The control center on the top floor of Shanghai Center Tower was no longer the placid hub of capital operations; it had transformed into the forward command post resisting a global financial storm. The air carried a faint scorched smell from overloaded equipment, mingled with the adrenaline scent secreted under extreme human tension, forming a cold, sharp battlefield atmosphere. On the huge curved main screen, the three‑dimensional attack waves representing stock, futures, and foreign‑exchange markets still surged like voracious locust swarms, continuously battering the defenses built by XianGuang Capital. Red and orange warning flares flashed wildly across the trend charts of major asset classes, recording the violent fluctuations brought by collapsing market confidence and rapidly evaporating liquidity.
Mozi's "anti‑fragile" model had already pushed its autonomous defense capabilities to the limit. It resembled a deep‑sea behemoth with countless tentacles, struggling to maintain balance amidst frenzied capital turbulence: constantly severing those loss‑making tentacles whose stop‑loss lines had been pierced, controlling blood loss while mobilizing reserve liquidity to replenish margins, preventing chain collapses triggered by forced liquidations; it was also attempting to use algorithm‑generated "noise trades" as camouflage, executing small‑scale counter‑operations in the irrational crevices of the market—like seeking fleeting breathing spaces in the eye of a storm. The model's performance was already remarkable; under such coordinated sniping on such a scale, it still stubbornly held the core capital from being shattered in a single blow.
Yet Mozi, standing at the heart of the storm, his intuition transcending the model, knew clearly that this passive‑defense, reactive pattern could not last. The adversary's ammunition was nearly limitless; its attack dimensions were multidimensional and coordinated. Relying solely on the model's automated responses and traditional risk‑management tools was like using dikes to hold back a continuously rising tsunami probing for weak points—sooner or later they would be breached. He needed a more macroscopic, more fundamental perspective to understand this storm's structure, predict the transmission paths of its energy, and thereby find the true way to counter, even… to harness this storm.
His gaze pierced through the dazzling K‑line charts, quote streams, and news‑sentiment indicators on the screen, seeking to capture the underlying physical laws hidden behind countless individual trading behaviors. The capital market—this complex system woven from innumerable rational and irrational decisions, information and noise, greed and fear—did its collective behavior also follow some kind of fundamental dynamics akin to the natural world?
An extraordinarily bold, even mad analogy began brewing, taking shape in his mind, hyper‑active under extreme pressure—to view the entire capital market as a vast, **viscous‑fluid** dynamical system!
This idea, like lightning tearing through darkness, instantly illuminated a chaotic region of his thinking. He strode quickly to a free auxiliary display, fingers dancing swiftly over the virtual keyboard, calling up the fundamental database of theoretical physics and fluid dynamics. His eyes locked onto that set of basic equations describing viscous‑fluid motion—the **Navier‑Stokes equations**.
This set of partial‑differential equations, famed for their complexity and nonlinearity, was the core tool for describing numerous fluid phenomena from aerodynamics to ocean circulation. Mozi certainly did not expect, nor could he directly solve in short time, an extremely simplified and abstract "financial fluid" version of these equations applied to financial markets. What he needed was to extract their core **physical ideas** and **modeling framework**.
He began constructing his "financial fluid‑dynamics" model, creatively mapping key concepts from fluid mechanics across disciplines:
**The fluid itself**: He imagined the total capital pool of the global market as a fluid possessing **viscosity**. This viscosity represented **market friction**—including transaction costs, regulatory constraints, information asymmetry, investor psychological inertia—all factors hindering free, instantaneous capital flow. Higher viscosity meant more difficult capital flow, a "thicker" market; lower viscosity meant smoother capital flow, a more "lubricated" market.
**Pressure**: In fluid mechanics, pressure difference is the fundamental force driving fluid from high‑pressure to low‑pressure regions. In Mozi's model, **pressure** was mapped to an asset's **valuation level**. Overvalued assets (like over‑hyped tech stocks) resembled high‑pressure zones; undervalued or panic‑sold assets resembled low‑pressure zones. Capital (the fluid) would instinctively flow from high‑valuation (high‑pressure) regions to low‑valuation (low‑pressure) regions, seeking equilibrium. The adversary's short‑selling report and concentrated selling were precisely artificially, violently creating huge "pressure differentials."
