Argument

"It is the freedom of the base trainees to choose which team to join. Why didn't you choose Iris? You should reflect on yourself instead of being foolish and entangled."

"I have read Iris's work report last month. It was very touching. I could feel your lifelessness even through the screen."

"You and Rong Qi's self-reflection should not be sent to my mailbox, but to the Atlas Mountains; the moisture in this reflection report can turn the entire Sahara Desert into the Suez Swamp."

"Just because you have the right to interview someone makes you so proud, I can hardly imagine how terrifying the internal operations of Iris are normally."

"...Alice?"

When Song Feng was distracted by Lorraine's scolding, he finally looked at Alice beside him.

Lorraine frowned slightly at the face that looked almost identical to Ivy's.

Ivy was in a very low mood.

Two girls who look like twins appeared here, and it was obvious that there was something wrong with them.

The clones have identical DNA, which means that genetically, she—

"An immigrant from the Fifth District?" Lorraine looked at her. "She lived with her uncle who was in the food business. She attended a private school that was known for training business students. After graduation, she did not work in a related field, but chose to apply for training in the expedition team. She passed the assessment for the Fifth District's expedition team, but did not choose any expedition team—"

"Because I knew my uncle was going to immigrate at that time," Alice said with her eyes curved like crescents, "so——"

"Alice," Lorraine said, "are you sure you want to interrupt the commander?"

Alice was stunned.

She apologized: "I'm sorry, please continue."

"No need to ask any more questions," Lorraine concluded, "It seems that the assessment for the expedition team trainees in District 5 is also very relaxed."

He stopped there and did not continue to blame Alice. The last sentence was already sarcastic enough. Lorraine turned around, his eyes sharp, and turned his spearhead to Song Feng again: "The fact is that the water content is only the least flaw in your self-review. The internal 'genetic discrimination' has not been reduced at all, and the member assessment is a mess. From the preliminary investigation, the biggest problem Iris is facing now happens to be the current team leader."

For the first time, Ivy felt that Lorraine's sharp tongue sounded so pleasant.

I even thought he was a little restrained and could be even more vicious.

At this point, Song Feng could only lower his head slightly. He originally wanted to explain 'why you look alike', but Lorraine didn't seem to care about it - except for Alice, no one present seemed to have any doubts. No, Ivy seemed to want to know, but she definitely didn't want to listen to him.

Lorraine scanned them, paused, and finally told Ivy: "Go to the interview. There is nothing else for you to do here."

Ivy strode to Green's interview site.

Unexpectedly, it went smoothly. The Green team now has only five people. In addition to Ivy, they also recruited a depressed boy who sat silently in the corner with his head down, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

It wasn't until the interview that Ivy noticed his dark and gloomy appearance.

Green welcomed Ivy and the newcomer with great enthusiasm, but Ivy was not in the mood to attend the dinner invitation in the evening. She hurriedly found an excuse to leave, and saw Alice again on the green grass filled with sunshine.

She was obviously very popular and was surrounded by many people. She was happily holding up a T-shirt with the Iris team logo (iris) printed on it and putting it on herself. The afternoon sunlight gradually shifted, and she pulled her beautifully curled hair out from her collar. There was a hint of honey on the ends of her hair.

Ivy felt someone was looking at her, turned around, and saw Song Feng wrapped like a mummy.

He stood abruptly on the grass like a fire hydrant. Their eyes met, and Ivy turned away, taking a few quick steps to look for Lorraine's aircraft.

He had a meeting at the base in the afternoon and sent a message in advance saying that he would go home with her.

Even though he was dozens of meters away, Song Feng could still smell the scent of coconut on Ivy, fresh, transparent, the purest and most authentic - the most original coconut, as if it had just been taken from the tree and the shell had just been opened.

Coconut, which can cause severe allergies if touched.

Songfeng has never eaten any processed products related to coconut.

The mild coconut milk bounced in front of him, and Alice waved her hand in front of him: "Deputy Captain?"

Song Feng was startled for a moment, and when he looked up again, Alice had already run away with a smile.

The smell of coconut milk spread, and he suddenly realized something. He looked down and saw his arm was tightly wrapped in a bandage. He suddenly remembered the fresh coconut he had just opened.

He turned and walked towards the recruitment direction.

The breeze blew through the dense shade of the trees, and large clouds condensed in the blue sky, slowly forming a precursor to heavy rain. As night fell, in the bright and clean room, suppressed breathing and breathing sounds like an angry beast.

The T-shirt with Iris printed on it had long been thrown on the ground. The dark-skinned and blond Yu Bai lowered his head and silently picked up the scattered clothes and threw them to the housekeeping robot. After everything was cleaned up, he heard Alice's smiling voice in the bedroom: "Uncle is old, is it not enough after just three times?"

