I control the AI ​​empire thanks to the geniuses in my group.

[Newton: @EagleWarrior, although your process is as rough as an unpolished piece of wood, and your use of symbols makes me feel physically nauseous, it also shows that your brain isn't filled with moldy tofu.]

Su Zhou was speechless.

Top geniuses have a truly unique way of praising people.

[Newton: @EagleWarrior, maybe you can do me a favor.]

[Newton: I've run into some trouble lately.]

[Von Neumann: That matter?]

Newton: Hmm.

[Von Neumann: You know, because of the limitations of parallel universes, we can't help you with this kind of thing.]

[Newton: What if a newcomer could break through the limitations?]

What are parallel universes?

What kind of newcomers can break through the limitations?

Su Zhou suddenly felt a heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

He was quiet during his leave of absence from school, but he was different now when facing a genius, as if his former self had returned.

[The Fearless Warrior: Mr. Newton, what's the trouble?]

[Newton: I am now the Superintendent of the Royal Mint.]

Royal Mint?

The Newton who is talking to him now must be over 50 years old.

He had previously read many biographies of scientists.

He knew a little about this part of Newton's experience.

[Newton: The British monetary system was rotten to the core. Old silver coins were being trimmed and melted down in large quantities, and counterfeit coins were rampant in the market. The factory manager couldn't solve the problem. After I took office, my task was to oversee a major reminting of the currency and at the same time track down the counterfeiters.]

[Newton: Most counterfeiters are small fry, easy to catch, but there's one who's giving me a real headache.]

[The Falcon Warrior: Who?]

[Newton: His code name was Mr. Chandler.]

Su Zhou remembered this person's name.

This Mr. Chandler was one of the most notorious counterfeiters in history and Newton's biggest rival during his time at the Mint.

This guy is extremely cunning; even Newton, who stands at the pinnacle of human intelligence, couldn't handle him.

Pure and simple version of the son.

Sir Niu hated nothing more than anyone going against him, and Mr. Chandler had certainly crossed that line.

[Newton: This man's counterfeit coins are so skillfully made that they are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. I even added a security edge to the coins, but he still managed to crack it.]

In other words, Newton was outmaneuvered by a counterfeiter.

Su Zhou could understand Newton's frustration.

The Newton in his fifties was not the spirited version of Newton he knew.

Thirty years at Cambridge pushed this already reclusive genius to the brink of despair.

He had almost no real friends, remained unmarried his entire life, and lived a solitary life. Even his colleagues at Trinity College kept their distance from him.

It wasn't out of worship, but out of fear.

No one wants to be near a capricious, eccentric person who might suddenly erupt in anger.

During that period, Newton's alchemical research had failed, and he began to suffer from persistent insomnia and mental confusion.

Irritable, suspicious, paranoid, his emotions swing back and forth like an out-of-control pendulum.

He wrote a letter to his close friend Locke, in a cold and sarcastic tone, accusing Locke of "trying to ruin his reputation with women" and saying that Locke had "ulterior motives".

In a letter to another old friend, Pepys, he inexplicably announced that he would sever all ties, using strong language that shocked Pepys after reading it.

These are some of the few friends he still keeps in touch with.

He pushed her away with his own hands.

Afterwards, Newton regained his senses, wrote a letter of apology, saying that he "couldn't sleep" and that he was "mentally unstable."

Hooke, Newton's old rival, did not miss the rare opportunity and publicly humiliated him, claiming that Newton had plagiarized his work.

This caused Newton's mental energy to be increasingly depleted.

A middle-aged man, tormented by insomnia, poisoned by mercury, entangled by enemies, and consumed by academic disputes.

In that dark room in Cambridge, he once thought that his life was over.

Optics, mechanics, universal gravitation, calculus—those groundbreaking achievements were all completed by Newton when he was in his twenties or thirties.

By the time he turned fifty, he had not made any major scientific discoveries for over twenty years.

He devoted a great deal of energy to alchemy and theological studies, attempting to decipher the time of the end of the world from the Bible and to refine gold from base metals.

