Chapter 8 archives

When Luo Ying and Chenia sat side by side on the watchtower, there were already stars twinkling above their heads, the night sky was so bright that it was hard to look at it, and the Milky Way crossed the entire sky from left to right.Most of Mars City can be seen from the watchtower, and the lights are scattered, just like the starry sky on the earth.They sat in the middle of two seas of stars, and the iron-framed stairs stretched all the way under their feet.Here they sat, at last having a vision of being far away from home. "At first I also thought about the simplest possibility, that is, Grandpa really thought that this learning opportunity was very good, so he used his power privately."

"Do you think it's possible?" Chenia looked at her, the corners of her upturned eyes showed a hint of sarcasm, "If I were the governor, I would replace my granddaughter from the regiment." Chenia learns gymnastics, and they are the only two girls who learn body movements. Chenia knows Luo Ying's pain. Luo Ying shook her head: "At that time, I thought that the organizing committee might not know that we were having a hard time, but really hoped that we could learn something new." Chenia whispered, "I hope." Chania was never afraid to draw cold conclusions.But it's not that Luo Ying can't think of those possibilities, it's just that she doesn't want to think that way.She knew that this was her weakness, and many facts were subconsciously avoided by her.She didn't want to accept the idea that she was just a living test subject. In this regard, she was far less realistic and strong than Chenia.

"Whether the organizers know the difficulty of the earth or not, this is not the reason why grandpa sent me to the earth. I was replaced in less than a month after I saw the video. This is too coincidental, it can't be true coincidence." "I totally agree with that." "So the biggest question now is, if Grandpa is afraid that I will learn more, then what is he afraid of?" "It shouldn't be hard to guess. He just didn't want you to know that he executed your parents." "It's not execution, it's just that they are punished to mine."

"It's almost the same. Don't the mine ships on Deimos often have accidents?" "Actually, I'm not sure if that video was a punishment for my parents. I didn't hear it clearly at the time, and even if I heard it clearly, I probably didn't understand it at the time. Maybe it's because there are parents' names vaguely, and It's fragments." "Then they are also worried that you will learn more facts." "If it's just grandpa like this, I wouldn't be surprised, but what makes me sad is that my brother probably knew about it a long time ago, and he just kept it from me with grandpa."

"You can't tell. Your brother even knows why your parents were punished." Chenia's words touched Luo Ying's heart.She asked her out today because she wanted her to help herself think about what kind of fault would cause a person to be fined to mine on a satellite, resulting in death.Life on Mars is peaceful and serene, with little sin or conflict.They have seen very few punishments since they were young. Being punished to work in the workshop and not being allowed to submit works is already a big punishment.Luo Ying really couldn't think of what kind of big mistake her parents would make. They have always loved life so much, and there is no bad record in the file space.The only punishment is a fatal punishment.They only worked for less than a year before they had an accident.After much deliberation, it seems that my mother's biggest mistake was not registering.

She looked at the night sky and asked gently: "You said, is it a sin not to register?" Chenia laughed at herself and said, "If it is, I would rather be punished." "You didn't sign up either?" "No." "I do not have either." "It seems that everyone doesn't." "Really?" Luo Ying was stunned for a moment, "I don't know yet. Are the others dragging it too?" "It's been dragging on. Didn't Anka almost leave the team?" "Huh? When?" "Don't you know?" Chenia was a little surprised, "I had a falling out with their captain from the first day I came back. It is said that after the dinner, they had a mission to surround the Earth Mission Hotel and fly demonstrations in the sky, but Anka refused. The soldier refused the order, how could the officer not get angry? As a result, he didn’t get better for a few days, and once he almost left.”

"Is that so..." Luo Ying murmured. It's always a little strange to hear about Anka from someone else.In fact, she didn't know much about him, and it was often told to her by others.But even so, the Anka she heard from others still felt different from the Anka she remembered.She always felt that he was the kind of person who looked at everything casually, but on earth, he had left the team after a quarrel.She often heard Chenia talk about some things, and Chenia seemed to know everyone's situation. "You can't tell, it's a big mistake not to register." Chenia said suddenly.

