Return at Polar Night

Five years after Xu Shoudong disappeared in Antarctica, a thirteenth letter that should not exist appeared at the bottom of a camphor wood box in his old house in Harbin. The envelope is a blue-edged aviation seal used by the scientific expedition team. The postmark is February 17, 1990. The address of the sender and the recipient are exactly the same. There are only three lines in the letter: a coordinate and the sentence "Don't make a wish until you find me." No one has ever sent this letter, and it cannot be burned. Xu Wangsheng, a twenty-one-year-old apprentice in an instrument factory, boarded the southbound train with a brass compass that did not point to north and forty-three yuan and seventy cents. He thought this was a journey to find his father, and that by finding the observatory he could find out why his father left, why his mother died, and why he grew up living a lie. Deep in the Antarctic interior, ten strange lands unfold one after another. Shadowless Sea, Snow Trace Station, Moss Cang Valley, Tidal Heritage Port, Amethyst Fault, Ladder Tianmen, Deer Ming Ancient Forest, Molten Whistle Ridge, Star Silk Market, Ten-ring Star Track - every time he walked through a stop, he was forced to face a memory that he least wanted to admit: his mother would also want to escape, his father would be afraid, and he died in a car accident for seven minutes when he was thirteen years old. When he finally arrived at the Aurora Observatory, he discovered that the station was not a temple for wish fulfillment, but an instrument for accurately measuring "what you are willing to pay for." My father stayed alone for forty-seven years, just to postpone an old debt until he grew up. The Observatory gives three options: Resurrection of mother, return of father, or not making a wish - but each option points to the same logic: pain can be settled, as long as you are willing to pay the bill. This is not a wish-granted story. This is a story about "how people continue to live after their wishes are rejected." Concept: The concept of "Returning to the Polar Night" is only one sentence: Kindness does not mean not owing debts, but choosing to continue living with it after you owe debts. The whole book is written about "accounts". The father owes his son an explanation and his wife a life; Qin Shaohai owes Xu Shoudong a true death report; Xu Wangsheng owes his mother "I promise you." Ten Strange Lands are ten old accounts. Every time I go to a stop, I dig out one and read it again. But the end point is not "paying off". The observatory gives three options, which are essentially "settlement of pain" plans: exchange everyone's disappearance for the resurrection of the mother, exchange one's forty-seven years for the return of the father, or exchange one's father's disappearance for one's return cleanly. Xu Wangsheng pulled out the copper wire and rejected the entire logic. He did not refuse to pay, but said - these accounts do not need to be settled, I have to live with them. Xu Shoudong planted garlic seedlings on cans and calculated that his son would be thirty-two years old. That was not repaying the debt, but living with the debt. Li Yueqing wanted to escape to the south but ended up staying. Kindness does not mean not making mistakes, but not running away after making mistakes. In the end, Xu Wangsheng still suffered from insomnia and still hated his father, but he no longer asked Jiguang for anything in return. He just put the damp candy into his mouth and let it slowly sweeten. What I really want to say is: You don't need to be a person without wounds, you just need to be a person who is willing to continue eating, repairing watches, and waiting for dawn with wounds. It puts this sentence into the wind, snow and spiritual beasts just to make it sound worthy of being taken seriously.