Chapter 60
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Chapter 60: Three Colorful Shells
The morning sunlight bathed Luo Yu’s face as she slowly opened her eyes. Turning over, she gazed out at the tranquil forest outside the window and silently calculated the days in her mind.
Previously, she counted how many days it had been since the emergency landing, but at some point, she had started calculating how many days were left at the Ponsuo Tribe instead.
After thinking for a moment in bed, she gradually got up, washed, changed her clothes, and sluggishly walked out of her room, finding Ying Zhao sitting on the soft cushions reading a book.
Hearing her come out, Ying Zhao turned around and smiled brightly at her, "Good morning! Huai Jie asked me to tell you she took a day off. She went to see Ao Ci."
Luo Yu scratched her head, wondering what Ao Ci could want with Zhu Huai. "Is Wanhua looking for her?"
"Yes, Wanhua said someone gifted her a nice piece of wood. She plans to make two four-stringed zithers from it—one for herself and the other for Huai Jie. As soon as Huai Jie heard about it, she rushed off without even eating!"
Luo Yu went over and sat down beside the soft cushions, placing an order while asking, "So does that mean the zither needs to be made from scratch? When is she going to be back?"
Ying Zhao shook her head, "That’s hard to say. It might take half the day. But don’t worry; she contacted Lei Ming before she left and asked her to come over shortly to accompany you during your Return Simulation on the simulator."
Luo Yu had been thinking of asking Lei Ming if she was free, so hearing Ying Zhao confirm it made her lean back against the cushions. "At least Zhu Huai has some reliability; she didn’t just leave me here alone."
At that moment, the in-house housekeeping system delivered the breakfast Luo Yu ordered to the table in front of her. Sitting up, she grabbed the utensils and asked Ying Zhao, "Do you have any plans for today?"
"Not really," Ying Zhao said with a hint of excitement in her tone. "But I think I might start my menstruation today. It hasn’t started yet, but I can feel the signs, so I’m planning to go to the menstruation center and finally experience the therapeutic pod!"
Luo Yu finished one nutritious energy bar, wiped her mouth, and smiled, "That’s fine; you go ahead. I’ve been practicing the first part of the return route, and it’s stable now. With both Lei Ming and me at the simulator, we’ll be fine."
After breakfast, Luo Yu chatted leisurely with Ying Zhao in the lounge until Lei Ming sent a message saying she would soon arrive at the helipad at the top of the mountain. The two of them then got up, left the cave villa, and parted ways outside the door, with one heading to the nearby helipad and the other heading to the small helipad behind the cave villa to take an aircraft to the menstruation center.
Lei Ming arrived at the simulator around the same time as Luo Yu did. After greeting each other, Luo Yu introduced her to the recent simulation situations and watched the latest simulation analysis report in the control room.
Lei Ming had taken her vacation a few days earlier, camping in the mountain areas to escape the summer heat. After returning yesterday, she heard there had been many major discoveries at the time travel center, so she spent the day analyzing the returned data. Today, knowing Luo Yu would be officially returning home in a few days, she decided to come and check things out. Given that Zhu Huai had contacted her that morning, she rushed over without hesitation.
Luo Yu and Lei Ming chatted in the control room for a while, then stepped out and boarded the flight platform to begin today’s routine return training.
As they proceeded into the third round, the communication device on the control panel flashed, and a message popped up from Hu Jiao saying, “Are you free?”
Luo Yu raised her hand to the intercom and informed Lei Ming to pause the simulation. The Shan Hai Jing slowly descended to the flight platform after the gravitational restoration. She sent a message back to Hu Jiao and adjusted her sitting position, waiting for the signal returner to receive a reply.
After a while, the communication device signaled a call request. Luo Yu pressed to connect and heard Hu Jiao’s voice on the other end, “Sister, how’s the return preparation going?”
Luo Yu noted that she sounded relatively relaxed, although her voice was slightly weary. She replied, “It’s going smoothly. The estimated return time shouldn’t be a problem. How have you been? Busy? You sound a bit tired.”
“Um… It’s okay, I guess,” Hu Jiao paused before lowering her voice, “The space station and the Bureau here are basically stable now. I’ve been helping Zhu Long with some finishing tasks. I’m not overly tired, just a bit scattered; don’t worry. I actually wanted to reach you for something else. A batch of children that was transferred early from that experimental building has shown some abnormalities. We did a gene test yesterday, and their situation mirrors that of the sea anemone—supernormal cellular splitting and replication, but we have insufficient preserved blood sources. You mentioned you found medicine for the sea anemone in that time period. Is that medicine general-purpose? Can it also be used to treat these children?”
When Hu Jiao referred to "that experimental building," she was talking about the asexual reproduction research center that was destroyed three years ago in the Northern Continent. Before the bombing, a batch of people and equipment had been secretly moved out, but the news came suddenly, and with numerous researchers and equipment details, not everything could be moved in time. Two-thirds of the people remained buried in the ruins.
The children she mentioned were the first batch of asexual infants born after the research center’s technology had made preliminary advancements. They were placed in another secret protection point during the incident and fortunately escaped the calamity.
Most of these infants’ mothers were researchers at the lab and didn’t make it out before the bombing. Luckily, those first batch of people who escaped the laboratory managed to transfer these children to safe locations in time. From the information Luo Yu received later, their conditions were fine, and they were being regularly checked genetically with no second instances like the sea anemone found.
However, from her first visit to Ji Shu, she learned that such supernormal cellular splitting mutations generally only become detectable after symptoms arise. Therefore, younger children might indeed have undetected issues, and the relocation points only preserved their mothers’ umbilical cord blood. If they experienced conditions similar to the sea anemone, these supplies would be insufficient to alleviate their symptoms, but they would be enough for drug formulation.
