Cat and Rose - Cat & Rose - Chapter 38 - The Second Law of Thermodynamics (7)

Chapter 38 – The Second Law of Thermodynamics (7)

Lin Si recognised her.

“Ling Jing,” he said. “Did Zheng Shu give you that?”

“Yeah… Zheng Shu said it was a birthday present,” said Ling Yi.

Holding the photo, Lin Si looked at each and every person in it.

“In the end, only Su Ting and Ye Selin boarded the spaceship,” he said, “they all died through the Berlin virus, or they didn’t get a ship ticket.”

Ling Yi said, “Ling Jing didn’t go on the spaceship either?”

“No,” said Lin Si. “Ye Selin never mentioned it, and her name wasn’t on the ship.”

Ling Yi did not reply, but suspicion rose from his heart.

Ling Jing did not board the spaceship?

But the words behind the photo were exactly the same handwriting as the words in the poetry collection he saw at Zheng Shu’s.

If that person was not Ling Jing, then it could only have been Ye Selin.

But why would Ye Selin write such sorrowful lines behind a random photo taken at Zheng Shu and Ling Jing’s engagement?

Moreover, Ye Selin would absolutely never write those words in the notebook.

Ling Yi clearly recalled what he saw in the notebook: “Why is Lin Si on the ship? He shouldn’t be here!”

That absolutely could not have been Ye Selin. Ye Selin knew the reason why Lin Si was on the spaceship, and even encouraged him.

Therefore, the owner of that handwriting could only have been Ling Jing, his sister… But Lin Si said that Ling Jing did not board the spaceship. Could there be another person who knew Lin Si and was very close to Zheng Shu?

Ling Yi could not think of one.

He felt upset.

Lin Si did not know what Ling Yi was thinking. After he finished looking at the photo, he returned it to Ling Yi.

“Half a month after their engagement banquet, the virus broke out in the Berlin laboratory,” said Lin Si flatly. “That morning Adelaide wasn’t feeling well, so I went to the laboratory late.”

Ling Yi looked at him.

“On the way there, I suddenly received a colleague’s message,” said Lin Si. “It was a very short ‘don’t come to the laboratory’.”

Nobody would send such a message without reason, especially within that environment.

At that time, Lin Si immediately realised something had happened at the laboratory.

“A working sample had mutated, and turned into a highly contagious gene virus. The staff immediately did a risk assessment. Even before I arrived, they had already closed off all the roads and imposed a restricted area five kilometres from the laboratory.”

“At that time, none of us were knowledgeable about the virus’ characteristics, so we took the strictest protective measures, but we still couldn’t prevent the virus from spreading,” Lin Si gazed at the starry sky. “My neighbours at that time asked me how they could protect themselves from infection, I could only suggest that they move to another country.”

“Did you not leave?”

“The best genetic experiment facilities worldwide were all in the Berlin laboratory. If one needed to combat a virus, they needed to use them, but nobody could enter the laboratory again. Two days later, Ye Selin established the Wilkins Laboratory, and only then did we have some up-to-par research facilities. I went there after going through quarantine.”

Ling Yi widened his eyes, “If Adelaide wasn’t sick that day, would you have gotten infected?”

“It’s possible,” said Lin Si. “But at that time I wasn’t the most diligent person…if I arrived at the usual time, I would’ve still run into the restricted area.”

Ling Yi continued to ask, “Was there anyone from the laboratory who survived?”

“The people who were in the laboratory before it was closed off had all been tested positive for the virus,” said Lin Si.

The most pioneering researchers of genetics, the most pioneering facilities and devices, as well as many unpublished scholarship and almost-completed results, were all gathered in the Berlin laboratory.

And right then—they were all gone.

To combat the virus, those were the most important things.

When Ye Selin established the Wilkins Laboratory, they managed to gather just enough strength to research the virus.

Ling Yi looked at Lin Si. He never experienced those things, but could use his limited imagination to envision—the desperate research, the atmosphere of terror, the widespread death.

He thought about the second law of thermodynamics that Lin Si talked about before, and asked him, “Is death also a form of entropy increase?”

Lin Si let out a laugh. “Entropy increase is a microcosm. Death is the macrocosm.”

Ling Yi pouted.

Lin Si looked at his expression, then added, “I suppose it counts…loosely.”

“The law of entropy is a physics law that will never change. Therefore, no matter what it is, it will still disappear in the end?” asked Ling Yi. “Then will we disappear too?”

