Three Body 1: Earth's Past

Chapter 2 Science Frontiers
Wang Miao felt that the four people who came to him were a strange combination: two policemen and two soldiers. It would be normal if the two soldiers were armed police, but these were two army officers.

Wang Miao did not like the policeman who came to him at first glance.Actually the young man in the police uniform was okay and behaved very politely, but the plainclothes man was annoying.This man was tall and thick, with a fleshy face, wearing a dirty leather jacket, smelled like cigarettes, and spoke in a rough voice. He was the type of person that Wang Miao disliked the most.

"Wang Miao?" the man asked. Calling him by his first name made Wang Miao very uncomfortable. Besides, the man was still lighting a cigarette without raising his head.Before Wang Miao could answer, he motioned to the young man next to him. The latter showed Wang Miao his police officer's card, and after he finished lighting his cigarette, he went straight into the house.

"Please don't smoke in my house." Wang Miao stopped him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Professor Wang. This is our Captain Shi Qiang." The young police officer said with a smile, and at the same time winked at Shi.

"Success, let's talk in the corridor." Shi Qiang said, taking a deep breath, the cigarette in his hand was almost half burnt, and then he did not exhale the smoke. "You ask." He turned his head to the young police officer again.

"Professor Wang, we want to know. Recently, you have had contact with members of the 'Boundary of Science' society, right?"

"'Boundary of Science' is an academic organization with great influence in the international academic circle, and its members are all famous scholars. Why can't I get in touch with such a legitimate academic organization?"

"Look at you!" Shi Qiang said loudly, "Did we say it's illegal? Did we say we won't let you touch it?" As he spoke, the smoke he inhaled just now sprayed onto Wang Miao's face superior.

"Well, this is personal privacy, and I don't have to answer your questions."

"Everything is private. A famous scholar like you should be responsible for public safety." Shi Qiang threw away the cigarette butt in his hand, and took another one out of the crushed cigarette case.

"I have the right not to answer, please go ahead." Wang Miao said and turned to go back to the room.

"Wait!" Shi Qiang said sharply, and at the same time waved his hand at the young police officer next to him, "Give him the address and phone number, and go for a walk in the afternoon."

"What are you doing!" Wang Miao asked angrily. The quarrel caused the neighbors to poke their heads out to see what happened.

"Team Shi! You said you—" The young police officer angrily pulled Shi Qiang aside. Obviously, Wang Miao was not the only one who was uncomfortable with his vulgarity.

"Professor Wang, please don't get me wrong." A major officer hurried forward, "There is an important meeting in the afternoon, and several scholars and experts will be invited to attend. The chief asked us to invite you."

"I'm very busy this afternoon."

"We know this. The chief has already greeted the leaders of the superconducting center. We can't do without you at this meeting. We can't do it. We have to postpone the meeting to wait for you."

Shi Qiang and his colleagues didn't speak any more, turned around and went downstairs. The two officers seemed to let out a sigh of relief as they watched them walk away.

"Why is this man like this?" the major whispered to his colleagues.

"He has a lot of bad deeds. In a hostage-taking incident a few years ago, he acted without regard to the life and death of the hostages. As a result, a family of three died at the hands of criminals; gang; last year, torture was used to extract a confession, and a suspect was disabled, so he was suspended..."

"How can such a person enter the combat center?"

"The chief called him by name. There should be something special about him. However, the restrictions on him are very strict. Except for public security affairs, he is almost not allowed to know anything."

Operation center?what is that?Wang Miao looked at the two officers in front of him in puzzlement.

The car that picked up Wang Miao drove into a compound in the outskirts of the city. From the gate with only the house number but no unit name plate, Wang Miao knew that this was the territory of the military, not the police.

