In 1971, Ye Wenjie of Tsinghua University sent a series of radio signals into space without authorization, and 8 years later, received a mysterious reply: "Don't answer!" Don't answer! Don't answer! However, in the face of the warning, Ye Wenjie was ecstatic, not only did she ignore it, but instead sent a more powerful radio wave signal!
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On a quiet night in 1971, an unusual tension permeated the campus of Tsinghua University.
Ye Wenjie is a young and talented astrophysicist who stands in a seemingly ordinary laboratory, but this laboratory hides an unknown secret - a highly classified deep space communication device.
This device was encountered by Ye Wenjie by chance, and it had a powerful transmission ability beyond the technical level at that time, which was enough to send signals to the distant depths of the universe.
At a time when the world was in turmoil and science and reason seemed to be marginalized, she firmly believed that only by exploring the mysteries of the universe could humanity find new hope and a way out.
Driven by this belief, Ye Wenjie made a bold decision: to use the device to send a string of carefully coded radio signals into space in an attempt to establish contact with a possible extraterrestrial civilization.
This string of signals contains the basic information of the earth, such as location, climate, biological species, etc., and also conveys the human desire for communication and the pursuit of knowledge.
Ye Wenjie double-checked the contents of the signals before launching to ensure that they neither exposed the vulnerability of the planet nor caused unnecessary misunderstandings. Eventually, on a starry night, she pressed the launch button, and at that moment, a powerful energy pierced through the atmosphere and flew towards the depths of the boundless universe.
Time flies, and eight years have passed in the blink of an eye. During this long wait, Ye Wenjie's life has undergone earth-shaking changes. She lost her loved ones, suffered betrayal, and was deeply traumatized. However, she always had a glimmer of anticipation for the radio signal that was emitted late at night, hoping to one day receive a response from a galaxy far away.
On an ordinary night, when Ye Wenjie was on duty alone at the Red Bank Base, the deep-space communication equipment that had been sealed for a long time suddenly sent out a strange signal. The waveforms and frequencies that pulsed on the screen were like nothing she had ever seen before, and it made her heart beat faster and she could hardly believe her eyes.
After careful analysis, she confirmed that it was a reply from outer space, and that it had been sent in a highly complex encoding.
Ye Wenjie nervously and excitedly decoded the message, when she read "Don't answer! Don't answer! Don't answer! At these words, an inexplicable fear and confusion surged in her heart. The message was clearly a warning to her, telling her that if she replied, there would be unpredictable consequences.
For Ye Wenjie, who has experienced countless hardships, such a warning did not make her flinch, but aroused her inner rebellion and unyielding.
At that moment, Ye Wenjie felt an unprecedented ecstasy. She believes that the warning itself proves the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, and that they have some level of knowledge about Earth.
This realization strengthened her belief that humanity needs external forces to drive its own evolution and change. So, desperate, Ye Wenjie decided to activate the deep space communication equipment again, sending a more intense and detailed radio wave signal, not only responding to the mysterious warning, but also announcing the existence of the earth to the universe.
Ye Wenjie became the target of public criticism, her name is closely associated with words such as "betrayal" and "destruction", but she herself retains a detached calmness, and for her, there is nothing to be nostalgic for, her father, Ye Zhetai, a respected physics professor who was persecuted to death in a political campaign.
In this context, Ye Wenjie's heart gradually closed, and she finally opened her heart a little, but she was framed as a "counter-revolutionary" by her partner, and her life plummeted.
(Note: The content of this article revolves around Liu Cixin's book "The Three-Body Problem")
