Ji Renrui immediately agreed, "Okay, come on, 'Friends of Le' has already paid me a salary." However, what about Changchang, should he give it to his grandmother or do you bring it? ”

"Take it. As for you two and grandfather, I can take care of it. One more thing, it's probably too early to say, I'll say it anyway. Miao Qi smiled and said, "When those condor eggs go to the sky, remember to leave a place for Changchang, and it doesn't matter to the two of us." ”

"It's too early to tell, but I'll take care of it. Okay, hang up. Thank you Lao Lu for me before leaving, he has bothered in the past two years. ”

The house built for He Lao was completed very quickly, and now He Lao lives in the headquarters on weekdays and in the mountains during the big days. When I lived in the mountains, I naturally ate at Ma's house, and there were He Lao, Ma and his wife, Chu and Xiao Liuye at the dinner table, and it was lively and lively. Everyone said that Tianle's mother was too hard, because several other people were busy with work and couldn't help with housework, so they persuaded Tianle's mother to find a nearby mountain man as a helper. Tianle's mother said that there was no need for it, because Xiao Liuye was very well-behaved and did not add to the chaos, so it was not difficult to cook the meals of these six people. In addition, the transportation is now convenient, and the family often goes to the supermarket to buy cooked food and processed vegetables before returning by helicopter, which greatly reduces her workload, so everyone does not force her to find a helper.

It's about to be summer vacation, and a little guest has been added to the family - He Lao's grandson He Zizhou. During this period of time, Chu Tianle was relatively weak because he needed to take medicine for a long time after the operation, and he was more at home. Originally, due to the nature of his work, working from home did not affect efficiency. After Yangyang came, he stuck to "Brother Tianle" every day, and He Lao didn't live in the mountains on weekdays, so Yangyang simply lived in Ma's house. Chu Tianle found that since the last time they met, this little guy has indeed read a lot of books in the past two or three years, and his knowledge of astrophysics has grown greatly, so it can be said that he has now replaced his role in his teens, "a casual pinch of the head is a problem", and then annoyed the teacher with endless questions. He Lao strictly ordered him not to pester Tianle's brother too much, so as not to affect Chu Tianle's "precious thinking". Tianle smiled and said, "It's okay to do things, answering children's questions can often inspire you." ”

The weather was very good that night, Ma Shiqi went to the observatory as usual, and Xiao Yanagi and "Brother Yangyang" (the confusion of the generations of the two families of Hema was caused by history, and everyone was too lazy to correct it) went crazy for a long time, was sleepy, and went to bed. Yangyang pulled Tianle's brother to the tarmac outside the courtyard, and the two of them lay in the center of the cross landing sign, looking up at the starry sky. Yangyang said happily:

"Brother Tianle, you see us lying in the center of the cross, the boundless starry sky embracing us from all sides, I have a great feeling, just like we are in the center of the universe, and the place where we lie is God's couch!"

"Really? It's a great feeling, but if you use the language of science, the universe has no center. Humans have long thought that they were at the center of the universe, and that was just a form of narcissism. Yangyang, you know what? We have already given an explanation for this cosmic collapse, but you Uncle Ma have always been skeptical about this hypothesis, and the reason is because of this 'center'. He believes that the collapse is happening precisely in the human area, which is always like a disguised resurrection of the 'anthropocentric theory'. He shook his head in the darkness of the night, "His suspicions are not unreasonable, but unfortunately I can't explain them yet." ”

"Brother Tianle, I haven't been able to figure this out. Since the universe is finite in space and time, having started with a Big Bang, how can it not have a center? For example, the most classic metaphor for the expanding universe is that it is like a large cake with many pine nuts embedded in it, and when it expands, the pine nuts will recede into each other, moving farther and farther away. It's a great metaphor, but – a puffy cake has a center! ”

Chu Tianle nodded, "You're right, this classic metaphor is actually inappropriate. Albert Einstein said long ago that the universe is a hypercircle, but the human brain evolved for the three-dimensional world, and it is impossible to imagine a higher-dimensional world. We can only lower the dimensions to imagine a picture, and then use the ability to reason to raise it by one dimension. Now, let's assume that the universe is a two-dimensional balloon with grains of sand stuck to its surface. When the balloon is inflated, the sand particles on it will recede against each other, and the farther apart the two sand grains, the greater their relative regression velocity. You see, this universe is finite but has no boundaries. It also has an expansion center, but the center is in the (2+1) dimension. Therefore, the observer in the two-dimensional universe will find that the universe is equal everywhere and has no special center. Okay, now we can use reasoning to describe the picture of the three-dimensional universe: the three-dimensional hypercircle is also finite and unbounded, and there is no special center in the universe. Its center of expansion is located in the (3+1) dimension. Note that this extra dimension is not the time dimension that is often referred to, but the space dimension. ”

"Spatial dimension? Where is it? ”

"I don't know, no one has said it yet. Again, it's hard for our three-dimensional brains to intuitively imagine super-three-dimensional things. Perhaps it is curled up in the depths of space, in the deep structure of the vacuum. Yangyang, I'll leave this question to you. ”

Yangyang didn't pick up this stubble. The starlight in his eyes flickered, and a new question popped up with his "head": "Brother Tianle, I have a new question......