The meeting was held in a hall, and Wang Miao was quite surprised by the chaos as soon as he entered.Around the hall is a circle of randomly placed computer equipment. Some tables are placed on the floor if they cannot fit on the table. Wires and network cables are entangled and scattered on the ground; a large stack of network switches is not installed in the rack, but piled up on the server. ; There are several large projector screens standing randomly at different angles in the corner of the hall, like a gypsy tent; the smoke floats in mid-air like morning fog...Wang Miao doesn't know if this is the one The combat center mentioned by a military officer, he can be sure of one thing: the things being dealt with here have already made people forget about other things.

The impromptu meeting table was also full of documents and sundries. Most of the participants looked tired, their clothes were wrinkled, and those with ties were torn apart, as if they had stayed up all night.The meeting was chaired by a major general named Chang Weisi, and half of the participants were soldiers.After a brief introduction, he knew that there were still a small number of police officers, and the others were experts and scholars who attended the meeting like him, and some of them were well-known scientists who studied basic science.

What surprised him was that there were four foreigners whose identities surprised him: two of them were also soldiers, namely a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and a colonel in the British Army, and their positions were NATO liaison officers; A CIA officer, what is the role of an observer here.

From everyone's faces, Wang Miao read a sentence: We have tried our best, let's fucking end it!

When Wang Miao saw Shi Qiang, he greeted Wang Miao contrary to yesterday's rudeness, but that silly smile made Wang Miao unhappy.He didn't want to sit next to Shi Qiang, but there was only one vacant seat, so he had no choice but to sit there. The already strong smell of cigarettes in the room became even heavier.

When distributing the documents, Shi Qiang approached Wang Miao and said, "Professor Wang, you seem to be researching... new materials?"

"Nanomaterials." Wang Miao answered simply.

"I've heard that it's very powerful, so it won't be used for crimes, right?" From Shi Qiang's half-joking expression, Wang Miao couldn't tell if he was joking.

"What do you mean?"

"Heh, I heard that that thing is as thick as a hair can lift a big truck, if criminals steal some to make a knife, that knife can cut a car in half."

"Hmph, you don't need to make a knife at all, use that kind of material to make a thread that is only one percent thicker than a human hair, and when you stop on the road, you can cut passing cars in half like cutting cheese... What can't be used For crime? A knife for scraping fish scales will do it!"

Shi Qiang took half of the document in front of him out of his pocket and stuffed it back, apparently losing interest. "That's right, fish can do crimes! I did a murder case where a bitch cut off her husband's. Know what? Tilapia from the freezer! The fish was frozen hard Finally, the row of thorns on the back is like a sharp knife..."

"I'm not interested. Why, that's why you asked me to come to the meeting?"

"Fish? Nanomaterials? No, no, it has nothing to do with those." Shi Qiang put his mouth next to Wang Miao's ear, "Don't give these guys a good face, they discriminate against us and only want to get information from us, but what? Don’t even tell us. Like me, I have been here for more than a month, and I still don’t know anything like you.”

"Comrades, the meeting begins." General Chang Weisi said, "In all theaters around the world, our place is now the focus. First, let me introduce the current situation to the comrades attending the meeting."

The unusual term "war zone" confused Wang Miao. He also noticed that the chief didn't seem to intend to introduce the ins and outs to a newcomer like him, which confirmed Shi Qiang's words.In General Chang's brief opening remarks, he mentioned "comrades" twice. Wang Miao looked at the two NATO soldiers and two CIA officials opposite him, and felt that the general had missed "gentlemen".

"They are also comrades, that's what people here call them anyway." Shi Qiang said to Wang Miao in a low voice, and at the same time pointed to the four foreigners with a cigarette in his hand.

While being puzzled, Wang Miao was impressed by Shi Qiang's observation ability.

"Da Shi, put out the cigarette, the smell of smoke here is strong enough." Chang Weisi said, looking down at the documents.

Shi Qiang took the cigarette he had just lit and looked around, but couldn't find the ashtray, so he threw it into the teacup with a "squeak".He seized this opportunity to raise his hand to ask for a speech, and before Chang Weisi could make a statement, he said loudly: "Chief, I have a request, as I mentioned before - the information is equal!"

