Boundary Convention

The vacation ended soon, and after returning from Jiegu Shalong Lake, Mo Shixin has been devoting himself to work.

For her, this is a good thing. The busy and focused work keeps her away from many troubles. When she tapped the keyboard with her fingers and counted the plugs and bolts one by one with a pen in her hand, she had no extra energy to do multiple-choice questions or think about some unrealistic things.

For example, about the cursed key.

As an atheist, she rarely used the word 'cursed', but the chip was undoubtedly cursed. No matter how focused she was at work, the chip would still appear in her thoughts without warning. flashed by. Although this would not interrupt her train of thought, it made her uncomfortable. This was obviously a problem she tried hard to avoid.

Mo Shixin tried to analyze, what kind of psychology Lanna handed over the key to her, but the conclusion was uncertain, because after careful analysis, Mo Shixin found that he did not understand Lanna's key. Na, but she didn't want to admit that she admired someone she didn't understand at all, so she still made a conclusion.

This conclusion is the one she is most willing to believe in. This is a ritual behavior out of inheritance and growth.

Lanna said that someone once gave her such a chance to use such a key. But judging from the results, she didn't seem to do that. She didn't mention this kind of thing, and no one said it. Maybe it was when she received the key that she got some changes and growth.

So now she wants to use the same method to make Mo Shixin, her disciple, to achieve the same growth. Rather than wanting her to use this key. Perhaps, Lanna's original intention was to let her learn to compromise.

Picking up the wrench to tighten the last screw of the part, Mo Shixin wiped the sweat from his forehead.

In this way, this set of instruments is fully assembled. She tugged on the vest that was sticking to her body due to sweat, and immediately felt dry mouth and sweat profusely.

It's ironic, it's obviously a world of ice and snow outside, but the people inside are so hot that they want to take off their clothes. The work in the previous stage was fine, it was just the assembled basic unit, now that these things are powered on, the heat released by thousands of units running together in such a closed room is comparable to that of a newborn O-type star. .

Mo Shixin stood up and walked towards her team's desk. The glass of boiled water she had put on the table earlier seemed to be half missing, and she didn't know whether it was evaporated or Lanna drank it. She was sitting next to the desk, and with the high-speed operation of the calculator, the roaring fan spread the heat to all directions, and the flickering butterfly chart indicated that countless data were collected at every moment to start various calculations.

It stands to reason that Lanna, who was born under the big sun in the Middle East, should be more resistant to heat than Mo Shixin, but she is more afraid of heat than anyone else in the whole laboratory, because she is the only one in the whole laboratory who dares not to be afraid of heat. He took off his clothes to the limit indifferently, swaggered his legs, tapped his notebook nonchalantly, and then defiantly wore only a set of light underwear that looked like a high-end product under the eyes of everyone.

Mo Shixin stepped forward and drank the water in the glass. From the second stage of work, she really wanted to say something about Lana's indecent behavior, but she felt that this indifference The eyes of others are only for the comfort and efficiency of work, and the behavior is beyond reproach, so nothing has been said.

"Son, are you done pretending?"

Lanna stared at the screen intently and asked.

Her glasses reflected rows of codes on the computer screen, scrolling at the same speed as before she spoke, and she could see that even if she was distracted and neglected, she was more than enough to process the huge data.

"Well, it's finished."

"Then go and get the letter, it has just been delivered."

"letter?"

Mo Shixin froze for a moment, then suddenly remembered the wonderful postal system of this base.

For the sake of confidentiality, the base's network can only be connected to the local area network, and communication with the outside world becomes a hassle. In this information age, they have to rely on primitive paper media to communicate with the outside world. Since all the staff have signed a non-disclosure agreement, all letters and packages sent to the original address of the staff will be automatically delivered to this base by the computer during the accessories, which means that they will be transferred one more time.

And because of the difficulty of going to this secret base in Iceland, these letters usually follow the supply team after a backlog of a lot. It has been nearly half a year since the last letter was sent. She almost forgot about it.

She looked around, and the laboratory was inexplicably quiet now, with the roar of machines resounding in the air.

