The face reappeared. It belonged to a man with a gentle expression who looked at Luo Ji and said, “Welcome to our era.” As he spoke, a field of vibrant roses flashed on his white lab coat, then gradually faded and disappeared. As he continued speaking, the coat displayed a continuous assortment of delightful images that matched his expressions and emotions: seas, sunsets, and woods in the drizzle. He told Luo Ji that his illness had been cured during hibernation, and that his reawakening had gone smoothly. Recovery would take just three days or so, and then he would completely regain normal bodily functions…
那张脸又出现了，是一个表情柔和的男性，他看着罗辑说：“欢迎您来到这个时代。”就在他说话的时候，他穿着的白大褂闪动起来，映出了一片鲜艳的玫瑰，然后渐渐变淡消失。在他后面的谈话中，白大褂不断配合着他的表情和情绪，显示出不同的赏心悦目的图像，有大海，晚霞和细雨中的树林。他说罗辑的病已经在冬眠中治好了，他的苏醒过程也很顺利，只需三天左右的恢复期，他就能完全恢复正常的身体机能……
Luo Ji awoke from hibernation.
罗辑从冬眠中醒来。
Year 205, Crisis Era, Distance of the Trisolaran Fleet from the Solar System: 2.10 light-years Darkness. Before the darkness there was nothing but nothingness, and the nothingness was without color. Nothing was in the nothingness. Darkness at least meant that there was space. Soon, disturbances appeared in the darkness of space, penetrating everything like a gentle breeze. It was the sensation of time passing, for the nothingness was without time, but now time took shape in a glacial thaw. Only much later was there light, at first as a shapeless blob of brightness, and then, after another long wait, the shape of the world gradually emerged. The newly resurrected consciousness struggled to make sense of it, at first managing to work out a few thin, transparent tubes, then a human face behind them, which quickly disappeared, exposing the creamy-white light of the ceiling.
危机纪年第205年，三体舰队距太阳系2.10光年黑暗出现了，这之前连黑暗都没有，只有虚无。虚无是无色彩的，虚无什么都没有，有黑暗，至少意味着出现了空间。很快，黑暗的空间中出现了一些扰动，像穿透一切的微风，这是时间流逝的感觉。之前的虚无是没有时间的，现在时间也出现了，像消融的冰河。光的出现是在很长时间以后，开始，只是一片没有形状的亮斑，又经过了很漫长的等待，世界的形状才显现出来。刚刚复活的意识在努力分辨着，最初看清的是几根横空而过的透明细管，然后是管道后面的一张俯视着的人脸，人脸很快消失，露出发着乳白色光芒的天花板。
He found the doctor’s accent peculiar at first, but he soon discovered that although the sounds of standard Mandarin hadn’t changed much, it had been stuffed with a large quantity of English words. As the doctor spoke, the text of what he said was displayed on the ceiling, apparently through voice recognition. Perhaps to help the newly awakened better understand, the English words were replaced with Chinese characters.
最初罗辑感觉医生的口音很奇怪，但很快发现普通话的语音变化并不大，只是其中夹杂着大量的英文单词。在医生说话的同时，天花板上用字幕映出了他所说的内容，显然是实时的语音识别，也许是为了便于苏醒者理解，把其中的英文词都换成了汉字。
Luo Ji’s mind, still sluggish and only partially awake, caught just one piece of information out of everything the doctor said: This was year 205 of the Crisis Era, and he had been in hibernation for 185 years.
罗辑的思维仍处于初醒的迟钝状态，对医生的话，他只抓住了一个信息：现在是危机纪年205年，自己已经冬眠了一百八十五年。
At last the doctor said that Luo Ji could be transferred from the revival room to the general ward. His coat showed an evening scene in which a setting sun rapidly turned into a starry sky to say farewell. As this was going on, Luo Ji felt his bed begin to move. Just out the door, he heard the doctor call out, “Next.” Twisting his head back to look, he saw another bed enter the revival room bearing someone who had obviously just been taken out of the hibernation chamber. The bed was quickly wheeled to a bank of monitors, and the doctor, his coat now a pure white, tapped on the wall with a finger, causing one-third of it to display complex curves and data that he began to manipulate intensely.
医生最后说，罗辑已经可以从苏醒室转到普通监护室了，他的白大褂上映出了一幅迅速由落日变为星空的黄昏图景以表示“再见”。同时，罗辑的床开始自己移动，在即将移出苏醒室的门时，罗辑听到医生喊“下一个”，他吃力地扭头，看到又有一张床移进苏醒室，床上也有一个显然是刚从冬眠室中送来的人。那张床很快移人了一堆仪器中问，医生的白大褂变成纯白色，他用手指在墙上点丁一下，有三分之一的墙面被激活成显示屏，上面显示着复杂的曲线和数据，医生开始紧张地操作。
Luo Ji realized that his own reawakening was probably not a major event at all, but rather just a part of day-to-day work here. The doctor was friendly, but in his eyes Luo Ji was nothing more than an ordinary hibernator.
罗辑这时明白，自己的苏醒可能并不是一件重大的事，而只是这里进行的日常工作的一部分。那个医生很友善，但罗辑在他眼中显然只是一名普通的冬眠者而已。
Judging by that, he had to be in a personalized age.
从这件事看，这是一个很人性化的时代。
This far exceeded his expectations.
这大大出乎罗辑的预料。
As the walls passed slowly by, he saw lots of activated displays of different sizes randomly distributed on them. Some of them were moving images that he didn’t have the time to look at clearly, and might have been left behind by users who forgot to turn them off.
在缓缓移过的走廊墙壁上，罗辑也看到了许多被激活的显示区，它们大小不一，随机点缀在墙上，其中一部分还显示着罗辑来不及看清的动态图像，好像是使用者离开时忘记关闭而留下的。
Like the revival room, the hallway had no lamps. The walls themselves emitted light, and although it was soft, Luo Ji still had to squint. But as he did so, the walls in the section of corridor he was in dimmed, and the dimmed segment followed him as his bed moved. Once his eyes grew accustomed to the light, he opened them again, at which point the hallway brightened again, remaining in his comfort zone. Evidently the hallway’s brightness adjustment system was able to monitor the changes in his pupils.
同苏醒室中一样，走廊中没有灯，亮光也是直接从墙壁发出的，虽然很柔和，还是让罗辑眯起了双眼。就在他眯眼的同时，这一段走廊的墙壁暗了下来，这黯淡的一段一直跟随着他的床移动。当他的眼睛适应光亮又睁大时，这移动的一段也随之亮了起来，但亮度一直保持在舒适的范围内。看来，走廊的光度调节系统能够监测他的瞳孔变化。
Sometimes, his automatic bed crossed paths with people walking down the hallway. He noticed that both the soles of their feet and the bed’s wheels made luminous, watery waves of pressure where they contacted the ground, like what used to happen when you pressed a finger onto an LCD in his own time. The long corridor gave him an intense sense of cleanliness, as clean as a 3-D computer animation, although he knew all of it was real. He moved through it with a sense of tranquility and comfort he had never known before.
罗辑不时与走廊上的行人和自动行走的病床交错而过，他注意到在行人的脚底和床的轮子与地面的接触处，都压出了发光的水样的波纹，就像在他自己的时代用手指接触液晶显示屏时出现的那样。整个长长的走廊，给他的最强烈的感觉就是洁净，洁净得像是电脑中的三维动画，但罗辑知道这一切都是真实的。他移动于其中，有一种从未体会过的宁静和舒适。
But what impressed him most about the people he saw was that everyone — doctors, nurses, and nonstaff alike — appeared clean and elegant, and smiled warmly at him or waved when they approached. Their clothes displayed gorgeous images, a different style for each person, some abstract, others concrete. He was won over by their expressions, because he knew that the eyes of ordinary people were the best reflection of the level of civilization in a time and place. He had once seen a set of photos taken by European photographers in the late Qing Dynasty, and his deepest impression had been of the dull expressions of the people in the photographs. Officials and commoners alike had eyes that revealed only numbness and stupidity, lacking the slightest shred of vitality. When the people of this new era looked at Luo Ji’s eyes, they might be having the same feeling about him. The gazes that crossed his own were full of a vigorous wisdom, and a sincerity, understanding, and love that he had rarely perceived in his own age. But what impressed him most was the confidence in their expressions. The sunny confidence that filled every pair of eyes had evidently become the spiritual backdrop for the people of this new era.
最令罗辑心动的是他沿途遇到的人们，不论是医生护士，还是其他人，看上去都整洁高雅，走近时，都亲切地向他微笑致意，有的还向他挥挥手。他们的衣服也都映出绚美的图案，每个人的风格都不同，有的写实有的抽象。罗辑被他们的目光所慑服，他知道，普通人的目光，是他们所在地区和时代的文明程度的最好反映。他曾经看到过一组由欧洲摄影师拍摄的清朝末年的照片，最深的印象就是照片上的人呆滞的目光，在那些照片上，不论是官员还是百姓，眼睛中所透出的只有麻木和愚钝，看不到一点生气。现在，这个新时代的人看到罗辑的眼睛时，可能也是那种感觉了。在与罗辑相视的目光中，充满着睿智的生机，以及他在自己的时代很少感受到的真诚、理解和爱意。但从心灵的最深处打动罗辑的，是人们目光中的自信，这种阳光般的自信充满了每一双眼睛，显然已经成为新时代人们的精神背景。
“How can they be that way? I’m their great-grandfather!” Luo Ji heard the hibernator who was about to leave complaining.
“他们怎么能这样，我是他们的祖爷爷！”罗辑听到要离开的冬眠者抱怨说。
“You can’t pull seniority in front of them. It’s the law: Hibernation doesn’t count as age, so in the presence of the elderly, you’re the younger generation… Let’s go. They’ve waited in the reception room long enough,” the nurse said. Although she tried to avoid English words, sometimes she stumbled over Chinese words, as if speaking an ancient tongue, and was forced to use the modern language. Then the wall would display a translation into Chinese.
“您不能在他们面前卖老的，按照法律，冬眠期间不算做年龄，所以在老人面前您还是晚辈……我们走吧，他们在接待室等好长时间了。”护士说，罗辑注意到，她说话时尽力避免出现英文词，但一些汉语词汇在她口中显得很生涩，她等于是在说古汉语了，有时不得不说现代语言时，墙上就会相应地显示出古汉语的译文。
This did not seem to be an age of despair, and that was another unexpected surprise.
这似乎不像是一个绝望的时代，这再次令罗辑深感意外。
Luo Ji’s bed moved soundlessly into the general ward, which held two more reawakened hibernators. One of them was lying on a bed. The other, next to the door, was packing his things with a nurse’s help and seemed about ready to leave. From the look in their eyes, Luo Ji knew that both of them were from his own era.
罗辑的床无声地移人监护室，他看到这里已经有两个冬眠苏醒者了，他们有一位躺在床上，靠门的另一位则在护士的帮助下收拾东西，好像已经准备离开了。
Their eyes were like the windows of time, and through them he had another glance of that gray era he had come from.
从他们的目光中，罗辑立刻认出了两位都是自己同时代的人，他们的眼睛像时光之窗，让罗辑又瞧了一眼自己来自的那个灰色的时代。
“In this age, you’ve got to keep learning. Otherwise, you’ll just have to go live up top,” Luo Ji heard the nurse say. By now he could understand the modern language without difficulty, but he was still unclear what the nurse meant by her last sentence.
“到了这个时代，您总得学习，要不只能上去生活了。”罗辑听到护士在门外说，他已经能够不费力地听懂现代语言了，但还是不明白护士最后一句话的意思。
“I can’t even understand it when they talk. All that bird-speak mixed in!” the hibernator said, as he and the nurse each picked up a bag and went out the door.
“我连那些人的话都听不太懂，夹那么多鸟语！”冬眠者说，和护士各提了一个包走出门去。
“Hello. Did you hibernate due to illness?” the hibernator in the bed beside Luo Ji asked. He was young, and looked to be in his early twenties.
“你好，是因为生病冬眠的吧？”和罗辑邻床的冬眠者问，他很年轻，看上去只有二十来岁。
“I don’t really know. I’ve only been here five days. Still, it’s definitely a good era. But for us, it’s bound to be difficult to integrate into society. Mostly because we woke up too soon. A few years later would have been better.”
“我也不是太清楚？刚醒来五天。不过，嗯，这肯定是个好时候，但对我们来说，融入社会肯定是有困难的，主要是醒来得太早了，再晚几年就好了。”
Luo Ji opened his mouth but no sound came out. The young man smiled at him encouragingly. “You can speak. Try harder!”
罗辑张了张嘴，但没发出声音，年轻人笑着鼓励他说：“你能说话的，使劲说！”
“Here… how is it?” Luo Ji asked, much more easily this time.
“这儿……怎么样？罗辑问，说话容易多了。
The young man nodded. “The one who just left did. I didn’t. I came here to escape from reality. Oh, and my name’s Xiong Wen.”
年轻人点点头，“刚走的那位也是，我不是，我是为逃避现实到这儿来的，哦，我叫熊文。”
“Hello,” Luo Ji managed hoarsely.
“你好。”罗辑终于嘶哑地说出声来。
“Peace talks? With whom?!”
“和谈？和谁？”
“Not yet. But they’ll have no other choice,” Xiong Wen said, nimbly getting out of his bed and coming over to sit down on Luo Ji’s. He had clearly been anticipating the pleasure of introducing someone newly awakened to this era. “Don’t you know? Humanity is amazing now. Simply amazing!”
“还没有，但它们肯定没别的选择了。”熊文说着，以很敏捷的动作翻身从床上下来，坐到了罗辑的床上，很显然，他早就渴望享受向新的苏醒者介绍这个时代的乐趣了，“你还不知道，人类现在了不得了，可了不得了！”
“Trisolaris, of course.”
“当然是三体世界。”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Put the superweapons aside and look purely at speed. They can reach fifteen percent of the speed of light! Tons faster than the Trisolarans!”
“怎么不可能？先别说那些超级武器，就说速度吧，能达到光速的百分之十五！比三体人的快多了！”
“Our spacecraft are incredibly powerful. Far more powerful than Trisolaran ships!”
“人类的太空战舰很厉害了，比三体人的战舰厉害多了！”
When Luo Ji turned a skeptical eye toward the nurse, he noticed that she was exceptionally pretty. Everyone in this age seemed to be attractive. She nodded with a smile. “It’s true.”
罗辑将怀疑的目光转向护士，这才发现她十分美丽，这个时代的人似乎都很漂亮，她微笑着点点头：“是这样。”
Shaken by Xiong Wen’s final statement, Luo Ji strove to sit up. A nurse entered and helped him up to a half-sitting position in bed.
被熊文最后这句话所震撼，罗辑努力想坐起来，一个护士走进来，帮助他在床上半坐着。
“How?”
“怎么？”
“They said they want peace talks?” he asked anxiously.
“它们说要和谈了吗？”罗辑急切地问。
“No. It’s still a state of war now, so society can’t take care of us. In a few decades, after the peace talks, there’ll be peace and prosperity.”
“不，现在还是战争时期，社会顾不上我们，再晚几十年，和谈之后，就是太平盛世了。”
“How is that possible?”
“怎么可能呢？”
“A few years later? Wouldn’t that be even harder?”
“晚几年，那不是更困难吗？”
Luo Ji glanced again at the nurse, who nodded.
罗辑再次将目光转向护士，她又点点头。
“You know how badly off the Trisolaran Fleet is now? In two centuries they’ve passed through the, ah, the space dust they call the snow patch three times. I heard someone say that the most recent time was four years ago, and the telescope observed that their formation has become sparser. They’re not holding together. More than half of the ships stopped accelerating long ago, and they decelerated considerably when they crossed the dust. They’re crawling now, and they won’t reach the Solar System for more than eight hundred years. They might already be broken hulks. Projecting from their current speed, no more than three hundred ships will arrive on time two centuries from now. However, one Trisolaran probe will reach the Solar System soon. This year. The other nine are following afterward and will get here three years later.”