General Chang Weisi raised his head, "No military operation is equal in information. I ask the experts and scholars present at the meeting to understand that it is impossible for us to introduce more background information to you."

"But we are different." Shi Qiang said, "The police have been involved in the combat center since its establishment, but until now, we don't even know what this agency does. Moreover, you are pushing the police out. Get acquainted with our work first, and then drive us away one by one."

Several other police officers at the meeting stopped Shi Qiang in low voices.Wang Miao was a little surprised that Shi Qiang dared to say such a thing to a chief at Chang Weisi's level, and the latter's counterattack was even sharper.

"I'm talking about Da Shi. Now it seems that your old problems in the army have not changed. Can you represent the police? You have been suspended for several months because of your bad behavior, and you will soon be cleared from the police force. I transferred you because I value your experience in urban policing, and you should cherish this opportunity."

Da Shi said in a rough voice: "Then I have committed crimes and meritorious deeds? Didn't you say that those were all crooked experiences?"

"But it's useful." Chang Weisi nodded to Shi Qiang, "As long as it's useful, I don't care so much now. This is a time of war."

"We can't take care of anything," said a CIA intelligence officer in standard Mandarin. "We can no longer use conventional thinking."

The British colonel obviously could understand Chinese, he nodded, "To be or not to be..."

"What did he say?" Shi Qiang asked Wang Miao.

"Nothing." Wang Miao replied mechanically.These people seem to be talking in their dreams, during the war?Where is the war?He turned his head and looked at the floor-to-ceiling windows in the hall, through which he could see the city outside the compound in the distance: under the spring sunshine, the streets were full of traffic; on the lawn, there were people walking their dogs, and several children were playing...

Which is more real, the world inside or outside?

General Chang said: "Recently, the enemy's attacks have obviously intensified, and the target is still high-level scientific circles. Please take a look at the list in the document first."

Wang Miao took out the top sheet of paper, which was typed in large characters. The list was obviously drafted hastily, with both Chinese and English names.

"Professor Wang, what impression do you have when you see this list?" Chang Weisi looked at Wang Miao and asked.

"I know that three of them are famous scholars at the forefront of physics." Wang Miao replied, a little absent-minded, his eyes locked on the last name. The above lines are different.How can I see her name here?What's up with her?
"Know?" Da Shi asked, pointing at the name on the document with a thick smoky yellow finger.Seeing that Wang Miao didn't respond, he reacted quickly and said, "Oh, I don't know you well. Want to know?"

Now, Wang Miao knew that it was reasonable for Chang Weisi to transfer his former soldier, this vulgar-looking guy with eyes like knives.He may not be a good cop, but he is a tough one.

That was a year ago, and Wang Miao was in charge of the nano-component part of the "Zhonghua-[-]" high-energy accelerator project.That afternoon on the construction site in Liangxiang, during a short break, he was suddenly attracted by a composition in front of him.As a landscape photographer, realistic scenes often form artistic compositions in his eyes.The main body of the composition is the superconducting coil they are installing. The coil is three stories high and halfway through the installation. It looks like a monster composed of a huge metal block and a mess of ultra-low temperature refrigerant pipes, like a pile of giants from the industrial era. The rubbish shows an inhuman technological coldness and steely brutality.Just in front of the metal monster, a slender figure of a young woman appeared.The distribution of light in this composition is also excellent: the metal giant is submerged in the shadow of the temporary construction roof, revealing the cold and rough texture; and a beam of golden light from the setting sun, through the hole in the roof, just casts on the figure , the soft warm light shone on her soft hair, and shone on the white neck on the collar of the overalls, which looked like a delicate flower blooming on the huge metal ruins after a violent thunderstorm...

"What are you looking at, work!"

