Summary

In Chapter 22, Red Coast V, the events of the novel return to the past. One of the biggest challenges for Red Coast Base is interference from the sun, with solar activity fluctuating unpredictably. But based on her research of the work of other scientists, including Americans, she began to work through the problem. She began with a triangle setup consisting of the sun, Earth, and Jupiter, and noting that energy takes on different forms as it moves around, reflected from one place to the next – what she comes to call energy mirrors. In other words, the sun amplifies radio waves. Ye Wenjie realizes this means that weak transmissions from Earth could be strengthened by the sun. Denied official permission to try this, Ye Wenjie does so secretly on her own, beginning in the fall of 1971. When there is no response, Ye Wenjie feels...