Huo Linzhong

"Don't worry."

"What you're seeing now is just a 3D projection."

"A fucking projection I had to record beforehand by standing in front of a camera and talking to thin fucking air."

The man in the white lab coat tipped his head back and grinned at Cheng Qi, revealing a mouthful of tobacco-yellowed teeth.

Cheng Qi froze for a moment.

He understood how 3D projections worked.

What surprised him was how a scientist as respected as Huo Linzhong could swear so damn much.

"Oh, my actual self is here too."

"'I' can take you to meet me."

"And show you around the Muon Research Center on the way."

As he spoke,

Huo Linzhong rolled up the sleeves of his white lab coat, revealing part of a tattoo sleeve. Then he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, flicked his Zippo Lighter, and deftly lit one. He took a long, deep drag, his face full of enjoyment, then began to stroll forward.

A scientist with a tattoo sleeve?

The way he smoked looked cool... and distinctly gangster-like.

Cheng Qi watched the 3D projection before him, feeling that Professor Huo had quite a personality.

"Don't mind me. I studied abroad when I was young, went astray, and spent a few years running with street gangs."

"Scientists are fucking human too," Huo Linzhong said as he walked. "Besides, the past is the past. The present is the present."

Cheng Qi nodded silently.

"Muons, also known as μ particles."

"They're elementary particles."

"They have unique quantum properties, with a spin of 1/2. Their existence and behavior can be described using quantum field theory."

"A muon carries one unit of negative charge and has a rest mass 207 times that of an electron, approximately 105.6 MeV/c². You can think of it as a superheavy electron."

"Sixteen years ago, I became completely obsessed with muons."

"My initial goal was to develop an entirely new energy source."

With the cigarette clenched between his teeth, Huo Linzhong casually rattled off a string of obscure facts and technical terms.

"They're unstable particles. At rest, their mean lifetime before decay is 2.2 microseconds."

"Brilliant, but fleeting."

"What really boosted my confidence was a major breakthrough six years ago. We invented the Strong Magnetic-Field Cage, confining muons within a specific region of space."

At that moment, Huo Linzhong turned sideways, flicked the back of his lab coat aside, and put his hands on his hips, looking toward a conference room on the left.

A 3D projection suddenly lit up inside the previously empty conference room.

Countless young scientists shouted within it.

"We've kept them!"

"We've finally kept the muons!"

A faint smile appeared on Huo Linzhong's lips, as though he too had slipped into a cherished memory.

"Unfortunately, over the next ten years, we achieved nothing."

The projected Huo Linzhong's expression darkened. He took a hard drag on his cigarette. "We were put under enormous pressure, mocked by our peers, targeted by the Science Research Association, and abandoned by our investors!"

Another projection appeared in an office to the side, seemingly showing the scene ten years later.

The young scientists wore worried expressions, their eyes ringed with deep shadows and their hair greasy.

"I had complete confidence in muons."

"I encouraged them and comforted them, but I knew they were close to breaking."

The projected Huo Linzhong continued forward. "I believed muons were connected to Creation, to the most fundamental unit of the universe. I had an unshakable conviction that once muons were fully harnessed, human civilization would leap ahead by entire levels!"

"For ten years, I conducted all kinds of experiments and catalysis trials on muons."

"During one of those experiments, something went wrong. An explosion knocked me unconscious."

"But I felt that, in that instant, my consciousness was drawn into time."

"It was as though I crossed the universe's 93 billion light-years and arrived at the original Singularity."

"I saw a number."

"24."

"I didn't know what it was, or what 24 meant."

"But the shock I felt, the sensation of every pore on my body opening, filled me with boundless awe. In that moment, my determination to develop muon technology became utterly unshakable."

"After that..."

"I saw you."

As he spoke, Huo Linzhong slowly turned around and suddenly looked straight at Cheng Qi.

In that instant, Cheng Qi felt as though Huo Linzhong's eyes had pierced the mysterious void and the invisible, intangible river of time. He seemed to be staring straight at Cheng Qi from another world, another time and space.

"I saw you find the Muon Research Center buried deep underground after Earth had become a wasteland."

