A ripple-like notification sound rang out, and one of the walls in the room suddenly lit up like a giant screen.
"Wow—that's amazing!" Dong Yao and Qi Muhuan exclaimed, their voices slightly exaggerated.
One of the three young people who had entered later, caught up in their emotional turmoil, gasped in surprise, but the older members paid no attention, as the giant screen was now displaying strings of text.
[Dad, I don't like school.]
[Oh, why don't you like it?]
[I don't like rote memorization, and I don't like teachers forcing us to answer questions according to formulas. I think that as long as a question gets to its core and true meaning, that's enough. Like you told me, Dad, to distinguish truth from falsehood, to see through appearances to the essence. Those exaggerated and superficial things are meaningless burdens. Whether it's a humanities question or a science question, concise and refined language is the essence, and removing formulas and tedious steps is what's practical.]
[You're right, child.] [
But that's not how schools and teachers teach us. Humanities subjects only require rote memorization; not a single word can be wrong. Science subjects require answering questions according to the formulas and formulas taught in the book; you're not allowed to think outside the box or try anything unconventional. I think what we should really learn in school is how to think about each problem correctly and flexibly, not how to memorize every problem and its answer to get a good grade.]
[Child, what you're describing is indeed a problem. It's a characteristic of exam-oriented education, and the overall environment dictates that it cannot be changed in the short term…]
[But Dad, you always tell me not to stifle my imagination and creativity, but I feel like my imagination and creativity are being strangled.
I don't like school. My ideas are often considered strange and restless by teachers; they always think I'm deliberately going against them and causing trouble. My classmates also think I'm weird, that my thinking isn't on the same wavelength.]
But I feel like they're turning into a bunch of rigid robots, just using formulas and sentences from books verbatim to apply to everything—I don't want to become like them, Dad. I feel suffocated in this environment. I hate it when teachers force me to memorize those theorems, axioms, laws, and texts like a duck being being forced to drink…
I can't take it anymore, Dad! I want to die. I don't like them, I don't like any of this. I feel so oppressed. I want to escape, I want to leave this place!
[—No! …No…Son…Son, be good, son, open your eyes, look at Dad…You haven't left Dad, have you?] You must still be here, son. Wait for Daddy, Daddy's coming to find you, to read with you, to play with you, to let your imagination run wild... Daddy's coming to find you...
Below
these words were several lines of handwritten text, tinged with frantic emotion:
—I can't open the box, even though there might only be a one in trillions of chance, but... but I want to find my son... Maybe, just maybe if I lock myself in the box, I'll find him in that one in trillions of chance...
—To your ridiculous theories and laws! Since you believe in them so firmly, I'll give you a world of absolute laws! In this world, all scientific phenomena…theories…formulas, conclusions, laws, or whatever…theoretical hypotheses with theoretical basis, logically consistent inferences, paradoxes…even conventional views…highly known phenomena…yes, that's right, those so-called correct laws of nature, the laws of the universe that you firmly believe in, they are all true here. This is the world you want, and they are all the true laws of this world…
—Does God actually play dice…?
—Which came first, matter or consciousness? Does matter determine consciousness, or does consciousness determine matter?
—Son, where are you? Dad is coming to find you, coming to find you…
Below all the text, a dice-shaped icon is displayed, flashing with cold, desolate starlight.
The veteran members looked at each other. Wei Dong scratched his newly cut hair, which he had just gotten before entering the painting: "These last few paragraphs are really chaotic, like the confused mental state of a madman."
"Yeah, they've left me completely bewildered," Luo Yi also scratched his platinum blonde hair. "I don't quite understand what all this nonsense about theories and laws being true in this world means."
"Simply put, it means that as long as you have an idea and can support it with theoretical evidence, even if it can't be realized in reality, it can still be considered real and can be realized in this so-called 'world'," Zhu Haowen explained.
"Too abstract, not simple at all," Wei Dong said, completely confused.
"The so-called 'world' should be the world created by the artist, Chengshi, within this painting. It could be said that it was created by his consciousness, or perhaps based on his understanding of the world," Shao Ling said. "But whatever it is, it originates from the chaotic and disordered mental world of a madman. I fear the dangers we are about to encounter will be different from before; they may be completely unpredictable, even irrational. I think the difficulties we face this time will be immense. Mu, what do you think?"