“知道三体舰队现在是个什么惨样儿吗？这两个世纪他们又过三次……啊……那叫雪地吧，就是太空尘埃。最近的一次听他们说是在四年前，望远镜观测到三舰队的队形变得稀稀拉拉，溃不成军，有一大半战舰早就停止了加速，穿过尘埃时又减速了不少，在慢慢爬呢。大概八百年也到不了太阳系，可能早就是坏掉的‘幽灵船’了。按现在的速度推算，两个世纪后能按时到达的不超过三百艘。不过有一个三体探测器很快就要到达太阳系了，就在今年，另外九个落在后面，三年后也要到了。”
Xiong Wen went on, “And do you know how many ships there are in the space fleet? I’ll tell you: two thousand! Twice as many as the Trisolarans! And the number’s still growing!”
熊文接着说：“而且，你知道太空舰队有多少这样的战舰吗，告诉你，两千艘！比三体人多一倍！而且还在壮大！”
“The probe… What’s that?” Luo Ji asked in confusion.
“探测器……是什么？”罗辑不解地问。
“It makes me happy, so what’s it to you?” Xiong Wen said with a shrug. Then he returned to his own bed to lie down. As he lay watching the soft light emitted by the ceiling, he sighed, “The kids are all right. They’re really all right.”
“高兴嘛……这有什么？”熊文不以为然地说，然后回到自己的床上，躺在那里看着发出柔和光芒的天花板感叹道，“孩子们真行，孩子们真行啊！”
To Luo Ji, this was the voice of an angel. He felt like he had turned into a child who had just awakened from a nightmare, and all the frightening things he had experienced were taken care of by a smile from an adult. When she spoke, her nurse’s uniform shone a fast-rising sun, and under its golden light, the dry yellow earth turned green, and flowers bloomed in wild abandon…
在罗辑听来，这是天使的声音，他觉得自己倒是变成了一个从噩梦中醒来的孩子，所经历的可怖的一切大人们只是付之一笑。在天使说话时，她的护士服上映出了一轮飞快升起的朝阳，在金色的阳光下，原本枯黄的大地迅速变绿，花儿在疯狂地开放……
The nurse said, “We don’t encourage the exchange of practical information. When the previous reawakened hibernator learned about these things, it took him many days to calm down. It’s not conducive to recovery.”
护士说：“我们不鼓励你们互相交流现实信息，前面的苏醒者知道这些后好多天都平静不下来，这不利于恢复。”
“Who’s a kid?” the nurse sniffed. “Hibernation doesn’t count as age. You’re the kid.” To Luo Ji’s eyes, she actually looked younger than Xiong Wen, although he knew that his appearance-based judgment of age might not be accurate in this era.
“谁是孩子，护士很不满地说，”冬眠期不算年龄的，你才是孩子呢。“不过在罗辑看来，这女孩儿真的比熊文还要小，只是他知道在这个时代从外表判断年龄可能不准确。
The nurse said to him, “The people from your time are all pretty despairing. But things aren’t really all that serious.”
护士对罗辑说：“从你们那时来的人都挺绝望的，其实呢，事情真没那么严重。”
Next, Luo Ji personally experienced the level of technology of this new age in two trivial areas.
接下来，从两件不起眼的小事上，罗辑见识了新时代的技术水平。
Xiong Wen shook his head in confusion. “Wallfacer…? Never heard of it.”
熊文迷惑地摇摇头：“面壁……没听说过。”
“Your sense of taste is still recovering, too,” the nurse said.
“你的味觉也在恢复中。”护士说。
Luo Ji asked when Xiong Wen had entered hibernation. It had been before the Wallfacer Project had started, when hibernation was very expensive. His family must have had money. But if he hadn’t heard anything about the Wallfacer Project in the five days he had been awake, that meant that even if the program hadn’t been forgotten in this era, it was no longer important.
罗辑问了他进入冬眠的时间，是在面壁计划出现以前，那时冬眠很昂贵，他家里一定很有钱。但如果在这五天时间里他都没有听说过面壁计划，就说明它在这个时代即使没被遗忘。也已经不重要了。
Soon after he entered the ward, the nurse carried in his first meal after reawakening, a very small quantity of milk and bread and jam, because his stomach functions were still recovering. He took a bite of bread and felt like he was chewing sawdust.
在进入监控室不久，护士端来了罗辑苏醒后的第一餐，有牛奶和果酱面包等，量很少，护士说他的肠胃功能还在恢复中。罗辑咬了一口面包，感觉像在嚼锯末。
When the nurse had gone, Luo Ji asked Xiong Wen, “What about the Wallfacer Project?”
护士走后，罗辑问熊文：“面壁计划怎么样了？”
The nurse laughed. “Of course, it’s not as good as the food grown on the surface in your era.”
护士笑笑：“当然不像你们那时地里长出来的那么好吃。”
“It’ll taste even worse once you’ve recovered,” Xiong Wen said.
“恢复了就会觉得更难吃。”熊文说。
Luo Ji felt sorry for Xiong Wen. There had been people in his era who had become immune to technology and were indifferent to any sort of technological wonder, and Xiong Wen was apparently one of them. He was unable to properly appreciate this new age.
罗辑很为熊文感到遗憾。他属于自己时代的那种已获得技术免疫力的人，对任何科技奇迹都无动于衷，因而也不能很好地欣赏这个新时代。
“It’s produced in a factory.”
“工厂里生产出来的呗。”
“Then where does this come from?” Luo Ji asked, through his full mouth.
“那这是从哪儿来的？”罗辑嚼着面包口齿不清地问。
“You’re able to synthesize grain?”
“你们能合成粮食了？”
The next discovery was an incredible shock to Luo Ji, although the thing itself was still quite plain. The nurse pointed to the cup of milk and told him that it had been put into a heating cup especially for hibernators, because the people of this era generally did not drink hot liquids. Even coffee was taken cold. If he wasn’t used to drinking cold milk, he could heat it up simply by moving a slider near the bottom of the cup to the desired temperature. When he finished drinking, he inspected the cup. It looked like an ordinary glass cup apart from a thick, opaque base which must contain the heat source. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find any controls but the slider, and when he tried to twist the base, he found it was integrated with the rest of the cup.
接下来的第二个发现则令罗辑十分震惊，虽然事情仍然很平淡。护士指着那个牛奶杯告诉罗辑，这是特别为他们准备的加热杯，这时的人们普遍不喝热饮，连咖啡都是凉的，如果喝凉牛奶不习惯，可以加热，只需要把杯子底部的一个滑动钮推到想要的温度上即可。喝完牛奶后，罗辑仔细打量着杯子，它看上去是一个很普通的玻璃杯，只有一指厚的底部不透明，显然加热的热源就在那里。可是罗辑反复察看，除了那个滑动开关外没有任何东西，他使劲拧杯子底，但底部与杯子是一体化的。
Xiong Wen answered for the nurse. “There’s no other option but to synthesize it. The land won’t grow any crops anymore.”
熊文替护士回答：“不合成也没办法，地里几乎不能长庄稼了。”
‘Re… charged?” The nurse awkwardly repeated the word, evidently hearing it for the first time.
“充……电？”护士生涩地重复着这个她显然第一次听到的词。
“Batteries,” he said in English. “You don’t have batteries anymore?” When the nurse shook her head again, he said, “Then where does the electricity in the cup come from?”
“就是Battery呀，你们现在没有电池了吗？”看到护士又摇头，罗辑说，“那这杯子里的电从哪儿来？”
“Charge. Recharge,” Luo Ji said in English, but the nurse just shook her head in confusion.
“就：是Charge、Recharge。”罗辑提示说，护士仍然迷惑地摇摇头。
“Inexhaustible. How could electricity run out?”
“永远用不完，电怎么会用完呢。”
“Electricity? There’s electricity everywhere,” the nurse said disapprovingly.
“电？到处都有电啊。”护士很不以为然地说。
“What happens when the batteries run out?”
“不是充电式的……那里面的电池用完了怎么办呢？”
When the nurse left, Luo Ji still was unable to let go of the cup. He ignored Xiong Wen’s ridicule, for his surging emotions told him that he was holding a sacred object, the age-old dream of humanity: a perpetual motion machine. If humanity had really achieved inexhaustible energy, then they could achieve practically everything. Now he believed the words of the pretty nurse: Things might not be so serious.
护士走后，罗辑仍捧着那个杯子不放。他没注意熊文的嘲笑，只觉得心潮澎湃，知道自己其实是捧着一个人类千古梦想的圣物——捧着的是永动机。如果人类真的得到了无尽的能量，那他们几乎可以得到一切了，现在他相信了美丽护士的话：事情可能真的没那么严重。
“The electricity in the cup won’t run out?”
“杯子里的电用不完？”
“I’d like to know where it gets recharged.”
“我想知道它从哪儿充电。”
“It’s inexhaustible?!”
“永远用不完？”
“Batteries?”
“电池？”
“It won’t run out.”
“用不完。”护士点点头说。
“Don’t mess around with the supplies. You don’t understand them yet. It’s dangerous,” the nurse said after watching Luo Ji’s efforts.
“不要乱动这里的用品，你们还不了解，会有危险的。”护士看到罗辑的举动后说。
“What happened to the Wallfacers?”
“那些面壁者都怎么样了？”
“What do you think happened? It’s probably still there. That spell? What a joke!”
“能怎么样呢，应该还在那儿吧……咒语？笑话。”
“I think one of them committed suicide, and another was stoned to death… It all happened in the project’s early days, and it’s been nearly two centuries since then.”
“好像是一个自杀了，另一个被石头砸死了……都是很早的事，快两个世纪了吧。”
“And the star? The one he cursed, the star with a planet? What happened to it?” he asked, his heart tensing up.
“那颗星星呢？就是他诅咒的那颗带有行星的恒星，怎么样了？”罗辑问，心悬了起来。
“You mean the one who cast a spell on a star? I think he was mentioned in premodern history class,” the nurse interjected.
“你是说那个对着一颗星星发咒语的人吧？在近代史课上好像提到过。”护士插嘴说。
“And the other two?”
“还有两个呢？”
“I know of it. It’s an ancient joke,” the doctor replied off handedly.
“知道，一个古代的笑话。”医生随口答道。
“I don’t know. I think he’s still in hibernation. I don’t pay much attention to that stuff,” the doctor said absently.
“不知道，好像还在冬眠吧，我不太关心这些事儿。”医生心不在焉地说。
“One of them was Chinese. Do you remember him?” Luo Ji ventured, staring nervously at the doctor.
“其中有一位中国人，您知道他吗？”罗辑小心翼翼地问，紧张地盯着医生的眼睛。
When the doctor came into the ward for a routine checkup, Luo Ji asked him about the Wallfacer Project.
当医生来到监护室进行例行检查时，罗辑向他问起了面壁计划。
“I don’t know. They’re probably still in hibernation.”
“不知道，还在冬眠中吧。”
“Right. And now he’s…” Luo Ji said.
“对对，他现在……”罗辑说。
“Me neither,” she said, shaking her head. “The world was scared to death back then and lots of silly things happened.”
“我也没有。”护士摇摇头，“那时的世界给吓坏了，出了好多可笑的事呢。”
“Nothing I’ve heard, at any rate. You?” he asked the nurse.
“反正我没听说过，你呢？”医生问护士。
“So nothing at all happened to that star?”
“关于那颗星星，真的没发生什么事？”
“The Great Ravine? What was that?”
“大低谷？”那是什么？“
“And then?” Luo Ji said with a sigh.
“后来呢？”罗辑长出一口气问。
“Then there was the Great Ravine,” the doctor said.
“后来，就是大低谷了。”医生说。
“You’ll find out later. For now, rest up,” the doctor said with a gentle sigh. “But it’s probably better that you don’t know about it.” As he turned to leave, his white coat displayed billowing dark clouds, and the nurse’s uniform displayed lots of pairs of eyes, some of them frightened, some brimming with tears.
“以后都会知道的，现在好好休息吧。”医生轻轻地叹息了一声，“不过关于这个你还是不知道的好。”他转身走的时候，白大褂上出现了翻滚的乌云，护士的衣服上则映出了许多双大眼睛，有的目光惊惧，有的含着泪。
“I’m fine. Go to sleep,” Luo Ji told him. Then he lay down and soon fell asleep for the first time since his reawakening.
“没事儿，睡吧。”罗辑对他说，然后自顾白地躺下，很快进入了苏醒后的第一次睡眠。
When the doctor had left, Luo Ji sat motionless on his bed for a long while, mumbling to himself, “A joke. An ancient joke.” Then he began laughing, silently at first, and then in great guffaws, trembling on his bed and frightening Xiong Wen, who wanted to call the doctor.
医生和护士走后，罗辑在床上呆坐了很长时间，喃喃自语道：“笑话，真的是古代的笑话。”接着他独自笑了起来，先是无声地笑，然后哈哈大笑，床和他一起发颤，吓得熊文要叫医生。
“Is it morning? Why aren’t there any windows in this room?” Luo Ji asked, looking around.
“现在是早上吗？这房间里怎么没有窗户？”罗辑四下看看问道。
He dreamed of Zhuang Yan and the child. As before, Zhuang Yan walked through the snow, the child asleep in her arms.
他梦见了庄颜和孩子，庄颜仍在雪地中走着，孩子在她的臂膀上睡着了。
“I’ve been revived for a while now, but I still don’t know what the outside world is like. This affects my rest.”
“苏醒这么长时间了，还不知道外面的世界是什么样子的，这也影响休息。”
When he awoke, the nurse walked in and said good morning to him. Her voice was soft so as not to wake the still-sleeping Xiong Wen.
当罗辑醒来后，护士走了进来，对他说早上好，她的声音很低，显然怕吵醒了仍在呼呼大睡的熊文。
“Any place on the wall can turn transparent. But the doctors feel that you aren’t ready to look outside. It’s too unfamiliar, and it will distract you and affect your rest.”
“墙壁的任何一处都能变得透明，不过医生认为你们现在还不适合看外面，挺陌生的，会分散精神影响休息。”
Luo Ji pointed at Xiong Wen, and said, “I’m not that kind of person.”
罗辑指指熊文，“我可不是他那号人。”
The nurse laughed. “That’s okay. I’m about to go off shift. Shall I take you out for a look around? You can have breakfast after you get back.”
护士笑笑说：“没关系，我就要下班了，带你出去看看怎么样，早餐回来再吃吧。”
Excitedly, Luo Ji followed the nurse to the on-call room. Looking it over, he could guess what about half of the furnishings were, but he had no idea what the rest were for.
罗辑很兴奋地跟着护士来到值班室，他打量着这里，陈设的物品中有一半能猜出是什么，其他则完全不知道是干什么用的。
There was no computer or similar equipment, but because a display could be activated anywhere on the walls, this was to be expected. Three umbrellas lined up outside the door caught his attention. They were in different styles, but from their shape, they were definitely umbrellas. What surprised him was their bulk. Weren’t there folding umbrellas in this age?
房间里没有电脑和类似的设施。因为墙壁上到处都可以激活成显示屏，这也是预料之中的。引起罗辑注意的是排在门边的三把雨伞，它们的款式不一，但看外形只能是雨伞。令罗辑惊奇的是它们显得很笨重，难道这个时代没有折叠伞了吗？
“Is it raining out?”
“外面在下雨吗？”
But she didn’t. “It’s my bicycle,” she said.
“我的自行车啊。”她说。
She shook her head. “You think I’m carrying an… umbrella?” she said, unfamiliar with the last word.
女孩儿摇摇头：“你以为我拿的是……伞吧。”她很生疏地说出后面那个字。
“If it’s not an umbrella, then what is it?” Luo Ji pointed to the device on her shoulder, imagining that she would say some peculiar name for it.
“那这是什么？”罗辑指着她肩上的“伞”问，本以为她会说出一个很新奇的名称，但不是那样。
When they arrived in the corridor, Luo Ji asked, “Is your home far from here?”