"Ok?" "Other small mistakes, such as stealing something, taking advantage of something, are just one-off, and everyone else knows that they are wrong, and they won't have too much impact, just a simple punishment. But provoking existing concepts is different. Yes. A conceptual revolution always challenges the existing way of life, and if it spreads, it is likely to threaten order, so it may be a big mistake to reject the leadership of the studio.” Luo Ying didn't speak, and Chenia's words reminded her of some words said by her returnist friends on Earth. "Of course," Chenia added, "I'm just guessing."

"I was thinking today," Luo Ying said, "the biggest problem in our world is that you can't feel bad. Everyone has to choose a position and live according to the existing pattern. I think it's very scary. If, as you guessed, not registering is a serious crime, it means that people do not even have the freedom to escape from this system. What a terrible world this is.” Chenia didn't respond, and asked her instead: "You didn't start thinking like this until you came back?" Luo Ying nodded. "Me too. Sometimes I feel so uncomfortable. After finally coming back, I can't see anything."

Luo Ying thought for a while and said: "If a person can only live in one way, live by intuition, it is actually a very happy thing." Chenia smiled: "How do I remember what we said four years ago?" Luo Ying also smiled: "I just recite what I said back then. Now I don't say such provocative words anymore." They seldom say such words to sum up their lives now.I have seen too many troubles, so I can't use a summary to describe it.At that time, they were talking about people from the earth, and they said it with ease and emotion, far from being as depressed as tonight.