**Velocity**: The fluid's velocity field corresponded to the intensity and direction of capital **fund flows**. Massive, concentrated sell or buy orders were like strong vortices or jets forming in the fluid, possessing enormous kinetic energy and destructive power. The adversary's attack was precisely generating directional, high‑speed "capital‑outflow vortices" in key markets (stocks, foreign exchange) simultaneously.
The essence of the **Navier‑Stokes equations** lay in describing the complex interaction and nonlinear evolution between a fluid's velocity field, pressure field, viscosity, and external forces (like gravity). Mozi drew on this idea, attempting to construct in his mind a dynamic, macroscopic "financial flow‑field" picture:
The adversary's attack was like applying powerful, directional "external forces" (massive selling) simultaneously in several critical "flow‑field" regions (Chinese tech stocks—high‑pressure zone; offshore RMB—high‑pressure zone; gold—possibly affected related zone), drastically altering local pressure distribution (valuation crash), generating high‑speed capital outflow (velocity‑field abrupt change). This violent change would propagate through capital viscosity (market friction) to surrounding regions, triggering wider panic and liquidity drought, forming a vicious positive‑feedback loop, ultimately potentially causing instability and collapse of the entire flow‑field (systemic financial risk).
Traditional risk models were more like measuring velocity and pressure at a specific point in the flow‑field. What Mozi now attempted was to understand the dynamics of the entire flow‑field, predict the generation, development, and interaction of vortices!
He realized that simply resisting in the "high‑pressure zones" (the sold‑off assets) was foolish and ineffective, like trying to block a flood with one's body. He needed smarter strategies.
Based on this fluid model, he quickly derived several principles for macroscopic defense and counterattack:
**Reduce local viscosity, channel the flood**: In markets under immense selling pressure (high‑pressure zones), attempt to **temporarily lower market friction** (viscosity) through certain means. For example, could part of the funds be used to provide liquidity at key price points, acting as a "lubricant," reducing stampede‑like declines caused by liquidity drought? This must not be blind buying‑in but tactical operations executed precisely at "critical support levels" calculated by the model, aimed at stabilizing market sentiment and slowing panic spread. **Find and create reverse pressure differentials**: Capital fluid always flows from high pressure to low pressure. If defending only in the attacked high‑pressure zones, one remains forever passive. One must **actively create new "low‑pressure zones"** to attract capital‑fluid inflow, forming a hedge and drain on the adversary's capital. His gaze turned toward those asset classes or markets untouched by the attack, or even possibly benefiting from this storm. For instance, during global panic, certain traditional safe‑haven assets (like U.S. Treasuries, Japanese yen—though he remained wary of them) or specific real assets (like the strategic resources he had positioned early, linked to the "Human Future Fund") might naturally form "capital depressions" (low‑pressure zones). Guiding part of the funds to flow orderly into these regions could not only preserve value but also disperse attack firepower, even potentially creating counterattack leverage points in the future. **Monitor the flow‑field's resonance frequencies**: Complex fluid systems possess inherent vibrational modes. Mozi speculated that such large‑scale multidimensional market attacks might also exhibit specific patterns and frequencies in energy transmission. The massive real‑time data collected by his "anti‑fragile" model, combined with this fluid‑dynamics framework, might attempt to identify the "resonance points" where attack energy propagates between different markets. If one could predict the next vulnerable link likely to be struck, one could fortify in advance, or… set a trap.
This was no longer simple buying and selling; it was treating the financial market as an integrated, dynamic physical system for strategic maneuvering. He translated these macro‑strategy ideas derived from fluid‑dynamics analogies into a series of new, more‑complex parameters and objective functions, beginning emergency, deep online adjustment and reprogramming of the "anti‑fragile" model. He no longer merely ordered the model to "stop loss" or "arbitrage," but commanded it to "monitor global capital flow‑field," "evaluate market viscosity changes," "find and establish reverse pressure gradients."