他们来到走廊上时，罗辑问：“你家离这里远吗？”
The nurse came out of the changing room dressed in her own clothes. Aside from the flashing movies on the fabric, changes to women’s fashion in this age were well within the scope of Luo Ji’s imagination. Compared to his own era, the major difference was their conspicuous asymmetry. He was pleased that after 185 years had passed, he could still find beauty in women’s clothing. The nurse picked up one of the umbrellas, which must have been fairly heavy, because she had to carry it over her shoulder.
护士从更衣室出来，换上了自己的衣服，除了表面闪亮的动态图像外，这个时代女孩子衣着款式的变化至少在罗辑的想象范围之内，与自己的时代相比，主要是凸现了不对称性，他很高兴在一百八十五年后，还能在一个女孩子的服装上得到美感。护士从那三把伞中提起一把，似乎有些重，她只能把伞背在背上。
“If you’re talking about where I live, it’s not far. Ten or twenty minutes biking,” she said. Then, standing still and fixing him with her charming eyes, she said something that shocked him: “There are no homes now. No one has them. Marriage, family, they went away after the Great Ravine. That will be the first thing you’ll have to get used to.”
“你要是说我住的地方，不是太远吧，骑车十几分钟。”她说完站住，用那双动人的眼睛看着罗辑，说出了让他吃惊的话：“现在没有家了，谁都没有了，婚姻啊家庭啊，在大低谷后就没有了，这可是你要适应的第一件事。”
“That first thing is something I won’t be able to get used to.”
“这第一件事我就适应不了。”
“Oh, I don’t know. In history class I learned that marriage and family had already begun to disintegrate in your own time. Lots of people didn’t want to be tied down. They wanted free lives.” This was the second time she had mentioned history class.
“不会吧，我从历史课上知道，你们那时婚姻家庭就已经开始解体了，有很大一部分人不愿受束缚，要过自由的生活。”她又提到了历史课。
I was like that once, but then… Luo Ji said to himself. From the moment he’d reawakened, Zhuang Yan and the child had never really left his mind. They were the desktop wallpaper of his consciousness, perpetually on display. But no one here recognized him, and with the situation so uncertain, he couldn’t just rashly ask about their whereabouts, even though he was tormented by longing.
我就曾是那样一个人，可后来……罗辑心里想，从苏醒的那一到起，庄颜和孩子就从未真正离开过他的思想，已经成为他意识桌面上的壁纸，每时每刻都在显现。但现在这里的人都不认识他，情况不明朗，他虽在思念的煎熬中，还是不敢贸然打听她们的下落。
“What a blue sky!” was the first thing he shouted to the outside world.
“好蓝的天啊！”这是他对外部世界发出的第一声惊呼。
They walked a ways down the corridor. Then, after they’d passed through an automatic door, Luo Ji’s eyes lit up as he saw a narrow platform extending into the distance and felt fresh air blowing toward him. He sensed that he was now outside.
他们在走廊上前行了一段，然后穿过一个自动门，罗辑眼前一亮，看到面前有一条狭长的平台向前伸延，清新的空气迎面扑来，他意识到自己已经在外面了。
“Really? It can’t compare to the blue skies of your era.”
“不会吧，哪儿有你们那时蓝啊。”
Luo Ji turned his eyes downward and immediately became dizzy. From high up, it took him a long moment to realize that what he saw from here was the city. At first he thought he was looking at a giant forest, the slender tree trunks stretching straight up toward the sky, each one sprouting perpendicular branches of varying lengths. The city’s buildings were the leaves hanging off these branches. The layout of the city looked random, and different trees had different densities of leaves. The Hibernation and Reawakening Center formed a part of one of those large trees, and the leaf that contained his bed hung from the narrow platform that now extended out in front of him.
罗辑把目光向下移，立刻感到了一阵眩晕，他身处高处，而从这里看到的，他好半天才意识到，是城市。开始他以为自己看到的是一片巨型森林，一根根细长的树f直插天穹，每根树干上都伸出与其垂直的长短不一的树枝，而城市的建筑就像叶子似的挂在这些树枝上。建筑的分布似乎很随意，不同大树上的叶子有疏有密。罗辑很快看到，他所在的冬眠苏醒中心其实就是一棵大树的一部分，他就住在一片叶子里，现在，他们正站在悬挂这片叶子的一根树枝上，这就是他看到的那道伸延到前方的狭长平台。
Definitely bluer. Much bluer. Luo Ji didn’t say that out loud, just reveled in the boundless blue embrace and let his soul melt. Then he had a flash of doubt: Was this heaven? In his memory, he had only ever seen such a pure blue sky during the five years he had spent apart from the world, secluded in his Garden of Eden. But this blue sky had fewer white clouds, just a couple of pale wisps in the western sky, like someone had unintentionally left a smudge. The sun that had just risen in the east shone like crystal in the entirely transparent air, with its edge rimmed in dew.
肯定比那时蓝，蓝多了。罗辑没有把这话说出来，他只是沉浸在这无边湛蓝的拥抱中，任心灵在其中融化，然后有一闪念的疑问：我真到天堂了吗？在他的记忆中，这样纯净的蓝天，只在生活过五年的那个与世隔绝的伊甸园中见过，只是这个蓝天上没有那么多白云，只在西天有极淡的两抹，像是谁不经意涂上去的，东方刚刚升起的太阳在完全透明的清澈大气中有一种明亮的晶莹，边缘像是沾着露水。
Looking back, the tree trunk his branch was connected to extended so far upward that it disappeared out of view. The branch they were on was located in the middle to upper section of the tree, and above and below them he could see other branches, and the structural leaves that hung on them. On closer inspection, the branches formed an intricate network of bridges in space, bridges with one end left floating in midair.
回头，他看到了自己所在的这棵大树的树干，向上升到他看不到的高度。他们所在的树枝可能位于树的中上部，向上向下，都能看到其他的树枝和挂在上面的建筑叶子（后来他知道，城市的地址真的就是XX树XX枝XX叶。）。近看，这些树枝在空中形成错综的桥梁网络，只是所有桥梁的一端都悬空。
He looked at the nurse, even prettier now in the morning sun. Looking back at the place she called Beijing, he asked, “Where’s the city center?”
罗辑看看护士，她在朝阳中更加美丽动人。再看看被她称做北京的地方，他问：“市中心在哪儿？”
“What is this place?” Luo Ji asked.
“这是什么地方？”罗辑问。
“What would be left? In your day, there was absolutely nothing here!”
“你要留下什么？你们那时这里还什么都没有呢！”
Luo Ji looked for a bit into the distance where she pointed, and then exclaimed, “Impossible! How is there nothing left?”
罗辑向护士所指的远方眺望了好一会儿，大声喊道：“不可能！怎么可能什么都没留下来？！”
“Beijing.”
“北京啊。”
“In that direction. We’re outside the West Fourth Ring, in Tree 179, Branch 23, Leaf 18, so you’re almost able to see the entire city.”
“那个方向，我们在西四环外，179树，23枝，18叶，差不多能看到整个城市呢。”
“Nothing? The Imperial Palace? Jingshan Park? Tiananmen? The China World Trade Center? It hasn’t even been two hundred years. It can’t all have been torn down.”
“怎么没有！？故宫呢？景山呢？天安门和国贸大厦呢？才一百多年，不至于全拆了吧？！”
“Where?”
“在哪儿？”
“The sky is fake. The sun is fake, too,” the woman said, trying to suppress a smile. “Of course, saying it’s fake isn’t right, either, because it’s an image taken from an altitude of ten thousand meters and displayed down here, so maybe it counts as real, too.”
“天是假的，太阳也是假的。”女孩儿努力收住笑说，“当然，说是假的也不对，是从上面的一万米高空拍的图像，在下面放映出来的，也算是真的吧。”
“All those things are still there.”
“你说的那些都还在啊。”
“On the surface.”
“在地面上啊。”
Seeing Luo Ji’s terrified look, she burst out laughing so hard that she had to lean on the railing for support. “Ah, ha-ha. I forgot. I’m really sorry. I’ve forgotten so many times. Look, we’re underground here. A thousand meters beneath the surface… If I ever get to time travel to your time, you can get back at me and forget to tell me that the city’s on the surface, and I’ll be as terrified as you are now. Ha ha ha…”
看着罗辑惊恐万状的样子，护士突然大笑起来，笑得站不住了扶着旁边的栏杆：“啊，呵呵呵……我忘了，真对不起，我忘了好多次了，你看啊，我们是在地下，一千多米深的地下……要是我哪天时间旅行到你们那会儿，你可以报复我一次，别提醒城市是在地面上，我也会给惊成你这样儿的，呵呵呵……”
“But… this…” He held up his hands.
“可……这……”罗辑向上伸出双手。
“For the war, of course. Think about it. When the Doomsday Battle comes, won’t the surface be an ocean of fire? Yeah, that battle is another outdated idea now, but when the Great Ravine ended, all the world’s cities developed underground.”
“当然是为了战争，你想想，末日之战时地面还不是一片火海？当然，这也是过去的想法，大低谷时代结束后，全世界的城市就都向地下发展了。”
“Why build the city below ground? And a thousand meters — that’s really deep.”
“城市为什么要建在地下，一千多米，这么深？”
“So all the cites in the world are underground now?”
“现在全世界的城市都在地下？”
Luo Ji took stock of the world again. Now he understood that the trunks of the great trees were the pillars supporting the vault of the underground world, and also served as the columns from which the city’s buildings were suspended.
罗辑再次打量这个世界，他现在明白了，所有大树的树干都是支撑地下世界穹顶的支柱，同时也被用做悬挂城市建筑的基柱。
Luo Ji looked again at the blue sky, or rather the projection of the blue sky. He now noticed a few small objects — just some scattered bits, at first, but once his eyes got used to looking, he saw that there were so many that they covered the entire sky. Strangely, the objects in the sky reminded him of someplace completely unrelated, the showcase of a jewelry store. Before he became a Wallfacer, back when he had fallen in love with the Zhuang Yan of his imagination, he had once been so obsessed that he wanted to buy his imaginary angel a present. He went to the jewelry store and looked at all the platinum pendants in the showcase, every one of them exquisite, lying there on the black velvet and twinkling under the spotlights.
罗辑再次仰望蓝天——或说蓝天的投影，这一次，他发现了天上的一些小东西，开始只看到了零星的几个，后来视力适应了，发现它们数量很多，布满了天空。很奇怪，这些天上的物体竟让他联想到一个毫不相关的地方，那就是一家珠宝店的展柜。那是在成为面壁者之前，他爱上了想象中的庄颜，有一次，竟痴迷到要为想象中的天使买一件礼物。他来到了那家珠宝店，在展柜中看到了许多白金项链挂件，那些挂件细小精致，摊放在一张黑色绒面上，在聚光灯下银光闪闪。
“You won’t be claustrophobic. Look at how broad the sky is! Up on the surface, the sky’s not nearly this wonderful.”
“你不会得幽闭症的，看看天空多广阔！到地面上看天可没这么好。”
“The majority of them.”
“大部分是吧。”
“Is that the space fleet?” he asked excitedly.
“那是太空舰队吗？”罗辑激动地问。
If the black velvet had been blue, then it would have been just like the sky he saw today.
如果把那黑色绒面变成蓝色，就很像现在看到的天空了。
Suspended there, she called to him: “You can see how this is a pretty decent age. Think of your past as a dream. See you tomorrow!”
她悬浮在空中对罗辑大声说：“你看到了，现在是个挺不错的时代，就把你的过去当做一场梦吧，明天见！”
Luo Ji turned around to say good-bye, but was so surprised he couldn’t speak. The woman had her umbrella — or, rather, her bicycle — positioned on her back like a backpack, and then it stood up in back of her and opened overhead to form two coaxial propellers that started up silently, turning in opposition to offset rotational torque. Then she lifted slowly up into the air and hopped over the railing beside her into the abyss that had so dazzled him.
罗辑转身刚要道别，却吃惊得说不出话来，他看到女孩儿把那伞——或她说的自行车——像背包似的背到后背上，然后伞从她后面立了起来，在她头上展开来，形成了两个同轴的螺旋桨，它们无声地转动起来——是相互反向转动，以抵消转动力矩。女孩儿慢慢升起，向旁边跳出栏杆，跃人那让罗辑目眩的深渊中。
“No. The fleet isn’t visible from here. It’s beyond the asteroid belt. Those, well, they’re everything. The ones with a visible shape are space cities, and the points of light are civilian spacecraft. But sometimes there are warships in orbit, too. Their engines are very bright, so you can’t stare at them… Okay, I’ve got to get going. You should head back soon. It gets windy here.”
“不是，舰队从这儿看不到的，它们都在小行星带以外呢。这些嘛，什么都有，能看清形状的那些是太空城市，只能看到一个亮点儿的是民用飞船。不过有时候也有军舰回到轨道上，它们的引擎很亮的，你都不能盯着看……好了，我要走了，你尽快回去吧，这里风很大的。”
When he saw the European man in the reception room, Luo Ji got the feeling that there was something different about him. Later, he realized that it was because the formal suit he wore didn’t flash or display any image, but resembled the clothing of a bygone era. Perhaps this was an expression of solemnity.
当罗辑见到接待室中的那个欧洲面孔L的人时，总觉得他身上有些与众不同的地方，后来发现是他穿的西装不闪烁也不映出图像，像过去时代的衣服一样，这也许是一种庄重的表示。
Tears streamed down Luo Ji’s face at the sight of this brave new world, and the sensation of newborn life permeated his every cell. The past really was a dream.
面对这美丽的新世界，罗辑泪流满面，新生的感觉渗透了他的每一个细胞，过去真的是一场梦了。
She flew gracefully, the small propellers churning the sunlight, until she turned into a tiny dragonfly between two giant trees in the distance. Swarms of these dragonflies flew between the giant trees of the city. More notable still were the streams of flying cars like schools of fish navigating endlessly among the plants on the ocean floor. The rising sun shone onto the city and was cut into shafts of light by the trees, coating the traffic with a layer of gold.
她轻盈地飞去，小螺旋桨搅动着阳光，远远地飞过两棵巨树之间，变成了一个小小的蜻蜒，有一群群这样的蜻蜒在城市的巨树间飞翔，但最引人注目的还是飞行的车流，像海底植物间川流不息的鱼群。朝阳照进了城市，被巨树分隔成一缕缕光柱，给空中的车流镀上了一层金辉。
After Luo Ji shook his hand, the visitor introduced himself. “I’m Special Commissioner Ben Jonathan from the Solar Fleet Joint Conference. I arranged your reawakening at the committee’s behest, and now, we’re going to attend the final hearing of the Wallfacer Project. Oh, can you understand me? English has changed quite a bit.”
同罗辑握手致意后，来人自我介绍说：“我是舰队联席会议特派员本·乔纳森，您的苏醒就是我奉联席会议的指示安排的，现在，我们将一起参加面壁计划的最后一次听证会。哦，我的话您能听懂吗？英语的变化很大。”
Luo Ji could understand what Jonathan said, but listening to him speak, the sense of Western cultural invasion that Luo Ji had felt over the past few days because of the changes to modern Chinese disappeared, because Jonathan’s English was peppered with Chinese vocabulary. He said “Wallfacer Project” in Chinese, for example. English, formerly the most widely used language, and Chinese, spoken by the largest population, had blended with each other without distinction to become the world’s most powerful language. Luo Ji learned later that the other languages of the world were undergoing the same fusion.
在听到乔纳森说话时，这几天罗辑由现代汉语的变化所产生的对西方文化入侵的担忧消失了，乔纳森的英语中也夹杂着汉语词汇，如“面壁计划”就是用汉语说的，这样下去，昔日最通用的英语和使用人数最多的汉语将相互融合，不分彼此，成为一种强大的世界语言。罗辑后来知道，世界上的其他语种也在发生着融合现象。
The past isn’t a dream, Luo Ji thought. The past catches up with you. Then he recalled that Jonathan had said the word “final” and wondered if there was hope of a quick resolution after all.
