Original subtitles

♪ Countdown counter ♪

♪ Hidden in eyes ♪

♪ Explore deep dreams in the dark ♪

♪ What is waiting for me at the end of the mysterious space-time ♪

♪ Don't break the hope given to the world ♪

♪ The sun still sets every day ♪

=Three-Body=

=Episode 19=

Hello?

Where are you?

Why weren't you answering your phone?

Just now I was out of cell range.

I think I'll get to the village entrance in a minute.

Alright. I'll wait for you at the village entrance.

Okay.

Chang has gotten access to the files of Red Coast.

Do you know the purpose of Red Coast Base?

To search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Simply put, to look for aliens.

You knew it?

Yeah.

Chang has shared this information with other Combat Zones.

He also pulled their files about their search

for extraterrestrial intelligence in recent years.

Where's Ye Wenjie?

She said she wanted to stay here for a while, reminisce about the past,

and visit her old friends while she's at it.

The old lady's surprisingly poised. What about her relations with Shen Yufei?

According to Qi Jianguo, they didn't have many dealings.

And her red ginseng?

That was a gift from the villagers.

Professor Ye has nothing to do with the red ginseng factory.

What about you?

Did you find anything about the factory?

Shen Yufei's just an adviser working for the foreign company.

She periodically comes here

to check the fruits of development before acceptance.

She seems to be in a hurry. She's already left.

Outwardly, there's nothing suspicious.

But I don't believe it.

I don't believe it's so coincidental.

But I have no way to arrest her or interrogate her.

Let's go.

Where to?

Home. To do some research about Red Coast.

Can we have some rest first?

Is it possible to have them send that chopper here to pick us up?

Do I look like a chopper to you?

Just now you said Ye Wenjie wanted to visit some old friends.

What kind of old friends?

Given that she lived here for so many years.

She probably has a lot of friends.

Old friends.

In your description,

Red Coast was made of harsh cold steel.

I always thought this place was a forest of concrete.

But the sight of it makes me feel

it has something warm about it.

That's because it's abandoned.

It's old.

Anything that has lost its power and is dying

tends not to put people on the defensive.

I feel like a pilgrim here.

Like a believer who finally made it to Jerusalem.

This is where it all started.

As the Buddha puts it, it's predestined bonding.

Long time no see, Commander.

You don't have to call me that.

The Commander's status is untouchable.

To me, to ETO, you're our spiritual leader.

You'll always be the supreme commander of ETO.

When I was all alone in this world,

with nowhere to find any spiritual assistance,

when I was even too helpless to understand the meaning of life,

even the meaning of despair was beyond me.

Whenever such greatness appeared,

I saw how small and despicable we were,

that lives were worthy of respect and sacrifice,

that everything changed.

Then a door opened, and a new road appeared.

You were the one who lit that lamp, Commander.

Only you pushed

the button to contact Lord.

Pushing a button is just an insignificant movement.

Many major changes in human history

were triggered by an insignificant movement.

Stefan Zweig even picked some stories and made a book out of them.

Decisive Moments in History.

But they're different from you.

You didn't do it by accident.

You made a choice.

Even the achievements of all outstanding humans combined

stand no comparison with the great decision you made.

What really established a communication mechanism with Lord

was your Second Red Coast.

It's our Second Red Coast.

(19 years ago)

You named it the Second Red Coast?

Yeah.

Red Coast is a great name.

What is this place?

Judgment Day.

Three years ago,

you gave me the direction and frequency required for contacting Lord.

Otherwise the Second Red Coast would never have been built.

Contacting Lord will take a long time.

Yeah.

Our lives are too short.

Fortunately, you gave me and ETO a chance.

Commander, if you didn't choose me,

I would never be able to communicate with Lord.

At that time, in front of the first batch of ETO members,

you said our ideal was to invite Lord to reform human civilization,

to curb human madness and evilness, so that the Earth can once again

become a harmonious, prosperous, sinless world.

Yeah.

But now everything has changed.

You disagree with me,

because you haven't seen the true colors of mankind.

Everything you did was based on love.

You love mankind.

You love the earth.

Even becoming the Commander

was your move to keep ETO from losing control.

