Chapter 80
Happy Birthday, little Shen Zhuo.
Shen Ruzhen was a person who took her responsibility towards her descendants very seriously. She indeed provided her second son with the best genetic starting point possible.
The wrinkled, pink, monkey-like baby in the cradle soon grew up: weaned, teethed, babbled, and took his first steps. He exhibited a remarkable talent for learning speed, responding specifically to external stimuli before he was even one year old. By the time he was less than two years old, his brain development was already approaching that of a typical three-year-old. His sensitivity to numbers and images was noticeably extraordinary.
Shen Ruzhen’s selection for the child’s father’s looks had outstanding results—thanks to the perfect bone structure from both parents, Shen Zhuo was a stunningly beautiful doll from a young age. In the swiftly passing memories, what Bai Sheng remembered most clearly was that every few days, researchers would carry the less than two-year-old Shen Zhuo to the lab for routine checks. The child sitting on the examination table looked as if he were made of ice and snow, timidly observing his surroundings with wide eyes. When blood was drawn, his eyelashes would droop in fear, his soft eye sockets would slightly redden, and his eyes would shine like a pair of brilliant black gemstones.
The only puzzling thing was that this child’s personality was vastly different from the rest of the family; he was really too weak.
At that time, whenever blood was drawn, little Shen Zhuo would cry. When he cried, he struggled and wailed, hoarse and heart-rending. If left unattended, he could cry for hours, but as soon as someone came to comfort him, he would immediately turn into a softly sobbing, aggrieved little figure, as if his tears would never stop flowing.
Once, Cameron happened to pass by the biochemical room. It was as if little Shen Zhuo had an antenna on his head; he sensed the familiar presence approaching from afar and suddenly began to cry loudly. The researchers were momentarily caught off guard, and he actually wobbled up from the examination table, crawling towards the door while crying and reaching out desperately, even making indistinct “ge, ge” sounds.
Cameron stopped in his tracks.
With such a small body, he could emit such a hysterical wail, stretching out his little white hands with all his might, as if the whole meaning of his life was to beg someone to hold him.
Soft, innocent, affectionate, and full of dependence on the world.
That was not inherited from Shen Ruzhen.
“Bro… ther… Brother…”
The researcher couldn’t bear to listen any longer, so he had to stand up and hug little Shen Zhuo, patting and coaxing him. However, the child seemed to sense the blood connection in the ether, struggling and reaching towards the door while his tear-filled eyes stared straight at his brother.
Cameron turned away indifferently, walking down the pure white metal corridor of the lab, heading to his next group meeting in five minutes.
He was pursuing his first Ph.D., and having just started working on a project under Shen Ruzhen, the workload was overwhelming, leaving him no time to waste on a child who inexplicably cried all the time.
At that time, the first generation HRG laboratory had already been established, and humanity had agreed to the initial deal with the extraterrestrial spiritual entity 001. It was to be a grand project exploring evolution and perfect genes.
Shen Ruzhen and He Yin spent at least ten hours in the lab every day, forgetting to eat and sleep, working tirelessly day and night.
Shen Ruzhen was never a person with a strong maternal instinct, and although He Yin was relatively family-oriented, no matter how one squeezes their schedule, it’s impossible to find the 25th hour in a day. Only occasionally, Cameron could finish his work early and go to the biochemical room to pick up his already sleeping younger brother and take him back to the safe layer.
Shen Zhuo was naturally sensitive to the approach of others. Every time Cameron picked him up, he would wake up immediately, lying limply in his brother’s arms. The researcher would pack away the thick math book that little Shen Zhuo had been gnawing on and put it in his small backpack. Cameron would then sling the pink-blue backpack over one shoulder, hold his brother in one arm, and walk down the long stone path through the nighttime garden.
Those should have been the happiest times in young Shen Zhuo’s childhood.
Moths fluttered under the dim yellow streetlights, crickets chirped in the grass, and the spring night breeze carried the scent of water lilies from a distant pond. Little Shen Zhuo would murmur in Cameron’s ear; even at two years old, he could already speak complex sentences. He would repeatedly describe to Cameron: “Today the first injection failed, and then a big sister took over.” “Today’s needle was much longer than yesterday’s.” “Today’s needle was 100 meters longer than yesterday’s.” In his perception, “meter” was the largest unit, and “100” was the largest number, so 100 meters was the longest distance in the world. If mom didn’t come to the safe layer at night, it must be because the safe layer was 100 meters away from her. If dad didn’t come to feed him at noon, it must be because his workplace was 100 meters away. 100 meters was so terrifying; just like the long needle that pierced his arm today, no matter how much he cried, no one would come to hold him.
However, this length wasn’t always frightening; sometimes, it symbolized hope and happiness, because his brother once said that the path from the biochemical room to the safe layer was also 100 meters.
On such a long, long road, he could hold onto his brother’s neck all the way, murmuring in his brother’s ear. His soft, babbling voice would blend into the night breeze, and to a child, that was eternity.
.
