Three bodies

In the 205th year of the Crisis Year, Trisolaran Fleet is 2.10 light-years away from the solar system
Darkness appeared, and before this there was not even darkness, only nothingness.Nothingness is colorless, there is nothing in nothingness, and darkness at least means that there is space.Soon, there was some disturbance in the dark space, like a breeze penetrating everything, this is the feeling of time passing.There was no time in the previous emptiness, and now time has also appeared, like a melting glacier.The light appeared after a long time. At first, it was just a shapeless bright spot, and after a long wait, the shape of the world appeared.The newly revived consciousness is trying to distinguish. At first, it sees a few thin transparent tubes passing through the sky, and then a human face looking down behind the tubes. The face quickly disappears, revealing a milky white glow. ceiling.

Luo Ji woke up from hibernation.

That face appeared again, a male with a soft expression. He looked at Luo Ji and said, "Welcome to this era." As he spoke, the white coat he was wearing flickered, reflecting a A bright rose, then fades away.In his later conversations, the white coat constantly matched his expressions and emotions, showing different pleasing images, including the sea, the sunset and the forest in the drizzle.He said that Luo Ji's illness had already been cured during hibernation, and his recovery process was also going smoothly. It only took about three days for him to recover, and he would be able to fully return to normal bodily functions...

Luo Ji's thinking was still in the dull state of early awakening, and he only grasped one piece of information from the doctor's words: now is the 205th year of the crisis, and he has been in hibernation for 180 years.

At first Luo Ji felt that the doctor's accent was strange, but he soon discovered that the pronunciation of Mandarin did not change much, but there were a lot of English words mixed in.While the doctor was speaking, what he said was reflected on the ceiling with subtitles. It was obviously a real-time speech recognition. Perhaps for the sake of the awakened person's understanding, the English words in it were replaced with Chinese characters.

The doctor finally said that Luo Ji could be transferred from the recovery room to the general intensive care unit, and his white coat showed a scene of dusk that quickly changed from the setting sun to the starry sky to say "goodbye".At the same time, Luo Ji's bed began to move by itself. Just as he was about to move out of the recovery room door, Luo Ji heard the doctor call "next". He turned his head with difficulty and saw another bed moved into the recovery room. There was also a man who had apparently just been brought in from the hibernation chamber.The bed quickly moved into the middle of a pile of instruments, and the doctor's white coat turned pure white. He tapped the wall with his finger, and one-third of the wall was activated as a display, showing complicated Curves and data, the doctor began to operate nervously.

At this moment, Luo Ji understood that his waking up might not be a major event, but just a part of the daily work going on here.The doctor was very friendly, and Luo Ji was obviously just an ordinary hibernator in his eyes.

Just like in the recovery room, there were no lights in the corridor, and the light was emitted directly from the wall. Although it was very soft, it still made Luo Ji squint his eyes.At the same time as he squinted, the wall of this section of the corridor darkened, and this bleak section followed his bed all the time.When his eyes adjusted to the light and widened, the moving part also lit up, but the brightness remained within a comfortable range.It seems that the light adjustment system in the corridor can monitor the changes of his pupils.

Judging from this incident, this is a very humane era.

This was far beyond Luo Ji's expectations.

On the wall of the slowly moving corridor, Luo Ji also saw many activated display areas. They were of different sizes and randomly dotted on the wall. Some of them displayed moving images that Luo Ji hadn't seen clearly in time, as if they were being used. left behind by forgetting to turn it off when leaving.

From time to time, Luo Ji passed the pedestrians and the self-propelled hospital bed in the corridor. He noticed that there were glowing water-like ripples pressed out on the bottom of the pedestrian's feet and the contact between the bed's wheels and the ground, just like in himself. It appears when you touch the LCD screen with your finger in the era of .The entire long corridor gave him the strongest feeling of cleanliness, as clean as a [-]D animation in a computer, but Luo Ji knew that all of this was real.He moved in it with a peace and comfort he had never experienced before.

What moved Luo Ji the most was that the people he met along the way, whether they were doctors, nurses, or others, all looked neat and elegant. When they approached, they all smiled at him kindly, and some even waved to him.Their clothes also reflect gorgeous patterns, and everyone has a different style, some realistic and some abstract.Luo Ji was overwhelmed by their gazes. He knew that the gazes of ordinary people were the best reflection of the civilization level of their region and era.He once saw a group of photos taken by European photographers in the late Qing Dynasty. The deepest impression was the dull eyes of the people in the photos. Dumb, not seeing any anger.Now, when people in this new era see Luo Ji's eyes, they may feel the same way.The eyes he met with Luo Ji were full of wisdom and vitality, as well as the sincerity, understanding and love that he rarely felt in his own time.But what touched Luo Ji from the deepest part of his heart was the confidence in people's eyes. This kind of sunshine-like confidence filled every pair of eyes, and it has obviously become the spiritual background of people in the new era.

This did not seem like a hopeless era, which once again surprised Luo Ji deeply.

Luo Ji's bed moved silently into the intensive care unit, and he saw that there were already two people who had awakened from hibernation. One of them was lying on the bed, and the other one near the door was packing up with the help of the nurse, as if he was about to leave. .From their gazes, Luo Ji immediately recognized that the two were his contemporaries. Their eyes were like windows into time, giving Luo Ji another glimpse of the gray era from which he came.

"How could they do this? I'm their grandpa!" Luo Ji heard the hibernators who were about to leave complain.

"You can't sell the old ones in front of them. According to the law, the period of hibernation is not counted as age, so you are still a junior in front of the old people... Let's go, they have been waiting in the reception room for a long time." The nurse said, Luo Ji noticed She realized that she tried her best to avoid English words when she spoke, but some Chinese words seemed very jerky in her mouth. She was speaking ancient Chinese. Sometimes when she had to speak a modern language, the ancient Chinese words would be displayed on the wall accordingly. translation.

"I can't even understand those people's words, there are so many birdsong!" said the hibernator, and the nurse and the nurse each carried a bag and went out.

"In this day and age, you have to study, otherwise you have to live." Luo Ji heard the nurse say outside the door. He could already understand modern languages ​​without any effort, but he still didn't understand the meaning of the nurse's last sentence.

"Hi, are you hibernating because of illness?" asked the hibernator next to Luo Ji's bed. He was very young, only in his twenties.

Luo Ji opened his mouth, but no sound came out. The young man encouraged him with a smile and said, "You can talk, speak hard!"

"Hello." Luo Ji finally said hoarsely.

The young man nodded, "The one who just left is too, I am not, I came here to escape reality, oh, my name is Xiong Wen."

"How... how is it here?" Luo Ji asked, speaking much more easily.

"I don't know too well, I just woke up for five days. But, um, it must be a good time, but it must be difficult for us to integrate into society, mainly because we wake up too early, and then we will be a few years later. alright."

"A few years later, isn't that more difficult?"

"No, it's still a time of war, and the society doesn't care about us. A few decades later, after the peace talks, there will be peace and prosperity."

"Peace talks? With whom?"

"Of course it's the Three-Body World."

Shocked by Xiong Wen's last words, Luo Ji tried to sit up, but a nurse came in and helped him half-sit on the bed.

"Did they say they want peace talks?" Luo Ji asked eagerly.

"Not yet, but they definitely have no other choice." Xiong Wen said, turning over quickly and getting off the bed, and sat on Luo Ji's bed. It was obvious that he had long been eager to enjoy introducing new awakened people. The fun of this era, "You don't know yet, human beings are amazing now, it's amazing!"

"how?"

"Human space battleships are very powerful, much more powerful than Trisolaran's battleships!"

"how can that be possible?"

"Why is it impossible? Don't talk about those super weapons, just talk about speed, which can reach 15.00% of the speed of light! Much faster than the Trisolarans!"

Luo Ji turned his skeptical gaze to the nurse, only to realize that she was very beautiful. People in this era seem to be very beautiful. She smiled and nodded, "That's right."

Xiong Wen continued: "Also, do you know how many warships like this there are in the Space Fleet? Tell you, two thousand! Twice as many as Trisolarans! And it's still growing!"

Luo Ji turned his gaze to the nurse again, and she nodded again.

"Do you know how miserable the Trisolaran Fleet is now? They have passed three times in the past two centuries... ah... that's called snow, it's space dust. The most recent time I heard from them was four years ago, the telescope It was observed that the formation of the Trisolaran Fleet became sparse and disintegrated. More than half of the warships stopped accelerating long ago, and slowed down a lot when passing through the dust. They are slowly crawling. They will not reach the solar system in about 800 years. Broken 'ghost ships'. Calculated at the current speed, no more than [-] ships will arrive on time in two centuries. However, a Trisolaris probe will soon arrive in the solar system. Just this year, the other nine One is left behind, and it will arrive in three years."

"The detector...what is it?" Luo Ji asked puzzled.

The nurse said: "We don't encourage you to exchange realistic information with each other. The awakened people in front couldn't calm down for many days after knowing this, which is not conducive to recovery."

"Happy...what's the matter?" Xiong Wen said disapprovingly, then went back to his bed, lay there and looked at the softly shining ceiling and sighed, "The children are really good, the children are really good!"

"Who is the child?" The nurse said dissatisfiedly, "Hibernation doesn't count as age, you are the child." But in Luo Ji's opinion, this girl was really younger than Xiong Wen, but he knew that the girl was younger than Xiong Wen. Judging age from appearance may not be accurate in this era.

The nurse said to Luo Ji, "People who came here from your time were quite desperate. Actually, the matter is really not that serious."

To Luo Ji, it was the voice of an angel. He felt that he had become a child who woke up from a nightmare, and the adults just laughed at all the horrors he had experienced.When the angel was speaking, a round of rising sun was reflected on her nurse's uniform. Under the golden sunlight, the originally withered and yellow earth quickly turned green, and the flowers were blooming wildly...

After the nurse left, Luo Ji asked Xiong Wen, "How's the wall-facing project going?"

Xiong Wen shook his head in confusion, "Mianbi... I've never heard of it."

Luo Ji asked him when he entered hibernation. It was before the Wallfacer Project came into being. Hibernation was very expensive at that time, so his family must be rich.But if he hasn't heard of the Wallfacer Project during these five days, it means that even if it has not been forgotten in this era, it is no longer important.

Next, from two inconspicuous things, Luo Ji saw the technological level of the new era.

Not long after entering the monitoring room, the nurse brought Luo Ji his first meal after waking up. It consisted of milk, bread with jam, and so on. The amount was small. The nurse said that his gastrointestinal function was still recovering.Luo Ji took a bite of the bread, feeling like he was chewing sawdust.

"Your sense of taste is also recovering," the nurse said.

"It will be even more unpalatable when you recover," Xiong Wen said.

The nurse smiled, "Of course it's not as delicious as the ones grown in the field when you were."

"Then where did this come from?" Luo Ji asked inarticulately while chewing on the bread.

"It's made in a factory."

"Can you synthesize food?"

Xiong Wen replied for the nurse: "There is nothing you can do if you don't synthesize it. It is almost impossible to grow crops in the field."

Luo Ji felt very sorry for Xiong Wen. He belonged to the kind of people in his own era who had acquired technological immunity and were indifferent to any technological miracle, so he could not appreciate this new era very well.

The next second discovery shocked Luo Ji, although things were still very ordinary.The nurse pointed to the milk cup and told Luo Ji that this was a warming cup specially prepared for them. People generally don’t drink hot drinks at this time, and even the coffee is cold. If you are not used to drinking cold milk, you can heat it up. A slide button at the bottom is pushed to the desired temperature.After drinking the milk, Luo Ji looked at the cup carefully. It looked like a very ordinary glass, only the finger-thick bottom was opaque, obviously the heat source for heating was there.But Luo Ji checked repeatedly, and there was nothing except the slide switch. He twisted the bottom of the cup hard, but the bottom and the cup were integrated.

"Don't mess with the supplies here, you don't understand it, it will be dangerous." The nurse said after seeing Luo Ji's actions.

"I wonder where it charges from."

"Recharge...?" the nurse repeated jerky, apparently hearing the word for the first time.

"It's charge, recharge." Luo Ji reminded, but the nurse still shook her head in bewilderment.

"It's not a rechargeable one...what if the battery in it runs out?"

"Battery?"

"It's the Battery. Don't you have any batteries now?" Seeing the nurse shaking her head again, Luo Ji said, "Then where does the electricity in this cup come from?"

"Electricity? There is electricity everywhere." The nurse said disapprovingly.

"Can't the electricity in the cup run out?"

"It can't be used up." The nurse nodded and said.

"Never run out?"

"It will never run out, how can the electricity run out?"

After the nurse left, Luo Ji still held on to the cup. He didn't pay attention to Xiong Wen's ridicule, but felt his heart surge, knowing that he was actually holding a sacred object that mankind had dreamed of through the ages—a perpetual motion machine.If humans really got endless energy, they could get almost everything, and now he believed what the beautiful nurse said: things might really not be that serious.

When the doctor came to the intensive care unit for a routine examination, Luo Ji asked him about the wall-facing plan.

"Yes, an ancient joke." The doctor replied casually.

"What happened to those Wallfacers?"

"It seems that one committed suicide, and the other was stoned to death... It's all very early, almost two centuries."

"And two more?"

"I don't know, I'm still in hibernation."

"There's a Chinese among them, do you know him?" Luo Ji asked cautiously, staring nervously into the doctor's eyes.

"You mean the man who cast a spell on a star? I think it was mentioned in modern history class," interjected the nurse.

"That's right, he's now..." Luo Ji said.

"I don't know, it seems to be still hibernating. I don't care much about these things." The doctor said absent-mindedly.

"What about that star? It's the star with planets that he cursed, what happened?" Luo Ji asked, his heart hanging.

"What can I do, it should still be there... a spell? A joke."

"About that star, nothing really happened?"

"I haven't heard of it anyway, how about you?" the doctor asked the nurse.

"Me neither." The nurse shook her head. "The world was terrified at that time, and a lot of ridiculous things happened."

"What happened next?" Luo Ji asked with a long breath.

"Later, it was a big trough." The doctor said.

"The Great Trough? What's going on?"

"You will know in the future, rest well now." The doctor sighed softly, "But it's better that you don't know about this." When he turned to walk away, dark clouds rolled over his white coat, and the nurse's clothes There are many pairs of big eyes reflected on it, some with frightened eyes and some with tears in their eyes.

After the doctors and nurses left, Luo Ji sat on the bed for a long time, muttering to himself, "A joke, it's really an ancient joke." Then he laughed alone, first silently, then loudly , The bed trembled with him, and Xiong Wen was so frightened that he wanted to call the doctor.

"It's okay, go to sleep." Luo Ji told him, then lay down on his own, and soon fell into his first sleep after waking up.

He dreamed of Zhuang Yan and the child, Zhuang Yan was still walking in the snow, the child fell asleep on her arms.

When Luo Ji woke up, the nurse came in and said good morning to him. Her voice was very low, apparently afraid of waking Xiong Wen who was still soundly asleep.

"Is it morning now? Why is there no window in this room?" Luo Ji looked around and asked.

"Any part of the wall can become transparent, but the doctor thinks that it's not suitable for you to look outside now. It's quite strange, and it will distract your mind and affect your rest."

"After waking up for so long, I still don't know what the outside world looks like, which also affects my rest." Luo Ji pointed at Xiong Wen, "I'm not his type."

The nurse smiled and said, "It's okay, I'm leaving get off work soon, how about taking you out to have a look? Let's have breakfast when you come back."

Luo Ji excitedly followed the nurse to the duty room. He looked around and found that he could guess half of the items on display, while the others had no idea what they were for.There are no computers and such in the room, which is to be expected as there are monitors all over the walls that can be activated.What caught Luo Ji's attention were the three umbrellas placed by the door. They were of different styles, but they could only look like umbrellas.To Luo Ji's surprise, they looked very bulky. Could it be that there are no folding umbrellas in this era?
The nurse came out of the dressing room and changed into her own clothes. Apart from the shiny dynamic images on the surface, the changes in girls' clothing styles in this era were at least within Luo Ji's imagination. In addition to asymmetry, he was very happy to be able to get the beauty in a girl's clothing five years later in 180.The nurse lifted one of the three umbrellas, which seemed a bit heavy, and she could only carry the umbrella on her back.

"Is it raining outside?"

The girl shook her head, "You think I'm holding... an umbrella." She said the latter word very strangely.

"Then what is this?" Luo Ji asked, pointing to the "umbrella" on her shoulder, thinking that she would say a very novel name, but that was not the case.

"My bike," she said.

When they came to the corridor, Luo Ji asked, "Is your house far from here?"

"If you're talking about where I live, it's not too far away. I'll ride a bicycle for ten minutes." After she finished speaking, she stopped, looked at Luo Ji with those charming eyes, and said something that surprised him: "There is no home now. , Everyone is gone, marriage and family, after the big trough, there will be nothing, this is the first thing you have to adapt to."

"I can't get used to the first thing."

"No way, I know from the history class that your marriage and family have already begun to disintegrate at that time, and a large number of people do not want to be bound and want to live a free life." She mentioned the history class again.

I used to be that kind of person, but later... Luo Ji thought to himself, from the moment he woke up, Zhuang Yan and the child had never really left his mind, and had become the wallpaper on the desktop of his consciousness, every day, every day. is showing up all the time.But now the people here don't know him, the situation is unclear, although he is tormented by longing, he still doesn't dare to inquire about their whereabouts rashly.

They walked along the corridor for a while, and then passed through an automatic door. Luo Ji's eyes lit up, and he saw a long and narrow platform stretching forward in front of him, with fresh air rushing towards him, and he realized that he was already outside.

"What a blue sky!" This was his first exclamation to the outside world.

"No way, where are you blue at that time?"

It must be bluer than back then, much bluer.Luo Ji didn't say this, he just immersed himself in the boundless blue embrace, let his heart melt in it, and then had a flash of question: Have I really arrived in heaven?In his memory, such a pure blue sky has only been seen in the isolated Garden of Eden where he lived for five years, but there are not so many white clouds in this blue sky, only two very faint touches in the western sky, like someone Painted inadvertently, the newly rising sun in the east has a bright crystal in the completely transparent clear atmosphere, and the edges seem to be stained with dew.

Luo Ji moved his gaze down, and immediately felt dizzy. He was in a high place, and what he saw from here, it took him a long time to realize that it was a city.At first he thought that what he saw was a giant forest, with slender trunks piercing into the sky, and branches of different lengths protruding from each trunk, and the city buildings hung like leaves. on these branches.The distribution of buildings seems to be random, and the leaves on different big trees are sparse or dense.Luo Ji soon realized that the hibernation and awakening center he was in was actually a part of a big tree, and he lived in a leaf. Now, they were standing on a branch hanging from this leaf. The long and narrow platform that extends to the front.Looking back, he saw the trunk of the big tree he was in, rising to a height he couldn't see.The branch they are on may be in the upper middle part of the tree, looking up or down to see other branches and building leaves hanging from it. (Later he knew that the address of the city was really ××tree××branch××leaf.) Looking closer, these branches form an intricate network of bridges in the air, but all the bridges are suspended at one end.

"What kind of place is this?" Luo Ji asked.

"Beijing."

Luo Ji looked at the nurse, who was even more beautiful in the rising sun, and then looked at the place she called Beijing. He asked, "Where is the city center?"

"In that direction, we are outside the West Fourth Ring Road, and we can almost see the whole city."

Luo Ji looked into the distance that the nurse pointed for a while, and then shouted, "Impossible! How could there be nothing left?!"

"What are you going to leave behind? You didn't have anything here at that time!"

"Why not?! What about the Forbidden City? What about Jingshan? What about Tiananmen Square and China World Trade Center? It's only been more than 100 years, so it won't be completely demolished?!"

"What you said is still there."

"Where?"

"On the ground."

Seeing Luo Ji's terrified expression, the nurse suddenly burst out laughing, and couldn't help but hold on to the railing next to her, "Ah, hehehe... I forgot, I'm so sorry, I forgot so many times, look , we are underground, more than 1000 meters deep underground... If I time travel to your place one day, you can take revenge on me once, don't remind the city is on the ground, I will also surprise you like this, Hehehe..."

"But... this..." Luo Ji stretched out his hands.

"The sky is fake, and so is the sun." The girl tried her best to hold back her smile and said, "Of course, it's not right to say it's fake. The image was taken from an altitude of [-] meters above and projected below. Really."

"Why is the city built underground? More than 1000 meters, so deep?"

"Of course it's for the war. Think about it, wasn't the ground a sea of ​​flames during the Doomsday War? Of course, this is also the idea of ​​the past. After the end of the Great Trough era, cities all over the world have developed underground."

"Now all the cities in the world are underground?"

"Mostly."

Luo Ji looked at the world again, and he now understood that the trunks of all the big trees are the pillars that support the dome of the underground world, and are also used as the pillars to hang the city buildings.

"You won't get claustrophobic, look at the sky! It's not so good to see the sky from the ground."

Luo Ji looked up at the blue sky again—or the projection of the blue sky. This time, he noticed some small things in the sky. At first, he only saw a few here and there, but after his eyes got used to it, he found that there were many of them, covering the sky.Strangely enough, these celestial objects reminded him of an unrelated place, the display case of a jewelry store.That was before he became a Wallfacer, he fell in love with the imaginary Zhuang Yan, and once, he was so obsessed that he wanted to buy a gift for the imaginary angel.He came to the jewelry store and saw many platinum necklace pendants in the showcase. Those pendants were small and exquisite, spread out on a piece of black flannelette, shining silver under the spotlight.If you turn the black flannel into blue, it will look like the sky you see now.

"Is that a space fleet?" Luo Ji asked excitedly.

"No, the fleet can't see them from here. They are all outside the asteroid belt. Well, there are everything. The ones that can see the shape clearly are space cities, and the ones that can only see a bright spot are civilian spaceships. But Sometimes there are warships returning to orbit, their engines are so bright that you can’t even stare at them...Okay, I’m leaving, you go back as soon as possible, it’s very windy here.”

Luo Ji turned around to say goodbye, but was too surprised to speak when he saw the girl put the umbrella—or the bicycle as she called it—on her back like a backpack, and then the umbrella stood up behind her. up, spreading out over her head to form two concentric propellers that turned silently—in opposite directions to counteract the rotational moment.The girl rose slowly, jumped out of the railing sideways, and jumped into the abyss that dazzled Luo Ji.She suspended in the air and said loudly to Luo Ji:
"You see, now is a pretty good time, just treat your past as a dream. See you tomorrow!"

She flew lightly, the small propeller stirred the sunlight, and flew far between two giant trees, turning into a small dragonfly. There are groups of such dragonflies flying among the giant trees in the city, but in the end The most eye-catching thing is the flying traffic, like fish shoals flowing among the plants on the bottom of the sea.The morning sun shone into the city and was separated into beams of light by giant trees, coating the traffic in the sky with a layer of golden brilliance.

Facing this beautiful new world, Luo Ji burst into tears, and the feeling of new life permeated every cell in him.The past is really a dream.

When Luo Ji saw the man with a European face in the reception room, he always felt that there was something different about him. Later, he found out that the suit he was wearing did not flicker or reflect images, just like the clothes of the past era. Perhaps a dignified gesture.

After shaking hands with Luo Ji, the visitor introduced himself and said, "I am Ben Jonathan, commissioner of the Fleet Joint Conference. I arranged your awakening according to the instructions of the Joint Conference. Now, we will participate in the final hearing of the Wallfacer Project together." Yes. Oh, can you understand me? English has changed a lot.”

When I heard Jonathan speak, Luo Ji’s worries about the invasion of Western culture caused by the changes in modern Chinese these days disappeared. Jonathan’s English is also mixed with Chinese words, such as "Project Facing the Wall" is said in Chinese, If this continues, English, the most commonly used language in the past, and Chinese, the most widely used language, will merge with each other, regardless of each other, and become a powerful world language.Luo Ji later learned that other languages ​​in the world were also undergoing fusion.

Luo Ji could understand what Jonathan said, and he thought: The past is not a dream, the past still came to me.But hearing the words "the last time", he felt that there was still hope that all this could end as soon as possible.

Jonathan looked back, as if to check that the door was closed securely.Then he walked to the wall and activated an operation interface. After a few simple taps on it, the five walls including the ceiling disappeared in the holographic images they displayed.

At this time, Luo Ji found himself in a conference hall. Although everything had changed a lot, the walls and the big round table were glowing softly, but the designers here obviously wanted to replicate the style of the old era, from the big round table, the rostrum In the nostalgia complex reflected in the general layout, Luo Ji immediately knew where it was.The venue is still empty now, with only two staff members distributing documents on the conference table. Luo Ji was surprised to find that paper documents are still being used, just like Jonathan's clothes, which should also be a solemn expression.

Jonathan said: "Remote meetings are now a common practice. We participate in this way, which does not affect the importance and seriousness of the meeting. There is still some time before the meeting starts. You seem to know little about the outside world. Do you need me to briefly Tell me about the current state of the world?"

Luo Ji nodded, "Of course, thank you."

Jonathan pointed to the venue and said: "I can only briefly talk about the situation of the country first. Europe has become a country, called the European Union, referred to as the European Union, including Eastern Europe and Western Europe, but excluding the European part of Russia; Merged with Belarus, the country is still called the Russian Federation; French-speaking and English-speaking Canada split into two countries; there were some changes in other areas, but that’s the main thing.”

Luo Ji was surprised, "Just such a small change? It's been almost two centuries, and I thought the world has changed beyond recognition."

With his back to the venue, Jonathan nodded emphatically to Luo Ji, "It's completely changed, Dr. Luo Ji, the world has indeed changed beyond recognition."

"No, these changes have already appeared in our time."

"But there is one thing you don't expect: there are no great powers anymore, and in international politics, all countries are in decline."

"All the countries? Who rose then?"

"An entity other than the state: the Space Fleet."

Luo Ji thought for a long time before he understood the meaning of Jonathan's words, "You mean, the space fleet is independent?"

"Yes, fleets do not belong to any country. They have become independent political and economic entities, and they have also become members of the United Nations like countries. At present, there are three major fleets in the solar system: the Asian fleet, the European fleet and the North American fleet. Their names are just Explain the main places of origin of each fleet, but the fleet itself has no affiliation with their places of origin, they are completely independent. Each of the three major fleets has the political and economic strength of a superpower in your era."

"Oh my God..." Luo Ji sighed.

"But don't get me wrong, the earth is not under the rule of the military government. The territory and sovereignty of the fleet are all in space, and they rarely interfere with the internal affairs of the earth society. This is stipulated by the UN Charter. Therefore, the human world is now divided into two International: The traditional Earth International and the newly emerged Fleet International. The three major fleets form the Solar System Fleet, and the original Planetary Defense Council evolved into the Solar System Fleet Joint Conference, which is the highest command organization of the Solar System Fleet in name, but it is the same as the United Nations. It only has a coordination function and has no actual power. In fact, the solar system fleet itself is also in name, and the actual power of the human space armed forces is in the hands of the headquarters of the three major fleets. Okay, today’s meeting, you know that these are almost the same, this time The hearing was held by the Solar System Fleet Joint Conference, who are the successors of the Wallfacer project."

At this time, a display window appeared in the holographic image, and the images of Hines and Yamasugi Keiko appeared in it, and they seemed unchanged.Hines greeted Luo Ji with a smile, while Keiko Shanshan sat beside him with a blank face, and only nodded slightly in response to Luo Ji.

Hines said, "I also just woke up, Dr. Luo Ji, and I'm sorry to learn that at that position fifty light-years away, the planet you cursed is still orbiting that star."

"Hehe, it's indeed a joke, an ancient joke." Luo Ji waved his hands and said mockingly.

"But you're luckier than Taylor and Ray Diaz."

"It seems that you are the only successful Wallfacer. Perhaps your strategic plan has really improved human intelligence."

Hines also showed Luo Ji's self-deprecating smile just now. He shook his head and said, "No, really not. I now know that after we entered hibernation, the research on human thinking soon encountered insurmountable obstacles. Obstacles, because to go any deeper, they have to deal with the quantum level of the brain's thinking mechanism. At this time, like other disciplines, they hit the insurmountable sophon barrier. We have not improved human intelligence, if anything, it is It boosted some people's confidence."

When Luo Ji entered hibernation, the thought seal hadn't appeared yet, so he didn't quite understand the meaning of Hines' last words, but he noticed that when Hines said this, a trace of mystery flashed across Keiko Shansugi's face, which had always been as cold as ice. smile.

The display window disappeared, and Luo Ji saw that the venue was full of people. Most of the participants were wearing military uniforms. The epaulets all glowed.The Chairman of the Fleet Joint Council remains on duty and is a civilian official.Looking at him, Luo Ji thought of Garning, and realized that he was already an ancient man two centuries ago. Compared with countless contemporaries who have been lost in the long river of time, he was lucky anyway.

After announcing the start of the meeting, the chairman first spoke: "Deputies, at this meeting, we will make a final vote on the proposal No. 47 proposed by the 649th joint meeting of this year, which was jointly submitted by the North American Fleet and the European Fleet .I read the proposal first."

"In the second year after the Three-Body Crisis, the United Nations Planetary Defense Council formulated the Wall-Facing Plan, which was unanimously approved by all the permanent members and began to be implemented in the following year. The core content of the Wall-Facing Plan was established by the The four Wallfacers selected and recommended by the council members conduct completely closed personal thinking, formulate and implement a strategic plan against the invasion of the Trisolaran world, so as to avoid Sophon's ubiquitous surveillance of the human world, and thus realize the concealment of the strategy. Launched by the United Nations The corresponding Wallfacer Act was enacted to guarantee the privilege of the Wallfacers to formulate and execute plans."

"The Wallface project has been going on for [-] years, during which there was a pause period of more than a century. During this period, the leadership of the project was transferred from the original Planetary Defense Council to the current Solar System Fleet Joint Conference."

"The birth of the Wallfacer Project has a specific historical background. At that time, the Three-Body Crisis had just emerged. Facing this devastating crisis unprecedented in human history, the international community fell into unprecedented fear and despair. The Wallfacer Project was in such a state It is not a rational choice, but a desperate struggle."

"Historical facts have proved that the Wallfacer plan is a complete failure of the strategic plan. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the most naive and stupid move ever made by human society as a whole. The Wallfacers are given unprecedented, The power not to be supervised by any law, even given the freedom to deceive the international community, violates the most basic moral and legal norms of human society."

"During the execution of the Wallfacer plan, a large amount of strategic resources were consumed meaninglessly. The Quantum Fleet plan of the Wallfacer Frederick Taylor has been proved to have no strategic significance, and the Mercury Fall chain of the Wallfacer Ray Diaz The reaction plan, even with the current human capabilities, is simply impossible to realize. At the same time, both plans are crimes, Taylor's attempt to attack and destroy the Earth fleet, and Rey Diaz's attempt is even more evil, even taking the entire Earth life world as a hostage .”

"The other two Wallfacers are equally disappointing. The mind-enhancing plan of Wallfacer Hines has not yet revealed its true strategic intentions, but the results of its preliminary stage - the Thought Stamp, is also used in the Space Force. Crime, it seriously violates the freedom of thought, which is the foundation of the existence and progress of human civilization. As for Luo Ji, the Wallfacer, he first used public resources to create a life of pleasure for himself irresponsibly, and then used ridiculous mysticism It's an act of grandstanding."

"We believe that with the decisive increase of human power and the grasp of the initiative in war, the Wallfacer project has become meaningless, and now is the best time to end this historical issue. We recommend that the Fleet Joint Conference immediately suspend the Wallfacer project and abolish it at the same time. UN Wall Act."

"This proposal is hereby submitted."

The chairman slowly put down the text of the proposal, glanced at the venue and said, "We will now vote on Proposal No. 649 of the Solar System Fleet Joint Conference."

All the delegates raised their hands.

The voting method of this era is still so primitive, there are staff walking through the venue, solemnly verifying the number of votes.After they submitted the summary results to the chairman, the chairman announced: "Proposition 649 has been unanimously passed, and it will take effect from this moment on." Like the remote participation in the hearing a few years ago, Luo Ji still didn't know where the images of himself and Hines were displayed in the venue, "Now, the wall-facing project has been suspended, and the UN wall-facing act has been abolished. On behalf of the Solar System Fleet Joint Conference, I will inform the wall-facing Reporter Bill Hines and Wallfacer Luo Ji, your Wallfacer status has been suspended, and all the privileges and corresponding legal immunity granted to you by the United Nations Wallfacer Act are no longer valid, and you will resume your own Ordinary citizenship of the country in which they are located."

The chairman declared the meeting over, and Jonathan stood up and turned off the holographic image, and also turned off Luo Ji's two-century-long nightmare.

"Dr. Luo Ji, as far as I know, this is exactly what you want." Jonathan said to Luo Ji with a smile.

"Yes, that's exactly what I want. Thank you, Mr. Commissioner, and thank you to the Fleet Joint Council for restoring my status as an ordinary person." Luo Ji said with sincerity from the heart.

"The meeting is very short, it's just a vote on the proposal. I have been authorized to talk to you about more specific matters. You can talk about the things you care about most first."

"Where are my wife and children?" Luo Ji couldn't wait to ask the question that had been tormenting him since he woke up. In fact, he wanted to ask Jonathan when he first met Jonathan before the meeting started.

"Please rest assured that they are all fine and hibernating. I will give you their information, and you can apply to wake them up at any time."

"Thank you, thank you." Luo Ji's eye sockets became moist again, and he once again had that feeling of being in heaven.

"However, Dr. Luo Ji, I have a personal suggestion." Jonathan approached Luo Ji on the sofa and said, "As a hibernator, it is not easy to adapt to life in this era. I suggest that you wait until your life is stabilized. Resuscitate them, and at the expense of the United Nations, they will be able to maintain them in hibernation for another 230 years."

"Then, how can I live outside alone?"

The commissioner laughed at Luo Ji's question, "Don't worry about it. You may not be able to adapt to the times, but life is not a problem. In this era, social welfare is perfect. Even if a person does nothing, he can live a fairly comfortable life. Life. The university where you used to work is still there, in this city, and they promised to consider your work issues, and they will contact you later.”

Luo Ji suddenly thought of something, which almost made him shiver, "What about my safety after I go out? ETO has always wanted to kill me!"

"ETO?" Jonathan laughed loudly, "The Earth Trisolaran Organization was completely wiped out a century ago, and the modern world has no social basis for their existence. Of course, there are still people with this kind of thinking tendency, but they are no longer there. Organization may be formed, and you are absolutely safe in the outside world."

When parting, Jonathan lowered his official posture, and his suit shone, reflecting the exaggeratedly distorted starry sky. He smiled and said to Luo Ji, "Doctor, among all the historical figures I have met, you are the most humorous." Yes. Spells, spells on the stars, ha ha ha ha..."

Luo Ji stood alone in the reception room, chewing on the reality in front of him in silence. After being the savior for two centuries, he finally returned to an ordinary person, and a new life unfolded in front of him.

"You've become an ordinary person, bro!" Luo Ji's thoughts were uttered by a hoarse voice. He looked back, and Shi Qiang walked in. "Hehe, I heard what the kid who just left said."

In the joy of reunion, they exchanged their experiences.Luo Ji learned that Shi Qiang woke up two months ago. His leukemia had been cured. The doctor also found that his liver disease was very likely to be caused by drinking, and he was cured by the way.In fact, in their feelings, the time between the two of them is not too long, just like four or five years. There is no sense of time in hibernation, but when they meet in the new era two centuries later, there is still an extra layer of intimacy. feel.

"I'm here to pick you up and leave the hospital. There's nothing to do here." Shi Qiang said as he took out a suit of clothes from his backpack and asked him to put them on.

"This...isn't it too big?" Luo Ji said as he shook off the jacket-style top.

"Look, wake up two months late, you are already an old hat in front of me, try it on."

As Luo Ji put on his clothes, he heard a slight hissing sound, and the clothes slowly shrank to a fitting size, and the same thing happened after he put on his trousers.Shi Qiang pointed to a brooch-like thing on the chest of the jacket and told Luo Ji that the size of the clothes could still be adjusted.

"I said, aren't you wearing the same outfit you were wearing two centuries ago?" Luo Ji looked at Shi Qiang and asked. He remembered clearly that the leather jacket Da Shi was wearing now was really the same as the last time he saw him.

"I lost some of my things during the trough, but they really kept the clothes for me, but I can't wear them anymore. You also left some of your things at that time. You can pick them up after you settle down. I Said brother, look at what those things have become, and you know that nearly 200 years is not a short period of time." Shi Qiang said, pressing somewhere on the jacket, and the whole dress became White, the texture of the original leather is just the image, "I like the same as in the past."

"Can I do the same thing with this one? Can it show images like theirs?" Luo Ji asked, looking at his clothes.

"Yeah, gotta have a hard time typing something. Let's go."

Together, Luo Ji and Da Shi descended from the tree trunk elevator to the ground floor, walked through the tree's wide hall, and walked into the new world.

The meeting didn't end when the commissioner turned off the hearing hologram.In fact, Luo Ji had noticed at that time that when the chairman announced the end of the hearing, a voice suddenly sounded, a female voice. He couldn't hear what he said clearly, but everyone in the venue looked in one direction.At this time, Jonathan turned off the image, and he must have noticed this, but when the chairman announced the end of the meeting, Luo Ji had already lost his status as a Wallfacer and became an ordinary citizen. Even if the meeting continued, he was not eligible to participate.

It was Keiko Yamasugi who spoke, and she said, "Mr. Chairman, I still have something to say."

The chairman said: "Ms. Keiko Yamasugi, you are not a Wallfacer. You are only allowed to attend today's meeting because of your special status. You have no right to speak."

At this time, the representatives at the meeting also expressed that they were not interested in Keiko Yamasugi, and they were getting up and leaving one after another. In fact, for them, the current project of facing the wall is just a trifle left over from history that they have to spend some energy to deal with , but Keiko's next words made them all pause - she turned to Hines and said:
"Wallfacer Bill Hines, I am your wallbreaker."

Hines was also about to get up and leave, but when he heard Keiko Yamasugi's words, his legs softened and he sat back on the chair.In the venue, people looked at each other, and then there was a murmur, and Hines' face gradually turned pale.

"I hope you have not forgotten the meaning of this title." Keiko Yamasugi said coldly, turning to the venue.

"Yes, we know what a Wallbreaker is, but your organization no longer exists," said the chairman.

"I know," Keiko Yamasugi looked very calm, "but as the last member of the Earth Trisolaris Organization, I will do my duty for the Lord."

"I should have thought of it, Keiko, I should have thought of it long ago," Hines said, his voice trembling and weak.He has long known that his wife is a believer in the ideas of Timothy Leary[41], and he has also seen her fanatical yearning for using technological means to change human thinking, but he has never connected these with her deeply hidden love for human beings. associated with hatred.

"The first thing I want to say is that the real purpose of your strategic plan is not to improve human intelligence. You know better than anyone else that it is impossible for human technology to achieve this goal in the foreseeable future, because you are the master of the quantum mechanism of the brain. The discoverer knows that the study of thinking must enter the quantum level. Under the condition that basic physics is locked by sophons, this kind of research is a water without a source, and it is impossible to succeed. The thought stamp is not an accidental by-product of thinking research, it is It has always been what you want, which is the ultimate goal of this kind of research." Keiko Yamasugi turned to the venue, "Everyone, now I want to know, what happened to the thought stamp during these years after we entered hibernation?"

"Its history didn't last too long," said the representative of the European Fleet. A special class is called the stamp family. Later, about ten years after you entered hibernation, the use of the ideological stamp was judged by the international court as a crime against the freedom of thought. The only thought center in the belief center The stencil is sealed. The production and use of this device is strictly prohibited worldwide, with the same severity as controlling nuclear proliferation. In fact, the stencil of thought is harder to obtain than nuclear weapons, mainly because of the computer it uses. During your hibernation At that time, computer technology had basically stopped improving, and the computers used in the ideological seal are still supercomputers today, and it is difficult for ordinary organizations and individuals to obtain."

Keiko Yamasugi gave the first important message: "You don't know, there is not only one thought stamp, but five in total, each equipped with a corresponding supercomputer. The other four thought stamps, Yuxi Ens was secretly handed over to the people whose beliefs had been solidified by the stencil, which is what you call the stencil tribe. Although they only had about 3000 people at that time, they had already formed a strict organization beyond national borders in the space forces of various countries. Things Hines didn't tell me, I learned from Tomoko that the Lord doesn't care about staunch victoryists, so we didn't do anything about it."

"What does that mean?" asked the chairman.

"Let's speculate together. The Thought Stamp is not a device that runs continuously. It is only activated when needed. Each device can be used for a long time. If it is properly maintained, it will be no problem for half a century. If the four devices are used in turn, and one is completely scrapped and then the other is started, then they can last for two centuries. That is to say, the stencil family did not fend for itself, it may continue from generation to generation to this day, which is A kind of religion, what one believes in is the belief solidified by the ideological stamp, and the ceremony of becoming a religion is to voluntarily stamp the stamp in one's own mind."

The representative of the North American Fleet said: "Dr. Hines, now that you have lost your status as a Wallfacer, you no longer have the legal power to deceive the world. Please tell the truth to the joint meeting: your wife, or your Wallfacer, Is it true?"

"It's true." Hines nodded heavily.

"This is a crime!" said the Asia Fleet representative.

"Maybe..." Hines nodded again, "But I, like you, don't know if the stamp tribe has continued to this day."

"It's not important," said the representative of the European Fleet. "I think the next step is to find the thought seals that may have been left to this day, and seal or destroy them. As for the stamp tribe, if they were voluntarily stamped with thought seals, it seems impossible Violation of any existing laws; if they stamp their minds on other volunteers, they are subject to their own beliefs or beliefs that have been solidified by technological means, and should not be punished by law. So as long as the stamp of thought is found, maybe There is absolutely no need to investigate the situation of the Stamped Clan."

"Yes, there are some people in the solar system fleet who have absolute belief in victory. It's not a bad thing, at least it won't cause any damage. This should belong to personal privacy, and there is no need to know who they are. Although it is incomprehensible to voluntarily stamp their thoughts , because the victory of mankind is already obvious," said the representative of the European fleet.

Keiko Yamasugi suddenly sneered, showing an expression rarely seen in this era, which reminded the participants of the moonlight reflected by snake scales in the grass in an ancient era.

"It's too easy for you to think," she said.

"You guys think too simply." Hines echoed his wife, and lowered his head deeply.

Keiko Yamasugi turned to her husband again, "Shines, you have been hiding your thoughts from me, even before becoming a Wallfacer."

"I'm afraid you despise me." Hines said with his head down.

"How many times, in the quiet late night in Kyoto, in that wooden house and the small bamboo forest, we silently looked at each other. From your eyes, I saw the loneliness of a wall-facer, and saw your desire to confide in me. How many times This time, you almost told me the truth, and you wanted to bury your head in my arms, cry and tell all the truth, and gain complete relief, but the duty of the Wallfacer stopped you. Deception, even for The deception of the person you love the most is also part of your responsibility. So, I can only look into your eyes, hoping to find clues of your true thoughts. You don’t know how many sleepless nights I have spent, Waiting beside you who is sleeping soundly, waiting for your dream talk... more time I am watching you carefully, studying your every move, capturing every look of your eyes, including your first hibernation In those years, I recalled every detail of you time and time again, not to miss, but just to see through your true thoughts. For a long time, I failed, I know you have been wearing a mask, and I am very fond of the mask under the mask. You don't know anything. Years and years passed, and finally came the day when you first woke up, and the images that passed through the neural network of your brain came to me, and I saw your eyes again, and finally understood .At this point I've grown and matured for eight years, and you're the same person you were eight years ago, so you're exposing yourself."

"From that moment, I knew the real you: a deep-rooted defeatist, a staunch escapeist, whether before or after becoming a Wallfacer, your only goal is to achieve the escape of mankind. With other Wallfacers Compared with others, your brilliance lies not in the deception of strategic schemes, but in the hiding and disguising of your real worldview."

"But I still don't know, how you can achieve this through the study of the human brain and mind, and even after the thought stamp appeared, I was still in the confusion. Until the moment before entering hibernation, I remembered their eyes , It is the eyes of those who have been stamped with thought, just like you, suddenly understood those gazes that have been confusing me. At this time, I completely saw through your real strategy, but it was too late to say."

The representative of the North American Fleet said: "Ms. Keiko Yamasugi, I feel that there should be no more weird things in it. We know the history of the ideological seal. Among the first batch of 5 people who voluntarily stamped the stamp, the operation for everyone is carried out under strict supervision."

Keiko Yamasugi said: "Yes, but absolutely effective supervision is only for the content of belief propositions, and it is much more difficult to supervise the ideological seal itself."

"However, historical documents show that the supervision of the technical details of the ideological stamp was also very strict at that time, and a large number of experiments were carried out before it was officially put into use." The chairman said.

Keiko Yamasugi shook her head lightly, "Ideological stamp is an extremely complex device, and any supervision will have omissions, especially for a small plus or minus sign in hundreds of millions of lines of code, this point, even Sophon Didn't notice."

"Plus sign?"

"In discovering the neural circuit patterns for assertions that are true, Hines also discovered patterns for assertions that are false, which is exactly what he needed. He hid it from everyone, including me. This discovery is not difficult, because the patterns of these two kinds of neural circuits are very similar. In the neuron transmission pattern, it is represented as the flow direction of a certain key signal; while in the mathematical model of the thought stamp, there is only a plus and minus sign It is decided that the positive one is judged as true, and the negative one is judged as false. Hines manipulated this symbol in the thought stamp control software with extremely covert means, and in all five thought stamps, this symbol is negative."

A deathly silence fell over the venue, the same silence that had erupted two centuries ago during the hearing of the Planetary Defense Council's Wallface program, when Rey Diaz displayed the "cradle" on his wrist and told Participant, the device receiving its anti-trigger signal is nearby.

"Dr. Hines, look what you've done?" the chairman said, glaring at Hines.

