Three Body 1: Earth's Past

Chapter 4 The Archer and the Farmer
The next day was the weekend, Wang Miao got up early instead, took a camera and rode a bicycle and went out.As a photographer, the subject he yearns for the most is the untouched wilderness, but he has no energy for such a luxurious enjoyment in his middle age, and he can only shoot landscapes in the city most of the time.Consciously or unintentionally, he chooses those corners of the city that exude a wild atmosphere, such as the dry lake bottom in the park, the new soil dug up on the construction site, and the weeds that drilled out of the cement cracks.In order to eliminate the gaudy colors of the city in the background, he only used black and white film. Unexpectedly, he became a school of his own, and gradually became famous. His works were selected into two major film festivals, and he also joined the Photographers Association.Every time he goes out to shoot, he just rides a bicycle around the city at will, capturing inspiration and the composition he needs, sometimes it takes a whole day to go around.

Today, Wang Miao feels a little strange.His photography is known for its calm and dignified classical style, but today, it is difficult for him to find the sense of stability needed to create this kind of composition. In his feeling, this city that is waking up in the morning light seems to be built on quicksand. stability is illusory.In the night that just passed, those two billiard balls have been occupying his long dream. They flew irregularly in the black space, and the black balls could not be seen on the black background. They only occasionally blocked the white balls. Show your presence.

Is the origin of matter really irregular?Is the stability and order of the world just a short-term dynamic balance in a certain corner of the universe?Just a short-lived eddy in the chaotic turbulence?

Before he knew it, he had ridden to the foot of the newly completed CCTV building.He stopped the car, sat on the side of the road, looked up at the towering A-shaped building, trying to find a sense of stability, and followed the direction of the building's spire shining in the rising sun, he looked towards the bottomless blue sky, Two words popped into my head: shooter, farmer.

When discussing among scholars at the "Science Frontier", an acronym is often used: SF, which does not refer to science fiction, but an abbreviation of the above two words.This stems from two hypotheses, both concerning the nature of the laws of the universe.

The "shooter" hypothesis: There is a sharpshooter who punches a hole every ten centimeters on a target.Imagine a two-dimensional intelligent creature living on the plane of this target. After observing their own universe, scientists among them discovered a great law: "every ten centimeters in the universe, there must be a hole." They Take this sharpshooter's random behavior on a whim as the iron law in his own universe.

The "farmer hypothesis" has a layer of disturbing horror: there is a group of turkeys on a farm, and the farmer comes to feed them at eleven o'clock every day.A scientist in the turkey observed this phenomenon for nearly a year without exception, so it also discovered the great law in its own universe: "Every day at eleven o'clock in the morning, there is food." The law was announced to the turkeys in the morning, but this morning when the food did not come at eleven o'clock the farmer came in and caught and killed them all.

Wang Miao felt that the road under his feet was sliding like quicksand, and the A-shaped building seemed to be shaking, so he quickly looked away.

Just to get rid of anxiety, Wang Miao forced himself to finish shooting a film and returned home before lunch.The wife took the children out to play and did not come back at noon.Normally, Wang Miao would be eager to develop the film, but today he has no interest at all.After a simple lunch, he fell asleep. Since he didn't sleep well last night, it was almost five o'clock when he woke up.Only then did he remember the film he had taken in the morning, so he went to the narrow darkroom converted from a closet to develop it.

The film was developed quickly, and he began to check which one was worth enlarging and developing into a photo, and found a strange thing on the first one.This photo was taken of a small piece of grass outside a large shopping mall. He saw a row of white things in the middle of the negative, and a closer look was a row of numbers: 1200:00:00.

The second negative also has numbers: 1199:49:33.

A whole roll of film, with a small row of numbers on each negative!
第三张：1199:40:18；第四张：1199:32:07；第五张：1199:28:51；第六张：1199:15:44；第七张：1199:07:38；第八张：1198:53:09……No.30四张：1194:50:49；No.30六张，也是最后一张：1194:16:37。

Wang Miao immediately thought it was a problem with the film.He used a Leica M1988 camera produced in 2, which is fully mechanical and manual, without any automatic functions, and it is even more impossible to superimpose numbers such as dates on the film.Only with its excellent lens and mechanical mechanism, even in the digital age, it is the aristocrat among professional cameras.