Wang Miao was startled, and then realized that the director of the Nano Research Center was not talking about him, but a young engineer, who was also staring blankly at the figure like himself.Wang Miao came back to reality from art, and found that the woman was not an ordinary worker, because the chief engineer was accompanying her, introducing something to her, with a very respectful look.

"Who is she?" Wang Miao asked the director.

"You should know her," said the director, drawing a big circle with his hand, "after the accelerator with an investment of 200 billion is built, the first operation may be to verify a superstring model she proposed. In terms of seniority In the theoretical research circle, it wasn't her turn, but those old guys didn't dare to come first, for fear of embarrassment, so they let her take advantage of it."

"What? Yang Dong is...a woman?!"

"Yes, we only found out when we saw her the day before yesterday," said the director.

The engineer asked: "Is there some psychological barrier to her, or why has she never appeared in the media? Don't be like Qian Zhongshu. Everyone didn't watch it on TV until death."

"But it's not like we don't know Qian Zhongshu's gender, right? I think she must have had some unusual experiences in her childhood, which led to her getting autism." Wang Miao said, feeling somewhat sour grapes.

Yang Dong and the chief engineer came over, she smiled and nodded to them as they passed by, without saying a word, but Wang Miao remembered her clear eyes.

That night, Wang Miao was sitting in his study room, admiring some of his favorite landscape photos hanging on the wall. His eyes fell on a scene beyond the Great Wall—a desolate valley with snow-capped mountains emerging from the end of the valley. A touch of whiteness; at this end of the valley, half of the vicissitudes of dead wood occupy almost one-third of the picture.In Wang Miao's imagination, he overprinted the figure that lingered in his mind onto the picture, making her look very small in the depths of the valley; at this moment, Wang Miao was surprised to find that the whole picture came to life, as if in the photo. Her world recognized that figure, as if all this existed for her.In turn, he superimposed that figure on several other works in his imagination, and sometimes used her eyes as the background of the empty sky in the photos. beautiful.In the past, Wang Miao always felt that his photographs lacked some kind of soul; now he knows that what is missing is her.

"These physicists on the list committed suicide one after another in less than two months," Chang Weisi said.

With a thunderbolt from the blue sky, Wang Miao's mind went blank.Later, images gradually appeared in this blank space, which were his black and white landscape photos. In the photos, her figure disappeared from the earth, her eyes were erased from the sky, and those worlds died.

"Is... when?" Wang Miao asked blankly.

"In less than two months." General Chang repeated.

"You mean the last one." Da Shi, who was sitting next to Wang Miao, said triumphantly, and then lowered his voice, "She was the last suicide victim. She took an overdose of sleeping pills the night before yesterday. She died smoothly and without pain. .”

In an instant, Wang Miao felt so grateful to Da Shi.

"Why?" Wang Miao asked, the dead landscape paintings in those photos were still recurring in his mind like a magic lantern.

Chang Weisi replied: "Now there is only one thing that is certain: the reason that prompted them to commit suicide is the same. But the reason itself is difficult to explain here, and it may not be clear to us laymen at all. Attached to the document is Part of their suicide note, you can take a closer look after the meeting."

Wang Miao flipped through the photocopies of those suicide notes, and they were all long-winded.

"Dr. Ding Yi, can you show Professor Wang Yang Dong's suicide note? Hers is the shortest and most general."

It took a long time for the person who kept his head down to respond, he took out a white envelope and handed it to Wang Miao across the table. Da Shi whispered next to him, "He is Yang Dong's boyfriend." Wang Miao then remembered I also met Ding Yi at the high-energy accelerator site in Liangxiang. He is a member of the theoretical team. This physicist is famous for his discovery of macro atoms in the study of ball lightning[1].Wang Miao took out a piece of something that exuded a delicate fragrance from the envelope. The shape was irregular. It was not paper, but a piece of birch bark. There was a line of beautiful words on it:

Everything leads to the result that physics never existed and never will.I know it's irresponsible for me to do this, but I have no choice.

Without even signing, she left.