Hines raised his head, and people saw that his pale face returned to normal, his voice was steady and composed, "I admit that I underestimated the power of human beings, the progress you have made is really incredible. I saw that, Believe it, and I also believe that the victors of this war will be human beings. This belief is almost as strong as the stencil of thought. The defeatism and escapism of two centuries ago is really a ridiculous thing. But, Mr. Chairman, Delegates , I want to say to the whole world: It is impossible for me to repent in this matter."

"Shouldn't you still repent?" the Asian representative asked angrily.

Hines raised his head and said, "It's not that it shouldn't be, it's impossible. I stamped myself with a stamp of thought, and its proposition is: everything I did in the wall-facing project was correct."

People exchanged surprised looks, and even Keiko Yamasugi looked at her husband with such eyes.

Hines smiled at Keiko Yamasugi and nodded, "Yes, dear, please allow me to still call you that. Only by doing this can I gain the spiritual strength to carry out the plan. Yes, I now think that I will Everything is true, and I absolutely believe it, no matter what the reality is. I have used my thought stencil to transform myself into my own God, and it is impossible for God to repent."

"When the three-body invaders surrender to the powerful human civilization in the near future, do you still think so?" The chairman asked, different from just now, he showed more curiosity now.

Hines nodded seriously, "I still think so, I'm right, everything I did in the Wallface project is absolutely correct. Of course, I will be tortured like hell in front of the facts." He turned to Shan Shan Keiko, "Honey, you know I've been through this kind of torture once. At that time, I firmly believed that water is extremely poisonous."

"Let's go back to reality." The representative of the North American Fleet interrupted the low-pitched discussion, "It's just a guess that the stamp family has continued to this day. After all, more than 170 years have passed. If a class with absolute defeatist beliefs Or organization exists, why is there no sign until now?"

"There are two possibilities," said the representative of the European Fleet. "One is that the stamp clan has disappeared long ago, and we are indeed a false alarm..."

The representative of Asia said the following words for him: "In another possibility, there is no sign so far, which is the terrible thing about this matter."

Luo Ji and Shi Qiang walked in the underground city.Above them, tree-shaped buildings block out the sky, and speeding traffic passes through the gaps in the sky. However, since urban buildings are all "leaves" hanging in the air, the space on the ground is very wide, and there are only giant trees that are far apart. The tree trunks make the city no longer have the concept of streets, but a continuous square with tree trunks in between.The environment on the ground is very good, there are large grasslands and real woods, the air is fresh, and it looks like a beautiful countryside at first glance. Pedestrians wearing shiny clothes walk through it like glowing ants.Luo Ji was amazed by this kind of urban design that suspended the hustle and bustle of modern times and brought the ground back to nature.There is no shadow of war here at all, only humanized comfort and coziness.After walking not far, Luo Ji suddenly heard a soft female voice: "Is that Mr. Luo Ji?" He looked around and found that the voice came from a big billboard on the lawn beside the road. In the large dynamic image, a beautiful girl in uniform is looking at him.

"I am." Luo Ji nodded.

"Hello, I am the financial consultant No. 8065 of the general banking system. Welcome to this era, and now I would like to inform you of your current financial situation." The consultant said, and a data table appeared next to her, "This It is your financial data in the ninth year of the crisis, including the deposits in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank at that time, as well as the investment in securities at that time, the information of the latter item may be partially lost during the Great Depression era.”

"How does she know I'm here?" Luo Ji asked in a low voice.

Shi Qiang said: "You have a chip implanted in your left arm. Don't be nervous. Everyone has it now. It's similar to an ID card, so billboards can recognize you. Now the advertisements are all for individuals. , wherever you go, what’s on the billboards is there for you.”

The consultant obviously heard what Da Shi said, and she said, "Sir, this is not an advertisement, but a financial service from the general banking system."

"How much money do I have in the bank now?" Luo Ji asked.

A very complicated form appeared next to the consultant, "This is the interest calculation of all your deposits from January [-], [-] to today. It is relatively complicated. You can check it from your own information area later." Another relatively concise table then jumped out, "This is your current financial situation in each subsystem of the overall banking system."

Luo Ji had no idea about those numbers, so he asked blankly, "How many... are there?"

"Brother, you are a rich man!" Shi Qiang slapped Luo Ji and said, "Although I am not as good as you, I am still rich, hehe, two centuries of interest, real long-term investment, poor people can also be rich I'm sorry I didn't save more."

"Is... something wrong?" Luo Ji asked suspiciously.

"Huh?" The consultant's beautiful big eyes looked at Luo Ji inquiringly from the billboard.

"It has been more than 180 years, and there is no inflation in the middle? Can the financial system continue smoothly?"

"You still think too much." Da Shi shook his head and said, and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Luo Ji now knew that cigarettes had continued, but Da Shi took one out of the pack and started without lighting. Swallowed up.

The consultant replied: “During the Great Trough, there were many times of inflation, and the financial and credit systems were close to collapse. However, according to the existing law, there is a special calculation method for the interest calculation of the deposits of those who wake up from hibernation, which excludes the time period of the Great Trough. , directly translate the deposit amount to the financial level after the Great Trough, and start accruing interest from then on.”

"There is... such a discount?" Luo Ji exclaimed.

"Brother, this is a good time." Da Shi exhaled a puff of white smoke and said, then held up the cigarette that was still burning, "It's just hard to smoke."

"Mr. Luo Ji, this time we are just getting to know each other. We will discuss your personal financial arrangements and investment plans at your convenience. If you have no other questions, I will see you later." The consultant waved goodbye to Luo Ji with a smile.

"There is a question." Luo Ji said hastily.He doesn't know how to address young women nowadays, calling "Miss" is a bit risky, the meaning of this title has changed in his time, and now he doesn't know what it has become; it is not right to call Ms., it should be for older women Luo Ji had no choice but to omit the title, "I don't know much about reality, so please forgive me if this question offends you."

The consultant smiled slightly and said, "It doesn't matter, our responsibility is to help you get familiar with this era as soon as possible."

"Are you a real person, a machine, or a program?"

The question didn't seem to surprise the consultant, who replied, "Of course I'm a real person. How can a computer handle such a complicated business?"

After saying goodbye to the beauty on the billboard, Luo Ji said to Shi Qiang: "Da Shi, some things are really difficult to understand. This is an era when perpetual motion machines were invented and food can be synthesized, but computer technology doesn't seem to have advanced much. , Artificial intelligence does not even have the ability to handle personal financial business.”

"What is a perpetual motion machine? A machine that can move forever?" Da Shi asked.

"Yes, it marks the discovery of infinite energy."

Da Shi looked around, "Where is this thing?"

Luo Ji pointed to the traffic in the sky and said, "Look at those flying cars, do they use up fuel or batteries?"

Da Shi shook his head, "No need, the oil on the earth has been pumped out long ago, those cars don't need batteries, they just keep flying like that, they will never run out of power, it's very exciting, I'm planning to buy one .”

"This is your numbness to technological miracles. Human beings have unlimited energy, which is as big as Pangu's creation of the world! You still don't realize what a great era this is!"

Da Shi threw away the cigarette butt. After thinking about it, he felt that it was wrong, so he picked up the cigarette butt thrown on the lawn and threw it into the trash can not far away. "I'm numb? It's because you, an intellectual, imagined too far. In fact, we already had this technology at that time."

"Are you kidding me?"

"I don't understand the technology, but I still understand a little bit about it, because I happened to have used a police bug. It doesn't use batteries, and it can't be used up like this. Is it? Powering it by firing microwaves from a distance. That’s how it is now, it’s just powered differently than we were back then.”

Luo Ji stopped, stared blankly at the big history for a long time, then looked up at the speeding car in the air, and then thought about the electric cup, and finally understood: it was just a wireless power supply, and the power supply was emitted by microwaves or other forms of electromagnetic oscillation Electric energy forms a power supply field within a certain space range, and any electrical equipment within this range can use antennas or electromagnetic resonance coils to receive electric energy.As Dashi said, even two centuries ago, this was a very common technology. The reason why it was not widely used at that time was because this power supply method lost too much power, and the power emitted into space was only a small amount. Some were received and used, most were lost.In this era, due to the maturity of controllable nuclear fusion technology, energy has been greatly enriched, and the loss caused by wireless power supply has become acceptable.

"What about synthetic grains? Aren't they able to synthesize grains?" Luo Ji asked again.

"I'm not very clear about this, but the current grain is also grown from seeds, but it is grown in some kind of culture tank in the factory. The crops have been genetically modified. It is said that the wheat has only long ears and no straw, and it grows very fast. , because there is strong artificial sunlight inside, and strong radiation that stimulates growth, wheat and paddy can be harvested once a week, and it looks like it is produced on a production line from the outside.”

"Oh—" Luo Ji pondered for a long time. Many brilliant soap bubbles burst in front of his eyes, and the reality revealed its true colors. He now knows that in this great new era, sophons are still floating everywhere. The current science is still locked, and none of the existing technologies can cross the line drawn by Sophon.

"The spaceship reaches 15.00% of the speed of light, this..."

"It's true. Those warships start up like little suns in the sky. And those space weapons. I saw the news of the Asian Fleet Exercise on TV the day before yesterday. The laser cannon swept at a target ship as big as an aircraft carrier. The big iron guy was half evaporated like ice, and the other half turned into shiny molten steel and exploded like fireworks. There is also an electromagnetic gun, which can fire hundreds of steel balls every second. One is as big as a football, with a speed of dozens of kilometers per second, invincible, and it leveled a mountain on Mars in a few minutes...Now, there is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine you mentioned, but with these technologies, humans can clean up three The fleet is more than enough."

Da Shi handed Luo Ji a cigarette and taught him to twist the filter part to light the cigarette. They each took a puff and watched the snow-white smoke curl up.

"Anyway, boy, it's a good time."

"Yeah, it's a good time."

Before Luo Ji could finish his sentence, Da Shi pounced on him, and they both rolled down on the lawn a few meters away.Immediately after a loud noise, a speeding car crashed into where the two of them were standing just now!Luo Ji felt the impact of the air wave, and metal fragments whizzed past them. The billboard was half shattered by the flying fragments, and the display material that looked like a transparent glass tube crashed to the ground.Luo Ji, who was dizzy and black-eyed from the fall, hadn't recovered before Da Shi jumped up and ran towards the falling speed car.He saw that the disc-shaped car body was completely broken and deformed, but because there was no fuel in the car, there was no fire, only crackling electric sparks moving through the twisted metal.

"There's no one in the car," Da Shi said to Luo Ji, who was limping over.

"Da Shi, you saved my life again." Luo Ji said while supporting Shi Qiang's shoulder and rubbing his painful leg.

"I don't know how many lives I'm going to save you in the future, but you need to grow your mind and eyes." He pointed to the crashed speeding car, "This, doesn't it remind you of anything?"

Luo Ji thought of the scene two centuries ago, and couldn't help shivering.

Many pedestrians gathered around, and their costumes reflected images of horror, flashing into one piece.Two police cars descended from the sky with their sirens blaring. Several policemen got out of the cars and drew a barrier line around the wrecked cars. Their police uniforms flashed wildly like police lights, and the brightness overshadowed the clothes of the surrounding citizens.A policeman walked towards Da Shi and Luo Ji, his police uniform dazzled them so much that they couldn't keep their eyes open.

"You were by the side when the car crashed, were you not injured?" the policeman asked with concern. He obviously saw that the two were hibernators, and he also struggled to speak "ancient Chinese".

Before Luo Ji could answer, Da Shi pulled the interrogating policeman out of the isolation rope and the crowd. Once outside, the policeman's uniform stopped flashing.

"Investigate carefully, this may be a murder." Da Shi said.

The policeman smiled and said, "How could it be? It was a traffic accident."

"We're going to file a report."

"sure?"

"Of course, we will report the case."

"It's a big deal. You may be frightened. It's really a traffic accident. But according to the law, if you insist on reporting..."

"We insist."

The policeman clicked on a display area on the sleeve, and an information window popped up immediately. The policeman looked at the window and said, "A case has been filed. The police will follow you in the next 48 hours, but this requires your consent. "

"We agree that we may still be in danger."

The policeman smiled again, "Actually, this is a very common thing."

"A common thing? Then let me ask you, how many traffic accidents like this happen in this city on average every month?"

"There were six or seven incidents last year!"

"Then let me tell you, officer, there were more car accidents in this city every day in our time than this."

"Your cars were all walking on the ground at that time, and it was so dangerous. It's hard to imagine. Well, you are already under the surveillance of the police system, and you will be notified of the progress of the case, but please believe me, this is a normal It’s just a traffic accident, whether you report it or not, you will be compensated.”

After leaving the police and the scene of the incident, Da Shi said to Luo Ji, "Let's go back to my residence as soon as possible. I always feel uneasy outside. It's not far from my residence. Let's walk back. Taxi It’s all unmanned and uninsured.”

"But, hasn't the Trisolaran organization already been wiped out?" Luo Ji looked around and asked.In the distance, the crashed car had been hoisted away by a large flying car, the onlookers dispersed, the police car also left, a municipal engineering vehicle landed, and several workers got out of the car to collect the scattered debris and began to repair the crashed car. bad ground.After a little commotion, the city returned to a pleasant calm.

"Maybe, but you have to trust my instincts, buddy."

"I'm no longer a Wallfacer."

"That car doesn't seem to think so... Pay attention to the car in the sky when you walk."

They try to walk under the "shade" of tree-shaped buildings, and run quickly when they encounter open ground.Soon, they came to a wide square, and Da Shi said, "It's just opposite, it's too far to go around, let's run over quickly."

"Isn't that a bit paranoid? Maybe it was really a traffic accident."

"Isn't it still 'maybe'? It doesn't hurt to be careful... Did you see the pile of sculptures in the center of the square? You can hide there if you have something to do."

Luo Ji saw a square of sand in the center of the square, which seemed to be a miniature landscape of the desert. The sculpture Da Shi said was in the center of the sand. It was a group of black pillars, each two or three meters high. Like a black dry forest.

Luo Ji followed Da Shi and ran across the square. As he approached the sandy ground, he heard Da Shi shout, "Quick, get in!" "Sculpture group, lying on the warm sand in the forest, looking at the surrounding black pillars stretching to the sky.At this time, Luo Ji saw a swooping flying car pass by the "dead forest" at low speed, pulled up quickly, went up and flew away. clattering.

"Maybe it's not coming for us."

"Hmph, maybe." Sitting there, Da Shi poured the sand out of his shoes and said.

"Are we going to make people laugh?"

"Afraid of the ghost, who knows you? Besides, we came here 200 years ago. Even if we act in a serious manner, people will still look ridiculous. Brother, be careful not to lose money, if that thing is really aimed at you ?”

Only then did Luo Ji really notice the group of sculptures they were in. He realized that those pillars were not dead trees, but arms stretching upwards from the desert. It looks like a dead tree trunk, and the hands on top make all kinds of extremely twisted gestures towards the sky, as if expressing endless pain.

"What kind of sculpture is this?" Luo Ji was among the arms struggling against the sky, and even though he was sweating, he still felt chills.At the edge of the sculpture group, Luo Ji saw a solemn obelisk, engraved with a line of golden characters:

Give time to civilization instead of giving time to civilization.

"The Great Valley Monument." Shi Qiang said, obviously not interested in explaining further, he pulled Luo Ji up and walked outside, quickly walking across the other half of the square.

"Okay, brother, I will live on this tree." Shi Qiang pointed to a giant tree building in front of him and said.

Luo Ji looked up as he was walking, and suddenly heard a loud crash on the ground, and then his body fell down from under his feet.Shi Qiang next to him grabbed him. At this time, his chest was already on the ground. Da Shi dragged him out with all his strength. The two of them stared blankly at the hole in the ground. It was a hole like a sewer mouth. , just before Luo Ji stepped on it, the cover slid open.

"Oh, my God! Sir, are you all right?! It's really dangerous!" The voice came from a small billboard next to it. This billboard was pasted on a kiosk like a beverage vending machine. The young man in blue overalls turned pale, and seemed to be more frightened than Luo Ji, "I'm from the drainage department of the No. [-] Municipal Company. The cover opened automatically. It may be a software system failure."

"Does this happen often?" Da Shi asked.

"No, no, it's the first time I've encountered it anyway."

Da Shi picked a small pebble from the lawn beside the road and threw it down through the hole. It took him a while to hear the sound, "How the hell is this deep?!" He asked the person on the billboard.

"It's about 30 meters, so I say it's really dangerous! I checked the drainage system on the ground, and your sewers seem to be very shallow at that time. The accident has been recorded, you..." He said and glanced at his sleeve, " Oh, Mr. Luo, you will get compensation from the Third Municipal Corporation."

They finally walked into the trunk hall of tree No. 1863 where Shi Qiang lived. Shi Qiang said that he lived in branch 106 near the top of the tree, and he suggested eating below before going up.They walked into the restaurant on one side of the hall, and besides the cleanliness of a [-]D animation, another feature of this era was more obvious here than what Luo Ji first saw in the Waking Center: there were dynamic information windows everywhere, On the walls, tabletops, chairs, floors and ceilings, and even some small objects, such as water cups and napkin boxes on the dining table, there are operation interfaces, scrolling text or dynamic image displays, as if the entire restaurant is a big computer The display screen shows a kind of gorgeousness that is numerous and shining.

There were not many people dining, so they chose a table by the window to sit down, Shi Qiang clicked on the table, activated an operation interface, and ordered dishes on it, "I don't know foreign language, so I only order Chinese characters ah."

"This world seems to be built using monitors as bricks." Luo Ji said with emotion.

"Yes, as long as it is smoother, it can light up." Da Shi said, taking out the pack of cigarettes and handing it to Luo Ji, "Look at this, it's a very cheap pack of cigarettes." Luo Ji had just picked up the pack of cigarettes. In his hand, he saw that dynamic images began to be displayed on the top, which were several thumbnails, which seemed to be a selection interface.

"This...is a kind of film that can display images." Luo Ji said, looking at the cigarette case.

"What sticker? You can surf the Internet with this thing!" Da Shi said, reaching out his hand and clicking on the cigarette case casually, a thumbnail image button was sunken, and then the selected advertisement screen filled the entire cigarette case.Luo Ji saw an image of a family of three sitting in the living room. This image obviously came from the past, and a shrill voice sounded from the cigarette case:

"Mr. Luo Ji, this is the era you lived in. We know that at that time, owning a house in the capital was everyone's most magnificent dream. Now, Luye Group can help you realize it. As you have seen, In this wonderful era, the house has become the leaves on the tree, and the Green Leaf Group provides you with various leaves. (In the image, there is a picture of hanging leaves on the branches of a giant tree, followed by a dazzling variety of hanging There is even a set of fully transparent ones, where the furniture seems to be suspended in the air.) Of course, we can also build traditional houses on the ground for you, bringing you back to the warmth of the golden age, and building a Warm—home..." (The lawn and villas appear on the screen, which may also be images of the past, and the announcer speaks fluent "ancient Chinese", but he pauses when he says the word "home", The tone is emphasized, after all, this is something they no longer have and only belongs to the past.)
Da Shi took the cigarette case from Luo Ji, took out the last two cigarettes inside, handed one to Luo Ji, and threw the empty cigarette case on the table in a ball. Shiningly reflected, but the sound disappeared. "Whenever I go to a place, the first thing I do is to close all the things in front of me and around me, and look at the trouble," Da Shi said, using both hands and feet, closing the display windows on the table and on the floor under his feet one by one, " But they can’t live without this.” He pointed to the surroundings, “At this time, there is no such thing as a computer, anyone who wants to surf the Internet can just find a flat place and click directly, and clothes, shoes, etc. For computers. Believe it or not, I've seen toilet paper that can go online."

Luo Ji pulled out a napkin. It was ordinary paper that couldn't be accessed online, but the box containing the tissue was activated, and a pretty girl was selling Band-Aids to Luo Ji. She guessed from his experience today that there might be something on his arm and leg. There are abrasions.

"Oh my God." Luo Ji sighed, and stuffed the paper back into the box.

"This is the fucking information age. Back then, it was a bit primitive." Da Shi said with a smile.

While waiting for the food to be served, Luo Ji asked about Da Shi's current life. He felt guilty for asking about it at this time, but thinking back on this day, he was like a clockwork machine, being pushed all the time Let's go, now we have a little free time.

"They let me retire, and the treatment was good." Shi Qiang said simply.

"Is it the Public Security Bureau, or your later unit? Are they still there?"

"They are all there, and the Public Security Bureau is still called the Public Security Bureau, the Public Security Affairs Bureau, but it has nothing to do with me before hibernation. My later unit now belongs to the Asian Fleet. You know, the Fleet itself is a big country, so I am now a foreign country. It's dead." Da Shi said, exhaling a long puff of smoke, staring at the rising smoke, as if he was trying to solve a mystery.

"The country is no longer what it used to be... The world has changed so much that it is really confusing. But Da Shi, fortunately, you and I belong to the kind of heartless people, and we can live on and live well no matter what."

"Brother Luo, to be honest, there are some things that I'm not as open-minded as you are, and I'm not as open-minded as you. If I had experienced it like you, I might have fallen apart."

Luo Ji picked up the crumpled cigarette case on the table, unfolded it, and found that the image on it could still be displayed, but with some discoloration, and it was replaying the advertisement of the Luye Group.Luo Ji said: "Whether I am a savior or a refugee, I can always use the resources I have to live as happily as possible. You can think that I am selfish, but to be honest, this is the only thing I value about myself. Great History , I want to say something to you: You look carefree, but you are still a person who is responsible. Now let's throw away the responsibility completely. Look at this era, who still needs us? Carpe diem is our most sacred responsibility."

"If that's the case, you won't be able to eat anything good now." Da Shi threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray on the table, and activated the cigarette advertisement on the ashtray.

Luo Ji consciously made a slip of the tongue, "Oh, Da Shi, of course you must fulfill your responsibilities to me, I can't live without you, you have already saved me today...one, two, three, three times, at least two and a half times! "

"You can't do nothing, can you? I'm just going to save your life." Da Shi said disapprovingly, while looking around, probably looking for a place that sells cigarettes, then he looked away. , and whispered to Luo Ji, "But brother, you really took it seriously for a while when you were the savior."

"It is impossible for anyone to be sane in that position. Fortunately, I am back to normal."

"How did you come up with the idea of ​​casting a spell on a star?"

"At that time, I was already a patient with severe delusions. I can't bear to look back. Dashi, believe it or not, I'm sure that before waking up, they not only cured my illness, but also treated me in a sleeping state. Really, I am not the same person now as I was then, how could I be so stupid to have that kind of thinking, that kind of delusion?"

"What delusion? Tell me."

"I can't explain a few sentences clearly, and it's not very interesting to say. You must have encountered delusional patients in your previous work. For example, you always feel that someone is going to kill him. Is it interesting to listen to such people?" Luo Ji said. Then, slowly tearing up the cigarette case in his hand, this time the display was destroyed, but the shreds of paper were still flickering, forming a strange pile.

"Well, a happy event: my son is alive."

"What?" Luo Ji was so surprised that he almost jumped up.

"I didn't know until the day before yesterday that he found me. I haven't seen him yet, I just talked on the phone."

"He is not……"

"I don't know how long he stayed in prison, and later hibernated, saying that he would come to see me in the future. Who knows where this kid got so much money. He is on the ground now, and he promised to come over tomorrow. "

Luo Ji was so excited that he stood up and threw the shiny piece of paper on the ground, "Ah, Da Shi, this is really... We have to drink two bottles."

"Drink it, the wine is too bad at this time, but the strength has not diminished."

At this time, when the food arrived, Luo Ji didn't recognize what it was. Da Shi said, "It's not delicious, but there are restaurants that serve traditional agricultural products, but they are all very high-end places. When Xiaoming comes, we will eat it." Go there and eat."

But Luo Ji's attention had already shifted to the waiter. This girl, both in appearance and figure, was unrealistically beautiful. Luo Ji also found that the other waiters in the restaurant were also like this. The image of a fairy.

"Hey, don't stare stupidly at it, it's fake." Da Shi said without raising his head.

"Robots?" Luo Ji asked, this future finally has something he saw in science fiction novels when he was a child.

"That's it."

"How do you call it?"

Da Shi pointed to the machine waiter and said, "Silly girl, she will serve the food. They follow a fixed route. How stupid is it? I saw a time when the dining table was moved temporarily, and they kept it in the same place." The plate crackled and fell."

After the robot waiter finished serving the dishes, he smiled sweetly and said, "Please take your time." Its voice was not machine-like, but very soft.Then, it stretched out a slender hand and picked up a table knife in front of Shi Qiang...

Da Shi's eyes flicked from the waiter's hand holding the knife to Luo Ji who was opposite him. He jumped up nimbly, leaned over the table, and pulled Luo Ji off the chair.Almost at the same time, the beautiful robot stabbed with a knife. The table knife stabbed at the place where Luo Ji's heart used to be, and penetrated forcefully through the back of the chair. The activated information interface of the chair flashed.The robot drew back the knife, and stood by the table with the tray still in the other hand, and the sweet smile remained on its unreally beautiful face.The panic-stricken Luo Ji struggled to stand up and hid behind Da Shi. Shi Qiang waved his hand and said, "Don't be afraid, it's not that flexible."

Sure enough, the robot beauty stood still, continued to hold the knife and smiled, and said in a soft voice again: "Please take it easy, gentlemen."

The startled diners gathered around one after another, looking at this weird scene in surprise. When the manager on duty who heard the news heard that Da Shi wanted to accuse the robot of the restaurant of killing people, he shook his head repeatedly and said, "Sir, it's impossible! It's Vision can’t see people, only sensors on tables and chairs!”

"I prove that it stabbed the gentleman with a table knife, and we all saw it with our own eyes!" A person said loudly, and the onlookers also gave proofs one after another.

Just when the manager on duty still wanted to deny it, the beautiful robot stabbed at the back of the chair with a knife again, and the knife accurately penetrated the hole that was stabbed last time, causing a lot of exclamations.

"Two gentlemen, please use it slowly." The robot beauty said with a smile.

A few more people came from the restaurant, including their engineer. He pressed the back of the beauty's head, and the beauty's expression became serious, saying: "Forced shutdown, the breakpoint data has been backed up." Then It froze there and didn't move.

"It may be a software failure." The engineer said, wiping a cold sweat.

"Is it a common thing?" Da Shi asked with a sneer.

"No, no, I swear, I've never heard of this." The engineer said, directing two waiters to move the robot away.

The manager on duty tried his best to explain to the diners that real people would be used to serve the restaurant until the cause of the fault was found out, but more than half of the people in the restaurant left.

"Sir, your response is really fast." A bystander said with admiration.

"Hibernates, people in their time were capable of coping with such emergencies," said another, whose clothes reflected a martial arts swordsman.

The duty manager said to Luo Ji and Shi Qiang: "You two gentlemen, this is really... But I promise, you will get compensation."

"Okay then, let's continue eating." Da Shi beckoned Luo Ji to sit down at the dining table again, and the real waiter brought back another portion of the dish that had been spilled just now.

Luo Ji sat there, still in shock. The hole in the back of the chair made his back very uncomfortable. "Da Shi, it seems that the whole world is against me... Originally, I had a pretty good impression of this world."

Da Shi looked at the dish and said thoughtfully, "I have some ideas about this..." He raised his head and poured Luo Ji a drink, "Leave it alone, and I'll talk to you when I get back."

"Come on, enjoy yourself while you can, live every day as a day, and live an hour as an hour." Luo Ji raised his glass, "Congratulations, you still have a son!"

"Are you really okay?" Da Shi looked at Luo Ji with a smile and said.

"I've been the savior before, so what are you afraid of?" Luo Ji shrugged and drank a glass. The smell of the wine made him grin and frown. "It's like rocket fuel."

"That's the only thing I obey you, brother, I've always obeyed you for this." Da Shi said with a thumbs up.

The leaf where Shi Qiang lives is located at the top of the tree. It is a very spacious room with complete and comfortable living facilities, a gym, and even an indoor garden with a fountain.

Shi Qiang said: "This is the temporary residence given to me by the fleet. They said I can use my pension to buy a better leaf."

"Do people live in such a spacious place now?"

"It should be. This kind of building can make the best use of space. A big leaf can support a building at that time, but the main reason is that there are fewer people. After the big trough, there are a lot fewer people."

"Da Shi, your country is in space."

"I won't go there, I'm retired."

Luo Ji felt much more comfortable for his eyes here, mainly because Shi Qiang had closed most of the information windows in the room, but there were still a few sporadic ones flashing on the wall and floor.Shi Qiang tapped an operation interface on the floor with his feet, and turned a wall completely transparent. The city in the night unfolded in front of them. It was a bright forest of giant Christmas trees, and the light chains of speeding cars passed through it.

Luo Ji walked to the sofa, which was as hard as marble to the touch. "Is this for sitting?" He asked, and after getting Da Shi's affirmative answer, he sat on it carefully, but felt as if he had sunk into a piece of soft mud. It turned out that the cushion and backrest of the sofa can automatically adapt to the shape of the human body. A person sitting on it forms a mold that conforms perfectly to the surface of their body, minimizing pressure.

His hallucinations two centuries ago on that piece of iron ore in the meditation room of the United Nations building became reality.

"Are there any sleeping pills?" Luo Ji asked, exhaustion hit him only when he came to this space he thought was safe.

"No, you can buy it here." Da Shi said, and began to operate on the wall again, "Here, over-the-counter sleeping pills, this, Menghe."

Luo Ji thought he was going to see some high-tech network transmission hardware again, but things were simpler than he thought. A few minutes later, a small delivery speed car hovered outside the transparent wall, using a slender The robotic arm passes the medicine through the round hole that just appeared in the transparent wall.Luo Ji took the medicine from Da Shi. It was a traditional packaging box, and there was no indication that it was activated. He saw that it was one pill at a time, so he opened the package and took out one. He reached for the medicine on the coffee table. drinking glass.

"Wait." Da Shi took the medicine box from Luo Ji, looked at it carefully, and handed it to Luo Ji, "What's written on it? The medicine I want is called Menghe."

Luo Ji saw that it was a long list of complicated English drug names, "I don't know it either, but it's definitely not Menghe."

Shi Qiang activated a window on the coffee table and began looking for medical advice on it.With Luo Ji's help, he finally found one. A consulting doctor in white looked at the medicine box, then turned his eyes to Da Shi who was holding the medicine box, and his eyes were a little strange.

"Where did this come from?" asked the doctor alarmedly.

"I bought it, I bought it here."

"Impossible, this is a type of prescription drug that can only be used inside the hibernation center."

"What... does this have to do with hibernation?"

"This is a short-term hibernation drug that can make people enter a hibernation period of ten days to one year."

"Is it okay to eat?"

"No, after taking the medicine, there must be a whole system outside the body to maintain the internal circulation function of the human body in order to achieve short-term hibernation."

"What if you only take medicine?"

"Then you're doomed, but it's a comfortable death, so this thing is often used to commit suicide."

Shi Qiang closed the window, threw the medicine box on the coffee table, looked at Luo Ji for a long time, and said, "Damn it."

"Damn it." Luo Ji said as he lay back on the sofa—

When Luo Ji's head rested on the back of the sofa, the hard back quickly adapted to the shape of the back of his head and began to form an impression on that part of him, but the process didn't stop. Luo Ji's head and neck sank all the way, and then , the part of the backrest on both sides of the neck formed a pair of tentacles, which firmly gripped Luo Ji's neck. He didn't even have time to scream, he could only open his mouth wide, his eyes protruding, and his hands scratched.

Seeing this, Da Shi jumped up and rushed into the kitchen, took a knife, stabbed the tentacles a few times on both sides, and then separated them from Luo Ji's neck with his hands.Luo Ji left the sofa and fell forward on the floor. The surface of the sofa lit up, displaying a large area of ​​error messages.

"Brother, how many times have I saved your life today?" Da Shi asked, rubbing his hands.

"It seems... for the sixth time." Luo Ji gasped, and then vomited on the floor. After vomiting, he leaned weakly on the sofa, and then left immediately as if electrocuted, his hands even I don't know where to put it, "When will I learn how smart you are and can save my life?"

"Probably never." Da Shi said.A vacuum-cleaner-like machine glides over and starts cleaning the vomit off the floor.

"Then I'm dead, this perverted world."

"It's not that bad, I'm finally getting an idea of ​​the whole thing. The first murder didn't work out, and the fifth time in a row, it was unprofessional, it was stupid, something must have gone wrong... we I have to contact the police immediately, and I’m afraid it’s impossible to wait for them to solve the case.”

"Where, who made a mistake? Dashi, two centuries have passed, don't use your thinking at that time."

"Same, brother, this kind of thing has the same place in any era. As for who made a mistake, I really don't know. I even doubt whether this 'who' really exists..."

At this time the doorbell rang, Shi Qiang opened the door, and saw several people standing outside the door, they were all in casual clothes, but before the leader showed his ID, he had already seen their identities.

"Wow, it turns out that there are still alive police officers in this society... Police officers, please come in."

Three people entered the house, and the other two guarded the door vigilantly.The leading police officer looked to be about 30 years old. He looked around the room. Like Da Shi and Luo Ji, all the displays on his clothes were turned off. What made the two feel comfortable was that he spoke without any English words. Fluent and pure "ancient Chinese".

"I'm Guo Zhengming from the Digital Reality Division of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. I'm sorry we came late. This is indeed a negligence at work. The last time this kind of case happened was half a century ago." He bowed deeply to Da Shi Bow, "I pay tribute to my seniors. Your quality is hard to see among the current police officers."

While Officer Guo was speaking, Luo Ji and Da Shi noticed that all the information windows in the room had been extinguished. Obviously, this leaf had been disconnected from the super information world outside.The other two policemen were busy, and Luo Ji saw a long-lost thing in their hands: a laptop, but that computer was as thin as a piece of paper.

"They are installing a firewall for this leaf." Officer Guo explained, "Please rest assured that you are safe now, and I guarantee that you will be compensated by the government's public security system."

"Today," Da Shi counted on his fingers, "we have received compensation four times."

"I know, and there are still many people in many departments who will lose their positions because of your matter, so I kindly ask for your help so that I will not be included. Thank you in advance." Police Officer Guo said to Luo Ji and everyone. Shi bowed.

Da Shi said: "Understood, I have had times like yours before, do you need us to introduce the situation?"

"No, in fact, the tracking of you has been going on, it's just negligence."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"KILLER version 5.2."

"what?"

"A computer network virus, the Earth Trisolaris first spread around a century after the crisis, and has been mutated and upgraded many times since then. This is a murder virus. It first identifies the identity of the target, and there are many ways, including through The identity chip in each person's body. Once the target is found and located, the KILLER virus manipulates all possible external hardware to commit murder. The specific manifestation is what you are experiencing today. It seems that everything in this world wants to kill you, so someone put This thing is called a modern curse. For a while, KILLER software was even commercialized. After buying it from the black market on the Internet, as long as you enter the identity characteristics of the target and put the virus on the Internet, then this person will escape death, and it is very difficult in society. live on."

"This business has evolved to such a degree, Gao!" Da Shi exclaimed.

"Software from a century ago can still run?" Luo Ji wondered.

"Yes, computer technology has stopped improving a long time ago. The software a century ago is compatible with the current system. The KILLER virus killed many people when it first appeared, including a head of state, but it was later replaced by antivirus software and firewalls. Suppressed, and gradually disappeared. But this version of KILLER was specially compiled to attack Dr. Luo Ji. Since the target has been in a hibernating state, it has never had the opportunity to perform explicit actions and performances. It has always been in a latent state and has not been informed. Discovered and recorded by the security system. Until Dr. Luo Ji appeared in the outside world today, KILLER5.2 activated itself and completed its mission, but now its creator has perished for a century."

"Until a century ago, they were still chasing me?" Luo Ji said, a certain thought that had disappeared came back, and he tried his best to get rid of it.

"Yes, the key is that this version of the KILLER virus is specially programmed for you and has never been activated, so it can lurk until today."

"Then what shall we do in the future?" Da Shi asked.

"The system-wide cleanup of KILLER5.2 is in progress, but it will take time. Before this is completed, there are two options: one is to temporarily give Dr. Luo Ji a false identity, but this does not guarantee absolute safety, and may cause other more serious consequences. Because ETO's software technology is very sophisticated, KILLER 5.2 may have recorded more characteristics of the target. There was a sensational case a century ago: after the protected person used a false identity, KILLER performed fuzzy identification and killed the target at the same time. Hundreds of people died including the target; the other option is what I suggest: you go live on the surface for a while, where KILLER 5.2 has no hardware to maneuver."

Da Shi said: "I agree, even if there is no such thing, I would like to go to the ground."

"What's on the ground?" Luo Ji asked.

Da Shi explained: "Most people who have awakened from hibernation live on the ground, and it is difficult to adapt here."

"That's right, at least we should go to transition for a while." Officer Guo said, "All aspects of modern society, politics, economy, culture, living habits and gender relations, etc., have changed a lot compared with two centuries ago. It’s hard to get used to it.”

"But you've adjusted well." Da Shi looked at Officer Guo and said, both he and Luo Ji noticed that he said "we".

"I hibernated because of leukemia. When I woke up, I was young, only 13 years old." Guo Zhengming said with a smile, "But the later difficulties are hard for others to understand. I don't know how many times I have experienced just mental treatment."

"Among the hibernators, are there many people like you who have truly adapted to modern life?" Luo Ji asked.

"A lot, but you can live well on the ground."

"Reinforcement Future Task Force Commander Zhang Beihai has arrived!" Zhang Beihai saluted.

Behind the commander of the Asian Fleet, a brilliant river of stars flowed mightily.Fleet Headquarters orbiting Jupiter is constantly spinning to create artificial gravity.Zhang Beihai found that the indoor lighting here is relatively dark, but the windows are very wide, as if he tried his best to integrate the internal environment with the external space.

The commander returned the salute to Zhang Beihai, "Senior, hello!" He looked very young, his oriental face was illuminated by the light from his epaulets and cap badge.On the sixth day after waking up, when Zhang Beihai received the uniform of the fleet, he saw the familiar emblem of the Space Force on the brim of the hat: the main body was a silver star with four rays of light, and the four rays of light were four handles. The shape of a sword.Two centuries have passed, and the military emblem has not changed much, but at this time the fleet itself has become an independent power, its supreme leader is the president, and the commander is only responsible for the military.

Zhang Beihai said, "Don't dare, chief, we are new fighters who have to learn everything."

The commander smiled and shook his head, "Don't say that, you can learn everything here, but we will never be able to learn some of the qualities you possess, which is why you are awakened now."

"General Chang Weisi, the commander of the Chinese Space Force, asked me to send you my greetings."

Zhang Beihai's words touched something in the commander's heart, he turned to face the galaxy outside the window, as if looking at the upper reaches of the long river of time. "He is an outstanding general and one of the founders of the Asian fleet. The current space strategy is still within the framework he created two centuries ago. I really hope he can see it today."

"Today's achievements have far exceeded his dreams."

"But it all started with him...with you."

At this time, Jupiter appeared, first with an arc-shaped edge, and soon filled the entire view of the window, and the entire office was immersed in its orange light. In the vast ocean of hydrogen-helium atmosphere, a Dreamlike patterns, the grandeur of the overall composition is suffocating, and the details of the parts are confusing.The Great Red Spot slowly moved into the window, this super tornado that could accommodate two Earths, now looked like a giant eye without pupils in this blurred world.The three major fleets all use Jupiter as their main base because there is inexhaustible nuclear fusion fuel in its hydrogen-helium ocean.

Zhang Beihai was fascinated by the sight of Jupiter, and this new territory that he had seen countless times in his dreams was now truly presented in front of his eyes.He didn't speak until Jupiter slowly moved out of the window: "Sir, it is the great achievement of this era that makes our mission unnecessary."

The Commander turned around and said, "No, it can't be said that, the reinforcement future plan is a far-sighted move. In the era of the Great Depression, the Space Force was on the verge of collapse, and at that time, the reinforcement task force played a role in stabilizing the situation. played a huge role.”

"But our team came too late."

"I'm sorry, but that's the situation," said the Commander, the lines on his face softening now, "after you, a number of reinforcements for the Future Task Force were dispatched, and the last sent were the first to be awakened. "

"Chief, this is understandable, so that their knowledge structure is closer to that at that time."

"Yes, when there is only one of you left in the hibernating task force, the Great Depression has passed for a long time, the world has entered a period of rapid development, defeatism has almost disappeared, and there is no need to wake you up. At that time, the fleet made a decision : Let you go straight to the doomsday battle."

"Sir, this is indeed the wish of each of us." Zhang Beihai said excitedly.

"It is also the highest honor for all space soldiers. They are aware of this, so they decided this way. But now the situation has changed completely, of course you already know," the commander pointed to the galaxy flowing behind him, "The Battle of Doomsday may not be the same at all. It won't happen."

"That's good, sir. Compared with the great victory that mankind is about to usher in, this little regret as a soldier is really nothing. I just hope that you can grant us a request: let us go to the lowest level of the fleet to do it." Ordinary soldiers, do what you can do."

The commander shook his head, "From the day of waking up, the military service of all members of the task force will continue, and the military rank will be raised by one or two ranks on the original basis."

"Chief, this won't work. We don't want to end up in the agency and only think about the front line of the fleet. Two centuries ago, the space fleet was the dream of each of us. Without it, life would be meaningless. But even in At our current rank, we are not qualified for fleet work."

"I didn't say to let you leave the fleet. On the contrary, you will all work on the battleship to complete an extremely important mission."

"Thank you chief, but, can we still have such a mission now?"

The commander didn't answer, and said as if suddenly remembering: "Can you adapt to standing like this all the time?" There are no chairs in all the offices of the headquarters, and the height of the desks is also designed for standing use. The gravity is only one-sixth of the gravity of the earth, and the feeling of standing and sitting is not much different.

Zhang Beihai nodded with a smile, "No problem, I also stayed in space for a year."

"What about the language? Is it difficult to communicate with the people in the fleet?"

Now the commander is speaking standard Chinese, but the three major fleets have formed their own language, which is somewhat similar to the modern Chinese and modern English on the earth, but the two languages ​​are more evenly integrated. The vocabulary is Chinese and English. Half and half.

"At the beginning, I was a little uncomfortable, mainly because I couldn't distinguish between Chinese and English vocabulary, but I soon understood it, and it was more difficult to express."

"It doesn't matter, you can just speak Chinese or English, we can all understand. In this way, the staff has fully communicated with you."

"Yes, these days after arriving at the base, they gave us a full briefing on the situation."

"Then you must know about the Thought Seal."

"Yes."

"Recent investigations have still not found any signs of the stamp clan. What do you think of this?"

"I think one possibility is that the stencil family has disappeared, and the other possibility is that they hide very deeply. If a person just has general defeatist thoughts, he will confide in others; but this kind of technology solidified Faith is [-]% unwavering, and such beliefs will inevitably produce a corresponding sense of mission. Defeatism and escapeism are closely related. If the stamp tribe really exists, then they must regard the realization of space escape as their ultimate mission, and In order to achieve this goal, one must hide one's true thoughts deeply."

The commander nodded approvingly: "The analysis is very good, and this is also the opinion of the General Staff."

"Chief, the latter situation is very dangerous."

"Yes, especially when the Trisolaran probe is approaching the solar system. At present, based on the type of command system, the warships of the fleet are divided into two categories: one is the decentralized command system, which is a traditional The structure is similar to the naval ships you have commanded. The captain's orders are executed by operators at all levels; the other is a centralized command system. The captain's orders are automatically executed by the computer system of the spaceship. Post-construction and ongoing construction The advanced space battleships in China all belong to this type. The threat posed by the ideological seal is mainly aimed at this type of warship, because in this command system, the captain has great power, and he can control the battleship alone. Set sail and berth, control the course and speed, and can also control the use of a large part of the weapon system. In this command system, it can be said that the warship is like a part of the captain's body. Currently, the fleet has 695 stellar ships Among the class warships, there are 179 ships with a centralized command system, and the commanders on these warships will be the key objects of review. Originally, during the review process, the warships involved should be in a state of mooring and storage, but judging from the current situation Less than that, now, the three major fleets are actively preparing to intercept the Trisolaran probe, this is the space fleet's first actual battle against the Trisolaran invaders, and all warships must be on standby at any time."

"Then, Commander, you must hand over the authority of the captain of the centralized command system to a reliable person during this period." Zhang Beihai said, he had been guessing about his mission, but he hadn't figured it out yet.

"Who is reliable?" the commander asked, "We don't know the scope of use of the ideological seal, let alone any information about the stamp clan. In this case, no one is reliable, including me."

At this time, the sun appeared outside the window. Although viewed from here, its brightness was much weaker than that of the earth, but when the sun wheel passed behind the Commander, his body was still hidden in the radiant light, and only the voice could be heard :
"But you are reliable. When you were hibernating, the ideological seal did not exist. And you were selected two centuries ago, and the very important factors were loyalty and belief. You are the only reliable group that can be found in the fleet. So, the fleet has decided to hand over the captain authority of the centralized command system to you, and you will be appointed as executive captains, and all orders from the original captain to the battleship will be sent to the command system through you."

In Zhang Beihai's eyes, two little suns were burning, and he said, "Sir, I'm afraid this won't work."

"It's not our tradition to say no when you receive a task."

The two words "we" and "tradition" in the commander's words gave Zhang Beihai a warm feeling. He knew that the blood of the army two centuries ago was still continuing in the space fleet.

"Chief, after all, we came from two centuries ago. When I was in the navy, it would be tantamount to letting the Guan Dai of the Beiyang Navy command the destroyers of the 21st century."

"Do you think that Deng Shichang and Liu Buchan really can't command your destroyers? They are all educated, and their English is very good, so they can learn. Now, the command work of the captain of the space battleship does not involve technical details. Commands, warships are a black box for them. Besides, when you are the executive captain, the warship is only parked at the base and does not set sail. Your task is to convey the orders of the original captain to the control system. Before that, judge whether these orders are Normally, this should be possible through learning.”

"Then the authority we have is too great. The original captain can still have these authorities, and we will supervise their orders."

"If you think about it carefully, you will know that this is not good. If the stamp tribe really exists and occupies a key battle position, they can use various means to avoid your supervision, including assassinating the supervisor. You must know that a ship that is on standby A battleship with a centralized command system only needs three orders to set sail, and it will be too late. Therefore, the command system must only recognize and execute the captain’s order.”

