Chapter 9

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Chapter 9: The Definition of Humanity

Sure enough.

Before leaving this morning, Luo Yu mentioned her suspicion to Zhu Huai and reminded her to check a few details on the control panel.

Over the past two days, Luo Yu kept recalling that before the mission, the personnel changes in the Time Bureau seemed suspicious. The sudden uncommanded displacement after encountering a magnetic explosion on the way back deepened her doubt. She looked at Zhu Huai, "Was the displacement detector tampered with?"

"Not just that; the displacement detector, communication base station, and anti-gravity device all have problems," Zhu Huai replied, clenching her fists and stepping inside.

She walked straight to Ying Zhao’s handwritten board where she calculated the crash trajectory of the Shan Hai Jing earlier that morning. After closely examining the derived formulas, she picked up a pen from the side and circled the first displacement value, saying, "This displacement in the time gap wasn’t caused by external forces, and the coordinates displayed on the displacement indicator are wrong."

"So that’s the flaw," Ying Zhao stepped closer, seeing the circled value. "No wonder my calculations showed such a large deviation in the trajectory."

Zhu Huai stood before the board, her fists cracking with tension. "Someone doesn’t want us to go back; they want us to die with the Shan Hai Jing in a black hole. These modifications that bypassed maintenance couldn’t have been completed in just one or two days. What kind of grudge is this?"

The Shan Hai Jing’s Execution Team consisted of twelve official members, plus five interns and seven maintenance personnel. Each mission’s personnel configuration was announced the day before, indicating that these manipulations might not be directed at individuals but rather at the Shan Hai Jing itself, or specifically at the sky curtains.

If it weren’t for the unintentional emergency landing here, the control panel of the Shan Hai Jing would have lost command for over twenty-four hours, causing the recovery panel to fail, and the sky curtains collected from various time periods would be deployed again.

Someone was stopping the Time Bureau from collecting and investigating the sky curtains, but that wasn’t anything new. Since the establishment of the Time Bureau by the Space Administration, inquiries and handling of the sky curtains had caused considerable disputes and games of negotiation among high-level officials in various countries. Some civil organizations supported the sky curtains as a means of technological enlightenment for historical time periods, aiming to address the current world’s technological development flaws.

What surprised Luo Yu was that the opposition had even infiltrated the maintenance team of the Shan Hai Jing.

"The maintenance team has a traitor," Ying Zhao said thoughtfully, resting her chin on her hand.

Zhu Huai, overhearing, frowned, "Don’t jump to conclusions without evidence."

As the chief engineer of the Shan Hai Jing and the head of the maintenance team, Zhu Huai had personally selected every member in the team. She couldn’t accept that there was a traitor among those she had carefully trained.

Luo Yu stepped forward, "There are still many issues here that need further confirmation. Also…" She turned to Zhu Huai, "If we fix the communication base station, is there a possibility that we can contact the space station from our current time period? Or will repairing the control panel allow the space station to sense us?"

Ever since it was proven feasible by cosmologists to trace history through parallel time, the global Space Administration and space stations had been continuously exploring and verifying this, expanding the communication coverage to five thousand years forward from the starting point, achieving a limit of eight thousand years. The number of traversable historical time periods had increased from one to seven, three of which had been unexpectedly accessed by the exploration teams, all within the communication coverage range, so they safely returned to the starting point.

Yet, this time, they had not only fallen outside of the five thousand-year communication range but were also over twenty thousand years away from the communication limit, which was far too distant.

Zhu Huai pondered for a moment, looking down, "That’s tough, but we haven’t calculated the relative time coordinates with the space station yet. The actual distance may not be as far as we think."

The distance in parallel space, apart from time parameters, must also consider spatial dimensions. Ying Zhao picked up an eraser and began to wipe the formulas off the wall little by little, saying, "Right, we can’t estimate the distance in parallel time solely based on time. If we can obtain the real displacement data, I can calculate it using the trajectory."

"Okay, I’ll see if I can restore the backup storage of the displacement detector tomorrow," Zhu Huai said as she turned and sat down on the circular soft cushions, glancing at Luo Yu. "Repairing the time capsule shouldn’t be a big problem, but I can’t guarantee we can return."

Luo Yu sat down on the other side, "You first; I’ll handle the rest."

Zhu Huai was satisfied with this response and leaned back casually, "Alright." She patted the soft cushion beside her, urging Ying Zhao to sit down. "You two have been exploring all afternoon; any interesting findings?"

Luo Yu and Ying Zhao exchanged a glance, and Luo Yu nodded, "The social structure here is quite loose, and the situation is similar to what Lei Ming described. People are organized into tribes without a governing class or financial systems. Everyone’s basic needs—food, clothing, housing, and transportation—are provided unlimitedly on a self-service basis. Major matters are discussed and decided publicly by groups with high social contributions, leading to a relatively leisurely lifestyle for the populace." She paused before adding, "Moreover, as Ying Zhao said yesterday, there really aren’t any men around."

