Chapter Thirteen: Chang'e Flees to the Moon

  After running for so long, everyone was obviously tired and sat down to rest. Only the old man slowly walked towards the globe, observing it. I lay on the ground, to be honest, running three 800-meter dashes in a row in one morning, you can try it yourself. Especially for people like me who sit in the office all day.

  Lying on the ground, smelling the aroma of Wen Long cooking rice, I also turned my head to look at that globe. Such a large globe is still the first time I've seen it, but the map on it is obviously different from what I found online. That's normal, this place is thousands of years ago, so this globe should be the map shape of thousands of years ago. I've read some reports that continental plates can move.

  The old man walked back at this time and sat among us, sighing: "Ancient people, ancient people, how much technology we still don't know now did they grasp?"

  Wu Feng said with a smile: "Old man, why are you so sentimental?"

  The old man sighed and said, "I just went to check that globe, they did a great job, I even think this is something the ancients made after observing the Earth from outer space. It's unbelievable! Do you know? I timed it just now, the time for one rotation of the ball is 23 minutes 56 seconds and 04 milliseconds."

  "I was puzzled and asked: 'Doesn't the Earth take 24 hours to complete one rotation? Isn't this a mistake in time?'"

  The old man looked at me and said, "You know that 24 hours is a general understanding, right? The time it takes for the Earth to rotate once on its axis is actually 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds. But in reality, the Earth also revolves around the Sun, with an angular displacement of 59 seconds per day. Remember, this second is a unit of angle. And the time it takes to revolve is 3 minutes and 56 seconds. Together, they add up to exactly 24 hours. So, you can say that the rotation speed of this globe and the current Earth's rotation speed are basically the same, of course, in proportion."

  I didn't say a word, but in my ear came the old man's sigh of emotion: Ah, the ancients, how much technology they possessed that we still don't know about today?

  The old man looked around and said: "You see, this layer is made of bas-relief."

  Wu Feng said: "It's a relief sculpture. Judging from its appearance, this layer of content should be the main part of the whole story."

  Su Yi said: "Maybe there's still something major to be discovered."

  "Wen Long's voice came: 'Whether it's serious or not I don't know, all I know is that there's a huge matter to attend to right now.'"

  "What's going on? It's a big deal."

  "Wen Long said loudly: 'Food is heaven for the people, of course, eating is a big deal.'"

  Everyone burst out laughing, but thinking carefully, it really makes some sense. People regard food as their heaven, looking through history, people of all dynasties have followed this principle, those who rose up in rebellion were all people who couldn't eat their fill.

  After dinner, we started studying the reliefs on this floor together. The reliefs seemed even more vivid, and what we saw first was Hou Yi and Chang'e kneeling in front of Nüwa, looking like they were apologizing. The relief clearly showed Nüwa's anger and Hou Yi and Chang'e's sadness. I found it strange that although I had been scolded and beaten by my parents for doing wrong things before, I always felt that I should have looked unrepentant at the time, and would never have shown a sad expression, even if I was crying, which had nothing to do with sadness.

  "Excuse me," I said, "why are they both so sad?"

  The old man and Wu Feng were busy taking pictures, no one paid attention to me. Su Yi gave me a glance and said: "Why don't you study something valuable? Why do you always pay attention to such useless things?"

  The old man said at this time: "He's right, Su Feng, you can't just focus on the value of these carvings. You have to know that the value of the content of such continuous narrative carvings far exceeds their own value. For example, we saw that cannon that could launch black holes. If that thing really existed, then our current technology would be far more backward than ancient technology, and it would be even more backward than 4,000 years ago."

  Su Yi glared at me angrily for a moment before immediately speaking in a coquettish tone, "Yes, yes, my dear old master, I know."

  The old man looked at her helplessly and walked towards the next carving, which was a carving of Hou Yi and Chang'e sitting opposite each other drinking wine. Chang'e was facing us, clearly showing an expression of extreme sadness, while Hou Yi had his back to us, his expression unseen, but I think he wouldn't be happy either.

  Su Yi looked at Chang'e's expression and was a bit stunned. I said, "Sister Su, why don't you also make a Chang'e face and let the scene be restored?"

  Su Wei glared at me fiercely and said: "Then you play Hou Yi."

  I was stunned for a moment, and found that Su Wei's face was a bit red. Wu Feng didn't even turn his head while taking pictures, saying: "Alright, you two stop flirting with each other on the side, I'm still working here."