The traffic boat flew over the Jupiter military port of the Asian Fleet, and Zhang Beihai felt that he was flying above the mountains with many obstacles, and each mountain was a space battleship parked.The military port is currently running on the dark side of Jupiter. Under the phosphorescence from the surface of the planet and the silver-white moonlight from Europa above, the steel mountains are quietly sleeping.After a while, a ball of dazzling white light rose from the end of the mountain range, illuminating the moored fleet extremely clearly.Zhang Beihai felt that he was witnessing the sunrise on the mountains, and the fleet even cast a moving shadow on Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere.It wasn't until the second light group rose on the other side of the fleet that Zhang Beihai realized that they were not the sun, but two warships entering the port. When they slowed down, their nuclear fusion engines were facing the direction of the port.

According to the Fleet Chief of Staff who sent Zhang Beihai to the post, there are now more than 400 warships moored in the port, which is equivalent to two-thirds of the total number of warships in the Asian fleet.

Zhang Beihai, who was intoxicated by the magnificent sight of the fleet, had to come back to reality: "Chief of Staff, will recalling all the ships in this way stimulate and force the possible stamp tribes to act immediately?"

"Oh, no, ordering all the warships to return to port is based on another reason. This reason is real, not an excuse, but it's a bit ridiculous to say. You haven't read the news recently, have you?"

"No, I've been looking at the data on 'Natural Selection'."

"Don't be in such a hurry. From the basic training in the previous period, you all have a good grasp. After you get familiar with the work on the ship, you can proceed step by step. It's not as difficult as you think... Now the three major fleets are striving to undertake the task. The task of intercepting the Trisolaran probe caused a lot of quarrels, and at yesterday's joint meeting, a preliminary agreement was finally reached: all warships of each fleet will return to Hong Kong to assemble, and a special committee will supervise the execution of this operation, so as not to prevent a certain fleet from Arbitrarily dispatching ships to carry out interception operations."

"Why should this be? If either party succeeds in intercepting, the resulting intelligence and technical information should be shared."

"Yes, it's just a matter of honor. The fleet that made first contact with the Trisolaran world can score a lot politically. Why do I say it's ridiculous? This is a cheap thing with no risk, and the biggest failure is nothing more than The probe self-destructed during the interception process, so everyone rushed to do this. If this is a battle with the Trisolaran main fleet, all parties will probably try their best to preserve their strength, so the current politics is different from yours at that time. It's about the same ... look, that's Natural Selection."

As the traffic boat flew towards the "Natural Selection", the gigantic size of this steel mountain was gradually revealed. At this moment, the shadow of the "Tang" appeared in Zhang Beihai's mind. The shape of the "Natural Selection" is completely different from that of the aircraft carrier at sea two centuries ago. The disc-shaped main hull and the cylindrical engine of the former form two completely separate parts.When the "Tang" ship died, Zhang Beihai seemed to have lost a spiritual home, even though he never lived in that home.Now, the gigantic spaceship felt like home again, and on the majestic hull of the Natural Selection, his soul, which had been wandering for two centuries, found a home, and he threw himself like a child on some gigantic spaceship. The embrace of strength.

The "Natural Selection" is the flagship of the Third Squadron of the Asian Fleet, and it is second to none in the fleet, both in terms of tonnage and performance.It has the latest generation of propellant-free fusion propulsion system, which can accelerate to 15.00% of the speed of light when propulsed at full power.Its in-ship ecological cycle system is perfect and can last for a long time.In fact, the experimental model of this ecosystem started trial operation on the moon 75 years ago, and so far there have been no major failures and defects. The weapon system of "Natural Selection" is also the most powerful in the fleet. Its four-in-one weapon system composed of gamma ray laser, electromagnetic kinetic energy cannon, high-energy particle beam and interstellar torpedo can destroy an Earth-sized The surface of the planet.

Now, "Natural Selection" has occupied the entire field of vision, and only a part of it can be seen from the transport boat. Zhang Beihai saw that the outer wall of the spaceship was as smooth as a mirror, perfectly reflecting the atmosphere and ocean of Jupiter. The image of the approaching traffic boat can also be seen on the mirror.

An oval-shaped entrance appeared on the outer wall of the spaceship, the traffic boat flew straight in, and quickly slowed down to a stop. The chief of staff opened the hatch and got out of the boat first.At this moment, Zhang Beihai was a little nervous, because he realized that the transport boat hadn't passed the transition cabin, but he immediately felt the fresh air pouring in from outside the door.The pressurized cabin opens directly to space, but it can prevent the air in the cabin from leaking out. This is a technology he doesn't know yet.

Zhang Beihai and the chief of staff were inside a huge sphere, the largest diameter of which was the size of a football field.Spaceship cabins generally adopt this kind of spherical structure. When the spacecraft accelerates, decelerates and turns, any part of the sphere may become a deck or ceiling. In a state of weightlessness, the center of the sphere is the main activity space for personnel.In the era Zhang Beihai came from, the space cabin was still modeled after the earth's architectural structure, so he was very uncomfortable with this brand new structure of the space cabin.The chief of staff told him that this is the hangar for the fighter jets on the spaceship, but there is not a single interstellar fighter jet here, and in the space in the center of the sphere, there is a phalanx composed of [-] officers and soldiers of the "Natural Selection" suspended.

Long before Zhang Beihai hibernated, the space forces of various countries began to conduct queue drills in the state of weightlessness in space, and formulated corresponding regulations and drills.However, it is very difficult to implement. Outside the cabin, personnel can only move with the help of miniature steam-jet propellers on the spacesuit. Inside the cabin, there is no propulsion equipment, and they can only move and position by pushing the bulkhead and paddling the air. In this case, forming a neat queue is very difficult.Now, Zhang Beihai was very surprised to see more than 2000 people arranged in such a neat suspended square in a space without support.At present, people move in the weightless cabin mainly by means of a magnetic belt, which is made of a superconductor and has a circular current inside. The magnetic field generated can interact with the ubiquitous magnetic field in the spacecraft cabin and corridor, and through A small controller can move freely inside the spaceship.Zhang Beihai himself is wearing such a belt now, but he still needs to learn skills to master it.

Zhang Beihai looked at the space fighters in the phalanx. They were all from the generation that grew up in the fleet. They were slender, without the strength and clumsiness of those who grew up under the gravity of the earth, but full of the lightness and agility of the space people.There were three officers in front of the phalanx, and Zhang Beihai's eyes finally fell on the beautiful young woman in the middle, with four stars shining on her shoulders, she should be the captain of the "Natural Selection".She is a typical representative of new space humans, much taller than the tall Zhang Beihai, she moved lightly from the front of the phalanx, her tall and slender figure was like an elegant note floating in the space.When she stopped in front of Zhang Beihai and the chief of staff, the hair that had been floating back danced elastically around her fair neck, and her eyes were full of clear sunlight and vitality. Zhang Beihai immediately trusted her because It is impossible for the steel seal clan to have such a gaze.

"I am Dongfang Yanxu, captain of the 'Natural Selection'." She saluted Zhang Beihai, with a playful challenge in her eyes, "On behalf of the entire ship's officers and men, I am presenting a gift to senior." She stretched forward hands, Zhang Beihai saw the thing she was holding, although its shape had changed a lot, but he could still recognize it as a pistol, "If I really find out that I have defeatist thoughts and escape attempts, senior can use it to kill me. me."

It is easy to go to the ground. The trunk of each giant tree building is a pillar supporting the dome of the underground city. From the trunk, you can take the elevator to the ground directly, and you have to pass through more than 300 meters of strata.When Luo Ji and Shi Qiang stepped out of the elevator, they felt nostalgic. The reason for this feeling was that there were no activated display windows on the walls and floors of the exit hall, and various information was displayed on real windows hanging from the ceiling. on the display.It looks like an old subway station, there are not many people, and most people's clothes are not shiny.

When they walked out of the sealed door of the hall, a gust of hot wind blew in their faces, carrying the smell of dust.

"That's my son!" Da Shi shouted, pointing at a man who was running up the steps.From a distance, Luo Ji could only see that the man was in his 40s, and Da Shi was so sure that he was a little surprised.Shi Qiang walked down the steps quickly in front of the man, Luo Ji didn't watch the reunion of father and son, his attention was focused on the ground world in front of him.

The sky was yellow, and now Luo Ji knew why the sky images of the dungeon had to be taken from an altitude of [-] meters. Looking at the sky from the ground, only a blurred sun could be seen.The sand covers everything on the ground, and vehicles trail long dust tails as they drive down the street.Now Luo Ji saw another thing from the past: a car driving on the ground.Obviously not powered by gasoline, the cars come in all shapes and sizes, new and old, but they all have one thing in common: They all have a sunshade-like sheet on the roof.On the opposite side of the street, Luo Ji saw the old buildings. Their window sills were covered with sand and soil. Most of the windows were either sealed or turned into black holes without glass. But some rooms were clearly occupied by people. Ji saw the clothes hanging outside, and even a few pots of flowers and plants on some window sills.He looked into the distance, and although the visibility was not high in the dusty air, he quickly saw the outlines of two familiar buildings, and knew that this was indeed the city where he spent half his life two centuries ago.

Luo Ji walked down the steps and came to the side of the two excited men hugging and beating each other. When he got closer to see the middle-aged man, he knew that Shi Qiang had not mistaken him.

"Dad, I'm only five years younger than you now." Shi Xiaoming said, wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"It's not bad, boy, I'm really afraid of an old man with a white beard calling me daddy." Shi Qiang said with a smile, and then introduced Luo Ji to his son.

"Ah, hello, Mr. Luo, you were a famous person in the world back then!" Shi Xiaoming said, staring at Luo Ji.

The three of them walked to Shi Xiaoming's car parked by the side of the road. Before getting into the car, Luo Ji asked what the big thing on the roof was.

"Antenna, the ground can only get the little electricity that leaks from other people's underground cities, so the antenna needs to be bigger, and this power is only enough to run on the ground, not fly."

The car didn't drive fast, I don't know if it was because of lack of power or because it was driving on sandy ground.Looking at the dusty city outside the car window, Luo Ji wanted to ask a lot of questions, but Shi Xiaoming and his father kept talking, so he couldn't get in.

……

"Mom passed away in 34, when your granddaughter and I were by her side."

"Oh, that's great... didn't you bring my granddaughter?"

"I followed her mother after the divorce. I also checked the files. This child died in the 105th year of the crisis, and he lived to be more than 80 years old."

"It's a pity I haven't met... When did you get out of prison?"

"19."

"What did you do next?"

"I did everything, but there was no way out at first, so I continued to bluff and cheat. Later, I also did some serious business and got some money. After seeing the signs of the big trough, I hibernated. At that time, I didn't expect to get better later, just Want to see you."

"Is our house still there?"

"The property rights were renewed 70 years later, but they were demolished after a short period of time. The one I bought later is still there, and I haven't seen it." Shi Xiaoming pointed outside, "The population in the city is still It’s less than one percent of what we were at that time, knowing what is the most worthless thing here? It’s the house that Dad provided for your whole life, and it’s all empty now, so you can just live there.”

……

With great difficulty, Luo Ji caught a gap in the conversation between the two and asked, "Do all the awakened hibernators live in the old city?"

"Where is it? They all live outside. The city is too windy and sandy, and the main reason is that there is nothing to do. Of course, you can't live too far from the underground city, otherwise you won't be able to get electricity."

"What else can you do?" Shi Qiang asked.

"Think about it, what are we able to do and what children can't do these days? Farming!" Like other hibernators, Shi Xiaoming is still used to calling modern people "children" regardless of their legal age.

The car left the city and headed west. The dust became lighter and the road was exposed. Luo Ji recognized that this was the Jingshi Expressway back then.Now, there are long yellow sands on both sides of the road, and the buildings in the past are still standing in the sand, but what really brings life to the desertified North China Plain is a small oasis surrounded by sparse forests. According to Shi Xiaoming, These places are the settlements of the hibernators.

The car drove into an oasis, which is a residential area surrounded by anti-sand forests. Shi Xiaoming said that this is called New Life Fifth Village.As soon as he got out of the car, Luo Ji felt as if he had stepped back in time. He saw rows of familiar six-story residential buildings. On the sparse lawn growing in the sand, a few children were playing football...

Shi Xiaoming's family lives on the sixth floor. His current wife is nine years younger than him. She hibernated due to liver cancer for 21 years. She is now very healthy. They have a four-year-old son named Grandpa Shi Qiangzu.

The luncheon for Shi Qiang and Luo Ji was rich and full of authentic agricultural products, as well as chicken and pork from nearby farms, and even the wine was brewed by themselves.Three men from the neighbors were also called over to eat together. Like Shi Xiaoming's family, they were among the earlier batches of hibernators.Hibernation was a very expensive thing at that time, so these people were very wealthy upper class people or their children, but now, after more than 100 years of gathering here, everyone is ordinary people.Shi Xiaoming introduced a neighbor in particular, saying that his name is Zhang Yan, and he is the grandson of Zhang Yuanchao who was deceived by him back then.

"Didn't you ask me to pay back all the money I cheated? I started to pay back after I went out, so I met Yanzi, who had just graduated from college at the time. We were inspired by their two old neighbors and started a business. Funeral business, our company name is Gaoshen Company. High refers to space burial, in addition to sending ashes out of the solar system, and later developed to launch the entire body, of course, the price is not low; deep refers to mine burial, which used abandoned mines at first , and later excavated new ones, anyway, to prevent the Trisolarans from digging their graves."

The person Shi Xiaoming called Yanzi looked a little old, about 60 or 30 years old. Xiaoming explained that Yanzi had been awake for more than [-] years before hibernating again.

"What is your legal status here?" Luo Ji asked.

Shi Xiaoming said: "The status is completely equal to the living area of ​​modern people. We are regarded as the outer suburbs of the city, with a formal district government. Not all the people living here are hibernators, there are also modern people, and people from the city often come here to play." Son."

Zhang Yan went on to say: "We all call modern people "clicking walls", because when they first arrived, they always clicked on the wall involuntarily, trying to activate something."

"Is life okay here?" Shi Qiang asked.

Several people said it was not bad.

"But I saw the land you planted on the road. The crops have grown to such a virtue that they can feed people?"

"Why not? Now in the cities, agricultural products are luxury goods... In fact, the government treats the hibernators pretty well. Even if they don't do anything, they can live a comfortable life with the subsidies given by the state. But they have to find something to do , It’s nonsense to say that hibernators know how to farm, no one was a farmer back then, but that’s all we can do.”

The conversation quickly shifts to the first two centuries of modern history.

"What happened to the great valley?" Luo Ji asked the question he wanted to ask a long time ago.

People's faces suddenly became serious, and Shi Xiaoming saw that the meal was almost finished, and then continued the topic: "You guys know a little bit these days, it's a long story. During the ten years after you hibernated, Life was okay, but then, the world's economic transformation accelerated, living standards fell day by day, and the political atmosphere became tense, and it really felt like a time of war."

A neighbor said: "It's not just a few countries, it's the same all over the world. The society is very tense. If you say something wrong, you will be accused of being an ETO or rape, making everyone feel insecure. There are also golden age movies and TV. Restrictions, and then the whole world became banned, and of course there are too many things that can’t be controlled.”

"why?"

"I'm afraid I will lose my fighting spirit." Shi Xiaoming said, "But as long as there is food to eat, I can make do with it. But then, things went wrong, and the whole world began to starve. Let's do it."

"Is it because of economic transformation?"

"Yes, but the deterioration of the environment is also an important reason. At that time, there were still environmental laws and regulations, but it was a pessimistic period. People generally had a thought: environmental protection is useless? Even if the earth is preserved as a garden, is it still For the Trisolarans? Later, environmental protection was even equated with ETO, and became an act of rape. Greenpeace and the like were suppressed by branches of ETO. The space military industry led to the rapid development of high-pollution heavy industries, and the environment Pollution cannot be stopped, the greenhouse effect, abnormal climate, desertification... oh."

"Before I hibernated, it was the beginning of desertification." Another neighbor said, "It's not what you imagined, the desert is advancing from the Great Wall to this side, no! That's called flower arrangement erosion, a good piece of land in the interior , at the same time sandification begins, spreading outward from various points, like a wet cloth being dried in the sun."

"Then there was a big reduction in agricultural production, the grain reserves ran out, and then...then came the big trough."

"The prediction of a 100-year decline in living standards has come true?" Luo Ji asked.

Shi Xiaoming smiled bitterly three times, "My teacher Luo, go back 100 years? Just dream! Then 100 years before that time...about the 30s. Compared with the Great Depression, it is heaven! The Great Depression No more than in 83, there are more people, [-] billion!" He pointed to Zhang Yan, "He has seen a big trough, and he woke up for a while at that time."

Zhang Yan drank a glass of wine, and said with straight eyes: "I have seen the hunger march, tens of millions of people fleeing famine, the sand and soil covering the sky on the great plain, the hot weather and the hot sun, once people die, they will be wiped out immediately... …It’s a fucking hell on earth, there are a lot of video materials, you can watch it yourself, think about it, your life will be shortened at that time.”

"The great trough lasted for half a century. In just fifty years, the world's population dropped from 83 billion to 35 billion. Think about it, what's going on!"

Luo Ji stood up and walked to the window. From here, he could look across the desert belt to see the desert outside. The North China Plain covered with yellow sand stretched quietly to the horizon under the midday sun. The giant palm of time had smoothed everything down.

"What happened later?" Da Shi asked.

Zhang Yanchang breathed a sigh of relief, as if he was relieved that he didn't need to talk about that period of history again, "Later, some people thought about it, and more and more people thought about it, and they suspected that even for the victory of the doomsday war, paying so much Is it worth it? Think about it, which is more important, the starving child in your arms or the continuation of human civilization? You may say the latter is important now, but you won’t think so at that time, regardless of the future How, the current day is the most important. Of course, at the time, this idea was outrageous, a typical idea of ​​rape, but more and more people thought so, and soon the whole world thought so. At that time, a popular saying slogan, which later became a famous saying in history..."

"'Give time to civilization, not to civilization.'" Luo Ji continued, still looking out of the window without looking back.

"That's right, it's this one, giving civilization to the years."

"What about later?" Shi Qiang asked again.

"The second Enlightenment, the second Renaissance, the second French Revolution... for those things, you should read the history books."

Luo Ji turned around in amazement. What he had predicted to Zhuang Yan had actually come true two centuries earlier. "Second French Revolution? Still in France?"

"No, no, it's just a saying, it's all over the world! After the Great Revolution, the governments of the new countries all suspended their space strategic plans and concentrated their efforts on improving people's livelihood. At that time, a very key technology appeared: the use of genetic engineering and nuclear fusion energy, concentrated large-scale food production, and ended the days of relying on the sky for food. After that, the world will no longer starve. Then everything recovered quickly. After all, there were fewer people. It only took more than 20 years for life to recover It reached the level before the great trough, and then returned to the level of the golden age. Human beings are determined to go down this comfortable road, and never plan to turn back."

"There is a statement that Dr. Luo must be interested in." A neighbor approached Luo Ji and said that he was an economist before hibernation, and he thought about the problem deeply. "It's called civilization immunity, which means that the human world is seriously ill. The immune system of the civilized body is triggered, and things like the pre-crisis period[42] will never happen again. The principle of humanism comes first, and the continuation of civilization comes second. This is the basic concept of today’s society.”

"What about later?" Luo Ji asked.

"Later, the evil thing happened." Shi Xiaoming became excited. "Originally, all countries in the world planned to live in peace and forget about the three-body crisis, but what did you think? Everything started to fly fast. Progress, technological progress is the fastest, and those technical obstacles in the space strategic plan before the Great Valley have broken through one by one!"

"It's not evil," Luo Ji said. "The liberation of human nature will inevitably lead to the advancement of science and technology."

"After about half a century of peace and prosperity after the Great Depression, the whole world remembered the Three-Body Invasion again, and felt that war should be considered. Moreover, the power of human beings is not the same as it was before the Great Depression. So It also announced that the world has entered a state of war and began to build a space fleet. But this time it is different from before. All countries have made it clear in their constitutions that the resources consumed by the space strategic plan should be limited within a certain range, and should not have a negative impact on the world economy and social life. Catastrophic effects. The Space Fleet became an independent nation during this period...”

"Actually, you don't have to think about so many things now," the economist said, "just think about how to live a better life in the future. The famous saying in the revolution is actually a quote from Pascal: Give life to time , instead of giving time to life. Come, for a new life!"

After they drank the last glass of wine, Luo Ji paid tribute to the economist, thinking that this was a good statement. All he was thinking about now was Zhuang Yan and the children, and he wanted to settle down as soon as possible before waking them up.

Give time to civilization and time to life.

After entering the "Natural Selection", Zhang Beihai discovered that the evolution of the modern command system had exceeded his imagination.This giant space ship is equivalent to three aircraft carriers with the largest tonnage at sea in the 21st century. It is almost a small city. There are no cabins. The cabins on the ship are almost all the same, and they are all regular spherical shapes, but the sizes are different.At any position on the ship, the holographic display can be activated with a data glove, which is rare in the already super-informationized earth world, because there, holographic displays are also very expensive things.At the same time, at any position, as long as you have the corresponding system authority, you can call up the complete command interface at all levels, including the captain's command interface. room or war room, even hallways and toilets!In Zhang Beihai's opinion, this is very similar to the evolution of the computer network system at the end of the [-]th century, which was the transition from the client/server model to the browser/server model. For the latter, users can access the server from a computer anywhere in the network, as long as they have the corresponding permissions.

Now, Zhang Beihai and Dongfang Yanxu are in the same ordinary cabin.Like other places, there are no instruments and screens here, just a spherical cabin, the bulkhead is usually white, and being in it is like being in a big ping pong ball.When the spacecraft accelerates to generate gravity, any part of the spherical bulkhead can deform to adapt to the shape of the body and become a seat.

This is another feature of modern technology that Zhang Beihai saw that few people had imagined before—the tendency to de-facilitate.This tendency is only beginning to emerge on Earth, but "de-facilitation" has become the basic structure of the fleet world which is more advanced than the Earth world.This world is simple and empty everywhere, and there are almost no facilities. The facilities will only appear when needed, and they will appear in any required position.After being complicated by technology, the world is becoming simpler again, and technology is deeply hidden behind reality.

"Now let's have your first lesson on the ship." Dongfang Yanxu said, "Of course the lesson should not be given by me, the captain who is under review, but no one else in the fleet is more reliable than me. Today we Demonstrate how to activate the 'Natural Selection' and put it into a sailing state, in fact, you only need to remember what you saw today, and you will be able to seal off the main way out of the stamp tribe." She said, using the data glove to call out a A holographic star map, "It may have changed somewhat from your space map at that time, but it still takes the sun as the origin of coordinates."

"I learned it in the training, and I can basically understand it." Zhang Beihai said that when he saw the star map, he and Chang Weisi stood in front of the ancient space map of the solar system 200 years ago. The star map accurately marks the positions of all celestial bodies within a radius of [-] light-years centered on the sun, and the space range is hundreds of times that of the map back then.

"Actually, you don't need to understand it. Under the current circumstances, sailing to any position in the picture is not allowed... If I am a stampede and try to hijack the 'Natural Selection' to escape into the universe, then I first need to choose a direction , That's it..." Dongfang Yanxu activated a certain point on the star map to green, "Of course we are in the simulation state now, I don't have this permission anymore, you are about to get the captain's permission. I will perform this operation through you , but if I really put forward this operation request, it is a dangerous move, you should refuse, and you can call the police."

After the navigation direction is activated, an operation interface appears in the air.In the previous training, Zhang Beihai had already been familiar with this picture and the corresponding operations by heart, but he still patiently listened to Dongfang Yanxu's explanation, watching how she raised the huge ship from the fully closed state to the dormant state, It is then further elevated to the standby state, and finally to the "advance one" state.What struck him and the rest of the task force when they saw the interface was its simplicity, with no technical details in it.

"Now, if it's a real operation, the 'Natural Selection' will set sail and leave the port. How about it, is it easier to operate than your spaceship at that time?"

"Yes, much easier."

"Everything is operated automatically, and the technical process is completely hidden from the captain."

"Only simple overall parameters are displayed here, so how do you know the operating status of the spacecraft?"

"The operating status is monitored by officers and sergeants at all levels below. Their display interfaces are more complicated. The lower the level, the more complex the interface they face. As the captain and deputy captain, we must concentrate on thinking what we should do. Things to think about...Okay, let's continue: If I'm a stencil...I assume this again, what do you think about this assumption?"

"In my capacity, it would be irresponsible to answer that question anyway."

"Well, if I were a stencil, I would directly set the propulsion power to 'forward four', and it is impossible for any other ship in the fleet to catch up to the 'Natural Selection' accelerating in the 'advance four' state .”

"But you can't do it, even if you have permission, it seems that you can't do it. Only when it detects that all crew members are in a deep-sea state, the system will enter the 'forward four' propulsion."

When it is at the highest propulsion power, the acceleration of the spacecraft will reach 120G, and the resulting overweight is more than ten times the limit of the human body under normal conditions. This liquid is very rich in oxygen, and trained personnel can breathe directly in the liquid. During the breathing process, the liquid fills the lungs and then fills various organs in turn.This kind of liquid was conceived as early as the first half of the 20th century. The main purpose at that time was to achieve ultra-deep diving. When the human body is filled with deep-sea acceleration fluid, it will be in balance with the pressure in the deep sea. Pressure endurance.In the overload state of the super-high acceleration of the spacecraft, the pressure environment of the cabin filled with liquid is similar to that of the deep sea. This liquid is now used as the human body protection fluid in the super-high acceleration of space travel, so the so-called "deep sea state" is named after it .

Dongfang Yanxu nodded and said: "But you must also know that there is a way to bypass this kind of detection. As long as the spacecraft is set to the remote control state, the system will think that there is no one in the ship, so this kind of detection will not be carried out. This setting also belongs to the captain's authority."

"Let me do it, see if it's right." Zhang Beihai also activated an interface in front of him, and started the operation of setting the remote control status of the spaceship. During this process, he looked at a small notebook in his hand from time to time.

"Now there is a more efficient recording method." Dongfang Yanxu looked at the small notebook and said with a smile.

"Oh, I'm used to this, especially for the most important things, I always feel that it's more practical to write it down like this. Now I can't find a pen. I brought two before hibernation, but now that pencil is still usable."

"But you're a quick learner."

"That's because many naval styles have been retained in the command system. For so many years, even some nouns have not changed, such as setting the propulsion power as 'how much forward' and so on."

"The space fleet originated from the navy... Well, you will soon be granted the system authority of the executive captain of the 'Natural Selection', and the battleship will also enter the A-level standby state. In your words at the time, fire up and wait Hair." Dongfang Yanxu stretched out his slender arms and circled in the air, Zhang Beihai had never learned how to do this with a superconducting belt.

"We didn't raise fire at that time, but it can be seen that you have a good understanding of the history of the navy." Zhang Beihai tried his best to avoid this sensitive topic that could easily make her hostile towards him.

"A romantic branch."

"Didn't Space Fleet inherit the romance?"

"Yes, but I'm leaving it, I'm going to resign."

"Because of censorship?"

Dongfang Yanxu turned to look at Zhang Beihai, her thick black hair bouncing again in the weightlessness, "You guys often encountered this kind of thing, didn't you?"

"Not necessarily, but if you encounter it, every comrade will understand that accepting the review is also part of the military's duty."

"Two centuries have passed, this is not your time."

"East, don't deliberately widen the generation gap. We always have something in common. In any era, soldiers need to endure humiliation."

"Is this persuading me to stay?"

"No."

"Ideological work, that's the word, isn't it your duty?"

"Not anymore, I have new responsibilities."

Dongfang Yanxu floated lightly around Zhang Beihai in weightlessness, as if he was studying him carefully, "Is it true that in your eyes, we are all children? I visited the earth once half a year ago, in a hibernator residential area, a Six or seven-year-old boys call me a child."

Zhang Beihai smiled.

"You hardly smile, and maybe that's why you look so charming when you do...Are we children?"

"In our time, seniority was very important. In the countryside at that time, there were adults who called their children uncle and aunt according to their seniority."

"But your seniority is not important to me."

"I can see it in your eyes."

"Do you think my eyes are pretty?"

"Like my daughter's eyes." Zhang Beihai's quick and calm answer surprised Dongfang Yanxu.He didn't take his eyes off Dongfang. She was in a pure white sphere, as if the whole world had disappeared because of her beauty.

"Didn't your daughter and wife come with you? As far as I know, family members of the task force can hibernate."

"They didn't come, and they didn't want me to come, you know, the future was very dark according to the trend at the time, and they accused me of being irresponsible. She and her mother didn't come home, but in the On the second night after they left, the task force was ordered to leave, and I didn't even have time to meet them for the last time. It was a late winter night, very cold, and I just left home with my backpack on my back...Of course , I didn't expect you to understand this."

"Understood... what happened to them later?"

"My wife died in crisis '47 and my daughter died in '81."

"We've all gone through a big trough." Dongfang Yanxu lowered her eyes, and after a moment of silence, she activated a holographic display window in front of her, and switched the overall display mode to the external state.

The white spherical bulkhead melted like wax, and the Natural Selection itself disappeared, suspended in the endless space.Facing the misty sea of ​​stars in the Milky Way, they became two independent existences in the universe, not attached to any world, surrounded by only the abyss of space, suspended in the universe like the earth, the sun and the Milky Way, without any origin, He didn't want to go anywhere, just existed... Zhang Beihai had this feeling before. It was 190 years ago when he was levitating in space alone in a space suit, holding a pistol loaded with meteorite bullets...

"I like this. Spaceships and fleets are all external tools, and they can be omitted spiritually." Dongfang Yanxu said.

"Dongfang." Zhang Beihai called softly.

"Huh?" The beautiful captain turned around, her eyes reflected the stars of the Milky Way.

"If one day I have to kill you, please forgive me." Zhang Beihai said softly.

Dongfang Yanxu laughed at this, "Do you think I look like a stampede?"

Zhang Beihai looked at her, in the sunlight from five astronomical units away, she was like a light feather floating on the background of the sea of ​​stars.

"We belong to the earth and sea, and you belong to the stars."

"Is not it good?"

"No, that's fine."

"The Trisolaran Fleet detector is off!"

Dr. Ken and General Robinson were extremely shocked by the report from the officer on duty. They also knew that once this news was released, it would cause huge waves in Earth International and Fleet International.

Ken and Robinson are now at the Ringer-Fitzroy Station, which orbits the Sun outside the asteroid belt.Floating in space five kilometers away from the monitoring station is one of the weirdest things in the solar system. It is a set of six giant lenses. The front one has a diameter of 200 meters, and the rear five are smaller. , which is the latest generation of space telescopes.Unlike the previous fifth-generation Hubble telescopes, this space telescope has no lens barrel, and there is no connection between the six giant mirrors. They float independently, and each mirror is equipped with multiple ion thrusters on the edge. With the aid of these thrusters, they can precisely change their relative distance from each other, as well as the orientation of the entire lens group.The Ringer-Fitzroy Station is the control center for the space telescope, but even from this close distance, the transparent lenses are barely visible.However, during maintenance work, engineers and technicians will fly between the lenses, and then they will find that the universe on both sides has a weird distortion. If one side of the lens is at the right angle, the protective iris of the mirror reflects sunlight, and the giant lens fully visible, when its curved surface looks like a planet covered with bewitching rainbows.This generation of space telescope is no longer named after Hubble, but Ringer-Fitzroy Telescope, to commemorate the two people who first discovered the traces of the Trisolaran Fleet. Although their discovery has no academic significance, the joint construction of the three fleets The main purpose of this giant telescope is to monitor the Trisolaran fleet.

The head of the telescope has always used the combination of Ringer and Fitzroy: the chief scientist is from Earth, and the military chief is from the fleet.Every duo has had similar debates as Ringer and Fitzroy.Now, Dr. Ken always wants to squeeze out observation time to conduct his own cosmology research, but Robinson tries his best to prevent it on the grounds of safeguarding the interests of the fleet.They also have some other disputes. For example, Ken always recalls how well the world powers headed by the United States once led the world, and how bureaucratic and inefficient the current three major fleets are, while Robinson is ruthless every time. Dr. Ken's ludicrous historical illusions are thoroughly exposed.However, the most intense controversy is still on the rotation speed of the monitoring station. The general insists on only producing low-gravity slow-speed rotation, or even does not rotate at all, so that the station is in a wonderful weightless state; while Ken insists on producing a rotation speed of standard earth gravity. .

What's happening now overwhelms everything.The so-called detector goes out, it means that its engine is turned off.Far outside the Oort Nebula, the Trisolaran probe began to decelerate. When decelerating, its engine started facing the direction of the sun. The space telescope tracked it based on the light emitted by the probe’s engine, and the light from the engine Once extinguished, this kind of tracking is impossible, because the probe itself is too small. From the shape of the wake it created as it traveled through the interstellar dust, it may be as small as a truck. Such a small object is now in the distant The periphery of the Kuiper Belt itself stops emitting light, and that area is far away from the sun, with only weak sunlight, and the reflection of the detector is even weaker. Even a powerful telescope like Ringer-Fitzroy cannot see it from that distant dark space. Such a small dark object.

"The three major fleets know how to compete for fame and fortune all day long! It's good now, the target is lost..." Ken said angrily, he didn't notice that the monitoring station was already in a state of weightlessness, and his violent body movements almost made himself in the air Turned a somersault.

For the first time, General Robinson did not defend the fleet.Originally, the Asian Fleet had dispatched three light high-speed spacecraft to track the detector at close range, but a dispute for the right to intercept broke out among the three fleets. Later, the joint meeting made a decision for all warships to return to Hong Kong.Although the Asian Fleet has repeatedly explained that these three spaceships are fighter-level, in order to accelerate as quickly as possible, all weapons and external facilities have been dismantled. Each ship has only two crew members and can only track targets, and it is impossible to conduct interception operations. However, the two major fleets of Europe and North America are still not at ease, insisting that all the tracking spacecraft that have set sail must be withdrawn, and the Fourth Earth International will send three tracking spacecraft instead.If not, the tracking spacecraft is now in close contact with the probe and tracking.On the earth, the tracking spacecraft sent by the European Union and China later have not yet flown out of the orbit of Neptune.

"Perhaps...its engine will start again," the general said. "Its speed is still very fast. If it does not slow down, it will not be able to park into the sun's orbit, and it will skim the solar system."

"Do you think you are the commander of the Trisolarans? That probe probably didn't intend to stop at all, it was just going to fly across the solar system!"

As Ken spoke, he suddenly thought of something, "If the engine stops, it will be impossible to change its orbit! Wouldn't it be enough to let the tracking spacecraft wait for it at the calculated position?"

The general shook his head, "The accuracy is not enough! Do you think it is an air search by the Earth's Air Force in the atmosphere? A slight orbital error is hundreds of thousands or even millions of kilometers. Dark things, it is difficult to find the target by tracking the spaceship... Sigh, I have to come up with some way!"

"What can we do? Let the fleet figure it out."

The general became tough again, "Doctor, you need to have a correct understanding of the current situation: Although we are not responsible for this matter, the media doesn't care about it. If we follow it empty-handed, a considerable part of the dirty water will be poured on our heads in the end."

Ken didn't speak, his body was perpendicular to the general, and after thinking for a while, he asked, "What other things can be used outside the orbit of Neptune?"

"There is probably nothing on the Fleet side, and on the Earth side..." The general turned to the duty officers and asked them.He soon learned that there were four large spacecraft of the United Nations Environmental Protection Organization on Neptune, engaged in the early development of the "Fog Umbrella" project, and the three small spacecraft that would be used to track the probe were sent from these spacecraft.

"Are they going to mine oil slicks?" Ken asked, and he got an immediate affirmative answer.Oil slickite, a substance found in Neptune's rings, can turn into a rapidly diffusing gas at high temperatures, and then condense into tiny nanoparticles in space to form space dust.The reason for this name is that the evaporated gas of this material has a strong diffusion in space, and a small amount of material can form a large piece of dust. The process is similar to the diffusion of small oil droplets on the water surface into a large molecular thickness oil film.The space dust formed by the oil film material has another characteristic: Unlike other space dust, the "oil film dust" is difficult to be dispelled by the solar wind.It is precisely because of the discovery of the oil film substance that the "Fog Umbrella" project became possible. This plan is to use a nuclear explosion to evaporate and spread the oil film substance in space, forming a cloud of "oil film dust" between the sun and the earth, reducing the impact of the sun on the earth. Radiation to achieve the purpose of alleviating the global warming effect.

"I remember, there should be a star-type nuclear bomb from the pre-war period near the orbit of Neptune, right?" Ken asked again.

"Yes, the spacecraft of the 'Fog Umbrella' project also loaded some, for blasting on Neptune's rings and satellites, the exact number is unknown."

"Looks like one would be enough." Ken cheered up.

More than 5000 of the star-type hydrogen bombs developed in the strategic plan of the Waller Ray Diaz two centuries ago were later produced.Although this weapon has a limited role in the Doomsday War, as Rey Diaz said, major powers are mainly preparing for the possible outbreak of interplanetary wars between humans. Nuclear bombs are mainly manufactured during the Great Trough, when due to Resources are scarce, international relations are extremely tense, and human beings' own wars are imminent.After entering the new era, these appalling weapons have become dangerous chicken ribs. Although their ownership belongs to the earth country, they are still sent to space for storage. A small part has been used for planetary engineering explosions, and some have been sent to the outer orbit of the solar system .It was once envisaged that the fusion material in nuclear bombs could be used as a fuel supplement for long-range spacecraft, but due to the difficulty of dismantling nuclear bombs, this idea has never been realized.

"You think it's possible?" Robinson asked with bright eyes. He regretted such a simple thing, why didn't he think that an opportunity to be recorded in history was snatched by Ken.

"Try it, there is only one way."

"If it's okay, doctor, the Ringer-Fitzroy monitoring station will always rotate at a speed that produces 1G of gravity."

"This is the biggest thing ever made by human beings." The commander of the "Blue Shadow" spacecraft said looking at the dark space outside the cabin. He tried his best to imagine that he could see the dust cloud, but he really couldn't see anything.

"Why can't it be illuminated by the sun? It's like the tail of a comet..." said the pilot of the spaceship, he and the commander were the only two people on board the "Blue Shadow".He knew that the density of the dust cloud was indeed as thin as that of a comet tail, almost comparable to the vacuum created in a laboratory on Earth.

"Maybe the sunlight is too weak." The commander turned to look at the sun. In the cold space between Neptune's orbit and the Kuiper belt, the sun seemed to be just a big star with a disc shape, but the sunlight was okay. There was a bright shadow on the bulkhead, but it was already very faint. "Besides, the comet tail can only be seen from a certain distance, but we are at the edge of the cloud."

The driver tried his best to imagine this huge but thin existence in his mind.A few days earlier, he and the Commander had witnessed the size of the giant cloud when compressed into a solid mass.At that time, the giant spacecraft "Pacific" from Neptune was parked in this space and put down five pieces of cargo it carried.First placed was a stellar hydrogen bomb from the pre-war period, which was a cylinder five meters long and one and a half meters in diameter; then, the robotic arm of the spacecraft took out four large spheres with diameters Ranging from 30 meters to 50 meters, the four spheres are placed several hundred meters around the hydrogen bomb, and they are all collected from the oil film material of Neptune's ring. After the "Pacific" flew away, the hydrogen bomb exploded, and the small sun formed frantically poured light and heat into this cold abyss of space. As it cools, it turns into countless tiny particles, and a cloud of dust forms.The diameter of this cloud reaches 200 million kilometers, which is larger than the diameter of the sun.

The position where the dust cloud is formed is the area where the Trisolaran probe is expected to pass through, which is calculated based on the orbit observed before the engine of the Trisolaran probe stopped.The plan of Dr. Ken and General Robinson is to accurately determine its orbit and position through the trail left by the Trisolaran probe in the artificial dust cloud.

The "Pacific" returned to Neptune after completing the cloud-making operation, leaving behind three small spacecraft to track the probe at close range after it showed its wake, and the "Blue Shadow" was one of them.This high-speed small spacecraft is called a space racing car. Its only payload is a small cabin that can only accommodate five people, and the rest are all fusion engines, which have extremely high acceleration and maneuverability.After the dust cloud was formed, the "Blue Shadow" passed through the entire cloud area to test whether it could leave a trail in the cloud, and the result was satisfactory.Of course, the wake can only be observed by space telescopes more than 100 astronomical units away. On the "Blue Shadow", neither the dust cloud nor its own wake can be seen, and the surrounding space remains empty.However, after passing through the clouds, the sun was behind the clouds. At this time, the pilot insisted that he could see that the sun had dimmed a little bit, and its original clear edges had become blurred. The observations of the instruments also proved this. This is The only visual impression left on them by this gigantic artifact.

"There are less than three hours left." The Commander said, looking at his watch.The dust cloud is actually a thin giant satellite orbiting the sun. Its position is constantly moving during its operation. After a period of time, it will move out of the area where the probe may pass. The location recreates a cloud of dust.

"You really want us to follow it?" the driver asked.

"Why not? We're making history!"

"Won't that thing attack us? You and I are not soldiers, this should have been done by the fleet!"

At this moment, the spacecraft received a message from the Ringer-Fitzroy monitoring station, reporting that the Trisolaran probe had entered the dust cloud and left a trail, its precise orbital parameters had been determined, and the "Blue Shadow" was ordered to set sail immediately Rendezvous with the target for close-range tracking.Although the monitoring station is more than 100 astronomical units away from the "Blue Shadow", there is a time lag of more than ten hours for the information to be transmitted here, but now it is as if the key has been pressed on the ink pad, and the calculation of the orbit is not even a thin dust. Taking into account the influence of the cloud, the rendezvous is only a matter of time.

The "Blue Shadow" set its course according to the orbital parameters of the probe, entered the invisible dust cloud again, and flew towards the Trisolaran probe.The flight time seemed very long, more than ten hours passed, the commander and the pilot were very sleepy, but the ever-shrinking distance to the target still made them nervous.

"I see it! I see it!" the pilot yelled.

"What nonsense are you talking about? There are still more than 4000 kilometers away!" The commander reprimanded, even in the transparent space, it is impossible for the naked eye to see a truck [-] kilometers away.But soon, he himself saw that there was a bright spot moving in the direction indicated by the orbital parameters, on the background of the still starry sky.

After a short thought, the commander understood: this cloud of dust larger than the sun was created in vain, the Trisolaran probe started its engine again, and continued to slow down. It does not intend to fly past the solar system, and it will stay here .

Since it was only a temporary measure, like other warships in the Asian Fleet, the captain authority handover ceremony of the "Natural Selection" was brief and low-key. Only the captain Dongfang Yanxu, the executive captain Zhang Beihai, and the first deputy captain Levin were present. With Second Vice Captain Akira Inoue, and a special team from the General Staff.

In this era, the extreme development of technology has not concealed the stagnation of basic theories. "Natural Selection" still uses the trinity of pupils, fingerprints and passwords that Zhang Beihai has been familiar with in the past era to identify permissions. The artificial intelligence of space battleships Still can't make out a person's face.

The special team of the General Staff completed the reset of the pupil and fingerprint data of the captain's authority identification in the system, and then Dongfang Yanxu handed over her password to Zhang Beihai:
"Men always remember love because of romance only[43]." After Dongfang Yanxu said the password, he looked at Zhang Beihai with challenging eyes.

"You don't seem to smoke." Zhang Beihai responded calmly.

"And this brand has disappeared during the trough." Dongfang Yanxu lowered his eyes and said with a hint of disappointment.

"But this password is really good, and not many people knew it at that time." Zhang Beihai said.

Both the captain and the deputy captain left, Zhang Beihai will modify the captain's password alone, and finally gain control of the captain of the "Natural Selection".

"He's really smart," Inoue said when the door to the spherical pod disappeared.

"Ancient wisdom." Dongfang Yanxu said, staring at the place where the hatch disappeared, as if to see through it, "We will never learn what he brought from two centuries ago; but he can Learn from us."

Then the three fell silent and waited quietly. Five minutes passed, which was obviously too long for the operation of resetting the password, and Zhang Beihai, who was about to become the captain, was the most proficient in operating the battleship command system among the members of the trained task force.After another 5 minutes, the two vice-captains floated impatiently in the corridor, only Dongfang Yanxu still stood quietly.

Finally, the door reappeared in the bulkhead.The three of them were surprised to find that the spherical cabin had turned black. Zhang Beihai called up the holographic display of the star map, and blocked all the reticle lines on the map, leaving only the shining stars, so that it could be seen from the door. , he seems to be floating in the space outside the spaceship, and there is also a bright operating interface floating with him.

"I'm done." Zhang Beihai said.

"Why did it take so long?" Levin asked dissatisfied.

"Are you enjoying the thrill of getting 'Natural Selection'?" Inoue asked.

Zhang Beihai didn't speak, and his eyes didn't look at the operation interface. Instead, he looked at the distant stars on the star map. Dongfang Yanxu noticed that there was a green light spot flickering in the direction he was looking at.

"That would be ridiculous." Levin took Akira Inoue's words and said, "I need to remind you that the captain is still Colonel Dongfang, and the executive captain is just a firewall. It doesn't sound very good, but it's the closest to the truth. .”

Akira Inoue went on to say: "And this state will not last for too long. The investigation of the fleet is nearing completion, which basically proves that the stamp clan does not exist."

Akira Inoue wanted to say something, but was interrupted by the captain's low exclamation, "Oh, my God." Dongfang Yanxu said, and the two deputy captains followed her gaze and saw Zhang The operation interface in front of Bei Hai also saw the current state of the space battleship "Natural Selection".

The battleship has been set to an unmanned remote control state, thus bypassing the detection of the crew's deep-sea status before the fourth-level acceleration, and the communication between the battleship and the outside world has also been completely cut off. Long setting, just press another button, and the "Natural Selection" will sail to the target already set on the star map with the maximum acceleration.

