Summary
4. The Frontiers of Science (Forty-plus years later)
In the present day, Professor Wang Miao is approached by two cops and two PLA officers who invite him to an important secret meeting that apparently can't be held without him. One of the cops, Captain Shi Qiang, is extremely rude. Wang Miao overhears the other officers gossiping about Shi's history of torture and reckless behavior. Wang Miao suspects the officers intentionally let him overhear this so he'll be intrigued; it works, especially when they mention something called the Battle Command Center.
At the Battle Command Center meeting, which Wang Miao is surprised to learn is legitimate, Captain Shi asks Wang about his research into nanomaterial. Wang's nanomaterial, Flying Blade, is incredibly strong—a single strand can cut a car like cheese. The meeting is led by General Chang, and it’s very mysterious. The military wants information on tactics from police and scientists—especially unconventional tactics—but won’t give them any background on what sort of “wartime” they’re in.
Wang is shown a list of scientists who have been "targeted." Looking at his expression alone, Captain Shi deduces that Wang recognizes a scientist's name, Yang Dong, and doesn't know her but wishes he knew her. Shi might not be an honorable cop, but he’s extremely observant. Yang Dong is a theoretical physicist whose superstring model was tested at a particle accelerator Wang helped construct; they met briefly in the past but didn’t speak. Her boyfriend, Ding Yi, is at the meeting and is also a theoretical physicist.
Wang learns that every scientist on this list has committed suicide in the last two months. All of them left lengthy notes with the same message. Yang Dong’s is shortest, written on birch bark:
All the evidence points to a single conclusion: Physics has never existed, and will never exist. I know what I'm doing is irresponsible. But I have no choice.
A majority of the scholars who committed suicide are connected to the Frontiers of Science, a group of intellectuals centered around a radical question: What is the limit of science? Wang was invited to join, but he works in applied research—while he finds their philosophical discussions interesting, he declined their invitation.
General Chang asks Wang to join the Frontiers of Science now, becoming a mole for the Battle Command Center. Wang refuses at first, but after goading from Captain Shi, he accepts. As General Chang escorts Wang out, he says that humanity has been fortunate to avoid crises so far—but that time is over. Humanity’s peace has already ended. After the meeting, Wang asks to be taken to Ding Yi's house.
5. A Game of Pool
Dr. Ding Yi is clearly drunk and unbothered by Wang’s surprise visit. Ding instructs Wang to make a very easy shot on his pool table, then move the table across the room and make the shot again. They do this five times, moving the heavy table, and Wang makes the same shot every time. Ding says they’ve discovered a great principle of nature: The laws of physics are invariant across space and time. Now Ding asks Wang to imagine that radically different things happened every time they moved the table—one time the black ball sank, but the next it flew into the ceiling, and the next it settled in Wang’s pocket. He reveals that this chaos actually happened in experiments, destroying the field of theoretical physics. Using high-energy particle accelerators around the world, physicists now know that the laws of physics are variable, and results change based on space and time. They can’t replicate results even once. Universal laws of physics don’t exist—therefore, physics itself doesn't exist. Ding connects this to Yang Dong's suicide. As they say goodbye, Ding encourages Wang to visit Yang Dong’s mother.
6. The Shooter and the Farmer
The next day is the start of the weekend, and Wang heads out on his bicycle to take photos with his fancy Leica film camera. (He’s a somewhat-successful amateur nature photographer.) Today feels different. He muses on the Frontiers of Science and the shooter and the farmer (see page 74). He forces himself to take photos, but he returns home before noon and naps, then begins developing. He finds something strange: every photo has a tiny row of small numbers, which should be impossible with his mechanical camera. The numbers change color to appear clearly, and even move on one photo so they can be seen. They seem to be counting down from 1200:00:00. Wang gives his wife the camera and asks her to shoot photos—the countdown doesn’t appear on her photos, but when he shoots his own, it returns again.
Wang is, unsurprisingly, frightened by this. He borrows his neighbor’s digital camera. He has his very young son take photos with the digital camera while he uses his Leica. He discovers that only photos he takes have the countdown, and it happens on both film and digital photos. His wife is panicked by his strange behavior, especially when he calls Dr. Shen Yufei of the Frontiers of Science, then leaves for her house.
Wang talks to Wei Cheng, Shen’s husband, who’s always absentmindedly doing some kind of mysterious research with million-yuan equipment in his room. Wei Cheng directs him to Shen, who’s playing a game wearing a V-suit. Wang observes that she’s on a website called www.3body.net. She stops playing, listens to his story about the photos, and tells him simply to stop his nanomaterials research. She won’t elaborate, and Wang, angry, prepares to leave. From his cab, he watches as Pan Han arrives at Shen's house. Pan is a well-known biologist/environmentalist who promotes de-urbanization. Pan seems to want to talk to Wei Cheng. Wang doesn’t understand, but he does observe that Shen doesn’t let Pan in her house. Captain Shi "coincidentally" bumps into him, and Wang tells him to leave him alone.
When he wakes up the next day, Wang sees the countdown hovering before his eyes. Extremely frightened, Wang goes to a doctor (who is no help), then to his workplace. The equipment there really does need maintenance, so Wang orders the experiment to be paused; as soon as it stops, the countdown disappears. He calls Shen Yufei and demands answers, but she is mysterious and vague. He says no scale of demonstration will make him believe this countdown is legitimate. She accepts that challenge. She gives him a website address and tells him that three days from now, the entire universe will flicker for him.
