He was also stunned, and the two of us looked at each other for a long time, but he broke the deadlock: "Where are you going to tan so much?" ”

I still looked at him back and forth, left and right, and he spoke in a cleaner voice than I did, because his vocal cords were not worn; His skin is fairer and more delicate than mine, because he has not been exposed to the wind and sun for more than twenty years; He also didn't have the scar on his face from the long, barely visible nails, because he hadn't experienced the fights he had as a child.

I looked at him and asked, "Dr. Meng, when did you clone us?" ”

I've fantasized countless times about what it would be like to be cloned after I die, and I didn't expect to see it so soon.

Dr. Meng said, "Just after you were cured this time, we took your biological sample. ”

I said, "No way! It's only been more than two months, how can he grow so big? ”

Before Dr. Meng could speak, he had already rushed to say, "You better don't ask her, let's talk ourselves, I can speak more clearly than she can say." ”

Dr. Meng then said, "Then I'll wait outside the door and you can talk." ”

We watched Dr. Meng walk out and then find a place to sit, and he looked at me and asked, "Are Mom and Xiaohe okay?" ”

I nodded.

He asked, "Have you ever been back to Xiamen?" ”

I nodded again.

He asked again: "Has Shi Ting's girlfriend changed?" ”

I looked up at him and shook my head, and I felt more truly that he was another me, that he was no one else, that we had the same soul and memory, that we had the same way of looking at the world and dealing with problems, and that talking to him was like talking to myself.

He also understood what I wanted to know, and he said: "The last memory I had when I woke up was that Xiaohe cried at me to hold on, but my body was as if it had disappeared and could not be controlled, and then I found myself suspended and soaked in a huge container, and my body was unusually weak and soft as cotton. It took me half a month to get back up, and then I went through a rigorous rehabilitation, and I am basically back to this day. ”

I asked him, "What did they tell you everything?" ”

He nodded and said, "They told me about the Flower Leaf Project a long time ago, they said that I was a phoenix in the fire, and that I would be immortal. ”

I asked him again, "Did they tell you what kind of life you were going to face?" ”

He nodded: "It's all said, I don't want to know if they all told me, kept instilling in me, I even suspect that they secretly hypnotized me and brainwashed me to accept such a life." ”

I said hatefully: "I only now understand why Jiang Feng said that I can choose the life I want, it turns out that they already have you, you have carried all the pots for me, I thought that I was really a golden branch and jade leaf, it turns out that they may have secretly cultivated countless leaves." ”

He shook his head: "As far as I know, they won't clone the same person many times, one is a matter of cost, the other is a matter of security, we have the same mind, if we hold a huge secret at the same time and then conspire, it will be a huge threat to the company, so they also told me unmistakably that only if I am confirmed to be dead, will another one clone me." ”

I said, "Why don't you just let me go on a mission and clone you?" ”

He smiled bitterly for a long time, and then said: "You are viviparous, legally you are a natural person, and I am not, I have no legal identity and status, in a sense, I do not exist." ”

He continued: "We are all new to new technologies, and you are also a natural person who has been adapted, and we are adapting to the new world, and they are groping for a new world." ”

The more I thought about it, the more indignant I became: "They can clone me when I'm very young, at least we didn't know anything at that time, isn't it ruining your life to engage in these fame at this time?" ”

He still smiled bitterly: "I have also been angry with you, they said that before this gene fusion treatment, we had no memory genetic function, and it was a half-finished experiment, and they called it a diseased seedling." If you clone at that time, you will only clone a sick seedling without any memory, and it will take ten or twenty years to teach him basic common sense and knowledge after being cured, because there is no normal life, this kind of clone will be more difficult to train and control. ”

"The key point is that their technology has also developed step by step, and when the cloning technology matured, we were all teenagers, so we decided to wait for gene fusion therapy before cloning."

He thought for a moment: "In addition, they have not carried out the kind of attempt you mentioned, and they also cloned the sick seedlings with no memory first, after all, they need to try in many ways, and it is impossible to hang themselves from a tree." Do you remember the quarrel before Jiang Feng left Xinjiang? At that time, Jiang Feng told his father that he had left our biological samples and planned to clone the sick seedlings first, and also admitted that we still had a fatal disease that had not been cured, and he promised to cure the disease for us, but the condition was that we would continue to clone after being cured. ”

I suddenly remembered the Cheng Tianjiao on Gulangyu Island, no wonder he has a feeling that I am particularly familiar with, he is likely to be the cloned sick seedling back then, and then cured to serve them, his appearance is already very different from me, but this can be changed through genetic adjustment, it is not difficult, but the outline is still exactly the same, and this bone foundation is probably not easy to change. The point is that he knew what he looked like in the first place, so he knew who I was as soon as he saw me.