There's too little I can do.

I looked into you.

I even read your father's books.

I found that in this aspect,

you're greatly influenced by your father.

Because of your great sense of responsibility,

no matter how much harm you suffer,

you'll never give up the last bit of hope.

You can't bear to part from the splendid human civilization,

but has it ever occurred to you

that the evil of humanity is imperishable?

Even I, your very first follower, has betrayed you.

Commander, humans are absolutely incorrigible.

Actually,

you didn't have to come here to see me.

I know you're still trying to get information about Lord.

You even rebuilt the reception system.

It's right here.

This used to be the great Red Coast.

I never thought you'd build a new Red Coast

on the ruins of the abandoned one.

I think we should call it the Third Red Coast.

Did you change the reception and transmission methods?

Or have you been fabricating it this whole time?

Lord is coming.

Who am I to fabricate that?

I think it's merciful to let humans destroy themselves.

Only humans will be destroyed.

This world will be changed.

Commander, has there ever been any mercy

in the history of human civilization?

Evans, you still have a choice.

Compared with the universe, anything is insignificant.

I don't want to make any pointless choices.

Humans are trapped in an inferno, unable to get out.

And you were the one who started the fire.

Thank you, Commander.

I started the fire,

but I can't keep it under control.

According to the archives, the Red Coast Base was built in 1968,

and abandoned in 1987.

During the 20 years of its service,

no abnormal radio wave from the space was detected.

So they didn't find any aliens.

For now, that's one way to put it.

For now?

Yeah.

Because the universe is vast,

and there are many kinds of interference in it,

which makes the traveling speed of the radio wave seem very slow.

And the longer the distance, the weaker the signal.

But we can't say for sure no aliens have received our radio waves.

There are so many archives here.

Are there any details that don't tally with Ye Wenjie's words?

What Professor Ye told me was mainly about the true purpose of Red Coast.

It accords with the archives almost perfectly.

If at that time the whole world was looking for aliens,

was it really necessary to make it that confidential?

I asked Professor Ye the same question.

She gave me an explanation.

There's some information about it in the archives as well.

Have you guys ever heard of Bill Mathers's "contact as symbol" theory?

What? What? What?

I'll put it in a simple way.

It means contact with an alien civilization

is only a symbol or a switch.

Regardless of the content of the encounter, the results would be the same.

The impact would be magnified by the lens of human mass psychology

and culture until it resulted in huge, substantive influences

on the progress of civilization.

If such contact were monopolized by one country

or political force, the significance would be comparable

to an overwhelming advantage in economic and military power.

You can't understand?

It's not that.

Actually, what you said was not difficult to understand.

It's just that your wording and your way of speaking... I...

It means making contact with an alien civilization

is like getting a book about superb martial arts.

Whoever gets it and learns the skills will become invincible.

Captain Shi, that's what you mean, right?

That's exactly what I mean. Clear and easy to understand.

- Professor Wang, you made it sound complicated. - It's my bad.

It's like all martial artists are fighting for a martial arts book,

throwing the martial arts world into chaos.

If you're right, once anybody gets in touch with aliens,

the world will be changed.

Chang also said those foreign terrorists used to be pacifists.

There're also those scientists who committed suicide.

They all changed without warning.

Was it because they made contact with aliens?

Professor Ye also said the search for alien civilization

is a very special subject.

It has a strong influence on the researchers' outlook on life.

Professor Ye.

(Astrophysicist)

Professor Ye is indeed quite special.

Xu Bingbing, did the ten of you find anything else?

Overall, the infosheets about Red Coast correspond with Professor Wang's words,

but I don't know if you've noticed these details.

Yang Weining and Ye Wenjie registered their marriage in 1973.

(Personnel Who Died in Line of Duty) And here.

(Lei Zhicheng, Yang Weining, Oct 21, 1979)

(Mountaintop platform Dropped to his death)

Lei Zhicheng

and Ye Wenjie's husband Yang Weining both died in the Red Coast?

On the same day.

Professor Ye.

Professor Ye is way too special.

(Astrophysicist, Ye Wenjie)

I know your research and study about alien civilization

are state secrets of your countries.

I'm very grateful to you for sharing them to let us analyze them together.

