Chapter 17: 17

Chapter 17: The Disappearing Northern Lights

 

 

As for the second hypothesis... the hypothesis suggests that due to some coincidental reasons, a large amount of heavy elements gathered in the core of the sun, reducing its radiation power, and due to being in an extreme environment, heavy elements and light elements collided and participated in fusion together, as well as some unknown reasons, resulting in a more intense fusion reaction in the sun's core, putting the sun in a dangerous balance phase, in which the sun neither shrank in volume due to the internal radiation pressure decreasing, nor expanded in volume due to uncontrolled nuclear fusion, but merely the temperature dropped...

"This is absurd," Zhao Huasheng shook his head, "This is impossible. With the mass of the sun, the temperature and pressure of the sun's core cannot reach such a high level to let heavy elements participate in fusion."

Within the research department, many people opposed these two hypotheses, but at the moment... we have no clue. There was no hypothesis that stood up to scrutiny. Even though these two hypotheses were extremely absurd, the research department still decided to send out relevant forces to verify these two hypotheses. This is definitely better than us being like headless flies." Meng Zhuo said, "The truth is... faced with this strange change that is far beyond our technological level, we can only try to not leave out any ideas that might lead to a breakthrough. No matter how absurd the idea, we have to try and verify it."

"That's why I'm being taken so seriously." Zhao Huasheng smiled bitterly.

"Yes." Meng Zhuo nodded, "That's why the leader said that the fate of the Earth people is largely in your hands."

Zhao Huasheng nodded and fell into silence again.

Outside the window was the same scenery of snow, cold wind, and a gloomy sky. Even in the hermetically sealed cockpit, Zhao Huasheng could feel the bitter chill of the outside world, even enough to make the polar bear tremble in its renowned cold tolerance.

Li Wei also stared at the scenery outside the window, her thoughts seemed to have drifted far away.

"Any progress from the psychology experts group?" Zhao Huasheng asked. 

"Not much," Meng Zhuo said. "Through analyzing Li Qi's psychology and the traces he left behind, the psychology expert group judged that Li Qi had noticed you a long time ago. He had accessed your information and personally intervened in your work arrangement. It's very unusual, considering that you were just an intern at the time and Li Qi was the director of the entire Stellar Physics Research Institute."

Upon hearing the name "Li Qi," Li Wei snapped out of her daydream. 

"Yes, I can confirm this," Li Wei said. "My brother has mentioned you at least ten times in front of me. And ordinarily, he would never tell me about work-related matters."

"It is a pity that even the team of psychologists cannot determine why Li Qi paid so much attention to you. Otherwise, the mystery Li Qi left us would be much easier to solve," Meng Zhuo said.

Zhao Huasheng forced a smile. "I can't even guess what qualities of mine would have been worth Li Qi's attention. After all, I was only an intern at the time, and there was no reason for him to pay attention to me. Speaking of which, can the team of psychologists determine when Li Qi started paying attention to me? If I knew the exact time, I might be able to make some guesses."

Approximately two years ago, it was around this time that Li Qi started to change, becoming "not like himself". It's not clear whether Li Qi noticed you before the change occurred, or if the change occurred first before he noticed you. Hmm, there is one event that has a precise time stamp - it's recorded within the education system. One year, ten months and nine days before, Li Qi's supervisor pulled up your academic record from the education system. Probably due to a lack of authority, the record retrieval was not deleted.

"One year, ten months and nine days before..." Zhao Hua fell into a reverie.

On September 5th, 13th year, at 10:08 pm, Montz added, "Through recovery of surveillance data from the research institute, as well as restoring your computer, phone records, and surveillance records around your residence, the psychological experts group confirmed that it was just an ordinary day for you. You left home at 8 a.m. for work, had lunch at 12:21, then took a nap at the table. You returned home at 6:13 p.m., cooked dinner by yourself, played video games for an hour and thirty-nine minutes, browsed several websites, then went to bed. There was nothing noteworthy in that day." 

"The psychological experts group is searching for records related to you from before the time. Of course, because the time has passed for too long, the retrieved records cannot be too complete. If this time point can make you recall something, that would be even better." Montz said.

