As the sun sets, a golden afterglow shines on the lake, dyeing the water into a flowing flame. Xiuxiu and Mozi sit side by side on a bench by the lake, looking at the lake they were involved in restoring decades ago. The lake that used to be turbid due to industrial pollution is now crystal clear, reflecting the gorgeous dusk of the sky. The surrounding "light moss" began to emit a soft pulsating light, which intertwined with the afterglow of the sunset into a quiet and deep picture.
It's been a month since Yue 'er left. During the month, Xiuxiu and Mozi rarely talked, each immersed in the grief of losing their best friend. Today is the first time they have actually sat down and prepared to face a world without Yue 'er.
"Remember the first time we met? Xiuxiu broke the silence softly, her voice unusually soft in the twilight," at that international tech summit. "
Mozi smiled slightly, and the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes spread out. "You were on stage explaining the technical bottleneck of the DUV lithography machine, and I was deeply attracted to your professionalism and passion. Yue 'er was in the mathematics branch, and she wrote on the blackboard a formula that I couldn't understand at all, but that kind of attachment to the truth struck me."
The lake gently patted the pebbles on the shore, making a rhythmic sound, as if accompanying their memories.
"The three of us have come this far. Xiuxiu sighed, his eyes still on the lake," From the original idealist, to the practitioner who changed the world, to the witness of the present... now. "
Mozi reached out and gently held Xiuxiu's hand, the hand that once controlled global capital markets, now covered with age spots and trembling slightly. "We've been through too much. Success, failure, glory, denigration..."
"Speaking of failures," Xiuxiu turned his head and a smile flashed in his eyes, "do you remember the first project we worked on? The plan to optimize the lithography process with quantum computing."
Mozi couldn't help laughing, "Of course I remember. We invested a huge amount of money, and because of a basic algorithm error, the whole system crashed. At that time, the media was laughing at us, saying that we were 'whimsical lunatics'."
"But that failure taught us humility," Xiuxiu continued, "let us understand that even great ideals need to be down to earth."
At dusk, the clouds in the sky turned from golden to deep red, as if the sky were burning their last enthusiasm.
"What about glory?" Mozi looked away. "The day you won the nation's highest science and technology award, I was watching you from downstairs. You stand on the podium, so calm, so elegant. But I know how many sleepless nights you spent in the lab for that moment."
Xiuxiu shook his head gently, "Those honors are never what I care about most. What really glorifies me is seeing the younger generation standing on our shoulders and seeing farther than we do. It's seeing kids find their way through the Creator Challenge platform."
On the other side of the lake, a group of waterbirds swept across the water, and there was a fine silver glow where the wings stroked.
"Love..." Mozi paused, a word that had a special meaning between the three of them. "The kind of emotional connection between us that goes beyond the norm, how many people have ever been unable to understand."
Tears welled up in Xiuxiu's eyes, "But we know what that is. It was not love in the worldly sense, but the resonance of the soul, an ideal blend. Yue 'er once said that the three of us are like the three vertices of an equilateral triangle, and without any of them, the whole structure will collapse."
"Now..." Mozi's voice choked, "now this triangle is missing a corner."
Silence descended again, only the wind blowing through the rustle of reeds by the lake. The first star lit up in the sky, followed by the second and third until the entire night sky began to shine.
"You know," Xiuxiu finally said, "she came to me the night before Yue 'er left. She said she had a dream that the three of us had become stars, forever in the universe."
Mozi looked up at the stars, "Maybe she has become one of them now. Perhaps we can see her whenever we look up at the stars."
"Losing..." Xiuxiu's voice was barely audible, "I never thought we would face such a loss. I thought the three of us would go on like this until the end of time."
"But this is the law of life," Mozi said softly, "there is an end to the beginning, and there is separation to the reunion. Yue 'er taught us our last lesson, how to say goodbye gracefully."
The "light moss" by the lake began to shine brighter, and they seemed to feel the sadness in the hearts of the two old men, comforting them with a warm pulse.
"In our lifetime," Mozi said slowly, "there have been too many moments that ordinary people can't imagine. I have called the wind and rain in the financial markets, you have pioneered the frontier of science and technology, and Yue 'er has explored the unknown in the theoretical world. We have witnessed the fastest advances in human civilization and participated in the most critical parts of it."
Xiuxiu nodded, "From the photolithography machine to the 'light moss', from the quantitative trading model to the 'string light cloud brain', from the PNP conjecture to the unified field theory... we did leave our mark."