"Physics...doesn't exist?" Wang Miao looked around blankly.

General Chang closed the folder, "There are some relevant specific information related to the experimental results obtained after the completion of the three new high-energy accelerators in the world. It is very professional, and we will not discuss it here. The first thing we want to investigate is the 'science boundary' The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization designated 2005 as the World Year of Physics. This organization was gradually born during the frequent academic conferences and exchanges in the international physics community in this year. It is a loose international academic organization. Dr. Ding, you It is a theoretical physics major, can you further introduce its situation?"

Ding Yi nodded and said, "I don't have any direct connection with 'Boundary of Science', but this organization is well-known in the academic circle. Its purpose is: Since the second half of the last century, the simplicity and power of classical physics theories have gradually Disappeared, the theoretical picture becomes more and more complicated, blurred and uncertain, and the experimental verification is also more and more difficult, which indicates that the frontier exploration of physics seems to have encountered great obstacles and difficulties. "Scientific Frontiers" tries to open up a new Simply put, it is trying to use scientific methods to find out the limitations of science, trying to determine whether there is a bottom line in the depth and precision of science’s cognition of nature—below the bottom line, science cannot enter. Modern physics The development of science seems to have vaguely touched this bottom line."

"Very good." Chang Weisi said, "As far as we know, most of these scholars who committed suicide had contact with 'Science Frontier', and some were its members. However, no evidence such as cult mind control or use of illegal drugs was found. Criminal behavior. That is to say, even if the 'Boundary of Science' has affected those scholars, it is through legitimate academic communication channels. Professor Wang, they have been in touch with you recently, and we would like to know something about it."

Da Shi said in a rough voice: "Include the name of the contact person, the place and time of meeting, the content of the conversation, if any written materials or e-mails have been exchanged..."

"Big History!" Chang Weisi stopped him sharply.

"If you don't say anything, no one will think you are dumb!" A police officer next to him leaned over and whispered to Da Shi. The latter picked up the teacup on the table, saw the cigarette butts inside, and put it down again with a "boom". .

The great history made Wang Miao feel as uncomfortable as if he had eaten a fly, and the trace of gratitude just now disappeared without a trace.But he still restrained himself from answering this question: "My contact with 'Boundary of Science' started when I met Shen Yufei, a Chinese-Japanese physicist who now works for a Japanese-funded company and lives in this city .She used to work on nanomaterials research in a Mitsubishi Electric laboratory. We met at a technical seminar earlier this year. Through her, I met several friends who majored in physics, all members of 'Science Frontiers' , both at home and abroad. When interacting with them, we always talk about some very... How should I put it, very ultimate issues, mainly the bottom line of science mentioned by Dr. Ding just now."

"I didn't have much interest in these issues at the beginning, just as a pastime. I am engaged in applied research, and my level in this area is not high. I mainly listen to their discussions and arguments. These people have deep thoughts, novel views, and their own I feel that communicating with them has broadened my mind a lot and gradually became more involved. But the topics discussed are limited to this, and they are all pure theories, nothing special. They once invited me to join the 'Scientific Frontier', but in that case , attending such a seminar became an obligation, and I declined due to limited energy.”

"Professor Wang, we hope that you will accept the invitation to join the 'Boundary of Science' Society, which is also the main purpose of our invitation today." General Chang said, "We hope to obtain some internal information about this organization through your channel. "

"Are you telling me to go undercover?" Wang Miao asked uneasily.

"Wahhaha, undercover agent!" Da Shi laughed loudly.

Chang Weisi glanced at Da Shi reproachfully, and said to Wang Miao: "Just to provide some information, we have no other channels."

Wang Miao shook her head, "I'm sorry, Chief. I can't do this."

"Professor Wang, 'Science Frontiers' is an organization composed of top international scholars. The investigation of it is an extremely complicated and sensitive matter. We are really walking on thin ice. Without the help of the intellectual community, we cannot move forward, so we propose I hope you can understand this abrupt request. But we also respect your wishes, and if you disagree, we can understand."

