Chapter 5 - Lost Paradise (5)

Zhang Shuo was sitting behind his desk examining a dozen paper reports. Zhang Xun stood in front of him, his eyes were downcast and there seemed to be a rabbit hopping around in his heart so he couldn't relax.

Zhang Shuo was fifty-seven years old this year. He was tall and broad-shouldered with an animalistic aura that only appeared in men who had seen battle. His sword eyebrows were somewhat similar to Zhang Xun's, but more stern and deep and they were always slightly wrinkled, and his solemn eyes always seemed to be criticising something.

The other half of Zhang Xun's genes came from the donation bank of the egg factory in Lost Paradise. The bank stored thousands of handpicked skin cells with high-quality DNA that could have come from any elite man in Lost Paradise. All donations were anonymous, lest the donor claim support from the "father" who provided the sperm. Thirty-five years ago, experts in the egg factory transformed one of those skin cells into embryonic stem cells and cultivated them into artificial eggs, which were then combined with Zhang Shuo's sperm, and Zhang Xun was born. Although it was reasonable to say that the genetic influence of both parties on Zhang Xun was half and half, Zhang Xun's temperament and physique probably leaned towards the donor. Zhang Xun suspected that this was why Zhang Shuo didn't like his only son so much. If it wasn't for the limited resources that meant a person could only have one child (but can donate skin cells anonymously unlimited times), maybe Zhang Shuo would have wanted to re-select a skin cell donor and raise a child more like him.

After closing the report, Zhang Shuo raised his falcon-like eyes to look at his son, "You're asking to extend Adam's adaptation period? Do you know that for every day that is wasted, our danger is increasing exponentially? Eden's North America server was hijacked, and the United States is likely to declare war on us."

"Canada will try to mediate to prevent this from happening. After all, we're in their territory and no one wants to have a war on their doorstep. And after all these years of us observing Eden's analysis and decision making it has always regarded unnecessary war as a dangerous activity that wastes resources and exacerbates environmental degradation and is especially reluctant to use nuclear weapons. Our current protection system has been able to withstand at least one nuclear attack and our level of threat isn't big enough for it to use a nuclear weapon either."

"Stealing one of its servers isn't a big enough threat? According to our sources there's panic all over the United States."

"The US government has backups of all data, they just have to transfer a copy of the Core Cognitive Module from any other server to the new server. Even if we obtain their data, in Eden's view, we can't do anything with that data, after all, the shallow data is open and transparent. As for the deeper data, if the server doesn't cooperate, we can't get it at all. The US government may make a big fuss about this, instilling the belief ​​that we're a threat to the people, but the normal world hasn't had major conflicts and wars for a long time. As long as Eden doesn't support them, they will not go to war easily. Eden has always been very cautious about war and he isn't aware of the fact that we have human-machine technology here." Zhang Xun's tone was steady and concise, obviously he had practised how to deal with his father's questioning in advance.

"On the other hand, Adam has infinite value to us and even Eden may not understand this. He was originally Eden, he knew all of Eden's plans and thinking patterns. From my current contact with him, Eden's knowledge of human beings is limited to data, and the standard image of men constructed from the data is aggressive, impulsive, irritable, arrogant, thirsty for power, prone to extreme thinking, advocating rationality but often irrational, slow to emotional sensitivity, etc. That is to say, any decision made by a man who doesn't conform to this stereotype will be hard for him to predict. If we can use this individual difference to successfully tame Adam, we can use Adam to influence Eden."

"Men who don't fit this stereotype hmm. You mean yourself?

"In Zhang Xun's heart, a delicate pain spread out. He should have gotten used to hearing such unreasonable reprimands since he was a child but Zhang Xun could still feel the pain of being pricked by needles. But he had at least learned that if he kept his inner sensitivity hidden he could respond with a calm expression, "That's right. You should be able to see that I'm far from the standard that Lost Paradise reveres as a 'real man'." His words also carried a trace of irony that wasn't easily discernible.

Anger flashed in Zhang Shuo's eyes, but he controlled it. Leaning back in the wide leather chair he looked at his son, "How much time do you need to domesticate Adam?"

Zhang Xun thought for a while, "Three months."

"Three months is too long. I can only give you one month."

"One month?!" Zhang Xun regretted those words. Expressing protests or dissatisfaction with one's own father was always useless, it would only make him look down on him even more. All he could do was try to complete all the tasks his father gave him, no matter how impossible that task might be. So he took a deep breath and controlled the expression on his face, "Okay, one month."

Zhang Shuo waved his hand a little irritably, "Go, I still have things to do."

After leaving Zhang Shuo's office, Zhang Xun exhaled a long breath, as if tired from a hard battle. Outside the door was the office area of ​​the headquarters. People were coming and going and when they passed by him they would always cast curious or hostile glances at him. For the first time in his life, he, a mechanic with little sense of existence, became the man of the moment in Lost Paradise, because he not only successfully completed the god descent, but also served as Adam's mechanic.

Since the day before yesterday, Zhang Xun had not allowed anyone other than him to approach Adam. This aroused the dissatisfaction of many people who hoped to get revenge on Eden, but since he was the son of General Zhang Shuo, no one could say much.

