Gu Yan sat on the sofa, holding a stack of record-like things. Television is showing a documentary about ancient Chinese funeral customs.

The host read the narration unhurriedly, "The ancients were cloudy, and death and life were also important. For the deceased, relatives and friends will pay tribute to the deceased by making regular offerings and burning paper money at the grave. It was a time when mankind had not yet conquered death, and mourning music was played at the funeral, and yellow paper stained with Mars fluttered all over the sky, and people in sackcloth mourning clothes knelt on the ground and wept bitterly......"

It's very similar to the situation at hand. Zhao Qiang pulled the corners of his mouth silently, and a reluctant smile appeared on his face. After thinking about it, he picked up a "record", which was very light in texture and had gilt patterns on the surface.

Unpacked, inside was a disk, and the cover read: "Pay for Your Memories – A Trip to Northridge Park," followed by a string of numbers, the amount.

Gu Yan took all the disks apart, added the amount written on them, and got a figure much larger than his deposit. He hesitated for a moment and dialed the phone:

"Xu Ji? I'd like to ask about the last time you said that. ”

The TV screen changed, and Xu Ji's face appeared: "Long time no see, old classmate." I've heard that you've been to a lot of places lately? What's the matter, have you changed your mind? Xu Ji's eyebrows are very thick and he has a Chinese face, but there is a hint of frivolity in his voice, which is very inconsistent with his loyal appearance.

Gu Yan raised the disk in his hand and raised it at him, "The travel harvest is not small, but I don't know this, can I afford it." ”

Xu Ji said: "Too expensive? Dude, think about it, once the 'cocoon' is built, it can exist for at least tens of thousands of years! What about us? The flesh is mortal, limited by genes, and burns high incense when it lives to be 150 years old. When you die, the people who know you are also half dead, who remembers that there is such a person as you in the world? That is death, it is disappearance, it is the annihilation from the material and then to the information level.

But the 'cocoon' is different, the cocoon can retain your information and the possibility of 'quantum entanglement' between you and the world. If you are superstitious, you may have a cocoon, and after a few years, you will be reincarnated in our universe again.

Even if you don't have these, the cocoon is also evidence of your existence, so that future generations can understand you and remember you. In this era, the living are nodding friends, when you die, the cocoon lives for you, communicates with others for you, can people have a better eternal life than this? ”

He had heard this set of rhetoric many times, but this time he did hear part of it in his heart. He hesitated and asked, "What you said, 'cocoon', can really restore the state we were in before we were alive?" Could it be just a voicemail, rigidly rereading the words in its head? ”

Xu Ji rolled his eyes, his eyeballs rolled up, and there were only black pupils the size of soybeans left in the entire eye socket, and the rest of the place was the whites of his eyes with cyan veins: "You wait for me to search—I found it, just go to your other door and take a look." The model citizen of your community, Lao Fan's cocoon, go to his house as a guest, and you will know what cocoon is all about. Xu Ji's eyes were reset again, but the eyes were dim, like the eyes of a dead fish that had been out of the water for too long.

Gu Yan nodded, "Okay, I've worked hard for you, Xu Ji." You can't patronize your work, you have to rest for a while, your beard is unkempt, your eyes are bloodshot, how long has it been since you slept well? ”

Xu Ji touched his chin and laughed a few times, "People, you can't just live for the moment, you have to work hard for the afterlife." Nothing has changed throughout the ages. Okay, Gu Yan, let's talk when we have time. ”

After hesitating, Gu Yan still knocked on the door of Lao Fan's house. He spent the first half of his life in exile, working and renting a house with his mother, and did not settle in this community until the first two years, so he never met Lao Fan before his death.

There was a noise in the cat's eye, like a camera focusing and pressing the shutter, and then the door opened on its own. On the right hand side of the door is the shoe cabinet, and in front of it is the same layout as Gu Yan's home, sofa, coffee table, and TV.

The difference is that the living room of Lao Fan's house is much larger than Gu Yan's, the living room runs north-south, the north side is the sofa, and the south side is placed on the octagonal table with solid wood lacquer red, which should be the dining table.

Lao Fan's "cocoon" was getting up from the sofa, hunchbacked, brown clothes, hair and nails were trimmed, and the whole person looked very capable.