"I'm... very busy with work, and I don't have time." Wang Miao evaded.

Chang Weisi nodded, "Okay, Professor Wang, then we won't waste your time anymore, thank you for coming to this meeting."

Wang Miao was stunned for a few seconds before realizing that it was time for him to leave.

When Chang Weisi politely sent Wang Miao to the door of the meeting room, Da Shi said loudly from behind: "This is very good, I don't agree with this plan at all. There are already so many nerds who have committed suicide, let him go." 'Meat buns beat dogs'?"

Wang Miao turned back and walked to Da Shi's side, trying to restrain her anger, "You really don't look like a qualified police officer when you talk like that."

"I wasn't originally."

"The reason why those scholars committed suicide is still unclear. You shouldn't talk about them in such a contemptuous tone. Their contribution to human society with their wisdom is irreplaceable by anyone."

"You mean they're better than me?" Da Shi looked up at Wang Miao from the chair, "I'm not going to commit suicide after listening to a few words from others."

"Then you mean I will?"

"You must be responsible for your safety." Da Shi looked at Wang Miao and showed his trademark smirk again.

"I'm much safer than you in that situation. You should know that a person's discernment is directly proportional to his knowledge."

"That's not necessarily true, someone like you..."

"Da Shi, if you want to say one more thing, get out from here too!" Chang Weisi sternly reprimanded.

"It's okay, let him say," Wang Miao turned to General Chang, "I changed my mind and decided to join the 'Scientific Boundary' as you mean."

"Very good," Da Shi nodded again and again, "Be smart when you go in, and you can do some things easily, such as glancing at their computers, remembering their email addresses or URLs..."

"Enough! Enough! You misunderstood, I am not going undercover, I just want to prove your ignorance and stupidity!"

"If you're still alive after a while, that will prove it. But I'm afraid... hehe." Da Shi raised his head, his smirk turned into a grin.

"Of course I will live forever, but I really don't want to see a person like you again!"

Chang Weisi sent Wang Miao down the stairs and arranged for a car to take him off. When saying goodbye, he said, "Shi Qiang has that kind of temper. In fact, he is a very experienced criminal policeman and anti-terrorist expert. More than 20 years ago, he Was a soldier in my company."

Walking to the front of the car, Chang Weisi said again: "Professor Wang, you must have a lot of questions to ask."

"What did what you said just now have anything to do with the military?"

"Of course war has something to do with the military."

Wang Miao looked at everything in the bright spring scenery around him in bewilderment, "But where is the war? Now there is no hotspot in the world. It should be the most peaceful era in history."

Chang Weisi showed an inscrutable smile: "You will know everything soon, and everyone will know. Professor Wang, is there any major change in your life? This change suddenly completely changed your life, yes For you, the world looks completely different overnight."

"No."

"Then your life is a kind of accident. There are so many unpredictable factors in the world, but there are no accidents in your life."

Wang Miao thought for a long time and still didn't understand, "Most people are like this."

"The life of most people is accidental."

"But... so many generations have come here so plainly."

"It's all by chance."

Wang Miao shook her head and laughed, "I have to admit that my comprehension is too poor today, don't you mean..."

"Yes, the entire human history is also accidental. There have been no major changes from the Stone Age to today. It's really lucky. But since it's lucky, there will always be an end; now I tell you, it's over, so be prepared mentally."

Wang Miao wanted to ask more questions, but the general shook his hand and said goodbye, preventing him from asking further questions.

After getting in the car, the driver asked for the address of Wang Miao's home. After Wang Miao told him, he asked casually, "Oh, you weren't the one who picked me up? I think the car is the same."

"It's not me, I'm going to pick up Dr. Ding."

Wang Miao was moved, so she asked the driver where Ding Yi lived, and the driver told him.That night, he went to find Ding Yi.

(End of this chapter)