Blood

There were no factories in the wasteland, and the sky was rarely covered with gloomy haze. Ivy wiped the bronze shoulder straps on her uniform very cleanly, just like a soldier cherishing a medal he had won.

And this is just the lowest grade shoulder strap.

Lorraine looked at Ivy with a sincere face.

The sunlight shone on her bright eyes, revealing everything clearly.

The expedition does not discriminate on the basis of gender or against sexual minorities, but some transgender people, people whose self-identified gender is different from their biological gender, and people with non-mainstream sexual orientations will be asked to fill out the form truthfully.

There is a strict process for physical examinations, and all moles and birthmarks on the body - including those on the genitals or eyes - will be specially noted.

Lorraine will no longer think that the "ta" Ivy is talking about is Song Xu.

There was nothing wrong with Song Xu's physical examination results.

Lorraine needed to confirm the "he" she was talking about.

He switched to English: "He?"

Ivy was puzzled and answered affirmatively: "She."

All confusions are solved.

Lorraine was silent.

In order to make it easier for Ivy to understand, their conversation was always in Ivy's native language.

Obviously, a broad and profound culture will always cause some harmless misunderstandings.

Two slow breaths calmed him down, and he quickly pieced together another story from her words - the "trouble" she had caused.

Ivy and the girl she wanted to live with had done something wrong.

The extent of this wrongdoing would not be minor, at least not minor enough to cause her to protest against being "transferred".

Lorraine said calmly: "Let's skip the topic of pregnancy for now - how can I be sure of the truth of your words?"

His topic was too wide-ranging and Ivy's rhythm was completely disrupted by him.

Suddenly, he said that she and Nana might get "pregnant" if they shared a dormitory, which shocked her and made her panic to explain. Now he suddenly went back to the original point of the question. Ivy didn't understand what this serious teacher meant at all, so she was forced to join his rhythm and answered: "I swear on my honor."

Lorraine remained calm: "Are you sure you won't do the same thing again?"

Ivy was embarrassed: "...I don't have such excellent hacking skills."

"Oh," Lorraine said flatly, "hacking technology."

Ivy couldn't figure out what he was thinking.

He was a different type of man from the ones Ivy was familiar with, and didn't seem to have those sexual emotions.

Ivy explained seriously: "And the system used in the training camp is indeed a bit old."

Lorraine nodded: "Invade the training camp's system."

Ivy: “…”

Lorraine looked down at her and said, "Say it all together."

Ivy: “…Teacher.”

"If you don't want to, forget it," Lorraine said, "I can tell you about it——"

"Teacher," Ivy surrendered. She hesitated for a long time, gritted her teeth, and repeated with shame, "I shouldn't have been curious about the training camp's system and violated the rules by peeking at the data on it."

"Please be more specific," Lorraine said. "Why don't you mention Nana's hacking into the system?"

Ivy pursed her lips, and everything from her hair to her straight legs remained silent.

She doesn't "sell out" and only admits her mistakes.

Lorraine suddenly said, "Forget it."

Ivy just breathed a sigh of relief when he asked, "Tell me, why are you curious about data generation?"

Ivy stammered: "…I'm sorry, I thought you used a fake name, teacher."

"A fake name?"

Ivy: “Yeah.”

A simple "hmm" left Lorraine speechless.

Ivy said, "Teacher?"

"Wait a moment," Lorraine said, "I'm thinking."

Ivy: “Hmm?”

She held her breath and carefully noticed that the other person was looking at her intently.

It's an emotion that cannot be described in words: incredible, astonished, shocked - very complicated.

"Ivy," Lorraine called her name in a very formal tone, "your admissions file says you're married, right?"

"Yes, sir," Ivy asked nervously, "Will this affect my job? I can leave."

Lorraine was silent again.

"Don't worry about me being busy with the family," Ivy said, worrying about affecting her job transfer. "It was... uh... my parents who decided to get married. I won't put my energy into this marriage."

Lorraine said: "Unexpected, but reasonable."

"Yes, yes," Ivy nodded desperately, "You are so considerate."

"So you don't have to consider your partner's opinion?" Lorraine asked. "About marriage - have you reached an agreement?"

"Well...sort of," Ivy was uneasy. Lorraine suddenly asked about her personal affairs. Generally speaking, when a boss suddenly asks about a subordinate's family, it's basically either a promotion or a layoff - Ivy hoped it would be the former, and it would be best if she could be transferred to the front line, "and I am me, and he is him."

Ivy said firmly: "Marriage will not affect me. You can treat me as a single, unattached warrior. You don't need to consider my family. As long as you can let me go to the front line, I can write a letter and send a divorce application now."

Lorraine said, “No.”

She stood straight, with her head held high and her chest puffed out, with the best posture among this class of students.

"Yesterday, I explained your specific situation to the principal, including your talent and courage," Lorraine said, "and he agreed to make an exception and allow you to return to the training program for frontline warriors."

Ivy was surprised and delighted: "Thank you, teacher!!!"

"Don't thank me yet," Lorraine said. "I haven't said 'but' yet."