"I don't really want to go, why do we have to take this kind of thing by ourselves." Xiao Mo said, and sat down on the chair next to Lanna.

She was really not in a hurry to get the letter. Her father would occasionally write and send some letters, but most of them were clichés asking for warmth, probably she had also reached the rebellious period, and these words made her feel a little awkward and even a little embarrassing.

"I look like this, how do you want me to get the letter?"

"Then why don't you get dressed?"

"No, it's hot."

"It's cold outside."

"Come on."

As Lanna spoke, she hit the Enter key abruptly.

"I'd better go by myself."

As she said that, she stood up from the chair. Mo Shixin thought that she was going to get dressed before going out, but she didn't expect that she would walk out the door in that three-point style with a careless stride. Mo Shixin didn't realize until she was about to step out of the gate, rushed over and pulled her back, and pushed her back on the seat.

"It will freeze you to death! Let me go."

"That's right, dear."

After finishing speaking, Lanna made a bright and exaggerated smile.

Generally speaking, employees have to wait for half a day to line up one by one to get the letters, and they have to endure the slow search of one by one. But when Mo Shixin went, the dozens of sacks were almost gone.

In the past six months, her father seems to have written a lot of letters to her, adding up to nearly ten letters. And Lanna's letters are much less, only one.

That's right, she is a widow, her only child was just born in the base, and her parents should have passed away, so naturally she won't have much contact with the outside world. However, this one and only letter is a bit special. The envelope is very thick, and it seems that there are a lot of things inside. The outside is made of high-quality non-grained kraft paper. It seems that the skin has been burnt with a layer of gold, giving off a beautiful luster.

The most striking thing is the seal. This letter is not sealed with glue or paste, but with sealing wax, and the symbol of the Shield of David is printed on it.

As Mo Shixin walked, he picked up the letter and looked at it for a while. This solemn and luxurious appearance was obviously not a communication between ordinary friends... so whose is it?

She had the urge to take the letter apart to have a look, but this was obviously an uneducated and immoral act, and if the sealing wax was taken apart, it would be troublesome to stick it on again, she didn't I didn't want to be hated by Lana just because of my little curiosity, so I suppressed this evil thought in the end.

Soon, Mo Shixin returned to her place. She put her stack of letters on the table, and handed Lanna's shiny golden envelope over.

"Here, your letter."

The moment she stretched out her hand, she never dreamed that the content of the ineffective letter that she cared about before would be known to her the next moment. Just as she handed the letter over, the sealing wax on the letter loosened without warning, and then all the contents of the envelope fell down and scattered all over the table.

She held the empty envelope in a daze for a moment, then immediately threw the envelope away, and waved her hand to explain.

"I... I, I, I, I haven't touched the sealing wax!"

"It's fine."

Lanna gathered the scattered letter papers together without changing her expression, glanced at them for a while, then adjusted the order and put them back in the envelope. It seems that I am not surprised at all that the sealing wax is not firm.

Then hit the keyboard again.

Mo Shixin sat on the chair, looked at Lanna, and breathed a sigh of relief at her attitude. But then fell into a new entanglement, because she saw the contents of the letter.

When the letter fell, she subconsciously glanced at the letter on the table, because of her extraordinary memory, she wrote down the letter that she accidentally scanned verbatim. Although it is not complete, you can probably get an idea of ​​what it is.

The letter seemed to be sent to her by a rabbi (author: rabbis are a special class of Jews who often serve as spiritual leaders or mentors of the church). Not enough, so I hope Lanna can give him some support. Judging from the tone of it, Lanna seems to be a model believer, and has sponsored these gatherings more than once.

Mo Shixin didn't have a good impression of religion. When she was a child, Mo Hesheng instilled in her the opposite concept of religion and science, and in fact, religion and science seem to be opposite, a contradiction between materialism and idealism.

Indeed, there were many great scientists in the past who had faith. In the most famous survey of 300 scientists conducted by the United Nations, scientists who believed in God accounted for an overwhelming proportion. However, this survey was not scientific at all. Almost all the greatest scientists of the century have been rational atheists.

When she learned of Lanna's funding and support for religion, her first reaction was surprise, and then it turned into suspicion.

"Do you believe in God?"

