Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 148

Chapter 148 – The Door Opened Before He Could Finish

Lin Jingheng gently rested his finger on his personal device. He had been fearless and unstoppable his whole life, but at that very moment, he wasn’t even thinking about barging in the room and instead just wanted to quietly turn off the listening device. He wanted to erase Zhanlu’s memories and jump out the window, pretending he had never heard anything.

Lu Bixing continued in a soft and gentle voice: “I don’t want to let him think that it’s because he makes me feel insecure…”

Lin Jingheng’s breathing stopped momentarily.

“…..He’s accommodating to my needs too much already and carries too much pressure,” Lu Bixing said. “He’s also very reserved and would never open up to place the burden anywhere else, no matter how heavy it is.”

Doctor Hardin: “……”

The old man remembered what Lin Jingheng had done on the small planet and felt a chill down his spine, wondering if the person that he knew was completely different from the person Lu Bixing knew.

Lu Bixing noticed the timid expression on the doctor’s face and knew that this poor old man perhaps suffered some mental trauma from Lin Jingheng and was secretly complaining to him at this moment.

Of course, there seemed to be nothing wrong with these complaints.

Lu Bixing could only give another apologetic grin back at him as a feeling of bitterness arose from within– everyone in the world thought that the bastard Lin Jingheng was like a cockroach and could still turn the whole world upside down with one last breath of air left. Even if he was pierced through the chest by a remnant of an ecopod, he could still come back in full health in the blink of an eye; like he had no sense of pain, would not fear anything, and was not a mortal body.

“I’ve always wanted to run away, Doctor Hardin,” Lu Bixing said. “I’ve always enjoyed being the happy mediator in the past, throwing all the decision-making to other people and dreaming of chiming in with ideas to create a happy ending for everyone. I would never make any kind of decisions that could possibly harm others and forever be the good guy…then I realized this wasn’t the true spirit of humanism, I was simply pushing away responsibilities onto someone else. Closing off the Eighth Galaxy was only talk on a whim; we can’t even stabilize our communication signals with our technology right now, so how could we possibly artificially destroy the natural wormhole zone?”

Doctor Hardin let out a sigh of relief: “Right, and you’re also Commander Lu Xin’s….”

“I’m the son of the Eighth Galaxy and I only have one parent; he’s in the cemetery,” Lu Bixing interrupted the old man with a point in fact, then as if he noticed the stiffness in his tone, turned and put on another smile. “I personally admire Lu Xin and his Pledge of Freedom, but you should know that even if I maintained a bit of his genes in me, we’re still not as deeply blood-related as you think we are–let alone being similar in our ideals. In regards to this, we can keep it as a card up our sleeves to use, nothing more.”

Lin Jingheng looked in disbelief at the direction of the guest room, his gaze almost piercing through the heavy staircase and door to the room.

He hadn’t decided how he wanted to discuss Lu Xin with Lin Bixing even after all these years. The last time they spoke about him was on the mech when they were trapped by the Rainbow Virus, on a long journey toward the AUS headquarters. They didn’t have any restraints at the time and talked about the past; they even listened to this man’s ‘masterpiece’ of a song he left on Zhanlu.

Lin Jingheng had thought about the issue a lot and even worried that Lu Bixing would hold a grudge against him for keeping the secret for so long, or even worry that their encounter and relationship built in the past were all actually a conspiracy.

But Lu Bixing didn’t; he maintained the same attitude after he injected the number 6 relaxant, distant and objective.

So his uncaring attitude wasn’t because he had a big heart and didn’t dwell on the details?

Lu Bixing gave another courteous bow to the old Doctor Hardin: “I apologize for bothering you with these personal issues.”

“No,” Doctor Hardin shook his head, “If Jingshu would be as willing as you are to sit down and talk with me rather than force me to give her research data, perhaps…”

“I don’t think Miss Lin would act without baseless reasoning,” Lu Bxing said, “If the world turns into a blueprint of her ideals, at the very least we wouldn’t make the same mistake of Eden in the future.”

