zheng Xiangyue returned to her room and brought Lin Xian two sheets of thick, rough paper pressed out by a local papermaking technique, as well as a charcoal pencil tied with a rope.

Lin Xian gladly accepted it.

The strong never complain about the environment or tools.

Historically, the earliest sketch masters used charcoal pencils themselves.

He had already drawn so many Rhine Cats at MX Company that he didn't know how many. The memory that was engraved in his muscles and bones allowed Lin Xian to directly enter a state of flow the moment his pen touched the paper, and he began to outline the round face of the Rhine Cat.

The Rhine Cat in Chu Anqing's hands and the one in Zheng Xiangyue's hands, the only two in the world, had never been promoted to the public. Lin Xian was probably the only person in the world who could draw it.

In just over ten minutes,

A lifelike sketch of a Rhine Cat with puffed cheeks and an angry expression was vividly presented on the paper.

Lin Xian was very satisfied with this creation and handed the thick, rough paper to Zheng Xiangyue:

"Take a look, this is—" Suddenly,

He was stunned.

The moment he finished drawing and looked up, he discovered that Zheng Xiangyue's cheeks were stained with two lines of tears that she was unaware of. She was staring blankly at the sketch in her hand.

She had been watching all along.

She had been watching from the moment Lin Xian began to draw the first stroke.

She was certain that this was an unfamiliar Rhine Cat. She had never seen this model before.

It wasn't the one in her hand, nor any of the ones she had seen on Mars. This was a brand new Rhine Cat that had never been seen before and had never appeared in the world!

But

Why were tears falling?

Zheng Xiangyue herself didn't understand.

Out of nowhere,

Why were tears falling?

"Have you remembered?"

Lin Xian looked at Zheng Xiangyue, who was suddenly shedding tears, and asked softly,

"Have you remembered the scenes of playing with this Rhine Cat, leaning on it, lying on it, and talking to it?"

"No."

The elderly Zheng Xiangyue shook her head, but the tears still kept pouring out:

"I don't know why I don't know what's wrong with me—"

"I clearly haven't seen this Rhine Cat, and I clearly don't have any emotional connection, but why can't I control my tears?"

She took the sketch from Lin Xian's hand.

She stared at the Rhine Cat on it, one she had never met and felt no familiarity with, but one that had made her shed tears in an instant:

"It's too strange—"

She wiped her tears, but another surge of tears welled up behind them.

Her vision blurred.

The tears continued to fall.

"But I seem to understand something."

Zheng Xiangyue looked up from the sketch and looked at Lin Xian:

"Mr. Lin, can you please close your eyes?"

Lin Xian nodded.

He closed his eyes completely.

He heard the sound of the thick, rough paper being placed on the stone bench, and then two wrinkled and dry hands grasped his left and right hands respectively.

Because Lin Xian was in a state of closed eyes, his other senses became more sensitive and clear.

He could even clearly feel Zheng Xiangyue's hands

Wrinkles, imperceptible trembling, and a temperature that was a little cooler than his own.

The hands of an old person, the hands of a young person, the hands of a child.

He had once held Zheng Xiangyue's hands and even picked her up.

How tender, how light.

But now, 600 years had passed, and the teenage Zheng Xiangyue had become a centenarian. Instead, her hands held Lin Xian's.

"Thank you for giving me a birthday present."

Zheng Xiangyue's slightly hoarse voice came, and Lin Xian suddenly remembered the frail girl on the hospital bed who couldn't hold the Rhine Cat when they first met.

"Thank you for taking care of me and my brother."

Zheng Xiangyue's voice was a little choked up, and Lin Xian couldn't help but think of the small girl who had tried her best to pick up the urn and forced out a smile, saying, "Look, I can hold my brother."

"Thank you for buying me a ticket to the moon."

Zheng Xiangyue's voice was soft and ethereal. Lin Xian couldn't tell who was talking to him. It was the childlike Zheng Xiangyue, smiling and saying, "My dream is to be buried on the moon after I die!"

