48 Hours a Day

After finishing the exchange with not wanting to practice piano, Zhang Heng quit the forum room, but did not change his plan to return to China.

It’s certainly safer to stay in Ireland, but as he said, there is still something he has not done. Fan Meinan’s condition has not yet found a cure, and there is also a time bomb hidden in his own body. In addition, the most important point is that now his relatives are here, he does not want to bring trouble to them.

Every time he stays here, the risk of being found by someone will be higher. At the same time, the other party will inevitably notice his parents, grandfather, or unborn sister.

Only then did Zhang Heng decide to go through the most important reason, but he did not tell Xiao Xia or the other people in this room of the reason, but even so, there would still be some minor problems the night before leaving. .

It was already one o'clock in the morning, and Zhang Heng heard movement from downstairs.

The sound was not loud, but it still could not escape Zhang Heng’s ears. The door of the room was not closed tightly when he slept, just to prevent this situation, so Zhang Heng got up from the bed and grabbed it. He hid the knife that he had just bought in the supermarket behind him, the cat lowered her waist and walked silently through the corridor like a civet cat.

Walking down the stairs to the living room, I saw a figure standing in front of the refrigerator with him behind his back, looking through something inside.

"It's so late, what are you looking for?" Zhang Heng put away the knife in his hand, and then said.

The figure heard his voice and turned his head. It turned out to be Father Zhang with two bottles of beer in his hand. "The stars are good tonight. Let's go sit in the yard together? By the way, bring mosquito repellent. In the first drawer under the coffee table."

Hearing this, Zhang Heng opened the drawer and found a bottle of anti-mosquito liquid inside. He sprayed himself all over, then went to the yard, threw the anti-mosquito liquid to his father, and then took it from the latter. Bottle of cold beer.

"When you were a kid, I told you stories about those stars." Father Zhang finished applying the anti-mosquito liquid, sat down in a chair, and pointed to the starry sky above his head. "It's amazing, isn't it, more than two thousand years ago." People raised their heads, the same starry sky as we saw."

"I remember you told me many myths about stars." Zhang Heng sat down in another chair.

"Yes, if you look back at the early human civilizations, you will find that almost all civilizations have stories related to stars. People at that time were full of ignorant curiosity about the starry sky above them, those celestial bodies tens of millions of kilometers away from us. , They are so mysterious and untouchable, and the patterns outlined by the proximity to each other also stimulated the imagination of people under the stars." Father Zhang opened the beer in his hand and took a sip.

"At that time, our ancestors lived in a much more difficult environment than it is now, and there are too many unexplainable things in the world, diseases, natural disasters... Why does the output of wheat on the same land decrease year by year? Why do nobles always have a lot of mentally handicapped children? They hope to find an answer, but the level of science and technology at that time can't give them this answer. That's why gods are born-to bring answers to mankind."

"They are like the starry sky above us, mysterious and untouchable, giving people endless reveries. You have to admit, this is actually quite...romantic. People push their unsolvable problems to the gods. Thunder is caused by the thunder god drumming on the clouds, the sun rises and sets because the sun god is traveling in the sky with a carriage, and disease and disaster are divine punishments that certain gods give to humans because of their anger. This also tells us that we should always keep up. Be humble and do good things.

"When I first came into contact with the stories in those murals and ancient books, I would ask myself, did their prayers and sacrifices finally take effect? ​​There really was a torrential rain in time that saved the crops that were about to be killed by drought. Is it? When their country was in danger, did the god of war also give the blessing of victory to the warriors of their country? Will the goddess of fertility bless the birth of his second child? Then I suddenly realized that all of this It doesn't really matter.

"People choose to believe in a certain god, because faith can help them obtain some kind of spiritual comfort in this chaotic and difficult world. At least until our civilization develops to a certain degree, we can't control it. Weather, rain may come tomorrow or not. People who believe that rain will come tomorrow will at least live happily on this day than those who do not believe that rain will come tomorrow. This is the meaning of faith, which can bring you something. This kind of spiritual encouragement allows you to survive the long night better than others.

"At that time, it was probably also the honeymoon period for mankind and gods. Together, we were fighting against the unpredictable nature and building and developing civilization on this land. However, with the development of technology and productivity, the unanswered questions were The answers were solved one by one, and they became no longer mysterious. Even the gods behind them lost the respect of human beings, and fell from the altar, and many of the remaining gods gradually had a relationship with humans. After changes, they no longer exist to find a certain answer, but what remains unchanged is that they still carry a certain desire of human beings."

Zhang Heng listened quietly, and opened his own bottle of beer, but did not speak.

"Of course, with the continuous improvement of technology and entertainment, mankind has also given birth to a lot of new desires. For example, in the hot summer, longing to return to the air-conditioned room. We have reached the moon, so we are also longing to be able to Board those stars, so I won’t be too surprised if some new era gods appear one day." Father Zhang shrugged.

"What if some people are longing for the doomsday?" Zhang Heng, who had never spoken before, suddenly asked.

Father Zhang didn’t look too surprised when he heard this question. He drank and said, “Fear is the most primitive instinct of mankind, and it can also provide enough stimulation to the brain. The danger we face in modern society is actually The reduced ones are far inferior to our ancestors, so the fear we can feel is also reduced. In many cases, we can only get this stimulation through horror novels and movies. We cannot do without fear, so doomsday fantasy is actually universal. ."

"This desire can't be eliminated, right?"

"It's a pity. But don't worry, we will find a solution, but...it will take some time." Father Zhang finished his beer, "Each of us should have faith in ourselves."