Convention - Ch. 2 The Heart Of People

Within the GST Group, it was a common rule that all scientists’ offspring must be elite of the elites.

The couple has to do a thorough physical examination, ensured the quality of the sperm and eggs before they are united, and then the sperm and eggs are placed in a petri dish for cultivation, at which point they can choose to perform some degree of genetic optimization to enhance the advantages of their children to ensure their family’s position within the company. If the child is deemed not genetically superior enough, then they can even abandon the child and ‘make’ a new one.

When a newborn is born, in addition to a comprehensive medical examination, a genetic future prediction will be made, a procedure that only the children of GST’s internal employees will undergo, after the prediction, the newborn will be sent to research institutes in different disciplines, and those students without any qualifications will be selected and assigned by lottery (dice rolling), but of course, these selected ‘lucky ones’ will not be taken seriously, and will basically be sent home to study in ordinary schools after a short time, because the requirements of each family for talent are very harsh, so the procedure of rolling the dice is considered to be just used to plug the mouths of human rightists.

Six years ago, Mo HeSheng vividly remembered that it was raining heavily the night his daughter was born, and he received a call from the doctor and rushed from the lab to the GST hospital, an institution dedicated to internal staff, where all GST employees receive free medical assistance from birth to death, and the third floor is the baby’s incubation chamber.

He waited anxiously outside the room, and soon a young lady came out.

“Professor Mo, the baby has been born, congratulations.”

“That’s good, that’s good, can I go in now?” Mo HeSheng couldn’t care less, his heart was hanging in the air, and now he just wanted to see his child immediately.

“Not yet, uh, there are some things I want to say to you frankly.” The woman in front of him suddenly looked a little evasive and stammered.

“What, the child has some unforeseen condition?”

“I am afraid that these words will offend you ……”

“It’s okay, you and I are both scientific researchers, please tell me!” Mo HeSheng, although very anxious, still patiently spoke out to comfort.

The woman took out a thick document from behind her, handed it in front of Mo He Sang, and explained, “The child’s condition, is not very good, or ……”

“You mean she’s not healthy?” Mo HeSheng interrupted her.

“No, her body is still healthy, but you know the company system, this is her birth report, it’s not ideal.”

Mo He Sheng did not take the document, he stared at the woman’s eyes, “You have something to say.” The previous gentleness was also lost in his tone.

“She may, not be able to enter the institute for her studies.”

“This, how is this possible ……”

The man’s strong shell seemed to be shattered in general, all of a sudden became a bit at a loss, he looked at the door of the room behind the woman, seemed to lose the courage to open this door.

“Sorry Professor Mo, I don’t mean to be rude, but there may be more other learning environments that would be suitable for your daughter, and both regular public and private schools can accommodate her.”

The man seemed to understand what she meant.

“You mean, her brain?”

The woman shook her head, dismissing Mo Heisheng’s guess.

“Sorry Professor Mo, she doesn’t suffer from anything like Asperger’s syndrome, Heller’s syndrome and Rett’s syndrome among other pervasive developmental disorders, she’s perfectly healthy, it’s just that ……”

“Just what?”

“It’s just that she’s not smart, or rather, a little slow, overall IQ is below average for a child, only memory is a little above average, studying literature and science, not much difference, in our predictions for her future, we simulated hundreds of millions of possibilities, her social skills are not bad, she may have some friends, but her expression skills are very average, her emotional intelligence is not high, and her physical fitness is not good enough. When she is young, she will often catch a cold, easy to be nearsighted, there is also a very 79% probability that she will suffer from heart disease in her middle age, and although her advanced age is at 80, she will not be able to undertake intense scientific work from the age of 35. In general …… she may …… ”

“How might she?”

Faced with the woman’s hesitation, Mo HeSheng impatiently pursued the question.

“The high probability that she will spend a bland and uninteresting life, unfitting as your successor, you know, such a child is not what we need in the Institute, we need children who win at the starting line, she does not fit here, so to speak, there is absolutely no possibility, my advice is …… ”

“What if we do aftercare? Many children are like that.” Hearing her say, Mo HeSheng does not seem to have completely given up, “You and I understand all this, scientific inspiration and guidance ……”

“But Professor Mo, her case may be rare, you know the importance attached to family newborns within the Coalition Government, even if there is a possibility, we will not give up a good seedling, but the probability of her becoming a scientist is not even as good as a child with autism.” The woman shook her head again and persuaded sincerely, “If we let her stay here to go to school, she will not learn anything and will even lose her original life as an ordinary person, we should not go against fate, I am sorry.”