"I saw your face. I saw your robot too."

"I knew."

Huo Linzhong's voice was steady and penetrating. "You came from the future."

Cheng Qi felt a chill rise from beneath his feet, his eyes widening slightly. "So you set up my access permissions a hundred years ago?"

Only then did Cheng Qi realize something.

The 3D projection before him didn't seem capable of interaction.

All of this was merely a "video" Huo Linzhong had recorded in advance.

He could only deliver his own lines. The reason he could make seemingly interactive gestures was that he had personally seen the present-day Cheng Qi a hundred years earlier and remembered his movements. This was a kind of communication across time and space.

"When I woke up, I told people about the wonders of muons."

"Not a fucking soul believed me."

"Even my good friend Song Dayi from the Area 53 Gene Research Institute didn't believe me!"

Huo Linzhong clenched the cigarette filter between his teeth so hard that it had become deformed.

He continued leading the way, turning a corner into a long, narrow corridor.

"So what if I used to be a thug?"

"So what if the entire scientific community hated me? They weren't the ones I was working for!"

"My ambition..."

"Was ridiculous, yet great."

"All the knowledge in the world is useless if it can't give something back to humanity."

"Humanity will have to face an energy crisis sooner or later."

"A new energy source that's efficient and stable is humanity's only hope. Its only hope!"

"Even if I can't become a torch..."

A peculiar light shone in Huo Linzhong's eyes. "I'm willing to burn myself to ashes and become a tiny spark, kindling the light of exploration for the generations to come."

Just then,

Projected scenes appeared on both sides again.

Everyone in the institute hurried about. Documents littered the floor, and each person was packing everything they could take with them. Armed military personnel checked for anything that had been missed.

The 3D Huo Linzhong lit another cigarette, a desolate look crossing his face.

"As you can see, Earth's energy resources are exhausted in my time. Everyone is migrating, and the Muon Research Center is no exception."

"The truth is, the Muon Research Center has reached a dead end."

"Even if we make it to another planet, we'll only be absorbed or disbanded."

"But then again, will humanity's Interstellar Exploration really go smoothly?"

"Will our existing energy technology really be enough?"

Huo Linzhong frowned. "I don't have much time left."

Cheng Qi watched those scenes.

They showed the time of humanity's great migration.

"But I made a bet with those sworn enemies of mine. They thought I was joking."

The man clenched his cigarette between his teeth and suddenly smiled. "I told them that until I, Huo Linzhong, developed a practical application for muons, I wouldn't fucking leave the Muon Research Center."

At that moment,

Huo Linzhong's 3D projection stopped walking.

He stood in front of an office door, its nameplate clearly visible-"Professor Huo Linzhong."

Cheng Qi's expression grew more solemn.

The 3D projection had just said that "I" would take him to meet himself.

That meant Professor Huo Linzhong's actual body was behind this door.

Before he knew it, a sense of reverence had risen in Cheng Qi's heart.

Professor Huo Linzhong hadn't left. He hadn't abandoned Earth.

Even after everyone else had evacuated, he had remained here for a promise that seemed like a joke to others.

Though he spoke and acted like a thug, deep down he was proud and obsessive.

He possessed a burning passion for exploring muons, and he had shouldered a greater cause, pressing forward under its weight.

The wisdom passed down by their ancestors was right: no matter the circumstances, one should never judge by appearances.

Cheng Qi took a deep breath and slowly pushed open the office door before him.

Bright lights illuminated the room as well, and something resembling willow fluff drifted silently through the air.

The 3D Huo Linzhong tossed his cigarette onto the floor and stamped it out, then opened the door from his own time and space.

"Come in."

He walked into the office with a smile. "I can see you in the future, but I have no sense of time. I don't know how many years it'll take you to find this place."

"Now, can you see my future self?"

"How many years has that bastard aged?"

"Has he made any breakthroughs in his muon research?"

Cheng Qi stood in the doorway, looking into the clean, tidy office.

A huge desk stood in the middle of the room.

And in the swivel chair behind the desk sat a skeleton.