Earth Era

Chapter 1: A Sheet of White Paper

"Our human civilization seems like a magnificent flower garden, we can pierce through mountains, fill the sea and create land, control rainfall... Our human civilization seems so powerful. But this is just an appearance, the fact is, we are very fragile, extremely fragile." Li Qi took a sip of wine and slowly said to Zhao Huasheng, who was sitting across from him.

Li Qi seemed to be thinking about something, but it also seemed like he wasn't. A distant look was in Li Qi's eyes, as if his thoughts had already drifted to some faraway place.

Zhao Huasheng has always been very respectful of his senior. As early as his doctoral program, Zhao Huasheng entered the Central Science Institute affiliated to the Alliance, where he became Li Qi's subordinate in the Stellar Physics Research Institute. Li Qi's profound knowledge of stellar physics has always impressed Zhao Huasheng.

"Maybe," Zhao Huasheng said, "but human civilization is always growing stronger, and I believe that we will be truly powerful soon."

Li Qi sighed and his eyes flashed with an indescribable light, seeming to be sorrowful, yet also full of pain.

Li Qi stood up and walked to the window of the high-rise restaurant. Through the glass, the night view of the bustling city was in full view. The lights were brilliant, seeming to cover the moon in the sky. The roads were full of winding light dragons. Even from the hundreds of meters high skyscraper, the sound of the hustle and bustle from the ground could be heard.

It was already eleven o'clock, but still far from the time when this city goes to sleep.

"This is our civilization," Li Qi said, opening his arms as if he wanted to embrace everything. Li Qi's eyes seemed to be drunk, and his tone began to sound like a dream: "This is our powerful and prosperous civilization."

"Brother Li, you are drunk; let me send you back," Zhao Huasheng walked to Li Qi's side and said in a low voice.

Li Qi shook his head: "Huasheng, don't rush back. I have something to say to you today."

Zhao Huasheng was stunned for a moment and sat down again in his seat. He sensed that Li Qi seemed a bit strange today.

"Human civilization has almost changed the face of the entire earth. We navely thought we could do anything, but the reality is cruel. Just take the earth under our feet as an example. How much do we really know? The deepest part of the earth is the Mariana Trench, which is about 10,000 meters deep, and the highest mountain peak is Mount Everest, which is less than 9,000 meters high. Our submarines going down to the Mariana Trench is considered an impressive achievement, and we exhausted our energy and drilled an 11-kilometer-deep hole in the earth, claiming it to be a major step forward... However, the radius of the earth is more than 6,000 kilometers, and we spent a great deal of human and material resources to only penetrate one six hundredth of the earth... 99% of the places are unknown to us."

The depths of earthquake sources generally do not exceed 100 kilometers. Even the strongest earthquakes recorded in the history of the earth are only equivalent to the earth sneezing... No, not even sneezing; just a slight wriggle of the earth. Even so, the result is often the death of millions of human beings.

Li Qi's eyes seemed to have a hint of mockery. Zhao Huasheng knew all the things Li Qi said, but still felt uncomfortable hearing Li Qi say them in such a tone. It was like a person who thought they were incredibly strong having their weaknesses and incompetencies exposed in front of others.

"People are always talking about protecting the earth, but does the earth really need humans to protect it? Even if all the nuclear weapons stored by humans were to explode at the same time, all they would destroy is the surface environment of the Earth. The effects of these nuclear weapons can't reach 100 kilometers below the ground. In the end, humans are only protecting themselves. As for the Earth ... even if humans tried their hardest to destroy it, what would it matter? Can ants destroy mountains?"

Li Qi said, "Our entire civilization, all our cities, all our buildings, all our population, our culture, our heritage, our technology ... all of us are merely tiny bacteria attached to the Earth. If the Earth has its own consciousness, if the Earth wants to destroy our human civilization ... it only needs to sneeze, just one sneeze."

Zhao Huasheng quietly said, "Our human civilization is indeed very small, but our development potential is infinite."

Li Qi disregarded this and continued, "This is merely one Earth. Compared to the whole solar system, what does Earth amount to? Compared to the Milky Way, what does the Sun amount to? Not to mention the Milky Way-Andromeda Galaxy Group, the Virgo Supercluster, the universe..."

There was a deep sadness in Li Qi's words.

"Let's go back," Li Qi said.

