Chapter 209: Owing Bo Xiangdong a Thank You_1

Since Earth began to fall into a food crisis, Guanghan City has been providing a large amount of artificial starch to Earth, and it even provided some fruits, vegetables, and meat products at one point.

It started out as exports, but later it changed to aid.

This was thanks to Guanghan City's vigorous development of space farm and space ranch technology; around 25 years into the crisis, all of Guanghan City's fruits and vegetables no longer needed to be imported.

Approximately 30 years into the crisis, all of the meat needed by Guanghan City could be self-sufficient.

Fortunately, these two technologies were developed early on because the PDC then imposed a blockade on Guanghan City that lasted for over twenty years.

If Guanghan City hadn't possessed these technologies at that time, people could have only relied on artificial starch to get by.

Because Earth's agriculture and animal husbandry were increasingly shrinking, Burton initially hoped to build farms and ranches in near-Earth orbit or on the planet's surface.

However, this investment was seen by the PDC as Burton harboring ill intentions, attempting to undermine PDC's power from within humanity.

Thus, the investment was rejected, and they could only transport goods from Guanghan City all the way to the Yellow River Space Station.

Even with the additional cost of transport, the PDC countries accepted it.

Probably after about 55 years into the crisis, the relationship between the PDC and Guanghan City didn't remain as tense, and it was then that Guanghan City began to freely provide Earth with artificial starch and agricultural and ranch products.

Since Earth's food gap was so vast, it couldn't survive without the aid and exports from Guanghan City, allowing Han Li's cultural company to survive under the oppressive regimes in all PDC countries.

Around 60 years into the crisis, Bo Xiangdong's project team had already achieved many breakthroughs.

Bo Xiangdong hadn't forgotten the mission given to him by Jiang Yu and began to allocate some of his energy to research the dangers of the Trisolarians' genetic modification technologies.

Bo Xiangdong quickly discovered that the Trisolarians' genetic modification technology had enormous flaws in the immune system.

Those who had used Trisolaran genetic technologies had indeed strengthened immune systems, but their immune systems were highly uniform.

This issue typically would not manifest, but once triggered, it could have disastrous consequences.

For instance, if a new highly contagious virus appeared, out of a hundred normal people, at most around ten might be unable to rapidly produce antibodies and die.

The other ninety people would develop immunity after their bodies produced antibodies.

However, for those who had used Trisolaran genetic technologies, due to the high uniformity of their immune systems, they all shared a common immune deficiency, and out of a hundred people, possibly ninety-nine would die from such a new virus.

Bo Xiangdong estimated that this might be a backdoor left in the genetically modified humans by the Trisolarians.

If all of humanity used Trisolaran technologies to varying degrees, then once they reached Earth, a single Genetic Missile could kill ninety-nine percent of humanity!

Bo Xiangdong immediately handed over his research to Burton, who took it very seriously and promptly sent it to the PDC on behalf of Guanghan, hoping the PDC would strictly forbid the use of Trisolaran genetic technologies.

But by then, the PDC was already deep in its commitments, and the global ruling system built using Trisolaran genetic technologies had already produced a great number of beneficiaries.

To stop the application of such technology would be like cutting off one's own foundation.

So the PDC simply pretended not to hear and even prohibited Guanghan City from revealing this information to any Earth residents in any form.

The disaster of Crisis Year 67 seemed more like a man-made calamity!

The origin of the virus was likely from Canada, and it swiftly gained the ability to spread through the air, taking just over half a month to ravage all of North America and quickly result in deaths.

Bo Xiangdong, who had been closely monitoring such news, immediately noticed that those who were infected and quickly died were all people who had used Trisolaran genetic technologies.

Those who hadn't used this technology mostly showed symptoms of a cold and began to recover after about a week.

After obtaining a sample of the virus, Bo Xiangdong quickly found that the immune systems which had been modified by Trisolaran genetics were unable to produce antibodies against the virus.

This virus was much like a Genetic Missile, those who had used the Trisolarans' Genetic Technologies were like undefended cities before it.

Thankfully, Bo Xiangdong had never slackened in his efforts; having made sufficient preparations, he quickly developed vaccines and special medications to compensate for the immune system deficiencies of the genetically modified people.

A war on the genetic level thus began.

Including Bo Xiangdong, at first everyone thought the new virus was too simple, believing that with vaccines and everyone having antibodies, the new virus would be eliminated.

However, the bodies of the genetically modified people became a breeding ground for the virus to reproduce and wreak havoc, with PDC's sluggish vaccination process giving the virus time to mutate.

Three months later, the virus rapidly mutated and quickly spread across the globe.

The speed of the virus's spread, once again, had PDC to thank for it.

In the task of eliminating the virus, PDC had always been ineffective, at times even hindering Guanghan City's efforts.

Only after people finally overcame the virus did some conscientious individuals within PDC reveal that, due to the world's severe food shortage, PDC saw the virus outbreak as an opportunity to reduce the population.

Thus, instead of quarantining cities to cut off the spread of infection, PDC was figuring out ways to enable the virus to spread faster.

Similarly, due to the epidemic, those who hadn't had the opportunity for Genetic Modification began to question the values that PDC had long been propagating.

For decades, the public had been brainwashed by PDC, deeply believing that those who had undergone Genetic Modification were more perfect humans.

They were more capable, more intelligent, natural-born leaders.

And those who were unmodified also desperately sought the opportunity, hoping their offspring could undergo Genetic Modification.

Yet now, the virus was only taking away the genetically modified people. Were they really superior?

As more people died in the epidemic, this questioning voice grew louder.

In the end, the epidemic became the catalyst for the second Enlightenment, the second Renaissance, and the second Great Revolution.

On another front, Bo Xiangdong kept fighting the virus and sought ways to strengthen the immune systems of the genetically modified.

Burton, meanwhile, was battling PDC, hoping to save more people.

From Crisis Year 67 to Crisis Year 77, over the span of ten years, the virus kept mutating until at last Bo Xiangdong found a way to fortify the immune systems of the genetically modified, ending this genetic battle.

Burton managed to get some people within PDC to stand up and expose PDC's hideous role in the epidemic.

At that time, it wasn't just the unmodified people protesting PDC's injustices; even the genetically modified joined in the protests.

PDC's rule began to crumble from that moment onward.

Only last year, as a new rotating chairperson took office in PDC and the nations adjusted their space strategy policies, did this movement that lasted nearly twenty years finally come to an end.

Having recounted the past seventy years, Number Three remarked with emotion, "Everyone knows the role Burton played in this movement, and people all over the world are singing his praises.

"But just over a decade has passed, and already few people mention Bo Xiangdong, who fought a bloody battle in the lab against the virus and the Trisolarans' technologies for a whole ten years!

"The surviving two billion genetically modified people all owe Bo Xiangdong a word of thanks!"

Jiang Yu then remembered the little boy Tutu he had encountered at the airport, wondering if he had managed to survive the catastrophe.

Jiang Yu sighed, "People are always forgetful and prone to ingratitude; if they won't express thanks, so be it, but we need to remember Bo Xiangdong's contribution!

"We must include him in Guanghan City's textbooks, to ensure our people forever remember his name!"

The space elevator shuddered slightly—they had arrived at the Yellow River Space Station!