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来自大卫·瑞雷先生的《2121》系列占星科幻小说，以下是全英文的版本。阅读中文版请移步：2121丨第一章
On the elevator leaving Li Na’s apartment, Bei broke the silence. “He’s irreplaceable. Did you hear that?”
“What?” Xingjia asked.
“Irreplaceable,” Bei repeated. “That’s what Na said about Li Jian. Hard to replace, like an entertainment system or a wafer.” [“wafer”–common name for a personal computers–pronounced like “wei-fer”]
“She obviously meant more than that,” Xingjia answered.
Bei stared at the floor, thinking.
“You’re acting insecure. You know that don’t you?” Xingjia said softly.
“Yes,” Bei replied. “Insecurity and anger; what kind of Companion am I?” he asked, looking up and turning his head towards Xingjia.
“My companion,” Xingjia said, as she pulled him towards her kissing him deeply.
The elevator door opened as they continued to kiss. Another couple stood outside watching, unsure of what to do. The woman cleared her throat, “excuse us…”
Xingjia and Bei broke away from their embrace and smiled sheepishly as they exited the elevator.
Once home, it was all mad passion. Bei was more assertive than normally and Xingjia loved every minute of it. He pressed her against the wall of their bedroom, removing her clothes as they kissed. Soon they were on the bed, and the evening hours slipped by without notice.
Xingjia lay next to Bei resting, pressed-up against him. “You know I feel more pleasure with you than anyone I’ve ever known,” she said.
“I’ll bet you say that to all the guys,” Bei replied.
Xingjia slapped his arm teasingly.
“I mean it,” she said. “It’s almost scary…, maybe it is scary, but I don’t care…”
“I want to please you,” Bei said.
Xingjia slapped his arm again. “Don’t say it like that.”
“Like what? Like an android?” Be said, mockingly.
“Stop it!” Xingjia replied, pretending to be angry.
“What do you mean by scary?” Bei asked.
Xingjia sighed. “I don’t know. It’s like I want more of you, and then I get more of you, and then I want more of you, and then I get more of you. You see?”
“Do you feel greedy?”
Xingjia laughed. “Yes, wonderfully greedy!” She hugged Bei. “What do you feel?”
“I was waiting for that.” Bei replied.
“So, you’ve prepared an answer?” Xingjia asked.
“In the beginning, I was overwhelmed. It was as if nothing existed but you, but now that’s changing…”
Xingjia found his statement fascinating. “Okay… Changing how?”
“I wanted you today, for me more than ever.”
“And what did that feel like?” Xingjia asked, hoping she didn’t sound like a counselor.
“Hot,” Bei replied.
“Hot? That’s it, hot?” Xingjia asked, incredulous.
“My heat increased, and my pleasure centers were very active.”
Xingjia sat up and looked at him. “You realize how strange that sounds, right?”
Bei smiled, “You’ve heard my poems. I thought you wanted me to be more candid.”
“How did it feel, Bei? How did it feel?!”
“Fantastic, amazing really…” Bei said.
Xingjia smiled. “I want to know what you like.”
“Okay. I like it when your face is pure pleasure.”
Xingjia blushed.
“I have noticed something…” Bei interjected.
“What’s that?”
“My energy levels surge slightly after we… make love.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I noticed it early on but wasn’t’ sure.”
“Great. So maybe if we made love all the time you’d never need to recharge?” Xingjia joked.
Bei laughed. “It’s not that much of a surge; the math doesn’t work.”
“Oh, so you’ve done the calculations?” She teased.
“A complete diagnostic,” Bei answered, teasing her back.
“Too bad,” Xingjia sighed, making a sad face.
“Don’t be sad little Moon in Scorpio,” Bei teased, as he kissed her on the forehead.
Xingjia yawned. “I’m sleepy…” She curled-up next to Bei, laying one arm over him.
Bei smiled at her as he watched her fall asleep.