The so-called safe layer was actually the underground floor of the family quarters where Shen Ruzhen and He Yin lived. It had a passage directly connected to the HRG laboratory and was built as a radiation-proof shelter.
This underground shelter could accommodate over two hundred researchers at most, but at that time, it housed only little Shen Zhuo—because the radiation from 001 Extraterrestrial Spiritual Entity was within normal limits and had no impact on adults, only children in their brain development stage could not stay in the radiation zone for long, not even in the surrounding areas.
Little Shen Zhuo slept in the underground safe layer every night. Cameron would hand him over to the staff before returning to the ground-level family quarters.
The staff were responsible for taking care of little Shen Zhuo’s basic needs, helping him with his nightly routine, and staying until he fell asleep before leaving the safe layer and ending their workday. For that era, this was a very thorough arrangement, but for little Shen Zhuo, the empty and lonely environment before sleep made him very reluctant, often causing him to cry before the staff left and then fall asleep with tear-stained cheeks.
Occasionally, He Yin would come back from the lab late at night and go down to check on the sleeping child, gently tucking him in. That was the most he could manage at the time.
But Shen Ruzhen rarely appeared.
The HRG project had reached its first critical turning point. She often stayed in the lab all night with her team, catching some sleep whenever she could, and sometimes she wouldn’t even return to the family quarters.
“…So pitiful…”
“His dad is that busy, his mom doesn’t care at all, only that half-brother occasionally takes care of him…”
“Such a small child, eating and sleeping alone…”
Occasionally, there were whispers, but they quickly dissipated. Under the heavy pressure of the secret experiment, no one had the energy to pay attention to these side issues.
In that same year, the HRG lab produced a groundbreaking result.
After more than two years of gene editing, under the requirements of Extraterrestrial Spiritual Entity 001, a perfect artificial human body was finally born from the incubation tank.
It was a palm-sized fetal body, quietly suspended in artificial amniotic fluid, named “The Vessel.”
At that time, humans did not know how powerful and terrifying the potential of this “vessel” was. Even the researchers at HRG could not predict what kind of biological abilities Extraterrestrial Spiritual Entity 001 would evolve in this “vessel” or in what form it would appear before humanity.
All they knew was that Extraterrestrial Spiritual Entity 001 was exceptionally satisfied with this “Vessel.”
That afternoon, when Shen Ruzhen stood in front of the receiving screen of the circular magnetic matrix radiation device, she saw the brainwaves of Extraterrestrial Spiritual Entity 001 transmitted through the radiation, displaying lines of information in the decoding system:
[…The “Vessel” after editing possesses the most perfect genes, with an upper limit sufficient to bear all the energy contained in my spirit body. Now the only thing needed is to wait for it to mature, for the neural synapses of the brain to become rich enough to accept me…]
“What happens after that?” Shen Ruzhen looked up at the receiving terminal.
“After your spirit body attaches to this artificial body, what kind of genetic abilities will it exhibit?”
The brainwaves were silent for a moment before a line of faintly glowing text appeared:
[It will have incredibly powerful genetic resurrection abilities, which you will call ‘infinite regeneration.’]
[It is the immortality that humans dream of.]
All the researchers gaped, and then a dreamy excitement and disbelief spread throughout the lab, with everyone eagerly discussing.
[When that day comes, I will descend to Earth with a gift from the depths of space. Then all humanity will achieve the most perfect and equitable evolution.]
[My mission is to initiate a new, powerful biological era for Earth.]
Amid the hot atmosphere of eager discussion, Cameron looked at his mother, only to find Shen Ruzhen standing alone under the giant receiving terminal, looking up at the decoding screen.
Her brows were tightly furrowed, as if trying to catch a glimpse of the mysterious true form of Extraterrestrial Spiritual Entity 001 from the void, a hint of instinctive thought and suspicion flashing in her eyes.
Excitement and agitation enveloped the entire HRG lab, and no one could remember a small matter.
That day was actually little Shen Zhuo’s third birthday.
That night, Cameron woke up inexplicably. He felt as if he had forgotten something; his heart was a bit restless, but he didn’t know where the restlessness came from. He put on his shoes and walked out of the bedroom, standing by the courtyard well, slowly drinking a cup of cold water, his mind filled with the many lengthy and complex issues from the day’s project team. Thousands of thoughts gradually turned into confusion; after standing aimlessly for a while, he suddenly made an unprecedented move.
He went to the underground safe layer in the middle of the night.
The giant moon shone through the skylight, and large patches of the metal floor reflected cold light. The small bed in the corner bulged like a lonely hill on a desolate lunar surface, faint, intermittent sobs coming from it.
Cameron stopped, seeing the small hill turn over, revealing the tear-filled face of a three-year-old boy, who sobbed and reached out his little hands towards him:
“…Hold, Brother hold…”
On the boundary of light and shadow, Cameron’s eyes were not visible. After a long while, he finally stepped forward, took the small, warm body into his arms, and held it symbolically.