罗辑能够听懂乔纳森的话，他想：过去不是梦，过去还是找上门来了。但听到“最后一次”这几个字，他感觉这一切还是有希望能尽快了结。
Jonathan looked back, as if to make sure the door had been closed, and then walked over to the wall and activated an interface. He gave a few simple taps on the surface, and then all four walls and the ceiling disappeared into a holographic display.
乔纳森回头看看，好像是在核实门关严了没有。然后地走到墙边，激活了一个操作界面，在上面简单地点了几下后，包括天花扳在内的五面墙壁全部消失在了它们显示的全息图像中。
Now Luo Ji found himself in an auditorium. Although everything was greatly changed, and the walls and table glowed softly, the designers had clearly tried to replicate the style of the old era. Everything from the great circular table and the rostrum to the overall layout embodied a nostalgia that allowed him to know at once where he was. The auditorium was empty but for two staffers laying out documents on the tables. Luo Ji was astonished to see that paper documents were still being used. Just like Jonathan’s clothes, this seemed to be an expression of solemnity.
这时，罗辑发现自己置身于一个会议大厅中，虽然一切都变化很大，墙壁和大圆桌都发出柔光，但这里的设计者显然想努力复制旧时代的风格，从大圆桌、主席台和总体布局体现的怀旧情结中，罗辑立刻就知道这是哪里。现在会场还空荡荡的，只有两个工作人员在会议桌上分发文件，罗辑很惊奇地发现现在还在用纸质文件，就像乔纳森的衣服一样，这应该也是一种庄重的表示。
“Remote meetings are a common practice now. Taking part in this way won’t affect the meeting’s importance or seriousness,” Jonathan said. “There’s still some time before the hearing begins, and you look like you don’t know much about the outside world. Do you need me to tell you a bit about the basics?”
乔纳森说：“现在远程会议已经是惯例，我们以这种方式参加，不影响会议的重要性和严肃性。现在离会议开始还有一段时间，您好像对外界还不太了解，是否需要我简单介绍一下现在世界的基本状况？”
Luo Ji nodded. “Of course. Thank you.”
罗辑点点头，“当然，谢谢。”
Jonathan pointed to the auditorium and said, “I’ll be brief. First, the countries. Europe is a single country, called the European Commonwealth, and it includes both eastern and western Europe, but not Russia. Russia and Belarus unified into a country still called the Russian Federation. Canada’s French-speaking and English-speaking areas split into two countries. There have been some changes in other regions, too, but these are the major ones.”
乔纳森指着会场说：“只能最简略地说一下，先说说国家的情况。欧洲成为一个国家，叫欧洲联合体，简称欧联，包括东欧和西欧，但不包括俄罗斯的欧洲部分；俄罗斯与白俄罗斯合并，国名仍叫俄罗斯联邦；加拿大的法语区和英语区分裂为两个国家；其他地区也有一些变化，但主要的就是这些了。”
Jonathan turned back from the auditorium and nodded solemnly at Luo Ji. “Unrecognizable, Dr. Luo. The world is indeed unrecognizable.”
乔纳森背对着会场，对罗辑重重地点点头：“面目全非了，罗辑博士，世界确实已经面目全非了。”
“No, there were early signs of those changes in our era.”
“不是啊，这些变化在我们的时代就已经现出端倪了。”
“But there’s one thing you never anticipated: There are no longer any great powers. All countries have declined in political power.”
“但有一点你们预料不到：现在已经没有大国，在国际政治中。所有的国家都衰落了。”
Luo Ji was shocked. “Those are the only changes? It’s been nearly two centuries. I’d have thought the changes would have made the world unrecognizable.”
罗辑很吃惊：“就这么点儿变化？都快两个世纪了，我以为世界已经面目全非了。”
“A suprastate entity: the space fleet.”
“一种国家之外的实体：太空舰队。”
Luo Ji thought this over for a while before realizing what Jonathan meant. “You mean the space fleet is independent?”
罗辑想了好长时同，才理解了乔纳森这话的古义：“你是说，太空舰队独立了？‘
“All the countries? Then who rose up?”
“所有的国家？那谁崛起了？”
“Yes. The fleets do not belong to any country. They form independent political and economic entities that, like countries, are members of the UN. Right now, there are three major fleets in the Solar System: the Asian Fleet, the European Fleet, and the North American Fleet. Their names refer only to their primary region of origin, but the fleets themselves are no longer subordinate to those regions. They are entirely independent. Each one possesses the political and economic might of a superpower of your era.”
“是的，舰队不属于任何国家，它们成为了独立的政治和经济实体，也像国家一样成为了联合国的成员。目前，太阳系有三大舰队：亚洲舰队，欧洲舰队和北美舰队，它们的名称只是说明各舰队的主要起源地，但舰队本身与它们的起源地已经没有任何隶属关系，它们是完全独立的。三大舰队中的每一支，都拥有你们时代超级大国的政治和经济实力。”
“But please don’t misunderstand. Earth is not ruled by a military government. The territory and sovereignty of the space fleets is in space, and they rarely interfere with the internal affairs of terrestrial society. This is stipulated by the UN charter. So right now the human world is divided into two international spheres: the traditional Earth International, and the newly emerged Fleet International. The three fleets of Fleet International — the Asian, European, and North American — make up the Solar Fleet, and the former Planetary Defense Council evolved into the Solar Fleet Joint Conference, nominally the highest command body in the Solar Fleet. However, as with the UN, it has a coordinating function, but no real power. In fact, it’s a Solar Fleet in name only. The actual power of humanity’s space-based armed forces lies in the hands of the supreme command of the three major fleets.
“但不要误会，地球并非处于军政府的统治下，舰队的领土和主权范围都在太空中，很少干涉地球社会内部事务，这是由联合国宪章规定的。所以，现在人类世界分为两个国际：传统的地球国际和新出现的舰队国际。三大舰队组成太阳系舰队，原来的行星防御理事会演变成太阳系舰队联席会议，是太阳系舰队名义上的最高指挥机构，但与联合国的情况一样，它只有协调功能，没有实际权力。其实太阳系舰队本身也是名义上的，人类太空武装力量的实际权力由三大舰队的统帅部掌握。”
“My god,” Luo Ji exclaimed.
“我的天啊……”罗辑感叹道。
“Well, then, you now know enough to take part in today’s hearing. It was convened by the SFJC, which inherited the Wallfacer Project.”
“好，参加今天的会议，您知道这些已经差不多了，这次听证会就是由太阳系舰队联席会议召开的，他们是面壁计划的继承者。”
Then a window opened up on the holographic display, and an image of Bill Hines and Keiko Yamasuki appeared in it. They looked unchanged. Hines greeted Luo Ji with a smile, but Yamasuki sat impassively next to him, giving only a slight nod of acknowledgement at Luo Ji’s greeting.
这时，全息图像中出现一个显示窗口，希恩斯和山杉惠子的图像出现于其中，他们看上去毫无变化。希恩斯微笑着向罗辑问好，山杉惠子则面无表情地坐在旁边，对罗辑的致意只是微微颔首做答。
Hines said, “I just woke up, Dr. Luo. I was quite sorry to learn that that planet you cursed is still orbiting its star fifty light-years away.”
希恩斯说：“我也是刚刚苏醒，罗辑博士，很遗憾地得知，在五十光年远的那个位置，您诅咒的那颗行星还围绕着那颗恒星在运行。”
“Heh. A joke. An ancient joke,” Luo Ji said self-mockingly, with a wave of his hand.
“呵呵，确实是笑话，古代的笑话。”罗辑摆摆手自嘲地说。
“But compared to Tyler and Rey Diaz, you’re pretty lucky.”
“但比起泰勒和雷迪亚兹来，您还是幸运的。”
“You appear to be the only successful Wallfacer. Perhaps your strategy really has elevated human intelligence.”
“看来您是唯一成功的面壁者了，也许您的战略计划真的提升了人类的智力。”
Hines displayed the same self-mocking smile that Luo Ji had just exhibited, and he shook his head. “No, it really hasn’t. I know now that after we entered hibernation, research into the human mind quickly encountered an insurmountable obstacle. Going forward meant approaching the quantum level of the brain’s thought mechanisms. But at that point, like all other science, they hit the impassible sophon barrier. We didn’t elevate human intelligence. If I did anything at all, it was just to increase some people’s confidence.”
希恩斯也露出了罗辑刚才的那种白嘲的笑容，他摇摇头说：“没有，真的没有。我现在得知，在我们进入冬眠后，人类思维的研究很快就遇到了不可克服的障碍，因为再深入下去，就要涉及大脑思维机制的量子层次，这时，同其他学科一样，他们碰到了不可逾越的智子壁垒。我们没有提升人类的智力，如果说真做了什么，那就是增强了一部分人的信心。”
When Luo Ji entered hibernation, the mental seal had not yet been developed, so he didn’t really understand the last thing Hines said. But he noticed that when he said it, a mysterious smile flashed across Keiko Yamasuki’s frosty face.
罗辑进入冬眠时，思想钢印还没有出现，所以他不是太明白希恩斯最后一句话的含义，但他注意到希恩斯这么说时，一直冷若冰霜的山杉惠子的脸上掠过一丝神秘的笑容。
Once the meeting opened, the chair spoke. “Representatives, at this hearing, we will hold the final vote on Proposition 649, put forth by the North American Fleet and the European Fleet at the forty-seventh Joint Conference this year. First, let me read the proposition.
在宣布会议开始后，主席发言：“各位代表，在这次会议上，我们将对本年度第47次联席会议提出的649号提案进行最后表决，该提案是由北美舰队和欧洲舰队联合提交的。我首先宣读提案内容。
The SFJC still used a rotating chair system. It was currently held by a civilian officer. As Luo Ji looked at him, he was reminded of Garanin. The thought struck him that he was an ancient man from two centuries ago, but he was at least fortunate compared to those of his own age who had been annihilated by the river of time.
舰队联席会议的主席仍为轮值，而且是一个文职官员。看着他，罗辑想起了伽尔宁，意识到他已经是两个世纪前的古人了，与那无数湮没于时间长河中的同时代人相比，无论如何自己都是幸运的。
The window vanished, and then Luo Ji realized that the auditorium was full of people. Most of them were dressed in military uniforms whose styles hadn’t changed all that much. None of the attendees had pictures decorating their clothing, but their lapel pins and epaulets all glowed.
显示窗口消失了，这时罗辑看到会场已经坐满了人，与会者大部分都穿着军装，军装的模式变化并不大，所有与会者的衣服上都没有图像装饰，但他们的领章和肩章都发着光。
“The Wallfacer Project has been going on for two hundred five years to date, a time frame that has included more than a century’s hiatus. During this time, leadership of the project passed from the former PDC to the present SFJC.
“面壁计划至今已经进行了二百零五年，其间，有过长达一个多世纪的停顿期。在这期间，计划的领导权由原行星防御理事会移交到现太阳系舰队联席会议。
“The Wallfacer Project arose out of a unique historical background. The Trisolar Crisis had just begun, and in the face of a devastating crisis unheard of in human history, the international community had descended to unprecedented levels of fear and despair. This was the climate into which the Wallfacer Project was born. It was not a rational choice, but a struggle of desperation.
“面壁计划的产生有特定的历史背景。当时，三体危机刚刚出现，面对这个人类历史上史无前例的毁灭性危机，国际社会陷入了空前的恐惧和绝望中，面壁计划正是在这样的状态下诞生的，它不是理智的选择，而是绝望的挣扎。
“In the second year of the Trisolar Crisis, the UN’s Planetary Defense Council established the Wallfacer Project. It was adopted unanimously by the permanent members of the UN and was implemented the following year. At its core, the Wallfacer Project attempted to develop hidden strategies for resisting the Trisolaran invasion by tasking four Wallfacers nominated by permanent member states with formulating and executing strategic plans in the seclusion of their own minds, out of reach of the sophons’ omnipresent surveillance. The UN promulgated the Wallfacer Act to guarantee privileges to the Wallfacers for formulating and executing their plans.
“在三体危机出现后的第二年，联合国行星防御理事会制定了面壁计划，并取得了各常任理事国的一致通过，于次年开始执行。面壁计划的核心内容，是由经过各常任理事国选定和推举的四位面壁者进行完全封闭的个人思考，制定并执行对抗三体世界入侵的战略计划，以避开智子对人类世界无所不在的监视，从而实现战略的隐蔽性。联合国推出了相应的面壁法案以保证面壁者制定和执行计划的特权。
“The facts of history have proven that, as a strategic plan, the Wallfacer Project was a complete and utter failure. It is no exaggeration to say that it was the most naïve and foolish action that human society as a whole has ever taken. The Wallfacers were granted unprecedented power without any legal oversight, and even possessed the freedom to deceive the international community. This violated the basic moral and legal norms of human society.
“历史事实证明，面壁计划是一个完全失败的战略计划。毫不夸张地说，它是人类社会作为一个整体，有史以来所做出的最幼稚、最愚蠢的举动。面壁者被赋予空前的、不受任何法律监督的权力，甚至被赋予欺骗国际社会的自由，这违背了人类社会最基本的道德和法律准则。
“During the execution of the Wallfacer Project, enormous quantities of strategic resources were exhausted for no reason. Wallfacer Frederick Tyler’s mosquito swarm was proven to have no strategic significance, while Wallfacer Manuel Rey Diaz’s Mercury-chain-reaction plan was unrealizable, even given humanity’s present capabilities. Moreover, both of those plans were criminal. Tyler sought to attack and wipe out Earth’s fleet, while Rey Diaz’s even more sinister goal was to hold every life on the planet hostage.
“在面壁计划的执行过程中，大量的战略资源被没有意义地消耗，面壁者弗雷德里克·泰勒的量子舰队计划已被证明没有任何战略意义，而面壁者雷迪亚兹的水星坠落连锁反应计划，即使以目前人类的能力也根本无法实现。同时，这两个计划都是犯罪，泰勒企图攻击并消灭地球舰队，雷迪亚兹的企图则更加邪恶，竟然把整个地球生命世界作为人质。
“The other two Wallfacers were similarly disappointing. The true strategic intent of Wallfacer Hines’s mental upgrade plan has not yet been revealed, but the use in the space forces of its preliminary result, the mental seal, is also a crime. It is a serious violation of freedom of thought, which is the foundation of the survival and further progress of human civilization.
“另外两位面壁者也同样令人失望。面壁者希恩斯的思维提升计划目前还没有暴露出其真实的战略意图，但其初步阶段的成果——思想钢印，在太空军中的使用也是犯罪，它严重地侵犯了思想自由，而后者是人类文明存在和进步的基础。
The chair slowly set down the proposal document, and, glancing around the auditorium, said, “We will commence the vote on SFJC Proposition 649. All in favor?”
主席把提案文本缓缓放下，扫视了一下会场说：“现在开始对太阳系舰队联席会议649号提案进行表决。”
As for Wallfacer Luo Ji, he first irresponsibly squandered public funds on his own hedonistic lifestyle and then played to the crowds with ridiculous mysticism.
至于面壁者罗辑，他先是不负责任地用公共资源为自己营造享乐生话，其后又以可笑的神秘主义举动哗众举宠。
All of the representatives raised their hands.
所有的代表都举起了手。
“We believe that given the decisive growth in humanity’s strength and its seizure of the initiative in the war, the Wallfacer Project no longer has any meaning. The time has come to bring the problem that history has passed down to us to an end. We propose that the SFJC immediately terminate the Wallfacer Project and abolish the UN Wallfacer Act.
“我们认为，随着人类力量的决定性增强和对战争主动权的把握，面壁计划已经没有意义，现在是结束这一历史遗留问题的合适时间。我们建议舰队联席会议立刻中止面壁计划，同时废除联合国面壁法案。
“Here ends the proposition.”
“特此提交本提案。”
Voting in this era was still done by primitive methods. Staffers walked through the auditorium solemnly verifying the number of votes, and when they reported the result to the chair, he announced, “Proposition 649 has passed unanimously and is effective immediately.” The chair raised his head. Luo Ji didn’t know whether he was looking at Hines or himself, because, like at the first remote hearing he had attended 185 years before, he still didn’t know where in the auditorium his and Hines’s images were displayed. “Now that the Wallfacer Project is terminated, the Wallfacer Act is abolished as well. On behalf of the SFJC, I hereby notify Wallfacers Bill Hines and Luo Ji that your Wallfacer status has been revoked. All associated rights granted you by the Wallfacer Act, as well as the corresponding legal immunity, are no longer in effect. You have recovered your identity as ordinary citizens of your respective countries.”
