Chapter 18 Rainey

This day is the 272nd day of the forty years of Mars, and it is also Rainey's 33rd birthday. Early this morning, Reni got up early as usual, started the dust collector to clean the hall and small hall, and stood in the reading room on the second floor looking out.This was his favorite place in the Archives after the Great Hall.It is facing the lawn behind, and it is peaceful and peaceful as far as the eye can see.He stood between two rows of tall shelves, facing the window, and could feel the dazzling sunlight above his head.He did not adjust the transparency of the glass.The morning light is very clear, and the carved columns are bathed in light.This kind of light makes him feel at ease, and he can feel that life still has brightness.

Coming to the Archives was Rainey's own choice.He has been writing history for many years, and he is very familiar with this place.Curator Rucker is someone he respects, he needs assistants when he is old, and Rainey needs peace of mind. The windows in the reference room are thin and long, the glass can slide up and down, and rare cloth curtains are hung on the window frames, which are rolled up high on the top, and the green tassels hang down, connecting with the square lawn downstairs.Because it is a birthday, many past events come to mind more easily than usual.He stood by the window longer than usual, memories flooding him.He looked out of the window in rapt attention, not noticing Luo Ying's arrival behind him.

"Doctor Rui Ni." Luo Ying called softly. Rui Ni turned her head and saw Luo Ying. She was wearing a black skirt and her skin looked very fair. "Why are you here?" He smiled slightly. "Happy birthday to you." Luo Ying also walked to the window and said softly. "Thank you. It's rare you remember." Rainey really appreciates it.He hasn't heard birthday wishes for a long time.Besides Luo Ying, he couldn't think of anyone else who would come to see him.The golf friends he met in various clubs always play with their children at home in their spare time, and would not come to see an old bachelor like him.He didn't like to organize parties, and he didn't have a place to entertain people, so he had celebrated his birthday alone for many years, treating this day as a day like every other day.It is a surprise that anyone can remember.

"How are you doing?" He asked Luo Ying. "Very good." Luo Ying smiled slightly. "What are you busy with?" "I'm busy with an important matter." Luo Ying paused as she spoke, smiled and didn't continue for a while, as if she was using procrastination to increase the sense of mystery, with a playful and slightly smug look on her face.She paused for a while before asking back: "Dr. Rennie, if you have the opportunity to return to the studio, do you think the hospital is better or the mechanical research lab?" Rui Ni froze for a moment: "Why do you ask this?"

"Because we're connecting you to studios, and now there's hope." "Help me get in touch?" "Yes. Last week we asked two hospitals in Galileo District and Watson District, and yesterday we also asked a detection team under the Land System to introduce your technology to them. They are all very interested in your research. It is possible to accept you." After hearing this, Renee felt a little embarrassed and didn't know how to respond. "Thank you," he said, "but I'm afraid that's unlikely." "why?" "Because my file is frozen and cannot be transferred."

"But when we went to talk to these studios, they seemed very interested. Your technology should bring them reputation and funding. If they agree to accept you, wouldn't it be fine?" Rainey shook his head. "It's not that simple. The file is frozen, and it's impossible to register to use their equipment without transferring it, and it's impossible to apply for funding. It's useless." "Then what if I ask Grandpa to lift the ban for you?" "It's been just over a month. As the governor, how can you go back on your word like this?" Rui Ni smiled gently at Luo Ying.

"So," Luo Ying seemed to have expected his answer, and still asked without giving up, "What if we launch a campaign to call for the abolition of such archives and studio systems?" "Huh?" Reni was really stunned at this moment. "We thought about it. Such a system is unreasonable. The archives lock people. If a person wants to change his studio, he needs the approval of the archives management. If the archives cannot be transferred, nothing can be done. In this way, the person in charge of the studio and the elders of the system have too much power, and no one has to listen to them. In addition, the funding of the laboratory often depends on whether it is a task in a large project, which makes everyone dependent on the superior , fight to be assigned jobs, and then create problems for the whole country, and the society starts to ossify, to lose its vitality, and technocracy rules over everyone."

Renian listened quietly, looking at Luo Ying's delicate face.She spoke slowly, earnestly and carefully, with a rather lovely look on her face because of her seriousness.She was a little different from when she just came back from the earth two months ago. At that time, she was more confused than determined, and her face seemed hesitant, but now she is much clearer, with a firm and subtle light shining in her eyes.She seemed to be thinner and whiter than when she first came back, probably due to her physical discomfort and lack of exposure to the sun, but the light in her eyes made her look very energetic.Her voice was slow and soft, earnestly speaking the words she was not familiar with fluently and naturally.Rainey didn't know where her theories were coming from, but he could see the amazing speed of learning in these children.

