Chapter 15 Chapter 15 Heart Wall

For the first time, Bailey found that he didn't care about air travel in a flying vehicle.He really didn't care at all, and actually felt like a fish in water. He didn't even think about Earth or Jessie, he had only been away from Earth for a few weeks, but it felt like years; How can a person adapt to nightmares so quickly? Is it because of Gnadia?He will see her soon.This time I met her in person, not through video.Is this what gave him confidence?Did it give him a weird mixture of fear and anticipation? Can she bear this way of meeting?he thinks.Will she be asking to end the conversation soon after talking to him like Kuimat?

Bailey walked into a long room, and Gnadia was waiting at the other end.Her dress is extremely simple, and her whole person is like a sketch portrait. She has two reddish lips, thin black eyebrows, and light blue earlobes.Her face was pale, showing a hint of fear, and she looked very young. Her sand-blonde hair was combed back neatly, her gray-blue pupils showed a shy expression, and she was wearing a dark blue dress that was almost black, with narrow and winding white lace on both sides.Her arms were hidden in long sleeves, she also wore a pair of white gloves, and a pair of flat shoes on her feet.Except for that face, she didn't show an inch of skin.There was also a frill tightly wrapped around her neck.

Bailey stopped in his tracks: "Is this distance okay, Gnadia?" Her breath is a little short: "I've forgotten what it's like to be told what it's like to meet people. It's like meeting by video, isn't it? I mean, as long as you don't think of it as actually meeting. " "It's a normal thing for me," Bailey said. "On Earth, yes." She closed her eyes, "Sometimes I try to imagine that I'm walking on the road, surrounded by people People, some walked side by side with me, and some came face to face.Dozens of people—”

"Hundreds of people," Bailey said. "Have you ever seen Earth in a film book? Ever read a novel set in Earth?" "There are not many such books, but I have read some novels with the background of other worlds, and the characters in the books have always maintained the habit of seeing people. The scenes described in the novel are different from our lives, as if they are based on multiple images. meet." "Do the characters in those novels kiss?" Gnadia blushed slightly: "I don't read that kind of novel." "Never read?" "Er—you know, of course there are those dirty film books, I sometimes just because of curiosity—but it's really disgusting."

"yes?" She said suddenly excitedly: "But Earth is different. There are so many people out there, Ilya, I guess you'll even bump into— bump into people when you're walking down the road. I mean, bump into people by accident." .” Bailey wanted to laugh a little. "You still accidentally knock people over." He thought of people jostling and jumping up and down the highway, and for a moment he couldn't help feeling homesick. "You don't have to stand that far," Gnadia said. "Can I come a little closer?" "I suppose so. I'll tell you when you get too close."

Bale walked towards her step by step, Gnadia looked at Bale with wide eyes. Suddenly, Gnadia said, "Do you want to see my force field painting?" At this moment, Bailey was about two meters away from her.He stopped and looked at her.Gnadia in front of her eyes seemed petite and fragile.He tried to imagine her holding something (what?) in her hand and angrily hitting her husband on the head.He tried to imagine her as a woman driven mad by rage, a woman who killed to vent her hatred. He had to admit that it was possible.Even a fifty-kilogram woman could easily smash a man's head with the proper weapon in hand.Bailey had seen many female murderers (on Earth, of course) who were like little white rabbits when they were quiet.

He asked, "Gnadia, what is force field painting?" "An art," she said. Bailey remembered that Libby had mentioned Gnadia's artistic work to him.He nodded: "I would like to see it very much." "follow me." Bailey carefully kept a distance of two meters from her, which was less than half of the distance that Clorisa asked him. They entered a brightly lit room.Every corner of the room is illuminated with bright and colorful lights. The owner of the room, Gnadia, looked very happy.She looked at Bailey expectantly. Baley didn't speak, but his reaction must have been what she expected.He turned slowly, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.These things are not solid, just patches of light.

These light blocks fall on the pedestals around the room, and are composed of vivid geometric figures, lines, and colored arcs. They each maintain their own shape and do not coagulate with each other.Also, none of these light blocks are duplicated. Bailey struggled to find the right words to express his opinion.He said, "Does that make any sense?" Gnadia laughed, her voice was deep and sweet: "What do you think it means, it means what it means. They are just some color maps. When you see them, maybe you will feel angry, happy or curious, Even know how I feel when I'm making them. I can make a light map for you, kind of like a portrait. It might not be very good though because it's improvised."

