Starting as a Wallfacer, his defection to the Three-Body Problem shocked the world.

“Mr. Hines, Ms. Keiko Yamasugi, this way.”

Guided by the shrine priest, the two arrived at a clear spring where clear water gushed down from the rocks, forming a small puddle below.

Through the water's surface, Hines could clearly see the pebbles paving the bottom of the spring, crisscrossing like stars scattered across the Milky Way.

"Before you formally visit the shrine, you two need to purify your hands here at the water pavilion."

The shrine priest nodded slightly to the two of them, indicating his presence.

Hines and Keiko Yamasugi followed each other's movements, dipping their hands into the clear spring.

The shrine priest helped by using a ladle to catch the water flowing down from the top of the stone, allowing the two to wash their hands.

"Excuse me."

Keiko Yamasugi expressed her gratitude to the shrine's chief priest. She hadn't expected that simply mentioning wanting to visit would lead to such a personal visit and reception.

“Miss Keiko, you’re too kind. I’ve heard about your prestige in the scientific community. It is an honor for the shrine to have you two visit.”

"No, I'm just an ordinary researcher. The main one is Bill, who has won two Nobel Prizes in brain science."

When Keiko Yamasugi said this, there was a hint of pride in her eyes, as if she were showing off to the people around her, "Look, this is my lover."

"What an enviable love story! May the God of Fate bless you both."

After washing their hands, the shrine priest led the two to the torii gate.

"From here on, we will step into the realm of God. But Dr. Hines, I find this very interesting. You are a scientist, so what do you think God is?"

Upon hearing the shrine priest's question, Hines pondered for a long time before answering.

"It's a kind of hope for the future. As you know, Keiko and I both study neuroscience. While we don't completely believe in gods and ghosts, we don't completely refute them either. In my opinion, absolute atheists are also a kind of believers in a deity, only the deity they believe in is called 'science' and 'truth'."

“A very interesting answer, Mr. Hines.”

The worship hall is located on the central side, where many windmills are suspended in mid-air by ropes. When the wind blows, they turn "shush-shush-shush" like new leaves on a sacred tree.

By this time, the sun had already set, and there were very few people queuing in front of the temple gate. Hines and Keiko Yamasugi arrived at the offering box, and Hines took out some banknotes from his suit pocket and put them into the offering box.

"Please ring the bell and make your wishes to the gods."

After completing the entire worship ceremony, the shrine chief priest led the two through the corridor to the altar.

"This is where you draw lots. You two can try drawing one. It will be a wonderful blessing for your future relationship and career."

"Huizi, come here."

Hines smiled and handed the fortune-telling box to Keiko Yamasugi, who took it, shook it in her hand, and took out a fortune stick.

"Good luck."

Hines shook the divination tube in his hand.

"Lord Gongsi, surely there aren't only two types of fortune sticks in this divination box: Great Fortune and Minor Fortune?"

The shrine priest smiled.

“Dr. Hines, as you said before, those who seek God are merely looking for a beautiful expectation, so why bother?”

What does this mean?

Keiko Yamasugi pointed to the divination slip in her hand, below which was written a line of small characters.

“That’s a divine oracle, representing your future fortune. Let me take a look at it for you two.”

Keiko Yamasugi handed the fortune slip in her hand to the shrine chief priest.

"If we were not destined to be together in our past lives, let us make a vow in the next."

The shrine priest was stunned when he saw the fortune slip.

She checked it several times to make sure she hadn't misread it before handing the divination slip back to her.

"Lord Palace Master, what does this mean?"

Keiko Yamasugi and Hines didn't know much about these things.

"Um... it means that you two are able to become lovers in this life because it is a wish that was not fulfilled in your previous life. Therefore, you should cherish each other's love even more. This is a kind of fate that may only be obtained after three lifetimes."

"understood."

Hines nodded slightly. Indeed, his meeting with Keiko Yamasugi was like an arrangement of fate. If there really was a past life, then the two of them must have loved each other deeply.

Before they left, the shrine priest gave them a string of bells tied with a red string.

"This is a love charm, a kind of amulet, which is meant to ward off evil spirits and protect you. It also symbolizes your happy and fulfilling love."

“Each of you wear one on your hand, and then you can make a promise to each other three times. After the promise is made, the blessing will take effect and bless you to be together forever.”

"However, the agreements made must be carefully considered by both parties, since these three agreements are quite precious."

"Thank you very much, Lord Miyaji."

Keiko Yamasugi and Hines bowed to the priest of the shrine to express their gratitude. They had never expected that the priest would give them such a meaningful gift before leaving.

After the two left the shrine, the shrine priest quickly scraped off the writing on the fortune slip in his hand.

"I hope Dr. Hines is right, that gods are just people's expectations of a better future."

"If we were not destined to be together in our past lives, let us make a vow in the next."

This doesn't mean anything about being destined in a past life; it clearly means that people who were not destined to be together in their past lives should wait for the next life to become husband and wife.

……

“Dr. Hines, the effects of thought imprinting are not canceling each other out, but rather superimposed. If we superimpose two opposing propositions on a person, it will drive that person completely insane.”

Lin Xuan took the experimental report of subject number 104 and handed it to Hines.

Hines took the report, looked through it for a while, then picked up the water glass next to him, poured the water into his mouth, but did not swallow it.

This is the limit he can do now. After about a week of psychological treatment, he has basically recovered, but he still needs to be forced to drink water to maintain his balance.

"That's why it's called the 'thought stamp.' I thought you knew this meaning when you named it that way. It's like a stamp engraved in a person's heart. But repeatedly stamping the same thing won't erase the previous effect; it will only tear the paper."

"I see."

Lin Xuan pondered for a moment.

"Then do you think it's possible to remotely imprint this thought process?"

“This is difficult,” Hines said.

“I know what you devil are up to now, remotely imprinting two completely opposite thought imprints to inflict severe mental damage on the enemy, but this kind of meme-like thing only works on humans and is almost ineffective on the Trisolarans.”

“I’ve considered your idea before, and it’s quite difficult to implement unless you can deploy three global coverage satellites in low Earth orbit, similar to GPS positioning, and then apply this kind of mind imprint to people in a certain area, with an effect similar to the Devil May Cry incident that broke out in the island nation.”

Lin Xuan then realized that what he was talking about seemed to be something he had done himself, that he had applied an infinitely superimposed noise to a region, similar to a ghost countdown, constantly disturbing people's minds and spreading to the surrounding area.

From that perspective, the effect is indeed not good.