Chapter 1
The Chief Executive
A streamlined, beige-colored Dongfang sedan travelled on the Chang’an Street.
Although subway tunnels had all but gutted the underground of Beijing, while maglev transport tunnels crisscrossed overhead, ground transportation was still near a point of saturation, so much so that the traffic jams in Beijing became a sight to behold. Daily, dozens of transparent sightseeing helicopters flew above the city, carrying grandchildren of the inventors of automobile from across the seas for their viewing pleasure. The city council and the citizens of Beijing protested several times to the Chinese International Tourism Company against this type of tourism that “damages the reputation of our capital”, but to no avail.
Yet surprisingly, everywhere this “Dongfang” sedan went, the traffic lights turned green on its path. A handful of traffic police officers had already been fired because they overrode the just-and-fair computer that controlled these traffic signals, but it didn’t stop others from following suit. They took utmost pride in giving this beautifully streamlined, beige automobile a green light, as if they would be offered a medal for their service.
This was a car that was known all over China.
The person driving it was a world-famous, beautiful woman.
She was born in the spring of 2166, making her 29 years old this year.
For those people who met her for the first time, she came across as quiet and child-like.
Those who saw her for the first time would stare at her eyes. This pair of eyes not only spoke to them, but also had music emanating from them. Soft piano music seemed to come out of them, not a romantic tune, but one pure and devoid of purpose. These eyes were born with the music, just as the stars in the night sky were born with their silvery glow.
She was the most feminine of women, as if the tender beauty of women across these ancient lands descended and was collected by a quartz funnel to be recrystallized into her. If there were an instrument that measured femininity, it would short its circuitry when a reading was taken of her[1]. Last year, at the grand opening of the bridge connecting Asia and the Americas across the Bering Strait, she gently stroke the massive steel column rising 500 meters above the sea level. This column was connected to two steel cables as wide as 3 meters that suspended this hundred-kilometer long bridge. The president of the United States was looking at her as she lovingly caressed the massive, grey column of steel. He gasped: “By the name of God, she is turning this steel column soft and supple!” At the time, a European TV commentator wrote, “The bridge across the Bering Strait is still weathering the frigid winds of the Arctic, and the floating ice from the North Pole is still crushing onto its steady base. But when she stepped onto this bridge and touched it, it turned feminine. From this point on, people would appreciate this bridge more for its tender beauty than for its glorious masculinity.”
Her oriental femininity not only belonged to herself, it also permeated everything around her. It made hard objects feel soft and supple, coarse objects glossy and smooth. At this moment she was holding the steering wheel of the Dongfang gently, and it seemed as if the hardened plastic of the wheel, along with the steering column connected to it, were turning malleable like boiled noodles, that she could deform them with her lightest touch.
Yet these are the hands that hold the supreme executive power to one of three superpowers in the world, an ancient country in East Asia stretching 9.6 million square kilometers, a country of 2 billion people.
The Dongfang drove past Tiananmen. Its destination, the News Tower on West Chang’an Street. Soon, the chief executive saw the building dating from the 2130s. Its design had two oblique columns that were connected at the top to form the shape of the letter A. Its glossy surface reflected the soft, orange light at dusk.
Five years ago, she met the 2 billion people of this country as the newly elected chief executive. Her predecessor shook her hands and grinned at her, before he turned around and headed out. She still hadn’t guessed to the meaning of that grin.
The design of the news hall was very modern. The most striking feature was that it wasn’t a room visually, but a space without borders. Aside from the architects who constructed this building, no one knew the shapes of the walls. Its floor was completely transparent. Underneath the floor was the same limitless space as was above the ceiling. Everyone in this hall felt like they were levitating in infinite space, and no reference point was available in any direction. This space could be turned either black or blue as needed, or turned into a map of the country, or a star chart. As was described by the designer, it gave anyone standing inside it a sense of freedom from any boundaries.
As was customary, every new executive had one minute and thirty seconds to give their first speech to the 2 billion people from this hall. Chief Executives prior to her had brooded over every second of their speeches. Certainly a handful of the speeches have become classics, but even more were remembered in infamy as prime examples of shameless self-aggrandizement. She was an exception.
