Antarctica
Liu Chang'an doesn't have a particular attachment to traditional festivals. Over time, many festivals have been forgotten as history has progressed.
Liu Chang'an didn't commemorate those holidays that only he might remember or know. Let bygones be bygones. But for him now, the New Year was still something to celebrate. Buying some toys, snacks, and new clothes for Zhou Dongdong and Shangguan Dandan would feel good enough... Zhou Shuling wasn't young anymore, but Liu Chang'an could imagine that if she received any gifts during the New Year, she would be the happiest person there.
Twenty years ago, the festive atmosphere of the New Year was very strong, and many families started preparing for the New Year as early as the first day of the twelfth lunar month. But now, very few people still remember to respectfully send off the Kitchen God on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month.
On the 23rd, we worship the Kitchen God; on the 24th, we sweep the house; on the 25th, we make tofu; on the 26th, we slaughter pigs and buy meat; on the 27th, we kill chickens; on the 28th, we prepare dough; on the 29th, we worship our ancestors and gods; on New Year's Eve, we stay up all night; on the first and second days of the new year, we walk all over the streets...
Liu Chang'an's plan was to spend New Year's Eve at home with Zhou Dongdong, Shangguan Dandan, and Zhou Shuling, visit his girlfriend's family on New Year's Day, and go back to visit Qin Peng with Qin Yanan on the second day of the New Year... The second day was a bit early, since Qin Peng's place was actually busy until the fifteenth day of the New Year. Some people who wanted to visit Qin Peng during the New Year period might have to wait in line two or three years in advance.
These plans were based on the premise that Liu Chang'an could return to Junsha before Lunar New Year's Eve. He could not travel to Antarctica like an ordinary tourist. So, under Zhong Qing's arrangement, Liu Chang'an arrived in Punta Arenas from the Zhu Family's overseas airport by private plane.
What makes Punta Arenas more welcoming to China people is that it's part of Chile, so you can get a visa on arrival, unlike in neighboring countries.
Arriving here, we are only a little over a thousand kilometers from the Antarctica coastline. As one of the southernmost cities in the world, the temperature is low all year round. Due to its special geographical location, it has become an important tourist city and supply base. Antarctica scientific expedition teams from all over the world have come here.
The last time Liu Chang'an came here must have been nearly two hundred years ago, when he had a large number of railways built in the neighboring country of Brazil.
Once you arrive in Punta Arenas, getting to Antarctica becomes a simple matter. Liu Chang'an chose an airline to charter a flight to King George Island in Antarctica. For DAP Airlines, the carrier, it's commonplace for China people to charter flights to Antarctica. They even know about Hanfu (traditional Han clothing), because there are quite a few pretty young girls wearing Hanfu to take photos in Antarctica.
The plane landed at the airport at the Chile Frei Research Station. The airport was small, and the runway was very rudimentary, only suitable for small aircraft to take off and land... Naturally, it was impossible for comfortable large aircraft to take off and land in such a place. Even if Miss Zhu wanted to come to Antarctica, she would not be able to take her own Airbus A380.
The only flight attendant on the plane told Liu Chang'an that the return trip was like taking a bus. Once he saw the plane parked on the runway, he could run over and wave to signal the plane to open the door. There was no security check, no boarding pass, and no baggage check-in. It had nothing to do with whether it was a charter flight or not... This applied to both regular passengers and charter passengers.
After getting off the plane, Liu Chang'an began to wander around the Antarctica continent.
Antarctica is a truly free land. It doesn't belong to any country. As long as you don't trespass on the boundaries of certain research stations, no one will bother you. Liu Chang'an walked out of the Chilean Frec research station and saw the Russian research station right next to him. Behind the Chilean research station, he could also see the five-star Red Flag fluttering, which was the Great Wall Research Station.
In this region during this season, looking around, it seems like an ordinary northern Gobi Desert, without the snow and ice that people imagine, with snow-capped peaks, huge icebergs floating on the sea, and flocks of penguins waddling about.
A desolate, barren land—that was Liu Chang'an's first impression of Antarctica upon his arrival... Actually, it was similar before, perhaps even more desolate, given the many research stations that have been added since.
Liu Chang'an slowly circled along the bay, taking more than half an hour to reach the vicinity of the Great Wall Station. However, he did not enter the building area of the research station, but instead went to a nearby hillside to look around.
Tesla brought Su Nanxiu and the animals to Antarctica with the intention of using hostages to lure Liu Chang'an there if he couldn't capture him. However, he couldn't possibly hold up a sign at the airport to pick him up.
Tesla always leaves some clues, making it easier for Liu Chang'an to discover her.
Liu Chang'an looked around for a while, then bulged his eyes to search for clues. The details he could catch increased with the bulging of his eyes, but he didn't find much. He then pressed his eyeballs and returned to normal.
At this moment, a tracked off-road vehicle rolled in from behind Liu Chang'an. Its unrestrained forward movement was like that of a king of the polar regions, making a rumbling sound, until it stopped right next to Liu Chang'an.
The undulating terrain posed no obstacle to it, and Liu Chang'an was not too surprised as he watched the Gold Coin step off the car.
Gold Coin are no longer traditional robots. Their thinking, or rather their true form of existence, is just a piece of data wandering on the network. As long as the human data network exists, they have a place to stay, uploading data from a certain terminal robot at any time, and then downloading themselves to another terminal thousands of miles away.
Humanity may eventually end up like this. Liu Chang'an even felt that this trend was unavoidable. Even now, for many people, there is nothing to cherish about an aging and decaying body. If they could abandon their physical bodies and live forever in the form of data, I'm afraid there would be quite a few people who would make this choice.
"Lord Blood Ancestor, we meet again." Gold Coin was wearing a thick down jacket, and in this cold region, its skin appeared even whiter, and the azure in its eyes became even clearer.
"If it were just to meet you, I wouldn't have needed to travel all this way... What I find strange is, why didn't your master, Tesla, transform herself into someone like you?" Liu Chang'an asked calmly, though puzzled.
"How do you know I'm not Tesla? Maybe Tesla likes to play the robot?" The Gold Coin chuckled eerily, its sound echoing across the vast Antarctica continent.
Liu Chang'an laughed and said, "If I didn't need you to lead the way, I would have smashed your head in if I heard you laughing."
"It doesn't matter if you blow my head off, I can still control my remaining body and interact with you, while simultaneously driving this car to take you to our destination," Gold Coin said with a smile.
So Liu Chang'an laughed and smashed its head, because that way it couldn't continue to provoke him with words, and its laughter was really annoying... Shangguan Dandan's laughter was actually like a clucking hen, but Liu Chang'an didn't find Shangguan Dandan's laughter annoying.
The Gold Coin's voice system was destroyed; it detached its head and returned to the tracked off-road vehicle. Liu Chang'an also got in, but the next moment, the Gold Coin's voice came from the vehicle's voice system again. "Blood Ancestor, we are about to head to our destination... the New Rodinia Continent."
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I recommend a good book: <Nine-Star Poisonous Milk>.
Please be patient. Xia Hua won't write a messy ending. This part of the plot has already been constructed and can be considered the final explanation of Liu Chang'an's setting.
After this part of the story, "Longevity" can be considered the end in the serialization sense. However, Xia Hua was reluctant to let it become an ending without any sequel, so she would always write some interesting sequels from time to time, including the plot of Liu Chang'an returning home for the New Year. Please don't add another "unfinished work" to Xia Hua's list because of this.