1 Affection, Technology, Future

I met him for the first time on a hot and clear summer night. I was gnashing my teeth to get my suitcase out of the bus. When I suddenly looked up, the lights of the airport and moon shined on his brilliant face. His voice had a bit of a northern accent,

"May I help you?"

Interestingly, we were allocated to the same class. During that one year, I always thought that it was a gravely wrong idea for me to come here. But what I didn't know at that time was that it would take me 10 more years to figure out that the right choice was written for me, in this very beginning.

The next thing I could still remember clearly was the first dance of my life. At the graduation party, he bent down gently in front of me, then held out his right hand to me. To be honest, I knew this would happen, I even knew that he already practiced a lot on his own. But when the moment really came, my heart still beat like crazy.

2022 was a gloomy year. Yet we didn't expect worse things could happen. We talked about Covid, about the Russia-Ukraine war. The tragedies were real, but at least that was the time when humans are still their own masters.

Apart from my usual courses, I took a course on Political Philosophy at that time. Prof Shapiro said that the worst could happen is that under the tyranny of the majority, you are one of the minority. This whole part didn't make any sense to me at that time. The things I was really interested in were new technologies. In my wildest dreams, I own a bunch of start-up companies. Some of them are billion-dollar unicorns. I would be invited to a lot of forums, universities, workshops, to talk about my entrepreneurship journey. I thought I would open a bottle of champagne with him when I reach the climax I've been longing for. I didn't even remember his favorite was Irish coffee.

Nonetheless, in Cthulhu mythology, humans live in a very limited dimension, in terms of time and space. They have no understanding of how this world really works. That's why when some are called by Cthulhu, the giant octopus-like dominator, they soon became insane and killed themselves. So when that day finally came, in the late Autumn of 2022, when the laser beams of strength that were never imagined by earthlings swept through every piece of soil on the ground, for the first time, we understood our ignorance.

One biggest similarity between him and I was probably that we both loved to look at things from the First Principle.

At the end of a horribly long chat, I asked why was he so interested in Political Science. He joked, "Because that makes me understand humans suck."

Then I heard myself saying, "so I guess you don't really believe in affection either?" I've been wondering this ever since I got close to him, but I was too afraid to hear a confirmative answer.

I couldn't even look at him after I finally let out this question. Awkwardly, my voice was probably too low and he said, "what?".

I immediately wanted to cover this over so I almost yelled, "Nothing, never mind". But as ever, he just wouldn't let me get away so easily.

He quickly opened his computer and searched for what I just said. And then he looked me in the eyes and said,

"No, no, I do. When the time is mature and the fruit is ripe."

Oh, stop it, for God's sake. I said silently.

The day I left Singapore was a rainy day. My flight was delayed by an hour, which secretly pleased me. I knew my friend would be waiting for me at Pittsburgh airport. But I didn't care. I just want to spend a while more with him.

Several years later, the International War League excited the secondary sexual characteristics of every human in order to select the strongest men and women to be the warriors. But at that time, our secondary sexual characteristics have not been awakened yet. Even so, I was much smaller in size than him. I can only wrap my arms around his neck on tiptoes. And so I did.

"Goodbye, my dear."

"Goodbye"