"Hey! Ah-Xun!" A loud and enthusiastic voice was heard and a strong arm wrapped around his shoulders. James grinned at him while chewing gum and showed a mouthful of white teeth that could blind his eyes, "I haven't been able to catch you since the day before yesterday, have you come out of seclusion now? Why do you have a face like you've got a pain in your arse?"

"You're the pain in my arse..." Zhang Xun rolled his eyes, "Were you looking for me for something?"

"No, can't I just look for you to hang out? We got hold of some good booze when we went out 'hunting' last month. Do you want to go with me to drink tonight? A few of us are going to play cards at my place." James smiled and there was a magical illusion that the sun had become brighter. His handsome face made him quite popular, especially among those recruits and alternate hunters who had just joined the command. They were like a bunch of fans looking for excuses to talk to him all day long.

In a country without women, after a few generations, even straight men often began to accept love-like relationships or sex with other men. To this day, although Lost Paradise still generally advocated the 'real men' characteristics in order to emphasize their male identity, having sex with the same sex was now regarded as a normal thing, rather than being shameful or not 'manly' enough.

And James was a standard "real man". James had all the qualities that Zhang Shuo had hoped Zhang Xun would have, and the little boyfriends around him would also change one after another without any pause. The latest one seemed to have ended just last month. Yet Zhang Xun, now in his thirties, was still a virgin.

Whenever Zhang Xun saw James his heart was always a little sour and envious. The two of them were about the same age, they could still be considered young, but he would never be a man like him, and he would never be able to get a look of approval or even a compliment from his father like James does.

"No, I have to go back to train Adam. He can't be alone for too long." Zhang Xun replied.

James' face fell, "That excuse again? How many times has it been since the God Descent Plan? I say Ah-Xun, are you avoiding me because of the last time we played ball?"

"I'm really busy, don't think up such nonsense." Zhang Xun reassured half helplessly and half guiltily.

It wasn't that Zhang Xun didn't want to hang out with James and his group of friends, but their hobbies were completely different from his. In the late winter of last year he was dragged out to hunt with a group of James' friends. Wearing heavy leather boots and wading through the snow, he stumbled and sweated profusely. When he saw the roaring bear he fell into a panic and fell into a snow pit. He wasn't able to climb out of the pit until the others had finished hunting the bear. This made James' group of friends keep laughing at him and calling him a goblin (because they burrow into the ground). Another time, James dragged him to an Oktoberfest and he vomited more than he drank and James had to carry him back to his house. Not to mention that the last time James took him to play basketball, when he was fighting for the ball he was hit by a group of burly men who were a head taller than him, making him dizzy and there was a blue bruise on his face which took a week to disappear.

But James still didn't give up on dragging out this hermit. He would take him to hang out whenever he had the chance, and euphemistically he would take him to participate in social activities and outdoor sports that were beneficial to the body and mind... and Zhang Xun was terrified. Now, although James was kind to him, he didn't want to be teased by those soldiers as being James' nerdy sidekick all the time, so recently all he had been doing was preparing for the god descent.

In order to make his excuse sound more genuine, Zhang Xun continued, "I only have one month to domesticate Adam, I don't even have time to sleep. Ahh, it's such a shame, I thought it would be easier after the descent."

"One month?! That's so short!" James patted him on the shoulder sympathetically, "General Zhang is making things difficult for you again?" With a confident look, he patted James' arm stiffly and awkwardly, imitating the way the soldiers pat each other's shoulders, "I'll head off first. I'll find you for a drink another day."

Seeing Zhang Xun walking away as fast as he could, James shouted reluctantly and added, "How about we bring wine to your place to drink?"

Zhang Xun didn't look back, just raised his right hand and waved, "Next time!"

...............................................................

Before going to see Adam, Zhang Xun took a bath first. He wanted to be as clean and tidy as possible when he was around Adam.

Wiping the mist off the bathroom mirror, he looked at his body. Compared to the soldiers in the battalion, he was indeed a little too thin, but not to the point of being skinny, with slender bones and firm flesh, which was quite attractive. Although his face was similar to Zhang Shuo's, with sword brows and phoenix eyes, his cheekbones, nose, and the corners of his lips were a little warmer and more bookish. His appearance was considered popular in the military camp, but he was only popular with pure tops who preferred weak guys, but because he always locked himself in the Lab, he didn't pursue anyone and he wasn't pursued by others. When he started to think about it later, he was already a little too old.

Although today's human lifespan had extended to one hundred and twenty years with the advancement of genetic technology, the cognition of age was still lagging behind. Thirty-three years old was considered an "uncle" level in the eyes of many young people. He had become a chicken rib among these young men who were more beautiful than him, more handsome than him, younger than him and more outgoing. He was unwilling to compromise, but often felt lonely.

Up to now, he had given up this kind of thinking and just immersed himself in his work.

After drying his hair and changing his uniform, Zhang Xun picked up the materials needed to train Adam, left the single occupancy hut where he lived, and walked to Lab where only he could enter.

Adam was still waiting for him.