China Entertainment Mythology 2004

At the same time that the movie "Myth" was about to be completed and preparations for "Taken" began, the editors of Science Fiction World Magazine, who had been reviewing the manuscript for a long time, stood up and moved around.

"How's it going? Did you review any good manuscripts today?"

"Not yet, the quality of this issue's manuscript is too poor."

"Do you feel that the science fiction environment is not getting better in recent years, but getting worse?"

"I feel it. Take my son for example. He used to read every issue of the magazine with gusto. Now this kid would rather read online novels than magazines. There seems to be a website called Qidian. My son now reads it every day.

On this website, they keep saying that the novels on Qidian are much more interesting than "Science Fiction World"."

"Don't talk about others, let's just talk about myself. I must be an authentic science fiction fan, right? But apart from the works of a few old authors such as Wang Jinkang and Liu Cixin, I have read all the new works.

Don’t go in.”

"I agree. The most uncomfortable thing is to pinch your nose and recommend an essay to be submitted for the Galaxy Award even though you know it is a bad work. What else would you do? If you don't recommend something worse, why should you recommend something even worse?"

"The works are almost forgettable. The most disappointing thing is that many of them are not science fiction works at all. Take an article I recommended in the previous issues as an example. What is the story about? A woman sits for a while.

The machine came to the Warring States Period, and then fell in love with the kings of the Warring States Period. The novel is quite interesting, but except for the term "time machine" in the first chapter, what does this novel have to do with science fiction? But I still recommend Galaxy

I’m soliciting essays because this is already a pretty good piece of work at that time.”

"I recommended a story where the protagonist traveled to an alien civilization. Except for the mention in the first chapter that humans can marry alien life, it was basically a story about a person coming to a strange city."

"If this can be called science fiction, if Mr. Jin Yong sets the protagonist to be a modern person and takes a time machine to travel to Guo Jing or Linghu Chong, then are The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Swordsman a science fiction work?"

"It makes sense. Listening to what you said, the best science fiction novel in China should be "Xun Qin Ji"."

…

Yang Feng did not participate in the discussion, but was carefully looking at the backlog of manuscripts. She was personally transferred to the editorial department by the president Alai last year in order to inject fresh blood into the editorial department.

Like other editors, she is not very satisfied with the science fiction manuscripts she has received recently, but unlike other editors, she is still full of passion for domestic science fiction novels.

Maybe other editors don't want to read the manuscript because they think it's not good, but she always maintains strong patience with domestic science fiction works.

After reading more than a dozen articles with unsatisfactory quality, she still opened another manuscript without being affected.

The title of the new manuscript: "Moon".

Write about the moon?

There are so many science fiction angles to write about, but this author chose the most difficult one to start with.

If you write about a distant interstellar world, the author can set it as he likes. He can set up alien planets with people, civilizations, and all kinds of new and strange things.

If you write about the earth, then the author also has countless places where he can use his imagination.

Only the moon, the only natural satellite of the earth, is no longer mysterious in the eyes of humans, and the author cannot set it up randomly. At the same time, this planet is a restricted area for life. If the story on the earth is changed to a random background, it will become science fiction.

The writing style of novels also does not apply.

Because he couldn't guess the direction the author wanted to write, Yang Feng became even more curious.

This story is not complicated. It tells the story of an earthling mining on the moon.

The protagonist signed a three-year contract with Yueneng Group, and the remuneration was extremely generous. His wife was pregnant, and he hoped to provide a better living environment for his wife and unborn child, so he resolutely signed the contract

.

He is the only living person on the entire moon. In addition, there is an intelligent robot assisting him. The real-time communication system of the lunar base is damaged. He can only receive videos sent by his wife regularly. In the video, her daughter has already died.

She grew from a baby to a three-year-old cute little girl.

But just two weeks before the contract expired, he had an accident while driving a lunar rover for mining. When he woke up again, he was already in the medical room inside the base.

At the same time, he lost his memory of the time of the accident, and then overheard that the intelligent robot seemed to be talking to the headquarters in real time, and also mentioned the loss of a lunar rover, a mining rover, and an employee.

This makes the protagonist suspicious.

The order from the headquarters told him to stay at the base and wait for the maintenance personnel to arrive. The intelligent robot prohibited him from leaving the base. But the protagonist, who was already suspicious, obtained permission to go out by deliberately destroying the base.

After leaving the base, the protagonist drove the lunar rover directly to the scene of the accident.

Then he saw the lunar rover that had been damaged in an accident. He wiped off the dust on the lunar rover's glass and saw that there was a person wearing a space suit in the lunar rover.

He carefully entered the lunar rover and wiped off the dust on the mask of his space suit. Inside was a man who looked exactly like him.

People are still alive.

He brought the injured man back to the medical room. Now, two identical protagonists appeared in the base. So does this mean that one of them is actually a clone created by the company?

A cheap, mass-produced clone for mining?

The man who was rescued believed that he was the original entity because he had been working in the base for three full years, because he communicated with his family regularly, and because he watched his daughter grow from birth to three years old every day.

So the person who rescued him was his own clone.

But the other person who rescued him said that since clones were cheaper, the headquarters would not make just one of him.