Mo HeSheng took the document, a red letter conspicuously printed in the center of the paper, the light blue border and text made it look even more striking, it was an extremely humiliating character ‘F’.

Mo HeSheng could remember the last time he was anxious about something like this when it was the last exam of his doctoral career. Before that, he had accomplished the feat of ranking first in the college for three consecutive years in both major and minor exams, and before the last exam, he had gotten an F because he had drunkenly celebrated Chen Yang’s birthday, who hadn’t come at all.

There are twenty-six Latin letters, and F is not the last of the twenty-six, but in this case, it is the symbol of the worst one. In this birth report rating, the cover letter rating represents a person’s future comprehensive ability, including intelligence, emotional intelligence, physical fitness, and even natural life expectancy, etc., through technical means to make a comprehensive prediction of the newborn to determine its future development, the scoring mechanism is from A to F, and the ABCD grade, and divided into A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, B2 …… But the F level only has a score of F. Obviously F represents the bottom layer, and if it goes further down, it is congenital intellectual disability. For all those who want to enter the Institute, their birth report needed to be at least B3 or above. For those below, they can be incorporated into the life department and trained to be janitors in the group, of course, people with a score of F are not qualified to enter the Institute in any way.

F, F, F, this letter has never made him feel such pain, he likes many words that start with F, like Fabric, Faery and Fable.

If you look around the world, more than 80% of the birth reports of newborns will have an F printed on them, but none of them will make the man feel as bitter as this one, after all, almost all children in the Coalition Government inherit their parents’ talents to a greater or no lesser extent.

Mo HeSheng instinctively very resistant to genetic optimization, he believes that it is unfair to the newborn, in the past he used to feel incredibly disgusted by this deprivation of human rights, and now …… he remembered his wife, who has passed away, perhaps should have listened to her.

Ordinary people, his child is just an ordinary person, and maybe even a little worse, to be below the average level of ordinary people, because from the various views of the test, her score should actually be F-.

Mo HeSheng subconsciously took a few steps backward, unable to believe this report in his hands. His parents, grandparents, wife, and in-laws were all top scientific researchers. The mediocrity of this child would affect the whole family.

If only, this report had been written with a G or an H. In his mind suddenly flashed such a thought. If only …… if she were an ugly genetic defect deformity, if she were a drooling r*tard, even if it was just an unfortunate case of meningitis at birth …… in that case, it would just be a sad accident. In this group of geniuses the standard is to be a genius, ordinary, is just original sin.

I remember a long time ago, when people did not fully believe in pedigree theory, when many people still insist that as long as through unremitting efforts, plus a little bit of luck, every ordinary people can also obtain extraordinary life. In the current situation, this view is undoubtedly superstitious, absurd, and even …… romantic.

When exactly did this viewpoint disappear?

Just like when you are working on a regular basis, after seeing the first observation chart, Mo HeSheng will immediately proceed to speculate on what may happen in the future. As if a picture superimposed on top of the original image, slowly, the picture began to run like a walking lamp, the static image began to move, a year later the star will become what, ten years later and what will happen in a hundred years?

But at this moment, Mo HeSheng could only see one ending from this birth report, her daughter was like a leaf, fading alone from the branch, dehydrating and turning yellow in the dirt, eventually turning over in twisted form and gradually decaying.

“I’m sure you know how difficult it is for us.” The lady in front of him broke the deadlock.

Mo HeSheng leaned against the wall and slowly slid to the ground, holding a pile of reports followed by scattered to the ground, the silent hallway began to echo with his sobs.

After a long period of silence, Mo HeSheng raised his head, his eyes were no longer confused and bewildered, and his tone once again became gentle yet firm.

“I will not give up on the child, you know me.”

Seeming to understand that she could no longer persuade him, the woman sighed and looked at Mo HeSheng and said.