She didn’t seem to have prepared anything for the 90 seconds. She felt like something was on her lips, but she didn’t utter a word. There she stood, with one of her hands holding the translucent podium. Behind her was an azure void.
She looked at the two billion people through her large, glistening eyes; at the same time, the two billion people across the vast country looked back at her. Thusly the people and their new leader stared silently at each other; their minds were conversing through their eyes.
At this time, every major city turned on their Sky Screens to broadcast the inauguration of the new chief executive. Thousands of meters above in the night sky, her eyes gazed at the ancient land. Her gaze was one of deep thoughtfulness, of confidence, but undeniably, also of a trace of melancholy.
90 seconds elapsed, and she started her 8-year tenure as the chief executive. During this 8-year period, people were allowed to vote her out of power at any moment.
“You didn’t say anything during your speech just now.” A voice gently reminded her.
“Sorry, that was childish. Terribly sorry.” She woke up from her dreamy state. Her voice was even lighter than just now, like a gentle breeze from the blue abyss surrounding her.
Soon journalists started appearing, and a large group of people started congregating in front of the chief executive.
“What is your favorite group of people in today’s society? What is your greatest wish during your tenure?”
“The children are my favorite. I recently got married, and my greatest wish is to give birth to a lovely child.”
“A boy or a girl?” asked an excited voice.
“Wait!” a longhaired journalist squeezed her way to the front and shouted, “Your response was only fit for print in a dumb tabloid like hers,” he pointed at the girl who asked the second question, “My question was a serious one, and I demand a serious answer!”
The girl frowned at the longhaired journalist. She almost threw her recording pen at the other journalist out of anger. Before departing for her assignment, the editor-in-chief told the longhaired journalist, “Make sure she knows that we mean business. That’s your only job today.”
The chief executive went silent, and then she let out a quiet, almost imperceptible sigh. “My friend, why would you think that I not serious? What I have said today comes from the depth of my heart. I understand that you wish that I’d said ‘I love everyone in this country equally, and my greatest wish is that our ancient motherland becomes a shining beacon of human achievement on the eastern hemisphere.’ But today is the opportunity for me to express the love and the hope from within my heart. I can’t bring myself to lie. I’ll say this again, and to everyone in front of me, in earnest, that the loveliest people of this country are the children, and my greatest wish is to give birth to a lovely child.”
Satellites on the geosynchronous orbit relayed her voice to every corner of the globe.
“What you just alluded to, does it mean that our republic is currently facing some difficulties?”
“As is the custom, the thirty minutes today is my first opportunity meeting everyone as the chief executive, and is also possibly my only chance to not discuss state affairs with you all. Let’s all cherish this opportunity, shall we?”
“Please state your opinions on our traditional culture.”
“I will speak through my actions in the future, thank you.”
“I am the reporter of xxx. What was the greatest achievement you have had before you were selected?”[2]
“I have overthrown a saying of Aristotle: The fascination and the power can’t gather on a woman.”[3]
laughter
“Are you avoiding all things political today?”
“Sorry, everything is just starting.”
“ I am a journalist from xxx. Regarding what you just said, are you implying that you are elected because of your charisma alone?”
“The people select their favorite person as their leader. Both the older and the newer generations voted in favor of me, and I am very thankful for that.”
“Does this mean that you are not confident with your abilities to fulfill your duties?”
“The confidence of the leader derives from the people they lead. Now I have two billion pairs of eyes gazing upon me. I wish I could shake hands with each and every one of you. I may not be able to see you at this moment, but in my mind are two images that represent what I think of you. They are derived from two oil paintings from the 1980s that I collected. One is called Father[4]. The face of an elderly man from the Loess Plateau filled the painting. The scorching sun gave him a deep brown, almost black complexion. The years of poverty, physical exertion, scorching heat and deep freeze carved deep grooves onto his face. And those eyes – what a pair of eyes they were. They were numb from the pains of life, but shone bright with kindness; they looked lost in life, yet yearning for happiness. My heart trembles from looking at those eyes. The other was called ___. On the painting was an old lady who was extremely thin and weak. In the dark hut only her silver hair reflected a stream of light. I remember looking carefully at the canvas, but I couldn’t find a single black hair on her head. Her eyes couldn’t be seen, as her face was buried deep into the shoes she was making. She clenches on to the shoe with her thin, weathered hands, her back hunched over, as if she had never stood upright. She sewed what had remained of her life entirely into those shoes. Those shoes were made for soldiers fighting on these soil, soldiers fighting for the birth of this republic.”