She raised the empty cup and pretended to ask casually.

"Are you asking me?"

"Who else is there besides us?"

Mo Shixin smiled awkwardly, and kept rubbing the handle of the cup with his thumb. The sweat that was dripping continuously due to the heat turned into cold sweat at some point. She tried her best to keep her expression soft and natural so that Lanna would not see anything unusual.

"Why are you asking this all of a sudden?"

"No, it's just that I suddenly wanted to ask."

"I believe it."

"However, there are many kinds of letters."

She didn't give up, she still felt that maybe Lanna just had some special insights. After all, Lanna was much older than herself, and she naturally had a lot of life experiences. In her values, science should still surpass the value of religion. .

"So, what do you think of the relationship between God and science? Are they not contradictory?"

Hearing this question, Lanna's dancing fingers on the keyboard stopped abruptly, and the crisp and crunching sound of the green-axis keyboard stopped abruptly. Lan Na moved her glasses and squinted at Mo Shixin.

"Why not? 'The end of science is theology'. Although this statement is made up, it still has some truth."

"How to say?"

"It's a bit complicated to explain, because there's some metaphysical parts that I can't describe, but, for example, our relationship to God is like the Trojans were to Heinrich Schliemann. Troy Man built the city of Troy, but Schliemann discovered it. God built all the laws in this world for us, and we explore the true meaning of the laws established by God. This is science.”

"That is to say..."

Mo Shixin held back the words in his throat for a while, and the sweat in his palms kept gushing out like a gate.

"Do you think science is actually a tool for exploring the true meaning of God?"

She didn't use 'just' because she was afraid that if she got an affirmative answer, Lanna would have no room for mediation in her heart.

"It can be said like this."

"Um."

Hearing such an answer, Mo Shixin felt as if she suddenly lost all her strength. She slumped on the chair, completely devoid of the will to work. Work was supposed to relieve her bad thoughts, but now her messy mood left her completely unmotivated. In her heart, the ideal Lanna seemed to be shattered in the few short sentences just now.

At this moment, she needs to be quiet.

She propped up her weak body and stood up.

"Well, I feel a little uncomfortable. I want to take a leave of absence and go back to my room to rest."

"Huh? What's wrong with you?"

Hearing this, Lanna asked with concern.

"It's nothing, just a little uncomfortable..."

"Okay, then you go back, and come back after you have a rest."

"Um."

In this way, she left the laboratory exhausted physically and mentally.

Back in the room, she lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

She didn't know any other way to calm down, she had never felt so sad since she was a child. In the past, as long as I was scolded by my father, or made some mistakes, as long as I slept, everything would be fine.

Although she hadn't experienced it before, she didn't know if it was accurate, but she felt that she felt like she was broken in love.

After waking up after a good night's sleep, she did feel a little better.

This may be due to the self-debate in her head before falling asleep. In that self-debate, she has been trying to put the Lanna idol she smashed back together, piece by piece, piece by piece. centimeters. In the end, she should have succeeded, and a tall Lanna was once again established in her heart, although it was full of cracks.

Lanna may indeed be a somewhat devout person, but whether to believe in religion or not should be an individual's freedom, and it is everyone's choice in life. If a person is judged to be good or bad based on whether he believes in a religion or not, wouldn't that be the same as in that uncivilized dark age? Besides, even if Lanna is not loyal to science, it still cannot change the fact that she is a great scientist. So far her discoveries, papers, and theories are far superior to her own. Her contribution to science is unquestionable. So what reason do I have to blame her again?

Thinking of this, she felt a little relieved.

She got up and tidied up her clothes. Although it was midnight, she reckoned that Lana might still be working overtime, and it should be too late to go back to work now. Just as she was putting on her shoes and preparing to leave, the phone in her pocket suddenly rang.

It happened to be Lanna calling.

"Hello, Xiao Mo?"

"Well, it's me."

"Are you feeling better?"

"It's perfectly fine."

"Oh, that's just right, although I'm a little embarrassed, but can you come over now?"

"I'm coming over."

"I really can't find anyone here. Something is wrong. I need you to come and help me."

"No problem, I'll be right there."

