Reality Programming Association

Chapter 141: Chapter 58: The Physics Exam No Longer Exists

The lecture hall had emptied out.

Only the cleaning lady in her gray uniform remained. Mop in hand, she wiped away the muddy footprints with an expression of pure apathy.

On the blackboard, the three words ”Science and Truth” were written in bold, vigorous strokes, yet their chalky whiteness was glaringly pale.

Yu Xian and Shi Zuozhou sat in their seats, motionless for a long time. Professor Ning’s final words and the look in his eyes replayed endlessly in their minds. It hadn’t just been sorrow. It was more like a desperate urgency—an attempt to forcefully shove his life’s learning, the most precious spark from the depths of his soul, into their hands.

***

The two silently packed their bags and walked along the path back to their dorm, huddled under an umbrella. The dim, yellow streetlights stretched their shadows long across the ground, only for the falling rain to shatter them in the puddles.

”Old Yu,” Shi Zuozhou finally said after a long silence. His usual playful, grinning demeanor was entirely gone. ”I don’t think... Professor Ning was just giving a lecture just now.”

”Yeah.” Yu Xian nodded. He thought of that absolute resolve, that profound sorrow, that solitary courage of knowing a task was impossible yet doing it anyway.

It hadn’t been an ordinary physics or philosophy class at all. It felt more like the final, defiant shout of a man marching toward the execution grounds.

”It felt more like... he was leaving his last words,” Shi Zuozhou said, sharing the exact same sentiment. He pulled his jacket tighter around himself. ”He said we were ’living in a massive lie,’ that ’if we don’t touch the boundaries, we’ll never know the truth.’ But then he said ’there are some things we aren’t meant to bear,’ and told us it was ’best if we didn’t understand.’

”It’s like he was holding a bomb,” Shi Zuozhou continued, gesturing with his hands. ”He wanted to hand it to us to defuse, but he was afraid it would blow us up first. So, at the very last second, he pulled his hand back.”

Yu Xian turned to look at him. ”He was trying to protect us.”

Stopping in his tracks, Yu Xian glanced back at the main building of the School of Physics, now fading into the night. The trucks had already driven off, leaving deep ruts in the mud behind them. ”Professor Ning saw the ’monster’ that is approaching. He knew how terrifying it was, so he chose to face it alone while giving us a final warning.”

”But he didn’t want us to become collateral damage,” Shi Zuozhou said softly, looking down at the Enoch watch on his wrist, which was still blinking faintly.

The two continued forward. All around them, the rain pattered down and the shadows of the trees danced in the wind.

”Since when did being a physicist become a high-risk profession?” Shi Zuozhou’s face was obscured in the shadows. ”Professor Gao, Professor Shu, Professor Ning. One is dead, one fled, and one was arrested. Someone is trying to drive anyone who understands physics to their graves... But why?”

”I’ve been wondering the same thing. I suspect there might be three possible motives behind this,” Yu Xian said, sorting through the clues in his mind.

”Which three?”

”The first is a blockade. Think about it. Whether it was the collider Professor Gao wanted to build, or the crystal structures Professor Ning was researching, they were essentially trying to break through the current limits of physics,” Yu Xian said, looking at a red aviation warning light blinking in the distance. ”What if there is a faction out there that doesn’t want humanity—or at least us—to master higher-level energy or material laws and break through those limits?”

”Like... the Sophon from *Three-Body*?” Shi Zuozhou swallowed hard. He was all too familiar with the concept.

”Right. A real-life ’Sophon blockade.’ As long as they eliminate the leading pioneers, ruin their reputations, and dismantle their labs, fundamental physics will stagnate and regress by decades. That way, we’ll be forever trapped at our current technological level, forced to be obedient ’bugs.’” Yu Xian tipped his umbrella slightly, watching the curtain of rain fall.

”That’s way too dark... What about the second motive?” Shi Zuozhou shook his head.

”The second... Do you get the feeling this is like a modern-day Inquisition or an ideological purge?”

Shi Zuozhou stopped dead in his tracks, rain dripping from the edge of his umbrella onto his shoes. ”An Inquisition... You mean, someone wants to eradicate modern physics as ’heresy’?”

Yu Xian didn’t answer immediately. He stared at the dim, yellow lights glowing in the windows of the student dormitories not far away. ”Maybe not entirely an ancient-style ideological purge,” he mused. ”It’s more like they’ve classified ’certain knowledge’ as a taboo. They allow physics to exist, but only a neutered, safe, and controllable version.”

”But that doesn’t make sense...” Shi Zuozhou frowned. ”Physics is about exploring the truth. If they treat the people seeking the truth as heretics, then what exactly is this group trying to do? Bring back the Dark Ages?”

Yu Xian turned to look at Shi Zuozhou. The rain streaked down his cheeks, carrying a trace of icy chill. ”Old Shi, have you ever considered a possibility? What if we flip the roles?”

”Flip them how?”

”We’re always used to casting scientists in the role of Galileo—the martyrs armed with the truth, persecuted by an ignorant, authoritarian power,” Yu Xian said, his voice so soft he sounded as though he were talking to himself. ”But what if, in this script, the physicists aren’t playing the role of Galileo... but the Curia?”

Shi Zuozhou was stunned. Clearly, this perspective was completely beyond his comprehension.

”Modern physics has already constructed a flawless set of laws to explain this world. It is the cornerstone of modern society, the absolute authority, and the ’Bible’ through which we understand the universe.”

Yu Xian gazed at the pitch-black night sky in the distance, as if some indescribable, massive entity were hiding within it.