Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 113 - 114: Goodbye, Era
Chapter 113: Chapter 114: Goodbye, Era
He sat there, dazed, unable to calm the tumult in his heart. Zhang Yuan didn’t know what was wrong with him, but a voice inside kept telling him that these emails had just been sent yesterday, and whether it was out of etiquette, responsibility, or obligation, he needed to reply.
But reason told him that these people were long gone and didn’t need a response.
Even if he did respond, they wouldn’t receive it.
Besides, he was no longer the authority on turbulence issues; with one hundred and eighty-three years gone by, humanity had already grasped the method very clearly, and new theories may have emerged that no longer required his guidance.
“What’s the point?” he asked himself.
He sighed once again, trying to free himself from the complex scientific documents.
It wasn’t necessary, really, it wasn’t.
The next letter was no longer about scientific research but the good news that his cousin Ye Qingqing had been accepted to university.
Due to her lack of effort, her college entrance exam scores were not great, and the university she got into was just a local one, pretty average.
Still, for a girl just stepping into adulthood, it was a crucial step towards her future life.
The message included a photo of Ye Qingqing’s smiling face, holding an admission notice, flaunting it with a bit of show-off pride.
“Cousin, I got into university. Haha, I can finally have a happy summer vacation, no more tutoring, no more nagging from mom and dad, feels so good and happy! There’s also a cool boyfriend waiting for me on campus. I’ll show you once I find him.”
Ye Qingqing’s voice reached Zhang Yuan across time and space.
“Congratulations!” Zhang Yuan typed a few characters on the computer.
Then, after careful deliberation, he deleted them.
He remembered the last summer on Earth, it seemed exceptionally hot, and he recalled fixing a radio in Ye Qingqing’s home…
This silly girl didn’t like studying, but she had chosen a decent major, so presumably, she wouldn’t be unemployed after graduation.
The following letter was a wedding photo from his senior, Wang Lili.
“Young Master Zhang, today, as I was home taking care of my child, I suddenly thought of you. Time flies so quickly, it’s been four years since you left. A lot has happened over the years, and eventually, um… I married a wealthy man. Too bad you can’t drink our wedding toast, sigh.”
“I’m sending you a photo of my wedding.”
“Here’s another one of the baby! Isn’t he cute?”
[Photo][Photo]
“Haha, this lady is married now, and the kid is already this big, so no hope for those who want to pursue me!”
“Oh, right, by now, you must be in hibernation… Suddenly, I wanted to check in on you. I wonder when you’ll wake up, when you’ll see my message? It won’t be… that by that time, I’ll already be dead, will it?”
“The Deep Space Foundation is really stingy, charging ten bucks to send an email.”
“No other meaning, take care.”
“Wishing you a happy life!”
Zhang hung his head, his vision already blurring.
Life is so dramatic, Wang Lili still dumped her puppy-dog boyfriend and married a rich man…
It took a long time before he clicked on the next one.
He felt as if he were reading the lifetimes of all his friends… from the days after he left, right up until their deaths.
Time, like a videotape, fast-forwarding quickly.
Humans are such fragile beings, how can they just… suddenly be gone?
No doubt, as time passed, the number of times people remembered him had decreased.
At the beginning, there were many letters from various friends, but later on, there would be just one every three to five years. And after that, one every three to five decades.
Humans are a forgetful species, not only was the entire world forgetting him, but all his relatives and friends were too. Ye Qingqing had said she would show him her boyfriend, but in the end, she never sent anything.
Professor Wang Zhong passed away at the age of 147, and the letter was still sent to him by his senior sister Xu Yunjing.
At the age of 147, it was considered a relatively high age in that era.
But for Zhang Yuan, it felt like just yesterday when they had a video call and said their goodbyes, and today he was gone.
He still remembered the last words of Professor Wang Zhong, “…All the earthly matters are not worth lingering over; let’s see what the world will be in three thousand years!”
This feeling, he didn’t know how to describe it… It was surreal, yet very real. The pain of parting that was spread out over many decades had to be endured in just one day.
Zhang Yuan felt numb, as if he were watching a series of unimpressive TV dramas.
At the end, there was only one letter left in the mailbox.
Moreover, the time span was extraordinarily huge, a full forty years since the penultimate one.
As if out of breath, Zhang Yuan stared blankly for a long time before he managed to click it open.
“Mr. Zhang Yuan, hello.”
“Without realizing it, I have become an old lady over a hundred years old. You must still be young in your hibernation, a truly enviable situation.”
“Today, as I held the family cat and sat under the shade of a tree drinking afternoon tea, I suddenly thought of you. It has been so long, and I find that I can no longer remember what you looked like, and even your name is a bit blurred.”
“But I do remember, that strange and wonderful night…”
“Ha, you were so adorable!”
“I hastily took out my phone and logged into the long-unvisited social media account.”
“I found our photo together, and the long-lost memories flooded in, giving rise to a subtle emotion.”
“I was so beautiful back then, fair-skinned and pretty, but you were handsome too!”
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“I wonder, if I had been more proactive back then, would you have stayed? Maybe, what a regrettable thing! But more likely, you still would not have stayed.”
“As you get older, you tend to think about this and that, wanting to make up for the regrets of youth.”
“I still quite like you, space colonization, what a cool thing that is. But I’m already an old lady! Can an old lady experience a second spring? Of course not, I can’t catch up with you beyond the light years.”
“I won’t show you what I look like now. I still prefer my youthful appearance; everyone likes to be beautiful, pretty, and young.”
“But time is a sailboat gliding downstream, and with the passage of years, it has long ceased to be pure and there’s no way to start over. By the way, I’m now a bestselling novelist, isn’t that a surprise?”
“We agreed not to contact each other anymore, but I really can’t help it! Maybe it’s because I’m old and don’t have many years left… I always have many thoughts to share with you, feeling like you are my lifelong friend, who can always understand me, but I don’t know how to express it.”
“A lifetime is really too long, with enough stories having occurred… These stories, if they disappear with me, what meaning would they have?”
“Forget it, let’s not talk about it.”
“You should know who I am.”
“Wish you well.”
The mailbox was empty, no longer any unread messages.
Even though he had made ample mental preparations, when reality truly hit, it still felt so heavy.
So, so heavy!
Zhang Yuan shut down the computer, lay his head on the desk, and sobbed, his tears dripping drop by drop onto the table.
The room was pitch-dark, the lights were not turned on.