Re-examining each negative, Wang quickly discovered the first strangeness of these numbers: they automatically adapt to the background.If the background is black, the numbers are white, and the numbers on a white background are black, as if to create maximum contrast for the viewer to see.When Wang Miao looked at No. 16 negatives again, his heart beat faster, and he felt a chill in the darkroom rising up his spine:
This shot is a dead tree with an old wall as the background. The old wall is mottled, and the photo is black and white.On such a background, the row of numbers could not be displayed clearly in a normal position, whether it is black or white, but it stands upright, and bends itself, showing white along the dark trunk of the dead tree, looking as if It's a thin snake attached to a dead tree!
Wang Miao began to study the mathematical relationship of those numbers. At first he thought it was some kind of serial number, but the intervals between each group of numbers were different. He soon realized that it was timekeeping in units of hours, minutes, and seconds.He took out his shooting notes, which recorded the shooting time of each photo in detail, down to the minute.He found that the difference in timing between the two photos was consistent with the time interval when they were actually taken.Apparently, the roll of film was reverse-recorded at a time that was passing at a realistic speed.Wang Miao immediately understood what it was.

A countdown.

The countdown started at 1200 hours, and there are still 1194 hours left.

Now?No, it was the moment when the last frame of the film was shot.Is this countdown still going on?

Wang Miao walked out of the dark room, took out a new black-and-white film and loaded it on the Leica camera, and quickly started shooting casually in the room, and finally went to the balcony to take a few outdoor pictures.When the film was finished, he took it out of the camera and headed into the darkroom to develop it.On the developed film, the number continued to appear ghostly on each negative, the first one was 1187:27:39, from the last shot of the previous roll to the first shot of this roll, exactly such a long time interval.The timing interval of each subsequent picture is three to four seconds, 1187:27:35, 1187:27:31, 1187:27:27, 1187:27:24... are the intervals of his rapid shooting.

The countdown continues.

Wang Miao loaded the camera with new film again, and took pictures quickly and randomly, some of which he took with the lens cap on purpose.When he took out the finished film, his wife and children came back.Before going to develop, he loaded the Leica with a third film and handed the camera to his wife: "Come on, finish this roll."

"Shooting what?" The wife looked at her husband in amazement.In the past, he never allowed other people to touch his camera. Of course, she and her son were not interested in that thing. In their eyes, it was a boring old antique bought for more than 2 yuan.

"You can shoot whatever you want." Wang Miao stuffed the camera into his wife's hand and went into the dark room.

"Then, Doudou, let me take a picture for you." The wife pointed the camera at her son.

Wang Miao's mind suddenly appeared a phantom of ghostly numbers stretching in front of the child's face like an open noose, and he couldn't help but tremble slightly. "No, don't take pictures of your son, take pictures of anything else."

The shutter "clicked", and his wife took the first picture, and then shouted: "Why can't I press it?" Wang Miao taught his wife to pull a handle, "In this way, every time I have to rewind." Then he went into the dark room.

"It's really troublesome." As a doctor's wife, she couldn't understand that in today's tens of millions of pixel digital cameras, there are still people using such outdated and expensive gadgets, and they still shoot black and white film.

胶卷冲出来后，对着晕暗的红灯，汪淼看到那幽灵倒计时仍在继续，在一张张随意拍出的混乱画面上，包括那几张扣着镜头盖拍的，清晰地显示出：1187:19:06、1187:19:03、1187:18:59、1187:18:56……

His wife knocked on the door of the darkroom twice to tell him that the filming was over.Wang Miao went out and grabbed the camera, his hands visibly trembling when taking the film.Regardless of his wife's strange gaze, he returned to the darkroom with the film and closed the door firmly.He worked in a hurry, developer and fixer spilled all over the floor, and the film was rushed out quickly. He closed his eyes and prayed silently: don't show up, no matter what it is, don't show up now, don't be my turn...