Tianle cut him off with a smile: "Slow down, I haven't answered the question you asked the day before yesterday, so you have to eat it one bite at a time." ”

The former Tianyang asked: "Although you have ruled out the existence of reverse turbulence, the spacecraft will definitely not become negative velocity." But when sailing in a violently contracted space, will the speed of the ship decrease? How much lower? He also said that the thing he couldn't figure out the most was the following, scientists say, the speed of light behaves like this in expanding or contracting space:

- Suppose that there are two stars, A and B, in space with an annual expansion rate (or shrinkage rate) of 10 percent. When a beam of light departs from A, A and B are one light-year apart, then the beam will still reach B a year later, despite the expansion (or contraction) of space;

- But over the course of the year, the distance between A and B has swelled to 1.1 light-years (or contracted to 0.9 light-years), which intuitively means that light travels a distance of 1.1 (0.9) light-years in a year, and the speed of light appears to increase (decrease) by ten percent:

- However, after the expansion space is determined, it will take 1.1 years (or 0.9 years) to go from A to B according to the actual distance between A and B.

Yangyang asked suspiciously: "Brother Tianle, I think this rule set by God is very unreasonable. There is no logical explanation for why light becomes faster and slower when space is expanding and contracting, and returns to its original state when it stops expanding and contracting. ”

Chu Tianle didn't answer at the time, saying that this was not something that could be explained in one or two sentences, and he had to sort out his thoughts before answering. After a while, he smiled and said, "This is exactly the weird question I asked my godfather more than ten years ago, and my godfather couldn't answer it back then, and I didn't roughly figure it out until ten years later." Don't say it, it's not easy to completely tear this problem apart, and you have to introduce a few new concepts. ”

"What concept?"

Chu Tianle slowly introduced these new concepts:

1. The space that does not expand is defined as the standard vacuum, or zero vacuum, the space that expands "is" (he pronounces these two words in an accentuated tone) is defined as the sparse vacuum, and the space that "is" contracted is defined as the dense vacuum.

2. The speed of light in a zero vacuum is defined as the intrinsic speed of light, and the intrinsic speed of light is actually unchanged in a sparse and dense vacuum, and the speed of light that "seems" changed is defined as the effective speed of light.

"Standard vacuum and dense vacuum? Intrinsic speed of light and effective speed of light? Yangyang worked hard to chew on these new concepts.

Tianle patted Yangyang's head, "Don't worry, I'll tell you more about it later." ”

Tianle said: "If we want to understand the change of the speed of light in a sparse and dense vacuum, we must accept the concept of 'spatial discontinuity'. This is not difficult, because the scientific community has recognized that space is discontinuous, and its smallest scale is Planck length, 10~-35 meters. Therefore, the space is not essentially a continuous smooth concrete bridge deck, but a flooded bridge composed of discontinuous stone pedals. The time it takes for the ray to 'cross' each stone pedal is the same, i.e. Planck time is 10~-43 seconds. When the space is expanding and contracting, the number of stone feet remains the same (only temporarily), and the time it takes for light to cross each block of stone feet does not change (even if the spacing of the stone feet changes slightly), so the total time it takes for the light to travel this distance remains the same, that is, the intrinsic speed of light remains the same. However, when the space expands and contracts, there is actually a slight dynamic change in the spacing of the stone pedals. Multiplying the changed spacing of the stone pedals by the number of stone pedals that does not change, it means that the effective speed of light is increasing or decreasing, and the amount of increase or decrease is proportional to the expansion and contraction rate of space, that is, the effective speed of light has changed. ”

But you will surely wonder why the light takes time at a new distance after the expansion and contraction are completed? That is true. The 'smallest element' of discontinuous space is based on the Planck length, which is the most 'natural' steady state of space. When the spacing of the stone pedals increases or decreases with the expansion and contraction of space, it can only be an instantaneous shift of a quantum state, and then it returns to its natural state, that is, it returns to the original Planck length. But this also means that the original stone pedals will automatically create or die as the space expands and contracts! For example, when the distance of one light-year expands to one point and one light-year or shrinks to 0.9 light-years, the number of stone pedals becomes one or a half or 0.9 times. At this time, it will take a little year or 0.9 years for the light to pass through these stone pedals. This theory is similar to the British astronomer Hoyle's 'steady-state cosmology', but Hoyle is talking about the automatic creation of matter in the universe, while I am talking about the automatic creation or extinction of the smallest unit of space. Hoyle's theory has been proven wrong, but it may be right to apply it to the creation of space. Of course, the establishment of the two concepts of intrinsic speed of light and effective speed of light, and their numerical calculations, involve a lot of advanced knowledge, which I will only express in a superficial and intuitive way today. ”

Chu Tianle added: "The concept mentioned above is for massless light, and it can actually be extended to entities with mass. The spacecraft also has an intrinsic speed and an effective ship speed in a sparse and dense vacuum. The intrinsic speed of the ship remains unchanged, but the actual speed of the ship is directly proportional to the expansion and contraction rate of the space. ”

"So, if you sail in a shrinking space, do you still have to reduce the actual speed of the ship?"

"Yes, but the reduction is not directly related to the speed of the star's blue shift, but depends on the rate of contraction in that space. According to the current calculation of the space shrinkage rate and the contraction acceleration value, after 3,500 years, the speed of the ship will only decrease by a few ten-thousandths, and it is synchronized with the contraction of space, so it will not affect the travel time of the given star and the escape of human beings. ”

"Oh, I'm relieved. But these explanations are too difficult, so I put it in my stomach first, and then ruminate it again when I go home. But......" he begged, "Brother Tianle, this is really my last question, and we will go home and sleep after asking." I had to finish my questions tonight, and Uncle Ma said he would take me to the observatory for the night from tomorrow. ”

"Okay, just ask, I'm not annoyed. That's how I pestered your Uncle Ma back then, and your Uncle Ma has never been annoyed. ”

