Entanglement

"Assuming you are the receiver of the information, and I am the sender," Su Ming continued in the conference room. "Now you distribute the photon." He took the B-candy from Sangzi and put it in his own hand. "The channel is now complete. You will use the remaining photon A to conduct counterfactual communication."

Sangzi's pupils contracted slightly.

"I transmitted half of the entangled pair of photons to you," she murmured. "It's still counterfactual communication—as the receiver, I still haven't received any particles from you."

Su Ming opened his palm, and the milk candy B in his palm, along with the candy wrapper, crumbled into crumbs.

Inside the train carriage of the otherworld, in Su Ming's palm, an identical milk candy was created by combining materials.

"Where is this Photon B now?" Su Ming's voice sounded somewhat ethereal in the small conference room.

His ability is essentially Order Projection; the entropy information of "entanglement" might not be impossible to transfer to another world. This means that another photon in another world could very well replace photon B on Earth and form a quantum entangled pair with photon A!

****

Sangzi suddenly slammed her hand on the table with such force that it startled the monitoring staff in the backstage, who thought something had happened.

Su Ming vaguely heard a cracking sound and suspected that her hand had broken. Sangzi stood up, supporting her injured right hand with her left, but indicated that she was fine.

"Please," she took a deep breath, her voice trembling slightly, "Continue!"

"That's all, that's all Si Ran told me," Su Ming shook his head. "Her original design was to improve the adaptability and efficiency of counterfactual communication through this method." His eyes dimmed slightly. "But this idea was rejected. She was very upset that day, so she contacted me after a long time to complain."

Sangzi immediately turned to Jin Rongjia, "Who is this Si Ran? Why don't I know her?"

"Si Ran is just a member of a general research unit," Jin Rongjia quickly replied. "This was an exploratory branch of her group, and it was rejected before it even entered the project approval process."

Every year, countless research project applications are submitted, but only a small fraction are approved. Not to mention those applications that are never even submitted and are considered mere ideas or concepts.

Sangzi immediately dialed a number with her left hand, her voice as cold as ice. "Get all of Si Ran's group's data, everything! Including research notes, experimental records, personal logs; whether paper or electronic, not a single punctuation mark can be missed!"

"Si Ran died a month ago, and judging from the current signs, it's not normal," Jin Rongjia said to Su Ming. "We are investigating."

Su Ming turned sharply to Jin Rongjia, his face filled with shock, "What happened to Si Ran's death?"

When Su Ming asked Miao Xin to search for Si Ran's soul, he also took the opportunity to find out the cause of her death, which was cardiac arrest caused by viral myocarditis.

Su Ming knew that Si Ran had an arrhythmia. Although he was very sorry, he was helpless in the face of the unpredictability of life and death.

But he never imagined that there would be anything wrong with Si Ran's death!

"Actually, I was just about to tell you about this today," Jin Rongjia said. "The Gao Boyang you met at the cemetery is Si Ran's colleague."

Various clues connected in Su Ming's mind, and Su Ming clenched his fist tightly.

"These people killed Si Ran first, and then they killed him!"

If Miao Xin hadn't been there, that "Calamity Mark" would have already killed Gao Boyang. "Si Ran didn't die of natural causes!"

Jin Rongjia nodded, "We don't have any direct evidence yet. But since this group can use Calamity Mark to cause car accidents and plane crashes, it's not a difficult deduction to suspect that they're using some kind of supernatural means to induce heart attacks."

Su Ming's knuckles turned white from the force he exerted.

"The results for Cesium-137?"

"The newly emerged Target 1, codenamed ' Chai Zhan,' came to Earth five years ago," Sangzi replied.

When the call information was deciphered, the names of this group of people were already known. The one who was killed was Diodos, the one who released the "Calamity Mark" was Alituo, and there was also an accomplice Aisaikena, who was driving.

The task force gave them the codename "Jackal," and they were known as Chai Zhan, Jackal Curse, and Jackals Driver.

