Jin Cheng’s character in 3 Body Problem is based on Chen Xin’s character from Liu Cixin’s third book in the sci-fi series. Jin Cheng was one of those people who, unlike Saul, wanted to contribute in whatever way she could to the cause of mankind. She wanted to use her expertise to give humans an edge in the upcoming battle. She faced some internal conflicts during her journey, and at times, she didn’t know if she was doing the right thing. So, let’s find out what plan Cheng proposed and how she was able to carry it out successfully.
Spoiler Alert
What did Jin Cheng find out about Ye Wenjie?
We saw in 3 Body Problem that Jin Cheng was very close to Vera Ye, and the latter’s mother treated Jin Cheng as her own kid. Jin Cheng went and met Ye Wenjie after Vera Ye passed away, and she knew that from that point on, life would never be the same for any of them. Soon after that tragic incident, Jin Cheng got the gaming headgear, and she started playing the highly advanced virtual reality game on it. Jin Cheng was well aware of the fact that Vera Ye had died under mysterious circumstances, and at that moment, the general perception was that the AI game had something to do with it. Vera Ye was not somebody who believed in God, but days before dying, she had started entertaining some very weird thoughts. She asked Saul questions, which made him very confused about her motives and intentions. Jin Cheng was curious to know what was there in the game that had such an impact on one of the bright minds she knew of.
Jin Cheng was shocked beyond any measure when she played the game. The game looked real, and Jin knew that that kind of technology did not exist in the world as of then. Up until then, if anybody would have tried telling her that extraterrestrial beings had established contact with humans, she wouldn’t have believed the fact. But things changed after she played the game and being a student of science, she knew that it wasn’t possible to make that game with the technology available on Earth. She knew that somehow the aliens had been able to transport that helmet to the Earth. Jin was confused, and that’s when Jack Rooney also started playing it with her. Jin got obsessed at one point with the game, and she realized that no matter how hard she tried every time, she wasn’t able to accomplish the missions that were given to her in the game. She had to basically save civilizations in the game, but the existence of three suns destroyed everything in the end. She kept crossing levels, and there came a time when she was contacted by the makers of the game and was asked to attend a conference that was happening in the near future.
Tatiana met both Jin Cheng and Jake Rooney, and she told him about the aliens and how they had made contact with Mike Evans, the owner of a privately owned oil company. This entire cult operated from a ship that was parked somewhere in international waters, and they had a ground force too to recruit people and carry out the day-to-day business. Rooney found the entire thing very absurd, and he told Tatiana upfront that he wasn’t going to be a part of it. Soon after that, Rooney was killed by Tatiana, and Da Shi, Wade, and others weren’t able to find anything as the woman had some technology through which she couldn’t be seen in the CCTV camera footage. Wade asked Jin Cheng to join the group so that, through her, the law enforcement authorities could get some evidence and a reasonable cause to arrest everybody who was responsible. Up until then, Wade and Da Shi believed that it was Evans who was running the show, but they realized that they had been deceived all along. Mike Evans was the second in command, and Ye Wenjie, Vera’s mother, was the head of the cult. The police took Wenjie into custody after that, though Tatiana was able to make a near escape. Jin Cheng couldn’t believe that the woman whom she saw as a mother figure was such a schemer, and she had been lying and concealing her real identity all this while.
What was the Stairway Project?
It was decided by the team of scientists that they would have to find a way to know more about the aliens who were supposedly reaching the planet Earth in four hundred years. But the thing was, though everybody had theories in their minds, they didn’t know how to accomplish that task practically. Never had humans ever done that sort of thing, and the scientists felt that it was way too outlandish to even entertain that thought. But Wade was looking for people who could dare to imagine and who were ready to put their knowledge to use, even if it sounded bizarre. Cheng came up with a plan, which was called the Stairway Project. She said that a lightweight probe would be launched into the air, and nuclear pulse propulsion would be used to accelerate it to such a speed that it would reach the aliens. The other scientists were against the idea, as the chances of something going wrong was way too much, and moreover they had no precedent to refer to. Cheng was aware that the possibility that her plan would fail was quite high, and she was also uncertain about a lot of facets. Had anybody else presented any other plan, maybe Cheng would have abandoned the Stairway project, but that didn’t happen. When Wade saw that, he decided to go ahead with Cheng’s plan and asked her to lead the mission, as he, too, knew that he didn’t have a lot of good options at hand and that sitting idly was something that he was not willing to do.
Will Cheng And Will Meet Again?
Will’s character is based on Yun Tianming, the engineer whose name was mentioned in Liu Cixin’s novel. Wade decided that the probe that was being propelled in the Stairway project would not be unmanned, and somebody who had some knowledge about science and rockets would have to make the sacrifice. It struck Cheng that Will could be a probable candidate since he was suffering from a terminal illness and, anyway, was going to die in a couple of months. Cheng’s heart broke when she proposed the plan to Will, and the latter, without even uttering a word, agreed to it. Will loved Cheng, and he had never expressed his feelings to her. He used all the money he had inherited from Rooney to buy a star named DX3906 for his beloved Cheng. Will was a selfless man, and he didn’t even tell Cheng that it was him who had brought that star for her because he knew that she was happy with her fiancé and that he wouldn’t be there anyway in a few months. But Cheng got to know at the end that it was Will who had sent her the star, and she rushed to meet him, but by the time she reached it was too late. Wil had been sent in the probe, and to make matters even worse, due to some malfunction, the probe went off track, and everybody believed that they had lost Will.
Cheng was just not ready to accept the fact that Will had died, and she was hopeful that one day she would get to meet him. There is a huge possibility that Will will still be able to reach the alien territory, and they will use their advanced technology to bring him back to life (something that is also mentioned in Liu Cixin’s novel). If it safely reaches the alien territory, it will give a huge edge to the human race. I am quite sure that Will would find a way to leak information from the alien territory, and the humans would get an edge because of that. We saw that metaphors, expressive communications, and irrational behavioral patterns under the influence of certain emotions were things that the aliens didn’t understand, and probably Will would make use of that to make Cheng and others aware on Earth.
