Six years after returning from Australia, Cheng Xin wakes from hibernation with her eyesight restored through cloned-retina treatment. Her original blindness began as a psychosomatic reaction to extreme distress, then became physical retinal damage, so doctors chose hibernation to spare Cheng Xin years of darkness and psychological collapse.

AA greets Cheng Xin and remains lively and seemingly untouched by the hardships of the Great Resettlement. During Cheng Xin’s hibernation, AA has rapidly developed Cheng Xin’s company into a major force in near-orbit space construction while still appearing youthful and carefree.

After the gravitational wave broadcast, humanity celebrated Blue Space and Gravity as mythic salvation ships. The charges against Blue Space for suspected murder during the dark battles were withdrawn and reframed as justified self-defense, while members of the Earth Resistance Movement were also transformed into public heroes.

Public fury then turned against the Earth Security Force. Although the ESF had preserved cities, infrastructure, supply lines, and order during and after the Great Resettlement, tribunals ignored those accomplishments; all ESF members were tried, half were convicted of crimes against humanity, and many were executed while crowds cheered.

Eventually peace returned, cities recovered quickly because their infrastructure had survived, and people chose to enjoy life. This calm rested on the precedent that Luo Ji’s earlier dark forest broadcast took 157 years to bring destruction to its target star, allowing most people to believe they could live out their lives; birthrates still collapsed, and many began comforting themselves by questioning dark forest theory itself.