Chapter One: The Perfect Circle

"If everything is governed by laws, then everything is predetermined." At Huaqing University in Shangbei City, a white-haired scholar was delivering a lecture, which was now drawing to a close. "Yet quantum theory gives us hope—the hope of proving the value of existence. Much like the digits of pi, humanity is searching for its end, but in my view, never finding that end is precisely the best outcome." Having said this, the elderly man looked down at the students, their eyes burning with enthusiasm, and smiled. "I hope you find the answers. The future belongs to you!" Gathering his notes, the old professor stepped down from the podium. Below, many were still pondering his words. By the time they snapped out of their reverie, the world-renowned professor had already left the classroom. However, he was intercepted in the corridor by a student. It must be said that Professor Zhang Feng had taken notice of this girl. During the lecture, she was the only student who listened as if she had already grasped everything, as though verifying her own hypotheses. Unlike the other students lost in thought, her expression clearly told the old professor that many of her ideas had been confirmed and refined. "Professor Zhang!" Shen Liangxin, with her cascade of black hair, fair skin, and flawless features, looked into the professor's profound eyes. "I have a question I'd like to ask you." Zhang Feng smiled and nodded slightly, but the next moment, his expression turned awkward. He hadn't expected her question to be academic; rather, it was a sharp, pointed probe. "Why did you renounce your Hua nationality, only to return now and lecture as a foreigner?" Everyone nearby who heard this involuntarily stopped in their tracks. It was as if she were asking the old professor why he had committed treason. The question drew the attention of everyone around. "Science knows no borders." Zhang Feng fell silent for a few seconds before giving this answer. Then, with a sigh, he lowered his head and walked away down the corridor. "Bullshit borders!" a few angry youths cursed after the professor left. Watching the old professor's slightly retreating, awkward figure, Shen Liangxin's lips curled into a faint smile. "Alright, quantum entanglement is established! Next comes the third experiment to prove my theory!"

In the Hua Nation, early summer of 2021. Li Fengyin walked alone on his way to an internet café. Out of habit, he pondered various things as he walked. Ever since he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of seventeen, his mind had been troubled. After being discharged from the hospital, his academic performance plummeted, and he had to take drowsiness-inducing medication every day—a regimen he could never stop. "I've been thinking about this for eleven years now..." Li Fengyin turned the street corner, and the sign of a second-floor internet café came into view not far ahead. "Trying to restore my intellect through thinking—though the effects aren't obvious, my mind has indeed grown stronger. Yes, I need to keep at it, turning thought into instinct." Climbing the stairs on the side of the building, Li Fengyin entered the Sunshine Internet Café. Located near the university town, it was packed with students browsing the web. Although many internet cafés, cybercafés, and esports arenas across the Hua Nation had closed down, the university town remained a lively hub. "If only I could go to college... If only my brain hadn't gone wrong, I might have had a chance to get into Huaqing University..." Reality, however, was that Li Fengyin rented a modest room nearby, with a flyer for music lessons hanging outside. For some reason, everyone with a mental illness seems to develop a love for listening to music, as if songs can touch their souls. Though his intellect had taken a hit, Li Fengyin had taught himself to play musical instruments and now actually had a few college students as his pupils. Although he owned a decent laptop, Li Fengyin occasionally came here. An internet café somehow offered a more authentic browsing experience. His parents' divorce might have been the trigger for his illness. Li Fengyin had analyzed his psychological journey and changes countless times. But now, with his mother gone from cancer and his father having vanished long ago, he was left entirely alone, living a solitary life in Shangbei City. Finding a corner seat in the café, Li Fengyin suddenly recalled something. Around his neck hung a pendant shaped like a black blade. His father's private words echoed in his mind: "When you turn twenty-eight, you can break the cycle. If you haven't died before returning home, use this key to open the box I left for you." He hissed in pain as a searing ache shot through his head. Scenes flashed through Li Fengyin's mind, as if he had lived through them countless times. Every detail from birth to the present was crystal clear, surging into his consciousness in an instant. Meanwhile, at Huaqing University, outside the glass enclosure housing the world's first successfully built quantum computer, Shen Liangxin, clad in a researcher's white coat, was watching the numbers flickering on the screen. These numbers were the subject of her research: the probability statistics of quantum leaps. "Four percent..."

Shen Liangxin sighed. "Is the world truly entirely governed by laws? If a loop were to form somewhere, wouldn't it be sealed off forever?" "That's it!" "A loop!" Shen Liangxin seemed to have realized something. "If pi has an end, then a perfect circle exists, and the world could potentially form a perfect loop. Perhaps all life, the entire universe, exists within a perfect cycle!" "Although we can't prove that a perfect circle doesn't exist, we can first hypothesize that it does and make deductions!" "Starting from 1993, the year the Soviet Alliance dissolved, it seems all information has become incredibly precise, calculable and deducible through quantum computers!" With fervent eyes, Shen Liangxin entered a series of commands. Yet, even at the speed of a quantum computer, it would take three days to complete the calculations. Elsewhere, the old professor named Zhang Feng arrived at the Imperial Tower in Shangbei City, a gathering place for the social elite, tycoons, and celebrities. As a world-class professor, he naturally had the credentials to be there. "Her name is Shen Liangxin, right?" A middle-aged man missing his right ear looked at Professor Zhang sitting across from him. "I'll be responsible for snatching her. As for what to do with her, that's up to you. But you'd better look into her background." "No need. Just knock her unconscious, and that'll be the end of it." Hearing Professor Zhang's words, the middle-aged man understood. The professor before him wanted to toy with the girl. It might seem utterly depraved to ordinary people, but he had long grown accustomed to countless such affairs, and had even participated in quite a few himself.