Seven ones
Text_Saury
Photo_Huang Chengxing
Shhh, there are women haunting, attention!
The sea breeze at the Great Barrier Reef Beach in November was so hot that I sat on a canvas beach chair and watched the waves silently.
The dazzling sunlight jumping from the tip of the wave shook my eyes, and the immersive control system faithfully issued two "twitching" commands to the eyelids, and stimulated, I subconsciously pulled down the sunglasses that were pushed to my forehead, adding a layer of protection to my "eyes". Another reason for this action was that I heard the sound of Angel stepping barefoot on the beach, rising and becoming clearer from the background sound of the eternal waves, and she had come behind me after less than two hours of knowing her; I was not used to looking directly into the eyes of strangers (although strictly speaking, it was not a biological "eye"), and sunglasses were the best props to hide my wandering eyes.
"Cold beer, do you want a drink?" Angel's voice is beautiful, but it's hard for me to tell if it's the original or if it's modified by an electronic device.
"Thank you!" I reached for the beer cup she handed to her, the golden liquor and the white foam that was hard to refuse in the scorching sun and the sea breeze.
"Come on! Cheers to the greatest Singles' Day ever! Angel sat down on a beach chair next to me, touched the cup politely with me, and then half-lay down, propped up her flawless right leg, and took a small sip of the beer in the glass, which gave me the illusion of really facing the perfect beauty.
I put a sip of beer cup on the white wood table next to the beach chair, it was the first time in my life that I drank beer, and I was not very used to the taste. "The greatest Singles Day ever?" It's fun. The coldness of the beer allowed my senses from my throat to my lower abdomen to be mobilized one by one, and then slowly faded. Unlike the usual feeling of drinking ice water, I attribute it to the combination of alcohol, the sun, the sea breeze and my present shell.
"Of course, November 11, 2111. 7 out of 1, enough single sticks, right? "Angel's eyes on me are a little confused, probably the effect of alcohol. However, my current appearance should be a bit of a bonus – it is a body modeled after the "Statue of David", and I have no doubt about its appeal to "women".
"Indeed it is. Do you like to be a woman? "I wasn't at all interested in Singles' Day in Angel's mouth, so I diverged from the topic.
"I was a woman." Angel stood up straight, reached out and stroked the golden bangs in front of her forehead, smiled and looked back at me, the ends of her long hair fluttering in the wet sea breeze, and the smoke and flattery style of a smile was enough to confirm her words.
"I am not referring to the universal meaning of the word 'feminine' in today's society, but to ... The word is defined in biology or sociology almost a hundred years ago. ”
"Oh, who cares what happened to women a hundred years ago?" Do you like to watch old movies? Angel reclined back in her beach chair, and her tone suggested that she was not interested in this kind of academic exchange. Yeah, women have been gone for almost a hundred years, and people who are interested in talking about her should not have been so coincidental for me to meet in such a high-end vacation place.
"But you just mentioned Singles' Day, and I thought you'd have a feel for this society where only men are left." Because strictly speaking, Singles' Day is a festival for all mankind on earth. "I was determined to keep the topic I was stirring up, and in this place where I spent four thousand euros an hour, it was so difficult to find someone else to talk about it, so difficult that I gave up any attempt, and in the two hours I came here, the only person I met was Angel.
"Hey! I have to remind you that in the face of a perfect 'woman' like me, it is very impolite for me to mention the biological human woman, a species that has disappeared from the earth for almost a century. Angel cast a glance at her with disgust. I asked myself that even if I was in the "body" she was using, I couldn't imitate the flattery that seemed to come out of her bones.
