Reboot 1999 [Rebirth]

The dense cluster of space telescopes lurking above the surface of Earth's atmosphere captured the collapse of the spiral nebula with exceptional angular resolution.

The space telescope moves slowly and methodically along the Earth's orbit, and then transmits these captured images back to the ground.

Year 2050 in the Gregorian calendar, on Earth, in a certain laboratory.

"The pulsing light obviously exceeds the standard!" Johnny, who was wearing a white cartoon T-shirt, lowered his head, and the stud on his left ear flickered, reflecting the sunlight coming in from outside.

After a while, Johnny excitedly rushed into another closed office, holding high the data sent back from the space telescope.

There was no one outside the office, and the access control had to be opened. After a strict iris scan and Johnny's whole body data was scanned, he was finally let in.

"Yan! Look quickly, this is the latest data we have obtained. Apparently, 1200 million light-years away from the earth, there is a baby galaxy that is about to be born. I don't know why... Uh," Johnny stopped talking. After hesitating for a moment, he slowly approached the only chair in the office.

The high-backed chair was very high, and the back of the chair almost covered all the contours of the man, only a few white corners of his clothes were exposed.

Johnny pushed lightly, and the chair turned around. A young man in a white coat sat curled up in the center of the chair, holding a yellowed paper letter in his hand.

In this era, no one has used this kind of paper letterhead for a long time. It has a beige background, red slender stripes, and a small lotus flower logo printed on the signature.On the letterhead is a series of fluent Italian characters in fancy fonts, written in an unusually wanton and beautiful way. ——but not like his boss, Yan's handwriting.

Johnny squatted down, looked carefully at the extremely tired man with closed eyes on the chair, sighed, then looked down at the electronic screen in his hand.The faint blue data streams on the screen scroll up and down like pulses, constantly refreshing the latest data sent back by the space telescope.

"Yan, Yan, wake up, there's good news!" Johnny gently shook Yan's body, holding Yan's head in his arms, smiling slightly with tears in his eyes. "Old Master, we have observed the death of a baby galaxy."

Yan Guangde slowly opened his eyes, his eyes froze for a while, and after a while, they gradually focused.

"...Johnny," he rubbed his forehead and left Johnny's arms. "why you?"

"Boss, besides me, who would take the initiative to open your office door and come to report to you face to face?" Johnny laughed.

Also!

In these days, reports are all on electronic screens with smooth sound and excellent picture quality. While reporting work, open the multi-faceted screen to retrieve the work content stored on the other end.Everything is data.Reporting work in person has long been meaningless.Even in the current laboratory, employees are only willing to open the door when they need to use these expensive instruments.

No one wants to work the old fashioned way, or call the place an "office".

Yan Guangde still insists on adhering to the vocabulary from the last century. No matter how the outside human world is changing with each passing day, he has his own system in his own world, which proceeds in an orderly manner just like the rotation of the earth.Among the researchers under him, the only ones who are willing to call him the boss are Johnny and his old employees who have followed him since the last century.

As for the others, they called him "Old Master" and made fun of him for his obstinacy and all his inappropriate eccentricities.

Johnny finished reporting a series of data with his mouth crackling like a cannonball. Seeing that Yan Guangde was still in a daze, he waved his hands.The nanny robot in the corner, which has been as quiet as a chicken, moved over without a sound, and its disc suction feet slid across the flat white alloy metal floor.

"Johnny, long time no see!" The voice of the nanny robot is very pleasant, like a 20-year-old boy, flamboyant.Every time you speak, there is a hidden smile, as if you will be like a real person in the next moment, laughing heartily, and clap your warm big hands on your shoulders.

"Long time no see...J." Johnny hesitated a little, and suddenly remembered an old incident that poked Boss Yan's heart. "Boss, you said that so many years have passed, is that person still alive?"

Yan Guangde closed his eyelids and smiled. "This baby galaxy has collapsed, and the hope of the new generation is gone. Maybe at the end of the year, the United States will restart the bill again to send Noah's Ark into the vast space."

"Yes." The nanny robot J answered respectfully.The tone is wanton, the attitude is respectful, watching the unspeakable peacekeeping. "The Noah's Ark project has been going on for 20 years, and it is estimated that it will start again at the end of this year. According to the latest data from the Star News, the funds for the project were secretly allocated last year, with a total of 1000 billion earth coins."

"It's only 1000 billion, what's enough?" Johnny snorted and shrugged disdainfully. "At most, the programmed genetic embryos can only be sent into space, and then the newborns will be hatched in the cosmic environment. Existing humans, except for the special space army of the United States, can't take a single one away."

"Even if I can go, I won't go." Yan Guangde smiled slightly, and calmly picked up the topic he hadn't answered earlier. "On this planet, there is everything I am attached to."

