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Side Story: Children 1 — Do you need a spanking?!
Speak of children and you shall receive.
Several months later, Ye Nuan gave birth to her first child, a girl, named Wen Xiaonuan.[1]
*
As a child prodigy, Wen Xiao’s life was destined to be extraordinary.
She could sing the moment she was born. Not long after her one-month-old birthday, she could communicate with her mother Ye Nuan without any obstacles. In primary school, she could complete senior high school level mathematics. During secondary school, she took the college entrance exam and was directly admitted to her father Wen Xiao’s renowned alma mater.
At barely the age of 14, she wrote her graduate thesis during university, with the research focus and the final results proving to be research contributions. This all astounded even Wen Xiao.
However, although Wen Xiaonuan researched everything, what she was most interested in was the structure of the human body — particularly the female uterus.
She wanted to explore the source of life.
Therefore, at the age of 18, she dropped out of university and directly joined Wen Xiao’s workplace BWRE. Under her father’s assistance, she began her own special research.
While there, she met another Novel Prize recipient, that doctor.
And then she fell into the river of love with him……?
Ye Nuan was also left dumbfounded. She simply wanted a child, but in the end, after a while, BWRE gained a new member?
This time’s result was good. Wen Xiao had a companion, but she was still alone.
Ye Nuan decided to have another child.
Her ‘artificial body’ had not grown since it left the cultivation apparatus, preserved continually at the approximate age of 18.
When Wen Xiao reached the age of 45, he also underwent the ‘body exchange operation.’ He now too inhabited a body of approximately 18 years of age.
They could indeed have another child.
However, just before Ye Nuan went through with her decision to have another child with Wen Xiao, her daughter Wen Xiaonuan and her doctor boyfriend made a great breakthrough in their research project —— they created an artificial uterus!
If this technology could be popularized, women no longer needed to endure the pain of labor!
Unfortunately, this technology was similar to the ‘body exchange operation;’ its costs were very steep.
Ye Nuan and Wen Xiao were the first humans to experience this technology.
Several months later, Ye Nuan’s second child, after being nurtured in the artificial uterus, grew up to be a healthy baby — becoming the world’s first case of a baby nurtured successfully in vitro. This allowed Wen Xiaonuan to become the youngest Nobel Prize recipient in the world.
This baby was a boy. Because, after being washed clean, he seemed as flawless as jade, Wen Xiao named him Wen Yu.[2]
Also, he forbade Ye Nuan from casually naming their children without his approval!
Ye Nuan shrugged —— I’m trash at naming, blaming me?
Wen Xiaonuan did not want to speak up.
*
Wen Yu grew up, becoming completely different from Wen Xiaonuan. Although he demonstrated an exceedingly high IQ in each field possible, he had no interest in scientific research at all.
—— His interest was in art.
In kindergarten, he liked drawing and playing the piano. In primary school, he gave up on playing the piano and joined a sketching recreational team. During secondary school, he showed a deft hand at watercolor. When he began senior high school, he began getting absorbed with oil painting.
He was successfully admitted into a university specializing in art education. Wen Yu already had a bit of fame at this point. His paintings could be auctioned off.
Furthermore, he also self-studied many musical instruments during university and picked up the piano again.
After graduating from university, Wen Yu did not sit the entrance exam for a graduate program or went to find a job. He stayed at home painting, accompanying Ye Nuan in passing.
Ye Nuan was very happy, taking advantage of this opportunity to force him to learn PS, AI, SAI……as well as all sorts of drawing software.
Thereupon, Wen Yu had another hobby —— digital painting.
*
Sometimes, Ye Nuan felt it was really miraculous.
Wen Xiaonuan looked just like her, and even her temperament was similar to her. She was quite vivacious, candid, and full of leadership ability. In her first year at BWRE, she harvested a group of ‘little brothers.’ Her team was enormous in comparison to her dad’s.
—— But contrarily, she was equally as obsessed with researching the human body as her dad, exploring this world’s truth.