"You'll do it for me? It must be fun." "Okay." As she replied, she walked quickly to a light map in the corner.Gnadia was only a few centimeters from Bale when she passed, but she didn't seem to notice it. She touched something unknown on the light map pedestal, and the light map didn't even flicker, and disappeared in an instant. Bei Lai gasped: "Don't cancel!" "It's okay, I'm tired of seeing it anyway. I'm going to temporarily reduce the other light patterns to avoid distraction." She lifted a cover plate on a blank wall, moved the rheostat, and the color of the light pattern faded almost out of sight.

"Aren't there robots doing this job of cutting off the lightmap for you?" Bailey asked. "Don't talk," she said impatiently, "I don't use a robot here, this room represents me." She looked at Bailey, frowning, "I don't know you well, and that's the problem." She didn't look at the pedestal, just rested her hands lightly on its smooth surface.She crooked ten fingers and waited nervously. She moved a finger, and a half curve was drawn on the pedestal, and the dark yellow light stick lit up, slanting across the sky above the pedestal.Her fingers moved back a little, and the chromaticity of the light bar weakened a little.

She looked at it: "I think that's it, a weightless weight." "Jesus!" Bailey said. "Did I offend you?" She raised her finger, and the light stick was hanging there slantingly and quietly. "No, not at all. But what is it? How do you do it?" "It's hard to explain," said Gnadia thoughtfully, looking at the pedestal, "because I don't really understand it myself. I've been told it's an illusion of light and shadow. Force fields are set up on the energy level of the level. These force fields are actually a kind of extracted hyperspace, which does not have the attributes of ordinary space. On different energy levels, the naked eye will see light of different chromaticity. Light diagram The shape and color of the pedestal are controlled by the temperature of my fingers touching the appropriate position on the pedestal. Each pedestal has a variety of control positions.” "You mean, if I put my finger there—" Bailey stepped forward, hesitantly put his finger on the pedestal, there was a soft beating feeling. Gnadia stepped aside: "Move! Move your fingers, Ilya!" Bailey moved his finger, and a dark gray zigzag light block protruded, tilting the yellow light stick.Bailey quickly withdrew her hand, and Gnadia laughed, but then regretted it. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed," she said. "It's not easy, even after a long practice." , Gnadia has already made the strange thing out of him disappear, leaving only the yellow stick of light. "How did you learn that?" Bailey asked. "Just keep trying. It's a new art, you know, and only one or two people really know how to do it—" "And you are the best," Bailey said a little displeased. "In your Solari world, everyone is either the only one or the best one, or both the only and the best." "You don't have to laugh. I have exhibited some works, and I have held exhibitions." Her chin was raised high, and she looked very proud.She continued, "Let me continue with your portrait." Her fingers moved again.Under her operation, some light curves appeared on the pedestal.The dominant color of this light map is blue, and it's all made up of sharp corners. "This is the earth," Gnadia bit her lower lip and said thoughtfully, "I imagine the earth as blue, where people on earth meet people, people, and people; Rose tones. What do you think?" "God, I can't think of concrete things as colors." "You can't help it?" she asked absent-mindedly, "You often say 'oh my god', that's a little bit of purple. Because it always comes out with a 'snap', it's just a little pointy purple, just Like this." A pointy purple light appeared in the center of the light map. "Then," she said, "this work is complete." A dark earth-gray hollow square jumped out, completely enveloping the original appearance of the light map.Although the light in the cube could shine through, it became rather dim, as if it had been imprisoned. Looking at this picture of light, Bai Lai felt a slight sadness in his heart, as if he was surrounded and unable to touch something he wanted.He asked, "What's that hollow square at the end?" Gnadia said, "It's the walls around you. That's the biggest feeling you have. It's the feeling that you can't get out, you have to stay inside. Can't you see it?" Bailey saw it, but he didn't take it seriously: "This wall doesn't exist forever, like I came out today." "Really? Then do you care?" Bailey couldn't help but fight back: "It's like you care about meeting me. You don't like it, but you can bear it." She looked at him thoughtfully: "do you want to go out now? Go for a walk with me? " Now, Bailey