Son of the Stars

Chapter 163 Narration

A wise man once said, "Life is like a river. After twists and turns, it will always flow into a sea called death." It implies that no matter what choices you make in life, you will end up dead in the end - everything is empty and everything is allowed.

This kind of "positive nihilism" does have some positive meanings in a specific period and historical context. It helped to break the realm of thought controlled by the church, separating human thinking from God's teachings, and providing space and motivation for human thinking to continue to grow.

But more often than not, such thoughts are hardly beneficial. Life is meaningless, living is suffering in vain - it is better to die and live in peace.

At the beginning of the coalition government, with the vigorous promotion of cult organizations, the idea that "everything is empty and everything is allowed" was like a storm that began to sweep through the entire crumbling human civilization. Thanks to the rotting remains of the victims everywhere, the strong smell of corpses made people almost unable to think of anything. Otherwise, there won't necessarily be much trouble.

Tongxinge slowly opened his eyes from the culture tank and looked out through the transparent perfluorocarbon solution. The rising sun was like a golden-red rainbow light, slowly leaving a deep impression on his retinas. imprint.

After taking off the fluid guide covering his mouth and nose, Tongxinge started breathing vigorously. During sleep, a person's breathing rate decreases. Perfluorocarbon solutions do not provide adequate oxygen support at low flows, so fluid deflectors are needed to augment respiratory support. But in the awake state, such a problem does not exist.

Soaked in perfluorocarbon solution, it can provide a relatively low-gravity experience. This was very important for early human cloning - due to insufficient early cloning technology, the cloned cartilage structure was defective. If kept under normal stress conditions, the cloned human will suffer from severe lumbar disc herniation, joint wear and arthritis in about fifteen years.

In order to slow down the onset of disease, several clinical academicians of the Academy of Sciences in the academic committee teamed up with multidisciplinary forces such as the Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Sciences to design this perfluorocarbon "sleep system" for Tong Xinge and his two brothers, using oxygen-rich , and the perfluorocarbon solution can directly contact the alveoli for oxygenation and exchange to support the body weight. At the same time, the need for high-quality sleep and reduced stress on cartilage tissue is met.

The only drawback is that untrained ordinary people using perfluorocarbon sleep systems can easily experience severe falling and suffocation sensations. Although their positions in the tank barely changed, and although the blood oxygen level indicators did not fluctuate at all, ordinary people just couldn't get used to sleeping on this thing.

Astronauts who have worked on the space station for a long time can use this system just fine when they first return to the ground, but it becomes uncomfortable over time.

The ambition of several academicians to "redefine sleep" completely failed, leaving only a few systems for the three Tong Xinge brothers to use - clones can sleep in this system without any adverse reactions. Tongxinge even jokingly said that sleeping in the incubator felt like going home.

This is not wrong, after all, when Wenger Czekrawski created them in the early days, the three brothers floated in the training tank for several years.

After taking a few deep breaths, Tong Xinge pressed the button next to him, and the high-flow water pump began to work at full power. In the blink of an eye, the perfluorocarbon solution dropped by more than half a meter - the liquid level dropped, revealing Tong Xinge's head. .

Taking off her close-fitting non-woven pajamas, Tong Xin Ge stepped out of the petri dish wetly and walked to the bathroom to start her morning wash. He scratched his arm. The perfluorocarbon solution sleep system was good at everything, except that it was not very good at filtering out dandruff and hair loss. Every time I sleep, I have to wrap myself in non-woven pajamas from head to toe, which makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Fine hot water with just the right pressure is sprayed on the body, gradually taking away the discomfort caused by the perfluorocarbon solution and non-woven pajamas. Tongxinge's assistant AI Wilmut has a habit of informing him of the day's arrangements while he is taking a shower, and also provides some news and information services while he is taking a shower.

"In one hour and fifteen minutes, the Academic Committee will hold its twelfth regular meeting, and your attendance is still 'to be determined'." Wilmut asked, "Considering that the special plane flying to Dongyang Special City will be forty Taking off in minutes, I suggest you decline your attendance request."

Tongxinge, who was rubbing the foam on her head, stopped what she was doing and thought for a moment, then shook her head and said, "Regular meetings are still very important. Let me attend via video conference - can the signal be stable on the flight?"

"It's not a big problem." Wilmut replied, "According to the flight plan and speech time analysis, you will speak thirty minutes before landing - the network signal in the airspace near Dongyang Special City is good, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has not released any solar reports recently. Flare or sunspot activity impact warning."

"Very good." Tongxinge nodded with satisfaction. He pushed open the shower door and slowly walked towards the washbasin step by step. The warm and powerful warm wind quickly blew away the water droplets attached to his body. By the time he reached the washbasin, the water on his body had completely dried.