7. Three Body: King Wen of Zhou and the Long Night
Wang calls Ding Yi, who encourages him to talk to Yang Dong’s mother—she would know where to observe the cosmic microwave background, which Wang needs if he wants to see the universe flicker. Curious about Shen Yufei, Wang goes to 3body.net, using the V-suit in the employee lounge at his workplace. He’s transported to a desolate plain, then a registration screen for Three Body. He creates an ID (Hairen, punning on his name) and logs in.
The final three paragraphs of this summary section describe Wang’s first experience in the video game Three Body.
He talks to another player, King Wen of Zhou, and learns they’re in a Chaotic Period, in which the sun is unpredictable and time can’t be measured without a complex sandglass. Wang follows King Wen and his (presumably NPC, or non-playable character) companion, Follower, on their journey to Zhao Ge. When they’re not talking, the system speeds up in-game time. Wang sees his health bar is decreasing, and he still hasn’t seen the sun, despite many days passing.
When the sun does rise, it’s too close and too hot; they hide in shadows. Because they don’t have enough resources to survive the trip, Follower dehydrates, becoming easily transportable (he’ll recover when soaked in water). Everyone in this world must periodically re- and dehydrate to survive Chaotic Eras. Finally, two flying stars signify an oncoming Stable Era, when time can be measured and civilization can progress. Wang finally learns the goal of the game: “to use our intellect and understanding to analyze all phenomena until we can know the pattern of the sun’s movement. The survival of civilization depends on it.” King Wen believes he has developed this accurate calendar, which he’ll present to King Zhou in Zhao Ge.
They arrive and talk to King Zhou. A man named Fu Xi gives a prediction about the eras’ patterns and is proven wrong, so he climbs into a boiling cauldron of soup. King Wen (whom King Zhou calls by his given name, Ji Chang) explains that he can predict the Chaotic and Stable Eras using yin and yang, drawing the hexagrams of the I Ching on the floor and predicting future periods. The ceiling of King Zhou’s hall opens, and game time speeds up to test King Wen’s predictions. They seem to be correct, so King Zhou rehydrates all his people at the start of a predicted Stable Era. Things go well for eight days, but then the sun stops rising; three shooting stars are seen, indicating a devastatingly long era of cold. King Wen, his theory proven wrong, gets into the pot of boiling soup. People are dehydrated; King Zhou encourages players to log out, since the game gets much less fun from here. Wang observes the oncoming cold, as explained by Follower. King Zhou’s pyramid is buried by snow of carbon dioxide, then solidified oxygen and nitrogen—the atmosphere is disappearing. Text appears in the sky saying that Civilization Number 137 was destroyed, encouraging players to log on in the future. Before exiting the game, Wang watches the three flying stars in the sky.
Analysis
Part II: Three Body introduces the novel's second protagonist, Wang Miao. He considers himself a practical man, and the early facts about him support this: Wang is successful at a job that interests him, has a normal relationship with his wife and son, and has a hobby in which he's achieved moderate success. Beyond these signifiers of a stable life, the novel also positions Wang Miao immediately between two very different characters: Captain Shi Qiang in Chapter 4 and Dr. Ding Yi in Chapter 5.
Da Shi is basically a stereotypical crooked cop. He's practical to the point of obnoxiousness, observing the literal facts of life and not engaging with anything beyond that. Ding Yi, on the other hand, is a sensitive theoretical physicist, with a lifelong interest in grappling with the philosophical aspects of existence. Between these two men—the ruthlessly real-world common man and the affectionate, bereaved intellectual—Wang Miao is situated as a practical middleman who can relate to, interpret, and critique various aspects of their worldviews, serving as a proxy for the reader, who must make similar judgment calls.
Wang Miao is not without his flaws, though. We see Captain Shi infuriate him with poor manners, then goad him into acting as a mole for the Battle Command Center. He's understandably frightened by the mysterious countdown, and though he engages in some practical experiments to seek info (different cameras, different photographers, going to a doctor, etc), as a result of his panic he scares his wife, and he doesn't comfort her—as a matter of fact, Wang's home life isn't depicted in the book after this. It's also revealed that he's a serious, unrelenting boss, frequently denying breaks in research even for recommended maintenance. Though Wang is a practical man, he's not a perfect or unflappable one. If he were, not only would his fear and subsequent actions be less believable, the book be less interesting: Wang Miao is a mostly levelheaded, mostly intellectual, mostly successful man, who's still able to have a good freakout and make mistakes to build suspense.
Da Shi and Ding Yi serve as foils for Wang, but a more fruitful comparison might be between the first two men. They are, of course, different. Da Shi is a crooked cop, and Ding Yi is a well-respected young scientist. However, they have a surprising number of similarities: they're both wanted by the Battle Command Center for their expertise; they're both shown to be heavy drinkers; they both explain various aspects of the case to Wang; they each provide a kind of comfort to him. Though Wang Miao prefers (at least at first) the company of Ding Yi, going to his house unsolicited and later seeking further advice, the novel doesn't portray Ding Yi as better than Da Shi. Despite his success and intellect, the book doesn't give Ding Yi the signs of a happy life—his apartment is unfurnished, his cups are unwashed, and he drinks alone. He asks Wang Miao to visit Yang Dong's mother to comfort her because he can't do it himself. Da Shi, on the other hand, is a captain in the police force, has a family and is saving for his kid's college, and most importantly, he comforts Wang Miao, rather than the other way around.
The following chapters deal more with the Frontiers of Science, Shen Yufei, and the mysterious countdown, so they'll be discussed further in the next section.
