180: Chapter 180 Starlight Synchronization Device

After the kaleidoscopes were sent out, the red dots on the happiness map grew brighter and brighter. Lin Feng squatted under the Old Locust Tree every day, staring at his phone screen, watching those orange-red points of light slowly turn into a brilliant red. The cat squatted beside him, staring at the screen as well, but when it grew impatient, it would swat at the phone with its paw. The screen would zoom out, turning the red dots into a blurry red haze. Lin Feng would pull the phone back, and the cat would swat again, causing the phone to fall to the ground. When Lin Feng picked it up, there was an extra scratch on the screen, right across the red dot for Baishi Town. That red dot was covered by the scratch, but it was still glowing.

Lin Feng suddenly thought of something. The red dots were lit, but were those people seeing the same patch of stars? The telescope in Starry Sky Town had been repaired, the mushroom night market in Millfield had opened, the guitar night in Greenfield was lively, and the Sound Post Office in Baishi Town was busy. But they were looking at different skies. The people in Starry Sky Town looked at the sky above the mine, those in Millfield looked at the sky above the farm, those in Greenfield looked at the sky above the church, and those in Baishi Town looked at the sky above the bar. The sky was the same sky, but they didn't know if the sky others saw was the same as the one they saw. Perhaps they assumed it wasn't. Lin Feng thought, if they knew that at the same moment, the people in Starry Sky Town were also looking up at the sky, the people in Millfield were also looking up at the sky, and the people in Greenfield and Baishi Town were also looking up at the sky, would they feel a bit closer to each other?

He couldn't build satellites or signal towers, but he could make kaleidoscopes. One could see ever-changing patterns inside a kaleidoscope; what if people from different towns could see the same patterns through them? After thinking for a moment, he decided to make a 'Starlight Synchronization Device.' It didn't actually synchronize starlight, but rather the patterns inside the kaleidoscopes. It would allow people in different towns to turn identical kaleidoscopes at the same time and see the same colors. They wouldn't be able to see each other, but they would know that at that very moment, someone else was looking at the exact same thing.

He went to Molly to ask for cellophane. Molly rummaged through the storage room and found some leftover colored cellophane—red, yellow, blue, and green—but there wasn't enough. Lin Feng sorted the cellophane by color, finding fewer than ten sheets of each. He needed enough for twenty-three towns, at least twenty-three sheets of each color. He thought about it and cut the cellophane into smaller scraps, making a small pile of each color, and then mixed them together. This way, every set would have every color, but the number of colors in each portion would be different. That wouldn't work—synchronization required completely identical patterns.

He suddenly realized it wasn't the colors that had to be identical, but the shapes. The patterns in a kaleidoscope are determined by the arrangement of the scraps. As long as the order of the scraps was the same and the angle of rotation was the same, the patterns seen would be identical. He could fix the arrangement of the scraps. He found twenty-three identical paper tubes and placed the exact same scraps into each—two red, two yellow, two blue, and two green. He used glue to fix the initial positions of the scraps so that no matter how they were rotated, the scraps wouldn't shift around. Then he pasted a scale on the outside of the tubes, from 1 to 10. As long as people in each town turned their kaleidoscope to the same scale, they would see the same pattern. He tested it; turning to 1, he saw a red flower; to 2, a yellow flower; to 3, a blue flower; to 4, a green flower. Turning to 5, he saw a multicolored flower. He turned it ten times and saw ten different flowers. The cat squatted nearby, tilting its head as it watched him turn it, then reached out a paw and swatted the tube. The tube rolled onto the floor, and the scale was scuffed. Lin Feng picked it up, pasted on a new scale paper, and placed the tube somewhere the cat couldn't reach.

He made twenty-three such kaleidoscopes, each tube containing the same scraps and labeled with the same scale. He handed the kaleidoscopes to Old Zhou and asked him to deliver them to those twenty-three towns, to be hung in the most prominent places with a note attached: 'Every night at 8:00 PM, please turn the kaleidoscope to 5. You will see a multicolored flower. At this same moment, people in other towns will be seeing the same flower.' Old Zhou looked at the twenty-three kaleidoscopes and then at Lin Feng. 'They can see the same flower, but they can't see each other,' Lin Feng said. 'They can't see them, but they'll know. And once they know, they aren't so far away.' Old Zhou packed the kaleidoscopes into his canvas bag—one, two, three... he packed all twenty-three, and the bag bulged like a small mountain. He hopped on his bike, the chain creaking under the weight, the 'ding-ding-ding' sound turning into a 'crunch-crunch-crunch.' He rode slowly, but steadily.

