He encoded into a powerful radio wave the precise coordinates of the Trisolaran system—and a single line of data: "Here is a civilization that has mastered the art of the chaotic era. They are weak now. But they know how to survive."

The droplet passed through them like a needle through silk. It didn't shoot. It just moved . The laws of physics became its weapon. In thirty seconds, the fleet was a field of molten debris. A billion tons of steel, one million human lives, reduced to a glittering, silent ring around Saturn.

"Ye Wenjie invited the wolf," Saul said. "I'm going to invite the hunter."

"The problem of the three bodies is solved. The answer is: one body. Ours. You are the chaotic element. And chaos... must be eliminated."

"Then why are you destroying our science?" Saul demanded.

Saul was a reluctant Wallfacer. While others built fleets or weaponized the sun, he did something strange. He bought a tract of land in the Sahara. He built a simple stone circle—an astronomical observatory with no electronics. He started drawing orbits in the sand.

Then the words dissolved into a chaotic orbit: the path of a three-body problem. Three suns, eternally chasing, colliding, flinging their planets from fire into ice. The universe, Saul realized, was not silent. It was screaming.