"My question is – is there energy in a vacuum? I have read many different opinions in popular science books, some say that vacuum has zero point energy; Some say that the vacuum can only have the energy fluctuations of the quantum state, but the macroscopic performance is zero energy; There is also a scientist, who seems to be called Delucia, who guesses that the so-called vacuum is actually a pseudo-vacuum, which contains great energy, and the energy density is as high as 10~87 joules per cubic centimeter. He also said that the pseudovacuum is a long-lived metastable state, and although it has existed for 13.7 billion years since the birth of the universe, this sense of security is false, and once a true vacuum bubble even the size of a quark appears, it will be annihilated into a space-time singularity in a microsecond. The singularity will sweep across the universe at the speed of light, and everything will be completely destroyed wherever the dead light passes. Ah, that's scary! Yes, there is another interesting fact related to it: before the first collision of the European particle collider, the famous Russian cosmologist Zelidovich conducted a week of crazy calculations to confirm in advance whether there would be a cosmic destruction above. I don't know what the result of his calculations is, anyway, the particles in the world have collided so many times, and they have been safe and sound. ”

"Yangyang, I have to apologize to you, I really can't answer this question. It is generally believed that a vacuum should be in a zero-energy state, but capable of producing random energy fluctuations. The amplitude of this fluctuation is inversely correlated with the duration of the fluctuation, and the shorter the time, the greater the achievable fluctuation, but the sum of energies is zero. I don't quite agree with De Lucia that the vacuum contains great energy that can be transformed into destruction at any time. Do you think that since the vacuum can exist for more than 10 billion years, it proves that it is safe enough. ”

Yangyang still didn't give up, "You said that the standard vacuum is a zero-energy state, but now our space has begun to shrink, and it has become a dense vacuum." Will there be energy in a dense vacuum? What do you think, the atmosphere around us was originally not measured, and if you compress it with a pump, it will have energy and be able to do work externally. ”

Chu Tianle thought about it and admitted frankly, "I haven't thought about this issue, and I really can't be sure." Since you brought it up today, I'll have to think about it and see if I can give a weighty answer when you come on next vacation. ”

"Okay, remember that you owe me this account, I'll come to you for winter vacation." Yang Yang smiled and said, "I wish there was energy in the vacuum." Isn't it the biggest headache for a spaceship to bring its own fuel? Because most of the energy is spent on accelerating the fuel itself, if there is energy in the vacuum, the spaceship can set off empty, and when it wants to accelerate, just scoop a scoop of vacuum energy from under the ship, and it can burn it for several months. Tell me, how pleasant it would be! ”

Tianle laughed loudly, and couldn't help but remember that he had pestered his godfather to ask endless questions when he was eleven years old, and the most asked questions at that time were about vacuum, and now someone has taken over. "Well, there you have made an interesting hypothesis. Yangyang, this matter is left to you. You'll have to tinker with the vacuum spaceship when you grow up, and then humanity will be completely free in space. ”

3

At the end of the summer vacation, He Zizhou was reluctant to leave, and Liu Ye was even more reluctant to leave, and even cried. The "Condor Egg" program or the daily "Sowing Life" program promoted by "Friends of Joy" has been widely recognized by the people, especially those countries in the East and the Arab countries in Central Asia and North Africa, such as China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, etc., which attach great importance to inheritance. The people's donations are like a trickle of water in the cracks of the rocks, which keeps flowing to the Friends of Joy Foundation. Now, the foundation's account has exceeded 8 billion yuan.

One day, Ji Renrui received a phone call. The other party confirmed his name, and then said, "We, Mr. Chu, want to talk to you personally." ”

The voice of a male duck was changed on the phone: "Is it Mr. Ji?" I'm Chu Guifu. Ji Renrui quickly recalled the name from memory, as if the other party was the CEO of a real estate group, and this name must be related to some negative news, but I can't remember the specific content. I am ready to make a huge donation to your foundation. ”

"Thank you, Mr. Chu. I'll transfer the phone to President Yu or Vice President Ge of the Foundation, and ask you to ......."

"No, I'll look for you. I don't like to deal with chirping readers, I think you should be a cheerful person. ”

In this way, he had already investigated the leadership of "Friends of Music" beforehand. Ji Renrui didn't hesitate: "Okay, I can handle it on their behalf." Excuse me......"

"Tomorrow at ten o'clock in the morning, you go to the place I talked about below, not far from your headquarters." He said a detailed address, "You can bring two or three people from the Foundation, and I'll bring my family with me to introduce you to each other." He hung up.

When he decided on the time and place of the meeting, he didn't expect to discuss it with this side, which shows that he is usually used to being arrogant. Ji Renrui shook his head, but he didn't neglect this matter because of the unhappiness in his heart. He quickly notified Yu Leshui and Ge Qihong, and asked Ge Qihong to find out the background of this President Chu as soon as possible through friends in the Internet and the press. In the evening, Ge Qihong printed out twenty pages of information and handed them to Ji Renrui. This Chu Guifu is indeed the CEO of a well-known real estate group, and he has just passed his 60th birthday this year. This person is very legendary, he was born recklessly, he has no culture, he should be considered on the underworld, at least half black and half white, because when he first debuted, he was to smooth the nail households in the relocation for real estate developers. This person is bold and careful, righteous, and visionary, and later set up a real estate development company by himself, and he can go through both the underworld and the white road, and his career is thriving, and his net worth has reached 20 billion in 30 years. Someone calculated the accounts for him, saying that he earned an average of 1.8 million yuan a day, which was faster than going to the bank vault to go to hundreds of yuan. There are many legends about Chu, and most of them are negative. The following two are more representative.