这个时代的表决方式仍是这么原始，有工作人员在会场中穿行，郑重地核实着表决票数。当他们把汇总结果提交主席时，主席宣布：“649号提案获得全票通过，并从此时开始生效。”主席抬起头来，罗辑不知道他是不是在看自己或希恩斯，同一百八十五年前那次远程参加听证会一样，罗辑仍然不知道自己和希恩斯的影像在会场的什么位置显示，“现在，面壁计划已经中止，同时废除联合国面壁法案。我代表太阳系舰队联席会议通知面壁者比尔·希恩斯和面壁者罗辑，你们的面壁者身份已经中止，由联合国面壁法案赋予你们的一切与面壁计划有关的特权，以及相应的法律豁免权都不再有效，你们将恢复自己所在国家的普通公民身份。”
“Dr. Luo, as far as I am aware, this is the outcome you were hoping for,” Jonathan said to him with a smile.
“罗辑博士，据我所知，这正是您想要的结果。”乔纳森微笑着对罗辑说。
The chair declared the hearing adjourned. Jonathan stood up and switched off the holographic image, switching off Luo Ji’s two-century-long nightmare in the process.
主席宣布会议结束，乔纳森站起身来关掉了全息图像，也关掉了罗辑长达两个世纪的噩梦。
“Yes. It’s just what I wanted. Thank you, Mr. Commissioner. And I thank the SFJC for restoring my ordinary status,” Luo Ji said, from the depths of his heart.
“是的，正是我想要的，谢谢您，特派员先生，也谢谢舰队联席会议恢复了我的普通人身份。”罗辑以发自内心的真诚说。
“The hearing was simple. Just a vote on a proposition. I’ve been empowered to discuss matters with you in more detail. You may start with your biggest concern.”
“会议很简短，就是提案表决，我已被授权同您谈更具体的事项，您可以先谈自己最关心的事。”
“Don’t worry. They’re both fine. They’re still in hibernation. I can give you their files, and you can apply to reawaken them whenever you’d like.”
“请您放心，她们都很好，都在冬眠中，我会给您她们的资料，您可以随时申请苏醒她们。”
“What about my wife and child?” Luo Ji asked, unable to hold back the question that had been tormenting him since reawakening. It was a question he had wanted to ask when he first met Jonathan, before the start of the meeting.
“我的妻子和孩子呢？”罗辑迫不及待地问出了苏醒后一直折磨他的问题，事实上他在会议开始前剐见到乔纳森时就想问的。
“Thank you. Thank you.” Luo Ji’s eyes grew moist, and once again he had that feeling of arriving in heaven.
“谢谢，谢谢。”罗辑的眼眶又湿润了，他再次有了那种来到天堂的感觉。
“However, Dr. Luo, I have a small piece of advice,” Jonathan said as he slid closer to Luo Ji on the couch. “It’s not easy for a hibernator to get used to life in this age. I advise you to stabilize your own life first before you wake them up. The UN funds are enough to keep them in hibernation for another two hundred thirty years.”
“不过，罗辑博士，我有一个个人建议，”乔纳森在沙发上向罗辑靠近了些说。“作为冬眠者，适应这个时代的生活并不容易，我建议您自己的生活稳定下来之后再苏醒她们，联合国支付的费用还可以再维持她们二百三十年的冬眠时间。”
The commissioner laughed off his question. “Don’t worry about that. You might not be used to the times, but living won’t be an issue. In this age, social welfare is excellent, and a person can enjoy a comfortable life even if they don’t do anything at all. The university you used to work at is still there, right in this city. They said they would consider the question of your work, and they’ll contact you later on.”
对罗辑的这个问题特派员一笑置之：“这个您不用担心，可能对时代不适应，但生活没有问题，在这个时代，社会福利很完善，一个人即使什么都不做，也能过相当舒适的生活。您过去工作过的大学现在还在，就在这个城市，他们答应考虑您的工作问题，过后他们会与您联系的。”
“Well, how am I supposed to live out there?”
“那，我个人到外面怎么生活呢？”
“The ETO?!” Jonathan burst into laughter. “The Earth-Trisolaris Organization was completely wiped out a century ago. There’s no social foundation for them to exist in the world anymore. Of course, there are still people who have those ideological tendencies, but they aren’t able to organize. You’ll be absolutely safe outside.”
“ETO？”乔纳森大笑起来，“地球三体组织早在一个世纪前就已被完全剿灭，现代世界已经没有他们存在的社会基础，当然有这种思想倾向的人还是存在的，但已经不可能形成组织了，您在外部世界是绝对安全的。”
A thought suddenly occurred to Luo Ji, and it nearly made him shudder. “What about my security when I go out? The ETO wants to kill me!”
罗辑突然想到了一件事，这几乎让他打了个寒战，“我出去后的安全问题呢？ETO一直想杀我！”
As he was about to leave, Jonathan dropped his official attitude, and his suit started shining with an exaggerated, distorted image of the sky. He smiled and said to Luo Ji, “Doctor, out of all the historical figures I’ve seen, you’ve got the greatest sense of humor. A spell. A spell on a star. Ha ha ha…”
临别时，乔纳森放下了官员的姿态，他的西装也闪耀起来，映出了夸张变形的星空，他笑着对罗辑说：“博士，在我见过的所有历史人物中，您是最幽默的。咒语，对星星的咒语，哈哈哈哈……”
“You’re a commoner, my boy,” a gruff voice loudly intruded on Luo Ji’s thoughts. When he looked back toward the door, he saw Shi Qiang coming in. “Heh. I heard it from the guy who just left.”
“你变成普通人了，老弟！”罗辑的思想被一个粗哑的声音大声说出，他回头一看，史强走了进来，“呵呵，我听刚离开的那小子说的。”
Luo Ji stood alone in the reception room, ruminating in silence over the reality before him. After two centuries as a messiah, he was once again an ordinary person. A new life was waiting before him.
罗辑独自一人站在接待室中，寂静中细细咀嚼着眼前的现实，在做了两个世纪的救世主之后，他终于变回到普通人了，新生活在他的前面展开。
It was a happy reunion. They traded experiences, and Luo Ji learned that Shi Qiang had reawakened two months before. His leukemia had been cured. The doctors had also discovered that he was at high risk of liver disease, probably due to drinking, so they had taken care of that, too. To the two of them, it didn’t really feel like they had been apart for very long. No more than four or five years, since there was no sense of time in hibernation. But meeting in a new era two centuries in the future added a deeper level to their friendship.
重逢的欢喜中，他们交换了自己的经历。罗辑得知史强是两个月前苏醒的，他的白血病已经治好了，医生还发现他的肝脏病变的几率很高，可能是喝酒的原因，也顺便处理好了。其实，在他们的感觉中，两人分别的时间并不是太长，就是四五年的样子，冬眠中是没有时间感的，但在两个世纪后的新时代相遇，还是多了一层亲切感。
“Isn’t it… a little big?” Luo Ji asked, opening up the jacket.
“这……也太大了吧？”罗辑抖开那件夹克款式的上衣说。
“Look at you. Two months late waking up, and you’re a yahoo next to me. Try it on.”
“看看，晚醒两个月，你在我面前已经是土老帽了，穿上试试。”
“I’ve come to pick you up when you’re discharged. There’s no reason to stay here,” Shi Qiang said as he took a set of clothes out of his backpack and had Luo Ji put them on.
“我来接你出院，这儿没什么好待的。”史强说着从随身带的背包里拿出一身衣服，让他穿上。
Shi Qiang pointed out an object on the front of the shirt and told him that he could use it to adjust the sizing. When Luo Ji put on the clothes, he heard a hissing sound, and the clothing slowly shrank to fit the dimensions of his body. It was the same with the trousers.
罗辑穿上衣服，听到一阵细微的咝咝声，衣服慢慢缩到合身的尺度，穿上裤子后也一样。史强指着上衣胸前的一个胸针样的东西告诉罗辑，衣服的大小还可以调。
“Most of my belongings got lost in the Great Ravine, but my family did keep that set of clothes for me. But it wasn’t wearable. You’ve got some things left over from that era too, and when you’re settled down you can go pick them up. I tell you, my boy, when you see how that stuff has changed, that’s when you’ll really know that nearly two hundred years isn’t a short length of time.” As he spoke, Shi Qiang pressed something somewhere on his jacket and his outfit turned entirely white. The leather texture had just been an image. “I like it like the past.”
“我的东西在太低谷时丢了一些，但那身衣服人家倒还真给我留着，可是不能穿了，你那时的东西也留下了一些，等安顿下来再来取吧。我说老弟，你看看那些东西变成了什么样儿，就知道这将近二百年可是一段不短的时间呢。”史强说着，在夹克的什么地方按了一下，整件衣服变成了白色，原来皮革的质感只是图像，“我喜欢和过去一样。”
“Hey, you’re not wearing that same set of clothes you wore two centuries ago, are you?” Luo Ji asked, looking at Shi Qiang. He remembered quite clearly that the leather jacket Shi Qiang was wearing now was the same one he had on the last time he saw him.
“我说，你不会是穿着两个世纪前的那一身吧？”罗辑看着史强问，他记得清楚，大史现在身上的皮夹克真的与最后一次见他时一样。
“They can, but it’s a little hard to get it set up. Let’s go.”
“能，得费劲儿输入什么的。我们走吧。”
“Can mine do that too? Can it put up images like theirs?” Luo Ji asked, looking at his own clothes.
“我这件也能这么弄吗，还能像他们那样现出图像？”罗辑看着自己的衣服问。
Luo Ji and Shi Qiang took the elevator in the trunk down to the ground floor, passed through the tree’s large foyer, and out into the new world.
罗辑和大史一起。从树干的电梯直下到地面一层，穿过这棵大树宽阔的大厅，走进了新世界。
When the commissioner shut off the holographic image of the hearing, the meeting had not actually concluded. Luo Ji had in fact noticed that when the chair declared the meeting adjourned, a sudden voice had rung out. It was a woman’s voice, and while he hadn’t been able to make it out clearly, everyone in the assembly had turned in a particular direction. Then Jonathan had turned off the image. He must have noticed it, too, but once the chair had adjourned the meeting, Luo Ji, now an ordinary citizen without Wallfacer status, was not eligible to participate even if it was still in progress.
在特派员关闭听证会全息图像时，会议并没有结束。其实当时罗辑已经注意到，在主席宣布听证会结束时，突然响起了一个人的声音，是一个女声，他没有听清楚说的是什么，但会场中的所有人都朝一个方向看。这时乔纳森关闭了图像，他一定也注意到了这个，不过当主席宣布会议结束后，罗辑已经失去了面壁者身份而成为普通公民，即使会议继续，他也没有资格参加了。
The chair said, “Dr. Yamasuki, you are not a Wallfacer. You are allowed to attend today’s meeting due to your special status, but you do not have the right to speak.”
主席说：“山杉惠子女士，您不是面壁者，仅由于您的特殊身份才被允许列席今天的会议，您没有发言权。”
The speaker was Keiko Yamasuki. She said, “Mr. Chair, I have something to say.”
说话的是山杉惠子，她说：“主席先生，我还有话要说。”
“I should have known it, Keiko. I should have known,” Hines said, his voice trembling. He looked weak. He had known that his wife was a devotee of the ideas of Timothy Leary, and he had seen her fanatical desire to alter the human mind through technological means, but he had never connected it with a deeply hidden hatred of humanity.
“我早就该想到了，惠子，这我早就该想到了。”希恩斯说，他声音发颤，显得很虚弱。他早就知道妻子是蒂莫西·利里①思想的信奉者，也看到她对使用技术手段改变人类思维的狂热向往，但他从没有把这些与她深深隐藏着的对人类的憎恶联系起来。【注：①美国心理学家，主张用LSD致幻剂控制人类思想，进面达到灵魂的拯救，在上世纪中期有大批心理学界和文化界的追随者。】
None of the representatives seemed interested in her. They were getting up to leave. For them, the entire Wallfacer Project was nothing but a footnote in history that they had to spend energy dealing with. But what she said next stopped them in their tracks. She turned to Hines and said, “Wallfacer Bill Hines, I am your Wallbreaker.”
这时，会场上的代表们也都对山杉惠子不感兴趣，正在纷纷起身离去，其实，现在面壁计划对他们而言，整个儿就是一件不得不花一些精力来处理的历史遗留琐事，但惠于接下来的话让他们都停了下来——她转身对希恩斯说：“面壁者比尔·希恩斯，我是你的破壁人。”
Hines, who was getting up to leave, felt his legs buckle at Yamasuki’s words, and he sat down in his chair again.
希恩斯也正要起身离去，听到山杉惠子的话，他两腿一软，跌坐回椅子上。
“I hope you have not all forgotten the significance of that title,” Yamasuki said imperiously to the assembly.
“我希望各位还没有忘记这个称呼的含义。”山杉惠子转向会场冷傲地说。
The people in the auditorium glanced at each other, and then began to whisper, as the blood gradually drained from Hines’s face.
会场中，人们面面相觑，接着响起了一阵低语声，而希恩斯的脸则渐渐变得苍白。
“I know.” She appeared totally calm. “But as the last member of the ETO, I will fulfill my duty for the Lord.”
“我知道，”山杉惠子显得十分冷静，“但作为地球三体组织最后的成员，我将为主尽自己的责任。”
The chair said, “Yes, we know what a Wallbreaker is. But your organization does not exist anymore.”
主席说：“是的，我们知道破壁人是什么，但你的组织早已不存在。”
“First off, I’d like to say that the true goal of your strategic plan was not the elevation of human intelligence. You more than anyone are aware that it is utterly impossible for human technology to accomplish this in the foreseeable future, because you were the one who discovered the quantum structure of the brain. You know that when the study of the mind reaches the quantum level, the sophon lockdown on fundamental physics means that scientific research will be like water with no source: It’s got no grounding, and will never succeed. The mental seal was not just a chance by-product of your study of the mind. It was the thing you always wanted. That was the ultimate goal of your research.” She turned to the assembly. “Now, what I’d like to know from all of you is this: In the years that we’ve been in hibernation, what happened to the mental seal?”
“我首先要说明的是，你的战略计划的真实目的并非提升人类的智能。你比谁都清楚，在可以想见的未来，人类的技术根本不可能实现这个目标，因为你是大脑量子机制的发现者，知道对思维的研究必然进入量子层次，在基础物理学被智子锁死的情况下，这种研究是无源之水，不可能取得成功。思想钢印并非是思维研究偶然的副产品，它一直是你想要的东西，是这种研究的最终目标。”山杉惠子转向会场，“各位，现在我想知道，在我们进入冬眠后的这些年中，思想钢印都发生了些什么？”
“It didn’t have much of a history,” the representative of the European Fleet said. “Nearly fifty thousand people from national space forces voluntarily accepted faith in victory through the mental seal, and they formed a special class in the military known as the ‘Imprinted.’ Later on, about ten years after you went into hibernation, the use of the mental seal was found by the International Court of Justice to be a crime, an infringement on the freedom of thought, and the sole mental seal device — the one in the Faith Center — was put into storage. The manufacture and use of that type of equipment was placed under a worldwide ban nearly as strict as nuclear nonproliferation. And, in fact, the mental seal was even harder to obtain than nuclear weapons, primarily because of the computer it used. By the time you entered hibernation, computing technology had basically stopped moving forward. The computer used by the mental seal is still a supercomputer today and is inaccessible to ordinary individuals and organizations.”