When Mo Shixin returned to the laboratory, he suddenly found that the laboratory was unexpectedly dark and pitch black. All the indicator lights of the unit that had been flashing before had disappeared, and the roaring sound of the unit and the high temperature had all died down. .

In the vast darkness, she could only see a conspicuous light, which should be a flashlight. When she entered the laboratory, it happened to be shone head-on, and her eyes shone.

"Yo, you're here."

Lanna trotted forward while holding a flashlight.

"Well, here I come."

"Is your body alright?"

"After a short sleep, I feel totally fine."

"It's good to be young. Auntie, I'm working overtime now, and I can't get over it for a long time."

Hearing the joke, Mo Shixin giggled.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

"Ah, look, some of these units have stopped."

As Lanna spoke, she shone a flashlight on the huge creatures that were silent in the shadows.

"I think there is something wrong with the power source. If it's just a problem with the unit, it's impossible to shut down all the engines, and the electricity consumption in the living area seems to be normal, so I want to find a helper to go with me to check, but because today I Let everyone go back in advance, so now everyone is resting in the room, so..."

Before she finished speaking, Mo Shixin nodded, took another flashlight from Lanna's hand, then picked up the toolbox beside the table, and followed Lanna toward the door in the laboratory marked with a forbidden Go inside the door you entered.

She had never entered this room before, and she did not expect that this room was completely different from what she had imagined. It was unexpectedly spacious. Behind this small door, the room was ten meters high and thirty meters wide. In the center of the room stood a behemoth.

That should be the source of power. Mo Shixin took a picture of the engine with a flashlight while riding on the stall that Lanna stepped forward to check, but because it was too large, he could only take a rough look, but he had never seen it before. suddenly became curious. So I took a flashlight and took pictures of the four sides of the engine, only to feel that I could see the leopard from time to time.

"What kind of engine is this? The structure looks a little strange."

She yelled at Lanna while looking at the engine.

"It doesn't seem to be burning ore ice... Is it gasoline... It doesn't look like..."

Lanna didn't answer her, but just waved her hand, motioning for her to bring the toolbox.

"I seem to have found the problem."

Lanna said.

"Look, there is something wrong with the feed port of the No. 5 fuel tank, it should be blocked."

Saying so, she changed the power supply of the engine on the side, and signaled Mo Shixin to lift the huge lid of the fuel tank with her, and then carefully put down the lid with Xiao Mo.

The fuel tank was empty, and there was no smell of traditional fuel, not to mention the smell of mine ice that seemed to kill the alveoli. This made Mo Shixin's curiosity even stronger, what exactly was this engine burning.

Lanna asked Mo Shixin to bring the long ladder from the corner, and then put it down through the opening of the fuel tank, and then walked down step by step, and asked Mo Shixin to help the ladder. This fuel tank is large enough to accommodate dozens of people, and it is indeed not suitable for one person to operate. If no one responds, they may be trapped in the fuel tank.

While holding the ladder, Mo Shixin was lighting Lanna outside. Lanna walked to the oil inlet and removed a filter from there. A thick white substance was condensed on the filter. It took Lanna a lot of effort to smash the white objects on the filter, and then left the residue in the fuel tank, and slowly climbed up again.

"What are those white ones?"

"It's salt."

"Salt? Why is there salt in the fuel tank?"

Lana didn't answer her, but turned on the power of the engine, and then saw a steady stream of colorless and odorless transparent objects pouring out from the filter, and soon, the unit outside also began to roar.

"What kind of fuel is that? It doesn't smell at all."

"That's water."

"Water...? Is this coolant?"

"Yes, it's the coolant, this is the fusion reactor."

"Fusion Reactor?!"

Like a bolt from the blue, the name that overturned Mo Shixin's cognition bombarded every cell in her body.

Many years ago, with the decline of nuclear fission reactor technology, people began to look for other alternatives. It was proposed to use fusion reactors, no matter whether it is light elements or heavy elements, people can "squeeze" energy from them, whether it is to make small suns or For a huge star, countless plans have been proposed. But this method is a fool's dream after all, and it is a product of defrauding funds. But now this machine appeared in front of her and was used in such an important project, which made her unbelievable.

