Chapter 230 - 93: The Fight to Defend Physics

Chapter 230: Chapter 93: The Fight to Defend Physics

"I remember when we saw the news, we were both wondering about it. A collider requires nanometer-level stability, but crustal activity is relatively high out west. Plus, the cost of building infrastructure in that kind of no-man’s-land—roads, electricity, relocating personnel—would be astronomical."

He stared into Shi Zuozhou’s eyes.

"I couldn’t figure it out back then. Why pass up Qinhuangdao or Huzhou, places that are geologically stable and have already been fully surveyed, just to rush a decision in five days? It defied all common sense to hastily pick a site in such a remote location."

Shi Zuozhou stopped chewing mid-bite. He hastily tapped a few things on his phone, his eyes scanning for something.

"So..." Shi Zuozhou swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

"They chose Leng Lake because of... the terrain? If this downpour really is like Shao Yiyi’s trigram predicted and it continues until the ’Land Sinking into the Sea’... I just looked it up. Leng Lake is on the edge of the Qaidam Basin, at an altitude of nearly three thousand meters. That area might be one of the last places on this continent to be submerged?"

Yu Xian said nothing. His gaze slowly shifted to the window outside. The dark, oppressive curtain of rain looked like an inverted sea, constantly washing over the dining hall’s glass windows.

The dining hall remained noisy. A cafeteria worker pushed a fully loaded metal cart down the aisle, unaware of what the two grim-faced young men beside her were discussing.

"It’s more than that." Yu Xian turned his head and looked at Shi Zuozhou.

"Haven’t you noticed something even more terrifying about this, the more you think it through?"

"What is it?" Shi Zuozhou tightened his grip on his chopsticks.

"According to our deduction last Friday, Su Mingyuan went to warn the physicists because he knew the Great Flood was coming." Yu Xian stared straight at him.

"But if the collider site in Leng Lake was chosen to escape the flood... that means it’s not just Su Mingyuan who took the Great Flood seriously. The highest echelons of the scientific community, the decision-makers who wanted to establish a project worth tens of billions in Leng Lake—they also knew, believed, and had already acted on it."

A TV on the far wall of the dining hall was playing the midday news, but the sound had long been drowned out by the surrounding din of conversation, leaving only the sight of the anchor’s mouth opening and closing.

The professors, Su Mingyuan, the trigram, the storm, the collider, the military control...

While each of these signals could be explained away on its own, when taken together...

They all pointed in the same direction. ’Maybe it’s time to prepare for the worst.’

After listening to Yu Xian, Shi Zuozhou’s brow furrowed. He stared at the meal tray on the table.

"But that doesn’t make sense, Old Yu."

He set his chopsticks aside, his expression serious.

"Based on our earlier theory, Su Mingyuan and his people believe that physics research is causing the Great Flood. So, if the scientific community’s top brass also knew the flood was coming, why didn’t they halt all physics research..."

Shi Zuozhou’s voice trailed off as he stared blankly at Yu Xian, the last few words almost inaudible.

"They actually... already stopped it?"

"Yes. The collider construction project was already rejected, wasn’t it?" Yu Xian said softly, looking up.

"The truth is, from the moment that rejection order was issued, cutting-edge physics research had, in a sense, already been halted."

"In other words..." Shi Zuozhou looked at Yu Xian, a sense of utter absurdity in his eyes.

"This whole Great Flood thing... it isn’t just wishful thinking on the part of Su Mingyuan and his people? It’s not just some esoteric theory backed up by fortune-telling?"

He paused, his voice starting to stammer.

"This... This is a conclusion that today’s top scientists, and even the national leadership, have already accepted?"

Yu Xian nodded silently. But following that logic, there was something else he couldn’t wrap his head around.

"If that’s the case, then this whole affair is even stranger."

His gaze went past the streaks of water on the windowpane, watching the occasional student walk by outside with an umbrella.

"If physics really does cause this kind of disaster for some unknown reason, and cutting-edge research has already been halted... then why haven’t these theoretical physicists, people like Professor Shu and Professor Liang, just done what Su Mingyuan demanded and retired to take shelter somewhere?"

