Little Mushroom

Lily whispered, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I'm just a little worried about Simon."

"Is there anything you can't tell me?" Mrs. Lu reached out to her, and Lily left An Zhe obediently, and was led by Mrs. Lu.

When we met at the lighthouse last time, Mrs. Lu wore a mask, and An Zhe could only see her eyes, but this time he finally saw the facial features of this lady clearly. Her facial features were soft, her eyebrows were curved, but her thin When the lips are not smiling, they are slightly pursed, which adds a bit of firm heroism to this gentle appearance.Lu Feng doesn't look like her.

However, inexplicably, An Zhe felt that her facial features were somewhat similar to Lily's.If the people in the entire base grew up from the embryos of the Garden of Eden, and all the embryos came from the women in the Garden of Eden, then Lily might indeed be the youngest daughter of Mrs. Lu by blood.

From this point of view, it is understandable for Lily to leave Mrs. Lu decisively after seeing him, and to be led by her - after all, she is Mrs. Lu's cub, not his cub. Only spores in this world will never take the initiative leave him.

An Zhe looked at Mrs. Lu, he didn't know what measures Mrs. Lu would take against him.

Madam Lu asked, "Is he your friend? Are you looking for him in the passage?"

Lily and An Zhe looked at each other, she turned her sly eyes, and said to Mrs. Lu: "He doesn't want to go back, can I invite him to be a guest?"

"We can treat An Zhe to dinner, their food is so bad," she said again.

An Zhe understood that the little girl wanted to help him hide from the people below, but he didn't think Mrs. Lu would agree. After all, it was too weird for him to appear here suddenly.

But to his surprise, Mrs. Lu said: "Okay."

Lily let out a "wow" and said, "Ma'am is really nice today."

Madam Lu lowered her head and stroked her hair: "I have always loved you very much."

Lily rubbed her palm affectionately: "I like Madam too."

——In this way, An Zhe was brought to the 22nd floor of the Garden of Eden. The atmosphere here is peaceful, the stereo in the corridor plays soft music, and the snow-white walls are covered with images, all of which are flowers, butterflies, bees, clouds or the statue of the Virgin. Compared with the outside, this place is like another world.

In the spacious corridors and halls, An Zhe also met other women. They were all wearing long white dresses, with black or chestnut brown hair loose, and calm faces. When they saw Mrs. Lu, they nodded friendly to her.

In the cubicle of the public cafeteria, An Zhe ate dinner on the 22nd floor.It was sweetened milk, half a roast chicken, and a bowl of vegetable corn soup.

After dinner, Madam said: "It's time to send your friend away."

Lily acted like a baby to her: "Let him stay for a while."

Madam indulged her request and said, "Then come with me to water the flowers."

So Lily took An Zhe's hand, walked through the snow-white hall, and came to another circular room.An Zhe saw the lush red and green in this room at a glance. The center of the room was built into a flower garden a few square meters in size, which was lush and full of deep red roses.

"My lover used to bring me some seeds from the wild," Mrs. Lu said to An Zhe, "Later, Lu Feng would do the same thing. I remember you stayed with him that day."

An Zhe nodded.

"He is rarely willing to get close to others." Mrs. Lu picked up the silver water bottle on the flower stand.

At this moment, in An Zhe's peripheral vision, something flickered suddenly, and he turned his head subconsciously - it was the TV screen in this room, no one pressed the remote control, it turned on automatically.

"News from the Emergency Response Department." The announcer spoke much faster than usual, and at the same time, a bust photo of An Zhe was displayed on the screen, "Urgently arrest the suspect. If there are witnesses, please provide his whereabouts immediately." information."

An Zhe's body tensed slightly. The hour-long tranquility just now seemed to be an illusion. The world was still in danger for him. He looked at Mrs. Lu.

But Madam Lu said softly: "Don't be afraid."

Mrs. Lu's behavior is always beyond An Zhe's expectations. At first, he thought that Mrs. Lu was a staunch supporter of the base rules, but now it seems that she is not.

An Zhe: "You..."

"I won't help you escape, but I won't hand you over for the time being." Madam Lu smiled.

An Zhe asked her, "Why?"

"They always have many reasons to arrest a person." Madam Lu looked away from the screen, she lowered her head, and watered her rose bushes. The green leaves fell down and fell into the soil: "For example, 40 years ago, they arrested my mother."

An Zhe didn't know what she wanted to say, but she seemed to want to tell a story very much. Many people he met wanted to tell him stories, as if everyone had some memorable past hidden in their hearts.

So he didn't speak, just listened quietly, the fragrance of roses surrounded them, Lily picked one off, she peeled off the petals from the calyx holder, held them in the palm of her hand, then threw them into the air, one after another The petals fell like rain, sprinkled on her hair and body, and one piece fell on Madam Lu's hair.

