Interspersed with snippets about the future (Part 1)
The future, 2045.
"Doumi~ Doumi~ Don't let me catch you, okay? I'm telling you, if you play hide-and-seek with me for another 20 minutes, you really won't get dinner tonight..."
Mo Yang wandered around the entire office building as if no one else existed.
"Oh ho, teasing the dog again." Academician Fang strolled past Mo Yang with small, square steps, carrying a freshly brewed Baihao Yinzhen tea in his hand.
The slender leaves, submerged in boiling water, released a faint, slightly astringent taste. Floating in the air, they raged wildly in front of Mo Yang's nose as Academician Fang passed by.
Mo Yang sneezed loudly, and in the process of raising his hand, he almost overturned the covered teacup in Academician Fang's hand behind him.
"Hand, hand, hand..." The redness on Mo Yang's face, which had been scalded, instantly spread to his neck. He pulled his hand back and rubbed it for a while.
"It's not red or broken... This commotion almost overturned my good tea. This was sent by a relative from another district; you can't get your hands on this, you know."
Fang Wendian glanced at him sideways, seemingly oblivious to whether he had seen Mo Yang, and quickened his pace slightly.
Mo Yang rolled his eyes in annoyance, muttered "bad luck" to himself, ignored him, and continued looking for his little bean.
I searched the entire office building, even prying open the cubicles, storage rooms, and locked restroom doors, but I couldn't find a trace of Xiaodoumi.
Mo Yang wondered to himself, where could such a small dog possibly run off to? Meanwhile, his mind was racing, his phone screen displaying the menu for a Mexican chicken burrito delivery service. Just then, the distant howling of the pursuing dog rang out in response.
“Mo Yang…get your dog away…ah…ah…don’t follow me…I’m telling you, don’t…ah…help me…”
Mo Yang quickly closed the interface, not even having time to select the 3,000 yuan exclusive coupon that popped up in front of him, and ran to the source of the sound.
Before Mo Yang could even get his footing, a large creature darted to him and clung to him like a pendant.
The entire movement was fluid and seamless, without the slightest flaw, and so fast that Mo Yang didn't even have time to dodge.
Allowing this ancestor to possess him was, in Mo Yang's opinion, the most disastrous thing he had done in the past three years.
As Mo Yang brushed the dust off his clothes, he muttered, "Bad luck, bad luck, so bad luck."
Despite saying this, she still allowed the person to cling to her back, as if they were glued together with iron.
"Come here, little bean." Mo Yang picked up his beloved pet and gently patted its head.
The meter-long barley lay on Mo Yang's body, obediently letting him pet it, with a hint of triumphant joy on its face.
Fan Siwen, who was behind him, had already quickly disappeared to another place, baring his teeth at Doumi's puppy-like face from afar.
"Mo Yang, let me tell you, he's going to scare me to death sooner or later."
"Not to the point of needing to be admitted to the ICU." He spoke calmly and slowly, his hands still moving.
Fan Siwen stood up and brushed the dog hair off her body. "Pah, pah, pah, Mo Yang, we're going to settle this today. It's either me or it, it's either me or it."
"What are you spitting about?" Mo Yang turned his head and squinted at him.
"Pah, dog hair," he said, picking up a few strands and waving them in front of Mo Yang as if to show off. "Look, there are so many."
Mo Yang ignored him, turned around and walked forward with Dou Mi.
Fan Siwen muttered irritably behind him, his mouth moving, but no sound could be heard.
Seeing a person emerge from the end of the corridor about five meters away, Fan Siwen immediately put on a smiling face, "President Lin."
“I could hear you arguing from far away. What do you think this office is? If you want to argue, go home and close the door.”
"Yes, yes, Mr. Lin is right. I'll take him home right away." Fan Siwen, displaying his sycophantic manner, grabbed Mo Yang and headed towards the company gate.
"What are you doing... why are you pulling me!" Mo Yang's reluctance was written all over his face.
"Such a good opportunity, why not hurry up and make a run for it? What are we waiting for!" Fan Siwen's excitement was palpable.
"But I just ordered takeout." Mo Yang's calves were already being pulled tightly by Fan Siwen.
"It's not like we'll miss out on this meal."
“Oh no, I used my last 2,000 yuan food delivery coupon.”
As the sound faded into the distance, Chief Engineer Lin Lin realized something was wrong. "Where are you two going? Don't let me down at this crucial moment..."
As the sound drifted away, the two figures flashed out at the end of the corridor and disappeared from sight.
In front of the company building, two people and a dog were panting heavily, staring at each other.
Mo Yang watched helplessly as his delivery plane drifted past the window of the 150th-floor office building in the distance and then disappeared.
At this moment, my emotions plummeted.
"Tell me, what's the next step?"
Mo Yang was completely baffled. What kind of plan could he possibly have? His biggest plan for the day was about to be implemented smoothly, but the Mexican chicken roll missed him by just one step. What other plan could he possibly have?
