novelsite Chapter 17 A Lively Night
Chapter 17 A Lively Night
It was around 6 p.m. Beijing time, and the sun was setting.
On the other side of the world, New York City is welcoming a new day, with the morning light breaking through the darkness and illuminating the bustling metropolis.
In Times Square, the giant LED screen is still playing yesterday's news on a loop. Below the screen, thousands of people lie in the square, wrapped in blankets looted from nearby shops.
A Black homeless man sits on the steps, playing the blues on his harmonica.
He has been playing the same tune for 10 days, and someone asked him why he doesn't change it.
He said, "I sing it every day, every day is the first time, that's the fucking essence of blues..."
……
In Central Park, temporary tents were set up everywhere on the grass. The revelry had not stopped. Ribbons and empty bottles were scattered around the tents. People sang and danced, and some even opened the tents to stage live sex scenes. There were also many people engaging in sexual activity.
……
Wall Street, the stock exchange is closed, but a crowd has gathered at the entrance.
They are former traders now playing a new game: "time gambling".
Everyone uses their "memory advantage" to place bets on things that happened in their memories.
One of them said, "Hey, I know someone's going to jump off a building at 8 a.m. this morning... Want to take a gamble? No dollars, just some vintage wine."
This isn't a money game; it's a memory game.
……
On the Brooklyn Bridge, a woman stands in the middle of the bridge, wearing a wedding dress and holding a bouquet of artificial flowers.
She was waiting for someone, a man who captured her heart in just three days.
The man, dressed in his wedding attire, jumped off this bridge on his day of consciousness, March 18th; she was waiting for him on her day of consciousness, March 12th.
……
In the Eastern Hemisphere, Awareness Day is March 11th.
Su Mian walked out of laboratory 401 in the research building of Liming University, looking exhausted and dejected.
Ever since the world began to regress, she has been trying to decipher it using her own understanding. She has been working on it for several days in a row, but she has made no progress and is filled with frustration.
Entering the restroom, Su Mian took off her mask and looked at her delicate face in the mirror. A feeling of unease welled up in her heart. The scene of her conversation with the top team in Shanghai who specializes in the "world regression" phenomenon two days ago instantly flashed into her mind.
"Ms. Su, we are very grateful that you are willing to help with the disaster, but... let's just forget about it."
"reason?"
"Uh... the boss said that you're too good-looking, and if you came to the lab, we guys probably wouldn't be able to concentrate on our work..."
Hearing those words again now, Su Mian still felt a tightness in her chest.
"What do you mean?"
"Am I just a pretty face?"
She tilted her head slightly, muttering defiantly to herself in the mirror, but the next second, her shoulders slumped, and she looked utterly dejected.
She knew very well that even if she wasn't just a pretty face in other people's eyes, normally it wouldn't be easy for her to enter such a national-level laboratory, let alone during this special period.
As the old saying goes, "every profession is like a mountain to climb," and only those who truly immerse themselves in a field understand its difficulties.
Neuroscience is precisely such a discipline.
This field of knowledge can be traced back to the ancients' exploration of brain diseases. For example, Hua Tuo's treatment of Cao Cao's headache at the end of the Han Dynasty can be considered an early and rudimentary attempt.
It was not until modern times, with the discovery of neurons and breakthroughs in the functional localization of brain regions, that a complete system was gradually formed.
Simply put, neuroscience studies how the brain works and what abnormalities can occur in the nervous system.
After the 20th century, the emergence of electrophysiology, brain imaging, and new computing methods enabled humans to re-understand the brain at the cellular and molecular levels and to conduct systematic research on behavioral aspects.
Over time, this discipline has been subdivided into more than ten areas, the most common being cellular neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, computational neuroscience, and neural engineering. Neurology, as commonly understood, falls under the category of clinical neuroscience; while the recently popular brain-computer interface falls under neural engineering.
The sheer size of the field is evident. Many scholars dedicate their entire lives to it, yet may not be able to fully grasp even one branch.
Thinking of this, Su Mian couldn't help but recall her own path of learning.
In her early years at university, she majored in cellular neuroscience, but the course was difficult and obscure. Not to mention that it was difficult for a newcomer to make any achievements, even if one studied it for half a lifetime, it was not certain that one could make a new breakthrough.
She later switched to studying computational neuroscience, thinking it would be easier, but when she actually started learning, she found that this field required using mathematics, computers, and physical models to simulate the brain's "computational logic," which meant she had to learn mathematics and programming from scratch.
Her only notable experience is that after graduating last year, she joined a neuroengineering research group at Fudan University by chance and participated in a new research direction on brain-computer interfaces, which is why she made her name on the Elsevier forum.
But whenever she thinks about this, she feels ashamed.
She knew she hadn't played a significant role, yet she still had her name prominently listed as an author on the final paper. Later, she learned that this was partly due to her father's secret connections, and partly because the senior student in charge of the project had feelings for her…
"Ugh."
Su Mian splashed cold water on her face and chuckled softly to herself in the mirror:
"I blame myself for being too eager for quick success and instant benefits. I was always thinking about achieving results quickly to prove myself, but in the end, I accomplished nothing."
"That national-level hacking team in Shanghai is looking for truly top-notch people in their respective fields, and I'm definitely not qualified."
Stepping out of the laboratory building, the campus of Liming University was still brightly lit. Countless students wandered around the campus like an unattended flock of sheep. This scene had been going on for several days, and seeing it again had become quite commonplace.
Su Mian smiled helplessly, took out her phone and glanced at the time—12:20 a.m.
Date displayed: March 12, 2047.
She silently calculated in her mind that if calculated according to physical time, today should be March 31, 2047. The current date can only be considered "consciousness time".
Stepping out of the school gate, she was wide awake.
A night breeze blew, and most of the dejection from my previous fruitless research dissipated.
"Who isn't a researcher at some point?"
"At worst, I'll figure it out myself!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she saw a couple at the school gate, all lovey-dovey, quietly discussing where to stay up all night, and she couldn't help but feel a little envious.
Before the world went backwards, she still had the will to prove that beautiful people could be good scientists. But now the world is going backwards, the sky is falling, and those prejudices should naturally be borne by those in positions of power.
But her lost youth can never be recovered; she never even had a proper relationship...
Even if the body gets younger, the spirit will have long since dissipated.
"Shall we go to the Bund? I heard it's been really lively there these days!" The girl said coquettishly, shaking the boy's arm with expectant eyes. "Everyone online says that Nanjing Road is now a city that never sleeps, and lots of delicious food and fun activities are free."
"Go to the Bund..." The boy pretended to hesitate, "It's a bit far, I don't really want to go, unless..."
As he spoke, he gently tapped his cheek with his fingertip.
"Oh, you're so annoying..." The girl blushed, glanced quickly to the left and right, and still tiptoed to kiss him quickly.
"well……"
Watching from the side, Su Mian sighed inwardly, thinking to herself, "What a silly girl, she's probably going to be taken advantage of tonight..."
However, their conversation did give her pause for thought.
"How can we get there?"
Su Mian glanced around the entrance of Dawn University and saw that there were no shared bikes that were usually everywhere.