Chapter 151: Diary

In this incident, several major questions were troubling Xiao Yu.

“At present, it’s almost certain that this woman doesn’t belong to the civilization that built this spaceship. She’s an outsider. This can be roughly deduced from the differences between the two types of script and language. Then, if we suppose this woman is from Earth, what is the other civilization?”

“Perhaps… they are the Taihao Civilization mentioned by the Mirage Beast on the white dwarf—the ones who injured and imprisoned it there.”

“And another thing: since this woman maintained contact with the 90s Model Spaceship, then after she was captured by the Mirage Beast on the white dwarf, why didn’t she call for help from the Taihao Civilization? Instead, she lived alone in a tiny escape pod and eventually chose… suicide?”

Besides this, many other doubts plagued Xiao Yu. All the answers to these questions might be found inside her tightly sealed bedroom.

Fortunately, apart from the ship’s outer shell, the materials used in the cabin weren’t the same ultra-durable ones. Even so, it still took Xiao Yu quite a bit of time to open the door.

Xiao Yu first developed a type of miniature self-destruct robot. These robots could draw energy from electric fields and convert it into ultra-miniature energy bombs. Through tens of billions of these miniature robots carrying out constant pinpoint detonations, they finally broke the door’s sealing structure and opened it.

It was a small bedroom of about a dozen square meters. The entire room was pink-toned. Even after more than ten thousand years, it remained impeccably clean, without a trace of dust.

Beside the door was a single bed covered with pink sheets. Under the bed were a few pairs of shoes—visually estimated to be size 33. On the bed sat a teddy bear plush doll. Opposite the bed was a desk. Above the desk, on the wall, was a poster. Xiao Yu recognized the person on the poster at a glance.

It was a male celebrity who had been very popular on Earth during the 1990s.

There was nothing extra on the desk, nor any drawers. On the desktop lay only an open diary, with a pen placed beside it.

The room was arranged just like the bedroom of a single young woman back on Earth.

In this room, Xiao Yu felt as though he had traveled through time.

Xiao Yu controlled a robot to walk over and picked up the diary.

The first thing that met Xiao Yu’s eyes were three characters—still in Chinese: “Zhang Shengya.”

“Is this your name?” Xiao Yu stood silent.

The robot’s steady hands opened the diary’s cover. Xiao Yu saw the first diary entry.

Her handwriting was delicate and neat.

“July 10th, 1995.”

“It’s been fifteen days since I left Earth. My head still hurts from time to time after the thought infusion. I don’t know where they’re taking me or what they plan to do with me. I miss home. I miss Dad, I miss Mom, I miss Little Gray. I hope Dad and Mom haven’t thrown him away yet.”

“August 21st, 1995.”

“Another check-up today. Around me are all sorts of strange-looking things—like robots. I’ve been living with them for nearly two months now, and I still haven’t seen what they actually look like. But luckily, I still have some semblance of freedom. At least I have my own room. Just don’t know if they’re monitoring me inside this room.”

“September 25th.”

“Today, I was allowed to see the outside world. I saw many stars—so many more than back on Earth, and so much brighter, so much more beautiful. I saw a band of light stretching across the universe. I wonder if that’s the Milky Way. But I can’t see the sun. I can’t see Earth. I asked them where I was. They didn’t answer. I asked what they were planning to do. Still, no one answered me.”

Reading these diary entries, Xiao Yu felt as though his mind was connecting with the woman who had written them over ten thousand years ago. Here, he could feel her confusion, her loss.

Xiao Yu kept reading.

“Another thought infusion today. So much knowledge was poured into my head. With my current level of knowledge, if I returned to Earth, I could probably become another Einstein, right? Haha. But it really hurts when they infuse the thoughts, like my head is going to explode. And the checkups aren’t pleasant either. So many needles—stuck into my body, my head. What are they trying to do? When will they let me go home? Dad, Mom, Little Gray—I miss you. Boohoo, I miss you. I want to go home…”

Xiao Yu was silent. He had once deeply experienced this kind of confusion and loneliness. The difference was that when Xiao Yu encountered these feelings, he at least had his own means to change his situation. But this girl had no other choice but to silently endure.