"Are you trying to change the system?" Rainey asked when she stopped. "Yes. Arguably yes." "But have you ever thought about it, any system has its reasons." "What reason do you mean?" "A reason for history. And a reason for natural limitations. If you want a fair distribution, there must always be limitations." "That's what we thought about. But we didn't feel like we could just ignore its flaws for those reasons." "No system can be perfect." "But the current system has serious flaws. It requires individuals to follow the system. Those who are not willing to follow cannot survive. It imprisons those who disobey, and even drives them to go crazy to death. The afternoon before yesterday, we saw a person jumping from a tall building. Jumped off and died."

Rui Ni's heart trembled: "Where is this happening? Why don't I know." "There is no report." Luo Ying said, "And you have seen this person. It is the mental patient who smashed the glass we saw on the roof of the hospital last time." "It's him?" "You know him?" "I know. I have known each other for a long time." "Really?" Luo Ying asked in surprise, "Then do you know what's going on? We went to inquire, but no one would say anything. We guessed that he must want to break through all the constraints imposed on him. Are you familiar with him?"

Reni didn't speak, and fell into a long thought.The news aroused in him an unexpected emptiness.Many years of ups and downs in the history of wars flooded into his mind, making him feel mixed in an instant, feeling that the changes and fate in the world are really hard to figure out.He really didn't expect this person to die.People's luck and misfortune are always unpredictable, even difficult to determine.Such things always have a great impact on people. In the face of death, it becomes very tasteless to fight or not to fight. He sighed silently, and said to Luo Ying: "Thank you very much, but you don't have to worry about me. I need your friendship, but that's all I need. I'm fine now, and I really don't want to fight anymore. " Luo Ying seemed a little puzzled and unwilling, hesitated for a moment, nodded, but still said: "Dr. Rui Ni, I respect your intention, but I still want to persuade you to reconsider, I know you are very calm, But indifference does not mean weakness, you are a good person, there are many things you should be able to get." Rini smiled. "Thank you. I'll think about it." Luo Ying lowered her head: "I just think that a good world should not deprive people like you of their rights." Rennie was suddenly moved.He did not expect such care.When he took the initiative to express to Hans that he was willing to bear their faults, he didn't think it was a favor, but he just felt that there was nothing wrong with the children wanting to go out to play, and it was not an appropriate ending for this punishment to affect them for the rest of their lives .At that time, his plan was simple, and he did not expect to receive such attention.He didn't know how to express it.It had been too long since he had expressed sensual emotion. He thought for a while, then asked Luo Ying: "What happened recently? Why did you suddenly become so radical?" "Do you think I'm radical?" Luo Ying asked back. "Just a little bit," Rainey said. "I just remembered you were questioning the revolution last month." "Yes." Luo Ying admitted, "but these days I start to care more and more about the meaning of action. I now feel that life always needs some action, otherwise there will be no direction. In a book you showed me at that time, There are a few sentences I've been mulling over lately that I love. 'Every one of us should live in history or against history. At the moment when a man is finally born, the age and the rage of his youth must be left behind.'I Hope to be able to do something, we're really lacking a purpose right now, it's the only thing we feel meaningful about." "That's good." Renee nodded affirmatively. Luo Ying looked at him and asked, "Dr. Rui Ni, in all fairness, don't you think the current system is too rigid and unfree?" Rui Ni did not answer directly, but asked her instead: "Do you still remember the distance between people on the earth that you told me? The strangeness, loneliness, and mutual distrust between people?" "Well, I remember." "Actually, there are only two systems in this world. Solids and fluids. Solids are characterized by a stable structure, each atom is fixed in its own position, and there are strong forces and bonds between atoms, while fluids are characterized by freedom. Come and go, independently of each other, there is no fixed connection between any small particles, and there is no force." "You mean..." Luo Ying thought for a while, "You can't have both freedom and emotion?" "Sometimes you can't have a lot of value at the same time." Rainey knew that Mars was a veritable crystal.The city is uniform and stable like a lattice. Each family has a house, and the buildings and gardens of each family are about the same size. The houses are arranged in strings, like a periodic necklace of grids.They almost never move, and the children grow up in their parents' house until they get married, claim their own house and settle in another location.There are two houses in a lifetime, and people are like growing in the soil.The community is the most important structure. It is the whole world in which a child grows up. All the people he sees with his eyes are the people who grow up with him, and they are the people he chooses as an adult who will accompany him all his life.The city expands year by year with the population, but the newly expanded