“Of course we will also experience physical death,” said Lin Si.

“What about our civilization?”

Lin Si looked outside the window. “Look at the stars.”

“Okay.” Ling Yi obeyed.

“Every little glowing dot you can see are all stars, and every star is surrounded by countless celestial bodies.” 20

Ling Yi gazed at the ocean that was formed by the boundless starry skies, and imagined how each and every one of them were actually a gigantic star or planet, and around them, countless stars encircled like the planet he was currently on.

In this instant, he felt the spaceship’s insignificance even more so than any previous moment he looked at the starry sky.

“Hence, our civilization is also miniscule,” said Lin Si. “From a romantic perspective, we can say that we are currently struggling against the second law of thermodynamics. Struggling, so we won’t have to disappear.”

Outside the window, within the infinite space was eternal silence.

This sort of infinitude and silence gave one an unspeakable, overwhelming feeling and fear; it was within this silence where the universe births, prospers, then dies, returning to the eternal heat death of the universe. This process was very grand, but even though it was something so grand, its final destination was still a hopeless ending.

Ling Yi looked at the boundless, endless sea of stars, rose from the ground to sit with Lin Si, and clung himself to Lin Si’s body.

“I’m scared.” He buried his face into the crook of Lin Si’s neck, breathing in Lin Si’s scent.

Because they were very close, with only a layer of the thin white dress shirt in between, he could feel the light vibrations that came from Lin Si’s chest as he spoke. He could not understand why this kind of intimate, unhampered sensation made him feel so comfortable that his scalp tingled.

“Mm-hm,” said Lin Si, “that’s normal. We all get scared.”

“We’ll all die in the end, so will our civilization and the universe,” said Ling Yi. “Then what is the meaning in our survival and our struggle to develop our civilization?”

“You can search for it yourself,” said Lin Si. “I can’t help you, I’ve only chosen a coming-of-age gift for you.”

Ling Yi did not know how the topic had suddenly changed to his coming-of-age gift, but he was undoubtedly very much looking forward to the present Lin Si had prepared for him, so he put down his questions from before and looked at Lin Si.

Lin Si took out a small rectangular box approximately the size of a palm. The box was black, and made Lin Si’s slender, cool and pale hands look very good against it—not good, why was he staring fixedly at Lin Si’s hand again.

He moved his attention away, and began to think about what the box would contain.

Ling Yi thought of many possibilities, but the gift still escaped his expectations—it was a pair of glasses.

To describe in detail, it was a pair of glasses with a thin, golden metal frame, and a somewhat round shape. But it was ultimately a pair of glasses; he was not short-sighted, nor had an interest in wearing glasses as an accessory, so why did Lin Si give him this?

Lin Si took out the pair of glasses from the box, placed it onto his hand, “I made this with Zheng-ge for you to play with.”

Ling Yi opened the glasses to put them on—before he wore them, he thought in his heart that even though it looked normal, Lin Si must have had a reason for giving it to him.

In the next instant, he gasped and held his breath.

The vast, boundless sea of stars, from where he stood, had totally, completely changed!

They were no longer the pale, golden speckles of stars that adorned a black backdrop, but a gently glittering, glowing kaleidoscopic picture.

The biggest whirlpool nebula on the far side was an ethereal, dreamlike bluish purple colour that layered together, and its dust clouds exuded a soft, hazy purplish white. One could even see clearly the different colours of dust flowing in between and mixing with each other.

A bright crimson crab nebula was entrenched beneath his two feet, like it possessed a sort of invasive arrogance.

The stars that glittered within countless shades of gentle colours brought about an unspeakable impact to the person viewing it—it was so beautiful to the point that he forgot to breathe.

“Every element has its own colour that the naked eye cannot see, but they can be when you view it through a mini optical spectrum analyser. This is what I wanted to show you today.” Lin Si spoke slowly and clearly. “They are hopeless, yet very beautiful.”

*

The author has something to say:

Those beautiful observatory pictures are also shot like that~ In the real outer space, the naked eye can only see an enlarged version of the night sky, and it would even be more barren, because those colours aren’t in our visible light spectrum. But if we add a little sci-fi device, it’ll be better

At this point in the story, an important stage has been completed in the progress of raising the darling baby. Tomorrow I will start a new section to walk the main plotline~

Merry Christmas ^ ^

Thank you for reading on myeasynovel.com