He used a magnifying glass to look along the wet film, and the countdown disappeared. On the negative, there was only the indoor picture taken by his wife. Under the low-speed aperture, her unprofessional operation produced a blurry picture, but Wang Miao thought it was him. The most beautiful photos I've ever seen.

Wang Miao walked out of the dark room, took a deep breath, and found that her whole body was soaked in sweat.The wife went to the kitchen to cook, and the son also went to his room to play. He sat on the sofa alone and began to think a little calmly.

First of all, this group of numbers that accurately records the passage of time at different shooting intervals and shows signs of intelligence cannot be reserved on film, but can only be sensitive to light by some kind of force. What could it be?Is it a camera problem?Was some kind of device placed into the camera, intentionally or not?He removed the lens, disassembled the camera, carefully observed the inside of the camera with a magnifying glass, checked every spotless and clean mechanism, and found nothing abnormal.Then, thinking of the pictures taken with the lens cap on, the most likely sensitive light source is some kind of strong penetrating rays from the outside world, but this is also technically impossible: where is the source of the rays?How to aim?
This power is supernatural, at least as far as current technology is concerned.

In order to further confirm that the ghost countdown had disappeared, Wang Miao loaded another film into the Leica camera and began to take random pictures one by one.When the film was released this time, he who had just calmed down for a while was pushed to the brink of madness: the ghost countdown appeared again. It doesn't show up on the volume.

1186:34:13、1186:34:02、1186:33:46、1186:33:35……

Wang Miao rushed out of the dark room, out of the house, and knocked on the neighbor's door. It was the retired Professor Zhang who opened the door.

"Old Zhang, do you have a camera at home? Oh, no digital ones, but film ones!"

"You big photographer borrowed a camera from me? The 2-odd one is broken? I only have a digital one...Are you uncomfortable? You look so ugly."

"Lend it to me."

Lao Zhang quickly brought a very ordinary Kodak digital camera. "Here, just delete a few of them..."

"Thank you!" Wang Miao grabbed the camera and film and hurried back to the house.In fact, there are three film cameras and one digital camera at home, but Wang Miao thinks it is more reliable to borrow from other places.He looked at the two cameras and a few black-and-white films spread out on the sofa. After thinking for a while, he loaded the Leica with film, and then handed the digital camera to his wife who was serving the meal:
"Quick, take a few pictures, just like before!"

"What is this for? Look at your face...what's wrong with you?!" His wife looked at him in horror.

"Don't worry about it, shoot!"

The wife put down the plate in her hand and came over to look at her husband, the horror in her eyes added to the worry.

Wang Miao stuffed the Kodak camera into the hands of the six-year-old son who came over for dinner, "Doudo, help dad take the picture. Just press this, yes, this is one picture; press it again, yes, yes, another picture; that's it Keep shooting, aiming at anywhere."

The son quickly mastered it, and the little guy was very interested and took pictures very quickly.Wang Miao turned around and picked up her own Lycra from the sofa, and started to take pictures too. The father and son went crazy and "clicked, clicked" like this, leaving his wife at a loss under the frequent flashes, tears welling up.

"Wang Miao, I know you've been under a lot of pressure at work recently, so don't..."

Wang Miao finished shooting the film of the Leica camera, and then snatched the digital camera from the child.He thought for a while, and in order to avoid the interference of his wife and children, he went to the bedroom and took a few photos with his digital camera.When he took pictures, he used a visual viewfinder instead of an LCD screen, because he was afraid of seeing the result, although sooner or later he had to see it.

Wang Miao took out the film in the Lycra and went into the dark room, closed the door tightly and started to work.After the development was finished, he looked at the negative carefully. Because his hands were trembling, he could only hold the magnifying glass with both hands——on the negative, the ghostly countdown continued.

Wang Miao rushed out of the dark room and began to check the photos on the digital camera. From the LCD screen, he saw that in the digital photos taken just now, the countdown was not displayed on the part taken by his son; Synchronized changes on negatives.

Wang Miao used different cameras to shoot, in order to rule out the possibility that the problem was the camera or the film, but he inadvertently let the child shoot, and let his wife shoot before, and got an even weirder result: using different cameras and Shooting with different film, other people's photos are normal, the ghost countdown will only appear on the photos he took!
Wang Miao desperately grabbed the pile of film, like a bunch of entangled snakes, and like a noose that was hard to break free.

