Deep Sea Embers

Zhou Ming returned to his bachelor apartment, everything here is still exactly the same as when he left.

When he stepped on the familiar and slightly outdated floor, looked at the things in the room that had never changed, and listened to the humming of the fan from the computer mainframe that was always on, his thoughts Finally calmed down a little bit.

A certain subtle and unspeakable feeling floated in his heart, Zhou Ming stepped over the scattered debris on the floor, came to the closed window, and looked at the white fog that was constantly rising and falling outside.

He stared at the fog for a long time, then stretched out his hand and pushed the window—of course, the window remained motionless.

The flour sprinkled on the window sill and the deliberately stacked cans are still in the original state, as if silently conveying a lonely and silent atmosphere to themselves.

For a long time, he just stood quietly in front of the window, maintaining a posture as if looking at the thick fog, but he didn't think about anything in his mind. After an unknown amount of time passed, he suddenly blinked. , turning his head to the side like a stone sculpture awakened.

Next to the unmade bed, the computer monitor on the desk was glowing slightly, and the prompt box of "Network Not Connected" still popped up from time to time in the lower right corner, and the notebook that took notes when I left was still thrown at the corner of the desk. Flip by yourself.

Zhou Ming walked over, sat down in front of the desk, looked at the empty screen in a daze, then reached out and grabbed the keyboard and mouse that he had pushed to the corner before, opened the browser, and typed a line of text in the search box ——

"Does the world beyond the dense fog still exist?"

The browser, of course, didn't give any valid search pages—after pressing the enter key, the cursor on the screen flickered a few times, and then an error page popped up stating that the network connection was interrupted and the remote server was not responding.

This result was naturally expected. Zhou Ming knew from the very beginning that he had used this computer in a strange state to make various attempts to communicate with the outside world long ago, when the thick fog had just blocked the room.

He didn't expect anything different to appear on the screen this time.

He just wanted to type that sentence out - not asking anyone, not expecting any answers.

Hearing the monotonous hum of the fan, Zhou Ming exhaled, threw the keyboard and mouse back to the corner, took the notebook, opened it to a blank page, and leaned over it Seriously write:

"To the world outside the dense fog, the people in the room send their greetings to you.

"In a short time, I will arrive at a place on the 'other side' of the gate. It is a city-state located in the borderlands. I went there to confirm some things.

"But even without confirmation, I think I already know the answer, because in that weird world opposite the door, countless of the most unimaginable things are actually happening, and my 'gut feeling' there has always been very precise.

"Based on this, I no longer expect a response from outside the thick fog, nor do I expect someone to knock on my door or window through the thick fog. I'm still not sure what happened in this world, but maybe... ...it is not I who have been changed, but you.

"In my quiet and narrow hut, everything is still the same as before. I have a bed, a sofa, a coffee table, a desk, and a chair. My wardrobe is next to the bed, and there is a big one. The shelf, most of the place on it is still empty...

"I haven't cleaned my room for a long time.

"There is almost no dust here - I know that most of the dust in human residences comes from the skin debris shed by humans and the pollution caused by daily life, and I don't move here most of the time, so most of the places here It's actually still pretty clean.

"But even if there is no dust, the room looks a bit messy now, because I was in a hurry when I returned to the room several times before, and I didn't pack my things before I left.

"It's always so messy, it's not good - if everything is as I think, I think... I should make this room clean and tidy.

"Also, maybe I shouldn't say that, maybe it's meaningless to say this, but... I hope you are all well outside the thick fog.

"Goodbye, now I'm going to clean this room."

Zhou Ming exhaled lightly, threw the pen back into the pen holder, carefully read what he had just written, then closed the notebook and put it in a corner of the desk.

Then he got up silently, and started to execute what he had planned in his notebook - cleaning and tidying this room.

Start with the slightly messy bed, fold the quilt, arrange the pillows and sheets, then the things on the table, the things on the coffee table, and then the wardrobe, bookshelf, as well as the sundries on the sofa and the floor.

There is not much dust, and there is no need to wipe the floor. He simply wipes off the only dust on the surface of all the furniture with a piece of paper, and then throws it into the trash.

