Chapter 1: Chronicle of Cataclysm
It was already evening, and the summer heat had mostly dissipated.
In the Dali County settlement, among the farmlands surrounded by barbed wire, some elderly people are doing farm work in the fields as the weather has finally cooled down.
On a bench at the edge of the field, an old woman was holding a baby in her arms, rocking it gently while chatting casually with Zhou Cheng.
"Acheng, you should graduate this year, right?"
"right."
"Congratulations on graduating..."
The old woman opposite looked at Zhou Cheng with emotion: "In this world, there are so few young people. There is less than one in each county. And you have a PhD. No matter which company you are, you will be vying for you."
Zhou Cheng smiled slightly and said nothing.
The baby in the old woman's arms was chubby, and his two fat little hands kept reaching for the rattle in the old woman's hands. His toothless mouth was open, and he giggled from time to time.
roar……
A ferocious roar echoed from the farmland. Zhou Cheng looked up and saw a tiger lurking outside the electrified wire fence, occasionally roaring and baring its teeth at the elderly people inside, eager to attack.
The old people who were busy with farm work seemed not to see or hear the roar and just went about their work.
The baby in the old woman's arms seemed to be frightened and started crying loudly.
The old woman hurriedly put the rattle in the baby's hands and coaxed him softly, "Be good, baby, don't cry, don't cry..."
When the baby finally stopped crying, the old woman complained, "This big bug is really annoying. We'll kill it with a gun sooner or later. Ah Cheng, you didn't encounter it on your way back, did you?"
"No. Even if I do, I'm not afraid. I have a gun in my car."
"Yes, you should prepare one to carry with you. In this world, you can't leave the settlement without a gun. Oh, and Cheng, this time you come back..."
Before the old woman could finish her words, the baby in her arms, who had just calmed down, suddenly burst into tears again, his cry extremely shrill.
The old woman panicked instantly, checking the baby over and over again but finding nothing unusual. She tried to soothe the baby, but to no avail.
After crying for about one or two minutes, the baby, who was struggling and crying hard, suddenly stopped moving.
His head and limbs drooped limply, his eyes closed, his cries died away, and his chest stopped rising and falling.
The old woman looked at Zhou Cheng anxiously: "Ah Cheng, please help Auntie and see what's wrong with the baby?"
Zhou Cheng calmly took the baby, who was as white and tender as a piece of jade and as cute and beautiful as a piece of jade. He turned it over and felt around its back: "It's out of power."
An old farmer carrying a hoe walked over quickly. Upon hearing Zhou Cheng's words, he began to scold the old woman: "What are you thinking about all day? You can't even take care of a child. You didn't even change the battery when it ran out.
My child hasn’t had enough outdoor time today. What should I do if this affects his or her personality development?
The old woman, groping for new batteries in her bag, retorted unhappily, "If you're capable, come and look after the children. All you do is take care of your little piece of land. Isn't the food the government sends you every week enough for you?"
"You spendthrift old woman, the food the government sends is free, right? Our pensions are so limited, shouldn't we save some money to buy clothes and milk powder for our children?
Besides, how can vegetables grown in a building be as healthy and delicious as those grown in the field?
The old woman stopped talking and muttered as she handed a battery to Zhou Cheng.
Zhou Cheng pressed the baby's back, and a hidden battery compartment cover popped open. Zhou Cheng installed a new battery, and the baby immediately moved.
He yawned as if he had just woken up, and his big watery eyes rolled around, looking very lively.
The old woman held the baby in her arms, rocking him gently with a look of heartache. "Good boy, I'll definitely change your batteries later. Let's go play and ignore grandpa, okay?"
The old farmer stretched out his hand to touch the baby, but the old woman glared at him and walked away with the child in her arms. The old farmer withdrew his hand awkwardly.
"Ah Cheng, how many days can you stay this time?"
"I'm leaving tomorrow."
"Why."
The old farmer sighed softly, "When you have time, come back more often to visit us old folks. We can't hold out for many more years. In a few years, I'm afraid our Dali County settlement will be closed down too."
An idea emerged in Zhou Cheng's mind.
I don’t know if I can come back after leaving this time...
While thinking this in his heart, Zhou Cheng smiled and promised: "Don't worry, I will definitely come back more often."
After dealing with the old farmer, Zhou Cheng returned home.
"Acheng is back? Wash your hands quickly, the meal will be ready soon."
"I know, Mom."
After waiting for a while, the food was served on the table and the three of them took their seats.
Liu Lijuan, who is over 60 years old, looked at Zhou Cheng with kindness and kept serving him food: "Eat more, Cheng. When you go to Dajing City, you won't be able to eat your mother's cooking anymore."
Zhou Dahu, who was also in his 60s, glared at Liu Lijuan and said, "What are you talking about? It's not like my son won't come back."
Liu Lijuan glared back fiercely: "You are the one who talks too much. Even a pig's trotter can't shut your mouth."
Zhou Cheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Mom and Dad, stop arguing and eat."
The meal ended in constant bickering.
After dinner, it was already dark. The three of them went downstairs together and saw many of their neighbors had also finished their meals and were either walking around the settlement or chatting in groups of three or five.
The roars of wild beasts outside the settlement, the chatting and laughter inside the settlement, and the crying of simulated babies all come together, giving this summer night a unique sense of tranquility.
His father Zhou Dahu and several uncles gathered to play chess, his mother Liu Lijuan joined the group of women to chat, and Zhou Cheng sat on a bench, staring blankly at the sky.
The summer night sky was crystal clear. A crescent moon hung in the sky, guarded by a multitude of stars, and a Milky Way, like a jade belt, stretched across the sky.
"It's already the 60th year of the Cataclysm Chronicle..."
Zhou Cheng felt a little emotional.
60 years ago, all people in the human world lost their fertility.
Not only natural reproduction, but even cloning technology and in vitro fertilization technology can no longer produce new life.
Except for humans, all other species on Earth were unaffected.
No one knows why or what is going on.
Human civilization has steadily declined. Today, the total population has dropped to less than one billion. Aside from the less than 20,000 young people trained under the Spring Thunder program, the rest are all over 60 years old.
At the beginning of the disaster, the world government urgently developed a "non-destructive embryo retrieval technique" to remove the fetuses from the wombs of pregnant women who wanted to have abortions without damage, and froze them to be thawed in the future.
Because they have passed the stage of sperm and egg fusion, the development of these embryos will not be restricted by disasters.
There are a total of about 2 million embryos frozen and waiting to be thawed and developed. About 30,000 of them have been thawed so far. Excluding those that failed to develop due to immature technology, these are the only young people left in the world.
Including young people, this total population of less than one billion is scattered all over the world, barely surviving in the many cradles, large and small, built by the "Cradle Project" led by the world government at the beginning of the disaster.
Human civilization is on the verge of extinction.
The night wind was blowing gently, and Zhou Cheng was staring at the vast starry sky in a daze, as if he was searching for the enemy that human civilization had been searching for but could not find, and was always hiding in the dark.
“Everyone is saying that our civilization is hopeless.
Everyone tells me that even at its peak, human civilization, with countless elites, couldn't figure out what the end of the world was. Now that we have completely declined, it is even more impossible for us to find the truth about the end of the world.
Everyone tells me that it is already a blessing for civilization to be able to hide in the cradle and exit the earth's stage in a relatively decent manner, and we should not ask for more.
but……
Call me ignorant or arrogant, even if our civilization has reached its end, there must always be someone who stands up and tries to save us from the ignorant and arrogant..."
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