People in later generations are unwilling to admit this, but the fact is that the middle-aged Newton was more like an alchemist who had gone mad with delusion than the scientific giant who wrote "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy".

So when his old friend, then Chancellor of the Exchequer Montague, offered him the position of Director of the Royal Mint, Newton took the opportunity to escape Cambridge.

But to his surprise, the difficulties were far greater than he had imagined.

[Newton: Sometimes I wonder if leaving Cambridge for this mint was a mistake.]

Even through the phone screen, Su Zhou could feel Newton's despondency.

That despicable Charonna, how dare he bully Newton!

Filled with righteous indignation, Su Zhou quickly typed: "Mr. Newton, don't worry, you ultimately won in history. This criminal was sentenced to hanging in 1699..."

Just as he was about to send the message, a notification popped up in the group chat.

【warning】

[Your intention to transmit future information to the parallel universe where group member Isaac Newton resides has been detected.]

[It is strictly forbidden in this group to directly inform other members of the future course or outcome of events.]

Cross-temporal and spatial information transmission involves causal constraints, and the consequences include, but are not limited to:

Changes in the decision-making path of the target person

The chain of historical events is broken.

Group members permanently offline

This is the first warning; no penalty will be imposed.

Please choose a compliant communication method.

Su Zhou withdrew his hand.

I almost made a big mistake.

The people in the group—Qian Lao, Newton, Turing, von Neumann—were actually real people existing in different times and spaces.

They live in their own time and experience their own lives.

This group number 42 acts like a thread, connecting nodes from different times and spaces.

They can communicate in the group, but the transmission of information is limited.

In other words, we cannot reveal the future.

Su Zhou thought for a moment and found the bug.

It doesn't say the result can't be stated directly, but it doesn't say it can't guide the direction.

I couldn't tell him the answer directly, but I didn't say I couldn't help him find a solution.

[The Falcon Warrior: Mr. Newton, I have a way, but it's a bit complicated to explain.]

[Newton: Written communication is too limiting for improving efficiency; it would be great if we could meet in person.]

[Newton has been detected to want to meet you. You can use a meeting card to activate the cross-time meeting mode. Helping group members may give you a chance to receive a thank-you red envelope. Do you want to activate it now?]

[The deadline for accepting the invitation is 08:59:59 (expiration will be considered a rejection of the genius's meeting invitation, and it will not be able to be opened again)]

[Cross-Time Meeting: Allows group members to have face-to-face communication in a target time and space under specific conditions. Note that group rules must also be followed during the meeting.]

Supporting online friends to meet up in person might even earn you a thank-you red envelope?

Su Zhou recalled that when he first joined the group, he received a meeting card.

He initially thought it was just a virtual gift, but he never expected it to be real!

Currently at school, Su Zhou dared not initiate the meeting mode. He glanced at the time limit for accepting the meeting, and waited until school ended in the afternoon. He hurriedly went home, ate a quick meal, and then went into his room, locking the door behind him.

He used his computer to search for information online.

Because she was fascinated by Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes stories when she was a child, Su Zhou has always had a romanticized view of old London.

But clearly, the London he was going to was not the Victorian era with its gaslights, horse-drawn carriages on Baker Street, and Scotland Yard police.

It was a filthy late Middle Ages period, having just experienced the Black Death and the Great Fire of London, with no streetlights, no formal police force, and even an inadequate sewer system.

At this moment, a dense array of data appeared on the screen.

Craig John's *Newton at the Mint*, Thomas Levenson's *Newton and the Counterfeiters*, relevant pages in the Oxford National Biographical Dictionary... the information was more than Su Zhou had imagined.

With limited time, Su Zhou could only glance at it briefly, then sort out his thoughts before opening the group chat.

[Eagle Warrior: @Newton, I'm coming right away.]

[You can use a meeting card to activate the cross-time and space meeting mode. Do you want to activate it now?]

Su Zhou took a deep breath.

He's just one point away from being classified as mentally ill, and he wants to see if the cross-time meeting is really true!

Then, Su Zhou pressed the "Yes" button.