145: Chapter 145: The universe is expanding at an accelerated rate; what lies beyond?

At this moment, the living room was so quiet that one could hear the ticking of the second hand on the wall clock.

Xiaoyu looked terrified, wanting to say something but holding back.

In an instant, Xiaoyu's mind went blank. How could she explain this? Was she supposed to say, "Brother, you were being livestreamed, millions of people were watching, they donated over ten million in gifts, and then I used that money to buy you a villa?"

Just as Xiaoyu and the countless viewers held their breath in anticipation.

A phone ringtone suddenly rang out, startling Xiaoyu so much that she shuddered. She hurriedly pulled out her phone, and the screen displayed the name "Wang Shulin."

Jiang Zhe's gaze fell upon Xiaoyu. "Answer it. Put it on speaker."

"This..." Xiaoyu felt her scalp tingle. The viewers' hearts were all hanging in suspense; if her brother found out, he would leave, and might never talk about these things again.

Xiaoyu had no choice but to bite the bullet, press the speaker button, and answer.

"Xiaoyu!"

On the other end, inside the Dougu Operations Department supervisor's office.

Wang Shulin and a group of his colleagues were on tenterhooks. Wang Shulin took a deep breath and said, "I hope I'm not interrupting your meal? I just wanted to tell you in advance that after the contract process with Xinghai Entertainment is completed, they will gift you a villa. Don't worry about the company asking you to do anything; it's given to you in advance purely based on your future potential. Even if you don't want to join the company right now, it won't affect anything. We're just building a good relationship."

"Given your looks and physical resilience, you're just one opportunity away from becoming a huge star!"

"Xinghai Entertainment has decided not to interfere with your studies. Once you're in university and have time to be a trainee, you'll debut immediately!"

Xiaoyu instantly breathed a sigh of relief, as if granted amnesty; even her steel-like resolve went a bit limp.

She quickly composed her expression. "Okay, Brother Wang; I understand. Thank you, Brother Wang!"

After hanging up the phone, she looked cautiously at Jiang Zhe.

Jiang Zhe had already calmly picked up his tablet and was swiping across the screen quickly.

A few seconds later, he stopped, frowning slightly as he looked at the search results.

Xinghai Entertainment, Gusu District branch, an established entertainment company with headquarters in Kyoto, a publicly listed enterprise.

Over the last decade, it has maintained a solid reputation, and the career paths of its artists are legitimate. Official reports have repeatedly named it a breath of fresh air in the industry, and even several superstars in this world are with the company. There are no scandals or dark histories of exploiting artists.

Jiang Zhe was silent for a moment, finally sighed softly, and put down the tablet.

"Xiaoyu, if you need money, you can tell your brother. I have ways. As for the entertainment industry, the waters are very deep; it might not be suitable for you!"

Xiaoyu immediately got into character, her expression very moving. "Brother, I really like acting; I like the feeling of being in the spotlight. This is my own choice. Besides, I'm not stupid; I know the rules of the entertainment industry. Xinghai is a company that has been praised by the state; there's no messy business there, and I will protect myself well."

Xiaoyu felt this reason was very reasonable!

Jiang Zhe stared at Xiaoyu for a long time, as if scrutinizing and weighing things...

Finally, he shook his head and turned to walk into the kitchen to serve rice. "As you wish. But remember, if anything happens, if you suffer any grievances, come to your brother first. Even if it means breaking the law, your brother will protect you."

"Mhm..."

Xiaoyu felt a sudden, inexplicable soreness in her nose, and the stone hanging in her heart finally dropped.

Little did she know, these words caused the viewers' favorability to skyrocket!

"???"

"What the f*ck did I just hear?"

"Breaking the law? Brother, what are you saying?"

"Holy sh*t, what kind of sister-doting maniac is this!"

"I'm moved. This is what other people's brothers are like!"

"Our brother really steps up when things happen. I wish I had a brother like this!"

Principal Fu, Teacher Lao Wang, as well as Professor Guan from Kyoto, and Li Mo, who had long been waiting in front of the livestream, were all left...

...speechless by Jiang Zhe's words!

The meal ended quickly. After Xiaoyu finished washing the dishes, she sat back on the sofa and began her nightly questioning:

"Brother, why did you say last night that the three questions—what kind of world we live in, the afterlife, and parallel worlds—have a very unified answer?"

"I still don't understand; what is the profound meaning behind that!"

Jiang Zhe leaned back on the sofa and explained lazily, "To understand why those three questions have a unified answer, we must first clarify how to view this problem—from the perspective of this universe and the place we live in."

"It can be traced back to one question: Where exactly do we humans live!"

"After that, the scientific mysteries you are puzzled about will all be solved within this 'A Framework' of mine!"

He paused for a moment and asked, "Xiaoyu, what does the Earth orbit?"

"The Sun!" Xiaoyu blurted out. This was simply too basic.

"And the Sun?"

"It orbits the center of the Milky Way!"

"And what does the Milky Way orbit?"