"I'm sorry, but I solemnly apologize to you for my rudeness." I raised my glass slightly to Angel, but found that the wine in her glass was exhausted, so I had to learn from her in embarrassment and take a small sip of beer. My actions caused Angel to laugh, "You like to talk about 'women', but you don't even drink beer like that." 」 Men have to drink beer in big mouthfuls, that's like words. Don't tell me it's your first beer drink and you're not yet eighteen! ”
Hit by Angel's words, I suddenly stayed for a long time, fortunately I had the foresight to wear sunglasses, and she did not catch the change in eyes, at this time I could only pray that the real shell did not have the function of "blushing". The sympathetic Angel ignored my reaction, stared at the water in front of me, and said softly: "When you come to a place like this, you should enjoy everything here, and don't think about the women of a hundred years ago that even biologists gave up." By the way, what is your purpose in coming here? ”
"I want to come and dive. I heard that the coastal ecology here has recovered very well. ”
"What a coincidence! I'm here for this too. Angel jumped up from her beach chair, pulled me up and ran towards the service area.
"Aren't we going straight to the sea?" I was led by her all the way up the fluffy sand.
"Fool! This entertaining body allows you to play with the water at the beach. If you're really diving, you have to add some other equipment, otherwise your real body will be damaged by sensor data overflow. In addition, I do not intend to compensate this sky-high imitation shell. Angel's body flaunted a rhythm of pleasure, and at her feet, the white grains of sand were kicked high.
Except for the absence of oxygen cylinders, the "diving equipment" configured by the simulated body is basically indistinguishable from that used by the flesh and blood body. When the robot in the service area explained our precautions underwater in a serious voice, Angel had been smiling happily and wearing equipment, and her demeanor was skilled, and it was obviously not the first time to dive. In contrast, I, who had never dived water, was clumsy and dull.
"Finally, the depth of the dive must not exceed three hundred meters." After the service robot put on a transparent helmet for me, a three-thousand-euro overdraft flashed on my electronic bill, but it was not my turn to worry.
The underwater world is beautiful, far beyond my imagination, and the wonderful feeling of "being at" the bottom of the sea also surprises me. Someone once told me that only those who have actually dived in the water can taste the pleasure of being wrapped in the sea and the beauty of the sea, and I can't tell the difference between feeling the pleasure of diving deep into the sea through the simulated shell and experiencing it with the flesh, but at the moment my touch is soaked with happiness, from the pores to the bone marrow. The coral reefs in the shallow sea are colorful, the shadows of the waves on the sea are swinging like a grid, caressing the corals of different shapes, and the light and shadow of the seabed create a dreamlike world, at this moment, the flutter of the heart triggers an unknown switch in my head, and my whole body and mind are swept away by a fresh indescribable pleasure.
"Hey! See? It's a clown fish yay! And also, is that Su Mei? Angel's voice became crisp and pleasant from excitement, and there was a kind of childlike innocence of a little girl, making it hard to believe that this was from an individual with a "y gene".
"Oh my God! How could it be Su Mei? That's a rump fish! At the same time as the three words "longhead fish" blurted out, the desire in my heart to talk to others about the topic of "human women" was aroused again, and I couldn't help but say to Angel, "The longhead fish is really wonderful, they are generally polygamous groups, when the male fish in the fish die, its status will be replaced by the female transgender second only to the male." Do you think that in the future evolution of human beings, there will be a kind of existence that is mutated by males and replaces the female characters that have been missing? ”
"Male mutated into female? What an interesting idea. Don't forget that the disappearance of women is caused by the action of the 'double x gene virus'. Moreover, after the female is missing, all humans use cloning to continue the offspring, and whether they can 'evolve' is still unknown. Angel, wrapped in seawater, seemed to be in a good mood and did not express dissatisfaction with me talking about "human women" again.
"But so far, no one has ever proven the detection of that mysterious 'double x gene virus', and more people think that the catastrophe of the disappearance of women is a curse, or that the 'double X gene virus' is the human male itself." I took out the pessimistic tones I saw on the Internet.
"The curse is ridiculous, but if human males are 'double X-gene viruses,' then the likelihood of women reappearing on the stage of history is almost equal to zero." Although there are no living women on Earth today, as far as I know, cryopreserved female individuals, female cells, and even ancient female corpses recovered by explorers under glaciers are still preserved in heavily guarded laboratories, and unfortunately, any cloned human female living body, once left the laboratory environment, all died within a month like their ancestors. Angel's tone gradually became cold, showing that she was beginning to be impatient with the topic.