Yu Bai pushed open the door, ignored the man wearing glasses in the room, bent down, and picked up Alice. The soft and sweet coconut milk fragrance enveloped Yu Bai. Alice happily raised her two legs and wrapped them around him, also wrapping him. She sighed with satisfaction, hugged Yu Bai's neck tightly, pulled the collar on his neck, and called his name: "It's great, Yu Bai, you are great, fortunately I still have you."

She buried her face in his neck and took a deep breath. Yu Bai also held her when he walked, and his other hand was still diligently doing housework. Alice was dissatisfied and pulled his ears hard, looking at him with her beautiful big eyes: "Yu Bai."

Yu Bai said, "I'm here."

"So this is what it's like to have your brain detached from the world. I regret agreeing to let you do it. The jealous you in the past is more fun," Alice said disappointedly. She enjoyed it while frowning and sighing, "Did she also have this surgery? But I can't tell at all... It's so weird."

Yu Bai said: "He told us to be careful."

"I know," Alice punched his back hard, "Don't say such spoiling words at this time, it's too deep, stupid dog, do you want to kill me?"

Even as she was scolding him, she still raised her hand, touched Yu Bai's cheek, and looked into his eyes seriously.

Alice was disappointed to find that Yu Bai's eyes no longer had the previous luster, and were lifeless and motionless; if they were still in the dark area, when Alice went to sleep with her uncle, Yu Bai would have beaten him up in anger.

There is no other way but to do it; this is the condition of the exchange.

When Alice thought of the smile of the silver-haired, green-eyed man, she couldn't help but shudder.

But Ivy's eyes didn't look like that.

"We've had the same surgery before..." Alice murmured, her fingertips gently stroking Yu Bai's eyelids, regretfully, "...will the relationship ever recover?"

The moon is suspended in the sky. The first zone is the first safe zone established by humans and is also the largest gathering place.

Ivy likes the moon in District 1.

It looks no different from the image left behind a hundred years ago, hanging high in the sky, bright, silent and elegant.

But nowadays, few people write articles praising the moon.

The moon exists every moment in the ornate but emotionless articles of artificial intelligence.

"Look at the moon? Oh my god, Ivy, it seems you have really changed," Lily exclaimed, "The last time you mentioned the moon to me, you asked me if it would be too tacky to confess your love to Yu Mo by using the moon!"

Ivy sat on the balcony, looking at the colorful aircraft in the sky in the distance.

"How have you been lately?"

"To be honest, it's not very good. I feel like a robot with self-awareness after graduation," Lily said. "Oh, I'm not as good as a robot. After all, they can restore their energy by basking in the sun, while I can only grab the damn time and sleep for seven hours."

"Social research on human cloning—"

"Oh," Lily said, "I don't write novels anymore. I don't have the time or energy. Do you want the historical data about cloning? I can send it to you."

According to statistics, in this world, 100,000 new completed literary books are produced every second, all of which are signed by artificial intelligence, and can even be customized according to your own preferences in just one minute;

After working for a day in the company, you return home on a flying vehicle broadcasting commercials, watch a one-minute commercial at the door, use pupil fingerprint recognition to open a free smart door lock, watch a smart robot play commercials, and clean diligently; while eating pre-made nutritious meals delivered by a food delivery robot, you turn on the TV to watch various short plays or movies generated by artificial intelligence, and charge your bionic pet with a few batteries.

This is a typical day for most working people.

After taking a shower, Ivy buried her head in reading the historical data about cloning. Lily once had a dream of becoming a writer. She was determined to write a story about human cloning. She spent several years collecting relevant information and just needed to put pen to paper.

From Dolly the cloned sheep, in which 277 embryos were fused, but only one survived, to the human cloning experiments that were initially conducted in secret...

"Regarding cloning, you can only see the parts that are allowed to be published."

Ivy turned around.

Lorraine stood at the door. He had just finished a video conference - or rather, a debate. His eyes were slightly tired, and his black curly hair had fallen down a little, hiding the emotion in his eyelashes. "If you want to know more, why not ask me?"

Ivy turned around and planned to continue reading the material: "Shouldn't teachers encourage students to find knowledge on their own?"

"Not bad," Lorraine said, "With your intelligence, you can transfer from the expedition team to the army in about five years, and then get promoted in another five or six years... If you are lucky, you may be able to touch the tip of the iceberg when you are seventy years old and close to retirement."

These words forced Ivy to look at Lorraine's face. She knew that such words were often followed by important things.

“I saw the man who was supposed to have died with Alice,” Lorraine said. “He left with Alice — that day, I was sure they were dead.”

He also released man-eating bacteria.

Ivy's face turned pale: "I understand, it's a ghost, it must be their ghost."

"Now is not the time to show your stupidity," Lorraine sighed, "Please use your lovely brain to communicate with me."