Wen Yu looked just like Wen Xiao, and even his temperament was similar to Wen Xiao. Good temper, chill about everything, uneasy to be startled by great waves; he really embodied his name, being as gentle as jade.
—— But he followed Ye Nuan with his equal love of art, attracted to the dazzling colors and gentle yet beautiful lines.
Oh, a nearly forgotten fact — Wen Yu was left-handed.
But he could now use both hands.
Frequently, Ye Nuan deliberately moved closer when he was earnestly drawing. “Here, sign your name at this spot?”
Wen Yu never turned his head and continued drawing with his right hand while taking the pen she offered with his left to sign. He would then accurately sign his name, his signature flowing and gorgeous.
“Indeed quite strange; how come I could not give birth to a child who will play games with me?” Ye Nuan took the pen back but had yet to leave. Instead, she stood behind Wen Yu and watched him draw.
Wen Yu blurted out, “Trifling destroys the will.”[3]
Ye Nuan: “……Do you need a spanking?!”
Wen Yu laughed. “I was wrong.”
Ye Nuan absolutely did not intend to leave the matter at that and seriously said to him, “Don’t look down on games ah. Games are man-created second worlds, sustaining the dream life humans yearn for.”
Wen Yu paid her no mind and continued drawing.
“Games not only can allow people to relax; it can also allow people to find their own meaning for existence in another world. It is very important!”
Wen Yu continued to draw and continued to draw.
“I lived in the game with your dad for some time. If that time did not exist, there would not be you or your older sister, did you know?”
Wen Yu was stunned, the pen within his hand pausing abruptly.
Ye Nuan thought he acknowledged her, but in the end, before she could be happy, she saw Wen Yu set down the painting brush and picked up his phone to give someone a call.
Soon, the call went through. Wen Yu began speaking, somewhat stirred up. “Sis! I thought of a way to have everyone in the world life forever!”
Ye Nuan: “……”
Wen Yu: “Human bodies cannot last for eternity. Artificial bodies are too expensive. Moreover, there is also a good deal of concealed dangers within. Since it’s like so, why require a body ne? We can directly create a virtual world, allowing everyone to live within this virtual world……”
“Abandon the corporeal body and directly live in the virtual world in the form of brain waves?” Wen Xiaonuan interrupted her own blood-related younger brother and ridiculed with extreme disdain, “Yu ah, fortunately, you are not someone of BWRE. If you were acting in a movie, you would definitely be the ultimate villain within the movie.”
Wen Yu: QAQ
Wen Xiaonuan: “Living in the virtual world, it means never returning to reality. If the earth is destroyed, no, if simply the server is destroyed, the virtual world would collapse. Mankind would directly become extinct. Compared with short-term immortality, the continuation of the human race is more important. Therefore, we are not only exploring the human body, but we must also explore the universe to seek better and longer development for mankind……”
Wen Yu silently hung up the phone.
Ye Nuan eyed him, subconsciously taking some joy in calamity and delight in disaster. “Called out by your sister?”
Wen Yu picked up his painting brush again and gloomily said, “It’s also mother’s fault.”
Ye Nuan: ???
“Smelly boy! I see that you really do need a spanking ba!”
Footnotes:
[1] This is a highly unimaginative name fyi. It is Wen Xiao’s last name (Wen) + (Xiao) as in ‘little’ + (Nuan) from Ye Nuan’s name = Wen Xiaonuan.
[2] same character for jade: 玉 (yù)
[3] infatuation with fine details prevents one making progress; excessive attention to trivia saps the will
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Dat daughter’s name, though. Really, I’m also embarrassed by her naming sense (or lack thereof). Huh, well, the world already feels sci-fi-ish enough, bodily cloning and consciousness transfer, along with artificial uterus isn’t that weird.
Her daughter being a young genius though, rather stretches the suspension of disbelief a bit, yes. Also, I love how her son had randomly come across those sci-fi villains’ ideals 😆.