You sit down first, I'll grind some coffee beans, Lao Fan stood up and said to Gu Yan. Don't you wonder who I am? Gu Yan asked, we shouldn't have met before. There are too many people who have never seen it, since the sister-in-law Wang in the community made me a "model citizen" pennant, Lao Fan smiled honestly, and rubbed the callus on the side of his left index finger with his right thumb.

Gu Yan followed Lao Fan's gaze to the south of the living room, and sure enough, he saw a pennant on the wall next to the dining table, with golden tassels and yellow characters on a red background.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Lao Fan stretched out his hand and bent over, motioning for him to sit on the sofa opposite him.

"Actually, I'm a model citizen, but I'm a little bit more idle than others. You see, I don't have any other hobbies after I retire, I just love two things, making coffee and listening to people. So if someone comes, I'll make him coffee first, and then I'll chat with someone.

I'm old, and I don't have the light in my brain like you young people, and I always make people laugh when I finish speaking. After laughing, the visitor thought that I was okay, so they praised me as a model citizen, and they were willing to come to me when they came and went.

You see, I'm guilty of being an old man again, and I'm nagging endlessly. Sit down for a while, I have a few unique recipes for coffee, so be sure to try them. ”

From beginning to end, Gu Yan had no physical contact with Lao Fan, he was afraid of touching a cold cocoon, and he was afraid that the temperature of this cocoon would make his hair stand on end.

When Lao Fan went to work in the kitchen, Gu Yan looked around. There is a recessed mark on the sofa where Lao Fan sits, but it is not deep, and it can be seen that the "cocoon" does not sit on the sofa all the time when no one is around, but also walks around.

There are traces of dust wiping on the nearby cabinets, and a few rays of sunlight spilling in behind the curtains, and the dust is dancing in the air like elves. To be sure, this room is very "human", not like a place to be a repeater.

Gu Yan was amused by his thoughts, but the smile quickly solidified on his face again. Lao Fan's cocoon looks like he is in his fifties, but now that medical technology is developed, his actual age is estimated to be between 80~100 years old.

In other words, what does a person look like when he dies, and what does a cocoon look like in the end? Gu Yan didn't want to leave an old dragon clock in the world.

In the flow of thoughts, Lao Fan had already walked over with a plate, a cup of coffee brewed for Gu Yan, as well as sugar cubes, fresh milk and a stirring stick.

Gu Yan nodded at Lao Fan, picked up the coffee, and stirred it with the stirring rod first, there were a few bits of green in the brown coffee swirling in the foam, and it smelled similar to normal coffee.

Can Cocoon really cook or make coffee? I'm not going to be the first person in the world to be poisoned by a cocoon. Gu Yan was holding a coffee cup, and he had the urge to call Xu Ji first to confirm.

Lao Fan reminded him loudly: "Don't worry, guests, the green powder here is coriander." People who come to me don't find the coffee unpalatable, so don't worry. ”

After listening to this, Gu Yan had an expression of embarrassment on his face and took a sip of coffee. The coffee is pure bitter, but the taste of coriander is difficult to describe, like the saltiness of soap, and like the fishy sweetness of metal.

The two are mixed in the mouth, bringing a strong taste stimulation, and Gu Yan feels that what he is holding is not a liquid, but a ball of tasteless jelly, which slides along the taste buds, bringing coolness, fragrance and bitterness.

As soon as he swallowed it, tears welled up in his eyes, but the tip of his tongue still had all the taste left, and it didn't go away for a long time.

Gu Yan took another sip, this time he couldn't feel the coffee in his mouth, swallowed it several times, but felt that the jelly was still in his mouth, and even the saliva secreted had the same taste as coffee.

What is this coffee called? Gu Yan couldn't help but ask Lao Fan. "Memory," said Fan Lao, "sometimes you feel like you've forgotten, but it's actually always there." If you don't want to have this taste in your mouth, add a sugar cube and you're good to go. ”

Gu Yan did so, and sure enough, the taste of coriander was covered by sugar.

"You're amazing, I've never had a coffee with this flavor." Gu Yan said sincerely, "Is this something that you, you researched before your death?" ”

Lao Fan was stunned for a moment, then turned his head to look at the window of the balcony, where there were several pots of flowers and plants, one of which happened to be coriander. "yes, I found out about this recipe before I retired." His tone was stunned.

