Chapter 37: Time Ring

As Jiang Zhe finished speaking, the customer service department's phone lines were instantly overwhelmed.

A melodious ringtone sounded.

The call was connected.

"Is it me? Is it finally my turn?"

The young man's voice was clearly very excited, finding it unbelievable that he had been connected.

Jiang Zhe responded, "Yes, brother, it's your turn. What is your question?"

After calming down, the person on the other end began to ask, "Thank you so much for choosing me. I'm just a guy who hangs out at internet cafes and usually isn't interested in these things. But after hearing your explanation, I found it excellent. I've started to really admire science, but unfortunately, I don't have the education for it."

"What I want to ask is: where exactly did the Elixir of Immortality come from?"

"It certainly didn't just appear out of thin air, right?"

This question immediately voiced what all the viewers were thinking.

"Oh man, it's finally coming!"

"This question has bothered me for a long time; can Jiang Zhe really explain who created this Elixir of Immortality?"

"Let's see."

"..."

Hearing this, a smile appeared on Jiang Zhe's face.

When he was explaining "Spiral Spacetime" earlier, he had already left the suspense for the audience in front of their TVs.

Finally, during the Q&A, someone asked the question.

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly and replied, "Yes, the Elixir of Immortality definitely didn't appear out of thin air. I mentioned a question earlier: [What if spacetime is spiral?]"

"Earlier, to help more people understand the concepts I was discussing, I popularized scientific concepts like [Entropy Increase]. This naturally led to the [Theory of Cosmic Circulation], telling everyone that the universe is a cycle."

"The order of the universe's birth is—explosion, development, formation, destruction, and gathering; then comes a second explosion, second development, second formation, second destruction, and second gathering."

"This is the core point of the [Theory of Cosmic Circulation] in a macroscopic sense."

"In fact, this [Spiral Spacetime Theory] can not only explain the Grandfather Paradox but can actually better explain the [Bootstrap Paradox]!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the audience in front of their TVs and in the livestream were left dumbfounded.

One theory can explain two heaven-defying paradoxes?

This first question immediately jolted the drowsy viewers back to life.

"Holy crap, I knew it. He spent so much time building up; I didn't expect him to be playing such a big game. So it was for this!"

"Oh man, I'm not sleeping anymore; I'll pull an all-nighter to finish watching this."

"..."

With excitement, many people widened their eyes in anticipation.

...

In the lecture hall of the Kyoto University of Science.

Professor Feng and a group of graduate students were still there.

After hearing that Jiang Zhe had indeed proposed a new theory to explain the Grandfather Paradox and the Bootstrap Paradox...

He realized things were becoming a big deal!

Previously, he had watched the whole thing thinking Jiang Zhe was just making conjectures without any basis, but who would have thought Jiang Zhe really proposed a new theory.

As a professional, he couldn't help but want to share the good news with his colleague.

"Is that Professor Hua Yunfeng?"

He picked up the phone and dialed his colleague's number.

A sluggish voice came from the other side, "It's me. Old Feng, you're not asleep yet?"

"Quick, come to the lecture hall, there's something urgent to discuss!"

Usually, Professor Feng didn't have anything urgent, but if he did, it was naturally a major matter.

Professor Hua Yunfeng was a heavyweight in science at this university, with expertise in multiple disciplines. He knew everything about biology, Quantum Mechanics, and various branches of physics inside out, reaching the level of a master educator. He was Professor Feng's former senior.

"Wait for me, 1 minute!"

The other side hung up.

Sure enough, in less than a minute, a middle-aged man in a black suit with graying hair at the temples walked in from the lecture hall entrance.

Old Feng gave Professor Hua Yunfeng a brief explanation and laid out the essence of the Grandfather Paradox and the Bootstrap Paradox.

Old Hua looked suspicious, "It's this guy on the screen who solved the Grandfather Paradox?"

Calling him over late at night just to watch a science program from Su City?

Hmm? It was actually the first time he'd seen a mystery-solving program.

