Remembrance of Earth's Past, #3
Death's End
by Cixin Liu
Contents
About Seventeen Billion Years After the Beginning of Time Our Star
Overview
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan awaken inside the completed black domain and discover that nearly nineteen million years have passed on Planet Blue, now transformed into a purple, evolved world. Their hope of reuniting with 艾 AA and Yun Tianming is shattered, but a buried inscription reveals that the two lived happily and left a mysterious gift. The chapter shifts the story from cosmic displacement and loss toward a final unknown passage, as Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan choose to enter a timeless door together.
Summary
Cheng Xin wakes in the revived shuttle after sixteen days of hibernation. Guan Yifan has restored contact with Hunter and confirms that the shuttle systems can operate under reduced lightspeed, using a backup antimatter drive designed for black-domain conditions. The shuttle and Hunter decelerate out of lightspeed, revealing that the DX3906 system is now sealed inside a reduced-lightspeed black domain, with outside stars distorted into strange lines.
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan descend to Planet Blue, which has become a purple world. The vegetation has evolved, the atmosphere is thicker and richer in oxygen, and the old landing site is now a dense forest. When the shuttle lands, the mobile trees flee from its thrusters, but Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan find no sign of Halo, Yun Tianming’s ship, or any human presence.
Because the landscape has changed completely, Guan Yifan uses Hunter to scan the planet. Hunter finds no evidence of humans or other intelligent life. Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan then test rock samples to determine how much time has passed in the black domain, and the results show that about 18,903,729 Earth years have elapsed. Cheng Xin breaks down, grieving for Yun Tianming and surrendering to the enormity of time, while her bond with Guan Yifan deepens.
Cheng Xin insists that 艾 AA would have left words carved into stone, so Guan Yifan asks Hunter to perform deep scans beneath the landing area. The first scans find nothing, but the deepest scan reveals large carved words buried in bedrock. The surviving inscription says that AA and Yun Tianming lived happily together, left something for Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan, and urges them to survive a collapse and go to somewhere new. This discovery comforts Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan by proving that AA and Tianming found happiness long ago.
At dusk, Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan notice a faint glowing rectangle hovering in the clearing. The object behaves like a selective door: branches and small creatures pass through, but Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan’s limbs vanish into it instead of emerging on the other side. The door, which has existed outside time and waited for them for eighteen million years, identifies them as the expected humans. Refusing to risk separation again, Cheng Xin persuades Guan Yifan to enter together, and they pass through hand in hand.
Who Appears
- Cheng Xinawakens in the black domain, grieves lost time, finds the message, and enters the door.
- Guan Yifanrestores systems, guides scans and dating, comforts Cheng Xin, and enters the door with her.
- Hunterorbital AI spacecraft that scans Planet Blue and detects the buried carved inscription.
- 艾 AAabsent but central; her foresight is confirmed by the carved message left with Tianming.
- Yun Tianmingabsent but central; the inscription shows he lived happily with AA long before.
- The doortimeless intelligent artifact that recognizes Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan and admits them.