It was September in the blink of an eye.
At 10 p.m., Cui Weichuan returned from the adult night school and dragged his tired body back to his cramped home.
As expected, the engineering company that he worked for was disbanded after the completion of the last project. Fortunately, most of the staff were resettled and a middle-level leader like him was given a better arrangement.
He was assigned to a daily necessities company as the director of the workshop.
The salary was slightly lower than that of the engineering company but it was more stable. He did not have to work as he used to, where he would be unemployed most of the time.
However, after working for less than half a month, he realized that it was a welfare factory set up by the government to reduce the unemployment rate. If he could solve the problem with his bare hands, he would not use machines. There were less than 50 machine tools in the factory with more than 1,000 employees. Even with the 50 machine tools, less than half of them were working.
After working for a short period of time, a sense of emptiness welled up in him, making him feel as if he was wasting his time.
He could not see any hope here. Perhaps through hard work and experience, he could gradually move to a higher position. But even if he became the factory director, he would not be able to do anything. In today's social system, a welfare factory that did not have any technical content and only produced according to the plan every day was insignificant.
As far as he knew, even the director's house was the same size as his.
He used to secretly visit the advanced factories when he was free. He could not help but feel envious when he saw the engineers arguing over a design plan in the empty, fully automated, high-tech factory.
He was still young, and his passion had not dissipated. He was not willing to go with the flow and live a mediocre life. He also did not want to live in a cramped space of nine square meters per person and live at the bottom of society. Whether it was for his family or for himself, he had to give it his all.
…
"You're back from the night school? Let me make you some supper. "His wife was mopping the floor. She stopped when she saw him coming back.
"It's okay. Why aren't you asleep?" Cui Weichuan put down his bag that contained his textbooks and hugged his beautiful wife. He kissed her on the cheek.
She was his second wife. He met her at a blind date organized by the company. They had been married for less than a year and they were in a sweet relationship.
"Stop fooling around. Ning Ning is not asleep yet!"
"Have you finished your homework?" Cui Weichuan immediately let go of his hand when he heard his daughter's name.
"I heard from others that the difficulty of this year's new textbook has increased. I'm afraid it will be difficult for her." His wife nodded and said worriedly.
Cui Weichuan knew more about this. Nowadays, the school textbooks were changed every year and the thickness of the textbooks was getting thicker every year. Initially, elementary school only required basic addition and subtraction as well as simple written expressions.
But now, even the content of the third year of junior high had been added, and this was the easiest part. It was said that junior high had even involved part of the original university content.
Human knowledge was expanding at an exponential rate every year, and the original educational progress was far from being able to satisfy the needs of today's society.
In fact, not to mention those unlucky students, even he, a former university student, found it a bit strenuous to attend night classes. If it wasn't for the miniature AI that he wore on his eyeball, which greatly reduced the calculation and analysis process, he probably wouldn't be able to keep up with the high-density knowledge infusion.
It was a pity that students were only allowed to buy and certify when they reached high school. His daughter was only in elementary school, and it was time for her to build her foundation.
"Why don't we enroll her in a supplementary class?" Cui Weichuan thought about it and said.
"That's a good idea, we'll ask for her opinion!" His wife said. Although this daughter was not her biological daughter, since they were a family, she still treated her as her biological daughter. Fortunately, her daughter was very obedient and sensible, and did not reject her just because she was a stepmother.
Speaking of which, this daughter was quite pitiful. She lost her mother when she was young, and she followed her father around during the apocalypse. She even almost died in an earthquake and suffered a lot. Perhaps that was the reason why she became so sensible.
After a while, Cui Weichuan knocked on his daughter's bedroom door and asked, "Have you finished your homework?"
"I still have some time, don't worry about me."
"Then you should pay attention to the time and sleep early." Cui Weichuan said, feeling sorry for his daughter. She was so young, yet she had such a heavy workload. He thought back to the days when he only remembered to play.
…
He helped his wife mopping the floor and returned to the bedroom. Both of them slept on the bed and talked softly.
"What do you think about having another child?" His wife said.
"Let's not. I heard that the success rate of test tube babies is not high. If it fails again, it'll be very harmful to the body!" Cui Weichuan sighed and said. It was not that they had not done test tube babies before. Unfortunately, it failed and the embryo miscarried after three months.