"I think the focus should be on these few lines of handwriting," Mu Yiran said. "Although its content appears chaotic, some key information is scattered throughout, like the essence of abstract art. We should purify this content, removing the useless parts and finding the key information."
"Judging from the first line, he mentioned a box," Ke Xun said. "This should refer to the box about Schrödinger's cat, but what does 'one in a trillion probability' refer to?"
"May I ask," the girl with long hair suddenly spoke up, "are the things displayed on the wall related to the rules of this world you're talking about in the painting?"
"Yes, every painting sets a background and a mystery for us," Qin Ci patiently explained, "and it also provides clues to help us solve the mystery. What we need to do is grasp these clues, find more clues to unravel the mystery, and find the artist's signature or seal to leave the world within the painting." The girl with long
hair swallowed hard. "What you just said, is it really true?"
"It is true," Qin Ci said.
The girl with long, flowing hair looked helplessly at the young man named Deng Lin. Deng Lin, seemingly afraid the two girls would remember what had just happened, quickly asked the older members who were speaking, "Could you explain what you were talking about earlier, Schrödinger's cat?"
"'Schrödinger's cat' is a thought experiment proposed by the famous Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger..."
Shao Ling had just started to speak when the young idol named Qi Muhuan laughed, "Surname Xue, shouldn't he be Chinese? Are there people with the surname Xue in Austria?"
Dong Yao, standing beside him, patted him with a laugh, "Muhuan, you're about to expose your ignorance! Be careful you don't lose fans!"
Qi Muhuan laughed, "Oh dear, I'm sorry, my image is about to collapse! Mousse fans, please don't abandon me!"
Everyone: "..."
Ke Xun asked Luo Jin, "What's Mousse, cake?"
Luo Jin: "It's the nickname for his fans."
Ke Xun: "..."
"…A thought experiment," Shao Ling continued, "The experiment is as follows: A cat is placed in a sealed box containing a small amount of radioactive material and a vial of poison. The vial has a hammer attached, controlled by an electronic switch, which in turn is controlled by the radioactive material.
"If the radioactive material decays, it will trigger the electronic switch, causing the hammer to fall and smash the vial, releasing cyanide gas. The cat will undoubtedly die.
"It is known that this radioactive material has a 50% probability of decaying and a 50% probability of not decaying. Therefore, there is a 50% chance it won't trigger the electronic switch and the hammer to smash the vial. The other 50% chance is that it will. So, the cat in the box has a 50% chance of being dead or alive.
"The problem is that the cat is in an opaque, sealed box. Before opening the box, people can never know whether the cat is dead or alive. Only after opening the box can they determine whether the cat is dead or alive."
"So, before opening the box, what state was the cat in? Quantum theory states that without opening the box to observe, we'll never know if the cat is dead or alive; it will forever remain in a superposition of being neither dead nor alive. In other words, the cat in the box is both dead and alive.
This statement clearly violates logical thinking, but it has extraordinary significance in the physics community..." "
Wow, this is really informative! It feels like a physics lesson!" Dong Yao said sweetly and excitedly from the side.
The veteran members: "..."
"What does this have to do with the so-called world in the painting we're in now?" Deng Lin asked.
"The painting is called 'Schrödinger's Cat,' and the room we're in now is like a sealed box," Zhu Haowen glanced at him calmly.
Deng Lin froze, reacted for a moment, and then, as if finally realizing something, his face paled.
"So you mean, we could be both dead and alive right now?" "The long-haired girl reacted quickly, her face also turning pale.
"That's true, but if we can't find the painter's signature, we'll all die. But if we find the signature without anyone dying, then everyone might survive," Wei Dong said.
"Then, what are we waiting for? Let's find it quickly!" the long-haired girl said, a little flustered.
"We need to organize the existing clues first..."
Shao Ling hadn't even finished saying "Chu" when Qi Muhuan said with a smile, "Could the question of whether God rolls dice or not have anything to do with the dice icon below? Let's click on it and see what happens!"
As he spoke, he reached out and clicked on the dice icon.
He was so close to the wall and his movement was so sudden that no one had time to react or stop him. The dice icon had already been clicked and started spinning rapidly.
"--Holy crap!" "Ke Xunwei and Luo Yi shouted out together. They never expected this person to be so stupid and so mischievous. It was too late to stop him now, so they could only quickly stand next to their companions and wait for what was about to happen.