Evolution - Chapter 29
Chapter 29
The handsome male beta assistant, Tang Rang, tactfully excused himself, leaving the two of them alone.
Whether Major General Xie'er was about to flirt with and tease Claire, or the two were about to argue over a disagreement and trade barbs… for him, it was all very dangerous. Just think, as an assistant, overhearing his boss’s dark secrets or learning a major general’s gossip was enough to make his heart pound. Every time he encountered such a scene, he wanted nothing more than to be anywhere else, to just disappear on the spot.
Xie'er raised an eyebrow, watching him quickly vanish from sight. She let out a soft huff, a mix of feigned annoyance and complaint, and touched her own face, which she still considered a peerless beauty. “Why’d he run off so fast? Am I that scary?”
Claire chuckled softly, crooked her arm, and joked, “He’s probably afraid that if he looks at your peerless beauty for too long, he’ll be hopelessly captivated. Lunch together?”
Xie'er readily took her arm and leaned close to Claire's ear. “What about you? Are you, hmm, hopelessly captivated?”
Claire cleared her throat, the tips of her ears growing hot. She was sure Xie'er was making an innuendo, and she had proof! She stammered and changed the subject, “Why did you come over so early?”
There was another meeting in the afternoon that Xie'er needed to attend. So why had she shown up so early in the morning?
Successful in her teasing, Xie'er proudly lifted her chin, thoroughly satisfied. “I came to back you up.”
Claire couldn't help but laugh.
Major General Xie'er was true to her word. She said she was here to back her up, and that's exactly what she did.
The afternoon's agenda was the rather sensitive topic of revising related laws. The implications were enormous, and for the people of Blue Star, the shock was far greater than the revelation about the ABO evolutionary path. The latter had more pros than cons; the benefits were obvious. The so-called drawbacks were just, well, to use a term from Blue Star, it would likely result in a kind of “androgyny,” but since most people would be that way, it felt okay, no problem, acceptable.
It had to be said, perhaps because Major General Xie'er's entrance onto Blue Star had been too brutal and shocking, all the diplomatic representatives present, as well as the high-level officials from various countries participating via video, felt a little unnerved seeing her in her crisp, formal military uniform with a stern expression. They couldn't help but sit up straighter and adopt a more serious demeanor.
The relevant documents and information had been provided along with the evolution briefing that morning. Everyone in attendance had read them thoroughly, and each country had likely held smaller meetings to discuss them. They had originally planned to aggressively question and challenge the proposals during the meeting, but then they looked up and saw Major General Xie'er standing steadfastly beside Claire.
Their momentum was instantly stifled.
Everyone took their seats. Claire nodded with a smile. “I trust you've all familiarized yourselves with the materials. Now that the evolutionary direction has been confirmed as ABO, the protective legal articles related to individual rights need to be amended. Today, we will primarily discuss how to move forward.”
This was even more ruthless. Her opening statement set the tone: the revisions were non-negotiable; the only question was how to implement them, leaving no room for bargaining.
But the people who had reached their current positions were no pushovers. Someone immediately spoke in a mild tone, choosing his words carefully. “That may be so, but this clashes violently with our traditions that go back thousands of years. It won’t be easy to handle.”
“Tradition?” Xie'er smiled playfully. We're all old foxes here, so let's not play games. “Isn't tradition about keeping the good and discarding the bad? What benefits you is ‘tradition,’ and what doesn't is ‘dross.’ We get it.”
Their expressions soured. Who tears down facades and slaps people in the face so crudely?! She has no sense of conversational artistry! You're completely changing the channel, you know that?!
The crowd looked expectantly at Claire. We're the ones on the same side here. We're politicians; let's not play with military types like Major General Xie'er, shall we?
The highly anticipated Claire rested her chin on her fist, smiled, and said slowly and deliberately, “Although Blue Star has only recently been incorporated into the Galactic Interstellar Alliance, we have learned a great deal about your planet's history, whether it be the establishment of dynasties and unified regimes or tribal and clan-based societies.”
The conference room fell silent. Everyone smiled politely, yet awkwardly.
It was true. For millennia, Blue Star had been a patriarchal society, intentionally or unintentionally downplaying the much more ancient period when it existed in the form of matriarchal clans.
“We understand the concerns of everyone present,” Claire said, gently soothing their ruffled feathers. “Why don't you specify which articles you find confusing? We can provide a more detailed explanation for you.”
This was truly an empty platitude. You have questions, doubts, or disagreements? Fine, we'll explain it to you in detail, and once we're done, you'll understand.
But what if I still don't agree?
Oh, that's fine. After all, your consent isn't required anyway.
Still, they had to put up a fight. Giving in without a struggle would feel like a great regret. The hope was incredibly slim, but… what if? They cleverly avoided sensitive words. “Regarding the division of family property, in daily life, it's difficult to draw such clear lines, isn't it? We're concerned this will increase the workload unnecessarily and could very well have a negative impact on the stability and harmony of the family.”
Claire gestured for the attending legal expert to provide a detailed explanation.
The legal expert did his best to use language everyone could understand, concisely explaining the articles, the legislative considerations, and the effects after implementation. He used data to show that there was no problem; these were time-tested articles that had been continuously improved and had achieved excellent positive results.
“It doesn't significantly increase the workload. Most of it involves automatically collecting relevant information after a file is created. When needed, you can simply retrieve the data to get a clear picture,” Claire said faintly. “On the contrary, its implementation saves us a great deal of work in resolving marital and family issues. It also solves the problem of one party using marriage or family as a pretext to covertly encroach upon the other's property and rights, making one member subordinate to the other.”
