In the Mysterious Valley, deep with dense grass, a dull thumping sound echoed for about half an hour.
Then came the teeth-gritting sound of metal scraping.
A wisp of white fog slowly rose from the dense forest.
The white fog swept over leaves glowing with a bluish luminescence.
Another hour passed, and voices emerged.
"Ren Zhong, if you can really wake up, if you can really see these words from us. Don't worry, your mom and dad lived a good and happy life. We even got you a little brother. Your brother is very sensible and well-behaved. He took care of us well, and we enjoyed family happiness."
This was the voice of an elderly man, slightly hoarse, his tone calm yet seemingly suppressing emotions.
"Yes, your mom and dad have no regrets in this life. Except for you... In any case, we hope you have no regrets."
This was the voice of an elderly woman, slightly choked with emotion.
The elderly man spoke again, "Ren Zhong, remember, in life, nine out of ten things don't go as you wish, and since you can't change them, you can only endure them. Your mom and dad's greatest wish is for you to be happy, we ask for nothing else."
The elderly woman: "You just need to remember. We never regretted doing all this, and that's enough."
The old man: "Yes. We just hope you can embrace a new life."
The elderly woman: "Seeing this is certainly a good thing, so let's not dwell on the sadness. We don't have much else to say, in short, we hope our good son can have a happy and fulfilling life. You must live well. Goodbye."
The old man: "Yes, you must look forward. Son, goodbye."
After the voices faded, a momentary deadly silence was broken by the heart-wrenching wailing of a young man deep within the dense forest.
The cries were as if tearing blood, painfully heartfelt, startling all sorts of birds in the forest to flutter upwards.
After a long time, the cries gradually subsided, and a young man in loose white clothing stumbled out from deep within the forest.
His face was pale, swaying every few steps, dazed, with eyes full of confusion and a face that couldn't conceal deep sorrow.
With just one sleep, he lost everything.
His name was Ren Zhong, a child of China, born in 2027, with a middle-class family background, and he graduated with a PhD in 2050.
Yes, a twenty-three-year-old PhD.
His early life was short yet brilliant.
He entered primary school at six, graduated from primary school at eight, graduated from middle school at ten, graduated from high school at twelve, having pre-studied all undergraduate courses in environmental engineering, and joined a youth class at thirteen. He received a double bachelor's degree in environmental engineering and chemistry at sixteen, and graduated with a double master's degree at eighteen.
At twenty-three, he took two years to complete his doctoral dissertation, which was directly published in the world's top journal "Science," setting a new record for the youngest author of a "Science" main paper from his alma mater.
Following a normal life trajectory, he should have entered society in 2050, started a family and career, nurtured offspring, supported his parents, and lived an ordinary yet extraordinary life.
But fate played a huge joke on him.
Just a few days after graduation, he was diagnosed with late-stage lymphoma.
The illness came like a landslide, and within three short months, he was emaciated and dying.
Seeing their only son about to leave this world at any moment, Ren Zhong's desperate parents made a last-ditch effort, selling off their assets to gather ten million to buy a spot for Ren Zhong in a cryonics research project that had been stalled at the clinical trial stage for nearly thirty years.
In the end, Ren Zhong, weighed down by unspeakable regret, lay in the Frozen Storage, waving goodbye to his parents.
He knew that from then on, whether alive or dead, he would forever be parted from his mom and dad.
This is Ren Zhong's own memory.
Time flies, years pass like a shuttle, and no one knows how many years have passed or how far the distance has been covered. Nearly two hours ago, Ren Zhong woke up inside the Frozen Storage.
But there wasn't the expected large research team to provide him with "after-sales service."
His Frozen Storage was discarded like garbage in a remote wilderness, and even getting out of the gradually warming Frozen Storage was done by himself, forcibly breaking the internal switch and then kicking open the cover plate.
After breaking through the cover plate, he didn't immediately leave the spot because there was an LCD screen on top of the Frozen Storage automatically displaying some messages for him.
Ren Zhong saw many things that happened after he "slept."
At that time, his parents withheld another key piece of information from him.
The cryonics project was already in a semi-stagnant state, and ten million could only buy a spot as a guinea pig to enter the Frozen Storage. After that, at least half a million maintenance fees were needed annually, which had to be paid out-of-pocket.