"Good morning." Tongxinge waved to the two pictures that suddenly appeared behind the basin, "Have you eaten?"

The picture behind the basin is of two people who look exactly like children. One person looks like a childlike child who has just taken a shower, while the other one is wearing a linen shirt and is cutting a steak at the dining table and feasting on it. "You don't need to ask the third child such a question." Another childlike child without a shirt tilted his head, "The Patagonia Plateau is in the West Third District, exactly twelve hours behind us - we When it’s time to have breakfast, the third child has to have dinner.”

"Hiccup~" After downing a large glass of Coke in front of the camera, the childlike creature burped somewhat roughly after finishing the steak. He patted his belly with satisfaction, "As you can see, I have just finished dinner - second brother, I prepared some more of the delicious beef you mentioned last time. I will go back and ask the regular flight to bring you over."

Before Tongxinge could say anything, the other guy on the camera who was not wearing any clothes asked first, "Boy, are you going to Dongyang today?"

"Yes." Tong Xinge nodded, "I told you before that the young man named Lu Chen from Central University is making good progress in quantum potential energy syndrome, but now there is a problem - he needs a group of human experiments that do not violate regulations. body."

"I can think of using clones for experiments, but I'm still tightly bound by those backward and decadent concepts." Tong Zhenzhen shook his head, "I'm enlightened, but the degree of enlightenment is limited."

The third child, the third child, disagreed with the eldest brother's evaluation. "Boss, this idea is very dangerous. After all, he is a senior official of the coalition government. How can he regard ethics and human life as a rotten concept?"

"When you are actually working, ethics and morals are of course the most important thing." Tong Zhenzi shook his head as he put on his clothes, "But on a larger level... If you want to be responsible for all mankind, you cannot treat individuals as individuals. Think of it as a human being. If you are kidnapped by individual gains and losses, you will inevitably suffer from the gains and losses of all."

He put on his suit, picked up a whole-wheat meal bag placed by the table and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it while saying, "From an overall perspective, the price of being a good person is leadership failure in decision-making. If you want to lead mankind, If society moves forward on the right path, it must be mentally prepared to be pointed at and scolded."

"Ah... I understand, I understand." Tong Xinwu sighed, "A couple at our observatory is getting married, and more than twenty people in the station have to take time off to attend the wedding. If I want to be accurate, the observatory must stop. Operation; if I am not accurate, I will have to complain. Or for the sake of personal image and social interaction, I will completely put aside the safety of human society."

Although this may not be the case specifically, Tongxinge decided to shut up and not speak. The eldest child and the third child often have this kind of dialogue, "You say the front door building, I say the hip shaft, it sounds like a mess." It sounds right at first glance, but it doesn't feel quite right when I think about it carefully. Then I think about it again - hey, I am trying so hard to figure out what they are doing.

Tongxinge listened to the two people chatting, and then she started to lower her head and put on her clothes. In order to attend the regular meeting of the Academic Committee via video conference today, Wilmut specially prepared a more formal gray suit for Tong Xin Ge - paired with a red finely patterned tie and gold-rimmed wide-lens glasses. Compared with other academicians, Tong Xin Ge He looked more like an executive about to speak.

The three brothers ended the conversation with a routine of messy farewells. Tong Xinwu was going to have a heated discussion with the joint government control team about the Mars landing issue, while Tong Xinwu was going to deal with the business content of the monitoring station— —Two unknown microwave signal sources appeared yesterday, located just near the monitoring station.

Tongxinge boarded a plane to Dongyang Special City.

There was also a strange acquaintance who boarded the plane with him. It was obvious that this passenger on the same plane was not very accustomed to flying. He looked at the clouds and blue sky outside the window in horror. His facial features covered with strange patterns were twisted together, as if he was about to vomit at any time.

"You can relax a little bit." Tongxinge comforted Estela kindly, "We are very safe now - if you can fall asleep, you might as well take a nap. When you wake up, we can I’ve met Lu Chen.”

Although it was a well-intentioned comfort, the childlike innocence itself was enough to cause Estella's uneasiness. The shepherd's son replied in a panic, "The village chief...I...I..."

"I am not the village chief. In terms of birth time, I am your village chief's brother - but I am not him." Tongxinge's expression was a little sad, "Xiao Liu has always been with you, right? Can you follow me? Tell me about him?"

Estela's panic slowed down a bit. He looked at the childlike innocence with a little suspicion, then suppressed his confusion and slowly told about the man who lived in the Mediterranean parish at an altitude of 11 kilometers above the ground. village head.

(End of this chapter)