“I admire you very much for not using genetic optimization, but I advise you, it’s better to give up this child, within the Coalition Government, the training of offspring is very important, this will probably affect your career, but you can rest assured that I will abide by the rules, the birth report is absolutely private and will not be leaked to any unrelated people.”

The doctor saw the situation and also squated, comforted Mo HeSheng: “It’s okay, the ordinary school will still provide the opportunity.”

“That, can you, promise me one thing, for the sake of your father and I are also old acquaintances.” Mo HeSheng said in a pleading tone.

As if the doctor guessed Mo HeSheng’s request, she hastily refused.

“Professor Mo, you also know that the data of any newborn within the Coalition Government cannot be modified, we all signed a confidentiality agreement, and this report will not be made public, it is only used for screening, and you know what kind of child GST needs.”

“And what if she becomes intelligent later?”

“Professor, although there is no chance of that happening, I guarantee on my own behalf that no uninvolved parties will know the contents of this report, which serves only to allow parents to choose the right path for their children.”

“Her path, it shouldn’t be like this.”

And at that moment, there was a sudden strange sound outside the window, and the two of them coincidentally looked toward the window, only to see a sudden bright light shot into the house, extraordinarily blinding, and Old Mo instantly felt his pupils contract and his vision blurred.

“What’s so bright?” Mo HeSheng asked.

“Maybe it’s, lightning, it’s so shiny that my eyes hurt,” said the doctor rubbing up against her eyes.

The strong light only flashed for half a second and then disappeared. Mo HeSheng went to the window and there was nothing outside.

“Well, it should be lightning, it’s raining so hard outside, whatever, thank you, doctor, I’ll go first.”

“Alright, the child will be in the hospital for a few days, you go back to rest first.”

Mo HeSheng is not in the mood to care about anything else, he said goodbye to the doctor, turned, and drove away.

The rain outside the house is getting heavier and heavier, but Mo HeSheng did not choose to take the city rail to go back, but holding an umbrella to walk slowly in the streets, he likes to walk, like to think with his head down on the sidewalk, which makes him feel quiet and down-to-earth.

He passed by the towering imitation trees, touching their cold metal shells, imagining that the growing annual rings appeared inside, due to the deterioration of the environment, the natural plants in the city could not survive, all replaced by imitations made of special nano-materials. Mo HeSheng is not a sentimental person, but at this time his mind came to the light of his childhood, he not only misses his childhood, but also holds a longing for the era of his grandfather’s generation, which is an era with stories to tell.

Green walls, gray metal railings, an old-fashioned attic, and a rippling river outside, this is what Mo HeSheng remembers of his old home, and every holiday, his father would take him back to his hometown, to that old house.

He liked to listen to his father read him the biographies of famous people, like to listen to his father tell the location and origin of each constellation, but now all this is gone, a thick haze wrapped the sky, no matter day and night, with the naked eye alone can not see anything. The river that nurtured Mo HeSheng’s life has dried up, and the city built on it has long since decayed. In the third industrial revolution, that coastal city and many northern industrial cities have not kept pace with the development of information technology, secondary industries are lingering, the population exodus, serious aging, the city’s attractiveness almost no longer exists, almost like a dead city.

Since the Dunkeld family was in a high position, the director Herman began to carry out radical reforms, the virtual community formed a huge scale never seen before, all indulged in the excitement of the network, the deterioration of the environment made it that the virtual world has become a refuge for all mankind, people in the virtual community to express their views, beliefs, and doctrines, and then quarrel with each other, enjoying it. Simple, fast, eye-catching content completely takes over people’s lives and controls their likes and dislikes. Mo HeSheng felt that he was out of step with the times and even became a marginalized member of society, and he could only use ‘times are different’ to relieve and paralyze himself.

Almost no one was in the street, only scattered delivery boys are going, although there are skyscrapers and holographic projections of advertising everywhere, the reality is pervaded by a sense of decadence, an odd smell. This is as suffocating as the lingering haze over the city. Many environmental problems have shattered mankind’s belief in building livable cities, and people have gradually admitted their incompetence and begun to turn their heads and turn a blind eye to the problems. And the virtual community is like a leech with an insatiable appetite, sucking the last of the bones and blood out of the city as it is dying, leaving only a white skeleton made of steel and concrete.

