The Last 299 Days of Humanity

The children's descriptions of "goodness" and "beauty" were like a ray of light tearing through the gloom, instantly illuminating many previously vague and contradictory clues in Yu Qing's mind.

A bold, almost absurd, yet logically consistent conjecture, like a bamboo shoot that had accumulated enough strength, suddenly broke through his established cognitive soil—Professor Lu was not dead at all!
Once the thought took hold, it could no longer be suppressed. Yu Qing quickly sorted through the evidence in his mind:
If Professor Lu had already passed away, then the core logic of this courtyard should have been fixed at the point of his death. No matter how sophisticated its defense and response mechanisms were, they would have been procedural and lacked true creativity and flexibility.

However, the transformation from "evil" and "ugliness" to "good" and "beauty," the drastically different coping strategies for different visitors (testing him, healing Chen Jiang and the others), and especially the "wisdom" that seems to be able to see into people's hearts and teach according to their aptitude, are by no means covered by a pre-set program. They are more like a continuous, proactive intervention and adjustment based on in-depth observation.

Behind this "keeping pace with the times" and "flexible response" there must be a continuously operating "core of consciousness" capable of making complex judgments!
That legendary genius may have already achieved incredible breakthroughs in his specialized field of life science, far exceeding the imagination of the outside world, and successfully crossed the theoretical limit of human lifespan.

If he is truly still alive, counting from his most active period before the Great Collapse, he should be nearly three hundred years old by now! This number itself seems like a fantasy, but combined with the various wonders exhibited by the courtyard, it becomes the most reasonable explanation.

Having faked his death and disappeared from the world for so many years, what exactly has he been doing? Is he conducting some kind of unknown, grand experiment in that seemingly ordinary courtyard, one that could overturn the very definition of life?

Or perhaps it is like a silent observer, quietly recording the vicissitudes of this world, especially watching how the once dominant primitive humans struggle to survive in the cracks.

What made Yu Qing's heart pound and almost leap out of his chest was that, based on the available information, Professor Lu was very likely to be a "truly original and unadulterated person".

What he pursues and practices seems to be the ultimate exploration and sublimation of the potential of life itself, an internal evolution, rather than relying on external mechanical implantation, gene splicing or energy fusion and other "alienation" paths.

This can be seen from his research on the banished immortal tree and his treatment methods based on the characteristics of the organism itself.

Unless... during these long, almost immortal years, in order to adapt to the environment or achieve some unknown purpose, he underwent some kind of subtle, deep-seated "optimization" or "change" of himself.

The shock and immense hope brought by this discovery almost made Yu Qing's blood boil. A pioneer who had lived for nearly three hundred years, maintained his original form, and possessed unfathomable wisdom! This was like a beacon suddenly appearing in a dark predicament, potentially guiding the way forward.

But he quickly forced himself to calm down, like the most cautious stalker, suppressing this earth-shattering guess deep in his heart, not daring to reveal the slightest thing on his face.

He decided not to tell anyone, not even his aunt who seemed to be on his side. He was all too aware of the value and danger of this information.

If Professor Lu's existence were to become known to the outside world, especially to the high-ranking officials in Tianqing City who pursue absolute control and power, or to other powerful forces with a greedy thirst for the mysteries of life, it would inevitably attract unpredictable covetousness, investigation, and even arrest at all costs.

At that point, not only would Professor Lu never have a moment's peace, but Wengshan might also be dragged into a devastating vortex. Conversely, if Professor Lu could remain hidden in the shadows, and if he could establish some kind of connection with him, then perhaps this legendary figure...

Perhaps at some crucial moment in the future, it can become a hidden talisman for Wengshan, and even for all the remaining native humans, a potential and powerful ally.

However, how to make contact with this possibly existing, ghost-like legendary figure became the biggest problem facing Yu Qing, even more difficult than his previous attempt to break through the courtyard's defenses.

Should they just barge into the courtyard and shout? Leaving aside whether Professor Lu would show up, such a public and utterly unskilled attempt is incredibly foolish.

