Chapter 13 tower

When Ige saw Luo Ying, he was taken aback. He stood in a virtual square that he had never seen before, not knowing where to go next. At this moment, he was surprised to see Luo Ying walking out of the gray gate on the side of the square, with a red skirt hanging on the stone wall. It looks very bright against the background. He doesn't know where this is.He came here because he found a hyperlink in one of his teacher's diaries. We are often here to express opinions, across distances, this is the best time. The teacher wrote so.He saw that the color of the word "here" was a little different from the surroundings, and when he put his hand on it, the world around him changed rapidly.He came here, but he didn't know where it was.

In front of him was an empty rectangular square, paved with huge dark gray stone slabs, surrounded by stone buildings with promenades, and solemn statues could be seen in the promenades.The square was empty, with a dry pool in the center.The surrounding buildings have sharp lines, solemn and gloomy, and there are pointed towers at the four corners, like gods looking down proudly.Standing in the middle of the square, people immediately feel isolated and small.At one end of the square is a slender exit, sandwiched between the steep buildings on the left and right sides, it looks bright and shiny.At the other end stands a towering church-like building, also in the Gothic style, with a narrow and long front, light vaults, locked doors, and buttresses like swords, reaching straight into the sky.At first he wanted to walk towards the church, but for some reason, he was more concerned about the exit on the other side.He looked back while walking, the light outside the exit seemed to be a strange attraction, the more he turned his back to it, the brighter it felt.Halfway there, he changed his mind and turned to the other side, toward the path that exited at the other end.

And at this moment, Luo Ying came out. He stopped suddenly.Luo Ying also stopped. The two faced each other, not knowing how to react for a while. In the end, it was Yige who moved first, and greeted her first with a nod. "Why are you here?" "Why are you here?" Ige thought about it, and felt that he should be more frank at this moment: "I connected from my teacher's space." "teacher?" "My teacher came to Mars before, eighteen years ago. He lived here for eight years. That's how I met his lover." "Eighteen years ago?" Luo Ying suddenly exclaimed in a low voice.

"Yeah." Ige replied, "It is said that it was the first time that people from Earth went to Mars after the war." Luo Ying didn't speak, but opened her eyes wide, bit her lips and looked at him, with surprise and a little bit of confusion written on her face. "What is this place?" he asked her. "I do not know either." "Then how did you get here?" "I came from my mother's space." She still opened her eyes wide, "My mother... also mentioned the word teacher." "Your mother? What's her name?" "Adele. Adele Sloan."

Yige frowned, he had never heard of this name.He thought for a while and asked, "Do you know Janet Bro?" "Of course I do." Luo Ying said, "She is my mother's best friend." "Really?" Yige blurted out, "She is the one who gave me permission to enter the space. She is my teacher's lover." That way it's pretty obvious.The teacher Luo Ying's mother mentioned was probably his teacher.He saw Luo Ying open her mouth in surprise, not knowing what the deeper connection was, so he asked cautiously: "Then which studio is your mother in?"

"At first, I was in the third hydropower laboratory," Luo Ying replied softly, as if she was also nervous because of this sudden discovery, "but I didn't register any studio in the last two years of my life." "Before she died? Did she die?" "Yes, my parents are both dead. My father worked in the first photoelectric studio before his death." "What?" Yige was stunned for a moment, "Your father is in the optoelectronic laboratory?" "Yes, it has always been before being punished." "What was punished?"

"Sent to mine on Deimos." "why?" "I do not know either." Yige became more and more nervous, and asked, "Then did they die because of this?" Luo Ying nodded: "Yes. A mine ship accident." Yi Ge stood there for a while, speechless for a long time.Luo Ying asked him what was wrong, and he didn't know what to say for a long time.The mind is full of chaos, and thoughts are like thousands of snowflakes.Luo Ying's father died.He is in the optoelectronic laboratory.He died as a punishment.The death of the teacher and the death of Luo Ying's parents intersected. He didn't know if there was an inevitable causal connection between them.Did a small chip bring such a sad ending?A deep and huge apology welled up in his heart. If it was the teacher's demands that caused Luo Ying's parents to be punished, then he really didn't know how to face this weak girl in front of him.She looked so slender, but she grew up alone in the shadow of death.He held back the throbbing in his heart, and briefly explained his original intention of coming to Mars and his discoveries these days.

"That's it." He finally said, "My teacher took away your most core database storage solution. His name is Arthur Davorsky." Luo Ying stood there in a daze, her big eyes unblinking, filled with strong vibrations, and after a long time she murmured: "Is that so?" Iggy nodded and said, "I don't know what to say. Maybe I should say sorry for my teacher. Just being sorry may not help." Luo Ying didn't respond at all, but looked dazed and sad: "Is that so..." "Are you OK?" She shook her head vigorously and said nothing, but her expression was very complicated. He didn't know if she was crying. The virtual space can convey human expressions and movements, but there is no liquid.He wanted to say a few words of comfort, but felt as powerless as he was with Janet.He stepped forward silently, holding Luo Ying's shoulder with one hand.I felt sore in my heart.

