Light poured into the office from the floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the office not only brightly but also naturally.
It looked beautiful, but it was actually just artificial daylight.
In a space military base, prolonged absence of natural sunlight would seriously affect people’s health, so each level of the base had artificial daylight sources at the top of the ceilings.
Major Yan He sat on the sofa, his hands on his knees, his back straight, and the shoulder insignia on his snug-fitting black military uniform shone brightly under this light. The civilian personnel who came and went to seek his approval couldn’t help but steal glances at him.
Of course, they all knew better than to casually provoke soldiers who had just come down from the battlefield. Some of them, even though they had returned from the battlefield, still couldn’t control their combat stress reactions and could sometimes behave excessively. More seriously, they might be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), commonly known as war syndrome.
It’s said that this Major Yan He…
As they whispered to each other, the young military officer suddenly raised his head, and his sharp gaze from under the brim of his cap shot towards them, causing several civilian personnel to quickly avert their eyes.
Yan He didn’t have to wait for long before a staff officer came to inform him, “Major, General Yanni requests your presence.” Yan He stood up, tightened his uniform collar, and followed the staff officer into the adjacent office.
General Yanni had just finished a video conference. He looked at the young military officer standing at attention in front of his desk and kindly said, “Please have a seat.”
“I’ve already seen the report,” he continued, making a few gestures on the screen in front of him, and sent a small screen with the information over. “Fortunately, it’s only mild.”
Yan He glanced at the small screen in front of him, and in the diagnosis section of the report from the medical department, it read, “Mild post-traumatic stress disorder, recommended for a recuperative (take a break) leave.”
The young Major lowered his gaze, and his tense shoulders relaxed slightly.
The General observed this and nodded, “So, for now, you’ll be temporarily reassigned to a rear position. The garrison units in the Capital Star Cluster have less pressure; consider it a form of vacation.”
He continued, flipping the screen and glancing at it again, “Hmm? You applied for the ‘Gene-Optimized Parenting Program’ before your mission? That’s perfect. Military personnel can be directly matched without the need for a lottery. Once you find a suitable parenting partner over there, you can take a parenting leave. Raising children can be quite enjoyable, and I believe it will help you relax.”
A flash of astonishment crossed Yan He’s eyes, and he hesitated before saying, “No, that’s… “
“Major!” the general interrupted, “If diagnosed with moderate disorder, you won’t be able to return to the front lines, and I would lose an excellent officer.”
Yan He remained silent. Moderate disorder patients were not allowed on the front lines, and severe cases could lead to forced retirement, or even confinement – that was not what he wanted.
The General looked at the young man, closed the screen, and leaned back in his large leather chair.
“Major, you are an excellent soldier, there’s no doubt about that,” he affirmed. “At the awards ceremony a week from now, I will personally present you with the commendation medal.”
Despite receiving such praise, Yan He’s face showed no sign of joy. Instead, he lowered his gaze and said, “I couldn’t bring my people back. I don’t deserve to be awarded this medal.”
“Major, life and death are common in war, and every one of our soldiers knows they might lay down their lives on alien worlds when they step onto a starship. What matters is whether, as a soldier, you followed orders and completed your mission,” the General said sternly. “You returned after facing the bloodshed; this is what you deserve.”
A flicker of pain crossed Yan He’s eyes. He closed his eyes, then opened them, and the hesitation had disappeared from his gaze.
“Yes,” he stood up and saluted the General.
As he was about to leave, the General called him back and curiously asked, “Do you want a boy or a girl?”
Yan He hesitated for a moment and replied, “Let’s consider the other party’s preference.”
A week later, Yan He left the base with his medal and returned to his home to prepare for his new assignment in a different star field.
~
Jiang Miao woke up to the sound of birdsong.
At first, the sounds were chirps and tweets, gradually coming together into a melodic chorus that was so pleasant and soothing that it was difficult to be in a bad mood, even on a Monday morning.
As the birdsong filled the air, the simulated “starry sky” outside the floor-to-ceiling windows began to change. The stars faded away, and bright sunlight shone down onto the floor.
Jiang Miao rubbed her eyes, sat up, and said, “Turn it off.”
The wake-up program responded and the birdsong stopped, the image of the “morning sky” on the window glass also disappeared.
Real sunlight streamed in.
In her pajamas, Jiang Miao stretched and yawned, then picked up her first cup of coffee in the morning. She looked out at the real scenery through the window.
In her view, countless hundred-story skyscrapers stood tall, and the spaces between them were crisscrossed with public transport pipelines like blood vessels, running below 150 meters. Public transport vehicles zoomed through transparent tubes, intersecting at junctions.
This was the capital star of the Gita Republic, the most prosperous and advanced planet in the Gita Republic.
At the intersections of the pipelines, vehicles from different directions often whizzed past each other with a 0.1-second difference, appearing extremely thrilling. In reality, all public transport vehicles in the pipelines were efficiently coordinated and operated by the capital star’s central brain, making the 0.1-second encounters seem perilous but never resulting in collisions.
For the ordinary citizens living on this bustling urban planet, this was an efficient and economical means of transportation.
Above 150 meters, there was space for private flying cars, shuttles, and airships.
Unlike the uniform appearance of the vehicles in the public transport pipelines, private vehicles came in all shapes and sizes, reflecting their owners’ individuality. It was said that you could guess the owner’s personality from the vehicle’s appearance, with an accuracy rate as high as 75%.
Jiang Miao took a few sips of her coffee and saw the familiar police airship, closely skimming the glass curtain wall of her building, floating by leisurely.
