He returns to the governor. “If there is no past, the Yangtze River will never overflow its dykes during your term of office because there’s only one hundred seconds left to this universe. The contracting universe’s future is the expanding universe’s past. The greatest danger won’t occur until 1998. By then, though, you will be a child. It won’t be your responsibility. There’s still a minute. It doesn’t matter what you do now. There won’t be any consequences in the future. Everyone can do what they like and not worry about the future. There is no future now. As for me, I now just do what I wanted to do but couldn’t because of my tracheitis.” He digs out a bowl of tobacco from a pocket with his pipe. He lights the pipe, then smokes contentedly.

The blueshift countdown: fifty seconds.

“This can’t be!” the governor shouts. “It’s illogical. Time playing back? If everything will go in reverse, are you saying that we’ll speak backward? That’s inconceivable!”

“You’ll get used to it.”

The blueshift countdown: forty seconds.

“In other words, afterward, everything will be repeated. History and life will become boring and predictable.”

“No, it won’t. You will be in another time. The current past will become your future. We are now in the future of that time. You can’t remember the future. Once the blueshift starts, your future will become blank. You won’t remember any of it. You won’t know any of it.”

The blueshift countdown: twenty seconds.

“This can’t be!”

“As you will discover, going from old age to youth, from maturity to naïveté, is quite rational, quite natural. If anyone speaks about time going in another direction, you will think he’s a fool. There’s about ten seconds left. Soon, in about ten seconds, the universe will pass through a strange point. Time won’t exist in that moment. After that, we will enter the contracting universe.”

The blueshift countdown: eight seconds.

“This can’t be! This really can’t be!!”

“No matter. You’ll know soon.”

The blueshift countdown: five, four, three, two, one, zero.

The starlight in the universe changes from a troublesome red to an empty white …

… time reaches a strange point …

… starlight changes from white to a beautiful, tranquil blue. The blueshift has begun. The contraction has begun.

…

…

.nugeb sah noitcartnoc ehT .nugeb sah tfihseulb ehT .eulb liuqnart ,lufituaeb a ot etihw morf segnahc thgilrats …

… tniop egnarts a sehcaer emit …

… etihw ytpme na ot der emoselbuort a morf segnahc esrevinu eht ni thgilrats ehT

.orez ,eno ,owt ,eerht ,ruof ,evif :nwodtnuoc tfihseulb ehT

“.noos wonk ll’uoY .rettam oN”

“!!eb t’nac yllaer sihT !eb t’nac sihT”

.sdnoces thgie :nwodtnuoc tfihseulb ehT