Ye Wenjie, watch my moves closely.

Chapter 3 Lei Zhicheng and Yang Weining

"Ye Wenjie, what was it like communicating with an extraterrestrial civilization for the first time?"

"Ye Wenjie, what was it like communicating with an extraterrestrial civilization for the first time?"

"Ye Wenjie, what was it like communicating with an extraterrestrial civilization for the first time?"

Ye Wenjie opened her eyes, and everything returned to calm.

There was a person lying next to the bed. She nudged the person's face and realized it wasn't the duty officer. She secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why do you take such care of your health?"

Ye Wenjie's husband, Yang Weining, the former chief engineer of the Red Coast Base, woke up from a nap and gently stroked his wife's cheek with his fingers. "Luckily, Comrade Li Youyu is nearby."

"Li Youyu?"

Ye Wenjie had no recollection of the name, but the image of that indifferent face still flashed through her mind.

"Li Youyu, a new comrade who hasn't been here long, I was on duty with you in the control room last night."

"Um."

Ye Wenjie responded softly.

Seeing his wife's distressed expression, Yang Weining said softly, "Cheer up, I have good news for you, we're going to be parents."

Yang Weining smiled peacefully. "The hard times will eventually pass, and we will usher in our new life. Wenjie, we must look forward."

Am I really pregnant...?

Ye Wenjie didn't dare to look at the smile on her husband's face. She turned her head and stared at the blooming roses on the windowsill of the infirmary, finding them an eyesore.

The injustices she suffered over the years completely extinguished her desire for life.

Revenge was her only motivation for living.

Her husband treated her very well, and she loved him very much. However, the stirrings of her heart could never break through the wall of revenge built in her heart.

She is a sinner destined to be nailed to the annals of history.

Emotions will only be a burden.

"Old Yang, I'm sorry."

After a long silence, Ye Wenjie finally apologized.

Her husband, Yang Weining, was the chief engineer of the Red Coast Base, but he married her despite everything.

In this day and age, marrying someone like Ye Wenjie is a mistake in itself.

Yang Weining's future was ruined. He was stripped of his title as chief engineer by the organization and became an ordinary technician at the Hongan Base.

If it weren't for their irreplaceable theoretical knowledge, they probably would have been kicked out long ago.

Yang Weining never scolded her; he simply stood by her side from beginning to end, gently and firmly encouraging her.

In the husband's vision of the future, the two would have a small courtyard, raise a child, preferably a girl, and every summer, when the stars twinkled, the family would lie on bamboo chairs, gazing up at the starlight from thousands of years ago.

Ye Wenjie also longed for such a life.

Ugh.

But who should be responsible for her pain?

Yang Weining gently kissed his wife's forehead. "Don't say such formal things. I'll go and handle the discharge procedures first. I'll make you some chicken soup when we get home."

"Oh, right."

Ye Wenjie took Yang Weining's hand and said, "Comrade Li Youyu, where do you live? I want to thank him in person."

"It's not far from us, I'll show it to you later."

Yang Weining patted her hand, turned around and left the ward.

-----

Ye Wenjie's fainting was caused by insufficient qi and blood, and it was not a serious problem.

After taking some traditional Chinese medicine to replenish qi and blood, I left the base's medical office.

The Greater Khingan Mountains, now in summer, are full of vitality. The two walked along the mountain path home, sometimes admiring the flowers, sometimes picking leaves.

Seeing her husband's childlike antics, Ye Wenjie finally forgot her worries and smiled slightly.

But it's only temporary.

At the corner, the roar of an engine shattered the tranquility of the mountains and fields, and a military jeep caught up from behind.

"Ye Wenjie, Political Commissar Lei wants to see you in his office."

One sentence instantly pulled Ye Wenjie back to reality from the fairy tale.

Seeing the worry returning to his wife's brow, Yang Weining was quite displeased. "Wenjie isn't feeling well. We can talk about it later!"

The soldier ignored his anger, jumped out of the car, opened the door, and said, "Let's go, Ye Wenjie."

"Let Lei Zhicheng come over here himself!"

