Chapter Summaries

Lu Xiao joined Huadun Biotech after returning to China, while Xu Yun learned that six female Local Donkeys had been brought to Hefei to support the company’s research. The chapter left Brother Donkey facing a demanding breeding schedule.

• Tian Liangwei showed Lu Xiao how much Hefei’s High-tech Zone had changed before the group arrived at Huadun Biotech, where Lu Wenjia reunited with her father.
• Xiao Rong recognized Lu Xiao as a fellow participant in the hacker war, and the two set aside their old disagreement about Lu Xiao going abroad.
• Lu Xiao negotiated his research team and compensation, then signed a four-year contract with Huadun Biotech at a monthly salary of 80,000 and a larger share of proceeds.
• Zheng Zu told Xu Yun that his connections had found and delivered six Local Donkeys from a village in southern Sichuan.
• Xu Yun learned that all six Local Donkeys were female, leaving Brother Donkey to mate with them while continuing his other duties.
• At the University of Science and Technology of China, the cafeteria lady whipped Brother Donkey and Sister Donkey to send them off to grind soy milk.

Xu Yun and the research team successfully used a Yoffe trap to extend the lifespan of ground-state Isolated Point Particles to about 4.6 hours, achieving a major breakthrough. After Xu Yun reported that the particles could now be produced outside the lab, Academician Pan warned him to investigate the electromagnetic interactions of particles that had not reached the ground state and prepare heart medicine for the results.

• Zhou Shan confirmed that six female Local Donkeys were healthy and suitable for breeding, and discussed inbreeding risks and a promising hair-growth agent with Xu Yun.
• Xu Yun joined Lu Chaoyang and the research team to test his plan for storing Isolated Point Particles in a metastable state.
• The team used π mesons, negative hydrogen ions, and a Yoffe trap to keep the particles together after their normal fifteen-second lifespan.
• Li Ruoan calculated that the trapped particles’ decay period had increased to about 4.6 hours, prompting the laboratory to celebrate the breakthrough.
• Xu Yun called Academician Pan to report the result, and Pan told Xu Yun and Lu Chaoyang to examine the electromagnetic interactions of non-ground-state particles and keep emergency heart medicine ready.

Xu Yun and Lu Chaoyang designed an experiment to investigate the isolated point particle’s electromagnetic interaction after Academician Pan urged them to examine the results. The measurements revealed that the particle interacted only through gravity, leaving Xu Yun stunned.

• After Academician Pan ended the call, Lu Chaoyang reasoned that whatever had shaken him likely involved a major electromagnetic phenomenon, and he and Xu Yun agreed to investigate.
• Xu Yun proposed using alternating electron spins, lead particles, and the known 4685 Lambda Hyperon trajectory to amplify and detect the isolated point particle’s interactions.
• Xu Yun, Lu Chaoyang, and the team finalized the experiment, received access to the necessary equipment, and started the collisions before taking a meal break.
• When the team checked the monitoring data, Liang Haoran reported that the particle’s spinor field produced an unusual EY group with a mass eigenstate of zero.
• After the experiment finished, Lu Chaoyang told Xu Yun that the isolated point particle interacted gravitationally with other elementary particles but not through the strong, weak, or electromagnetic interactions.

Xu Yun and the laboratory team realized that the Isolated Point Particle’s properties matched dark matter, potentially making their accidental discovery a historic scientific breakthrough. Xu Yun also suspected that the original formula from the 1100 Instance held far greater secrets, while the team faced the implications of what they had found.

• Xu Yun read Lu Chaoyang’s report and saw that the Isolated Point Particle interacted with gravity but showed no electromagnetic, weak, or strong interactions.
• Xu Yun asked whether they had discovered dark matter, and Lu Chaoyang confirmed that the probability was nearly one hundred percent.
• Xu Yun considered how the particle’s neutrality, lack of defined rest mass, and low kinetic energy matched the expected properties of dark matter.
• Xu Yun realized that the original formula’s remaining two-thirds might contain discoveries even more valuable than the particle’s orbit.
• Xu Yun concluded that the discovery of dark matter was a historic breakthrough far beyond an ordinary major-journal publication.

