Chapter 47: Retirement
Chapter 47: Retirement
Year 142 of the Common Era.
Qin Yu’s life assistant, Wei Muyun, retired from her position at Research Institute 011.
As Qin Yu’s life assistant, Wei Muyun was the person Qin Yu knew best during these one hundred plus years.
She was also the person he spent the most time with.
On Wei Muyun’s last day at her job in Research Institute 011,
Qin Yu bid farewell to this old friend.
Despite leaving Research Institute 011 after working there for over a century, Wei Muyun seemed very calm and free-spirited.
“Professor Qin, it has been a pleasure working with you all these years. I also thank you for your cooperation in my work.”
Though over one hundred and forty years old, Wei Muyun still moved briskly and held herself with grace.
She reached out her hand, and she and Qin Yu shook hands one final time.
“I also thank you for taking care of me all these years,”
Qin Yu looked at Wei Muyun and simply said this.
Wei Muyun once had the opportunity to transfer out of Research Institute 011, but she ultimately chose to stay.
Although, officially, besides being Qin Yu’s life assistant, she was also the office director of Research Institute 011, and had gained promotions over the years,
her main duties remained as Qin Yu’s life assistant.
Wei Muyun had also remained single all these years.
During their free time, Qin Yu and Wei Muyun had talked about this.
Wei Muyun’s single status had some connection to Qin Yu, but it wasn’t entirely because of him.
First was the work environment; her environment was too closed-off, making it very difficult to meet a suitable person to marry.
Second, social ideas had changed. In this era, marriage wasn’t considered a necessary life goal. Across society, and even within Research Institute 011 itself, a large portion of people never married.
Or rather, in this era, people who remained unmarried their whole lives were the majority – Wei Muyun wasn’t alone.
Third,
Wei Muyun once sighed and said with a smile,
while she didn’t have romantic feelings for Professor Qin, working closely with him every day had made her standards quite high.
Unlike the subtle expectations some had initially when assigning Qin Yu several life and work assistants,
during the long time together, no romantic feelings ever developed between Wei Muyun and Qin Yu.
From Wei Muyun’s perspective,
Professor Qin Yu was perfect, almost too perfect, not seeming quite human.
As the person who spent the most time with Qin Yu, Wei Muyun was probably the person who knew him best.
But if she had to use one word to describe Professor Qin Yu, the word that came to mind was still a rather abstract ‘great scientist.’
For over a century, she never saw any flaws in Professor Qin Yu, nor did she ever see the desires a normal person should have.
She never witnessed the Professor express tension or anger. No matter the situation or who he faced, he always remained composed, at ease, and gentle.
It seemed as if he always looked down upon or level at the entire world.
Professor Qin seemed to have no pursuit of power, wealth, or personal enjoyment.
His focus always seemed solely on scientific research areas, matters that affected Human Civilization as a whole.
Furthermore, she felt Professor Qin didn’t feel very human.
More than a person, Professor Qin resembled a symbol.
A perfect person, one whom others naturally felt distanced from and unreal.
Like someone serving a statue of a god: most people might revere the statue,
but few would develop irreverent thoughts about a perfect god.
That’s how Professor Qin made Wei Muyun feel.
She wondered if the sheer number of honorific labels people attached to Professor Qin Yu created pressure for anyone interacting with him.
Alternatively, if Professor Qin Yu’s wisdom was just too vast, causing him to naturally adopt a perspective that looked down upon the world.
The result was the same: the vast majority of people were very ‘proper’ when interacting with Professor Qin Yu.
Now,
looking at Wei Muyun, Qin Yu could actually guess what she and many others probably thought.
He didn’t believe he lacked personal desires. If he had none, he wouldn’t have secretly used Intangibility several times at night to slip away to a snowy mountaintop to feel the wind, nor would he have rested at a riverbed to experience the sensation of sleeping under flowing water.
It’s just that, because of the immense time he had, his thoughts differed from most people on certain matters.
Occasionally, he felt a sense of ownership.
Meaning, he didn’t feel he belonged to Human Civilization; rather, Human Civilization belonged to him.