The one who was initially buried in the Vietnam industrial park by the space-based weapon was named Jackal Shatter.

"Five years?" This number far exceeded Su Ming's expectations. Does Chai Zhan's hair grow that slowly?

However, Sangzi did not elaborate on the details.

The Chai Zhan ' hair wasn't long enough, so they racked their brains, dissected bones and skin, and painstakingly created a physiological sedimentation model. They also combined various radioactive isotope comparisons with timelines and went through extremely complex calculations to arrive at this conclusion.

"Based on a 95% confidence interval, the time fluctuation is plus or minus one year; with 99.7% confidence—" Sangzi said, "Forget it, we can conclude with 100% certainty: Chai Zhan are definitely not from Earth!"

****

Jin Rongjia waved his hand, signaling Sangzi to leave the meeting room first.

"We've been invaded for five years and know nothing about it." His tone was low, but there was no trace of dejection. "However, there's some good news: the ' Jackal ' only numbers four."

Jin Rongjia briefly explained that five years after the Jackal first arrived on Earth, they left behind numerous traces due to their unfamiliarity with the planet. Through big data screening and targeted tracking, these clues have surfaced.

But with their supernatural abilities, this group quickly established themselves, learning Earth's languages at an astonishing pace. After that, the number of traceable clues they left behind dwindled.

"They didn't develop a cult or organization?" Su Ming of the Plundering Clock the other world.

"No," Jin Rongjia replied. "Our analysis shows that Earth is a 'demon-poor' zone, where supernatural energy replenishment is slow, making these actions unprofitable."

There weren't many people, and there had been no reinforcements for five years.

Su Ming grasped the key point. "This is indeed good news; at least it shows they can't just come to Earth anytime!"

"But they've been operating in a blind spot for so long," Jin Rongjia said gravely. "We're not sure how many incidents they've caused, or what they've actually done." He added seriously, "Fortunately, because of you, this group has been exposed."

"How's the progress? Can it be resolved as soon as possible?"

Jin Rongjia shook his head. "In five years, they've learned far too much about this society. After the fishing operation a few days ago, we haven't uncovered any new leads; all we've found are traces they left behind."

"Is it possible that, like Miao Xin and I back then, it became 'lubricated'?" Su Ming asked.

"That possibility cannot be ruled out," Jin Rongjia admitted, "But it doesn't matter, the nature and level of the incident have completely changed now."

--

The following content is an update and addition, and is not included in the paid word count. It is provided for interested readers' information only.

1. Micius, the world's first space quantum science experimental satellite.

Delivered in January 2017.

In June, the first kilometer-scale two-way quantum entanglement distribution experiment between space and ground was successfully completed, and based on this, the quantum mechanical nonlocality test that strictly satisfies the "Einstein locality condition" at the spatial scale was completed.

In August, the first successful quantum key distribution over a thousand kilometers from satellite to ground and quantum teleportation from ground to satellite were achieved.

In September, the "Beijing–Shanghai Trunk Line" established a space-to-ground link with the "Micius" scientific experimental satellite, successfully achieving intercontinental quantum secure communication.

In January 2018, the first intercontinental quantum key distribution over a distance of 7,600 kilometers was achieved between China and Austria.

In June 2020, entanglement-based quantum key distribution over a distance of 1,000 kilometers was achieved for the first time.

In May 2022, the first-ever remote transmission of quantum states between two ground stations 1,200 kilometers apart on Earth was achieved.

****

2. Quantum entanglement

Einstein: The ghostly action at a distance between particles.

Definition: The properties of particles, through their interactions, are integrated into the overall properties of the system. The properties of individual particles cannot be described individually; they can only be described as the properties of the entire system.

In the simplest case: two particles are entangled, forming an inseparable system, and an operation on one will affect the other, no matter how far apart they are.

Quantum entanglement is considered a breakthrough for achieving ultra-long-distance instantaneous communication (even across tens of millions of light-years).