First, he imitated Song Taizu's "A Cup of Wine Releases Military Power", and once acted in a play "A Cup of Wine Washes Black Hands". When he was forty-five years old, he had already made a lot of money, so he decided to abandon the underworld and enter the white way. Before that, he had done a lot of half-black and half-white things, and it was said that human lives were involved. On that day, he held a banquet to entertain his former close friends on the road, and gave each person a bank card sealed in a red envelope at the banquet, and then frankly said that with his current net worth, he didn't want to do the business of licking blood with a knife anymore, so he decided to wash his hands in a golden basin. As for what the brothers want to do in the future, it's up to you, "Today I give you a small gift, to put it bluntly, it's to buy peace." Which brother loses the wind in the future and enters the bureau, remember not to pull me. He smiled and said, "Our brothers have something to say on the table, if any of you is not righteous and forces my old Chu to turn back and go to the underworld, don't blame me for being hot-hearted." Which one is angry, and he went to be a ghost with a secret, and his family is covered by his ego. Several brothers at the banquet received red envelopes, patted their chests and made promises, and the guests and hosts dispersed happily. After that, a brother really committed a crime, and when he was handling the case, a murder case involved Chu Guifu. The police officer pressed him to ask, but the brother gritted his teeth and did not say a word. Later, the man was given a suspended death sentence, and his family has been cared for by Chu Guifu.

The second is that he attaches great importance to his heirs, and loves to talk about "there are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is great". He had no money when he was young and was in the era of family planning, so he only had one son. He deeply regretted this. When he had money, he married several little wives in a row, each with a villa, and the same policy was explained: 10 million for giving birth to a son and 8 million for a daughter. The same policy applies to daughters-in-law and grandchildren. There is a saying: the policy is right, and lotus roots grow on the stones. Now he has a large group of children and grandchildren, and there are twenty officially registered alone.

After reading the information, Yu Leshui shook his head a little at the donor. Ji Renrui smiled and said: "Xiaoyu, look at the people to see the development." You see, when he was young, he walked the black way, the older one was half black and half white, when he was forty-five years old, he used money to buy the right to walk the white way, and when he was sixty years old, he donated money to do good deeds, and on the whole he was healthy and uplifting. ”

The next day, Ji Renrui took Xiaoyu and George Jacoby and drove to the place Chu Guifu said - the Chu Folk Museum built in an ordinary village. There is a small Chinese-style building in the museum, with eaves and arches, blue bricks and green tiles, and the courtyard is full of stone mills, luqi, nail rakes, bellows, cocoons, washboards and other agricultural tools and living utensils that have long been eliminated. There were seven or eight luxury cars parked in the parking lot, all of which looked like they were coming from out of town.

Chu Guifu greeted them under the small building. He is short and stocky, with short gray hair, wearing Chinese-style clothes and pants, and his most conspicuous feature is a slanted hideous scar on his face, which according to information was caused by a fight when he was young, and he has not had plastic surgery since he entered the upper class, saying that he wants to remember the lessons of his youth. But there is also a theory that he left the scar to show his opponents a kind of silent deterrence. There seemed to be a lot of people in the hall of the small building, and a few children were leaning on the window and looking out. Chu Guifu shook hands with the three guests and said:

"Come, let's take you to visit my Folklore Museum first."

He led the three of them around the courtyard. This semi-enclosed yard covers an extremely large area, about 100 acres. Chu said that the museum is divided into two parts, the front yard is the dead folklore, that is, those old-fashioned tools; The backyard is a living folklore, which is actually a vegetable and crop field, which is being cultivated by a few farmers. There are no machines here, all manual tools or animal power are used, and there is absolutely green agriculture, without pesticides, fertilizers, auxins, not even diesel. Chu said: "After my business friends visited here, they all ordered vegetables and grain here a year in advance, and the courier company delivered them at more than 10 times the market price. Although the price is expensive, it is not enough to cover the expenses, and if I want to maintain this museum, I have to subsidize a lot every year. I have twelve or thirteen similar museums all over the country. ”

Yu Leshui and George were very interested in dead folklore and living folklore, and kept asking this and that, and asked the farmer for a farm tool to do it himself for a while. Ji Renrui secretly admired Chu's shrewdness. This museum is actually a low-cost enclosure, a kind of physical deposit. It is close to the highway and convenient transportation, and once it is developed and utilized, the land price alone will exceed 100 million.

They went back to the small Chinese-style building. The entrance is a split-level hall with a grand ceiling, chantrin chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and a beautiful solid wood balustrade in the cloister on the second floor. The hall was crowded with people at the moment, mostly women and children. Chu Guifu smiled and said:

"Come, let me introduce you to the three of you. It's all my family, five wives, sixteen children, and four grandchildren. They usually live alone, and they basically don't look at each other, but today is the first time that the three of them have gathered. Later, when you leave, I'll take the opportunity to take a family photo. ”

Ji Renrui looked at the group of people, the age difference between the ladies was very large, and the old appearance of the "main wife" was already complementary, and it seemed to be older than Chu in appearance. The four concubines were younger than the other, one prettier than the other, some in their forties and some in their thirties, the youngest of whom seemed to be in his twenties, but who also had three children by his side (one was apparently twins). The wife is dressed in jewels, but wealth floats above the poor, just like water and oil do not mix; The wealth of other wives and children is innate, and it is the flower of wealth that blooms from the blood. They were divided into five or six small groups, and they looked very strange to each other, even with secret hostility, it seemed that Chu's words were true, and usually this group of wives and concubines did not look at each other. But why did he gather all his wives here today? George didn't understand Chinese, and Yu Leshui translated the master's self-introduction for him, and George immediately sank his face, and anger flashed in his eyes. Yu Leshui also has a hesitant face, although he already knows these situations from the information, but he didn't expect Chu Guifu to openly gather his wife here, so as to put the guests in a position that is not embarrassing or embarrassing: if you greet these people with a smile, it is equivalent to recognizing the legitimacy of this kind of polygamy; If you ignore it, it will be too astringent. George asked coldly:

"Is this the harem of the Emperor of China?"

