Brother, just how powerful is our family?

And these relatives all bear the marks of time on their faces.

Li Wei is thirty-four years old, but looks like he's forty.

My great-aunt is in her early sixties, her hair is completely white, and her back is a little hunched.

And him? Thirty-seven years old, but looks twenty-five.

Li Jing is thirty-five, but looks twenty-six.

Zixuan is seven years old, but his height is almost that of a ten-year-old. He has bright eyes and is full of energy.

"Come on, let's drink!" Li Wei raised his glass. "Chang Sheng, you're a big shot now, please take care of us in the future."

Chen Changsheng raised his glass: "Brother Wei, we're relatives, don't say that."

After a few drinks, the atmosphere became lively.

The great-aunt held Li Jing's hand, asking all sorts of questions: "How are the houses over there? Were they really allocated for free? I heard you got three villas?"

"Yes, three buildings," Li Jing said. "My parents-in-law have one, my parents have one, and our family has one."

"Three villas..." the great-aunt gasped. "How much would that cost?"

"Free of charge, permanently free."

"Permanently free... then what about your monthly expenses? Where does your living expenses come from?"

Li Jing explained, "Each of us adults has a basic income of three to five thousand Yanhuang coins. Children also receive a monthly childcare subsidy of five hundred yuan. Food and groceries don't cost much, and housing, medical care, and education are all free. We basically have more money than we can spend."

"Three to five thousand Yanhuang coins..." Li Wei quickly calculated. "I saw online that one Yanhuang coin can be exchanged for more than one hundred Dragon coins on the black market? So your monthly income is equivalent to three to five hundred thousand Dragon coins?"

"The official exchange rate isn't that high," Chen Changsheng said, "but the purchasing power is indeed strong."

Li Wei fell silent.

He runs a supermarket, working from dawn till dusk, and only earns a few hundred thousand dragon coins a year. He still has to pay off his mortgage, raise his children, and save for retirement.

My cousin's family, on the other hand, doesn't have to do anything, yet they have the purchasing power equivalent to several years of his income every month.

This is the gap.

It's not a difference in ability, it's a difference in choice.

"Immortality," the great-aunt suddenly asked, "...can we do your...genetic optimization?"

Chen Changsheng fell silent.

He had expected to be asked this question, but when he was actually asked it, he still didn't know how to answer.

"Grandma," he said as gently as possible, "genetic optimization is a benefit for citizens of the Yanhuang civilization. Outsiders... are not allowed for now."

The great-aunt's smile froze for a moment, but she quickly recovered: "It's nothing, it's nothing, I was just asking casually. At our age, we'll just live as long as we can."

Li Jing chimed in, "Grandma, please don't say that. There might be an opportunity in the future... Policies can change."

"Yes, yes, it will change." The great-aunt nodded, but there was no longer any expectation in her eyes.

After dinner, the adults chatted inside the house while the children ran out to play in the yard.

Chen Zixuan was playing with Li Wei's son, Li Ming. Li Ming was ten years old, three years older than Zixuan, but they were about the same height when they stood together.

"Ming-ge, can you recite pi?" Zi-xuan asked.

"Pi? 3.14..." Li Ming thought for a moment, "One hundred digits? Who can recite one hundred digits?"

"I know it," Zixuan blurted out, reciting fifty characters in one breath.

Li Ming was dumbfounded.

"How...how did you memorize that?"

"The teacher taught us," Zixuan said. "All my classmates can recite them. We also have to memorize physics formulas, the periodic table of elements, and a chronology of major historical events..."

Li Ming fell silent.

He recalled how he was punished by his teacher for having to copy the multiplication table even if he had to memorize it, while this child, who was three years younger than him, could already recite fifty digits of pi.

"What do you guys usually play?" Li Ming asked.

"What do you play?" Zixuan thought for a moment. "We often play 'Orbital Drop Simulator,' where you wear combat suits and jump out of space in virtual reality, landing at a designated location. We also play 'Mech Combat,' where we fight each other in Xingtian mechs."

Li Ming couldn't understand at all.

"What are combat suits? And what are mechs?"

"It's like..." Zixuan gestured, "You wear it like clothes, it can fly, it can stop bullets, and it can survive in space. A mecha is a giant robot, thirty-six meters tall, and it can smash a building with one punch."

Li Ming couldn't imagine what thirty-six meters meant. He had only ever seen three-story buildings, which were about ten meters high. Thirty-six meters was the height of a twelve-story building.

"You...you've driven this before?" he asked.

"Yes, I've driven one," Zixuan said. "I drove one during training at school. Even though it was only a simulator, it was so much fun."

Li Ming fell silent.

He thought of his toys: Lego bricks, plastic soldiers, and remote-controlled cars.

Compared to the child's toys, they look like primitive stone tools.

"Ming-ge, what's fun at your school?" Zixuan asked.

Li Ming thought for a moment: "After class, we can jump rope, play shuttlecock, play marbles..."

What is jump rope?

"...It's just a game."

"Don't you guys play mech fighting games?"

"...I'm not playing."

Zixuan was somewhat disappointed, but didn't ask any more questions.

The two children played hide-and-seek in the yard for a while, but the atmosphere was already getting tense.

Li Ming felt that his cousin was very capable, but there was also a certain... indescribable distance between them.

They come from two different worlds.

One is the world of mortals, the other is the world of gods.

At 5 p.m., Chen Changsheng and his family prepared to leave.

The great-aunt urged her to stay a little longer, and to have dinner before leaving.

"No, Grandma, I have plans for tomorrow," Li Jing said. "The day after tomorrow I'm going to visit my aunt in the next city, and the day after that I'm going to my uncle's house... My schedule is packed."

"Well... alright then." Her great-aunt held her hand, her eyes a little red. "Jingjing, I'm relieved that you're doing well. Come back and visit often in the future."

"Yes, Grandma," Li Jing said, her eyes also reddening. "Please take care of yourself."

Li Wei escorted them to the square.

On the way, he remained silent for a long time before finally speaking: "Chang Sheng, is your... gene optimization really impossible?"

Chen Changsheng looked at him seriously and said, "Brother Wei, it's really not possible right now. But... the policies might change after the war. You know, the three million expeditionary troops are all Chinese. When they come back from the war, they'll definitely want their families to get better treatment too. There might be new policies then."

Li Wei's eyes lit up for a moment, but then quickly dimmed again: "When will that be? It will take six years for the war to end, and then there will be the aftermath... Ten or eight years have passed. I can wait, but my parents can't."

Chen Changsheng was speechless.

Li Wei patted him on the shoulder: "It's nothing, don't overthink it. I was just asking casually. As long as you're doing well, that's all that matters, really."

The aircraft started up and slowly ascended into the air.

Through the porthole, Chen Changsheng saw Li Wei standing in the square, getting smaller and smaller until he finally disappeared from sight.

Everyone grows old and dies; that's the way of nature.

But now, he is no longer considered a "human".

He belongs to the "gods".

What does it feel like for a god to watch mortals grow old?

he does not know.