Ding didn’t seem annoyed by Wang’s unannounced visit. He was clearly in the mood to talk to someone. “I bought the apartment about three months ago,” Ding said. “Why did I buy it? Did I really think she was going to become interested in starting a family?” His laugh sounded drunk.
对汪淼的不请自来，丁仪倒没表示反感，他显然也想找人说话。“这套房子是三个月前买的，”丁仪说，“我买房子 干什么？难道她真的会走进家庭？”他带着醉意笑着摇摇头。 “
As soon as he opened the door to Ding Yi’s brand-new three-bedroom apartment, Wang smelled alcohol. Ding was lying on the sofa with the TV on, staring at the ceiling. The apartment was unfinished, with only a few pieces of furniture and little decoration, and the huge living room seemed very empty. The most eye-catching object was the pool table in the corner.
推开丁仪那套崭新的三居室的房门，汪淼闻到了一股酒味，看到丁仪躺在沙发上，电视开着，他的双眼却望着天花板。汪淼四下打量了一下，看到房间还没怎么装修，也没什么家具和陈设，宽大的客厅显得很空，最显眼的是客厅一角摆放的一张台球桌。
“You two…” Wang wanted to know the details of Yang Dong’s life, but didn’t know how to ask the questions.
你们……”汪淼想知道杨冬生活中的一一切，但又不知该如何问。
“She was like a star, always so distant. Even the light she shone on me was always cold.” Ding walked to one of the windows and looked up at the night sky.
“她像一颗星星，总是那么遥远，照到我身上的光也总是冷的。”丁仪走到窗前看着夜空，像在寻找那颗已逝去的星辰。
Wang said nothing. All he wanted now was to hear her voice. But a year ago, as the sun sank in the west, when she and he had locked eyes for a moment, they had not spoken to each other. He had never heard her voice.
汪淼也沉默下来。很奇怪，他现在就是想听一听她的声音，一年前那个夕阳西下的时刻，她同他对视的那一瞬间没有说话，他从来没有听到过她的声音。
Ding waved his hand as though trying to flick something away.
丁仪一挥手，像要赶走什么，将自己从这哀婉的思绪中解脱出来。
“Professor Wang, you were right. Don’t get involved with the police or the military. They’re all idiots. The deaths of those physicists had nothing to do with the Frontiers of Science. I’ve explained it to them many times, but I can’t get them to understand.”
“汪教授，你是对的，别跟军方和警方纠缠到一块儿，那是一群自以为是的白痴。那些物理学家的自杀与‘科学边界’没有关系，我对他们解释过，可解释不清。”
“They seem to have conducted some independent investigation.”
“他们好像也做过一些调查。”
“Yes, and the investigation’s scope was global. They should already know that two of the dead never had any contact with the Frontiers of Science, including… Yang Dong.” Ding seemed to have trouble saying her name.
“是，而且这种调查还是全球范围的，那他们也应该知道，其中的两人与‘科学边界’没有任何来往，包括——杨冬。”丁仪说出这个名字时显得很吃力。
“Ding Yi, you know that I am already involved. So… as far as why Yang made the choice that… she did, I’d like to know. I think you must know some of it.” Wang thought he must sound very foolish as he tried hard to disguise his real intent.
“丁仪，你知道，我现在也卷进这件事里了。所以，关于使杨冬做出这种选择的原因，我很想知道，我想你一定知道一些。”汪淼笨拙地说道，试图掩盖他真正的心迹。
“If you know more, you’ll only get pulled in deeper. Right now you’re just superficially involved, but with more knowledge your spirit will be drawn in as well, and then it will mean real trouble.”
“如果知道了，你只会卷得更深。现在你只是人和事卷进来了，知道后连精神也会卷进来，那麻烦就大了。”
“Try.”
“试试。”
“She and I loved to play. It reminded us of particles colliding in the accelerator.” Ding picked up two balls: one black and one white. He set the black ball next to one of the pockets, and placed the white ball about ten centimeters from the black ball. “Can you pocket the black ball?”
“我和她很喜欢打，因为这让我们想到了加速器中的粒子碰撞。”丁仪说着拿起黑白两个球，将黑球放到洞旁，将白球放到距黑球仅十厘米左右的位置，问汪淼，“能把黑球打进去吗？”
“Go for it.”
“打吧。”
“Of course.”
“当然。”
“All right, then. Do you play pool?” Ding walked to the pool table.
“那好吧，打过台球吗？”丁仪走到了台球桌前。
Wang picked up the cue, struck the white ball lightly, and drove the black ball into the pocket.
汪淼拿球杆，轻击白球，将黑球撞人洞内。
“Good. Come, now let’s move the table to a different location.” Ding directed the confused Wang to pick up the heavy table. Together they moved it to another corner of the living room, next to a window. Then Ding scooped out the black ball, set it next to the pocket, and again picked up the white ball and set it down about ten centimeters away. “Think you can do it again?”