Reality had ceased to exist.

He sighed once again, thinking that if the old man were still alive, he would not have let Herman do this. Mo HeSheng felt incompetent, but could not do anything about it, he was only an intellectual and did not know anything about how to manage power. He tried to write to Herman to express his ideas and demands, but Chen Yang tried his best to stop him. Chen Yang said to him, “No matter what you say, the council will think that your ultimate goal is to ask for more funding, and if that’s the case, then it’s better for me to write. Your stubborn, you may not care about what could possibly be lost, but the Astronomy Department does, we can’t go against Herman.”

“Intellectuals are most likely to be dissatisfied with reality, but that’s what makes this group so valuable.” This is what his father said to him, but in today’s group, the right to speak has long since fallen by the wayside to others, and he can only manage to clean up his act and then hope that his offspring can change things through their own abilities.

But now …… Mo HeSheng can only face the reality, he grew up in the GST Group, the place where he grew up, the place where he became a scholar and made his mark, but began to produce a sense of distance.

Mo HeSheng thought for three days, he began to be a little confused, he began to doubt whether he really want to accept the child, thinking that if his wife is still alive, what she would do?

However, fate is always full of variables.

This night, Mo HeSheng immediately ready to rest, take a shower, the phone came several missed calls and a few text messages, from Chen Yang, Mo HeSheng had a premonition of what happened, hurriedly dialed back.

“Old Mo, where are you!?” The tone of Chen Yang on the other end of the phone was urgent.

“I’m at home, I drank too much last night.”

“Aiyo what are you thinking about again, I told you that something big happened in the group!”

“What happened, you tell me.”

“Just now the group called, the birth reports of hundreds of newborns in the hospital were destroyed!”

“What! Destroyed?”

“Yes, the opposition is a hacker group, somehow cracked the security system of our database, the group suspected that there is a traitor, the group has organized a task force with the police to investigate”

“When did this happen? I just ……” having a premonition that things are unusual, Mo HeSheng swallowed back the words.

“Just what, Old Mo hurry back to the company,”

“You wait, what do they want with the birth report, only the group thinks they are useful! I think it’s a bunch of kids pulling pranks.”

“They didn’t take it, the data from the newborn database can’t be taken away, they hacked into the system and installed a self-destruct program. And the scariest thing is that the doctors in the hospital are missing! The surveillance equipment didn’t capture anything, and all the security personnel was sent to the interrogation room.”

“Disappeared? What about the baby, where’s my daughter!”

“The child is fine, they are all lying in the chamber unharmed, have you not just been to the hospital a few days ago? Did you find anything unusual?” ,

“No, nothing, uh, yes, nothing.”

“It’s really non-negotiable so, a total of twelve doctors, no one is alive and no one is dead, I think the hospital’s police system and cameras must have all been hacked, the chairman of the council has gone ballistic, we have to hurry over.”

“I know, I’m on my way.”

Mo HeSheng didn’t tell Chen Yang what happened that night because he couldn’t figure out what was going on either, but his intuition told him that if what Chen Yang said was true, it would undoubtedly be great news for his family.

Mo HeSheng was so excited that he panicked, he hurriedly put on his clothes and drove, as if to grab a life-saving straw, he wanted to immediately confirm the news Chen Yang said, it was about the future of the Mo family, and his inner ideals. At this time, Mo HeSheng’s heart appeared a trace of evil thoughts that should not be there, he hoped that the twelve doctors whose lives and deaths were not yet known and the birth report about his daughter would never appear on earth.

This child, must become the successor of the Mo family.

“Dad!”

A soft cry interrupted Mo HeSheng’s flashback. In a flash, his thoughts returned from that difficult night to the present, which was six years in a flash. He took out a cigarette from his pocket, his lungs were bad and he would only consider taking a couple of puffs when he was under extreme stress, but pulling out a cigarette, he suddenly noticed glittering inquisitive eyes coming from his side — the child was looking up at him with expectant eyes. So with a sigh, he tucked the cigarette back into the pocket of his white coat.

“I, I have it all memorized ……” The person who spoke was none other than Mo HeSheng’s daughter, Mo ShiXin.

