Chapter 25: The Dark Garden_1

Qin Ming began organizing the timeline,

Wang Miao still looked energetic, clearly the Sophon hadn't warned him through a countdown yet.

Today was June 2, Sunday. Through the content of the conversation between the two and combining what he had seen of Three-Body before, he realized the specific time he was currently in.

It was four days before Yang Dong's suicide, which would be next Thursday, and the time Shi Qiang took Wang Miao to the conference and had him infiltrate the Frontiers of Science as an undercover agent was next Saturday. Shortly thereafter, a series of intense events would follow: capturing Ye Wenjie, the guzheng plan to eliminate Evans of the Adventist faction—all these happened within these short two months.

Wang Miao, Logic, the Wallfacer Project, The Waterdrop, PDC, ETO, Qin Ming sifted through the Three-Body plot from his past life memories, unravelling them painstakingly.

He still remembered that when he previously read Three-Body, the entire book was filled with despair, the despair that came from being crushed by technology. The enemy only sent out a single Waterdrop probe, and the Earth's fleet, which had been created with countless efforts and resources and celebrated with two thousand booms during the Spring Festival, was trampled to death like ants by the Trisolarans, with only a very few spaceships managing to escape.

Previously powerless yet willing, the current him was different. If Earth were to be compared to a chessboard, then he was already qualified to be a chess player.

But as much as time traveling had empowered him, it had also limited him.

He couldn't expose himself to the outside world, nor could he rashly contact Wang Miao, for that would surely attract the attention of the Sophon.

If the Sophon observed his ability to time travel, then Qin Ming and even humanity's predicament would become extremely challenging. Putting aside whether or not the Trisolarans would have ETO assassinate him, if the Sophon also followed him through time, then all the knowledge and technology he had gained in the myriad heavens would be like working for the Trisolarans for free, in short, a gift.

Until he had figured out the rules of time travel or found a way to counter the Sophon, Qin Ming couldn't afford to reveal himself.

So the question was, how could he interfere with the future development without exposing himself?

After pondering for a moment, Qin Ming thought of a method—to have others stand in the forefront while he played the role behind the scenes, manipulating them through covert means.

Chen Fang's talk with Wang Miao ultimately came to nothing.

Wang Miao was a stubborn and strong-willed person. Even during the guzheng operation, his emotions were only somewhat out of control, unlike a certain defense in Three-Body that depicted him from the very beginning as a timid and easily scared individual, incapable of handling situations—completely unlike someone who had achieved success in his professional field.

Facing such a person, Chen Fang was unable to persuade him, and she was even close to being persuaded herself. Helplessly, after finishing the meal, she sent Wang Miao down to the ground floor.

A while later, Chen Fang came back. She first went into the bedroom, then with her purse in hand, she came up to Qin Ming.

"Xiao Ming, Teacher Li told me about your family's situation, and Yueyue has also told me about your illness," she said, her eyes filled with pity and sympathy. She took a stack of money out of her purse, "Auntie can only help you so much, take it."

"Buy some good food to nourish your body and get some better clothes," she said.

Chen Fang felt a pang of regret in her heart. Truly, the heavens envy the young—so young, with a great appearance, character, and achievements, yet struck with an incurable disease.

If it had been the previous Qin Ming, he wouldn't have accepted. He was a person with an inferiority complex, and the more inferior someone felt, the stronger their sense of pride became. These people often wouldn't accept charity from others, nor did they like to be looked upon with pity, as it would only make them feel troubled and anxious.

Qin Ming didn't say much but accepted the money with grace. Chen Fang, as if comforted, smiled and then went to clean up the dishes on the table.

As a time traveler, he felt a bit of a failure, worrying about money. In fact, he could now make a lot of money by either speculating in the stock market or starting a company to sell health products. But in his current guise as an ordinary high school student in this 2007 Three-Body World, money was not of much use to him.