He knew that he couldn't solve this problem with his own strength alone, so who to go to?Colleagues in universities and research institutes can't do it. Like himself, they are all people with technical thinking; his intuition tells him that this matter has gone beyond technology.He thought of Ding Yi, but now this person himself is in a mental crisis.He ended up thinking of Frontiers of Science, a group of deep-thinking and active people.So, he dialed Shen Yufei's number.

"Dr. Shen, I have something to do here and I must go to your place." Wang Miao said hastily.

"Come on." Shen Yufei only said these two words and hung up the phone.

Wang Miao was taken aback. Shen Yufei usually speaks very succinctly, so that some people in "Science Frontier" jokingly called her "female Hemingway".But this time, she didn't even ask about anything, Wang Miao didn't know whether to feel comforted or more disturbed.

He stuffed the roll of film into a bag, took the digital camera with him, and rushed out of the house under the anxious eyes of his wife.He could have driven there, but even in this brightly lit city, he wanted company on the road, so he hailed a taxi.

Shen Yufei lives in a high-end villa area near the Xincheng Railway Line. The lights here are much sparser, and the villas are surrounded by several small artificial lakes where fishing is possible. At night, there is a rural feeling.Shen Yufei is obviously very rich, but Wang Miao has never been able to figure out the source of her wealth. Neither her previous research position nor her current position in the company can earn so much money.But there was no sign of luxury in her villa, a meeting place at the Frontiers of Science, furnished like a small library with conference rooms.

In the living room, Wang Miao saw Shen Yufei's husband, Wei Cheng.This 40-year-old man looks like a honest intellectual. Wang Miao's understanding of him is limited to his name, and Shen Yufei only mentioned this when introducing him.He seems to have no job, stays at home all day, is not interested in the discussion of "scientific boundaries", and is accustomed to the frequent visits of scholars at home.

But he's not just doing nothing, he's obviously working on something at home, he's lost in thought all day, he's absent-mindedly saying hello to anyone he sees, and then going back to the upstairs room where he spends most of the day .Once, Wang Miao inadvertently glanced in through the half-open door upstairs, and saw a surprising thing: an HP minicomputer.He couldn't be mistaken, because this device was the same as the one in the Superconductivity Research Center where he worked, with a black-gray chassis, and it was the RX8620 produced four years ago.It seems strange to keep this million-dollar device at home. What is Wei Cheng doing with it alone every day?
"Yu Fei has something to do up there, please wait a moment." Wei Cheng said, and went upstairs.Wang Miao planned to wait, but couldn't sit still, so she followed her upstairs and saw Wei Cheng about to enter his room where the minicomputer was.He didn't seem to be disgusted when he saw Wang Miao coming. He pointed to a room opposite and said, "Oh, it's in that room. You can go find her."

Wang Miao knocked on the door, but the door was unlocked and opened a crack. He saw Shen Yufei sitting in front of the computer playing games. To Wang Miao's surprise, she was wearing a "V suit".This is a very popular thing among gamers at present. It consists of a full-view display helmet and a set of induction suits. The induction suit can make players physically feel the blows, stabs and fires in the game, and can produce Extreme heat and cold, and even realistically simulate the feeling of the body exposed to the snow.Wang Miao walked behind her, but since the game was displayed in full view in the helmet, he couldn't see anything on the monitor.At this time, Wang Miao recalled that Da Shi asked him to remember the website and email address, and accidentally glanced at the monitor. The English name on the game login interface was very special, and he remembered it.

Shen Yufei took off the display helmet, took off the induction suit, put on her pair of glasses that looked too big on her thin face, and nodded to Wang Miao expressionlessly, waiting for him to speak without saying a word.Wang Miao took out the roll of film and began to tell about the strange events that happened to her.Shen Yufei listened attentively. She picked up the films and glanced at them, but didn't look at them carefully—this shocked Wang Miao. Now that he was further sure that Shen Yufei was not completely ignorant of the matter, it almost made him stop. When talking about it, Shen Yufei only nodded several times to signal him to continue before finishing the story.Only then did Shen Yufei say the first sentence after they met:

"How's the nano project you're leading?"