Xu Yun met with Academician Pan and Zhao Zhengguo to discuss the Isolated Point Particle, which appeared to be a new elementary particle and a likely dark matter candidate. He declined to claim more credit than he felt he deserved, leaving any further recognition and compensation dependent on the final replication experiment.

• Xu Yun and Lu Chaoyang rode to Zhuyang Laboratory to meet Academician Pan and Zhao Zhengguo.
• Academician Pan explained that the Isolated Point Particle was highly likely to be dark matter and that a high-precision replication experiment was still needed to confirm it.
• Academician Pan and Zhao Zhengguo asked Xu Yun how he wanted the discovery's honors divided, and Xu Yun asked them to lead the publication while listing his name for exposure.
• Xu Yun explained that his contribution had been important but did not merit the greatest credit, and that he hoped to earn major honors through future work.
• Academician Pan and Zhao Zhengguo accepted Xu Yun's position and considered other ways to recognize him, depending on whether the particle proved to be dark matter.

CAS President Hou Xingyuan rejected a stack of dubious research proposals before learning that Academician Pan and Zhao Zhengguo had discovered a fundamental particle likely to be dark matter. He approved a trip to Sichuan Province for further verification and decided to go himself, with Xu Yun’s role in the discovery on his mind.

• Hou Xingyuan ordered Gao Hongwen to return the proposals in the thicker stack, criticizing their inflated budgets and questionable research aims.
• Academician Pan called Hou Xingyuan and reported that his team had discovered the fundamental Isolated Point Particle, which appeared not to interact through any force other than gravity.
• Pan told Hou that tests made the team at least eighty percent certain the particle was a type of dark matter, but Hefei’s equipment could not conclusively identify it.
• Hou remembered that Xu Yun had helped discover the particle and that the project had received only 1.79 million in funding.
• Hou approved Pan and Zhao Zhengguo’s plan to verify the discovery in Sichuan Province and coordinate supplementary testing with the Wukong Hao satellite.
• After learning Xu Yun had calculated the orbit that led to the discovery, Hou told Gao Hongwen to book two plane tickets to Sichuan Province for the next day.

Xu Yun joined Academician Pan, Zhao Zhengguo, and Lu Chaoyang on a trip to Sichuan Province to verify whether Isolated Point Particle was Cold Dark Matter. After arriving in Jidu, the group met their escort and unexpectedly encountered Old Wang in a wheelchair.

• Academician Pan told Xu Yun to prepare for the trip and said Dean Hou Xingyuan might meet him.
• Xu Yun met Lu Chaoyang at USTC, where Lu thanked him and said confirming Isolated Point Particle as Cold Dark Matter could secure his election as an academician.
• Academician Pan and Zhao Zhengguo arrived with Zhao’s student Fu Jiasong, and the group traveled from Hefei to Jidu.
• Chen Sijie greeted the group at Shuangliu Airport and introduced herself to Lu Chaoyang, Academician Pan, and Zhao Zhengguo.
• A man pushing Old Wang in a wheelchair called out to Academician Pan, who was astonished to see them.

Xu Yun and his colleagues welcomed Wang Yaoping, Hou Xingyuan, and a large group of distinguished academicians who had gathered in Rongcheng to investigate the suspected dark-matter Isolated Point Particle. After a long journey from the airport, the delegation reached the Jinping Underground Laboratory.

• Academician Pan and Zhao Zhengguo greeted the frail Wang Yaoping at the airport, and Xu Yun recognized him as the chief designer of the Twin Satellite Program.
• Academician Pan introduced Xu Yun to Wang Yaoping as the researcher who calculated the Isolated Point Particle’s probability trajectory, and Wang Yaoping showed his excitement before falling asleep.
• Ji Xiangdong listed the many academicians and researchers expected in Rongcheng, while Xu Yun, Lu Chaoyang, and Chen Sijie welcomed the arriving guests.
• Hou Xingyuan arrived with Gao Hongwen, greeted the academicians, and encouraged Xu Yun, saying his work could greatly boost China’s research.
• The delegation traveled by bus and train from Rongcheng to Muli County, where Ji Xiangdong welcomed them to the Jinping Underground Laboratory.