"Sometimes I wonder," Mozi's gaze turned profound, "what the world would have been like if I hadn't left the financial markets, if you hadn't returned, if Yue 'er had been content to be a general professor at Princeton?"
"But fate chose us," Xiuxiu clenched his hand, "or rather, we chose fate. Remember what Yue 'er used to say? 'At every fork in the road we chose the harder but more correct path.'"
The night breeze cooled, and Mozi thoughtfully took off his coat and draped it over Xiuxiu's shoulder. This simple action reminded them of their youth, when the three of them often stayed up late in the lab, taking care of each other and supporting each other.
"I have often dreamed of the past lately," Xiuxiu said, "dreaming of the night we were in Singapore, three people under a foreign starry sky, for the first time truly understanding the connection between each other. Dreaming of our seaside in Sanya, we decided to face the challenges of the future together. Dreaming of our mutual support in every crisis..."
Mozi listened quietly, knowing that Xiuxiu needed to speak out about these memories and to let these emotions find their way out.
"What gives me the most comfort," Xiuxiu continued, "is that Yue 'er is calm and content when he leaves. She fulfilled her mission, leaving behind a legacy of knowledge that will be explored for centuries by future generations."
"And the way she chose was so elegant," Mozi answered, "no painful struggles, no regretful sighs, just a happy ending and a fresh start."
A meteor crosses the sky, leaving a brief and beautiful light trail in the night sky.
"Just like that meteor," Xiuxiu looked up at the sky, "our life is only an instant on the time scale of the universe. But for a moment, we were burning bright and hot enough."
Mozi was silent for a moment, then solemnly said, "We changed the world."
Xiuxiu shook her head slowly, her eyes retracted from the starry sky and fell on Mozi's face: "No, dear, the world has changed itself through us."
The words echoed in the night with profound wisdom. Both fell into deep contemplation, savoring the truth behind the words.
For a long time, Xiuxiu continued, "We were never transformers of the world, we were just tools in the cosmic awakening process. Lithography, quantum models, mathematical theories... these are not our creations, they are our discoveries. We just happen to have the ability to understand them at this point in time."
"Just like 'light moss,'" Mozi realized, "they were not created, but spontaneously emerged under the right conditions. We just provide the possibility for this emergence."
"exactly," Xiuxiu nodded, "Yue 'er understood this a long time ago. So she chose to transform the ultimate theory into poetry, because she knew that truth does not need a guardian, only a transmitter."
The night gradually darkened, and the moonlight on the lake shattered into thousands of silver sheets, rippling gently with the microwave. The "light moss" around them pulsated more softly, as if approving their conversation.
"So, what is the meaning of our lives?" Mozi asked, a question that had been bothering him for a long time.
Xiu thought for a moment and replied, "It's a testimony, it's a participation, it's a transmission. We have witnessed a critical turning point in human civilization, participated in the awakening of cosmic consciousness, and passed on the flame of wisdom to the next generation."
She pointed to a willow tree by the lake that lived in symbiosis with the "light moss", "Look at that tree, it does not think that it has changed the land, it just grows here, and its presence naturally changes the surrounding environment. So do we."
Mozi breathed a long sigh of relief, as if lifting the burden off his shoulders. "So we don't need to regret our limitations or be proud of our accomplishments. We just... got the job done."
"Yes," Xiuxiu smiled, "like a stream flowing into the sea, natural and inevitable."
The two old hands clasped tightly in the night, conveying warmth, understanding, and emotion beyond words. They stopped talking and just sat quietly, enjoying this rare moment of tranquility.
In this ordinary twilight, two old people who changed the world finally reached a reconciliation with the world. They understand where they are - not in control above, not changing externally, but engaging internally, growing in the process.
As the moon rises to Jomtien, Xiuxiu gently leans against Mozi's shoulder and closes her eyes. Mozi felt her breathing evenly and knew she was asleep. He did not move, afraid to wake her up, but continued to look at the moonlight on the lake and think about the conversation just now.
"The world has changed itself through us..." He repeated Xiuxiu's words softly, finally showing a relaxed smile.
In this understanding smile, the waves of a lifetime are transformed into calm lakes, and all successes and failures are merged into the stars of the night sky. And they can finally feel safe to be themselves - not a hero who changes the world, but just two souls who love each other in the universe.
The "light moss" by the lake also seemed to feel this serenity, and their pulsations became slower and deeper, as if synchronized with the breathing of the entire universe. In this perfect moment, everything is exactly where it should be.