residential area has a similar face that is completely equivalent to the old city.It is also a series of houses, which are also peaceful and equal. Although each house has a variety of shapes and patterns, they form a unified whole together.With a population of five million spread out evenly, the city appears to have no structural center.Because it is stable, it is fixed. "But didn't you say that there is a cloud? There is both connection and freedom." "Clouds..." Rainey nodded, "but that requires external light, and it's unsustainable." "I don't know." Luo Ying lowered her head and said, "I just think, if you are so indisputable, where is the direction of life? If you look away from everything, wouldn't there be a feeling of nothingness?" "Me?" Reni lowered his head and thought for a while, but did not answer directly, but pointed to the other end of the reading room. Rui Ni led Luo Ying through the stacked bookshelves.The dark red spines of old-fashioned books are neatly arranged, and the gold-plated titles give off an exotic atmosphere. The wood pulp paper has turned yellow due to long-term storage, like ancient people living in ancient time and space.The sunlight slanted into the room from one side, making the room appear unusually quiet. The star map rotated at an imperceptible speed on the roof, suggesting the elusive time.Reni seems to walk into the depths of reality through the virtual images that wrap life, and face the simple words stored in the memory inventory.They walked quietly without speaking, and the knocking of heels was the only sound in the room. Rainey went straight to a shelf labeled "Earth Classics," pointed to a book on the shelf, said, "This is the one you just mentioned," and carefully removed another from its place next to it. Booklet, he turned to a page he was familiar with and read out: "'...what interests me is what it takes to be a saint.' "'But you don't believe in God.' "'Yes. Can a man be a saint if he doesn't believe in God? That's the only concrete question I have today.' "'Maybe so. But, you know, I'm more of a loser than a saint. I don't think I'm interested in heroism or sainthood. I'm interested in being a real people.'" After he finished reading and closed the book, the wind and sand swept through his heart like every time before.He can see the black sea faced by the people in the book, as well as the vast and rough desert yellow sand of this planet.They were his directions, he had always known them.He could see the people rushing by on the land, condensed from the yellow sand and scattered into ashes, bustling to and fro, noisy and crowded, he walked among them, surrounded by their ecstasy and sorrow.He looked at their faces.In his mind, it doesn't matter what clothes they wear, what customs they follow, what system they do, what matters is whether they stop to face each other with their eyes, faces and bodies.It's something he's really interested in. "A real person?" Luo Ying murmured. "Yes." Rainey smiled, "That's what I want to do." "But what is a real man?" “Just someone who can come face to face with other people.” Luo Ying pondered the meaning of these words, she didn't ask any more, she concentrated on thinking, her pure black eyes were like two bays of deep spring water.She reached out to take the book in his hand, stroked the cover gently, and looked at it solemnly and carefully. "." She read out. "The plague," Rainey repeated, "is going nowhere." Luo Ying turned to the first page and read the first line: "...Use one life of imprisonment to describe another life of imprisonment, and use fictional stories to tell the truth, both are acceptable...." Rainey made no further explanations or clarifications.Luo Ying lowered her head to read by herself, her eyes fixed, and she bit her lip lightly. Renee knew that she couldn't read much in such a short time, and he couldn't explain much clearly, and he couldn't fully comprehend more truths of existence hidden in the depths of the universe.He silently thought about the meaning of actions Luo Ying said in his heart, and asked himself whether he was too inactive or avoiding actions. At some moments when he was hit by reality, he also asked himself this way, questioning whether his actions deviated from The true direction of life.Usually, he has a pessimistic view of action, and in the eternal depths, he thinks that the drift of a lonely boat is better than the gallantry of the tide.But at other moments, he would feel deeply guilty for the pain of watching in meditation. Luo Ying's question was right, and this was exactly the contradiction in his heart. Suddenly, a burst of music broke the silence of the two people and the bookshelf, and someone came to visit. "Ah." Luo Ying put down the book in her hand, "It's time!" "what?" Luo Ying looked around for the clock and sighed, "Time flies so fast." Rui Ni still didn't understand why, Luo Ying signaled him to come out with her. They walked through the corridor around the second floor, turned around the corner of the stairs with the statue of an angel, and went down the wide and fan-shaped steps until they came to the gate of the archives.Luo Ying stopped, took a breath, and smiled mysteriously at Rui Ni.Then she pressed the button to open the door by the wall, saw the thick brass-colored door slowly open along an arc, and stretched out her hand to signal the door. Rui Ni looked out along Luo Ying's hands, and was taken aback when he fixed his eyes.He saw a group of children smiling at him and waving happily while laughing. In front of them, his former sculptures were lined up like a majestic army.Listed in