"It's different this time. It's a new technology and the success rate is almost 100%. Haven't you read the newspaper or the news recently?" His wife said.
Cui Weichuan worked during the day and attended night classes at night. He was so busy that he did not have time to read the newspaper or the news. He then sighed and said, "Technology is developing too fast. Let's go and have a look someday!"
He did not feel pressured about having another child. Nowadays, the government encouraged childbirth. After having a child, one could receive a considerable amount of subsidies and a three-year maternity leave. Coupled with the free education, life was not stressful at all.
By then, he could even replace his house with a bigger one.
"I heard that this technology is quite advanced. When the egg is in the state of fertilized eggs, the hospital will modify the genes and remove the defective genes so that the child born will be smarter, prettier and stronger. Why don't we apply for leave tomorrow morning? "His wife said eagerly, getting more excited as she spoke.
After all, no mother who wanted a child would reject such a baby.
However, Cui Weichuan was a conservative person. He was still hesitant about the new technology that had not been verified. Moreover, it involved his child. However, when he saw his wife's excitement, he changed his mind and said, "I'll talk to the factory manager tomorrow. It should not be a problem to apply for leave."
…
The next morning, both of them rushed to the hospital.
The hospital was in the building. It was located two floors above their house and it was only a few steps away.
Usually, there were not many people in the hospital. However, there were quite a lot of people today. Cui Weichuan realized that most of them were couples. He suddenly realized that they were not the only couple who came for the new technology.
While they were queuing, Cui Weichuan noticed that some of the couples frowned when they came out. It seemed like they could not make up their minds. He was confused but he did not think too much about it. After queuing for almost two hours, it was finally their turn.
…
"Are you saying that the child might not look like the parents and there might even be a problem with the parents' genes?" His wife felt like she was splashed with cold water when she heard the doctor's explanation of the new technology. She was stunned.
Faced with the customer's doubt, the doctor calmly said,
"Here's the situation. This technology can modify a lot of genes. Basically, it's a comprehensive change. For example, some parents do not have a good image but after the modification, the child will be very beautiful.
Of course, I understand your concerns. Now that the government is promoting this new technology, every family that gives birth will receive a huge amount of subsidies. Even if you don't want to raise the child, you can send it to a specialized nursery to be raised by the government. Even if the child is born, you won't lose anything! "
The better the conditions, the more Cui Weichuan felt that something was wrong. If there was a problem with the paternity test, was it still his child? He quietly pulled the corner of his wife's shirt and saw that she was struggling to make up her mind.
…
Without a doubt, the technology was the product of the Human Genome Optimization Project that was established a year ago.
It redefined the human genetic standard and eliminated the antidote virus's effect on fertility. As the technology was officially implemented, it meant that a new type of human would be born. From then on, humans would no longer have genetic defects and hereditary diseases would become a legend.
Not only would they be strong, smart, and beautiful, they would also have a long lifespan.
The average attributes of the new generation of humans, including IQ, would be 13 to 14 points. The average lifespan would be about 300 years. At the same time, the natural reproduction of humans would be restored.
In fact, there was more than one genetic standard plan in front of Luo Yuan. There were other plans that were more radical. In comparison, the human genetic standard was the most conservative and cautious. The new human did not break away from the concept of normal humans and did not have the strange and mysterious ability to evolve. Other than the addition of a weak self-healing ability that could extend one's lifespan, there were no drastic changes. It could only be considered as an optimization.
However, after being presented with these plans, Luo Yuan thought about it carefully and chose the most conservative one. The biggest advantage of this plan was that the new human's reproduction ability was not weakened. That alone was enough for him to abandon the other radical plans.
After all, the cloning technology could only be used as a temporary solution. It was not impossible to abandon natural reproduction and rely on cloning, but it was undoubtedly going down the wrong path.
Survival was the top priority of civilization and the development of humans could not always be smooth sailing. Under the scale of time, there would always be ups and downs in the development of civilization. Once the civilization encountered an accident, there would be a retrogression in technology. Without the natural reproduction ability, the only thing that awaited humans would be death.
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