Ye Wenjie, watch my moves closely.

Chapter 16 Things to Do

The first day of the Lunar New Year in 1980.

Ye Wenjie woke up in the warm sunshine, listening to Yang Weining and Lei Zhicheng chatting in the living room.

"Old Yang, when Hongan was founded, so many talented people came here."

Lei Zhicheng sighed, "Tsinghua and Nanjing University are both places where young men are full of ambition."

"It's a pity I'm not capable enough. Hongan didn't achieve any substantial results, which delayed them."

Despite both being key projects, the success of the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" project left researchers at the Red Coast Base with a stark contrast in their feelings.

Everyone here is a top talent from universities, with the passion to serve the country. However, while some are building national treasures, others are wasting their youth.

The news that the base was to be transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences was no secret. People were eager for change, and even fewer people stayed behind for the Spring Festival this year.

Lei Zhicheng was practically left all alone, so he had no choice but to shamelessly report to Yang Weining.

Ye Wenjie got up while the two were chatting, walked out of the bedroom, and was stunned when she saw Lei Zhicheng dressed in casual clothes.

As far as I can remember, he seemed to have been wearing that green military uniform the whole time, never taking it off.

Lei Zhicheng nodded and greeted Ye Wenjie warmly, "Little Ye, did I disturb you?"

Ye Wenjie chuckled, "No, you two chat."

His tone was relaxed, as if he were talking to an old friend.

After finishing last night's New Year's Eve dinner, Ye Wenjie's estrangement from Lei Zhicheng lessened considerably.

At the dinner table, Lao Yang and Lei Zhicheng were toasting each other, and she watched quietly from the side. Although she didn't say anything, she secretly hoped that this New Year's Eve dinner would not end.

This was a scene of unprecedented liveliness, even when my father was alive.

Before the incident, Ye Wenjie's life was actually quite uneventful.

Both of my parents, Ye Zhetai and Shaolin, were university professors. They treated each other with respect at home and their conversations revolved around school matters and research.

There wasn't much emotional fluctuation on his face.

Influenced by them, Ye Wenjie doesn't like to share her feelings with others and keeps her emotions to herself.

Yang Weining is also very reserved; he always expresses his affection through actions, but never says it aloud.

Even the fact that she was implicated and stripped of her title as chief engineer of the base was something Ye Wenjie heard from the duty officer.

Over the years, Ye Wenjie has basically no friends, and she can only rely on her intuition to observe the world.

So when she saw Lei Zhicheng leading the way in doing dirty and tiring work and saying those polite words, she felt that he was hypocritical and was just putting on a show.

Such a person deserves no pity even in death.

But now she realizes that some people cannot be simply summarized in a few words.

He was too deeply affected by his father's criticism and his observation of the world was not detailed enough.

Ye Wenjie walked out the door with her mind on her mind and saw Li Youyu setting up an antenna at the entrance.

"It's useless. As long as the base radar is on, this little antenna won't give you a signal."

she says.

Li Youyu replied, "The base radar always has a rest period, so it's not a problem for people to be constantly on edge."

"Speaking of which, Ye Wenjie, is our bet over? Two months have passed, and you're still fine."

"Things don't end that easily."

Ye Wenjie still refused to admit the outcome of the bet.

"It's really hard to get you to call me 'comrade'."

Li Youyu inserted the TV antenna into the crack in the rock, put his hands on his hips and panted, "Don't you think you've got something wrong?"

"What?"

Why do you believe that advanced civilizations possess goodwill?

Li Youyu looked up at the sky, and in the direction he was looking, there was a very bright star.

Ye Wenjie replied to the Trisolaran civilization not because she wanted to destroy humanity, but because she hoped that the Trisolaran civilization would transform human society after its arrival.

But her expectations have one crucial prerequisite.

The Trisolaran civilization, or a more advanced civilization, possesses benevolence.

Is it possible that they would spare no expense in building a fleet, travel thousands of miles to a corner of the Milky Way, find the third planet in the solar system, and then simply help the civilization on that planet become better, only to leave without a trace?

Ye Wenjie thought of the story of the Dark Forest that Li Youyu had told her when they met for the second time.

On a cosmic scale, Earth, which freely sends messages outward, is like a young herbalist gathering herbs in a story.

"I wasn't wrong."

Ye Wenjie said calmly, "Whether it is a good or evil creature, I have no choice."

"And now? If we could go back to the beginning, would our choices still be the same?"

"I have no idea."

Ye Wenjie shook her head.

"I've always had a question I wanted to ask you."

From the moment Ye Wenjie first met Li Youyu, she wanted to ask him one question.

She had been pondering this for a long time, and finally, on the first day of the new year, she asked, "Can you tell me what you're doing? You seem to have never answered this question before."

"If I told you that I want you to face your Lord, would you believe me?"

Why are you always hostile towards the Lord?

Why do you always have fantasies about The Three-Body Problem?

Ye Wenjie was silent for a moment, then said, "Why me?"

Do you think Old Yang deserves to die?

"..."

"Do you think the dolls who bring you dumplings deserve to die?"

"..."

"Do you think the villagers of Qijiatun deserve to die?"

"..."

"But you were there too. You know what I did. Why didn't you stop me?"

The three consecutive questions left Ye Wenjie breathless. As if grasping at a straw, she countered with her own questions to Li Youyu.

"I'm not saying I have no responsibility, but I will only let those who deserve to die die and those who don't deserve to live. I want to give others the right to choose, instead of forcing them to live a life they don't want. I will do what I'm going to do, and you will do what you're going to do."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Stand on the opposite side of the Trisolarans when necessary."

"Stand on the opposite side? But what can I do?" Ye Wenjie shook her head. "The farthest human beings have ever traveled is only 38 kilometers away from Earth. Every gram of payload of an aircraft must be meticulously calculated. If any screw comes loose, it could kill a human in space."

On a cosmic scale, humanity is as fragile as an infant. Any civilization that enters the interstellar age could easily defeat us. I'm just an ordinary person; perhaps by the time God arrives, I'll already be dead.

"All you have to do is step forward, and I think that's when you'll know what you're capable of."

It's not that Li Youyu is trying to play riddles; the Dark Forest Theory itself has a filtering mechanism. Only those who can understand it will realize the importance of deterrence and use it to achieve a strategic balance of terror, like Luo Ji.

If Li Youyu had simply stated the meaning of "deterrence" clearly, Ye Wenjie would probably never have grasped its significance.

This is why Vader couldn't become the Swordholder.

He was thinking of destruction, not deterrence.

Only through deterrence can we gain a glimmer of hope.