musicians of old

Chapter 819 "Synchronicity"

At the end of the day, before saying goodnight to each other and parting ways, the two talked about this episode again, discussing the themes of "freedom" and "inevitability".

According to Ruoyi, Fan Ning initially fell asleep sitting up, leaning back, just like she had after the flight took off. But then, for some reason, a few tears soaked her shoulder, and Fan Ning went back to her desk and slumped over it.

When the word "flight" came up, Fan Ning recalled that she had actually had a similar phone call in her dream before, but it was blurry and continuous on the plane. This time it was clear, and she had a feeling that it wouldn't happen again.

There won't be another one.

After Ruoyi locked herself in the inner room, Fan Ning stood at the door for several seconds, realizing that the day had truly ended and another branch of fate's possibilities had withered away.

She probably still wouldn't get a good rest, as altitude sickness has a significant impact on sleep quality. But since the plan for the last three days had to be carried out, she had to be woken up at 5 a.m. the next day. After getting up, Fan Ning hesitated for a while before knocking and pushing the door open at 5:15 a.m.

It was still pitch black when Fanning turned on the light. On the bedside table were a water glass and an opened box of acetazolamide. The girl in the blanket looked very uncomfortable, but she still forced herself to sit up. Next to her outstretched hand was an upside-down Goethe book.

"I probably won't fall asleep until two or three in the morning." Ruoyi lowered her head and rubbed her eyes.

"Slightly better than expected. I'll catch up on some sleep after I get on the bus." Fan Ning sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up the book.

Goethe is also a topic of conversation, but Fanning is fascinated by the grand and complex philosophical propositions in Faust, while she prefers The Sorrows of Young Werther, which has a distinct narrative style from the Sturm und Drang period.

"If you climb the hill on a beautiful summer evening, remember me, remember how I often climb up from the valley; look over there at my grave in the churchyard, and see the long, wild grass swaying in the wind in the afterglow of the setting sun."

Fanning read the page turned upside down, in front of a dark window, at the hotel check-out, after the engine had started.

The off-road convoy rolled over icy moraines, and Ruoyi, still half-asleep, fastened her seatbelt and drifted off to sleep again amidst the bumps and darkness.

When the beautiful Lake Chandra suddenly came into view, Fanning didn't call her. She silently observed the scenes illuminated by the high beams: muddy roads, black bear paw prints, and larch forests surrounding the lake.

The unfrozen, deep blue waters in the center of the lake, like a piece of cobalt glass shattered by a god, refracted the rugged reflection of the western face of Leo Pargial.

Suffering? Does he even deserve to use that word? Fanning used to think he didn't. There are countless people in the world who have suffered far worse fates. At best, this is what we call the "spiritual predicament of modern people." He has always scoffed at the practice of "forcibly seeking out suffering." He remembers Maugham writing in "The Moon and Sixpence," "People say that the torment of suffering makes people noble. That's not true. Sometimes happiness can make people noble, but suffering generally only makes people narrow-minded and full of hatred."

But how exactly does something as beautiful as "the starry sky above" manage to evoke such a poignant ending? Fanning still didn't quite understand as she watched the scenery flash by outside the car window.

When thinking in this way, the subject is no longer just the self; its concept is expanded to include humanity, time and space, different humans, and different times and spaces. Perhaps there is an irreconcilable contradiction between "freedom" and "necessity," and perhaps the irrational, blind, and uncontrollable will to live that descends upon the world is inherently tinged with suffering and tragedy.

The two later witnessed a magnificent sunrise, a strange surge of colors, the distorted shapes and reflections of the clouds, an apocalyptic gold, a profound purple, a deep red, and a bright blue. These colors must have appeared on the bodies of philosophers and saints who had suffered so much. Fanning woke Ruoyi, and the two watched quietly together. Her hands were clean and gentle, and her forehead was slightly feverish.

"Hey, Fan Ning, do you believe in 'synchronicity'?" Ruoyi asked during the conversation.

"Synchronicity? Jung's concept of synchronicity? Timeliness?"