Later, with the help of the intelligent robot, the injured protagonist unlocked some video materials that he had not seen before.

In the video, everyone who completes the three-year contract will enter a so-called dormant warehouse. They think they are going back to Earth, but after they enter dormancy, these dormant warehouses will directly turn into human refining furnaces.

Below the dormant warehouse is the hidden cloning base, where the two protagonists also discovered countless copies of themselves waiting to be activated.

The two repaired the real-time communication system. The injured protagonist made a video call to his home, but the person who answered the phone was an adult girl. This adult girl happened to have the same name as his daughter, but his daughter was obviously only three years old.

The injured protagonist asked the girl how her mother was doing, and the girl said that her mother had died of cancer a few years ago. At this time, a man's voice came from the other end of the phone, and the girl called the man daddy.

With a bang, the injured protagonist understood everything.

It turns out that the real protagonist's original body had already returned to Earth after his contract expired in 15 years ago, and he was just the fifth clone of the original protagonist.

It turned out that all the videos he had watched in the past three years were pre-recorded by the company and had been watched by countless clones.

Cloning is illegal, and the purpose of the maintenance personnel sent by the headquarters must be to destroy evidence. Whether it is clone No. 5 or clone No. 6, in the eyes of the headquarters, it will be evidence that needs to be destroyed.

Clone No. 6 convinced the intelligent robot, and with the help of the robot, he activated Clone No. 7. If the maintenance ship arrives at the base and does not find the body in the damaged lunar rover, they will kill all life in the base.

Clone No. 6 plans to put Clone No. 7 back into the damaged lunar rover, and then have Clone No. 5 escape back to Earth in the only return capsule, while Clone No. 6 himself will stay at the base to deal with maintenance personnel.

At this time, clone No. 5 was seriously injured. He knew that he could not survive for a few days, so he was willing to give up the chance of survival to clone No. 6.

He returned to the damaged lunar rover himself to confuse the maintenance personnel, allowing clone No. 6 to return to Earth in the return capsule, leaving No. 7 to stay inside the base as a newly activated clone.

In the end, No. 6 successfully returned to Earth, and the secret of the Moon Energy Group's illegal use of human clones for mining was exposed, and the Moon Energy Group's stock price plummeted.

This is the end of the story.

Yang Feng took a deep breath.

This is a work that makes people feel chills down their backs after reading it. Why is the contract period of Yueneng Group three years?

It is not stated clearly in the novel, but the clone No. 5 that first appeared began to vomit blood, lose hair, and lose teeth when the three-year period was about to expire.

This was also the case when No. 5 watched the video of the four previous clones being incinerated.

Which plot in the novel is the most chilling?

Every clone that has expired after three years will look at the photo of their three-year-old daughter with a silly smile, and innocently say to the computer, "Did you see that? I'm going back to see them!"

Then he walked into the dormant cabin, and then was burned down with a bang?

But is this the saddest thing? Yang Feng doesn't think so, because at least they were still happy in their hearts at the moment before they died.

The saddest thing is clone number 5, because he knows everything.

He knew that his life had come to an end, that he was a clone, and that the wife and daughter he longed for did not belong to him at all. He knew that four clones like him had been burned in the dormant chamber before him.

Ashes, he also knew that there were thousands of selves in the basement waiting to be activated, and then continue to repeat this sad fate, but he was powerless.

The most touching details in the novel are when No. 5 is finally able to call home in real time, and when the clone No. 6 is unprepared to watch the call recording.

The video call was connected. When clone No. 5 heard the girl who answered the phone telling the news of his wife's death, his initial reaction was to think for a moment and then asked: "Are you sure?"

But then he discovered that it was his daughter who answered the phone, and then all his attention shifted to his daughter.

When clone No. 6 heard the news of his wife's death, his body couldn't help but swayed twice, and he almost couldn't stand.

This subtle difference is the most touching.

Because for clone No. 5, he and his wife have not seen each other for three years, and their relationship is naturally weakened. But for clone No. 6, in his memory, he has just been separated from his wife for a week, so he deserves

When his wife, who was so close to each other a week ago in his memory, suddenly turned into a person who had been dead for many years, the blow to him was obviously more severe than that to No. 5.

So what is the most shocking thing about this novel?

Did you find a person who looked exactly like yourself in the damaged lunar rover?

Or did you discover that both of them are actually clones, and there are countless clones in the basement?

Or maybe the clone whose contract expired entered the dormant chamber and was suddenly incinerated?

Yang Feng doesn't think so.

It's the part where clone No. 5 finally repaired the real-time communication system and then called home on Earth.

When I saw clone No. 5 making a video call to home, and the person who answered the phone was my grown-up daughter, I learned that my wife had been dead for many years, and I learned that my daughter does not lack father's love, and I

When all the memories are false.

When Yang Feng saw this, his heart stung severely.

When you think that you are inextricably connected with another person, when you think that your wife needs you and your daughter and you are thicker than water, then you suddenly discover that no one needs you at all.

You are just a clone of another person, and the person you cherish doesn't even know you exist.

The only thing you have is this memory, and this memory does not belong to you, so what else do you have?

Yang Feng glanced at the submitting author: Li Mu.