It is as if he was afraid that he will hurt the slender little hand, or worry that their anger will burn the tenderness, this small action, made the man’s tense stiff shoulders slightly soothed, along with the heart of the ignorant karmic fire faded away together.

“You not only have to memorize, but also to understand, just memorizing is useless.”

“Well, okay.”

“How about taking a break tonight?”

“I still have a lot of things to memorize!”

Mo ShiXin’s demeanor is quite a bit more mature than her peers, she has been more polite than other children since she was young, knows how to read people’s faces, according to Chen Yang’s words, her eyes see all things, like a young adult, Mo HeSheng sometimes even thinks that the hospital is mistaken, and his daughter may be very talented, but every time he tutors homework, his daughter’s performance again shatters his illusions.

Despite this, he was quite pleased that although she did not inherit the family’s talent, but still inherited the advantages of the family thirst for knowledge. He thought to himself that this child was amazing and that if he added overwhelming talent she could surely become a distinguished scholar.

“Okay, take a deep breath, and then carefully recall that library in your mind.”

“Yes, dad.”

Mo Shixin turned over the test paper, and the first question on top of a side of white paper was more complicated than usual: “Please complete the Fourier series of (|sinx|).”

She held her breath and slowly closed her eyes, the rustling of the paulownia leaves outside the window and the sound of birdsong in the nest accompanied Mo Shixin’s ears. Paused for a moment, a shallow smile brushed her face, she slowly opened her eyes, the question actually jumped up from the paper and surfaced in front of her eyes

Suddenly time and space change, outside the window of the dark green wutong leaves began to gradually turn yellow, the treetops of the fledgling quickly full of feathers fly away from the nest, the sunset light spread the entire sky, bursts of fine snow falls slowly from wutong leaves in the cold wind.

Subsequently, cracks began to appear in the ground beneath Mo Shixin’s seat. As if it was alive, cracks quickly spread throughout the room, the whistling hurricane rolled countless paper, swept Mo ShiXin’s cheeks, followed by several huge bookshelves from the cracks, those tumbling paper instantly regularized to the shelves, turning into a heavy book.

Mo ShiXin is in a huge library, four or five meters high bookshelves densely placed on a variety of books, four red copper book ladders rely on the bookshelves.

After the book lights faintly flickered behind her, the library rang out with the announcement that

“…… Master, please search quickly.”

Mo ShiXin looked at the title in the upper right corner of her field of vision, scrutinized the books placed between the shelf number and the compartment, then stood up and quickly ascended the book ladder, looking for the location of these books between the shelves.

“72 shelves A side 2 rows, this is it, Earth Past (German Edition).”

Mo ShiXin pulled out the old book and turned it to the back, the yellowish ISBN code was also revealed, and the country code “03” in the first paragraph of the code was greatly marked there – that is, the first empty answer.

Mo ShiXin began to look for the remaining books in turn, the answer also appeared in turn “15, 35, 63 ……”.

“Done! Next question ……”

Time passed very quickly, Mo ShiXin finished answering all the questions, Mo HeSheng was at the side for a long time.

“Congratulations to the master for finding out all the answers, the library is about to sink, we will meet again next time.”

With the end of the broadcast, the rumbling sound rose around, the huge bookshelves began to dissipate like particles, the original decoration of the study as if a chessboard began to float up from the nothingness assembled, the dust dispersed, Mo ShiXin was once again in the study room, the view outside the house also returned to normal.

“Dad, I finished my answer.” Mo ShiXin was sweating profusely.

“Not bad, it seems you are getting more and more proficient,” Mo HeSheng said joyfully in front of her.

“Dad, your ‘memory palace’ must be even better than mine, I heard from my classmate’s mother that you can remember the coordinates of thousands of stars.”

Mo HeSheng laughed and did not answer, he did not want to tell ShiXin the truth, that he did not need a ‘memory palace’ at all, he could do it with his natural brainpower alone, no other skills were needed.

In the era of not yet popular pedagogy, English standards, syllables, people learning words waws a difficult thing, they can only rely on rote memorization methods area to do, such as the ancient Egyptian clerks, they must rely on human memory to remember a bunch of abstract and complex hieroglyphs. But clever humans gradually found a skill, and this skill, is the prototype of mnemonics, in the era of Christian domination, European priests, theologians want to be able to recite the New Testament and Old Testament and a variety of religious writings, saints of the Word and deeds, are also relying on mnemonics.