This process was immensely taxing, an ultimate test of his intellect, physical strength, and willpower. His eyes fixed on the screen, fingers became blurs over the virtual keyboard, fine sweat beads formed on his forehead, wiped away unheeded. He immersed himself completely in that "financial fluid" world composed of numbers, formulas, and market psychology, trying to steer the seemingly uncontrollable chaotic storm.
…
XianGuang Research Institute, Yue'er's study.
Yue'er had just finished a difficult stretch of thought about the topological invariants of "folded surfaces" in her geometrization model of P vs. NP, feeling somewhat weary. Subconsciously she clicked open the one‑way silent video‑feed window maintained with Mozi's office—a channel he had left for them before the "all‑out assault" began, meant to reassure them even while he asked them not to contact him actively.
The window no longer showed that calm, steady, strategically‑adept Mozi. In the image, he stood before the main screen covered with red‑alert data, his figure appearing somewhat solitary amidst the flickering light, yet filled with a kind of burning focus. He was facing an auxiliary screen, on which scrolled rapidly some charts she couldn't quite understand—seemingly a mix of physics formulas and financial data. His fingers tapped the virtual keyboard at astonishing speed, sometimes pausing, brows knitted in deep thought, then bursting into new input frenzies. His face bore marks of extreme fatigue—sunken eyes, dry lips—but those eyes shone frighteningly bright, as if two universes were colliding, evolving within them.
Yue'er couldn't hear sound, but she could clearly feel that kind of astonishing **creativity** bursting forth under extreme pressure, when intellect was pushed to its boundary. It wasn't panic, not struggle, but a profound focus and fervor akin to a composer capturing the rhythms of heaven and earth—building a new order.
Seeing such Mozi, she was momentarily entranced.
She knew herself—the self that rigorously deduced and constructed beautiful theories in the mathematical world; she also knew Xiuxiu's figure, persistent in engineering practice, facing concrete problems, dismantling, breaking through. But the Mozi before her displayed another form of intellectual charm. He was forcibly subsuming a real world full of chaos, noise, and malice (the financial markets) into a rational, cross‑disciplinary‑insight‑based macroscopic framework (fluid dynamics), and attempting on that foundation to confront, to steer, even to transform that destructive force.
This kind of **creativity**—maintaining cool thinking in absolute adversity, leaping beyond conventional frameworks, drawing inspiration from seemingly unrelated fields (physics), constructing entirely new combat models—shook Yue'er deeply, and… **fascinated** her.
It differed from a mathematician's spark of inspiration, which often arose from inner logical harmony and beauty. Mozi's creativity sprang from a profound understanding and forceful mastery of external extreme chaos, filled with a sense of power, reality, and a kind of almost wild intellectual radiance. It was less "pure," but more "powerful," closer to the real world full of uncertainty and confrontation.
Watching his furrowed brow, his fingertips trembling slightly from rapid thought, the strange light in his eyes mixing exhaustion and exhilaration—a complex emotion welled in her heart. It wasn't merely a comrade's concern, a partner's appreciation; it was mixed with heartfelt admiration for a unique intellectual form, and an indescribable feeling of being deeply **drawn** by this powerful mind that could create order even in the eye of the storm.
Silently she closed the video window, not disturbing him. She knew he was on his own battlefield, conducting an equally great and difficult act of creation. All she could do was guard her own theoretical starry sky; perhaps the tiny progress she had just made on the geometrization path might one day become a minuscule yet indispensable cornerstone for him when building grander models.
She turned her gaze back to the draft paper before her, filled with "folded surfaces" and "complexity boundaries." Her eyes grew firmer, gentler. No matter how fierce the external financial storm, within this solid alliance they three had built—spanning capital, technology, and theory—each kind of wisdom shone in its unique way, resisting darkness, creating future light. And the astonishing creativity Mozi now displayed, born of extreme pressure, was undoubtedly the most intense, most dazzling flame among them.