By then, it was already midsummer of the following year.
By the watches they had brought, Chen Shu and Ning Qing's group had been gone for nearly two months. But time flowed differently across the universe. On the Planet near the black hole, for instance, time passed far more slowly than on Earth: spend an hour there, and several years would pass on Earth. Differences in planetary gravity, along with the effects Spirit Power had on motion—effects Earth's scientists had yet to discover—could also speed up or slow down the passage of time. All told, when the two returned to Earth after nearly two months among the stars, roughly five months had passed there.
The weather in Chunming was still springlike, only a little warmer than it had been in December.
When the innkeeper and Cheng Yan told them how long their trip had taken, Chen Shu was momentarily stunned. The two had calculated it already, but actually hearing the difference still brought an indescribably strange feeling.
Then he collected himself.
"This is what we brought back for you... Call it a travel souvenir." Chen Shu took out the palm-sized diamond. "Our last stop was a Planet covered in gold and diamonds. We picked one up at random and gave it a quick polish. You can put it on the front desk as an ornament."
"Is that a real diamond?" The innkeeper's sister-in-law's eyes lit up at once.
"Should be."
"Have you got any more, big shot?"
"Uh, just this one. If you'd said you wanted some, I could've filled a whole fertilizer sack for you... But there's nothing particularly special about the stuff."
"You really are a big shot."
"Just a lump of carbon." Chen Shu smiled and went on. "Those two Planets did have lots of delicious fruit