Break out of the courtyard

The human body is composed of various particles, and death merely reduces the body to these particles. These particles are then allowed to disperse and randomly recombine over long periods of time—this is reincarnation! If those particles can be reassembled into a human body and its original consciousness restored, that is rebirth!

—Excerpted from Zhang Heping, Feasibility Analysis of Interstellar Jump, 1995(1).
Before Zhang Heping even returned home, a paper he published on the World Internet Forum was quickly reprinted by major media outlets, causing a global sensation.

Countless people began to speculate whether Zhang Heping had followed in the footsteps of Newton, Swedenborg, and Einstein, and had gone to some corner to study theology!
After this story spread, the saying "The end of science is metaphysics" gradually became popular.

This has resulted in a significant delay in science popularization efforts in mainland China before the year has even begun!
After Zhang Heping's paper was published, people from the capital even went to Sanxingdui to verify whether Zhang Heping's thinking was normal, but they came up empty-handed.

……

Tuesday afternoon, January 17th.

Hong Kong Island Peace Academy, Virtual Dream Lecture Hall.

With a brown-haired boy who had persisted for 13 hours failing to multitask and escaping the virtual dream of the Korean War, the first assessment of the second Genius Training Camp recruitment program ended with zero foreigners passing.

Foreigners waiting in line outside for their exams expressed their dissatisfaction upon seeing this.

In particular, those who were just taking the assessment in the virtual dream tiered classroom were forced to end their assessment prematurely because their virtual game helmets were pulled up halfway through the process.

However, the bodyguards maintaining order here said that there were less than 12 hours left until midnight, and the current examiners could not gather enough time for the 24-hour assessment, so the first assessment was to end here.

The same applies to the assessments in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Nanjing, and Harbin. When the last teenager who could accumulate enough time for the 24-hour assessment left the virtual dream, the first assessment was terminated ahead of schedule on their end.

With this, the number of people who passed the first assessment of the second Talent Training Camp recruitment plan has been determined, totaling 13 people!
At 6 PM that afternoon, the Peace Group's official website issued an announcement, revealing the second assessment item:

Create a communication tool independently in a virtual dream world, for a limited time of 24 hours.

The exam is scheduled for 3 p.m. on January 18th. The five candidates who are still out of town will be at a disadvantage in terms of time.

However, the mainland took this matter very seriously. They not only arranged a special plane for them the next morning, but also arranged for communications experts to give them a crash course in communications overnight and designed a very simple telegraph machine.

Even foreigners find this test question very simple.

However, none of their teenagers made it to the finals, which was quite a pity for the foreigners.

The only thing that made things a little better for the foreigners was that the virtual dream world of the Korean War had resumed online reservations, allowing them to participate in the research, which they hadn't fully explored before.

Zhang Heping returned home late that night. After hearing that the test question for the next day was simply to make a communication tool, he did not express any opinion and still left the recruitment of this year's genius training camp entirely to his eldest son, Zhang Bei.

Seeing that he was about to go upstairs to wash up, Zhang Bei couldn't help but add, "Dad, Cao Jian from Suzhou didn't pass the first test!"

"Oh!" Zhang Heping replied casually, "How long did he hold out?"

“Five hours!” Zhang Bei hurriedly replied, “He didn’t hide when he was trapped in the virtual dream world of Nanjing. He was constantly fighting against the Japanese islanders and only took one break to eat.”

"There are priorities. Since he doesn't value this assessment, let him be!" Zhang Heping said, and walked straight into the elevator.

Tang Xin and Chen Shuting didn't give Zhang Bei a chance to continue speaking, waving him away to play somewhere else.

At the age when one is in their thirties like a wolf and in their forties like a tiger, how could a single guy understand why his parents were in such a hurry to go upstairs?

"Professor Zhang, you go ahead with your family matters. We're heading back now. See you tomorrow!" Xu Ning, a beautiful female researcher who had dressed up deliberately, didn't leave immediately after saying goodbye.

Li Tong, the short and plump female researcher standing next to her, also spoke up at the right time, and also greeted the other members of the Zhang family.

Seeing this, Ma Xiuzhen immediately understood what the two girls were thinking, and told Zhang Bei to go out and see the guests off.

Zhang Yi originally wanted to go with them to see them off, since they were members of his team, but his wife, Roy, dragged him to the basement to continue training his mental strength.

Zhang Nan, Zhang Nian, and the others understood the situation and followed them to the basement.

Zhang Nuo, who still had homework to do, pulled his younger brother Zhang Hao along with his future sister-in-law Xie Wan and Xie Ting up to the second floor.

"Go on! What are you standing there for?" Ma Xiuzhen nudged her eldest grandson Zhang Bei, then sat back down on the sofa with a smile and started watching TV with her husband Zhang Bing.