Chenia suddenly turned her head to look at her and asked, "What do you want to do most now?" Luo Ying blurted out, "Get out." Chenia laughed, squinted her slender eyes, nodded and said, "Sure enough." Luo Ying raised her head, touched the hard and cold glass dome above her head, and said, "Unfortunately, I can't get out anymore." The four watchtowers are the tallest buildings in the city, standing quietly in four directions of the city like four patron saint statues.They like it here, because here they can touch the highest dome of Mars, they can look directly outside, and they can touch the edge of the city that they can't touch in their lives.The stars in the night sky are bright and dazzling, without the cover of the atmosphere, the sea of ​​stars is brilliant and constant. "That's why I want to go out." Chenia said, "Have you ever argued with people on Earth about how good the security and morality of Mars are? I said it anyway. But I just figured it out yesterday. , Why is the law and order so good here? It’s not that Martians are inherently noble, but because no one can get out. So you have nowhere to escape. They will catch you sooner or later, so you can’t make mistakes.” She suddenly looked sadly Looking at Luo Ying, "You have nowhere to escape, so you can only live like this." Luo Ying didn't answer.Chenia's long chestnut hair was spread out messily and casually as always. It has been a long time since they discussed the issue of lifestyle.When they first arrived on Earth, they used to be very keen on discussions. Every time they saw a new occupation and scene, they would carefully comment on it, find some truth in it, and declare what kind of life they want to live.However, from the penultimate year onwards, they seldom talk about it. There are very few things that they can decide in life. There are actually very few things that people can decide for themselves in the so-called various ways of life. But anyway, they had seen those different ways of life. The Martian way of life follows a long tradition of traditionalism.Every child will go through a similar process: going to class at the age of six, participating in public welfare work at the age of nine, thinking about the future direction at the age of twelve, and being excited with the self-selected course manual at the age of thirteen.They can take elective courses in various studios when they are teenagers. After completing the credits, they can choose their favorite direction to start an internship, do a thesis, and work as a work assistant. Then everyone will choose a studio.They will also go to shops, workshops, and mines to work, but that is part of the internship in their respective studios. It is completely voluntary labor, mainly to accumulate experience.No one will do irrelevant things, and no one will leave.Everyone will have a permanent studio, a number, an archive space for storing work, and a linear path for a lifetime. However, on the earth, what is related to Luoying's migration is the people she sees doing various things.Every time she went to a place, she was surrounded by a group of new companions. They never signed a long-term contract with any place. The government does volunteer work, occasionally does some illegal business, and occasionally sells its own wisdom on the Internet.Do one thing, get money for a day.They traveled from city to city, eating fast food at the airport, gathering in the lobby of the hotel, buying cigarettes with the money they just got, and doing business with people they just met.Their occupations are as ambiguous as their eyes, and they quickly shift direction as soon as a spark is sparked. It was an uncertain and charming life, which strongly confronted and collided with the Platonic garden of creation they had been accustomed to since they were young. Like two cold currents, they swept through her life bitterly, colliding in her heart, creating a storm. Therefore, what they experienced on the earth were two opposite adaptation processes: the adaptation in terms of living means was more inconvenient, and the adaptation in terms of lifestyle was more complicated.The operation of Martian cities is far more developed than that of Earth, but the way of life on Mars is far simpler than that of Earth. In Luo Ying's view, people on Mars are sober like the sun god, while many people on the earth are drunk like the god of wine.From the age of ten Martians learned about the logic of Aristotle, the Code of Hammurabi, the Jacobins and the Restoration of the Revolution, and the artistry of human history.People sat at their own desks and stood at the common long coffee table to discuss philosophy calmly, discuss the embodiment of the will of the universe in spiritual history, discuss the change of civilization and the promotion of conscious consciousness to human history.They most admire great wisdom, art and invention.The most common question every Martian asks himself is, why is he doing this, and what is the value of doing this in the course of civilization? But Earthlings are not like that. The first thing Luo Ying learned on earth was carnival. She drank with the girls of the dance troupe and their friends, and smoked a psychedelic drug between drugs and tobacco leaves. Feel the radiance of divine light in the perfect illusion.She listened to them telling jokes, singing loudly, and swinging collectively. They didn’t ask each other why or where they were going. They just enjoyed the release of their bodies together. The beauty of a person's body is elucidated to the extreme, saying that he is the universe, and the moment of happiness is the eternity of the universe.She learned all this quickly, laughing and messing around with them, never asking why they did it, what role these things had in human history, and she knew that in the midst of such passionate intoxication, such questions were out of place and meaningless. Mars has wine, but rarely gets drunk.Almost all the children of the Mercury Cluster experience the shock of