Evolution - Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Claire wanted to press the matter, but Xie'er stopped her with a meaningful smile.
Yu Zhiyao hadn't actually refused; she was just making a subtle suggestion.
In any case, their meeting today was just a preliminary contact to get to know Yu Zhiyao and inform her that she could get direct entry into the Academy of Sciences.
Everything else was secondary.
The two of them took Yu Zhiyao to have her permissions updated. Having the qualification for direct entry didn't mean she could start immediately. She still needed to catch up on prerequisite coursework, after which she could choose a field of interest and join.
What made her situation different from others was that the coursework she needed would be personally arranged by people from the Academy of Sciences, who would take turns tutoring her remotely.
The reason they had to bring her to the base today was so the Academy could match her genes, talents, and interests, and grant her the necessary permissions remotely.
After arranging for Yu Zhiyao to be sent back, Claire looked at Xie'er questioningly.
Xie'er shrugged. "Didn't you get it? She was hinting that we should go find Ji Changqing."
"Couldn't she just tell us to find Ji Changqing directly?" Claire was completely baffled.
Xie'er rolled her eyes, not bothering to explain the fun of subtle back-and-forths, hidden maneuvers, and playful teasing to this simpleton.
She thought for a moment. Since those people had their eyes on Ji Changqing and had been trying to persuade her to enroll in a military academy, why not let them handle it?
But thinking about Ji Changqing and Yu Zhiyao's situations, she couldn't help but wonder what they had gone through in the game instances. Both of them were becoming ridiculously overpowered.
One of them had figured out the rules and secretly helped her old flame win a reward. The other had actually succeeded in that mass-grave cultivation instance, and her combat power had skyrocketed, suggesting she'd received a significant boon.
The second-level worlds they had entered separately were both notoriously difficult, with extremely low success rates.
They didn't have the clearance to access the data from within the game instances, so they didn't know what had happened. But looking at the missions the two had entered one after another, their success rates, and their scores, they could piece together a bit of the dramatic love-hate story.
Apparently, when they were in that instance together, Yu Zhiyao had gone to great lengths to help Ji Changqing get the Beginner's Heart Medal, but in order to complete the main quest, she had still ruthlessly eliminated her.
Her gossip-loving heart began to burn with curiosity.
Tsk, tsk. To think that someone so rational she was almost cold could still harbor lingering feelings for one person.
Even in a game, where death wasn't real, she would still carefully and secretly try to make amends.
Xie'er sighed to herself. She never expected to run into one of the people involved again so soon.
That evening, there was a wedding banquet. She and Claire had received an invitation, and since they were quite interested in the local customs of Blue Star, they treated it as a date to a unique event and accepted.
When she and Claire arrived, most of the guests were already there. A quick scan of the crowd was all it took to spot Yu Zhiyao.
The attitude of the guests around her was a bit strange. On one hand, they gathered near her because of her status, but on the other, there was a faint air of superiority about them.
Xie'er understood immediately. That subtle sense of superiority likely stemmed from Yu Zhiyao's differentiation failure. These well-informed but only partially knowledgeable people assumed their own potential was far superior to hers.
Xie'er took Claire's arm. Given their current status, they didn't need to be polite to anyone else. They walked straight up to Yu Zhiyao and spoke with easy familiarity. "What are you doing here all alone?"
The people who had gathered around Yu Zhiyao, hoping for a chance to discuss collaborations: ...
So, in your eyes, we're not even people?!
These "non-people," seeing Xie'er's familiarity with Yu Zhiyao, began to have second thoughts. Could it be that differentiation failure wasn't such a bad thing after all?
Yu Zhiyao turned her head slightly. Her makeup was exquisite, and she was stunning under the lights. When she smiled, her features came alive. Xie'er clutched her chest dramatically. "My dear, you've taken my breath away."
Yu Zhiyao's smile brightened, amused by the exaggerated performance.
Xie'er leaned in and gave her a mischievous wink. "She doesn't know what the Beginner's Heart Medal does yet, you know. She'll have to wait until the next time she logs into the game to see."
"That's fine." Yu Zhiyao was a little speechless. Major General Xie'er's personality seemed to change so quickly; it was hard to keep up.
The three of them stood chatting. Claire took the opportunity to ask Yu Zhiyao to explain the significance of the various Huaxian wedding rituals, and even had someone move Yu Zhiyao's seat next to theirs.
In their eyes, the entire population of Blue Star combined probably didn't carry as much weight as Yu Zhiyao did right now.
Yu Zhiyao clearly adapted well to the role of commentator, always whispering explanations about the meaning of each part of the ceremony at just the right moment.
For this wedding banquet to have invited Claire and Xie'er, the families involved naturally had considerable standing. One family held one of the highest positions in the Huaxian government, while the other held a pivotal role in the Huaxian military.
The newlyweds, however, were somewhat unusual. Both were women, and both had differentiated as Betas.
This was the main reason Claire and Xie'er had been willing to grace the banquet with their presence.
After all, this was the first couple among the upper echelons of Blue Star's nations to be joined in matrimony according to the ABO social basic law. The focus was no longer on the union of a man and a woman, but on the union of a Beta and a Beta.
When the ceremony concluded, the guests cheered, wishing the newlyweds a hundred years of happiness.
Xie'er couldn't help but mutter, "A hundred years of happiness? Isn't that a curse?"
Claire wished she could cover her mouth.
It was clearly a blessing, though she also felt something was off.
