Earth Era

Li Yunfan's words caused Zhao Lan to fall into a brief silence again. After a moment, Zhao Lan responded: "But... Li Yunfan, not telling the police about you is already a complete act of kindness. Why should I help you? After all, the relationship between us does not seem to be that good. Not long ago, you stole my spaceship and caused inconvenience to my movements."

"I have no reason to help you." Zhao Lan repeated, "I have no obligation to help you either."

"No, you have enough reasons to help me." Li Yunfan already smiled a little in his response: "For the sake of good cooperation between you and me, I don't mind telling you a little bit about my identity. Well. , if I am not mistaken, when you return to Earth this time, in addition to taking a vacation, you also have plans to visit Professor Sid, right?"

Professor Sid is a theoretical physicist with a very high reputation. In recognition of his contribution to the scientific community, the first university in human civilization once awarded him the position of honorary professor, so people generally call him Professor Sid. However, this person has an eccentric personality and rarely communicates with others. Therefore, except for the scientific community, the general public generally does not know the existence of this person.

Zhao Lan does have plans to visit Professor Sid. Zhao Lan got this opportunity by chance. It was very rare to receive the teachings of a senior scientist in person, so Zhao Lan took this matter very seriously.

"How did you know that I was going to visit Professor Sid?" Zhao Lan asked with some confusion.

Li Yunfan smiled and replied: "Because...Professor Sid is me, and I am Professor Sid. This is just one of my several identities on the surface. In addition, painter Sun Wei, psychologist Wilson, condensed matter physics expert Davis, black hole expert Anderson... these people are all me. Of course, these are just side jobs that I do casually. My original profession is a thief, and I am Li Yunfan."

"What?!" Zhao Lan covered her mouth in surprise, so shocked that she couldn't believe it. Because of the names mentioned by Li Yunfan. Everyone can be considered a leader or a master in his or her own industry. For example, the painter Sun Wei, whose paintings have been sold at auction houses for record high prices several times; such as the psychologist Wilson, who even served as a psychological consultant to the head of state; and Anderson, who has published several groundbreaking works. A paper on black holes... Each of these people is so famous that even people outside Zhao Lan's industry have heard of it. But now. Li Yunfan said that those people were just one of his identities, and that they were just a casual side job?

Zhao Lan couldn't believe this at all. The most important point is that although these people are all famous figures, their personalities, appearances, growth backgrounds, social circles and other circles are all different. It can be said that these people are completely unrelated to each other. Who would have thought that these people are actually the same person?

"You must be joking, you must be." Zhao Lan murmured. "This is impossible, this is absolutely impossible."

"It doesn't matter if you don't believe it now. When you return to Earth, you will confirm all this with your own eyes and ears." Li Yunfan continued, "So now, do you believe in my ability? Especially, now that I am personally in this empty universe, I have started researching the strange space that exists within the solar system very early, so... if there is one person in our human civilization who can prevent this disaster If so, then this person can only be me. So, you are not just helping me escape from this empty universe and return to our universe. You are also saving the entire human civilization. In this case...are you willing to help? And me?"

"But...since you have so many outstanding identities, wealth or social status. Everything like honor is something you can ask for, why do you still want to be a thief?" Zhao Lan murmured. asked.

Li Yunfan continued to smile and said: "Because I like it. I like the feeling of playing with everyone in the palm of my hand. I like to see others unable to understand my arrangements even if they break their heads. I like to appear in society with different identities. This feeling that everyone is kept in the dark. Don’t you think this is interesting?”

"Including stealing my spaceship?" Zhao Lan asked feebly, touching his forehead.

"This matter is a bit special. I will explain the specific reasons to you later." Li Yunfan replied, "Okay, let's keep our communication like this for now. After you return to Earth, you might as well contact a person named The guy named Rodriguez, I will send you the specific contact information and password later. After you tell him the password, he will take you to my laboratory. When you see my After the experimental data, you will believe everything I say.”

