The mood of the entire fleet in recent times can only be described as hopeful. This is especially the case for Colony Three.
And half a year after Xu Qingxiang's official announcements—
"Uh?"
"Well… This is unexpected…"
Within a lab that is filled to the brim with artificial wombs, a group gathers in front of a specific unit.
Scattered throughout the vicinity are filled units, and what occupies them isn't always a human infant, but livestock animals instead.
These specific animals—both land and aquatic, are produced for the sake of supplying meat in the future.
"What now?"
"Hmm…"
Contained within the unit that everyone is looking at are two embryos.
Since these two embryos are born using the same genetic material, and are even in the same artificial womb, it's appropriate to call them siblings.
However, under normal circumstances, only a single embryo should have been produced.
Incidents of this nature are rare, and they are not a situation that should be celebrated because infants born in this manner—80 percent of the time, they both end up dying at an early age.
In the fortunate cases of the remaining 19 percent, only one of the infants would die, while the other would survive.
As for the one percent chance of both infants surviving, odds are high that neither of them will possess decent talents.
"We'll keep them under observations for now. After they've both been developed, we'll separate them into different units."
"Very well."
...…
The adults called the place that we're staying in the orphanage.
None of the children here have proper parents.
This was because all of us were produced within an artificial womb by combining the genetic materials of two individuals.
Day after day, I witnessed our peers leaving—holding the hands of the person or people, who would be their guardian.
Accompanying me throughout my time in this orphanage was my sibling, who was born from the same set of genetic materials as me, and within the same artificial womb.
Since I was taken out of the lab first, I was considered the elder sister.
From what I was told by the adults, being the elder sister meant that I had more responsibility on my shoulders, which meant that I should be the one to take care of my little sister.
My little sister and I both possess magenta-colored eyes.
Different from me, my little sister possesses silver-colored hair, instead of black-colored hair like me.
Other than physical differences, my little sister was always sick.
At one point, the caretaker had pulled me aside, and informed me to not get too attached to my little sister because she may not live for long.
I didn't understand what death was, so I could only blink my eyes, and reply with a nod.
…
That was until a movie was shown to my peers and I as a means of entertainment.
In that movie, two individuals loved one another very much, but in the end, one of them had shut their eyes forever—never to open them again, regardless of how loudly the other person had shouted their name.
A peer of mine asked the caretakers then why they wouldn't open their eyes, to which, one of the caretakers answered that it's because they had died.
I see, so that's death?
…
I don't like it.
And because I didn't like it, I hugged my little sister on the spot—fearful of her never opening her eyes again.
Due to my talent for cultivation being above average, I received special attention, where I was given surplus cultivation resources.
I had given my little sister some of these resources in the hopes of her becoming healthier.
My relationship with the adults around the orphanage, it was a give-and-take relationship, as I had later come to learn.
In this relationship, so long as I continued to show results, more resources would be given to me.
I figured that the more resources that I obtained, and gave to my little sister, the better her health would become.
However, regardless of how much cultivation resources I gave her, my little sister's health only continued to worsen.
Continuing to give her resources, it was only a means to delay the inevitable.
And then…
A few days after her seventh birthday—during the morning, my little sister told me that she couldn't feel her legs.
Dazed by the news for a few moments, I immediately went to call the caretaker soon after; and upon examining my little sister's conditions, the caretaker shook her head, and told me that her body was starting to break down.
"Is there no way to save her?"
...…
Unable to move my legs properly, I've been forced to stay in bed ever since that morning.
Overtime, the situation got worse, and eventually, a caretaker informed me that I would most probably never be able to move my legs again.
Nevertheless, I would still make attempts to move them whenever I woke up from a nap.
However, the end result was always the same.
I couldn't feel them, nor could I move them.
Eventually, I simply accepted the reality of never being able to leave this two-person bedroom ever again.
The day I ended up like this, my elder sister's smile started to look unnatural, and she would refuse to meet eyes with me whenever we're together.
As much as I wished to ask my elder sister if something was wrong, I was fearful of the act.
Different from me, my elder sister's talent for cultivation was considered above average, and because of this, she was given special treatment—mainly in the form of resources, which allowed her to widen the gap between her peers and herself further.
Knowing this, I figured that sooner or later, my elder sister would probably be taken into the custody of a guardian.
Once that happens…
We won't ever see each other again.
I…
I already knew that I wasn't someone who was destined to live for long.
That being the case, I should probably treasure the amount of time that I have left with my elder sister.
But because of my elder sister's talents, her daily activities made it difficult for her to accompany me at every hour.
I shouldn't be selfish.
…
It would be far too shameless of me to drag her down.
…
Whenever my elder sister was away for lessons, my eyes would be glued to my smartphone.
Reading was a good way to keep my mind occupied, and the sole site dedicated to the publishing of literature was Flowing Font.
Among the many stories that I've read so far, my favorites mainly come from a single author. The name of that author is the Walker of a Thousand Dreams.
"Records of the Dragon Emperor," a story that talked about a tiny fish that eventually became a dragon emperor, who ruled over an empire of beast-kins.
"I Am the Sole Immortal," a tragic story that talked about an immortal—living within a world, where cultivation wasn't the norm, and was forced to watch their family and friends die, leaving them behind.
"Undying Is My Name," a story that talked about a powerful entity, who wished to die, but was unable to do so—forcing them to offend numerous forces for the sake of obtaining death's cold embrace.
The author has written a total of 21 stories so far, and the unique aspect about each of them are the emotions that they convey—almost as if the former had truly lived through those lives.
Of the 21 stories that they've written, only twenty of them have been finished, while the first story that they've written is still ongoing.
The name of that story is "Records of the Luo Family," which talks about the members of the titled practitioner household.
"…"
Just as I was about to tap the screen of my smartphone to move onto the next chapter of this story—
"Xuě Luò, I'm back."
The door of the bedroom opens, and my elder sister, Líng Cāng Xuě approaches me, while pushing something along.