“很好，来，我们把球桌换个位置。”丁仪招呼一脸迷惑的汪淼，两人抬起沉重的球桌，将它搬到客厅靠窗的一角。放稳后，丁仪从球袋内掏出刚才打进去的黑球，将它放到洞边，又拾起那个白球，再次放到距黑球十厘米左右的地方， “这次还能打进去吗？”
“I work in applied research. I’m not as sensitive as you theoreticians.”
“我是搞应用研究的，没有你们理论派那么敏感。”
Again, Wang easily made the shot.
汪淼再次轻而易举地将黑球打人洞内。
“I used to play a little in college.”
“上学时随便玩过几下。”
“This close? Anyone can do it.”
“这么近谁都能。”
Ding waved his hands. “Let’s move it again.” They lifted the table and set it down in a third corner of the living room. Ding set up the two balls as before. “Go.”
“搬。”丁仪挥手示意，两人再次抬起球桌，搬到客厅的第三个角，丁仪又将黑白两个球摆放到同样的位置，“打吧。”
Wang shrugged helplessly. He managed to pocket the black ball a third time.
汪淼无奈地笑笑，第三次将黑球击人洞内。
“Listen, we –“
“我说，我们……”
“Good, that’s the conclusion of the experiment. Let’s analyze the results.” Ding lit a cigarette before continuing, “We ran the same experiment five times. Four of the experiments differed in both location and time. Two of the experiments were at the same location but different times. Aren’t you shocked by the results?” He opened his arms exaggeratedly. “Five times! Every colliding experiment yielded the exact same result!”
“好了，实验结束，让我们来分析一下结果。”丁仪点上一枝烟说，“我们总共进行了五次试验，其中四次在不同的空间位置和不同的时间，两次在同一空间位置但时间不同。您不对结果震惊吗？”他夸张地张开双臂，“五次，撞击试验的结果居然都一样！”
“Go!”
“打吧。”
They moved the table two more times: once next to the door of the living room, and finally back to the original location. Ding set up the two balls twice more, and Wang twice more made his shot. By now both were slightly winded.
他们又搬了两次台球桌，一次搬到了客厅靠门的一角，最后一次搬回了原位。丁仪又两次将黑白球摆到洞前的位置，汪淼又两次将黑球击人洞内。这时两人都有些出汗了。
“What are you trying to say?” Wang asked, gasping.
“你到底想表达什么？”汪淼喘着气问。
“Can you explain this incredible result? Please use the language of physics.”
“你现在对这令人难以置信的结果做出解释，用物理学语言。”
“All right… During these five experiments, the mass of the two balls never changed. In terms of their locations, as long as we’re using the frame of reference of the tabletop, there was also no change. The velocity of the white ball striking the black ball also remained basically the same throughout. Thus, the transfer of momentum between the two balls didn’t change. Therefore, in all five experiments, the result was the black ball being driven into the pocket.”
“这……在五次试验中，两个球的质量是没有变化的；所处位置，当然是以球桌面为参照系来说，也没有变化；白球撞击黑球的速度向量也基本没有变化，因而两球之间的动量交换也没有变化，所以五次试验中黑球当然都被击人洞中。”
Ding picked up a bottle of brandy and two dirty glasses from the floor. He filled both and handed one to Wang. Wang declined.
丁仪拿起撂在地板上的一瓶白兰地，把两个脏兮兮的杯子分别倒满，递给汪淼一杯，后者谢绝了。
“Come on, let’s celebrate. We’ve discovered a great principle of nature: The laws of physics are invariant across space and time. All the physical laws of human history, from Archimedes’ principle to string theory, and all the scientific discoveries and intellectual fruits of our species are the by-products of this great law. Compared to us two theoreticians, Einstein and Hawking are mere applied engineers.”
“应该庆祝一下，我们发现了一个伟大的定律：物理规律在时间和空间上是均匀的。人类历史上的所有物理学理论，从阿基米德原理到弦论，以至人类迄今为止的一切科学发现和思想成果，都是这个伟大定律的副产品，与我们相比，爱因斯坦和霍金才真是搞应用的俗人。”
“I still don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“我还是不明白你想表达什么。”
Ding watched Wang. After a long silence, Wang finally said, “This actually happened. Am I right?”
丁仪盯着汪淼，后者沉默许久才问：“这事真的发生了，是吗？”
“Imagine another set of results. The first time, the white ball drove the black ball into the pocket. The second time, the black ball bounced away. The third time, the black ball flew onto the ceiling. The fourth time, the black ball shot around the room like a frightened sparrow, finally taking refuge in your jacket pocket. The fifth time, the black ball flew away at nearly the speed of light, breaking the edge of the pool table, shooting through the wall, and leaving the Earth and the Solar System, just like Asimov once described.13 What would you think then?”
