Chapter 44 second quarter

His dream was very strange: he fell on his back on all fours, but he couldn't touch the bottom no matter what.He also dreamed that Toshio Nakamura was interrogating him in a small room with white walls with two fierce Orientals. When Richard woke up, he couldn't remember where he was.His first instinct was to move his right cheek away from the cool metal surface.After a while, he remembered that he fell asleep standing up in Ai Yunniao's residential area.He turned on the flashlight, and was surprised to see that the fog below had completely dissipated, and the wall stretched downwards, and the bottom seemed to be water.

He looked up and looked up, and estimated that there were still 250 meters left to reach the end.At this time, Richard had an ominous premonition. His feet were weak, his forehead was trembling, and his hands untied the knots wrapped around him before going to bed. He has a strong desire: to escape from here, to escape from this alien world. "No!" Richard said to himself, fighting his instinctive fear, "no, not now, unless I have no other choice." He wanted something to eat, so he took food and water out of his bag, and turned around to shine a flashlight on the living area.He felt a shadow in the distance, but saw nothing. "Maybe I'm hallucinating," he thought.

After eating, he checked the remaining food and water. "It's as simple as that." He smiled nervously to himself, "I can go back to New Eden and be a prisoner; or I can continue to climb down without the safety rope." He looked up and looked down , "Or just stay here and wait for a miracle." Richard remembered an ivy bird appearing immediately when Prince Henry screamed.So he screamed, and two minutes later he started yelling and singing again.He sang on and off for an hour, going from school songs from his Cambridge days to popular songs from his teenage years.Richard was amazed that he remembered the tunes and words of these songs so clearly. "How does this magical thing of memory choose? Why do I remember these old stupid songs, but when I've been alone in Rama for a long, hard adventure, I can't remember anything?"

Richard picked up his bag and was about to drink water when suddenly the living area brightened up.Richard was so frightened that he slipped and his whole body was suspended from the rope.He regained his position and immediately observed the world in front of him. The light shoots from a giant sphere suspended over the top surface of the living area.Richard estimated that the sphere was four kilometers away from him, and there was a shroud on the sphere that focused the light in a single stream directly below.The basic design of the residential area is a radially symmetrical structure, with a protruding brown cylinder with a diameter of about two or three kilometers in the center, which looks like it is made of mud.There is neither door nor window on the outside of the cylinder, and no light is reflected from the inside, only wide concave lines.Each line starts at the top, goes around the sphere to the bottom, and ends exactly on the same axis as the starting point.The base of the cylinder was at about the same level as the round window through which Richard had entered.

At 300 meters from the left and right sides of the cylinder, there are two groups of white buildings symmetrically distributed in a fan shape, and each group has 50 to 60 buildings. There is a circular canal 70 to 80 meters wide around the building complex, and the open space outside is an open area with green plants.The green space is divided into four identical fans, representing tropical jungle, forest, grassland and desert respectively. The longer Richard stared down, the more he saw: lakes, rivers, ditches, and islets in the middle of the green; there seemed to be a road among the white buildings.Richard thought: "Yeah, what else can we expect? We've created an Earth in New Eden, and this must be the home of the Aiyun birds."

Richard took out his telescope and studied the brown sphere in the distance. "What secrets are hidden here?" Richard immediately cheered up when he could explore and find new discoveries again. He looked at the sky where Ai Yunniao might appear, trying to find something, but was disappointed.Once or twice he seemed to see flying creatures on brown orbs, but the tiny dots that floated across the field of view of his telescope made it impossible for him to know for sure.He scouted all the greens, white buildings, and ditches, but found no sign of life. Four hours later the lights went out and the residential area was plunged into darkness again.Still leaning against the wall, Richard turned on the flashlight to check the thermometer and the database.Since entering the residential area, the temperature has been maintained at 26°C, and the temperature difference has not changed by more than half a degree. "Effective thermal control, why is it so strict? Why does it consume a lot of energy to maintain a constant temperature?"