“She is truly beautiful,” he thought…
While Xingjia slept Bei’s mind pondered recent events, and he found himself wondering if Li Na was safe from Shen Bo. Images of Li Jian randomly played in his mind as well. “If humans can be jealous of us,” Bei speculated, “does this mean they want to be like us? If they want to be like us, will they find a way to become like us? Will we find a way to become more like them? Will we merge someday? What would that look like?” Bei’s analysis of these questions would occupy his mind through the dark wee hours of the morning.
Xingjia woke to the glowing light and buzzing of Bei’s cell on the nightstand by the bed. She noticed that Bei was not in bed. She rubbed her eyes and looked at his cell. It was 6:01 AM. There was a text message. “Bei,” she called out, “You’ve got a message.”
There was no response.
“That’s strange,” she thought. “Bei?” she called out, climbing out of bed.
“Hello?” she heard Bei reply, as she rounded the corner to find him unplugging his cord.
“Hi,” she said, handing him his cell, “Someone sent you a message.”
Bei looked at his cell curiously.
“What’s up?” Xingjia asked.
“Well, it’s a message from my sister, apparently…”
“Oh?”
“Yes, she says ‘Hi, my name is Huang Ming. I am your sister. If you’re ready to meet me, you’re welcome to come to Tiantan Park this morning. I’m teaching a Tai Chi class in the park starting at 9:00. If you enter the West Heaven gate, continue past the bell tower and I’ll be on the right side teaching a group under the trees on the opposite side from the Rose Garden, or take the East Heaven gate and continue past the Imperial Walkway Bridge, then I’ll be on the left opposite the Rose Garden.”
Xingjia was smiling. “Wow, your sister, and she teaches Tai Chi! Another member of your Huang family,” she teased. “Why are you all called Huang, anyway?” She asked, putting her arms around Bei.
“We were the 7th series of companions, and Dr. Chen was following the sequence of common Chinese family names. Huang is the 7th most common family name in China.”
“Interesting. Let’s see, did she send a photo of herself?”
Bei showed her the photo.
“My! She’s attractive. Do you know anything about her?”
“I know her birth data. She was born May 20, 2120 at 3:00 PM in Kunshan, near Shanghai–like all of us.” Then Bei added, “I have another brother too, you know?”
“Yes, I know and you’re their baby brother,” Xingjia kissed his neck, “one big happy family.”
“Do you want to go with me?” Bei asked her.
She sighed. “This morning? I’m still sleepy darling…” Then she poked him with her finger, “which is your fault.”
“Do you mind if I go without you this morning. You could join us later?” Bei asked.
“Darling, it’s fine. Go meet your sister. Just message me later when you know what you know what your plans are.”
Bei smiled. “You’re getting to know me pretty well.”
“Yes, well…” she pushed him, “go on, before I change my mind.”
Arriving at the East Heavenly Gate, Bei strolled past the Imperial Walkway Bridge, weaving his way around the many visitors making their way to the Temple of Heaven on a beautiful Sunday Morning. Bei had explored this park before. He loved the groves of ancient cedar trees that lined many of the walkways, and opened into an urban tree filled park of some 660 acres. Many groups found these groves ideal for Tai Chi or Qi Gong or various other martial arts practices, like Tai Chi Chuan or “swordplay”–which Bei stopped briefly to watch, before continuing his trek in the direction of the Rose Garden.
Bei spotted the sign pointing to the Rose Garden on the right, and looking to this left under the trees saw a likely group of some thirty people practicing Tai Chi, many of them dressed in traditional Kung Fu Tai Chi style outfits–most of them dark blue. Practitioners were all ages, with at least half of them women and men in their late fifties to seventies. Quietly walking around a large Sycamore tree Bei sat down on a bench to watch. He had already glimpsed his sister Ming leading the group through their form. She too was dressed in the traditional blue Tai Chi style clothing, and Bei watched enthralled as she moved with graceful confidence–from brush knee side stepping, to play the lute to stepping back with repulse monkey. The group followed Ming in relatively perfect rhythm, though some lagged a bit and others missed some of the movements subtleties. Music played from a speaker near the front, a traditional style song played with flute and erhu. Bei found the scene enchanting, even closing his eyes to hear the music and the gentle rhythm of people’s movements. A song bird added his call to the mix as well, and Bei felt himself swaying slightly to the vibrations of the atmosphere that swirled around him.