Unfortunately, none of our searches have been turned to any results.

The signals from space are just static.

It's just the natural noises of the planets.

This is why we cannot accept it call.

That's what we can call the miracle from another civilization.

The original conjectures of the Global Battle Command Center

also include the possibility it was aliens' doing,

but this is what we're most unwilling to admit.

If they are indeed alien civilization from outer space, how do we respond?

We're not prepared for that.

To this space civilization,

we're like 16th-century aboriginal Americans,

watching the Spanish armada come over the horizon.

There's nothing we can do.

I've still got so many Red Coast infosheets to read.

Why did you bring me so many more?

Do you want me to look into nanotech or not?

You need to do both, and do them well.

Xu Bingbing sifted out these infosheets.

Red Coast didn't find any aliens. See if any other countries did.

After reading these infosheets, I found there were indeed a couple of occasions

when the radio frequencies were abnormal.

Abnormal how?

But it's absolutely impossible.

Look, take this one for example.

It's too far away from us.

If it was really aliens trying to contact us,

a round trip would take them billions of years.

There's no telling if the earth would still be there by that time.

Is it possible they can travel really fast?

Just like those in the movies.

Faster than light.

If they could travel at light speed, why would they send radio signals?

Just like you. You got a cellphone.

Will you still use a carrier pigeon?

Well, could it be that they were trying to reach a neighbor,

and we accidentally received the signal?

This signal was so strong.

It's like knocking on a neighbor's door with an atomic bomb.

Are you saying there are absolutely no aliens?

There are no aliens we can understand.

So you're saying there are aliens we cannot understand?

What's wrong?

Why are you so impatient?

If they exist, where are they?

This is indeed a classic question in astronomy.

Astronomy?

Has Professor Ye come back?

- How about you consult her again? - What are you doing?

You want me to look into her for you again?

No.

If you want it done, do it yourself.

Scientific mettle.

This is scientific mettle, Professor Wang.

If you, a scientist, have no scientific mettle,

how can you expect me, a cop, to have any?

You have it.

Professor Ye has come back only this morning.

I can't visit her in the afternoon. It feels wrong.

This is how you display your strong thirst for knowledge.

What am I supposed to ask her?

Surely I can't ask her how Yang Weining died.

Just ask her if aliens really exist or not.

If they made any discoveries in the Red Coast Base,

it's unnecessary for her to conceal them from me.

Only Professor Ye knows if that's necessary.

If they made no discoveries whatsoever,

then how come these oddities led us to the subject of alien civilization?

Why didn't they tell us the Black and White Death Envoys were real?

Is it really that important?

It is.

It's very important.

Lately, I've read many famous astronomy books.

I find that the Fermi paradox is really pretty interesting.

It's such a big universe. How can we be alone?

But if there are aliens, where are they?

When the Fermi paradox was first developed,

it wasn't taken seriously.

As our searches for alien civilization turned out to be unfruitful,

the Fermi paradox gained attention again,

and it sparked more and more speculations.

For example, the Rare Earth Hypothesis.

It says aliens don't exist, that the earth is special.

It's the only planet with intelligent life.

Another hypothesis focuses on science and technology.

It says aliens exist,

but alien civilization is far more developed than human civilization,

or far less developed than it, so they're unable to contact us.

There's another one.

It's about radio silence.

I saw that as well.

It says all aliens chose to keep silent.

For some reason.

There are many similar hypotheses.

But none of them can verify whether alien civilization exists.

Which one of those hypotheses do you support?

I've been doing scientific research for more than half of my life.

I advocate thought experiments, but suspect everything.

Wang, aren't you the same?

Professor Ye didn't answer your question at all.

She did.

She said she advocated thought experiments but suspected everything.

What's the matter? You find this answer unsatisfactory?

Suspecting everything is an attitude.

When you scientists do research, you have to pick a direction first, right?

Take Newton for example.

He believed light was a group of particles,

but Huygens believed light was a wave, so they were both trying to

prove their opinions in the directions they picked. Right?

You know about the wave-particle duality?

How can I not know it?

What books have you read lately?

A Hundred Thousand Whys.

What?

A Hundred Thousand Whys.

