The astronomy class was also wonderful. Astronomy professor reminded one of the grandfathers in cartoon pictures. He had white hair and white beard. His hair was very few to expose his shining forehead. When Sophie first saw him, she guessed there must be a lot of profound knowledge in his brain. The very first knowledge Sophie learnt from him was truth spoken by German philosopher Immanuel Kant, read at the beginning of the first astronomy class:

Zwei Dinge erfuellen Das Gemuth mit immer neuer und zunehmender Bewunderung und Erfurcht, je oefter und anhaltender sich die Nachdenkung damit beschaeftigt, der besternte Himmel ueber mir und das moralische Geselz in mir. (Two things fill my mind with ever-increasing wander and awe: the starry skies above me and the moral law within me.)

This was the first time Sophie heard this sentence. With her eyes closed, she mused the truth in these sentences. She had never felt so peaceful. In this silence she heard her own heartbeat, as if she was in the great universe. On her way back to her dorm, she looked at the stars full in the sky and she pondered this philosophy: “The truth of beauty exists everywhere in the universe, and the deepest beauty can be found at the bottom of human being’s heart.”

At the end of November, the astronomy professor has finished the textbook. The professor said his next plan was to organize the students in astronomy class to visit the observatory in Xinglong County, Bei Jing. Sophie was extremely excited when she heard this, and her roommates admired her good luck. They asked Sophie to bring them something curious in the mountain and she promised happily. 

As early as five o’clock the next morning, Sophie set off by bus with Star and her other classmates. The bus circled the great mountain for a while and then stopped in the middle. 

When Sophie got off the bus, she was very excited. She had never seen a sky so blue and the clouds so clean. If the sky in the city was a dirty patch of cloth, then the sky here was a wet blue handkerchief. She and Star ran to the pine grove hand in hand. 

It had just stopped snowing. The air was fresh, and the pine trees were all covered with snow. They climbed onto the stone steps and picked the cones. Sophie picked a cone for every one of her roommates and Star’s got a branch for herself. Then they walked along the crooked mountain road taking photos for each other. They even discovered a secret bamboo grove. 

It was already noon. So they walked back to the hotel. But when they reached there, there was not a single person. An old man told them, their professor and classmates had gone to the observatory half an hour ago. They asked where the observatory was, and the old man pointed at a white dot in the distance. It was the white dome of the observatory. 

Then they ran to the white dot, and soon turned sweaty and their cheeks flushed. The air in the mountain was so fresh that they would like to gasp in the fresh air as much as possible. Everyday Sophie lived in the city and she had to put up with the polluted air. The air in the mountain was sweet and pure. For the first time the sky in her eyes had restored its true color. She even hoped she should never reach the white dome and just keep running in freedom. 

When they reached the observatory, the two girls found their team at last. A scientist was giving a lecture on the function of the astronomical telescope. It was almost as tall as a two-story building. It looked simply too large to be imagined.