Like many things he did now – they were actually him reshaping and molding his Human Civilization entirely according to his own ideas.
It just happened to align with people’s hopes for the future.
Because of this mindset, the wealth and power within Human Civilization held no real meaning for Qin Yu.
As an old saying went long ago,
it wasn’t that he lacked desires; it was just that his desires and ambitions were so vast they overshadowed the common ones.
That day,
after sharing a final handshake,
Wei Muyun finished her last day of work and retired.
Of course,
before Wei Muyun retired, she had already handed over her work and trained her replacement.
Later, a new life assistant would take over the responsibilities Wei Muyun had.
Being selected as Qin Yu’s life assistant meant the candidate underwent careful screening.
Naturally, they could carry out the role smoothly.
After that, everything continued as usual.
…
Year 143, Year 144.
Several of Qin Yu’s life and work assistants retired after Wei Muyun.
New assistants took over the previous tasks.
By this point,
Qin Yu could see that in the currently prosperous and lively Research Institute 011, within the Negentropy Research Institute,
almost none of the original people who joined Research Institute 011 remained.
Even Qin Yu’s senior brothers and sisters who had worked on developing the 2611 Longevity Injection had also retired one after another.
Among the people who were at Research Institute 011 from the very beginning, it seemed only Qin Yu was left.
After all, strictly speaking, Qin Yu had actually been the youngest researcher when Research Institute 011 was first established.
By this time, Qin Yu had also nearly reached retirement age.
…
In this era, within the borders of Huaxia Nation and throughout its entire society, those who were still alive and had been naturally conceived, gestated, and grown without the Human Reproduction Device were already a minority.
The earliest batch of children born via the Human Reproduction Device were now over 110 years old.
By this time, when a natural pregnancy occurred occasionally, it became news.
Whether they supported home-rearing or Collective Social Rearing, everyone condemned such a situation.
After all, in this era, it offered no benefits and purely tortured the mother.
In this era, there were even some radical proposals suggesting that humanity’s natural reproductive ability should be removed.
Of course, they didn’t pass, but it still reflected the mood of these times.
Outside Huaxia Nation, while the use of the Human Reproduction Device wasn’t as widespread as within,
it had been gradually expanding from top to bottom in recent years.
Perhaps one day,
naturally born people would vanish completely.
Or perhaps, only Qin Yu would remain.
…
Time arrived at the year 146.
ReasonTech Research Institute, North American State.
An old researcher and a young researcher were having a conversation.
“Jerome, I am a failure.”
The old researcher said this, his expression pained, as he looked at the young man before him.
Once, he had been recruited from a secret lab on the South American Continent to ReasonTech Research Institute.
He thought his life and career would reach new heights at ReasonTech.
But the reality was, he was met with failure, again and again.
He had tried to crack the greatest secret in life sciences besides the 2611 Longevity Injection: the mystery of its synthesis.
But he clearly hadn’t succeeded. The synthetic technology for the 2611 Longevity Injection remained the field’s biggest secret.
He had tried to mimic the logic of the 2611 Longevity Injection to explore extending the lifespan of animals other than humans.
Failure.
He had spent vast amounts of time researching the unique virus he had accidentally collected from the South American Continent.
His scientific instinct told him this virus was special, possibly hiding deeper mysteries.
But he still hit wall after wall.
Much of his life was consumed by these research projects he’d pinned high hopes on, yet which produced no results.
To most people, as a researcher still somewhat renowned in the field, as a Professor in the Field of Life Sciences,
he was still considered accomplished.
But compared to what he desired, it was far from enough.
Now, his life was in its final countdown; he was old.
But he truly was not reconciled to it. Deeply not reconciled.
“Jerome, you are my son and my student. As your father and your teacher, I have only one thing I can give you.”
This old researcher had also never married.
But fortunately, thanks to the Human Reproduction Device, he still had a child of his own.
Looking at the young man’s face that resembled his own and felt strangely familiar,
the old researcher handed over the virus he had conserved and cultivated for over a century.
“This is a unique virus. It’s dangerous. But I always felt it held deeper secrets. I cannot uncover them now. I hope you will carry on my work, continue researching it.”
