Chapter 287 Star Chaser

"Finished?"

"Finished."

"Is it tasty?"

"It's delicious."

"Can I cook for you every day from now on?"

"not good."

"why not?"

"You are busy. I will cook for you when you go to school."

It was a bright noon. The sunlight shone through the camphor tree in front of the window onto Chu Jian. The slender and soft girl ate white fungus soup spoonful by spoonful, with two streams of clear water in her eyes.

After finishing the meal, Zhang Yunqi put away the thermos box and smiled at Chu Jian: "Are you going home?"

Zhang Yunqi also smiled: "I'm going home."

Chu Jian got out of bed and went to the bathroom with clothes in his arms.

The ponytail rose and fell, slender and thin. Zhang Yunqi looked at the girl's back. When they were in school before, she always seemed quiet and silent when they first met, but this time it was different. Zhang Yunqi could feel the happiness in her eyes, but Zhang Yunqi still had lingering fears. What happened that day kept replaying in his mind like a movie.

When he rushed into the hospital holding Chu Jian that day, the person had already fainted and was covered in blood. Several nurses skillfully opened the stretcher and caught the person. His long, soft, straight hair was stuck to his face with dried blood.

His mother knew about this and rushed over with Jiang Feng. When Jiang Feng got to the front and took a look, tears suddenly welled up in her eyes and she screamed miserably! However, the poor mute could not speak and could only scream "Ah, ah, ah". At the moment before the flatbed was pushed into the emergency room, his mother grabbed the doctor's arm and begged, "You must save her, she is only 17 years old! She will take the entrance exams to Tsinghua University and Peking University!"

With a clang, the white iron door closed.

The red light on the door was on, and the words "in operation" were particularly glaring. The two rows of benches in the corridor were filled with people who came to visit Chu Jian, including the school leaders, teachers, and students from Class 156 of the No. Middle School, as well as some relatives and friends. They all surrounded the bloody Zhang Yunqi, asking what happened. Zhang Yunqi leaned against the wall, not knowing what to say. Chu Jian's mother's shrill screams echoed in the crowded corridor, like a hammer, hitting his chest again and again.

Time passed quietly in this suffocating atmosphere, as slow as a knife's cutting, until the sunlight coming in through the window became hazy. The light in front of the operating room door, which had been on for who knows how long, finally went out. The door of the operating room opened, just a crack. The noisy sounds of the emergency center receded like the tide, and everyone's eyes involuntarily looked at the surgeon who appeared from the crack.

The surgeon in charge, who looked tired, said nothing but nodded slowly towards the large group of people outside.

When he saw his mother for the first time, he burst into tears again.

Later, the doctor told him that the wound was right at the heart, 3 centimeters deep. Fortunately, the knife went in sideways, close to the heart, but did not cause any damage to the heart. If it went in straight, the person would have died.

After the wound was sutured, he stayed in the hospital for observation for a period of time, and Chu Jian missed the final exam. This was not a big deal, the key point was that after the observation period, there were no more problems.

By the end of July, Chu Jian was able to go home to recuperate. Chu Jian's mother Jiang Feng had already packed all the clothes and paid the bills, and Zhang Yunqi drove Chu Jian home.

I was not returning to Hongshan Lane, but to my new home which I had just met.

The new home is located in Zhang Yunqi's residential area, next to the Municipal Education Bureau, one of the few quiet places within the First Ring Road.

Zhang Yunqi privately asked Wang Guibing to help find someone to buy the house. It was bought a long time ago. It was a frame-type building built in 86, with two bedrooms and a living room. It was 78 square meters. The area was not large, but it was the current mainstream house type, just enough for a family of three. The house was finely decorated and had all kinds of furniture. However, Chu Jian didn't know about this until now. Everyone wanted to give her a surprise. She looked at Zhang Yunqi who was concentrating on driving in front and asked, "Yunqi, did the Provincial Sports Lottery Center really reissue the bonus?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled and nodded, "Yes, that's actually what happened. My brother is going to get married on National Day this year, and I'm going to give him a house and a Santana. I bought an extra house when I bought a house some time ago. It just so happened that the Provincial Sports Lottery Center reissued the Santana and the bonus to your family, so I discussed it with your mother. She felt that the Santana was useless, so she transferred it to me at the original price. As for this house, I also transferred it to your family at the original price. After so many things happened, Auntie also thought that she couldn't live in Hongshan Lane anymore, and the old adobe house was cold in winter and hot in summer. When it rained heavily and was hot, there were mosquitoes everywhere. The environment was too bad, not only was it devastating to the spirit, but it was also not good for the body. You were just trying to recover."

He was silent when he first saw her, as if he wanted to say something but was hesitant.