‘Memory palace’, this mnemonic technique for some time monopolized what was invented by the religious class with cultural privileges. The user imagines a space in the mind, and the space is divided into several rooms, and then the things that need to be remembered inscribed in the room, so as to achieve the effect of memory, generally speaking, the familiar space as their memory palace is the most pleasing way. From the moment Mo ShiXin was born, Mo HeSheng began to train her memory palace, which is why Mo ShiXin, who obviously only has F qualifications, was able to qualify for the entrance exam, and her memory palace was a library that did not exist.

“Tonight Daddy gives you a break, how about we go stargazing together?”

“Yes! I want to see Venus!”

In the evening, the sun on the sea seemed extraordinarily large under the effect of water vapor, Mo HeSheng took ShiXin to stroll on the man-made beach of Bohai Bay as usual, picking up the broken glass polished by seawater, looking for the broken branches of stony coral buried under the sand and gravel.

The sun set into the deep sea, the slender crescent moon crept up from the sea level. Mo HeSheng lights up the cold LED and raises his telescope to point at Venus, which rises with the moon.

Seeing this, Mo ShiXin hurriedly took out his slightly torn notebook from his side bag and observed Venus through a small window, drawing what he saw in this book and filling the small circles with the shield-shaped volcanoes he could see. Through training since childhood, in terms of image memory and reproduction, Mo ShiXin can be said to be at ease, and possible to draw every detail of what she see.

Mo ShiXin recorded what she saw while repeating what her father had introduced in the past: “Venus, the second planet in the solar system, was called Changgeng and Qiming by the ancients, and Venus by the Romans. The atmosphere on Venus is composed mainly of carbon dioxide, which makes it hotter than Mercury. It is interesting that the shield volcanoes on Venus are much flatter than those on Earth, but their basal diameters are very long, with the largest shield volcanoes approaching the basal diameter of Olympus volcano on Mars.”

With that said, ShiXin moved her telescope to look for Mars in the sky, only to find that it was no longer in the same position as last year. Seeing that ShiXin’s search was in vain, Mo HeSheng got off his beach chair and adjusted the telescope.

The image in the viewport drifted past Venus, followed by the Big Dipper in Ursa Major, and after drifting along with the crank past Shepherd, the viewport stopped at the other main character of the day, Hornbill I, which is often referred to as Alpha Virgo.

Mo HeSheng said, “ShiXin, this is Hornbill I, it is a blue giant star, and it is through its motion that the ancient Greeks discovered the age difference motion of our Earth. It is also the 17th brightest star in the sky, the first brightest star in Virgo. And Alpha Virgo is actually a binary star system, but the human eye cannot distinguish between these two stars that are rotating faster than their revolution, and from Earth, they are one star, and that’s how they became defined now.”

“Are such binary star systems common in the universe?”

“Not very common.”

The sound of the waves grew louder, but Mo ShiXin kept everything her father said in that library in her mind.

The sky became darker, the city behind the coast gradually became brightly lit, the orange haze in the sky began to appear, Venus gradually became blurred, and even the big-horned star Hornbill Shepherd Alpha slowly lost its luster.

Looking at the Venus that was becoming blurred year by year on the record book, countless questions rushed to Mo ShiXin’s mind, “Father, I remember you said that Venus started to become dim from a few years ago, why did Venus become dimmer and dimmer?”

Mo HeSheng sighed, “ShiXin, remember there was a book about the plague?” He looked at the night sky and said, “A decade or so ago, humans discovered a substance in the ocean that could stabilize a nuclear fusion reactor – mineral ice. And so began to extract seawater and refine this substance ……”

ShiXin listened attentively, while constantly taking notes.

