Night Sky Observation

For the next two days, Yun Jingheng locked himself in his room and went nowhere.

He drew over a dozen blueprints, discarded seven or eight, and the final version covered the entire table.

The lens barrel was assembled from a metal frame in four sections, with precise positioning circuits engraved at each interface.

He spent two days calculating the focal length, revised it three times, and finally settled on eight hundred millimeters.

The core was used to drive the automatic tracking system, with the circuit design referencing examples from Soul Tool textbooks, though he modified the parameters to increase the sensitivity by an entire order of magnitude.

On the afternoon of the third day, he began the assembly.

Xiao Jiu emerged from the Sea of Spirit and lay on the bed, watching him work. "Are you really going to make a telescope?"

Yun Jingheng did not even look up. "Yes."

"Have you made one before?"

Yun Jingheng's hand paused. "No."

The frame was pieced together section by section, the interfaces fitting seamlessly.

The core was embedded in the base, and the circuits were connected one by one.

The dial was installed in the middle of the lens barrel, with every graduation mark calibrated.

He worked slowly and meticulously.

He checked every part repeatedly before installing it and verified every circuit he engraved.

Watching his movements, Xiao Jiu suddenly felt that this person was different from the one he usually knew.

Whether he was practicing swordplay or reading, he usually carried an air of "good enough" nonchalance.

But now, it was different.

His gaze, his gestures, and his breathing had all changed.

It was as if he had become a different person.

By evening, the main structure of the telescope was complete.

Yun Jingheng set it up in front of the window, adjusted the angle, and stepped back two paces to look at it.

The lens barrel was silver-white, glowing faintly in the setting sun.

The base was charcoal-gray, standing firmly on the tabletop.

The numbers on the dial were ones he had carved himself, crooked and not particularly attractive.

But as he looked at it, he suddenly smiled.

Xiao Jiu asked, "What are you smiling at?"

Yun Jingheng shook his head. "Nothing."

Night fell.

Yun Jingheng sat by the window without turning on the lights.

Moonlight shone in from outside, falling upon his face and the telescope before him.

He was in no rush to observe, simply sitting there and looking at the sky.

The weather was excellent tonight.

There were no clouds, no wind, and the stars were lighting up one by one.

In his past life, he had seen this night sky countless times from the desert observatory.

The Milky Way looked like spilled salt, covering the entire firmament.

But the sky he saw now was not that one.

The positions of the stars were wrong, their brightness was wrong, and their colors were wrong.

This was the first time he had seriously looked at the night sky here since arriving in this world.

He leaned close to the eyepiece and began to adjust the focus.

The dial turned bit by bit, and the lens barrel extended inch by inch.

The blurry spot of light slowly shrank, becoming a clear, circular surface.

That was the moon.

The surface of the moon was completely different from what he remembered.

There were no lunar seas, no craters, and none of the geographical features he had been familiar with for twenty years.

In their place was a silver-white plain, smooth as a mirror, and several dark gray, winding fissures.

Those fissures were long, extending from one end of the moon to the other, as if something had torn it apart and it had then healed.

There were no protrusions or shadows on the plain; it was so smooth it did not look like the surface of a celestial body, but rather a silver plate that had been meticulously polished.

Yun Jingheng watched for a long time.

Then, he turned the lens barrel and aimed it at the brightest star in the sky.

That was the North Star, yet it was not the one he knew.

Its color leaned toward blue, its brightness was higher, and it was surrounded by a faint halo, as if something were rotating around it.

He increased the magnification, and the halo enlarged, transforming into a blurry, mist-like structure.

That was not interference from the atmosphere; it was truly there.

He examined them one by one.

Each was different; each had its own shape, color, and brightness.

Some bore rings, some trailed tails, and some flickered between light and dark, as if breathing.

He watched for two full hours, then aimed the telescope tube at the darkest region of the sky.

There was nothing there.

He stopped looking.

He straightened up, turned the telescope, and aimed it back at the moon.

The moon was bright, round, and quiet.

He looked at it, remembering that night in the desert from his past life, remembering the rift that had swept everything away, and remembering the woman with dark green hair he had seen when he woke up.

He thought of Yun Ming, thought of Ya Li, thought of Ye Xinglan, and thought of the black-haired girl who had stood in front of him.

He watched for a long time, then whispered, "This place... is actually quite good..."

He packed away the telescope and closed the window.

Outside the window, the moonlight spilled down, very bright.

In the shadows, Cai Yue'er stood in the shade of a tree, watching the window that had just been closed.

She had been there for a while, ever since Yun Jingheng began his observations.

She had watched him assemble that pile of parts into a device she had never seen before, watched him stare through it for two full hours, watched him turn it toward the moon, and then heard him say those words.

She turned and left.

After a few steps, she suddenly stopped and looked in another direction.

There, behind a large tree, two figures were peeking out stealthily.

Ya Li was pressed against the tree trunk, and Yun Ming stood behind her; both were craning their necks to look toward Yun Jingheng's room.

Cai Yue'er's mouth twitched, and just as she was about to speak, she caught a glimpse of another direction.

Zhuo Shi and Feng Wuyu were huddled together behind a flower bed.

Zhuo Shi lowered his voice and said, "What are you crowding me for?"

Feng Wuyu glared at him: "You're the one crowding me!"

"Bullshit—"

"You're the one full of it—" The two were about to start an argument when Zhuo Shi jabbed him with an elbow and Feng Wuyu slapped him back, the commotion growing louder.

A hand reached out from the side and rapped each of them on the head.

"Thud."

"Thud."

Both of them shut up instantly.

Long Yeyue withdrew her hand and looked at them expressionlessly, "What are you arguing about?"

Zhuo Shi rubbed his head, not daring to speak.

Feng Wuyu also rubbed his head, not daring to speak either.

Cai Yue'er walked over, looked at Yun Ming and Ya Li, then at Zhuo Shi and Feng Wuyu, and finally at Long Yeyue.

She was silent for a moment, "Did you all see it?"

No one answered.

Long Yeyue said calmly, "That thing the child made can see very far into the sky."

Cai Yue'er nodded, "I know."

Long Yeyue looked at the window that had already been closed, "What he said..."

Cai Yue'er was silent for a moment.

Long Yeyue turned and left, but after a few steps, she stopped again, "Let's go back."

Yun Ming stepped out from behind the tree, with Ya Li following by his side.

He glanced toward the direction of Yun Jingheng's room; the moonlight spilled onto the windowsill, very bright.

He withdrew his gaze, turned, and walked away.

Behind the flower bed, Zhuo Shi and Feng Wuyu were still crouching, glaring at each other.

"It's all your fault."

"It's your fault, actually." The two were about to argue again, but remembering the blow from earlier, they simultaneously shut their mouths.

They stood up, brushed the dust off their bodies, and went their separate ways.