The Science Fiction World of Xueba

"Zhuang Yan, Zhuang Yan!"

Zhuang Yan was listening to a class in the classroom when she suddenly heard a voice coming from the door of the classroom.

Zhuang Yan turned her head and saw that the person calling her was a counselor, and beside the counselor was a school leader.

In addition, there were several staff members in uniform who looked like they were working in government units, as well as a blond foreigner.

The old professor who was writing on the blackboard stopped the chalk in his hand, turned his head and smiled at Zhuang Yan: "Zhuang Yan, someone is looking for you, go and have a look."

"Um!"

Zhuang Yan nodded, and the life assistant sitting beside her quickly got up and pushed Zhuang Yan out of the classroom.

After Pang Xuelin was elected as a Wallfacer, the relevant department assigned Zhuang Yan a life assistant.

Zhuang Yan is paralyzed in the lower body and has no sensation below the waist. She usually needs to be taken care of when going to the toilet. The life assistant that Pang Xuelin arranged for her is mainly responsible for her life during school. After returning home, her mother will take care of her.

Now, Zhuang Yan has two life assistants by her side, one is in charge of the school and the other is in charge of the outside world.

Coming to the corridor, the school leader said: "Zhuang Yan, this is the High Commissioner of the United Nations Development Program Ai Wende, and these two are the staff of the Capital Fangyuan Notary Office."

"Hello! What can you do for me?"

Zhuang Yan smiled at them, although she didn't know why they were looking for her, but inexplicably, she felt that this matter had something to do with Pang Xuelin.

"You are such an angelic girl, you are so lucky." The UNDP high commissioner made an exaggerated expression and said with a smile: "Ms. Zhuang Yan, have you heard of the Stars Project?"

"Project Stars?"

Zhuang Yan froze for a moment, then nodded hesitantly.

It seems that I saw it on the news two days ago, it seems that the United Nations is going to auction off the stars within a radius of 100 light-years of the solar system or something.

But I don't buy stars, why do these people ask me?

Ai Wende smiled and said: "Ms. Zhuang Yan, congratulations, someone anonymously bought a star for you,

The star is numbered DX3906 and is 286 light-years away from the solar system. The most important thing is that this star can be seen with the naked eye in a clean night sky! As long as you sign this document, the star is yours! "

"What? This star gave me..."

Zhuang Yan felt a little dizzy, an unprecedented sense of happiness swept over her, she turned over and over in her mind, and only one sentence remained: "He gave me a star, he gave me a star, he gave me A star..."

Without any doubt, she was sure that the giver of the star was Pang Xuelin.

Next, under Ai Wende's guidance, Zhuang Yan signed his name on the document in a daze.

"Ms. Zhuang Yan, congratulations, you are the first girl in human history to receive a star."

Amid the applause and envious eyes of everyone, Ai Wende said solemnly.

"Thank you, thank you everyone!"

Zhuang Yan's voice was trembling, her sobs were slightly choked, her eye circles were red, but the smile on her face couldn't be concealed no matter what.

Let me ask, for a woman, what could be happier than someone who loves her giving her a star?

In the past six months, she has been with Pang Xuelin day and night, and it would be a lie to say that she has no affection for Pang Xuelin.

But at that time, Zhuang Yan didn't dare to have too many extravagant ideas.

After all, I will never be able to stand up again in my life, but Pang Xuelin is a well-known mathematician in the world. Regardless of their status, the two are very different.

Especially after Pang Xuelin was elected as a Wallfacer, Zhuang Yan extinguished any unrealistic thoughts.

It's just that she never expected that Pang Xuelin would give herself such a big surprise without saying a word.

For the next afternoon, Zhuang Yan kept looking at the phone over and over again, and from time to time, she dug out the address book, clicked on Pang Xuelin's name, and wanted to call him.

But thinking that it is early morning in New York, Pang Xuelin must still be asleep, Zhuang Yan suppressed his idea of ​​contacting Pang Xuelin immediately.

So she simply found a photo of herself and Pang Xuelin, and looked at it stupidly, with the corners of her mouth raised from time to time, flashing a shy look.

Going home at night, Zhuang Yan didn't tell her mother that Pang Xuelin gave her a star.

After eating, she excused herself to be tired and wanted to go back to her room to sleep.

Afterwards, she quietly turned off the light in the bedroom, went to the balcony in a wheelchair, and tried to find the location of DX3906 given to her by Pang Xuelin in the night sky according to an astronomical observation manual given to her by Ai Wende, a commissioner of the United Nations High Program in the afternoon.

It's just that in this era of severe light pollution, even today is a rare clear sky, and there are not many stars in the sky.

But Zhuang Yan was not disappointed.