“想象另一种结果：第一次，白球将黑球撞人洞内；第二次，黑球走偏了；第．三次，黑球飞上了天花板；第四次，黑球像一只受惊的麻雀在房间里乱飞，最后钻进了您的衣袋；第五次，黑球以接近光速的速度飞出，把台球桌沿撞出一个缺口，击穿了墙壁，然后飞出地球，飞出太阳系，就像阿西莫夫（注：这里指阿西莫夫的科幻小说《台球》。）描写的那样。这时您怎么想？”
Ding drained both glasses in his hands. He stared at the pool table as though looking at a demon. “Yes. It happened. In the last few years, we finally obtained the necessary equipment for experimentally testing fundamental theories. Three expensive ‘pool tables’ have been constructed: one in North America, another in Europe, and the third you are familiar with, in Liangxiang. Your Nanotechnology Research Center earned a lot of money from it.
丁仪将手中的两杯酒都仰头灌下去，两眼直勾勾地看着台球桌，仿佛那是个魔鬼，“是的，发生了。近年来，基础理论研究的实验验证条件渐渐成熟，有三个昂贵的‘台球桌’被造了出来，一个在北美，一个在欧洲，还有一个你当然知道，在中国良湘，你们纳米中心从那里赚了不少钱。
“It means that the laws of physics are not invariant across time and space.”
“这意味着物理规律在时间和空间上不均匀。”
“What does this mean?” Wang asked. When he saw Ding staring at him without speaking, he added, “Oh, I’m in nanotech, and I also work with microscale structures. But that’s orders of magnitude larger than the scale at which you do your work. Please educate me.”
“这意味着什么呢？”汪淼问，看到丁仪盯着自己不做声，他又补充道，“哦，我搞纳米，也接触物质微观结构，但比起你们来要浅好几个层次，请指教一下。”
“These high-energy particle accelerators raised the amount of energy available for colliding particles by an order of magnitude, to a level never before achieved by the human race. Yet, with the new equipment, the same particles, the same energy levels, and the same experimental parameters would yield different results. Not only would the results vary if different accelerators were used, but even with the same accelerator, experiments performed at different times would give different results. Physicists panicked. They repeated the ultra-high-energy collision experiments again and again using the same conditions, but every time the result was different, and there seemed to be no pattern.”
“这些高能加速器将实验中粒子对撞的能量提高了一个数量级，这是人类以前从未达到过的。在新的对撞能级下，同样的粒子，同样的撞击能量，一切试验条件都相同，结果却不一样。不但在不同的加速度上不一样，在同一加速器不同时间的试验中也不一样，物理学家们慌了，把这种相同条件的超高能撞击试验一次次地重复，但每次的结果都不同，也没有规律。”
“I think you can deduce the rest. Even General Chang figured it out. He’s really a smart man.”
“往下您应该能推论出来吧，那个将军都想出来了，他真是个聪明人。”
Wang picked up the white ball. He caressed it for a bit and put it back down. “For someone exploring the forefront of theory, that would indeed be a catastrophe.”
汪淼从台球桌上拿起刚才他打过五次的那个白球，抚摸了一会儿轻轻放下， “这对一个前沿理论的探索者确实是个灾难。”
“What does that mean?”
“这又意味着什么呢？”
“It means that laws of physics that could be applied anywhere in the universe do not exist, which means that physics… also does not exist.” Wang turned back from the window.
“这就意味着宇宙普适的物理规律不存在，那物理学……也不存在了。”汪淼从窗外收回目光说。
“To accomplish something in theoretical physics requires one to have almost religious faith. It’s easy to be led to the abyss.”
“在理论物理这个领域要想有所建树，需要一种宗教般的执著，这很容易把人引向深渊。”
Wang looked outside the window thoughtfully. The lights of the city were so bright that the stars of the night sky were drowned out.
汪淼看着窗外沉思着，外面城市的灯海一片灿烂，夜空中的星星被淹没得看不见了。
As they said their farewells, Ding gave Wang an address. “If you have the time, please visit Yang Dong’s mother. She and her mother always lived together, and she was the entirety of her mother’s life. Now the old woman is all alone.”
告辞时，丁仪给了汪淼一个地址。“你如果有空，拜托去看看杨冬的母亲。杨冬一直和她住在一起，女儿是她生活的全部，现在就一个人了，很可怜。”
“‘I know what I’m doing is irresponsible. But I have no choice,'” Ding said. “That was the second half of her note. You just stumbled on the first half. Now can you understand her? At least a little?”
“‘我知道自己这样做是不负责任的，但别无选择。’”丁仪紧接着说，“这是她遗书的后半部分，您无意中刚说出了前半部分，现在多少能够理解她吧。”
“Ding, you clearly know a lot more than I do. Can you tell me more? You really believe that the laws of physics are not invariant across time and space?”
汪淼说：“丁仪，你知道得显然比我多，就不能再透露一点吗？你真的相信物理规律在时空上不均匀？”
“I don’t know anything.”
“我什么都不知道……”
Ding stared into Wang’s eyes for a long time. Finally, he said, “But that is the question.”
丁仪与汪淼对视了好长时间，最后说：“这是个问题。”
Wang knew that he was only finishing what the British colonel had begun to say: To be, or not to be: that is the question.
汗淼知道，他不过是接下了那位英军上校的话：生存还是死亡，这是个问题。
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