Will you please articulate?

A Hundred Thousand Whys.

What's the matter?

The astronomy and geography volume.

Don't laugh.

Ye Wenjie clearly evaded your question.

Did she not want to answer it? Or she couldn't answer it?

How am I supposed to know?

That's why we need to keep investigating Ye Wenjie.

Hello?

Are you responsible for looking into Wei Cheng?

Captain Shi, this is indeed against the rules,

but General Chang made it very clear, so we had to spare the room for him.

Why is he doing calculations here?

This guy's pretty weird.

He brought a pile of infosheets and a computer here,

and said he wanted to report a crime,

but he spoke for quite a while without making himself understood.

And then he started doing calculations here.

We rushed him, but he said he'd pay us.

He took this place for a hotel.

- Can we go inside and talk to him? - You can't.

Just now he emphasized

that you two have to wait for another four hours.

It's been five hours.

If he doesn't come out right now, I'll go in and unplug his computer.

I'm asking you a question.

Do it.

Unplug it.

If I unplug it, then he won't be able to figure it out, right?

You're such a quick-tempered guy. Why do you care?

Captain Shi, you guys may go in now.

But that guy wants you to bring him some booze.

Captain Shi, who is he? Why is he so cocky?

Booze?

Good.

Him wanting booze is good news.

It means he made a breakthrough.

Tell me.

Staying at home is so comfortable.

Why did you come here?

Long story.

How about we do some celebrating first?

Don't. If you do that, we won't be able to talk until tomorrow.

Come on. Tell us.

Tell us how many steps have you taken?

I've built a model.

Can the model solve the Three-Body problem?

That needs verifying.

This is such a crucial juncture.

Did you specially come to the Public Security Bureau to finish it?

Because someone threatened me.

This is the safest place.

Threatened you?

Who?

If I'm to tell you that, I'll have to start from the beginning.

Today I feel a bit weary.

If you guys really want to hear it,

I might need to shift into a comfortable position and take my time.

Go ahead.

Find yourself a comfortable position.

Tell us.

Sorry.

It all started when I was in high school.

No, no, no. Skip the high school part.

High school is way off-topic.

No.

If I don't go off-topic,

I'm afraid you guys won't be able to understand.

Well, go ahead.

It all started when I was in high school.

(The number of arrays)

You have one hour.

Can you work it out?

(Minimum)

And the derivation process?

The derivation process...

I don't know.

You deduced too fast.

And you did it instinctively.

So even you yourself cannot perceive it.

Just like it's difficult for people to explain how they deduce

two plus two is four.

What are numbers in your eyes?

Solid figures.

What about geometric shapes?

They're numbers.

You have a mathematical talent.

But...

But people like you will never appreciate your talents.

My teacher was right.

I don't know how to appreciate myself.

(Legend of the Flying Fox) I was shiftless when I was an undergraduate,

(Legend of the Flying Fox) graduate, and doctor.

Surprisingly, I managed to muddle through.

Afterward I became a college teacher, but still couldn't pull myself together.

I wrote the words "easy to prove" on the blackboard,

but my students couldn't figure it out no matter how hard they tried.

We waited for you for almost five hours

not to hear you brag to us or tell us you're a genius.

You're wrong.

I'm no genius.

I'm a good-for-nothing.

Except for maths, I can't do anything properly.

My life's getting worse and worse.

Suddenly, one day, I got tired of all that,

so I packed some stuff and went to a temple.

You became a Buddhist monk?

Weren't you married?

You're wrong again.

I couldn't be bothered to become a monk.

I just wanted a quiet place where I could blow off some steam.

An old friend of my father's lived there.

He was very knowledgeable, but when he got old, he became a monk.

According to my father, people like him

had no other choice.

No. I'm sorry.

Stop pretending.

Is this necessary?

I'm trying to understand Buddhism.

Talking about Buddhism with a guy like you?

That's pointless.

Come with me.

You may live here.

Actually, I don't care where I live.

I just want to find a quiet place

to fiddle around for the rest of my life.

This place is not quiet.

There are many people coming and going.

The safest hideout is the crowd.

If you want quietness, you have to empty yourself.

Flush.

How can I make myself emptier?