"No, don't do this." Dongfang Yanxu said, the voice was so low that only she could hear it, and she was speaking to the "heaven" she called before. Before, she didn't believe in its existence, but Now, her prayers are sincere.

"Are you crazy?" Levin shouted, and rushed into the cabin with Akira Inoue, but immediately hit the bulkhead, the door did not appear, but the bulkhead in the oval area became transparent.

"'Natural Selection' will enter 'Advance Four', and the entire crew will immediately enter the deep sea state." Zhang Beihai said, his voice was solemn and steady, every word floated in the air for a long time, as if standing in the cold wind old iron anchor.

"It's impossible!" Akira Inoue said.

"Are you a stamp clan?" Dongfang Yanxu asked, she quickly calmed herself down.

"You know I can't be."

"ETO?"

"Not at all."

"then who are you?"

"A responsible soldier who fights for the survival of mankind."

"Why did you do this?"

"Explain after the acceleration is completed, and say it again: the entire ship enters the deep sea state."

"That's impossible!" Akira Inoue repeated.

Zhang Beihai turned his head. He didn't look at the two vice-captains. He looked directly at Dongfang Yanxu. This gaze immediately reminded Dongfang of the military emblem of the Space Force, with stars and swords in it.

"Dongfang, as I said, I'm sorry if I had to kill you. Time is running out," he said.

At this time, in the spherical cabin where Zhang Beihai was, deep-sea acceleration fluid began to appear, and they formed spheres in weightlessness. On each sphere, there were deformation images of Zhang Beihai, the operation interface, and the star map.The liquid balls floated and began to combine with each other to form larger balls.Both deputy captains looked at Dongfang Yanxu.

"Do as he said, and the whole ship will enter the deep sea state." The captain said softly.

The two deputy captains stared at her. They all knew what happened to people who were not in the deep-sea protection state during the "Advance Four": the body was pressed against the bulkhead by an overload exceeding 120 times its own weight, and the first shot It was blood, which was spread into an extremely thin layer under the weight, and the area of ​​the blood stain was unimaginably large and radial; what was then squeezed out was the internal organs, which were also quickly pressed into a thin layer, together with the pressed body Together, they constitute an ugly Dali-style painting... They turned and left at the same time, and issued an order to the entire ship to enter the deep sea state.

"You are a qualified captain." Zhang Beihai nodded to Dongfang Yanxu, "This is maturity."

"Where are we going?" Dongfang Yanxu asked.

"No matter where you go, it is a more responsible choice than staying here."

After Zhang Beihai finished speaking, he was completely submerged in the deep-sea accelerator fluid, and Dongfang Yanxu could only see his blurred figure through the liquid that had filled the spherical cabin.

Suspended in the translucent liquid, Zhang Beihai recalled his experience of deep diving while serving in the navy two centuries ago.At that time, he didn't think that the tens of meters deep in the ocean was already so dark, suspended in that world, he felt like being in space later, the ocean is the epitome of space on the earth.He tried to breathe in the liquid for a while, the nerve reflex made him cough violently, the recoil produced by the coughed up liquid and residual gas made his body tilt, but the imaginary suffocation did not appear, and the cool liquid filled his body. The lungs, the rich oxygen in them continued to melt into his blood, and he was able to breathe freely like a fish.

Zhang Beihai looked at the display interface suspended in the liquid, and saw that the deep-sea acceleration liquid filled each cabin of the spaceship with people in turn. This process lasted for more than ten minutes.Gradually, his consciousness began to blur, and hypnotic ingredients began to be injected into the breathing fluid to make everyone on the spaceship fall asleep, avoiding damage to the brain caused by the high pressure and relative lack of oxygen during four-level acceleration.

Zhang Beihai felt his father's soul descending from the dark to the spaceship and merged with him. He pressed the last button on the operation interface, and silently recited the command he had spent his entire life pursuing in his heart:
"'Natural Selection,' Forward Four!"

A small sun has suddenly appeared in Jupiter's orbit, its intense light eclipsing the phosphorescence in the planet's upper atmosphere.The stellar-class battleship "Natural Selection" dragging the little sun slowly sailed out of the military port of the Asian Fleet, and then accelerated sharply, casting the shadows of other warships in the fleet on the surface of Jupiter. an earth. Ten minutes later, a larger shadow fell on Jupiter, as if to cast a curtain over the giant planet's surface, as Natural Selection passed by Io.

Only then did the Asian Fleet Command confirm the unbelievable fact that the "Natural Selection" had defected!

The European and North American fleets protested and warned the Asian fleet. They initially believed that this might be an action by the Asian fleet to intercept the Trisolaran probe without authorization, but soon discovered from the course of "natural selection" that this was not the case. Its course It is opposite to the direction of the three-body invasion.

The calls from various systems to the "Natural Selection" gradually died down due to unanswered calls, and pursuit and interception operations began to be deployed.But the high command soon discovered that there was little to do with the mutiny at the moment.Among the many moons of Jupiter, the firepower of four satellites can destroy the "Natural Selection", but this is an impossible action. The defection should only be carried out by a very small number or even one person on the ship. The officers and soldiers in the deep sea state are all hostages.Therefore, in the base station of gamma-ray laser weapons on Europa, the commanders can only watch the little sun fly across the sky and fly into outer space. Under its light, the vast ice sheet of Europa looks like Scattered with burning white phosphorus.

"Natural Selection" has passed through the orbits of Jupiter's sixteen large satellites in sequence, and has reached Jupiter's escape velocity when passing through the orbit of Callisto.Seen from the Asia Fleet base, the little sun gradually shrank and turned into a bright star, but for a week later, this star was still faintly visible, and the endless wounds of the Asia Fleet loomed among the stars. pain.

Due to the need to enter the deep sea state, the pursuit fleet did not set sail until 45 minutes after the "Natural Selection" left, and the Jupiter system was once again illuminated by six suns.

In the headquarters of the Asia Fleet that has stopped spinning, the fleet commander silently faced the huge Jupiter on the night side. In the atmosphere [-] kilometers below him, a piece of lightning appeared. The "Natural Selection" that had just left And the fusion engines of the pursuit fleet blasted Jupiter with powerful radiation, ionizing the atmosphere and sparking lightning.At this distance, only the halo of the surrounding atmosphere is visible, illuminated by each lightning strike, and the halos at different positions are fleeting, making this area of ​​​​Jupiter like a pond dripping with fluorescent raindrops.

After the "Natural Selection" continued to accelerate to one percent of the speed of light in silence, its consumption of fusion fuel had passed the turning point, and it was impossible to return to the solar system with its own power. It became a ship wandering in outer space forever. lone boat.

The commander of the Asian Fleet looked at the starry sky, trying to see the star, but he couldn't find it. In that direction, there were only six faint starlights emitted by the fusion engine of the pursuit fleet.He was soon reported that Natural Selection had stopped accelerating.Communications between Natural Selection and the fleet were restored later.The following is the call record. Since the position of the spacecraft is already 500 million kilometers away, there is a time lag of more than ten seconds in the conversation.

"Natural Selection": "'Natural Selection' calls the Asian Fleet! 'Natural Selection' calls the Asian Fleet..."

Asian Fleet: "'Natural Selection', the Asian Fleet has received your call, please report the situation on board."

"Natural Selection": "I am the executive captain Zhang Beihai, and I want to talk directly to the fleet commander."

Fleet Admiral: "I'm listening."

Zhang Beihai: "I am fully responsible for the departure of the 'Natural Selection' ship."

Fleet Admiral: "Is there anyone else responsible?"

Zhang Beihai: "No, it's just me. This incident has nothing to do with the other members of the 'Natural Selection'. Captain Dongfang Yanxu made the right decision at the critical moment."

Fleet Admiral: "I want to speak to her."

Zhang Beihai: "Not now."

Fleet Commander: "What's the current situation on board?"

Zhang Beihai: "Everything is fine. All crew members except me are still in the deep sea state, and the power system and ecosystem are functioning normally."

Fleet Commander: "Why did you defect?"

Zhang Beihai: "Fleeing is a fact, but I did not betray."

Fleet Commander: "Why?"

Zhang Beihai: "In this war, human beings will lose. I just want to preserve an interstellar spacecraft for the earth, and preserve a seed and a hope for human civilization in the universe."

Fleet Commander: "So, you are an escapist."

Zhang Beihai: "I'm just a soldier doing my duty."

Fleet Commander: "Have you ever received the Thought Seal?"

Zhang Beihai: "You know it's impossible. This kind of technology didn't exist when I hibernated."

Fleet Commander: "Then your unusually firm defeatist belief is incomprehensible."

Zhang Beihai: "I don't need a mental seal, I am the master of my beliefs. The reason why this belief is firm is that it does not come from my own wisdom. As early as the beginning of the three-body crisis, my father and I began to seriously Think about the most basic issues of this war. Gradually, a group of scholars with deep thoughts gathered around my father, including scientists, politicians and military strategists, who called themselves the school of future history."

Fleet Commander: "Is this a secret organization?"

Zhang Beihai: "No, the issues they study are very basic, and the discussions have always been open. The military and the government even came forward to hold several academic seminars of the school of future history. It is from their research that I established the idea that human beings are doomed."

Fleet Commander: "But now, the theory of the future history school has been proven wrong."

Zhang Beihai: "Chief, you underestimated them. Not only did they predict the Great Depression, but they also predicted the second enlightenment and the second renaissance. The prosperous era they predicted today is almost indistinguishable from reality. In the end, they It also predicted the complete defeat and extinction of mankind in the final battle."

Fleet Commander: "However, the spaceship you are in now can travel at 15.00% of the speed of light."

Zhang Beihai: "The attack speed of Genghis Khan's cavalry is comparable to that of the armored troops of the 20th century; the bed crossbow of the Northern Song Dynasty has a range of 500 meters, which is similar to that of the sniper rifles of the 20th century; but these are still just ancient cavalry and crossbows. , it is impossible to compete with modern power. The basic theory determines everything, and the future history school clearly sees this. But you, blindfolded by the low-level technology that returns to the light, you lie in the hotbed of modern civilization and enjoy yourself. There is no mental preparation for the coming final decisive battle that will determine the fate of mankind."

Fleet Commander: "You come from a great army. They have defeated enemies with far more advanced equipment than themselves, and even won a large-scale land battle that is rare in the world with only captured weapons. Your behavior is a disgrace. Glory to this army."

Zhang Beihai: "Dear Commander, I am more qualified than you to talk about that army, because three generations of my family have served in it. My grandfather once used a grenade to attack the US Army's 'Pershing' tank in the Korean battlefield, and the grenade smashed into it. He slid down from the tank and exploded, and the target was unscathed. After being hit by the machine gun on the tank, his grandfather was hit by the track, and his legs were broken, and he spent the rest of his life on the sick bed. Two comrades in arms, he was lucky... It is the history of this army that makes us deeply aware of the technological gap between us and the enemy in war. The glory you know is seen from the historical records, and our wounds are the fathers Congealed with the blood of our ancestors, we know more about war than you."

Fleet Commander: "When did the defection plan come about?"

Zhang Beihai: "I reiterate: I did not betray, but fleeing is a fact. This plan was born when I saw my father for the last time. He told me what to do with his last look. It took me two centuries to implement this plan. .”

Fleet Commander: "For this you have disguised yourself as a staunch triumphant, and your disguise has been successful."

Zhang Beihai: "But General Chang Weisi almost saw me through."

Fleet Admiral: "Yes, he was acutely aware that he had never seen the basis of your triumphalist beliefs, and that his suspicions were exacerbated by your later uncharacteristic enthusiasm for radiation-propelled spaceships capable of interstellar travel. .He has always objected to your entry into the reinforcements of the Future Task Force, but was unable to disobey the instructions of his superiors. In his letter to us, he offered a warning, but in a veiled way peculiar to that era, which was ignored by us .”

Zhang Beihai: "In order to obtain a spaceship capable of interstellar escape, I killed three people."

Commander of the Fleet: "We don't know this, maybe no one knows, but one thing should be certain: the research direction determined at that time is crucial to the subsequent development of aerospace technology."

Zhang Beihai: "Thank you for telling me this."

Fleet Commander: "I also want to tell you that your plan has failed."

Zhang Beihai: "Maybe, but not yet."

Fleet Admiral: "The 'Natural Selection' was only one-fifth full of fusion fuel when it set sail."

Zhang Beihai: "But I can only act immediately, and there will be no chance in the future."

Fleet Commander: "In this way, you can only accelerate to one percent of the speed of light, and you dare not consume too much fuel, because the ecological cycle system of the spacecraft needs energy to maintain operation. This period of time can range from decades to several decades. century. And at this speed, the pursuit fleet can catch up with you in no time."

Zhang Beihai: "I still control the 'Natural Selection'."

Fleet Commander: "Yes, of course you know our fears: the pursuit will cause you to continue to accelerate, run out of fuel, the ecosystem without energy will stop turning, and the 'Natural Selection' will become a dead ship near absolute zero. Therefore, the pursuit fleet will not be in close contact with the 'Natural Selection' for the time being, and we are confident that the commander and soldiers on the 'Natural Selection' will solve the problem of their own warship."

Zhang Beihai: "I also believe that all problems will be resolved, and I will take my own responsibilities, but at present I still firmly believe that the 'Natural Selection' is on the right course."

When Luo Ji woke up from his sleep, he knew that there was another thing passed down from the past to the present, and that was firecrackers.Looking out from the window, the sky is just dawn, and the desert is white in the first dew light, and the flashes of firecrackers and fireworks are reflected on it from time to time.At this time, there was a hasty knock on the door, and Shi Xiaoming rushed in without waiting for the owner to open the door, his face glowing red with excitement, and he told Luo Ji to read the news quickly.

Luo Ji seldom watched TV recently. After entering the new life of Five Villages, he really returned to his old life. After experiencing the impact of the new era when he just woke up, he cherished this feeling very much. information interferes.Most of the time, he was immersed in missing Zhuang Yan and the child. The formalities for their awakening had been completed, but because the government controlled the flow of people waking up from hibernation, their awakening was scheduled for two months later.

The content of the TV news is as follows: Five hours ago, the Ringer-Fitzroy telescope observed the Trisolaran fleet passing through an interstellar dust cloud again. This is the seventh time in the two centuries since they set sail. Appearing from the clouds, the fleet has lost its neat formation, and the shape of the "brush" is completely different from when it first crossed the dust cloud.However, this time is similar to the second crossing. The first thing to observe is a "bristle" protruding forward, but different from that time, judging from the shape of the trajectory, this bristle is not a detector, but a of a battleship.During the voyage to the solar system, the Trisolaran fleet has completed the acceleration and cruising period.As early as 15 years ago, it was observed that the three-body warships began to slow down one after another. Ten years ago, most of the warships entered the deceleration state.But now we know that this battleship has not slowed down, judging from its trajectory in the dust cloud, it is still in a state of acceleration. According to the current acceleration rate, it will reach the solar system a century and a half earlier than the fleet.Such a lonely spaceship broke into the territory of the solar system with a powerful fleet alone. If it invaded, it would be tantamount to death, so there can only be one conclusion: it is here to negotiate.Through the observation of the Trisolaran fleet for two centuries, the maximum acceleration capability of each spaceship has been determined. Based on this calculation, this spaceship that departs ahead lacks sufficient deceleration capability, and will inevitably pass the solar system in 150 years. Then There are two possibilities: one is that the Trisolarans want the Earth world to assist in slowing down, and the other is that the spaceship will put down a small boat that is easy to slow down before passing the solar system, and it will carry the negotiation delegation from the Trisolaran world.The latter possibility is much more likely.

"But if they want to negotiate, why don't they notify humans through sophons?" Luo Ji asked.

"It's easy to explain!" Shi Xiaoming said excitedly, "It's because of the different way of thinking. Trisolarans have fully transparent thinking. They think we already know what they think!"

Although this explanation was not so convincing, Luo Ji still had the same feeling as Shi Xiaoming, feeling that the sun outside had risen earlier.

The revelry reaches its climax when the sun actually rises.This is just a small corner of the world, the center of the carnival is in those big underground cities, where people walk out of the giant trees, the streets and squares are crowded with people, everyone's clothes are adjusted to the maximum brightness, forming a shining sea of ​​light ; There are virtual fireworks blooming on the dome of the sky, and sometimes a single firework can cover the entire sky, even if it is accompanied by the sun, it still looks bright and gorgeous.

New news kept coming.The government was very cautious at the beginning, and the spokesperson repeatedly stated that there is no definite evidence that the Trisolaran world has the intention to negotiate; but at the same time, the United Nations and the Fleet Joint Conference held emergency summits and began to draw up the negotiation procedures and terms...

In the New Life Five Village, there was a small episode in the carnival: a city councilor came here to give a speech. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Sunshine Project and wanted to take this opportunity to gain the support of the hibernator community.

The Sunshine Project comes from a United Nations proposal, the main idea of ​​which is: once human beings win the battle of doomsday, they should provide living space for the defeated Trisolaran civilization in the solar system.There are many versions of the plan, the main ones are: the weak survival plan, using the satellites of Pluto, Zhu Rong and Neptune as Trisolaran civilization reservations, and only accepting the defeated members of the Trisolaran fleet.The living conditions of the reservation in this plan are very poor, and can only be maintained by relying on the energy of nuclear fusion, and it can only be maintained with the support of human society; in the strong survival plan, Mars is used as the sojourn planet of the Trisolaran civilization. Subsequent settlers of all Trisolarans.This plan can provide the Trisolaran civilization with the best living conditions in the solar system except the earth.Most of the remaining plans are between the two, but there are also some extreme ideas, such as accepting Trisolaran civilization into the earth society.The Sunshine Project has received extensive support from Earth International and Fleet International, and a lot of preliminary research and planning have been carried out. In both internationals, there have been many civil forces promoting the plan.But at the same time, the Sunshine Project was also strongly opposed by the hibernator society. The hibernators even gave the supporters of the plan a nickname, "Dongguo Clan".

As soon as the congressman's speech started, he immediately encountered a strong reaction from the audience, and people threw tomatoes at them one after another.The congressman evaded and said: "I would like to ask everyone to pay attention. This is the era of humanism after the second renaissance. This era gives the greatest respect to the life and civilization of all races. You are bathing in the sunshine of this era! No! Is it? Hibernators enjoy completely equal citizenship in modern society without any discrimination. This principle is not only confirmed in the constitution and law, but more importantly, it has been unanimously recognized by everyone. I think you all I can feel it. The Trisolaran world is also a great civilization, and their right to survive should be recognized by human society. The Sunshine Project is not a charity, but a confirmation and manifestation of the value of civilized human beings! If we... I say you guys Bastard, focus on work!"

The Senator's last words were addressed to his entourage, who were busy collecting tomatoes scattered on the ground, which are expensive things in the dungeon after all.Seeing this scene, the hibernators began to throw cucumbers and potatoes on the pulpit again, making this little conflict end in the mutual joy of both parties.

At noon, every family held a banquet to celebrate, and also served a sumptuous meal of pure agricultural products on the lawn of the community for the city people who came here in high spirits—including the Dongguo Nationality Councilor and his team.In the afternoon, the carnival continued in a state of intoxication until sunset.Today's dusk is particularly beautiful. The sand plain outside the community looks soft and delicate like cream under the orange-red sunset, and the continuous sand dunes are like sleeping female bodies...

At night, a piece of news stimulated people's already somewhat tired nerves to a state of extreme excitement: Fleet International has made a decision that all the star-class warships of the Asian Fleet, European Fleet and North American Fleet, a total of [-] ships, A joint fleet will be formed to attack in unison to intercept the Trisolaran probe that has crossed the orbit of Neptune!

This news pushed the frenzy to a new climax, and the fireworks filled the night sky again, but it also aroused disdain and ridicule.

"Just dispatch more than 2000 warships for a small detector?"

"This is killing a chicken with two thousand butcher's knives!"

"That's right, two thousand cannons hit one mosquito! What is that?"

"Everyone, you should understand Fleet International. You must know that this may be their only chance to fight Trisolaran."

"Yes, if this counts as combat."

"Alright, let's just treat it as a demonstration parade of human civilization. What is the strength of such a super fleet? It can't scare them to death! Scare their urine out, if they have urine."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

It was nearly midnight, and new news came: the combined fleet has set sail from the Jupiter base!People were told: the fleet could be seen with the naked eye from the southern hemisphere.The carnival crowd fell silent for the first time, and everyone searched for Jupiter in the night sky. It was not easy, but under the guidance of experts on TV, people quickly found the star in the southwestern sky.At this time, the light of the United Fleet is flying towards the earth across a distance of five astronomical units. After 45 minutes, the brightness of Jupiter in the night sky suddenly increased, and soon surpassed Sirius to become the brightest star in the night sky.Then, a brilliant bright star separated from Jupiter, as if its soul had left its body, and Jupiter returned to its original brightness, while the bright star moved slowly, gradually widening the distance from Jupiter, that is The United Fleet sets sail.

Almost at the same time, live images from the Jupiter base also reached the earth. People saw from TV that two thousand suns suddenly appeared in the dark space!They are arranged in a rectangular array, and they appear in the eternal cosmic night, which reminds people of a sentence: God said that there must be light, so there is light.Under the illumination of two thousand suns, Jupiter and its moons seemed to be burning. Jupiter's atmosphere was ionized by radiation, and the resulting lightning bolts covered half of the planet's surface facing the fleet, forming a giant blanket of electric light.The fleet began to speed up, but the array was not chaotic at all. This giant wall of the sun majesticly advanced into the depths of space with thunderous momentum, showing the dignity and invincible power of human beings to the entire universe.The human spirit, suppressed by the image of the Trisolaran Fleet's departure two centuries ago, has finally been completely liberated.At this moment, the sea of ​​stars in the Milky Way silently restrained its own light, and the capitalized "man" and God merged into one, proudly standing alone in the universe.

Tears welled up in the eyes of all cheering, and many wept with excitement, never in history was there a moment in history when everyone felt so lucky and proud to be part of humanity.

But there are still calm people, and Luo Ji is one of them. He glanced over the fanatical crowd and found another calmer person: Shi Qiang leaning alone on the side of the big-screen holographic TV, smoking a cigarette, watching indifferently. Carnival crowd.

Luo Ji walked over and asked, "Why do you..."

"Ah, hello brother, I have a responsibility to take responsibility." Da Shi pointed to the boiling crowd and said, "Extreme joy can easily lead to sorrow, and it is most likely to cause trouble at this moment. For example, when the Dongguo people gave a speech in the morning, If I hadn't had someone send in the tomatoes in time or something, they'd have done it with stones."

Shi Qiang was recently appointed as the police chief of New Life Five Villages, which seemed somewhat strange to the hibernators: because Da Shi belonged to the Asian Fleet, he was no longer Chinese according to his nationality, but he became an official official of the national government.Residents, however, rave about his ability to do the job.

"Besides, I'm a person who never gets complacent," Da Shi continued, and at the same time patted Luo Ji on the shoulder, "Brother, you too."

"I am," Luo Ji nodded. "I was originally a person who only cared for me in this world, and the future has nothing to do with me. But 200 years ago, they suddenly forced me to be the savior. The way I am now can be regarded as a kind of harm to this kind of harm." It’s a kind of compensation. I’m going to sleep, Da Shi, believe it or not, I can really sleep tonight.”

"Meet your colleague, he just arrived, and the victory of mankind may not be a good thing for him."

Luo Ji froze for a moment when he heard this, then looked at the person Da Shi was referring to, and was surprised to find that it was the former Wallfacer Bill Hines!His face was pale, and his mind was in a trance. He had been standing not far from Da Shi. After finding Luo Ji, they hugged and greeted each other. Luo Ji felt that Hines' body was weak and trembling.

"I'm here to look for you. Only us, these two historical trash can understand each other, but now, I'm afraid you don't understand me either," Hines said to Luo Ji.

"Where's Keiko Shanshan?" Luo Ji asked.

"Do you still remember the place called the meditation room in the United Nations conference hall?" Hines replied irresponsibly, "The place was abandoned later, and only tourists went there occasionally... Do you remember the iron ore inside? She He cut himself open right there."

"Oh……"

"Before she died, she cursed me, saying that my life would be worse than death, because I was stamped with the ideological stamp of defeatism, and human beings won. She was right, I am really suffering now, of course I am happy for the victory , but it is impossible to believe all of this, there are two gladiators fighting in the consciousness, you know, this is much harder than believing that water can be drunk."

……

After settling Hines with Shi Qiang, Luo Ji returned to his room and quickly fell asleep. He dreamed of Zhuang Yan and the child again.When I woke up, the sun had already shone through the window, and the carnival outside was still going on.

"Natural Selection" is sailing between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn at one percent of the speed of light. From here, the sun behind has become very small, but it is still the brightest star, and the Milky Way ahead is emitting More brilliant light.The course of the spacecraft is roughly pointing towards the constellation Cygnus. In this boundless outer space, its speed does not appear at all. If there is an observer nearby, you will see that the "Natural Selection" seems to be suspended in the deep space.In fact, from this position, the movement in the entire universe is erased by the distance, and the receding sun and the Milky Way star sea in front of the spacecraft are also in eternal stillness, and time seems to stop flowing.

"You failed." Dongfang Yanxu said to Zhang Beihai, except for the two of them, the other members of the spaceship were in deep-sea sleep.Zhang Beihai still locked himself in that spherical cabin, and Dongfang Yanxu couldn't enter, so he could only talk to him through the intercom system.Through the still transparent area of ​​the bulkhead, she could see the man who had hijacked the strongest warship of mankind quietly suspended in the middle of the spherical cabin, lowering his head and writing something in his notebook intently. In front of him, The operation interface is still suspended, and it can be seen from the interface that the spaceship is in the standby state before the four-level acceleration, and only one button is pressed to enter the "forward four".Around him, there were still a few balls of fluid floating, which were deep-sea acceleration fluid that had not been drained, but his military uniform was already dry and wrinkled, making him look much older.

Zhang Beihai ignored Dongfang Yanxu, still bowed his head and wrote in the notebook.

"The pursuit fleet is only 120 million kilometers away from the 'Natural Selection'." Dongfang Yanxu continued.

"I know." Zhang Beihai said without looking up, "It's very wise for you to keep the whole ship in a deep-sea state."

"That's the only way, otherwise the emotional soldiers and officers will attack this cabin, and you may send 'Natural Selection' into 'Advance Four' at any time, killing everyone. This is also the reason why the pursuit fleet did not approach."

Zhang Beihai didn't speak, he turned over a page in his notebook and continued writing.

"You wouldn't do that, would you?" Dongfang Yanxu asked softly.

"It was impossible for you to think that I would do what I am doing now." Zhang Beihai paused for a few seconds, and added, "People in our era have our way of thinking."

"But we are not enemies."

"There are no eternal enemies or comrades, only eternal responsibilities."

"Then your pessimism about the war is completely unreasonable. Now, the Trisolaran world has shown signs of negotiation, and the combined solar system fleet has set sail to intercept the Trisolaran probe. The war will end with the victory of mankind."

"I've read the news that came..."

"You still cling to your defeatism and escapism?"

"Yes."

Dongfang Yanxu shook his head helplessly, "Your way of thinking is really different from ours. For example, you knew from the beginning that your plan would not be successful, and the 'Natural Selection' only had one-fifth of the fuel installed. It will definitely be followed."

Zhang Beihai stopped the pen in his hand, looked up at Dongfang Yanxu outside the cabin, his eyes were as calm as water, "We are both soldiers, do you know the biggest difference between us? You decide your actions according to the possible results. ; and we, regardless of the outcome, have to do our duty, and this is the only chance, so I did it."

"Is it to comfort yourself?"

"No, it's just nature, Dongfang, I don't expect you to understand, after all, we are separated by two centuries."

"Then now that you have fulfilled your responsibilities, there is no hope for your fugitive career. Surrender."

Zhang Beihai smiled at Dongfang Yanxu, lowered his head and continued writing, "It's not yet time. I want to write down everything I have experienced, and everything that has been separated by two centuries. , which may be helpful to some sane minds."

"You can dictate and the computer will write it down."

"No, I'm used to writing with a pen, and paper will last longer than a computer. Don't worry, I will take all responsibilities."

Ding Yi looked out through the wide porthole of the "Quantum", although the holographic image in the spherical cabin can provide a better view, he still likes to look directly with his own eyes like this.He saw that his position was on a large plane formed by two thousand dazzling little suns, and their light made his white hair seem to be on fire.He has been familiar with this scene for a few days after the United Fleet set sail, but he is still overwhelmed by its magnificence every time.In fact, the fact that the fleet adopts this rectangular flat formation is not just to show majesty and momentum. If the traditional column of the naval fleet is adopted, even if it is a staggered column, the strong radiation produced by each battleship's engine will have an impact on the ships behind. .In such a rectangular formation, the distance between warships is about twenty kilometers. Although the average volume of each warship is three to four times that of a naval aircraft carrier, it is almost only a point at this distance, so the warships in space The only thing that can show its existence is the light from the fusion engine.

The formation of the Combined Fleet is very dense, and this formation density has only been adopted during inspections.According to a normal cruise formation, the distance between warships should be [-] to [-] kilometers, and a distance of [-] kilometers is almost equivalent to sailing on board in the ocean.Many generals in the three major fleets raised objections to this super-dense formation, but they encountered thorny problems in adopting the conventional formation.The first is the principle of fairness in the opportunity to participate in the battle. If you approach the probe in a regular formation, even if you approach the minimum distance, the warships on the edge of the formation are still tens of thousands of kilometers away from the target. If a battle occurs during the capture of the probe , then a considerable number of warships cannot be counted as participating warships, which will leave an eternal regret in history.And the three major fleets cannot dismantle their own formations, so which fleet is in the most favorable position in the general formation cannot be coordinated, and the formation can only be compressed into an ultra-dense review formation, so that all warships are within combat distance.Another reason for adopting the parade formation is: both Fleet International and the United Nations hope that the formation can produce a strong visual shock. This is not so much a display of the power of the Trisolaran world, as it is for the human public to see. This unprecedented The visual impact is of great political significance to both worlds.At present, the main force of the enemy is still two light-years away, and the dense formation of the fleet is of course not in any danger.

The "Quantum" is located at a corner of the rectangular formation, so Ding Yi can see most of the fleet from here.After passing the orbit of Saturn, the fleet began to slow down, and all fusion engines were directed in the forward direction.Now, the fleet is close to the three-body probe, and the speed has been reduced to a negative value, returning to the direction of the sun, and the relative speed between the target and the target is being adjusted to zero in order to implement interception.

Ding Yi put the pipe in his mouth. In this day and age, he couldn't find shredded tobacco, so he could only hold an empty pipe.Two centuries later, the pipe still has the smell of smoke, but it is very faint and vague, like the memory of the past.

Ding Yi woke up seven years ago and has been teaching in the Physics Department of Peking University.He made a request to the fleet last year, hoping to be the first person to observe the Trisolaran probe up close after it was intercepted.Although Ding Yi is highly respected, his request has been rejected until he claimed that he would die in front of the commanders of the three major fleets, and the fleet agreed to consider this matter.In fact, it has always been a difficult problem to choose the first person to contact the detector. The first contact with the detector is equal to the first contact with the Trisolaran world. According to the principle of fairness in the interception operation, it is impossible for any of the three major fleets to be allowed to enjoy this honor alone. And if the personnel sent by the three parties are contacted at the same time, it will be difficult to operate, and it is easy to cause side effects. Therefore, only one person outside Fleet International can undertake this mission. Of course, Ding Yi is the most suitable candidate.And Ding Yi's request was finally approved, there is another reason that cannot be explained clearly.In fact, neither the Fleet nor Earth International has any confidence in whether the probe can be obtained in the end. It is very likely to self-destruct during or after being intercepted. How to get as much information as possible from it before it self-destructs? , zero-distance observation and contact are irreplaceable means, and Ding Yi, as a senior physicist who discovered macro atoms and invented controllable nuclear fusion pathways, is the most qualified person in this regard.Anyway, his life is his own. With his 83 years of age and unparalleled qualifications, he naturally has the right to use his old life to do what he wants.

At the last meeting of the "Quantum" command system before the interception began, Ding Yi saw the image of the Trisolaran detector. The three tracking spacecraft sent by the three major fleets had replaced the "Blue Shadow" spacecraft from Earth International. The image was taken by a fleet tracking spacecraft at a distance of 500 meters from the target, the closest distance between a human spacecraft and a probe so far.

The size of the detector was about the same as expected, with a length of [-] meters. When Ding Yi saw it, he had the same impression as others: a drop of mercury.The detector is in the shape of a perfect water drop, with a round head and a sharp tail. The surface is an extremely smooth total reflection mirror. The Milky Way is reflected on its surface as a smooth pattern of light, making this drop of mercury look simple and beautiful.Its droplet shape is so lifelike that observers sometimes really think it is liquid, and there is no internal mechanical structure at all.

After seeing the image of the detector, Ding Yi fell silent. He didn't speak at the meeting, and his face was a little gloomy.

"Old Ding, what's on your mind?" the captain asked.

"I don't feel good." Ding Yi whispered, pointing at the holographic image of the detector with the pipe in her hand.

"Why? It looks like a harmless piece of art," an officer said.

"So I don't feel good." Ding Yi shook her gray head and said, "It's not like an interstellar probe, but it's like a work of art. If something is too far from the concept in our hearts, it's not a good sign."

"This thing is indeed a bit strange. Its surface is completely enclosed. Where is the nozzle of the engine?"

"But its engine can indeed emit light. This has been observed before. It's just that the 'Blue Shadow' didn't have time to take a close-up image before it turned off again. I don't know where the light came from."

"What is its mass?" Ding Yi asked.

"There is no precise value yet, only a rough value obtained through a high-precision gravitational meter, which is about ten tons or less."

"Then at least it's not made of neutron star matter."

……

The captain interrupted the discussion of the officers and continued the meeting. He said to Ding Yi: "Mr. Ding, for your investigation, the fleet has arranged this: when the unmanned spaceship finishes capturing the target, it will be Observation for a period of time, if no abnormalities are found, you will take a shuttle boat to enter the capture spacecraft to conduct a zero-distance inspection of the target, and you will not stay there for more than 15 minutes. This is Major Xizi, and she will accompany the entire process on behalf of the Asian Fleet You have completed your inspection."

A young female officer saluted Ding Yi. Like other women in the fleet, she was tall and slender, a typical space newcomer.

Ding Yi only glanced at the major, then turned to the captain: "Why are there other people? Can I go alone?"

"Of course not, Mr. Ding, you are not familiar with the space environment, and the whole process requires human assistance."

"If this is the case, I'd better not go. Do I need others to follow me..." Ding Yi didn't say the word "send to death".

The captain said: "Mr. Ding, this trip is definitely dangerous, but it is not absolute. If the probe is going to self-destruct, it will probably happen during the capture process. Two hours after the capture is completed, if it is not used during the inspection Destructive equipment, the possibility of its self-destruction should be very small."

In fact, the Earth and the Fleet decided to send people to directly contact the probe as soon as possible, the main purpose is not for investigation.When the whole world saw the image of the probe for the first time, everyone was intoxicated by its beautiful appearance.This thing is really beautiful. Although its shape is simple, its shape is exquisite. Every point on the curved surface is just right, making this drop of mercury full of elegant movement, as if it is endless in the night of the universe. dripping.It gives people the feeling that even if a human artist tries all possible shapes of a closed surface smoothly, such a shape cannot be found.It is beyond all possibilities, even in Plato's Utopia, there is no such perfect shape, it is a line straighter than a straight line, a circle rounder than a perfect circle, a mirror dolphin jumping out of the sea of ​​dreams , is the crystallization of all the love in the universe... Beauty is always connected with goodness, so if there is really a dividing line between good and evil in the universe, it must be on the side of goodness.

A guess quickly arose: The thing might not be a probe after all.Further observations somewhat confirmed this speculation.People first noticed that its surface has a very high degree of smoothness, and it is a kind of total reflection mirror. The fleet once used a large amount of monitoring equipment to conduct an experiment, irradiating all its surfaces with high-frequency electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths, and measuring the electromagnetic waves at the same time. Reflectivity.As a result, it was surprisingly found that its surface can reflect almost [-]% of high-frequency electromagnetic waves including visible light, and no absorption can be observed.This means that it cannot perform any detection in the high-frequency band, and in layman's terms it is blind.This kind of self-blind design must have important meanings. The most reasonable speculation is that it is a token sent from the Trisolaran world to the human world. Sincere wishes for peace.

Therefore, people changed the name of the detector and vividly called it "water drop".In both worlds, water is the source of life and symbolizes peace.

Public opinion believed that an official delegation from human society should be sent to contact the water droplets instead of an expedition team composed of a physicist and three ordinary military officers, but out of prudent considerations, Fleet International decided to maintain the original plan.

"Then can't someone else go? Let such a girl..." Ding Yi pointed at Xizi and said.

Xizi smiled at Ding Yi and said, "Mr. Ding, I am the scientific officer on board the 'Quantum', and I am in charge of scientific investigations during the voyage. This is my duty."

"Moreover, half of the fleet is girls." The captain said, "There are three people accompanying you, and the other two are science officers sent by the European and North American fleets. They will report to this ship soon. Old Ding , Here I want to reiterate one point: According to the resolution of the Fleet Joint Meeting, you must be the first to directly contact the target, and then they can be allowed to contact."

"Boring." Ding Yi shook her head again. "Humans haven't changed at all in this respect. They are keen on chasing vanity... But don't worry, I will do it. Actually, I just want to see it. What I'm really interested in is these things. The super theory behind the super technology, but I'm afraid it's... oh."

The captain floated in front of Ding Yi, and said to him with concern: "Old Ding, you can go to rest now, the capture operation will start soon, and you must maintain enough energy before setting out for investigation."

Ding Yi looked up at the captain, and it took him a long time to realize that the meeting would continue after he left.He turned his head to look at the image of the water drop again, only to find that its round head reflected a neat array of light spots, and these light spots gradually deformed in the back, and merged with the light patterns reflected by the Milky Way, which was the fleet of the image.He then looked at the commanders of the "Quantum" floating in front of him, they were all young, and in Ding Yi's eyes, these people were still children.They all looked so noble and perfect, from the captain to the captain, all of them had god-like wisdom in their eyes.The light of the fleet came in from the porthole, and after passing through the automatically darkened glass, it turned into a sunset-like golden glow. They were shrouded in this golden light, and the image of water droplets was suspended behind them, like a supernatural silver symbol, making this place appear Ethereal and detached, they looked like gods on Mount Olympus... Something deep in Ding Yi's heart was touched, and he became excited.

"Old Ding, do you have anything else to say?" the captain asked.

"Oh, I want to say..." Ding Yi fluttered her hands at a loss, letting the pipe float in the air, "I want to say, children, you have been very kind to me these days..."

"You are the person we respect the most," said a deputy captain.

"Oh... so, I do have something to say, it's just... an old man's ramblings, and you can take it for granted. But, boys, I'm a man who's passed two centuries, I have experienced more things...Of course, as I said, don't take it too seriously..."

"Old Ding, if you have anything to say, just say it, you are really the person we respect the most."

Ding Yi nodded slowly, pointing upwards, "This spaceship, in order to achieve the highest acceleration, it seems that all the people in it have to be immersed in a liquid."

"Yes, the state of the deep sea."

"That's right, the state of the deep sea." Ding Yi hesitated again, and after pondering for a while, he made up his mind to continue, "After we set off to investigate, can this spaceship, oh, 'Quantum', enter the state of the deep sea?"

The officers looked at each other in amazement, and the captain asked, "Why?"

Ding Yi's hands fluttered again, his hair glowed white in the light of the fleet, just as someone discovered when he got on the ship, he really looked like Einstein. "Well... there's not much to lose by doing it anyway, right... I don't feel good, you know."

After saying this, Ding Yi fell silent, staring blankly at the infinite distance, and finally reached out to grab the floating pipe and put it in his pocket. Without saying goodbye, he clumsily manipulated the superconducting belt to float towards the hatch.The officers watched him all the time, and when half of his body had gone out, they turned around slowly:
"Children, do you know what I've been doing all these years? Teaching physics at the university, and even leading doctoral students." He looked at the Milky Way outside, with an unpredictable smile on his face, and the officers noticed that the smile was a bit miserable , "Children, I am two centuries ago, and now I can still teach physics in universities." After he finished speaking, he turned and left.

The captain wanted to say something to Ding Yi, but he didn't say anything when he saw that he had already left, thinking grimly.Some of the officers looked at the image of the water droplets, and more people focused their attention on the captain.

"Captain, you don't take him seriously, do you?" a colonel asked.

"He is a wise scientist, but he is an ancient man after all, thinking about modern things, he always..." Someone echoed.

"However, in his field, human beings have not progressed and are still stuck in his era."

"He mentioned intuition, think about what his intuition has discovered." The tone of the speaking officer was full of awe.

"And..." Xizi blurted out, but looked at the group of people around her with higher rank than her, and swallowed the words again.

"Speak up, Major," said the captain.

"And like he said, there is nothing to lose," Xizi said.

"You can think about it from other perspectives..." a deputy captain said, "According to the current combat plan, if the capture fails and the water droplets accidentally escape, the tracking force deployed by the fleet is only fighter jets, but for long-distance tracking, it must rely on star-level Battleships, there should be ships in the fleet that are prepared for this, and this should be regarded as an omission in the plan."

"Make a report to the fleet," said the captain.

The fleet quickly responded: after the expedition set off, the two stellar warships "Quantum" and "Bronze Age" adjacent to it in the formation entered the deep sea state.

In the process of capturing the water droplets, the distance between the formation of the combined fleet and the target was kept at a distance of one thousand kilometers, which was determined after careful calculation.There are many conjectures about the possible self-destruction methods of water droplets. The self-destruction that can generate the greatest energy is the annihilation of matter and antimatter. The mass of water droplets is less than ten tons, so in the case of sufficient redundancy, what needs to be considered The largest burst of energy is produced by the annihilation of positive and negative matter with a mass of five tons each.If such annihilation happened on the earth, it would be enough to destroy all life on the surface of this planet, but if it happened in space, its energy would all appear in the form of light radiation. For star-class warships with super radiation protection capabilities, A distance of a thousand kilometers is safe enough.

The capture operation was completed by a small unmanned spacecraft called "Mantis". The "Mantis" was mainly used to collect mineral samples in the asteroid belt. Its biggest feature is that it has an ultra-long robotic arm.

After the operation began, the "Mantis" crossed the [-]-kilometer distance line previously set for the surveillance spacecraft, and cautiously approached the target.It flies at a very slow speed, and hovers for a few minutes every [-] kilometers it advances. The surveillance system densely deployed at the rear scans the target in all directions, and continues to approach after confirming that there is no abnormality.

At a distance of a thousand kilometers from the target, the joint fleet has synchronized with the speed of the water droplet.Most of the battleships turned off their fusion engines, floating quietly above the abyss of space. The huge metal hulls reflected the faint sunlight, like abandoned space cities, and the array of the entire fleet was like a silent ancient boulder array.The 120 million people in the fleet watched with bated breath as the Mantis made its short voyage.

It will take three hours for the images seen by the fleet to be transmitted back to Earth at the speed of light, and reach the eyes of the 30 billion people who are also watching with bated breath.At this time, the human world has almost stopped all activities, the speeding traffic among the giant trees has disappeared, the underground metropolis is shrouded in silence, and even the global Internet, which has been busy for three centuries after its birth, has become empty. Most of the transmitted data is from imagery twenty astronomical units away.

The "Mantis" stopped and went, and it took an hour and a half to complete the journey that was less than a step away in space, and finally hovered at a place 50 meters away from the target. At this time, the mercury from the water droplets On the surface, the image of the deformation of the "Mantis" can be clearly seen.A large number of instruments carried by the spacecraft began to scan the target at close range, first confirming a previous observation: the surface temperature of the water droplet is even lower than the temperature of the surrounding space, close to absolute zero.Scientists had thought there were powerful cooling devices inside the water droplets, but as before, Mantis' instruments were unable to detect any internal structure of the target.

The "Mantis" stretched out its ultra-long mechanical arm to the target, stretching and stopping at a distance of 50 meters, but the intensive surveillance system did not find any abnormality of the target.This equally grueling process lasted half an hour before the tip of the robotic arm finally reached the target, making contact with an object that had trekked through space for nearly two centuries from four light-years away.When the six-finger clamp of the robotic arm finally clamped the water droplet, the hearts of millions of people in the fleet throbbed at the same time, and the same throbbing will appear in the three billion hearts on the earth three hours later.The robotic arm held the water drop and waited quietly for 30 minutes, but the target still had no response or abnormality, so the robotic arm began to pull it back.

At this time, people found a strange contrast: the mechanical arm is obviously a thing that only focuses on function in design, with steel bones, and those exposed hydraulic equipment, full of complicated technical qualities and rough industrial feeling; and The shape is perfect, and their crystal and smooth solid droplets—water droplets eliminate all functional and technical connotations with exquisite aesthetics, showing the lightness and detachment of philosophy and art.The steel claws of the mechanical arm grab the water droplets, like the hairy hands of an ancient ape grabbing a pearl.The water drop looks so fragile, like a thermos liner in space, everyone is worried that it will break under the steel claws.But this finally didn't happen, and the mechanical arm began to retract.

The recovery of the mechanical arm took another half an hour, and the water droplets were slowly pulled into the main cabin of the "Mantis", and then the two opened bulkheads were slowly closed.This is the most likely moment if the target is going to self-destruct.The fleet and the earth world behind waited quietly, as if the sound of time passing through space could be heard in the silence.

Two hours passed and nothing happened.

The fact that the water droplet did not self-destruct finally confirmed people’s speculation: if it is really a military probe, it will definitely self-destruct after falling into the enemy’s hands. Now it can be confirmed that it is a gift from Trisolaran to human beings. A signal of peace in terms that this civilization finds difficult for humans to understand.

The world rejoiced again, but this time the celebration was less fanatical and ecstasy, for the end of war and the victory of mankind was no longer a surprise.Taking a step back, even if the upcoming negotiations break down and the war continues, human beings will still be the final victors. The appearance of the United Fleet in space has given the public a vivid understanding of human power.Now, the earth civilization already has the confidence to face all kinds of enemies calmly.