Ivy said: "The man-eating bacteria can devour corpses intact. Even if they are living people, they can eat them cleanly. They can't be alive unless--"

"Unless what?"

Ivy was silent for a moment and said, "No, they are already dead. Even if someone solves the man-eating bacteria, they can't appear intact... Are they new clones?"

"Even if they are clones, people who grow up in different environments will have different personalities and hobbies - small habits that affect their appearance, and some small movements. People's memories will not change, and their subconscious cannot be changed," Lorraine said simply, "Based on observation, I have basically confirmed that they are the two in the dark area."

Ivy said: "But the man-eating bacteria..."

The topic returns to the man-eating bacteria.

She thought: "It's very dangerous to save them from the man-eating bacteria. I've read a popular science news before, which said that a man-eating bacteria culture dish leaked. A man wanted to save his colleague in the same laboratory, but the man-eating bacteria also climbed onto his arm. In the end, he cut off his arm to avoid being eaten and save his life-"

Ivy suddenly stopped.

She opened her mouth slightly and thought of something.

...That day, Yu Mo disappeared for a long time.

When we were walking back together, his fingers were wrapped in thick bandages, saying that he had accidentally scratched them.

Lorraine looked at her quietly.

"It can't be him," Ivy said. "You're trying to convict him by working backwards from the results."

"I didn't say anything," Lorraine said calmly. "Who did you think of? Which him?"

Ivy knew he was pretending - Lorraine was so cunning!!! He deliberately guided her, knowing what she would think -

She stood up and walked out. Lorraine raised her hand to stop her: "Ivy, calm down."

"Don't talk to me like this all the time. Don't use your calmness to set off my 'hot temper'," Ivy took a deep breath and said quickly, "I only believe in solid evidence."

"What counts as evidence?" Lorraine said, "Yu Mo didn't come to your house yesterday. Can I regard his 'break of promise' as a guilty conscience? Maybe he just went to get his finger grafted yesterday."

Ivy was silent.

"Our marriage is for political purposes," Lorraine said slowly, "so I reminded you that during the marriage, you'd better be with——"

Marriage for political purposes.

This was the second time in two days that Ivy heard this from him.

She knows, she understands, she comprehends.

She knows everything.

This short marriage was for his political purposes. He was very rational and responsible.

It's just that she occasionally misreads this responsibility.

"Keep your distance from other men, I know, Teacher Lorraine," Ivy said stiffly, changing to a polite address, "You don't have to remind me all the time, my memory is still pretty good."

"Don't be so childish," Lorraine said seriously, "I want to talk to you."

Ivy didn't like the tone of his words.

"Don't get into a childish temper."

What right does she have to stir up a child's temper?

When Ivy was still a child, she had already deeply understood from school that refugees, poor children, and children with inferior genes had no right to lose their temper.

Losing your temper won't help, it will only make things worse.

She knew it a long time ago.

Lorraine said: "I hope you can keep your head above water—"

"Don't I look rational enough now?" Ivy looked at him directly. "I think I am very rational - Teacher Lorraine. I should have been a farmer happily in the 23rd District. I have my own small, poor land, but the damn managers built chemical plants there and manufacturing plants that can't pass the environmental protection standards of the first district. Our land can't grow food, prices are soaring, more and more people are suffering from genetic mutations, and wars between humans and artificial intelligence are coming one after another. My parents had to risk crossing the wasteland - they just wanted me and their children to survive."

All the pent-up anger came out at this moment. Lorraine's words tonight were the trigger. Ivy asked in rapid succession, "But that damn genetic test prevented me from choosing the major I wanted to choose, from attending the university I wanted to attend, and even from choosing the career I wanted to pursue. Now you're telling me that I'm a clone, and that I'm a failure in the legal sense, and that I shouldn't exist, and that I can be disposed of or wiped out at any time. What kind of nonsense is this?"

Her chest was heaving with intense emotions. Ivy looked directly at Lorraine and said, "Now, after all that I've been through, I can still stand here. Doesn't that prove that I'm rational enough? Teacher Lorraine, the fact that I'm not running around naked, crying, laughing, singing, dancing, or defecating anywhere in your room shows that I'm mentally stable."

Lorraine said politely, “If you like these activities, you can do them anytime—forget the last one.”

Ivy felt her angry punch hit Lorraine's soft breasts hard.

The other person's next move was to put the nipple into her mouth in an attempt to soothe her.

Lorraine leaned over and carefully observed her face and her expression: "This is the first time I see you so angry."

"Congratulations," Ivy said, "you'll see it a second time soon."

"Um?"

"Well!" Ivy pushed Lorraine hard, getting even angrier. "Don't look at me as a test subject. I'm a living person, not your research object—"

For Lorraine, her strength was not that great.

He did not try to provoke her anger and was pushed out of the room.

The moment the door closed, Lorraine saw the light in Ivy's eyes.

She seemed to be crying.