545 Life Is Finite While Knowledge Is Infinite (1/2)
Chapter 545: Life Is Finite While Knowledge Is Infinite
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Another morning.
Other elves, including Richard who rarely got up early in the morning, had gone downstairs. Zhang Zian was cleaning the shop downstairs with Wang Qian and Li Kun. Everything was moving along and orderly as usual.
Pi briefly took off the pince-nez glasses on its nose, rubbed its eyes, and put the glasses back on its nose. It jumped from the swivel chair to the table and then jumped onto the windowsill. Next to the laptop, there was a crumpled old newspaper. A Microsoft Word document was displayed on the laptop's screen, and the cursor was flashing at the end of the content. Except for occasional typos and inexplicable numbers, the content of the document was almost identical to the front-page headline of the old newspaper.
Pi placed its forehead against the window glass and stared blankly at the pedestrians that were passing by the pet shop. Most of the pedestrians were in a hurry, walking in silence. Some people were walking together and talking with each other, while some passers-by were talking on their phones. Without exception, they were speaking Chinese.
When it looked farther away, Pi could see an old neighborhood across the street.
Lu Yiyun lived in that neighborhood. Pi had checked before. It even knew Lu Yiyun's apartment number. It also knew that her cat was called Jasmine, who was abandoned by its previous owner.
Yes, Pi knew about the life of Lu Yiyun.
Pi's untitled book contained everything. The book had recorded every detail, whether it was known or unknown to other people, about Lu Yiyun's life. She was a good girl before, and then in the eyes of her parents, she transformed into a rebellious girl who didn't like studying but cared about painting. She had drawn several illustrations, and currently, she was trying to publish a comic strip on social media. Yes, every detail of her life had been written in the book.
There was nothing special about Lu Yiyun, and Zhang Zian was just an ordinary person. However, Zhang Zian's life had also been recorded in detail in this book. Zhang Zian successfully downloaded the Pet Hunter game before the ”limited download time” expired. Later, he luckily encountered Galaxy and won the trust of Galaxy. Afterward, he captured Fina, Old Time Tea, Richard, Snowy Lionet, and Famous one by one. Not a single aspect of Zhang Zian's life was omitted, even all his thoughts had been recorded in the book.
Not only the life of Lu Yiyun and Zhang Zian could be found in the book, in fact, the life of every pedestrian that was walking in front of the pet shop had been written in the untitled book. As long as Pi took some time to read the book, it would find out about the lives of these people.
Not only the deeds of these living people had been recorded in the book, theoretically, the deeds of their parents, grandparents, and ancestors could be found in the book.
Not only the evolution of human beings, but the evolution of all the creatures on earth had been written in this book.
In fact, everything in the entire universe, including things of the past, present, and future, had been faithfully recorded in this book.
While knowledge is infinite, life is finite. No one, not even Pi, could grasp all the knowledge in the universe. Although, Pi could find out about the life of the people passing in front of the pet shop from the book, it had no intention of wasting its own time to learn about the life of these strangers.
Though no one had told it before, from the book, Pi knew that Galaxy had experienced endless reincarnations in the black box; Pi knew about Fina's heart-wrenching departure from Cleopatra VII; Pi knew that the righteous Old Time Tea had helped preserve justice in the jungles and mountains; Pi knew about Richard's melancholy because Richard couldn't meet its previous owner Dr. Irene Maxine Pepperberg; Pi knew that Famous was creating the new history in its world of the imagined landscape…
Because Pi was interested in them and wanted to know about them, it went to look up their lives in the book.
Even for Pi, looking up the untitled book was an extremely difficult task, so it only opened the book when necessary or when it was interested in something or someone.
The untitled book was not omnipotent. The book only recorded everything in English. For example, Zhang Zian had written a composition about his mother in primary school. Pi could find the English translation of each sentence of this composition, but it could never know what Chinese characters had been used in this composition.
Theoretically, the untitled book also recorded the things of the present and the future. But the texts responsible for recording the things of the present and the future were changing constantly and were difficult to interpret due to their uncertainty. Only the texts that recorded history were fixated because history is a foregone conclusion.
”Pi, what are you doing?”
Zhang Zian appeared at the door to the living room. He knocked on the door before coming in, so that he won't startle Pi.
”Eeek!”
Pi grinned at him, pointing out the window.
”Looking at the scenery?”
Zhang Zian also went to the window and looked outside with it.
”Looking outside is good for your eyes, especially when you have spent some time in front of the computer.” He pointed to his own eyes and said, ”Too bad it is winter now and most of the leaves are gone. A little greenery would be even better for your eyes.”
”Eeek!”
Pi happily waved its hand. It jumped from the windowsill to the table, and then to the swivel chair. Pi typed something in the Word document: It's okay. If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
Zhang Zian frowned and thought, ”This sentence is said by whom?”
Pi typed: Shelley.
Zhang Zian suddenly realized, ”Yes, he is a British poet, right? Pi, you are so resourceful! Although Richard can also quote from the classics, it always changes some words to create dirty jokes.”
”Eeek!”
Pi typed: Richard is very funny.
”It is, I guess…by the way, Pi, you are a skilled typist now!” Zhang Zian noticed that Pi could almost type smoothly without looking at the keyboard.
”Eeek!”