At 8:00 PM the next evening, Lin Feng squatted under the Old Locust Tree, holding the largest kaleidoscope and turning it to 5. The colored scraps inside tumbled and combined into a five-petaled flower—red, yellow, blue, and green overlapping. The cat squatted beside him, pressed its eye to the small hole, looked for a while, and froze. It saw the flower, tilted its head, and the tip of its tail twitched gently. Lin Feng looked at the cat. 'What do you see?' The cat didn't answer; it reached out a paw, wanting to touch the flower inside the kaleidoscope. Its paw hit the tube, the flower shook, and the scraps rearranged into a different flower. Lin Feng turned it back to 5, and the flower returned. The cat stopped trying to touch it and just watched.

Lin Feng didn't know if people in the other towns had turned to the scale on time, but he knew that someone eventually would. Even if only one person turned it, they would see that flower. And the person seeing the flower would feel that they weren't looking at it alone. A few days later, Lin Feng received several notes, all brought by Old Zhou. One note said: 'My name is Chen Xiaoyuan. I turned to 5 and saw a flower. It's very beautiful. Thank you.' Another said: 'My name is Grandma Liu. I'm eighty years old. This is the first time I've seen a kaleidoscope. At eight o'clock, I turned it. The flower was colorful. In all my life, I've never seen anything so beautiful.' One note simply said: 'My name is Ma Lan.' Three words, and then nothing else. Lin Feng looked at those three words and was stunned for a moment. Ma Lan. Xiao Ma's elder sister. She had seen the kaleidoscope and left three words. She didn't say where she was or if she would come back. But she left those three words. Lin Feng pasted those three words on the wall, next to the microscopic drawings, the ice paintings, and the cat paw prints. The cat jumped onto the wall and swatted at the note, curling the corner of the paper. It swatted again, and it curled more. It seemed to be asking: Who is this person?

The news reached Baishi Town. Xiao Ma took down the note with 'Ma Lan' written on it and looked at it for a long time. He pasted it on the bar's liquor shelf, next to the cups covered in QR codes. He said something to one of the cups: 'Sister, I saw your name. You're still out there. I know you're still there. It's okay if you don't come back. I just know you're alive.' He attached the recording to the bottom of the cup and placed it on the shelf. The next day, someone picked up that cup, scanned the QR code, and heard Xiao Ma's voice. The person froze, put the cup down, and picked up another cup, scanning another QR code. That QR code had no sound, only three words—'My name is Ma Lan.' The person froze again. He picked up his own cup and said: 'My name is Li Dashan. I also left. I've been gone for twenty years. I've never been back. My parents are over there.' He paused. 'I don't know if they're still around.' He attached the recording to the bottom of the cup. There were more and more cups, and more and more voices. Those who had left returned through the cups. Not in person, but their voices returned. When the voices returned, the people felt closer.

Lin Feng squatted at the bar entrance, looking at the cups. The cat squatted beside him, looking at the cups. Xiao Ma walked out from behind the bar and squatted next to Lin Feng. 'How much money did you spend making these things?' Lin Feng thought for a moment. 'I haven't counted. The system gave it to me. The system didn't want me to spend it, so I spent it.' Xiao Ma looked at him. 'What is the system?' Lin Feng said, 'A thing that doesn't speak. It spoke for a long time, then it stopped. When it doesn't speak, I do things myself.' Xiao Ma didn't understand, but he didn't ask again. He stood up, walked back behind the bar, and continued wiping cups. The QR codes on the cups shimmered under the lights like tiny stars. Lin Feng stood up and brushed off his pants. 'Time to go back.' The cat also stood up and followed behind him. They walked into the night, starlight spilling onto the road, white and shimmering like a river. Lin Feng walked slowly, and the cat walked even slower. As he walked, he suddenly stopped and looked back at the lights of Baishi Town. There weren't many lights, but they were glowing. He smiled and continued walking forward.

[Chapter 180 End]