This far-fetched question surprised Wang Miao. "NanoProject? What does it have to do with this?" He pointed to the stack of film.

Shen Yufei didn't speak, but just looked at him quietly, waiting for him to answer her question.That's how she talks, never saying a word.

"Stop the research." Shen Yufei said.

"What?" Wang Miao thought he heard it wrong, "What did you say?"

Shen Yufei remained silent and did not repeat her words.

"Stop?! That's a national key project!"

Shen Yufei still didn't speak, just looked at him with calm eyes.

"You have to tell the reason!"

"Stop and try."

"What the hell do you know? Tell me!"

"That's all I can tell you."

"The project cannot be stopped, and it is impossible to stop!"

"Stop and try."

That was the end of the short talk about the countdown to the ghost. After that, no matter how hard Wang Miao tried, Shen Yufei never said a single word related to this, but just repeated that sentence: "Stop and try."

"I now understand that 'Science Frontiers' is not an academic exchange organization for basic theories as you claim, and its relationship with reality is much more complicated than I imagined." Wang Miao said.

"Instead, you get the impression that 'scientific boundaries' involves something more fundamental than you might think."

The desperate Wang Miao got up and left without saying goodbye. Shen Yufei silently escorted him to the gate of the courtyard and watched him get into the taxi.At this moment, another car sped up and stopped in front of the door.A man got out of the car, Wang Miao recognized him at a glance by the light from the villa.

The man was Pan Han, one of the most famous characters in Frontiers of Science.As a biologist, he successfully predicted the genetic deformities of offspring caused by long-term consumption of genetically modified agricultural products, and also predicted the possible ecological disaster caused by genetically modified crops.Unlike the empty alarmists of academics, his prophecies are filled with specific details, and they are all fulfilled with such precision that they are so shockingly accurate that they are rumored to be from the future.

Another initiative for which he made himself famous was the creation of the country's first experimental society.Unlike those utopian societies in the West that aim to return to nature, his "Chinese Garden" is not located in the wilderness, but in the largest city.The association has no property, and all daily necessities, including food, come from municipal waste.Contrary to people's initial expectations, "Chinese Garden" has not only survived, but also grown rapidly. Its regular members have reached more than 3000 people, and countless people come to experience life in it from time to time.

Building on these two successes, Pan Han's social thought became increasingly influential.He believes that the scientific and technological revolution is a disease of human society. The explosive development of technology is equivalent to the rapid spread of cancer cells. The final result is to exhaust the nutrients of the organism, destroy the organs, and lead to the death of its host.He advocated the abolition of those "brutal" technologies, such as fossil energy and nuclear power, and the retention of "moderate" technologies, such as solar energy and small hydropower.The big cities are gradually disbanded, the population is evenly distributed in small self-sufficient villages and towns, and a "new agricultural society" is established based on "moderate technology".

"Is he there?" Pan Han asked, pointing to the second floor of the villa.

Shen Yufei didn't answer, and stood in front of him silently.

"I want to warn him, and of course I also want to warn you, don't force us!" Pan Han said coldly.

Shen Yufei still didn't answer him, but said to Wang Miao in the taxi, "Let's go, it's okay." Then she motioned for the driver to drive.After the car started, Wang Miao never heard what they said again. He turned his head and saw from a distance that Shen Yufei had never let Pan Han enter the villa under the light.

It was already late at night when Wang Miao got home, and Wang Miao got out of the taxi at the gate of the community. A black Santana stopped close to him. The window was rolled down, and a puff of smoke spewed out. Packed to the brim.

"Wow, Professor Wang, Academician Wang! How have you been these two days?"

"You're stalking me? How boring!"

"Don't get me wrong, if I drive straight there, it will be over. I'll be polite and say hello, and you'll be treated like a donkey." Da Shi showed his characteristic smirk, looking like a rascal, "Why, what's useful over there? Is there any information, exchange exchange?"

"I said, I have nothing to do with you, please don't follow me in the future!"

