Silent Ark

Chapter 50: The Gathering

The grilled fish has arrived.

The aroma of garlic mingled with the steam, and Zhang Yuan couldn't wait to pick up a piece with his chopsticks.

"It still tastes the same—you guys eat up."

Zhao Yutong picked up a piece of fish and nodded.

"Yes, the same as before."

Li Meng was taking pictures of fish and adjusted two filters before she was satisfied.

"Post something on WeChat Moments."

While eating, Zhang Yuan looked around at the people at the table and cleared his throat as if he were presiding over a class meeting.

"Come on, now that everyone's here, let's do the usual thing—first, let's report what everyone's doing."

I'll start. I'm from Yuying Middle School, I teach physics, and I'm the head of the second-year high school group.

Every day I talk about physics with a group of people who don't want to learn it.

"That sounds painful," Li Meng said.

"I'm used to it; the biggest pain is grading homework."

He looked at Zhao Yutong.

Where is Yutong?

"Peking Union Medical College Hospital, emergency department." Zhao Yutong picked up a piece of cucumber. "Don't ask if I'm tired, I am."

"The emergency room..." Zhang Yuan thought for a moment, "There should be even more patients after the whale fall, right?"

Zhao Yutong paused for a fraction of a second.

"There are many more, some of which are symptoms I've never seen before."

She didn't elaborate.

Yao Chong glanced at her.

She didn't look at him.

Zhang Yuan turned to Li Meng.

"And you?"

"It's a self-media platform, mainly focusing on lifestyle and restaurant reviews." Li Meng brushed her hair aside. "After Whale Fall, GG's budget was cut in half, but it's recovering recently."

"That's good. What about Yifei?"

Sun Yifei, holding his water glass, didn't rush to answer.

"Make some investments."

"What kind of investment?"

"We'll talk about it later." He put down his cup and looked at Yao Chong. "First, let me ask you—Yao Chong, you just said you were at CERN?"

"Um."

Sun Yifei smiled.

That kind of laughter—

It wasn't joy, nor surprise.

It was a smile that said, "I knew it," tinged with a hint of pity.

Imagine you bump into an old classmate you haven't seen in years on the street. You know he's not doing well, you've known that for a long time, but now you see it with your own eyes, so you laugh.

"The particle physics laboratory," Sun Yifei said, "the ATLAS experimental group?"

"Um."

"A muon detector?"

Yao Chong glanced at him.

How did you know?

"CERN's public database," Sun Yifei tapped his finger lightly on the table, "I've been looking at it ever since Whale Fall."

Zhang Yuan looked completely bewildered.

"Wait—what are you talking about?"

Sun Yifei ignored him.

He looked at Yao Chong, as if confirming something he already knew the answer to.

"Long time no see," he said.

"Um."

Zhang Yuan tried to steer the conversation back on track.

"Yifei, how did you get here?"

"My car is parked outside." Sun Yifei took off his coat and draped it over the back of the chair. "A Model S. Tesla's production line has been converted to robots."

Whale Trail's parts production, which started 32 years ago, has also been suspended for more than a month, and the price of second-hand parts has now increased by 40%.

I bought it last year, so I guess I got it at the bottom of the market.

He spoke very softly when he said he "bought at the bottom".

But those three words contained a lot of information—he not only bought them, but he bought them at the lowest point.

Zhang Yuan hissed.

"What the hell are you doing right now?"

Sun Yifei picked up his water glass and took a sip.

"Make some investments."

"What kind of investment?"

Do you know what a "water stain" is?

Yao Chong's finger twitched.

Water stains.

The region where physical laws still apply—the center of "wetness".

Outside the water stains is the "dry zone," where the laws of physics are stripped away.

The water stains are shrinking.

This is what Yao Chong personally experienced in the Decameron.

Moreover, these reports on water stains were mainly compiled by him and Liu Pan.

"I know," Zhang Yuan said. "It's on the news every day, saying that in just a few months the water stains in Beijing have shrunk from the Third Ring Road to outside the Fourth Ring Road—"

"It's not that it's shrunk to outside the Fourth Ring Road," Sun Yifei interrupted him. "It's shrunk from the Third Ring Road to the Second and a Half Ring Road. This can be deduced from last month's data."

He put down his water glass.

"Do you know what this means?"

Zhang Yuan shook his head.

"This means that in the area between the second and a half ring road and the third ring road, the laws of physics are being restored."

Gravitational acceleration, the speed of light, and the fine-structure constant—all have returned to pre-whale fall levels.

He looked at Zhang Yuan and Yao Chong.

"I've made some arrangements in these areas."

"What layout?"

"Real estate," Sun Yifei said calmly, as if he were talking about what he had eaten that day, "After the whale fall, housing prices between the third and fourth ring roads dropped by 70 percent."

Nobody dares to buy—who knows if the laws of physics will break down again tomorrow?

But I've studied the data, and the recovery of the edges of water stains is monotonous and doesn't repeat.

He paused for a moment.

"I bought eleven apartments outside the Third Ring Road last year."

The average price is less than three million.

Now that the water stains have shrunk, the average price has risen to four million two hundred thousand.

Zhang Yuan opened his mouth.

"Eleven sets?"

"Yes, leverage." Sun Yifei smiled. "You know what leverage is, right? One million in capital leverages ten million in assets. Doubling your money means earning ten million."

"You're crazy," Zhang Yuan said.

"I'm not crazy." Sun Yifei picked up his water glass. "I just understood the rules of this world earlier than you."

He looked at Yao Chong.

"Yao Chong, you've been at CERN for three years."

You should know better than anyone else that the laws of physics are changing.

But change does not mean collapse.

Change means opportunity.

Yao Chong remained silent.

Sun Yifei continued, "I have been paying close attention to CERN's public data."

I've seen the data from your ATLAS experiment group—the shift trend of the α value in the muon detector.

Have you seen it?

"certainly.

What's the difference between investing without looking at the data and buying lottery tickets with your eyes closed? Sun Yifei tapped his fingers lightly twice on the table. "The alpha value is converging."

Starting from its peak in 2029, it will decline by about three percent each year, although this decline will only be visible to the naked eye after the whale has passed its peak.

But at this rate, it will probably take another fifteen to twenty years for the laws of physics to fully recover to pre-whale fall levels.

He looked at Yao Chong.

What do you think?

Yao Chong looked at him.

He picked up his water glass.

"Work with me, you'll be in charge of looking at the data, and I'll be in charge of making decisions. Once it's done, we'll split the profits 50/50."

There was a two-second silence on the table.

Liu Chang pushed up his glasses.

"Yifei, I've seen this model of yours before."

Logically, it makes sense—the boundaries of the flooded areas are indeed shrinking, and asset prices in the recovery zone are indeed rebounding.

He looked at Yao Chong.

"But Yao Chong is at CERN, so he should have seen more data than we have."

What do you think?

Yao Chong looked at Sun Yifei.

"What is your data source?"

"CERN's public database."

There's also the annual report from the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

What is the data precision of the publicly available databases?

Sun Yifei was stunned for a moment.

"...I don't remember the exact number, but—"

"10 to the power of negative 15," Yao Chong said.

He paused for a moment.

"You're using a ruler that can only measure to the centimeter to measure the thickness of a piece of paper."

The result you measure will always be zero.

But the thickness of the paper is not zero.

"You can't see it with your ruler."

Sun Yifei's smile did not disappear.

But his eyes changed.