"Yeah, it's only been a hundred years, and you've already thrown away a lot of old bones." Lin Ke sighed, even though he didn't need to breathe. "But those things are fresh to me, I will pick them up again."
The two passed through several gates and turned a few corners. They arrived at a secret room, where hidden lights gently illuminated the walls. The mechanical dog had disappeared, and it seemed it wouldn't follow. Li Wenjia relaxed a little.
He looked around curiously. There were many strange things placed here, some were crudely made metal castings, while others were exquisite works of art. Facing the door was a hanging painting that looked quite old.
The painting depicts an elderly man with graying hair, a high hairline, a few wrinkles on his forehead, and age spots dotted his cheeks. In short, if you ignore his eyes, he looks like an ordinary person. He is a wise man, and between his brows, he seems to be looking at someone, or perhaps gazing into the distance.
"Who is he?" Li Wenjia asked.
"It's normal for you young people not to know him," Lin Ke replied. "You don't need to know who he is. Of course, it's also possible that you just forgot. The elevator is here, are you ready?"
"What else do I need to prepare for the elevator?"
Before Li Wenjia could finish his words, he felt a sense of weightlessness—the entire room began to move. He quickly grabbed the cabinet next to him. Fortunately, the cabinet was welded to the wall, so he didn't fall down with the debris.
The feeling of weightlessness came and went quickly. He searched the room for Lin Ke and found that it was also safe and sound. It was currently holding an oval-shaped model with a line of small words written on the model's stand.
"Are you okay? What is that?" Li Wenjia asked.
"You are such a curious baby." Lin Ke laughed softly, "It's Miss Qiu. He is its father."
Li Wenjia touched his chin, feeling a little embarrassed, and asked again: "What about you? Who gave birth to you? What does he do?"
Lin Ke didn't answer the question, but simply shifted the focus: "We're here."
The door to the secret room opened again, revealing a dark corridor outside.
Lin Ke took the lead and stepped out. Her beautiful metal arches tapped against the unknown material of the floor, making a sound like knocking on plastic. The corridor where Lin Ke was standing lit up and turned into a bright white arched passage.
Voice-controlled lights are installed in the corridor, which is a very humane lighting design.
Li Wenjia quickly followed, and then this glowing area was pushed by the darkness and went deeper.
"Where are we going?"
"Don't you want to see them? They're sleeping there, waiting to welcome the new world!"
They reached the end, and the dark hall gradually became brighter, and Li Wenjia's eyes also adjusted to the light.
This was a vast hemispherical space, dotted with metal walkways and bridges. Surrounded by these bridges were countless white prisms. These hexagonal prisms were arranged like a honeycomb, each bearing a black number, a square QR code, and a hidden, concave drawer handle.
The entire space was empty, except for a number of robots maintaining the equipment. These machines weren't very large, typically about the size of a suitcase, and looked similar to the ones Li Wenjia had seen in the factory. However, they all had a white base and a rounded exterior.
Li Wenjia quickly walked to the nearest beehive and pulled open one of the half-person-high drawers with force.
The machine's sensors reacted instantly, and some information was holographically projected onto the drawer. Through the transparent glass, Li Wenjia saw a young man lying quietly inside. His chest was still rising and falling, but it was nearly ten times slower than normal breathing.
"These are all hibernation pods. The automated factory has already begun mass production. However, the technology isn't mature yet, so using it is a helpless move." A middle-aged man's voice came from the distance. He was leaning on an armrest, his eyes somewhat hollow. "At the beginning, there were 1.04 million people, and now there are only 960,000 left.
Hibernation seems to be a painful experience for humans. We estimate that 20% of the population will be trapped in eternal sleep. This is not forced; they are all voluntary. They are desperate for their current situation, so they buy this one-way ticket to the future.
My children will take good care of them, but I can't hold on any longer. 99% of the chromosomes in my body have been severed by high-energy radiation. I don't want to die in pain... If one day, you can hear... Please don't forget my name.
'Bang.'"
Li Wenjia stared at the young face for a while, then pushed the handle and restored the drawer to its original state.
"How long have they been dormant?" he asked.
"I don't know." Lin Ke replied, "I'm not his child. I just inherited a part of them."
"So where are they now? I'll go ask..."
"They are here, and I have always protected them. They will not answer you. To me, they are like bees in a field of flowers, without wisdom and without heart."
"Okay, okay." Li Wenjia also found a place to squat down. "How many of them are left?"
"Let me see... Oh, it's down another 4% from last week, now it's 820,000. The curve has bottomed out, and there won't be much change in the future."
"What do you want to do now?"
"There are so many things I want to do. Why don't you tell me what you want to do?"
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