Remembrance of Earth's Past, #3
Death's End
by Cixin Liu
Contents
Part VI — Outside of Time Our Universe (Chapter 73)
Overview
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan enter Universe 647, a tiny closed universe created by Yun Tianming as a refuge through the death and rebirth of the great universe. With Sophon as its manager, they begin a peaceful life of farming, study, and preparing to carry humanity’s memory into a future cosmos.
The refuge becomes morally impossible when Guan Yifan learns that mini-universes have stolen enough mass to prevent the great universe’s collapse and rebirth. A broadcast from the Returners confirms the crisis, and Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan choose to abandon safety and return their universe’s mass, extending Cheng Xin’s lifelong burden of responsibility to a cosmic scale.
Summary
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan pass through the door into a place where time initially does not exist, then emerges into a small pastoral world with a sun, sky, house, field, brook, trees, farming tools, and dormant robots. They discover that the world repeats in every direction; Guan Yifan explains it as a closed cubic universe whose edges connect to themselves. Yun Tianming has not merely given Cheng Xin a star, but a complete mini-universe.
Sophon appears in the form Cheng Xin remembers and welcomes them to Universe 647, where Sophon serves as manager while Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan hold full authority. Sophon explains that Yun Tianming gave the universe to both of them so they could survive the great universe’s collapse and enter the next universe after a new big bang. Sophon does not know why Yun Tianming and AA did not enter, though Yun’s authorization remains in the system.
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan begin life in the mini-universe. Robots cultivate crops from seeds descended from those Cheng Xin once sent with Yun Tianming, while Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan work, walk, study Earth records, and learn Trisolaran writing from Sophon. Cheng Xin begins writing her memoir, A Past Outside of Time, hoping to preserve humanity’s memory for the next universe.
Over the first year, Guan Yifan studies Trisolaran cosmology and realizes a grave problem: mini-universes remove mass from the great universe. If enough mass is lost, the great universe will no longer collapse into a singularity but will instead expand forever into cold darkness. Sophon mentions the Returners, beings who oppose mini-universes and urge their occupants to return stolen mass.
After the second harvest, Sophon receives a supermembrane broadcast from the great universe in more than 1.57 million languages, including ancient Trisolaran and Earth scripts. The message from the Returners confirms that the great universe has fallen below the critical mass needed for collapse and asks all mini-universe refugees to return their mass, sending only memories onward to the new universe. Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan silently decide to give up the safety of Universe 647 and return, despite Sophon’s warning that the great universe may be uninhabitable. Sophon recognizes that Cheng Xin is still ruled by responsibility.
Who Appears
- Cheng XinEnters Universe 647, begins preserving humanity’s memory, and chooses responsibility over survival.
- Guan YifanExplains the mini-universe, studies cosmology, and supports returning its mass.
- SophonManager of Universe 647; welcomes them, teaches them, and warns against leaving.
- Yun TianmingAbsent creator and giver of Universe 647, intended as refuge for Cheng Xin and Yifan.
- AAAbsent from the mini-universe; Cheng Xin infers she may not have wanted this distant refuge.
- The ReturnersBroadcast a plea for mini-universe occupants to return mass to save the great universe.