Just as Zhang Bei was about to leave with some resignation, intending to send Xu Ning and Li Tong outside and have the driver take them to their dormitory, he saw that Elder Hua, Elder Li, Old Mrs. Zheng, Elder Deng, Elder Qian, and others were gathered outside, but did not enter Zhang's house.

"Xiao Bei, how is your father's mental state? He..." Old Li spoke first, but hesitated for a moment before asking the question he really wanted to ask.

"Grandpa Li, my dad is in good spirits, but he's all unkempt and looks a bit sloppy. He's gone upstairs to wash up now." After saying this, Zhang Bei greeted Grandpa Hua and Grandma Zheng.

Old Hua asked with concern, "When your father came back, did he say anything strange?"

"What did you say?" Zhang Bei looked at Elder Hua in confusion, wondering why the other party was asking such a question.

"Let me speak!" Old Qian looked at Xu Ning and Li Tong beside him, and only after the two women left awkwardly and were driven away by Zhang Bei's driver did he whisper to Zhang Bei:

"Did you read your dad's paper on interstellar travel that he posted on the World Internet Forum?"

“I’ve seen it!” Zhang Bei nodded and said, “I think the idea of ​​converting the interstellar spaceship into a quantum state and then relying on the principle of quantum leap to recombine the entangled quantum particles into an interstellar spaceship at the destination has a certain degree of feasibility. Grandpa Qian, do you think there’s a problem with this conjecture?”

"Whether there are any problems or not still needs to be verified with relevant experiments. After all, we haven't even figured out quantum entanglement and quantum leaps, let alone transforming people and objects into quantum states and then reassembling them." Professor Qian said, then smiled and added:
"Old Li and Old Hua heard some people's doubts and were worried that your dad would go and study metaphysics, haha!"

"Metaphysics?" Zhang Bei was only taken aback for a moment before realizing they might have been influenced by some online comments, and explained with a smile:
"Leaving aside how strong my dad's brain is, it's hard for anything external to affect him."

"Judging from the paper he published, it is basically a discussion and speculation on scientific research. Grandpa Qian and Grandpa Deng should have been able to understand it. It does not involve any unprovable pseudo-propositions."

Vice Dean Deng nodded and said, "The human body is composed of particles. After death, it reverts to particles, and the particles randomly recombine to form new life. This statement is inherently true."

"It's just that the phrase 'reincarnation' has led some people astray, or they've taken advantage of it to deliberately distort the meaning that Dean Zhang wanted to express."

Mr. Qian nodded in agreement, saying, "Indeed, the four words 'reincarnation' simply summarize the matter of particle recombination and do not contain any feudal or superstitious ideas."

Zhang Bei smiled and said, "Why don't you come inside and sit for a while? We can discuss this with my dad later."

"No, thank you!" Seeing that Mr. Hua and Mr. Li were interested, Mrs. Zheng hurriedly said, "It's too late, your parents need to rest. We can talk to your father tomorrow."

When Mr. Hua and Mr. Li heard the words "Mom and Dad need to rest," they immediately understood that Mrs. Zheng was reminding them again that the timing was wrong and they should not cause trouble.

Watching the elderly people turn and leave, Zhang Bei, who hadn't been worried about the matter, couldn't help but take out his phone and go online to check his father's published paper again. It turned out this was his father's first paper this year, and unexpectedly, it had over 1 million views in less than 24 hours!

Looking at the number of comments, it's 0?

When Zhang Bei clicked in, he found that the comment section for this paper had been closed, meaning he couldn't comment or see previous comments.

The fact that comments are disabled here doesn't mean there are no comments elsewhere.

There are still a lot of comments and replies under those news reports and posts about this paper, but they are not concentrated under the paper here.

Zhang Bei looked at it on his phone for a while and didn't think there was anything wrong with his father's paper.

As for the words "reincarnation" and "rebirth" that people keep clinging to, in his view, they are just simple and clear generalizations, without any superstitious claims from ancient religions.

Before they knew it, it was the early hours of the next day, and Zhang Heping got up early for his morning run as usual.

When Elder Hua and Elder Li stopped Zhang Heping by the artificial lake, he had already run two laps around the lake.

As Hua Lao strolled around the artificial lake, he turned to Zhang Heping, who was doing stretching exercises beside him, and said with a smile, "I heard you go for a morning run over there, but you can only run back and forth in the tunnel. Are you not used to it?"

"It's alright!" Zhang Heping said casually. "I know I won't be there for long, so I'll just have to bear with it."

"But the researchers over there, who spend all their time underground and never see the sun, all have some health problems. You need to pay attention to that!"

With his hands behind his back, Old Li remarked from the side, "Compared to the researchers here, things are indeed more difficult over there!"

