Emily Grant came to see him in her spare time and gave him a simple explanation.

　　Their father still hadn’t remarried, and both she and David Grant were already married. She had a son, while David Grant had inherited the Jiang family genes and had a pair of twins, one boy and one girl. All three of the younger generation were in their twenties, all older than Ethan Grant.

　　Ethan Grant asked, “What does my brother-in-law do?”

　　Emily Grant replied, “He’s also a researcher, he was my senior in school.”

　　Ethan Grant asked, “Did my nephew also study medicine?”

　　Emily Grant smiled and said, “No, he’s not interested.”

　　Ethan Grant nodded. At least there was finally someone in the family who, like him, didn’t study medicine. He asked, “What did he study?”

　　Emily Grant said, “Acting.”

　　Her smile softened a little. “He just won Best Actor recently.”

　　There was actually a Best Actor in the family.

　　Ethan Grant was curious: “Do you have a photo?”

　　Emily Grant opened her phone.

　　Phones in this era were shaped like watches and rings; with a light tap, a transparent screen would appear. She used a watch, and after unlocking it, she opened a short video and handed it over.

　　In the video was a young man, holding a trophy and giving an acceptance speech on stage.

　　His features resembled Emily Grant’s a bit, and he was very handsome—he probably had a lot of female fans.

　　Ethan Grant asked, “What’s his name?”

　　Emily Grant replied, “Xie Chengyan.”

　　As they spoke, a sudden commotion broke out in the corridor, and it didn’t quiet down after a while.

　　Emily Grant signaled for her brother to rest, went out to check what was happening, and left the little nurse to keep him company.

　　The little nurse was an AI.

　　In thirty years, electronic technology had developed rapidly, and AI was gradually replacing humans.

　　Unlike the stiff robots of the past, today’s robots were much more lifelike, their voices indistinguishable from real people, and they came in different types. For example, this one was a medical robot; his father used a nanny robot, and apparently there was even a “single dog” robot that was very popular among young people.

　　The little nurse held up an apple and asked, “Would you like it peeled?”

　　Ethan Grant said, “Yes.”

　　He asked, “What’s going on outside?”

　　The little nurse replied, “I don’t know.”

　　Ethan Grant asked, “Then what do you know?”

　　The little nurse said, “I know you’re supposed to eat fruit at this time, rest for half an hour after eating, then get two IV drips, and then…”

　　Ethan Grant said, “That’s enough.”

　　He understood.

　　This AI was assigned specifically to him and would only take care of him according to its programming, so he probably couldn’t get any gossip out of it.

　　He asked, “If I don’t cooperate, what will you do? Do you have any means of enforcement?”

　　The little nurse said, “I’ll whimper, I don’t have any means of enforcement.”

　　Ethan Grant said, “Whimper?”

　　“Programmed response,” the little nurse said. “Your family said you respond to soft tactics, not hard ones. If you don’t listen, I’ll just cry.”

　　Ethan Grant said, “…What if crying doesn’t work?”

　　The little nurse said, “Then I’ll call someone.”

　　Ethan Grant took the apple and took a bite. No problem.

　　He didn’t know when the commotion outside had stopped. After Emily Grant left, she didn’t come back. Ethan Grant rested quietly for the night, and only got the answer the next morning—the human cryonics team saw that he was recovering well, so they summarized their experience and thawed a second person, but failed to save them.

　　The team held meetings for two days, thawed a third person, and still failed.

　　This time, they held meetings for a whole week, repeatedly reviewing the video and data from Ethan Grant’s thawing, and cautiously thawed a fourth person—still no success.

　　Ethan Grant: “……”

　　Emily Grant and Ryan Grant, upon hearing this: “……”

　　Ryan Grant rushed to the research institute and saw his long-lost youngest son taking a nap. He touched his head, still feeling lingering fear.

　　This research was still controversial even now. The technology was immature back then, and although it was listed as a national project, no one knew what would happen in the future or whether it would be made public, so everything was kept low-key. That’s also why the hugely popular Ethan Grant wasn’t suitable as a volunteer. It was Ryan Grant who wanted to take a gamble and made an agreement: Ethan Grant would be the first to be thawed. If he survived, great; if not, he’d serve as a reference for future work.

　　There were quite a few juniors in the institute whom he had mentored, and the leader of the cryonics team was his student. Originally, they wanted to move Ethan Grant further down the list, but Ryan Grant, always upright, insisted his son go first. No one knew that when he stood outside at the time, his hands were shaking.

　　Looking back now, it’s unclear whether it was just individual differences or some tiny error in the process, but fortunately, his son was put first.

　　Ethan Grant had only just fallen asleep when he groggily opened his eyes: “…Dad?”

　　Ryan Grant touched his head again. “It’s nothing, I just came to see you… I have a meeting this afternoon, so I’ll be going. You go back to sleep.”

　　Ethan Grant murmured an “Mm” and quickly fell back asleep.

　　He slept for an hour. After waking, he was wheeled off for a series of tests, rested for a bit, then went for a walk in the garden with the little nurse, noticing two more people following behind.

　　There were ten volunteers in total; four had been thawed, and three had died. No one dared to touch the rest for now.

　　The research team hovered around this sole survivor, wishing they could watch him 24/7, terrified that even a bump might cost him his life.