Chapter 42: Cosmic Filter

The sun halo phenomenon lasted for a full half hour.

However, that bizarre spectacle of the "twisted sun" lasted for only a few minutes.

Still, a few minutes were more than enough.

Lin Xu took numerous photographs of Jiang Xingye, and both of them returned home well satisfied with their excursion.

After coming down the mountain, Lin Xu took Jiang Xingye out for lunch. While sitting at the table, he opened up a short-video app. True to Jiang Xingye's words, the trending searches across the entire platform were completely dominated by the halo phenomenon.

"An epic sun halo! Synchronized global viewing!"

"Are the Trisolarans invading? The sun has completely changed!"

"Managed to capture the lovesick sun today..."

"Hello family members, I am currently at a ranch in Texas, USA. How come I can't see any sun halo??"

...

Lin Xu scrolled through the posts one by one, while Jiang Xingye, sitting across from him, was intently reviewing her own pictures.

"How strange."

Jiang Xingye murmured, zooming in on a photo while furrowing her brow.

"The shape of the sun in these is just too weird... It doesn't feel like it has anything to do with a regular sun halo at all."

"Has nothing to do with a sun halo?"

Lin Xu blinked in surprise.

"Isn't this the standard sun halo phenomenon?"

"The outer ring is a standard sun halo, yes."

Jiang Xingye moved her seat to sit right beside Lin Xu, held her phone screen up in front of him, and continued:

"But look at this. In several of the photos, the shape of the sun is completely different."

"A triangle, a quadrilateral, a star, a heart..."

"If it were merely a sun halo caused by the refraction of high-altitude ice crystal clouds, it shouldn't be able to achieve this kind of effect."

"How should I put this... You know those star filters used in photography?"

"I know."

Lin Xu nodded.

He actually did know about them—not because he was an avid photographer, but purely because he had come across them on short-video platforms.

The so-called star filter is a mask densely patterned with specially shaped holes placed in front of a camera lens.

Once this mask is attached, out-of-focus points of light will dynamically shift their shapes to match the specific geometry of the light-transmitting apertures when capturing images.

Heart shapes, pentagram shapes, cat face shapes...

They had everything.

Yet what did this sort of gadget have to do with the sun?

"Are you saying someone put a filter in front of the sun?"

"Yeah! A cosmic-scale filter!"

Jiang Xingye leaned in close to Lin Xu with a mysterious air, her warm breath brushing directly against his face.

It tickled slightly.

"Do you suppose this could be some kind of aerospace weapon test?"

"Your imagination is running a bit too wild."

Lin Xu was left speechless between laughter and tears.

"What kind of weapon could alter the shape of the sun to this extent? A Dyson sphere?"

"Not necessarily."

Jiang Xingye shrugged.

"Maybe it's something like Starlink or high-altitude satellites."

"Achieving an effect like this doesn't necessarily require a Dyson sphere; cosmic ray interference could pull it off too."

"Don't you think it's completely abnormal?"

"Look at the short-video platforms; not a single official media outlet has stepped out to offer a popular science explanation."

"Given the usual habits of our domestic propaganda departments, missing the chance to ride a massive trending topic like this is practically fatal to them."

"If they can manage to keep their mouths shut... unless it's genuinely completely unexplainable, the probability is high..."

"That it's something our own people cooked up."

"Which possibility do you think is more likely?"

This question stumped Lin Xu for a moment.

Honestly, going by conventional logic, the latter possibility indeed seemed much more probable.

Yet, Lin Xu had a lingering intuition that things were not nearly that simple.

The apocalypse was destined to descend in twenty years, yet he still remained completely ignorant of what it truly was.

Could it be possible that the bizarre "sun halo" he witnessed today was actually one of the harbengers of the end of the world?

Lin Xu's mood shifted instantly.

Frowning, he spoke up:

"Let's hope it really was our own doing..."

"If it wasn't us, then this whole thing is... well, somewhat eerie."

"There's nothing eerie about it at all."

Jiang Xingye dismissed the thought with an indifferent wave of her hand.

"The universe is so vast, there are plenty of celestial phenomena that defy explanation."

"Just think, our history of observing the cosmos only spans a few millennia."