The arrival of water droplets has caused subtle changes in people's feelings towards the Trisolaran world, and more and more people have begun to realize that the race that is trekking towards the solar system is a great civilization, and they have experienced more than 200 disasters. Reincarnation survived with unbelievable tenacity of human beings. They have gone through hardships across four light-years of space, just to find a stable sun, a home where life can continue... The public's feelings towards the Three-body world began to change from hostility and hatred turned to sympathy, pity and even admiration.At the same time, people are also aware of the fact that the ten water droplets of the Trisolaran world were released two centuries ago, but humans have not really understood their meaning until now. Another aspect reflects the mentality of human beings distorted by their own bloody history.In the global online referendum, the support rate of the Sunshine Project has risen sharply, and more and more people tend to use Mars as a strong survival plan for the Trisolaran settlement.

The United Nations and the fleet accelerated preparations for peace negotiations, and the two nations began to jointly form a human delegation.

All this happened within a day of the water droplet being captured.

What excites people the most is not the facts in front of them, but the bright future that has already taken shape: what kind of dreamy paradise will the solar system become when the technology of the Trisolaran civilization combines with human power?
In space at almost the same distance on the other side of the sun, "Natural Selection" was gliding quietly at one percent of the speed of light.

"Just received the news: the water droplets did not self-destruct after being captured." Dongfang Yanxu said to Zhang Beihai.

"What is a water drop?" Zhang Beihai asked. He and Dongfang Yanxu looked at each other through the transparent bulkhead. His face was a bit haggard, but his military uniform was neat.

"It's the Trisolaran detector. It has been proven that it is a gift to mankind, and it is an expression of the Trisolaran world's prayer for peace."

"Really? That's really good."

"You don't seem to care too much about it."

Zhang Beihai didn't answer Dongfang's words, and brought the notebook in front of him with both hands, "I've finished writing." After speaking, he put the notebook in his close-fitting pocket.

"So, you can hand over control of the 'Natural Selection'?"

"Okay, but first I need to know what you plan to do after you gain control."

"slow down."

"Will you join the pursuit fleet?"

"Yes. The fusion fuel of the 'Natural Selection' is already below the reentry capacity, and the fuel must be replenished before returning to the solar system, and the pursuit fleet does not have enough fuel for us to replenish. The tonnage of the six warships is only 'Natural Selection' Half of the USS was accelerated to 5.00% of the speed of light during the pursuit, and then experienced a deceleration of the same intensity, and the fuel was just enough to turn back by itself. Therefore, the personnel on the 'Natural Selection' can only return by the pursuit fleet, and will be carried by spaceships in the future. Enough fuel to catch up to Natural Selection and bring it back into the solar system, but it will take a long time, and we can shorten that time by slowing down as much as possible before leaving."

"Dongfang, don't slow down."

"why?"

"The deceleration will use up the remaining fuel of the 'Natural Selection'. We can't be a spaceship without energy. No one knows what will happen. As the captain, you should think about this."

"What could happen? The future is already clear, the war will end, humanity will win, and you will be proven completely wrong!"

Zhang Beihai smiled at the excited Dongfang, as if he wanted to calm down her emotions. At this moment, his eyes on her became softer than ever, which caused Dongfang's mood to fluctuate.Although she always thought Zhang Beihai's defeatism was inconceivable, always suspected that he had other purposes for defecting, and even suspected that he had mental problems, but for some reason, she still felt a sense of attachment to him.She left her father at a very young age—of course, this is normal for children of this era, fatherly love is already a very old thing, but now she learns from this ancient soldier from the 21st century. I experienced this kind of thing in my body.

Zhang Beihai said: "Dongfang, I come from a rough era, and I am a realistic person. I only know that the enemy still exists and is still approaching the solar system. As a soldier, knowing this, I can only enjoy the world. ...Don't slow down, this is the condition for me to hand over control, of course, I can only get your guarantee of personality."

"I promise, 'Natural Selection' will not slow down."

Zhang Beihai turned around and floated to the floating operation interface, called up the permission transfer interface, and entered his own password. After a series of clicks, he closed the interface.

"The captain authority of the 'Natural Selection' has been transferred to you, and the password is still 'Marlboro'." Zhang Beihai said without looking back.

Dongfang called up the interface in the air and quickly confirmed this. "Thank you, but please don't get out of this cabin for now, and don't open the door. The people on board are waking up from the deep sea state. I'm afraid they will act aggressively against you."

"Let me walk on the gangplank?" Looking at Dongfang's bewildered look, Zhang Beihai smiled again, "Oh, this is a method of execution on ancient sea ships. If it really spread to the present, it should be for criminals like me. Just go straight into space...okay, I really want to be alone too."

The shuttle boat drove out of the "Quantum". Compared with the mother ship, it seemed very small, like a car driving out of the city, and the light of its engine only illuminated a small part of the mother ship's huge hull , like a candle under a cliff.It slowly emerged from the shadow of the "Quantum" into the sunlight, the engine nozzles glowed like fireflies, and flew towards the water droplets a thousand kilometers away.

The expedition team consisted of four people. In addition to Ding Yi and Xizi, there were two officers from the European Fleet and the North American Fleet, a major and a lieutenant colonel respectively.

Through the porthole, Ding Yi looked back at the fleet array that was gradually receding.The "Quantum" in the corner of the array still looks huge at this time, but the next battleship "Cloud" adjacent to it is so small that the shape can be seen, and further away, the battleships in the array are only visible A row of dots.Ding Yi knew that the long and wide sides of the rectangular array consisted of one hundred warships and twenty warships respectively, and more than ten warships were in a maneuvering state outside the array.But he counted along the long side, and he couldn't see clearly when he counted thirty, which was already six hundred kilometers away.The same is true when looking up at the short side of the rectangle perpendicular to it. The farthest battleship that can be seen clearly is just a blurred spot in the faint sunlight. It is difficult to distinguish them from the background of stars. The entire fleet array can only be seen with the naked eye when the engine is started.Ding Yi feels that the United Fleet is a 100×20 matrix in space, and he imagines that there is another matrix to be multiplied with it, and the horizontal row elements of one are multiplied by the other vertical row elements in turn to generate a larger matrix , but in reality, there is only a tiny point opposite this huge matrix: a drop of water.Ding Yi didn't like this kind of extreme asymmetry in mathematics, and his mental gymnastics to calm himself failed.When the acceleration overload disappeared, he turned his head and struck up a conversation with Xizi who was sitting next to him.

"Son, are you from Hangzhou?" he asked.

Xizi was staring ahead, as if trying to find the "Mantis" which was still hundreds of kilometers away, she shook her head after recovering, "No, Mr. Ding, I was born in the Asia Fleet, and my name has the same name as Hangzhou. Never mind I don't know, but I've been there and it's a nice place."

"We were a good place back then. Now, the West Lake has become a crescent spring in the desert... But then again, although there are deserts everywhere, this world still reminds me of Jiangnan. In this era, beautiful women are like water." Ding Yi said, looking at Xizi, the soft light of the distant sun penetrated through the porthole, outlining her charming silhouette, "My child, seeing you reminds me of someone I once loved, she is also a major officer, Not as tall as you, but as beautiful as you..."

"Old Ding, the external communication channel is still on." Xizi reminded absent-mindedly, his eyes still staring at the space ahead.

"It's nothing, the nerves of the fleet and the earth are already tense enough, we can let them divert and relax." Ding Yi pointed back.

"Dr. Ding, this is very good." The lieutenant colonel of the North American Fleet sitting in the front row turned his head and said with a smile.

"Then, in ancient times, you must have been loved by many girls." Xizi looked back at Ding Yi and said, she felt that she really needed to divert her attention from the high tension.

"I don't know. I'm not interested in the girls who love me. I'm interested in the ones I fall in love with."

"In this era, there are not many people like you who can take care of everything and do so well."

"Oh... no no, I usually don't bother those girls I love. I believe in Goethe's saying: I love you, what has it to do with you?"

Xizi looked at Ding Yi and smiled without saying a word.

Ding Yi went on to say: "Oh, I wish I had the same attitude towards physics. I have always felt that the biggest regret in my life is being blindfolded by sophons. In fact, think about it openly: we explore the laws, and What does the law matter? Maybe one day, humans or something will detect the law to such an extent that it can be used to change not only their own reality, but even the entire universe, and be able to knead all the galaxies like dough into what they need. shape, but so what? The law remains unchanged, yes, she is there, the only existence that cannot be changed, forever young, just like the lover in our memory..." Ding Yi said, pointing Pointing to the brilliant Milky Way outside the porthole, "Thinking of this, I just look away."

The lieutenant colonel shook his head in disappointment at the change of topic, "Old Ding, let's go back to Beauty Rushui."

Ding Yi was no longer interested, and Xizi stopped talking, and they all fell into silence.Soon, the "Mantis" could be seen, although it was only a bright spot more than 200 kilometers away.The shuttle rotated 180 degrees, and the engine nozzles began to decelerate in the direction of travel.

At this time, the fleet was directly in front of the shuttle, about [-] kilometers away. This is an insignificant distance in space, but it turns the huge warships into small dots that can barely be seen in shape. The arrangement of the fleet can distinguish the fleet array from the background of stars.The entire rectangular array seems to be a grid in front of the Milky Way. The chaos of the star sea is in stark contrast to the regularity of the array - when the distance turns the huge into tiny, the regularity of the arrangement shows its strength.In the fleet and the distant earth world behind it, many people who watched this image felt that this was the image display of what Ding Yi said just now.

When the decelerating overload disappeared, the shuttle had already approached the hull of the "Mantis". The process was so quick that the crew of the shuttle felt as if the "Mantis" had suddenly emerged from space.The docking was completed quickly. Since the "Mantis" is an unmanned spacecraft, there is no air in the cabin, and all four members of the expedition team put on light space suits.After receiving clear instructions from the fleet, they fished through the docking hatch in weightlessness and entered the "Mantis".

The "Mantis" has only a spherical main cabin, and the water droplets are suspended in the center of the cabin. Compared with the image seen on the "Quantum", its color has completely changed, becoming much darker and softer.This is obviously due to the different reflections of the external scenery on its surface, and the total reflection surface of the water drop itself has no color. The main cabin of the "Mantis" is stacked with various equipment including the folded mechanical arm, and several piles of asteroid rock samples. The water droplets are suspended in this environment composed of machinery and rocks, once again forming a delicate and The contrast between crudeness, beauty and technology.

"Like a tear of the Virgin Mary," Xizi said.

Her words were transmitted from the "Mantis" at the speed of light, first in the fleet, and three hours later resonated in the entire human world.In the expedition team, the lieutenant colonel and Xizi, as well as the major from the European Fleet, are all ordinary people, who are at the center of this peak moment in the history of civilization due to unexpected opportunities.Facing the water droplets at such a close distance, they all have a common feeling: the strangeness of that distant world disappeared, replaced by a strong desire to identify.Yes, in this cold and vast universe, being the same carbon-based life itself is a kind of fate, a fate that may take billions of years to cultivate, and this fate makes people feel a kind of love that transcends time and space.Now, the drop made them feel the love in which any gulf of hostility could be bridged.Xizi's eyes were moist, and three hours later there would be billions of people with tears in their eyes like hers.

Dan Dingyi stayed behind, watching all this with cold eyes, "I saw something else," he said, "a more atmospheric thing, a state of forgetting myself and others, and containing all efforts through self-enclosure. "

"You are too philosophical, I don't quite understand." Xizi said with a teary smile.

"Dr. Ding, we don't have much time." The lieutenant colonel signaled Ding Yi to come forward, because he must be the first to touch the water droplets.

Ding Yi slowly floated in front of the water drop and put a hand on its surface.He can only touch it with gloves to prevent frostbite from the absolute zero mirror.Then, the three officers also began to touch the water droplets.

"It looks too fragile, I'm afraid it will be broken." Xizi said in a low voice.

"I can't feel any friction," said the lieutenant colonel in amazement. "The surface is so smooth."

"How smooth can it be?" Ding Yi asked.

To answer this question, Xizi took out a cylindrical instrument from the pocket of his space suit, which was a microscope.She touches the lens to the surface of the water droplet and sees a magnified image of the surface on a small display attached to the instrument.What is displayed on the screen is still a smooth mirror.

"What's the magnification?" Ding Yi asked.

"One hundred times." Xizi pointed to a number in the corner of the microscope display, and at the same time adjusted the magnification to one thousand times.

The enlarged surface is still a smooth mirror surface.

"Is your thing broken?" said the lieutenant colonel.

Xizi picked up the microscope from the water droplet and put it on the mask of his spacesuit. The other three came over and looked at the display screen together, only to see that the surface of the mask, which was magnified a thousand times, looked as smooth as the water droplet to the naked eye. Gone as rough as a rocky beach on screen.Xizi re-installed the microscope on the surface of the water droplet, and a smooth mirror surface appeared on the display screen again, no different from the surrounding surfaces without magnification.

"Increase the multiplier by ten times," Ding Yi said.

This is beyond the ability of optical magnification. Xizi has performed a series of operations to switch the microscope from optical mode to electron tunneling microscope mode, and now the magnification is [-] times.

The magnified surface is still a smooth mirror.And the smoothest surface that can be processed by human technology, the roughness is exposed only after being magnified thousands of times, just like the face of the giant beauty in Gulliver's eyes.

"Adjust to one hundred thousand times." The lieutenant colonel said.

What they see is still a smooth mirror.

"100 times."

Smooth mirror.

"1000 times!"

At this magnification, macromolecules can already be seen, but what is displayed on the screen is still a smooth mirror surface, without any signs of roughness, and its smoothness is indistinguishable from the surrounding surfaces that have not been magnified.

"Amplify the multiple again!"

Xizi shook his head, this is already the extreme value that the electron microscope can achieve.

More than two centuries ago, in his science fiction novel "2001: A Space Odyssey", Arthur Clarke described a black obelisk left by an alien super civilization on the moon. The investigators used an ordinary ruler to measure the three sides of the obelisk , and its length ratio is 1:3:9. In the future, no matter what kind of more accurate method is used to measure, the ratio of the three sides of the obelisk will still be exactly 1:3:9 after exhausting the highest precision of measurement technology on the earth. any errors.Clarke wrote: In this way, that civilization displayed its power with arrogance.

Now, human beings are facing a more arrogant display of power.

"Is there really an absolutely smooth surface?" Xizi exclaimed.

"Yes," Ding Yi said, "the surface of a neutron star is almost absolutely smooth[44]."

"But the quality of the thing is normal[45]!"

Ding Yi thought for a while, looked around and said, "Contact the computer of the spaceship, and confirm where the gripper of the manipulator was clamped during capture."

This was done by the fleet's monitoring personnel. The computer of the "Mantis" sent out several extremely thin red laser beams, marking the contact position of the steel claw fixture on the surface of the water droplet.Xizi observed the surface of one of them with a microscope. Under the magnification of 1000 million times, what he saw was still a smooth and flawless mirror surface.

"How much is the pressure at the contact surface?" the lieutenant colonel asked, and soon got the answer from the fleet: about [-] kilograms per square centimeter.

The smooth surface is the most susceptible to scratches, and the surface where the water droplets are strongly contacted by the metal fixture does not leave any scratches.

Ding Yi floated away and searched for something in the cabin. When he came back, he held a geological hammer in his hand. Someone might have dropped it when he was testing rock samples in the cabin. Before the others could stop him, he smashed the geological hammer hard. to the mirror!He only heard a ding, clear and melodious, like hitting the ground made of jade. The sound came from his body, and the other three couldn't hear it due to the vacuum environment.Ding Yi then used the end of the hammer handle to point out the location where it was smashed, and Xizi immediately observed that point with a microscope.

Under the magnification of 1000 million, it is still an absolutely smooth mirror surface.

Ding Yi threw away the geological hammer dejectedly, stopped looking at the water droplets, and lowered his head to think deeply. The eyes of the three officers and the eyes of millions of people in the fleet were all focused on him.

"I can only guess." Ding Yi raised her head and said, "The molecules of this thing are neatly arranged like a guard of honor, and at the same time they are solidified with each other. Do you know how strong this kind of solidification is? The molecules are like being nailed to death. The vibrations are gone."

"That's why it's at absolute zero[46]!" Xizi said, and she and the other two officers understood what Ding Yi meant: In matter of ordinary density, the distance between atomic nuclei is very large. Fixing it dead is not much easier than fixing the sun and the eight planets into a set of stationary trusses with a set of connecting rods.

"What force can do this?"

"There is only one: strong interaction." Through the mask, it can be seen that Ding Yi's forehead is covered with cold sweat.

"Isn't this... equivalent to shooting a bow and arrow to the moon[47]?!"

"They did shoot their bows and arrows to the moon...the tears of the Virgin? Hehe..." Ding Yi sneered, which sounded chillingly stern, and the three officers also knew the meaning of the sneer: water droplets are not like tears On the contrary, it is a hundred times stronger than the strongest matter in the solar system. All matter in this world is as fragile as a piece of paper in front of it. It can pass through the earth like a bullet through cheese. suffer no damage.

"Then... what is it here for?" the lieutenant colonel blurted out.

"Who knows? Maybe it's really a messenger, but what it brings to humans is another message..." Ding Yi said, looking away from the water drop.

"what?"

"Destroying you, what has it to do with you?"

This sentence brought a moment of dead silence, and when the other three members of the expedition team and the million people in the joint fleet were chewing on its meaning, Ding Yi suddenly said: "Run." These two words were spoken in a low voice , but then, he raised his hands and shouted hoarsely: "Stupid children, hurry up - run - ah!"

"Where are you going?" Xizi asked in horror.

Only a few seconds later than Ding Yi, the lieutenant colonel also realized the truth. Like Ding Yi, he shouted in despair: "Fleet! Fleet evacuated!"

But it was too late. At this time, strong interference had already appeared, the image transmitted from the "Mantis" was distorted and disappeared, and the fleet failed to hear the lieutenant colonel's final call.

At the tip of the tail of the water droplet, a blue halo appeared. The halo was small at first, but very bright, covering everything around it in blue light. Produced by water droplets, but just drilled out of the ring.As the halo expands, its luminosity also decreases. When it expands to about twice the maximum diameter of the water droplet, it disappears. At the same time as it disappears, a second small blue halo appears at the tip, expanding like the first one. , discoloration, weakened luminosity, and disappeared quickly.In this way, the halo continuously appears and expands from the tail of the water droplet, with a frequency of two or three times per second. Under the propulsion of the halo, the water droplet begins to move and accelerates sharply.

The four members of the expedition team had no chance to see the appearance of the second halo, and after the appearance of the first halo, they were all instantly vaporized in the ultra-high temperature similar to the core of the sun.

The hull of the Mantis glowed red, looking from the outside as if a candle in a paper lantern had been lit, while the metal hull melted like wax—but the melting had barely begun before the ship exploded.After the explosion, the "Mantis" left almost no solid fragments, and all the metal of the hull turned into an incandescent liquid and scattered in space.

The fleet clearly observed the explosion of the "Mantis" a thousand kilometers away. Everyone's first reaction was that the droplet self-destructed. They first mourned the sacrifice of the four members of the expedition team, and then they were disappointed that the droplet was not a messenger of peace.However, all human beings have not made the minimum psychological preparation for what is about to happen.

The first anomaly was discovered by the Fleet Space Monitoring System computer, which was processing images of the Mantis explosion and found a piece of debris that was not normal.Most of the fragments are molten metal, and after the explosion, they all fly at a constant speed in space, and only this one is accelerating.Of course, only a computer can discover this tiny event from a huge amount of flying debris. It immediately searched the database and knowledge base, and extracted a huge amount of data including all the information of the "Mantis". The presence of the strange fragments opens up dozens of possible explanations, none of which are correct.

The computer, like humans, did not realize that what was destroyed by the explosion was only the "Mantis" and its four-person expedition team, and nothing else was included.

For this piece of accelerating debris, the fleet space monitoring system only issued a level 50 attack alert, because it was not coming directly at the fleet, but was flying towards a corner of the rectangular array. Skimming without hitting any of the fleet's targets.This level 31.7 alert was completely ignored amidst the multitude of level 160 alerts simultaneously raised by the Mantis explosion.But the computer also noticed the extremely high acceleration of this piece of debris. When it flew out [-] kilometers, it had already exceeded the third cosmic velocity, and the acceleration continued.The alert level was raised to level [-], but was ignored.The debris flew about [-] kilometers from the explosion point to the corner of the array, and it took about [-] seconds. When it reached the corner of the array, its speed had reached [-] km/s. The corner of the first battleship "Infinite Frontier" [-] km.The debris did not pass by the array from there, but turned an acute angle of [-] degrees, and the speed did not decrease at all, heading straight for the "Infinity Frontier".When it took about two seconds to fly this distance, the computer actually downgraded the second-level alert to the debris to the third level. According to its reasoning, this piece of debris is not a mass entity, because it finished A movement that is impossible from the perspective of astrodynamics: making such a sharp turn without deceleration at twice the speed of the third universe is almost equivalent to hitting an iron wall at the same speed. An aircraft has a piece of metal inside it, and the overload generated by this turn will instantly press the metal piece into a thin film.Therefore, the fragment can only be a phantom.

Just like this, the water drop rushes toward the “Infinity Frontier” at twice the speed of the third universe, and the extension line of its course at this time coincides with the first column of the fleet’s rectangular array.

The drop hit the rear third of the Infinity Frontier and passed through it like a shadow without resistance.Due to the extremely fast impact, only two very regular round holes appeared on the ship's hull where the water droplets crashed in and out, the diameter of which was equivalent to the thickest part of the water droplets.But as soon as the round hole appeared, it deformed and disappeared, because the surrounding hulls melted due to the heat generated by the high-speed impact and the ultra-high temperature of the water droplets propelling the halo, and the section of the hull that was hit quickly became red-hot. The red light spread outward from the point of impact, and soon covered half of the "Infinite Frontier". This huge ship seemed to be a big iron block just taken out of the forge.

The water droplets passing through the "Infinite Frontier" continued to fly at a speed of about thirty kilometers per second, and flew a distance of ninety kilometers in three seconds. The "Yuanfang" adjacent to the USS, then penetrated the "Foghorn", "Antarctica" and "Ultimate", and their hulls were all in a red-hot state immediately, as if they were in the first queue of the fleet. A row of huge lights.

The explosion of the "Infinite Frontier" began.Like other warships that were penetrated later, its hull was hit at the fusion fuel tank. Unlike the conventional explosion that occurred on the "Mantis" at high temperatures, part of the nuclear fuel on the "Infinite Frontier" was triggered by nuclear fusion The reaction, people have never known whether the fusion reaction is triggered by the ultra-high temperature of the water droplets propelling the halo or by other factors.After the fireball of the thermonuclear explosion appeared at the impact site, it expanded rapidly, and the entire fleet was illuminated by strong light, which stood out against the black velvet background of space, and the star sea of ​​the Milky Way was eclipsed.

Nuclear fireballs also successively appeared on the "Distant", "Foghorn", "Antarctica" and "Extreme".

In the next eight seconds, the water droplets penetrated another ten star-class battleships.

At this time, the expanding nuclear fireball had engulfed the entire hull of the "Infinite Frontier", and then began to shrink.Simultaneously, nuclear fireballs light up and expand over more penetrated battleships.

The water droplets continued to fly on the long side of the rectangular array, penetrating one star-class warship after another at intervals of less than a second.

At this time, on the first "Infinity Frontier" that was penetrated, the nuclear fusion fireball had already been extinguished, and the completely melted hull exploded, and millions of tons of dark red molten metal shot out radially. , Like blooming flower buds, molten metal scattered in space without resistance, forming a fiery "metal magma" rainstorm in all directions.

The water drop continued to move forward, passing through more battleships in a straight line. Behind it, there were about ten nuclear fireballs burning all the time. In the flames of these hot little suns, the entire fleet array shone as if it had been ignited. Be an ocean of light.Behind the line of fireballs, molten warships shot out one after another, and the fiery waves of molten metal surged and spread in space, as if boulders had been thrown into a sea of ​​magma.

It took 1 minute and 18 seconds for the water droplet to complete the [-]-kilometer journey, passing through the [-] warships in the first formation of the United Fleet's rectangular array.

When the last battleship "Adam" in the first queue was swallowed by the nuclear fireball, at the other end of the queue, the spurting metal magma had become sparse due to diffusion and cooling.The core of the outbreak, where the Infinity Frontier had been a little more than a minute earlier, had become almost empty. "Distant", "Foghorn", "Antarctica", "Extreme"... all disappeared into scattered metal magma one after another.When the last nuclear fireball in this queue was extinguished, the space darkened again, and the metal magma that was gradually cooling during the scattering could not be seen clearly. After the space darkened, their dark red light reappeared, like a [-]-kilometer-long magma. blood river.

After the water droplet penetrated the last battleship "Adam" in the first row, it flew to the empty space ahead for a short distance of about 30 kilometers, and once again made the sharp-angle turn that cannot be explained by human astrodynamics. The angle of one turn was smaller than the previous one, about fifteen degrees. It was almost a sudden U-turn and flew in the opposite direction while maintaining the same speed. If you consider the destruction just completed, this is already the first row) straight line coincides, and rushes towards the first battleship "Ganga" in this direction of the queue at a speed of [-] km/s.

Up to this point, the chain of command of the Combined Fleet had not responded.

The fleet's battlefield information system has faithfully fulfilled its mission, and has completely recorded the battlefield information of the previous minute and 18 seconds through a huge monitoring network. The amount of this batch of information is huge, and it can only be processed by the computer battlefield decision-making system in a short period of time. The analysis finally came to the following conclusions:
A powerful enemy space force appeared in the nearby space and launched an attack on our fleet, but the computer did not give any information about this force. There are only two things that can be determined: [-]. The enemy space force is in the position of the water droplet; [-]. , This power is invisible to all our detection methods.

At this time, the commanders of the fleet were in a state of trembling and numbness. In the past two centuries of space strategy and tactical research, they had imagined various extreme battlefield situations, but they saw that a hundred warships were like a hanging ship. Firecrackers exploded within 1 minute, which was beyond their mental capacity.Facing the flood of information from the battlefield information system, they can only rely on the analysis and judgment of the computer battlefield decision-making system, and focus on the detection of the invisible enemy fleet that does not exist. Surveillance forces began to look far into the depths of space, ignoring the immediate danger.There are even quite a few people who believe that this powerful invisible enemy may be a third-party alien force other than humans and the three-body world, because the three-body world is already a weak loser in their subconscious.

The fleet's battlefield monitoring system did not detect the existence of water droplets as early as possible. The main reason is that water droplets are invisible to radars of all wavelengths, so it can only be discovered from the analysis of images in the visible light band. However, in the monitoring information of the space battlefield, Visible light image information is far less important than radar information.When the attack took place, a torrential rain of explosion fragments scattered in space. Most of these fragments were liquid metal melted in the high temperature of the nuclear explosion. There are millions of tons of metal, forming a huge amount of liquid debris, a considerable part of which is comparable in size and shape to water droplets, so it is difficult for the computer image analysis system to distinguish water droplets from the huge amount of debris, not to mention that almost all commanders believe that The water droplets have self-destructed in the "Mantis", and no special instructions have been issued for the system to do such an analysis.

At the same time, other circumstances also exacerbated the chaos on the battlefield.The debris ejected from the explosion of the first row of battleships quickly reached the second row, and the battlefield defense systems of each ship responded immediately, using high-energy lasers and electromagnetic guns to intercept the debris.The flying debris is mainly metal melted by nuclear fireballs. They are of different sizes. They have been partially cooled by the low temperature in space during the flight, but what has cooled and hardened is only a layer of shell, which is still in a hot liquid state. Then it flew away brilliantly like fireworks.Soon, between the second column and the dim "river of blood" left by the destroyed first column, a parallel barrier of fireworks was formed. It exploded and rolled crazily, as if from an invisible enemy. The tide of the sea of ​​fire coming from the direction.The scattered debris was as dense as hail, and the defense system could not completely intercept them. A considerable part of the debris passed through the intercepting firepower and hit the battleship. These solid-liquid mixed metal jets had considerable impact and destructive power. Part of the second queue The battleship's hull was severely damaged, even punctured, and the decompression alarm sounded horribly... The dazzling battle with the debris attracted considerable attention. In this case, it was difficult for the computers and people of the command system to avoid an illusion : The fleet is engaged in a fierce firefight with enemy space forces, and no one or the computer is paying attention to the little Reaper who is about to start destroying the second cohort.

Therefore, when the water droplets rushed to the "Ganga", the hundred warships in the second row were still lined up in a straight line, which is the formation of death.

The water droplets rushed like lightning, and in just ten seconds, it penetrated the "Ganges", "Columbia", "Justice", "Masada", "Proton", "Yandi", etc. ", "Atlantic", "Sirius", "Thanksgiving", "Forward", "Han" and "Tempest" twelve star-class giant ships.Same as the destruction in the first queue, after being penetrated, each warship first turned into a red-hot state, and then was swallowed by nuclear fusion fireballs. After the fireballs were extinguished, the melted warships turned into megatons glowing dark red Radiant metallic magma erupted.In this tragic destruction, the battleships lined up in a straight line were like a [-]-kilometer-long fuse that was ignited, leaving behind a dark red ashes after the intense burning.

One minute and 21 seconds later, the hundred warships in the second queue were all destroyed.

After penetrating the last battleship "Meiji" in the second formation, the water drop rushed past the end of the formation, and then turned at an acute angle to rush to the head of the third formation, the "Newton".During the destruction of the second queue, the explosion fragments surged towards the third queue. In this wave of debris, the molten metal that was still in the molten state after the explosion of the second queue and most of the already flying debris from the first queue were included. Condensed metal fragments. At the same time as the defense system was activated, most of the warships in the third row had started their engines and started maneuvering.So at this time, unlike the first and second formations before being destroyed, the third formation was no longer in a straight line, but the hundred warships in this formation were still generally lined up.After the water drop penetrated the "Newton", it adjusted its direction sharply, flying over a distance of [-] kilometers in an instant, and penetrated the "Enlightenment" which was staggered by three kilometers from the "Newton". Turned, rushed to the "Cretaceous" which had maneuvered to the other side of the queue's main line, and penetrated it.In this way, the water droplets flew along a zigzag line, penetrating one warship after another in the third row. The speed of the water droplets did not decrease at all during the zigzag flight, and it was still about [-] kilometers per second.Later analysts looking at this flight path were shocked to find that each turn of the water drop was a sharp knuckle, rather than a smooth curve like a human space vehicle. This devilish flight demonstrated a completely In the way of driving in space beyond human understanding, the water drop under this kind of driving seems to be a shadow without mass, and it can move at will regardless of the principle of dynamics like the tip of God's pen.In the process of destroying the third row, this sharp turn is performed at a frequency of two to three times per second. The water drop is like a death embroidery needle, dexterously flying up and down, and the third row is smashed with a broken line of destruction. A hundred warships run through it.

It took two minutes and 35 seconds for the water droplets to destroy the third queue.

At this time, the engines of all the warships in the fleet had started, the rectangular array had been completely disrupted, and the water droplets continued to attack the warships that had begun to evacuate. The speed of destruction slowed down, but at any moment there were three to five nuclear fireballs on board The swarms burned, and in their death flames the light of the battleship's engines was dimmed like a swarm of terrified fireflies.

Until this point, fleet command had remained ignorant of the true source of the attack, concentrating on hunting for imaginary enemy cloaked fleets.But the correct analysis has already begun to appear. In the subsequent analysis of the huge amount of information sent by the fleet, it was found that the earliest analysis close to the truth was made by two low-ranking officers of the Asian Fleet, who were "Northern" Second Lieutenant Zhao Xin, the target identification assistant of the warship, and Captain Li Wei, the intermediate controller of the electromagnetic weapon system of the "Wannian Kunpeng".Here is their call log:

Zhao Xin: Northern TR317 battle position calls Wannian Kunpeng EM986 battle position!Northern TR317 battle position calls Wannian Kunpeng EM986 battle position!

Li Wei: This is the battle position of Wannian Kunpeng EM986. Please note that cross-ship voice calls at this level of information layer violate the wartime regulations.

Zhao Xin: Are you Li Wei?I'm Zhao Xin!I am looking for you!
Levi: Hello!I'm glad to know you're still alive!

Zhao Xin: Captain, that's it. I have a discovery and I want to upload it to the command sharing level, but the permissions are not enough. Please help!

Li Wei: I don't have enough authority, but there must be enough information at the command and sharing level. What do you want to pass on?
Zhao Xin: I analyzed the visible light images of the battlefield...

Levi: Are you busy analyzing radar information?
Zhao Xin: This is where the fallacy of the system lies. I first analyzed the visible light image and only extracted velocity features. Do you know what I found?Do you know what is happening now?

Levi: It seems that you know?

Zhao Xin: Don't think I'm crazy, we are friends, you understand me.

Li Wei: You are a cold-blooded animal, you must be crazy and crazy after the world, tell me.

Zhao Xin: Tell you, the fleet is crazy, we are beating ourselves!

Li Wei: ...

Zhao Xin: "Infinite Frontier" destroys "Yuanfang", "Yuanfang" destroys "Foghorn", "Foghorn" destroys "Antarctica", "Antarctica"...

Levi: You are really fucking crazy!

Zhao Xin: In this way, A attacks B, B attacks C before the explosion after being hit, and C attacks D before the explosion after being hit... Every warship that is hit is in the attack queue as if infected The next ship, fuck it, death beats the drums, it's crazy!

Levi: What kind of weapon did you use?
Zhao Xin: I don't know, I extracted a projectile from the image, it's really fast, faster than your electromagnetic shells, and it's very accurate, hitting the fuel tank every time!

Li Wei: Pass on the analysis information.

Zhao Xin: It has already been passed on. Raw data and vector analysis, let’s take a good look, this is really a hell!

(Although Lieutenant Zhao Xin's analysis conclusion is absurd, it is very close to the truth. Li Wei spent half a minute studying the information sent by Zhao Xin. During this time, another 39 warships were destroyed.)
Levi: I noticed the speed.

Zhao Xin: What speed?

Levi: It's the velocity of that little projectile, it's a little bit slower than the velocity of each ship when it's launched, and then it accelerates to thirty kilometers per second in flight and hits the next ship, which launches before exploding The speed of this thing slowed down a bit, and then accelerated...

Zhao Xin: It's nothing...

Levi: What I'm trying to say is...it's kind of like resistance.

Zhao Xin: Resistance?What's the meaning?
Levi: This projectile experiences resistance that reduces its velocity each time it penetrates a target.

Zhao Xin: ...I noticed what you said, I'm not stupid, you said the projectile, you said penetrate the target...the projectile is the same?
Levi: Let's look outside, another hundred warships exploded.

……

This conversation is not in modern fleet language, but in 21st century Chinese, and it can be heard from the way they speak that they are all hibernators.The number of hibernators serving in the three major fleets is very small, and they all awakened at a very young age. Even so, their ability to accept knowledge is not as good as modern people, so most of them hold lower positions in the fleet.It was later discovered that in this mass destruction, the hibernators accounted for a large proportion of the commanders and soldiers who were the first to regain their composure and make correct judgments.Take these two officers as an example. Given their rank, they did not even have the right to use the ship's advanced analysis system, yet they made such excellent analytical judgments.

The information from Zhao Xin and Li Wei has not been uploaded to the fleet command, but the command system's analysis of the battlefield is also moving in the right direction. They first realized that the enemy's invisible force speculated by the computer battlefield decision-making system does not exist, so they Concentrate on analyzing the collected battlefield information. After searching and matching a huge amount of battlefield image data, the existence of water droplets was finally discovered.In the image extracted by the image analysis software, except for the propelling halo at the tail, the water droplet has no change, and it is still a perfect shape of the droplet, but its mirror surface reflects the light of nuclear fireballs and metal magma in high-speed motion, strong light It alternates frequently with dark red, as if it is a drop of burning blood.Further analysis delineated the droplet's attack route.

In two centuries of space strategy research, people have imagined various possibilities for the doomsday battle.In the minds of strategists, the image of the enemy is always grand. What mankind faces on the space battlefield is the mighty Trisolaran main fleet, and each warship is a death fortress the size of a small city.All possible extreme weapons and tactics of the enemy are conceived, and the most frightening thing is the antimatter weapon attack that the Trisolaran fleet may launch. A single antimatter the size of a rifle bullet is enough to destroy a star-class warship.

But now, the United Fleet is facing the fact that the only enemy is a small probe, which is a drop of water splashed from the Trisolaran Ocean, and the attack method of this drop of water is only used by the human navy. The oldest and most primitive tactic in the world - bumping [48].

It took about 13 minutes from when the water droplets started attacking to when the Fleet Command made a correct judgment. Facing such a complex and harsh battlefield environment, it was quite fast, but the water droplets attacked even faster.In the naval warfare of the twentieth century, when the enemy fleet appeared on the line of sea and sky, there was even time to call all the captains to the flagship for a meeting, but the space battlefield is counted by seconds, and in these 13 minutes, More than 600 warships have been wiped out by water droplets.Only then did people realize that the command of space wars is far beyond the reach of human beings, and due to the obstruction of sophons, it is impossible for human artificial intelligence to reach the level of commanding space wars. Therefore, only from the command level, human beings may never be able to Possesses the ability to conduct space battles with the Trisolaran Force.

Due to the rapidity of the droplet attack and its invisibility to radar, the defense systems of the attacked battleship remained unresponsive.However, as the distance between the battleships widened, the attack distance of the water droplets also increased. At the same time, the defense systems of all warships were also reset according to the target characteristics of the water droplets. Intercept is implemented.In order to increase the accuracy of strikes against small, high-speed targets, laser weapons are used for interception.When hit by multiple lasers, the water droplets emit a super-powerful glow.Shipboard laser weapons all fire gamma-ray lasers, which are invisible to the eye, but are turned into visible light when reflected by water droplets.People have always been puzzled by the radar invisibility of water droplets, because it has a fully reflective surface and a perfect scattering shape. Perhaps, this ability to reflect electromagnetic waves with frequency conversion is the secret of its invisibility.The brightness of the water droplets when they are hit even dims the surrounding nuclear fireballs. All surveillance systems have dimmed the image to avoid damage to the optical part by strong light. Looking directly at the water droplets with the naked eye will cause long-term blindness.When the super light comes, it is no different from darkness.It was with this engulfing light that the water drop penetrated the Nelson, and when its light was extinguished, the space battlefield seemed to be plunged into darkness.Later, the flames of nuclear fusion showed its power again.The water droplets that passed through the "Nelson" were still intact and rushed straight to the "Green" more than 80 kilometers away.

The "Green"'s defense system has changed the interception weapon, using electromagnetic kinetic energy weapons to shoot at the incoming water droplets.The metal bullets fired by the electromagnetic gun have huge destructive power. Due to the huge kinetic energy brought by its high speed, each metal bullet is equivalent to a heavy bomb when it hits the target. , will soon be able to level a mountain.The metal slug has more kinetic energy due to the superimposed relative velocity to the water droplet, but when it hits the water droplet, it just slows it down.The water drop immediately adjusted its propulsion, quickly recovered its speed, and flew towards the "Green" against the dense rain of bullets and penetrated it.At this time, if you observe the surface of the water droplet with a super-high magnification microscope, you will still see an absolutely smooth mirror surface without any scratches.

The difference in strength between the material formed by the strong interaction force and ordinary matter is just like the difference between solid and liquid. The attack of human weapons on water droplets is like waves hitting reefs. It is impossible to cause any damage to the target. Water droplets are like entering the solar system No man's land, nothing in this world can destroy it.

The fleet command system that had just stabilized fell into chaos again, this time due to the collapse caused by the despair caused by the failure of all combat methods, it was difficult to recover.

The ruthless killing in space continued, and as the distance between the ships widened, the water droplets accelerated rapidly, quickly doubling their own speed, reaching 60 km/s.In its non-stop attacks, the droplet displayed its ruthless and precise intelligence.In a certain area, it perfectly solves the postman problem [49], and the attack routes are hardly repeated.Doing this while the target position is constantly moving requires all-round precise measurement and complex calculations, and these are all done quietly by the water droplets in high-speed motion.But sometimes, it will also suddenly leave from the concentrated slaughter of an area, rush to the edge of the fleet, and quickly eliminate some warships that have left the main fleet, and while doing so, it will have a tendency to flee the fleet in this direction Hold back.Since it was too late to enter the deep-sea state, all warships could only evacuate at an acceleration of "advance three", and the fleet could not disperse quickly. Sheepdogs run to maintain the formation of the flock.

In a battleship pierced by water droplets, a section of the hull centered on the perforation is immediately in a red-hot state, but only for three to five seconds, and the fusion explosion of nuclear fuel occurs very quickly. All life is vaporized in an instant.But this is just a general situation in an attack. Water droplets can generally accurately hit the fuel tank of a battleship. Does it rely on real-time detection of the position of the fuel tank, or does it store the structural database of all battleships provided by Sophon itself? ,unknown.But for about one tenth of the targets, the water droplets did not hit the fuel tank. During the entire process of destroying the target, the nuclear fuel will not undergo fusion. It takes a long time for the battleship to go from a red-hot state to a conventional explosion. It is the cruelest situation. The personnel inside the battleship will struggle in the high temperature until they are scorched and die.

The evacuation of the fleet did not go well.At this time, the space is already full of condensed or still molten debris, as well as large pieces of shipwreckage. The battleship is in flight, and the ship's defense system must use lasers or electromagnetic kinetic energy bombs to continuously destroy the ships in the direction of navigation. These things, since the fragments were hit at about the same distance from the ship, formed an arc of flashes and fireworks just ahead, and the ship seemed to fly under a splendid canopy.However, there are always a considerable amount of debris that bypasses the defense system and hits the warship directly, causing serious damage to the hull, and even making some warships lose their ability to sail. Collisions with large pieces of wreckage are even more fatal.

Although the command system of the fleet was in a state of collapse, the high command still carried out a unified command on the evacuation of the fleet. However, due to the dense initial formation, many warship collisions still occurred.In the high-speed head-on collision between the "Himalayan" and the "Thor", the two ships were destroyed in an instant; while the "Messenger" and the "Genesis" had a rear-end collision, and the hulls of the two ships were destroyed. The air was torn apart, and the leaked air formed a howling hurricane, blowing the crew and other items into space together, and the wreckage of the two giant ships drifted with such a trail...

The most appalling situation occurred on the "Einstein" and "Xia". The captains of the two ships actually used the remote control mode to bypass the system protection, making the warships enter "advance four"!At this time, none of the personnel on board was in the state of deep sea protection.From the images sent by the "Xia", people saw a fighter hangar. The fighter planes in the hangar had been emptied, but there were still hundreds of people in it. In the images taken from above, people can see that on the white square the size of a football field, bright red blood flowers burst out one after another, and the blood in the overweight spreads into an extremely thin film and spreads to a large area. In the end, these bloody flowers are all connected together... The most terrifying thing is the situation in the spherical cabin: at the beginning of the overweight, all the people in the cabin were slid and squeezed to the bottom of the sphere, and then, the overweight devil's hand knocked them out. His body was crumpled into a ball like a pile of wet clay figurines. No one had time to scream, only the sound of blood being squeezed out of internal organs and bones being crushed. The impurities in the blood were precipitated, making it extremely clear, and the strong gravity made the liquid surface of the blood pool as flat as a mirror, motionless, as if solid, and a pile of flesh and blood and internal organs that were completely invisible seemed to be sealed in In the crystal ruby...

Later, people initially believed that the entry of "Einstein" and "Xia" into the forward fourth was a mistake in panic, but further data analysis denied this view.Before entering the fourth-level acceleration, the control system of the warship has strict detection procedures. The acceleration command will not be executed until all personnel on board are confirmed to have entered the deep sea state. Only after the warship enters the remote control state can this detection be bypassed and directly enter " Forward four", which required a series of complex maneuvers and was unlikely to be a mistake.People also found from the information sent by the two ships that before entering the "Advance Four", the "Einstein" and the "Xia" had been using the small spaceships and fighter jets on the ships to transport people outward until the water droplets approached. The battleships near the two ships exploded one after another before they entered "Advance Four". Obviously, they wanted to use the highest acceleration to get rid of the water droplets and preserve the complete battleships for mankind. The "Einstein" and the "Xia" also failed to escape the clutches of the water droplet. This keen Death quickly discovered the two warships whose acceleration greatly exceeded the average speed of the fleet, and quickly caught up with and destroyed the already damaged warships inside. A lifeless hull.

But the other two warships that made it to Forward Four managed to escape the droplet attack, the Quantum and the Bronze Age.Before the start of the capture operation, the "Quantum" accepted Ding Yi's suggestion and entered the deep sea together with the "Bronze Age".As early as when the third formation was destroyed, the two ships entered the "Advance Four" and accelerated urgently in the same direction. Since they were located at the corner of the rectangular array, separated from the entire formation by the water droplets, they had sufficient time Break away from the fleet and rush into the depths of space.

At this time, more than a thousand warships had been destroyed, and more than half of the United Fleet had been destroyed in the 10-minute attack.

The space is full of debris, forming a rapidly expanding metal cloud with a diameter of [-] kilometers. The nuclear fireball exploded by the battleship in the cloud shows the pale outline of the cloud again and again, like disappearing and appearing in the dark night of the universe. a huge sullen face.Between the fireballs, the glow of metallic magma turned the clouds into a bloody sunset.

The remaining fleet is already very sparse, and most of them are still inside the metal cloud. Most of the warships’ electromagnetic kinetic energy bombs have been exhausted, and lasers can only be used to open passages in the metal cloud, and high-energy lasers are also exhausted due to energy loss. With insufficient power, the warships could only slow down and navigate through the debris with difficulty. Most of the warships slowed down to almost the same speed as the cloud's expansion. In this way, the metal cloud became a trap for the fleet, and it was impossible to evacuate or escape.