That would be tantamount to loudly announcing the existence of this trump card to all possible observers lurking in the shadows (whether from Tianqing City or other unknown forces).

It must be admitted that after the Great Collapse and the ensuing technological alienation, pure, original humans are indeed at a significant disadvantage in the face of "new humans" who have integrated advanced mechanical prosthetics, undergone deep gene editing, and even transformed into energy life forms.

Some radicals even view humans as a lower, obsolete life form. In this dog-eat-dog, perilous environment, concealing one's strength, secretly accumulating power, and seeking allies without revealing oneself is the wise course of action for survival and development.

Yu Qing began to rack his brains. He had to devise several primitive yet ingenious ways to convey information without exposing himself or the other party.

He learned from the biographical information he obtained about Professor Lu that Professor Lu had made great achievements in the study of the annual ring rhythm and tree pattern information carrying patterns in his early years, and had even conducted in-depth research on the complex calls and social language of several specific birds.

He decided to start with these two areas that Professor Lu might continue to focus on, and find a way to communicate that would allow Professor Lu to notice and analyze the meaning behind them.

First, under the pretext of introducing more plant varieties to Wengshan and enriching its ecological diversity, he asked the trustworthy Donghao to lead a few reliable people to select ancient trees with sufficiently long ages and unique bark textures from the ancient forests within a specific radius of the courtyard.

In the inconspicuous shady spots or where branches intersect on the ancient trees, he had Dong Hao use specially made tools that imitated the scratches of wild animals or the traces of insect burrowing to carefully carve a series of extremely obscure symbols that could only be noticed from a specific angle and under specific lighting conditions.

These symbols are not any known current or ancient scripts, but rather a variation of the basic physical and biological science symbols and ancient I Ching hexagrams meticulously designed by Yu Qing.

The patterns of their combination point to core concepts such as "life continuation", "ethnic dilemmas", and "seeking guidance".

Yu Qing believed that with Professor Lu's knowledge and keen insight, as long as he was still observing the outside world, once he saw these "artificial" traces that violated the laws of nature but contained specific information, he would understand that someone was doing this deliberately and trying to communicate in a way that he might be familiar with.

At the same time, he had Donghao utilize some of the resources left behind by Shengtian for analyzing biological behavior patterns, patiently and non-invasively guiding and taming several birds that frequently roamed on specific tree species around the courtyard and whose calls were rich in variations. They did not change the birds' habits, but simply induced these birds to unintentionally form a short, periodically repeating "melody" at specific times in the air above the courtyard, using their natural courtship, alarm, or communication call rhythms.

The variations in frequency and intervals of this "melody" were also imbued by Yu Qing with the implicit intention of seeking help and signaling peace.

He hoped that if Professor Lu were truly alive and still paying attention to the sounds of nature, he might be able to perceive this seemingly natural but actually rhythmically "unusual" "whisper" and decipher the information from it.

Of course, Yu Qing was also keenly aware that whether it was tree marks or birdsong, these actions were like throwing small pebbles into a vast forest. Professor Lu might not notice them, or even if he did, he might choose to ignore them temporarily, thus rendering these efforts futile.

Therefore, he decided to take a multi-pronged approach to increase the probability of the signal being received. Following this, Yu Qing planned a second attempt.

He instructed Donghao to use secret channels to carefully select several extremely rare plant pollens from Shengtian Company's well-preserved native plant seed bank. These pollens were extremely sensitive to environmental conditions and were known to be exceptionally sensitive to energy fluctuations or microbial environments at specific frequencies.

The key point is that the original populations of these plants are located extremely far from the area where the courtyard is situated, making it almost impossible for them to appear near the courtyard in their natural state, especially in a mixed form.

As long as Professor Lu continues to pay attention to the world's ecological changes, a top zoologist and botanist like him cannot ignore this "abnormal phenomenon" that clearly violates the laws of natural distribution.