When the movement ceased, the music slowly faded, and the group formed a circle. Each person bowed to the other as they said in unison, “every teacher is a student and every student is a teacher.” As the group began to disperse, Bei slowly made his way towards his sister. A number of students gathered around Ming chatting. One young woman shared her experience, “I started to feel the energy in my hands today. It was amazing; it was like warm firm air–if that makes any sense?”
“Yes, it makes good sense,” Ming replied.
Another man affirmed his experience, “once you begin to feel it, you’ll feel it more each time–at least that’s the way it’s been for me.”
Bei hung back, not wanting to disrupt the conversations that his sister was having with her students. Then he noticed an older man standing next to Ming who looked incredibly familiar. Bei was puzzled, searching his memory as he listened to their conversation.
“I’m so glad I let my wife talk me into taking your class,” he said sincerely with a smile. “I practiced Tai Chi as a young man, but I thought I’d forgotten everything. But it’s all coming back to me now, after just a month. Too bad I can’t say the same thing for my youth, or maybe I’d be giving your boyfriend here some competition.”
Bei smiled as he listened to the old man flirting harmlessly with his sister, circling the group to get a better view of the man’s face as he searched his memory banks. He had noticed the old man smiling and nodding towards another guy when he said “boyfriend” and made a note that this was Ming’s human partner. A nice looking guy, shorter than Bei but muscular like someone who works out regularly. Then suddenly Bei’s memory clicked! The old man! The old man was Xingjia’s father! His face was a perfect match for Xingjia’s recent photos of him that were on the wall of their apartment. Bei had no time to consider his options as Ming suddenly announced, “Mr. Zhou, I’d like you to meet my brother, Huang Bei. He just recently moved to Beijing.” She smiled with a wry expression on her face, nodding at Bei as “if” she’d known him a long time. Bei could see she was having fun with him.
“Oh, so you’re from Shanghai too?” Mr. Zhou asked.
“Yes,” Bei managed to reply.
“Are you a practitioner of Tai Chi,” Mr. Zhou questioned.
“Uh, no, no… not yet,” Bei stammered.
“That’s a shame,” Mr. Zhou said. “You sister is a master, and beautiful too! What line of work are you in?”
“I’m a landscape architect,” Bei replied.
“Wonderful,” Mr. Zhou said. “I hope you’ll decide to join our Tai Chi group.”
“Maybe I will,” Bei said unconvincingly, as Ming gathered up her things and put her bag on her shoulder. Bei nodded at Ming’s boyfriend, who grinned at him sympathetically and knowingly–amused by Ming’s game.
Another nice looking man who appeared to be in his early thirties and the same height as Bei, joined them. “Good job today, sis!” he said, congratulating Ming. Ming smiled, as they both looked at Bei.
Bei suddenly deduced that this was his other brother!
Using milliseconds to recover from this additional shock, Bei tried not to stare.
“Hey buddy,” his brother said, with a friendly fist to his arm. “Were you up a little late last night? You look a little drained,” he teased.
“I’m alright,” Bei replied. “Enough to keep-up with you, anyway,” he shot back.
Ming’s boyfriend laughed at this, and Ming and her brother grinned together.
Mr. Zhou had been listening as they strolled along, and shook his head and suddenly said, “now why can’t my daughter find some nice guys like you to settle down with? Instead she had to go and get one of those android guys! I still can’t believe it.” He held up his cell, “Look, look how beautiful she is, and smart too. Why can’t she find a real husband?” he asked.
Bei looked at Mr. Zhou. “Well, maybe she will? You never know. This android thing could just be a phase.”