  I saw Su Yu's foot shadow flash, and then I heard Wu Feng "Ah" jump up. Serves you right! Let you taste the power of Su Yu's invisible kick, I had a very refreshing feeling in my heart. "Ah" this time it was me who jumped up, damn, this guy is still an invisible flying kick. Wu Feng and I looked at each other and smiled wryly.

  The old man looked at Su Yi dissatisfied and said, "Stop messing around, hurry up and work."

  The third carving is very large, but the figures are very small. We found Hou Yi and Chang'e with great difficulty in the central left position, and there were many people far away from them. However, what attracted us was not the sorrowful faces of Hou Yi and Chang'e, but rather the passersby A, B, C, and D standing in the distance. Because we discovered that they were all wearing spacesuits.

  "What's going on?" I said, "This can't be graffiti by street kids."

  Su Yi said: "What are you thinking about? This carving technique is obviously done by one person."

  I said: "I know, the question is why they are wearing space suits. Is there something wrong?"

  No one answered me, I knew everyone didn't have an answer, after all this was something from several thousand years ago.

  "Come over here." We heard the old man's voice, which was actually very far behind us. Turning back to look, we found that the old man had somehow retreated to a place more than ten meters away from us.

  We immediately ran to the old man's side and turned back to look at the carving, we were all stunned. Su Yu said loudly: "Impossible, how could such a thing appear in that era?"

  We stared blankly at the entire sculpture. From here, passersby A, B, C, and D became even smaller, Hou Yi and Chang'e were just a small part of it, what really caught our attention was a large object that occupied the entire carving surface - a spaceship. I don't know what others think, but when I first saw it, that's what I thought.

  "Wu Feng said: "Old man, this is no joke, it's a spaceship!" I thought to myself: Indeed, everyone thinks so."

  The old man said: "That's right, that's a spaceship. It reminds me of a hypothesis. Now it seems that this hypothesis may be more realistic."

  "What hypothesis?" Su Yi said.

  The old man did not answer her question directly and said: "First look at the bas-relief here, then talk."

  The fourth relief is the scene after the spaceship took off, the spaceship has become a small part, and the main body has turned back into a person, only one person - Hou Yi, standing there in a daze, staring at the spaceship.

  Su Yu asked, "What about Chang'e?" After asking, she seemed to have thought of something and looked at me. Coincidentally, I was also looking at her. I saw that her face had turned a bit pale, and I guessed that my face wasn't much better either, because I too had thought of the same outcome.

  Wu Feng obviously thought of it too and exclaimed loudly: "Oh heavens, Chang'e has entered that flying vessel, isn't that..."

  We quickly ran to the fifth bas-relief, and as we thought, Su Yi's voice was a little trembling, saying: "It really is Chang'e rushing to the moon."

  The fifth bas-relief is a spaceship flying towards a planet, which is carved very vividly, with ring-shaped mountains, lunar land and lunar sea, all at a glance. That's the moon. From the bas-relief, it can be seen that the destination of the spaceship is there. Chang'e flying to the moon, this ancient myth has actually come true.

  The sixth bas-relief returns to the human body, we see Chang'e standing on the moon, wearing a spacesuit, looking towards another sphere - the earth, where her loved ones are. Chang'e should regret stealing the elixir, green sea and blue sky night after night. I guess Li Shangyin didn't come here when he wrote this "Chang'e". This is not about the elixir at all, but punishment.

  Wu Feng pointed at the carving and said: "You all take a look at the flying vehicle behind Chang'e."

  We followed his pointing and looked over, in this sculpture, the spaceship had only been carved out a little, and behind Chang'e, those pedestrians A, B, C, and D were moving something down from the spaceship.

  "What are they doing?" I asked, "They're not going to plant a flag on the moon, are they? Oh dear."

  Wu Feng sighed and said: "Since you came, Su Yi's footwork has improved significantly."

  "I'm going," I said to Wu Feng, "Did you bring me here just to let her practice her Shadowless Steps?"

  Su Yi angrily said: "What are you two nonsense, hurry up and look at the next one."

  The seventh bas-relief made me confused again. I felt that those people should be drilling a well, because I saw a frame that looked like the one used for oil field drilling.

  "I said: 'Are they going to drill a well? Is there oil on the moon?'"

