Chinese names are written with surname first.

The Ye Family

Ye Zhetai

Physicist, professor at Tsinghua University

Shao Lin

Physicist, Ye Zhetai's wife

Ye Wenjie

Astrophysicist, daughter of Ye Zhetai

Ye Wenxue

Ye Wenjie's sister, a Red Guard

Red Coast Base

Lei Zhicheng

Political commissar at Red Coast Base

Yang Weining

Chief engineer at Red Coast Base, once a student of Ye Zhetai

The Present

Yang Dong

String theorist and daughter of Ye Wenjie and Yang Weining

Ding Yi

Theoretical physicist, Yang Dong's boyfriend

Wang Miao

Nanomaterials researcher

Shi Qiang

Police detective, nicknamed Da Shi

Chang Weisi

Major-general of the People's Liberation Army

Shen Yufei

Japanese physicist and member of the Frontiers of Science

Wei Cheng

Math prodigy and recluse, Shen Yufei's husband

Pan Han

Biologist, friend/acquaintance of Shen Yufei and Wei Cheng, and member of the Frontiers of Science

Sha Ruishan

Astronomer, one of Ye Wenjie's students

Mike Evans

Scion of an oil magnate

Colonel Stanton

U.S. Marine Corps, commander of Operation Guzheng