“它的历史并没有持续很长，”欧洲舰队代表说，“当时，在各国太空军中，前后有近五万人自愿接受了思想钢印所固化的胜利信念，以至于在军队中形成丁一个特殊的阶层，被称做钢印族。后来，大约是你们进入冬眠后的十年左右吧，思想钢印的使用被国际法庭判定为侵犯思想自由的犯罪行为，信念中心里仅有的一台思想钢印被封存了。这种设备在全世界范围内被严禁生产和使用，其严厉程度与控制核扩散差不多。事实上，思想钢印比核武器更难得到，主要是它所使用的电脑。在你们冬眠时，计算机技术已经基本停止进步，思想钢印所使用的电脑，在今天仍是超级计算机，一般的组织和个人很难得到。”
Then Keiko Yamasuki revealed her first piece of substantive information: “What you don’t know is that there was more than one mental seal device. Five were made, each with its own accompanying supercomputer. The other four, Hines secretly handed over to people who had already accepted the seal, the ones you call the Imprinted. There were only around three thousand of them at that time, but they had already formed a tightly knit supranational organization within the militaries of individual countries. Hines did not tell me this. I learned it from the sophons. The Lord does not care about staunch triumphalism, so we didn’t take action.”
山杉惠子说出了第一个有分量的信息：“你们不知道，思想钢印不是只有一台，它一共制造了五台，每台都配备了相应的超级电脑。另外四台思想钢印，由希恩斯秘密移交给了已经被钢印固化信念的人们，也就是你们所说的钢印族，在当时他们虽然只有有三千人左右，但已经在各国太空军中形成了一个超国界的严密组织。这件事希恩斯没有告诉我，我是从智子那里得知的，主对于坚定的胜利主义者并不在意，所以我们没有对此采取任何行动。”
“And how is this significant?” the chair asked.
“这意味着什么呢？”主席问。
“Let’s hypothesize, shall we? The mental seal device is not a continuously operating piece of equipment. It’s only activated when necessary. Each device can be used for quite a long time, and if they’re properly maintained, it would be no problem for them to be used for half a century. If the four devices were used in turn, one run into the ground before the next one is started up, they would have been able to last for two centuries. Which means that the Imprinted may not have died off, but might have endured from generation to generation up to the present day. It’s a religion that believes in faith hardened by the mental seal, and its induction ceremony is the voluntary use of the mental seal on your own mind.”
“让我们一起来推测吧。思想钢印并不是连续运行的设备，它只在需要时才启动，每台设备可以使用很长时间，如果得到适当的维护，它使用半个世纪是没有问题的。如果四台设备轮流使用，一台完全报废后再启动另一台，那么它们可以延续两个世纪。也就是说，钢印族并没有自生自灭，它可能一代接一代地延续到今天，这是一种宗教，所信仰的就是思想钢印所固化的信念，入教的仪式就是自愿在自己的思想中打上钢印。”
“That’s a crime!” the representative of the Asian Fleet said.
“这是犯罪！”亚洲舰队代表说。
“Perhaps it is,” Hines said, and nodded again. “But just like all of you, I don’t know whether the Imprinted have endured to the present day.”
“也许是……”希恩斯又点点头，“但我和你们一样，也不知道钢印族是否延续到了今天。”
The representative of the North American Fleet said, “Dr. Hines, you have lost your Wallfacer status and no longer have the legal power to deceive the world. Would you please tell the Joint Conference the truth: Is your wife, or, rather, your Wallbreaker, telling the truth?”
北美舰队代表说：“希恩斯博士，现在您已经失去了面壁者身份，也就没有了欺骗世界的合法权力。请您对联席会议说实话：您的妻子，或者说您的破壁人，说的是真的吗？”
“It’s true,” Hines said, with a heavy nod.
“是真的。”希恩斯沉重地点点头。
“That’s not important,” the representative of the European Fleet said. “I think the next step should be to find the mental seal devices that are still around and seal them up or destroy them. As for the Imprinted, if they voluntarily accepted the mental seal, then that doesn’t appear to have violated the laws of the time. If they applied the mental seal to other volunteers, then they were under the dominance of the faith or belief that they had already received through technical means, so they should not be subjected to punishment. So the only thing we need to do is find the mental seals. The matter of the Imprinted might not need to be pursued at all.”
“这并不重要，”欧洲舰队代表说，“我认为下一步要做的只是找到可能遗留至今的思想钢印，封存或销毁它们。至于钢印族，如果他们是自愿被打上思想钢印，那似乎不违反现有的任何法律；如果他们给别的自愿者打思想钢印，则是受到自己已经被技术手段所固化的信念或信仰的支配，也不应该受到法律制裁。所以只要思想钢印被找到，也许根本没有必要再去追查钢印族的情况。”
Keiko Yamasuki smiled derisively, revealing a seldom-seen expression that conjured up for the assembly an ancient picture of moonlight reflecting off the scales of a snake in the grass.
山杉惠子突然冷笑起来，露出一种这个时代很少地到的表情，让与会者们联想到在某个古老的年代，草丛中蛇的鳞片反射的月光。
“You’re being naïve,” she said.
“你们想得太简单了”她说。
“That’s right. It’s not a bad thing for there to be a few people in the Solar Fleet who have absolute faith in victory. At least, it won’t cause any harm. It should remain a matter of personal privacy, and no one needs to know who they are. Although it’s hard to understand why anyone would voluntarily undergo the mental seal today, because humanity’s victory is so apparent,” the representative of the European Fleet said.
“是的，太阳系舰队中有一些对胜利拥有绝对信念的人，并不是坏事，至少不会产生什么损害，这应该属于个人隐私，没必要知道他们是谁。尽管现在自愿打上思想钢印有些不可理解，因为人类的胜利已经是很明显的事了。”欧洲舰队代表说。
She turned once again to her husband. “Hines, you’ve always hidden your thoughts from me. Even before you became a Wallfacer.”
山杉惠子再次转向她的丈夫：“希恩斯，你一直在对我隐藏自己的思想，即使在成为面壁者之前。”
“You’re being naïve,” Hines echoed his wife, and deeply bowed his head.
“你们想得太简单了。”希恩斯附和着妻子，又深深地低下了头。
“I was afraid you’d despise me,” he said, head still down.
“我怕你鄙视我。”希恩斯低着头说。
“How many times did we look silently into each other’s eyes in the bamboo grove in the quiet of the Kyoto night? From your eyes I saw a Wallfacer’s loneliness, and I saw your desire to speak. How many times did you almost tell me the truth? You wanted to bury your head in my arms, put everything into words through your tears, and obtain total release. But the duty of a Wallfacer prevented you. Deceit, even toward the one you loved the most, was one of your responsibilities. So I could only look into your eyes in the hope of finding some trace of your true thoughts. You don’t know how many sleepless nights I spent waiting next to you as you slept soundly, waiting for you to talk in your sleep… More often, I carefully observed you, studying your every move and capturing your every look, including the years you were first in hibernation. I recalled every detail about you, not out of longing but because I wanted to see your true thoughts. For a very long time, I failed. I knew you wore a mask, but I knew nothing of what was below the mask. The years passed, until finally, when you had just awakened and walked through the neural-network cloud to my side, and I looked into your eyes, I finally understood. I’d matured eight years, while you were still the you of eight years before. And so you were exposed.
“多少次，在京都静静的深夜里，在那间木屋和小竹林中，我们默默地对视，从你的眼中我看到了一个面壁者的孤独，看到了你向我倾诉的渴望。多少次，你几乎要对我道出实情了，你想把头埋在我的怀中，哭着把一切真相都说出来，获得彻底的解脱，但面壁者的职责阻止了你。欺骗，即使是对自己最爱的人的欺骗，也是你责任的一部分。于是，我也只能看着你的眼睛，希望从中寻找到你真实思想的蛛丝马迹。你也不知道我度过了多少个不眠的夜晚，在熟睡的你的身边等待着，等待着你的梦呓……更多的时间我是在细细地观察着你，研究你的一举一动，捕捉你的每一个眼神，包括你第一次冬眠的那些年，我都一次次回忆你的每一个细节，不是为了思念，只是想看透你真实的思想。在相当长的时间里，我失败了，我知道你一直藏着面具，我对面具下的你一无所知。一年又一年过去，终于到了那一天，当你第一次苏醒后，穿过大脑神经网络的图像走到我身边时，我再次看到你的眼睛，终于领悟了。这时我已经成长和成熟了八年，而你还是八年前的你，所以你暴露了自己。
“From that moment, I knew the real you: a deep-rooted defeatist and a staunch Escapist. Both before and after you became a Wallfacer, your sole goal was to achieve an exodus of humanity. Compared to the other Wallfacers, your genius lay not in strategic deception, but in concealing and disguising your true worldview.
“从那一刻起，我知道了真实的你：一个根深蒂固的失败主义者，一个坚定的逃亡主义者，不管是在成为面壁者之前还是之后，你的唯一目标就是实现人类的逃亡。与其他面壁者相比，你的高明之处不在于战略计谋的欺骗，而在于对白己真实世界观的隐藏和伪装。
The representative of the North American Fleet said, “Ms. Keiko Yamasuki, I don’t think there’s anything unusual here. We know the history of the mental seal. In the first group of fifty thousand volunteers, the procedure was carried out under the strictest of supervision.”
北美舰队代表说：“山杉惠子女士，我感觉这里面应该没有更诡异的东西吧，我们了解思想钢印的历史，在第一批自愿打上钢印的五万人中，对每个人的操作都是在严格监督下进行的。”
“But I still didn’t know how you would achieve this goal through your research into the brain and thoughts. I was confused even when the mental seal came out, all the way up until the moment I entered hibernation, when I remembered their eyes. The eyes of those people who had been given the mental stamp… they were like yours. And all of a sudden I understood an expression of yours that I’d never been able to read before. That was when I broke through to your real strategy, but it was too late to say anything.”
“但我还是不知道，你如何通过对人类大脑和思维的研究来实现这个目标，甚至在思想钢印出现后，我仍然处于迷惑之中。直到进入冬眠前的那一刻，我想起了他们的眼睛，就是那些被打上思想钢印的人的眼睛，就像对你那样，突然读懂了那些一直令我困惑的目光，这时我完全识破了你的真实战略，但已经来不及说了。”
“A minus sign?”
“正负号？”
“But the literature indicates that the supervision of the technical details of the mental seal was very strict as well, and it underwent a large number of tests before it was put into operation,” the chair said.
“可是历史文献表明，当时对思想钢印在技术细节上的监督也十分严格，在正式投入使用前进行了大量实验。”主席说。
“That’s right,” she said. “But the supervision was only absolutely effective so far as the content of the faith proposition was concerned. The mental seal itself was much harder to supervise.”
山杉惠子说：“不错，但绝对有效的监督只是对信念命题的内容而言，对思想钢印本身，监督就困难得多了。”
Yamasuki shook her head. “The mental seal is an incredibly complicated piece of equipment. Any supervision will have gaps. Specifically, one tiny minus sign out of hundreds of millions of lines of code. Even the sophons didn’t detect it.”
山杉惠子轻轻摇摇头，“思想钢印是极其复杂的设备，任何监督都会有疏漏的，特别是对几亿行代码中的一个小小的正负号而言，这一点，甚至连智子都没有察觉到。”
“When the neural circuit model for judging a proposition to be true was discovered, Hines also discovered the model for judging a proposition to be false. That was what he needed. He concealed this discovery from everyone, including me. It wasn’t difficult, because the two models were highly similar. It manifested as the direction of flow of a key signal in the neuron transmission model, and in the mathematical model of the mental seal, it was represented by a sign. Positive for true, negative for false. Working in extreme secrecy, Hines manipulated this sign in the mental seal’s control software. In all five devices, the sign was negative.”
“在发现了对命题判断为真的神经回路模式时，希恩斯同时也发现了对命题判断为伪的模式，后者正是他所需要的。他对包括我在内的所有人都隐瞒了这个发现，这并不难，因为这两种神经回路的模式十分相似，在神经元传输模式中表现为某个关键信号的流向；而在思想钢印的数学模型中，则只由一个正负号决定，正者判断为真，负者判断为伪。希恩斯用极其隐蔽的手段操纵了思想钢印控制软件中的这个符号，在所有五台思想钢印中，这个符号都为负。”
Hines raised his head, and everyone could see that his pallid face had returned to normal. His voice was calm and even. “I admit that I underestimated the power of humanity. The progress that you’ve made is truly unbelievable. I have seen it, and I believe it, and I also believe that victory in the war belongs to humanity. This faith is as steadfast as if it had been imprinted by the mental stamp. The defeatism and Escapism of two centuries ago is truly ridiculous. However, Mr. Chair and representatives, I would like to say to the world that it is impossible to make me repent of what I have done.”
希恩斯抬起头，人们看到他苍白的脸又恢复了常态，他的声音沉稳而镇静：“我承认，自己低估了人类的力量，你们取得的进步真是令人难以置信。我看到了，相信了，我也相信这场战争的胜利者将是人类，这种信念几乎与思想钢印一样坚固，两个世纪前的失败主义和逃亡主义真是很可笑的东西。但，主席先生，各位代表先生，我要对全世界说：在这件事上让我忏悔是不可能的。”
A deathly silence fell over the auditorium, a silence that had manifested only once before during a PDC Wallfacer Hearing two centuries ago, when Rey Diaz had shown off the “cradle” on his wrist and had told the assembly that the device receiving the anti-trigger signal was nearby.
死一般的寂静笼罩了会场，这种寂静曾经在两个世纪前的那次行星防御理事会的面壁计划听证会上出现过，当时，雷迪亚兹展示了手腕上的“摇篮”，并告诉与会者，接收它的反触发信号的装置就在附近。
“Dr. Hines, what have you done?” The chair turned toward him in anger.
“希恩斯博士，看看你做了什么？”主席怒视着希恩斯说。
“You still think you shouldn’t repent?” the representative of the Asian Fleet demanded angrily.
“你还不该忏悔吗？”亚洲代表愤怒地质问。
Hines raised his head. “It’s not a question of ‘should.’ It’s an impossibility. I used the mental seal to imprint this proposition on myself: Everything about my Wallfacer plan is entirely correct.”
希恩斯仰起头说：“不是不该，是不可能，我给自己打上了一个思想钢印，它的命题是：我在面壁计划中所做的一切都是正确的。”
The assembly exchanged amazed glances, and Yamasuki even turned to her husband with the same expression.
人们互相交换着惊奇的目光，甚至连山杉惠子都用这样的目光看着自己的丈夫。
Hines flashed her a small smile and nodded. “Yes, dear, if you’ll permit me to call you that. Only by doing that could I obtain the spiritual strength necessary to execute the plan. Yes, right now I believe all I’ve done is correct. I absolutely believe it, regardless of what reality says. I used the mental seal to turn myself into my own god, and God can’t repent.”
希恩斯对山杉惠子微笑着点点头，“是的，亲爱的，请允许我仍这么称呼你，只有这样做，我才能获得把计划执行下去的精神力量。是的，我现在认为自己做的都是正确的，我绝对相信这一点，而不管现实是什么。我用思想钢印把自己改造成了自己的上帝，上帝不可能忏悔。”
“In the not-too-distant future, when the Trisolaran invaders surrender to a more powerful human civilization, will you still think that?” the chair asked, with a look in his eyes that was more curious than amazed.
“当不久的将来，三体入侵者向强大的人类文明投降的时候，您仍然这么想吗？”主席问，与刚才不同，他这时表现出来的更多是好奇。
Hines nodded earnestly. “I’ll still think that I’m right. Everything about my Wallfacer plan is entirely correct. Of course, in the face of the facts, I’ll be put through a hell of a torture.” He turned to his wife. “Dear, you know I’ve already suffered that torture once, when I believed that water was toxic.”
希恩斯认真地点点头，“我仍然这么想，我是正确的，我在面壁计划中做的一切都是绝对正确的。当然，在事实面前我要受到地狱般的折磨。”他转向山杉惠子，“亲爱的，你知道我已经受过一次这种折磨了，那时，我坚信水是剧毒的。”
The representative of the Asian Fleet completed his thought. “But there’s another possibility: The most frightening thing about the situation is the fact that there aren’t any signs.”