Li Qi had been drinking, and Zhao Huasheng drove him back to his room. When they were in the elevator, Li Qi suddenly looked at Zhao Huasheng with an indescribable expression.

Zhao Huasheng was puzzled, so he asked, "Big Brother Li, what's wrong?"

Li Qi just smiled to himself and said, "Goodbye." After saying these two words, Li Qi walked straight out of the elevator, opened his own door, and then closed it. Obviously, he didn't intend to invite Zhao Huasheng to come in and sit down.

Zhao Huasheng was at a loss. He felt that Li Qi was strange today, but he couldn't say exactly where it was strange. After a moment of hesitation in front of the elevator, Zhao Huasheng shook his head and went home.

It was already midnight; Zhao Huasheng finished washing up and got into bed, but he just couldn't fall asleep. There was something wrong deep in his subconscious, he felt like something big was about to happen, but he couldn't figure it out.

It was around two or three in the morning when Zhao Huasheng finally drifted off, but he only slept for four or five hours before he opened his eyes again.

The sleep wasn't enough, and Zhao Huasheng still felt very tired. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have woken up at this time. Because it was the weekend, he wasn't in a rush to go to work, and he had prepared to sleep in late last night.

Zhao Huasheng is frozen awake. It is laughable to say that it is July or August, a time of scorching sunlight. The sun will rise before five o'clock, radiating its light and heat onto this small planet, warming up the air that had cooled during the night and eventually becoming hot. But today seemed a bit different.

Zhao Huasheng put on his coat and walked to the window. The weather was clear, and there were no clouds in the sky. Indeed, there was a large sun hanging in the sky, but it looked dull. The sky was not the usual blue color but was mixed with some dim colors, looking very oppressive.

Zhao Huasheng is a researcher at the Stellar Physics Institute, and the closest star to Earth is the Sun, so obviously, Zhao Huasheng's job is mainly to study the Sun, its internal structure, composition, and material evolution, etc. Today's sun seemed strange, but Zhao Huasheng did not think of using his professional knowledge to analyze it at the moment.

Zhao Huasheng just grumbled to himself, "Looks like it's a gloomy day.", then got back into bed, pulled the blanket up over himself and prepared to go back to sleep.

But a sudden knock on the door broke the morning's peace. Resigned, Zhao Huasheng got up, dressed, and washed his face, then went to the door. When he opened the door, a man in a black suit with a cold expression presented his credentials.

"I'm an agent of the Alliance Security Department, Level 1. You can call me Meng Zhuo." The man said coldly, "There are some matters that require your cooperation; please come with me."

"Alliance Security Department? Me?" Zhao Huasheng felt confused and racked his brains; he couldn't remember ever doing anything bad apart from stealing a lollipop from a classmate when he was young. "What's the matter?"

"Come with me and you'll find out when we get there." Meng Zhuo still said coldly.

"OK." Zhao Huasheng thought for a moment and finally agreed. Half an hour later, Zhao Huasheng arrived at a spacious conference room. To Zhao Huasheng's surprise, in this conference room, he saw many familiar faces, colleagues, leaders, and some people he couldn't recognize but who looked very familiar. After thinking for a moment, he realized that he often saw them on TV.

Zhao Huasheng was arranged to sit in an empty seat. For some reason, everyone in the conference room looked very solemn, and no one had a smile on their face. Moreover, after Zhao Huasheng came in, everyone, including those people who were often on TV, looked at him with some inexplicable eyes.

Zhao Huasheng asked, "May I ask what happened?"

Meng Zhuo put a safe box in front of Zhao Huasheng and opened it; inside, Zhao Huasheng saw a piece of white paper lying quietly.

Zhao Hua Sheng did not rush to look at the white paper but asked in surprise, "Legacy? The legacy Li Qi left for me?"

Meng Zhuo nodded, "Li Qi died in the early hours of yesterday morning. The preliminary investigation concluded that it was a suicide. At the scene of the suicide, we found this safe and this white paper, um, and this note, which reads: I'm leaving; please be sure to give this white paper to Zhao Huasheng. He will answer all your questions."

Before Zhao Huasheng could figure out what was going on, an old man with the highest viewership on TV knocked on the table and directed his imposing gaze towards Zhao Huasheng: "So, can you now tell us what happened to the sun?"