Chapter 10 — Melting Glacier

10The car drove for a while, then he stopped on the side of the road and turned off the engine. The car compartment was silent. He turned and looked at me seriously. "Lin Nhien, look at me." I turned away, not looking. He reached out and turned my face, forcing me to face him. "Answer me one question." "What question?" "A closed system, if no external energy is introduced, will move towards a state of increasing entropy, that is, increasingly chaotic and disorderly. Right?" I was stunned, this is the second law of thermodynamics. Even though I'm a socialite, I still know this basic thing.“…Yes.”“But what if, in that system, a singularity appears?” He continued asking, "A point can generate great energy on its own and affect the entire structure of the system. Then, what will happen to the system?" I looked at him, still not understanding the meaning. "It will escape the fate of increased entropy." His eyes glowed brightly in the night, "Because of the existence of that singularity, it will evolve into a new, more complex, more advanced order." "Lin Nhien," he emphasized each word, "My world used to be a closed system — cold, dry, moving towards eternal silence." "And you... are that singularity." "You are not trouble, you are my salvation. You do not cause me chaos, you give me complete order." new." I was speechless by this "scientific confession" sentence. This man, even when confessing, had a damn academic smell but made it impossible to resist. The anger inside me immediately disappeared. All that's left is a suffocating, warm feeling in my chest. "The project is over, what are you going to do next?" He asked. “I haven't thought about it yet. Maybe I'll go to Africa and photograph migrating antelope herds.” I replied. "Don't go." "Why?" "I've already submitted the application to go to the Antarctic research station." He said, "It lasted a year. There was still a photographer missing to go with the group." I was stunned. Going to Antarctica? Where is the real end of the world? “I…” “I want to take you to see the real aurora, see the emperor penguins, see the ice flowing into the sea.” He turned, his eyes shining brightly, "I want to show you my entire world." "Lin Nhien, are you ready... to go with me to the end of the world?" My heart was pounding, like a herd of antelopes galloping on the African steppe. Go to Antarctica, with me. From the glacial ice in Sichuan West, to the simulation chamber in A Dai, then to the real Antarctica. This man and I seemed destined to be wrapped in ice and snow for the rest of our lives. "But..." I hesitated a bit, "Surveying Antarctica is very difficult. Moreover, it takes a long time to travel." "I know." He held my hand tightly, "But as long as I have you, no matter how hard it is, it's sweet." "Besides..." He suddenly leaned forward and whispered in my ear, his breath hot, "The night in Antarctica is very long." I said yes. This man is truly a bad student. I looked at his smiling eyes, right in front of his face, feeling like I was about to be fascinated by him again. "Professor Tham, are you... openly bribing the photographer?" "Yes." He calmly admitted, "So photographer Lam, do you accept bribes?" What else can I say? I could only lean closer, bite his lip, and vaguely say: "Accept. But... you have to add money." One year later, Antarctica - Zhongshan Station. "Tham Duc Chi, if you dare to take another step just to grab that nonsense stone, this lady will tie you to the back of a penguin!" I wore a bulky warm suit, stood on the ice, shouting at the man trying to approach the edge of the ice crack. He heard that and immediately stopped, turned his head to look at me, his face was red from the wind and snow, his eyes looked a bit innocent. "This olivine basalt has a very typical capture crystal, which is of great significance to the study of mantle material composition." "I don't care about the mantle or the mantle! Is your life important or is the rock important?" I quietly walked forward and pulled him back. He obediently let me

pulled, like a child doing something wrong. “Your life is important.” He said softly. “You know that.” “Because my life is yours.” He added. The unexpected sentence made me choke up, my cheeks heated up a bit, not sure if it was because of the cold or because of embarrassment. Over the past year, we've been through a lot together. From domestic training, a long ice-breaking trip on "Snow Dragon", to setting foot on this pure and harsh continent. We used to quarrel. I blame him for losing track of time while working, he blames me for taking a beautiful photo without paying attention to safety. But we will never have a cold war again. Every time we quarrel, he will awkwardly hug me, use scientist-like logic to analyze the cause of the quarrel point by point, then admit his mistake and promise to fix it next time. Even if next time... you still commit it. But looking at that serious and pitiful face, I couldn't bear to be angry. We have also seen each other at our worst.