Zhou Ming stood at the entrance to the Space Museum, gazing up at the large lettering above the doors.
"Come on."
Wen Ning gave him a light pat on the back.
Only then did Zhou Ming snap out of his daze and follow them through the ticket checkpoint.
The Space Museum's main exhibition hall was an enormous domed structure. The first thing anyone saw upon entering was the full-scale model of a launch vehicle suspended right in the center of the dome.
The rocket, over thirty meters long, stretched across the space overhead.
Zhou Ming was awestruck by the rocket model before he had even left the entrance.
Wen Ning walked a few steps, realized no one was beside him, and looked back.
Zhou Ming was still standing where he had been, his head tilted back and his mouth wide open.
"The payload fairing..."
Zhou Ming's voice was so soft it sounded as though he were talking to himself.
Wen Ning followed his gaze and saw only the rounded nose at the very top of the rocket.
He had no idea what that thing was called, but Zhou Ming had already taken several involuntary steps forward, still murmuring to himself.
Watching Zhou Ming's back, Wen Ning suddenly remembered what the Dipper Mother had said: "He will lead the nation's scientific and technological progress."
Wen Ning was beginning to understand those words now.
This was not a child's interest in a particular field. It was love. It was obsession.
Zhou Ming walked slowly beneath the rocket model, each step deliberate, as though he wanted to take in every angle and store it away in his eyes.
He stopped beside a booster, rose onto his tiptoes, and reached out to touch the pattern of rivets on the rocket's body, only to pull