It was as if he had received immense comfort. Little Shen Zhuo trembled and curled up like a shivering kitten, looking up at Cameron’s indifferent face with tearful eyes, sobbing for help: “…Scared…”
“Scared of what?”
The child pointed with his finger.
Following the direction of that delicate finger, Cameron saw the cold shadow of the moon slowly crossing the sky, casting its light on the high wall like a giant moving painting.
“What’s there to be scared of?”
“It… it’s watching me…”
“It’s always watching me…”
Cameron frowned.
Young children usually go through a specific period where their imagination is so rich that it confuses reality, leading them to say exaggerated, distorted, and delusional things. They might see a window as a well, the moon as a giant eye, feel like they are being watched from the sky, or create more outlandish fantasies to get adult attention.
Too sensitive.
Emotionally gentle and abundant, like a newborn lamb, helplessly bleating at the world, desperately seeking strong protection from others. Anyone who covered his eyes with a piece of cloth could lead him away.
Where did this weak personality come from?
“No one is watching you. Go to sleep.” Cameron stood up. “Stop crying.”
But little Shen Zhuo remained curled up in his blanket. Under the moonlight, his black and white eyes looked like damp glass, and he reached out a small hand to tug at Cameron’s clothes, pleading through his sobs: “…Brother, don’t go, stay until I wake up…”
“I-I promise I’ll wake up soon, and then you can leave…”
Cameron looked down at his young brother, neither agreeing nor moving. After a while, he repeated calmly, “Go to sleep.”
The child took this as a promise from an adult, so Shen Zhuo lay down, sobbing, and wrapped himself in his blanket. His last glance before falling asleep was past Cameron, looking at the cold, high wall in the distance, his innocent eyes reflecting instinctive fear.
Cameron turned around.
It was just a white cement wall reflecting the moonlight, nothing more.
What Cameron couldn’t see was that on the tall wall, like a light screen, a huge shadow was slowly bending down. Its shifting outline occasionally twisted and stretched, as if learning to morph into a human form, with an eerie and fascinated posture.
It watched the sleeping child, who had just turned three, its brainwaves rustling and spreading in all directions. If someone could receive those sound waves from the higher-dimensional universe, they would hear it mimicking human speech, clumsily and twistedly repeating two words:
—Happy birthday.
Happy birthday.
Starting today, you can finally begin to hear my voice.
·
It was as if it were a preview of the day, years later, when the brothers would part ways in a hospital, fate having already hinted at its signs before it unfolded.
Cameron did not stay by the bed to wait for his young brother to wake up.
In fact, as soon as little Shen Zhuo fell asleep, he left the safe layer.
From that day on, HRG entered a new phase. The birth of the “Vessel” meant that the transaction between humanity and the extraterrestrial civilization was on track. Of course, this artificial body was still too young; its brain synapses were still in a rapid growth phase. Normally, a human brain reaches its peak in neural connections and activity at the age of three. By then, Extraterrestrial Spiritual Entity 001 could attempt to possess it.
As Extraterrestrial Spiritual Entity 001 mentioned, the only thing needed now was to wait patiently until this significant milestone of three years of brain development was reached.
Shen Ruzhen finally had time to occasionally step away from the highly intense research project to visit her young son in the safe layer.
This level of maternal affection was something her elder son had never enjoyed when he was young. Fortunately, Cameron was not one to waste emotions and wouldn’t bother with such trivial comparisons. At that time, he had just obtained his first PhD. A secret research base under the United Nations was very interested in the HRG project, but Shen Ruzhen did not want to deal with them, so she handed over many of the communication tasks to her elder son. As a result, Cameron often left the research institute to fly to Washington, gradually establishing his roots in high society through his father’s family connections.
For a long time, Cameron almost forgot about the existence of his brother until one day, while attending a banquet in New York, he received an overseas call from his mother. Shen Ruzhen’s voice carried a rare hint of confusion:
“Shen Zhuo’s condition doesn’t seem right. Did he talk to you before?”
“Half a year ago, his language skills had already reached the level of a five- or six-year-old child, except when he was crying.” Cameron stood outside the luxurious banquet hall. “What’s wrong, mother?”
“…”
Shen Ruzhen looked at the small figure in the corner of the safe layer, playing by himself.
From Cameron’s perspective, he could hear the sound of blocks clashing from the other end of the phone. Three-and-a-half-year-old Shen Zhuo was probably engaging in one of his favorite activities, using blocks to recreate the huge circular magnetic matrix in the HRG lab. He Yin was trying to coax his young son to say a few words, but Shen Zhuo could only make indistinct laughter and reversed, illogical, seemingly air-directed short words.
“Give… Give this way, they can… hear… hear, hear you…”
“I can hear you, baby.” He Yin spoke with concern and patience. “Who do you mean?”
Shen Zhuo ignored his father and continued speaking to the air: “Big machine… hear, hear you…”
“His language development process has been reversed by an external force.”
Shen Ruzhen paused, her hesitant voice coming through the phone: “He seems to… be affected by some unknown factor, inducing a language disorder.”
For every Ko-fi received for a perticular novel, I will release a new chapter!