After she finished speaking, Ying Zhao told Zhu Huai about the gathering of woodcarving enthusiasts they had observed in the woods that afternoon. The people here enjoyed engaging in creative work. They referred to it as work, but it wasn’t for making a living. The things they made were exchanged and gifted among each other. Then, she pulled out a wooden carving of a dove that an older woman at the gathering had given her. Zhu Huai took it, examining its exquisite craftsmanship that captured lifelike detail.

"This place is quite interesting," Zhu Huai remarked, flipping the carving in her hands, deep in thought. "It does have a bit of that communal society feel. But why is it only women?"

This puzzled Luo Yu as well. She recalled the tall woman she had encountered in the delivery room outside the assembly hall the other day, along with the “large burrito” in her arms. If only women were present, where did the children come from? Did ancient humans have a special reproductive method?

As Luo Yu pondered this, Ying Zhao suddenly opened her mind. "Could it be that their definition of ‘humanity’ is different from ours?"

That statement reminded Luo Yu. "When we visited the riverside the other day and discreetly inquired about the tail section crew’s whereabouts, Mo Chuan’s assistant mentioned that ‘only three outer time humans were found among the unidentified flying objects.’ This should also be the consensus among those in the assembly hall. I initially thought that was just to brush us off. Could it be…?"

"Alright, we’ve cracked the case. The two in the tail section don’t count as humans here," Zhu Huai said, leaning back against the cushion, clapping her hands and laughing coldly. "Well then, isn’t that just a turn of fortune!"

Just then, the sound of the housekeeping robot arriving with meals came from outside the door. Luo Yu pressed a button on the panel at the round table, and the robot smoothly entered the lounge, placing their dinner on the table. It politely said, "Enjoy your meal," before turning and leaving.

Dinner, pre-ordered by Ying Zhao before she left that morning, was seafood-based, paired with fresh vegetables, fruits, and grains. The three gathered around the table to share their meal. As Luo Yu wiped the utensils, she summarized their discussions from earlier: "Tomorrow, when Mo Chuan comes back from her day off, she will definitely bring up the sky curtain. She’s probably even more curious than we are about the reasons for our world’s rise. This is a good opportunity to confirm our suspicions." She set down the cleaned utensils and opened the food container. "As for the situation with the tampering of the time capsule, let’s hold off on mentioning it too much until we determine the trajectory and distance, and clarify the issues with the control panel. We’ll decide on the return journey then."

After they finished eating and the housekeeping robot cleared the table, Zhu Huai stood up to grab the "All-Seeing Eye" book she had brought from the time capsule that day. She mentioned having worked hard in the operation room all day and that she wanted to return and rest early.

Luo Yu and Ying Zhao didn’t linger in the lounge. They both bid each other goodnight and returned to their rooms.

The next morning, the three sat at the round table in the lounge for breakfast. The housekeeping robot came in to clear the table just as they were preparing to discuss contacting Mo Chuan. Suddenly, the panel on the table lit up: "Visitor Mo Chuan has arrived at the cliff dwelling’s front desk. Would you like to receive her?"

About five minutes later, the stone door of Cave Villa No. 3 slowly opened, revealing a familiar tall figure. Mo Chuan noticed the three waiting for her inside and smiled warmly, "Good morning, everyone. Please forgive my sudden arrival."

Luo Yu nod slightly, noticing she held something: the detection dog from their time capsule, which had once been quite heavy but now seemed as light as a toy in her hand.

After greeting them, Mo Chuan walked directly into the lounge without hesitation, sitting on the soft cushions and placing the detection dog on the round table. She gestured for them to sit as well.

"According to the housekeeper’s feedback, you seem to have adapted pretty well here. After these past two days, I’m sure you’ve accumulated numerous questions, and so have I." She tilted her chin toward the detection dog. "Yesterday, I spent the entire day at home talking with this little guy and learned quite a bit about your world."

This wasn’t surprising; for a workaholic, resting was impossible. Luo Yu glanced at the detection dog on the table; this geological detector had a built-in encyclopedia, providing not just basic geological information but also a wealth of cultural and historical content for team members to consult at any time.

With the detection dog around, a day was certainly enough for Mo Chuan to grasp five thousand years of their history and culture.

Luo Yu exchanged glances with the other two and said, "I think the biggest difference in understanding between us is likely about the definition of humanity?"

Mo Chuan nodded, "Yes, there’s indeed a misunderstanding here. That’s why I rushed over this morning to invite you all to meet the ‘colleagues’ in your tail section."

Ying Zhao, sitting to her right, straightened up and asked, "Those two people in your view are very special?"

"Yes, to our people, they are indeed a unique existence."

Seeing the conversation move to the main topic, Zhu Huai pressed, "We belong to the outer time humans, so what do those two in the tail section count as in your eyes?"

Mo Chuan’s expression grew serious. "According to sequencing results, they share highly similar genes with the male variants of the extinct primate species here."

Although they had some guesses, this answer nevertheless exceeded the expectations of the three. They looked at each other, all wearing puzzled expressions, before turning back to Mo Chuan: "Huh???"