1 A Boring Life (1/2)
Li ended each of his meaningless days by reclining in his chair and meditating by thinking of nothing. He pushed his whole back on the chair, and its velvety cushioning supported him, soothing his muscles.
An in-built massage system in the chair sensed his weight and scanned his body, determining which muscles were tightest and in need of most relief. A compress patch on his knee applied pain relief for a nasty wound he had suffered in combat many years ago.
Nothingness came to Li in gradual waves. He imagined it was like the seaside waves he had seen in historical videos. The waves in them flowed gradually towards shore, covering it bit by bit until finally, there was just water, settled and gentle.
Li sighed as the pain in his knee faded and the tightness in his muscles dispersed. Nothingness came to him easier now. Thinking of nothing made him calm, and calm was something this world sorely needed.
2100 had just started a month ago, and at first, people were hopeful. The start of a new century. Maybe there would be change. Fewer proxy wars between superpowers in the East and West. Fewer natural disasters from a climate that stood at the brink of destruction.
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Well, none of that happened. The world was still in the same chaos it had been in for the past 50 years. The sun still never shone, covered as it was under thick smog that was black as tar and reached deep into the lungs like poisonous tendrils, spreading a rattling cough among all those too poor to afford a proper mask.
Li, though, was fine. As far as material need went, he didn't want for anything. Working as a gene engineer for Sino Biocultures, the largest company in China for genetically modified crops, his salary was nothing to scoff at. It let him dive deep into the materialistic, consumerist culture of the world, letting him buy a large apartment in the richest complexes where electrified, sentry-guarded gates warded off the poor.
But material wants never satisfied Li. His parents had been in the last generation to grow up in the green age, when the birds still sang, and the forests were still tall. They had been farmers who had moved to the cities for better jobs.
In coming to the cities penniless but filled with drive for a better future for themselves, they sacrificed their time and health toiling away as delivery drivers, cashiers, and whatever odd job they could scrap up. But what they didn't sacrifice were their memories of a world far quieter, bluer, and greener than the sooty dim of the city.
When they had Li, they had given him these memories. He grew up with stories of great and green forests where his father had played. Streams gurgling and blue that were clear like crystal and fresher than any bottled, treated water.
Flowers of all colors that bloomed across rolling hillsides. Little animals that scurried across the ground and chatty birds that streaked through skies blue and filled with the warmth and light of a golden-yellow sun.