I’m not giving in, Wang thought. The equipment really needs maintenance, so the experiment must be temporarily stopped. This has nothing to do with anything else. He turned to the lab director and focused on him through the hovering countdown. “Shut down the experiment and perform the maintenance. Follow the schedule you gave me.”
“Absolutely, Chief Wang. I’ll give you an updated schedule right away. We can stop the reaction this afternoon!”
“You can stop it right now.”
The lab director stared at him in disbelief, but soon he was excited again, as if afraid to lose this opportunity. He picked up the phone and issued the order to stop the reaction. All the exhausted researchers and technicians grew excited, too. They immediately began the procedures to shut down the main reaction chamber, flipping a hundred complex switches. The various control screens became dark one after another, until finally, the main screen reflected the main reaction chamber’s halted status.
Almost simultaneously, the countdown before Wang’s eyes also stopped. The final number was 1174:10:07. A few seconds later, the numbers flickered and disappeared.
As the world reemerged, free of the ghostly numbers, Wang let out a long breath, as though he had just struggled up from underwater. He sat down, drained, and realized that others were still watching him.
He turned to the lab director. “System maintenance is the responsibility of the Equipment Division. Why don’t all of you in the research group take a break for a few days? I know everyone’s been working hard.”
“Chief Wang, you’re tired, too. Chief Engineer Zhang can take care of things here. Why don’t you go home and rest as well?”
“Yes, I am tired,” Wang said.
After the lab director left, he picked up the phone and dialed Shen Yufei’s number. She picked up after one ring.
“Who or what is behind this?” Wang asked. He tried to make his voice calm, but failed.
Silence.
“What will happen at the end of the countdown?”
More silence.
“Are you listening?”
“Yes.”
“Why nanomaterials? This is not a particle accelerator. It’s just applied research. Is it worth your attention?”
“Whether something is worth the attention is not for us to decide.”
“That’s enough!” Wang shouted into the phone. The terror and desperation of the last few days suddenly turned into uncontrollable rage. “Do you think these cheap tricks can fool me? Can stop technological progress? I admit that I can’t, for now, explain how you’re doing it. But that’s only because I haven’t been able to peek behind the curtain of your shameful illusionist.”
“You’re saying you want to see the countdown on an even greater scale?”
Shen’s question stunned Wang for a moment. He forced himself to be calm so he wouldn’t fall into a trap. “Put away your set of tricks. So what if you show it at a bigger scale? It’s still only an illusion. You can project a hologram into the sky, like what NATO did during the last war. With a powerful enough laser you can project an image onto the surface of the moon! The shooter and the farmer should be able to manipulate matters at a scale that humans cannot. For example, can you make the countdown appear on the surface of the sun?” Wang’s mouth hung open. He had shocked himself with his own words. Unconsciously, he had named the two hypotheses that he ought to have avoided. He felt on the verge of falling into the same mental trap that had claimed the other victims.
Trying to seize the initiative, he continued, “I can’t anticipate all your tricks, but even with the sun, perhaps your despicable illusionist can still somehow make the deception seem real. To give a demonstration that will really be convincing, you have to display it at an even larger scale.”
“The question is whether you can take it,” Shen said. “We’re friends. I want to help you avoid Yang Dong’s fate.”
The mention of Yang’s name made Wang shudder. But another surge of anger made him reckless. “Will you take up my challenge?”
“Of course.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Do you have a computer connected to the Internet? Okay, enter the following Web address: http://www.qsl.net/bg3tt/zl/mesdm.htm. You got it open? Now, print it out and keep it with you.”
Wang saw that the page was nothing more than a Morse code chart.
“I don’t understand. This—”
“During the next two days, please find a place where you can observe the cosmic microwave background. For specifics, please check the e-mail I’ll send you.”
“What… are you going to do?”
“I know that your nanomaterial project has been stopped. Do you plan on restarting it?”
“Of course. Three days from now.”
“Then the countdown will continue.”
“At what scale will I see it?”
A long silence followed. This woman, who was acting as the spokesperson for some force beyond human understanding, blocked every exit Wang had.
“Three days from now—that’s the fourteenth—between one and five in the morning, the entire universe will flicker for you.”
7
Three Body: King Wen of Zhou and the Long Night
Wang dialed Ding Yi’s number. Only when Ding picked up did he realize that it was already one in the morning.
“This is Wang Miao. I’m sorry to be calling so late.”
“No problem. I can’t sleep anyway.”
“I have… seen something, and I’d like your help. Do you know if there are any facilities in China that are observing the cosmic microwave background?” Wang had the urge to talk to someone about what was going on, but he thought it best to not let too many people know about the countdown that only he could see.
“The cosmic microwave background? What made you interested in that? I guess you really have run into some problems…. Have you been to see Yang Dong’s mother yet?”
“Ah—I’m sorry. I forgot.”
“No worries. Right now, many scientists have… seen something, like you. Everyone’s distracted. But I think it’s still best if you go visit her. She’s getting on in years, and she won’t hire a caretaker. If there’s some task around the home that she needs help with, please help her…. Oh, right, the cosmic microwave background. You can ask Yang’s mother. Before she retired, she was an astrophysicist. She’s very familiar with such facilities in China.”
“Good! I’ll go after work today.”
“Then I’ll thank you in advance. I really can’t face anything that reminds me of Yang Dong again.”
After hanging up, Wang sat in front of his computer and printed out the simple Morse code chart. By now he was calm enough to turn his thoughts away from the countdown. He pondered the Frontiers of Science, Shen Yufei, and the computer game she had been playing. The only thing he knew for certain about Shen was that she wasn’t the type to enjoy computer games. She spoke like a telegraph and gave him the impression that she was always extremely cold. It wasn’t the kind of coldness that some people put on like a mask—hers suffused her all the way through.
Wang subconsciously thought of her as the long-obsolete DOS operating system: a blank, black screen, a bare “C:\>” prompt, a blinking cursor. Whatever you entered, it echoed back. Not one extra letter and not a single change. But now he knew that behind the “C:\>” was a bottomless abyss.
She’s actually interested in a game? A game that requires a V-suit? She has no kids, which means she bought the V-suit for herself. The very idea is preposterous.