"Thank you for letting me live a complete and fulfilling life."

Lin Xian didn't open his eyes.

He felt the hands in his hands, as if they were gradually becoming tender, becoming soft, becoming smooth. Even Zheng Xiangyue's voice, filled with sobs, merged with the strong and lonely little girl from 600 years ago:

"Thank you, Brother Lin Xian."

He suddenly opened his eyes!

Boom!!!!

Boom!!!!

Boom!!!!

The white light at 00:42 arrived on time, burning away everything in the world and blurring the smiling face in front of him.

In a corner of the bedroom, Lin Xian opened his eyes. He looked at the ceiling above his head.

He didn't get up for a long time.

The reason why Zheng Xiangyue asked him to close his eyes was probably because she considered that at her age, calling out the name Brother Lin Xian in person would be a bit appalling, right?

But

Why did she still call out that name in the end?

She had clearly told her everything in the past, and she knew that he was her Brother Lin Xian, but she had always called him Mr. Lin.

Did she regain her memory? Definitely not.

However, why would Zheng Xiangyue see the correct sketch of the Rhine Cat and subconsciously shed unstoppable tears?

That was "emotion."

Her memory had not recovered, but it seemed that emotion had taken the first step across time and space.

Lin Xian suddenly thought of something.

Since memory can exist separately from emotion, is it possible that emotion can also be derived from memory and exist independently?

Currently,

A fact that scientists generally recognize is that the memory loss caused by hibernation is irreversible.

In other words, the memory lost during hibernation is absolutely impossible to recover, and the side effect of memory loss cannot be avoided.

However,

Is it really that absolute?

Zheng Xiangyue's matter made Lin Xian have a trace of doubt about this generally accepted conclusion

"Is there really no way to recover the memory lost during hibernation?"

He thought of what Angelica said.

Jask had obviously not lost any memory, but his appearance was too young.

This was a very contradictory thing.

A young appearance meant a long hibernation time, so it was impossible not to lose memory;

No memory loss meant a short and frequent hibernation time, so it was impossible to have a young appearance.

These were two things that could not be achieved at the same time.

In addition, there were three doubts:

1. No one can clearly explain the truth about the super disaster on Earth in 2400.

2. The historical education that hibernating humans on Mars are forced to receive after waking up is obviously also downplaying the truth.

3. The Earth-Mars cosmic bus only runs once every two years, completely isolating communication between Earth and Mars; and once it comes, it takes two years to wait before returning, directly cutting off people's desire to travel to Earth. This is obviously also the result of deliberate human control.

It seemed...

"There are important truths that are being deliberately hidden and concealed."

"Let the humans with real memories die, and then let the surviving humans hibernate and lose their memories, and then fill them with false memories... Wouldn't that turn the false history into a true history?"

Thinking of this,

Lin Xian felt that the super disaster in 2400 and Jask's unsuccessful Mars immigration plan were far from as simple as what he had seen and heard in the Fifth Dream.

Lin Xian sat up from the bed and pulled open the curtains.

He looked at the moonlight hanging high outside the window:

"Who can become Jask's enemy?"

"Completely destroy human technology, completely isolate Earth and Mars, and let Earth degenerate to a primitive age where there is no electricity... Who are they afraid of?"

Lin Xian closed his eyes.

He tried to summarize his thoughts and find clues.

Human "technology" was completely destroyed,

Earth and Mars were completely "isolated,"

A primitive age with no "electricity,"

Wait a minute.

This feeling,

Why was it so familiar?

It was just like the siege and escape against the super artificial intelligence VV back then!

There was probably only one "person" who could be worthy of this kind of extermination destruction.

Lin Xian opened his eyes.

He thought of Kevin Walker, who was shot in the head and died in the abandoned school in Mississippi, USA, and the digital life in the room full of speakers who solemnly swore to be forever fair and just

"Turing."