“Do you consider it appropriate to represent our people today using these imagery from a time when our country was at its weakest?”
“Maybe not exactly, but to me our people still condense into these two images. The prosperity and strength of our republic is beyond comparison to that of that era, but our people still bear the heavy burden of history. Knowing all the challenges and difficulties we face today, the march towards our ideals and a prosperous future remains treacherous.
“Folks say that I come across as too childish, I fully acknowledge that. Why does the older generation always look down upon me for that reason alone? Based on the average age of our country, I am a child! The elderly man and woman in the paintings, I saw them as equals to my mother and father. Now, facing our two billion people, I say to you, I am your daughter.”
Now she was in the fifth year of her term. The past five years had been triumphant both for her and for the republic. Even prior to starting her job as the chief executive, she had predicted the energy crisis of 2183. During the first year of her administration, the government decisively cut investments to the energy-intensive heavy industry sector. This caused massive production cuts in steel and other industrial products, which in turn caused her much stress. She withstood the pressure, and passed a new spending bill in 2181 to develop solar, nuclear and hydrogen energy as renewable energy sources, and with great foresight, invested in hydrogen-powered vehicles and aircrafts. Her administration also invested heavily in software development, leading to the establishment of the world’s largest software industrial park in the northwestern provinces. When the fossil energy crisis inevitably struck, the country she was leading didn’t suffer much, but instead managed to increase their market share on global industrial products markets by two fold. The RMB Yuan became a major currency on the international monetary market, and the republic paid off all her national debt to enter into a period of strong economic growth. During this period, her country also completed building a countrywide telecommunications network to connect every computer. The computer network, largest in the world, boasted 500k supercomputers, 80 million mid size units, 100 million mini units, 600 million microcomputers, and 1.3 billion personal terminals. This incredibly massive and complex system worked like the brain of a human, and the world witnessed the birth of the first fully information society. During her administration, thanks to her extensive tree planting programs on the Loess Plateau, the sand content of the yellow river reduced for the first time in recorded history. This was a culturally significant event, as the Yellow River carried deep symbolic value to the Chinese people, but it was disappearing from the excessive amounts of mud and sand it brought from its origins. However, one historical problem remained. The country reverted into population decline, after almost a century of continued population growth.
Through the past five years the world also got to know her. The year 2181 had been an eventful year for the entire world as well. In this year border disputes erupted on the Moon and other planets of the solar system. The seeds to this crisis had been planted in the 20th century. The Soviet Union landed on Mars in 2003, the US and Soviet Union landed on Venus in collaboration in 2065, and both individually landed on Mercury in 2182. Finally on the third day of 2183, an armed conflict broke out on the moon, with China, the US, and the Soviet Union all involved. 98 astronauts were killed in the conflict. This was referred to the mini-WWIII, and accordingly, the meeting at Geneva that followed this conflict was referred to as “the Second Yalta Conference”. Of the three superpowers, the Soviet Union and the US were still present, only that the Chinese chief executive was attending in place of Winston Churchill. The other marked difference was that the three countries were enemies, not allies. Moreover, China lost the war on the Moon. Even until now the Chinese space force still pales in comparison to its Soviet and American counterparts. In the conflict, Chinese bases at the Copernicus crater had been all but destroyed. The crisis was a serious challenge to the chief executive who had just assumed office. As she wasn’t in a position of power, she didn’t gain any major diplomatic victory. However, her personality left the world a lasting impression. During the US-china meeting on the second day of the talks, sharp-sighted journalists saw the US president wiping sweat off his forehead as he walked out of the meeting room.
