Chapter 396 (1/2)
Chapter 396: Debating about Night with the Headmaster of the Ac
The word ”Yue” had been existing in this world for a long time, like Yuelun Kingdom and its famous Yue tree, whose petal color is called ”yuebai”. However, the concrete meaning of ”Yue” remained obscure.
The ”Yue” that the Headmaster of Academy asked here was for sure not the color, but the moon. This question made Ning Que nervous. If he were to behave as he had in the past, he would definitely play dumb. But this time, it would be very foolish to pretend.
Because the master had pointed out that he was born a man who knew everything.
With his head down, Ning Que felt cold sweat running down his back and soaking his clothes. After a long silence, he answered in a shaky voice, ”The sun appears when the moon disappears. The light s.h.i.+nes when the darkness leaves. So, the moon might be the one opposite to the sun, as the sun appears in the day and the moon appears at night.”
The Headmaster of the Academy replied, ”Be more specific.”
Looking at the cliffs not far from him and the flowing clouds under the stars, Ning Que again fell into silence. Then he said, ”Perhaps... there is a giant ball floating in the night sky that can reflect the light from the sun, making itself bright at night.”
He could not explain how he could describe the moon that did not exist in this world.
The master watched him, smiled, and then helped him with an explanation that might not have been reasonable, but at least made sense. ”It looks like you have seen something quite interesting in your dream.”
Hearing about the dream, Ning Que looked up at the master, who stood on the edge of the cliff with his clothes flapping in the wind. Somehow, he had gotten something.
”It's an interesting idea.”
The Headmaster of the Academy turned to the sky and said admiringly, ”In an everlasting night, we need some light.”
”Everything in the world has its opposite. There's the sun in the day and it's understandable to have a moon in the night. But if there really is a moon, where would it be? If the moon really reflects the
sun, then is it true that the sun is in our world and we just can't see it in the darkness?”
”Then when night falls, where is the sun? Does it really go down beneath the earth we stand on and rise at dawn?”
”Doesn't that mean that the sun is turning around our world? But the world we live in is a flat open land with an endless abyss on its edge. Why did I never see the sun going down into the abyss after waiting for a dozen days? Did it just suddenly disappear?”
The master looked at the sky and whispered. It was not Ning Que that he was talking to, but himself, who had spent years struggling for answers.
After a few moments, he looked toward the distant Chang'an City and frowned. ”There are still many things that don't make sense. But if the world is really a ball, everything seems to make sense.”
People in the secular world had been accustomed to the sun's daily movement as well as being shrouded in the glory of Haotian, just like the breakfast stalls in the street and the moss alongside the well. They never doubted it or thought about why these things existed.
But the Headmaster of the Academy was not a man in the secular world. He needed to think.
Few people in the world could understand his whisper, and even the people who heard these words would think him a somewhat mad old man.
Ning Que had gotten something. He seemed a little bit disconsolate and then a look of admiration arose on his face.
Obviously, the master knew nothing about astronomy. He just followed Ning Que's description and further deduced, gradually approaching the truth that did not belong to this world, but another one— not in the past, but far into the future.
”I have looked at the sky for many years.”
The master pointed to the distant dark canopy above the cliff and stars, and said, ”Those stars always remain in their positions no matter how many years have pa.s.sed and will pa.s.s. They don't change, which means the earth and the sky are relatively still. This kind of stability is full of cla.s.sical solemnity and eternal beauty. But it would be a bore to last so long.”
Following the Headmaster of the Academy's arm, Ning Que looked at the sky. He did not know what the master intended to say.
”The stars have been getting dimmer every day since the beginning of the Tianqi era. There's no difference in the eyes of mortals, except for me.”
The Headmaster of the Academy continued, ”The Imperial Astronomer had seen their darkening once and predicted that 'When night covers every star, no peace would be found in the country'.”
Ning Que knew it was this sentence that would bring wars to the Tang Empire and indirectly lead Lee Yu to go to the gra.s.sland for marriage several years later. However, he just realized after hearing the master's words that the prophecy was real, at least the first half, and the stars really were getting dim!