"In reality, on a cosmic scale, many peculiar celestial events occur only once every hundreds of thousands or millions of years."

"Maybe we just got lucky."

"That's true."

Lin Xu nodded, lightly brushing the topic aside.

He kept a thought locked inside, unsaid.

We might not necessarily be lucky.

If this event truly heralds the apocalypse, then the luck of all mankind is rotten to the core...

However, he had no way to voice these thoughts to Jiang Xingye for the time being.

He had no choice but to stay silent.

At that moment, their ordered dishes were served at the table.

Instead of returning to her previous seat, Jiang Xingye simply remained sitting right next to Lin Xu.

Lin Xu suddenly realized something and asked:

"Did you say all that on purpose?"

"Did you deliberately move over to sit beside me?"

"I'm moving back right now!"

Jiang Xingye glared at him indignantly.

Lin Xu quickly grabbed her arm and chuckled, saying:

"Sit right here, sitting right here is great..."

...

After finishing their meal, Lin Xu took Jiang Xingye shopping, played claw crane games with her, and watched a movie.

Essentially, they checked off every single activity standard for a couple in the ambiguous early stages of dating.

The distance between them was closing rapidly, and whenever Lin Xu glanced at Jiang Xingye, a subtle flutter stirred in his heart.

Realistically, it was hard to imagine anyone disliking a girl like her.

She had great looks, strong capabilities, and most importantly, she showed him a uniquely passionate warmth.

This sensation of being "treated specially" was something Lin Xu had previously only encountered in the video captions of flirtatious streamers.

Experiencing it firsthand, however, was undeniably intoxicating.

Yet Lin Xu found himself unable to clearly distinguish whether he genuinely liked Jiang Xingye or if it was merely due to her identity as his "ex-wife."

---- But did that matter?

Let nature take its course.

They played until dinnertime before heading back, and as he walked Jiang Xingye all the way to her doorstep, she suddenly leaned against the doorframe, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she asked:

"Care to come inside for a sit-down?"

"Then I shall accept your kind invitation without reservation."

As Lin Xu made a motion to push the door open, Jiang Xingye slammed it shut with a laugh and called out:

"In your dreams!"

"I'm going to take a shower!"

"Take good care of my water bottle! Drink plenty of goji berry tea!"

Left with a mixture of amusement and exasperation, Lin Xu looked at the water bottle hanging back on his own shoulder, turned around, stepped into the elevator, and returned to his apartment.

Having ignored WeChat messages for the better part of the day, he pulled out his phone to find a message already waiting from Ren Jian.

"Classmate Lin Xu, the acquisition terms for the Donghua Chemical Fiber Plant have basically been settled."

"Priced at 50 million, it's a bundled buyout of all equipment assets, technical assets, and the company's existing human resources."

"If you have no issues on your end, we can initiate the final round of negotiations on Monday and nail down the acquisition details."

So fast??

Lin Xu was dumbfounded.

To be honest, he had never seen any corporate acquisition proceed at such a breakneck speed.

Even buying a street-side vendor stall usually required a few days of haggling back and forth, right?

Ren Jian seemed to be pushing this matter forward with unsparing effort.

He possessed an indescribably strong and unshakeable confidence in Lin Xu, himself, and the prospects of those two documents.

Where did this confidence come from?

He couldn't fathom it.

But it didn't matter.

Regardless of why Ren Jian dared to make such a gamble, Lin Xu could at least confirm one thing: he had bet correctly.

Accelerate, accelerate, accelerate!

Lin Xu sent a confirmation message back to Ren Jian and synchronized the update with Xu Jin.

Immediately afterward, he took a quick shower and collapsed onto his bed.

The number on his wristband had returned to 3, and he could clearly feel that his physical condition was optimal.

It was time to accomplish some major feats.

Infiltrate the Purple Mountain Observatory!

Seize control of the deep space observation station!

Establish contact with Jiang Xingye!

Right, and by the way, test whether he could find any clues regarding this "abnormal celestial phenomenon."

If this anomaly truly connected to the apocalypse...

Then without a doubt, it would be of monumental significance to his mission of uncovering the truth behind the end of the world.

Gently touching his wristband, Lin Xu watched as his consciousness drifted upward into the high altitude...