Don't go to the moon, there are gods on the far side of the moon.

With the city's lighting dimmed, the space city didn't feel like a space city for the first time. The advertising screens that were always blindingly bright went dark, revealing instead the steam rising from the breakfast stalls on the street. Someone looked up to look at the sky, only to be reminded by a patrolman not to take pictures of the highly reflective glass. The person muttered a couple of words, but still lowered their phone and took a picture of their shadow on the ground.

When the order to lower the lighting level reached the commercial street, the shops were filled with complaints. What truly spurred the implementation was a photo sent by the exhibition hall maintenance team: Old Zhou's bandaged hand was pressed against the main switch of the light box, and a note read, "Keep it down a bit during the day, and cause less trouble at night." The words weren't formal, but they were more effective than a formal notice.

The moment the curtains were drawn, the main control cabin was plunged into a somber darkness.

Not all the lights went out. The indicator lights on the devices were still on, the screen brightness was reduced to the lowest setting, and the medical monitoring lines were flickering. But once the natural light of early morning was completely blocked out, everyone instinctively breathed a sigh of relief.

Qin Lan didn't ask why, she just implemented the lockdown.

"All exterior windows are to be blocked from light. The core area of ​​the space city is to switch to low-light mode. Notify the western suburbs, Tianheng Lightless Storage, and Mengwang Laboratory to prohibit strong light from shining directly on abnormal recording objects."

Only after the command was given did someone whisper, "What does it mean that it's looking at the light?"

Xu Wangshu enlarged the rubbings of the Braille copper plates.

Outside the North Heavenly Gate, do not look at the name, only at the light.

This statement didn't sound like a warning; it sounded more like the experience Lin Wangchuan had gained under extremely limited conditions. The old Heavenly Court system looked at names, permissions, bloodlines, and serial numbers. But things outside the shell didn't accept this system.

It sees light.

Xiaoman suddenly said, "The frosty areas in the Dream Network corridor are all bright walls."

Xu Wangshu nodded: "The Lightless Treasury has no light, so it can only grow where it is touched and cannot fully unfold."

Wen Zhaolin looked extremely pale.

"Solar sail".

Everyone realized it at the same time.

Last night, in order to allow the flame to sleep in the darkness, the Earth temporarily adjusted the Tianheng solar sail to create minimal shading in its orbit. The solar sail itself is a huge reflective structure. If one can truly "see light" from outside the shell, then it may be able to reposition the Earth by following the reflection of the solar sail.

Qin Lan immediately retrieved the orbital data.

The solar sail is in a stable attitude, and its reflectivity is below the safety limit. However, at the edge of the data, there is a very small, anomalous bright spot that is slowly moving.

The technician's voice tightened: "This isn't a reflection of sunlight."

The bright spots did not follow a regular trajectory.

It's like an eye looking at people through the water, probing the edge of the solar sail to see where it shines brighter.

Lu Chengong whispered, "Could it have seen the fragments of the Nine Suns as well?"

Xu Wangshu: "Yes."

That's the real trouble.

The fragments of the nine suns are remnants of solar weapons, their golden-red patterns shining like fire scars left by the old celestial court in deep space. If the unknown observers outside the shell do not recognize names and only follow the light, then the fragments of the nine suns will become the most conspicuous landmarks.

The fire, which had been captured nine days ago, failed to be extinguished last night and retreated into the depths of darkness, but it has not yet been completely extinguished.

Wen Qingyue's channel was connected again.

[The bright spot on the Tianheng solar sail is abnormal; I request to take over attitude control.]

Qin Lan directly refused: "Control has been transferred to the interim review panel."

You don't understand solar sails.

"You know, that's why we almost put the fire back into the arrow last night."

Wen Qingyue was blocked.

Wen Zhaolin spoke up, "She's partly right. The solar sail can't be simply retracted. When it's retracted, there's a high-reflectivity flip, which makes it even brighter than it is now."

Looking at the orbital diagram, Xu Wangshu suddenly asked, "What if we let the solar sail continue to borrow darkness, but direct the bright spots in the opposite direction of the nine sun fragments?"

Lu Chengong raised his eyes.

"Trying to fool it by using a sail as a mirror?"

“It’s not a lie,” Xu Wangshu said. “It doesn’t care about fame, it only cares about light. So let’s give it a light that has no people, no fire, and no bow.”

