Epoch of Twilight

Chen Xinjie entered the office gracefully with an enticing fragrance on her body. Placing the cup of tea on her hand before Luo Yuan, she whispered into his ear, "Mayor, 10 more minutes to the meeting." Within two years, technology was not the only thing that changed rapidly, there were some changes in the people in City Hall as well. Some of them were sacked for corruption and some just could not keep up with development while others were promoted.

His former secretary, Cheng Guanghui was assigned to a new location as the director of the Industrial Bureau. He was replaced by Chen Xinjie as Luo Yuan’s secretary. To Cheng Guanghui, such a promotion was nothing to be happy about. Aside from having to work independently, it also meant that he would no longer be involved in the research on energy crystals any further.

In all honesty, Luo Yan was quite indifferent about Cheng Guanghui and it was merely an organizational transfer. Usually, secretaries for leaders would not hold their positions for more than three years before they were transferred. It was to prevent staff progress from stagnating and to avoid misuse of management rights.

After all, being his secretary meant that he was Luo Yuan’s ambassador. Every move he made represented Luo Yuan’s will or at least it did in the eyes of others. More so in an era where power was a priority, the power a secretary held was even more than the other committee members. It was without a doubt, an unusual phenomenon.

The reason why he chose Chen Xinjie as his secretary was because he knew her very well. She did not have a desire for power and she had a strong level of integrity. Besides, compared to others that Luo Yuan was not so familiar with, he would naturally trust people he had around him.

Luo Yuan looked at the time and said, "It’s still early, let me finish looking at these documents."

Chen Xinjie did not disturb him and left soon after he said that. After Luo Yuan finished looking at the documents, he stood up, tidied his clothes and walked out of his office. Chen Xinjie who was at the secretariat followed him with a pile of documents in hand.

While they were on the way, they started chatting, "Is the birth rate that low nowadays?"

"It has been like this since the beginning of the apocalypse. Although the antidote virus did not mutate most of the human, slight changes had taken place. Humans were now vastly different than they were before the apocalypse, which heavily affected the birth rate." Luo Yuan said in a serious tone.

To spread the word on how evil Glassians were, news of the antidote virus which caused the mutation epidemic on earth, as well as countless deaths in the general population, were made known to the public. Chen Xinjie already knew about the news so it was nothing new to her. Soon, they arrived at the meeting room. The guard who stood in front of the meeting room was stunned to see them both but he got a hold of himself and opened the door.

It was not a meeting with the management but rather, a policy seminar. Aside from the leaders from each management team, most of the people present were popular scientists and professors. Without wasting any more time, Luo Yuan started the meeting right away.

"This is the latest information on all the newborn babies in all the hospitals during the past two years. To date, there have only been 3,320 newborn children within the past two years. The birth rate is terrifyingly low and this cannot go on. If we do not do anything, we’d go extinct within 5,000 years! I have given each of you a copy of the information and all of you should have already read it. If anybody has any proposals, you’re welcome to speak up and if you have anything to say about the cloned humans, you can voice your opinions too." Luo Yuan said.

Chen Xinjie was doing her best to write down the minutes of the meetings as fast as she could in a corner, occasionally glancing at Luo Yuan. To her, that was the time he was the most attractive.

"Respectable mayor and leaders, I am against cloning humans. At our current level of technology, it’s true that it wouldn’t be difficult to clone humans but cloning alone will merely increase the population and will do nothing to increase the birth rate of humans. If humans would give up natural methods of conceiving a child and fully turn to cloning to continue the human race, this may just work. However, this would create a huge impact on human society, causing a collapse in the old social model of a family and cause an uproar in society as we know it. In my opinion, the best way forward in tackling the low birth rate would be to continue our research in medicine." A social science professor covered with white hair stood up and said in all seriousness.

Luo Yuan frowned, not expecting the first person to speak up to speak against cloning.

"I think this old professor is too conservative. Every stage of progress in society will bring a certain level of impact. The matriarchal period, feudal period and the small family period before the apocalypse impacted society in various ways. The development of clones would naturally impact existing society, it is unavoidable. Now that there were few of us left and outer space was not somewhere safe, to even consider the impact cloning will bring society before we even solve the problem we’re currently facing is ridiculous.." Said a scientist who stood up after the professor.