"Yeah—" Da Shi started the car, "It seems like I'm willing to earn these two night shifts, and the game is delayed."

When Wang Miao walked into the house, his wife and children were already asleep. He heard his wife turning restlessly on the bed, making indistinct sounds. Her husband's strange behavior today might bring her some kind of nightmare.Wang Miao took two tablets of Limianling, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep with difficulty after a long time.

His dreams are chaotic, but one thing is constant: the ghostly countdown.In fact, Wang Miao had expected the countdown to appear in his dream.In the dream, he frantically hit the countdown suspended in mid-air, tearing it, biting it, but all the blows penetrated it feebly, and it hung in the middle of the dream, passing steadily.It made Wang Miao extremely irritable, and finally woke up from the dream.

He opened his eyes and saw the blurry ceiling, with the lights of the city outside passing through the curtains, casting a dim halo on it.But one thing follows him from dream to reality: the ghostly countdown.The countdown was still visible in front of his open eyes, the numbers thin but bright with a searing white glow.

1185:11:34、1185:11:33、1185:11:32、1185:11:31……

Wang Miao turned her head and saw everything blurred in the bedroom, and confirmed that she had woken up and the countdown hadn't disappeared.He closed his eyes, the countdown still looming in his vision of total darkness, like quicksilver on black velvet.He opened his eyes again and rubbed them, the countdown still hadn't disappeared, no matter how his eyes moved, the string of numbers firmly occupied the center of his field of vision.

An inexplicable fear made Wang Miao sit up abruptly, and followed him closely for the countdown.He jumped out of bed, rushed to the window, pulled back the curtains, and pushed the window open.The sleepy city outside is still brightly lit, and the countdown is displayed in front of this vast background, like subtitles on a movie screen.

For a moment, Wang Miao felt that he was suffocating, and could not help but let out a low cry of surprise.Faced with the panicked inquiries from his awakened wife, he tried to calm himself down, comforted her and said it was nothing, then lay back on the bed, closed his eyes, and spent the rest of the night with difficulty under the light of the ghost countdown.

After getting up early in the morning, Wang Miao tried her best to look normal in front of her family, but his wife still noticed something strange and asked him what happened to his eyes.Can't see something clearly?

After breakfast, Wang Miao asked for leave from the Nano Center and drove to the hospital.Along the way, the ghost countdown ruthlessly lay in front of the real world in his eyes. This thing would automatically adjust its own brightness, and it would appear clearly on different backgrounds.Wang Miao even stared at the rising sun, trying to make the countdown temporarily hidden by the strong light for a while, but to no avail, the string of devil numbers actually appeared on the sun wheel. At this time, instead of increasing the brightness, it turned black, which was even more intense. fear.

It was difficult to register at Tongren Hospital, so Wang Miao went directly to one of his wife's classmates, a famous ophthalmologist.He didn't say anything about his condition, but asked the doctor to check his eyes first.After careful examination of Wang Miao's eyes, the doctor told him that no pathological changes were found and everything was normal.

"My eyes always see one thing, no matter where you look, this thing is there." Wang Miao said.At the same time, the string of numbers was lying in front of the doctor's face.

1175:11:34、1175:11:33、1175:11:32、1175:11:31……

"Floaters," said the doctor, and at the same time took out the prescription and began to write, "A common eye disease at our age, the lens is cloudy. It's not easy to treat, but it's nothing serious. Prescribe some iodine drops and vitamin D, maybe it can be absorbed. , but there is little hope. However, it really doesn’t matter, as long as you get used to ignoring the clutter in your vision, it will have no effect on your eyesight.”

"The floaters you're talking about, what do those... things look like?"

"Irregular, different from person to person, sometimes it is a small black spot, sometimes it looks like a tadpole."

"What if you see a string of numbers?"

The doctor's pen stopped writing the prescription. "You see a string of numbers?"

"Yes, across the center of the field of vision."

The doctor pushed away the paper and pen and looked at him with concern, "As soon as I came in, I could see that you were overworked. At the last class reunion, Li Yao mentioned you to me and said that your work pressure is very high. At our age, You should pay attention, your health can't afford to be overdrawn."

"You mean, I am caused by mental factors?"

