The word "school" was so unfamiliar to Jiang Ling. Even without counting the time she'd been hibernating, she hadn't heard it mentioned by anyone else in at least two hundred and twenty years. This gave her a strange sense of anticipation. She leaned against a stone tablet, her eyes unfocused as she gazed toward People's Park. A smile, reminiscent of a fond childhood memory, crossed her face.
At that time, he was innocent, cute and carefree. Every time after school, he would run wild outside the house with his classmates, like a local dog chasing butterflies.
The memory only happened in a moment. Jiang Ling blinked her eyes, allowing the fluid secreted by the tear glands to moisten the cornea, and a heartwarming reflection immediately appeared in her pupils.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, let's go."
"Where are you going?"
"Let's go to the park. It seems there's no greenery anywhere else. I guess modern people like you don't have the chance to get close to nature, right?"
"That's not the case. The academy organizes an outing every year. I've seen it twenty-three times." Yu Nuanxin quickly caught up with Jiang Ling and held her left arm as she was about to go down the stairs.
"Twenty-three." Jiang Ling muttered to herself, then turned her head imperceptibly to glance at Yu Nuanxin's profile. "Come to think of it, I don't even know how old you are this year!"
"Ah? Oh yes, you can't see it." Yu Nuanxin was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted, "Now we usually talk about age according to physiological age, which means we have to deduct the meaningless time of hibernation, so I am 35 years old this year, still a child." She said frankly.
"Have you ever hibernated?"
"Well, most adults nowadays have hibernated at some point. As for me, I've been hibernating for about sixty years, on and off!" She paused, then continued, "I'm probably the one in my family who hibernates the shortest. My grandfather told me that my great-grandmother hibernated for thousands of years, just to wait for her father to wake up."
"And what happened next?"
"Of course it didn't succeed later, otherwise it wouldn't have been passed on to my generation." Yu Nuanxin shrugged.
"Why do you usually hibernate?" Jiang Ling was indeed a little curious.
"Usually, they're waiting for technological development. Some also want to see the legendary new world, or elope with their loved ones—though they're a minority after all, as the Hibernation Management Agency strictly censors them."
“Is there no one who escapes reality?”
"I've heard of it, but if we analyze it rationally, we'll find that this is almost impossible! People who escape from reality will become addicted to cyberspace, where they have everything they want, which may not be available in the future. There are too many ways out these days, and I can't think of anything else that can cause a mental breakdown." Yu Nuanxin whispered.
Jiang Ling nodded and didn't ask any more questions. In just a short while, the two of them had walked to the front of the "light blue barrier" they had seen before.
A thin mist drifted behind the barrier, evidently the result of plant transpiration. Jiang Ling wasn't quite sure how this moisture was retained within the building without escaping. Her time typically required large and noisy circulation systems, far less scenic than the scenery here.
Yu Nuanxin did not stop. She took Jiang Ling's hand and stepped into the barrier first, and then passed through without any hindrance.
Jiang Ling followed the trend and didn't let the child down. The barrier seemed to be non-existent, but it did block some matter, which made her guess that it was something like an energy shield.
Through the mist, Jiang Ling saw some familiar landscape plants, most of which were reddish-purple cedars, with vines with small white flowers wrapped around them, and some light green shrubs dotted around. She just didn't know where they were transplanted from.
There were no pedestrians at the entrance and exit of the park. The two continued along the winding path and finally heard some conversation sounds.
Several well-dressed people stood in a row beneath an old tree, their eyes sparkling as they spoke with elegant, polite, yet emotionless smiles. Two older men led a group of children on the lawn, singing nursery rhymes, reminiscent of spring outings of the past. A maverick sat on a bench, cradling a strange-looking string instrument and playing a lively, unidentified tune.
Everything seems relaxed and happy.
The two of them randomly found a relatively secluded place and sat down, listening to the white noise around them and enjoying the rare tranquility.
Jiang Ling tilted her head back and squinted for a moment, then suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she grabbed Yu Nuanxin's hand and pulled it into her arms. "Xiao Yu, can you tell me more about the assistance contract?"
"This, this has a lot to offer!" Yu Nuanxin blushed, clearly not expecting Jiang Ling's behavior—after all, she had seemed quite calm at first. "What kind of...content do you want to hear?"
"About history." Jiang Ling said, stroking Yu Nuanxin's hand.
"So that's how it is!" Yu Nuanxin breathed a sigh of relief. This happened to be her strong point. "The assistance contract can be traced back to the year 650 of the Star Calendar, when the third group of messengers revived. Many historical documents show that the mothership society at that time had begun to undergo qualitative changes. Hibernators generally found it difficult to adapt to the drastic social and cultural changes, and the adaptation period required was getting longer and longer, which greatly affected their work and life... The contract was not originally what it is now. Ten thousand years is enough time for it to change beyond recognition. It was probably just a handwritten piece of paper at the beginning. I mean, its original manuscript was not properly preserved. Only later did it have legal definitions and examples."
"Hmm, that's consistent with the natural evolution of civilization." Jiang Ling nodded. "Then what does it mean for hibernators to enter and exit the country?"
"This is because the mothership government is still using the Community Customs' entry and exit laws," Yu Nuanxin answered succinctly. "People in long-term hibernation are effectively disappearing from current society, much like leaving the country to join other immigrant planets. Therefore, when entering long-term hibernation, they must sign a contract voluntarily giving up their assets and household registration. Upon resuscitation, they must re-establish their household registration."
"What about short-term hibernation?"
"You can use the Treasury bond purchase and repurchase method. Short-term hibernation is equivalent to mortgaging your assets to a local location after evaluation. In our case, it's usually the Endless Galaxy. When it recovers, you can get back your original assets and the added income. Of course, there's a certain chance that the income will be negative."
"So, when a short-term hibernator wakes up, he might find himself a pauper or even a debtor?"
"In theory, yes," Yu Nuanxin replied with a smile. "Of course, it's basically impossible on a mothership. Because if it becomes a negative number, there's a high probability that there's a major problem with the spacecraft itself. At that time, we'll have to consider the issue of survival."
Jiang Ling muttered to herself, "That's why it's so big... A big ship can take more risks."
"Okay, let's go to the commercial district and take a look!" Yu Nuanxin interrupted Jiang Ling's spell. "I just asked the seniors, and they said that the memory chip doesn't have to be inserted into the brain. You can find a conversion interface in the commercial district, and then you can use an external TCM to read it!"
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