Ivy was nervous again.

"But," he said, "I can't find another teacher to take over my duties in a short time. I have to continue teaching you a few classes. To be fair, there will be another teacher who will be responsible for grading you. The same goes for the final exam. In addition to me, there will be three other teachers who will grade you together. After removing the highest and lowest scores, take the average."

Ivy didn't understand: "Um... why? What does this have to do with me?"

"Yes," Lorraine lowered his eyes, "you will understand later."

...later?

Ivy couldn't figure it out, so she just put it out of her mind and stopped thinking about it.

She only knew that she could be a frontline fighter again!

Ivy wanted to share this great news with Yu Mo first, but halfway through writing the text message, she realized that the other party was also currently studying -

She silently deleted the edited text again.

The last time I met Yu Mo was at a wedding.

He did not chat with Ivy privately, but just congratulated her with a smile.

After not seeing him for such a long time, Ivy only heard from others that he is currently concentrating on the research of bionic prosthetics and organ regeneration - if there can be a major breakthrough in the research in this field, then humans with limb disabilities will no longer be confined to incomplete flesh and blood.

Ivy believed he could do it.

In her heart, there is nothing in the world that Yu Mo cannot accomplish.

Yu Mo seems to be born with the responsibility to save humanity. Unlike Hector who uses war to save humanity and seize living space for humanity, Yu Mo saves lives by healing the dying and the wounded.

Staring at the blank wall for a moment, Ivy suddenly remembered the genetic matching results between her and Yu Mo.

zero.

From any angle, neither party is attracted to the other.

No wonder, Ivy took the initiative to pursue Yu Mo for a long time, and he finally accepted her after rejecting her many times...and it was Yu Mo who proposed the breakup later.

He said gently that the two of them were not suitable to be a couple.

Maybe it's really inappropriate.

Ivy suddenly felt a bit strange this afternoon. She was in a daze for a while, and then received a new round of mate selection surveys. This new way of choosing a mate based on genes and filling out forms did not encounter as much resistance this year as it did last year.

Each person uploads their detailed information and blood and hair samples to the database and fills in their own criteria for choosing a partner.

Big data will prioritize those who meet their mate selection criteria, and further determine the degree of compatibility through genes. Among the vast sea of ​​people, only two people who meet each other's requirements and have a certain degree of matching will be locked and their contact information will be pushed to each other.

Big data pushes things you want to buy right in front of you, and surrounds you with news, hot topics, discussions, and communities that you may be interested in. Capitalists want to fill everything that the human eye can see with advertisements. People no longer care about sincere love. On the one hand, they hope to find a soul mate, but on the other hand, they refuse to understand another person's soul...

Can the genetic match detected by data be called eternal love?

Ivy didn't understand.

Fortunately, this emotion did not bother her for too long. After a short rest, she began her routine patrols and searches in full energy.

Because there were reserve trainees in the team, the expedition didn't last long and didn't go deep into the hinterland. What was even more surprising was that they didn't encounter many AI ambushes along the way, and the bomb disposal and server removal were very smooth - and Ivy successfully organized the half space conversion.

After returning to the training base safely, the group was asked to go to the base hospital for a routine physical examination.

Artificial intelligence has mastered some of the technology for making bionic people. There have been tragic precedents in history. A member of an expedition team was captured by artificial intelligence in a wasteland. The latter used bionic technology to make a "human" with exactly the same appearance and personality, and secretly placed him in a safe zone.

It was not until a later physical examination that the other party failed the genetic test and the truth was completely exposed.

But the other party has already transferred a lot of information to artificial intelligence.

Since that incident, everyone who returns to the safe zone from the wasteland needs to undergo blood tests and physical examinations to confirm that they are still the original "person".

When the blood sample was drawn, Ivy stood behind Lorraine.

Today's blood drawing and testing technology has made a qualitative leap compared to a hundred years ago. Each sample only requires a small amount of blood from the fingertips, but military controls are stricter and the amount of blood drawn will be correspondingly larger.

Ivy counted and found that she had had four tubes of blood drawn in the past three months.

She had a bitter face.

Lorraine, who had just finished drawing blood, had already put on gloves.

He stood up, gave her his seat, and asked her, "Are you afraid of having your blood drawn?"

"Ah, no," Ivy took off her coat. Her blood vessels were thin, so it was inconvenient to draw blood from her fingertips. She habitually drew blood from her arm. She explained, "Because recently--"

"Because she is on her menstrual period recently, too much blood drawing will cause her to feel slightly dizzy and vomit," the masked military doctor interrupted Ivy and asked gently, "Is that so, Xiaobao?"

Lorraine's eyes fell on the military doctor who was in charge of drawing blood.

The other person was a newcomer, with long, silver-white hair and skin as white as snow. You could even see a faint purple vein on his forehead.

Under the same silver-white eyelashes were light green eyes, a light taffy color, staring intently at Ivy: "Long time no see."

It was the first time Lorraine saw Ivy so happy. She looked like she couldn't wait to hug her: "Yu Mo!"