Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang

Author:Hao Jingfang [Jingfang, Hao]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

11 | Death and Life

Still a bit disoriented from their ordeal in the hallucinatory fog, Yun Fan and Chang Tian followed the blue glowing arrows on the ground.

Their progress became easier. A warm and harmonious light suffused the air—it came from all the surfaces, restorative and comforting. Soft white sand appeared underneath their feet, and a breeze caressed their faces.

After about fifty meters, the corridor turned slightly, and Yun Fan noticed images on the walls. At first, she thought she might be seeing things since the images didn’t persist but vanished after a while. But gradually, more images appeared and stayed around, and the walls turned a warmer color, like the loess of her home. The images on the walls were like the petroglyphs of ancient humans more than forty thousand years ago.

Step-by-step, they walked through humanity’s history as told by petroglyphs, cave paintings, murals: the drawing of the red buffalo from Sulawesi, the wildly gyrating dancers on smoky cave walls, Egyptian pilgrims and pharaohs laden with jewels in stiff poses, Zeus and the Olympians in friezes, paintings of David and Solomon, the glyph-filled niches dedicated to the maize god and to Kinich Ahau, the rigid poses of saints and angels from the Middle Ages…

They identified the images; they discussed them. Yun Fan sometimes told Chang Tian stories about the gods, but even she couldn’t explain why these images were here. The pictures seemed to be a response to their passage, their order the same as their places in history. An ethereal music that had no discernible melody filled the air.

Finally, they estimated that they were halfway through the circle of the ouroboros-loong. The light from the ground brightened. Chang Tian and Yun Fan looked at each other, uncertain whether this was a good omen or ill. They pressed forward. The ever-growing light was like an enticing embrace, guiding them forward, gradually enveloping them.

The light, almost blinding, formed into a tunnel, and as they stepped inside, they realized that they had reached the end of the route. Chang Tian and Yun Fan had passed through the entire length of the loong and reached the tail. The light tunnel pointed up, and as they lifted their faces, they saw that a long ladder reached high above, the other end invisible in the distance. For the first time, the two understood what it meant to look up Jacob’s Ladder.

“Where do you think that goes to?” Yun Fan wondered.

“The loong has formed into a wheel,” Chang Tian said. “So this is a spoke that leads to the hub. Now we must climb up against the artificial gravity from the wheel’s spin.”

“We made a big circle, almost back to the point where we started, just so we could go climbing?”

“I guess so.” Chang Tian looked up and then looked at Yun Fan. “Are you up for this?”

“How did Jiang Liu put it? We’re right at the door to the theater; how can we go home now?”

“Sounds about right,” Chang Tian said, testing the rungs. “Let’s go see the movie.

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