Thus, Luo Yu also requested related information from Ji Shu, thinking of bringing it back to the surviving researchers in the lab to see if they could resume the interrupted asexual reproduction technology in their world.
Luo Yu pondered for a moment before replying to Hu Jiao, “The medicine must be formulated based on the specific genes. The sea anemone’s medicine was derived from my blood, while the other children’s medicine will need their mothers’ umbilical cord blood. I’ll check the technical documents once I get them, and I’ll see if I can find another place to rebuild the laboratory. I hope it’s not too late.”
“Really? How troublesome…” Hu Jiao sighed, “The situation is getting more chaotic by the day, making it difficult to rebuild the laboratory.” After saying this, she quickly adjusted her mood, “It’s fine. When you return, we can figure things out together.”
Luo Yu responded affirmatively, contemplating whether to explain the cycles to Hu Jiao. However, the cause-and-effect was a bit complicated and couldn’t be summed up in a few sentences. Since she planned to return in a few days anyway, she figured it would be better to wait and discuss it in person. Instead, she asked Hu Jiao about the latest situations at the space station and, after hearing Hu Jiao mention that she had more things to do, ended the communication.
After the communication device turned off, she rested against the back of her seat, thinking deeply for a long time until the monitor picked up Lei Ming’s concerned voice: “Luo Yu, are you okay? Do you want to take a break?”
Luo Yu sat up, “I’m fine; let’s continue.”
That day’s Return Simulation training in the simulator consisted of six rounds spread over two sessions, each simulating the full acceleration route from the starting point to the space station’s communication boundary coordinates. The two were even asked to leave once due to the extended continuous simulation time by the hangar robot.
During their break, the two sat on the helipad eating snacks and chatting. Luo Yu recounted the theory Ji Shu had discussed yesterday to Lei Ming, who responded excitedly, “Amazing! This is absolutely wonderful!”
By the time the afternoon’s second Return Simulation ended, dusk was approaching. Luo Yu stepped out of the time capsule and stood on the flight platform, stretching her legs. After sitting for several hours, her blood circulation was sluggish, and she considered lying down for a while in the relaxation chamber. Turning around, she saw Zhu Huai and Ying Zhao grinning at her from the bottom of the flight platform.
Zhu Huai held a beautifully crafted zither that looked like both a violin and a pipa, with an elegant and unique design specific to the Ponsuo Tribe, called a zither.
Luo Yu smiled at the two of them as she walked down the flight platform. “Did you both coordinate this to come and pick me up after work?”
Ying Zhao also smiled, lending a hand to support her, “I felt so comfortable in the therapeutic pod at the menstruation center that I fell asleep and woke up to find it already afternoon. Afterwards, I ran into Huai Jie on my way back, so we decided to come together to get you.” Ying Zhao winked at Zhu Huai and said to Luo Yu, “Let’s go home together and have some drinks later while Huai Jie plays us a few pieces.”
Zhu Huai, holding the zither, looked horrified, “Three pieces? You’re going to wear me out! Even the production team’s donkey wouldn’t have this kind of demand!”
The three of them joked as they walked from the flight platform to the control room entrance, just as Lei Ming finished shutting down the equipment. The group left the simulator together and said their goodbyes on the helipad. After watching Lei Ming board her aircraft and fly away, the three turned back and leisurely made their way back to the cave villa.
On the way, Luo Yu asked Zhu Huai if there was any news from Ao Ci. Zhu Huai tilted her head in thought, “Today, I was so busy playing the zither with the ancestor that I didn’t hear anything.” Then she suddenly recalled, “Oh right! There was something—015 died. He refused to cooperate with the experiments and insisted on going on a hunger strike, and he eventually starved to death.”
Luo Yu frowned, “Will that affect the research station’s experiments?”
“The Old Director said all gene samples have been collected, and the necessary experiments have been completed. The conclusions are the same as what we heard at the gene research institute yesterday, so there is no impact.”
Luo Yu nodded, “Alright, at least he contributed to this research. He died with value.”
By the time the three returned to the cave villa, the sun had set, leaving only a stretch of fiery clouds glowing purple on the horizon.
They went up to the upstairs courtyard of the cave villa, where the in-house housekeeping system had prepared a glass of aperitif and appetizers for each of them. Sitting on the grass of the terrace, they toasted under the magnificent evening glow.
Zhu Huai took a sip of her drink and said, “Wanhua gave me a small bag of shells today. They are beautiful; let me show you!” With that, she pulled out a small cloth pouch and gently poured the shells onto a large plate on the round table.
The shells were colorful, reflecting dazzling light in the glow of the sunset, rivaling gems, each with unique patterns, a true work of art from nature.
“Come on, pick one you like!” Zhu Huai chose a purple shell, holding it in her palm. She then asked the housekeeping system to activate the recording function. “In three days, the Shan Hai Jing will officially return, and we should commemorate this. Hold on to the shells you choose. I’ll count to three, and on ‘three,’ you’ll open your hands. Whoever wants to go back will have their shell face down, and the ones staying will have their shells face up so the housekeeping system can take our picture.”
Luo Yu chuckled, “Why the sudden sense of ceremony?”
Ying Zhao laughed as she picked a blue shell, urging Luo Yu, “Come on, Sister Fish, hurry and pick one!”
Luo Yu set her glass down, carefully considered her options, and selected a light blue shell with a gradient pattern. The three of them clasped their chosen shells in their hands and extended them to the center of the table.
When Zhu Huai shouted "Three, two, one," they all opened their hands simultaneously. The three shells, all with their backs facing up, rested quietly in their palms, glimmering with radiant colors in the evening glow.
Luo Yu couldn’t help but be stunned by this scene, just as the housekeeping system chimed in with a prompt: “Footage recorded successfully.”