He felt Old Feng was making a mountain out of a molehill.

"He's the one I mentioned last time, but you never pay attention to these things. It's the Q&A session now, just watch."

At this, Professor Hua Yunfeng began to watch with a skeptical mind.

At that moment, Jiang Zhe's previous explanation came from the TV.

"The order of the universe's birth is—explosion, development, formation, destruction, and gathering; then comes a second explosion, second development, second formation, second destruction, and second gathering."

Hearing this, Professor Hua Yunfeng's eyes lit up. This was also the first time he had heard this viewpoint, and it immediately piqued his curiosity.

"This viewpoint... is quite fresh. The core of the Theory of Cosmic Circulation he proposed—could this be a phenomenon after the heat death of the universe? By the way, Old Feng, are there specific details?"

"No time to explain. After the Q&A explanation, you'll understand everything."

"Alright."

At this point, Jiang Zhe began his formal explanation.

"Before the formal explanation, I need everyone to understand a concept!"

"In the current mindset of most people, they believe the world moves straight ahead. If you miss the present, you can't make up for it."

"However, to me, that is actually incorrect!"

"Our world is actually like an eternal ring. It's one ring linked to another, with space superimposed on time and interleaved with speed, yet these intersections are not connected. That is to say, we cannot go to another dimension, and people from another dimension have difficulty coming here. We can only continuously die, annihilate, and be reborn within our own world."

"You can also understand it as a 'Time Loop,' which is an advanced version of the single circle of time that some viewers previously believed in."

"With this concept, the following explanation will be extremely simple to understand!"

Having said this, he took out the silver spring from before and faced the camera.

He took the spring apart one by one, dividing it into 10 rings.

The cameraman was very sharp and locked the shot onto the whiteboard table.

Jiang Zhe explained while manipulating the items:

"This first ring is the [Time Circle] that everyone understands, where time runs in a circular state."

"Those who voted that time is a circle weren't entirely wrong; they were right about 1/3 of the way."

"According to the Theory of Cosmic Circulation I proposed earlier, please use your imagination to expand on the grand cycle of the universe's matter and information exploding and gathering."

"Once expanded, we can find that theoretically, the universe is endlessly born and endlessly indestructible."

"One universe is destroyed, and soon a new universe is reborn within the space of the destroyed universe."

Saying this, he took the detachable spring, placed the rings on the table one by one, and then habitually took a lighter from his pocket to burn the silver ring for a moment.

Soon, the first ring was burnt pitch black.

"The first ring has been burnt black. You can understand this as our first universe reaching its limit, so it is destroyed."

He picked up the hot ring and rubbed it against himself.

The black iron ring became shiny again.

He pointed the ring at the camera and continued to explain.

"It's okay now. The burnt black ring has been wiped by human hands and has restored its silver color."

"You can think of it as the first universe restarting after a long period of time following its destruction."

"But after the ring restarts, the originally burnt surface of this ring has lost some material. These missing coatings and metal shavings invisible to the naked eye have actually scattered with the wind, indicating that the mass of the first ring has decreased."

"If the first ring was 10g, then the ring I wiped clean only has 9.9994 grams left, it's just that the naked eye can't tell the difference."

Hearing this, the audience and the experts became incredibly attentive.

This small experiment was very simple and extremely easy to understand.

After a period of time, the mass of everything is being consumed, which fits the Law of Conservation of Energy perfectly!

At this moment, on the screen.

Jiang Zhe took out a second brand-new ring. This ring was relatively smaller than the unburnt first ring, but it was impossible to tell with the naked eye.

"This second ring, after weighing, has a mass of 9.9994 grams."

He stacked the second ring on top of the first ring.

"This second silver ring can be identified by everyone as the new universe born after a cosmic destruction, which is the [child] of the first universe. The mass of this [child] before being destroyed is 9.9994 grams, which is the same as the mass of the first ring after it was destroyed!"

"Now, we designate the first ring as Universe No. 1 and the second ring as Universe No. 2."

"Next, we continue this cyclic operation!"