The old researcher said.
The young researcher looked at his father and teacher.
This old, unfulfilled man added, almost jokingly,
“Of course, if someday you find the world deeply unsatisfying, this virus might… also help you.”
“I understand, Father.”
…
The Common Era year 150.
Qin Yu heard news about someone to whom he had a certain connection.
The first baby born in the prototype Human Reproduction Device all those years ago at Research Institute 011,
was now also 120 years old.
Even accounting for the expected lifespan of 180 years, most of his life was behind him.
This child, whom Qin Yu had essentially ‘delivered’ back then, had a very simple name: Lin Yi.
As the very first child conceived in a Human Reproduction Device,
once the Collective Social Rearing approach was established, he was mixed in with the first batch of socially raised children to grow up.
His life trajectory wasn’t particularly special.
His natural identity didn’t make him a leader for either the supporters of Collective Social Rearing or the supporters of traditional home-rearing.
Even he himself, like most people, had no idea he was the very first person born from the device.
He was simply a fairly happy ordinary person, someone who achieved a degree of success in his chosen field.
He grew up at the Social Upbringing Bureau, attended school normally, studied until he was forty, earning the highest degree of the era, and then took a teaching position.
Even now, he remained a Professor at a university.
He also had a wife, also raised at the Social Upbringing Bureau. Both were staunch supporters of Collective Social Rearing, so naturally, they had no children.
This child’s life, overall, lacked many dramatic ups and downs. It was fairly calm, without too many hardships.
It was also considered quite a contented one.
Occasionally hearing news of this child, Qin Yu paid a little attention, but naturally could not and would not interfere or try to influence anything.
…
The year 152.
Qin Yu’s academic work Life Science, written over decades, was finally officially published.
The entire book was divided into three volumes; a single volume alone was truly a massive tome.
After publication,
the academic world naturally held this scholarly achievement in extremely high regard.
Some said,
“Life Science has laid the foundation for the life sciences of the next era, constructing an entirely new theoretical framework for biology and the Field of Life Sciences. It will shape the overall understanding of life sciences for scholars over the long future.”
Others stated,
“Life Science is the most precious gift Academician Qin Yu has given to Human Civilization.”
The monograph Life Science essentially condensed all of Qin Yu’s understanding of the discipline.
It comprehensively organized existing knowledge and future directions across the entire Field of Life Sciences,
encompassing all current knowledge in the field within a vast, complete theoretical framework.
Actually, there was no need for judgment from anyone inside or outside academia.
Everyone knew:
just the name Professor Qin Yu already proved this work’s immense value.
In the short term, the book’s impact couldn’t match the directness of inventions like the 2611 Longevity Injection or the Human Reproduction Device.
But on a longer time scale, the book’s influence might be far more profound than any single specific scientific breakthrough.
It might lift Human Civilization’s research in the Field of Life Sciences up an entire level.
…
Then, in the year 153.
Huaxia Nation held a special ceremony to confer honors on Qin Yu.
They presented Qin Yu with a unique honorary medal, one that belonged solely to him and would very likely only ever be awarded this once.
This medal represented a lifetime achievement award.
On its front, intricate craftsmanship depicted the process of an individual aging, from infancy to old age.
On its back, half depicted a desolate wasteland, half depicted fertile fields, seemingly advancing upon the wasteland.
The new Senior Leader, who had succeeded the previous one, pinned the medal onto Qin Yu.
That same year,
at Huaxia Nation’s suggestion,
the HCC (Human Coalition), representing Huaxia Nation, North Bear Nation, Moon Nation, and all member nations,
also bestowed an award upon Professor Qin Yu.
It was named the ‘Human Contribution Award’,
honoring Professor Qin Yu for his outstanding, monumental contributions to Human Civilization as a whole, and for his immense positive impact on its future course and destiny.
This award was also essentially created specifically for Qin Yu.
It was highly probable it would never be awarded again in the future.
By now,
most people seemed to realize something,
especially when they further considered Professor Qin Yu’s age.
Then, sure enough,
the next year, huge news shook the entire world.
Professor Qin Yu was going to retire.