"Professor Ye."
David greeted Ye Wenjie, who stood in the center of the crowd, surrounded like a star among moons.
Special forces from the Garrison Command immediately pulled Wang Miao back into the safety of the military ranks. Two Trisolaran rebels who made a move to intercept were ruthlessly gunned down by a U.S. assault team that had been urgently dropped from a military base in Kyushu.
At this, even Shi Qiang frowned. The ruthlessness and bloodlust of the Americans far exceeded his expectations. He whispered to the translator beside him:
"Tell those white ghosts that this is the East, and we are the masters here. If they fire again without orders, I'll have them all hauled before a military tribunal after this is over."
The translator glanced at David. David nodded. When the threat was relayed, the American soldiers visibly deflated.
Shi Qiang used his rifle butt to knock out the Trisolaran warrior nearest to him. The dull thud of metal meeting skull echoed, and the rebel collapsed without a sound, his pistol skittering across the floor in a pool of blood. The soldiers' muzzles were already trained on him; clearly, if Shi Qiang hadn't knocked him out, he would have been riddled with bullets in the next second.
"Have them bring out all their weapons and put them on the ground."
David looked at Ye Wenjie and sighed. "I truly find it hard to believe, Professor Ye, that you would do something like this."
"In my view, this is already the best possible outcome."
Ye Wenjie smiled at David, who was now giving her orders. She spoke calmly, as if she had long anticipated this day. "To be captured by your hand, and to have the Lord's last organized force on Earth wiped out by you... perhaps this is the end of a cursed cycle of fate."
David fell silent for a moment. Regarding this "achievement bundle" Ye Wenjie had gifted him, he felt a faint sense of being undeserving.
"What exactly is the 'Lord'?" David asked.
This question was critical; it directly related to the results of this raid. David knew Ye Wenjie would eventually confess everything to the global governments during interrogation, but to win the Swordholder election, he needed to secure as much merit as possible to ensure absolute victory.
If he failed the election, his only path to power would be through violence and blood. Deep down, he didn't want humanity to bleed too much for his sake. Killing innocent humans would weigh on his conscience—this was different from his experiments, as those who died during the Night Lords' modification surgery were criminals who deserved their fate. For them, death was the only road left.
"The Lord is a power far beyond humanity. To be precise, it is an extraordinary civilization capable of interstellar travel, located more than four light-years from Earth."
A strange smile appeared on Ye Wenjie's face. "The Lord is watching us right now. Watching you and me."
Looking at her expression, Shi Qiang suddenly felt a chilling sensation crawling up his spine. This woman wasn't lying!
"Dammit!" Shi Qiang spat at the unconscious rebel on the ground and cursed. "It really is related to aliens."
Hearing that their targets were alien spies, even the highly trained special forces couldn't help but stir in agitation.
"Fuck!" the American GIs began cursing as well. First, they cursed the government for wasting taxpayer money while alien spies had already reached Earth, then they cursed the government for hiding the truth while the enemy was at the doorstep. A stream of profanities and colorful phrases poured out, leaving Shi Qiang speechless.
Compared to the Americans, the Eastern military only experienced a few seconds of disorder before returning to a machine-like, cold focus, ordering the Earth-Trisolaris rebels to drop their weapons immediately.
"How do they do it?" David asked. He noticed that at Ye Wenjie's signal, most of the rebels had surrendered. Only the girl beside Ye Wenjie still held the silver metal sphere. "Even if my knowledge is far inferior to yours, I know that maintaining real-time communication across a distance of four light-years is something quite incredible."
"Through two Sophons," Ye Wenjie replied. She knew that the more she said now, the less her companions would suffer during future interrogations.
"Sophons?" David prompted.
"Or rather, two protons from hydrogen atoms. But unlike ordinary protons, the Sophons launched by the Trisolarans possess various incredible effects."
As Ye Wenjie spoke, all the remaining rebels finally laid down their weapons.
"Two protons? That's almost the same as not existing at all," David noted. Beside him, Wang Miao looked thoughtful.
As Ye Wenjie revealed that the force behind them was an alien civilization four light-years away, the commanding officers and Shi Qiang began receiving an endless stream of phone calls from the highest levels of government.
The message was singular: For the survival of all humanity, at any cost—even at the risk of a high-yield hydrogen bomb strike that would turn an entire division, a military district, or a fleet into ash—they must ensure that the traitor Ye Wenjie was transported to UN headquarters for interrogation.
"What is the use of them launching two Sophons? Why not just send a fleet directly?"
"You are very clever." Ye Wenjie paused, looking her student up and down as if seeing him for the first time. "You are far wiser than the 'talented' students I've known who were admired by others."
"If you're trying to provoke me by implying my grades were failing, I'm afraid your plan has failed," David replied with a casual shrug.
Both of them laughed, and the tension in the room eased slightly.
"It's not that the Trisolarans don't want to send a fleet to Earth," Ye Wenjie explained. "It's because they can't."
"They can't?"
"Correct," she replied. "Their current ships travel at a maximum speed of only one-tenth the speed of light. Considering that every deceleration process is very long and they need constant energy replenishment and repairs, their estimated arrival time at Earth is roughly four hundred years from now."
"Four hundred years?" David shook his head. "Though I consider this a piece of alien tactical deception..." He noted the officers around him instinctively sighing in relief and continued unhurriedly: "I maintain my perspective. Let's keep talking about the Sophons. What exactly are they used for?"
"It is a lock."
Ye Wenjie looked wistfully toward the sky. Outside the warehouse, the roar of a helicopter formation grew louder. Two more combat units with even higher security clearances rushed in. Leading them was Chang Weisi, who had been urgently recalled from a J-35 taking off from a U.S. carrier.
"A lock that seals off human technology."
Hearing this, Chang Weisi's hand, which was still untangling his parachute cords, trembled slightly. The career soldier stumbled, nearly falling flat on his face.
Dammit! While I was on a business trip! Did these local Trisolaran rebels play such a huge game behind my back?