Love Code at the End of the World

“Lil’ Bing! What are you doing?!”

“Dad! Don’t stop her. She said that brain death isn’t the same as death where she came from!”

“What?!”

I removed my mom’s breathing tube. Then, I placed a miniature ventilator where it used to be. The ventilator adhered to the skin and began twinkling with white light as it activated its breathing assistance mode. A thin fiber moved toward her heart to replace Earth’s life support systems and keep her heart beating.

As she was brain dead, all the equipment in the room was only to maintain her heartbeat and other vital signs. After removing it, those signs would disappear slowly. Her heartbeat would stop, her blood would stop flowing, and her brain cells would die. So, I needed to stimulate my mom’s brain.

I took out a brain stimulator and placed it on my mom’s temple. The coin-sized stimulator nodes attached to her skin, twinkling blue. They immediately began to activate her brainwaves and trigger her reflexes, causing the machines to beep with data readings.

“How is this possible? How is this possible?!” My cousin-in-law looked at the equipment in shock, shaking his head in disbelief.

I looked at my dumbfounded dad, saying sternly, “Although brain death is considered death according to Earth standards, the brain cells aren’t dead yet. They merely stop putting out brainwaves. How do I put this… It’s like a TV that won’t work when there’s no electricity. You can’t say that the TV is broken yet. On Kansa Star, they’ve already invented equipment to restart a brain - this brain stimulator that works like a defibrillator.”

“Oh…” My dad was still stunned. He didn’t look as if he understood, but he seemed to be aware that my mom wasn’t going to die.

“That’s great! That’s great!” Loki said, looking at me excitedly, while my cousin and her husband stood stiffly to the side, watching the godlike equipment I’d put on my mom.

“But Mom isn’t fully treated yet. I can’t treat her condition with the things I have on me. She’ll still be in a coma. so I have to bring her back to Kansa Star with me.” I walked up to my dad, saying solemnly, “Dad! Can you go to Kansa Star with me?! We might not be able to return to Earth afterward.”

My dad slowly came back to reality. His expression grew serious as he asked, “Can that place really heal your mom?”

“Yes! Definitely, and they can restore her youth!” Every fatal disease on Earth only needed a metahuman from Kansa Star to treat it.

There was only one standard to announce death on Kansa Star, which was when a brain exploded beyond recognition. In other words, we merely hadn’t wanted to save Hagrid Jones when he died.

Conventionally speaking, we should have burned his body to ashes in order to ensure he was fully dead. Fortunately, I hadn’t. Otherwise, Jun couldn’t have been reborn. There was only one body like Hagrid’s in the world. Zong Ben had given the one and only chance for rebirth to Jun, even though he was actually the one who really wanted to enjoy life.

“Dad, we can save Mom!” Loki said, holding Dad’s arm and looking at him anxiously.

Dad creased his eyebrows and placed his hand on my shoulder, saying, “Alright. We’ll relocate! All of us, together!” Dad held Loki’s hand firmly too. Loki was thrilled, but Dad’s expression suddenly turned guilty as he said, “Loki, I’m sorry that I never asked you what you really wanted. We’re going to leave Earth. If you want to stay behind…”

“Dad!” Loki cut Dad off and said, “Mom wished for us to reunite as a family. I’ll be okay.” He patted my dad’s shoulder, comforting him in return.

I was proud of my younger brother, Loki. He was just like dad when he was young, decisive and courageous.

I looked at Loki, saying, “Take all the tubes off Mom.”

“Alright!” Loki paused and called out, “Sis!” My heart raced because he’d called me his sister. I was thrilled.

While Loki and my dad were busy removing the tubes, I suddenly recalled my cousin and her husband.

I walked before my dumbfounded cousin and her husband. I held her hand, saying, “Cousie, I don’t have enough time to explain exactly what happened. Keep this.” I placed my last recovery injection in her hand, explaining, “There are cell-sized nanobots in this injection. They can repair simple wounds and internal injuries. They can also slow the progress of an injury if one is severely wounded. If you use this on a child, it can serve as an all-purpose vaccine. It can destroy all kinds of invasive germs, bacteria, viruses, and so on. I… can’t leave you anything else but a lifetime of good health…”

“Lil’ Bing… You’re really Lil’ Bing!” My cousin stroked my cheek and pulled me into an embrace. She asked, “Why are you leaving right after you came back…? Where’s Kansa Star…? Is it far away…? Can you come back…?”

“Cousie, I’ve been through interplanetary travel before. I’ll definitely come back and visit you if I can… Oh, yeah. Let me give you another thing!” I took a scouting robot off my arm and it hovered in the air. I explained, “You only need to press this button and it will start. It can be used for scouting and monitoring. It can attack too. You’re a police officer now, and this will come in handy.” I took the disc from the back of the scouting robot and attached it to my cousin’s left temple. When the disc was attached, it formed a small screen in front of her left eye. She was astonished, blinking silently.

“May I ask…” Her husband looked at me anxiously, asking, “Do you have another brain stimulator?”

“Oh! I do have one,” I answered, taking it out for him. He held it in his hand excitedly, saying, “Thank you! This is definitely going to speed up the development of our medical technology.”

I exhorted him seriously, “It doesn’t work on dead brain cells, and you can’t use it when vital signs are irrecoverable." He nodded.

“This can only be used as emergency medical equipment to stimulate a patient's brainwaves. It requires further treatment after. Otherwise, the patient will be in the same situation as my mom. The patient has to go through recovery and reconnection of nerves. The longer the patient has been dead, the longer it takes to recover.”

He continued to nod. “I understand.”

“Lil’ Bing, your mom is ready. Where do we go now?” my dad asked as he and my younger brother pushed the sickbed next to me.

“To the rooftop,” I answered. I looked to my cousin and her husband. I said, “By the way, I… Mm… Tsk, taught that mother and daughter pair a lesson. They passed out in the stairwell. Please take care of them.”

“Let them die. Don’t bother with them!” My cousin’s hot temper had remained the same all this time.