"Just then, they called from over there, saying they have many questions they'd like to ask you!" Old Hua suggested with a smile, "How about we have them come to this hospital for a check-up and stay for a few days?"

Zhang Heping frowned slightly. "I've been quite busy lately. I might not be able to find the time to answer their questions when they come over."

"In addition, most of their questions are doubts, and I don't think it's necessary to waste time answering them."

Elder Hua and Elder Li clearly hadn't expected this turn of events. If they were truly questioning him, there was no need for those people to come and bother Zhang Heping.

"How about this!" Old Li looked at Old Hua and said, "Have them summarize the problems and report them over, so that Vice President Qian and Vice President Deng can review them first."

Zhang Heping added, "After their medical examinations, we'll arrange for some psychologists to help them. Staying underground for so long, with so little contact with the outside world, you know what I mean!"

The two elders originally came to investigate whether Zhang Heping had any psychological or ideological problems, but they didn't expect the problem to fall on the researchers at the Sanxingdui underground base.

“The guards over there also need psychological counseling, especially the older ones who are not yet married,” Zhang Heping added, then looked at Vice President Deng who was walking towards them.

Vice Dean Deng nodded to Elder Hua and Elder Li, then said to Zhang Heping, "Dean, Professor Du and the others have arrived and are having lunch in the cafeteria; most of the experts and professors in the institute have gone to the indoor gymnasium."

"What are you doing here..." Old Hua looked at the old man and the young man with a puzzled expression, wondering why they had gathered experts and professors this morning.

Especially Professor Du, whom they mentioned, if I'm not mistaken, should be the head of the laboratory on the Dapeng Peninsula.

"Let's have a meeting!" Zhang Heping explained simply, then said to Vice Dean Deng, "I'll go home and change my clothes and then I'll come over."

Zhang Heping called out to Elder Hua and the others again, then turned and ran towards the villa.

Several bodyguards in black followed him as he ran away.

"What kind of meeting is going to be held in an indoor stadium? Will there be a lot of attendees?" Hua Lao stopped Vice President Deng, who was about to turn and leave.

"Dean Zhang sent a text message last night saying that this year's research projects are being adjusted!" Vice Dean Deng said uncertainly.

"I estimate that Dean Zhang has made some new gains in Western Sichuan. We'll have to wait until the meeting is over to find out the specifics."

After thinking about it, Mr. Hua felt that this made sense, so he wanted to go to the meeting. However, he did not expect that Vice President Deng had already walked quite far away. Mr. Hua and Mr. Li then chased after him.

Secretary Chen and bodyguard Xiao Qin, who had been silently following behind, exchanged a glance, whispered to each other, and decided that Secretary Chen would pack breakfast and then they would meet at the indoor gymnasium.

Peace Academy has already started its winter break. Even if there are student assistants who didn't go home for the New Year, they should be catching up on sleep in bed to prepare for the experiments later.

Therefore, the campus should have been quiet and peaceful in the early morning, but the atmosphere was unexpectedly broken by groups of men, women, and children.

However, the noise came and went quickly!
Once those people entered the indoor gymnasium, the campus quieted down again.

Zhang Bei was still thinking about what happened last night. He followed his father into the indoor stadium, but instead of going to the arena, he went to sit in the stands.

"I recently went to Western Shu!" Zhang Heping stepped through the air, walking step by step to the basketball hoop in the middle of the court in full view of everyone, and then sat down on the basketball hoop!
This unexpected situation silenced everyone present, and the huge indoor stadium became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Because of confidentiality regulations, there are many things I can't say!" Zhang Heping looked at the experts and professors scattered in the audience, smiled and waved his hand, "Sit closer together, so I don't have to shout."

wow...

The attendees immediately took their seats in the audience section on the left, which Zhang Heping gestured to them from.

"Last night, I saw some comments online saying that I've started studying metaphysics and theology!"

When a group of men, women, and children changed seats, they inevitably made some noise, but they all tried their best to control it.

Therefore, Zhang Heping's voice was clearly audible.

"Put your phone down!" Zhang Heping raised his left hand, pressed it in one direction, and continued:

"Brain-computer interfaces, mental powers, and virtual dreams are already difficult for outsiders to understand. Now that I'm proposing something as far-fetched as interstellar travel, it's not hard to understand why I'm being called crazy by outsiders."

Zhang Heping looked at those who were turning off their phones and slowly said, "The opinions of the outside world are not important. What is important is that you understand my next arrangements. I'm not asking you to study metaphysics!"

The attendees fell silent again, and without any other unnecessary movements, Zhang Heping stood up and, stepping on thin air, walked step by step as if stepping on stairs, to the railing in front of the audience seats on the left.

Then, Zhang Heping stepped over the railing and, facing the group of experts and professors who were filled with astonishment and curiosity, began to explain his upcoming plans… (End of Chapter)