“I said, you’ve been working non-stop for a week now, and you finally have a break. You need to relax properly. Since you don’t have one, I do. Come with me.”
Mo Yang hugged Dou Mi tightly with a suspicious look on his face. Dou Mi seemed to know something and cried out twice.
"Let's leave this dog at our place first."
"I knew it..." Before Mo Yang could finish speaking, he was already being dragged to the nearest pet boarding center next to the company.
The robot in front of me smoothly completed the storage process and handed me a storage slip.
Before Mo Yang could even fold it up and put it in his pocket, the man couldn't hide his joy and pulled Mo Yang away.
On a long street, far away, two small figures walked along the neon-lit path. On a holographic screen, a figure watched a pair of arm-in-arm passersby, raised an eyebrow, crossed arms, and whistled. The two didn't turn around; it seemed there was something even more captivating ahead.
The next day, in the office, Mo Yang and Fan Siwen walked out of the conference room one after the other, yawning. Counting this yawn, the two of them had yawned nearly 50 times.
The meeting ended with both of them yawning repeatedly, and everyone else yawning along with them.
Even the host couldn't help but yawn at the end. He made an excuse, saying, "The weather is gloomy today, and with the rainy season just around the corner, this kind of weather is perfect for sleeping." That was the end of the interview.
This meeting seemed to be very important, but none of the key figures were present in person; they all participated remotely via the cloud.
I reckon the bad weather was the main reason. Fan Siwen felt it was more than just the main reason.
As Fan Siwen stepped out of the conference room, his yawns continued in protest. "If you ask me... it's only because these old guys have influence... otherwise, such an important meeting, with the leaders absent, would have been a complete disaster elsewhere..."
After letting out a big yawn, Mo Yang continued, "We've done most of the research we needed to do, and we've reported most of what we needed to report. What difference does it make whether they come or not? It's just a Nasdaq bell-ringing thing. They're probably tired of ringing that bell by now. Besides, it's been so many years. Researching this crap has wasted twenty years of my youth. Yawn..."
After finishing yawning, she glared at Fan Siwen and said, "It's all your fault. I've been yawning all morning because of you."
Fan Siwen responded cheekily, "Who told you to insist on staying at my place yesterday? I told you to leave but you wouldn't go back, and now you're blaming me."
"That's why I wasn't going back. Look at the time! It's way past Doumi's bedtime. If I had known we'd be playing so late, I would have just taken Doumi home to sleep. There's no need to leave it there. Doumi didn't get any sleep."
After saying that, she gently stroked the little guy's floating body, her eyes overflowing with heartache.
Fan Siwen immediately became unhappy upon hearing this, "What do you mean by 'making do'? Doumida is at least a 7-star hotel. Do you want to see how much was deducted from my bill? Converted to human terms, that's where the president of the country sleeps. You call that making do? Seriously!"
"Even if it's a hundred million a night, that's still a place for mechanical dogs!"
"Your dog is more precious than a robot dog."
...
The two of them argued back and forth, getting into a huge fight.
Seeing that he couldn't win the argument, Fan Siwen simply continued yawning and returned to his seat, opened his computer, and half-heartedly made the final preparations.
The day after tomorrow is a big day for their entire R&D department, a grand culmination of everything they've done since they came of age. The team has been developing the time machine for decades, and the day after tomorrow is the official test flight date that was set six months ago.
The day arrived sooner than expected. We'd talked about anticipation to death, but as the countdown drew to a close, it suddenly felt less urgent than we'd imagined.
The days proceeded as planned, without any unexpected events. It was like the numbers on a phone screen, one by one: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, all already arranged in a pre-defined pattern. You just had to follow it; you didn't even need to think.
If we're talking about nervousness, some people are nervous, but it's definitely not Fan Siwen and Mo Yang.
Jia Mingming, who was trying on clothes nearby, had her calves visibly shaking.
Li Bingqi laughed at him, "Your father is a worldly general, how come he's so cowardly with you? It wasn't you who confidently said you were going."
Jia Mingming retorted, "One thing at a time. You try it and you'll see that all that talk is empty words. You'll be trembling when you come up here."
Li Bingqi wasn't angry. She smiled and looked at Mo Yang, saying, "I'm not going. I won't take him with me even if he goes." Then she turned back to help Jia Mingming fasten the clasp on her back. "If you ask me, don't blame her. Who told you to have a father who's so eager for fame and fortune!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than someone jogged into the command room without knocking. "Jia Mingming, it seems your father has passed away."
Although the voice was soft, the words crashed down on the command center like thunder. Even though there were more than twenty people in the room, they couldn't withstand the muffled sound.
The command room fell silent instantly. Everyone who was preparing stopped what they were doing and watched as Jia Mingming, wearing equipment that wasn't quite fitting properly, ran out quickly and disappeared in an instant.
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