Chu Guifu didn't understand English, but he could see from George's face that this was not a good word, and he asked Ji Renrui coldly: "What is this white devil farting?" ”

"This George is a Catholic, and Catholicism is very strict about divorce and bigamy. So, it's normal for him to be a little dissatisfied, and you don't have to take it too seriously. ”

Chu Guifu snorted, "Then you tell this white devil that polygamy is actually the way to go." Many animals are polygamous, and there is no polyandry by all. Why? As long as the male has such a thing, he can sow seeds in dozens of stomachs, so for God, this design is the most economical. Even if the mother has more husbands, she can only take one seed, and the rest is wasted. These words were said in front of his wives and concubines, especially his minor children, which was really excessive, but his anger did not seem to be exhausted, and he added, "But I hate those homosexuals in the West who have become fashionable, and that is to act against the sky, a kind of atmosphere of cutting off children and grandchildren." ”

George didn't understand, and was looking at Yu Leshui at this time, waiting for her to translate. Ji Renrui found that anger had already appeared in Xiao Yu's eyes, as if he was about to have a seizure, and immediately cut it off in English smartly, "I'm not here to discuss ethics today." And," he whispered to Xiao Yu with a wry smile, "Xiao Yu, frankly, these words, as crude as they are, do have a plausible kernel at this very moment when humanity is facing cataclysm. ”

Ji's words shocked Xiaoyu! She looked back at Ji Renrui and couldn't help but think of the "Friends of Joy" when discussing the "Condor Egg" plan, after a long argument, determined the optimal ratio of the two sexes in the fertilized egg: one man and five women. This is a balance between "maximum fertility efficiency" and "genetic diversity", otherwise the proportion of women would be even larger. But this ratio set by calm reason is exactly the same as the proportion of this polygamous family! Of course, the sex ratio that has to be adopted in the spaceship is not on the same level as polygamy in reality, but - why not the same level? In essence, there is no difference. She was silent.

Although Chu Guifu couldn't understand their English conversation, he couldn't help but be proud when he saw that Yu Leshui had become dumb. He generously said, "Okay, let's stop this topic." Let's go, let's go upstairs for dinner, it's too noisy in the hall. ”

The four of them went up to the second floor, and the hall began to pull tables and chairs to set up dishes, and soon they were seated into six tables according to six small families. On the second floor, the dishes were served first, and the waitress gently closed the door and withdrew. The host toasted and said:

"You're busy, so I'll get down to business. Before donating, I would like to ask for details of the Condor Egg program. I want to listen to the truth, not the propaganda. ”

"Don't worry, we will tell you the truth." Ji Renrui said with a smile.

"Then I'm going to ask. When will the first spacecraft be able to depart? ”

"No more than twenty years at the latest, most likely in advance."

"How long does it take for it to fly out of the collapsed area?"

"The first spacecraft is chemically driven, and the top speed will not exceed thirty kilometers per second. Taking into account the acceleration of the stars, it would be 500,000 years to sail out of the cataclysmic region of 60 light-years. Combined with the time to find a suitable planet after that, it should be within 600,000 years to find a place to stay. ”

"What are the chances that the human seed will survive? You have to tell the truth, don't come to the hypocrisy, just say how many percent. ”

Ji Renrui said frankly: "If human seeds want to reproduce successfully, they must not only survive the voyage of 500,000 years, but also survive tens of thousands of years of early biological reproduction, and then those human eggs will be airdropped to the ground. Who would dare to pack a ticket for something hundreds of thousands of years from now? All I can say is that all the technologies involved are mature and controllable. So theoretically, it is more certain that the human seed will survive. He pondered for a moment, "There should be a fifty or sixty percent chance of winning." ”

Chu Guifu thought about it and said categorically: "This is nothing more than a gamble, and the winning margin is not too small." Yes! I decided to donate. To ask for another detail, your promotional materials say that human DNA will be seeded in the form of fertilized eggs. And what about children? Can a child's DNA be preserved in this way? ”

"Let George answer that question, he's the chief scientist of the Condor Egg project."

George had a bad impression of this man, and despite the frequent glances at him, his attitude was still cold. He explained coldly: "No problem, with the current level of biotechnology, any man and woman's body cells can be taken, or a baby's, they can be transformed into sperm and eggs." Of course, this is against bioethics, but in a time of cataclysm like this......" He shook his head and didn't finish his sentence.

"Really? You big-headed scientists can really make a fuss, and I think God and Jehovah in heaven will be scared of you now, and you will have to hide when you see you. One last question: How much does the Condor Egg project cost? I know that this is only an estimate now, so try to estimate it as accurately as possible. ”

"The total budget is about 100 billion. If we talk about the first chemically driven spacecraft and the related investment on board, it should be less than 20 billion yuan. ”

Chu Guifu said categorically: "That's good! I have 20 billion yuan. This sentence surprised all three guests! They didn't expect that this old man would be a high-roller who spent tens of billions of dollars. Chu Guifu smiled bitterly: "I basically donated naked, and after donating, I was determined to fall back to the year and eat bran vegetables to live a hard life." That's fine, I'm confident that I can endure these two hardships. Chu Guifu glanced at the three of them, "Are you not convinced that I can donate naked?" Although rest assured, I Chu Guifu will do what he says. The first thing in life is to live, and if you can't even guarantee to be alive, what is the use of money! From now on, my only goal is to keep the bloodline of the Chu family, and I am not ambiguous no matter how difficult and expensive it is. ”

Ji Renrui said: "We can trust it. ”

Chu Guifu stared at Ji's eyes: "Mr. Ji, as you can imagine, I am so generous, I must have asked for something." I have two conditions. ”

Ji Renrui looked at the two companions and said calmly: "The foundation never allows any strings attached to accepting donations. However, you might as well talk about it. ”