“Prime Minister Lu,” Doctor Hardin’s voice grew stern as his bittermelon-like face showed a hint of seriousness past the cages of his flesh, “the truth is that regardless of how hard you try, how much effort you put in to finding a path for the future, regardless of what kind of new relationship the Union and the Eighth Galaxy will develop in the future, the new structure of civilization will eventually follow the footsteps of the Union. They will all once again walk into destruction. This is fate–this is the only thing I can tell you after my three-century long life filled with countless mistakes and walking down the wrong path in life.”

Lu Bixing was dumbfounded.

“The Eden Committee controlled the world from the heavens at the time. I, Laura, Woolf, Lin Jingshu…and even Lin Jingheng himself, have all contributed to pushing the Union down this path to different extents. From the outside, it seemed as if our internal conflicts were what caused the downfall of the Union,” Doctor Hardin said, “But the truth is that according to the last intergalactic census we had before the war broke out, at least within the Union territory, vaccuocerebral birth rates have been steadily increasing at the speed of 0.4% every year. At the same time, the usage of drugs controlling mental health and emotional stability has also been steadily increasing in environments under Eden’s control. This means that it was inevitable that within the next generation, the Union would certainly face an inevitable revolution, so we’ve only really accelerated the process. I don’t know if Prime Minister Lu had heard of a famous thought experiment from ancient Earth–someone asked ‘Will mankind’s future fall into the hands of Orwell or Huxley [2] ?”

“Huh, I’ve heard a bit of it before. The 20th Century A.D. in ancient times,” Lu Bixing said. “That was the start of the galactic era. Historians have considered that to be the start of the ‘countdown towards the end of the Earthly Era’.”

“Correct. These two famous prophets of their times described two different types of dystopia: one painted a fictional world that was haunted by an absolute totalitarian regime that ruled human society with endless fear and hatred. The other created a world where humans walked willingly into a puppet society of brainwashing and endless entertainment. One was a world that reached eternity through endless warfare, the other was a world where warfare was fully eradicated at the cost of mankind falling into a lucid dream of peace.” Doctor Hardin spoke with a slightly hoarse but calm voice, “But four big Eras have passed and the reality is that we’re a pendulum swinging between these two prophecies–for example, the old Sideral Era the Union overthrew and now the dangerous monster called Eden…”

Lu Bixing asked: “And the Freedom Corps?”

“The Freedom Corps…the Freedom Corps are bolder. Lin Jingshu’s ambitions have a destructive force to them; she’s attempting to merge these two opposing traps into one. The biochips she’s selling rose from the ashes of Eden in an attempt to lure the pained and weak-minded people into its trap to accept biological modifications. She uses technology to infiltrate social structure from the inside out, which is reflective of Huxley’s world–then, she would instill fear and terror with the hierarchy of the biochips to control her empire, which is Orwell’s world.” Doctor Hardin let out a difficult laugh. “Her method is fast and effective; a single swing of her blade was powerful enough to pave a bloodied road towards her ultimate goal.”

Lu Bixing thought about it for a moment and said: “In certain ways, that is indeed an impressive plan. Our perspective right now may see her as cruel and unethical, but what if she really succeeds? What if many years later when people read about the messy Union Era in history books, would they feel as if we were the barbarians? Because in their society, everyone had their own role and jobs with a stable career path; nobody would be lost in life and they would all be content. They wouldn’t have wars nor face oppression–the chip inside their bodies would control their minds and make them follow orders from their hearts, so they wouldn’t feel the pressure nor would they feel the need to rebel and break the status quo……”

“This world would no longer have ‘survivors’,” Doctor Hardin added, “because they would never face calamities anymore. If she doesn’t succeed, she will be a drug-dealing and murderous space pirate; if she succeeds, she will be the saint of the future.”

Lu Bixing looked at him half-jokingly and said: “You’re almost successful in convincing me. Hey, Doctor, are you sure you aren’t a spy from the pirates?”

Doctor Hardin ignored the joke and continued: “However, I disagree with her. Since the ancient Earth Era to the New Sidereal Era today, we’ve passed through four large Eras of human civilization across almost hundreds of thousands of years. We’ve never reached a point of societal stability that these two prophets have predicted. Aside from the great and short Age of Galactic Exploration, we’ve always faced inevitable societal issues after short periods of peace,gradually walking into chaos and war until the survivors of the war are left behind to walk down the next loop–it’s a vicious and cursed cycle of civilization.”

