Safe City Ch.138.2

Chapter 138.2: The Longevity Researcher

Colleen wasn’t particularly surprised. After all, every time she’d gone to the “cafeteria” for a meal over the past half month, they had given her natural food rather than the cheaper, simpler, and more convenient nutrient paste.

The [Ota Company] was surprisingly generous when it came to employee benefits.

Not only did they provide employees with natural food, but even their employees’ family members were apparently entitled to purchase natural food?

Colleen was delighted. She cuddled her daughter and asked,

“Of course I missed you. Mommy thinks about Seraphine every day. How have you been at home?”

“I’m happy every day! Daddy makes us really yummy food. I’m studying too, and I’ve watched lots of really good cartoons. I help Daddy water the vegetables, and I even got some new clothes! Mommy, look! Aren’t my clothes pretty? Daddy made them.”

As Colleen responded to her daughter’s stream of chatter, she cast a puzzled look toward Reg.

Regg was quite happy to share this with her.

“[Ota] allows us to make our own clothes, and it also allows us to grow our own crops. So I learned how to sew, then bought a planter and some soil to grow vegetables. The vegetables are still just little seedlings, though. Once they grow big enough, I’ll cook something for you.”

After saying a few words, he turned back to the kitchen. With practiced movements, he stirred the vegetables in the pan, turned off the heat, and transferred a plate of tender green stir-fried vegetables onto a serving dish.

Colleen was dazzled by what she was seeing.

“Darling, you can actually cook now?”

People of their generation on Moon Silk Star didn’t know how to cook. Recipes were subject to patents, and Moon Silk Star’s citizens were prohibited from growing crops at home. Buying vegetables was also extremely expensive.

On top of that, the government claimed that cooking fumes caused environmental pollution, and anyone who cooked at home had to pay a pollution tax. Naturally, even fewer people were willing to cook at home.

Colleen and Regg had grown up eating the nutrient paste sold outside. Only occasionally would they spend an exorbitant amount of money on a meal made from fresh food that still retained its original appearance.

Colleen’s parents, however, had once told her that when they were young, they had enjoyed the freedom to cook their own meals.

The supposed high cost of cooking had merely been something the [Company] had deliberately engineered in order to sell its convenient nutrient paste.

Back then, Colleen had listened to her parents tell these stories as though they were fairy tales. She had never imagined that one day, she would actually see her own partner skillfully complete an entire meal from start to finish.

Seeing her standing there dumbfounded, Regg smiled and brought a spoonful of the tender greens to her mouth.

“[Ota] allows us to cook freely at home. I compared the prices with what they charge in the cafeteria and realized that cooking for ourselves is cheaper, so I learned how to cook. Honestly, darling, it turns out it’s not difficult at all.”

He seemed like a completely different person from before.

The old Regg wasn’t particularly fond of speaking unless someone prompted him, and even when he smiled, there had always been a shy quality to it.

But right now, Regg’s face was practically glowing with a smile, and every movement he made was incredibly light and cheerful. When he carried the dishes out of the kitchen and passed Colleen, he even lifted the plate high and spun around lightly like he was dancing.

For a moment, Colleen felt as though she were looking at the young Regg from years ago.

She didn’t realize that a smile had unconsciously appeared on her own face as well. Smiling, she asked,

“Where are Mom and Dad?”

Regg answered, “They went to the [Company]’s music room. You probably won’t believe this, but the [Company] is willing to purchase the music Mom and Dad create. The points aren’t much, but it makes them really happy.”

“You know, they lost their professions when the war began. Now that they’ve finally gotten a chance to pick them back up, they’re practically living in the music room.”

Colleen was indeed surprised.

“Oh! That’s wonderful news.”

Both of her parents were musicians. Back when Moon Silk Star was still in better times, they had been respectable, relatively high-income members of society.

Then the war broke out, and everything changed.

People no longer cared about art, while music was the only thing her parents knew how to do. They were willing to take on dirty and exhausting work, but even those jobs had been taken away by the robots employed by the [Company]—machines that didn’t need food or water and could work twenty-four hours a day without stopping.

If Colleen hadn’t found a job and brought her parents over to take care of them, the two elderly people, unable to find work while burdened with a mountain of taxes, might even have ended up in the slums.

Who would have thought that even though conditions outside were worse than they had been 150 years ago, [Ota] would actually have an environment where music could flourish?