The speed of water droplets has exceeded ten times the speed of the third universe, that is, about 170 kilometers per second.It slammed into debris along the way, and the impacted debris melted again and flew at high speed, creating secondary impacts with other debris, forming a brilliant wake behind the droplet.The trail initially resembled a raging comet, but quickly elongated and turned into a silver dragon tens of thousands of kilometers long.The entire metal cloud reflected the light from the dragon, and it flew up and down in the cloud, as if immersed in its own crazy dance.The warships pierced by the dragon head exploded in the middle of the dragon body, and the dragon's body was dotted with four or five small nuclear fusion suns every moment.Further back, the melted battleship turned into a million tons of metal magma and exploded, dyeing the dragon's tail in a bewitching blood color...

Thirty-ten minutes later, the splendid dragon was still flying, but the nuclear fireball on the dragon's body had disappeared, and the dragon's tail was no longer bloody.At this time, there was no warship in the metal cloud.

The dragon flew out of the metal cloud, and at the edge of the cloud, it disappeared from head to tail.The water droplets began to clear the remnants of the fleet outside the cloud. Only 21 warships rushed out of the cloud. Most of them were seriously damaged due to high speed flight in the cloud, with only low acceleration or no power. It is quickly overtaken and destroyed by water droplets.The metal clouds formed by these exploding warships in space quickly merged with the expanding cloud.It took some time for the water droplets to destroy the remaining five relatively intact warships, because they all already had a relatively high speed, and they fled in different directions.When the water droplets caught up and destroyed the last battleship "Ark", it was already quite far away from the cloud group. The fireball from the explosion of "Ark" lit alone in the depths of space for a few seconds, and then went out, like a disappearing lamp. A lone lamp in the wilderness wind.

So far, all human space armed forces have been wiped out.

The droplet then accelerated in pursuit of the Quantum and the Bronze Age, but it soon gave up.Both of these goals are already too far away and both are reaching fairly high speeds.As a result, the "Quantum" and the "Bronze Age" became the only survivors of this catastrophe.

The water drop left its killing field, turned around and flew towards the sun.

Aside from the two intact battleships, there were a handful of people in the fleet who survived the devastation, mostly in smaller airships or fighter jets aboard the mothership before it was destroyed. But it has no interest in these small spacecraft.The biggest threat to these spacecraft is metal fragments flying at high speed. Small spacecraft have no defense system and cannot withstand impacts, so some of them were destroyed by debris after they separated from the mothership.Fleeing from the mothership at the beginning and near the end of the attack had the greatest chance of survival, because at the beginning the large metal cloud had not yet formed, and at the end the metal cloud had become much thinner due to its own expansion.The surviving small spacecraft and fighter jets drifted in space beyond the orbit of Uranus for several days, and were finally rescued by civilian spacecraft sailing in this space region.The total number of survivors was about [-], including the two hibernator officers who were the first to make correct judgments on the attack of the water droplets: Second Lieutenant Zhao Xin and Captain Li Wei.

That piece of space fell silent, everything in the metal cloud lost its light in the cold of the universe, and the entire cloud was hidden in darkness.Later, under the action of the sun's gravity, the cloud stopped expanding and began to elongate, and finally became a long strip. In the long years, it will become an extremely thin metal belt around the sun, just like Like the millions of restless souls, they are forever floating in the cold and silent outer space of the solar system.

It is only one probe in Trisolaran that destroys all space power of mankind. The same probe, nine more will reach the solar system in three years. These ten probes together are not as big as a Trisolaran warship One ten-thousandth of the three-body battleship, and there are still a thousand such three-body warships, which are flying towards the solar system day and night.

What does it have to do with you to destroy you?

After waking up from a long sleep, Zhang Beihai looked at the time and found that he had slept for fifteen hours. This may be the longest sleep he has slept apart from the two centuries of hibernation.At this time, he had a new feeling, and after carefully examining his heart, he discovered the source of this feeling.

He is alone now.

In the past, even though he was suspended alone in the boundless space, he did not feel alone. His father’s eyes looked at him in the dark. This kind of gaze existed every moment, like the sun in the daytime and the stars in the night. Has become part of his world, and now his father's gaze is gone.

Time to get out.Zhang Beihai said to himself, and tidied up his military uniform at the same time. He slept in weightlessness, and his clothes and hair were not messed up in the slightest.After taking a last look at the spherical cabin where he had been staying for more than a month, Zhang Beihai opened the hatch and floated out. He was ready to calmly face the furious crowd, the countless condemning and contemptuous gazes. For the final judgment... Facing that I don't know how long the rest of my life is, as a soldier who has done his duty, no matter what he will encounter, the rest of his life will definitely be peaceful.

The corridor was empty.

Zhang Beihai moved forward slowly, and the cabins on both sides moved back one by one, with their doors all wide open.All the cabins look like the same spherical space, and the bulkheads are snow-white, like eyeballs without pupils.The environment is clean, I don't see an open information window, the ship's information system may have been restarted and initialized.

Zhang Beihai recalled a movie he had seen in the early years. The characters in the movie lived in a Rubik's Cube world. One room into another, endless...

He was suddenly amazed at the free rein of his mind, which had previously been a luxury, but now that two centuries of life's mission had been accomplished, the mind could take a leisurely walk.

At the turning point, there is a longer section of corridor ahead, which is still empty, and the bulkhead evenly emits a milky soft light, which makes people lose their sense of three-dimensionality for a while, and feel that the world is so simple and simple.The spherical cabins on both sides still had their doors wide open, and it was still the same white spherical space.

The "Natural Selection" seemed to be abandoned, but in Zhang Beihai's eyes, the huge ship he was in was more like a huge and concise symbol, a metaphor for some kind of law hidden behind reality.Zhang Beihai has an illusion: these identical white spherical spaces fill the infinitely extending space around them, and the universe is an infinite repetition.At this time, a concept suddenly appeared in his mind: holography.

In each spherical cabin, all manipulation and control of "Natural Selection" can be realized. At least from the perspective of informatics, each cabin is the whole of "Natural Selection", so "Natural Selection" is a holographic of.

The spaceship itself is like a metal seed, carrying all the information of human civilization. If it can germinate somewhere in the universe, it may grow into a complete civilization again.The part contains the whole, so human civilization may also be holographic.Zhang Beihai failed, he failed to spread this seed, he felt regretful, but not sad, it was not just because he had done his duty.His free thoughts were flying, and he thought that the universe might also be holographic, and every point has everything, even if one atom remains, everything in the universe remains.He suddenly had a sense of all-encompassing sustenance. More than ten hours ago, when he was still asleep, at the far end of the solar system, Ding Yi embarked on his final voyage to the water droplet. .

Zhang Beihai came to the end of the corridor, opened the door, and entered the largest spherical hall on the battleship.It was here that he entered Natural Selection for the first time three months ago.Now, as at that time, in the space in the center of the sphere, there is a phalanx composed of fleet officers and soldiers suspended, but the number is several times larger than then.The phalanx was divided into three floors, and the 2000-person queue of "Natural Selection" was on the central tier, but Zhang Beihai saw that only this phalanx was real, and the upper and lower floors were all holographic images.After a closer look, he recognized that the holographic image square was composed of officers and soldiers from the four warships of the pursuit fleet.Right in front of the three-tier phalanx, five colonel officers including Dongfang Yanxu stood in a row, four of whom were captains of the pursuit fleet.Zhang Beihai could see that there were holographic images inside except for Dongfang Yanxu, and these images were obviously transmitted from the pursuit fleet.When Zhang Beihai floated into the hall, the eyes of more than 5000 people focused on him. This was obviously not the gaze of a defector. The captains saluted him one by one:

"Asian Fleet 'Blue Space'!"

"North American Fleet 'Enterprise'!"

"Asian Fleet 'Deep Space'!"

"The European Fleet 'Ultimate Law'!"

Dongfang Yanxu was the last one to salute Zhang Beihai: "Asian Fleet 'Natural Selection'! Senior, the five interstellar warships you saved for mankind are also the entire human space fleet. Now accept your command!"

"It's broken, it's all broken, the collective spirit is broken." Shi Xiaoming shook his head and sighed. He just returned from the dungeon. "The whole city is out of control and in chaos."

This is a meeting of the community government, and all the district administrative officials have arrived. The hibernators account for about two-thirds, and the rest are modern people.Now they can be clearly distinguished: although both are in a state of extreme depression, the hibernators and officials maintain a normal state of depression, while the modern people all show more or less signs of collapse, meeting Since the beginning, their emotions have been out of control many times, and Shi Xiaoming's words once again touched their fragile nerves.The chief executive of the district was still crying, covering his face with his hands in tears, which attracted several other modern officials to cry with him; the officials in charge of regional education laughed hysterically, and a modern man roared in pain Throwing a cup on the ground...

"Be quiet," Shi Qiang said. His voice was not high, but it was full of majesty. The modern officials were all quiet, and the chief executive and a few people who cried with him tried their best to hold back their sobs.

"What a bunch of kids." Hines shook his head and said, he came to the meeting as a resident representative, and he might be the only one who benefited from the destruction of the combined fleet—now, the reality is consistent with his ideological stamp, he It returned to normal.Before that, facing the incomparably real victory that seemed to be close at hand, he was tortured by the imprint of his thoughts all day long, and his spirit was almost torn apart.He was sent to a big hospital in the city, and the psychiatrists there could do nothing for him, but they came up with a very strange idea to the suburban officials and Luo Ji and others who sent him: just like Zola's "Berlin" Circumstances and an old golden-age film Goodbye Lenin, creating a false environment of human failure for the patient.They really did this after they went back. Fortunately, modern virtual technology has developed to the peak, and it is not difficult to create such an environment.From his residence, Hines can watch the news broadcast just for him every day, accompanied by vivid three-dimensional images.He saw that part of the Trisolaran Fleet speeded up and arrived at the solar system ahead of schedule; in the battle of the Kuiper Belt, the United Human Fleet suffered heavy losses, and then the orbit of Neptune fell, and the three major fleets had to retreat to the orbit of Jupiter for a difficult resistance... Responsible for making this false Community health officials around the world are enthusiastic about the work.As a result, when the real fiasco happened, the official was the first to have a nervous breakdown. Previously, in order to satisfy Hines' needs and bring himself the greatest pleasure, the storyteller exhausted his imagination and described human failures The pain was as severe as possible, but the cruelty of reality was far beyond his imagination.

When the image of the fleet's destruction was sent back to the earth after three hours from twenty astronomical units, the public behaved like a group of desperate children, and the world became a kindergarten haunted by nightmares. out of control.

In the community where Shi Qiang lives, administrative officials higher than him either resigned or failed to do anything in the collapse. The higher-level government urgently appointed him to take over the post of chief executive of the community.Although he is not a big official, the fate of this hibernator community in this crisis is in his hands. Fortunately, compared with the city, the hibernator society here remains stable.

"I would like to ask everyone to pay attention to the current situation," Shi Qiang said, "Once there is a problem with the artificial ecosystem of the dungeon, it will become a hell, and the people inside will crowd to the ground, and then this place is not suitable for living. We should consider relocating."

"Where are you going?" Someone asked.

"To sparsely populated places, such as the Northwest, of course, we must first send people to investigate. Now no one can say what the world will look like, whether there will be another big trough, we have to be prepared to survive entirely on agriculture .”

"Will water droplets attack the earth?" someone asked again.

"What are you doing with that carelessness?" Da Shi shook his head and said, "Anyway, no one can do anything about it now. Before it smashes through the earth, we can still live, right?"

"You're right, it's useless to worry about it. I know this very well," said Luo Ji, who had been silent all along.

The remaining seven human space battleships are all flying out of the solar system. They are divided into two parts: one is the "Natural Selection" and the fleet that pursues it, a total of five battleships; the other is the "Quantum" that survived the mass destruction of water droplets. and the Bronze Age.These two small fleets are located at the two ends of the solar system. They fly towards the vast space in almost opposite directions across the sun, gradually drifting away.

On the "Natural Selection", after Zhang Beihai listened to the report on the annihilation of the United Fleet, the expression on his face remained unchanged, and his eyes were still as calm as water. He just said lightly: "A dense formation is an unforgivable mistake." , and everything else is expected.”

"Comrades," Zhang Beihai looked past the five captains and scanned the three-tier queue of officers and soldiers of the five warships, "I use this old name for you because I want to say that all of us must have the same team in the future. One ambition. Everyone should understand the reality we are facing, and we should also see the future we will face: Comrades, we cannot go back.”

Yes, there is no going back, the drop that destroyed the United Fleet is still in the solar system, and the other nine drops will arrive in three years. For this small fleet, the former homeland is now a death trap.At the same time, it is meaningless to go back. The end of the earth world is not far away. According to the information received, human civilization may collapse before the arrival of the Trisolaran main fleet. These five spaceships must take responsibility for the continuation of civilization. All they can do is to fly forward and far away. The spaceship will be their eternal home, and space will be their final destination.

These 500 people are like babies whose umbilical cord has just been cut, and are cruelly thrown into the abyss of the universe. Like babies, they just want to cry.But Zhang Beihai's calm gaze was like a strong force field maintaining the stability of the array and keeping the people's dignity as a soldier.For the children abandoned in the boundless dark night, what they need most is their father. Now, like Dongfang Yanxu, they feel the strength of their father from this ancient soldier.

Zhang Beihai went on to say: "We will always be a part of human beings, but now we are an independent society and must get rid of our spiritual dependence on the earth world. Now, we should give our own world a name."

"We come from the earth, and we may be the only successor of the earth's civilization, let's call it Starship Earth." Dongfang Yanxu said.

"Very good." Zhang Beihai cast an approving gaze to the east, and then turned to the queue again, "From now on, each of us is a citizen of Starship Earth. This moment may be the second starting point of human civilization. We There's a lot of work to be done, and now, please, everyone get back to their posts."

The two hologram phalanxes disappeared, and the phalanx of the "Natural Selection" began to disperse.

"Senior, are our four ships approaching?" The captain of the "Deep Space" asked, their images have not disappeared yet.

Zhang Beihai shook his head resolutely, "There is no need, the distance between you and the 'Natural Selection' is about 20 kilometers. Although it is very close, fusion fuel is consumed to get close. Energy is the basis of our survival, and what is left now Not much, save as much as you can. We are the only humans in this space, and I understand your desire to get together, but 20 kilometers is not far away. From now on, we must take the long view Considered."

"Yeah, we have to think about it in the long run." Dongfang Yanxu gently repeated Zhang Beihai's words, staring blankly at the level, as if looking at the long years ahead.

Zhang Beihai went on to say: "It is necessary to convene a citizen meeting as soon as possible to determine the basic affairs of Starship Earth, and then put most of the people into hibernation as soon as possible, so that the ecological cycle system operates in the smallest mode... Anyway, the history of Starship Earth here we go."

His father's eyes appeared in the dark again, like rays penetrating everything from the edge of the universe, Zhang Beihai felt his gaze, and he said in his heart: Yes, Dad, you really can't rest in peace, there is no end, Everything went on again.

On the second day (Starship Earth still uses earth timekeeping), Starship Earth held the first general assembly of all citizens. The assembly consisted of five sub-venues of each ship that were connected into a main venue with holographic images. There were 3000 citizens present at the meeting. left and right, and the rest of the people who couldn't leave their posts participated through the Internet.

The meeting first identified an imminent matter: the voyage goal of Starship Earth.At the meeting, it was unanimously adopted to keep the current course unchanged.This is the goal that Zhang Beihai set for the "Natural Selection" when it set sail. The course points to the direction of the constellation Cygnus. The precise target is the star NH558J2, which is one of the closest stars to the solar system with planets. It has two The planets are all gas-liquid planets similar to Jupiter, which are not suitable for human survival, but they can supplement nuclear fusion fuel for spacecraft.It now appears that this target was chosen deliberately, because in a different direction there was another star with planets, one of which was observed to be in a natural environment similar to that of Earth, while being only further away from the previous target 558 light-years.But this star only has one planet. If this world is not suitable for human survival (the conditions of a survivable world are very harsh, and observations across light years are always biased), then the starship Earth will lose the opportunity to replenish fuel. .After arriving at NH2J[-], the spacecraft replenished with fuel can go to the next target faster at the highest speed.

NH558J2 is eighteen light-years away from the solar system. According to the current speed and considering various uncertain factors in the voyage, the starship Earth may arrive after 2000.

In 2000, this grim figure once again made reality and the future clear.Even taking into account the factors of hibernation, it is impossible for most citizens of Starship Earth to reach their destination alive, and their life path can only be a part of the long voyage of twenty centuries.For those descendants who arrive at the destination, NH558J2 is just a transit station. No one knows where the next destination is, let alone when Starship Earth will find a truly suitable home for survival.

In fact, Zhang Beihai's thinking is extremely rational. He knows that the reason why the earth is so suitable for human survival is not a coincidence, let alone the effect of some anthropic principle, but the result of the long-term interaction between the earth's biosphere and the natural environment. , it is unlikely to be completely repeated on planets of other distant stars. His choice of flying to NH558J2 implies a possibility: a survivable world may never be found, and the new human civilization will be a starship that is always on the voyage civilization.

But Zhang Beihai didn't express his thoughts clearly. Those who can truly accept starship civilization may be the next generation of Starship Earth. This generation can only take an imaginary planetary home like Earth as their life sustenance.

This citizen meeting also determined the political status of Starship Earth. The meeting believed that the five spaceships would always belong to the human world. A completely independent country.

This resolution was sent to the solar system, and the joint meeting of the United Nations and the Fleet was silent for a long time before replying. They did not make a statement, but only as a tacit blessing.

As a result, the human world is now divided into three worlds: the ancient Earth world, the new-age Fleet world, and the Starship world that flies into the depths of the universe.The last world has only more than 5000 people, but it carries all the hope of human civilization.

The Second Citizens' Assembly began to discuss the issues of Starship Earth's governing bodies at all levels.

At the beginning of the meeting, Zhang Beihai said: "I think this agenda is too early. We must first determine the social form of Starship Earth, and then we can decide what kind of leadership organization is needed."

"That is to say, we first need to formulate a constitution." Dongfang Yanxu said.

"At least the fundamental principles of the Constitution."

Therefore, the meeting started discussions in this direction.The thinking tendency of most people is: Starship Earth is in a harsh space environment, and its own ecosystem is very fragile. To survive under such conditions, a society with strict discipline must be established, and the will to act in unison must be guaranteed.So someone suggested that the existing military system should be retained.This idea was approved by the majority.

"That is to say, an authoritarian society." Zhang Beihai said.

"Senior, we should have a better name. We are the army." The captain of the "Blue Space" said.

"I don't think so." Zhang Beihai shook his head resolutely. "Survival alone cannot guarantee survival. Development is the best guarantee for survival. During the voyage, we must develop our own science and technology and expand the size of our fleet. .The facts of the Middle Ages and the Great Depression both prove that despotism is the greatest obstacle to human development, and Starship Earth needs to be alive with new ideas and creativity, which can only be achieved by building a society that fully respects humanity and freedom."

"If the predecessors are referring to establishing a society like the modern Earth International, Starship Earth has innate conditions." A junior officer said.

"Yes." Dongfang Yanxu nodded to the speaker, "The number of people on Starship Earth is very small, and there is an extremely complete information system. Any issue can be discussed and voted on by all citizens very conveniently. We can build a human The first truly democratic society in history."

"No way." Zhang Beihai shook his head again, "Just like what the citizens said before, the starship Earth sails in the harsh space, and a disaster that threatens the entire world may happen at any time. Proof of the fragility of human societies of the kind you envision, especially when our world requires the sacrifice of parts to preserve the whole in the face of such catastrophes."

All the participants looked at each other, with the same meaning in their eyes: so what should we do?

Zhang Beihai smiled and said, "I think it's too simple. There is no answer to this question in the entire history of mankind. How can it be solved in a meeting? I think it takes a long process of practice and exploration to provide Starship Earth has found a suitable social model, and after the meeting, all citizens should have a full discussion about it... Please forgive me for interfering with the meeting's agenda, let's proceed with the original topic."

Dongfang Yanxu had never seen Zhang Beihai have such a smile, he rarely smiled, and occasionally he smiled with confidence and tolerance, but now he showed a shy apology that he had never seen before.Although this episode of the meeting did not have any results, Zhang Beihai is an extremely thoughtful person. It is rare for him to put forward ill-considered opinions and then withdraw them. Dongfang Yanxu saw a kind of carelessness from this. This meeting He did not take notes on board, but he was very serious about taking notes in previous meetings. He was the only one on the ship who was still using ancient paper and pens, which became a symbol of him.

So what occupied his mind now?
The meeting turned to the discussion of the fleet leadership. The citizens tended to think that: the conditions for holding elections are not yet met, and the command system of each ship should be maintained. The captain is the leader of each ship. Leaders form the power committee of Starship Earth to discuss and make decisions on major issues.And Zhang Beihai was unanimously elected by all the participants as the chairman of the power committee, holding the supreme power of Starship Earth.Subsequently, a general referendum was held on this resolution, which passed [-] percent.

But Zhang Beihai rejected the mission.

"Senior, this is your responsibility!" the captain of the "Deep Space" said.

"On Starship Earth, only you have the prestige to command the ships." Dongfang Yanxu said.

"I think I've done my duty, and now I'm tired, and I've reached retirement age." Zhang Beihai said lightly.

After the meeting adjourned, Zhang Beihai called Dongfang Yanxu to stop, and by this time the people had dispersed.

Zhang Beihai said, "Dongfang, I want to resume my position as the executive captain of the 'Natural Selection'."

"Executive captain?" Dongfang Yanxu looked at him in surprise and said.

"Yes, give me the highest control authority over the battleship again."

"Senior, I can give you the position of the captain of the 'Natural Selection'. I'm telling the truth. Moreover, the power committee and all citizens will definitely not object."

Zhang Beihai shook his head with a smile, "No, you are still the captain and have all the command authority of the captain. Please believe that I will not interfere with your work in any way."

"Then why do you want to execute the authority of the captain? Is this position still necessary now?"

"I just like this spaceship. This is our dream two centuries ago. You know, what I have done to build such a spaceship one day..."

Zhang Beihai looked at Dongfang Yanxu, and the rock-solid thing in his eyes before disappeared, only showing a tired blankness and deep sadness, which made him look like a different person, no longer that Calm and cold, a strong man who thinks and acts decisively, but a person who is bent over by the heavy years of the past.Looking at him, Dongfang Yanxu felt unprecedented concern and pity.

"Senior, don't think about those things anymore. Historians have a fair evaluation of your behavior in the 21st century: choosing the direction of radiation-driven research is a key step in the right direction for human aerospace technology, maybe At that time, that...that was the only option, just like the escape of the 'Natural Selection' is the only option now. Moreover, according to modern law, the statute of limitations for that matter has long passed."

"But the cross on my body cannot be removed, which is difficult for you to understand... Therefore, I have feelings for the spaceship, more than you, and I always feel that I am a part of it, and it is impossible for me to leave it. Besides, I I always have to do something in the future, and I always feel more at ease when I have something to do.”

After Zhang Beihai finished speaking, he turned and left. His tired figure gradually drifted away, becoming a small black spot in the huge white spherical space.Dongfang Yanxu watched him disappear into a piece of pure white, a sense of loneliness that she had never felt before surged out from the whiteness in all directions and overwhelmed her.

After that, several citizen assemblies were held one after another, and the people of Starship Earth were immersed in the passion of creating a new world.They enthusiastically discussed the constitution and social structure of the world, enacted various laws, and planned the first election... There were full exchanges between officers and soldiers of different ranks, and between different warships.People are also looking forward to the direction of this world, expecting that Starship Earth will become a core of the snowball of future civilization, and as the fleet reaches planetary systems one after another, this snowball will continue to expand.More and more people call Starship Earth the second Garden of Eden, which will be the second birthplace of human civilization.

But such a beautiful situation did not last long, because Starship Earth is really the Garden of Eden.

Lieutenant Colonel Lanxi is the chief psychologist on the "Natural Selection", and the Second Combat Service under his leadership is an important organization composed of psychological professional officers, responsible for the psychological work of warships in long-distance space navigation and combat.When the starship Earth started her voyage of no return, Lanxi and her subordinates became tense like soldiers facing a powerful enemy attack. According to the plan that had been practiced many times in the past, they were ready to deal with all possible psychological problems on the ship. crisis.

They agreed that the biggest enemy at the moment is undoubtedly the "N problem", that is, Nostalgia, homesickness.After all, this is the first never-return voyage in human history, and the "N problem" may lead to a mass psychological disaster.Lanxi commanded the Second Combat Service Department to make all preparations, including establishing a dedicated communication channel to communicate with the earth and the three major fleets. Everyone on board can maintain uninterrupted contact with relatives and friends on the earth and the fleet. Watch Most of the news and other TV shows in both countries.Although the starship Earth is currently [-] astronomical units away from the sun, and there is a nine-hour communication lag, the communication quality with the Earth and the fleet is still very good.In addition to providing positive psychological counseling and adjustment to subjects with signs of "N problems", the psychological officers of the Second Combat Service Department also prepared extreme measures to deal with large-scale mass psychological disasters: forced hibernation isolation for out-of-control crowds.

Later facts proved that all these worries were unnecessary. Although the "N problem" appeared widely in Starship Earth, it was far from being out of control, not even reaching the level of conventional long-distance voyages.Lan Xi was confused by this at first, but soon found the reason: after the destruction of the main fleet of mankind, the earth world lost all hope, although there are still two centuries before the final doomsday (this is the most optimistic estimate), But from the news received, the world that was thrown into chaos under the heavy blow of the big failure is already full of the breath of death.For Starship Earth, it is impossible to place too many things on the Earth in the solar system, so the yearning for such a home is naturally limited.

But the enemy still showed up, and it was more dangerous than "N problem", and by the time Lanxi and the second combat service realized, their position had fallen.

From the experience of previous space voyages, Lanxi knows that the "N problem" always appears first among soldiers and lower-ranking officers, because compared with senior officers, they have less attention due to work and responsibilities, and their ability to self-psychological adjustment Also weaker.Therefore, the Second Combat Service Department put its main attention on the lower floors from the very beginning, but the shadows began to appear from the upper floors.

Lanxi first noticed a strange phenomenon.The first election of Starship Earth’s leadership organization is about to begin, and this election is open to all the people. For the high-level commanders, most of them will face the transition from military officers to government officials, and their positions will also change. The deck will be reshuffled and many of them will be replaced by contenders from below.Lan Xi was surprised to find that no one in the senior command of the "Natural Selection" paid much attention to the election that would determine their future lives. election campaign.When it comes to elections, none of them are interested, which reminds Lanxi of Zhang Beihai's absent-mindedness at the second citizens' meeting.

Symptoms of psychological imbalance begin to appear among the ranks of lieutenant colonel and above.Most of them began to become more and more introverted, meditating alone for a long time, and their interpersonal communication decreased sharply. They also spoke less and less at various meetings, and many chose to be completely silent.Lan Xi saw that the sunlight was disappearing from their eyes, and their eyes became gloomy. At the same time, everyone was afraid that others would notice the haze in their eyes, and they dared not look at each other. When it happens, it will immediately look away like an electric shock... The higher the level of people, the more serious this symptom is, and there are signs of spreading to the lower-level people.

Psychological counseling could not be carried out, and everyone resolutely refused to talk to the psychological officer. The Second Combat Service Department had to use its special powers to conduct compulsory counseling, but most of the interviewees remained silent.

Lan Xi decided that he had to talk to the supreme commander, so he went to Dongfang Yanxu.Originally, Zhang Beihai had supreme prestige and status on the "Natural Selection" and even on the entire Starship Earth, but he gave up everything, regarded himself as an ordinary person, and withdrew from the election. The instructions are communicated to the spacecraft control system.In the rest of the time, he wandered around the "Natural Selection", learning the details of the spaceship from officers and soldiers at all levels, expressing his feelings for this space ark every moment.In addition, his mood was calm and indifferent, and he was not affected by the psychological shadow of the group on board.This is of course related to his keeping himself out of the matter, but Lanxi knows that there is another important reason: the psychology of the ancients is far less sensitive than that of modern people. Under the current situation, this kind of numbness is a good self-protection mechanism.

Like many men on the "Natural Selection", the beautiful captain has always been the object of Lieutenant Colonel Lanxi's crush. When he saw Dongfang Yanxu, who had lost the sunshine in his eyes, looking so fragile and helpless, he couldn't help but feel a surge in his heart. Pain.

"Captain, you should at least give me some hints about what happened in front of you." Lan Xi said.

"Lieutenant Colonel, you should be the one who gave us a hint."

"You mean, you don't know anything about your own state?"

Dongfang Yanxu's dim eyes suddenly filled with endless sadness, "I only know that we are the first humans to enter space."

"What did you say?"

"This is the first time humans have actually gone into space."

"Oh... I understand what you mean: In the past, no matter how far humans flew in space, they were just kites released by the earth. There was a spiritual thread connecting humans and the earth. Now this thread is broken."

"Yes, the thread is broken, and the most substantial change is this: not because the hand that pulls the thread is loosened, but that hand is gone, and the world on earth is coming to an end. In fact, she has died in our spirits, and we The five ships have no connection to any world, and there is nothing around us but the abyss of space."

"It's really a psychological environment that humans have never faced before."

"Yes, in this environment, the human spirit will undergo a fundamental change, and people will become..." Dongfang Yanxu suddenly lost his voice, and the sadness in his eyes disappeared, leaving only grayness, like a cloud still covered by a cloud after the rain. Covered sky.

"You mean, in this environment, people will become new people?"

"A rookie? No, Lieutenant Colonel, people will become...inhumans."

The last two words Dongfang uttered made Lanxi shiver. He looked up at her, but her gaze was blank, and Lanxi only saw a closed window to the outside world.

"I mean, I'm not the kind of person I used to be... Lieutenant Colonel, that's all I can say, you just do your best, and..." Dongfang's next words sounded like he was dreaming, "It's also fast. it's your turn."

The situation continued to deteriorate. On the second day after Lanxi talked with Dongfang Yanxu, a vicious injury occurred on the "Natural Selection". A lieutenant colonel of the navigation system shot and wounded another who lived in the same cabin officer.According to the victim's recollection, the lieutenant colonel woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and found that the victim was also awake, so he accused him of eavesdropping on his sleep, lost control of his emotions during the dispute, and shot.Lanxi immediately saw the detained lieutenant colonel.

"Are you afraid what he heard in his sleep?" Lan Xi asked.

"So he really heard it?" the attacker asked with a look of horror.

Lan Xi shook her head, "He said you weren't talking in your sleep at all."

"So what if you say it? How can you take the dream talk seriously? I don't think so in my heart! Of course I won't go to hell because of a dream talk!"

In the end, Lanxi didn't ask the assailant about the content of the imagined sleep talk, so he asked him if he would mind accepting hypnotherapy.Unexpectedly, this made the attacker lose control of his emotions again. He suddenly jumped up and strangled Lanxi's neck tightly, and did not pull them away until the military police came in.After walking out of the confinement room, a military police officer who heard the conversation just now said to Lan Xi: "Lieutenant Colonel, don't mention any more hypnotherapy, otherwise the Second Combat Service Department will become the most hated place on the ship, and you will not live long." of."

Lan Xi had no choice but to contact Colonel Scott, the psychologist on the "Enterprise" battleship, who was also the ship chaplain on the "Enterprise" (most of the warships of the Asian fleet do not have this position).Now, the "Enterprise" and the other three warships of the original pursuit fleet are still 20 kilometers away.

"Why is it so dark in your place?" Lanxie asked, looking at the image from the Enterprise.The spherical bulkhead of Scott’s cabin was adjusted to only emit a dim yellow light, and at the same time, the external starry sky image was reflected on the bulkhead. Scott seemed to be in a universe filled with dark mist, his face hidden In the shadows, even so, Lansy could feel his eyes move quickly away from his own.

"Eden is darkening, darkness will swallow everything," Scott said in a weary voice.

The reason why Lan Xi came to Scott was that he, as the priest of the "Enterprise", might have been confided to him in his confession, and he might be able to give him some hints, but after hearing this, he saw With the looming eyes in the colonel's shadow, Lanxi knew that she couldn't ask anything.So, he suppressed what he wanted to ask, and changed to a question that surprised even himself: "Will what happened in the first Garden of Eden be repeated in the second Garden of Eden?"

"I don't know, anyway, the poisonous snake has appeared, and the poisonous snake of the Second Garden of Eden is crawling into people's hearts."

"So, you have eaten the wisdom fruit?"

Scott nodded slowly, then lowered his head and never raised it again, as if he was trying his best to hide the gaze that betrayed his thoughts, "That's right."

"Who will be expelled from the Garden of Eden?" Lanxi's voice trembled, and cold sweat broke out from his palms.

"There were a lot of people, but unlike last time, there might be people staying this time."

"Who? Who stays?"

Scott sighed, "Lieutenant Colonel Lan, I've said enough, why don't you find the Wisdom Fruit yourself? Everyone has to take this step anyway, doesn't it?"

"Where can I find it?"

"Put down your work, think a little more, feel a little more, and you'll find it."

After talking with Scott, the troubled Lanxi stopped being busy, and followed the colonel's advice to start thinking quietly.Sooner than he imagined, the cold, slippery snake of Eden also crawled into his consciousness. He found the wisdom fruit and ate it. The last ray of sunshine in his mind disappeared forever, and everything fell into darkness.

In Starship Earth, an invisible string is quietly tightening, and it is on the verge of breaking.

Two days later, the captain of the "Ultimate Discipline" committed suicide.

At that time, he was standing alone on the platform at the stern of the ship. The platform was inside a transparent spherical cover, making it look like it was exposed to space.

The stern of the ship is facing the direction of the solar system. At this time, the sun is just a slightly brighter yellow star, and this direction is the outer edge of the spiral arm of the Milky Way. The stars are sparse, and the space shows its depth and vastness wantonly. There is no support for the soul.

"Black, so fucking black." The captain said to himself, and then shot himself.

After learning that the captain of the "Ultimate Law" committed suicide, Dongfang Yanxu had a premonition that the last moment was coming, so she urgently summoned the two deputy captains to meet in the spherical hall of the fighter hangar.

In the corridor leading to the hall, Dongfang Yanxu heard someone calling her from behind, and when she looked back, it was Zhang Beihai. Because she was immersed in a gloomy mood, she almost forgot about him these two days.He looked at Dongfang Yanxu, his eyes were filled with the concern of his parents, this gaze made Dongfang feel comfortable like never before, because now in Starship Earth, it is very difficult to see such a pair of eyes without shadows.

"Dongfang, I think there is something wrong with your recent state. Although I don't know the reason, you seem to be hiding something in your heart."

Dongfang Yanxu didn't answer his question, but asked instead: "Senior, how are you recently?"

"Okay, good, looking around, learning. I'm getting acquainted with Natural Selection's weapons systems, of course, just scratching the surface, but it's interesting, think of Columbus's visit to the aircraft carrier, that's what I was. "

Seeing Zhang Beihai such a calm and laid-back person now, Dongfang Yanxu even felt a little jealous: Yes, he has accomplished his great career, and he has the right to enjoy such peace.Now, he's gone from being a history-maker to an ignorant hibernator, all he needs is protection.Thinking of this, Dongfang Yanxu said: "Senior, don't ask others the question you just said, and don't ask why all this is."

"Why? Why can't you ask?"

"It's dangerous to ask, and besides, you really don't need to know, trust me."

Zhang Beihai nodded, "Okay, then I won't ask, thank you very much for treating me like an ordinary citizen, that's what I hope."

Dongfang Yanxu said goodbye hastily, and drifted away on her own. She heard the founder of Starship Earth say from behind: "Dongfang, no matter what it is, let it take its course, and everything will be fine."

In the center of the spherical hall, Dongfang Yanxu saw the two deputy captains.The reason why I chose to meet here is because the hall is spacious and feels like being in the wilderness. In addition, the three of them seem to be in the center of a white world here, as if there is nothing in the universe except them, which will make the conversation difficult. There is a sense of security.

The three of them looked in three different directions.

"We have to make things clear." Dongfang Yanxu said.

"Yes, every second of delay is dangerous." Lieutenant Captain Levin said, and then he and Akira Inoue turned to look at Dongfang Yanxu, the meaning was very clear: you are the captain, you talk first.

But Dongfang Yanxu didn't have the courage.

This is the dawn of the second human civilization, and anything that happens at this time may become the content of a new "Homer" or "New Bible".The reason why Judas became Judas is that he was the first to kiss Jesus, and he was essentially different from the second kisser.It is the same now, the first person to talk about this matter will be a milestone in the history of the second civilization, he (she) may become Judas, or he may become Jesus, no matter which possibility, Dongfang Yanxu does not have the courage .

But she had to take on her own mission, so she made a smart choice: she didn't avoid the eyes of the two deputy captains.At this time, language is no longer necessary, and eyes can carry out all the communication. They looked at each other, and the interlaced eyes were like a high-speed information channel, connecting the three hearts, and everything was communicating quickly while looking at each other.

fuel.

fuel.

fuel.

The situation on the route is still unclear, but at least two pieces of interstellar dust have been proven.

resistance.

Of course, after crossing, the speed of the spacecraft will be reduced to [-]/[-] of the speed of light by the resistance of dust.

At this time, there are still more than ten light-years away from the target galaxy NH558J2, and it will take about 6 years to finally arrive.

That is never to arrive.

The spaceship may be able to reach it, but the life on board cannot, and even the hibernation system cannot last that long.

unless……

Unless maintaining speed in the dust, or accelerating after crossing.

But not enough fuel.

Fusion fuel is the only energy source of the spacecraft, and there are other places to use: the ecological cycle system of the spacecraft, possible course correction...

There is also the deceleration when reaching the target galaxy. The mass of the NH558J2 star is much smaller than that of the sun. It cannot be parked into orbit only by gravitational deceleration, and it needs to consume a lot of fuel to decelerate, otherwise it will pass the target galaxy.

All the fuel of Starship Earth is basically enough for two spaceships.

But to be on the safe side, it's only enough for one spaceship.

fuel.

fuel.

fuel.

"There is still a problem with accessories." Dongfang Yanxu said.

Accessories.

Accessories.

Accessories.

Especially the accessories of key systems: fusion engine, information and control system, ecological cycle system.

Not as urgent as fuel, but fundamental to long-term survival. NH558J2 has no planets suitable for survival, cannot settle and establish industries, and has no corresponding resources. Only after refueling and flying to the next galaxy can it be possible to establish industries for the production of accessories.

There are only two redundant copies of the key components of Natural Selection.

Too little.

Too little.

Except for the fusion engine, most of the key accessories on all spacecraft on Starship Earth can be used in common.

Engine accessories can also be used after modification.

"Concentrate personnel on one or two ships?" Dongfang Yanxu said again. At this time, the function of the voice language is only to guide the direction of eye contact.

impossible.

impossible.

Impossible, there are too many people, and neither the ecological cycle system nor the hibernation system can accommodate it. Even if a little more people are added to the existing capacity, it will be catastrophic.

"So, it's clear now?" Dongfang Yanxu's voice sounded again in the empty white space, like the occasional dream of a sleeping person.

Clear.

Clear.

Some die, or all die.

At this time, the eyes were also silent, the three of them seemed to be shocked by the thunder from the depths of the universe, their hearts trembled in fear, everyone had a strong desire to look away, but Dongfang Yanxu first stabilized his eyes .

"Come on," she said.

do not do that.

do not give up.

Not give up?
do not give up!Because others will not give up, if we give up, we will be expelled from the Garden of Eden.

Why us?

Of course it shouldn't be them.

No one should be.

But someone has to be driven out, and the Garden of Eden can only accommodate a limited number of people.

We don't want to leave Eden.

So don't give up!
The three eyes that were about to separate were intertwined again.

Infrasonic hydrogen bomb [50].

Infrasonic hydrogen bomb.

Infrasonic hydrogen bomb.

Every ship is equipped.

Launched with stealth missiles, it is difficult to defend against [51].

The eyes of the three were temporarily separated, their spirits were on the verge of collapse at this time, and they needed to rest.When the three pairs of eyes looked at each other again, their eyes became erratic again, like three candles flickering in the wind.

So evil!

So evil!

So evil!

We have become devils!
We have become devils!
We have become devils!
"But... what do they think?" Dongfang Yanxu asked softly. In the feeling of the two deputy captains, although the voice was small, it lingered in the white space like mosquitoes.

Yeah, we don't want to be devils, but don't know what they think.

Then we are still devils, otherwise how can we think of others as devils for no reason?
Well, let's not think of them as devils.

"The problem is not resolved." Dongfang Yanxu shook his head lightly.

Yes, although they are not the devil, the problem is not solved.

Because they don't know what we think either.

Well, suppose they also know we're not the devil.

The problem is still there.

They don't know what we think of them.

They don't know what we think of them how they think of us.

Further down, it's an infinite chain of suspicion: they don't know what we think they think of us what they think of us...

How to break this chain of suspicion?
comminicate?

Yes on Earth, but not in space.Some die, or all die.This is the survival deadlock set by space for Starship Earth, an insurmountable wall before which communication has no meaning.

There is only one choice left, and it's just a matter of who chooses.

Black, so fucking black.

"We can't delay any longer." Dongfang Yanxu said decisively.

It can't be delayed anymore, in this dark space, the duelists are all concentrating and holding their breath, and the string is about to snap.

Every second, the danger increases exponentially.

Since it doesn't matter who draws the gun first, why don't we draw the gun first.

At this time, Akira Inoue, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said: "There is another choice!"

We sacrifice voluntarily.

why?
Why us?

Sure the three of us could, but do we have the right to make that choice for the 2000 people on Natural Selection?
At this time, the three people are standing on a sharp blade, being cut in pain, and no matter which side of the blade they jump, they will fall into the bottomless abyss. This is the pain before the birth of new space humans.

"Is this good?" Levin said, "Look at the target first, and then think about it."

Dongfang Yanxu nodded, and Levin immediately called up the weapon system control interface in the air, and opened the control window for the infrasonic hydrogen bomb and the corresponding carrier missile. On a spherical coordinate system with "Natural Selection" as the origin, 20 kilometers away The spacecraft Blue Space, Enterprise, Deep Space, and Final Law shown as four dots of light.

The distance hides the structure of the object, and everything on the space scale is just a point.

However, these four light spots were surrounded by four red halos, which were four circles of death nooses, indicating that these targets had been locked by the weapon system!
The three people who were stunned looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time, indicating that it was not their fault.

In addition to them, there are also weapon control and target discrimination officers who have the authority to lock the weapon system, but their locking operations must be authorized by the captain or the deputy captain.Then there is only one person left with the authority to directly lock the target and launch an attack.

How silly of us he is a man who changed history twice after all!
He was the first to think of it all!
No one knows when he thought of it, maybe it was when Starship Earth was established, or even earlier, when he learned of the destruction of the United Fleet... He was really worried about the world, just like his parents in that era, Always worried about the kids.

Dongfang Yanxu flew across the spherical hall at the fastest speed, and the two deputy captains followed her closely.After they went out, they walked through the long corridor again, and came to the door of Zhang Beihai's cabin, and saw the same interface they had just seen floating in front of him.They wanted to rush in, but the scene when the "Natural Selection" set sail to escape appeared again: they hit the bulkhead, there was no door, but the bulkhead in that oval area became transparent.

"What are you doing?" cried Levin.

"Children," Zhang Beihai said. It was the first time he called them this. Although he could only see his back, he could imagine his calm gaze. "Let me do this."

"Who will go to hell if you don't go to hell, right?" Dongfang Yanxu said loudly.

"From the moment I became a soldier, I was ready to go anywhere." Zhang Beihai said, and continued to operate the weapon before firing. The three people outside could see that although he was very inexperienced, every step was meticulous. correct.

Tears welled up in Dongfang's eyes, and she shouted, "Shall we go together? Let me in, and we'll go to hell together!"

Zhang Beihai didn't answer, but continued to operate.He set the manual self-destruct function of the missile, which can be self-destructed by the mother ship during the flight. After completing this step, he said: "Dongfang, think about it, is it possible for us to make this choice before? It is absolutely impossible , but now we have made it, and space has transformed us into new humans." He set the missile warhead's shortest explosion distance from the target to [-] kilometers, so as to avoid damage to the internal facilities of the target as much as possible, but even if it is farther away , is also within the killing distance of the target's internal life, "A new civilization is being born, and a new morality is also being formed." He removed the first of the three safety locks of the hydrogen bomb warhead, "Look back at us in the future It's probably a normal thing to do all of this, so, boys, we won't go to hell." The second safety lock was also removed.

Suddenly, the alarm sounded throughout the spaceship, like howling ghosts from the dark space, and the display interface frantically jumped out of the midair like snowflakes, displaying a large amount of information about the incoming missiles that had broken through the defense system of "Natural Selection", but there was no People had time to see it.

Only four seconds elapsed between the sound of the siren and the detonation of the incoming infrasonic hydrogen bomb.

Judging from the last image sent back from the "Natural Selection" rover to the Earth world, Zhang Beihai probably understood everything in just a second.He thought that his heart had been as hard as iron during the difficult journey of more than two centuries, but he did not discover those things hidden in the deepest part of his heart. Before making the final decision, he hesitated and tried hard to restrain the trembling of his heart. It was this last softness in his heart that killed him, and it also killed everyone on the "Natural Selection", and he was only a few seconds behind the other party in the month-long dark confrontation.

Three small suns lit up, illuminating the dark space. They formed an equilateral triangle and surrounded the "Natural Selection" in the middle, with an average distance of about forty kilometers from the spacecraft.The duration of the nuclear fusion fireball is 20 seconds. During this period, the fireball flickers at an infrasonic frequency, but it is invisible to the naked eye.

Judging from the video sent back, in the remaining three seconds, Zhang Beihai turned to Dongfang Yanxu, smiled, and said a few words: "It's okay, it's all the same."

There was some guesswork about these words, and before he could finish, powerful electromagnetic pulses had arrived from three directions, and the huge hull of the "Natural Selection" vibrated like a cicada's wings, and the vibration energy was converted into infrasound waves, In the image, a misty blood mist enveloped everything.

