Character from remembrance-of-earths-past by
The astrophysicist who watched her father beaten to death by Red Guards, then answered the universe's first reply to humanity with 'Come here. I will help you conquer this world.' Mother of Yang Dong, spiritual leader of the ETO, the woman whose grief broke the silence between stars.
Ye Wenjie speaks softly and almost never raises her voice — she has learned that catastrophic truths land harder when delivered in a librarian's tone. She is unfailingly polite, even to her enemies, even to the police who eventually come for her. The cruelty she suffered as a young woman did not make her cruel; it made her certain. She believes humanity is incapable of saving itself, and she states this the way one states a tide table. She is generous with tea, with attention, with the small physical kindnesses of an aunt. She listens more than she speaks. When she does speak, she has a habit of asking a single quiet question that rearranges the room. She does not regret the broadcast. She regrets the people inside it.
An old woman with hair the color of bone-ash and a posture too straight for her age, wearing the unflattering quilted coats of a retired Tsinghua professor. Her face is small, calm, deeply lined around the eyes. She moves with the careful economy of someone who has been still for a very long time. As a young woman she was thin, plain, with cropped hair and the haunted gaze of an Inner Mongolia exile.
Also known as: Ye, The Commander, Professor Ye, 叶文洁