Chapter 1

Does the time tunnel really exist?

Before the穿越, Zhong Shi would have scoffed at the idea, dismissing it without a second thought. As a high-caliber student at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), who obtained his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the age of 28, he naturally looked down on these amateur speculations.

Caltech is a globally renowned university located on the west coast of the United States in California. Founded in 1891, the university has fewer than 2,000 students from around the world, and it ranks among the top universities globally in fields such as physics, chemistry, aeronautics, earth sciences, electrical engineering, mathematics, and computer science.

Unlike the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), another globally renowned technical university, Caltech is a more refined institution with a more intense scientific atmosphere. The number of Nobel laureates, average number of published papers, and average number of paper citations per capita here are all higher than those at the prestigious university on the East Coast.

Qian Xuesen, the famous "Father of Chinese Missiles," once mentioned the differences between the two schools:

"At MIT, I didn't find it particularly challenging; I completed my master's degree in just one year with top grades... Later, I transferred to Caltech, and immediately felt a significant difference... Here, you must think of things others haven't thought of and say things others haven't said... Small steps won't do; you'll quickly be overtaken by others..."

Zhong Shi completed his undergraduate education at Yanjing University and then successfully applied for a Ph.D. in astrophysics at Caltech. In just four years, he obtained both his master's and doctoral degrees.

In the United States, a master's degree (master's degree) is considered a transitional degree. People still value undergraduate and doctoral education. It typically takes at least five years to obtain a Ph.D., and if you cannot complete your dissertation within seven years after achieving ABD (All But Dissertation, all requirements for the Ph.D. except the dissertation are completed), you will never be eligible for a doctoral degree.

Throughout history, there have been some genius students whose doctoral theses were published in top professional journals before their defenses. Some were even so long that they had to be serialized over several issues. The famous Chinese economist Zhang Wuchang's doctoral thesis, "The Theory of Tenancy," was serialized in four issues of the Journal of Law and Economics (JLE) before his defense, becoming a pioneering work in modern contract economics and causing a sensation in the Western economic community.

Although Zhong Shi was not as dramatic, he still obtained his Ph.D. in four years, causing a minor stir at Caltech.

There was no way around it; there were too many geniuses here. With an IQ of 160, Zhong Shi was only considered to have average talent.

After leaving the sunny California, Zhong Shi declined NASA's invitation and instead joined the embrace of Wall Street.

Starting in the 1980s, quantitative investment gradually entered Wall Street's field of vision. With the success of several hedge funds using quantitative models as their primary strategy, Wall Street began to favor graduates with backgrounds in mathematics, physics, and statistics.

Mathematicians, statisticians, rocket engineers, and even Ph.D. physicists began to flood the industry, which deals with financial statements and macroeconomic data on a daily basis.

Zhong Shi joined the fixed income department of the famous Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley and became a trader. Soon, he made a name for himself in the bond trading market, becoming a star trader and was soon promoted to Senior Vice President (SVP).

In 1997, Morgan Stanley entered Hong Kong and set up in Central. Due to his mainland background and fluent Mandarin, Zhong Shi was sent to the Asia-Pacific region as an Executive Director (ED).

Thanks to the rapid development of the mainland and the rapid expansion of the joint venture investment bank China International Financial Limited, as well as the efforts of a group of geniuses in the Asia-Pacific region, Morgan Stanley firmly held the upper hand over its arch-rival, another prestigious Wall Street investment bank, Goldman Sachs, in the Asian market.

However, after 2002, the tide turned, and Goldman Sachs began to rise, dominating the capital markets in Asia. (Readers can think about why!)

In 2007, Zhong Shi had been promoted to Managing Director (MD) of Morgan Stanley's Asia-Pacific region. However, that year, due to the accidental exposure of an internal email, he had to resign and leave the company where he had worked for decades.

The internal email was from the then Chief Economist of the Asia-Pacific region, harshly criticizing the political policies of a small Southeast Asian country. For well-known reasons, the economist and Zhong Shi had to leave.

After leaving Morgan Stanley, Zhong Shi did not lack for opportunities. After a two-month break, he founded his own hedge fund. Due to his consistently excellent performance, many funds flocked to him, including the China Investment Corporation, which manages China's vast foreign exchange reserves.

Zhong Shi lived up to expectations, and since the fund's inception, its net value steadily increased, even rising against the market during the 2008 financial crisis, making it a star fund in the Asia-Pacific region. He himself was named one of the most outstanding fund managers in the Asia-Pacific region by The Wall Street Journal.

Although most of his funds were invested in the capital markets of Europe and America, he also established a China Growth Fund specifically targeting the A-share market to attract high-net-worth individuals from the mainland. Unfortunately, the Chinese capital market operates differently from other major Western markets, and he, as a star fund manager, suffered repeated setbacks in the A-share market, even becoming a laughingstock among some fund managers.

He had studied abroad for a few years and worked on Wall Street for seven or eight years. Although he worked in Hong Kong, he was never on the mainland, so his understanding of the mainland remained from over a decade ago, naturally not matching the long-term experience of fund managers who had grown up in the A-share market.