"Why is this..." Luo Ying murmured. Yeah, why.Yige felt an uncontrollable sadness in his heart.Why is the world so vast, but there is no room for a few like-minded friends. "Welcome, my friend!" At this moment, a loud voice suddenly sounded, and Yige and Luo Ying were startled. "Is this your first time, my friend?" They looked around and found that the sound came from the exit at one end of the square.Viewed from the direction of the church, the square is like a fish belly, the exit at the end is like a fish mouth, and a long corridor is on both sides of the exit, like criss-crossed teeth, and a sea of ​​white light shines in the distance outside the exit.The white light is narrow and dazzling, but people can never see the outline of any objects in it.From the side beside the white light, a white-haired old man came out from the corridor. He was tall, his voice was like a horn, his face was rosy, and his smile was bright.He greeted them with outstretched arms, broad and powerful.

"Grandpa Ronning!" Luo Ying cried out suddenly, looking very excited, and went forward to greet the old man.Iggy followed her too. The old man didn't seem to know Luo Ying. "Welcome, my friends," said the old man, "forgive me for not knowing you, I am only here for the second day, and I am not familiar with people. But don't worry, in a few days, I will know everyone. People, know everyone who comes, as long as you have been here, I will not forget." "Grandpa Langning?" Luo Ying was stunned. "I am the guard here. The gatekeeper of the tower. Call me the gatekeeper. Are you here to see the tower?"

