A Literary Life Starting from the First Year of High School

Saturday, December 24th.

Today is Saturday, and he could have stayed home all day, but Su Wan said yesterday that she wanted to go to the city to stroll around, saying that Christmas is coming soon and the streets should be very lively. Lin Shubai originally wanted to refuse, but he couldn't resist Su Wan's persistence, so he agreed.

Su Wan came out of the building entrance, wearing a thick white coat with a fur collar on the hood, which made her face look smaller. She was carrying a bulging canvas bag, and it was unclear what was inside.

"Let's go." She gestured with her chin toward Lin Shubai.

"Where are we going today?" Lin Shubai asked.

"There's a newly opened shopping mall on Nanjing Road, and I heard there's a planetarium on the top floor."

Lin Shubai glanced at Su Wan. "When did you become interested in astronomy?"

"It's not that I'm interested in astronomy, it's just that my mom's workplace gave us some tickets, so we figured we might as well use them." Su Wan took two tickets out of her canvas bag and waved them in front of Lin Shubai.

The ticket has a star map printed on it, along with the words "Star Dream Astronomy Experience Hall".

The bus arrived, and the two of them squeezed on. There were more people on the bus than usual on weekends. Several young people were carrying packaged apples, bright red, wrapped in colored paper and tied with bows.

Did you buy an apple?

"No, my mom said it's just marketing hype. When apples were three yuan a pound, nobody bought them, but when they were wrapped in paper and sold for ten yuan each, everyone rushed to buy them. That doesn't make sense."

The bus swayed for forty minutes until it reached Nanjing Road. The two got off, and Su Wan led Lin Shubai toward the newly opened shopping mall. The mall was at the end of the pedestrian street, with a huge Christmas tree at the entrance, covered with colorful lights and small decorations. Several children were running around the tree, and a Santa Claus in a red suit was handing out balloons.

Su Wan stood in front of the Christmas tree and looked at it. "It's quite beautiful. Shall we take a picture?"

"Need not."

"Shall I take the picture for you?"

"No need."

Su Wan glared at him. "Can't you just cooperate for once?"

Lin Shubai stood in front of the Christmas tree. Su Wan took out her phone, pressed a button, looked at the screen, and said, "Why don't you smile? You look like you owe someone money."

Lin Shubai twitched the corner of his mouth.

"Never mind, let's leave it at that." Su Wan put her phone away.

The elevator reached the sixth floor, and when the doors opened, there was a long corridor in front of us. At the end of the corridor, a lightbox hung on the wall, which read "Star Dream Astronomy Experience Hall". The walls on both sides of the corridor were dark blue and painted with constellation maps. The twinkling stars were painted with fluorescent paint and glowed slightly in the dim light.

A young woman in uniform stood at the entrance, holding a counter. Su Wan handed over two tickets, the woman tore off a stub, nodded, and said, "Go in. No photos allowed inside."

The two walked in. The first exhibition hall was the entrance passage, with huge projection screens on both sides, playing images of nebulae that slowly rotated and surged, with purple, blue, and orange-red gases intertwined, like a huge abstract painting.

Su Wan walked ahead, slowing her pace. "It actually looks quite convincing."

Further ahead, there is an even larger exhibition hall with a high ceiling and a huge dome above it, on which the starry sky is projected.

In the middle of the exhibition hall are several telescope models, the old-fashioned kind made of bronze, with explanatory plaques next to them listing the names of Galileo and Kepler and their birth and death years.

Su Wan walked to a pair of binoculars, bent down to look inside, and then turned to Lin Shubai and said, "There's nothing in there."

"It was originally a model."

"Is the sign that says 'You can see Jupiter's moons through this telescope' a lie?"

"Look closely, it says 'Static display of the telescope principle used by Galileo's time'."

Su Wan leaned closer to look at the information panel, sighed, and said, "Alright."

The two continued walking inside, and the starry sky above the dome slowly changed, switching from the summer sky to the winter sky. Orion appeared overhead, with three stars forming a line like a belt, and below it hung the Orion Nebula, a blurry cloud of white mist.

The two walked to the end of the exhibition hall, where there was a small screening room. A sign stood at the entrance that read "3D Dome Movie - Journey to the Galaxy - Played every hour on the hour." Su Wan looked at her watch; it was 11:50, ten minutes to go.

"Will you look or not?"

"Since we're already here..."

The two walked in. The screening room was small, with tiered seats at a steep angle, making the audience feel like they were lying down. The screen was a spherical screen, which was gray and blank before the movie started.

After waiting for about five minutes, the screening began. The lights dimmed, and a starry sky appeared on the spherical screen. The perspective, rising from the ground, was like flying from the Earth's surface into space. The music started, with the deep sound of the cello gradually rising, and the strings joining in, as if something was rising.

The Milky Way unfolds on the screen, a white band of light, densely packed with stars, like a river stretching across the heavens. The camera flies along the Milky Way, passing through nebulae, star clusters, and dark nebulae. A voice-over begins to narrate, "The Milky Way galaxy contains about one hundred billion stars, and our sun is just one ordinary one among them..."

When the screening ended and the lights came on, Su Wan sat up from her chair, rubbed her eyes, and said, "I almost fell asleep."

The two walked out of the screening room and headed towards the exit. As they passed through a corridor, they saw a picture of the Milky Way on the wall.

It was a print about a meter square, with a dark blue background and a panoramic view of the Milky Way in the center—extending diagonally upwards from the lower left corner of the image like a luminous river, with dense clusters of stars interspersed with dark dust bands. The print quality wasn't high, and the edges were somewhat blurry, but the sense of grandeur was still there.

The bottom right corner of the image has a line of small print: "Panoramic view of the Milky Way - taken by NASA".

Lin Shubai glanced at the picture as he passed by, not intending to stop, but his finger accidentally brushed the edge of the picture—probably because the aisle was too narrow, he stepped aside and his fingertip just touched the part of the Milky Way in the picture.

【Trigger Keywords】

[Galaxy + Images]

[Night on the Galactic Railroad (Kenji Miyazawa)]

Lin Shubai "read" the article from beginning to end. The quality of this article was different from all the works he had unlocked before—it was not as exquisite as O. Henry's, nor as cold as Shinichi Hoshi's. It was a clear sadness, like a river in winter, calm on the surface but with undercurrents underneath.

"Why are you spacing out again?" Su Wan's voice came from the front.

Lin Shubai pulled his hand away from the picture and followed. "It's nothing, I was just engrossed in looking at this picture."

Su Wan walked back and glanced at the picture of the Milky Way. "Isn't that the Milky Way? Didn't we see it in the movie just now?"

"It's different. This picture is more suitable as a cover."

"What cover?"

"The cover of a new story."

Su Wan glanced at him. "You've come up with another new story?"

"Um."

"What story?"

"About a train traveling in the Milky Way."

Su Wan's expression seemed to confirm whether he was joking. "A train running in the Milky Way?"

"right."

"Have you been writing too much science fiction lately?"

Lin Shubai didn't answer, but smiled, and the two continued walking towards the exit.