What I saw and heard today was really shocking. Everything this guy named Li Yunfan said sounded like nonsense, like the ravings of a madman, but there was something strange about it that made people unable to find it. Logic and persuasiveness come out of errors and flaws. Especially the sentence: "You will completely believe me when you see my laboratory" made Zhao Lan start to believe that all this is true.

"Okay, let me make a decision after I see your laboratory data." Zhao Lan replied.

After this sentence, the communication between the two people was disconnected. During this period of communication, Zhao Lan's spacecraft has traveled more than one million kilometers. At this moment, Zhao Lan was no longer far away from the Earth Port. The spacecraft had also received orbital parameters such as the channel and speed from the Earth Port, so Zhao Lan picked up his spirits and prepared to drive the spacecraft to the Earth Port.

Earthport is located above Capital City, which is located above the Earth's equator. The capital city gradually developed based on the City of Life during the solar crisis. Due to its special geographical location, it eventually became the political, technological and economic center on the earth. At the same time, it was also the most populous city on the earth.

Under the guidance of the port staff, the Sylvia spacecraft finally moored smoothly into the port. Before leaving the spacecraft, Zhao Lan deliberately kept the spacecraft's communication interface open and brought a small communication device with him. The communication interface opened on the spacecraft allows the spacecraft to maintain contact with Li Yunfan, and the communication device he carries on his body allows him to maintain contact with the Sylvia spacecraft. Through the transfer of the spacecraft, Zhao Lan can talk to Li Yunfan no matter where he is on the earth.

Under the guidance of the staff, Zhao Lan took the shuttle bus to the space-space interactive system, and then took the space elevator to embark on the journey to the earth. A space elevator built on Earth would be larger and more spectacular than one built on Mars. The scenery on Earth is also more beautiful than on Mars.

It was daytime now, so Zhao Lan, who was tens of thousands of kilometers high in the sky, saw the intertwined colors of blue, white, yellow and green on the earth. Green is the forest, blue is the sea, white is the clouds, and yellow is the desert. The earth seen from high altitude is more gorgeous and more peaceful.

Zhao Lan has not been to the earth for several years. The long-lost food and beautiful scenery in his memory, as well as the bustling city and the crowded flow of people, all have such a special attraction for Zhao Lan now. Zhao Lan had been waiting for this moment for a long time, but when this moment really came, Zhao Lan didn't have much sense of anticipation and excitement in his heart.

The words he talked to Li Yunfan in the spaceship still lingered in Zhao Lan's mind. About the empty universe, about the fate of the earth, about the disappearing stars and the coming disaster, about the mystery of Li Yunfan... all of these are weighing heavily on Zhao Lan's heart, making Zhao Lan's emotions always high. Can't get up.

"Don't worry about these things yet." Zhao Lan comforted himself, "Maybe the so-called Li Yunfan is just a liar, and everything he said is nonsense. There are many reasons that may cause the stars to disappear. Maybe the truth of the matter is just some physical process that we haven’t discovered yet and has no impact on the earth at all, such as the folds of space and the fall into the empty universe..."

Because the space elevator descended too quickly, Zhao Lan was always in a state of weightlessness. This is not a good experience, but Zhao Lan has to stay in this state for several hours.

These few hours were spent in Zhao Lan's random thoughts. As time goes by, outside the window, everything on the earth appears larger and larger, and the details become more and more perfect. From here, Zhao Lan could even see the towering mountain peaks and equally tall buildings.

The clouds outside the space elevator also changed from sparse at the beginning to dense. During this process, gravity gradually returned to Zhao Lan, allowing Zhao Lan to finally sit firmly on the seat without being restrained by the seat belt. In fact, due to the constant deceleration, Zhao Lan even felt a greater pressure than normal gravity.

After a while, gravity returned to normal completely. The space elevator stopped, Zhao Lan unbuckled his seatbelt and went outside, finally breathing in the fresh air above the earth that he had not seen for a long time. Looking up, the space elevator extends into the sky just like it does on Mars, until it is invisible. (To be continued ~^~)