Chapter 571: Separation
"Perhaps... we should get a divorce." As Lin Yuedong had expected, this was perhaps the most frequently heard phrase on the Land of White in the first few months after returning from the virtual world to reality.
Since the dawn of human civilization, the concept of "family," which had served as the cornerstone of human society for thousands of years, suddenly and unexpectedly crumbled in a rapidly changing world.
Apart from a minority who truly loved each other, other couples who had married for convenience, driven by interests or the pressure to marry, almost without exception, chose to divorce after returning to the real world.
However, compared to the younger generation, after regaining their youthful bodies, the divorce rate among middle-aged and elderly couples on the Land of White was even higher.
Excessively long periods of cohabitation had eroded all the passion that once existed between spouses. In the old society, what sustained their relationships was, in fact, primarily interests and habit.
The division of property after divorce, the ownership of houses and assets, the impact on children, the private judgments of those around them, as well as the belief that most of their lives had passed, and by the time they were old and infirm, there wasn't much point in further upheaval—for all these reasons, they chose to muddle through life.
But all these limitations were now gone. Money didn't need to be divided, children didn't need to be cared for, appearance and body could be maintained until the day they died, and there was no longer any need for a partner's care.
So, what was there left to cling to?
People in the new society were more like independent atoms, rather than parts of a family.
"I'm a little hesitant to send the findings from our investigation here back to headquarters." In the rebuilt Tianhai City on Earth, a fashionably dressed young woman typed word by word on a computer.
"These are internal reference documents, not something to be publicly posted online." A smartly dressed office lady (OL) beside her corrected the young woman's mistake.
After some negotiations, they, as specially authorized reporters for the Federation, would conduct a series of investigations and interviews before the Federation's Moon God fortress officially departed from Earth-Moon orbit, to preserve the last memories of Earth's humanity for the Human Federation, which was soon to embark on a long journey.
After all, once this was done, the people on the Moon and the people on Earth would gradually drift apart, with no possibility of meeting again for at least the next millennium.
"If this information were to be made public, it would definitely cause an uproar in our society!"
"Don't forget, we all signed an agreement before coming here. When we go back, we'll be brainwashed with spirit arts and forget everything related to this place. Our mission is to objectively and fairly record what's happening here," said Jian Xue, the OL in a suit dress, with unusual coldness.
"Sister Jian, have you ever thought about..."
"No." Jian Xue replied definitively.
Just from the young woman's gaze, she guessed the question the other party wanted to ask.
The compensation for returning to Earth this time was exceptionally generous. Jian Xue had only managed to pass through layers of selection with great difficulty to become one of the special correspondents to Earth.
She took a huge risk returning to Earth to earn a large sum of money, allowing herself and her younger brother to embark on the cultivation path, not to abandon everything at home and defect.
Of course, the young woman beside her was different. Born with a golden spoon in her mouth, she had come to Earth this time simply because she found it amusing. As for staying behind... not only had she not considered it, but no one else had even imagined such a possibility.
Giving up being a perfectly fine princess to defect to an alien world and live as a commoner?
"A society where almost no one marries, and few people want to have children—I think it's doomed to fail sooner or later." The young woman changed the subject again.
"...Their fertility can be maintained for over a hundred years..." While organizing various data, Jian Xue had, in fact, often wondered several times if Earth had been occupied by aliens.
In just a brief ten years, those former compatriots had changed so much that they were practically no longer the same species as her.
"And the people here are too laid-back! There's no modern societal vibe at all." The two, habitually dressed in smart suit dresses, felt completely out of place when they had walked the streets earlier, alien to the entire society.
In the Central Business District of Marinjoa, the Federation's capital, everyone worked with frantic energy, wishing they could do two days' work in one and earn two days' pay.
Yet here in Tianhai, people strolled at a leisurely pace everywhere. Though both were major cities, they presented entirely different landscapes.
"They have no desire to earn money; work is merely to fulfill basic survival tasks."
"If everyone's so lazy, won't there be an economic crisis?" A certain young lady grumbled discontentedly.
According to the economic theories she knew, an economic crisis should occur when social demand drastically shrinks.
"Production in a fully planned economy is controlled in real-time by the Destiny System based on total demand... there's no issue of overproduction."
"Then GDP must have dropped significantly, right?"
"According to my calculations, it's probably around thirty-five percent of what it was before humanity split. However, this data actually holds little value. Earth has no finance, no commerce, and many service industries have disappeared, making it simply incomparable to the Federation. Take lawyers, for example. In the Federation, the legal industry is a trillion-Federation-yuan level sector, but here, it's zero, because the Destiny System directly handles all judgments, so there's no need for lawyers at all."
"...I'm starting to understand why my father insisted on leaving." Ever since she was little, she had often heard her father express his open and subtle displeasure with Earth.
However, the young woman, who had lived in a Moon villa since she was old enough to remember, had always been full of curiosity about that azure planet and constantly yearned to see it.
"He wanted to control his own destiny." The young woman mumbled.
...
"System notification: The space rocket bound for the Moon will depart the day after tomorrow. Please prepare for departure." Just as the young woman was brimming with soaring ambitions, the phone on the table rang.
"Another thing that makes me uncomfortable staying here is that the Destiny System's eyes are everywhere! I always feel like I'm being watched by many pairs of eyes even when changing clothes."
"Heh." These words made Jian Xue, who had maintained a cold expression, chuckle.
Unlike the young woman, who had lived on the Moon since she could remember and had only a partial understanding of how the Land of White was established, she was relatively older and vaguely remembered the events from back then.
However, her knowledge was limited to knowing that the founder of the Destiny System had a silhouette of long black hair, but she had never truly seen his face.
On the Federation's internet, information about that person from back then had been thoroughly erased. The authorities had always been vague about the matter, avoiding discussion and slowly eroding his influence with the passage of time.
Coupled with Bai Mo's information sensing ability after reaching the seventh stage, even those who knew his name would absolutely never mention his true name.
Under these various factors, fewer and fewer members of the new generation on the Moon knew the truth of what happened back then.
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