She took out her mobile phone and quietly dialed Pang Xuelin's number.

Soon, the phone was connected, and Pang Xuelin's slightly magnetic voice came from the other end of the phone: "Hello, Yanyan!"

"Brother Pang, I'm looking at our stars."

Zhuang Yan's voice was sweet, and Pang Xuelin could feel the happiness from her heart at this moment.

Pang Xuelin was slightly taken aback: "How did you guess that I gave it to you?"

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "Who else would give such a gift except you."

Pang Xuelin laughed and said, "Do you like it?"

"Hmm! I like it. By the way, Brother Pang, when are you coming back?"

"It's hard to say. I still have some things to do here. I guess it will be a month or two after I finish my work."

"Oh." Zhuang Yan was slightly disappointed, but soon became happy and said, "Brother Pang, when you come back, let's watch our stars together, okay?"

"good!"

A shy smile appeared on Zhuang Yan's face.

At this time, she vaguely heard that someone on the other end of the phone seemed to be looking for Pang Xuelin, and she said obediently: "Brother Pang, you should do your work first, and I won't disturb you."

"Well, Yanyan, it's night time here, remember to go to bed early!"

"Okay... oh, yes, Brother Pang..."

"Um?!"

"I...I miss you!"

After saying this, the phone beeped, and Zhuang Yan took the initiative to hang up.

"This girl!"

Pang Xuelin looked at his phone, smiled and shook his head.

The reason why I bought DX3906 as a gift to Zhuang Yan this time is that on the one hand, it was a surprise for her. The two planets in this star system can also provide a lot of wealth for Zhuang Yan's life after hibernation and awakening; on the other hand, There is a planet of life in DX3906. This galaxy is located on a busy channel in the universe, and even the legendary return to zero once appeared there.

According to Zhong, those who return to zero may be a group of intelligent individuals, or a civilization, or several civilizations.

But they do exist.

They want to reboot the universe and go back to pastoral times.

According to the information Pang Xuelin got from the world of "Country Teacher", this group of zero-returners finally succeeded, and they opened up a whole new universe.

As for where they went, no one knows.

But one thing Pang Xuelin can be sure of is that if he can get in touch with Zero Returner, he might have the opportunity to explore the ultimate mystery of the universe.

...

"Okay, let's continue, where did we just say?"

Pang Xuelin looked at Cheng Xin who was sitting opposite him, and said calmly.

Cheng Xin was a little lost.

After getting in touch with Pang Xuelin these days, Pang Xuelin left a bad impression on her.

The main reason, of course, is that Pang Xuelin used the power of the Wallfacer to force himself to stay by his side, he treated him lukewarm, and spoke fiercely.

Once I didn't do my job well, I would even cover my head and face and get scolded.

Apart from this, Pang Xuelin showed the quality of a qualified Wallfacer.

Calm, decisive, wise, and not procrastinating in doing things.

But the phone call just now completely overturned Cheng Xin's image of Pang Xuelin.

She couldn't imagine that this man actually had such a gentle side, he spoke softly, and the somewhat rigid lines on his face became softer, and he had a completely different face from when he was talking to herself.

Are you just that annoying?

Cheng Xin complained secretly in her heart, but on the surface, she didn't dare to express anything.

Cheng Xin continued to report to Pang Xuelin the latest demonstration results of the expert group's ladder plan.

"NASA has just completed two small nuclear explosion thrust tests in space. The results show that in order to reach the rated speed, the mass of the aircraft can only be maintained at 11 kilograms at most. The radiation sail can be reduced to 10 kilograms, and the payload is only half a kilogram. But it can’t be more, because the increase of the load will inevitably lead to the thickening of the sail, and the increase of the load by one gram will increase the sail by three grams, making it impossible to reach one percent of the speed of light.”

"The technology of deploying nuclear bombs on the propulsion section of the route is relatively mature. The difficulty is to control the aircraft's route and the precise interleaving of each nuclear bomb, as well as the detonation control of the nuclear bomb."

"Each nuclear bomb must be detonated when the radiation sail has just passed over it. The distance varies from three kilometers to ten kilometers, depending on the explosive yield of the nuclear bomb. As the speed of the sail increases, the required control accuracy becomes higher and higher. , but even if the speed of the sail reaches one percent of the speed of light, the control accuracy is above the nanosecond level, and with the current technology, it can still be achieved after hard work.”

"Because the aircraft itself does not have any power, its sailing direction is completely controlled by the explosion position of the nuclear bomb. Each nuclear bomb on the route has a position control engine, which is precisely positioned before the sail arrives. The distance between the two is only a few hundred when they cross. Meters, adjusting this distance can make the explosion thrust form different angles with the sail, and then control the heading of the aircraft.”