The lunch was sumptuous and lively; Zhang Yunqi's parents and Chunlan and Xiaoxiao were all there.

In the afternoon, Jiang Feng and Zhang Ma went to the fish meal shop to do some work.

Chu Jian was resting in the bedroom, and several children were watching TV and playing in the living room. Chunlan, who was sitting on the sofa and cracking melon seeds, curled her lips when she saw her second brother go to Chu Jian's bedroom.

The new bedroom is not big at first glance, but it is warmly decorated.

The floor is wooden, the bed sheets are sky blue, and there is a human-sized brown bear stuffed doll on the bedside. There is a blue window on the left, and a desk under the window. A whole row of bookcases are filled with all kinds of books. The camphor tree in front of the window has lush and green leaves, and the wind reflects the light, bringing a fresh breath.

When she first arrived home, Chu Jian was shown every room by the children. However, when she walked into the bedroom for the second time, she was still a little dazed. She had never thought that she would have such a warm home. It was like a dream. However, although she acted very happy in front of her family and her mother told her that the money to buy the house was the prize won by her stepfather Chu Dapeng, and that the provincial sports lottery center had announced that the lottery ticket was real, she always felt something was wrong.

The most terrifying thing about a person is probably accepting gifts from others with a clear conscience. Chu Jian touched the books in the bookcase. They were all brand new and smelled of ink. She had read and liked many of them.

She took a book and sat on the bedside to read. After flipping through more than ten pages, Zhang Yunqi knocked on the door and came in. She was stunned and her face turned red.

Zhang Yunqi was not at all ashamed to break into the girl's bedroom. He sat directly on the edge of the bed, staring at Chu Jian and smiling. Chu Jian pursed her lips, and her clear eyes also looked at him. After a while, she suddenly stretched out her hand and placed it in his palm. Her little face became a little serious: "Yunqi, you have prepared this house and decorated it a long time ago. I have only been in the hospital for more than ten days. It is impossible to decorate it in such a short time. Besides, I don't know if my stepfather's lottery ticket is real. Even if the lottery ticket is real, the Municipal Sports Lottery Center should not pay out the prize money so quickly."

Zhang Yunqi didn't expect Chu Jian to still be thinking about this. He didn't know what to say for a moment. He held the girl's cold hand in front of him. After a while, he smiled and said, "Chu Jian, do you know why I have to buy this house?"

Chu Jian asked, "Why?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "Have you noticed that there is one thing that is very different between Chinese people and foreigners, that is, we love to save money. Maybe many people are afraid of being poor, and they think that money is the guarantee of a happy life in the future. Happiness is like a deposit, which can be used later, but in fact this is impossible. Because every moment in life, as long as you miss that moment, it will disappear forever and can never be found again. So, I think you should be happy now."

Her face turned red when she first saw him, and she said "hmm" softly.

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "The lottery ticket is a little complicated. The police are still investigating. But from the information I got, the lottery ticket should be real. When the prize money is paid out, it will be the same. You don't need to think too much about these things. I understand your thoughts, Chu Jian."

Chu Jian pursed her lips and said okay. After a while, she suddenly said, "Yunqi, from now on, can you call me Yu?"

"Why?" Zhang Yunqi asked.

"Because... Yu is your light." Chu Jian said softly.

There was wind outside the window, making the leaves of the camphor tree rustle.

In the fragmented light that was projected in, Zhang Yunqi stared blankly at the clear-faced girl in front of him with a blushing face. At that moment, the flowers and plants outside the window were growing wildly, and the setting sun was falling. Zhang Yunqi felt that his heart was about to melt. He touched her slightly hot face and smiled: "Yu, you must be tired, do you want to take a nap?"

Chu Jian got into the bed obediently and shook her head in the bed with a sweet smile on her face: "No, tell me a story instead? I was bored in the hospital, so you told me stories."

Zhang Yunqi thought for a moment and said with a smile, "Some time ago, a comet hit Jupiter and attracted a lot of attention. This story reminded me of this."

"what story?"

"Many years ago, a NASA staff member secretly modified the orbit of a satellite, causing a satellite about to retire to ignite and change its orbit in space 150 million kilometers away, using the gravity of the Earth and the Moon to bounce into the farther void. At that time, in the depths of the void, Halley's Comet was passing through a 76-year cycle and was speeding towards the Earth. Europe, the Soviet Union, and Japan launched eight probes to form a mighty Halley fleet. At that time, NASA cut its budget and had no money to participate, so the staff member stole an old satellite to observe Halley, and encountered Halley in 8, becoming the first human aircraft to fly through the tail of a comet."