Fame and wealth are less than nothing to me.

Come over here.

Come here.

Look.

What is this?

Isn't it just a radio?

- May I ask why it doesn't have an antenna? - You geek.

It's Bluetooth-enabled.

Bluetooth?

Is this a radio?

This is an amplifier.

Is this a radio?

This is a transistor.

This is a capacitor.

Where's the radio?

Gone.

So radio is just a temporary pseudonym we gave these components.

If you dismantle it in your mind, it'll cease to exist.

Therefore, radio is not a permanent entity.

These things can become a radio or a pile of components.

This process is emptying.

What does "Form is emptiness" means?

If you're right, then form is only a process.

Form means everything you can see.

Emptiness is not nothingness.

You need to fill yourself with emptiness.

I couldn't sleep that night,

so I kept pondering over Professor Han's remark.

I never thought the never-never land would be so uncomfortable.

My sheets were very damp due to the mountain mist.

And the bed was very hard.

It made it difficult for me to sleep.

To get to sleep, I tried doing as Professor Han said.

Filling myself with emptiness.

Can you guys understand?

Go on.

In my mind, I created the first "emptiness".

It's a boundless space.

There's nothing in it, not even light.

Absolutely empty.

Soon I realized that the empty universe couldn't calm me down.

Being in there made me feel inexplicably anxious.

Like someone drowning in a river

who's trying to grab something within reach.

So

I created a sphere for myself

in the infinite space.

That was a sphere with mass, not big.

But it didn't make me feel better.

The sphere was floating in the center of the space.

Nothing in the universe was exerting any forces on it,

and there was nothing for it to exert forces on either.

It just floated in there.

It would never move, or change in any way.

That's the most perfect interpretation of death.

Therefore, I created another sphere,

which was of the same mass and size as the first one's.

Their surfaces were total reflection mirrors.

They reflected each other,

reflected the only entity in the universe apart from themselves.

But the situation didn't improve much.

Because if there was no initial movement,

the spheres would soon be drawn together by their gravity.

And then the two spheres would float there side by side, motionless.

It'd still be a symbol of death.

But if there was initial movement and they didn't collide,

they would revolve around each other under their gravity.

No matter how you initialized them,

that kind of revolving would eventually stabilize

and never change again.

The dance of death.

So

I then introduced a third sphere,

and to my astonishment, the situation changed completely.

Like I said, any geometric figure turns into numbers

in the depths of my mind.

The sphereless, one-sphere, and two-sphere universes

all showed up as a single equation or a few equations that could describe it.

But this third sphere

gave "emptiness" life.

The three spheres, given initial movements,

went through complex, seemingly never-repeating movements.

The descriptive equations rained down in a thunderstorm without end.

Just like that, I fell asleep.

The three spheres continued to dance in my dream,

a patternless, never-repeating dance.

Yet, in the depths of my mind, the dance did possess a rhythm;

it was just that its period of repetition was infinitely long.

This mesmerized me.

My attention had never been so completely engaged.

All the monks suspected I was crazy.

But Professor Han knew I had found emptiness.

My mind...

My mind was calm as never before.

It's such a big project.

For the first time, I enjoyed math.

So... So I want to describe the whole period or part of it.

So since then, you've been pursuing the Three-Body problem.

♪ I've seen things you people won't believe ♪

♪ Soon our planet will vanish ♪

♪ I've known the future you people won't think of ♪

♪ Soon your planet will be punished ♪

♪ I've seen things you people won't believe ♪

♪ Soon our planet will vanish ♪

♪ I've known the future you people won't think of ♪

♪ Soon your planet will be punished ♪

♪ I've seen things you people won't believe ♪

♪ Soon our planet will vanish ♪

♪ I've known the future you people won't think of ♪

♪ Soon your planet will be punished ♪

♪ I've seen things you people won't believe ♪

♪ Soon our planet will vanish ♪

♪ I've known the future you people won't think of ♪

♪ Soon your planet will be punished ♪

♪ I've seen things you people won't believe ♪

♪ Soon our planet will vanish ♪

♪ I've known the future you people won't think of ♪

♪ Soon your planet will be punished ♪

=Three-Body=