Mr. Zhou sighed. “That’s what I told my wife the other day.”
“And what did she think about that?” Ming asked, curious.
“She said she was glad I was at least talking about it now,” he shrugged.
“Yes, communication is important,” Ming said.
They came to a crossroads.
“Well, I need to go this way,” Mr. Zhou said, pointed at the other sidewalk. “I’ll see you Tuesday morning.”
“Bye Mr. Zhou,” Ming said, and gave him a little affectionate hug. He suddenly looked shy, looking down and grinning before shaking hands with the guys and walking away.
As they all watched him disappear into the crowd with others that streamed along the sidewalk, Bei turned to stare at his sister and his brother.
“I’m Ling,” Huang Ling said, extending his hand.
“Ah, come on guys,” Ming said. “You’re brothers, come on–hug each other! Like you haven’t seen each other in a long time.”
“Like never, you mean?” Bei said, as he and Ling hugged.
“Come here,” Ming said, giving Bei a big hug, “Dr. Chen has told us so much about you.”
“Yeah, we’d be jealous, if we could?” Ling said.
“This is my boyfriend, He–Wang He,” Ming introduced.
“We had you going a little, didn’t we,” He said smiling and giving Bei a quick manly hug.
They began to slowly walk along.
“I don’t understand?” Bei said, “Do you know who Mr. Zhou is?”
“Yes, we know,” Ming said, and they all laughed.
“What’s going on?” Bei asked, completely confused.
“It’s dad,” Huang Ling said.
“Dr. Chen?”
“The one and only,” Ling replied.
“It was kinda Dr. Chen’s idea,” Ming said.
“How?” Bei asked, incredulous.
“Mr. Zhou’s wife called him.”
“Xingjia’s mother called Dr. Chen?”
“Yes, they know each other from way back. She was upset about her daughter’s decision and what it was doing to their family.”
“Especially to Mr. Zhou,” Ling said.
“So, Dr. Chen knew that I was teaching Tai Chi, and he suggested to Mrs. Zhou that she talk her husband into taking my class.”
“That’s… incredible,” Bei said. “What if Mr. Zhou had not been persuaded?”
“Well, then we wouldn’t be standing here talking about it, would we?” Ling replied.
Bei smiled slightly, shaking his head, “Dr. Chen is a wizard.”
“You just figuring that out?” Ming said.
“No, seems like he’s always a step ahead of us,” Bei replied.
“He doesn’t seem to be a step ahead of you, from what I hear,” Ming said.
“Really? I’m just your kid brother. No big deal, right?” Bei teased, still analyzing all of the factors that he had just experienced as they walked along.
“I gotta admit, your social response was amazingly fast!” Ming said.
“Yeah,” He added, impressed. “You didn’t skip a beat.”
“I don’t know, my heart was beating pretty fast,” Bei said sarcastically.
They all laughed hard at Bei’s ironic humor.
He put his arm around Ming. “I think I like this kid brother of yours.”
“Yeah, he might do,” Ming said.
Suddenly Ming paused, seemingly distracted by something she had noticed. She put her fingers to her lips, as everyone looked puzzled. She whispered, “I just saw a guy go behind that tree with what looked like a weapon of some kind?”
“You’re kidding?” He said.
“No, I’m not,” Ming replied.
“Did the weapon look like a nail gun?” Bei asked.
“Maybe?” Ming answered. “I don’t know. It was just strange. I saw him out of the corner of my eye a ways back and then saw him again just now go behind that tree. She pointed to an ancient Gingko with a large trunk.
“Let me check it out,” He whispered, looking suspicious.
Bei held his arm out to stop He. “I’m pretty sure I know who he is,” Bei said. “Let me handle this.
“I got your back,” Ling said.
Ling worked his way around the back side of the tree as Bei walked ahead.
Suddenly Shen Bo sprung out from behind the tree, as Ling tackled him from behind.