Xiaoyu's eyebrows twitched slightly. After a moment of thought, she was able to give an answer: "Is it the Local Group? Or rather, is it influenced by the gravity of the Virgo Supercluster?"

"Very good." Jiang Zhe nodded approvingly. "Then, in an even larger cosmic structure, what is the Virgo Supercluster pulled by?"

Xiaoyu tried hard to search for the answer in her extracurricular books: "Is it the Laniakea Supercluster? And then higher up, is it the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex? There also seems to be filamentary structures like the 'Cosmic Wall'... Ultimately, everything should be located in a huge cosmic web, and we are dominated by the overall distribution of matter and gravity?"

"Not bad, that is a very clear thread." Jiang Zhe was very satisfied; the previous Xiaoyu didn't understand these things at all. "What you described is a layered, nested, and gravity-dominated macro-structure—from the ground beneath our feet, to the stars, to galaxies, to galaxy clusters, to superclusters, and then to the gravitational chains of the entire universe, tightly binding us from the microscopic to the macroscopic. This also defines the operating laws of our world."

At this moment, the viewers in the livestream looked at Xiaoyu with suspicion.

We agreed to stay academic slackers together, so why did you secretly get private tutoring?

As Jiang Zhe changed the subject, "Now, the final and biggest question is coming!"

"The 'Observable Universe' with a diameter of 93 billion light-years that we humans can currently observe, as well as the 'Unobservable Universe' that we cannot see but can infer exists..."

"As a whole, what is this entire 'Our Universe' orbiting?"

"Or rather, what power is dominating its overall behavior?"

"For example, from Hubble to the modern day, the eerie 'Accelerating Expansion' of the universe observed by astronomical telescopes?"

The living room fell silent for a moment, and Xiaoyu gave the standard answer: "Dark Energy!"

"The mainstream explanation in the scientific community is Dark Energy; only a type of Dark Energy that is uniformly distributed in cosmic space and possesses negative pressure can produce a repulsive gravitational effect, thereby pushing the cosmic space itself to expand in an accelerated manner..."

"Otherwise, according to the Big Bang model, the speed of the explosion at the beginning should be the fastest → and as time passes, the speed of expansion should be slowing down."

"But in reality, the expansion speed of the universe is getting faster and faster, which does not conform to the 'explosion wave' of the Big Bang model, which is strong first and weak later; instead, it is 'strong first,' 'stronger later,' and 'even stronger'!"

"Dark Energy..." Jiang Zhe's lips curled slightly, and he shook his head.

Then he picked up the tablet on the table and found a diagram of the universe, from the microscopic to the macroscopic.

"Xiaoyu, look!"

"We observed the Earth orbiting the Sun and discovered universal gravitation."

"We observed the movement of galaxies and introduced dark matter to explain the extra gravity."

"Now, we observe the overall accelerating expansion of the universe and have introduced dark energy to explain 'the universe is accelerating in its expansion'."

His finger swiped on the tablet from gravity, to dark matter, and then to dark energy.

"Xiaoyu, have you noticed?"

"Every time, when our scientists discover an observed phenomenon that cannot be explained by known 'things,' they give that unknown a new name, put that 'thing' into the Big Bang model, and then say to everyone: 'Look, the accelerating expansion of the universe is caused by this newly appeared dark energy.'"

Jiang Zhe looked up and stared at Xiaoyu with a serious expression.

"From gravity, to dark matter, to dark energy; in our toolbox for explaining the world, aren't there more and more unknown, hypothetical, and even illusory 'things'?"

"And isn't every new 'thing' just to patch up the 'errors' that appear on a larger scale in the Big Bang model?"

Upon hearing this, Xiaoyu was stunned on the spot.

Millions of viewers were also stunned.

They knew that Jiang Zhe's questioning was not denying science; it was a reflection on the method of scientific exploration.

Are we humans constantly discovering the truth of the universe, or are we constantly using fake 'new things' to fill the loopholes in the old cosmic model?

"Therefore, Xiaoyu!" Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "When you take it for granted that the accelerating expansion of the universe must be caused by an attribute 'inside' it called 'Dark Energy'..."

He paused for a moment and threw out a bombshell statement.

"Have you ever thought that perhaps Dark Energy doesn't exist at all?"

"And this force pushing the universe to 'accelerate its expansion' does not come from inside the universe, but from... the outside?"

"Just like the Earth is pulled by the Sun's gravity, the Solar System is pulled by the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is pulled by even larger galaxies..."

"Is there a possibility that our entire universe is also being influenced and pulled by some completely unobservable 'thing' on a more macroscopic scale, which is why it can exhibit the motion of the entire universe accelerating in its expansion?"

"If the universe is a 'balloon,' is it really the gas inside the 'balloon' that makes it expand rapidly?"

Xiaoyu froze, her pupils shrinking suddenly.

An incredible thought emerged in her mind: perhaps the thing that makes the balloon expand is the gas...

But the more critical thing is...

The person blowing up the balloon!

...

PS: This is an extra chapter for the big boss GaoJeiWei for the explosive update flowers and yesterday's gifts!