"On the first condition, all my family, including our old two-year-old grandson, including my new children and grandchildren before the ship goes to the sky, must get tickets to the first ship, which means that we must all be selected as seeds. I'm all here today to settle this matter in person, so that they can all have peace of mind. ”

Yu Leshui whispered this for George, and George was furious. Without waiting for Ji Renrui and Yu Leshui to express their opinions, he preemptively said: "Mr. Chu, it's better to keep your 20 billion to buy a cemetery, the foundation never accepts additional conditions." Besides," he said causticly, "I'm worried that having so much of your family in the human seed bank will greatly reduce the average moral standard of future humans." ”

Without waiting for Yu Leshui to translate this passage into Chinese, Ji Renrui preemptively said in English: "George, don't be rash!" George wanted to refute, but Ji Ren said sharply, "Let's discuss this matter later!" George, you listen, there is no morality on the wild planet hundreds of thousands of years later, only survival! And for survival, maybe this Mr. Chu's strong genes are the best! And he can use all his family wealth in exchange for the continuation of the bloodline, this kind of big private is actually a big duke, and ordinary people can't reach this realm! Please think carefully about my words. ”

Although this passage is addressed to George Jacoby, it is actually addressed to the little fish. The two of them were deeply shaken - not only because of Ji Renrui's rare stern attitude, but also because of the cold power contained in his words. The two pondered and stopped talking. Ji Renrui turned his head, smiled at Chu Guifu, and said in Chinese: "Old Chu, you may have seen that several of us have differences on the conditions you proposed. You don't have to worry about this problem, I'll solve it. As I said earlier, the Foundation does not accept strings attached when accepting donations, but perhaps we will reciprocate the gift in a different way for a generous naked donation like yours. ”

Chu Guifu nodded with satisfaction, "Okay, I'll talk about the second condition now." The first spaceship was actually built by me as a sole proprietor, and I thought that I would give me 10 percent of the quota except for all my family members who had tickets. ”

Xiao Yu's face sank again. She translated for George, and anger reignited in George's eyes. This time, Ji Renrui did not hesitate, and said categorically: "Lao Chu, this is impossible, the escape spaceship is a public welfare undertaking, and it cannot be resold by scalpers." Mr. Chu, I can guarantee your family's ferry ticket in some way to show our gratitude, and the public can accept it psychologically, but that is already the maximum. No other quota will ever be left to you. He regained his smile, "Let's be like a business negotiation today, you might as well take a step back, I promise you the first, you give up the second, how about it?" Otherwise, I would have to reluctantly cut my love for this donation. Lao Chu, let's all go back, calm down and think about it, and talk about it next time. ”

Chu Guifu was very disappointed, the reason why he wanted to build this spaceship as a sole proprietor was that he wanted to recover 10 billion yuan after the naked donation, and even if he got all the investment back, this plan was lost in advance. But he deserves to be a business tyrant, and after a little groaning, he said decisively: "Good! Brother Ji is a happy person, and I will also give you a good time. I could make a decision on the spot and waive the second condition. As for the first condition," he looked at George and Xiaoyu coldly, "it seems that you can't decide on it alone, so go back and discuss." I give three days. ”

Ji Renrui deliberately eased the atmosphere and diverted the conversation: "If you donate naked like this, can your family, especially a few young ladies, agree?" I'm afraid that not all family members can reach your realm and are willing to give up the enjoyment of this life in exchange for the continuation of the bloodline, right? ”

Chu Guifu said simply: "They don't dare to disobey me, whoever annoys me won't give her a penny." There are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is great. It is more important than anything to let the Chu family's bloodline escape from the great collapse, and the descendants in 600,000 years will be grateful to me. He called the servant to bring the fruit bowl, and then got up to see off the guest.

On the way back, George and Yu Leshui were both angry, and Ji Renrui explained calmly. He said that the first condition on which he preferred to agree to Chu was not entirely utilitarian, not that he was reluctant to accept this precious first huge sum, but more out of other considerations. There are seven billion people on Earth, and it is impossible for everyone to have the right to a place on the spaceship, so it doesn't really matter who is chosen. Moreover, this Mr. Chu's genes are indeed suitable for jungle life. might as well make an assumption: If a few of us and Chu Guifu are thrown into a forbidden area of life at this time, who is most likely to be able to climb out of the forbidden area in the end? It must be this old guy with a scar on his face! With such a strong gene, why can't it be used as a seed for human beings? George and Xiaoyu, you have a very strong sense of morality, and I admire you. But don't overdo it, excessive morality is pedantic, especially at the very moment when humanity is facing cataclysm.

He also said that when he read about Zheng He's voyage to the West and Magellan's voyage around the world, he often felt a lot of feelings. The level of equipment, organization and support of Zheng He's fleet was far stronger than Magellan's fleet, but why was the latter an epoch-making success? Precisely because Zheng He's fleet was moral, political, and civilized, it was to proclaim the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty (or to find the whereabouts of the fugitive emperor). And Magellan's fleet is full of greed and ferocity from top to bottom, and the primitive nature of human beings. Both Magellan himself and his crew were most concerned about the value of the new colony and how it would be divided with the Spanish crown. And this primitive nature is obviously more vital than the human nature that has been soaked in civilized society. Therefore, Zheng He's fleet lost from the starting point.

Before returning to the Laojieling State Guest House, although George and Xiaoyu were still unwilling, they had been persuaded by Ji Renrui. Yu Leshui said sullenly:

"Brother Ji, I'm a little afraid of you."

"Why?" Ji Renrui asked with a smile.