“Well, haven’t we met an adversary harder to deal with than Churchill?” Asked the president of the USSR, standing in front of a grandfather clock (from the 1900s) alongside the US president. They had just had a fierce fight the day prior.
“Well, think of her this way: She is like a faraway star. While it looks like she blinks softly at far, she is in fact powered by nuclear fusion. If you come close to her, you’d realize that her energy is equal to several times that of the Sun.”
All things considered, if she could have carried out the rest of her tenure as she did during the past five years, she would have been remembered in history as an excellent chief executive.
The Dongfang parked at the bottom of the News Center staircase. As soon as the chief executive stepped out of her car, she was stopped in her way by a group of elderly people.
In this group of old folks, the youngest was 180 years old, and most of them were over 200 years old. After spending their childhood in late 20th century, they lived another 185 years until this day. While most of them were no longer employed, as they stood in front of the chief executive, their age endowed upon them an enormous sense of entitlement.
“Come here, kid.” Said an old man as he waved at the chief executive with his cane. His snowy white beard almost reached the bottom of his torso.
The chief executive walked over under the harsh and judgmental gaze of the group of old people. She couldn’t stay here for long. She came here to attend the press conference that precedes the upcoming People’s Conference. She and her predecessors were all nervous about these old people. They would stop her Dongfang sedan at random places, trying to profess her some life lessons.
“Hello, folks! Look at that pigeon – how adorable it is! You all staring at me is making me a bit nervous. I must have done something that displeases you.”
“Why do you dress like this?” An old man pointed his cane at her.
She was wearing an oversized, unzipped blue jacket, and underneath was a white tennis shirt. The boyish outfits made her appear casual and carefree. Tomorrow it would be guaranteed that thousands of people would be seen wearing a blue jacket and white tennis shirt out and about.
“Is this how you are going to present yourself in front of 2 billion people?” Asked an elder angrily while others nodded in agreement.
“You are the leader of this country! You need to have decorum! You understand that?”
“God forbid! I was playing tennis and I didn’t have time to change my outfit. I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again. I do beg your forgiveness.” Said the chief executive, smiling.
“Playing tennis? You are the chief executive now, not the sports star that you were during college. You need to grow out of it. When you have time, read some books, especially history. It’ll do you good.”
The elderly man must have forgotten as he said this, that one of the three doctorate degrees that the chief executive held was in history.
“Yes, grandpa, history, you know, it’ll surely be beneficial.” She responded absentmindedly, glanced at her watch, and let out a sigh as she looked toward the pigeon a couple feet away.
“We are here to ask you about one thing. The newspaper said you are getting a divorce!”
“Yes.” She answered calmly.
“No! That cannot be tolerated!” The elders almost cried out in unison.
“He asked for the divorce. It has nothing to do with our affection for one another. He is a civil engineer, and his dream is to build an undersea tunnel connecting the mainland and Taiwan. After we got married, he became a celebrity. Day in, day out, he was surrounded with journalists and cameras. He couldn’t continue with his work. If I were him, I wouldn’t want a wife like myself either.”
“So you agreed?”
“Yes. But deep down, I knew that I still love him, and he still loves me!”
“Shut up! How dare you to talk this lover’s talk before your elders!”
“How can a divorced girl without a family lead our country? This is preposterous!”
At this moment, the press secretary walked down from the stairs and drove away the elders: “My apologies, folks! The press conference is about to start. Would you kindly wait until it ends to talk to the chief executive?”
“Ok, we’ll leave you to your work, but we’ll talk more after you’re done!”
“Thanks!” The chief executive glanced at the press secretary gratefully. She turned around and walked briskly up the grand staircase.
“Stop that!” Someone shouted at her. “Don’t walk like a little girl, skipping and jumping around!”
“Grandpa, I am a girl to you. When I was born, you were already age 180.” The chief executive finally mustered some courage to gibe back at him.
“Enough of your bullshit! You need to act proper and respectable. Go! Don’t let us hold up your important business.”