I told me what I thought, he nodded, and said: "They told me, but not out of honesty, but Cheng Tianjiao's genes and I are also the same, and we can transfuse blood and even share organs with each other at critical moments, after all, if we are not injured in the future, we will clone again, and our bodies will have to be used until we can't use them." ”

We were silent for a long time, each with our own thoughts, and I asked him, "What do they call you?" Is it also Lou Lanyu? ”

He nodded: "I woke up and thought I was Lou Lanyu, and they would call me that way, which would make me feel normal, and there would be no identity problems." They also said that I could call any name, I didn't have an official name anyway, and they also said that I might use a different name every time I did a different task anyway. But I saw you today and realized one thing, the moment I woke up more than two months ago, it would be the moment when the two of us were most identical, and as time went by, our memories would be more and more different, and we would be two people like brothers in addition to our shared family memory, so I might need another name to show that I am more than just a replica of you. ”

This reminds me of the Night Wanderer, my life always seems to be talking to myself, the Night Wanderer does not have a name until he dies, can I deprive him of his rights?

He thought for a while: "I can call Loulan Feng in the future, after all, we will experience a lot of wind and rain." I don't want Cheng Tianjiao to have a completely different name like that, he is different from me, he clone out and started a blank other life. ”

I grabbed his hand and couldn't speak for a long time.

I asked him, "Can we keep in touch in the future?" ”

He shook his head: "I don't think it's a good idea, maybe their brainwashing during this time is effective, I think continuing to contact will ruin the lives of both of us, if I can't live a worthwhile life, you know, they will just dispose of me." ”

At this moment, the grief and indignation in my heart were already uncontrollable, and he suddenly grabbed my hand: "Control yourself, haven't we been reminding ourselves all our lives to be aware of current affairs?" ”

I barely managed to control the tears that were about to flow: "I'm thinking about our childhood dream, we become invulnerable undead warriors, go deep into the desert, steal the Fountain of Youth, this is really an inspirational story, people still don't have dreams easily, don't you see it's not realized now?" ”

Then I saw his tears slide down.

He choked up and said, "Legend has it that there is a pair of sacred birds in the Heavenly Kingdom, the male is the phoenix and the female is the phoenix. After reaching the age of 500, the incense wood self-immolated, the dying phoenix into the fire, bathed in the fire and reborn, its feathers are more abundant, its sound is clearer, its god is more marrow, and it becomes a beautiful and brilliant eternal fire phoenix. We're phoenixes now, maybe I'll find my phoenix someday, wouldn't it be a good thing? ”

He and I clasped hands and stopped talking, we had a heart-to-heart connection, and whatever we said was superfluous, when Dr. Meng walked in.

We stood up and he gave me a hug: "Take care of Mommy, take care of Xiaohe!" ”

I left crying, letting the tears flow, I rushed into Jiang Feng's office, staring at him but not saying a word.

He looked at me, then walked to the window and looked at the test building and said, "Today is for you to know the truth, it is not you who is flying with the golden branches and jade leaves and phoenixes, but someone else." Although you and Xiaohe have lost some normal life, the company has also signed a contract to give you the opportunity to regenerate after death, and the two do not owe each other. ”

I wiped away my tears: "Could it be that Xiaohe was also cloned to do a mission?!" ”

Jiang Feng shook his head: "She is not suitable, she was abandoned, we have cultivated more than the two of you, you can use it so-so, Xiaohe can't." ”

I looked at him and asked one last question: "How are you going to use him?" ”

Jiang Feng said: "In the next two years, he will receive comprehensive militarization training, and then become a real phoenix." ”

I turned around and left, and Jiang Feng behind me said: "I suggest that you work for the company and take over Jiangchen in the future, so as to ensure the sustainability of this project and ensure that you can come back to life after your death." ”

I didn't mention all this to Jiang He, and then we went back to Xiamen, where I started to revise for graduate school entrance exams, and finally got a master's degree in non-law from a university in Hangzhou.

Two years later, in September, I reported to the school, and Jiang He followed me to Hangzhou, where she planned to find a teaching position.

On the weekend, we went to the West Lake, and under the bamboo behind the Starbucks Coffee Shop in the West Lake, Jiang He and I dug out the last box I had buried that year, sat on the bench by the lake and opened it.

There is a photo of me and Jiang He, in the summer of ten, the two of us stood side by side behind a clump of flowers and plants in front of the army dormitory building, the exposure of the point-and-shoot machine was a little excessive, probably not adapted to the strong ultraviolet rays in Xinjiang, and the photo had changed color a little when I retook it, so it looked like two old children.

Jiang He looked at the photo, grabbed my arm, and leaned on my shoulder.

I flipped to the back of the photo and it said: If you know anyone in the photo, please call! Then left my phone number.

There are now four more words under the number, which look like my handwriting: I love you!