亚洲代表替他说出了后面的话：“在另一种可能中，到现在还没有迹象，正是这件事情的可怕之处。”
Luo Ji and Shi Qiang walked through the underground city shaded by the tree-shaped structures as streams of cars flew through the gaps in the sky above them. Because the buildings were “leaves” hanging in the air, the ground was wide open, and the widely spaced trunks of the giant trees meant there was no sense of streets, just a rolling plaza dotted with tree trunks. The environment was wonderful: The wide swaths of grasses, forests of actual trees, and fresh air all made it look at first glance like beautiful countryside. Pedestrians passed through in shining clothes like glowing ants. Luo Ji was impressed to no end by the urban design that elevated modern noise and crowdedness into the air and let the ground return to nature. Here, there was no shadow of the war, only human comforts and pleasures.
罗辑和史强行走在地下城市中。在他们的上方，树形建筑遮天蔽日，天空的缝隙中穿行着飞车的车流，但由于城市建筑都是悬在空中的“树叶”，地面的空间十分宽阔，只有间距很远的巨树树干，使得城市已经没有了街道的概念，只是一片其间坐落着树干的连绵的广场。地面的环境很好，有大片的草地和真正的树林，空气清新，一眼望去像是美丽的郊野，行人们穿着闪亮的衣服，像发光的蚂蚁般穿行其间。这种把现代的喧嚣和拥挤悬在高空，让地面回归自然的城市设计，让罗辑赞叹不已。这里丝毫看不到战争的阴影，只有人性化的舒适和惬意。
“There are two possibilities,” the representative of the European Fleet said. “One is that the mental seal vanished long ago, and this is just a false alarm…”
“这有两种可能，”欧洲舰队代表说，“一种是钢印族早就消失了，我们确实是虚惊一场……”
“Let’s come back to the present day,” the representative of the North American Fleet said, interrupting everyone’s whispered discussions. “It’s just speculation that the Imprinted have endured. It’s been over one hundred seventy years, after all. If a class or organization with such an absolute faith in defeatism exists, why haven’t there been any signs of it?”
“还是让我们回到现实中来吧。”北美舰队代表打断了人们低声的议论，“钢印族延续至今只是一个猜测，毕竟已经过去一百七十多年了，如果一个持有绝对失败主义信念的阶层或组织存在，为什么到现在为止还没有一点迹象呢？”
“How does she know I’m here?” he whispered.
“她怎么知道我在这儿？”罗辑低声问。
“Hello. I am Financial Counselor 8065 of the General Banking System. Welcome to our era. I will now inform you of your current financial situation.” As she spoke, a table of data appeared beside her. “These are your financial records for Year 9 of the Crisis Era, including deposits at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the China Construction Bank. There are investments in quoted securities as well, but those items may have been partially lost during the Great Ravine.”
“您好，我是总体银行系统8065号金融咨询员，欢迎您来到这个时代，现在向您通报你目前的财政状况。”咨询员说着，她的旁边映出了一个数据表格，“这是您在危机第九年的财政数据，其中包括当时在中国工商银行和中国建设银行的存款情况，还有当时的有价证券投资情况，后面一项的信息在大低谷时代可能部分丢失。”
Shi Qiang said, “A chip’s been implanted in your left arm. Don’t worry, these days everyone’s got one. It’s like an ID card. All billboards can recognize you. Ads are all personalized now, so no matter where you go, everything on the billboards is showing just for you.”
史强说：“你的左手臂里植入了一块什么芯片，不要紧张，现在每个人都有，类似于身份证吧，所以广告牌能认出你来。现在的广告都是对着个人了，不管走到哪里，广告牌上的东西都是为你显示的。”
“I am,” he said with a nod.
“我是。”罗辑点点头说。
Before they had gotten far, he heard a woman’s gentle voice. “Is that Mr. Luo Ji?” He looked around and found that the voice was coming from a billboard on the grass at the side of the road. An attractive woman dressed in a uniform was looking at him from the moving image.
走了不远，罗辑突然听到一个柔美的女声：“是罗辑先生吗？”他四下一看，发现声音是从路边草坪上的一个大广告牌上发出的，广告牌上的大幅动态图像中，一个身穿制服的漂亮姑娘正在看着他。
A highly complicated chart appeared next to the counselor. “This is the status of all your interest-bearing accounts since Year 9 of the Crisis Era. It’s fairly complicated, but you can access it in your personal information area from now on.” Another, simpler chart popped up. “This is your current financial situation in all of the various subsystems of the General Banking System.”
一个十分复杂的表格在咨询员旁边出现了，“这是从危机九年一月一日至今天您的所有存款的计息情况，比较复杂。以后您可以从自己的信息区中调阅。”另一个比较简明的表格随即也跳了出来，“这是您目前在总体银行系统的各个分系统的财政情况。”
“How much do I have on deposit?” Luo Ji asked.
“我现在在银行里有多少存款？”罗辑问。
“My boy, you’re a rich man!” Shi Qiang said, slapping him vigorously. “I may not have as much as you, but I’ve still got money. Heh, two centuries of interest — it’s a real long-term investment. Pauper to tycoon. I only regret not saving a little more.”
“老弟，你是有钱人了！”史强猛拍了罗辑一下说，“我虽不如你，可也算有钱了，呵呵，两个世纪的利息，真正的长线投资，穷光蛋也富了，后悔当时没有多存些。”
Luo Ji had no concept of what those figures meant, and asked blankly, “That’s… how much?”
罗辑对那些数字并没有概念，他茫然地问：“这……有多少呢？”
Apparently hearing Shi Qiang’s words, the counselor said, “Sir, this isn’t an advertisement. It’s a service from the General Banking System.”
咨询员显然听到了大史的话，她说：“先生，这不是广告，而是总体银行系统的金融服务。”
“Hmm?” The big eyes of the counselor looked at Luo Ji quizzically.
“嗯？”咨询员漂亮的大眼睛从广告牌上探询地看着罗辑。
“Well… are you sure there’s nothing wrong?” Luo Ji asked, skeptically.
“这……有些不对吧’”罗辑怀疑地问。
“Mr. Luo Ji, this is just an opportunity for us to get acquainted. When it’s convenient for you, we can discuss your personal financial arrangements and investment plan. If there’s nothing else, then I’ll say good-bye.” The counselor smiled and waved good-bye.
“罗辑先生，这次我们只是认识一下，在您方便的时候，我们再讨论您的个人财政安排和投资计划，如果没有其他的问题就再见了。”咨询员微笑着对罗辑挥手告别。
“You’re overthinking it,” Shi Qiang said, taking a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. Luo Ji knew then that tobacco was still around. But when Shi Qiang took one out, he was able to puff out clouds of smoke without lighting it.
“还是你想得多。”大史摇摇头说，从口袋中掏出一盒烟来，罗辑现在知道烟这东西也延续下来了，只是大史从盒中抽出一根，不用点就开始吞云吐雾了。
“It’s been more than one hundred eighty years. Wasn’t there any inflation? Did the finance system really just continue on smoothly?”
“一百八十多年了，这中间没有通货膨胀什么的？金融体系也能一直平稳延续下来？”
“Wow, that’s some preferential treatment!” Luo Ji exclaimed.
“竟有……这样的优惠？”罗辑惊叹道。
The counselor replied, “There were many rounds of inflation during the Great Ravine, and the finance and credit systems came close to collapse. But according to current laws, interest on the deposits of hibernators is calculated according to a special formula that excludes the Great Ravine, and instead transfers the deposit amount over to the financial level of the post-Ravine period and resumes calculating interest from there.”
咨询员回答：“大低谷时代发生过多次通货膨胀，金融和信用体系也曾接近崩溃，但按照现有法律，对冬眠苏醒者存款的计息有特殊的计算方法，排除了大低谷时间段，在存款额上直接平移到大低谷后的金融水平，并从那时开始计息。”
“My boy, these are good times,” Shi Qiang said, blowing out smoke. Then, raising his still-burning cigarette, he said, “Except the cigarettes are terrible.”
“老弟，这是个好时候。”大史吐出一口白烟说，然后举起仍然带有火的香烟，“就是烟难抽了。”
“I’ve got one question,” he said quickly. He didn’t know what to call young women in this era, and didn’t want to risk making a mistake by addressing her improperly. So he simply said, “I’m not too familiar with this era, so please forgive me if my question is offensive to you.”
“有一个问题。”罗辑急忙说。他不知道现在对年轻女性如何称呼，叫“小姐”有些冒险。在自己那个时代这个称呼的含义已经变了，现在更不知变成什么了；叫女士也不太对，这应该是对上年纪女性的称呼，罗辑只好把称呼免去了，“我对现实不太了解，要是这个问题冒犯了你，请多多原谅。”
After the woman on the billboard disappeared, Luo Ji said to Shi Qiang, “Da Shi, there are some things I find hard to understand. This is an age that has invented perpetual motion and can synthesize grain, but computer technology doesn’t seem to have advanced at all. Artificial intelligence can’t even handle personal finance.”
同广告牌上的美人告别后，罗辑对史强说：“大史。有些事情真的不好理解，这是一个发明了永动机并且能够合成粮食的时代，可是计算机技术好像并没有进步多少，人工智能连处理个人金融业务的能力都没有。”
The question didn’t faze the counselor. She replied, “Of course I’m a real person. Could a computer handle services as complicated as this?”
这个问题似乎并没有让咨询员吃惊，她回答道：“我当然是真人，电脑怎么能够处理这么复杂的业务，”
The counselor smiled, and said, “Not a problem. Our responsibility is to help you get acquainted with this era as quickly as possible.”
咨询员微徽一笑说：“没有关系，我们的责任就是帮助体们尽快熟悉这个时代。”
“Are you a real person or a robot? Or are you a program?”
“你是真人还是机器，或者是一个程序？”
“What perpetual motion? You mean a perpetual motion machine?” Shi Qiang said.
“永动机是啥？永远能动的机器？”大史问。
Luo Ji pointed up to the stream of traffic. “Those flying cars. Do they consume oil or batteries?”
罗辑指着空中的车流说：“看那些飞车，它们耗油或用电池吗？”
“Yeah. It signifies unlimited energy.”
“是啊，标志着无限能源的发现。”
Shi Qiang looked around him. “Where?”
大史四下看看，“哪里有这玩意儿？”
“How can you be so unmoved by a technological miracle? Unlimited power for humanity. This is as big an event as when Pangu created the heavens and the Earth! Don’t you realize what a magnificent age this is?”
“这就是你对技术奇迹的麻木了，人类有了无限的能源，这简直是和盘古开天地一样的大事！到现在你也没意识到这是个多么伟大的时代！”
Shi Qiang shook his head. “Neither. Earth’s oil was pumped dry. Those cars can fly forever without batteries and they’ll never run out of power. They’re pretty awesome. I’m thinking of getting one myself.”
大史摇摇头，“都不用的，地球上的石油早抽完了，那些车也不用电池，就那么着不停地飞，永远不会没有电，很带劲儿的东西，我正打算买一辆。”
Shi Qiang tossed aside the cigarette butt; then, thinking better of it, reached down and retrieved it from the grass and threw it into a nearby garbage can. “I’m unmoved? You’re an intellectual whose imagination has gotten away from him. The technology is something we actually had in our era.”
大史把烟蒂扔掉，想了想又觉得不妥，就又把扔到草坪上的烟蒂拾起来，扔到不远处的垃圾箱里。“我麻木？是你这知识分子想象得太远了，这技术，其实我们那时就已经有了。”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“你开玩笑吧？”
“I don’t understand most tech, but I do know a bit about this one thing in particular because, as it happens, I once had occasion to use a police bug that had no batteries but never ran out of power. You know how it worked? It was powered remotely by microwaves. That’s what electricity is today, although the methods are a little different from our day.”
“要说技术我是不懂，但具体对这事儿多少还是明白一些，因为碰巧我曾使过一种警用窃听器，它不用电池，而且电也像这样用不完，知道是怎么整的吗？从远处发射微波给它供电。现在也就是这么回事儿，供电方式与我们那时不同而已。”
Luo Ji stopped and stared at Shi Qiang for a long while, then up at the flying cars in the air. He thought about the heating glass, and finally understood: It was just a wireless power supply. The power source emitted electricity in the form of microwaves or other EM radiation to form an electric field over a certain space, allowing any equipment within it to draw power through an antenna or resonant coil. Like Shi Qiang had said, even two centuries ago, this technology was entirely ordinary. The only reason it hadn’t been commonplace was because the power loss was too great. Only a small portion of the power emitted into a space could be used, but the majority was lost. In this era, however, mature controlled fusion technology meant that energy sources had been greatly enriched, to the point that losses from wireless power supplies were acceptable.
罗辑站住了，呆呆地看了大史半天，又抬头看看空中的飞车，再想想那个电热杯，终于明白了：不过是无线供电而已，电源用微波或其他形式的电磁振荡束发射电能，在一定的空间范围形成供电场，这个范围内的任何用电设备都可以用天线或电磁共振线圈来接收电能。正如大史所说，即使在两个世纪前，这也是一项很普通的技术，之所以在当时没有普遍使用，是因为这种供电方式损耗太大，发射到空间中去的电能只有一小部分被接收使用，大部分都散失了。而在这个时代，由于可控核聚变技术的成熟，能源已经极大地丰富了，无线供电所产生的损耗变得可以接受。
“And the synthetic grain? Can’t they synthesize grain?” Luo Ji asked.
“那合成粮食呢，他们不是可以合成粮食吗？”罗辑又问。
“I’m not really sure about that. Grain is still grown from seed, it’s just that it’s grown in factories in those cultivation tank things. Crops are all genetically modified, and I’ve heard that wheat grows just an ear, with no stalk. And it grows pretty quickly because of the strong artificial sunlight, and other things like intense, growth-inducing radiation. A season of wheat and rice can be harvested in a week, so from the outside it looks just like it’s produced on a production line.”
“这我不是太清楚，但现在的粮食也是种子长出来的，只不过是在工厂的什么培养槽里生长的。庄稼都基因改造过，据说那麦子只长穗没有秸秆，而且长得贼快，因为那里面有很强的人造阳光，还有催长的强辐射什么的，麦子稻谷一星期就能收一季，从外面看就像生产线上产出来的一样。”
“Oh –” Luo Ji punctuated his thought with an extended sigh as the gorgeous bubbles before his eyes burst to reveal the true face of the world, and he knew that in this great new era, sophons still floated everywhere and human science was still deadlocked. Existing technology could never cross the line set down by the sophons.
“哦——”罗辑长长地沉吟一声，他眼前许多绚烂的肥皂泡破裂了，现实露出了真面目。他现在知道，就在这个伟大的新时代，智子仍然无处不在地飘荡着，人类的科学仍被锁死着，现有的技术，都不可能越过智子划定的那条线。
“And the spacecraft that can reach fifteen percent of light speed?”
“飞船达到光速的百分之十五，这个……”
“Well, that’s true. When those warships mobilize, it’s like a tiny sun in the sky. And their space weapons — the day before yesterday I saw a news report on TV about an Asian Fleet exercise. A laser cannon swept a target ship as big as a carrier. Half of that iron guy evaporated like a chunk of ice, and the other half exploded like fireworks in a shower of sparkling molten steel. And there are railguns that can fire a hundred iron spheres a second, each the size of a football, at tens of kilometers per second. In a few minutes they can flatten a mountain on Mars… So even though there isn’t any of your perpetual motion, with these technologies, humanity is more than capable of putting down the Trisolaran Fleet.”
“这倒是真的，那些战舰发动起来像天上的小太阳。还有那些太空武器，前天电视上看到亚洲舰队演习的新闻，那个激光炮，对着像航母那么大的靶船扫了一下，那个大铁家伙就像冰块儿似的给蒸发了一半，另一半变成亮晶晶的钢水儿炸开了，像焰火似的。还有电磁炮，每秒钟能发射上百个钢球，每个有足球那么大，出膛速度每秒几十公里，无坚不摧，几分钟就扫平了火星上的一座大山……现在，你说的永动机什么的是没有，但就凭这些技术，人类收拾三阵舰队已经绰绰有余了。”
Shi Qiang handed Luo Ji a cigarette and taught him how to twist the filter tip to light it. They smoked and watched the snow-white swirls drift upward. “Anyway, my boy, these are good times.”
