Chapter 26: Interrogating Ye Wenjie_1

An hour later.

Cao Ge and Da Shi arrived at the operation center. Da Shi did not stop at the door but drove straight in, then directly entered the interior from the basement.

When the two walked into the conference room, it was already filled with people.

The sound of them opening the back door did not attract their attention, as the eyes of the more than twenty people in the conference room were all focused on the screen at the end of the conference table on the wall.

The image on the screen showed a closed interrogation room with an old man inside. Opposite the old man sat two military officers in uniform, one male and one female, with the male being General Chang Weisi.

"It has already started," Da Shi glanced at the image on the screen, then said to Cao Ge.

Cao Ge glanced at the extremely calm old man on the screen, and then followed Da Shi to sit at two empty seats at the end of the conference table.

"Professor Wang."

"Mr. Cao."

Cao Ge greeted Wang Miao, who looked over, and then pulled out a chair to sit down.

Although their actions didn't attract the attention of others, Wang Miao, who also sat at the back, noticed them.

After sitting down, the three of them no longer communicated and all turned their attention to the interrogation scene on the screen.

"Ye Wenjie, I am now questioning you on behalf of the state," General Chang Weisi said solemnly to Ye Wenjie.

"Just ask what you want to know; if I know, I will tell you," Ye Wenjie responded calmly to Chang Weisi's words.

"Good, the first question, when did you start contacting the Trisolarans?"

"It was in the summer of 1975, I was still at the Red Coast Base..."

In the time that followed, Ye Wenjie recounted her experience at the Red Coast Base, and everyone listened intently, with no other sound heard in the conference room aside from Ye Wenjie's voice.

"So you're saying your first communication was in 1979," General Chang Weisi said.

"That's one way to put it. In the summer of 1979, I received my first message from Centaurus," Ye Wenjie answered.

"After receiving the message, what did you do, did you reply?"

"Yes, I communicated Earth's information to that civilization, telling them that Earth's civilization could no longer control its own evil actions through its efforts alone, and that Earth needed their arrival," Ye Wenjie said calmly.

The interrogation continued for more than an hour.

After General Chang Weisi finished asking the prepared political questions, he handed over the right to question to this side of the conference room.

Then, under Cao Ge's watchful gaze, the scientists in the conference room started questioning relentlessly about the Trisolarans' technological issues.

Some questions received answers, while others did not, as Ye Wenjie herself did not know.

This went on for another half-hour or so until it was Cao Ge's turn.

"Brother Cao, after listening for so long, don't you have any questions? Aren't you scientists most interested in aliens?" Da Shi said, looking toward him.

Cao Ge glanced at Da Shi and then at the scientists in the conference room, finally looking at the screen and speaking, "General Chang, I would like to ask her, are there many civilizations in the universe like Trisolaris? And if so, where are they all?"

Cao Ge asked that famous question.

He hoped to use Ye Wenjie's mouth to reveal some truths about the universe to those present.

"Miss Ye, are there many civilizations in the universe like Three-Body? If so, where are they all?" General Chang Weisi in the interrogation room asked Ye Wenjie.

Cao Ge's question evidently touched the previously unshakable Ye Wenjie.

Ye Wenjie's drifting gaze truly looked at General Chang Weisi for the first time, but she kept silent, not answering immediately.

"Is this question difficult to answer?" sensing something unusual in Ye Wenjie at that moment, General Chang Weisi asked.

Though not understanding science, General Chang sensed from Ye Wenjie's reaction that this question seemed crucial.

Confronted with General Chang's gaze after a long silence, Ye Wenjie finally said, "If I must answer, I would say I don't know, but if I were to estimate scientifically, there should be many intelligent civilizations in the universe."

"If there are many intelligent civilizations in the universe, then where are they, why haven't we discovered them, are they hiding?" Cao Ge continued to inquire.

After this question, Ye Wenjie's silence greatly lengthened before she slowly raised her head, looking solemnly at the camera in the corner of the interrogation room and saying, "I don't know."

Seeing Ye Wenjie's solemn expression, Cao Ge knew that he could not ask further, for if he did, it would be dangerous for him.

After all, up to this point, it could be seen as questions asked out of a human scholar's curiosity about the universe.

Because the question he asked was one already existing—the Fermi Paradox.

Cao Ge felt that it was enough to ask to here, at least alerting General Chang and the others to this issue. Whether they could think of the Dark Forest Law from this question was unrelated to him.

"General Chang, I have no more questions," Cao Ge said into the microphone.

Receiving the message, General Chang sorted through his papers and then said to Ye Wenjie, "Miss Ye, then we will conclude today's interrogation here."

............

After the interrogation, Cao Ge was specially invited to General Chang Weisi's office.

Sitting on the sofa, Cao Ge looked at General Chang who was also seated on the couch.

"Mr. Cao, the question you just asked resulted in an unusual reaction from Ye Wenjie. Why did you ask that, do you have any considerations?" After pondering for a while, General Chang looked toward Cao Ge and asked.

"General Chang, you're overthinking it, I have no considerations, I was just curious. Given that a civilization exists so close to us in Centaurus, how many civilizations might there be in the vastness of the universe? Yet so far, we have discovered only one civilization, that of Three-Body, sadly she didn't answer my question," Cao Ge said, looking out the window into the sky.

General Chang looked at Cao Ge, first lowering his head in silence for a while and then asking with furrowed brows, "Is this question important?"

Cao Ge shifted his gaze from the window back and then said earnestly to General Chang, "I don't know."

General Chang looked at Cao Ge for a long time without speaking.

Half an hour later, Cao Ge left the operation center.

"Brother Cao, why aren't you at all surprised; those are aliens?" On the way back, Da Shi asked while driving.

"What's there to be surprised about? Look around the operation center, who else is surprised? Such flickering incidents in the universe, Earth people simply can't do it, and the universe itself wouldn't flicker. I don't believe in ghosts, so that only leaves aliens. And I've always believed in aliens, this flickering of the universe just happened to prove that point," Cao Ge said.