the middle is the male lion that he has been carving for nearly a year without finishing. Who knows who roughly finished the tail. Although it is not accurate and perfect, it also conforms to the overall body structure.The lion squats majestically and majestically in the center. Its khaki-yellow rough appearance bears the vicissitudes of a chief, and a military-like ribbon is hung on its body. Surrounded by many smaller statues around it, it looks like a merchant from a foreign country offering gifts. , the copper bell-like eyes seem to have a spirit.Rennie has never discovered that his sculptures can be so vivid.The statues, big and small, lined up neatly, with a velvet flag in the center, with a line of large italic characters sewn on it: Happy Birthday. There is no wind, but the ribbon seems to be fluttering. Luo Ying had already stood among the teenagers, and followed them shouting "Happy Birthday" one after another.Someone explained that they were afraid that Rennie could not move so many things by himself, so they brought all his works and tools here, so that he could have a recreation here.All kinds of voices mingled together, sparkling in the bright and blazing sun.There are two teenagers with cloth strips tied on their heads, holding shovels in their hands, singing and dancing.The other boy was like a general directing the lions and other animals to advance. Rui Ni didn't know what to say, nothing seemed to be able to express the feeling in his heart.He has not had such a warm memory for many years. He was moved by a long-lost vitality. ※※※ Rainey was born in an unusual year for Mars.Mars seven years.The year of the bifurcation.He is thirty-three years old this year, and whenever he looks back on the split thirty-three years ago, his heart will be full of embarrassment.He knew that among Hans' decades of choices, the seven-year split on Mars was one of the most reluctant choices. Mars has not always been a fixed world. The original creators just chose the database, and did not think of any kind of social face.Idealized people envision a world of pure freedom, discover new worlds at will, put results into the database at will, take the results of others at will, and obtain living expenses by themselves.However, during the rectification in the seventh year after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the doomed laws of the world pushed people to go to the other end, choosing a structure that was stable, organized, and gave priority to efficiency. Usually, as the design of an instrument becomes more and more perfect and the processing becomes more and more refined, the thermal movement in the system becomes the biggest source of noise and energy waste.The same is true for a society.The world that comes and goes at will sounds gratifying, but it will definitely cause a lot of social resource loss in actual production.So that year, the system crystallized in the city, the random movement of freedom was suppressed to a minimum, and the system began to be reintegrated by layers upon layers and department chains one by one, or in other words, the system was bureaucratized. Decisions that year were not subject to a referendum, but were voted on by all members of the House of Representatives.What kind of event triggers a referendum is a rather delicate matter, and that year's incumbent Governor Richard Sloan finally approved a vote by MPs only.Hans and his mates are MPs.They had a heated debate on this. Several good friends hardly liked to forcibly sacrifice freedom for efficiency. However, only Ronning and Garcia were firm on this, and Hans and Galman believed that the concept needed to compromise with reality.Hans and Galman voted in favor of the system proposal, while Ronning and Garcia voted against it.The voting was fierce that year, and the final results were even more or less the same.Theoretically speaking, members of parliament are made up of people who are most actively involved in the construction and decision-making of each system. These people are usually supporters in favor of system integration. It was thought that the reformists would win a big victory, but the final results were evenly matched.The bureaucracy has gained a slight advantage, and a circuit-shaped system with studios as the unit provides the greatest convenience for overall planning and management.No one can tell what part Hans and his companions played in the circumstances. Faced with such a situation, the differences in personality of all people are clearly put on the table, and different people finally make different choices in the world, whether to enter or go away, and the roads are thus different. Hans doesn't like systematization.He likes the way of integrating the previous free combination of teams and cross-field research, but he also understands that departmentalization and processization are the most reliable ways to improve efficiency no matter what era.He ultimately chose to favor systematization.He stayed in the system, concentrated on flying, and won the trust of his companions with his rich combat experience and investigations in remote areas. Ten years later, he was promoted to the chief of the flight system. Galman is full of designers of housing schemes. During the war years, the design results known to all Mars were known. After the reform, he did not quit the system, but entered the land system glass research room, carrying scientific research and political theory on his shoulders, and brought his research room to As the top laboratory on Mars, he himself later became the chief of the land system. But Ronning and Garcia did not