The two sides went back and forth, questioning, challenging, and arguing endlessly over the legal articles that formed the foundation of an ABO society.
Finally, a dizzy and extremely impatient Xie'er paused the discussion on this topic, stopping everyone from straying from the main point. “Alright, I get it. You're focused on two things: surname inheritance and the division of marital and family property.”
Given her demeanor, which suggested she was ready to flip the table and turn this verbal battle into a physical one at any moment, everyone did her the favor of shutting up and waiting patiently for her to speak.
“The foundation of the Galactic Interstellar Alliance's current laws is based on receiving rights equivalent to one's contributions. Hmm, on Blue Star, the emphasis has also been on distribution according to work for the past century or so, right? Since we all have a consensus on this principle…”
No, we don't have any consensus, some representatives silently retorted. We just don't dare to openly oppose this politically correct, “consensual” consensus.
“In that case, let me ask you all: the person responsible for childbirth, in that process, don't they invest more time, pour in more effort, and lose more opportunities for development? In the Alliance's ABO society, we acknowledge their sacrifices as contributions to the Alliance. What's the problem with that?”
Logically, of course, there was no problem. It was just that the invisible gender dividend they had enjoyed for thousands of years was about to be stripped away. Most of the representatives present were sobbing internally, but how could they openly voice these secrets that everyone was aware of?
Xie'er shrugged, not caring a bit about her image. “Besides, I don't know what you're all opposing and questioning. Alphas and Omegas each account for less than 10% of the total population, while the Beta population is nearly 80%. This means that over 90% of people can bear children themselves. The remaining less than 10% who participate in the reproductive process but cannot give birth themselves can negotiate between themselves. Once an agreement is reached and registered, the corresponding procedures will naturally follow. Not to mention, there are gestation pouches, which completely meet the need. Whoever wants the right to pass on their surname can just pay the associated fee and invest more effort into raising the child.”
The people who had been arguing until they were red in the face suddenly felt as if their intelligence had been insulted. Following her line of thought, it seemed to make sense. There was no flaw in her logic. So, what was there to argue about? Over ninety percent of people could give birth themselves. If they didn't want to, they could pay to use a gestation pouch. Problems that could be solved with money and technology weren't problems at all.
“As for the division of family property, regardless of gender, they only need to fulfill their respective obligations to their partners, their parents, and their children. Every person is an independent individual. After fulfilling their obligations, what's wrong with having free control over their personal property?”
Having nonchalantly made everyone doubt their own intelligence, Xie'er looked at the crowd and smiled meaningfully, a smile that sent a chill down their spines. “Besides, none of you here have differentiated yet. It's still unknown which gender you'll become.”
Her words were like a sudden enlightenment, and everyone's heart skipped a beat. Holy shit! That's right, I don't even know what gender I'll differentiate into. What if… wouldn't that be digging a pit to bury myself?
Everyone deflated at once.
In the end, it was Claire who brought the topic back on track. “These articles for the protection of rights and interests have been gradually perfected over nearly ten thousand years and have been proven to be beneficial for protecting individual rights from infringement and for promoting the development of social civilization. There is truly no need for you to question their fairness, impartiality, or practical application.”
She swept her gaze over the attendees in a warning, then brought the hammer down. “What we are here to discuss today is how to rapidly popularize and implement this on Blue Star. Please offer more suggestions in this regard. If no better suggestions are provided within the stipulated time, it will be carried out according to the Alliance's standard practice.”
The deflated attendees, finally realizing they could no longer take their accustomed gender identities for granted and pre-judge the situation—after living for so many years, their future gender was now a mystery—felt that this was actually very good, that it comprehensively protected the rights of all genders. They put aside their unspeakable thoughts and became surprisingly cooperative, offering a few suggestions. When it came time for the final vote, everyone nodded in a very zen-like manner: “Sure, that works,” “Anything is fine,” “It doesn't matter.”
The meeting concluded with great success. Most of the attendees wore solemn expressions, their hearts adrift and uncertain. How did things turn out like this? Not evolving was not an option, nor did they dare refuse. But evolving meant opening the door to a whole new world.
Fine, fine. Everyone sighed silently, compromising with themselves and with the new world of the future. When the unwillingness became too much to bear, they just had to think about regaining their youth and living for another hundred years!
That was truly an irresistible temptation!
When the discussion moved to the batch of resources that had already been allocated from the Galactic Interstellar Alliance, and the need for everyone's full cooperation in the next phase—planting trees on a global scale, not for afforestation, but to plant special types of vegetation all over Blue Star to improve and optimize the entire planet's environment and accelerate the evolution of the entire population.
The resentful and disgruntled representatives raised a question. “The resources have already been allocated and planting can begin immediately? Did you somehow predict the direction of evolution in advance?”
They had known in advance, but they couldn't just tell them that. Claire retorted quite bluntly, “It's been almost five months since the first person successfully differentiated.”
So, tell me, is it that our efficiency is too high, or that yours is too low?
The “gentlemen” who had just been subtly insulted fell silent, at a loss for words. In this wonderfully “consultative” atmosphere, they set the tone and formulated a rough timeline, planning to release related information to the public bit by bit.
Every few days, they would release a piece of news to tease the public's nerves. Once the heat from the previous topic died down, they would toss out another one.
And so it went, on and on.
Over a month later, netizens, who had been engrossed in heated online debates over hot-button issues, actively expressing their opinions and trying to persuade others, suddenly came to their senses. Why were they always discussing matters of national importance? They weren't normally such patriotic and concerned citizens, were they?
It must be because the idiots on the opposing side were too stupid. They couldn't leave this world to the people they despised.
It must be because of this firm conviction that their competitive drive had exploded!
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