The Cold Laboratory of the Future

This is a suicide note.

He Ningbing had known the truth since before she arrived. Like so many others who had come to the future laboratory to escape, she was in the year 2150.

And her lover had died ten years ago.

Sitting on the shuttle bus of future technology, she clenched her fingers tightly. Perhaps she was nervous, perhaps afraid of the unknown, or perhaps holding on to the last little bit of hope she had left.

She looked around at the faces of the others. They were just as confused and frightened.

But they had all come here for someone important to them.

He Ningbing smiled. It wasn't a hearty laugh or a bitter smile, but a smile of acceptance, complicated in a way that was hard to describe.

The smile of someone about to die is peaceful; the smile of a grandmother welcoming a new life is kind.

He Ningbing's expression was cool and composed, as if she had prepared herself to meet the most important person she had been separated from for so long.

The carriage was cold. Even wearing thick clothes, she still felt chilled.

The unknown awaited her.

(Content warning: understated writing, the eerie calm of an obsessive fixation, tragic ending; more warnings to come.)

Theme: Eternal faith