Qin Lan immediately understood: "Empty reflection corridor."

The technician quickly performed the calculations.

"A cold light source is needed as a decoy. The brightness cannot be too high, otherwise it will disturb the nine suns; it cannot be too low, otherwise it will be difficult to observe from outside the shell. It is best to be at the outer edge of the Earth-Moon system."

Xiaoman suddenly looked up.

"Would a lighthouse on the far side of the moon work?"

The main control room is quiet.

The Moonlit Lighthouse is a human surveillance node left behind after the first phase of the Southern Heavenly Gate incident. Its light is neither sunlight nor the divine light of the old Heavenly Court, but a low-frequency beacon driven by human verification records. It represents human beings guarding the boundaries, not sacrifice.

This would allow observation from outside the shell to see the lighthouse on the far side of the moon, but the risks are extremely high.

Xu Wangshu did not immediately deny it.

She only asked, "Who's on duty at the lighthouse now?"

Qin Lan checked: "Remote automatic low power, warehouse recorder on duty, tonight's was originally Dr. Xu's."

Lu Chenggong frowned: "She's right here."

"So now no one is voluntarily on duty."

The toolbox flashlight turned on.

We mustn't let it look at the lighthouse.

Xu Wangshu looked at the toolbox: "Reason."

The lighthouse holds our records.

Lin Jibai types very slowly.

It doesn't care about names, but its light carries a person.

This statement silenced everyone.

The Moonlit Lighthouse is no ordinary light. Its low-frequency beacon contains the shared witness of everyone on the night the Southern Heavenly Gate closed: Lin Xiaoman's dream, Xu Wangshu's record, the reversal of Lu Chen's bow severing the core of the Heavenly Ladder, the lingering echo of Lin Wangchuan trapped under the gate, and the echo left behind by Lin Jibai after he was almost forgotten.

If we follow the lighthouse to observe the unknown outside the shell, we may not recognize its name, but we may see the most fundamental boundary record of humanity.

Wen Zhaolin suddenly said, "Use the Tianheng to discard the sails."

Qin Lan looked at him coldly.

He continued, "In the early days of the Earth-Moon Ladder, there was a batch of failed reflective sails, sealed in the high-orbit debris belt. There are no records of human habitation, no contact with the spark, and no Hou Yi sequence markers. As long as one side is lit up, it can be used as an empty target."

Wen Qingyue immediately objected.

The abandoned sail lacks stability and may crash into near-Earth orbit if activated.

"So someone needs to manually calibrate it," Wen Zhaolin said.

Lu Chengong scoffed, "You're not planning to send someone else again, are you?"

Wen Zhaolin remained silent for a second.

"I'll go."

No one spoke in the main control room.

Wen Qingyue's voice suddenly turned cold.

[Not allowed.]

Wen Zhaolin looked at the garbage conveyor belt on the screen with a calm expression.

"These discarded sails were prepared by me for the Earth-Moon Ladder. If they become road signs today, it should be my job to move them."

Xu Wangshu was not swayed by this sense of responsibility to the point of losing his judgment.

"You are not in a spacewalk state."

"Tianheng has a near-rail maintenance boat."

"Your body might not be able to handle it."

"I am stronger than Lin Jibai is now."

The toolbox flashlight is on.

Don't try to scam me.

Wen Zhaolin actually smiled.

"The fact that he still has the energy to curse proves that my judgment was correct."

Qin Lan finalized the plan: the Tianheng near-orbit maintenance craft would be launched, with Wen Zhaolin accompanying it as the old sail identifier, but not allowed to control it alone; the Human Verification Board would assign two astronauts to take over the piloting; the solar sail would maintain low illumination; the monitoring of the nine-day debris would be encrypted; Xiaoman would not connect to the DreamNet; Lin Jibai would only serve as a backup for ground mechanical echoes and would not connect to the orbital optical path.

With everything arranged, the city outside the main control cabin had entered a strange, low-light daytime state.

Streetlights went out, and the glass curtain walls lowered their sunshades, as if the space city had suddenly learned to close its eyes during the day.

However, on the orbital diagram, the unusual bright spot at the edge of the solar sail is still moving slowly.

It paused for a moment.

Then, it shifted half an inch towards the near-ground high-orbit garbage belt.

It's as if you can already see the abandoned sail about to be lit up.