As a China expert, Stephen is not only a Chinese translator, but also a lover of Chinese literature.

Every time he came to China, he would go into major bookstores like a gold pan to actively look for the golden house of books, he liked to study history, and he was almost familiar with the 5,000-year process of China, so he was even more proficient in Chinese than the locals.

And he also made friends with many Chinese language experts.

They came from various countries and formed a Chinese language club to exchange Chinese culture with each other.

This time, he was hired as a translator for the U.S. Embassy, and accompanied the Secretary of Commerce and a group of American business tycoons to China for a business visit.

Zhang Hanting, the editor-in-chief of China's Science Fiction Magazine and one of the judges for the Galaxy Prize, was recently tasked with accepting submissions from all over the country.

The two have known each other for ten years and have been friends in New York, and Zhang Hanting is one of Stephen's Chinese language guides.

Stephen brought his own American specialty, a coffee bean that is only sold in New York, and Zhang Hanting also took out a treasured Wuyi Mountain big red robe and asked Stephen to taste it.

Although the latter is a Chinese expert, he has never been able to understand the bitter oolong tea, and after tasting it, he frowned, and Zhang Hanting, who saw it, laughed: "Stephen, it's a waste for you to drink this tea!"

Stephen smiled wryly, "I feel like I'm drinking Chinese medicine." ”

Zhang Hanting shook his head: "You have to taste it slowly, this tea is bitter first and then sweet, and after drinking it, there will be a mellow fragrance left in your mouth...... Forget it, I'll make you coffee!"

Stephen hurriedly thanked him, and then he looked at the bundles of envelopes placed in Zhang Hanting's living room, and at the same time thoughtfully, he was also a little puzzled: "Doesn't China have an e-mail address?

"It's a tradition, and it won't be changed for a while, and in remote areas, not every household has a computer. ”

Zhang Hanting smiled: "But there are a lot of manuscripts in the email, but they are not reviewed by me." ”

Stephen shook his head: "Hanting, the momentum of your Galaxy Award this time is not as good as in the past, I think we should increase investment and increase the amount of the prize pool, 100,000 is too little." ”

"The reward brought by the essay is just a meaning, the most important thing is the halo effect brought by the award, and the added value is the highest. ”

Zhang Hanting said, took out a handwritten manuscript, and handed it to Stephen: "Don't you always say that Chinese science fiction is too soft? You look at this article, it is definitely hard enough, but the current manuscript is only 20,000 words, the theme concept is 'a galaxy with three irregularly moving stars', the background is in a special period, and it describes the story of the contact between some characters and extraterrestrial forces, which I think is very interesting." ”

"Oh? I'll have to take a look. ”

Intrigued, Stephen took the manuscript, pulled out a pair of convex lenses from the briefcase he carried with him, and began to read them as he waited for his coffee.

[The wave was in full swing, and astronomer Ye Wenjie experienced disasters during it and was taken to the military's top secret project "Red Bank Project".

Ye Wenjie used the sun as an antenna to send out the first cry of the earth's civilization to the universe, and made a breakthrough in the exploration of alien civilization.

Under the dominance of three irregularly moving suns, the "Three-Body Civilization" four light years away has experienced more than 100 times of destruction and rebirth, and is being forced to flee from the home planet, and at this time, they received a message from the earth......]

There are 20,000 words in total, but there are some words between the lines that Stephen, a China expert, can't understand.

Twenty minutes later, he rubbed the corners of his eyes, took the coffee handed by Zhang Hanting, and said hesitantly: "I feel very average......

But I don't think it's simple, and even when I think about it, I think it's very magnificent. By the way, this author added some follow-up creative ideas to the manuscript, and he proposed the concept of a 'dark forest' law, which I think is very special. ”

Stephen was stunned: "What do you mean?"

Zhang Hanting thought for a while, turned around and picked up a piece of stationery on the desk, found a few lines of words, and read:

"The universe is a dark forest, and every civilization is a hunter with a gun, sneaking through the forest like a ghost, gently brushing away the branches that stand in the way, trying not to make a sound from his footsteps, and even breathing carefully: he must be careful, because the forest is full of hunters who are sneaking like him, and if he finds other life, there is only one thing he can do, and that is to shoot and destroy the other party. In this forest, others are hell, an eternal threat, and any life that reveals its existence will soon be wiped out, which is the picture of cosmic civilization and an explanation of Fermi's paradox. ”

Stephen opened his mouth: "Han Ting, can you explain it simply?"

"This has been explained very clearly, Ye Wenjie sent the coordinates of the earth to the extraterrestrial planets, exposing the earth, and according to the law of the dark forest, the earth is either occupied by aliens or destroyed by them......"

Zhang Hanting continued to look at the letterhead, "This says that the chain of suspicion and the explosion of technology are the core concepts of the law of the dark forest, and according to this concept, the author deduced to us the terrible fact that the universe is actually a huge dark forest. ”

Stephen wiped his sweat: "I don't understand it anymore, but I feel very powerful." ”

"In my opinion, the concept of a technological explosion is well understood. Biological evolution is a spiraling process, and the whole is approximately at a uniform rate, but this is not the case with technological development. Humanity has lived a similar life for thousands of years, but in the last two centuries there has been a sudden qualitative leap.

From primitive chemical energy to steam engines, to internal combustion engines and the Industrial Revolution, mankind mastered nuclear energy in a short period of time.

This process of development is very telling, and in just one hundred years, a civilization has completed a qualitative leap.

And a hundred years is actually a very short time on a cosmic scale, and civilizations may surpass each other at any time.

As for the chain of suspicion, the issues involved are much more complex.

In my opinion, the reason why this law of the dark forest is true is precisely because different civilizations cannot trust each other, and this sense of distrust, when presented in an extreme form, is the ruthless destruction of lower civilizations by higher civilizations. ”

Stephen's eyes lit up.

He thought for a moment, lowered his head and took a sip of coffee, and exclaimed: "He can actually justify himself! Then he is indeed hard science fiction, and he is very advanced, amazing, I really have some expectations now, please allow me to make a copy of this manuscript and bring it back, by the way, I haven't asked you yet, which science fiction master is this author?"

Zhang Hanting looked at the pen name on the letter and said, "Zheng Qian." ”