She carefully walked up the stairs in a “respectable” manner. She made a face at the press secretary.
“You are too nice to these old farts.”
“A twentieth-century US president once said ‘This office is a just a dignified servitude’.” I completely agree with him on that. My friend, if I were born again, I would never be the chief executive again. Oh, but don’t tell that to the press!”
Today the news hall had turned into a solemn dark blue color. The chief executive walked in from the back, the sound of her steps crisp, and gradually getting louder.
“Citizens, the preparatory meeting for the 384th People’s Conference has concluded this afternoon. The details of the meeting will be covered by my press secretary. Here I’ll briefly go over my plans for the next three years of my tenure, so you may be prepared for the upcoming People’s Conference.”
“Before I start going over what I plan to achieve, I must confess to the two billion people who have their trust in me, that your chief executive isn’t doing well mentally. Don’t judge me solely by my looks; while I look calm, my heart is burning like hot lava. I feel repressed, suffocated. I have bad dreams, I drive fast, I am in great distress. Please keep a close watch at my behavior, as the public trust for me grows. This is of utmost importance. For our republic, I implore to you!”
“In my next three years of work, the first thing I will accomplish is to pass bill number 802374 of this year, and I will explain my rationale in detail during the People’s Conference.”
The chief executive glossed over the first thing that she is discussing, without regards to the shock it had on the populace. A poll indicated that more than 800,000 television sets were smashed this night out of anger, with the majority of them using a walking stick.
Bill number 802374 was submitted by a young and little-known sociologist. The bill suggested that the current concept of family is no longer suitable for the present mode of Social Production[5]. The breakdown of the traditional family structure is inevitable, and the republic should amend its constitution to gradually stop enforcing laws on marriage and family building.
As she walked down the grand staircase in front of the news hall, the chief executive saw a horde of young people around her Dongfang, and the police trying desperately to push them away.
She walked towards them, smiling. The group of young people stopped crowding towards the car. One of the boys handed her a racing helmet.
“How pretty! Thank you,” she said. She took over the helmet and shook hands with the boy. The number of helmets she received could be compared to the number of smoking pipes received by Stalin.
“What brand is your jacket?” asked a girl. She, too, was preparing for her clothes tomorrow.
“Pluto. Here, it’s yours now.” She took off her jacket and tossed it at the girl, but it was intercepted by several hands midair.
“Remember! Some Pluto jackets have a golden stripe on the collar, but not the one that I had!” She shouted at the group of youngsters, now in an uproar.
As the youngsters were fighting for her blue jacket, the chief executive climbed into the Dongfang sedan. She was just about to start the engine when she was suddenly hugged and kissed from behind. She looked back and saw a fair-faced young lady in a lieutenant uniform. She was the bodyguard of the chief executive who just got back from vacation.
“Wasn’t I excellent at the press conference just now?” asked the chief executive smilingly.
“You did excellent!” shouted the lieutenant.
The pair laughed loudly in the Dongfang as it glided swiftly forward.
“The boys revere you, but you are beyond their reach, so they are all circling me instead.” The lieutenant spoke of her experience during her vacation quite proudly.
“You silly girl! I meant for you to bring one home for yourself.” Said the chief executive.
“Unless you pick a boy as your bodyguard, I wouldn’t leave you!”
“That’s too bad, I’m only authorized to have one bodyguard.”
Right ahead, a group of elderly men stopped the Dongfang. Their silver hair shone bright underneath the street lights. They were not the same group as the one in front of the News Center, but they are hardly any younger than those. They crowded right in the middle of Chang’an street, surrounded by camera-wielding journalists, causing a terrible traffic jam. Several mini police helicopters hovered mid-air, but the police on those helicopters couldn’t do anything to disperse the crowd of old people.
“Good grief! I’m screwed. Dear friend, please give me some encouragement.” Said the chief executive to the lieutenant.
“Move along. Flowers will blossom for you left and right.”
“Terrific. That was anything but helpful. Leave your pistol in the car. Listen to me – otherwise I won’t have you as my bodyguard any more! Damn – I thought I had a jacket underneath the seat. How do you think I look in a t-shirt?”