The area where Jiang Miao lived belonged to the central middle-class residential district of the city center, and most of her neighbors, both above and below, were white-collar elites and knowledge workers. These people formed the backbone of this urban planet, contributing to the prosperity of the capital star.
Jiang Miao chose to settle in this community mainly because of the good security.
The police airship was flying too close, and through the c*ckpit’s glass, Jiang Miao could clearly see the driver inside.
Today, it was the young police officer who had joined the force a year ago, assigned to the security patrol team in this area. Since he was responsible for this district, Jiang Miao saw him on this airship every morning.
She had watched this young officer with her own eyes as he had transformed from a nervous rookie into a skilled driver. She had also seen the beer-bellied uncle who transformed from the young officer’s vigilant supervisor to his current state of sitting in the co-pilot’s seat contentedly while sipping tea and appearing quite relaxed – because the good security situation did make the grassroots police officers in this area relatively at ease.
Jiang Miao smiled in the morning light.
The beer-bellied uncle turned to look at the building, and even though the glass curtain wall was very close, it had a special coating. Jiang Miao could see him, but he couldn’t see her. He looked at his reflection on the glass and wasn’t entirely satisfied. He ran his hand over his balding head and adjusted the surrounding hair.
In this interstellar age, the fact that some people still experienced hair loss due to genetic factors indicated that the uncle was a natural-born person who hadn’t undergone genetic optimization.
Among the elite class in which Jiang Miao lived, there were many people who held discriminatory attitudes towards naturally born individuals who hadn’t undergone genetic optimization. Even though many people pretended not to discriminate, claimed to be very friendly, and insisted on equality for all, the reality was that the genetic discrimination did exist in daily life.
But Jiang Miao didn’t discriminate against them because she came from Earth in the 21st century, a time when genetic optimization was not yet a reality.
Yes, Jiang Miao was a time traveler. She was fortunate to be reborn in a time six thousand years later, during the era of interstellar colonization, as a genetically optimized individual.
Although she didn’t discriminate against natural-born individuals, Jiang Miao had experienced firsthand the benefits of genetic optimization. Compared to her previous life, she now had a clearer mind, a stronger memory, and a healthier body. According to medical predictions, as long as she didn’t encounter any accidents or incur untreatable infections, her natural lifespan should reach around 150 years.
The average lifespan of natural-born individuals was around 100 years, with some living to about 110. Genetically optimized individuals had an average lifespan of 135, and Jiang Miao’s expected natural lifespan of 150 had already exceeded the average. Her genetic profile was among the higher scores even among genetically optimized individuals.
Jiang Miao deeply felt that this reincarnation was perhaps a stroke of luck, and she was very satisfied with her current life.
After finishing her coffee, Jiang Miao set down her cup to freshen up and change her clothes. She had her breakfast and then took the elevator down to the 50th floor. To use the public transport pipelines, one had to descend to the 50th floor to access the boarding platform.
The platform had many boarding port, with each port accommodating only one person, eliminating the need for queuing.
Jiang Miao stood on the platform at her boarding port, raised her wrist close to the ticket counter. The ticket counter read her identity information and travel details from her bracelet-like personal smartbrain, transmitting the information to the central control smartbrain. The central smartbrain then made the most efficient scheduling based on Jiang Miao’s default destination and time requirements.
Jiang Miao waited only a minute before a four-passenger vehicle arrived at her boarding port.
Public transport options included one-person cars, two-person cars, four-person cars, ten-person cars, and twenty-person cars. The fewer the passengers in a vehicle, the more efficient it was for individual passengers, but of course, ticket prices and the vehicle’s passenger capacity were inversely proportional. But even the price for a single-person vehicle was affordable for Jiang Miao, a senior researcher.
When Jiang Miao was in college, she obtained her flying car license. However, after moving to the capital star for work, she found that the public transport pipelines in the twenty-four central districts of the capital star were incredibly efficient and convenient, easily meeting all her transportation needs. She decided to forgo the idea of purchasing a private car and relied on public transport for her daily commuting.
The car door opened, and Jiang Miao stepped into the cabin. The door closed immediately, and the vehicle accelerated. When viewing the transparent pipelines from the buildings, the car moved so fast that it was only a blur.
However, thanks to the inertia dampeners, passengers in the cabin felt no movement. Jiang Miao walked steadily to the last available seat.
In the four-passenger vehicle cabin, seats faced each other in pairs.
A familiar young woman with purple hair saw Jiang Miao and greeted her with a smile, “Good morning.”
The workweek started with morning greetings on the public transportation.
Another reason Jiang Miao chose to give up her private car in favor of public transport was her love for the “public transport social” culture in the capital star.
In her previous life on ancient Earth, she had numerous relatives, and every Chinese New Year, she was pressured about marriage. She was the type of person who disliked family gatherings and company social events. However, after she crossed over into the Gita Republic in this interstellar era, she discovered that people here valued self-expression and prioritized their own feelings above all else. Everyone had their personal boundaries.
In such a society, Jiang Miao had to actively engage in social interactions to avoid feeling alone in the world.
It truly was a case of “opposite extremes.”
Sansukini: Hi. Finally, I’m able to publish this one. I’ve been postponing it for a few weeks because I’ve been really tired lately. I hope you enjoy this novel. I used an AI generator to generate the novel’s cover. The AI is not so smart. No matter how I detailed it, it kept forgetting to add the baby. The other pictures looks great too, just that there’s no baby and the baby is one of the central part of this novel. Trigger warning is that the ML supposedly has PTSD, but it was just a small plot device and will be cleared later into the story. He is surprisingly a good house husband, plus remember he will be the one carrying the baby later (get pregnant).
Please enjoy the novel.
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