He was young, seemingly not even 30 years old. However, young scientists nowadays were everywhere. Though they were young, it also meant that they were more open to new things. Compared to the older generation, he was much more radical and Luo Yuan had no comments on that. Cloning was naturally the best way to solve the population issue and the effect was immediate though there would always be side effects. Cloning had existed since the reconstruction area era but since humans were facing immense stress to ensure their survival, it was not publicized.

Now that survival was no longer an issue, if human clones were discovered by civilians, there would be an uproar. Though he was respectable, his reputation will definitely take a hit so even though he had plans for human cloning since the very beginning, he still had to be careful.

"I partly agree with the old professor’s opinion. That being said, I’m not against human cloning. Instead, I’m against indiscriminate human cloning. I think we’ve reached a stage where we should be bio-engineering the human genome ourselves!" Director Wu stood up and proclaimed. As he was given the task of creating the wisdom elixir, he was the most powerful figure in the field of genetics. However, two years had passed and there were still no results so his field of research had almost been marginalized.

"Of course, I’m not talking about genetic sequencing but instead, the purpose of it is to understand the functions of the genes in human DNA. After the functions of the genes are fully mapped, we’ll set the human genetic standard and get rid of genes that were affected by the antidote virus which causes infertility and the ills that is the human condition. Once we’ve done that, we’ll be able to take care of fertility..."

The old professor initially thought this man was supporting his idea but the more he spoke, the more ridiculous it sounded. His opinions were even more radical than the young scientist that spoke before him. The old professor could no longer take it and spoke up, interrupting him before he could even finish what he was saying, "This is absurd! How can you still call that human? It’s just something produced in a factory, this is truly ridiculous!"

"As a genetic researcher, humans and clones are not that different to me." Director Wu defended himself. "Life is not as sacred as you think it is. Evolution can be interrupted and the development of this technology is meant to serve the interest of humankind. Since we have advanced technology, why not utilize it? Better humans, longer lives, that’d definitely be another boost to human civilization."

The meeting room became crowded and everyone was seen talking to one another or arguing softly. As time passed, the meeting room grew noisier and noisier.

"Please, behave yourselves!" Luo Yuan reminded them. If they continued arguing, the conservative and radical camp might even start fighiting. Of course, as a young man himself, he leaned more towards the radical camp. Compared to the boring conservative camp, the radical camp was no doubt meant to be the direction human civilization should go towards.

However, if the ideas proposed were too radical, it would be rejected by many. Being in a position of power, he had to balance the opinions from both camps and come up with the best proposal for humankind to thrive.

Luo Yuan thought to himself and said, "I can see that all of you have your own opinions. However, I don’t think human cloning is against natural birth. At the same time, we cannot stop progressing towards the future just because of side effects. There are many married couples who are eager to have kids right now. Perhaps, we could provide fertility services to those in need."

"I agree with the mayor!" Bi Jianping said and continued, "As long as the marketing is done properly, such services would be in high demand. One way to do it would be to use the slogan ’Give Birth For Humanity’s Future!’"

"I agree with mayor’s opinion!" Bi Jianping said,"As long as the marketing is good, such service would be in high demand. Such as ‘Give Birth in The Favor of The People’s Future!"

...

Naturally, Luo Yuan’s proposal passed with no objections but that did not mean it could be carried out immediately. There was still much to do. The first problem would be the appearance of the clones and the person who was cloned. That was the biggest concern of the people and if the issue was not solved, it would affect the implementation heavily.

That being said, perhaps it was not an issue after all. Maybe if they saw Luo Yuan as the one, they would not think of the appearance issue. He almost single-handedly modified the function of the human genome which included more than 10,000 types of evolved human genes. His powerful body and the clones he had at home was the best example of this. Moreover, with the help of Glassian equipment and the ability to directly modify the genes, it will take an estimated one or two years to fulfill all the requirements for mass human cloning.

Furthermore, the proposal that Luo Yuan brought up was not just a policy, it was a transition. When humans begin cloning children, they would slowly accept the existence of clones and when that happens, it would be the perfect timing for mass cloning.

After the meeting was adjourned, he got the genetic scientists to stay.

In the afternoon, a large institute called the Human Genome Optimization Programme was formed. A couple of days later, with instructions from the government, more and more researchers were sent to the institute. In reference to the genetic function Luo Yuan mapped made as well as the wisdom elixir documents which were leaked on purpose, the programme was progressing at an unbelievably rapid pace.