Xu Yun and a group of academicians toured the Jinping Underground Dark Matter Laboratory, where Ji Xiangdong explained its facilities, security concerns, and experiments. The tour ended in Laboratory B1, with Ji describing its detector and the group’s work on neutrinos and dark matter.

• Ji Xiangdong led Xu Yun and the visiting academicians into the Jinping Underground Laboratory and described its depth, layout, and history of security problems.
• Ji explained the laboratory’s recent astrophysics breakthrough and how the resulting attention led to increased traffic and a home invasion.
• The group passed the researchers’ rest area and learned about the underground facility’s support platforms and four experimental halls.
• Ji hinted that the laboratory’s astrophysics team expected a new result related to stellar evolution, but said he could not reveal details.
• Ji brought the group into Laboratory B1 and described the PandaX detector, its liquid scintillator target, and its neutrino detection capabilities.
• Ji explained that the adjacent CDEX team was working on the Pangu high-purity germanium detector while PandaX used liquid xenon technology.

The academicians at Jinping Laboratory prepared to verify the University of Science and Technology of China's Isolated Point Particle discovery and debated how to distinguish dark matter signals from radioactive background. As Hou Xingyuan prepared to settle on a plan, someone proposed a new approach using neutrinoless double electron capture.

• Ji Xiangdong led the academicians through Jinping Laboratory and explained how liquid xenon detector signals could identify dark matter while reducing radioactive background.
• Academician Pan recounted how Xu Yun calculated the probability orbit that led to the discovery of the Isolated Point Particle alongside the 4685 Lambda Hyperon.
• Zhou Shaoping questioned whether the Lambda CDM algorithm could reliably eliminate radioactive background, prompting the academicians to debate five possible verification plans.
• The group eliminated three plans and split between using the Peccei-Quinn metric and analyzing multiple rounds of measurements, while Zhou Shaoping argued that repeated measurements could not overcome the low hit probability.
• As Hou Xingyuan prepared to make the final decision, an unidentified speaker asked Zhou Shaoping whether they could use neutrinoless double electron capture with the Peccei-Quinn metric.

Xu Yun proposed using double-electron capture to build a broad-area Peccei-Quinn metric field, and Wang Yaoping suggested using the J/psi particle to correct for W-boson errors. The plan was theoretically sound, and Xu Yun joined the senior academicians at the test bench to work out the operating details.

• Xu Yun proposed creating a Fermi-shaped excited region with chiral 4685∧ hyperons, then bombarding xenon atoms with an electron beam to detect double-electron capture.
• Zhou Shaoping explained how the resulting neutrinos could provide data for constructing a broad-area Peccei-Quinn metric field.
• Zhang Gongding questioned how Xu Yun would correct for the energy-level precision error associated with W bosons.
• Wang Yaoping recommended using the J/psi particle as a background model to cancel the W-boson error, and the group accepted the idea as theoretically viable.
• Zhou Shaoping and the other senior academicians began developing the experimental procedures, and Xu Yun offered to help and followed him to the test bench.

Xu Yun helped Zhou Shaoping complete the broad-spectrum field calculations, and the assembled academicians launched their experiment to test the Peccei-Quinn metric framework. The results matched the dark matter field exactly, leaving Zhou Shaoping in tears as he declared that they had verified dark matter.

• Zhou Shaoping assigned Xu Yun the Pauli matrices, and Xu Yun completed them with a trivial component in minutes, impressing Zhou.
• Xu Yun used Dedekind’s Mind Card to work alongside Zhou Shaoping on the broad-spectrum field’s Lagrangian, and their collaboration produced the remaining calculations.
• Zhou Shaoping gave Xu Yun his personal contact information and invited him to visit Beijing before they returned to the equipment room.
• The academicians completed their preparations, and Hou Xingyuan announced that the experiment had begun.
• The experiment produced data that matched the dark matter field under the Peccei-Quinn metric framework exactly, and Zhou Shaoping told Xu Yun they had verified dark matter.