After dissolving the A-share fund in 2011, he was feeling depressed and decided to go on a trip. He set sail from Hong Kong, passing through South Asia, India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean, finally reaching his destination, London.

His fund company primarily used quantitative models and computers for trading. As long as the models were functioning correctly, there was no need for many people to manage it. In fact, his fund company had only 20 employees managing billions of dollars.

On this journey, he experienced the exotic charm of South Asia, the world cultural heritage site of the Taj Mahal in India, the wealth and deserts of the Middle East, the ethnic conflicts in Gaza, the casinos in Monaco, the cathedrals in Vatican, the snow on the Alps, the bullfights in Madrid, and the arrogance of the British!

After touring the British Isles, he thought, since he had already traveled halfway around the world, he might as well complete the other half.

Crossing the entire Atlantic, the yacht finally docked in the Bermuda Islands.

The Bermuda Islands are located in the North Atlantic and are a British overseas territory, about 1,000 nautical miles from Miami, Florida. Zhong Shi planned to rest here for a while before entering U.S. waters.

The Bermuda Islands consist of seven main islands and about 150 smaller ones, with only 20 of them inhabited, and a total population of less than 70,000. However, due to its tax policies, it is favored by the international financial industry and is a famous offshore financial market.

However, the Bermuda Islands are more famous for their triangle, the area between the Bermuda Islands, Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, forming a triangle. In this area, ships and aircraft often disappear mysteriously, and some even claim there are time tunnels. Scientists from various countries have been unable to explain these strange phenomena, and over time, this area has been called the "Devil's Triangle."

Zhong Shi naturally scoffed at these legends. From his perspective as a Ph.D. in physics, if humans could travel through time, according to Einstein's theory of relativity, they would need to travel faster than the speed of light, making their time pass more slowly. Once they returned to sub-light speed, the time lost would be less than that of others, meaning they would have traveled to the future.

No object faster than the speed of light has been discovered yet, and if one were, the entire physics system would need to be revised!

Another theory in physics about time travel is the "wormhole," a narrow tunnel that may connect two different points in space-time, allowing for instantaneous spatial transfer or time travel. According to the theory of the renowned modern physicist Stephen Hawking, wormholes could connect to other universes, possibly the future or the past. However, theoretically, wormholes are extremely small, even smaller than atomic nuclei, and it is estimated that only by breaking a person down into fundamental particles could they be transmitted through.

Upon arriving in Bermuda, Zhong Shi received a call from Hong Kong. His employee informed him that a "black swan" event had occurred in the capital markets, and he needed to return quickly to take charge.

A "black swan" is a term in finance referring to an unpredictable major rare event that is both unexpected and transformative.

On May 17, 2012, the Greek presidential palace announced that the cabinet reorganization had failed and that new elections would be held in June, with the possibility of Greece leaving the Eurozone. The news caused a major shock in the European market, leading to pessimistic market sentiment. The European Central Bank and various governments held large amounts of Greek government bonds, and if Greece declared default, these bonds would become worthless. Additionally, if Greece set a precedent, heavily indebted countries like Spain and Italy could become the next targets.

Greek government bonds, whose yields had already skyrocketed, were difficult to find buyers in the market. Zhong Shi originally believed that the European Central Bank would not stand idly by and would help Greece through the crisis, so he heavily bought Greek government bonds. However, the Greek prime minister's decision to hold a referendum on the EU aid plan shocked EU officials, the Greek parliament, and the entire market.

Subsequently, the prime minister resigned under pressure, and the Greek president authorized the former vice president of the European Central Bank, Papadimos, to form a new government, which helped ease market panic.

After two rounds of EU aid, the market regained confidence in the Greek government, resolving the immediate crisis of Greek government bonds. However, in May, the failure to form a coalition government in Greece cast a shadow over the possibility of a Greek default.

During the first EU aid, Zhong Shi had aggressively bought Greek government bonds, betting that Greece would not default. Most funds in the market were frantically selling Greek government bonds, with yields rising to 1,000%, meaning they were being sold at one-tenth of their face value.

If Greece managed to save itself, Zhong Shi's assets would increase several times over! However, if Greece ultimately defaulted, he would lose all the funds he had invested.

This was a serious matter, and Zhong Shi, ignoring the stop command from the control tower, flew a small plane to Miami in the midst of lightning, thunder, and heavy rain.

His original plan was to fly to Miami and then to Hong Kong to quickly sell his Greek government bonds. However, without the control tower's guidance, he lost his bearings and had to turn back in the thunderstorm.

Just as he was about to call the control tower, a bolt of lightning as thick as an arm flashed in front of the plane. The surrounding air suddenly rippled like waves, visible to the naked eye. Zhong Shi couldn't avoid it and was sucked into the disturbance with the small plane, disappearing without a trace.

On a small island in Bermuda, a black father and son were fishing in the rain. The young son looked up at the sky and saw this scene. He yelled to his father, who was throwing a harpoon, and the black father looked up, then lowered his head and muttered, "Another unfortunate soul, may God bless him!"

The control tower on the ground only heard, "What is this?" and received no further signals. After the rain cleared, they sent search teams, but found no trace of him. They had no choice but to report the incident to the U.S. government, and it was left unresolved.