Regg said, “Exactly! Although they told me that [Ota] prefers a somewhat aggressive style of music, something like a war raging through a violent storm. That’s not exactly the style they’re best at, but I can tell that they actually like it too.”

“There’s another piece of good news. The dorm supervisor who brought us here said he could help me sell my models on consignment. Several of the models I’ve made have already sold, and the prices weren’t bad. And I can make the models right here at home, so it won’t interfere with taking care of Seraphine.”

Still holding the dishes, he leaned over and gave Colleen a gentle kiss. His eyes seemed to sparkle like starlight.

“Darling, you have no idea how happy I am.”

Colleen felt like she was about to be completely crushed beneath the weight of all these good tidings.

Regg’s profession was much like her parents’—something that could make a great deal of money during peaceful times, but became completely useless the moment society collapsed.

She didn’t actually mind supporting the whole family herself. But she knew that both Regg and her parents genuinely loved their professions, and neither of them wanted to place the entire burden of keeping the family alive on Colleen alone.

And now, they hadn’t merely found jobs.

They had also found greater meaning in their lives.

Colleen was sincerely happy for her family.

“That’s wonderful, darling. I’m so happy for you.”

Now she understood why Regg practically radiated happiness from head to toe.

It really was something worth being happy about.

Regg set the dishes on the table, took off the apron he’d made himself, and said with a smile,

“You’ve finally come home after so long, so we absolutely have to celebrate. I’ll go outside and buy some prepared dishes. The meat I make still isn’t as good as what they have at the braised-meat shop.”

Colleen asked like a robot that had learned to imitate human speech:

“A braised-meat shop?”

“Yeah. There’s one nearby. Oh my god, I never knew meat could be prepared like that. It’s so delicious and fresh. Every time Seraphine passes by there, she gets tempted by the smell for a while. Since you’re home today, she can really feast too!”

Regg hurriedly put on his coat and picked up his keys.

“Darling, stay here and keep Seraphine company. I’ll be right back. And watch Seraphine—don’t let her eat any candy. She’s already had way too much.”

Colleen could tell that she was still somewhat hesitant and unfamiliar with the employee dormitory. But Regg had already completely accepted this place, sincerely treating it as a safe home.

Little Seraphine was the same. The moment she saw her father leave, she immediately looked at her mother with pleading eyes.

“Please, Mommy. I just want one more piece of candy. Just one little piece.”

Oh, heavens.

How could Colleen possibly refuse when her adorable daughter was looking at her like that?

A hundred and fifty years ago, when Moon Silk Star first descended into chaos, candy had already become extremely expensive. It was easy to store and could provide the human body with a substantial amount of energy, making it a valuable commodity.

And what parent could bear to deny their child something precious?

But Colleen knew Regg well. She had always been busy with work, so Seraphine had essentially been raised by Regg. She knew perfectly well that Regg could only spoil Seraphine more than she did.

If he said Seraphine had already eaten too much candy, then she really had eaten too much.

Colleen asked gently, “Seraphine, how many pieces of candy have you had today?”

Seraphine looked a little guilty, but she still told the truth.

“Three.”

She’d actually eaten three pieces of candy in a single day?

Colleen realized that either candy wasn’t particularly expensive in [Ota], or the purchasing power of the points she received each month, combined with the points Regg and her parents earned, was much greater than she had expected.

“Good girl, you’ve already had too much candy today. How about we have some more tomorrow if you still want it?”

Seraphine actually still wanted more, but faced with the mother she hadn’t seen in so long, she obediently replied,

“Okay, Mommy.”

“Mommy, will you watch Eight-Handed Duobi with me?”

Eight-Handed Duobi was an animated series from Moon Silk Star. Colleen had watched it herself when she was little. She hadn’t expected [Ota] to have preserved it as well.

A wave of nostalgia washed over Colleen. She sat down with her daughter in front of the rather old-fashioned television.

Although the television was rather old-fashioned—it was neither a full-domain light-field projector nor a neural sensory viewing device—Colleen immediately found herself liking everything about it when Seraphine told her that the television had already been mounted on the wall when they moved in.

The various projectors and viewing devices might offer a better viewing experience, but they were expensive.

Free was always best.

Especially when it was something provided for free by the [Company]. That made it all the more astonishing.

As Colleen watched her daughter happily sitting in front of the television, engrossed in ‘Eight-Handed Duobi’, her gaze fell upon the girl’s rosy cheeks, clean and tidy clothes, and the happiness dancing in her eyes.