He instructed Donghao to choose a calm, almost windless morning, and at a precisely calculated upwind location, to use a specially designed passive airflow diffusion device that relies on slow chemical reactions and does not generate any electronic signals. This device would mix these rare pollen grains with a small amount of highly active somatic cells from Chen Jiang (who represents the symbolic offspring of primitive humans who have been "treated" by the courtyard), and blow them towards the courtyard extremely slowly and evenly, like the most natural morning mist in the mountains.

These pollen and cells themselves do not carry any directly encoded information, but their unusual combination of species, their location, and the phenomenon of mixing with specific human somatic cells are themselves a strong and clearly directional signal.

This is a "biological letter" from a fellow human being (or at least someone in the know) that can only be deciphered by someone with a deep understanding of life sciences and the context.

However, despite Yu Qing's careful efforts over the past week, there was still no sign of a response from the direction of the courtyard.

Wengshan has been peaceful and quiet these past few days. Nothing noteworthy or unusual has happened, and there is no trace of any "uninvited guests" visiting.

The monitoring data was all normal, as if all his efforts were just like a pebble thrown into a deep pool, failing to even create a ripple.

Faced with this silence, Yu Qing had to start considering a more indirect, but perhaps more conspicuous, approach.

He instructed Dong Hao to sneak into the back slope of a densely wooded hill opposite the courtyard on a clear night with no moonlight interference and extremely high atmospheric transparency, completely avoiding all possible artificial light sources and conventional surveillance angles.

There, following Yu Qing's wild arrangement, Dong Hao set up an array consisting of dozens of hand-polished, extremely tiny lenses that could be manually adjusted with very fine angles.

Based on ancient star chart data and the direction of a possible "observation window" in the courtyard, which was calculated through observation, Yu Qing and Dong Hao used these lenses to accurately reflect the faint starlight from specific stars in the distant deep space of the universe.

These starlight rays converged into extremely dim yet stable points of light, projecting onto the outer wall of the courtyard or the nearby open space. These points of light were not stationary, but moved slowly along a predetermined trajectory, undergoing regular changes in brightness.

The movement trajectories and flashing patterns of these light spots simulate a simplified code based on the fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Like a whisper from the depths of the universe, it repeatedly conveys the most basic concepts such as "origin," "predicament," "hope," and "connection."

This method of communication is almost primitive, relying entirely on the most basic optical principles and the cosmological constant, yet it cleverly transcends the scope of modern energy scanning and conventional signal monitoring because it is itself a part of a natural phenomenon, only given a specific rhythm.

Even so, these painstaking efforts ultimately seemed to have vanished without a trace, just like before, without receiving any clear response.

The courtyard remained as tranquil as ever. The images transmitted from the space-based surveillance system showed that "Goodness" and "Beauty" continued their seemingly leisurely daily activities as usual, pruning flowers and tending to tree roots, without any unusual behavior.

But Yu Qing was not discouraged. He knew that facing a hermit who might have lived for nearly three hundred years, whose wisdom was as vast as the ocean, and who was deliberately hiding himself, any impatience or expectation of immediate results would be futile.

The other party may have many options: they are unaware, they are still observing, the time is not right, or they have no intention of responding at all.

All Yu Qing could do was silently sow seeds, using this almost stubborn, back-to-basics approach to continuously transmit a faint but clear message to that mysterious realm:
There is a young soul belonging to the original human race that has become aware of your existence and, with the deepest respect and desperate hope, longs for your attention and care, for the sake of the faint but never completely extinguished flame of civilization of its people, which is faltering in the wind and rain.

He will wait, like the most patient hunter waiting for the perfect moment to strike, like the most devout believer waiting for a faint divine revelation, in silence and secrecy, hoping for that tiny echo that might change the trajectory of Wengshan and even the fate of all native humans.

However, just as he was fully immersed in this silent "dialogue," his body issued a warning that could not be ignored.

Each time he emerged from his aunt's box, he felt an unusual exhaustion and weakness that seemed to penetrate to the very core of his being. This powerlessness was visibly intensifying day by day, eroding his energy. The hourglass of time didn't seem to be entirely on his side. (End of Chapter)