The attack came from the "Ultimate Law", which fired twelve stealth missiles with infrasonic hydrogen bomb warheads at the other four ships of Starship Earth, and three at the "Natural Selection" 20 kilometers away. The missile was brought forward some time so that it reached the detonation position at the same time as the missiles fired at three nearby spacecraft. A deputy captain took over as the suicide captain on the "Ultimate Law", but it is unknown who made the ultimate decision and launched the attack first, and it will never be known.

The "Ultimate Law" did not become the last lucky one in Eden.

Among the other three warships in the pursuit fleet, the Blue Space was prepared for the unexpected, its interior vacuumed and its crew donned space suits before being attacked.Since it is impossible to generate infrasound waves under vacuum conditions, there were no casualties, but the hull was slightly damaged by the super-strong electromagnetic pulse.

When the fireball of the nuclear bomb just lit up, the "Blue Space" began to fight back.First, the fastest-response laser weapon was used to shoot. The "Ultimate Law" was immediately hit by five beams of high-energy gamma-ray lasers. Five large holes were burned in the hull, and the interior was quickly engulfed in flames, and a partial explosion occurred. Lost all combat capabilities. More violent attacks on the "Blue Space" followed. Under the continuous attack of nuclear missiles and rainstorm-like electromagnetic kinetic energy bombs, the "Ultimate Law" exploded violently, and none of the personnel survived.

Almost at the same time as this dark battle took place on Starship Earth, the same tragedy happened on the far side of the solar system: the "Bronze Age" launched a surprise attack on the "Quantum" and also used infrasonic hydrogen bombs to kill the target spacecraft All life inside, but the intact hull of the target is preserved.Since the two spacecraft sent back relatively little information to Earth, people don't know what happened between the two ships.Although they both accelerated violently during the Great Destruction, neither of the two spaceships decelerated like the chasing fleet, so they should have more fuel than Starship Earth.

In this way, the boundless space nurtured dark new humans in its dark embrace.

In the expanding metallic cloud formed by the Final Law explosion, Blue Space approached the lifeless Enterprise and Deep Space, collected all of their fusion fuel, and immediately After that, the "Blue Space" flew to the side of the "Natural Selection" 20 kilometers away and did the same thing.During this period, Starship Earth was like a large construction site in space. The hulls of the three dead ships were dotted with countless laser welding flowers. If Zhang Beihai was still alive, this scene would definitely remind him of the two dead ships. The "Tang" aircraft carrier before the century.

The "Blue Space" surrounded the wreckage of the three battleships that had been cut into multiple sections into the shape of Stonehenge, and built a space mausoleum, where all the victims of the dark battle were buried.

A phalanx of 270 trio in spacesuits suspended in the center of the mausoleum on the Blue Space, they are all the surviving citizens of Starship Earth.Around them, the huge wreckage of the spaceship is surrounded like a mountain peak, and the cracks cut on the wreckage are like a big dark cave. The remains of 220 seven dead people are placed in these wreckages, and all the living people are in the wreckage. In the shadows, it was like being in a valley in the middle of the night, with only the gaps between the wreckage leaking the cold starlight of the Milky Way.

At the funeral, everyone's mood was calm, and the space newcomers had passed their infancy.

A small permanent light was turned on. It was a small light bulb with only fifty watts, and there were a hundred spare light bulbs beside it, which could automatically replace the damaged light bulb. ten thousand years.Its dim light was like candlelight in the valley, casting a small halo on the dark cliffs of the wreckage, and the illuminated titanium walls were engraved with the names of all those who died, without epitaphs.

An hour later, the space mausoleum is illuminated for the last time by the accelerated light of the "Blue Space", and the mausoleum will glide at one percent of the speed of light. Hundreds of years later, it will be slowed down to one thousandth of the speed of light in the interstellar dust At 6, it will reach NH558J2 after 5 years, and the "Blue Space" has already flown from here to the next galaxy more than [-] years ago.

The "Blue Space" headed to the depths of space, carrying sufficient fusion fuel and eight times the redundancy of key accessories.It is impossible to put so many items inside the spaceship, so people added several external storage compartments to the hull, making the spaceship completely unrecognizable, becoming a very large and rough irregular body, but more like a traveler .

A year ago, at the other end of the solar system, the "Bronze Age" also accelerated away from the ruins of the "Quantum" and flew towards the constellation of Taurus.

From a world of light, the Blue Space and the Bronze Age have become two ships of darkness.

The universe was also once bright. Not long after the Big Bang, all matter existed in the form of light. Later, the universe turned into burnt ashes, and heavy elements were precipitated in the darkness to form planets and life.Therefore, darkness is the mother of life and civilization.

In the earth world, a flood of abuse and curses on the "Blue Space" and "Bronze Age" flooded into outer space, but the two spacecraft did not respond. They cut off all contact with the solar system. For these two worlds In other words, the earth is dead.

The two dark ships merged with the dark space and drifted away across the solar system.They carry all the thoughts and memories of human beings, embrace all the glory and dreams of the earth, and disappear silently into the eternal night.

"now it's right!"

These were the first words Luo Ji said when he learned of the dark battles taking place on both sides of the solar system. Then, he left Shi Qiang who was bewildered, ran out of the room alone, ran across the community, and stood facing the North China desert. up.

"I was right! I was right!" he shouted to the sky.

It was late at night, probably because it had just rained, and the visibility in the atmosphere was very good today, and stars could be seen.However, the starry sky is far less clear than in the 21st century, and only the brightest stars can be seen.The starry sky seemed much sparser, but Luo Ji still regained the feeling he had on the icy lake on that cold night two centuries ago.At this time, Luo Ji, who was an ordinary person, disappeared, and he became a Wallfacer again.

"Da Shi, I have the key to the victory of mankind in my hand!" Luo Ji said to Shi Qiang who followed him.

"haha……"

Shi Qiang's mocking smile made Luo Ji calm down from his excitement, "I know you don't believe it."

"Then what should we do now?" Shi Qiang asked.

Luo Ji sat on the sand, and his emotions quickly fell to the bottom. "What to do? It seems like nothing can be done."

"At least you can reflect your thoughts upwards."

"I don't know if it will work, but give it a try, even if it is fulfilling the responsibility of a wallfacer."

"Which level do I need to find?"

"The highest level. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, or the chairman of the Fleet Joint Conference."

"I'm afraid it won't be easy. We are all ordinary people now... But you have to try. You can only... Well, first go to the city hall and find the mayor."

"Very well, I'll go to the city right now." Luo Ji stood up.

"I'll go with you."

"No, I'll go by myself."

"I'm a government official. It's easier to meet the mayor than you."

Luo Ji looked up at the sky and asked, "When will the water droplets reach the earth?"

"The news says it will be here in ten hours or so."

"Do you know what it is here for? Its mission is not to destroy the United Fleet, nor is it to attack the earth. It is here to kill me. I don't want you to be with me."

"Hehe..." Da Shi let out that mocking laugh again, "Isn't there still more than ten hours left? I'll just stay away from you by then."

Luo Ji smiled wryly and shook his head, "You don't take what I say seriously, so why are you helping me?"

"Brother, believe it or not, that's a matter for the higher-ups. I always act on the safe side. Since you were selected from billions of people 200 years ago, there must be some reason? If you delay here, Then I will not be a sinner through the ages? If the higher-ups don’t take you seriously, then I have nothing to lose, so I just enter the city once. But there is one thing: the thing that is flying to the earth is here to kill you. I don’t believe it no matter what, I’m familiar with murders, even if the murderer is a Trisolaran, it’s too outrageous.”

When Luo Ji and Da Shi arrived at the entrance of the dungeon in the old city in the early morning, they saw that the elevator entering the city was still operating normally.Many people went out from the dungeon, and they all carried a lot of luggage, but very few people went down, and there were only two people in the elevator besides them.

"It's the hibernators, right? They're all going up, what are you doing down there? The city is in chaos." One of the young men asked, there were fireballs shining on his clothes against the black background. Looking carefully, it turned out that it was the destruction of the United Fleet. time images.

"Then what are you going to do?" Shi Qiang asked.

"I've found a place on the ground, and I'm going down to get some things." The young man said, nodding to them, "You people on the ground are about to get rich. We don't have a house on the ground, and most of the property rights to the houses above belong to you." Yes, we have to buy from you when we go up.”

"Once the dungeon collapses, so many people will flock to the surface, and there will probably be no business at that time," Shi Qiang said.

The middle-aged man who was huddled in the corner of the elevator heard what they said, and suddenly covered his face with his hands and cried sadly: "Oh, no, oh—" Then he squatted down and began to cry.His clothes showed a very classic "Bible" picture: naked Adam and Eve standing under the tree of the Garden of Eden, a coquettish poisonous snake wriggling between them, I wonder if it symbolizes the dark battle that just happened.

"There are many people like him." The young man pointed at the weeping man with disdain and said, "He is not of sound mind." His eyes lit up, "Actually, the end of the day is a beautiful time, even the most beautiful time. This time It’s the only chance in history where people can throw away all their worries and burdens and be all their own. It’s stupid to be like him, when the most responsible way of life is to have fun while you can.”

After the elevator arrived, Luo Ji and Shi Qiang walked out of the exit hall, and immediately smelled a strange smell in the air, which was from burning.The dungeons are brighter than before, but it's an annoying white light.Luo Ji looked up, and what he saw from the gap between the giant trees was not the morning sky, but a blank space. The image of the outer sky reflected on the dome of the dungeon disappeared. A spherical cabin on a spaceship.The lawn was strewn with chaotic debris, all fallen from the giant tree buildings.Not far away, there are several wreckages of crashed flying cars. A circle of people surrounded one of the burning wreckages, and kept throwing other combustibles picked up from the lawn into the fire. Some people even flashed images of themselves clothes thrown in.A burst of underground pipe spouted high jets of water, and a group of drenched people played around like children, screaming excitedly in unison, scattered to avoid falling debris from the giant tree, and then Gathered for a carnival again.Luo Ji looked up again, and found that there were several places on the giant tree with flames, and the fire-fighting vehicle blew its siren, and flew through the air with the leaves on fire that had been removed from the tree... He found that the people he met on the street People are divided into two categories, and the two people encountered in the elevator are their representatives.One group is depressed, walking past with glazed eyes or sitting motionless on the lawn, enduring the agony of despair whose cause has now shifted from human failure to the life dilemma currently facing; A frenzied state of hyperactivity that numbs itself with debauchery.

The traffic in the city was in chaos. Luo Ji and Shi Qiang waited for half an hour to hail a taxi. When the unmanned flying car drove them through the giant trees, Luo Ji remembered that in this city, I felt nervous like riding a roller coaster, but fortunately, the speeding car arrived at the city hall very quickly.

Shi Qiang has been to the city hall several times before due to work, so he is quite familiar with it.After repeated contacts, I finally got permission to meet with the mayor, but it would take until the afternoon.It was within Luo Ji's expectation to go through all this trouble, but he was a little surprised that the mayor agreed to meet them: in such an extraordinary period, they are such little people.During lunch, Shi Qiang told Luo Ji that the mayor was newly appointed yesterday. He used to be an official in charge of hibernator affairs in the city government.

"He is from our hometown." Shi Qiang said.

In this era, the meaning of the word fellow has changed from geography to time. Not all hibernators can use this name for each other. Only those who enter hibernation at a similar time are considered fellows.Gathering together after a long time, the time fellows are closer than the previous geographical fellows.

They did not meet the mayor until 04:30 in the afternoon.Senior officials in this era generally have star qualities, and only handsome and beautiful people can be elected, but the current mayor is mediocre.He is about the same age as Shi Qiang, but he is much thinner. There is one feature that makes him a hibernator at a glance: he wears a pair of glasses, which must be antiques from 200 years ago, because even contact lenses have long been Disappeared.However, once people who used to wear glasses stopped wearing them, they always felt that there was something wrong with their appearance, so many hibernators still wore plain glasses even after their eyesight recovered.The mayor looked tired and struggled to get up from his chair.When Shi Qiang apologized for the interruption and wished him a high promotion, he shook his head and said, "In this vulnerable era, we tough savages can come in handy again."

"Are you the highest-ranking hibernator on Earth?"

"Who knows? As the situation develops, we may have fellow villagers who rise to higher positions."

"Where's the former mayor? Mental breakdown?"

"No no, there are strong people in this era. He has always been competent, but he was killed in a car accident in a riotous area two days ago."

Seeing Luo Ji behind Shi Qiang, the mayor immediately reached out to him, "Ah, Dr. Luo Ji, hello! I know you. I was your admirer two centuries ago, because among those four people you You are most like a Wallfacer, I really couldn’t figure out what you wanted to do at the time.” Then he said something that chilled the hearts of both of them, “You are the fourth savior I have received in these two days, and there are dozens more One is waiting outside, but I really don't have the energy to see them."

"Mayor, he is different from them, two centuries ago..."

"He was chosen out of billions of people two centuries ago, and that's why I plan to meet you, of course," the mayor pointed at Shi Qiang, "I have other things to ask you for, let's talk about it when we're done. Now Let’s talk about your business, but I have a small request: can you not talk about your salvation plan first, it is usually very long, and first talk about what you want me to do.”

After Luo Ji and Shi Qiang explained their intentions, the mayor immediately shook his head, "Even if I want to help you, I can't do it. I have a lot of things to report to the high-level. This high-level is lower than you want to see. And the leaders of the country, but even that is difficult, and you should know that there are bigger troubles at the top right now."

Luo Ji and Shi Qiang have been following the news, so of course they know what the mayor is talking about.

After the annihilation of the United Fleet, the Escapismism, which had been silent for two centuries, quickly revived.The European Union even formulated a preliminary escape plan, using a nationwide draw to determine the first batch of [-] fugitive candidates, and this plan was passed in a referendum.But when the results of the lottery came out, most of those who hadn't been drawn repented, so massive riots ensued, and the public turned to agree that Escapism was a crime against humanity.

After the dark battle between the surviving battleships in outer space, the charge of fugitiveism takes on new content: it turns out that when the spiritual bond with the earth world is severed, the people in space will spiritually happen. Complete alienation, even if the escape is successful, what survives is no longer human civilization, but another dark and evil thing, just like Trisolaran, this thing is the opposite and enemy of human civilization, and it also got a Name - Negative Civilization.

As the water drop approached the earth, public sensitivity to fugitiveism also reached its peak, and public opinion warned that someone was likely to flee before the water drop attacked the earth.A large number of people gathered around the base points of all space elevators and space launch bases, threatening to close all access to space.They do have this ability. In this era, citizens all over the world have the freedom to own weapons. Most of the civilian weapons are small laser guns.Of course, a single laser pistol will not pose a threat to the carrier module of the space elevator or the spacecraft taking off, but unlike traditional guns, a large number of laser guns can make the beams converge at one point. If [-] pistols illuminate at the same time One point, everything will be invincible.The number of people gathered around the base point of the space elevator and the space base ranged from tens of thousands to millions, and at least one third of them carried weapons. Draw your gun, because the straight line trajectory of the laser makes aiming very precise, so most of the beam will focus on the target and destroy it.In this case, the communication between the earth and space is almost cut off.

The riots were developing, and in the past two days, the target of the attack turned to the space city in the synchronous orbit.Because there are a lot of rumors on the Internet, saying that a certain space city is being transformed into an escape spaceship, so they are collectively attacked by the people of the earth, but due to the long distance, the laser beam has diverged and weakened when it arrives, and the space city is in rotation. , did not cause substantial harm.And this activity has become a collective entertainment for all mankind in the doomsday era.In the afternoon of that day, Europa's No. [-] space city "New Paris" was irradiated by tens of millions of laser pistols in the northern hemisphere at the same time, causing the temperature in the city to rise sharply, and the residents had to be evacuated.At this time, seen from the space city, the earth is brighter than the sun.

Neither Luo Ji nor Shi Qiang said anything more.

"I was very impressed with your work when I was in hibernation at the Immigration Bureau." The mayor said to Shi Qiang, "And Guo Zhengming, you seem to know him, he has just been promoted to the director of the Municipal Public Safety Bureau, and he also recommended it to me. You, I hope you can come to the city government to work, people like you are needed now."

Shi Qiang thought for a moment, then nodded, "I'll come over after I've settled the affairs of the community. How's the situation in the city now?"

"The situation is deteriorating, but it is still under control. Now the focus is on maintaining the operation of the power supply induction field. Once the induction field stops, the city will completely collapse."

"This kind of riot is not the same as we were back then."

"It's different. First of all, the root cause is different. It's caused by the complete despair of the future, which is very difficult; at the same time, we have much fewer means than at that time." The mayor said, calling from the wall Create a picture, "This is the current central square, taken from a height of more than 100 meters."

Luo Ji knew that the central square was where the Great Valley Monument was located. He and Da Shi had been there when they were avoiding the flying car controlled by the KILLER virus. The square is covered with white flowers, and those white particles are squirming, like a pot of rice porridge.

"Are they all human?" Luo Ji asked suspiciously.

"Naked people, this is a super sex party, the number is over [-] now and it's still growing."

The development of gender relations and same-sex relations in this era has far exceeded Luo Ji's imagination, and some things are now familiar to him, but this scene still shocked him and Da Shi. Luo Ji couldn't help but think of the "Bible". The scene of depravity before the Ten Commandments, a typical doomsday scene.

"Why doesn't the government stop this kind of thing?" Shi Qiang asked.

"How to stop? They are perfectly legal, and if action is taken, it is the government that is criminal."

Shi Qiang sighed, "Yes, I know, the police and army can't do much at this time."

"We've searched the law and we can't find anything that addresses the current situation," the mayor said.

"If the city has become like this, it is better to let the water drop knock it away."

Da Shi's words reminded Luo Ji, and he hurriedly asked, "How long will it take for the water droplets to reach the earth?"

The mayor switched from that spectacle of obscenity to another real-time news channel that showed a mock-up of the solar system, with a bold red line marking the trajectory of water droplets.It was a steep orbit similar to that of a comet, and the end was close to the earth.There is a walking countdown in the lower right corner, showing that if the water droplets do not slow down, they will reach the earth in four hours and 54 minutes.At the same time, there is scrolling text news below it, which is showing the analysis of water droplets by relevant experts.Unlike the panic that gripped the globe, the scientific community was the first to recover from the shock of the big failure, and this analysis is calm.According to the analysis, although humans currently know nothing about the driving method and energy source of the water droplets, there are indications that this device is currently experiencing energy consumption problems. Acceleration is very slow.It passed Jupiter at close range, but it completely ignored the bases of the three major fleets in Jupiter's orbit, but borrowed Jupiter's gravity to accelerate. guess.Scientists agree that the theory that the water droplet will crash through the earth is nonsense, but no one knows what it will do.

Luo Ji said, "I have to go, otherwise the city will really be destroyed."

"Why?" asked the mayor.

"Because he felt that the water droplet was here to kill him," Shi Qiang said.

"Hehehe..." The mayor's smile was stiff, obviously he hadn't smiled for a long time, "Dr. Luo Ji, you are the most self-indulgent person I've ever met."

After reaching the ground from the underground city, Luo Ji and Shi Qiang drove away immediately. Due to the large number of residents from the underground city, the traffic on the ground also became congested. It took them an hour and a half to drive out of the old city. Travel west at full speed on the highway.

It can be seen from the TV in the car that the water droplets are approaching the earth at a speed of 75 kilometers per second, and there is no sign of slowing down. According to this speed, they will arrive in three hours.

As the strength of the underground city's power supply induction field weakened, the speed of the car slowed down, and Shi Qiang, who was driving, used the battery to maintain the speed. They drove through a large area of ​​hibernator residential areas including New Life Fifth Village, and continued westward.Along the way, the two remained silent, rarely speaking, and focused on the real-time news on the TV.

The water drop crossed the orbit of the moon without slowing down. According to the current speed, it will reach the earth in one and a half hours. Because we don't know its future movements, and to avoid panic, the news did not predict the impact location.

Luo Ji made up his mind and ushered in the moment he had always wanted to postpone. He said, "Da Shi, let's go here."

Shi Qiang stopped the car, and they all got out of the car. The sunset that was close to the horizon cast long shadows of the two men on the desert.Luo Ji felt that the ground under his feet softened together with his heart, and he had a feeling that he couldn't stand in the weakness.

Luo Ji said, "I'll try my best to drive towards the sparsely populated areas. There's a city in front of me. I'm going to turn in that direction. You should find a way to go back. The farther away from that direction the better."

"Brother, I'll wait for you here, and we'll go back together after we're done." Da Shi said, taking out a cigarette from his pocket, and when he was taking out the lighter, he realized that there was no need to light the cigarette now. Luo Ji noticed, Like everything else he'd brought from the distant past, his habit hadn't changed.

Luo Ji smiled miserably, but he hoped that Shi Qiang would really think so, which would at least make the parting a little easier to bear, "If you want to, just wait. It's best to go to the other side of the embankment when the time comes, and I won't either." Know how powerful the impact is."

Shi Qiang smiled and shook his head, "You remind me of an intellectual I met more than 200 years ago. You are also like a bear, sitting in front of Wangfujing Church and crying early in the morning...but he was fine afterwards, and I woke up. After checking, I found that he lived to be almost a hundred years old."

"Why didn't you mention the person who touched the water drop first? Ding Yi, you seem to know him too."

"He's looking for death, there's nothing he can do about it." Da Shi looked at the sky full of sunset clouds, as if he was recalling the appearance of a physicist, "But that's really a big man, he can see everything away like that, I I have only seen him in this life, the great wisdom of the eight classics, brother, you have to learn from him."

"It's still the same sentence: you and I are ordinary people." Luo Ji looked at his watch as he spoke, and knowing that time could no longer be delayed, he reached out to Shi Qiang, "Da Shi, thank you for everything you have done in the past two centuries." , goodbye, maybe we can really meet again somewhere."

Shi Qiang didn't shake Luo Ji's hand, but waved his hand and said, "Stop talking nonsense! Brother, trust me, nothing will happen. Let's go, come pick me up quickly after you're done, and don't drink while drinking at night." Blame me for making fun of you."

Luo Ji hurriedly turned around and got into the car, not wanting Shi Qiang to see the tears in his eyes. He sat in the car, tried hard to engrave the deformed image of Da Shi in the rearview mirror in his heart, and then started the car.

Maybe we can really meet again somewhere, the last time spanned two centuries, what will we span this time?Luo Ji suddenly regretted being an atheist, just like Wu Yue did two centuries ago.

The sun had completely set, and the desert on both sides of the road was white in the twilight, like snow.Luo Ji suddenly remembered that two centuries ago, he had traveled along this road in that Accord car with his imaginary lover, when the North China Plain was covered with real snow.He felt her long hair being blown by the wind, and strands of her hair touched his right cheek, which was very itchy.

"No, no, don't tell me where it is! Once you know where it is, the world becomes as small as a map. If you don't know where it is, the world feels vast."

"Well, let's try to get lost."

Luo Ji had always had the feeling that Zhuang Yan and the child were brought into this world by his imagination, and his heart ached when he thought of this. At this moment, love and longing are undoubtedly the most tormenting things.Tears blurred his vision again, and he tried his best to make his mind go blank, but Zhuang Yan's beautiful eyes still stubbornly emerged from the blank, accompanied by the child's intoxicating laughter.Luo Ji had no choice but to focus on the TV news.

The water droplet crosses the Lagrangian point[52], and still rushes toward the earth with a constant speed.

Luo Ji parked the car in a place he thought was ideal. This was the junction of plains and mountains. There were no people or buildings as far as he could see. The car was parked in a U-shaped valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, which could absorb part of the impact. shock wave.Luo Ji took the TV out of the car, took it to the open sandy ground and sat down.

The water drop crossed the 8-kilometer geosynchronous orbit, and passed the "New Shanghai" space city at close range. Everyone in the city clearly saw the dazzling light point flying across their sky. The news announced, Impact will occur in [-] minutes.

The news finally announced the latitude and longitude of the predicted impact point, which is northwest of the Chinese capital.

Luo Ji already knew about this.

At this time, the twilight was heavy, and the bright colors in the sky had shrunk to a small piece in the western sky, like a white eyeball without pupils, facing the world indifferently.

Perhaps just to pass the remaining time, Luo Ji began to replay his life in memory.

His life was divided into two distinct parts, the part after becoming a Wallfacer. Although this part of life spanned two centuries, it felt compact and dense, as if it was a day yesterday.He quickly reversed this part, because this part is not like his own life, including the unforgettable love, it is like a fleeting dream, and he dare not think about his lover and children anymore.

Contrary to what he expected, the life before becoming a Wallfacer is also a blank in memory, and all that can be fished out from the sea of ​​​​memory are fragments, and the further forward, the rarer the fragments.Did he really go to middle school?Did you really go to elementary school?Really had a first love?Occasionally, a few clear scratches can be found in the fragmented memory. He knows that some things did happen, and the details are vivid, but the feeling has disappeared without a trace.The past is like a handful of dry sand in your hands. You think you are holding it tightly, but in fact it has already flowed through your fingers.Memory is a river that has long since dried up, leaving only scattered gravel in its lifeless bed.His life is like a bear breaking corn, what he gets is also discarded, and there is not much left in the end.

Luo Ji looked at the surrounding mountains in the twilight, and remembered the winter night he spent in these mountains more than 200 years ago.This is the mountain that lay down after hundreds of millions of years of standing tired, "like the old men sitting at the head of the village basking in the sun." His imaginary lover once said so.The North China Plain, which was full of fields and cities back then, has turned into a desert, but these mountains have hardly changed, and they are still of the same bland shape. It was lush a century ago, but it is not much sparser than it was then.Two centuries is too short a time for any appreciable change in these rocky mountains.

What does the human world look like in the eyes of these mountains?That might just be what they saw on a leisurely afternoon: some small living things appeared on the plain, and after a while these small things multiplied, and after a while they built an anthill-like building, The buildings quickly joined together, with light shining through them, and some smoking; after a while, the light and smoke disappeared, and the little living things disappeared, and then their buildings collapsed and were buried in the sand.That's all. Among the countless things Shan has seen, this incident is fleeting, and it may not be the most interesting.

Finally, Luo Ji found his earliest memory, and he was surprised to find that the life he could remember also started on a beach.That was his own ancient times, he couldn’t remember where it was, and he couldn’t remember who was there at that time, but he could clearly remember that it was a sandy beach by a river, there was a full moon in the sky at that time, and the river was rippling under the moonlight .He dug a hole on the beach, and when he dug a hole, water seeped out from the bottom of the hole, and there was a small moon in the water; he kept digging like that, dug many holes, and attracted many small moons.

This is really his earliest memory, and there is nothing beyond that.

In the night, only the light of the TV illuminated a small stretch of sandy beach around Luo Ji.

Luo Ji tried his best to maintain a blank state of mind, his scalp was tense, and he felt a giant palm covering the entire sky appeared above him, pressing down on him.

But then, the giant palm was slowly withdrawn.

The water drop turned around [-] kilometers above the ground and flew straight towards the sun, decelerating sharply.

On the TV, the reporter is shouting: "Northern Hemisphere Attention! Northern Hemisphere Attention, the brightness of the water drop increases when it slows down, and now you can see it with the naked eye!"

Luo Ji looked up and really saw it. It wasn't very bright, but because of its extremely fast speed, he could easily distinguish it. It streaked across the night sky like a shooting star and quickly disappeared into the western sky.

The relative speed of the water droplet and the earth decreases to zero, and at the same time, it adjusts itself to the sun-synchronous orbit, that is to say, in the days to come, the water droplet will always be between the earth and the sun, and the distance from the earth is about [-] kilometer.

Luo Ji had a premonition that something might happen, so he sat on the sandy ground and waited. Those old-fashioned rocks accompanied him quietly on both sides and behind him, giving him a sense of security.There was no important news in the news for a while, and the world was not sure that it had escaped this catastrophe, and they were all waiting nervously.

More than ten minutes passed, and nothing happened. From the monitoring system, it can be seen that the water droplets are quietly suspended in space, the propulsion halo at the tail has disappeared, and the round head is facing the sun, reflecting bright sunlight. The first third is like burning.In Luo Ji's perception, there seemed to be some kind of mysterious connection between the water droplet and the sun.

The images on the TV suddenly became blurred, and the sound became hoarse and indistinct. At the same time, Luo Ji felt some commotion in the surrounding environment: flocks of birds were startled flying from the mountains, and dogs barked in the distance. Slight itching on the skin.The TV image and sound became clear again after shaking a few times. It was later known that the interference still existed. This was due to the anti-interference function in the global communication system, which filtered out the sudden clutter.But the news was slow to respond to this incident, because there was a large amount of monitoring data that needed to be aggregated and analyzed, and it took more than ten minutes to get the exact information.

The water droplets continuously send out strong electromagnetic waves to the sun. The intensity of the waves exceeds the amplification threshold of the sun, and the frequency covers all the wave bands that can be amplified by the sun.

Luo Ji smirked until he couldn't breathe.He was indeed being sentimental. He should have thought of all this earlier: Luo Ji is not important, what is important is the sun. From now on, it is impossible for human beings to send any information into the universe through the super antenna of the sun.

Water droplets are here to seal the sun.

"Haha, brother, nothing happened! I really should make a bet with you!" Da Shi didn't know when he came to Luo Ji's side, he stopped a car and drove over.

Luo Ji seemed to have been sucked out of something, and lay limply on the sand. The sand under his body was warm with the sun, which made him feel very comfortable.

"Yes, Da Shi, we can live a good life in the future, but now, everything is really over."

"Brother, this is the last time I will help you as a Wallfacer." Shi Qiang said on the way back, "This profession will definitely cause problems in people's brains. You have suffered from another illness."

"I really hope so," Luo Ji said.Outside, the stars that could be seen yesterday disappeared again, and the dark desert and the night sky merged into one at the horizon, and only a section of the road ahead stretched under the illumination of the car lights.This world is very similar to Luo Ji's current thinking: there is darkness everywhere, and there is only one place that is extremely clear.

"Actually, it's easy for you to return to normal. It should be Zhuang Yan and the child's turn to wake up. It's chaotic everywhere now. I don't know if the recovery is frozen. It won't take too long even if it does. I think the situation will be over soon. It has stabilized, after all, there are still a few generations to live, didn't you say that you can live a good life?"

"I'll go to the Hibernation Immigration Bureau tomorrow to inquire about them." Da Shi's words reminded Luo Ji that his gloomy heart finally had some light. Perhaps reuniting with his lover and child was the only chance to save himself.

And humans, no one can save them.

Da Shi suddenly slowed down the car when he was approaching the fifth village of New Life. "There seems to be something wrong." He said, looking ahead.Luo Ji saw that there was a halo in the air in that direction, which was illuminated by the light source below. Due to the high roadbed, the place where the light was shining could not be seen. The halo was shaking, and it did not look like a residential area. light.When the car turned off the highway, a magnificent and strange scene appeared in front of them: the desert between New Life Fifth Village and the highway turned into a bright carpet of light, densely twinkling like a sea of ​​fireflies.It took Luo Ji a while to realize that this was a large crowd, all from the city, and it was their clothes that were shining.

As the car slowly approached the crowd, Luo Ji saw that the people in front raised their hands to block the glare of the headlights. Shi Qiang turned off the lights, and they were faced with a strange wall of people.

"They seem to be waiting for someone." Da Shi said, looking at Luo Ji at the same time, his eyes immediately made Luo Ji nervous.The car stopped, and Shi Qiang said again, "Don't move here, I'll go down and have a look." He jumped out of the car and walked towards the crowd.Against the background of the glowing human wall, Shi Qiang's stout body became a black silhouette.Luo Ji saw that he walked up to the crowd, seemed to have said something briefly to them, then turned around and walked back quickly.

"Sure enough, I'm waiting for you, let's go." Shi Qiang said holding the car door.Seeing Luo Ji's expression, he comforted, "Don't worry, it's all right."

Luo Ji got out of the car and walked towards the crowd. Although he was already familiar with the information clothes of modern people, he still felt like he was walking towards something different in this desolate desert. When he was close enough to see the expressions of those people clearly, The heartbeat suddenly accelerated.After waking up from hibernation, the first thing he knew was that people of each era have their own expressions, and the difference is obvious when traveling across time to distant eras, so it is easy to distinguish between modern people and A hibernator who has just woken up.However, the expressions Luo Ji sees on these people are neither modern nor 21st century. He does not know which time and space this expression came from. Fear made him almost stand still, but his trust in Da Shi pushed him to move forward mechanically. Forward.When the distance from the crowd was further shortened, he finally stopped because he could clearly see the images on people's clothes.

All of them displayed Luo Ji on their clothes, there were still photos and moving videos.

After Luo Ji became a Wallfacer, he hardly showed his face in front of the media, so there are very few video materials left behind. However, these videos are now completely displayed on the clothes of different people. On his body, he saw a photo of himself before he became a Wallfacer.People's clothes are all connected to the Internet, so his images should have been circulated all over the world by now.He also noticed that these images are all in their original state, without the artistic transformation that modern people like, which means that they have just appeared on the Internet.

Seeing Luo Ji stop, the crowd moved towards him. Two or three meters away from him, the people in the front row tried their best to block the advance of the crowd behind them, then knelt down, and the people behind also knelt down one after another. The crowd sank like waves receding from the sand.

"Lord, save us!" Luo Ji heard a person say, and his words caused a buzzing resonance.

"Our God, save the world!"

"Great spokesperson, preside over the justice of the universe!"

"Angel of justice, save mankind!"

……

Two people walked towards Luo Ji, one of them had a dark suit, and Luo Ji recognized him as Hines; the other was a soldier, with shiny epaulettes and medals.

Hines said solemnly to Luo Ji: "Dr. Luo Ji, I have just been appointed as your liaison with the UN Wallfacer Project Committee, and now I am ordered to inform you that the Wallfacer Project has resumed, and you have been designated as the only Wallfacer."

The soldier said: "I am Ben Jonathan, commissioner of the Fleet Joint Conference. We met when you just woke up, and I was ordered to inform you that the Asian Fleet, the European Fleet and the North American Fleet all agree with the revived wall-face charter and recognize your The identity of the Wallfacer."

Hines pointed to the crowd kneeling in the desert and said: "In the eyes of the public, you now have two identities: for believers in God, you are his angel of justice; for atheists, you are a righteous super civilization of the galaxy. Spokesperson."

Then there was silence, and all eyes were on Luo Ji. After thinking for a long time, he only thought of one possibility.

"The spell works?" he asked tentatively.

Both Hines and Jonathan nodded, and Hines said, "The 187J3X1 star is destroyed."

"When?"

"It was observed 51 years ago, a year ago, but the observation information was discovered this afternoon, because people did not pay attention to that star before. There are a few people in the joint fleet meeting who are desperate for the situation and want to find out from history What, they remembered the wall-facing project and your spell, so they observed 187J3X1, and found that it no longer exists, and there is only a debris nebula left at that position. Then they consulted the observation records of the star scanning observation system, and traced back to a Years ago, all the observation data of 187J3X1 explosion were retrieved."

"How do you know it was destroyed?"

"You know, 187J3X1 is in a stable period like the sun, and it is absolutely impossible to become an explosive nova. And we observed the process of its destruction: an object close to the speed of light hit 187J3X1, which is small in size, and they It is called a light particle. It is observed from the wake at the moment when it passes through the outer atmosphere of the star. Although the light particle is small in size, its mass is greatly amplified by the relativistic effect because it is very close to the speed of light. When it hits the target, it has already Reaching one-eighth of the 187J3X1 star, the result immediately destroyed the star, and the four planets of 187J3X1 were also vaporized in the explosion."

Luo Ji looked up. Today's night sky was so pitch black that he couldn't see a single star.He walked forward, people stood up and made way for him silently, but the crowd immediately closed behind him, everyone wanted to push forward to be closer to him, like longing for sunshine in the cold, but still in awe The ground left a circle of space for him, forming a black spot like the eye of a typhoon in the fluorescent ocean.A person rushed in and fell in front of Luo Ji, causing him to stop—the person went so far as to kiss his feet.Immediately, a few more people also entered the circle to do the same thing, and when the situation was about to get out of control, there were a few shouts from the crowd, and those few people got up in a panic and retreated into the crowd.

Luo Ji continued to walk forward, only to realize that he didn't know where he was going, so he stopped again, looked up and found Hines and Jonathan in the crowd, and walked towards them.

"Then what should I do now?" Luo Ji came up to the two and asked.

"You are a Wallfacer, so of course you can do anything within the scope of the Wallfacer Act." Hines bowed to Luo Ji and said, "Although there are still restrictions on the principles of the Act, you can now mobilize almost all the resources of Earth International."

"Including resources from Fleet International," Jonathan added.

Luo Ji thought for a while and said, "I don't need to mobilize any resources now, but if I really restore the powers granted by the Wallface Act..."

"Without a doubt!" Hines said, and Jonathan nodded in return.

"Then put forward two requirements: first, all cities restore order and return to normal life. There is nothing mysterious about this request, and everyone can understand it."

Everyone nodded, and someone said, "My God, the whole world is listening."

"Yes, the whole world is listening." Hines said, "It will take time to restore stability, but because of you, we believe we can do it." His words also aroused people's echo.

"Second, everyone go home and make this place quiet. Thank you!"

Hearing Luo Ji's words, the crowd fell silent, but soon there was a buzz, and his words began to spread backwards from the crowd.The crowd dispersed, slowly and reluctantly at first, but gradually became faster, one car after another drove onto the expressway, heading towards the city, and many people walked along the road, walking in the night Like a long string of glowing ants.

The desert became empty, and only Luo Ji, Shi Qiang, Hines, and Jonathan remained in the sand with chaotic footprints.

"I'm really ashamed of my former self." Hines said, "Human civilization is only 5000 years old. We cherish life and freedom so much. There must be civilizations in the universe with a history of more than billions of years. What kind of civilization do they have? Is there any need to doubt morality?"

"I'm also ashamed of myself. These days, I have doubted God." Jonathan said, seeing what Hines was going to say, he raised his hand to stop him, "No, no, friend, what we are talking about may be One thing."

The two hugged each other, tears streaming down their faces.

"I mean gentlemen," Luo Ji patted them on the back and said, "You can go back now. If necessary, I will contact you, thank you."

Luo Ji watched as they walked away supporting each other like a happy couple. Now, only he and Shi Qiang were left here.

"Da Shi, what do you want to say now?" Luo Ji turned to Shi Qiang and said with a smile on his face.

Shi Qiang stood there dumbfounded, dumbfounded as if he had just watched a thrilling magic show, "Brother, I'm so fucking confused!"

"Why, you don't believe I'm an angel of justice?"

"I wouldn't believe it even if I was killed."

"What about the super-civilized spokesperson?"

"It's a little more reliable than angels, but to be honest, I don't believe it either, I always feel that's not the case."

"You don't believe in justice and justice in the universe?"

"I do not know."

"You are an enforcer."

"Well, I don't know, I'm really confused!"

"Then you are the most sober person."

"Then can you tell me about the justice of this universe?"

"Okay, follow me." After Luo Ji finished speaking, he walked straight into the depths of the desert, with Da Shi closely following him.They walked a long way in silence, across the highway.

"Where is this going?" Shi Qiang asked.

"Go to the darkest place."

The two walked to the other side of the road. Here, the roadbed blocked the lights of the residential area, and it was pitch black. Luo Ji and Shi Qiang groped and sat on the sand.

"Let's get started." Luo Ji's voice sounded in the darkness.

"Speak in a simple way. My level of education is so complicated that I can't understand it."

"Anyone can understand, Dashi, the truth is simple, it is such a thing that makes you wonder why you couldn't discover it when you heard it. Do you know the axioms in mathematics?"

"I learned it in middle school geometry. It's the obvious thing that you can only draw a line after two points."

"That's right, now we need to find out two axioms for cosmic civilization: First, survival is the first need of civilization. Second, civilization continues to grow and expand, but the total amount of matter in the universe remains unchanged."

"anything else?"

"Nothing."

"What can be deduced from such a little thing?"

"Da Shi, you can restore the entire case from a warhead or a drop of blood. Cosmic sociology is to describe the entire Milky Way civilization and the picture of the universe civilization from these two axioms. Science is like this, the cornerstone of every system It's all very simple."

"Then you can deduce it?"

"First of all, let's talk about the dark battle. If I say that Starship Earth is the epitome of cosmic civilization, do you believe it?"

"No, Starship Earth lacks resources such as fuel and accessories, but the universe does not lack, the universe is too big."

"You are wrong, the universe is big, but life is even bigger! This is what the second axiom states. The total amount of matter in the universe is basically constant, but life is growing exponentially! Exponents are the devil in mathematics. If there are A bacterium that is invisible to the naked eye, divides every half an hour. As long as there is enough nutrients, its offspring can fill all the oceans on the earth in a few days. Don't let humans and the three-body world give you the illusion, these two This civilization is very small, but they are only in the infant stage of civilization. As long as the technology mastered by civilization exceeds a certain threshold, the expansion of life in the universe will be terrifying. For example, at the current speed of human navigation, 100 million Earth civilization can crowd the entire Milky Way in a few years. A million years is just a short time on a cosmic scale."

"You mean, in the long run, the entire universe may also appear like Starship Earth... How do they say, survival dead end?"

"Don't look at it in the long run, the entire universe is now a dead end for survival! As Hines said, civilizations probably sprouted in the universe billions of years ago. Judging from the current signs, the universe may have been destroyed. It is crowded, and no one knows how many empty spaces and unoccupied resources there are in the Milky Way and the entire universe [53].”

"Isn't that right? The universe looks empty, apart from Trisolaris, no other alien life has been seen?"

"This is what we are going to talk about next. Give me a cigarette." Luo Ji groped for a long time before getting the cigarette from Da Shi's hand. "We have to increase the distance to make it feel more space-like." Luo Ji said, and then he twisted the filter part of the cigarette and lit the cigarette. At the same time, Shi Qiang also lit a cigarette. branch.In the darkness, the two little sparks faced each other far away.

"Okay, in order to explain the problem, now we need to build the most concise model of cosmic civilization: these two Mars represent two civilized planets, the entire universe is only composed of these two planets, nothing else, you take the surrounding Everything is deleted. How is it, have you found this feeling?"

"Well, it feels like it's easier to find in such a dark place."

"Now we call these two civilized worlds your civilization and my civilization respectively. The two worlds are far apart, let's say a hundred light-years. You have detected my existence, but you don't know more details, and I don't know anything about it at all. know your existence."

"Ah."

"The following two concepts are defined: goodwill and malice among civilizations. Words such as goodness and evil are not rigorous in science, so their meanings need to be limited: goodwill means not actively attacking and destroying other civilizations, Malice is the opposite."

"Is this the lowest kindness?"

"You already know the existence of my civilization in the universe. Next, please consider what choice you have for me. Please note that in this process, the axiom of the civilization of the universe must always be kept in mind, and the environment and distance scale in space must also be considered at all times. "

"I choose to communicate with you?"

"If you do this, you pay attention to the price you pay: you expose your own existence."

"Yes, this is not a small thing in the universe."

"There are various degrees of exposure: the strongest exposure is to let me know your precise coordinates in the interstellar space, the second is to let me know your general direction, and the weakest exposure is to let me only know your existence in the universe .But even the weakest exposure may allow me to search and find you. Since you can detect my existence, it is certainly possible for me to find you. From the perspective of technological development, it is only a matter of time."

"But brother, I can take a risk to communicate with you. If you are malicious, then I am unlucky; if you are kind, then we can communicate further, and finally unite into a larger civilization of goodwill."

"Okay, Dashi, we have reached the critical point. Now let's go back to the axiom of universal civilization: Even if I am a benevolent civilization, can I judge that you are also benevolent at the beginning of the communication?"

"Of course not. It violates the first axiom."

"So, what should I do after I receive your communication signal?"

"Of course you should judge whether I am kind or malicious first. If it is malicious, you will destroy me; if it is kind, we will continue to communicate."

The Mars on Luo Ji's side rose up and moved back and forth. Obviously, he stood up and started pacing. "It's possible on the earth, but not in the universe. Let's introduce an important concept: the chain of suspicion."

"Quite a strange word."

"I started off with just this one word and she didn't explain it, but then I finally figured out what it meant literally."

"He? Who is he?"

"...Let's talk about it later, let's continue: If you think I am good, this is not a reason for you to feel safe, because according to the first axiom, a good civilization cannot presuppose that other civilizations are also good, so , you still don’t know how I think of you, you don’t know whether I think you are kind or malicious; further, even if you know that I think of you as kind, I also know that you think of me as kind, but I don’t know what you think about me, what do you think about me, is it confusing? This is the third layer, and this logic can be extended forward, endlessly.”

"I understand what you mean."

"This is the chain of suspicion. This kind of thing cannot be seen on the earth. Human beings share a common species, a similar culture, live in the same interdependent ecological circle, and are close at hand. In such an environment, the chain of suspicion It can only be extended by one or two layers and it will be resolved by communication. But in space, the chain of suspicion may extend very long, and before it is resolved by communication, things like the dark battle have already happened.”

Da Shi took a puff of cigarette, his pensive face appeared in the darkness, "Now it seems that the Dark War can really teach us a lot."

"Yes, the five spaceships on Starship Earth are just five 'cosmic civilizations', not real cosmic civilizations—because they are all composed of the same species of human beings, and the distance between them is very close— Even so, in the dead end of survival, the chain of suspicion still appears. In the real cosmic civilization, the biological differences between different races may reach the level of phylum or even realm[54], and the cultural differences are even more unimaginable , and are separated by an extremely long distance, the chain of suspicion between them is almost indestructible."

"That is to say, whether you or I are a benevolent civilization or a malicious civilization, the result is the same?"

"Yes, this is the most important feature of the chain of suspicion: it has nothing to do with the social form and moral orientation of civilization itself, just regard each civilization as a point at both ends of the chain, regardless of whether the civilization is benevolent or malicious within it, After entering the network of suspicious chains, they will all become the same thing."

"But if you are much weaker than me, and you are not a threat to me, then I can always communicate with you, right?"

