CH 32.2

Chapter 32.2 – The Wheat Field

After that, they went to other livestock areas.

Shi Yuan saw a lot of chickens and ducks, chubby pigs, and sheep that also like to chew grass.

The ecology of the wasteland is rapidly changing and the dark tide is surging. Monsters devour each other and reproduce feverishly. Unlike here, it is harmonious and vibrant.

He was full of curiosity about everything. He took a few beautiful white duck feathers, listened to the pig snorting, and touched the newly grown horns of the little lamb. Unfortunately, Lu Tinghan wouldn’t let him touch the goose, saying that he would definitely be bullied by the goose.

“Are geese really fierce?” Shi Yuan asked.

“Yes,” Lu Tinghan explained to him, “They will hunt you down and eat your flower.”

Shi Yuan immediately dismissed the idea.

Among so many animals, Shi Yuan’s favorite is sheep. Sheep like to baa, and they also like to baa after others.

Shi Yuan stood among the white sheep and said, “Baa.”

The flock responded enthusiastically: “Baa baa baa—”

Shi Yuan said, “Baa baa.”

The flock cried to the sky: “Baa baa baa baa~~~”

Shi Yuan felt that if he was given three days, he could compete to be the leader.

If he became the leader, maybe Lu Tinghan would allow him to touch the geese.

He played for a long time before he realized that Lu Tinghan might be bored.

Obviously, this trip was to let Lu Tinghan relax, but he ended up playing on his own, Shi Yuan hurriedly turned his head.

Lu Tinghan stood behind him, expressionless. When he was expressionless, his facial lines were always a bit cold, daunting and unshakable, but now it was different, his expression was soft, with a smile in his eyes. The fine light fell through the huge glass above his head and fell on his shoulders.

In short, Shi Yuan’s purpose of letting him relax was achieved.

It was dusk when they finished watching the animals.

Between the livestock area and the planting area, there were roads, sentry boxes, robot maintenance centers, and rest stations, and not far from the rest station was a small grassy slope.

They went up the slope, sat on the soft grass, and looked around.

The wheat fields were a dull gold at sunset, the roofs of the breeding areas were turning a dark red, and the robots were still at work, their large or short bodies drawn into silhouettes.

“I like it here,” Shi Yuan said, still holding the little white flower.

Lu Tinghan: Hmm.

But perhaps it was the setting sun that was about to fall, the daylight was scrambling to escape. The thick blackness was engulfing the world, engulfing the lush wheat, and engulfing the lively animals.

Everything alive and well…

Inevitably, looked decadent again.

Shi Yuan looked at the flower in his hands and suddenly remembered what Xia Fang said that day.

Xia Fang took a half-dead rose and said, ‘it will wither, so its beauty is meaningless; we will all die soon, so our struggle is also meaningless’.

Shi Yuan thought again of the deep sorrow of the death knell, the weeping in the hospital, the narrowness of the shelter, and the panicked faces of the people. But all creatures will always die, whether it is due to accidents or natural aging, whether it is human beings, wheat, or those chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep.

For Shi Yuan, death was not terrible, it was nothing more than returning to the darkness and continuing to have a long dream.

As for the meaning of life? He never thought about it, and he couldn’t refute Xia Fang.

But he gradually realized that “living” is the most important thing for other creatures. Because death was a blank, a nothingness, a pair of hands that can no longer be held. In the years he could not see, cities were destroyed one after another, and human civilization fell apart, creating the present end of the world.

Shi Yuan told Lu Tinghan what Xia Fang said, and asked him: “If you die, will everything be meaningless?”

Lu Tinghan was silent for a while, and said: “When I was still studying, I went to a lecture with my friend.”

Shi Yuan listened attentively to him.

Lu Tinghan continued: “The lecturer was a philosophy professor and the topic was about moral standards in war, but what struck me was that after the lecture a student asked him, saying that so many deaths in war made him start to think, if everything has to die eventually, then is everything meaningless?”

“Ah, that’s the question I want to ask.” Shi Yuan opened his eyes wide.

“Well, you’re not the only one who has such questions.” Lu Tinghan patted his head. “The old professor then answered him that he thought it was biased to take a certain kind of dimension to measure the meaning of objects. Our world is three-dimensional, the three dimensions are length, width and height, creating everything we see. But no one knows exactly what the fourth dimension is, and different theories and hypotheses exist. In the ‘four-dimensional space-time’ hypothesis, the fourth dimension is time.”

Shi Yuan: “Oh…”

This was another new concept that he had never heard of.

“But what I want to talk about is not a serious physical theory.” Lu Tinghan asked, “Do you like the flower in your hand?”

“I like it,” Shi Yuan replied. “I like it very much.”

“Its size is limited, and its length, width, and height are fixed, but this does not prevent you from liking it, right? You don’t need it to expand in three-dimensional space and have an infinite volume to think it is beautiful enough.”