"You can explain the most unacceptable ideas to the point that I have to accept. I fear that one day, maybe one day, you will be able to convince me to accept such an evil as 'eating human flesh'. ”

When she said this, she thought of Editor-in-Chief Ge Qihong's sharp evaluation of Ji two years ago. Ji Renrui quickly turned his head to look at Yu Leshui, and did not answer this conversation. He smiled bitterly in his heart: Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu, do you think such a prospect is far away? When the seeds of humanity hatch on a wild planet and struggle to survive, will they repeat the evil deeds of cannibalism in the early days of mankind? For sure: yes. Whoever cares about this prospect and does not sow the seeds of humanity is the real Mr. Winter Baking. As the leader of the human escape plan, Xiaoyu's heart is too pure and fragile. In the future, he had to find a way to help her harden it step by step.

- However, it is not this little fish with a strong affinity, a bright smile, and crystal clear. Ji Renrui sighed, then, let her keep her original face.

Back at the headquarters, Ji Renrui worked hard to convince everyone. The foundation cannot accept donations with strings attached, and this rule must not be changed, but it can promise to do this for Chu Guifu by verbal agreement. That night, Ji Renrui told Chu Guifu on the phone about the decision here, paused there, and said simply:

"Good! I trust your verbal promises. He smiled bitterly, "A huge sum of 20 billion yuan in exchange for a verbal promise, such a spirit, there is no second person in the world." He then began to make transactional arrangements, "In order to make up these two billion, I have to sell all the real estate, so the money will be paid in batches, and strive for ten years...... No, it will be done in eight years. You can also come in advance to extract the cells of the Chu family, especially our old couple, maybe one day we will climb the chimney. ”

"Okay, don't worry." Ji Renrui smiled and said, "Mr. Chu, you can be said to be the most selfish person in the world, but I admire you from the bottom of my heart. ”

"Well, Mr. Ji, I also admire you. Do not be vain, do not go around in circles, and pierce the blood with an awl. Your age is in your thirties and your vision is a thousand years old. I admire you, how do you say that sentence, orangutans love orangutans? ”

"You mean sympathy."

"Yes, I sympathize with you. This time, I seem to have done the right thing by dealing with you directly, and you have to admire my old eyes like knives, and I recognize people and recognize them in the cracks of my bones. It's a pity that Chu's Group is about to disappear, otherwise I will poach you as the general manager. ”

"Mr. Ji, I am He Bingru from the Social Department of Beijing Youth Daily. I'd like to give you an in-depth interview about the Condor Egg project, or the Human Genetic Seeding Ship. ”

"Okay Miss He, you're very welcome."

"First of all, thank you, Mr. Ji, for giving us the honor of the first interview."

"No thanks. Mr. Ge Qihong, the former editor-in-chief of your society, is the vice president of the Friends of Joy Foundation and has made great contributions to this spacecraft. I'm going to repay the favor. ”

"Thank you. Since there is such a relationship, if some of the questions in the interview are more acute, I think Mr. Ji will definitely forgive him. ”

"You're welcome. If my answer is too frank, I would like to ask for my forgiveness in advance. ”

"I heard that the spaceship has been named the 'Chu's spaceship'?"

"Yes. It was funded by Mr. Chu Guifu alone, and in order to show our gratitude, we offered to name it after 'Chu's'. ”

"I heard that the 'Chu's' is heading towards Arcturus, why did you choose it?"

"There's no particular reason. If Chu's wants to meet a suitable planet in its limited voyage, it can only rely on the favor of fate. So, as long as it flies outward, it can go in any direction. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern sky, so we chose it. ”

"I'm going back to the name of the 'Chu'. As the first gene-seeding spaceship for all of humanity, is this name appropriate? I think Mr. Ji also knows that Mr. Chu has a lot of negative news......"

"I don't want to make a lifelong moral judgment for someone, I only want to make a moral judgment about something. A wealthy man who poured all his wealth into a naked donation to quickly enter the implementation stage of the human gene sowing program deserves everyone's admiration. With the big festival in place, I don't want to dwell on some of the negative press about his early years. ”

"Okay, let's change the subject. How many human DNA will this ship carry in addition to the DNA of lower beings? ”

"There are five hundred huge egg-shaped landing pods on the spaceship. Each dome is the size of a four-story building, and it contains 10,000 human eggs. Because it is a fertilized egg, you could say that it is equivalent to the genes of 20,000 people. So, the spacecraft is loaded with the genes of 10 million people. ”

"The genes of 10 million people are only 1 700th of 7 billion people."

"Yes. In fact, there can be more human eggs in each dome, but we have to take into account the natural environment they will face in the future - it must be very harsh, and even under ideal conditions, a certain ecological region can only support a small group of thousands of people at most. This is exactly the number of primitive groups in the great migrations of human history. If a future population is allowed to reproduce too much at once, it is likely to cause cannibalism. He paused, "Miss He, don't be disgraced by this sentence, for those who are familiar with human history, this is just common sense." ”

"I know the history of mankind, and I am not going to lose it, and I thank you for your humanitarian arrangements. In fact, let them reproduce as much as possible, and then survive the fittest, which is more in line with the cold theory of evolution. Okay, I'm kidding, let's move on. How do these 10 million people choose from the seven billion people on earth? ”

"Completely randomly selected by computer. We had intended to choose the strongest physique, or the most intellectual, but later realized that what we considered to be strong and excellent would not necessarily be adapted to the natural environment of the future. Isn't there an old saying in China, "Sickness wilts and lives through the tip". Perhaps a certain genetic abnormality is just right for a particular environment in the future, just as the sickle red blood cell gene defect in a black African person is just right to resist malaria. Since we can't afford to make the right choice, we simply put the choice back in God's hands. ”

"But it is said that everyone in the Chu family is included? Including his wife and concubines, as well as his concubines and concubines, as well as his newly-born children and grandchildren before the spaceship went to the sky. I am afraid that such an outcome will not be selected by random selection. As far as I know, the basic rule of all foundations is not to accept conditional donations, and that would not be a public welfare foundation but a commercial operation. ”

“……”

"Mr. Ji, I said in advance that if my question is more acute, I ask for your forgiveness, because the public has the right to know the truth."