As the darkness fell for another few hours, Richard began to grow impatient, changing his posture constantly, using the rope to support his body.As time passed, his body began to give way, and it was time to consider taking action.He managed to convince himself that it was too rash to let go of the rope and go down into the river. "What am I supposed to do in the river? Swim across? So what? Do I have to come back if I can't find food?" At this time, a voice came faintly from the right.Richard quickly took the receiver out of his bag, turned the volume up to maximum, and put on his headphones.At first, he heard nothing.A few minutes later, voices were heard from the river below.He wasn't quite sure what it was--there might be a lot of boats in the water--but there was no doubt that there was something moving down there.

There was another flapping of wings on the right, and then faded away.Richard suddenly cried out with all his might, and stopped abruptly.The sound of the flapping of the wings was very rapid, and then disappeared quickly.Yes, that must be the sound of flapping wings! Richard was ecstatic, he exclaimed excitedly: "I know where you are, I know you're watching me." Richard has an adventurous plan and has no other choice.He checked the food and water he was carrying, just enough!He took a deep breath and said to himself, "Either now or never!" He practiced climbing down without the rope. It was slow and difficult, but okay.When he got down to the end of the rope, he untied the knot wrapped around his body, turned on the flashlight and looked down: Fortunately, there are still many small steps above the clouds and mist.Richard moved down slowly and carefully, admitting that he was terribly frightened.He heard his own heartbeat through the earphones.

Descending into the mist, Richard thought, "If I'm right, I'll have company here." A damp mist hung in the air, making an already difficult descent even more difficult.Once, he slipped and almost fell, but stood up tenaciously again.When he climbed to a place where he could hold his hands and put his feet firmly, Richard stopped and looked down. He estimated that he was only fifty meters away from the river. "Now I wait. The fog is so thick, they must come close." After a while he heard the flapping of wings again, this time it seemed to be two birds. Richard stood there for an hour.The mist gradually dispersed and became thinner and thinner.A few times he did hear the flapping of wings.

Richard intended to wait until there was a light before jumping into the water.The fog had cleared and the lights were still on.Richard lost his composure and began to crawl down in the dark again.When he was only ten meters away from the river, he heard the Aiyun bird who was watching him flap its wings and fly away.Two minutes later, the living area brightened up again. Richard hurried to his plan, and it was a simple one: jump down and land on a ship that made noises in the dark.Richard wondered what might have happened in the river that was crucial to the ivan or the creature that inhabited the brown cylinder.His reasoning: If not, why would they keep moving and making noises, risking being heard by Richard?

Richard was going to jump into the river, he reasoned: If the iyunniao is afraid, he will act immediately; if the iyunniao is not afraid, I will immediately climb up and return to our new Eden. Before entering the water, Richard took off his shoes and put them into his waterproof bag with difficulty.He straightened his body and jumped down. As soon as his feet touched the water, two Aiyun birds hiding in the green field flew towards him. The two birds were crazy, screaming and trying to tear Richard with their beaks.They hovered over Richard's head, trying to drive him back to the wall.Richard kicked and stepped in the water, watching them carefully. The two birds were a little different from the ones he and Nicole had seen at Rama 2: their velvety plumage was purple; their collars were black; and they were smaller than usual.Seeing that Richard did not retreat to the wall, a bird stretched its sharp claws towards his face. Richard had to get out of the water and climb towards the wall for a while, but the two birds still did not leave, still hovering by the wall, asking Richard to continue climbing.Richard stood there without moving, and the two birds became even more frantic. "I want to be with you," Richard said, pointing to the brown orb in the distance, while the two large birds flew upwards, still screeching.The birds became more and more angry, and Richard was really worried that they might attack him.Suddenly, a trick flashed through his mind, and he asked himself excitedly: "If I still remember the password, after so many years?" As he reached for his bag, the two birds flew away immediately.He took out his beloved laptop and said aloud, "I know those Reki creatures are your observers, but how would you think that people would put weapons in such pockets?" He typed five letters on the keyboard, and the display appeared.Richard smiled happily, and greeted the two iyun birds flying across the river: "Come here, come here. I want to show you something." He kept repeating. Richard held up the display screen, which displayed the complex computer formula they had used in Rama 2 many years ago, which meant that Ai Yunniao had carried Nicole and him across the Sea of ​​Columns.The two birds approached tentatively. "That's right!" said Richard excitedly. "Come and take a closer look."