"No, this will introduce the second important concept: technological explosion. She didn't have time to explain this concept, but it is much easier to speculate than the chain of suspicion. Human civilization has a history of 5000 years, and the history of life on earth is as long as dozens of years. billions of years, while modern technology was developed in 300 years, on the time scale of the universe, this is not a development at all, it is an explosion! The possibility of a technological leap is the dynamite buried inside every civilization, if there is Internal or external factors ignited it, and it exploded with a bang! The earth is 300 years old, but there is no reason to think that human beings are the fastest-growing civilizations in the universe, and the technology explosion of other civilizations may be more rapid. I am weaker than you. After receiving your communication information and knowing your existence, the chain of suspicion between us was also established. During this period, I may have a technological explosion at any time, and suddenly walk far ahead of you and become stronger than you You must know that on the scale of the universe, hundreds of years are just a flick of a finger, and I know your existence and the information I get from communication is probably the best fuse for the technological explosion. So, even if I am just an infant civilization Or budding civilization is also full of dangers for you."

Shi Qiang looked at the Mars in the darkness on Luo Ji's side in the distance and thought for a few seconds, then looked at his cigarette butt, "Then, I can only keep silent."

"You think about it, right?"

They are both smoking, and as the sparks brighten from time to time, two faces emerge alternately in the darkness, as if they are two contemplative gods in this simple universe.

Shi Qiang said: "No, if you are stronger than me, since I can find you, then you will be able to search for me one day, so there will be a chain of suspicion between us again; if you are weaker than me, but you may find me anytime." If a technological explosion occurs, it becomes the first situation. To sum up: first, let you know my existence; second, let you continue to exist, it is dangerous for me, and it violates the first axiom.”

"Da Shi, you are really a clear-headed person."

"My brain can still keep up with you at the beginning."

Luo Ji remained silent in the darkness for a long time, and after his face appeared two or three times in the dim light of Mars, he said, "Da Shi, it's not the beginning, our deduction is over."

"It's over? We didn't come up with anything? What about the picture of cosmic civilization you mentioned?"

"After you learned of my existence, neither communication nor silence will work, and you only have one choice left."

In the long silence, both sparks went out, there was no wind, and the darkness became as sticky as pitch in the silence, blurring the night sky and the desert into one.In the end, Shi Qiang only uttered one word in the dark:

"Hold!"

"Extend your choice to billions of civilizations among hundreds of billions of stars, and the big picture will come out." Luo Ji nodded in the dark.

"This...is too dark..."

"The real universe is so dark." Luo Ji waved his hand, feeling the texture of darkness like stroking velvet, "The universe is a dark forest, and every civilization is a hunter with a gun, sneaking through the forest like a ghost. Gently push aside the branches blocking the way, try not to let the footsteps make a sound, and even breathe carefully... He must be careful, because there are hunters like him sneaking everywhere in the forest. If he finds other life, no matter what Whether it is a hunter, whether it is an angel or a devil, whether it is a delicate baby or a faltering old man, whether it is a fairy girl or a god boy, there is only one thing that can be done: shoot and destroy. In the forest, other people are hell, an eternal threat, and any life that exposes its existence will be wiped out soon. This is the picture of cosmic civilization, and this is the explanation of Fermi’s paradox.”

Da Shi lit another cigarette, just to get some light.

"But in the dark forest, there was a silly boy named human, who lit a fire and shouted beside him: I am here! I am here!" Luo Ji said.

"Did anyone hear that?"

"It is certain to be heard, but it does not determine the child's location. So far, humans have not sent exact information about the location of the earth and the solar system to the universe. From the information that has been sent, we can only know The relative distance between the solar system and the Trisolaran world, as well as the general direction of these two worlds in the Milky Way, but the exact location of these two worlds is still a secret. You know, we are in a wild area on the edge of the Milky Way, which is relatively safe."

"And what about your spell?"

"The three pictures I sent to the universe through the sun, each has 187 points on it, representing the position projection of 3 stars on the corresponding plane of the three-dimensional coordinate system. Combine these three pictures according to the three-dimensional coordinates , constitutes a cubic space, and the thirty points are distributed in this space, marking the relative positions of 1J187X3 and the thirty stars around it, and marking 1J[-]X[-] with an identifier."

"If you think about it carefully, you can understand: a hunter in the dark forest, while stealthily holding his breath, suddenly saw a piece of bark from a tree in front of him, revealing a striking white wood, on which all hunters can recognize The words drawn out marked a location in the forest. What would the hunter think of this location? He would certainly not think that there were provisions prepared for him by others. Among all other possibilities, the very big possibility is to tell everyone There are living prey that need to be eliminated. The purpose of the marker is not important, what is important is that the nerves of the dark forest have been stretched to the limit in the survival and death situation, and the most sensitive nerve is the one that is most likely to be touched. Suppose There are 100 million hunters in the forest (the number of civilizations that exist in the 90 billion stars in the Milky Way may be hundreds of times this), and 1 may ignore this sign; of the remaining [-] hunters, There may be [-] hunters who detect that location and ignore it after confirming that there are no living things; then among the last remaining [-] hunters, someone will definitely make this choice: try to shoot at that location. , because for a civilization whose technology has developed to a certain level, attacking may be less labor-intensive than detection, and it is also safer than detection. If there is really nothing at that location, you will have no loss. Now, this hunter has appeared."

"You can't cast the spell again, can you?"

"Yes, Dashi, it can't be cast anymore. The spell must be broadcast to the entire galaxy, and the sun is sealed."

"Humans are only one step too late?" Shi Qiang threw away the cigarette butt, and the spark fell in an arc in the darkness, temporarily illuminating a small circle of sand.

"No no, think about it, if the sun hadn't been sealed and I threatened Trisolaran with a spell against it, what would happen?"

"You get stoned by the crowd like Ray Diaz, and then the world will legislate absolutely against it."

"That's right, Da Shi, because the relative distance between the solar system and Trisolaris and the general direction in the Milky Way have been announced, exposing the position of Trisolaris is almost equal to exposing the position of the solar system. A step, but a step that is impossible for human beings to take."

"You should have threatened Trisolaris directly."

"The thing was too weird. I couldn't be sure at the time. I had to confirm it first. Anyway, there was more time. In fact, the real reason was deep in my heart. I really didn't have that spiritual power, and I don't think others would either."

"Thinking about it now, we shouldn't be meeting the mayor today. It would be even more hopeless for the whole world to know about this matter. Think about the fate of those two Wallfacers."

"I just want to do my duty. You're right, it's true, I hope we don't say it, but you can say it, as she said: No matter what, I did my duty."

"Don't worry, brother, I will never say anything."

"In any case, hope is gone."

The two walked onto the roadbed and came to the slightly darker road. The sparse lights of the residential areas in the distance made them squint their eyes.

"One more thing, that...he you mentioned?"

Luo Ji hesitated for a moment and said, "Forget it, all you need to know is that the axiom of cosmic civilization and the theory of the dark forest were not invented by me."

"I'm going to work in the municipal government tomorrow. If you need help in the future, just talk."

"Da Shi, you've helped me enough. Tomorrow I'm going to the city, to the Hibernation Immigration Office, and contact Zhuang Yan and the others about their waking up."

Contrary to Luo Ji's expectations, the Hibernation Immigration Bureau admitted that Zhuang Yan and the child's awakening were still frozen, and the director clearly told him that the authority of the Wallfacer would not work here.Luo Ji found Hines and Jonathan. They didn't know the details of this matter, but they told him that there was a clause in the newly revised Wallfacer Act: the United Nations and the Wallfacer Planning Committee can take all measures to ensure that Wallfacers can focus on their work. .That is to say, two centuries later, the United Nations once again used this incident as a tool to blackmail and control him.

Luo Ji made a request that the hibernator residence be kept as it is, and outside harassment is prohibited.This request was faithfully implemented, the news media and pilgrims were kept at a distance, and everything in New Life Five Village returned to calm, as if nothing had happened.

Two days later, Luo Ji participated in the first hearing after the restoration of the Wall-Facing Project. He did not go to the UN headquarters located underground in North America. Instead, he attended the meeting via video link from his modest residence in the Fifth Village of New Life. The picture appeared on the ordinary TV in the room.

"Wallfacer Luo Ji, we were prepared to face your wrath," said the chairman of the committee.

"My heart is already a pile of burnt ashes, and I don't have the ability to be angry anymore." Luo Ji said lazily, leaning on the sofa.

The chairman nodded, "This is a very good state, but the committee thinks that you should leave that small place. It should not become one of the command centers for the defense of the solar system."

"Do you know Xibaipo? It's not far from here. It's a smaller village. More than two centuries ago, the founder of this country commanded a national war there. The scale of those battles is rare in the world."

The chairman shook his head again, "It seems that you still haven't changed much... Well, the committee respects your habits and choices, you should start working as soon as possible, you won't claim that you have been working all the time like you did then ?”

"I don't have a job right now because the prerequisites for a job don't exist: Can you broadcast my spell to the universe with stellar power?"

The representative of the Asia Fleet said: "You know it's impossible. The suppression of the sun's radio waves by the water droplets has been going on, and we don't expect it to stop for two or three years. By then, another nine water droplets have also reached the solar system."

"Then I can't do anything."

The chairman said, "No, Wallfacer Luo Ji, you still have one important thing to do: announce the secret of the spell to the joint meeting of the United Nations and the Fleet, how did you destroy a star through it?"

"This is impossible."

"What if it is a condition for your beloved wife and children to wake up?"

"You can actually say such a despicable thing here."

"This is a secret meeting. Besides, such things as the wall-facing project cannot be tolerated by modern society. Now that the wall-facing project has been restored, the resolutions made by the United Nations wall-facing project committee two centuries ago are still valid. According to the resolution, Zhuang Yan and your children should wake up during the doomsday battle."

"Isn't what just happened the Battle of Doomsday?"

"The two internationals don't think so. After all, the Trisolaran main fleet hasn't arrived yet."

"I keep the secret of the spell to fulfill my duty as a Wallfacer, otherwise, mankind will lose its last hope, although it seems that this hope no longer exists."

In the few days after the meeting, Luo Ji stayed behind closed doors, drank his sorrows all day long, and spent most of the time in a state of drunkenness.Occasionally people saw him go out, he was disheveled, with a long beard, like a tramp.

The second Wallfacer Project hearing was held, and Luo Ji was still attending the meeting at his residence.

"Wallfacer Luo Ji, your condition looks very worrying to us." The chairman said when he saw the unkempt Luo Ji in the video. He moved the camera in Luo Ji's room, and the delegates saw wine bottles scattered all over the floor. .

"Even if you want to restore yourself to a normal mental state, you should work." The EUNEX representative said.

"You know what it takes to get me back to normal."

"About the awakening of your wife and children, it's actually not that important." The chairman said, "We don't want to use this to control you, and we know we can't control you, but there are previous committee resolutions, so it is still difficult to solve this problem , at least, there must be certain conditions."

"I have rejected your terms."

"No, Dr. Luo Ji, the conditions have changed."

The chairman's words made Luo Ji's eyes light up, and he sat upright on the sofa. "What's the current condition?"

"It's as simple as it gets: you have to do something."

"As long as I can't cast a spell on the universe, I can't do anything."

"You have to come up with something to do."

"That is to say, it's okay if it doesn't make sense?"

"As long as it is meaningful to the public, it is fine. In their eyes, you are now the spokesperson of the just force of the universe, or an angel of justice sent by God to the world. Your identity can at least stabilize the situation. But if you grow up Time to do nothing, and that will lose the public's faith."

"Achieving stability in this way is dangerous and has endless consequences."

"But at present we need the stability of the world situation. Nine water droplets are about to reach the solar system in three years. We must be prepared to deal with it."

"I really don't want to waste resources."

"If this is the case, the committee can provide you with a task, a task that does not waste resources. Let me ask the chairman of the fleet joint meeting to introduce it to you." The chairman said, signaling to the chairman of the fleet joint meeting who also participated in the meeting via video , the latter was apparently in a space building, and the stars were slowly moving past the wide windows behind him.

The chairman of the Fleet Joint Meeting said: "The time for the nine water droplets to reach the solar system is only estimated based on their speed and acceleration when they passed through the last piece of interstellar dust four years ago. These nine water droplets are different from the No. [-] water droplet that has already reached the solar system. They The engine of the engine does not emit light when it is started, nor does it emit any high-frequency electromagnetic radiation that can be located. This is probably a self-adjustment that they made after the No. [-] water droplet was successfully tracked by humans. Searching and tracking such a small object in outer space Objects that don't emit light are hard, and now we've lost track of them, we can't tell when they arrived in the solar system, and we can't even perceive them when they arrive."

"Then what can I do?" Luo Ji asked.

"We want you to lead snow engineering."

"what?"

"It is to use stellar hydrogen bombs and Neptune's oil film material to create a space dust cloud so that water droplets can show their tracks when they pass through."

"Are you kidding me? You know, I'm not exactly an amateur about space."

"You were an astronomer, which makes you even more qualified to lead this project."

"The last time the dust cloud was successfully tracked, it was because I knew the approximate orbit of the target, but now I don't know anything... If the nine water droplets can accelerate and change orbits without emitting light, then they may also travel from another part of the solar system. One side in! Where is this dust cloud supposed to be made?"

"In all directions."

"You mean to create a ball of dust to enclose the solar system? If so, you are really sent by God."

"A dust ball is not possible, but it is possible to create a dust ring, on the plane of the ecliptic [55], between Jupiter and the asteroid belt."

"But what if those drops enter from outside the ecliptic plane?"

"Then there is no way. But from the perspective of astrodynamics, the most likely way for the formation of water droplets to contact the planets in the solar system is to enter from the ecliptic plane, and the No. [-] water droplet is, so that the dust can catch their wakes. Once, optical tracking systems within the solar system can lock on to them."

"What's the point of that?"

"We at least know that formations of water droplets have entered the solar system. They may attack civilian targets in space. At that time, all spacecraft will need to be recalled, or at least the spacecraft on the course of the water droplets, and all inhabitants of space cities will be withdrawn to Earth. These targets are too vulnerable gone."

"There is a more important point," said the chairman of the Wallface Project Committee, "to determine a safe route for the spacecraft that may retreat into deep space."

"Retreating into deep space? We're not talking about escapism, are we?"

"It's fine if you want to use that name."

"Then why not start fleeing now?"

"Current political conditions do not allow it, but when the water drop formation approaches the earth, a limited-scale escape may be acceptable to the international community...Of course this is only a possibility, but the United Nations and the fleet must prepare for this now. "

"Understood, but the snow project doesn't need me?"

"Need, even if only one dust ring in the orbit of Jupiter is built, it is a huge project. To deploy nearly [-] stellar hydrogen bombs, tens of millions of tons of oil film material are needed, which requires the formation of a huge space fleet. If To complete the project within three years, you must use your current status and prestige to organize and coordinate the resources of the two internationals."

"If I agree to take on this mission, when can I wake them up?"

"Wait until the project is fully launched. I said it is not a major issue."

But the snow project never got off the ground.

The two internationals are not interested in the snow project. The public expects the Wallfacer to propose a salvation strategy, not a plan that can only inform the enemy's arrival. Besides, they know that this is not the idea of ​​the Wallfacer, but the joint meeting of the United Nations and the Fleet. It is only a plan promoted by the authority.And, contrary to what the United Nations expected, as the droplet formations approached, fugitiveism became more sinister in the public eye.A full-fledged activation of the Snow program would lead to the stagnation of the entire space economy, and thus a general recession of the Earth and fleet economies, a price that neither international would be willing to pay for the program.Therefore, whether it is the formation of the space fleet to go to Neptune to mine the oil film material, or the manufacture of the stellar hydrogen bomb (of the more than 5000 hydrogen bombs left over from the Rey Diaz project, less than a thousand after two centuries can still be used, for snow engineering, this amount is far from enough), and progress is slow.

Luo Ji devoted himself wholeheartedly to the snow project.Initially, the United Nations and the Fleet Joint Conference just wanted to use his prestige to mobilize the resources needed for the project, but Luo Ji completely immersed himself in the details of the project, spending sleepless nights mingling with the scientists and engineers of the Technical Committee to make proposals for the project. He proposed many ideas of his own. For example, he proposed to install a small interstellar ion engine on each nuclear bomb, so that it can have a certain maneuverability in orbit, so that the density of dust clouds in different regions can be adjusted in time according to needs. More importantly, A hydrogen bomb could be used as a direct attack weapon, which he called a space mine.He believes that although it has been proved that a stellar hydrogen bomb cannot destroy water droplets, in the long run, it may be used to attack Trisolaran spacecraft, because there is currently no evidence to prove that enemy spacecraft are also made of strong interaction materials.He also personally determined where each hydrogen bomb was deployed in orbit around the sun.Although from the point of view of modern technology, many of Luo Ji's ideas are full of naivety and ignorance in the 21st century, but due to his prestige and the power of the Wallfacer, most of these opinions have been adopted.Luo Ji regarded the snow project as a way of escaping, and he knew that the best way to escape reality was to get deeply involved in reality.

But the more Luo Ji devoted himself to the snow project, the more disappointed the world was with him.People know that he devoted himself to this meaningless project just to see his lover and children as soon as possible, and the salvation plan that the world is looking forward to has never appeared. Spells, he is powerless against everything.

The snow field project came to a standstill after a year and a half. At this time, only 150 million tons of oil film substances were collected from Neptune, plus the 60 tons collected in the original fog umbrella project, which was far from the amount required by the project.In the end, only 610 star-class hydrogen bombs wrapped in oil film substances were deployed in orbits two astronomical units from the sun, less than one-fifth of the planned number.If these oil-film hydrogen bombs are detonated, they will not be able to form a continuous dust cloud belt at all, and can only form many independent dust cloud clusters around the sun, which will greatly reduce the early warning effect they can play.

This is an era when disappointment comes as quickly as hope. After waiting anxiously for a year and a half, the public has finally lost patience and confidence in Luo Ji, the Wallfacer.

At the International Astronomical Union General Assembly -- a meeting that last captured the world's attention in 2006, when Pluto was disqualified as a planet -- there were many astronomers and astrophysicists who believed that the explosion of the 187J3X1 star Just an accident.Luo Ji, as an astronomer, probably discovered some signs of the star's explosion in the 21st century.Although there are many loopholes in this statement, it is still believed by more and more people, which hastened the decline of Luo Ji's status.His image in the eyes of the public gradually changed from a savior to an ordinary person, until he became a big liar.Afterwards, although Luo Ji still had the status of a Wallfacer granted by the United Nations, and the Wallfacer Act was still valid, he no longer had any actual power.

In the 208th year of the Crisis Year, Trisolaran Fleet is 2.07 light-years away from the solar system
On a cold and rainy autumn afternoon, the resident representative meeting of District [-] of New Life made a decision: Luo Ji should be expelled from the community on the grounds that he affected the normal life of the residents in the district.During the snow project, Luo Ji often went out to attend meetings, but he spent most of his time in the community. He kept in touch with various organizations of the snow project in his own residence.After Luo Ji resumed his status as a Wallfacer, the fifth district of New Life was under martial law, and the life and work of residents were affected.Later, with the decline of Luo Ji's status, the martial law on the community was gradually relaxed, but the situation was even worse: from time to time, people from the city gathered downstairs where Luo Ji lived, yelling at him, jeering at him, and shouting at him. Stones were thrown from windows, and the news media was intrigued by the sight, often with as many journalists as protesters.But the real reason why Luo Ji was expelled was because the hibernators were completely disappointed in him.

It was evening when the meeting ended, and the director of the neighborhood committee went to Luo Ji's residence to inform him of the meeting's decisions.After she rang the doorbell several times, she pushed open the ajar door by herself, and the air in the room mixed with the smell of alcohol, cigarettes and sweat suffocated her.She saw that the walls of the house had been transformed into information walls in the city, and information interfaces could be clicked everywhere.Chaotic pictures covered all the walls, most of these pictures displayed complex data and curves, and the largest picture showed a sphere suspended in space, which is a star that has been wrapped in an oil film level hydrogen bomb.The oil film material is transparent, and the hydrogen bomb inside can be clearly seen. The director feels that it looks like the glass marbles played by children in the era he came from.The sphere rotates slowly, and there is a small protrusion on one pole of the rotating shaft, which is a plasma engine, and a small sun is reflected on the smooth sphere.Countless pictures flickered dazzlingly, turning the room into a big box of strange shapes and colors. The lights in the room were not turned on, and it was only illuminated by the pictures on the wall. Everything was dissolved in the blurred colored light. It is unclear which is the entity and which is the image.After his eyes got used to it, the director saw that it looked like a drug addict's basement, with wine bottles and cigarette butts scattered all over the floor, piles of dirty clothes covered with soot, like a garbage heap.She managed to find Luo Ji from this rubbish dump. He was curled up in a corner, looking dark against the background of the picture, like a dead tree trunk that had been abandoned there.At first the director thought he was asleep, but soon realized that his eyes were staring blankly at the ground full of garbage, but he was not seeing anything.His eyes were bloodshot, his face was haggard, and his body was too thin to support his own weight.At the director's greeting, he turned his face slowly and nodded at her equally slowly, which convinced her that he was still alive.But the torments of two centuries had now gathered on him and crushed him completely.

Facing this man who had exhausted everything, the director showed no mercy.Like other people in that era, she always felt that no matter how dark the world was, there was always ultimate justice somewhere in the dark. Luo Ji first confirmed her feeling, and then ruthlessly shattered it. Furious at his disappointment, she announced the meeting's decision coldly.

Luo Ji nodded slowly again, and then said in a hoarse voice due to throat inflammation: "I'm leaving tomorrow, I should go, if I do anything wrong, please forgive me."

It was not until two days later that the director understood the true meaning of his last sentence.

In fact, Luo Ji planned to leave that night. After watching the director of the neighborhood committee go out, he stood up staggeringly, went to the bedroom to find a travel bag, and put a few things in it, including a short handle that he found in the storage room. A shovel, the triangular handle of the shovel poking out of the travel bag.Then, he picked up a dirty coat from the floor and put it on, picked up his travel bag and went out, while the information wall in the room behind him continued to shine.

The corridor was empty, but when he came out of the stairs, he met a child who might have just come home from school. The child stared at him with strange and complicated eyes, and watched him go out of the building.After getting outside, Luo Ji realized that it was still raining, but he didn't want to go back to get an umbrella.He didn't look for his car because driving would attract the attention of the guards.He walked out of the community along a small path and met no one again.Passing through the protective forest belt outside the community, he came to the desert. The drizzle sprinkled on his face, caressing him like a pair of cold little hands.Both the desert and the sky were blurred in the twilight, like a blank space in a traditional Chinese painting. Luo Ji imagined adding his own figure to the blank space. This was the last painting left by Zhuang Yan.

He walked onto the highway and stopped a car after waiting for a few minutes. There was a family of three in the car, and they kindly let him get in the car.This family is hibernators who have returned to the old city. The child is still young and the mother is also very young. The three of them huddled in the front seat and whispered. The child would put his head into his mother's arms from time to time, and the three of them laughed together every now and then. stand up.Luo Ji watched intoxicated. He couldn't hear what they said, because there was music in the car, which was an old song from the 20th century. Luo Ji listened to five or six songs along the way, including "Katyusha" and "Cranberry". Flowers Bloom', so he hoped with all his heart to hear "The Hawthorn Tree", which he sang to his imaginary lover two centuries ago on the big stage in front of that village, and later, in that Nordic Garden of Eden, He also sang this song with Zhuang Yan by the lake reflecting the snow-capped mountains.

At this time, a car was driving head-on, and the headlights illuminated the back seat. The child inadvertently glanced back, then stared at Luo Ji and shouted, "Ah, he seems to be a Wallfacer!" Everyone looked back at him, and he had no choice but to admit that he was Luo Ji.

At this time, "The Hawthorn Tree" sounded in the car.

The car stopped, "Get down." The child's father said coldly, and the eyes of the mother and child were as cold as the autumn rain outside.

Luo Ji didn't move, he wanted to hear that song.

"Please go down," the man said again, and Luo Ji read the meaning in their eyes: It's not your fault that you don't have the ability to save the world, but it is an unforgivable sin to give the world hope and then smash it.

Luo Ji had no choice but to get up and get out of the car. His travel bag was thrown out. When the car started, he ran a few steps after him, wanting to listen to the song again, but "Hawthorn Tree" quickly disappeared into the cold rainy night.

This is already the edge of the old city. The high-rise buildings of the past appeared in the distance, standing darkly in the night rain. There were only a few lights on each building, like lonely eyes.Luo Ji found a bus stop and waited for nearly an hour in a shelter from the rain before he got a driverless bus heading in the direction he was going.The car was half empty, and there were six or seven people in it, all of whom seemed to be hibernators from the Old City.The people in the car did not speak, silently feeling the gloom of the autumn night.The journey went smoothly, but after more than an hour, someone still recognized Luo Ji, and everyone in the car unanimously asked him to get out of the car.Luo Ji argued that he had entered the credit points to buy the ticket, so of course he had the right to take the bus.A gray-haired old man took out two cash coins that are now very uncommon and threw them at him, but he was still driven out of the car.

"Wallfacer, what are you doing with your shovel on your back?" Someone asked from the car window while the car was driving.

"Digging a grave for myself," Luo Ji said, causing a burst of laughter in the car.

No one knew he was telling the truth.

It was still raining, and it was impossible to have a car now. Fortunately, the destination was not far away, so Luo Ji picked up his backpack and walked forward.After walking for about half an hour, he turned off the road and walked onto a small road.Far away from the street lights, the surroundings became very dark, and he took out a flashlight from his backpack to illuminate the road under his feet.The road became more and more difficult to walk, and his wet shoes gurgled on the ground. He slipped and fell several times in the mud, and his body was covered with mud. He had to take out the shovel in his backpack and use it as a crutch. There was rain and fog, but he knew that his general direction was correct.

After walking for an hour in the rainy night, Luo Ji came to the cemetery.Half of the cemetery has been buried under the sand, and the other half is still exposed due to the higher terrain.He searched among the rows of tombstones with a flashlight, skipping over the luxurious big ones, and only looking at the inscriptions on the simple small tombstones.The rain reflected light on the stone tablet, like a flashing eye. Luo Ji saw that these tombs were all built before the crisis at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. These people who have passed away in time are very lucky. At this moment, I must think that the world I have lived in will exist forever.

Luo Ji didn't hold out much hope for finding the tombstone he was looking for, but he found it quickly.It was a strange thing that he recognized it without looking at the inscription, after two centuries had passed.Perhaps because of the rain, the tombstone did not show any traces of time, and the words "Yang Dong's Tomb" seemed to have been engraved only yesterday.Ye Wenjie's tomb was right next to her daughter's. The two tombstones were identical except for the inscription. Ye Wenjie's tombstone only had her name and dates of birth and death on it. This reminded Luo Ji of the small stone tablet at the Hong'an site. For the memory of forgetting.The two tombstones stood quietly in the night rain, as if they had been waiting for Luo Ji's arrival.

Luo Ji felt very tired, so he sat down beside Ye Wenjie's grave, but he soon shivered in the cold night rain, so he stood up leaning on a shovel, and began to dig his own grave next to Ye Wenjie's mother and daughter's grave .

At the beginning, the wet soil was relatively easy to dig, but as it went down, the soil became hard and there were many stones mixed in. Luo Ji felt that he had dug into the mountain itself.This made him feel the powerlessness and power of time at the same time: perhaps the thin layer of sand on the top was deposited in these two centuries; but in the long geological age without people, the bearing cemetery was formed of this mountain.He dug very hard, so he could only work for a while and rest for a while, and the night passed unconsciously.

The rain stopped in the middle of the night, and then the clouds began to disperse, revealing part of the starry sky.This is the brightest star Luo Ji has ever seen since he came to this era. On that evening 210 years ago, right here, he and Ye Wenjie faced the same starry sky.

Now he only sees stars and tombstones, but these are the two things that most symbolize eternity.

Luo Ji finally exhausted his strength and could no longer dig.Looking at the pit that has been dug, it is obviously shallower as a tomb, but that's all there is to it.In fact, he did this to remind people that he hopes to be buried here, but his most likely destination is to be reduced to ashes in a crematorium, and then the ashes are discarded in an unknown place, but it really doesn't matter. , very likely, shortly thereafter, his ashes and the world will be reduced to discrete atoms in a grander cremation.

Luo Ji leaned against Ye Wenjie's tombstone and fell asleep very quickly.Maybe it was because of the cold, he dreamed of the snowy field again, on the snowy field he saw Zhuang Yan holding the child again, her red scarf was like a bunch of flames.She and the baby were calling silently to him, and he was yelling at them to get away, because the drops were about to hit here!But his vocal cords can't make a sound, it seems that the world has been muted, and everything is in absolute silence.But Zhuang Yan seemed to understand what he meant, and carried the child away on the snowy field, leaving a series of footprints on the snowy ground, like a faint ink in a Chinese painting, the snowy field is just a blank, only this ink can show the earth Even the existence of the world, so everything becomes Zhuang Yan's painting again.Luo Ji suddenly realized that no matter how far they went, they could not escape, because the coming destruction would cover everything, and this destruction had nothing to do with the water droplets... His heart was torn in agony again, and his hands were in vain in the air. Grabbing, but in the blank space formed by the snow field, there is only Zhuang Yan's fading figure, which has turned into a small black dot.He looked around, trying to find something tangible in the blank world, and he found it, two black tombstones standing side by side on the snow.At first they stood out against the snow, but the surface of the stele was changing, and soon became a fully reflective mirror, like the surface of a water drop, and the inscriptions on it disappeared.Luo Ji leaned over a stele and tried to look at himself through the mirror, but there was no reflection of himself in the mirror, and Zhuang Yan's figure was no longer on the snow field reflected by the mirror, only the faint footprints on the snow.He turned his head sharply, and saw that the snow field outside the mirror image was just blank, and even the footprints had disappeared, so he looked back at the mirror surface of the tombstone. They reflected the blank world, almost making himself invisible, but his hands could still feel Their cold, smooth surfaces...

When Luo Ji woke up, it was already daylight. In the early morning light, the cemetery became clear. Looking at the surrounding tombstones from the angle of lying down, Luo Ji felt as if he was in an ancient Stonehenge.He was having a high fever, his teeth were chattering amidst the violent shaking of his body, his body was burning itself like a wick that had run out of oil.He knew that now was the time.

Luo Ji supported Ye Wenjie's tombstone and tried to stand up, but a small moving black spot on the monument caught his attention.At this time of the season, ants should seldom appear, but it was indeed an ant. It was climbing on the stele, just like the one of its kind two centuries ago, attracted by the inscription, and concentrated on exploring the place. Criss-crossing mysterious grooves.Looking at it, Luo Ji's heart convulsed in pain for the last time, this time, for all life on earth.

"I'm sorry if I did something wrong," he said to the ant.

Luo Ji stood up with difficulty, trembling weakly, he could only stop by holding on to the tombstone.With one hand free, he straightened his mud-soaked clothes and unkempt hair, then fumbled around to pull out a metal tube from his coat pocket, a fully charged pistol.

Then, facing the morning light in the east, he began the final confrontation between the civilization of the earth and the civilization of the Three-Body Problem.

"I'm talking to the Three-Body World." Luo Ji said, his voice was not high. He wanted to repeat it, but he didn't. He knew the other party could hear it.

Nothing has changed, the tombstone stands quietly in the early morning tranquility, and the puddles on the ground reflect the brightening sky, like pieces of mirrors, which give people an illusion: it seems that the earth is a mirror sphere, and the earth and the world are just attached The thin layer above it is now washed away by the rain, and small pieces of the smooth surface of the sphere are exposed.

This world, which has not yet woken up, does not know that it has been placed on the gambling table of the universe as a bargaining chip in a gamble.

Luo Ji raised his left hand, revealing the watch-sized thing on his wrist, and said, "This is a vital sign monitor, which is connected to a cradle system through a transmitter. Diaz, then you must know what the cradle system is. The signal sent by this monitor passes through the link of the cradle system and reaches the 610 four nuclear bombs deployed by the Snow Project on the sun orbit. The signal is every second Launch once to maintain the non-triggering state of these nuclear bombs. If I die, the maintenance signal of the cradle system will disappear, and all nuclear bombs will be detonated, and the oil film material covering the nuclear bombs will form three thousand six hundred and four interstellar clusters around the sun in the explosion Dust, observed from a distance, under the cover of these dust clouds, the sun will scintillate in visible light and other high-frequency bands. The positions of all nuclear bombs in the solar orbit are carefully arranged, which will make the signal formed by the scintillation of the sun send Make three simple graphs, just like the three graphs I sent out two centuries ago. Each graph has thirty points arranged on it, and one of the points is marked. They can be combined into a three-dimensional coordinate graph. But with The difference was that this time, the relative position of Trisolaran and the 610 surrounding stars was sent. The sun will become a lighthouse in the Milky Way, and the spell will be sent out. Of course, the positions of the solar system and the earth will also be Simultaneously exposed. From a point in the Milky Way, it will take more than a year for the graphic launch to be completed, but there should be many civilizations whose technology has developed to such a degree that they can observe the sun from multiple directions at the same time. In that case, it will only take a few days or even a few In an hour, they can get all the information."

As the sky is getting brighter, the stars are disappearing one by one, as if countless eyes are gradually closing; while the morning sky in the east, which is lighting up, is slowly opening like a huge eye.The ants continued to climb on Ye Wenjie's tombstone, walking through the maze formed by her name.A hundred million years before this monumental gambler, his race had lived on Earth, and it had its share of the world, but it didn't care what was going on.

Luo Ji left the tombstone, stood next to the tomb he had dug for himself, put the pistol to his heart, and said, "Now, I will stop my heart from beating, and at the same time I will become the leader of the two worlds. Biggest criminal. I deeply apologize to both civilizations for the crimes committed, but will not repent because this is the only option. I know Sophon is around, but you never heed the call of humanity , Silence is the greatest contempt, we have endured this contempt for two centuries, now, if you want, you can continue to be silent, I only give you 30 seconds."

Luo Ji counted the time according to his own heartbeat. Since his heartbeat was very fast now, he counted two times as one second. In the extreme nervousness, he made a wrong count at the beginning and had to start counting from the beginning, so when Sophon appeared, he could not count. To determine how much time has passed, the objective time has passed less than ten seconds, and the subjective time is as long as a lifetime.At this time, he saw the world divided into four parts in front of his eyes, one part was the surrounding real world, and the other three parts were deformed images.The reflection came from three spheres that suddenly appeared above him. They all had fully reflecting mirrors, just like the tombstone he saw in his last dream.He didn't know that this was Sophon's ki-dimensional expansion. The three spheres were all huge, covering half of the sky in front of him, blocking the brightening eastern sky, and he saw it in the western sky reflected by the spheres. A few remnant stars, the deformed cemetery and himself are reflected under the sphere.What Luo Ji wanted to know most was why there were three. He first thought of the symbol of the three-body world, just like the artwork that Ye Wenjie saw at the last ETO party; But when he saw the unusually clear image of reality, he felt that it was the entrance of three parallel worlds, implying three possible choices; what he saw next negated his idea, because all three spheres appeared two identical words:
stop!

"Can I talk about the conditions?" Luo Ji looked up at the three spheres and asked.

You put the gun down first, then we can negotiate.

These characters were still displayed on the three spheres at the same time, and the handwriting glowed red, which was extremely eye-catching. Luo Ji saw that the lines of characters on the spheres were not deformed, they were in a neat line, so that it looked like they were on the surface of the sphere, but also As in their interiors, he reminded himself, this is looking at the projection of higher-dimensional space on the three-dimensional world.

"This is not a negotiation, it is my request to continue living. I just want to know whether you agree or not."

Say what you want.

"Stop the droplet, or probe, from sending radio waves to the sun."

Have done as you said.

The sphere's answer was quicker than expected, and Luo Ji had no way to verify it now, but he felt some subtle changes in the surrounding space, as if some kind of background sound that had persisted and remained unnoticed disappeared, of course. , This may be an illusion, people cannot feel electromagnetic radiation.

"Let the nine water droplets that are heading towards the solar system immediately change their course and fly away from the solar system."

This time the answer from the three spheres was slightly delayed for a few seconds.

Have done as you said.

"Please give humans the means of verification."

All nine detectors will emit visible light, which can be observed by your Ringer-Fitzroy telescope.

It was still impossible for Luo Ji to verify these, but at this time, he believed in the Three-Body World.

"The last condition: the Trisolaran Fleet must not cross the Oort Nebula."

The fleet is now at the maximum deceleration propulsion power, and it is impossible to reduce the relative speed to the sun to zero outside the Oort nebula.

"That's turning like a formation of water droplets, making the course deviate from the solar system."

Turning in any direction is a dead end. This will cause the fleet to skim the solar system and enter the desolate space. At that time, it will take a long time to return to Trisolaran or find other survivable galaxies. The fleet’s ecological cycle system cannot last for that long. .

"It doesn't have to be a dead end. Maybe humans or the spaceships from Trisolaran will be able to catch up and rescue them in the future."

This requires a directive from the Supreme Archon.

"Turning is a very long process after all, let's do it first, and give me and other lives a chance to survive."

There is a 3 minute silence, then:

The fleet will start to turn 10 minutes after the earth time, and the human space observation system will be able to detect the change of course about three to ten minutes after the start of the turn.

"Okay, that's enough for me." Luo Ji said, taking the pistol away from his chest at the same time, his other hand resting on the tombstone, trying not to let himself fall down, "You have long known the darkness of the universe Is the state of the forest?"

Yes, I knew it a long time ago, but it's strange that you didn't know it until so late... Your health makes us worry. This won't accidentally interrupt the maintenance signal of the cradle system, right?

"No, this device is much more advanced than Ray Diaz's. As long as I am alive, the signal will not interrupt the transmission."

You'd better sit down, and it will improve your condition.

"Thank you." Luo Ji said, and sat down by the tombstone. "Don't worry, I won't die."

We are in contact with the highest levels of both internationals, would you like to call an ambulance for you?

Luo Ji shook his head with a smile, "No, I'm not a savior. I just want to leave here and go home like an ordinary person. I'll leave after a short rest."

Two of the three spheres disappeared, and the writing on the remaining one no longer glowed, looking gloomy:

We still fail in our strategy.

Luo Ji nodded, "Using dust clouds to block the sun and send messages between stars is not my invention. Astronomers have proposed this idea as early as the 20th century. In fact, you have had many opportunities to see me. For example, in the snow project I have been so concerned about the exact position of the nuke in the orbit of the sun all the time."

You were alone in the control room for two months, remote-controlling the ion motors on the bombs to fine-tune their positions, and we didn't pay any attention to it at the time, thinking you were just doing it through meaningless work. Escapism.It never occurred to us that the spacing of these nukes had any significance.

"There was another opportunity, when I consulted a group of physicists about the deployment of sophons in space [56]. If the ETO was still there, they would have seen me through."

Yes, it was a mistake to ditch them.

"Also, I asked for such a strange cradle trigger system to be built in the snow project."

This does remind us of Rey Diaz, but without thinking more about it, Rey Diaz from two centuries ago was harmless to us, and neither were the other two Wallfacers, we put the Their contempt is also transferred to you.

"It's unfair to underestimate them. Those three Wallfacers are all great strategists. They have clearly seen the fact that human beings will inevitably fail in the battle of doomsday."

Maybe we can start negotiating.

"That's not my business anymore." Luo Ji let out a long breath after speaking, feeling as relaxed and comfortable as a newborn.

Yes, you've completed the mission of the Wallfacers, but you can always make some suggestions, right?

"The human negotiators must first ask you to help build a more complete signal transmission system, so that humans can master the ability to launch spells into space at any time. Even if the water droplets unblock the sun, the current system is too primitive."

We can help build a neutrino emission system.

"As far as I know, they may be more inclined to gravitational waves. After the arrival of sophons, this is a field where human physics has gone far. Of course, they need a system that they can understand its principles."

The volume of the gravitational wave antenna is huge.

"That's between you and them. Strange, I don't feel like a part of humanity now, and my greatest wish is to get out of this as soon as possible."

Next they will ask us to lift the sophon blockade and fully teach science and technology.

"This is also very important to you. Trisolaran's technology is developing at a constant speed, and no faster follow-up fleet has been dispatched until two centuries later. Therefore, to rescue the yaw Trisolaran fleet, only future humans can rely on it. gone."

I'm leaving, can you really go back by yourself?Your life is at stake for the survival of two civilizations.

"No problem, I feel better now, I will hand over the bassinet system as soon as I go back, then, I have nothing to do with it, and finally just want to say: thank you."

why?
"Because you let me survive. In fact, as long as we change our way of thinking, we can all survive."

The sphere disappears, returning to the microscopic state of the eleventh dimension.The sun had already peeked out from the east, casting golden light on the world that had survived the destruction.

Luo Ji stood up slowly, took one last look at the tombstones of Ye Wenjie and Yang Dong, and staggered along the path he had come from.

The ant had already climbed to the top of the tombstone, proudly waving its tentacles at the rising sun, and it was the only witness to what had just happened, as far as life on earth was concerned.

Five years later.

Luo Ji's family saw the gravitational wave antenna from a distance, but it took half an hour for the car to reach it, and only then did they really feel its hugeness.The antenna is a horizontal cylinder with a length of 500 meters and a diameter of more than 50 meters. The whole is suspended at a position about two meters above the ground.Its surface is also a smooth mirror, half reflecting the sky and half reflecting the North China Plain.It reminds people of several things: the giant pendulum of the Three-body world, the low-dimensional unfolding sophon, and the water droplet.This kind of mirror object reflects a certain concept of Trisolaran that is still difficult for human beings to understand. In one of their famous sayings, it is: hiding the self by faithfully reflecting the universe is the only way to integrate into eternity.

There is a large piece of green grass around the antenna, forming a small oasis in the desert of North China.This piece of grass was not specially planted. After the gravitational wave system was built, it has been emitting continuously, but the waves emitted have not been modulated. It is no different from the gravitational waves emitted by supernova explosions, neutron stars or black holes, but the dense gravitational beams are There is a strange effect in the atmosphere. The water vapor in the atmosphere gathers above the antenna, which makes it rain frequently around the antenna. Sometimes, the rainy area is only three or four kilometers in radius, and a circular rain cloud is like a giant flying saucer in the clear sky. Suspended above the antenna, the brilliant sun around you can be seen through the rain.As a result, lush weeds grew in this area.But today Luo Ji's family did not see such a spectacle. They only saw a white cloud gathered over the antenna. The cloud was blown out of the range of the beam by the wind and then dissipated. However, new clouds continued to form inside the beam, making the cloud The circular sky is like a time-space erosion hole leading to another cloud universe. After seeing it, the child said it looked like the white hair of a giant grandpa.

Luo Ji and Zhuang Yan followed the children running on the grass and came under the antenna.The first two gravitational-wave systems, built in Europe and North America, used magnetic levitation to lift their antennas only a few centimeters from their bases; this one uses anti-gravity and can go all the way into space if you choose.The three stood on the grass below the antenna and looked up. A huge cylinder stretched forward from the top of their heads, like the sky curling up from both sides.Due to the large radius and the small curvature of the bottom surface, the above image is not distorted.At this time, the setting sun had already shone under the antenna, and Luo Ji saw Zhuang Yan's long hair and white skirt fluttering in the golden sunlight in the reflection, like an angel looking down from the sky on the ground.Luo Ji lifted the child up, her little hand touched the clean surface of the antenna, and she pushed hard in one direction.

"Can I make it spin?"

"If you push it long enough, it will turn." Zhuang Yan replied, then looked at Luo Ji with a smile and asked, "Really?"

Luo Ji nodded to Zhuang Yan, "If time is long enough, she can push the earth."

As has happened countless times, their eyes met again, a continuation of the one they had seen in the Mona Lisa's smile two centuries earlier.They found that Zhuang Yan's eye language has really become a reality, or that human beings who love each other have long possessed this language.When they looked at each other, rich meanings poured out of their gazes, endlessly like clouds from a well of clouds formed by gravitational beams.But this is not the language of this world, it has constructed a world that makes itself meaningful, and only in that rose-colored world can all the words of this language find their counterparts.Everyone in that world is God, who can instantly count every grain of sand in the desert and remember them, and who can string stars into crystal necklaces and hang them on the neck of his lover...

Is this love?
The inscription appeared next to them in a low-dimensional unfolding sophon, a mirrored sphere that seemed to be a droplet that had melted from somewhere in the cylinder above.Luo Ji didn't know many Trisolarans, so he didn't know who he was talking to now, and he didn't know whether this alien was in the Trisolaran world or in the fleet that was getting farther and farther away from the solar system.

"Probably so." Luo Ji smiled and nodded.

Dr. Luo Ji, I'm here to protest to you.

"why?"

Because in the speech last night, you said that human beings have been unable to see clearly the dark forest state of the universe, not because of immature civilization evolution and lack of cosmic consciousness, but because human beings have love.

"Isn't that right?"

Yes, although the meaning of the word "love" is somewhat ambiguous in scientific discourse, but your last sentence is wrong. You said that it is very likely that human beings are the only race with love in the universe. It is this idea that supports you to go on. Finished the most difficult part of his Wallfacer mission.

"Of course, this is just a way of expression, a loose... metaphor."

At least I know that Trisolaran also has love, but it is suppressed in the bud because it is not conducive to the overall survival of civilization, but the vitality of this bud is very tenacious and will grow in some individuals.

"excuse me, you are……"

We didn't know each other before, I was the listener who warned the earth two and a half centuries ago.

"My God, are you still alive?" Zhuang Yan exclaimed.

I can't live long, I have been dehydrated, but after such a long time, the dehydrated body will also age.But I really saw the future I wanted to see, and I feel very happy.

"Please accept our respect," Luo Ji said.

I just want to discuss with you a possibility: Maybe the germ of love exists in other places in the universe, and we should encourage her germination and growth.

"We can take risks for that."

Yes, it is possible to take risks.

"I have a dream that maybe one day, the bright sun will shine into the dark forest."

At this time, the sun here is setting, and now only a point on the top of the distant mountain is exposed, like a shining gem inlaid on the top of the mountain.The child has run away, bathed in the golden sunset together with the grass.

The sun is about to set, and your children are not afraid?
"Of course I'm not afraid, she knows the sun will rise tomorrow."