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Zhao Huasheng thought for a while and shook his head, "Give me all the records about me that you have collected. Starting from the earliest time I may have known Li Qi to the time when Li Qi requested my file records."

"Okay," Meng Zhuo said lightly, "This is the data currently collected, and the rest of the data the psychological experts are still collecting. This time period is up to one year, and there will be a lot of data. You can take your time to look through it and recall it slowly."

Zhao Huasheng nodded silently and took the notebook from Meng Zhuo. Looking at the lines of text, audio and video records, Zhao Huasheng was immersed in a long period of recollection until the helicopter started to descend.

Zhao Hua Sheng picked up his notebook, put on his special cold-weather clothing, and stepped out of the cabin. Not far away from the helicopter landing spot was a small settlement made up of dozens of low, flat buildings, and several workers dressed in thick cold-weather clothing were waiting there.

The North Pole Changshan Station was built on an ice sheet near the North Pole. Due to its proximity to the North Pole, it was frozen all year round and the climate was cold. The lowest temperature on Earth recently measured was taken by the workers at Changshan Station.

The solid ice sheet was no different from the land. Although there was no land here, the ice sheet was more than 30 meters thick and as tough as land. There was snow on the ice sheet, and under the cold wind, the snow was rolled up, making the whole sky look a bit gray. Even with a thick hat on, Zhao Hua Sheng could still hear the sound of the cold wind.

It was midnight, although it was already night, the sun still hung at the horizon, refusing to set. There was no difference between having the sun or not; its little heat couldn't bring any change to the place.

Standing on the ice cap of the North Pole, Zhao Huasheng was overwhelmed by the winds, snow and the pale whiteness, a primordial and cold feeling filled his chest. Along with this feeling was the sense of powerlessness of a tiny human being in face of the nature.

"The weather is getting colder and colder."A worker who had come to greet them sighed and received the supply box from the medical and safety team, asking "Are we going to take these guys away when we evacuate?"

Meng Zhuo nodded: "Yes. We also accepted the task of helping you capture specimens of polar bears, wolves, arctic foxes, and reindeers."

"I don't get it, why retreat and also capture those animals?" The worker complained, then turned around and waved at the back, "What are you waiting for? Come help move things!"

With everyone's help, the supplies were quickly moved from the helicopter to the living area. The helicopter was properly placed to prevent it from freezing, and Zhao Huasheng, Meng Zhuo, Li Wei and others went into the specially insulated house.

Zhao Huasheng took off his thick coat and sat in front of the window desk, looking out of the window in a daze. After a long time, Zhao Huasheng took out the materials that were given to him by Meng Zhuo and looked at them carefully. When it was twelve o'clock at night, the sun still hung on the horizon, but Zhao Huasheng felt a fatigue spreading from the depths of his heart. Zhao Huasheng rubbed his forehead, pulled down the curtains and then lay down on the bed. "I always wanted to come to the Arctic to see the Northern Lights. Now I'm really here in the Arctic, but there is no Northern Lights." Zhao Huasheng sighed in his heart. The special double-glazed structure not only insulated the coldness from the outside world, but also retained excellent light transmission performance.

The occurrence of the aurora is due to the collision of high-energy charged particle streams from the sun with the Earth's magnetic field. With the sun's radiation level reduced so much, the aurora is naturally no longer visible.

This could be counted as the first thing lost on Earth due to the sun getting colder. But Zhao Huasheng did not feel too sad or lost, because Zhao Huasheng knew that in the near future, the Earth would lose more than anyone could imagine, beyond the limit of everyone's endurance.

Under this slightly anxious mood, listening to the whistling cold wind outside the window, accompanied by this somewhat pale world, Zhao Huasheng entered the first dreamland after coming to the Arctic.

When he woke up, the sun was still hanging on the horizon without setting. After having breakfast with the staff of Changshan Station and tidying himself up, Zhao Huasheng put on his thick cold-weather clothing again and left the base with Li Wei, Meng Zhuo and other people, as well as the staff of Changshan Station.

"Our task today is to capture at least three polar bears, and it would be even better if we could also capture two reindeers on our way," said the staff.

 

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