"The salt you saw just now is the sediment of seawater. The fuel of this fusion reactor is directly taken from the seawater collected during operation. The hydrogen isotopes in it are first separated and supplied to the first-level light element fusion reaction chamber, and then the remaining All the seawater was put into the secondary refusion reaction chamber. Theoretically, the seawater has been purified in advance, but there seems to be a small mistake there, which caused the sea salt to condense on it.”

"So it's like this... Isn't it equivalent to having two suns in the two reaction chambers? Then will this thing be stable?"

"The super aerogel, which is stable and can capture even light, is one of the cores, otherwise it would not be possible to use it in such an important project."

"My God... I feel like I'm in a dream..."

"Ah, by the way, this fusion reactor is a GST secret, so don't tell it everywhere, even if you tell it, no one will believe it, haha."

"Secret? Why? Shouldn't such an era-changing invention be published?"

"Hmm...it's a bit troublesome to explain."

"Is that so..."

As Xiao Mo said, he held up the flashlight and took photos of the power machine again, just like a child found a new toy, she likes this machine very much.

"Then which team in GST invented this machine, can you tell me this?"

"This machine was invented by one man."

"A person? Then this person must be a genius."

Xiao Mo nodded thoughtfully.

"What's his name."

"Jerome Stein."

"Jerome Stein?"

Mo Shixin was taken aback when he heard this, repeated the name, and then added a sentence.

"What a coincidence, the same con as the General Fusion Reactor scam in 2005..."

"It's that Jeremy Stein."

"it's him?"

Mo Shixin frowned.

"Are you joking? It has been recognized as a scam, and the patent registered by that liar has also been confirmed to be something without any new technology content."

"You are very clear, then you should know how he died."

Lanna replied, her face was a little dignified for some reason.

"I remember, because the deception was exposed, and I committed suicide in fear of crime."

"Don't you feel conflicted?"

"where?"

"A person who went up to the 101st floor of the Empire State Building and wanted to die in the eyes of everyone, would jump off the building and commit suicide so simply? He at least had to wait for reporters to come in a helicopter."

Hearing this, Mo Shixin fell silent.

"No, it's impossible. The official investigation report said that he had no trace of being held hostage."

"Sometimes the truth is worthless."

Lanna said earnestly.

"You mean, he was murdered?"

For a long time, Mo Shixin regarded this incident as a silly conspiracy theory on the Internet. However, she didn't think Lanna was the type to make a fuss about conspiracy theories...but...

"His invention touched the cake of the energy tycoons at the time, so they tried to get rid of him and discredit him, it's that simple."

Then, after a brief silence, she added another sentence.

"The Dunkelds have a share, too."

After hearing this, Mo Shixin also fell silent. After a long time, Lanna cleared her throat and continued.

"At the end of the 20th century, the Dunkeld family business had already reached a large scale. After the death of Jeremy Stein, people did not find his original design drawings. This is one of the most important reasons why he was considered a liar. According to the agreement of the tycoons, this design drawing should be destroyed, but the Dunkeld family at that time believed that this design drawing was of great significance...so they secretly kept a backup copy. This fusion reactor is based on This is an improvement from the prototype."

"However, how can a plan that is spurned by the public..."

"The greatest scientific advances always come from coincidences, and coincidences don't always happen to the right people...Jerome Stein was right and wrong. He wasn't really a businessman, and he designed The fusion reactor has many defects, but it gave people a basically feasible solution, and the scientists of GST have been perfecting his invention, especially when the super aerogel was born, and the fusion reactor finally took shape..."

"But……"

Mo Shixin felt that this was too unfair, she gritted her teeth and said,

"He deserves a minimum of respect and his bronze statue should be erected at the gate of GST."

"I think so too, but it's impossible."

"Why?"

"Because GST will not allow it. If Jeremy Stein is to be rehabilitated, it means that advanced technology such as fusion reactors must be known to people, and this power machine that makes energy readily available will make GST mining The interests of the industry have been devastated. GST needs to firmly control the mining industry to control the coalition government. Only in this way can the scientific kingdom like this be maintained..."