The doctor nodded, "If it's an ordinary patient, I would suggest that he go to the psychiatry department. Actually, it's not necessary, it's nothing serious, it's just that he's too tired. Let's take a rest for a few days, go on vacation for a few days, and talk to Li Yao and the child. What's the matter, Doudou, let's go together. Don't worry, you will recover soon."

1175:10:02、1175:10:01、1175:10:00，1175:09:59……

"Let me tell you what I saw, a countdown! Second by second, walking with precision! Could this be a mental factor?"

The doctor smiled tolerantly, "Do you want to know to what extent mental factors can affect vision? We admitted a girl last month, about fifteen or sixteen years old. She suddenly lost sight in the classroom and was completely blind. But after all the examinations, the eyes were completely normal physically. Later, a psychiatrist gave her psychological treatment for a month, and suddenly, her eyes returned to normal vision."

Wang Miao knew it was a waste of time here, so he got up to leave, and finally said: "Well, regardless of my eyes, I only have one question to ask you: Is there any external force that can make people see anything through remote action?"

The doctor thought for a while and said: "Yes, I participated in the medical team of Shenzhou 19 a while ago. Some astronauts reported that they saw a flash of light that did not exist when they were working outside the cabin. The astronauts on the International Space Station reported that In similar cases, when the solar activity is intense, high-energy particles in space hit the retina, and people see the flashes. But you said that seeing the numbers, it is still a countdown, and this is absolutely impossible.” Wang Miao Walking out of the hospital in a trance, the countdown was right in front of his eyes, and he seemed to be following it, following a ghost that was haunting him.He bought a pair of sunglasses and put them on, just to prevent others from seeing his sleepwalking blurred eyes.

Wang Miao walked into the main laboratory of the Nano Center, and did not forget to take off his sunglasses before entering the door. Even so, the colleagues who met him showed worried expressions about his mental state.

In the center of the experiment hall, Wang Miao saw that the reaction black box was still in operation.The main body of this gigantic device is a sphere with a collection of pipes.The super-strength nanomaterial code-named "Flying Blade" has been produced, but it is manufactured by molecular construction technology, which is to use molecular probes to build material molecules one by one like bricks. This process consumes a lot of resources. Those products can be said to be the most precious treasures in the world, and they cannot be mass-produced at all.

What the laboratory is doing now is trying to replace the molecular construction method through a catalytic reaction, so that a huge number of molecules can complete the building at the same time during the reaction.The test is carried out in the reaction black box. This equipment can perform reaction tests on a large number of component combinations. Such a number of combinations may not be completed for hundreds of years with traditional manual operations, but it can be quickly and automatically done in the reaction black box. conduct.At the same time, this is a device that integrates real reaction and digital simulation. When the synthesis reaches a certain level, the computer will establish a digital model of the synthetic reaction according to the staged results of the reaction, and use digital simulation to simulate the rest of the reaction process. Instead, the experimental efficiency is greatly improved.

After seeing Wang Miao, the experimental director hurried over and began to report a series of failures that had just occurred in the black box.This is what Wang Miao encountered when he went to work recently.Now, the reaction black box has been running continuously for more than a year, and the sensitivity of many sensors has decreased, the error has increased, and it is urgent to shut down for maintenance.However, Wang Miao, the chief scientist of the project, insisted on completing the third batch of synthetic combinations before stopping the machine. The engineers had to add more and more compensation and correction devices to the reaction black box. Up to now, these devices themselves also need compensation and correction, making the whole The project team is exhausted.But the director was careful not to mention the shutdown and suspension of the test, for fear that Wang Miao would lose his temper like the last few times.He just laid out all the difficulties, and the meaning was very clear.

Wang Miao looked up at the reaction black box, and felt that it was like a womb. Engineers were busy around it, struggling to maintain normal operation.In front of this scene, a ghostly countdown is superimposed.

1174:21:11、1174:21:10、1174:21:09、1174:21:08……

Stop and try.Shen Yufei's words suddenly sounded in Wang Miao's mind.

"How long does it take to fully update the peripheral sensing system?" he asked.