such a life.They cannot avoid the question: Does life exist for the sake of great history and masterpieces, or is life itself the whole meaning.So they hesitated, fell silent in the crowd, woke up when carousing, got drunk when studying, and didn't believe in anything in an instant. Luo Ying wanted to know the real reason why she was sent to Earth no matter what.She doesn't want to be arranged.In the past, she could accept all arrangements as a matter of course, but now she needs to know whether all these are reasonable. She silently thought, Gods of Mount Olympus, did you ever know that there is a group of children who will search and struggle for your sobriety and carnival confusion? ※※※ Before going to Uncle Lak's office, Luo Ying sat on the tunnel car and thought for a long time.She deliberately chose the wrong destination twice and made a big circle.If not, it's almost five minutes away.The tunnel car is always automatically optimized, choosing the best route according to the destination, leaving no time for hesitation and consideration. She hesitated for a while, whether to continue searching. She felt that she was cautiously walking towards the edge, towards a problem that she could not meet in her ordinary life and could only feel between the mistakes of this transition.She is still a non-existent person now.She has no registration, no account, no system identity.She's someone who's challenged to stand outside the system.Do not register.She whispered the short, decisive sentence.Is this a great crime?Does this challenge the order of existence in this world?Is this a reason worth letting Grandpa exile Mom and Dad and be afraid of knowing it?Why does the system care so much about a nine-digit number? She had heard some stories on earth, some called the age of machines, and people told them with panic, saying that in that world, the machine system enveloped everyone, imprisoned everyone, and treated people as only one of them. Parts that are used and destroyed arbitrarily, human freedom, rights and dignity are all suppressed to the point of non-existence.They say Mars is the best example.She was terrified and trembling imperceptibly.She is afraid of their bad words.They had never been to Mars, but they talked so well that they seemed to know better than she did.After listening to it a lot, she got used to it, no longer afraid of malice, and began to panic that what they were telling was the truth.She asked herself, what would she do if evil really ruled around her? There are many things Luo Ying wants to ask, but most of them she dare not ask directly.Many people on the planet told her that Grandpa was a dictator.They are eloquent and eloquent.But her grandfather's blood was flowing on her body, and her doubts could not be turned into direct words to question. In her childhood memory, grandpa was the guardian of Mars.She didn't believe that grandpa was a dictator at the bottom of her heart, but some of the back and forth details made her full of doubts.Grandpa was a soldier, the last batch of flying fighters in the war years, a survivor, winner, and bearer of the war.After the war, he turned into an engineering pilot, driving a mining ship, traveling between Mars and Mars, exploring Jupiter, collecting water from asteroids, and establishing a base on Mars. He first participated in scientific research and spacecraft test flights, and then led the entire fleet and flight missions. The technology development of the system has been done alone for most of his life, and he entered the Senate after middle age, from a member to an elder, and became the governor at the age of sixty.When Luo Ying was a child, she saw her grandfather bowed his head to the desk every day, reading and talking all night long.Sometimes when the whole family visited grandpa's house, he would still be called away from the dining table by other prominent adults, and he would not come back for a long time after he went.The capacity of his personal space is equivalent to the memory of an entire school.Luo Ying doesn't think he is a dictator, if he is, then this dictator is too much work.But on the other hand, there are various things conflicting in her heart, making her uncertain.For example, her departure, such as the death of her parents, such as the way the database operates. She wanted to figure out these things, which was an unavoidable question and urging in her heart. The tunnel car glides in the smooth pipe like a drop of water, and the gas is wrapped outside the car without any noise.When Luo Ying was a child, she didn't know that her hometown was such a quiet place. There was no high-speed elevator, no noisy people, no cars, and no planes.There are only delicate and small houses, glass, gardens and paths, only small vending shops, cafes, unmanned movie theaters and transparent tunnel cars that flow through pipes like water droplets.Only people who study, work, meditate and talk.No marijuana, no shouting, no half-drunk naked orgies.There is no noise, only silence. Luo Ying sat around the city for more than half a circle, watching the intertwined light and dark light blur the edge of the carriage. Finally, she made up her mind and pressed the Montesquieu archives, Uncle Lak's work place. She needs to know the answer.Although he is unwilling to face the reality that seems absurd, he is even more afraid of the unknown, and there will never be any results.Doubt about life is the most torturous of all panics.She couldn't let life sit in suspense. Uncle Rucker is in charge of the entire Mars Archives Center.The numbers of those identities are like honeycombs, forming a dense array of people.Uncle Rack sat among them, as if he had become one with them.Walking into the office, there is an old desk in front of you. There are faint cracks on the desktop, but it is wiped clean and the items are arranged meticulously. "sit down." Rucker pointed to the chair in front of the desk.Luo Ying sat down gently, subconsciously straightened her back. "I read your