"It shouldn't be a problem with cloning technology. All extant humans who were born from the womb were over a hundred years old. The survival of human beings is the best proof of the perfection of cloning technology. Angel did not pick up on my common-sense statement, which had no discussion value, and swung her slender legs straight and gracefully, pushing downstream of her flippers towards a cluster of gorgeous coral reefs. Yes, Angel is an "ethical woman" split in the deformed society of the only biological male in human beings at present, she is herself a product of contradictions, and coupled with the universality of this existence, the irony is even heavier. How can such a being have the patience and nurture to talk about the pure, unregressible existence they have replaced?
Seeing Angel's graceful figure go away, a habitual sense of loneliness came to me like a tide, pouring out the only trace of enthusiasm in my heart. Just then, my personal system received an angry message: "Eve! Where did you go?! Damn it! You actually used my credit account... What the? Twenty-three thousand euros overdraft?! My God! ”
Dr. Oscar's bearded and wide-eyed look is normal to me, but the overdraft of twenty-three thousand euros is also a bit too outrageous. After spitting out my tongue and sending Angel a "goodbye" message, I chose to quit this realistic shell full of charm for women, and also left the Great Barrier Reef that I had longed for. A simulated shell that has lost its consciousness is automatically returned to the service area without fear of loss.
Back in a laboratory full of drug-scented and icy instruments, the contrast to the warm and cozy feeling I had just felt on the Great Barrier Reef made me very uncomfortable. Still, Dr. Oscar's old face with the words "hate iron is not steel" is as ridiculous as ever.
"Eve! Have you ever wondered how much your irresponsible behavior will have on the future of humanity? "Dr. Oscar's long, heavy-tongued tone did nothing to me, but I still had to pretend to be worried to escape the possible punishment that followed.
"It's okay, I'm just going to dive on the Great Barrier Reef through the simulated shell." Moreover, I am the only female reclonal in the world that is mutated from a male clone embryo, and I am immune to the legendary "double x gene virus". That's what you told me. I pouted my mouth to distinguish between Dr. Oscar, subtly, imitating angel's expression, the typical representative of the "perfect woman" in the world today, and I naively guessed that I might already have a bit of a "I see pity" charm. "Besides, there are many re-clones like me here, the only difference being that I don't have to stay in the incubator and soak them." If something happens to me, there will be another 'Eve' in my place right away..." At this point, I felt my mouth pout a little numb, but even more numb was my heart.
"It seems that this time I am really negligent, the outside world is not only polluting your body, but also polluting your heart." Look at what you look like now! Where have you gone from that simple piece of paper? Remember! You are Eve! It is the hope of all mankind! You are an angel sent by God to earth! "Oscar had obviously gone through my tracks and knew who I had come into contact with. He was an atheist and spoke of God simply because he could not find a more appropriate parable.
"Am I really that important? Am I not just a pawn in the Oscar project? Next, do I still have to walk out of the laboratory with a false identity that he fabricated out of nothing, and go into the society to verify that he has found a newborn woman who is immune to the 'double x gene virus' and can conceive the next generation, so as to realize his long-cherished wish of becoming the savior of human civilization? I thought silently. Dr. Oscar saw my low brow and thought that his enlightenment had played a role, and the tangled brows gradually relaxed.
"Just recognize your mistake. Think for yourself that the meaning of your existence is to rise to the level of all mankind, even if you are only fourteen years old. Also, next time please don't mess with my credit account again! More than twenty thousand euros... Although you are my angel, but... My God! Dr. Oscar shook his head in tears and picked up his briefcase.
"Where are you going?"
"Well... There's a private party tonight. Dr. Oscar replied vaguely.
"Happy Singles' Day, Doctor!"
The heavy metal air pressure door let out a sigh, isolating Dr. Oscar's stunned gaze from the space I was in.
Published in the February 2010 issue of Science Fiction World