“Super cute! You look just as fit as the tennis champion you were during college, nothing has changed.”
“So it will be. Maybe this will charm those old dudes, so they will forgive me for my announcement.”
The chief executive stepped out of the car. The old people immediately circled around her. Her body, dressed in the white tennis outfit, was so young and pretty, stood in the center of the elders like a blossom of pure white magnolia in a sea of old, wrinkly walnuts.
“You, you rebellious child!” Said an elder, shaking with anger. His walking stick pointed at the nose of the chief executive. “Among those candidates, you were the only one who seemed sound, that’s why I voted for you. But you’ve betrayed our trust! You bastard!”
The next elder spoke a bit more politely, and his words were weighty.
“Our ancient civilization treats family values as sacrosanct, significantly more so than any other civilization that has ever existed. Thanks to our deep regard for our familial ties, our civilization has weathered 5000 years to come to what it is today. But this country will be the first one in human history to stop acknowledging the concept of a family! The heavens shall not permit this!”
“Good sir! Could we please go speak on the side of the road?” The cane prevented the chief executive from moving.
“Look at your self. You have no decorum! Where are your clothes? Look at this…”
“A girl asked me for it, I…”
“Great, you’d even give out your clothes… Speak not of being a chief executive, do you think you are a kid with good manners?”
“You want nothing to do with family… even animals care for their families!”
“Grandpa, look how many cars we’ve stopped…”
“Even uncivilized beasts care for their families!” shouted the at least 210 year-old man repeatedly.
“But the beasts, like my favorite kangaroo, don’t have a constitution to safeguard courtship and family, right? Please move that way, grandpa… AAH!”
The walking stick struck hard on the face of the chief executive.
“You… you speak to your elders like this? Huh?” The elder was at a loss for words with anger. The warning light of his artificial heart blinked bright red at the middle of his chest.
The lieutenant rushed forward with unspeakable anger. She was forcefully stopped by the chief executive.
“May I again request that the elderly folks step out of traffic, please.” The hit from the walking stick made her voice even calmer, but now her voice had a resolute power. She doesn’t always speak with such authority, but it did belong to her, only that she didn’t show it off often.
The elders finally dispersed.
“My apologies, comrades. It was all my fault.” The chief executive spoke to the police officers restoring order, out of breath from this strenuous task.
“Comrade executive, would you like to press charges on the gentleman? We can arrest him on aggravated assault.”
“No, that wouldn’t be necessary. I might be even more laughable at his age. If that’s the case, you may lift me to the side of the road using a crane!”
The Dongfang sedan drove forward in self-driving mode. The two sat in the rear seat. The chief executive rested her head on the shoulder of her bodyguard. The lieutenant stroked the red bruise on the chief executive’s face with great sorrow. Placed between them was the comically large helmet given to the chief executive a short while ago.
“I should have been wearing it. It was really nice of that kid.” Said the chief executive to herself, quietly.
The lieutenant suddenly started crying. “I really didn’t think that dotard would…”
“Let’s go on forward. Flowers will blossom left and right. – Do you know how to get rid of the bruise across my face? Dear friend, don’t cry.” She sighed. “You should have brought a boyfriend back.” She slowly lost her consciousness from exhaustion. “We are heading home… For what?... To meet him… No. Stop. Dear friend, do you have a snack? No. Ok I’ll sleep instead.”
After the lieutenant returned to the Dongfang sedan after getting beer and bread, the chief executive of this republic has already fallen sound asleep hugging the big helmet.
At this very moment, the 3D scanning data of the six deceased brains (of which five were from this century and one from the 20th century) were being uploaded from the optical disk drive to a supercomputer with five million CPUs, a RAM of 6,400 terabyte, and a clock speed at one exahertz at terabit data transfer rate.
[1] What a sentence.
[2] Originally in English
[3] Originally in English
[4] https://smarthistory.org/luo-zhongli-father/
[5] A concept in political economy. The combined consideration of forces of production and relations of production.