letter. I see what you mean," said Rucker. Luo Ying didn't speak, but waited nervously.The sun just shone in the corner of her eyes, and she couldn't see clearly ahead. "Do you really want to check?" Luo Ying nodded. "However, there are many things in daily life, and it is not necessary to trace the reasons for everything." "Knowing is not the same as not knowing." "The more you know, the less it will be." Luo Ying looked at Uncle Lak.His elongated fingers were crossed, his elbows were resting on the desk, and he was also looking at her quite seriously.He was calm, but his expression was very dignified.His back was straight and his head was as straight as a pitcher, but for some reason it seemed to her that he was in a prayerful posture.There was a bitterness in his eyes, secret but clear, reaching her through the disc glasses, through the hands, through the air between them.Uncle Lak's face was long and thin, with well-defined cheekbones, and the hair on the top of his head was thinning. The gray color brought out the anxiety of overthinking.He was never one to show his emotions easily, unlike Uncle Juan, who never got angry out loud or laughed out loud.His face always lacks change like a root carving.If he showed a trace of helpless bitterness, then it must be because he wanted her to see what he meant.He didn't get up, still waiting for her final answer. "I still want to check." "Okay." Luke nodded. He stood up and wiped lightly on the wall, the screen protection wallpaper disappeared, revealing a small square metal grid on the entire wall.From the roof to the ground, densely packed.Luo Ying sat opposite and watched, feeling dizzy.They all have a small brown door with gold trim, and there is a small white card under each pull ring, giving people the illusion that they can be opened by reaching out.Lak skilfully checked the markings on the card, walked along the wall for a while, clicked lightly on a small grid, and entered a few password parameters, and a slight roar of operation sounded immediately behind the wall. Soon, a piece of electronic paper fell out of a gap on one side of the wall. Lak picked up the paper and handed it to Luo Ying.Luo Ying took it carefully and watched it intently.On the paper are the test papers and grades of the year.On the transparent fiberglass, the font is like a thin knife, cutting through the air as it rolls upward. She looked at it for a long time, and finally raised her head.She had already known the result on the paper before, but it was only officially confirmed at this time. "Uncle Luke, why did you replace me?" Lark shook his head slightly: "I can give you the facts, but I can't tell you the reason." "I want to know who that kid is." "Which child?" "It's the kid who was supposed to go to Earth. The kid who swapped fate with me. Who is he?" Lark hesitated and said, "I don't know." "Impossible. You must know. You were the examiner at the time, how could you not know?" Luo Ying blurted out, and felt that she was too impolite after speaking.She doesn't like herself like this.Always lost in doubt.She turned her head away, trying to calm herself down. Uncle Lak's eyes were full of pity, even a hint of sadness. "Even if I knew," he said, "I couldn't tell you. You can check your own file, that's your right. But you can't check someone else's, and I don't have that right." Luo Ying lowered her head.The office chair is in the shape of an old-fashioned armchair, with undulating lines like open hands, and people sitting in it sink deeply, as if being embraced.Luo Ying needs such a hug at this time.The hanging stone fell down and fell into the sea, which aroused a tsunami deep in my heart. "Uncle Luke," she asked, looking up, "can't you check other people's files?" "cannot." "Not even family members?" "cannot." "Isn't it claimed that everyone's file space is transparent and open?" "Yes, but there are two prerequisites: voluntary, or legal regulations. The materials and works you voluntarily publish can be made public, the policy proposals you want to be passed must be made public, and your financial income and expenses as a job and manager must be made public, but Beyond that, you have a right to privacy. Everyone has it, and so do the archives. There are always a lot of archives that don’t go public and end up as historical memories, and that’s the same in any era.” "Then I can't even check the files of my parents?" "If it's something they haven't published publicly, then yes." "I tried to check my mother's files, but all the public files stopped in the last two years before her death, when she quit the studio. I don't know what happened to her after that, just like those two years It doesn't exist." Lak's eyes were pitiful, but his voice was calm: "I'm sorry about that too." "how so?" "The public part is generally an automatic record of her work affairs. She quit the studio, and it is normal that there is no record." "In other words, a person who quits the studio, in the eyes of the system, is the same as dying?" "you could put it that way." Luo Ying was silent.The light from outside the window slanted in, cutting the entire wall coldly, and the small grid in the shadows seemed like an infinite deep sea.She knew that Uncle Rucker was right, everything he said was true.It was so right that she despaired. "Is that what registration is all about?" "not quite." "Then what's the point of registering?" "It's about distributing materials. Distribute materials fairly, openly, and transparently. Make sure that everyone gets the money they deserve and puts it into his account, no more, no less, and no leaks or concealments." "But isn't our money distributed according to age? What does that have to do with registration and studios?" "That's the cost of living. It's a tiny fraction of the capital of the system. That part really has nothing to do with registration, it's just entered by age. But when you grow up you'll know that of all the capital normally at the disposal of an adult, the cost of living is just