After the particle-orbit results were authoritatively verified, Xu Yun and the researchers celebrated what would give Huaxia a stronger voice in high-energy physics. Hou Xingyuan revealed that the Academy of Sciences had rushed the verification because major foreign announcements were imminent, and Xu Yun’s discovery could help Huaxia answer them.

• The researchers and senior academicians celebrated the successful verification, while Old Wang stood and led a round of applause directed at Xu Yun.
• Hou Xingyuan arranged for the exhausted academicians to rest, then brought Xu Yun, Academician Pan, Zhao Zhengguo, and Lu Chaoyang to a conference room.
• Hou Xingyuan explained that the Academy of Sciences had secretly rushed the verification because Xu Yun’s discovery came at a politically delicate time.
• Hou Xingyuan said CERN, Japan’s Kamioka Observatory, and Across the sea’s NIF were each expected to announce major results soon.
• Hou Xingyuan concluded that the verified discovery could give Huaxia a timely scientific result to counter the coming announcements.

Hou Xingyuan explained the political context behind NIF’s fusion announcement and outlined the Academy of Sciences’ response to the Isolated Point Particle report. After learning the particle was standard Cold Dark Matter, the group prepared for a more assertive plan, which Hou left hanging with a cryptic saying.

• Xu Yun questioned why NIF was involved, and Hou Xingyuan said Xu’s view was too limited.
• Xu Yun explained that NIF’s claimed Q value used laser energy rather than electrical input, while Academician Pan pointed out the timing of such announcements alongside funding disputes and energy politics.
• Hou Xingyuan said the Academy had planned a cautious response if the Isolated Point Particle proved to be Hot Dark Matter or baryonic Dark Matter.
• Hou Xingyuan revealed that the particle was standard Cold Dark Matter, changing the Academy’s plan, and told Academician Pan not to rush the press conference.
• Hou Xingyuan ended by saying, “Give them a thirty-nine-meter head start. If they get away, I lose.”

Hou Xingyuan told the scientists to wait for CERN and Kamioka Observatory to announce their results before making their own public move. Academician Pan then brought Xu Yun to visit his hospitalized classmate Guo Hao, founder of a company that assembled supercomputers, and began discussing business.

• Hou Xingyuan told Academician Pan, Xu Yun, and the others to wait for the CERN and Kamioka Observatory press conferences before revealing their result.
• Academician Pan took Xu Yun to Huaxi Hospital in Rongcheng to visit his old classmate Guo Hao, who was recovering after part of his duodenum had been removed.
• Guo Hao joked that Academician Pan had never helped his business, and Pan said he had come to bring him a business opportunity.
• Academician Pan introduced Xu Yun as his student and the chairman of Huadun Biotech, and Guo Hao recognized him from the university press conference.
• Academician Pan introduced Guo Hao as the founder and head of Limu High-Tech, a company that assembled supercomputers.

Xu Yun negotiated with Oak Technology owner Guo Hao to buy a custom supercomputer for Huadun Biotech, with Academician Pan mediating the deal. Guo Hao accepted a reduced price after Pan offered him a chance to sponsor the unveiling of a Nobel Prize-level achievement.

• Xu Yun recognized Oak Technology as a potential supercomputer supplier and learned about its computing power and power-consumption specifications from Guo Hao.
• Xu Yun chose Oak Technology’s 1.3-PetaFLOPS package and said Huadun Biotech would source its own CPUs and GPUs.
• Xu Yun offered 59.99 million for the package, and Academician Pan countered with 69.99 million.
• Academician Pan promised Guo Hao a chance to sponsor the unveiling of a Nobel Prize-level achievement if Oak Technology accepted the reduced price.
• Guo Hao decided to trust Academician Pan and agreed to sign the contract.

Xu Yun finalized Huadun Biotech’s supercomputer deal with Oak Technology, chose to install the machine in Hefei, and confirmed he would pursue a doctorate under Academician Pan. After the contract was signed and the deposit was paid, the story reached the day two overseas institutions were due to release their reports.