Yang Weining stepped forward to block them, but was pushed to the ground by the soldiers. "Take him away!"

During the scuffle, Ye Wenjie got into the car.

She saw her husband lying on the ground in the rearview mirror, blood seeping from his forehead.

-----

Red Coast Base Office.

Lei Zhicheng dismissed the guards and left Ye Wenjie alone.

The Red Coast Base is a national-level classified project, and its core giant radar can be described as a national strategic asset.

As the base's supreme commander, Lei Zhicheng always maintained a keen sense of smell.

In his position, if the Red Coast Base he was in charge of made a wrong turn, it would be an abyss of no return.

In order to control the movements of everyone at the Red Coast Base, he implanted a small program in the background of the base's main computer. This program could continuously read the information received and transmitted by the base's radar and store the read content in a deeply hidden encrypted file.

Lei Zhicheng would browse this content periodically to monitor the Red Coast Base... especially the movements of that giant radar.

It was among these backups that Lei Zhicheng read a message.

A reply from an unknown extraterrestrial civilization:

Do not answer! Do not answer! Do not answer!

There are millions of stars in your direction. Unless you answer, the world cannot pinpoint the source of the emission.

If you answer, the source of the attack will be located, your planetary system will be invaded, and your world will be conquered!

Do not answer! Do not answer! Do not answer!

"More than eight hours have passed since we received the first batch of information!"

Lei Zhicheng stood with his hands behind his back beside his desk, sternly questioning Ye Wenjie, "You didn't report it; instead, you deleted or hid the original information, didn't you?"

Seeing Ye Wenjie remain silent with her head down, Lei Zhicheng raised his voice eight octaves, "I know your next move; you plan to call back. If I hadn't discovered it in time, the entire human civilization would have been destroyed by your hand! Of course, this doesn't mean we fear invasion from outer space. To put it another way, if that were to happen, the alien invaders would inevitably be overwhelmed by the vast ocean of people's war!"

"Ye Wenjie,"

Lei Zhicheng's tone suddenly changed, and he said, "I will have no pity for you. But Yang Weining and I have been comrades-in-arms for many years. I cannot watch him be completely destroyed along with you, and I cannot watch his child be destroyed as well. You have a child, don't you?"

Ye Wenjie listened quietly, her face expressionless.

Lei Zhicheng knew he had struck a chord with the other person, so he lowered his voice and said, "Currently, only the two of us know about this. What we need to do now is minimize the impact of this matter. Don't worry about anything, just pretend this never happened, and don't stand up for anyone, including Yang Weining. I'll handle the rest. Xiao Ye, please believe me, as long as you cooperate, we can avoid terrible consequences."

When Lei Zhicheng spoke, he put his hands behind his back and clenched them tightly.

The matter of secretly contacting aliens is too big a deal to be taken lightly; if she, Yang Weining, and even the Red Coast Base are not careful, they will all be doomed.

As for Lei Zhicheng himself...

He needs to find a way to make the discovery of aliens his own; it's good for him and good for Lao Yang too.

Ye Wenjie also gave Lei Zhicheng the answer he expected.

She agreed, promising to keep it a secret and not mention it to anyone.

Lei Zhicheng nodded and said calmly, "Go back first. I'll talk to you about it later, Xiao Ye."

Ye Wenjie lowered her head and left the office.

She was no longer the naive bookworm she once was. Over the years since she entered the Red Coast Base, Lei Zhicheng had been appropriating his research findings for himself. She knew this, but she didn't say anything.

However, Lei Zhicheng now knows that he has discovered the Trisolaran civilization, but he is unaware that he has already sent Earth's coordinate system to the Trisolaran civilization.

Given Lei Zhicheng's personality, if he were to report this matter, and the higher-ups sent people to investigate, the fact that he sent the letter that night would inevitably be exposed.

The Trisolaran civilization will be exposed to humanity's view ahead of schedule.

No.

We can't let him live.

Ye Wenjie didn't think about it for long before making up her mind.

She went back to the tool shed, grabbed a small wrench, and loosened the grounding bolt in the equipment room by about half a turn.