"Tower?" Luo Ying murmured. "Of course, our tower. It is my duty to lead the way. I am willing to serve you." "Grandpa Langning, why are you here?" Luo Ying still asked stubbornly. "Why am I here?" The old man smiled, "Since I died, my memory has been here." Yige was startled, and blurted out, "You..." "Yes." The old man said with a hearty smile, "I'm dead. Don't ask me why I know I'm dead. I don't know why. You are talking to me, but you are not talking to me. I It’s my memory. My memory can’t understand, but it can answer fluently in my way. Although I’m dead, I can still protect myself for many, many years.” "Grandpa Langning, don't you know me? I'm Luo Ying." "Little girl, don't cry, don't cry, what sad thing happened?" Yige saw Luo Ying's eyes became more and more sad, but the old man still smiled kindly and couldn't recognize her.He looked at the old man.The old man's smile was surprisingly bright, his belly was round, his silver hair was unruffled, and his voice was as loud and thick as a French horn. Yige felt a bone-chilling coldness and respect in his heart.He didn't know how to face the speaking figure in front of him.He is talking to a soul that has been closed, witnessing the repose of the soul and the splendid integration of joy.He seemed to see a cold and silent body lying flat, the vitality completely dissipated, but the last wish flew out of the body, running in the circuit along with the memory.The electronic order in the circuit is cold, but the smile outside the circuit has an eternal temperature.He didn't know the old man, but he could feel Luo Ying's sadness.Electronic programs can evoke tender emotions, but cannot understand, cannot listen. "Thank you." Yige said to Ronning, "We rushed here rashly and didn't know the rules. Please forgive me." "It's okay, young man. Don't worry too much, there are no rules in front of the tower." The old man started to lead them forward, Yige looked at Luo Ying, she calmed down a little, and followed them lonely. "Would you like to hear something about the Tower?" Luo Ying just watched the old man not answer, so Yige nodded. "The tower is the ideal heart. It is the integration of broad language." "Broad language?" "Yes, broad language." The old man said calmly, his eyes meaningful, "every presentation is language. Perception, logic, painting, science, dreams, proverbs, political theory, passion, psychological analysis. All of these are It is the presentation of the world. All presentation is language. As long as we care about how the world looks, we will care about every language. Language is the mirror of the world." Language is a mirror of light. Yige suddenly remembered what the teacher said before he died.He took a deep breath, and his heart throbbed secretly, vaguely feeling that there was a secret connection between this moment and the moment of the teacher's death. He listens carefully.The old man continued to speak like a river. "...every language is a mirror, and each mirror reflects a particular arc. Every mirror is true, but every mirror is not real enough. Do you understand the debate between liberalism and collectivism? Reason and Irrational debate? Do you know on what scale each of them presents reality? What kind of unity are they different reflections? This is the claim about mirror images. It respects all mirror images, but does not worship Either way, it tries to shuttle between languages, and use the shadow in the mirror to construct the real appearance of the world." The shadow in the mirror.Iggy repeated in his mind.Language is a mirror of light. "Inferring the light source from the image?" he asked. "Yes. The premise is to believe: there is a real existence, and broken shadows can make up the real." Don't forget the light for the mirror.Iggy nodded. They walked slowly to the front of the long and narrow exit, and the ocean of white light was close at hand. The front part of the passage was still vaguely discernible, and the deep part could not be seen clearly.The white light was like a cloud of mist, with bright spots of light flashing faintly, sliding quickly, making the entire passageway show a vortex-like glow. The old man smiled, pointed at the white light in the passage with one hand, and stretched out three fingers in front of him with the other hand. "Every era has its crux. In the era I live in, the biggest crux is that things that cannot be shared prevent the sharing of things that can be shared. It is those things that need to be contested that restrict spiritual communication and freedom. The images reflected in the mirror are fragmented and cannot be compared and assembled with each other. People have long forgotten the world, but they have forgotten the reflected objects, and only remember the mirror image. People are conceited and restless, each holding fragments and isolated from each other. This That's why we need towers." The old man's voice fluctuated up and down, and the thick chest resonance brought out a chanting rhythm. The sentences seemed ordinary, but they fluctuated far and wide, and it sounded like a poem. "Let's go." The old man was still smiling, and patted Yige and Luo Ying's backs with his thick palms, the temperature seemed to be transmitted to Yige through the cable, "pass through this passage, and there is the tower. Go see the tower, it's up ahead." Yige looked at the white front, then at the old man: "Aren't you going there together?" Ronning smiled and waved his hands: "I won't go through. My guide will go here. Only here." Iggy looked forward, and walked forward.Luo Ying didn't follow, he looked back, she was still by the old man's side, and seemed to want to wake up the old man's memory.He sighed softly, returned to Luo Ying's side, and took her hand.Her fingers were soft and cold, and they twitched in his hand, but she didn't refuse.She followed him into the passage, occasionally looking back, but not stopping.The passage was shrouded in white light, but the ground was solid, and there was no feeling of stepping into the void.White light fills everything, and there is no end ahead.There are no pillars and statues on both sides, and the whole space seems to be divorced from reality, turning into an abstract tunnel of light. They walked slowly and deliberately.Suddenly, a sentence appeared in front of my eyes, clear, calm, and strong, like a ray of light, projected into my eyes, and then into my mind and heart.There is no time to do too much logical deduction, the sentence is shot into the heart like an imprint, the words are not fast, nor dazzling, but have a calm and sure power. Yige was overwhelmed by a kind of awe.More sentences are quickly revealed from all sides. Yige felt that he had walked into a tunnel that confused time and space.Sentences appeared alternately, lit up in white light, like paintings reflected on the wall, not compelling to look at, but hard to look away. They walked faster and faster, with more and more sentences.The names of people spanned two planets, three thousand years, and completely different fields.Some had heard of the name Iger, some had not.He watches, reads, feels, remembers.All the sentences are entwined with Ronning's words, with the teacher's words, and with each other, like countless ribbons of different textures and colors spiraling around each other.He was immersed in the sentence, melted into the passage of white light, lost his direction, lost his judgment of distance.Suddenly, when the exit came, a clear and open world came into view, and he woke up as if awakened from a dream. The scene in front of him seemed to have a sharp edge like a blade.He only remembered the last sentence before walking out: He looked ahead and stood dumbfounded.Luo Ying was also stunned.Both of them were silent, standing side by side with fixed eyes.There is a wilderness in the field of vision, and a huge cylindrical building is suspended in the middle of the wilderness.Wilderness is a familiar image of the planet's arid interior: endless, weed-scattered, gray and dry land, unobstructed views, and a sky full of low clouds, rich in layers and unpredictable.The scenery is not peculiar, and can be seen in many regions on the earth.The peculiar thing is the building in the sky.Yige couldn't look back from the moment he saw it.The cylinder is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, reaching the sky at the top and grounding at the bottom.It doesn't look solid, and the shape seems to be changing every moment. The wall of the tube seems to be made of clouds and mist, condensed together, and swirled and flowed.On the wall of the cylinder, there are passages extending in all directions, in various shapes, including mechanical arms, numbers, musical notes, and watercolor lines.All the passages converge into clouds and mist in the cylinder, extend in all directions outside the cylinder, rotate and disperse, and disappear into the air at the end, as if entering another world. Yige was stunned, staring at it for a long time, his heart became clear like the truth.As if a stream of cold water descended from the sky, all doubts were washed away by the current at that moment.He looked at the huge column hanging between the sky and the earth, looked at the clouds and passages that were orderly as a platter, and flowed back to their ancestors, and clearly read the five letters engraved on the body of Yunwu: Babel.Babel, the Tower of Languages.The spiritual tower that integrates all broad languages ​​and accommodates science, literature, art, politics and technology can only be Babel.It is the second time for mankind to build the Tower of Babel, and it is the second time to try its ambition to reach the sky.Language conversion and mutual communication.Babel starts with B. Yige stretched out his hands, raised them above his head, and raised them to the sky for a long time.He closed his eyes and shouted in his heart, there was no sound, but he heard a roar.Teacher, he shouted to the sky, is this where you want to bury yourself?Is this your dying wish?You want to stay here, stay behind the unity of human language, be a leader like Ronning, don't you?Teacher, is this your last wish?If yes, I will do my best to help you achieve it.He felt that there was wind blowing across his cheeks, and there was no wind or sand in the virtual space, but he was willing to believe that it was real.