"It's okay, I can answer truthfully. I also want to thank you for forcing me to make the truth known to the public in advance. You are right, the Foundation will never accept conditional donations, and Mr. Chu did not mention any conditions when he generously donated naked. In order to thank him for his generosity, the Foundation decided to put the genes of all members of the Chu family into the first spaceship as a special case, in addition to naming the spaceship 'Chu'. Except for the Chu family, no one enjoys this privilege, including Chu Tianle, Yu Leshui, George Jacoby, Ma Shiqi, and myself, who have made great contributions to this cause. Mr. Ma's youngest daughter Liu Ye, George's youngest daughter Anne, and my youngest son Changchang, if their genes want to be on the boat, they must also accept the random selection of computers and accept the favor of fate like the people. Don't we look forward to letting our bloodlines escape disaster? But we will never take advantage of the privilege in our hands. When our Noah's Ark sank, at least a small group of selfless and fearless gentlemen had to calmly complete the last piece of music. But we can't expect every donor to have such a bearing, to be a selfless saint. I would like to announce that we will continue to prioritize the tickets of future generations of future donors with gratitude. This is ostensibly a refuge in money, but at such an extraordinary moment, it is actually in the best interests of the highest race, and therefore the highest morality of the race. Of course, this is contrary to the purpose of the foundation, but it doesn't matter, if the society can't understand, then we will change the foundation into a joint-stock company, change the donation into a purchase of equity, and use the ticket as a dividend. However, at the very moment when human civilization was facing the catastrophe of extinction, if we judged the legitimacy of our extraordinary efforts by just one name, it would have retreated to the level of the Song Dynasty physicists, when there was the so-called moral shackles of 'starvation death is very small, and loss of temperance is very great'. Are you willing to do that? Miss Ho, I also said that if my answer is too frank, please forgive me. ”

"Ahh Then I have to bless the Chu family, as the representative of mankind, to spread its branches and leaves on the alien planet, stretching far and long, and winning glory for mankind. Thank you, Mr. Ji, my interview is over. ”

"Thank you for the interview. Good bye. ”

Turning off the live broadcast equipment, Ji Renrui shook hands with Miss He again, this time it was a real handshake. This interview was planned by Ji Renrui and rehearsed in advance. That incident—everyone in the Chu family had tickets for the spaceship—couldn't hide it anyway, so it was better to simply poke it out in advance, which was tantamount to releasing the high-pressure steam of the pressure cooker in advance. After this incident was made public, it could be regarded as reassuring Chu Guifu, so as not to worry about his verbal promise. More importantly, it is a promise of large donors in the future, so that more people will donate. After all – as he said in the interview, every rich man cannot be expected to be a selfless saint. As for the rhetoric in the interview, it was just to increase the audience's interest and also make it easier for them to be convinced. Of course, there will definitely be people who will see that this is a show, and that's okay, because the truth shown in the show is convincing and has its inner strength. The actions of the "Friends of Joy" may not conform to the "norms of civilized society", but they do conform to the highest ethnic morality in the cataclysmic era.

He thanked Miss He, stepped aside, and hugged his wife Miao Qi. He had already talked to his wife yesterday and had arranged for her to watch the interview today. A few months ago, Miao Qi asked him to guarantee that Changchang would get on the spaceship, and he vaguely agreed at the time, but now he can only break his promise. Miao Ji was very disappointed in his heart, but the example of Mr. Ma's family was there, in this extraordinary period, no one could compare with the contributions made by Chu and Ma, and his family's little willow leaf also did not have priority to get a ferry ticket. Compared with them, he had no choice but to accept his fate.

Chu Tianle also manipulated the electric wheelchair to comfort Miao Qi. Dr. Duan's gene therapy has already been effective, and Tianle's condition is clearly no longer developing. But after all, the treatment is too late, and the only thing in this life is to be accompanied by a wheelchair. The wheelchair is also equipped with an artificial synchronized voice machine, which can convert his blurred speech into clear sentences. He tried to smile at Miao Qi—his facial muscles were no longer obedient—and said:

"Sister-in-law, don't be sad. After Chu Guifu's generous donation, large donations were made one after another. The Foundation has deep pockets and has already begun the development of a nuclear-powered spacecraft. This spaceship is much larger than a chemically powered ship, can fully include the genes of everyone on Earth, and its speed is much higher than that of the first ship, so it may arrive late and early. ”

Miao Qi smiled and said, "Okay, thank you for your comfort." She accented the last two words.

Chu Tianle smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, I'm not just talking about comfort!" You'll know if you make a rough estimate. The first spacecraft to fly out of the cataclysmic region of 60 light-years is about 500,000 years, and if a fusion spacecraft can reach the speed of one hundredth of light, the journey time is reduced to 6,000 years, and even if the latter departs after 494,000 years, it will be able to reach its destination first. Moreover, the second spacecraft will definitely not be able to wait for such a long time, 490,000 years! At that time, humans had evolved into the gods of Mount Olympus. ”

"Really? Will Chu Guifu ...... then?"

"Of course, there is a premise that the earth is not destroyed before the fusion spacecraft sets sail. In addition, we promised that the genes on the first ship would be backed up and included in the second ship. Therefore, Mr. Chu is equivalent to buying a double insurance with 20 billion. He thinks it's worth it. ”

"Alright, you don't have to comfort me. I believe that the second spacecraft will soon be in the sky, and it will definitely not be 490,000 years. Go see Miss He away, a few of them are waiting for you. ”