Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Su Mian also spotted Jiang Ning in the crowd at a glance.

He was of medium build, rather thin, and about 1.75 meters tall. He wore a black windbreaker, and his most striking feature was his hair, which looked like it had been chewed by a dog, making him very conspicuous in a crowd.

Su Mian had a deep impression of this man. When they first met, she smelled a musty smell coming from his black windbreaker.

This musty smell, like his taciturn personality, made him seem like an old object that had been left unused and ignored for a long time.

They seem to be right beside you, yet they don't initiate conversation or get close to anyone. A sense of detachment and coldness surrounds them, and even their gaze carries a long-dormant stagnation, as if a dampness is hidden deep within their heart, quietly burying all vitality and warmth until it becomes moldy.

More importantly, the man appeared very calm.

During their brief time together that day, Su Mian discovered that this man was clearly afraid—afraid of corpses, afraid of blood, and even more afraid of… she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but it certainly wasn’t a fear of “the world going backwards.”

If you really want to describe it, it's more like he's afraid that the "world's regression" is an illusion.

After they parted, Su Mian had a feeling that she would definitely meet this strange man again in the future.

I didn't expect it to happen so quickly, and the other person was still wearing that moldy black windbreaker.

"What do you study?"

Jiang Ning walked up to Su Mian and said calmly.

Su Mian was stunned when she heard this. She had thought that the other person would come over to say hello, and she had also thought about whether she should go up and say hello first, but she never expected that the other person would walk up to her and ask this question directly.

This statement is as clichéd and impolite as asking a girl, "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

"I saw you wearing a white coat..."

Seeing the other person's cold expression, as if they were pondering the meaning of her words, Jiang Ning slowly added, "I remember you said you were a researcher, so I'd like to ask what your research is?"

Su Mian tilted her head slightly and looked at Jiang Ning: "Postpartum care for sows!"

"Oh!" Jiang Ning nodded.

He then said thoughtfully, "A good profession..."

After Jiang Ning finished speaking, he nodded again as a farewell, and turned to walk towards the subway station. He had already noticed that there should have been no accidents at the subway station today, but he didn't know if the subway was still in operation.

At the same time, he also realized that this public transportation system, which has been operating for many years, already has a mature emergency response system, so the accident that day was just an accident.

Even if the "Luoshu" did not intervene to take over traffic today, it is conceivable that every subway train, even if it encounters a momentary rollback, can use its original program settings to come to a safe stop.

Not to mention in Shanghai, most subways are now driverless and fully automated, with only a few still having drivers. That day was probably just an accident.

"Jiang... Jiangning!"

Jiang Ning had only taken a few steps when he heard Su Mian's voice behind him.

Jiang Ning turned around and saw Su Mian standing straight in place, tilting her head slightly as she spoke, "Jiang Ning, haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

Jiang Ning frowned slightly, not understanding the meaning of those words.

"Oh, I remember now, you're Jiang Ning from the Spring Sleep Research Institute. I saw your book, 'China Sleep Report 2045,' last year."

After she finished speaking, Su Mian seemed to finally lower her guard, and a look of surprise appeared on her face.

"Teacher Jiang, there's no need to go in. The subway will remain closed today, and I heard it will only be open on a trial basis tomorrow."

"oh!"

Jiang Ning nodded, slowly walked back to Su Mian, and said with a strange expression, "I remember now, you are the beautiful scientist who published the article 'Sleep Annihilation' on the Elsevier forum last year."

"what!"

Upon hearing this, Su Mian's face showed even greater surprise: "You've seen my paper?"

The full title is "Sleep Annihilation: The Core Threshold Principles of Consciousness Dormancy".

Jiang Ning calmly added, "So you're not researching postpartum care for sows, you're a neuroscience expert."

"Forehead……"

Su Mian wasn't embarrassed to see that she had been exposed, but she was speechless for a moment. Then she remembered that she seemed to have misunderstood someone last time, and she didn't know what to say.

"Your paper on 'Sleep Annihilation' is excellent. It elaborates in detail that long-distance brain region connectivity is key to maintaining consciousness, and that during deep sleep, long-distance connectivity weakens while local slow-wave connectivity strengthens. Although this is a theoretical hypothesis made by your neuroscience community for studying the brain-network mechanism, this article also provides a new perspective for our sleep research community..."

"No, no, no..."

Upon hearing the praise, Su Mian quickly explained, "I'm just a graduate student, I don't have that much ability. I just benefited from my supervisors' work on that paper. The reason the institute put my name first was just to create the impression of a beautiful female scientist."

"oh!"

Jiang Ning carefully examined Su Mian. She was 1.6 meters tall, and apart from being a bit thin, she had a very good figure with curves in all the right places. Her long legs couldn't be hidden even by her white coat. More importantly, she was indeed very beautiful with fair skin.

Even her facial features are small and delicate, making her very recognizable when put together. Coupled with her short hair, which is clean and refreshing, she looks like a celebrity.

"She is indeed a beautiful female scientist..."

Upon hearing this, Su Mian gave an awkward laugh, awkwardly slipped her hands into the pockets of her white coat, quickly looked down, and kicked the ground with her foot.

Then she raised her head and said generously, "Alright, you can call me beautiful, but scientist is not acceptable... I'm really embarrassed by those words together."

"Okay, beautiful Su!"

Jiang Ning said calmly, "If there's nothing else, I'll be going now..."

After saying that, he nodded to Su Mian, and without waiting for Su Mian's response, he turned and left.

"good!"

Seeing Jiang Ning leave, Su Mian nodded and said nothing more.

After Jiang Ning walked away, she stood there watching his back, very curious about this Mr. Jiang who used to be quite well-known in the circle. He was only 26 years old, so why did he look like this now?

The other person is somewhat famous, not only for being a handsome guy among the younger generation, but more importantly, as a sleep research scholar, he also has solid theoretical knowledge and is said to be a workaholic.

The term "sleep obliteration" originated from the "China Sleep Research Report 2045," which was led by the other party and was the first to appear in that report.

The other party, who is in the field of sleep research, boldly warned at the end of the report: "The average sleep time of humans has dropped to the lowest level in history. With the emergence of new-generation smart technologies, the intensification of fast-paced life and the increase in work pressure, this sleep deprivation is likely to cause the annihilation of human sleep, which may cause irreversible damage to human evolution."

It was precisely because they liked the word and thought it was catchy that some colleagues in the institute decided to use it as a prefix when publishing papers on the Elsevier forum.

"But... I really don't want to be known by this name..."

After Jiang Ning had gone far away, Su Mian had a feeling, perhaps just a woman's sixth sense, that the two of them would meet again in the future, and might even become friends.

Thinking of this, Su Mian suddenly felt a flush on her cheeks. She quickly shook her head, rubbed her face, and turned to walk towards Dawn University.