The smile on Lu Bixing’s face vanished. After a long silence, he carefully asked: “Are you saying this is the price of freedom? Do you still believe in the Pledge of Freedom?”

“This is the price we pay for chasing after freedom,” Doctor Hardin corrected. “Since the beginning of time, regardless of the elite or common class, nobody has ever truly achieved ‘freedom’ in its rawest form. Did you know, Prime Minister? Some people have even said that ‘people do not need freedom,’ because the greater the freedom is, the responsibilities that come with it also grow heavier until it becomes too heavy for anyone to carry. When that time comes, people would willingly draw their own boundaries and cage themselves up. Even you have admitted to me that you’ve always wanted to let others handle the decision-making and turn yourself into someone that had no choice but to follow orders, so imagine how the rest of the average citizens like us feel.”

Lu Bixing could emphasize and felt his heart sink even more.

“We’ve paid such a hefty price only to realize it was all just talk because nobody knows what freedom truly is; the Pledge of Freedom sounds even more like a joke now,” Doctor Hardin said. “Then why don’t we simply choose between Orwell or Huxley and continue on that path for the rest of time?”

Lu Bixing’s expression changed slightly as he lowered his head and looked into Doctor Hardin’s old and muddied eyes.

“Some people have said that the worlds Orwell and Huxley have painted are complete opposites of each other, but the truth is they’re both describing the same thing,” Doctor Hardin continued. “No, I am not simply talking about the political satire here–they’re both painting human society’s claustrophobia.”

“We’re like the legendary legless birds [3] that could never stop flying; we cannot stop because we will die and fall into destruction. We need to expand and continuously open up new worlds. The concept of being closed in would also widen as our activity zone expands. I remember having this conversation with Jingheng on the small planet; billions of people lived on a small planet back on ancient earth and nobody felt like they were trapped. A natural planet with abundant natural resources to sustain a species would satisfy the needs of humanity. But now, when you mention how you want to cut off the connection with the Union, your word choice here was still ‘close off’.”

Laura once said that anger, anxiety, pain, and foolishness were all mankind’s free will.

“The Pledge of Freedom is grandiose and awesome, but the reason why it was able to stand even without any real logic or scientific reasoning behind it was because it spoke to human nature. Prime Minister, human nature doesn’t necessarily have to be logical; otherwise, why would young people like yourself be drowned in the senseless and painful process of love and romance on top of human desire for reproduction?” Doctor Hardin ordered the robot to carry the equipment and gestured to make his exit. “Unless one day this part of human nature disappears…but perhaps ‘humans’ at that time would be a completely different species as us. Prime Minister Lu, since you single-handedly gave up the path to human evolution, you should prepare yourself for the future.”

Lu Bixing picked up the old man’s jacket for him.

“Prepare myself,” Lu Bixing said in a low tone, ”Right. Now that I think about it, we were the ones that opened up the wormhole terminal; we sure dug our own grave. But I still need to thank you on behalf of our Expedition Team, I’ve heard that they learned and received a lot of your support in building the communication channel through the wormhole. As a specialist on human-mech technology, you sure are well-versed in communication technology as well. It seemed as if you trained yourself well during the time you were in the galactic prison.”

Doctor Hardin let out another difficult laugh without any reserve: “Certainly, we only had tools of the ancients in our hands at the time to fight against the most advanced galactic prison technology. Over a decade…it wasn’t only me, even that violent student that often skips class self-taught himself to become half an expert on the subject.”

Lu Bixing answered nonchalantly: “He told me he doesn’t even remember how many times he failed.”

Doctor Hardin naturally assumed that Lin Jingheng had already mentioned this part and responded: “Well I still remember it was over 2,000 times. If it was someone else who was less stubborn and patient, they’d probably already have gone mad.”

Lin Jingheng: “……”

This was…the live stream of how an old, wise, and well-respected scientist of different fields fell into the trap of a direct marketing scam.

It was almost too embarrassing to watch.

Lu Bixing’s hands trembled slightly as they held onto the old man’s wheelchair when he heard this comment.