Xie'er argued indignantly, "The average lifespan is 180 now. They're only in their thirties. A hundred years of happiness... what about the decades after that? How is that not a curse?"
Yu Zhiyao couldn't help but facepalm.
This was truly a case of the body moving too fast for the soul to keep up. In the past, the average lifespan on Blue Star was less than eighty years, making "a hundred years of happiness" the ultimate blessing. Who could have imagined that one day the average would be 180? The old vocabulary was no longer quite suitable, but people hadn't caught on yet.
After hearing her quiet explanation, Xie'er nodded in agreement. "I definitely won't make that mistake. When you and that certain someone get married, remember to invite me. I'll wish you a long life together until your hair turns white."
Yu Zhiyao gave her a live demonstration of the "smile gradually fading.jpg" meme.
Don't forget, I might not even live to 150, while Ji Changqing, at her cultivation speed, could easily live for three to five hundred years! That was the message in her eyes.
Xie'er just grinned, completely unfazed. Instead, her interest was piqued. "Were the newlyweds like you two before? Not recognized by law, not accepted by society, disapproved of by family, that sort of thing."
"More or less," Yu Zhiyao replied casually.
She couldn't be bothered to explain the actual differences to the particularly gossipy Major General Xie'er tonight.
She watched the heads of the two families on stage, looking at the newlyweds with gratified expressions and advising them to support each other and live a good life... You would never guess that ten years ago, when they learned their daughters had fallen for each other and were secretly together, they had flown into a rage. Nor could you tell that after failing to break the couple up, the two families had spent the next several years applying pressure and treating each other with the coldness of enemies.
They had made harsh declarations, vowing that as long as they lived, the two would never set foot in their homes again, saying they couldn't bear the shame.
They would rather their daughters be debauched, unaccomplished playgirls who fooled around with men than accept daughters who were of good character and highly capable, but whose orientation was simply different.
Hmm, looking at the scene now, it was a classic case of eating one's words.
Meanwhile, Ji Changqing, the subject of their repeated direct and indirect mentions, was enthusiastically scrolling through an online forum post, laughing her head off.
The hottest post, the one that had been bumped to legendary status, was written by a man.
Or rather, a male Beta.
In the original post, the guy briefly explained the background. He and his wife were both avid fans of the holographic game. They'd bought two game pods and adventured through the game together, and they'd even entered the differentiation period around the same time.
After some psychological counseling, the guy was pretty open-minded about it. He figured, what's the big deal about growing an extra organ you wouldn't even notice if you didn't think about it? Compared to gaining a hundred years of life, what was that?
But when he got home from the orientation class and discovered his wife was also a Beta, the guy described the feeling as a "mind-blowing jolt, like the top of my skull was pried open!"
He was plunged into a profound philosophical question: "So am I fucking gay now, or am I straight?!"
Below, a chorus of people quoted him, all typing out "hahaha" with smiling-through-tears emojis.
From then on, the guy was in a constant state of turmoil.
He said that eating, playing games, and raising their child with his wife was still very pleasant. But whenever he felt a physiological urge, his whole body would shudder. Just the thought of them being intimate in bed, the image of a "dual-wielding showdown," was enough to make him feel like he was suffocating.
A whole crowd in the comments felt suffocated right along with him.
After all, Betas were the majority.
The guy spent over half a year in this state of conflict, constantly hovering on the brink of divorce.
Below, rows of Betas with "nothing left to live for" expressions advised him that just having a wife was good enough. If he divorced and tried to find someone new, setting aside whether she'd be better than the wife he'd shared a decade of his life with, everyone was a jj-haver now. There was less than a 5% chance of finding a partner where a "dual-wielding showdown" wouldn't be an issue.
But that 5% was so rare, the competition would be unimaginably fierce. Could he even compete?
Besides, since his wife had given birth to their child, according to the ABO social basic law, if they divorced, he would likely lose all competitiveness in the marriage market.
He wouldn't get much of their marital property, as his "family contribution value" was low. After the divorce, a fixed portion of his income would be automatically transferred to his child's account each month. All things considered, unless his income increased dramatically, his prospects in the marriage market would be abysmal.
Faced with such a harsh reality, the guy said, what else could he do? He could only continue living with her.
But the thought of one or two hundred long years ahead, and the thought of the bedroom activities that were now gone, filled him with a deep sorrow.
Just as he was wallowing in melancholy every day, his life took a strange turn.
One day, the guy came back to the thread and shyly announced that, um, he might be on the verge of happiness again. Double the pleasure!
Below, a crowd of Betas let out cries of that "mind-blowing jolt," demanding the censored details and asking how their brother had overcome his inner demons.
The guy happily explained that because the thread had gotten so popular, his wife had seen it.
So, one night, his wife got fed up, and she just went for it and did him!
Afterward, though, she acted like a total scumbag player, complaining that he was being melodramatic right after sleeping with him and telling him to stop his whining because it's not like she wouldn't take responsibility.
After this massive "eating his words" moment, the guy started encouraging everyone in the thread to bravely engage in "dual cultivation" and overcome their inner demons to achieve ascension soon! Double the pleasure, a completely different kind of happy experience—you deserve it!
Ji Changqing was shaking with laughter, rolling around on her bed.
The internet's weirdos really were a source of endless joy!
She had been so engrossed in game cultivation that she'd missed out on so much entertainment!
From this day forward, she would be a happy person: eat, cultivate, and get lost in the forums.
Get instant access to all the chapters now.
Comments
Post a Comment