The day's work was over.
Xu Ting left her workstation in a daze, letting muscle memory guide her home.
Artificial Wombs...
Social proxy-rearing...
The terms her coworkers had mentioned kept circling in her mind, constantly jarring her nerves.
Could this be true?
If it was, should she give it a try?
One question after another surfaced in her heart.
Before she knew it, she had reached her front door.
The camera by the door switched on automatically, and the Home Intelligent Butler began its identification procedure.
After a brief wait.
"Welcome home."
A familiar yet stiff synthesized voice sounded in Xu Ting's ears, and the door in front of her opened.
"You're back?" A deep male voice came from inside. "I'm exhausted. I don't know what the Academy of Sciences has been up to lately, but we've been hauling supplies to synchronous orbit nonstop these past few days."
He spoke casually, but she took his words to heart.
Xu Ting froze for a moment, the "rumors" her coworkers had mentioned surfacing in her mind again.
"Artificial Wombs..."
She stood blankly in the doorway, murmuring to herself.
When his wife still failed to respond, Qi Yang walked out from the inner room with a frown.
Seeing his wife standing motionless in the doorway and muttering, a trace of confusion crossed his eyes. "What's wrong?"
At her husband's question, Xu Ting abruptly came back to her senses.
She raised her head, looked at the man standing before her, composed herself, and told him what she had heard at work that day.
More than ten minutes later.
In the living room.
Qi Yang sat on the sofa, looking thoughtfully at his wife beside him. "You mean the Human Federation is going to make Artificial Womb technology available?"
"No wonder the transport ships