“As time went on, it was found that this substance was difficult to extract in large quantities, and the fusion reactor constructed was still only at the experimental stage. Coincidentally, a science-loving businessman discovered during a survey of a scientific nature that there were abundant reserves of mineral ice under the Antarctic ice cap and reported the news to his father’s company. The group then saw this as an unprecedented business opportunity, a large amount of mineral ice could be used as an energy supply, and as long as the exploitation license was issued, the market could be seized and the group could logically get the world’s first-hand mineral ice, and the subsequent industrial profits were unimaginable. So, without any detailed demonstration of safety and sustainability, the group over-melted the ice and mined the substance, despite the opposition of a large number of our scientists. A significant rise in sea level ensued.”

“So,” said Mo ShiXin, immediately taking over, “the AC0012 ancient neurovirus was released into the ocean from the ice cap, and Patient Zero was found in Lima, Peru, and in just three days, the entire Peruvian coastline was lifeless, and people blocked all ports and borderlines, forgetting that the real carrier was actually the ocean currents. This was followed by the fall of the east coast of Australia, followed by New Zealand. The wily virus lurked in more ways than people knew, and along with early exports of dairy products from New Zealand and rising sea levels, it began to attack the world. Excerpt from “An Introduction to Early Modern Plague Science” by Heisenberg Green.”

“That’s right,” Mo HeSheng sighed, “although the spread of the disease among the population was eventually contained at a tragic cost, we lost the entire ocean. And that was just the beginning of the catastrophe.”

“The construction of the artificial sea, the isolation of the native ocean, and the long-term blockage of the virus, didn’t all three work together to solve the virus threat?” Mo ShiXin asked as she looked ahead at the waves that swept up the coral debris, “It’s only a matter of time before the virus disappears, isn’t it?”

Mo HeSheng sighed, “Shixin, you are wrong, people in order to block the virus then a large number of fusion reactors to provide energy for it, mineral ice is also used as a matter of course, immediately after, people found that there is mineral ice involved in the reactor over the beginning of the orange haze, these fog not only has a weakening effect on natural light, will greatly increase the greenhouse effect. In addition, the haze was followed by acid rain, which again increased the greenhouse effect. This is the so-called orange sky effect.”

“Dad, I see, the crux of the problem is in the beginning,” Seijin’s eyes shone with light, “people shouldn’t go to Antarctica to open mining mineral ice, right?”

“No, the root of the problem is in the ……” Speaking of this, Mo HeSheng hesitated, not knowing whether he should let his daughter know the reality and ugliness of the world too early.

“Dad, if you know so much, why don’t you try to stop it? Why can’t the scholars ……”

“In a few days, Daddy’s Astronomy Department will be disbanded,” Mo HeSheng pursed his lips at his daughter and smiled a little.

The small glass of the beach made a small sound as it clashed with the coral debris that the waves rolled ashore, but the sound of the waves drowned it out forever.

“So what will Daddy go to later, can I still stargaze with Daddy ……”

“Of course, this starry sky belongs to every one of us.”

“But Daddy used to say he wanted to change the world through his research.”

Mo HeSheng was silent for a moment, not knowing how to face his daughter’s question, even though he knew the answer, it was never just money and power that changed the world.

“It is not enough to have the knowledge, but also to know how to harness others.” Mo HeSheng stroked his daughter’s head.

ShiXin frowned, she did not answer, turned her head, and continued to look at the moon if there was one.

Mo HeSheng did not think much about it, the young daughter probably could not understand the meaning of his words, and the words did not stay in Mo HeSheng’s memory for long.

This night, Mo HeSheng had a dream, he dreamed he was at the bottom of the sea, in front of him appeared two strange-looking grouper, a large fish, a small fish, they swam aimlessly, only to see a larger predator suddenly appeared in the distance, a bite of the small fish and ran, the large fish instantly turned red face, two eyes wide, and then let out a bizarre low roar, rushed to chase it.

Mo HeSheng was awakened by this dream and felt uncomfortable, he went to the balcony and turned his perspective once again toward the constellation Phoenix, the galaxy wrapped in a strange fog, he pondered what might have happened there, whether there would be life there, whether there would be a civilization, what their civilization would be like, whether the creatures there were watching him as well as he was. Mo HeSheng was so intoxicated that he forgot what he had said to his daughter today, and forgot all those complaints about his situation.

Only then could his mind, already drained by reality, feel a little nourished.

But he did not know. On the other side of his telescope, a place billions of light-years away under the fog, a conspiracy about the survival of the entire galaxy is quietly happening.