In Xiao Yu’s mind, two words appeared: “abduction.”

“It seems… this girl didn’t leave Earth willingly. She was forcibly abducted by some kind of existence. Could it be… that those so-called alien abduction events on Earth were real?”

“Maybe, at least some of them were,” Xiao Yu silently thought.

The diary moved on to the next entry, which had no date.

“I don’t know what day it is anymore. There’s no timekeeping device here I can understand. My wristwatch has stopped working. I don’t even know what time it is, when to eat, or when to sleep. But fortunately, if I call out, a robot brings me fairly decent meals. Outside of checkups, no one bothers me when I want to sleep. Sigh, I wonder if I’ll get fat at this rate.”

“I wonder if I’m the only one who’s been abducted. These damn aliens—I curse them all to fall into black holes, one by one, and die. Hmph. But then again, black holes are kind of interesting. Uh, I guess it’s astronomy that’s interesting. I never knew there were so many things in the night sky. I always thought there were only twelve constellations up there.”

Reading this, Xiao Yu shook his head with a wry smile. “Yet another innocent girl corrupted by astrology.”

There are eighty-eight constellations in the night sky—not just the twelve like Gemini and Scorpio.

“I’ve been away from Earth for so long. I wonder how far Earth’s science has developed. Have they mastered the Grand Unified Theory yet? If I could go back to Earth, that’d be great. With the knowledge I have now, even casually throwing out an equation could cause a sensation. Then I’d become the most respected genius girl scientist on Earth! Wahaha! I’d make tons of money, find tons of handsome guys… But when can I go back? When can I go back? These damned aliens—when will they let me go? I hate you, I hate you!”

This diary entry ended there. Xiao Yu felt a bit downcast.

In this diary, one keyword caught Xiao Yu’s attention: the “Grand Unified Theory.”

“It seems… you’ve already grasped the Grand Unified Theory. A pity I’m still struggling bitterly along that path.”

Xiao Yu kept reading.

“Under their guidance, I boarded another small spaceship. What are they trying to do? Are they sending me home?”

“Didn’t expect it—they actually gave me the right to name this spaceship. Hmm… I’ll call it the 90s.”

“Is this faster-than-light travel? I can’t see any stars, and there’s a strange sense of dizziness. So this is how FTL is achieved—first convert energy into gravity, then use that gravity to alter space-time. The spaceship then surfs forward, pushed by space itself. But this ship doesn’t seem to use that method. Its approach is even more advanced. Unfortunately, I don’t know how it works. These damned creatures refuse to teach me their technology.”

“Are we heading home? I’m so excited. I hope that once we exit FTL, the first thing I see is the sun… and Earth…”

Reading this entry, Xiao Yu already knew the answer. She hadn’t returned to Earth. Instead, she had arrived near a white dwarf in the Aquila Nebula, and there, died alone.

Xiao Yu had also experienced that feeling of having one’s fate controlled by others, like a puppet on strings. It was a terrible feeling.

“We’ve finally exited faster-than-light travel. Where is this? Where am I?! I can’t find the sun. I can’t find Earth. Where the hell is this?! I want to go home! I want to go home! Boohoo…”

“This spaceship isn’t under my control. There’s a damned Intelligent Program on board—it keeps pretending to be clueless, refusing to tell me anything. What’s that? A… white dwarf? No! Its gravity is pulling the spaceship in! Ah! We’ve entered orbit! Ah! What is that?! A monster!”

A faint smile surfaced in Xiao Yu’s heart. There really was a monster on that white dwarf—a big one, too.

“I’m sure this spaceship has the ability to escape the white dwarf’s gravity well. But it just won’t go. And after entering orbit, the frequency of the experiments on me increased. I get it now—this is their testing ground. That giant monster and I… we’re both test subjects for these damned aliens.”

“The frequency of experiments is getting higher and higher. And more and more painful. Hehe… the tortures of the Qing Dynasty probably weren’t much worse than this.”