Chapter 7 Dense Forest

　　—Curiosity is the driving force that propels exploration of the unknown, yet excessive curiosity not only kills the cat but can lure a person toward the abyss.

　　Seated in the flying craft, the company discussed the wondrous journey that had brought them here.

　　The craft hovered silently above the ground, emitting not the slightest sound in flight.

　　A spring breeze met them, lifting their spirits.

　　To Su Ziqi everything felt dreamlike. Her obscure specialty had unexpectedly proved useful upon this alien world, enabling her to converse with an extraterrestrial; among the group she was the most exhilarated: “They say language is the bridge of communication. See? At the critical moment you experts still need us linguists to translate.”

　　Wang Yue curled her lip and teased: “Indeed, great translator—then translate for us why a planet that ought never to have existed has appeared within the solar system.”

　　“Well… as Uncle Dong suggested, perhaps we have entered a parallel universe.”

　　Zheng Ya spoke with gravity: “Stop joking, both of you. Rather than the paralleluniverse theory, I incline toward the possibility that we have traversed spacetime. Wormholes exist naturally in the cosmos; they may appear spontaneously anywhere and vanish just as suddenly.

　　“En route back to Earth we may have entered a wormhole that opened briefly and proved safe to traverse, carrying us into a different spatial and temporal dimension.”

　　Su Ziqi was startled by the suggestion: “Sister Ya, do you mean that we are not only spatially distant from Earth, but temporally displaced as well?”

　　Zheng Ya continued her analysis: “Precisely. The relics in the Martian stone chamber, dated by carbon14, are at least ten thousand years old. Carbon14 has its limits; the chamber’s true age may stretch to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years.

　　“In remote antiquity the Martians painted upon the lava walls a chart of the stellar system as it then existed. According to this native we now stand upon one of the planets depicted in that Martian mural; the corresponding time must therefore lie at least ten thousand years in the past.”

　　Dong Yifeng shook his head and murmured as if in a daze: “Sister Zheng, are you saying we are no longer in the year 2069 AD, but ten thousand—perhaps a million—years earlier? The explanation is too wild.”

　　“Professor Dong, this is only my personal conjecture; whether it is correct remains uncertain. In the vast body of recorded human history no astronomical record mentions a planet called Mu lying between Mars and Venus.

　　“Even after humanity acquired the capacity for astronomical observation, no such world was ever detected. Yet in the chaotic epochs of remote antiquity, did this unknown planet exist? That remains beyond anyone’s knowledge.”

　　Su Ziqi glanced at the native riding ahead: “Sister Ya’s reasoning is sound. To seek answers and to test whether this native is lying, we must accompany him.”

　　The forest proved far denser and more luxuriant than expected. From the grassland it had appeared merely a wood; once inside, an entirely different realm unfolded.

　　The native rode ahead upon his camelhorse. The animal’s gallop was lightningswift—clearly faster and more enduring than any terrestrial horse.

　　The flying craft followed. Observing the surroundings, they saw that no path originally existed upon the ground; progress was made by threading through gaps among the trees and undergrowth.

　　Before long a narrow trail appeared—an ancient track worn by long years of passage. Thick moss covered the path; a small stream ran along its right side.

　　They raced onward along the trail. At first the roadside trees were only the thickness of a bowl; deeper in, their diameters grew steadily larger, while the ground became a tangle of weeds and shrubs.

　　Within the forest grew all manner of rare and exotic plants and flowers unknown upon Earth, filling the biologist Dong Yifeng with fascination. From the craft he gazed about, uttering continual exclamations of wonder.

　　From the shadowed depths of the wood, where trees blotted out the sky, came intermittent cries of birds and beasts. After a time an absolute silence would fall—a silence that seemed to command every living thing.

　　This alternation of tumult and stillness produced a sensation at once fantastical, mysterious, and faintly terrifying, as though some monster lay hidden in the forest’s heart.

　　After an indeterminate interval they glimpsed, through gaps in the leaves, that the sun had climbed to the zenith.

　　Just as hunger began to assert itself, the native ahead suddenly reined in his mount. Huamei braked sharply and brought the craft to a halt.

　　Upon the trees before them hung clusters of small red fruit, resembling both grapes and jujubes yet larger than either.

　　The orchard stretched widely; the trees appeared to have grown naturally, showing no sign of artificial pruning.

　　The fieryred clusters hung like red lanterns among the branches. The sight of the sky filled with these lanterns lifted the company’s spirits.

　　The native dismounted, tethered his steed, and approached the craft.

　　Coming before Su Ziqi, he inquired whether they were hungry and explained that the fruit of these trees was delicious; they might rest here a while.

　　Delighted, everyone leapt down and gathered beneath the trees, eager to climb and pick the fruit.

　　Yet somehow the trunks were jetblack and as smooth as if coated with oil; no one could gain a foothold, however they tried.

　　“Allow me,” the native said. Laying his spear upon the ground, he sprang upward like a monkey and in the blink of an eye reached the crown.

　　None had expected so tall a man to possess such agility; they stared in astonishment.

　　From the branches he drew a dagger concealed at his waist and severed cluster after cluster of the “red lanterns,” which those below caught as they fell.

　　The flavor indeed resembled that of jujubes, yet the fruit contained no stones and tasted even more pleasantly sweetandsour.

　　They sat upon the ground eating the fruit and, when thirsty, cupped water from the nearby stream.

　　As a paleobiologist Dong Yifeng remained intensely curious about the flora and fauna of this world. Noticing a nearby mound bare of trees where brightly colored flowers bloomed, he slipped away while the others were absorbed in eating; none noticed his departure.

　　Quietly he climbed the mound and examined the blossoms. Their leaves were round, their stems red and thorny; each flower displayed five colors—petals of red, yellow, blue, and purple surrounding a white center.

　　He bent to pluck one and inhaled its rich, heartpenetrating fragrance. Just as he prepared to place it in his pack, the world suddenly spun about him. Strength drained from his limbs; he lacked even the power to open the pack. The next moment he toppled backward into the bed of flowers.