As she had expected, the oscilloscope in the control room of the Red Coast Base suddenly showed bursts of noise.

After finishing everything, Ye Wenjie picked up a folding hacksaw and went to the edge of the cliff to wait.

Beside her was an iron pillar embedded in the ground, and in front of the pillar was a cliff tens of meters high.

The base's grounding wires are fixed halfway up the cliff, a location where problems frequently occur.

With no one knowing that Ye Wenjie had tampered with the equipment room, coming to the cliffside to inspect the grounding busbar was the most obvious decision.

Some people have already gone down.

But after trying for a long time, they still couldn't find the problem.

Lei Zhicheng arrived soon after.

He glanced at Ye Wenjie on the cliff edge, said nothing, but took the rope from the person behind him and said, "You're new here and don't know the situation. It's dangerous down there. If anything happens, I'll go up."

"Political Commissar, I can..."

"It's alright, you're still young and have plenty of opportunities. Let me handle this first. After all, the equipment can't wait. If we delay any longer and the equipment gets burned out, I won't be able to face the country and the people."

Lei Zhicheng deftly secured the rope to the iron pillar and descended from the cliff edge.

The young soldier leaned forward, his legs involuntarily buckling. He pulled back and called out anxiously, "Political Commissar, be careful!"

"no problem."

Lei Zhicheng's response came from below.

The rope stopped descending after a while. Seeing that the time was right, Ye Wenjie went forward and sent the soldiers on the cliff away. "It's probably a rusted bolt. Go back and get some spares."

Although Ye Wenjie's background is not good, she is still quite authoritative in technical matters.

The young soldier didn't question it, unbuckled his seatbelt, and started walking back.

Just as Ye Wenjie was about to take the hacksaw out of her arms, someone she least wanted to see appeared beside her.

"Wenjie, what's wrong?"

Yang Weining, who had been waiting for Ye Wenjie for a long time without success, came looking for her himself.

"No, it's nothing."

Fearing that it would take too long, Ye Wenjie said perfunctorily, "There's just a problem with the grounding electrode. Political Commissar Lei asked me to come and help check it. You should go back first."

Is there a problem with the grounding electrode?

Yang Weining peered down the cliff and said, "Inspecting the grounding electrode requires digging. He's all alone down there. How long will it take? Are you just going to stay here with him? You're weak and pregnant, I'm worried about you."

"I'll go down, I can do it too, the sooner I finish, the sooner I can take you home."

Yang Weining picked up the safety belt left behind by the young soldier and was about to tie it to the rope.

"Don't,"

Ye Wenjie reached out to stop her, "It's not safe for two people to be tied together with one rope."

"It's quite sturdy, no problem."

"No, it's not safe to use just one."

"Okay, okay, go get another one. Be careful not to fall, I'll wait for you."

"it is good."

Ye Wenjie nodded and walked quickly towards the tool shed.

The round trip took half an hour.

When she returned to the cliff edge with the rope, her heart skipped a beat.

The cliff edge was completely empty!

Looking further down, the husband, Yang Weining, had finished checking the grounding electrode and was climbing up the same rope with Lei Zhicheng!

In just a few more minutes, the two of them will be climbing up the cliff!

Ye Wenjie's hands trembled; fate had played another cruel trick on him.

The person who cares about her most in this world is actually tied to the same rope as the person she decided to kill.

Should we...should we take action?

Ye Wenjie pulled out a folding hacksaw, her hands trembling.

There really... there really won't be another chance.

After Lei Zhicheng climbs up, he will report the discovery of extraterrestrial civilization to his superiors.

By then, not only will she and her husband be imprisoned, but her desire for revenge against the world may also be dashed.

This is a torment more painful than death!

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Ye Wenjie placed the hacksaw on the rope securing the safety belt and moved it slowly.

Just then, a cold snort came from behind.

"Ye Wenjie, your enemies are not all of humanity, but those who are unscrupulous in satisfying their own selfish desires: politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats, and even the evil of honest people, like grains of sand in rice."

They are also my enemies.

The Trisolarans are not your saviors.

I am Lao Tzu!