  Wu Feng said: "I don't know, but it looks more like."

  "They are building Guanghan Palace." The old man's voice came over. We found that he had gone to see the eighth bas-relief.

  We followed to look at the eighth relief, which was carved with people transporting some objects through a vertical well-like passage to a large square cavity below. In the square cavity, there were also people building something that looked like houses. Judging from the proportion of the carving, the cavity was really huge and frightening.

  "They built these houses, are they planning to live on the moon for a long time?" Wu Feng asked.

  The old man ignored him and walked towards the ninth carving, where the Guanghan Palace had already been built. We saw many houses that should have different uses. There were no other people on the painting except for Chang'e standing alone, and the vertical well-like passage was gone too.

  Su Yi said: "No way, Chang'e won't be buried alive, will she?"

  Wu Feng took a glance at her and said: "Burying someone on the moon is still burying, what's the point? Which yellow earth doesn't bury people?"

  What is called the ultimate truth, this is it. The problem is that the yellow soil of the moon also buries people, which makes it incomprehensible to humans. We came to the last large-scale relief, and in an instant, I felt my blood congeal.

  It's no longer possible to describe it with language, I saw things that only exist in science fiction movies. To put it simply, it was clearly a surveillance monitor. We saw Chang'e sitting in front of a large surveillance monitor, carefully counting, there were twenty-four screens in total, each screen displaying different content. But it's clear that they were all scenes from human life, plowing fields, building houses, fighting wars, and many more scenarios.

  "Good heavens!" exclaimed the old man. "Chang'e fled to the moon, just to establish a place on the lunar surface to monitor humanity on Earth. Is this true?"

  We fell silent again. To be honest, I found it hard to accept such an outcome. We sat around and made some connections with the carvings we had just seen.

  First of all, it can be confirmed that Chang'e did not want to run to the moon, but was punished by Nüwa and required to run to the moon. In mythological stories, Chang'e ascended to heaven after stealing the elixir of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West, which now seems to be a kind of disguised punishment. The most painful couple's life in the world is being separated in two places, and it is even more painful when one is on earth and the other is on the moon. Niulang Zhinü can meet at least once a year, while Hou Yi and Chang'e are obviously less fortunate than them, even with family leave, they cannot reach each other. I finally understand the deep sorrow on Hou Yi and Chang'e's faces, which is the pain of losing their loved ones forever, unbearable to live.

  Secondly, Chang'e's flight to the moon was indeed successful, but not as beautiful as in mythological stories. She flew up using a spaceship. I couldn't help but think of 1969 when Armstrong carefully stepped onto the lunar surface with his left foot, marking humanity's first landing on the moon. If this carving is real, then Chang'e should have been the first to land on the moon, or perhaps there were others who landed even earlier than her, only they didn't plant their national flags.

  Finally, Chang'e established the "Guanghan Palace" after landing on the moon. Of course, it was not a sacred place that Zhu Bajie yearned for in mythological stories, but a place to monitor humans. There, Comrade Chang'e monitored every inch of land and humanity on Earth.

  I hate to draw such a conclusion, but I have to admit that the content displayed on the sculpture is indeed the result of this conclusion. It's hard to bear and difficult to accept. All of us are silent, and no one can face up to such a result.

  Wu Feng spoke up and said: "Old man, you mentioned a hypothesis earlier, what was it?"

  The old man sighed and said, "There is a hypothesis that many mythological stories are not myths at all, but real events. For example, the story of Hou Yi shooting down the sun and Chang'e flying to the moon, in our impression, they are myths, but in these carvings, they have become real."

  "Wu Feng said: 'Old man, this is unrealistic, how could such advanced technology beyond our current time appear in that era?'"

  The old man sighed again and said: "Is what he said all true?"

  We all perked up our ears, ready to listen to the old man's words of wisdom, but instead he didn't say another word and seemed to sink into his own deep thoughts, not even intending to pay attention to us.

  Su Yi was getting impatient and said: "Dear father, please tell me, who is telling the truth?"

  The old man came back to his senses, looked at Su Yu and said: "Don't ask anymore. If I can get out, I want to investigate thoroughly first, then talk about it later. Wu Feng, have you taken all the pictures?"

  Wu Feng patted the camera placed on one side and said: "Don't worry, every detail has been taken care of."

  The old man nodded and said: "Good, we've found the mechanism, let's keep going up, we have to get out."