Over…2,000 times.

Did that mean he would climb up to the roof all by himself whenever he received a failed message to gaze at the stars?

Didn’t that mean he lived days of endless darkness?

But he was no longer that naive young man who would drag his commander to the market streets and beg for a smile with an orange in hand. He could no longer promise “I will follow you no matter where you go” without hesitation.

“Doctor,” Lu Bixing suddenly spoke up without a second thought, “If you realize that you can no longer make your partner happy in a relationship, and are instead forcing him to do what he doesn’t want to do, pulling him down, does that mean we should…”

Before he could finish, the door to the guest room slammed open violently from the outside and crashed into the wall, creating a loud sound in the otherwise quiet room.

The old Doctor Hardin couldn’t handle this kind of surprise and almost fell off his wheelchair in shock.

Zhanlu’s robotic arm quickly slid over from the ceiling and said: “The door shaft is damaged, there’s a visible dent in the wall; please open up automatic housing repair function–Sir, I have to remind you that this is a very unsophisticated act of violence…”

Lin Jingheng: “Go away.”

Zhanlu shut his mouth and slid down to turn himself into his human form. He quickly took over Doctor Hardin’s wheelchair and said: “Allow me to take you home.”

Doctor Hardin, who was standing on high ground in philosophical debate earlier discussing history and mankind’s future, didn’t even dare to make a sound and ran off with Zhanlu.

Lin Jingheng froze on the spot as his fiery gaze locked onto Lu Bixing.

He didn’t want to cause a commotion in front of guests, so Lin Jingheng waited until he heard the front door close, making sure Doctor Hardin left before grabbing onto Lu Bixing’s collar and pressing him against the wall: “Get over here, let’s talk.”

Lu Bixing was still completely out of the loop and panicked, asking: “You…when did you come home? How come Zhanlu didn’t….”

Lin Jingheng interrupted him and forced out a sentence through his clenched teeth: “What did you say to that old man earlier? Repeat it to my face.”

Lu Bixing, who had also been standing on the same pedestal as Doctor Hardin earlier on humanity and didn’t manage to have time to step down the ladder, did not have the guts to answer. He wished he could time travel back a minute earlier and force that line he’d spoken as if bewitched back down his throat. He could almost feel his legs falling asleep.

Lin Jingheng didn’t let him off the hook and continued on: “Does that mean we should what ?”

Lu Bixing opened his mouth: “I……”

Lin Jingheng felt a whole bowl of boiling oil pouring onto his burning heart as he saw Lu Bixing’s panicked expression, exploding his fury like an erupting volcano that boiled his whole body. Lin Jingheng had never felt this furious in his life; he remembered that potentially dangerous chip inside Lu Bixing’s body and Zhanlu’s medical reports about the young man. His knuckles cracked in his tight grip…Lin Jingheng almost wanted to beat this man before him into a ball, throw him on a ground and whip him into a spinning top.

Of course, Scrooge would never dare to destroy his treasure no matter how upset he got. Lin Jingheng experienced what felt like three nuclear explosions inside his heart until everything in his chest was empty, and still couldn’t manage to hurt even a single strand of Lu Bixing’s hair. He stood frozen for a few moments before fiercely punching the wall and turning away. He was about to leave to find a place to calm himself down when Lu Bixing suddenly grabbed his waist from behind.

“You said you weren’t hurt, that you were only locked up by the Freedom Corps for a few years; what’s this about brain damage? What does it mean that ‘Lin Jingshu wants to keep you in a vegetative state forever’?” Lu Bixing’s voice felt as if it was stuck in his throat as he pulled at the bottom of Lin Jingheng’s shirt. Lin Jingheng stiffened up at the gesture but couldn’t break out of the grip–this little bastard had a cheat called a biochip. Lu Bixing’s hand reached inside his shirt and pressed on the scar left on his waist. “And how did this happen?”

[2] 1984 – George Orwell, Brave New World – Aldous Huxley. [3]“There is a type of bird without legs in this world. It could only keep flying and flying, and sleep in the wind when it’s tired. These kinds of birds only had one chance to land on ground, and that is when they die.” – Reference to 1990 Hong Kong film Days of Being Wild