"Western media have been hyping up Halley's Comet, but China has been very muted. In Hangzhou, I know a young man named Wu Xiaobo. When he was taking the college entrance exam, he wanted to see Halley's Comet at night. His father scolded him, saying, 'Which is more important, the comet or the college entrance exam?' Wu Xiaobo looked at the starry sky in disappointment, went back to his room to prepare for the exam, and vowed to leave his hometown. Later, he was admitted to the Chinese Department of Journalism at Fudan University, and now he is back in Hangzhou, writing a column."

"In Shenzhen, there is a young man named Ma Huateng who observed Halley's Comet with an astronomical telescope and wrote an observation report, winning the third prize. The telescope was a birthday gift from his parents for 700 yuan, which was his father's four-month salary."

"You know the poet Xichuan, right? His famous poem "Looking up at the Starry Sky in Hargai" was written on that day: On this Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, next to a bean-sized train station, I looked up at the starry sky."

"Halley's Comet slowly streaked across the sky. Things and people have changed in 76, but not many people were willing to gaze at the starry sky at that time. Only those who occasionally looked up could hear the melody among the stars. In the year when Xichuan was looking at the stars, an assistant researcher from the Capital Observatory named Nan Rendong went to the Netherlands Astronomical Institute as a visiting scholar. He was not of high enough rank to take a plane, so he could only take a train across Siberia, through Eastern Europe, to the Netherlands. He was exploited and bribed by customs along the way. Before he arrived in the Netherlands, he had no money in his pocket, so he started selling paintings on the roadside. He painted many unfamiliar faces, but his heart must be filled with stars. Once, he visited the United Nations World Intellectual Property Headquarters in Geneva. In the hall, each country displayed its proudest exhibits. China's exhibit was a cloisonné vase, while the United States' exhibit was a small piece of moon rock, and it had been displayed for decades without anyone surpassing it."

"Nan Rendong never forgot the stars and the moon, but most of those who were excited to look at Halley have bowed their heads and are busy with their busy lives. In early 1993, that is, at the beginning of last year, CCTV's economic channel was established, and at the end of last year, the "Company Law" was promulgated. In this era, for ordinary people, nothing is more attractive than money, and there are very few people chasing stars. This is not a problem, people have to eat, but I always remember a poem written by the poet Xichuan last year: I can't stop the heavy rain."

Chu Jian asked: "So for you, which is more attractive, money or chasing stars?"

Zhang Yunqi thought for a moment and said with a smile, "Everyone likes to chase stars when they are young, and I am the same, but I don't have the conditions. Of course, it may not be right to say this, and it seems that I am putting the blame on objective factors. It may be that I lack perseverance, or it may be that I was afraid of being poor in the past. In short, I will work hard to chase money, so that when people around me want to chase stars, they will not be unable to do so."

They didn't speak for a long time after they first met. She held Zhang Yunqi's hand in hers and pursed her lips and said, "What's the rest of the story?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "In 1993, the International Union of Radio Science Conference was held in Tokyo, proposing to build a new generation of large radio telescopes. Nan Rendong began to select sites in China and prepare to build a radio telescope. The name of the project is very domineering, China Sky Eye."

"Because Guizhou has a large number of karst depressions, which can save the cost of excavation, Nan Rendong led his team there, climbing over the southwestern mountains one after another, searching hundreds of valleys. Heavy rains often came unexpectedly, and mountain torrents roared under the cable bridge. Sometimes there was no way through the dense forest, so they used hatchets to cut the road. The villagers in the mountains looked at the visitors in confusion. The initial rumor was 'there is a mine', and later it became 'aliens were discovered'. Perhaps, the world outside the mountains is space for them."

"After China's Sky Eye was found, Nan Rendong began to promote his Sky Eye dream. He traveled to all Chinese universities, set up projects and wrote books, frequently participated in international conferences, and appeared on major TV stations. The dusty old man, wearing sunglasses, asked the national audience in Jilin Mandarin: Who are we, where do we come from, and are we alone?"

Zhang Yunqi looked at Chu Jian in the bed and said with a smile: "The story ends here, but it is not over yet, because there are still countless star chasers in our country who are continuing to write this story. The Chinese Sky Eye will be built one day. It will stand on the earth with the world's most advanced radio telescope, listening to the melody from the depths of the universe, searching for the mysteries of the stars hidden in the universe, and becoming a coordinate for walking out of the sea of ​​stars."

"What a beautiful story, Yunqi."

"Yu is so beautiful too." Zhang Yunqi touched the girl's cheek. The girl's eyes seemed to be filled with summer dew, about to flow down. He smiled and lowered his head to kiss her forehead: "Go to sleep, maybe there will be a vast starry sky in your dreams."

"And you will be there too."

******
(End of this chapter)