Moreover, the original him received a monthly stipend from an anonymous kind-hearted person. Though it wasn't much, it was sufficient. Qin Ming really wanted to know who it was, to thank them in person.

He's always been someone to repay debts of gratitude and to exact revenge for wrongs. Glancing at the weighty Renminbi in his hands, he decided that he needed to significantly improve Liu Yueyue's grades.

Um, where was Yueyue?

Qin Ming had been lost in thought just now and now realized the girl had gone off somewhere.

He looked around and noticed the bedroom door was ajar. Then, without much effort, he pushed the door open and saw an extremely enticing scene.

Liu Yueyue was wearing a sensor suit and playing the Three-Body game with a VR headset on. The black tight-fitting suit outlined the wonderful and exquisite figure of an eighteen-year-old girl, beautiful and full of desire.

At this moment, absorbed in the Virtual World, she was unaware that someone had entered the room.

Qin Ming didn't immediately speak out. After appreciating the view with pure eyes for a while, he couldn't help himself and reminded her, "Ahem, Liu Yueyue, getting too immersed in games is not a good habit."

The girl was startled, realizing only then that someone had come in. She quickly took off her helmet and saw it was Qin Ming.

"What are you looking at!"

Seeing that his gaze was roaming over her, Liu Yueyue hurriedly pushed him out the door.

In a moment, when Qin Ming re-entered, she had already changed into a dress and hidden the VR helmet in the closet.

"You still haven't listened to me; you need to study hard, not play games."

"You just focus on your tutoring, what's it to you what I do?" Liu Yueyue placed her hands on her hips, raised an eyebrow defiantly: "Don't think I'll let you have your way just because you're sick."

Qin Ming smiled, "You don't even want to..."

"You!!!!"

Her face flushed red, and she found herself at a loss for words.

Seeing this, Qin Ming sighed.

"You think I want to bother with you; if it weren't for the fact that your mom gave too much,"

"I have things to do, so I'm leaving."

With those few words, he turned and left.

But Liu Yueyue was relentless and chased after him, "Wait, I'm giving you a phone; it has my number in it, so you can call me if there's anything!"

After pushing the phone into Qin Ming's hands, she still followed him, showing no sign of leaving.

"What's the matter, can't bear to part with me?" Qin Ming turned back and teased her.

"Oh, brother, you're overthinking it. I'm just worried you might fall down the stairs on your way out."

Fall down... in an elevator?

Faced with Liu Yueyue's stubbornness, Qin Ming did not expose her lie and just smiled wryly.

The two entered the elevator together. As they reached the ground floor, the young man's silhouette gradually faded away. Liu Yueyue stood still for a moment before returning home.

In her bedroom, Liu Yueyue thought about continuing the Three-Body game, but the thought of the young man made her restrain herself.

She stood up, closed the closet, then pushed the window open, gazing out towards the garden, only to find that the grass from yesterday was gone.

Liu Yueyue furrowed her brows tightly when she saw a cleaner trimming the shrubbery in the garden, and she called out loudly.

"Uncle, where's the grass?"

"Grass? What grass?" Upon hearing the chime-like voice of the girl, the cleaner looked up at Liu Yueyue, perplexed.

"Right there; wasn't there grass growing from the crack in the rock before?" Liu Yueyue pointed at the crevice where the stubborn little weed had grown, which now was bare.

She breathed heavily, seemingly in a rush.

The cleaner thought for a moment before realizing, "Oh, you mean that piece of grass? I just pulled it out."

"Why did you pull it out? It had finally grown out of a crack in the rock."

"What's so odd about grass growing from a rock crevice?" The cleaner shook his head and explained helplessly, "But it's just ordinary weeds; they're everywhere here, nothing special."

Liu Yueyue stepped back and collapsed onto the bed, feeling faint. It was as if something inside her had crumbled.

The Dark Forest emerged in the tiny garden—no matter how desperately the weed struggled to survive, to the cleaner of the garden, it was just a weed that could be casually wiped out.