Back at home, Gu Yan's mood couldn't calm down for a long time. It seems that Xu Ji didn't lie to me, the cocoon is almost exactly the same as a real person, he thought. But I don't want to have an old self, I want my younger self to stay, to be understood by more people, who should feel my ambition, my genius, my romance, not the senseless emotion of an old man who has read all the vicissitudes of life.

He looked at the time, it was not yet noon, so he just took advantage of the time to call Xu Ji. Documentaries on television have shifted from funeral customs to biographies about the short but spectacular life of Gauss, the prince of mathematics.

Xu Ji's face quickly appeared in the center of the screen, "Hey Brother Yan, how is it?" As I told you, spending money on cocoons is definitely not a loss, it is an investment of tens of thousands of years, and tens of thousands of years ago humans were still wrapped in animal skins in caves and ate raw meat. ”

The light in Gu Yan's eyes was breathtaking: "I've seen it, and it's really similar to a real person." But I still have a question, can I make the cocoon only retain my memory for a certain period of time? For example, before the age of fifty. ”

Xu Ji grinned when he heard this, "It is worthy of being the top student in the class when I went to school, this clever inference, I can't accept it." Let's talk about it first, this cocoon is not made by our company, it is just an agent sales, and the specific rules of use are set by the relevant government departments. ”

Gu Yan was a little impatient, "Let's talk about it directly, I just want to know what the rules are." ”

Xu Ji explained: "First of all, the characteristics of cocoons of different ages are definitely different. The cocoon of young people, creative and passionate, people who do creative work like to communicate with the cocoon of young people the most; The cocoon of middle-aged people is stable and inclusive, suitable for comforting those who are frustrated, or those who lack family care since childhood; The cocoons of the elderly, like Lao Fan, are good at listening and enlightening, and are important for maintaining the community atmosphere.

However, it is not possible for some people to have five or six cocoons after death, and others only one, which is a great injustice. Therefore, the government has a rule that only those who have made outstanding contributions to society can have two cocoons, and one of them can only keep part of his memories during his lifetime.

Ordinary people have only one cocoon at most, keeping all their memories from life to death. Of course, every memory has to be paid, and people who can't buy all the memories end up with no memories at all. This thing, just like the mortgage hundreds of years ago, must either be paid off or empty.

Now, you know why I work so hard every day, right? Ordinary people want to leave a cocoon, and they have to work hard for a lifetime. ”

Gu Yan thought for a while, clenched his fists, and asked, "Are you saying that when ordinary people die, where will the memory of the cocoon end?" ”

Xu Ji on the screen nodded first and then shook his head, "Don't, Brother Yan, let's be classmates, I advise you not to have that thought." Let's not talk about suicide people can't leave cocoons, do you have enough money to buy memories now?

When the cocoon first came out, I saw a lot of people who thought the same way as you. Idealists, who feel that they have no talents, who think that they are bravely dedicated to eternal life, are not remembered in the end, and the house where they live in the cocoon is not visited. ”

Gu Yan said, "I can't earn enough money, but ...... I'm different from you, I think I'm going to get more and more aggrieved as I live, so I might as well go early. You say, how much does it cost, I'll find a place to work. ”

Xu Ji sighed and asked him, "Do you really think so?" Brother Yan, I want to make money, but I just wanted you to have a hope in your life at the beginning. I thought that with the cocoon, you would not be dazed and would be able to live a solid life.

Alas, the cocoon is the same as the one that gave birth to children hundreds of years ago, isn't it just thinking that you can leave a memory when you die? After all, it can't replace your time when you're alive now. You can't just run to die, you have to run to live first. ”

Gu Yan said, "The first half of my life was a mess, and when my mother left, I felt that there was no taste of life." ”

Xu Ji said, "Then I have one last way." Buy an insurance policy and travel to the most dangerous places. With a large amount of accident insurance, after you die, the insurance company is responsible for buying all your cocoons and memories.

”

Gu Yan smiled and said to Xu Ji, "You also have a lot of this kind of list in your hands, right?" Okay, I buy insurance. These disks at home, you can help me transfer them to the cocoon's brain when the time comes. ”

Xu Ji said very calmly, "If you don't want to live, then you want to die." But don't think it's that simple. I know a client who plays extreme sports every day and hasn't died after 20 years of insurance. You can rest assured that the disk will not fall to you when the time comes. ”

It's like burning paper for a dead man, Gu Yan said. Xu Ji said, then I wish you all the way, brother.