"Yes, Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychoanalyst in the last century and the founder of analytical psychology. He believed that sometimes multiple events that have no causal relationship occur at the same time, but there is actually some kind of connection between them. Therefore, he tried to explain such phenomena with the theory of 'synchronicity'."

“I think it’s more of a psychoanalytic approach than a scientific theory.” Fan Ning gripped the handrail in the carriage, his gaze and thoughts drifting away. “From a science and engineering perspective, it’s very difficult to empirically prove using natural science methods. But history is complex and unpredictable; who can definitively say what’s going on?”

“History is complex and multifaceted.” Ruoyi nodded. “Cause-and-effect relationships without empirical evidence contribute nothing to the development of mathematical logic, but they are meaningful to the individuals involved: a kind of revelation, a set of entanglements, a shocking epiphany, a profound comfort, and so on.” “So, in your life, have there been many coincidences?” Fan Ning pressed her.

“Perhaps not, but perhaps it exists in other people’s lives,” Ruoyi said.

"Another life?"

"If 'synchronicity' truly exists, then things like parallel universes might also exist. In that case, what I said last night, 'fate is formed in the process of the elimination of branches of possibility,' might need to be revised. The branches of possibility are not eliminated, but rather, they split."

Fan Ning smiled wryly: "So, according to this logic, yesterday, those of us from another world chose to return, and they contacted a hospital in China, preparing to be admitted for treatment immediately?"

“The possibilities will continue to diverge,” Ruoyi said. “Delays on the journey versus returning on time, having no other options versus being rescued by chance, poison versus fake medicine, life-or-death separation versus narrow escape.”

“It’s undeniable, but it’s a very dangerous idea, enough to overload or even break a person’s cognition.” Fan Ning raised his hands, spread his fingers wide, and said, “Look, if every person and every possibility in the world is constantly splitting apart, then there will be more than just two, four, or eight world lines. History will be woven into a thick braid, ancient, modern, and future. Any spark will scatter into a sky full of stars, and it’s not just you and me in the 21st century.”

"That's what it means."

As the conversation progressed to this point, thoughts increasingly sank into chaos and nothingness. If parallel universes truly existed, what meaning would they hold for humanity? Fanning couldn't answer. Infinitely many dots arranged in a crystal-like structure, but memories couldn't be shared, events were unknowable, and for his own point, everything else was nothing but empty concepts.

"Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." Fanning had to use a "cutting off" approach to pull back his wildly growing understanding.

But he still couldn't prove it, whether everything was influenced by each other in the dark.

As the sun rose higher and higher along the mountain road, I lowered my posture and looked out the window. I could see that the continuous Puri Mountains were already blocking out the sun and were very close at hand.

That unseen other side was the China that Fanning had come from, the northwest corner of ZD County in the ALD region, while the place beneath him was called the Himachal Pradesh, Spiti region by the South Asian Indian state.

“北纬31度53分03秒，东经78度44分08秒。”

After the off-road vehicle came to a stop, Fan Ning was the first to jump out, fiddling with the locator and rangefinder in his hands.

This location is very close to Fan Chenxun's previous WeChat location, and it may even be due to signal error. The highest peak of the mountain range in front of us is Leo Pargial.

The last place a vehicle can reach is also the last extension of human activity.

The mountaineering base camp is not very large. Looking around, there are fluorescent tents nailed to the frozen ground with hooks. The most eye-catching thing is the weather monitoring station with an orange-yellow spherical dome on the south side, and the medical first aid point with a red cross mark next to it.

Inside a tent in the collaborators' camp, Fanning met Joan, who was waiting there as promised.

Fanning had always felt that the girl in purple was shrouded in mystery, just like the impressive wine-red tips of her hair.

However, at this pre-departure meeting, she behaved no differently from the other guides. After introducing the other two equally young male and female assistants, she calmly and meticulously explained a series of professional matters that needed attention.

"If you understand everything and there are no problems with the conditions I mentioned earlier, I suggest we take a one-and-a-half-hour lunch break before we officially set off."