"Radiation sails are soft membranes that can only drag the payload behind the sails, which makes the entire aircraft look like a huge parachute placed horizontally along the direction of navigation. According to different equivalents, the nuclear explosion is three kilometers behind the parachute. to 10 kilometers away. In order to avoid the impact of nuclear explosion radiation on the space capsule, the sails are very long, so that the space capsule leans back as much as possible. This distance is as long as 500 kilometers. The surface of the space capsule is covered by evaporative cooling materials. Evaporation continues in each nuclear explosion, reducing its own weight while cooling down."

"Those sails will be made of flying blade material, only one-tenth the thickness of spider silk, invisible to the naked eye, and the weight of a single sail is only 20 grams per 100 kilometers, but it is strong enough to drag when accelerating. to move the capsule without being cut off by nuclear radiation."

...

Pang Xuelin nodded, and said: "It seems that the decision to send only brains is still wise. By the way, how is the selection of candidates for the ladder plan?"

Cheng Xindao: "Because we can only send brains, considering ethical factors, we can only search among terminally ill patients. However, among terminally ill patients, they are required to have an aerospace background and have a mature and stable mental quality, so the selection is not going very smoothly... ..."

"You said, how about removing your brain alive and sending it over?"

"ah?!"

Cheng Xin's eyes widened.

Pang Xuelin smiled and said: "Look, you graduated from aerospace engineering and worked in PIA. You have good personal qualities and technical foundations, and psychological qualities. It's not bad. The most important point is that with your temperament, it is impossible Betrayed human beings. So what do you think of sending you there to gain a foothold in the Trisolaran world?"

"But I...but I'm a healthy person!"

Feeling Pang Xuelin's gaze wandering over her body, Cheng Xin's whole body got goosebumps.

She felt that in front of Pang Xuelin, she seemed to be a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, while the other party was thinking about where to cut the knife.

"It's fine if you don't want to!" Pang Xuelin shook his head and said: "Actually, if you really can't find a qualified candidate, I discussed it with Vader and plan to start from within PIA. Vadim is the best choice, and that guy is an aerospace engineer. The old fritters in the system have worked in the KGB for many years, and their psychological quality is excellent. The only limited regret is that he still has a wife and daughter who love him... Tsk tsk... What a pity!"

"Professor Pang!" Cheng Xin raised her head suddenly and said loudly, "If...if you really can't find a suitable candidate, then...then don't cut off Brother Vadim's brain, just cut mine. I...I would like to be a volunteer..."

As Cheng Xin said, Dou Da's tears fell down.

After entering PIA, Wade was cold and tough, and Pang Xuelin took pleasure in teasing and bullying himself all day long.

These days, only PIA's simple and honest Vadim can bring her a little brother's warmth.

Cheng Xin never imagined that Pang Xuelin and Wade would be so frantic that they planned to attack Vadim.

If Vadim was to go, she would rather go by herself!

Pang Xuelin laughed: "As expected of the Holy Mother of Cheng!"

"What did you say?"

Cheng Xin raised her head and looked at Pang Xuelin with tears in her eyes.

Pang Xuelin said with a smile: "I said it just as a joke, is there any need to cry?"

"you?!"

Cheng Xin gritted her teeth and looked at Pang Xuelin, then stood up suddenly and said, "Professor Pang, as a wallfacer, is it interesting for you to bully me, a little girl like this? If you tease me like this again in the future, then my job will be a big deal." Done, resign and return to China, find a job with peace of mind, get married and have children!"

"Hey, you still know how to resist. It seems that you haven't reached the terminal stage of the Virgin Mary's cancer, and there is still hope!"

Pang Xuelin said with a smile.

Cheng Xin said, "Professor Pang, what do you mean?"

Pang Xuelin stood up and came to the French window.

His Hilton Hotel is located in the center of Manhattan, facing the sea, surrounded by tall buildings.

The presidential suite is located on the top floor of the hotel. From the floor-to-ceiling windows, you can see the sea and the sky in the distance. High-rise buildings spread along the coastline, forming a magnificent picture of industrial civilization.

Pang Xuelin said, "Cheng Xin, do you think human nature or animal nature is more important?"

Cheng Xin was slightly taken aback, and blurted out without thinking, "Of course it's human nature!"

Pang Xuelin was not surprised by her answer, and said: "But the essence of life is beasts, and beast nature is the driving force for us to stand on the earth and keep making progress. If human beings only have human nature but no animal nature, I am afraid that as early as in the ignorant age, human beings would have been born." Were weeded out by nature!"

"Forehead?"