She thought of the light in Regg’s eyes after he had become a model maker again.

She thought of her parents, who had been so depressed ever since the war, now becoming musicians once more.

The scent of natural food filled her nose.

Her daughter’s sweet, spoiled voice filled her ears.

Before her eyes was a clean, bright home.

Colleen didn’t know that, because of her unique abilities and the visible contributions she had already made to Blue Sea, her treatment would continue to improve.

At this moment, all she felt was a sense of peace that had not visited her heart in a very long time.

She had already undergone the surgery, and technically, one hour of sleep was more than enough for her body.

But now, sitting beside her daughter, listening to the familiar catchphrases of Duobi from the cartoon that she had often heard during her childhood, smelling the food her partner had just prepared, and remembering how her parents used to compose songs together when she was young…

Colleen slowly fell asleep.

She slept for more than six hours.

She hadn’t slept that long even once since reaching adulthood.

So when she first woke up, she was still a little dazed. But she felt incredibly refreshed—a feeling of comfort she hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

The room was quiet.

Colleen slowly opened her eyes.

She saw her partner watering the plants, her daughter hunched over the table, writing and drawing, and her parents sitting together, watching the silent television with subtitles.

A soft blanket had been draped over Colleen.

Seraphine noticed her first.

“Mommy! You’re awake!”

Her cry immediately drew the attention of everyone else in the room.

Colleen pulled her daughter into her arms as the girl came running over. She watched as her partner set down the watering can, while her parents also looked up at her in surprise and delight.

Her partner said, “You’re finally awake! I was planning to make sure you had a proper meal, but when I came back, you were already asleep. Give me a moment. I’ll have the food warmed up in no time.”

Her parents said, “Are you still tired? If you are, go back to sleep for a while. Is work really that exhausting? Come on, stretch out your arms and let us massage them for you. And don’t push yourself too hard. We asked around—[Ota] gives everyone one day off every week, and you don’t have to work overtime at night either. You need to rest when you should…”

Colleen’s body felt soft and limp from all the sleep. She sat up, surrounded by the care and concern of her family.

She didn’t know why.

She was clearly happy right now, yet as she leaned against her mother’s embrace, hot tears suddenly welled up in her eyes.

—

The next morning, Cheng Qisheng had just poured herself a glass of water and was planning to watch an episode of some melodramatic soap opera with Aether to relax when, through the perspective of the gatekeeper believer, she spotted Colleen.

Colleen was supposed to start work at eight.

Yet she had already arrived at the research institute at five-thirty in the morning.

Cheng Qisheng wasn’t sleepy, but seeing her made her yawn involuntarily.

She was already wondering whether she should give Colleen additional access to the sleeping pods.

This was an important person who could bring about a massive evolution in all of Blue Sea’s vehicles.

She really didn’t want the next news she received about Colleen to be that this hard-earned Moon Silk Star researcher had died from overwork.

While Cheng Qisheng was weighing whether to forcibly make her sleep or send her to a sleeping pod, Colleen had already entered the research institute.

Her superior hadn’t gone to sleep either.

Perhaps it was because most people only had one direct superior, whereas she had two, allowing them to take turns working around the clock like shifts.

Cheng Qisheng heard Colleen say to her direct supervisor on the night shift:

“Since our company is part of the [Longevity Faction], we must really need experts in longevity biology, right?”

“One of my close friends specializes in that field. She once personally led a team in developing anti-aging dr*gs.”

The direct superior, who had also been up all night, slowly blinked and used extraordinary self-control to suppress their excitement.

The great Creator God of Blue Sea, on the other hand, had no need to suppress her excitement at all.

Wasn’t this exactly the longevity researcher she’d been looking for?!

She had previously hoped Colleen would be working on lifespan research, only for that plan to fall through.

Who would have thought that Colleen came with a two-for-one deal?

Cheng Qisheng was positively thrilled as she listened to her believer ask,

“Then how are we supposed to find her?”

Colleen’s expression was resolute.

“We’re close enough that we would entrust our lives to each other, so I know where her shelter is. If my guess is correct, she should have awakened around the same time I did.”

“I can provide our company with the coordinates and guide us to her. Once we’ve found my friend, I hope the [Company] will allow her to join [Ota] as well.”

“I believe that with her abilities, she won’t disappoint our company.”

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