NOVEL NEXT Ch. 16
Chapter 16: The Encounter Itself
These words, at first hearing, sounded like a discussion, but between the lines carried that sense of “seemingly teasing, yet actually mocking.”
They pierced right into Luo Nansheng’s pride in pursuing absolute logic.
Yet Bai Lengci lightly put forth concepts like fate and the butterfly effect—things filled with chaos and unpredictability—as if mocking the narrowness of Luo Nansheng’s logical framework.
Luo Nansheng’s expression darkened, and in those beautiful eyes the chill grew deeper.
“Classmate Bai is engaging in equivocation. The butterfly effect is chaos theory, describing how tiny disturbances in initial conditions may lead to enormous differences in outcome. At its core, it still follows the causal chain of physical laws.But fate is a metaphysical concept based on emotional projection and cultural construction, lacking falsifiability. To confuse the two is a logical fallacy!”
“Oh?”
Bai Lengci slightly arched her brow, that playful smile becoming even more apparent.
“Classmate Luo’s rejection of metaphysical concepts is truly categorical. Then, may I ask, Classmate Luo—in quantum mechanics, is the state collapse caused by the observer effect something that a pure causal chain can fully explain? That instantaneous, decisive choice—does it not carry a trace of metaphysics, or at least unpredictability? And in this respect of unpredictability, is it not somewhat… hmm… structurally similar to the encounter we are now discussing?”
Luo Nansheng’s breath faltered slightly.
She clearly had not expected Bai Lengci to suddenly steer the topic into such a hardcore field as quantum mechanics.
She was widely read, but her understanding of cutting-edge physics was limited to popular science.
And Bai Lengci’s seemingly casual question struck exactly at the weaker boundary of her knowledge system.
A surge of offense and frustration at being outmaneuvered rose instantly, dyeing her fair cheeks with a faint flush.
“You!”
Luo Nansheng’s voice suddenly rose, carrying a sharpness tinged with anger.
“Classmate Bai, if all you wish is to use some pseudo-technical terms to confuse the discussion, then indeed, this debate is utterly meaningless!”
She practically ground out the final words between her teeth.
The air in the living room seemed to freeze.
The crackling of the flames dancing in the fireplace sounded especially clear.
Yu Chunqiu held his teacup, his small eyes shining brightly as he watched the two young people clash head-on.
The smile at his lips nearly stretched to his ears—just short of clapping in delight.
Since it could not be avoided, then better to stir this pool completely muddy.
“Classmate Luo accuses me of confusing categories?”
Bai Lengci’s voice grew calm, yet carried an even stronger force of penetration.
“Then let us return to the fundamental question: how do we perceive coincidence itself? Hume’s skepticism already pointed out long ago that what we call causation is merely a psychological habit formed from observing constant conjunctions in experience. We see the sun rise, the stone fall, and thus we assume there is a necessary cause between them. But in essence, we cannot prove that a stone falls because of gravity, rather than God pushing it, or some mechanism we have yet to understand. So-called causation—at its core logic—is it not also built upon the induction of countless coincidences (the sun rising every day, stones always falling)?”
At the end, Bai Lengci left no chance for Luo Nansheng to refute, and concluded:
“Classmate Luo has faith in probability and causal chains. Then let me ask you: tossing a perfectly uniform coin, the probability of heads is 50%.
When it lands heads the first time, is that a coincidence? The second time as well? What about ten times in a row?
In terms of probability, of course it can happen—just with very low likelihood.
But when such a low-probability event does happen, besides calling it coincidence, how else can we describe it?
Can we assert with certainty that there must exist some yet-unknown cause that makes it always land heads?
If not, then is coincidence itself not simply a helpless label we assign to events that cannot be perfectly explained by our current causal models?”
Luo Nansheng’s breathing quickened, as she tried to argue back.
“This… this is sophistry! The occurrence of low-probability events precisely proves the correctness of the probability model! It only shows possibility, not inevitability—and it certainly does not mean it transcends the law of causality!”
“Is that so?”
A sharp glint flashed in Bai Lengci’s eyes.
“Then let us broaden the scale.
The Earth formed in the universe, life appeared on Earth, humanity evolved intelligence… Each link in this chain was the accumulation of countless accidents.
A suitable star, a suitable planetary orbit, the right chemical environment, one accidental genetic mutation…
If any link had deviated slightly, there would be no chance for you and I to sit here debating the existence of coincidence.
Classmate Luo, please tell me—at the birth of the universe, in the chaotic soup of life’s origins—
did there exist a clear, inevitable causal chain destined to lead to you, Luo Nansheng, and me, Bai Lengci, on a winter’s day in the year 2024, in Mr. Yu Chunqiu’s living room, arguing endlessly about coincidence and fate?”
Her voice was not loud, yet struck the silent air like a heavy hammer.
Even Yu Chunqiu, who had been watching the show, restrained his smile.
His small eyes opened slightly, revealing a thoughtful look.
“The *Zhuangzi: Qi Wu Lun* says: ‘Where there is birth, there is death; where there is death, there is birth.
Where there is possibility, there is impossibility; where there is impossibility, there is possibility.
Where there is right, there is wrong; where there is wrong, there is right.’
All things transform and flow.
Right and wrong, causation and necessity—all are relative.
Our insistence on distinguishing coincidence from inevitability, our insistence on framing it within probability or metaphysics—is that itself not also a form of ‘ego-attachment’?
Sartre said ‘existence precedes essence.’ We first *exist* here, encountering one another, and only then do we define whether this encounter is coincidence or fate.
Before definition, it simply happened.
What meaning we assign—probability or fate—is your choice, Classmate Luo, also Mr. Yu’s choice, and equally, mine.
You choose to dissect it within the cold framework of mathematics, denying the value of emotional projection. Mr. Yu chooses to beautify it with the warmth of fate, seeking some solace in human connection.And I…”
She paused slightly, her gaze sweeping across them both.
“I choose to see its chaos and its ineffability, and to accept this chaos. That is the true internal logic—acknowledging the limits of cognition.”
When she finished in one breath, the living room sank into a long silence.
Luo Nansheng was completely stunned.
In her beautiful eyes, the earlier anger had been replaced by a vast shock.
Bai Lengci’s discourse—from skepticism to cosmology, from Daoist thought to existentialism—was tightly reasoned, richly referenced, step by step advancing, until it ultimately pointed to the very limitations of cognition itself!
This was absolutely not the kind of intellectual depth and knowledge reserve she expected from an ordinary senior high school student!
Her proudly upheld logical framework, in the face of such grand yet incisive analysis, seemed so thin and… arrogant?
After Bai Lengci finished speaking, it was as if some inner strength was drained.
She leaned back against the sofa.
She picked up the cup of water, long since gone cold, and sipped it slowly.
Her lowered lashes concealed the turmoil in her eyes.
There was exhaustion after release, discomfort at being forced to bare her edge, and also a trace of something… even she herself had not noticed—an examination of her own altered thinking abilities after this “mutation.”