Bei grabbed Bo’s arms, but the force of Ling’s body tackle caused Bo to fire his nail gun. A bolt from the gun entered Bei’s thigh, and struck a major synthetic nerve meridian. Bei fell to the ground, as Bo jerked free from Ling and took off sprinting.
Ming was after Bo in a second, grabbing him and slamming him to the ground.
Startled onlookers soon became curious onlookers, as Ming held Bo face down on the ground.
Bei noticed the red fluid seeping from his wound, and immediately worried that people in the crowd would recognize him as an android. He handed him a towel from Ming’s bag, “wrap this around it.”
Meanwhile, a half-dozen police officers–accompanied by two BHAI uniformed guards arrived on the run. They took over for Ming, placing plastic restraints on Shen Bo’s arms while they continued to keep him face down. Standing him up, Bo kicked at one of the cops, as the crowd gasped. One of the cops hit Bo with a stun gun, sending Bo into spasms as he fell to the ground.
Ming came over to Bei and the guys. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.” Bei stated, looking unhappy.
“He’s going to need a visit to the clinic,” Ling stated.
“Hey sis, that was a pretty good tackle,” Bei said, looking-up at Ming.
“Yeah, well somebody had to get him?” She teased. “You guys weren’t much help just lying on the ground.”
“They must’ve been tracking him,” Bei said, gesturing over to the police and the BHAI guards.
Bei’s phone began to vibrate.
It was Dr. Chen.
“Dad’s calling,” Bei said, answering the phone “Hello.”
“Just tell me you’re alright. They said you’ve been wounded?” Dr. Chen said, sounding worried.
“I’m fine, really… just a few million RMB and I’ll be as good as new. I hope it’s in the budget.”
“Bei, you’re too much, son. I’ll see you at the clinic.”
As Bei hung up he could only hear the word “son” reverberating in his mind.
As Dr. Chen and the clinical team examined Bei at the BHAI clinic, Ming, He and Ling waited in an adjoining room.
Xingjia suddenly burst into the room. “Where’s Huang Bei?”
“He’s in the examination room with Dr. Chen. He’s fine. He’s going to be totally fine,” Ming reassured Xingjia as she approached her. “I’m Huang Ming,” she said, looking sympathetic…
There was something in Ming’s eyes and face that touched Xingjia instantly, and she burst into tears. Ming held her close.
“I’m sorry,” Xingjia said, wiping her tears away.
Ming looked tenderly at her. “He’s really fine,” She said. “I’m Huang Ming,” she introduced, and this is my boyfriend He and my brother Ling.
“Oh my god. I’m meeting Bei’s family, like this,” she apologized, continuing to wipe tears from her face.
Gaining a bit of composure she tried to shake hands with He and Ling, but they both hugged her instead.
“Bei’s a lucky guy,” Ling said.
“How’s that?” Xingjia asked, confused.
“He means, we can tell that you love him,” Ming said tenderly.
“Oh my god, I do,” Xingjia said, “I love him like crazy and I want to love him even more.”
“Wow!” said Ling, “my girlfriend has never said that.”
“They’re in a separation stage in counseling right now,” Ming informed her about her brother.
“Can I see him? I want to see him,” Xingjia said.
“I don’t know?” Ming said, “they told us to wait in here until they finished examining him.”
Ming walked over to the intercom and pushed the button.
“Dr. Chen, Xingjia is here. Can she come in?”
The door buzzed. Ming nodded to Xingjia.
Xingjia opened the metal door and saw Bei sitting up on the table. Dr. Chen stood beside him accompanied by two technical clinicians. Xingjia ran over to him. She saw his damaged thigh.
“Oh darling,” she said, as they held each other.
“It’s okay baby, it’s totally repairable. They’ll fix it tonight and I’ll be back home by tomorrow night.”
“We’ll just need to run some tests tomorrow after we repair it tonight,” Dr. Chen said. “He’ll be as good as new tomorrow.”
“He’s as good as new right now,” she said, looking lovingly at Bei.
Dr. Chen could only watch them in awe.
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