Lu Tinghan continued: “It’s the same on the axis of ‘time’. ‘Birth’ is the starting point and ‘death’ is the end point. The time of any life is fixed and limited, and it cannot occupy the entire time dimension. But as I said before, you don’t need an infinitely large flower, and similarly, you don’t need an infinitely long life. The beauty of a flower does not lie in its size, nor does the meaning of life lie in its length.”

He also said: “Besides, whether you perish or not is relative. Perhaps from the fourth dimension, there is no difference between the past and the future, and every point in time can travel freely. From this point of view, there will be no gap between the mayflies that are dying in the twilight or the lighthouse jellyfish that are almost immortal. Even if it’s a second or a microsecond, as long as it happens, it will always exist in time… Shi Yuan, look over there.”

Shi Yuan looked to the east.

The wheat was golden, the clouds were orange and red, and the wind rose from the end of the world and blew the fur of the animals, just as it did a thousand years ago. In this twilight they sat side by side, looking out, their eyes meeting in the far distance, and those huge machines running endlessly.

It was clear that the daylight was about to disappear, the clouds were dim, and the animals were sleeping… but a certain wonderful feeling still poured into Shi Yuan’s heart. It was a sense of immemoriality, that was carrying the weight and depth of time.

He knew that the scene in front of him had happened billions of times.

Lu Tinghan said: “At least, in this second, they are eternal.”

Shi Yuan stared at the scene in front of him intently.

“So, ‘being here’ is the most important thing,” he said.

Lu Tinghan said: “Shi Yuan, you have to know that there is no answer to this question. Everyone has different ideas, and their views on ‘meaning’ are even more diverse, and we cannot convince each other.” He paused. “I just said my opinion: well, I think ‘being here’ is the most important thing.”

“…I see.” Shi Yuan looked down at the flower in his hand. “Thank you for telling me.”

They watched the setting sun side by side.

The sheep in the livestock area were somehow frightened and began to bleat in unison. They startled the chickens and ducks not far away, and there was a flurry of chirping and noise. The wind began to blow again and the wheat started to dance.

Within a few seconds, they were alive again.

A lively world.

Shi Yuan suddenly asked: “Besides these, what other animals are there?”

Lu Tinghan: “There are many more, which one do you want to ask?”

Shi Yuan said, “Tell me everything, I want to know.” He tilted his head and thought for a while. “I’ve heard of a creature called a deer with horns on its head.”

Lu Tinghan: “Yes, they like woods and moss, they run very fast, some have white spots on their bodies, and some have palm-shaped antlers.”

“Wow, that must be very beautiful.” Shi Yuan thought for a while. “I’ve even heard of camels.”

“In the past, people would ride camels across the desert. Their humps could store water and their hooves were very wide. They were all designed to survive in dry areas.”

“What about the squirrel?”

“It’s a creature in coniferous forests that is small, has a furry tail, and eats seeds and nuts.”

“Hmm… an arctic fox?”

“This kind of fox lives in the polar tundra. Their fur is white and beautiful in the winter. They like to eat lemmings and berries.” Lu Tinghan thought for a while and added, “The polar regions are distributed at the two levels of the planet, with a large amount of ice, as well as polar nights and polar days—six months of night and another six months of the sun not setting.”

Shi Yuan asked about peacocks with beautiful tail feathers, sperm whales in the ocean, emerald hummingbirds, and brave and elegant cheetahs.

There are red crabs in the depths of the pond, eagles on the top of the sky, elephants like to apply wet mud to their bodies, salmon migrate thousands of kilometers to lay eggs… The plants are also strange, the sequoias are so thick that ten people can’t hold them together, and the bamboo rises several meters overnight. Whenever spring comes, there will be a burst of peach blossom rain on the high mountains, falling on the shoulders of pedestrians, and at the foot of the mountain is a boat of apricot blossom, leisurely riding the clear waves.

Lu Tinghan described them to him one by one.

When Shi Yuan could no longer think of any more species of animals and plants, the sun had already set, leaving the afterglow in the sky.

Shi Yuan sighed: “It’s amazing, there are so many creatures.”

Lu Tinghan: “Yes, this world is amazing, it would be even better if you could see it with you own eyes.”

“Will there be such a day?”

“Perhaps.”

“Do you want to see them too?”

“Hmm.”

“Shall we go together? To deserts, jungles, mountains, and polar regions…”

“Okay.”

Shi Yuan got the promise, leaning on Lu Tinghan, the tip of his tail waving happily.

He looked sideways at Lu Tinghan again, with bright eyes, as if expecting approval: “…There are so many wonderful things, but none of them are as cute as me.”

Lu Tinghan smiled and rubbed his head: “Well, they’re not as cute as you.”

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**TN

Lu Tinghan is so patient. <3