thought, he was going to say: God, no! Gnadia lobbied him: "I've never walked with someone without seeing them, and it's still daytime and the weather is fine." "If I went, would you remove that gray border?" Bailey said, looking at the abstract portrait. She smiled sweetly: "That depends on your performance!" When they left the room, the light map was still there, and Bale's soul was locked tightly in the gray city as if imprisoned. Bailey shuddered a little.His body felt a little cool when it came into contact with the rushing air. "Are you cold?" Gnadia asked him. "I didn't feel that way before," Bale murmured. "It's getting late, but it's not really cold. Would you like an extra coat? The robot will get it soon." "No, it's all right." As they walked along a gravel path, Bailey asked. "Is this where you used to walk with Dr. Libby?" "Oh, no. We're going for a walk in the fields a little farther away. There, you can occasionally see the robots at work and hear the animals. But let's take a walk around the house, just in case." .” "What if?" "In case you want to go into the house." "Or just in case you get tired of meeting me?" "It doesn't bother me," she said lightly. There was a faint rustling of leaves above their heads, and everything they could see was yellow and green.There was a faint cry in the air, followed by a sharp whistling sound, and shadows moved here and there. Bailey has a particular feel for these shades.A shadow suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. The shape looked like a person. As soon as he moved, the shadow moved with him, which made him feel terrible.Of course, Bailey had heard of shadows, and he knew what shadows were.But the city was full of indirect lights, and he had never seen a real shadow. Bale knew that behind him was the sun of Solari's world.He was careful not to look at it, but he knew it was there. The vast space, the lonely space, he felt that the space seemed to suck him in.Bailey thought that he was walking on the surface of a planet whose surroundings were thousands of miles away and whose space was tens of thousands of light-years wide. Why did he obsessively think about this loneliness?He doesn't want to be lonely.All he wants is the earth, warmth, and the company of a city full of people. This kind of imagination did not make him any more comfortable, and he tried to imagine the scene in New York again, imagining the noisy and overcrowded New York.But all he was aware of was the quiet, cold surface of Solari's world, he found himself conscious of. Bai Lai unconsciously approached Gnadia, and didn't notice the astonishment on her face until she was less than one meter away. "I'm sorry." He immediately apologized and backed away immediately. She took a breath. "It's okay. Shall we go this way? Maybe you want to see the flower garden?" The direction she was pointing was facing away from the sun.Bailey followed her silently. Gnadia said: "In a few days, the weather will be fine. I can go to the lake to swim in mild weather, or run as hard as I can in the fields, and then fall happily on the ground, Lie still." She looked down at herself, "but I can't do that in the way I'm dressed. With all this on, I can only walk. You know, I can only walk demurely. .” "How do you prefer to dress?" Bailey asked her. "Best and shorts at most," she cried, throwing her arms up, as if feeling the freedom she imagined. "Sometimes I'll wear less, maybe just a pair of sandals, letting every inch of my body The skin is in contact with the air - oh, sorry, I offended you." Bailey said, "No, it's all right. What were you wearing for your walk with Dr. Libby?" "All kinds of clothes, depending on the weather. Sometimes I wear very little, but, you know, it's just a video with him. I really hope you understand." "I understand. What about Dr. Libby? Does he wear very little, too?" "Jordan wears very little?" Gnadia smiled. "Oh, no. He's always very serious." She twisted her face, pretending to be serious, with her eyelids half-drooped, The sunken cheeks showed all the features of Libby's appearance.Bailey couldn't help but secretly applaud her ability to imitate. "The way he talks," she said, "my dear Gnadia, about the first-order potential's effect on positive currents—" "That's all he talked to you about? About robotics?" "Something like that. Oh, you know, he's serious about this stuff. He's always trying to teach me robotics, and he never gives up." "What did you learn?" "I didn't learn anything. For me, this kind of thing is just too complicated. Sometimes he will be very angry. Every time he gets angry and scolds me, if we happen to be by the lake, I will jump in In the lake, splash him with water." "Splash him with water? I thought you were just meeting by video!" Gnadia laughed loudly: "Oh! You are truly a man of the earth! When I splashed water on him, he was either in his room or on his property. The water would not splash on him at all, But he's going to hide and hide—you see!" Bailey looked up.Now they had skirted a wood and came to an open space.There are some small brick walls separating a decorative pool.All kinds of flowers are neatly planted in the open space.Bailey had read the film books and knew that these plants were called flowers. These flowers are a bit like Gnadia's light map, Bailey thought, maybe she was influenced by flowers to create the light map.He touched the flower carefully.Looking around, you can see red and yellow flowers as far as you can see. Bale turned his head and looked around, catching a glimpse of the sun out of the corner of his eye. He said anxiously: "The sun is going down soon." "It's afternoon now," cried Gnadia, running to the pool and sitting on a stone bench beside it, "come here," she beckoned to him, "if you don't like sitting on rocks, You can stand." Bailey walked over slowly: "Is it so low every day?" As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he immediately regretted it.If the planet is turning, the sun must be low in the sky in the morning and afternoon, and high overhead only at noon. Even though he told himself so, he still couldn't change his impression of the sun in this life.He knows the existence of the night, he can feel that the sun is on the other side of the earth at night, and there is a thick earth between him and the sun, which can protect him.He also knew about clouds, and about a kind of grayness that shuts off the endless, ugly, and horrible landscape outside.But as long as he thought of the surface of the planet, what would always appear in his mind was the sun hanging high and the earth dazzling with light. He turned his head and glanced at the sun quickly. "If I decide to escape the outdoors, how far away from the house?" he thought. Gnadia pointed to the other end of the stone chair. Bailey said, "Isn't this too close to you?" She spread her hands: "I've gradually gotten used to it, really." Baley sat facing her, out of the sun. Gnadia leaned back against the pool and picked a cup-shaped flower.The flower is yellow on the outside with white stripes inside, not bright at all."It's native plants. Most of the flowers here are from the earth," she said. Carefully, she handed the flower to Bale, dripping from the freshly broken stalk. Bailey also stretched out his hand cautiously: "You killed it." "It's just one flower, and there are thousands of them here," she said.Bailey was about to bring the flower over, but Gnadia suddenly pulled it back and stared at him: "Are you implying that since I can kill a flower, I can kill a person?" Belle reassured her softly: "I didn't hint at anything. Can I have a look at this flower?" In fact, Belle didn't really want to touch the flower.It is a flower that grows in wetlands and has an earthy smell.These Solaris are really puzzling, they are so careful when they come into contact with the earthlings and even each other, why they don't care so much when they come into contact with the dirty soil? Bailey looked at the flower between forefinger and thumb.The flower's petals resemble a negative-thin tissue, each bent upward from a common base to form a flower cup.There is a protruding white thing in the center of the flower, which is wet and has thin black hairs.As soon as the wind blows, these black hairs will shake. Gnadia asked him, "Do you smell the flowers?" Bailey really smelled the fragrance of the flowers.He leaned closer to the flower: "It smells like a woman's perfume." Gnadia clapped her hands happily: "It's really like an earthling! You mean, women's perfume smells like this?" Bailey nodded ruefully.He was growing weary of the outdoors.The shadows grew longer and the ground darker, but he still decided not to show weakness.He wanted to eliminate the gray patches that dulled his portrait lightmaps.He knows it's a little tricky The courage of every man, but he must be so. Gnadia took the flowers from his hand.Bailey let go happily.She slowly tore off the petals: "I think every woman has a different taste." "It depends on what kind of perfume she's wearing," said Bailey, less enthusiastically. "Think about it, people can get so close and smell each other's body odor... I don't wear perfume, because no one can get close to me, except now. I guess, you must always smell perfume .On Earth, your wife is always with you, isn't she?" She tore the petals, piece by piece, intently. "She wasn't with me all the time," Bailey said. "We weren't together every second of the day." "But you are together most of the time, and as long as you want" Bailey interrupted her. "Why do you think Dr. Libby bothered