At the very end, Zhou Ming came to the window.

He looked at the things on the window sill silently. After standing still for a long time, he reached out and put the tools that he had tried to use to open the windows—including hammers and wrenches—into the tool box beside him, and then put the stacked tools Put cans and other sundries where they belong.

Then, he wetted a paper towel, grabbed it with his left hand, and pressed it against the window sill. He stayed in this position for a full ten seconds, finally took a deep breath, and slowly wiped the window sill.

The flour that was used to confirm whether someone had opened the window and entered the room was wiped clean with damp paper towels.

Now, the room is completely clean and tidy.

Zhou Ming exhaled, looked around the room calmly, confirmed the results of his labor, and then picked up a bag of garbage that he had just picked up—the black plastic bag was not very heavy, because most of it contained waste paper and empty cans , but when he picked them up, he still felt that the bag had some weight.

He carried the bag of things that needed to be discarded to the door of the bachelor's apartment and opened the door.

The dark and turbulent thick fog was as usual, undulating and surging at the door. It seemed that all the secrets of this world were hidden in the thick fog, but it was so chaotic that it could not be discovered rationally.

Standing in front of the billowing black fog, Zhou Ming hesitated for a moment, then raised his hand and threw the bag of trash into the fog.

The moment the plastic bag was out of his hands, he had a strong urge to pull the bag back, as if those waste papers and empty cans were the only treasures left in this world, and he was the only thing left in this world. A gambler who wants to hold on to every gram of substance in this room—but this impulse was suppressed by him after all. He opened his hand and watched calmly as the plastic bag fell into the other side of the door and disappeared in an instant. in the turbulent mist.

He knew that those things would not "reach the other side of the door" - only he himself could reach that world as "Duncan", and all other substances would disappear in the tumbling world when they passed through the door. in the mist.

Now, those things that should be discarded have completely disappeared in the "world outside the room".

Zhou Ming wiped his hands, took a step forward, and prepared to leave this place - on the other side of the gate, Alice was still waiting for him to have dinner.

But just as he was about to step through the gate, a faint sound caught his attention. It was the sound of the computer fan speeding up suddenly.

Zhou Ming stopped for an instant, and took back his steps to look in the direction of the sound.

On the faintly glowing computer screen, the interface that previously displayed the prompts that the network connection was interrupted and the remote server did not respond was flashing, and then those prompt texts suddenly disappeared, and immediately after, the loading progress bar at the bottom of the page changed from red to green, and Start walking slowly forward.

Zhou Ming felt his heart beating like a burst at this moment, and a suffocating feeling filled his lungs. The next second, he slammed the door and rushed to his desk in an instant.

The loading progress bar at the bottom of the browser interface is still moving forward, and the faint green light seems to be spreading slowly and firmly, but on the originally blank page, there is really loaded content——

That is a picture.

Zhou Ming stared at the picture that was gradually emerging.

Moon.

It seems to be a perspective shot directly from a certain position in space. What is presented in the picture is the moon floating in the dark universe. Even if he is not an expert in astronomy, Zhou Ming is very familiar with this classic image.

And he confirmed once again that the picture he saw in Tirian's office was indeed depicting the moon—the details were exact, and it was obvious that it could only be a person who saw the moon with his own eyes. A figure that can only be drawn by tracing the distance carefully.

Zhou Ming slowly sat down on the chair, leaned back, and stared at the image of the moon that almost occupied the entire screen with a frozen expression. The line of text in:

"Does the world beyond the dense fog still exist?"

He was silent, and it took a long time before he suddenly "woke up" from the state like a stone sculpture, and quickly took the keyboard beside him, and entered new text in the search box:

"Is this the answer?"

"Who gave this answer?"

After quickly typing these two questions, Zhou Ming stared at the computer screen in front of him.

However, no "person" responded, and there was no new pattern or loading bar on the screen, only the cursor was turning in place, like a silent and dull eye - gradually returning to the low and slight fan rotation Apart from the sound, only the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat remained next to his ears.

After a while, the image of the moon on the screen was refreshed due to a failure to load, and the interface returned to pale, leaving only one line of text:

"The network connection was interrupted or the remote server is not responding."