• Xu Yun insisted on installing the supercomputer in Hefei, and Guo Hao agreed after failing to persuade him to choose Sichuan and Chongqing.
• Xu Yun signed a letter of intent for Huadun Biotech to buy a 1.3-petaflops customized supercomputer from Oak Technology for 69.99 million Huaxia currency.
• Academician Pan asked Xu Yun about his upcoming defenses, and Xu Yun said he planned to pursue a doctorate with Academician Pan.
• Xu Yun and Academician Pan ate pig trotters, then returned to the Jinping Underground Laboratory.
• Huadun Biotech’s legal team signed the full contract with Oak Technology, and a 15-million deposit borrowed from the New Venture Fund was transferred.
• Three days passed, and the day arrived for two overseas institutions to release their reports.

CERN and the Kamioka Observatory prepared rival press conferences to announce dark-matter findings, amid a long history of hostility between the institutions. As Atsuto Suzuki presented Kamioka’s claimed Warm Dark Matter discovery, Lucas questioned why the team emphasized dark matter over the particle’s apparent supersymmetry properties.

• Lucas Hamad Quiliar arrived at CERN and reunited with Lars Donnaruma, who described the crowd gathered for CERN’s press conference.
• Lars and Lucas discussed the Kamioka Observatory’s rivalry with CERN, including CERN’s past interference with Kamioka’s equipment and staff.
• Lucas joined the CERN conference and learned from William Camasi that the Japanese press conference had begun.
• Lucas watched Atsuto Suzuki announce that Kamioka had discovered a particle with Warm Dark Matter properties and a mass of about 1.9 keV/c².
• Lucas recognized that Suzuki’s particle appeared to have Higgs supersymmetry properties and wondered what restrictions had led Kamioka to emphasize Warm Dark Matter instead.

Atsuto Suzuki presented the properties of Kamioka's Warm Dark Matter candidate, named Tsuno-gui, while fielding questions that exposed a major limitation in its claims. As Suzuki hoped to secure a Nobel Prize before his illness became terminal, Lucas asked Lars whether CERN's latest results could surpass the Japanese team's discovery.

• Atsuto Suzuki described the particle's supersymmetry-like properties and dark matter data, then admitted that its Lagrangian did not hold in a Stationary External Field.
• Benji Brandy questioned Suzuki about the particle's behavior in a Stationary External Field, revealing that it could not qualify as genuine Cold Dark Matter.
• Suzuki answered further questions and named the particle Tsuno-gui; Researcher Hiratsuka explained the name's roots in Japanese mythology.
• Lucas inferred that Kamioka intended the discovery to establish Japanese authority over dark matter research, while Suzuki privately hoped to win a Nobel Prize before his tuberculosis killed him.
• Lucas asked Lars whether CERN's latest results could beat the Japanese team's results.

At CERN, Lars told Lucas that the BEBC results had narrowed the Nobel Prize race with Japan’s Kamioka Observatory, while dismissing the chance that China’s CJPL could catch up. After Lars vowed to eat the axe on the Cavendish Laboratory’s Maxwell statue if CJPL approached BEBC’s results within three years, Xu Yun saw a newly activated Easter egg that could make such wagers come true as CERN’s press conference began.

• Lars told Lucas that BEBC had measured a neutrino particle’s G factor above 2, making CERN’s Nobel Prize contest with Kamioka closer than he had expected.
• Lucas warned Lars that LNGS, Dusel, or China’s CJPL could produce major results before the Nobel nomination deadline, but Lars mocked the idea that CJPL could rival BEBC.
• Lars vowed to eat the axe on the Cavendish Laboratory’s Maxwell statue if CJPL achieved results close to BEBC’s within three years.
• Xu Yun received an Easter egg that could turn physicists’ solemn wagers into eating an axe and guarantee their travel to Cambridge if the wager came true.
• CERN’s press conference began while Xu Yun wondered how to keep his role in the Easter egg’s activation secret.