Hearing this, Mo Shixin suddenly understood.

"That is to say... in fact, the mining of ore ice...is unnecessary?"

"What color do you think ice is?" Lanna said something intriguing, then turned and left.

After midnight, Mo Shixin returned to the dormitory. She remembered a movie called "Urban Heroes" that she had seen. This was one of the few movies she had watched, because a year before she left home Li's father liked the movie so much that he watched it almost every day.

When my father watched this movie, his eyes were always empty, neither expressing opinions nor making comments, just staring blankly at the unlucky guy named William in the movie. Mo Shixin was very curious about the appeal of this movie, so he watched it once with his father.

As for the content of this movie...maybe it can be described with lines from a comic book.

‘It only takes one bad day to make a man crazy. '

Now, Mo Shixin felt that she was also going through such a bad day. All the values ​​she had established in the past were smashed to pieces on this day. This gave her an urge to vent, but she didn't know how to vent it.

After standing in the room for more than ten minutes, she didn't want to lie down or sit down, but just stood there blankly. Until she found that the stack of letters she brought back was still quietly placed on the table. She couldn't find anything to do, so she sat down and unhurriedly opened the letters carefully wrapped in kraft paper at the table.

As always, the letter contained those clichés that add to the cold weather. But now, for Mo Shixin, these words could indeed calm her down a little.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door suddenly.

She frowned. At this point in time, there shouldn't be anyone else.

So she walked out the door cautiously, opened the door, and saw a dusty man standing outside. He was wearing green overalls and looked like a member of the supply team.

"you are……?"

"I'm from the supply team. I have a letter here that I want to hand over directly to you."

"Direct transfer?"

"Yes, it was entrusted to me by your father. You know that all letters sent here are subject to censorship. He doesn't want to be censored."

"But here I have..."

She glanced back at the opened letter on the table, then took it, said thank you, and closed the door again.

"How is this going?"

As she spoke, she opened the letter and glanced at the words on the letter as she walked towards the table. Suddenly, when her eyes fell on the last two words of the letter, her heart seemed to stop.

'Definitely'.

This letter is a suicide note.

She couldn't imagine her eyes, she hesitated for two or three seconds, then rushed to the phone and opened the address book.

Looking for Uncle Chen was the first thing that came to her mind.

As a rule, the phone here cannot communicate with the outside world, but there are also some special people who have been authorized to communicate, and Chen Yang is one of them. If you want to know the situation of your father, you can only find him.

The voice of the phone echoed in Mo Shixin's ears for a long time. Although it was only a dozen seconds, she felt as if tens of thousands of years had passed.

Finally, someone answered the phone.

"Uncle Chen, what happened to my dad?" Mo Shixin asked eagerly.

The person on the other end of the phone was obviously frightened and fell silent for a while.

"You received that letter, alas, it's still a step late."

"What happened, why did my dad write a suicide note?"

"Shi Xin, your father is at home now, and I will take care of him. His condition has stabilized. Don't worry..."

"Tell me quickly! What happened!" Mo Shixin interrupted Chen Yang.

"Hey, I will try to persuade your father. This matter has been reviewed internally by the GST Group. It really shouldn't be like this. No matter what, Lao Mo is also a veteran. What they did is really too much!"

"What happened to my dad, tell me what's going on!" Mo Shixin cried. She couldn't imagine what her father had suffered, and he would choose to commit suicide.

"I don't know the specifics! Lao Mo suddenly went to Herman that day and asked to resume the astronomy department. You said how is this possible, and the two of them quarreled. Herman wanted to stop Lao Mo's salary, and then I directly called the people from the security department to lock up Lao Mo. I don’t know what happened afterwards, but Lao Mo was not locked up for long. It took half a day to notify me to pick him up. Shi Xin, don’t worry, I will take care of him. Good for him, I assure you."

Mo Shixin on the other end of the phone couldn't help crying. She knew that her father must have been insulted because of his arrogance. She instinctively wanted to ask Lanna to understand. With Lanna's power, this matter would definitely be settled. At least give her father justice, but what Lanna said before made her feel very depressed.

When the birds are gone, the bows are hidden, and the rabbits are dead.