"Boss! It's been 49 years. Without the latest gene repair technology, ordinary people would be old already. No matter how strong his physical fitness is, and how badly he was injured back then, it's hard to say what chance he still has of surviving after being secretly transferred!" Johnny boldly approached, and in a squatting position, brought a young and flamboyant face to Yan Guangde's nose. "Boss, I've been chasing you for 50 years, but you... haven't bothered at all?"

Yan Guangde laughed, and looked down at this old man who had followed him for 51 years.After humans announced the official use of gene repair technology, stem cell regeneration has become the most common treatment plan in medical institutions in various countries.People can repair aging organs in the body as long as they can afford the expensive cost of stem cell regeneration. All the high salaries Johnny has received from him over the years have been used to maintain his 20-year-old appearance and physical functions.

In the past 51 years, no matter when he looked at it, Johnny always looked radiant, and the diamond earrings shone brightly under the light.Johnny, whose real age is 67 years old, still seems to have a proud air of indifference.Just like back then, at the Hebei City talent exchange meeting where thousands of people gathered, Yan Guangde made a final decision on him.

"Boss, you named a nanny robot J, why not give it to me!" Johnny winked slyly, and his lips were so close that a kiss was within easy reach.

Yan Guangde lowered his eyelids, and gently moved his lips together, touching Johnny's cool lips. ——The touch is very cold.

"Johnny, you and I are not chickens." Yan Guangde smiled even colder. "I'm 72 years old this year. People who have slept with me can go to the Hebei Municipal Government from here. What do you want from me?"

"51 years," the light in Johnny's eyes gradually dimmed, but he still forced a smile, wrapped his hands around Yan Guangde's neck, and murmured, "Yan, you clearly know that I love you."

Time seemed to go back to the distant year 2001. Julie stood up and hugged him tightly from behind with her naked arms like a long snake. "...Yan, what is living in your heart?"

At that time, Julie was crying with tears all over her face, her voice was hoarse. "Anytime, anywhere, as long as he calls, you turn around and run outside like a lost soul. You even sleep next to me and still think about him, thinking about a man! I'm really ashamed of you Old master, how could you treat me like this? How can I, Zhu Li, be inferior to a man? This place," she pointed to her proud chest with eyes full of grief and indignation, and asked directly, "Is this place inferior to him? Or is it not as good as him here? What do you like about him?"

"I love you!"

It is Julie's tears in 2001 in the Gregorian calendar.

"I love you."

It's Johnny's whisper in 2050 in the Gregorian calendar.

But all of these things are not enough, in that distant and unknown dark night, J quietly lay in his arms.On that deserted night in Jibei City, J kept his eyes open, looking at the sky with his remaining left eye.Yan Guangde followed his eyes to see that there was nothing there, only a large piece of broken cloud broken by neon lights.

Countless times, J asked him in his messy Chinese—Yan, have you ever loved me?

The use of the past tense after verbs is derived from English usage.But J's language ability is so bad, this sentence is already the most suitable question for him.

J stands in a distant and unknown time and space.Because of the unknowable, the eternity of him and the love he brought has been achieved.

"Yan, I love you." J repeatedly confessed to him in English, Chinese, and Italian. "There are only you and me in this world. I love you, and I will love you until I die."

But at the end...J didn't leave him a single word.That person quietly disappeared from the world on a certain deserted night.

For the next 49 years, Yan Guangde was finally as lonely as J cursed.

The person he planned to marry in 2001, his "girlfriend" Zhu Li, is already full of children and grandchildren, has rejected all cell regeneration techniques, is very old, and will spend the rest of her life in a nursing home.

The person he loved in 2001 was like a shooting star, flashing across the vast night and illuminating his momentary joy.But after all kinds of betrayal and blood, he slid to the finish line without hesitation, taking away the light of his entire world.

Because of the past light, he has been extraordinarily lonely since then.

Death is the salt of love.

J may be dead, or he may never be found again.Therefore, the love between him and J has since fulfilled the turbulent waves of his life.In the countless nights to come, roaring and crashing on the shore, a sound of waves rolled over, stirring up hollow echoes.

"Johnny, I'm sorry I can't love you." The 72-year-old Yan Guangde calmly raised his eyelids, with a neat crew cut, an old-fashioned blue-gray suit that was pressed neatly, hidden behind a white coat, his eyes were sharp and almost ruthless. "In this life, I have slept with countless people. But the only person I have ever loved is that one."

"If you have studied data for 51 years, you should know the probability of picking a unique red bean out of 70 billion mung beans, and the probability of being able to pick it up and forget it again."

Yan Guangde finally smiled. "The person I love, even if he dies and turns to ashes, he is still the one and only red bean."

The author has something to say: the full text of the love letter held by Yan Guangde in 2050 in the Gregorian calendar is as follows:

I can also lie to you and say I love you from the beginning.

But the truth is, to love someone—you can give him all your money, your blood, and even your life.

J, I couldn't then.

So, in 2001, I couldn't say "I love you".

If I do it all over again, quantum rebirth, please allow me to stand in the summer of 1999...

Kiss one more time, my boy.

by Yan Guangde