teaching you robotics?" That torn flower is now only the stalk and the heart.Gnadia turned the flower around, and finally threw it away.The flower stalks floated in the pool for a while and then sank. "I think he wants me to be his assistant," she said. "Did he ever tell you that, Gnadia?" "Only at the end, Ilya. I think he's getting impatient with me. Anyway, he asked me if I'd be interested in a career in robotics. Of course I replied that I thought it was the most boring job. The result he is very angry." "And he never wants to walk with you again?" "Probably, that's probably why. I think I hurt his feelings, but what can I do?" "So you told him about your quarrel with Dr. Dahlmann before?" Gnadia's hands were clenched into fists, and her body became stiff. Her head was slightly tilted to one side, and she raised her voice unnaturally: "What quarrel?" "You fight with your husband. I know you hate him." Her face was contorted, turning red and white at times.She glared at him angrily. "Who told you? Jordan?" "Dr. Libby mentioned this to me, and I think he's telling the truth." Gnadia was taken aback. "You still want to prove that I killed him. I've always considered you a friend, but you're just—a detective." She raised her fist, and Bailey waited. "You know, you can't touch mine," he reminded her. Gnadia dropped her hands, sobbed silently, then turned her head away. Bailey bowed his head and closed his eyes, shutting out the long shadows that made him flustered. "Dr. Dahlman is not a very warm man, is he?" he asked. She choked up and said, "He's always been so busy." Bailey said, "But you're a very emotional person. You find men interesting, don't you? You know what I mean?" "I—I can't help it. I know it's disgusting, but I can't help it. It's disgusting to even talk about." "But you mentioned it to Dr. Libby?" "I've got to do something, Jordan is close to me again and doesn't seem to mind, it makes me feel better to talk to him." "Is this why you and your husband are fighting? Because he is cold and unenthusiastic, so you are angry?" "I do hate him sometimes," Gnadia shrugged resignedly. "He's just a good Solari, and we're not assigned to have——child—" She broke off. . Bailey waited for her to finish.He felt cold in his belly, the outside air pressing against him.After Gnadia's sobbing gradually subsided, he asked as softly as possible: "Did you kill him, Gnadia?" "No—yes!" she said.Then, as if all the resistance in her heart had been polished away, she suddenly said, "I didn't tell you the whole story." "Then please tell me now." "We were fighting when he died, it was always about that. I screamed at him and he didn't talk back, he hardly said anything, but it made it worse. I was so angry , I’m so angry, I don’t remember what happened next.” "God!" Bailey's body shook slightly, and he quickly looked at the stone chair that made him feel reliable, "What do you mean you don't remember?" "I mean he's dead. I kept screaming and the robot came—" "You killed him?" "I don't remember, Ilya. If I kill him, I will, don't I? But I don't remember anything, and I'm so scared, so scared. Help me, Ilya." "Don't worry, Gnadia, I will help you." Bailey was a little dizzy, and he thought of the murder weapon.Where did the murder weapon go?It must have been taken away.If so, only the murderer would take the murder weapon.Gnadia was found at the scene immediately after the incident, so it was impossible for her to take the murder weapon.Then the murderer must be someone else.No matter what the Solari thought, the murderer must be someone else. Bailey thought wretchedly: I must go back to the house. He said: "Gnadia—" Somehow, Bale stared at the sun.Now that the sun was almost down on the horizon, he had to turn his head to see it.Bailey stared at the sun with an almost morbid fascination, a sight he had never seen before.The round sun was glowing red, but the sunlight was not as strong as before, so he didn't feel dazzled.He saw bloodshot clouds above the sun, and a long streak of cloud across the sun like a black stick. Bailey said vaguely, "The sun is so red." He heard Gnadia say in a choked voice: "Every evening, the sun is always so red." A vision formed in Bailey's mind.The sun falls below the horizon because the planet rotates under the sun at a speed of thousands of kilometers per hour, and part of the planet's surface turns away from the sun.The microbes called humans on the surface of the planet are spinning running around the planet.The planet is spinning wildly... It was his head that was really spinning.The stone chair tilted downward, the sky flung upward; a blue, indigo blurred his vision, and the sun disappeared.The mud and the treetops were shaking, Gnadia's faint scream could be heard faintly, besides, there was another voice...