"In the fourth human base, 370 women passed the following declaration with zero votes: I voluntarily dedicate myself to the destiny of mankind, accept genetic experiments, accept all forms of assisted reproductive methods, and strive for the continuation of the cause of the human race for life." Mrs. Lu used a lot of In a soft tone, An Zhe repeated the "Rose Declaration" that An Zhe had heard from Lily, but her tone was low compared to the little girl's crisp and cheerful voice.

"One sentence has been deleted from this declaration, a prerequisite," Mrs. Lu said, "On the premise of having basic human rights, accept genetic experiments and accept all forms of assisted reproductive methods. In addition, the initiators of the declaration also There was a consensus with the base that women run women."

She touched the soft edge of the rose with her fingers: "However, that was nearly 70 years ago. At that time, everything seemed to have hope. The fate of mankind is in front of us. As long as we can continue, things will be fine." Get up... If I were one of the [-] women at that time, I would agree without hesitation. Everyone is sacrificing, and I am willing to contribute to the benefit of mankind within my ability."

"At that time, the in vitro culture technology of embryos was not yet mature, and the child had to stay in the mother's body for at least seven months. The base hoped that their uterus would not rest for more than fifteen days for the sake of a larger population." Mrs. Lu looked up. Looking at the steel-colored ceiling: "The task of giving birth is too heavy. Their entire lives are being destroyed, and their lives are also passing away. They hope that the base can relax the requirements, but no one agrees."

"The women who voluntarily signed the "Rose Proclamation" and all the girls born since then, it is a matter of course to dedicate their lives to this declaration-and we need the population too much. The lighthouse and the military think so. Most of the main city and the outer city Everyone thinks that, even women who manage women think that way."

Her tone was gentle, and this kind of gentleness seemed to be able to arouse emotional resonance. An Zhe listened quietly, and he saw Lily sitting quietly on the edge of the flowerbed.

"In order to fight for the protection of basic human rights, they launched a protest movement. My mother was the initiator of that protest movement 40 years ago-she seems to be one of the original initiators of the "Rose Declaration" One." Mrs. Lu smiled: "But all the images and written materials were destroyed. At that time, I was too young to remember too many things. I can only remember that one night, soldiers from the United Front Center broke into the Our house door, she locked me in the room, and then there was a gunshot... I saw blood flow into my room from under the door. After that, I was sent to the Garden of Eden."

"They finally discovered that the most effective way is to firmly control the reproductive resources in their own hands, so they deleted the sentence in the manifesto, and the new generation of girls was gathered together and raised by the Garden of Eden. , They keep their responsibilities in mind from an early age, and do not receive additional education. In this way, the base does not have to worry about the decline in the fertility rate, and no girl will feel the pain of losing her human rights because of uninterrupted childbearing.”

She looked at the surrounding walls, but it was as if she was looking at the entire human base through the walls: "I feel pain for this, but I also know that my pain is only an insignificant part. In this place, people die every second The only way for human beings to survive in this era is to turn themselves into a whole creature. People with different responsibilities are different organs of this creature, the lighthouse is the brain, the military is the minions, and the people in the outer city are the flesh and blood. The buildings and walls are the skin, and the Garden of Eden is the womb."

An Zhe looked at her, and she seemed to understand An Zhe's gaze, and said, "I never hated this place."

She leaned over and picked up Lily, who buried her head in her shoulders.

"I'm just often confused about one thing," she said, stroking Lily's hair with her fingers, "We resist monsters and alien species, and resist the contamination of human genes by foreign genes, in order to preserve the unique will of human beings and avoid being dominated by animal nature." Rule... But in order to achieve this goal, all our actions violate the norms of human nature. And the collective we form - all the things it does, obtain resources, strengthen itself, and reproduce offspring, only It can reflect the nature of beasts. In fact, human beings are not different from monsters outside the world, but because of the flexibility of their brains, they endow their behaviors with self-deceiving meanings. Humans are just one of all ordinary animals. All life is born, and all life is about to die."

Mrs. Lu's eyes had a dead look: "Human civilization is as insignificant as its technology."

She stopped talking, and looked up at the ceiling for a long time. An Zhe saw her palm pressing on a dark knob—and turning it lightly.

The radiation-proof metal plate on the ceiling opened with a bang. This is the top floor of the Garden of Eden. Outside the glass is the endless skylight. At night, when the solar wind temporarily stops, the silent twilight and the Milky Way pour down together.

An Zhe said softly, "One day it will get better."

Maybe there will be a day when judges don't have to kill their own people, soldiers don't have to die in the wild, and the girls of Eden are free again.

"No more." Mrs. Lu said: "The time when this world will be completely broken is coming soon."

"Lily," she said, turning to the little girl in her arms, "do you want to fly?"

An Zhe looked at her gentle side face, and after hearing these words, a chill suddenly rose from behind him.

Lily hugged her neck, and asked in a crisp voice, "Is it okay? Like Sinan?"

"OK."

At this moment, An Zhe finally fully understood Sinan's intention to let Lily return to the Garden of Eden.

—Contrary to what they had guessed at the time.

Back to Eden, not because Eden is safe.