Yu Xian recalled the scene he had witnessed last week in front of the School of Physics main building.

The movers hurrying through the rain, the countless boxes of materials and equipment wrapped tightly in waterproof tarps, and the convoy of blue box trucks driving off into the downpour.

"They didn’t go home. Instead, they took huge amounts of equipment and data and evacuated the labs overnight." A note of deep confusion was in Yu Xian’s voice.

"Where on earth did they all go together?"

Shi Zuozhou fell silent as well. He stared at his half-eaten meal for a long time before finally lowering his voice.

"Old Yu, don’t you get the feeling... that these physicists are fighting back against something?"

Yu Xian looked at him, waiting for him to elaborate.

"Maybe they’re like Professor Ning and just don’t believe this whole ’physics research causes the Great Flood’ theory? I mean, these are the people who believe in science more than anyone else on Earth." Shi Zuozhou looked up, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"Or maybe they feel that the very logic of trading survival for the ’destruction of physics’ is absurd in itself?"

A complicated emotion flickered in Shi Zuozhou’s eyes.

"So I have a theory. Professor Shu and the others didn’t evacuate with their equipment overnight to build some Noah’s Ark. What if they’re doing it to protect themselves? And at the same time... to defend the dignity of physics as a science?"

Yu Xian looked at Shi Zuozhou, following his line of speculation.

"You mean they might have found a safe place to continue their experiments, to use the scientific method to prove Su Mingyuan and his followers are wrong?"

"Exactly. Do you think it’s plausible?"

Yu Xian neither confirmed nor denied the speculation immediately.

’Defending the dignity of science? In the face of a world-ending disaster, that kind of defiance sounds both noble and tragic, with the finality of a moth drawn to a flame.’

’But the more I think about it, something feels off.’

’If Su Mingyuan’s logic is correct, then Professor Shu and the others are basically accelerating humanity’s extinction. Isn’t that too high a price to pay for being stubborn?’

’Besides, since the relevant authorities already shut down the collider project, doesn’t that mean Professor Shu and his team are disobeying a direct order?’

’If so, how could a large-scale relocation like that proceed without a hitch?’

’Where would they get the funding and the nerve to support such a massive undertaking?’

"I can’t figure it out." Yu Xian shook his head, pushing the chaotic thoughts from his mind for the time being.

He checked the time on his phone. It was already 1:40 PM.

"Let’s go. We’ll be late for class."

The two of them picked up their trays and disappeared into the bustling dining hall crowd.

...

Class was about to start, but the computer lab on the fourth floor of the School of Physics’s lab building was still surprisingly empty.

At the front of the room, a young doctoral student with the surname Chen was sweating bullets as he fiddled with the projector. He kept adjusting his glasses, trying to avoid the stares of the students gathered around him.

A few students who were close with Professor Shu had surrounded the podium, bombarding Chen Bo with questions about the professor’s whereabouts. Chen Bo could only fiddle with the mouse and dryly repeat the same few excuses.

"Professor Shu is on a classified project... I really don’t know his specific itinerary... As for your thesis data, he’ll definitely find a way to get it to you once he’s settled in..."

Yu Xian and Shi Zuozhou sat down in their usual seats in the back row by the window. Watching the young doctoral student being helplessly swarmed at the front of the room, Shi Zuozhou shook his head.

"Poor guy."

Just then, the phone in Yu Xian’s pocket vibrated.

He pulled out his phone. The screen displayed a WeChat message from the "Dream Net Testing Team" group.

It was from Wen Xiao.

"I’m discussing what you guys said this morning with one of the upperclassmen. That ’progress wipe’ issue Brother Zhou mentioned, I’ll admit I hadn’t thought of that before." A moment later, she sent another message.

"But a session-based, room-style game probably won’t work either."

Shi Zuozhou saw the group message as well and quickly typed a reply.

"What’s the issue?"

"There’s a fundamental flaw in the technical implementation," Wen Xiao replied.