Chapter 43 The Beginning and End of the Ladder Plan_1

After arranging the work of the three King Kongs, Lin Sen, on behalf of Logic, requested a meeting with the first director of the Planetary Defense Council's Strategic Intelligence Bureau (PIA) — Thomas Wade.

The influence of the Wallfacer was now unimaginably exalted. As soon as the request was issued, the PDC replied, and Wade would arrive in four hours. Wade was also a figure whom Lin Sen deeply respected.

In the original timeline, Wade's life was legendary; he was a tragic hero who left an indelible mark. Like Zhang Beihai, he saw everything clearly in the face of the Trisolaran invasion, both doing what true Wallfacers ought to do.

Zhang Beihai chose to silently conceal himself, stoically traversing two centuries alone, all for a belief in his heart, leaving humanity's last spark of hope.

Wade spent his life in contemplation, perhaps thinking deeper and further than Zhang Beihai, far-sighted and perceptive of human nature, with thoughts no one could fathom.

The summary of Wade's life was: establish a goal, find a solution, execute it.

During the crisis seven years ago, he implemented the Staircase Program, sending an irresistible gift to the Trisolarans — Yun Tianming's brain.

The purpose of the plan was for possible intelligence, which he may have waited for all his life, and for which he was willing to sacrifice everything. His plan was a success, and he finally received that crucial piece of intelligence. However, the intelligence he gave so much to acquire did not achieve the value it should have, a poignant irony.

It was Yun Tianming (the brain sent to the Trisolarans) who brought him that intelligence. Yun Tianming was also a character marked by tragedy, having received a noble education from a not-so-wealthy family, making it difficult for him to fit into the group. In college, Cheng Xin (the protagonist of the third part of The Three-Body Problem) became the light in his heart, but he never dared to make the step to confess his feelings, choosing instead to silently guard his secret adoration.

After graduation, Yun Tianming was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and was about to undergo euthanasia. His light, Cheng Xin, found him, hoping he would undertake a mission.

Yun Tianming had been exceptionally intelligent since childhood. He once gave a creative idea to a classmate, who made a fortune from it and returned the favor with a sum of money. Using this money, he bought Cheng Xin a star just before his death (this was another plan launched by humanity, the Starlight Project, which aimed to raise funds by auctioning the ownership of certain stars and their planets more than a hundred light-years away; any cultural product derived from that star would be the property of the buyer), a star hundreds of light-years away from the Solar System. This was Yun Tianming's love, his own kind of romance.

As Yun Tianming was about to leave this world, Cheng Xin, unaware of who had gifted her a star, sought out Yun Tianming, hoping to send his brain to the Trisolaran world. No one knew what Yun Tianming's feelings were at that moment.

The greatest distance in the world is not standing before you without knowing I love you, but loving you while you wish upon me a fate a thousand times crueler than death. The ultimate irony is that, in your heart, this is the beautiful fairy tale.

Cheng Xin's words, "The Euthanasia Law was passed for you," intensified the irony to a level that brought Yun Tianming to the brink of despair. Cheng Xin was like a child immersed in her naive fantasies, unable to comprehend what Yun Tianming would endure, even imagining that the Trisolarans would treat him as a messenger.

She imagined everything in the world to be beautiful, and there's nothing wrong with that. The mistake was in her hoping others would see the world as just as beautiful and not even considering the cruel fate that the brain might encounter.

Yun Tianming agreed, and no one knew his true thoughts. Perhaps it was like, if you asked me to die, I would, and if you sent me to hell, I would go, with nothing left to care about!

He did not pledge loyalty to human civilization; there was nothing in human civilization he felt attached to.

The PIA adopted the use of censure bullets to explosively accelerate spacecraft sails, deploying a thousand nuclear bombs along the trajectory for a stair-step explosion to propel the vessel to one percent the speed of light, delivering a brain to the Trisolaran world.

Watching Yun Tianming's brain depart, Wade only then told Cheng Xin that the person who had sent her the stars was Yun Tianming, "You sent the man who loved you into hell."

Cheng Xin felt an immense heartache and sorrow, while Wade on the other hand was appreciating Cheng Xin's sadness. This was not Wade's sadism; he needed to ensure that Yun Tianming truly entered the Trisolaran world.

Wade's schemes were layered one upon another.

On the surface, sending Yun Tianming, who might betray humanity, left a bond for him in the human world in the form of Cheng Xin, whom Yun Tianming deeply loved in his heart.

Deeper still, Wade had the unwitting Cheng Xin advance this plan, even choosing Yun Tianming herself (it was Yun Tianming that Wade valued, for which he had assassinated another candidate, Vajim, making Cheng Xin choose Yun Tianming). Yun Tianming would feel hatred, hatred for this absurd fate, for this desperate world, which would earn him even greater trust from the Trisolarans.

Another layer deeper, the mere act of a human entering the inside of an alien fleet was in itself a great feat, even if his identity and mission were completely exposed. What he could do there was not the concern; the very fact that he had successfully entered opened up infinite possibilities; and the Trisolarans' transparent thought processes and strategic shortcomings made these possibilities even more enticing.

Even if there was only one in a hundred million chance, the human world needed to go all out.

All of the above were easy to see, and in the original timeline, Yun Tianming indeed won the trust of the Trisolarans, whose schemes also greatly improved.

During the Broadcast Era (when the Trisolarans broke The Deterrence Era and launched attacks on humanity, but humanity was fortunate enough to broadcast a message, marking the beginning of the Broadcast Era), both Trisolaris and Earth were exposed, vulnerable to strikes from other civilizations.

Trisolaris had already accelerated its escape, but Yun Tianming still returned to see Cheng Xin (during a virtual communication), telling her three fairy tales from the Trisolaran world: "The King's New Painter," "The Gluttonous Sea," and "The Deep Sea Prince." Hidden within the stories were three plans about the fate of humanity's future: the Bunker Project, the Dark Domain Project, and the Lightspeed Spacecraft Project.

However, humanity chose the Bunker Project, a decision that cost humanity its last chance at life, forsaking the two plans that held hope.

At the end of the story, the Solar System was destroyed, and only Cheng Xin escaped. The Trisolarans (or rather, Yun Tianming) gave Cheng Xin a miniature universe where she could live on forever, until the end of the universe, until eternity.

We find it difficult to analyze Yun Tianming as a person; many believe that Cheng Xin failed Yun Tianming, questioning what exactly were his feelings for her. By the time Yun Tianming was sent to the Trisolaran world, he no longer belonged to humanity.

Cheng Xin might forever be that naive girl, even deemed a saint by some, but perhaps that was the light in Yun Tianming's heart. Perhaps the more one understands the universe's cruelty, the more one hopes to retain that last bit of humanity.

Yun Tianming's perspective and vision may have transcended human boundaries; in his memories, he regarded the Trisolarans as his children, creating fairy tales for them.

Those in the whirl of fate are often lonely, and Yun Tianming was no exception.

Zhang Beihai and Wade at least had their own loyalties; Yun Tianming had none in the human world except for Cheng Xin.

But what exactly were his feelings for Cheng Xin—love, hate, or something else...