Cheng Xin stared blankly at Pang Xuelin, always feeling that what Pang Xuelin said meant something.

Pang Xuelin said again: "Humans, we always think too highly of ourselves. You see, now we have become the masters of the earth, so in order to distinguish ourselves from wild beasts, we put a halo on ourselves and call it human nature. How majestic and righteous. But we seem to have forgotten that animal nature is the essential reason why we survive on the earth and become the ruler of the earth. You said that if the universe is also similar to our nature, and there is also the law of the jungle between civilizations, We still communicate with them with humanity, do you think human civilization can survive in this universe?"

"But...but..."

But after a long time, Cheng Xin said, "Professor Pang, if there are civilizations with a higher technological level than ours in the world, their moral level should not be much worse, right?"

Pang Xuelin smiled and said, "Do you think this conclusion is scientific?"

Cheng Xin fell silent and didn't speak any more.

Pang Xuelin said: "Cheng Xin, remember one sentence, it is not easy to survive in this world. Fangs are often easier to win people's respect than good deeds. Just like just now, if I I have been bullying you all the time, you have been swallowing your anger, and you don’t know how to resist, then you will always be in a state of pain. You see, once you resist and threaten to resign, my attitude towards you will be much better!"

At the end, Pang Xuelin smiled again.

Cheng Xin stared fixedly at Pang Xuelin with her beautiful eyes, and her chest heaved violently. After a while, she said, "Professor Pang, as a Wallfacer, how can you be so brazen?!"

Pang Xuelin walked forward with a smile, patted her on the shoulder and said, "Little girl, you have to remember that being shameless is exactly the basic requirement of a Wallfacer."

As he spoke, Pang Xuelin shook his head, walked past Cheng Xin, and returned to the sofa area.

Behind him, Cheng Xin retorted in a low voice: "You yourself are not a few years older than me, why are you pretending to be old-fashioned!"

Pang Xuelin staggered, turned his head and stared at Cheng Xin viciously.

Cheng Xin was taken aback, and said quickly, "Professor Pang, if I have nothing else to do, then I'll be leaving first."

"Well, ask PIA to speed up the screening of candidates for the ladder plan. Oh, by the way, didn't you graduate with an aerospace major? See if there are any suitable terminally ill patients among your classmates, and if so, recommend a few come over!"

Cheng Xin, who was about to leave the house, was taken aback for a moment, then turned around and said, "Professor Pang, please don't curse my classmate to death, okay?"

Saying that, she left the room without looking back.

Seeing Cheng Xin's back disappear behind the door, Pang Xuelin smiled: "This girl, she really has improved a bit after being trained."

At this time, Kanter walked in and said, "Professor Pang, we have rejected Yun Tianming's application to buy Xingxing according to your request. In addition, this is Yun Tianming's personal file, please have a look."

Pang Xuelin nodded, took Yun Tianming's file and read it.

Kanter asked curiously, "Professor Pang, this Yun Tianming..."

"Oh, it's nothing, I just want to see if there are any qualified candidates for the Stepped Project among Cheng Xin's relatives, friends, and classmates. After all, after the implementation of the Stepped Project, if the people we send over can really gain a foothold in the Three-Body Civilization, then yes. The future of our humanity has a crucial impact. Therefore, it is best for the candidate to have some kind of relationship with someone we are familiar with, so that the future can be easily controlled.”

"oh!"

Kanter nodded and said nothing more.

Kanter doesn't know how to describe Pang Xuelin.

In fact, among the Wallfacers so far, Pang Xuelin is the most unpredictable.

Needless to say, Luo Ji, that guy really planned to use the authority of the Wallfacer to live in seclusion in the mountains for the rest of his life.

The few remaining Wallfacers, Taylor, Rey Diaz, and Hines have all formed their own staff, and their plans are also steadily advancing, which seems relatively reliable.

Only Pang Xuelin, after assuming the position of Wallfacer, plunged into the ladder plan.

But even if this plan is successful, will it be of any help to mankind's victory in the battle of a certain day?

Anyway, Kanter didn't see it until now.

Moreover, Pang Xuelin seemed to have taken a fancy to Cheng Xin, the beautiful girl from PIA, and even used administrative means to directly abort Cheng Xin's suitor's star-giving plan.

Even so, Pang Xuelin seemed still not at ease. Judging by his current appearance, he was planning to cut off the brain of Cheng Xin's classmate and send him to the Three-Body Problem.

In the past, Pang Xuelin left Kanter with the typical image of a scholar, gentle as jade, calm and wise.

But now, Kanter couldn't understand, he couldn't think of what this Wallfacer wanted to do?

Does he also want to use the wall-facing scheme to pick up girls like Luo Ji?

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