"Four or five days," the director of the experiment suddenly saw hope, and hurriedly added, "Hurry up and do it in three days, Mr. Wang, I promise!"

I did not give in, the equipment did need repairs and the test had to be suspended, nothing else.Wang Miao said to herself, then turned to the director and looked at him through the countdown numbers, "Stop the test, shut it down for maintenance, and follow the schedule you said."

"Okay, Mr. Wang, I will give you an update plan soon, and the shutdown will be completed in the afternoon!" the director said excitedly.

"Stop now."

The director looked at Wang Miao as if he didn't know him, but immediately returned to the state of excitement, as if he was afraid of losing this opportunity.He picked up the phone and gave the shutdown order, and the tired researchers and engineers in the project team became excited all of a sudden, and began to flip hundreds of complicated switches according to the procedures, and many monitoring screens went black one by one. Finally, The shutdown status is displayed on the main monitor screen.

Almost at the same time, the countdown in front of Wang Miao's eyes stopped, and the number was fixed at 1174:20:35.After a few seconds, the numbers flickered a few times and disappeared.

When the reality that was not covered by the ghost countdown reappeared, Wang Miao let out a long breath, as if he had just struggled out of the bottom of the water.He sat down weakly, and soon realized that someone was watching him beside him.

He said to the director of the experiment: "The system update is a matter for the equipment department. People in your experimental group should take a good rest for a few days. Everyone has worked hard this time."

"Mr. Wang, you are too tired. There is Chief Engineer Zhang watching over here. You should go home and have a good rest."

"Yeah, I'm too tired." Wang Miao said weakly. After he left, he picked up the phone and dialed Shen Yufei's number. She answered after only one ring.

"What's behind you?" Wang Miao asked, trying to calm down his voice, but failed.

silence.

"What is the end of the countdown?"

silence.

"Are you listening?"

"exist."

"What happened to high-strength nanomaterials? This is not a high-energy accelerator, but an applied research. Is it worthy of such attention?"

"It's not for us to judge what is of concern."

"Enough!" Wang Miao roared, the fear and despair in his heart suddenly turned into crazy anger, "You think this little trick can fool me? It can stop technological progress!? I admit that I can't make technological progress for a while. The above explanation, but that's because I haven't got behind that shameful magician!"

"You mean, you want to see the countdown on a larger scale?"

Shen Yufei's words stunned Wang Miao for a moment. He was unprepared for this question, so he forced himself to calm down to avoid falling into a trap. "Stop your tricks. So what on a large scale, you can do magic tricks too! You can project holographic images into the sky, just like NATO did in the last war, and powerful lasers can even fill the entire surface of the moon with images Sagittarius and farmer should be able to play with a larger scale than human beings can, for example, can the countdown be displayed on the surface of the sun?" Just after he finished speaking, Wang Miao opened his mouth in surprise, and he subconsciously said that Two nouns that should be very taboo at this time, fortunately, the more taboo one was not mentioned.Wanting to win more initiative, he went on, "Given some possibility that I haven't thought of yet, even on the scale of the sun, it's still possible for your shameful magician to perform tricks, the kind of power that really makes me feel better." To be convincing, the displayed scale needs to be larger.”

"The question is, can you bear it? We are friends, and I want to help you. Don't follow Yang Dong's path."

Hearing this name, Wang Miao couldn't help shivering, but the ensuing anger made him desperate again: "Can you accept this challenge?"

"can."

"What do you want?" Wang Miao's voice became weak.

"Is there a computer with Internet access next to you? OK, enter this URL:

Wang Miao saw that what was displayed on the webpage was only a Morse code comparison table.

"I don't understand, this is..."

"In the next two days, try to find a place where you can observe the cosmic background radiation. For details, please see the email I will send you later."

"What is this... for?"

"I know the nano research project has been stopped, are you going to restart it?"

"Of course, in three days."

"The countdown will continue."

"On what scale will I see it?"

After a long silence, this woman, speaking for a power beyond human comprehension, ruthlessly blocked all Wang Miao's exits.

"Three days later, that is, on the [-]th, from one o'clock to five o'clock in the morning, the whole universe will shine for you."

(End of this chapter)