The secondary part. Most of his sources of income are research funds, creation costs, production costs, purchases and sales. All these capitals flow within the framework of the studio, and the studio is only used, and finally returned Return to the overall. Only in this way can account statistics be made. Without a registered account, the system does not allow money input.” "Can't you do research by yourself?" "Yes. But you can only use your living expenses. You cannot apply for public funding. Once a gap is opened to input the total income of the system to private individuals, illegal operations and wealth accumulation will burst out like an unstoppable river." "But if you don't want the money, then it's not a big crime not to register?" "no." "Will you not be exiled?" "Won't." "Then how did my parents die?" Luo Ying finally plucked up the courage to ask this question.She bit her lip lightly, her lips were slightly dry from tension.Rucker wasn't as surprised by this as she thought.He was still sitting quietly, his body upright, his face and voice unchanged, as if he had been prepared for this question. "They died in an unfortunate ship accident. I'm sad about that too." "I know. But I'm not asking that, I'm asking what is the reason for punishing them." "As I said, I can only provide the facts, not the reasons." "But there must be a crime, right?" "The charge is threatening national security." "What security? How threatened?" "Those are not included in the name of the crime, I can't explain." Rucker still sat sternly, but his voice was getting lower and lower.Luo Ying confronted him, as if there was an invisible rope in the middle, the two were tug-of-war, but neither of them could move a single point.She suddenly felt a little wronged and her throat was slightly congested, but she finally held back and did not cry.Luke silently handed over a cup of tea, but she shook her head without reaching out to take it. She looked at Luke a little sadly: "Uncle Luke, can you tell me one thing?" "What's up?" "Is Grandpa a dictator?" Lark was silent for a while without answering directly.He looked at her as if considering the reason for her question.Then he replied with the calmness of a textbook, with an antique unreality in the voice in the dim sunlight: "This question must be defined. Since the beginning, the definition of a dictator has not changed much. If a person can arbitrarily If you want to make laws and enforce laws freely, and decide on state affairs without restraint and supervision, then you can be considered a dictator.” He paused, “Your grandfather cannot decide laws arbitrarily, laws are drafted by the elders of the review system; he cannot make decisions arbitrarily , Each system has autonomy, internal decision-making is made by the system, and the overall decision-making of the cross-system needs to be negotiated by all the council, and the planetary decision-making is a referendum; he cannot be unsupervised, we have records in the database, his words and deeds, Every money spent is clearly visible. So, do you think he is a dictator?" "Then why can't I check Grandpa's file? Can't I also supervise it?" "That's different." Lak said slowly, "Everyone has a private part. A part that belongs to memory. That part is the reef under the sea, and what we have the right to supervise is only the ship on the sea. Information other than duties , others have no right to spy." Luo Ying bit her lip, Lak's words were like the ocean of squares behind him, bottomless. "What exactly is recorded in these archives?" "Memory. Memory of time." "Why don't people on Earth have such an archive?" "People on Earth also have them, but you can't see them." Luke became more and more patient, and his voice became more and more slow, "You should have found out that you have been to Earth. Our files save us a lot of trouble. When a person from a When the studio is transferred to another studio, he does not need to prepare any identification materials, transfer residence permits and bank accounts, and do not need any documents. As long as the studio clicks OK, everything is automatically transferred. Don’t you think this is very convenient? ? This also ensures that we can establish a person's true credit history." "Yes, that's right." Uncle Rucker was right, she understood.On earth, she used to carry thick notarized documents from one office to another, using those documents to explain herself, introduce herself, transfer herself, prove that she is herself, accept cross-examination at every desk, and answer journal-like questions , surrounded by questions and overwhelmed by forms.She has also experienced deception after deception and witnessed various disguises.Uncle Rack is right, absolutely right.But this is not what I want to ask. "What I want to ask is, why do we have a number, a still space, and a studio identity? Why can't we flow, do whatever we want, forget the past and change ourselves anytime and anywhere? Why can't we be free?" "You can be free and change yourself, no problem." Uncle Lak's voice was low and mysterious, "But you can't forget the past." The setting sun was almost parallel to the ground, and the large shadows made the roof appear higher and higher.Lak's figure was still slender and tall, with a gray suit waistcoat, a white shirt without decoration, and the gold buttons on the cuffs and neckline were neatly buttoned.He looked at Luo Ying pitifully through the black-rimmed glasses, as if he wanted to tell her a lot, but he didn't say anything.His hands were flat on the desk, and his slender fingers were like ancient quills, spread out quietly.For the first time, Luo Ying noticed the surrounding pillars, like the stone pillars of ancient Greek temples, with bluish-white vertical lines, solemn and sacred, hiding the fast-running circuit control inside.The desk is also the color of wood, and it cannot be seen that it is glass. The pen holder on the desk has faint artificial patterns.The room is full of history, just like Uncle Rack.