accept the reality so calmly.Ronning doesn't like the highly targeted training of people in the new school. He will always be a miscellaneous scientist and can't find a precise position. Therefore, he quit all management and political work, and went back and forth between various small planets with a nominal idle job. Established a deep relationship with Gushen.Although Garcia didn't like the system's governance, he didn't completely withdraw from politics. He still persisted in the system for two years, thinking that he would learn to cooperate with bureaucrats in these two years.But he can't.He didn't want to live in the system and was squeezed out by others, so he offered to take on the task of establishing earth diplomacy that no one was willing to do at that time, and he went away from then on. These events later had results that were more or less unexpected by the parties involved.Hans became the governor of Mars, but the system's power setting aroused his son's opposition, so that he had to order punishment in the end.Ronning's roaming turned into eternal wandering in the end, and there was no corner to accommodate his lonely figure.The system presided over by Galeman needs Gushen, so he can only let Ronning live in the starry sky with the story.Garcia has always lived on Maeus and never returned to the ground.He opened a window for Mars, but brought Hans' son a sense of rebellion and ultimate death in the distance, and sent his granddaughter on a spiritual journey of lifelong wandering. The year was also decisive for Rainey.When Garcia finally knocked on the door of the earth and established diplomatic relations with the earth, the first request made by the earth was to release the prisoners of war.So Rainey's mother left.When she heard such good news that she dared not even think about, she was ecstatic. She put Reni, who was just three years old, on the ground, and embarked on a journey home that would never return. Whenever Rui Ni sorted out the materials, these past events, far or near, came into his heart, making him secretly sigh in his heart.He looked out of the window and sighed inwardly at the distant influence of one moment of the years and the other like branches of a river.The city unfolds fragile and crystal clear on the earth, and the figure of a person in the years turns into a silhouette with outstretched arms and a condensed expression. Step by step, he walks out of an unpredictable bifurcation of fate. ※※※ Rainey came out of the archives and stepped on the tunnel car leading to the Bethel Ida Image Archive. He looked at the archives in the car and asked himself if it was right to choose to stay here.He thought for a long time, but he was sure of himself.Sometimes Rainey feels that he is more familiar with people and things from the past, that those scenes and objects have always existed in his life.Those bluestone streets with dim street lights and rubbish, and the ancient London bridgeheads with tall bronze statues, although they exist on another planet, reflect each other with the small red round table in the corner of the archives, as if they are closer than the surrounding scenery.Those people were always there for him, convincing him that there was nothing wrong with silent and persistent thinking. He hasn't been to the Bethel Ida Image Gallery for a long time.For several years, he would go there twice a year.In the past few years, it has gradually faded away, alienated, and visited less, and the people who should be remembered have not been remembered so frequently.It's just that he still firmly remembers the bus route, and even if he changes the starting station, he is still familiar with the road.He communicated with him before going out, and now Janet should be quietly waiting for him in her studio. He didn't know where to start the first sentence when he met her, and he didn't know where to start the first sentence when they met every year.Janet was twelve years older than him, but some common people connected them together and became friends who forgot their age.They don't need to talk about these origins, because they are certain, so they never need to talk about them. Renee did not talk to Luo Ying. He was a student of Adele and studied sculpture with her in the community sculpture room for three and a half years.Those three and a half years were the most important three and a half years for him. Renee felt a little sad when she saw Janet.Since the young people from the earth brought the news of Arthur's death, she seemed to have aged several years overnight.A person's faith can always support a person's spirit, and a person's spirit can always support a person's years.Janet used to maintain her vitality for ten years, but now, her skin suddenly became loose, and there were lines at the corners of her mouth that could not disappear. She saw that he remained very close and friendly, though there was a tinge of sadness in that manner.She led him to sit down in her studio and made him a cup of tea.He was not polite or concealed, and after the greetings, he directly told Janet about their revolutionary plan described by Luo Ying. As Raney expected, Janet was silent for a while, and looked out the window at an empty place in the sky. "Ten years." Rainey sighed. "Well. Ten years," Janet said. "Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing history." "..." "That passion and integrity, very similar." Janet withdrew her eyes, lowered her head, drank the tea in her teacup, then raised her head and stared at Reni sadly, and sighed a long time: "If you think you have seen history, then you What about me?"