大史递给罗辑一支烟，教他拧了一下过滤嘴部分把烟点着，他们各抽一口，看着雪白的烟雾袅袅上升。“不管怎么说，老弟，这是个好时候。”
“Yes. Good times.”
“是啊，是个好时候。”
“There’s no one in the car,” Shi Qiang said to Luo Ji, who was limping over.
“车里没有人。”大史对一瘸一拐走过来的罗辑说。
Luo Ji had hardly finished speaking when Shi Qiang pounced on him and the two of them tumbled onto the grass a few meters away, hearing a loud noise at their heels as a flying car smashed into the spot where they had just been standing. Luo Ji felt the impact of the blast, and metal debris whizzed overhead, taking out half the billboard and sending the transparent glass tubes of the display crashing to the ground. While he was still on the ground with a dizzy head and a black eye, Shi Qiang leapt up and ran over to the flying car. Its disc-shaped body was entirely broken and deformed, but due to the lack of onboard fuel, it hadn’t caught fire. There was only the sound of sparks crackling in the twisted metal.
罗辑话音未落，大史就向他猛扑过来，两人一起滚倒在几米远处的草坪上。紧接着一声巨响，一辆飞车正撞在他们两人刚才站的位置上！罗辑感到了气浪的冲击，金属碎片从他们上方嗖嗖飞过，那个广告牌被飞起的碎片击碎了一半，看上去像透明玻璃管的显示材料哗哗落了一地。被摔得头晕目眩眼睛发黑的罗辑还没恢复过来，大史就一跃而起，向坠地的飞车跑去。他看到圆盘状的车体已经完全破碎变形，但由于车内没有燃油，所以没起火，只有噼啪作响的电火花在那团绞扭的金属中窜动。
“Da Shi, you saved my life again,” Luo Ji said, leaning on his shoulder and massaging his injured leg.
“大史啊，你又救了我一命。”罗辑扶着史强的肩膀，揉着摔痛的腿说。
Lots of pedestrians crowded round, the scenes of terror on their clothing flashing as one. Two police cars landed, sirens blaring, and several officers got out to form a line around the broken car. Their uniforms flashed like the police light, drowning out the crowd’s clothing with their brightness. The one officer who came over to Shi Qiang and Luo Ji had clothing so bright they had to shut their eyes.
有许多行人围拢过来，他们的服装都映出表现惊恐的图像，闪成一片。有两辆警车呜着警笛自天而降，几名警察走下车，在残车周围拉上隔离线，他们的警服像警灯那样狂闪着，亮度盖过了周围市民的服装。一名警察向大史和罗辑走来，他的警服炫得两人睁不开眼。
Luo Ji thought about that occasion two centuries before and shivered involuntarily.
罗辑想起了两个世纪前的那一幕，不由得打了个寒战。
“You were right here when the car fell. You aren’t hurt, are you?” he said with concern. He evidently could see that the two of them were hibernators, because he made an effort to speak “ancient Chinese.”
“坠车的时候你们就在旁边，没受伤吧？”警察关切地问，他显然看出了两人是冬眠者，也吃力地说着“古汉语”。
Before Luo Ji could answer, Shi Qiang pulled the officer who had asked the question across the tape and out of the crowd. Once they had gotten away, the officer’s uniform stopped flashing.
不等罗辑回答，大史就拉着问话的警察走出隔离绳和人圈，一来到外面，警察的服装就停止了闪耀。
“I don’t know how many times I’ll have to. You really ought to grow some sense, and a few more eyes.” He pointed to the totaled flying car. “Remind you of anything?”
“我以后还不知道要救你几命呢，可你自个儿也得多长个心眼多长只眼睛。”他指指撞毁的飞车，“这个，没让你想起什么？”
“We want to report it.”
“我们要报案。”
“Of course. We’re reporting it.”
“当然。我们报案。”
“Cars all ran on the ground in your day. I can’t even imagine how dangerous that was. Well, you’re now in the police surveillance system. You’ll be notified of any progress on your case, but, please believe me, this is an ordinary traffic accident. Whether or not you filed a report, you would still receive compensation.”
“你们那时的车部在地上走，还那么危险，真难想象。好了，你们已在警务系统的监控之中，案件的进展会通知你们的，不过请相信我，这就是一般的交通事故而已，不管是否报案，你们都会得到赔偿的。”
“Are you sure?”
“确定吗？”
“You’re making a big deal out of it. You may have been startled, but it really was a traffic accident. However, according to the law, if you insist on reporting it…”
“这是小题大做，您可能是受惊了，真的是一起交通事故，不过按照法律，如果你坚持要报案的话……”
“You need to check up on this. It might be an assassination attempt,” he said.
“你们好好调查一下，这可能是一起谋杀。”大史说。
“We insist.”
“我们坚持。”
The officer laughed. “Really? It’s just a traffic accident.”
警察笑笑说：“怎么会呢？就是一起交通事故。”
“We agree. We might still be in danger.”
“我们同意，我们可能还会有危险。”
The officer laughed again. “It’s really a common occurrence.”
警察又笑笑：“其实这是很常见的事。”
“A common occurrence? Let me ask you: On average, how many traffic accidents of this kind take place in this city every month?”
“常见的事？那我问你，这座城市里平均每月发生多少起这样的交通事故？”
“There were six or seven all of last year!”
“去年一年就有六七起呢！”
“I’ll have you know, officer: In our time, this city had more than that every day.”
“那我告诉你，警官，在我们那时，这座城市每天发生的车祸都要比这多。”
The officer pressed a display area on his sleeve. It popped up an information window, which he looked over, and then said, “It’s been reported. For the next forty-eight hours, the police will track you, but this requires your agreement.”
警察在衣袖上的一块显示区按了一下，那里弹出了一个信息窗口，警察看了看窗口说：“已经立案。以后四十八小时要对你们进行警务跟踪，但这需要得到你们的同意。”
After they left the police and the scene of the accident behind, Shi Qiang said to Luo Ji, “We’d better get back to my place. I don’t feel at ease when I’m outside. It’s not far. We probably should walk back. Taxis are unmanned, so it’s not safe.”
离开了警察和事发现场后，大史对罗辑说：“咱们最好赶快回我的住处去，在外面我总是觉得不放心。住处并不远，我们还是走着回去吧，出租车都是无人的，也不保险。”
“Perhaps it has. But you’ve got to trust my intuition, my boy.”
“也许吧，但老弟，你要相信我的直觉。”
“I’m no longer a Wallfacer.”
“我已经不是面壁者了。”
“But hasn’t the ETO been destroyed?” Luo Ji asked, looking about him. Off in the distance, the fallen car had been lifted up by a larger flying car. The crowd had dispersed, and the police car had left. A municipal works vehicle had landed, and several workmen had gotten out to gather scattered debris and begin repairs to the ground, which had been damaged by the crash. Following the small commotion, the city had returned to its normal, pleasing calm.
“可是，地球三体组织不是已经被消灭了吗？”罗辑四下看看说。远处，那辆坠车已经被一辆大型飞车吊走，围观者散去，警车也离开了，一辆市政工程车降落下来，有几名工人下车收拾散落的碎片，并开始修理被撞坏的地面。小小的骚动后，城市又恢复了怡人的平静。
“That car didn’t seem to think so… While we’re walking, pay attention to the cars above you.”
“那辆车好像不那么想……走路的时候注意着点天上的车。”
They kept to the “shade” of the treelike buildings as much as possible, and crossed any open spaces they reached at a run. Soon they arrived at a broad plaza, and Shi Qiang said, “My place is just opposite. It’s too far to go around, so we’ll have to make a run for it.”
他们尽量在树形建筑的“树荫”下行走，遇到开阔地就快跑过去。很快，他们来到一个宽阔的广场边，大史说：“就在对面，绕过去太远了，咱们快点儿跑过去。”
Luo Ji ran across the plaza behind Shi Qiang. When they neared the sandy area, he heard Shi Qiang call, “Hurry. Get in there!” and he was dragged skidding across the sand and then headlong into the withered grove. Lying on the grove’s warm sand, he looked up between the black pillars at the sky and saw a flying car zoom down and buzz the grove before pulling up and accelerating away. The gust of wind it left in its wake blew a burst of sand into the air, which hit the pillars with a whoosh.
罗辑跟着大史跑过广场，在接近沙地时，他听到大史喊：“快，钻进去！”他被大史拉着脚下打滑地跑过沙地，一头钻进了“枯树林”雕塑群，躺在林中温暖的沙地上，看着周围那黑色的柱子伸向天空。这时，罗辑看到了一辆俯冲的飞车低低地掠过“枯树林”，急速拉起，升上去飞走了，它带起的一阵疾风把林间的沙子吹起来，打在柱子上哗哗作响。
“That’s a ‘maybe,’ though. There’s nothing wrong with being careful… See that sculpture in the center of the plaza? If anything happens, we can hide there.”
“不还是‘也许’吗？小心点儿总没坏处……看到广场中心那堆雕塑了吗？有事儿的话那里可以躲。”
There was a square sandy area in the center of the plaza, like a miniature desert. The sculpture that Shi Qiang mentioned, located right in the center of the sand, was a group of black pillar-like objects, each two or three meters tall. From a distance, it looked like a grove of withered black trees.
罗辑看到广场中心有一片正方形的沙地，好像是沙漠的微缩景观，大史说的雕塑就在沙地中央，是一群黑色的柱状物，每根两三米高，从远处看去像一片黑色的枯树林。
“Isn’t that being a little paranoid? Maybe it was just a traffic accident.”
“这是不是有点疑神疑鬼，也许那真是交通事故。”
“Maybe it wasn’t headed for us.”
“也许它不是冲着我们来的。”
“Hmm. Maybe,” Shi Qiang said, as he sat up and dumped the sand out of his shoes.
“哼，也许吧。”大史坐在那儿倒着鞋里的沙子说。
“Will they laugh at us for this?”
“咱们这样会不会让人笑话？”
“What kind of sculpture is this?” Within this group of struggling arms, Luo Ji felt a chill, even though he was still sweating from the run. At the sculpture’s edge, he saw a solemn obelisk, on which was carved a line of large golden characters: MAKE TIME FOR CIVILIZATION, FOR CIVILIZATION WON’T MAKE TIME.
“这是什么雕塑？”罗辑置身于这群对天挣扎的手臂中，虽然出了一身汗，还是感到阵阵寒意。在雕塑群的边缘，罗辑看到了一块肃穆的方碑，上面刻着一行金色的大字：给岁月以文明，而不是给文明以岁月。
Only then did Luo Ji turn his attention to the sculpture they were inside. He noticed that the pillars weren’t withered trees, but arms extending out of the desert. The skinny arms were just skin and bones, so at first glance they looked like dead tree trunks. The hands atop them made a variety of distorted gestures to the sky and seemed to express a kind of endless pain.
这时，罗辑才真正注意到他们置身其中的雕塑群，他发现那些柱状物并不是什么枯树，而是一只只从沙漠中向上伸展的手臂，这些手臂都瘦得皮包骨头，所以初看上去像枯树干，顶上的那些手都对着天空做出各种极度扭曲的姿态，像是表达着某种无尽的痛苦。
“Don’t be afraid of that crap. Who’s going to recognize you? Besides, we’re from two centuries ago, so even if we’re entirely normal, people are still gonna laugh. My boy, nothing’s lost by being careful. What if the thing really was headed for you?”
“怕个鬼啊，谁认识你？再说了，咱们是二百年前来的，就是一本正经地行事，人家看着也照样儿可笑。老弟，小心不吃亏，那玩意儿要是真冲你来的呢？”
“Okay, my boy. This tree’s where I live,” Shi Qiang said, pointing to the massive architectural tree in front of them.
“好了，老弟，我就在这棵树上住。”史强指着前方的一探巨树建筑说。
“The Great Ravine Memorial,” Shi Qiang said. He did not seem interested in explaining further, but led Luo Ji out of the sculpture and across the other half of the plaza at a fast clip.
“大低谷纪念碑。”史强说，他显然没有兴趣进一步解释，拉起罗辑向外走去，快步穿过了另一半广场。
“My god! Are you all right, sir? That’s really dangerous!” said a voice issuing from a small billboard next to them. The billboard was attached to a small pavilion containing a machine selling drinks and such, and the speaker was a young man dressed in a blue uniform. His face was pale, and he seemed even more frightened than Luo Ji. “I’m with the Office of Evacuation and Drainage at the Third Municipal Administration Company. That cover opened automatically. It might be a software failure.”
“哦，天啊！先生您没事吧？！真是危险！”这声音是从旁边的一块小广告牌上发出的，这个广告牌贴在一个饮料售货机之类的小亭子上，说话的人是一个身穿蓝色工装的小伙子，他的脸色发向，好像比罗辑还害怕，“我是市政三公司疏排处的，那块盖板自动打开，可能是软件系统故障”
Luo Ji looked around him as he walked. All of a sudden he heard the floor creak, and then the ground fell away under his feet and he plummeted downward. Shi Qiang grabbed hold of him when his chest was already at ground level and struggled to haul him up. After he had his footing, the two of them stared at the hole in the ground. It was the mouth of a sewer, and its cover had slid aside just as Luo Ji was about to step on it.
罗辑边走边抬头看，突然听到地上哗地响了一声，接着脚下一空身体向下坠去。旁边的史强一把抓住了他，这时他的胸部以下已经在地下了，大史使劲把他拖了出来，两人呆呆地看着地上的那个洞，这是一个下水道口之类的洞口，就在罗辑踏上去之前，盖板滑开了。
Shi Qiang picked up a small round stone from the grass next to the road and tossed it down the hole. It was quite some time before they heard any sound. “Damn. How deep is it?” he asked the man in the billboard.
大史从路旁的草坪中找来一小块卵石，从洞口扔下去，好一会儿才听到响声，“这他妈的有多深？！”他问广告牌上的人。
“Oh, no, no. At least, this is the first time I’ve ever seen it.”
“不不，反正我是第一次遇到。”
“Does this happen often?” Shi Qiang asked.
“常出这事儿？”大史问。
“Around thirty meters. So, like I said, it’s really dangerous! I’ve inspected the surface drainage system. The sewers in your day were all pretty shallow. This accident has been recorded. You…” He glanced at his sleeve as he spoke. “Ah, Mr. Luo. You can go to the TMAC to be compensated.”
“三十米左右吧，所以我说真危险！我考察过地面的排水系统，你们那时的下水道好像都很浅。事故已经记录，您……”他说着看了一眼自己的衣袖，“哦，罗先生，您会得到第三市政公司的赔偿的。”
At last they reached the lobby leading to Shi Qiang’s tree, #1863. He said that he lived on branch 106, near the top, and advised Luo Ji to eat down below before going up. They went into a restaurant on one side of the lobby. Aside from being as clean as a 3D rendering, one characteristic of this age was even more obvious here than when he first saw it in the reawakening center: Dynamic information windows were everywhere, on the walls, tabletops, chairs, the floor and ceiling, and even on small objects like the glasses and napkin holders on the table. Everything had an interface and display with scrolling text or moving images. It was as if the entire restaurant was a giant computer display showing off a diverse and glittering splendor.
他们终于走进了史强居住的l863号树的树干大厅，史强说他住在接近树顶的106枝，他建议先在下面吃了饭再上去。他们走进了大厅一侧的餐厅，除了三维动画般的洁净外，这个时代的另一个特色在这里表现得比罗辑在苏醒中心第一次看到的更明显：到处都是动态的信息窗口，墙壁上、桌面上、椅子上，地板和天花板上，甚至一些小的物品，如餐桌上的水杯和餐巾纸盒上，都有操作界面、滚动文字或动态图像显币，仿佛整个餐厅就是一个大的电脑显示屏，显现出一种纷繁闪耀的华丽。
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