Card Room (Rebirth)

The group of people appeared on the Dark Night starship. Chu Huaying saw that everyone looked tired and poured glasses of water for them. Then she walked over and asked, “Did it go smoothly on the merpeople side?” During the time when Lu Jiuchuan pretended to be Chu Huaying, he had communicated with her about it so she knew the general situation.

Lu Jiuchuan smiled. “It went smoothly. All the hunters and clones were resolved and Xiao Liu became the only successor. Moreover, we found detailed information about the Noah’s Ark project in Elder Kareen’s laboratory.”

Tang Ci said, “If we combine this information with the things left behind by Ye Qi’s father, we can clearly know what happened that year.”

He turned on his communicator and brought up a video.

The video was shot on July 15th, 2975, the day the Noah’s Ark project was first launched.

They saw a spacious meeting room containing a few experts, ministers, military officials, Shao Qingge’s father and the emperor, who was young at the time. The emperor projected a plan onto the screen and said, “You can comment on the Noah’s Ark plan put forward by Professors Qin Rong, Zhu Xingchen and Palmer.”

The people named were all those whose skeletons were found in the shipwreck under the sea.

There was a heated debate in the meeting room, with one person saying, “Isn’t it crazy to clone humans?”

“I don’t agree with such a plan. It isn’t ethical and once research on human genetic cloning is carried out, the butterfly effect is likely to go beyond human control!”

“Professor Palmer, why did you come up with such a bizarre plan?” Ye Qi’s father, Ye Wenbo asked.

Palmer smiled and explained, “Isn’t it normal to back up important data on a chip? General Ye, I remember that your father died of heart failure. If there was a backup clone to transplant organs into him when something went wrong and he could live for many more years, would you reject it?”

Ye Wenbo choked up. “This…”

Palmer glanced around the room. “What if in the future, your beloved wife or children get a disease that is hard to treat? If there is a clone with organs, tissues, skin and blood that can be used at any time, you don’t need to be afraid of any diseases.”

General Lin Zecheng frowned. “Life and death is something that humanity has been experiencing for thousands of years. If we make clones as a data backup like you say, can we live forever?”

Palmer shook his head. “There is no such thing as immortality. It is just one more health guarantee, like buying yourself health insurance. Aren’t you all afraid of death or your loved ones dying from a disease?”

There was sudden silence in the meeting room.

The young Zhang Shaohua calmly said, “My teacher is right. Animal cloning technology has long been mature while human cloning hasn’t passed the approval of the ethics society. The key is that ethicists believe that once clones enter society, they will pollute the human gene pool. In addition, if they become self-aware then they are likely to conflict with their main selves.”

Lin Zecheng looked at his wife with disbelief. He seemed unable to believe that she would support it.

Zhang Shaohua’s expression was extremely calm as she stood up, walked to the screen and swiped it to reveal the detailed plan. “However, Professor Palmer’s cloning plan is different. The successfully cloned experimental products won’t enter human society but will be kept in the petri dishes for all their lives. They will have no knowledge and no human behavior. They are just data backups stored in the hospital.”

Zhang Shaohua paused and looked at her husband. “It is like a 20 year old woman going to the hospital to freeze a few eggs. Once the quality of her eggs declines, she can take out the frozen eggs and get pregnant. You can understand it as the clones being a temporarily frozen organ bank cultivated from our own cells. One day when we get sick, we can take the organs, bone marrow or other necessary parts from the clones.”

There were more arguments.

Just then, the emperor suddenly spoke slowly. “I agree with the plan.”

Everyone in the meeting room turned to look at him. The emperor lowered his voice and said, “If this plan was implemented earlier, my oldest son wouldn’t have died. He was poisoned and had acute liver and kidney failure. I couldn’t find any organs that could be transplanted to him. If there was a clone to provide him with organs, he would now be able to walk and call me Father.”

Everyone, “……”

The room fell silent after those present saw the sad expression on the emperor’s face.

The emperor’s gaze swept over the room. “Now, let’s vote.”

The people in the meeting room looked at each other. Some raised their hands to agree while others were silent. Eventually, more than half the people present agreed and the plan was officially launched. The video ended here.

Tang Ci opened the second video.

In the same meeting room, there was a meeting discussing the second plan. The professors, Palmer, Qin Rong and Zhu Xingchen didn’t say that they added the bug genes. They just said that they had improved the culture medium and could ensure that the clones would survive.

Zhang Shaohua added, “Furthermore, after we successfully grow them, we will destroy all excess experimental products and leave only one or two as data backups in the secret laboratory. Once your children need it in the future, they will obtain the corresponding organs or tissues from the laboratory specimens.”

She added, “If this research is successfully implemented, there will be a leap in human medical technology. All the children born can automatically get a clone to protect their health for a lifetime.”

In the video, Shao Qingge’s father showed a conflicted expression on his face. He must’ve been uncertain but in the end, once everyone around him raised their hands, he also raised a trembling hand to agree.

The people signed the plan in turn.

***

There were only two videos in the data chip found on the skeleton but it was enough to explain the situation.

The Noah’s Ark project, originally led by the emperor, was jointly proposed by the genetics and reproductive experts of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Palmer, Qin Rong and Zhu Xingchen.

Zhang Shaohua was a direct student of Professor Palmer and responsible for the data collection and experiment arrangements.

The starting point actually made sense. They wanted to keep the clones as organ backups in the laboratory, so that the clones would have no human knowledge. Any redundant clones would be destroyed. The clones they wanted to make were more like ‘frozen organ banks’ than humans.

At both meetings, Zhang Shaohua didn’t know much about it judging from her performance.

Xiao Lou speculated, “Zhang Shaohua was very young at the time and blindly worshipped her mentor. She thought that her mentor’s decision was right. She certainly didn’t know that the emperor’s way of ‘destroying’ the clones was so cruel as to directly place hundreds of clones together in a test of survival of the fittest.”

Yu Hanjiang added, “Palmer and the others probably hadn’t expected the emperor to be so crazy either. After knowing all of this, they realized the crisis and chose to escape. They took away a clone of the crown prince and a large number of cloned specimens from the laboratory.”

Xiao Lou said helplessly, “The plan deviated from the original intention and went completely out of control. The emperor violated the original agreement of not allowing clones to join human society and personally raised the 2nd and 3rd Xiao Lous into adults. He wanted to raise the best crown prince.”

The chip contained the two videos as well as a large amount of cloned genetic data, case studies, the experimental protocol written by Professor Palmer, Professor Qin Rong and Professor Zhu Xingchen, Zhang Shaohua’s observation records in the laboratory…

There were even photos of the clones that they took with them when fleeing Capital Star.

The photos were marked with numbers such as Xiao Lou 4, Shao Qingge 1, Ye Qi 7 and so on.

The information found was really iron-clad proof.

Yu Hanjiang said, “Now the material evidence is complete. If this is released onto the Internet of the empire, it will definitely arouse public anger and they will find a way to let the crazy emperor step down. Now the key is to find a few witnesses who can convince the public. After all, with today’s high-tech means, videos can be completely faked.”

Xiao Lou was thoughtful, “If it is about witnesses, I can personally testify. My sister Xiao Rou might also be able to help. As for someone else… Zhang Shaohua?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “We have to go back to Capital Star and find her as soon as possible. It will be hard if she is also silenced.”

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