315: Differences

As the Nova People population continued to grow, a subtle shift began to occur in the previously harmonious atmosphere within the underground city.

This change was initially imperceptible, but as the two distinct forms of the species gradually diverged, conflicts began to surface.

Elder Alwyn looked at the report with a heavy heart, his mind filled with nothing but distress.

The Nova People population had already exceeded five thousand and was still rapidly increasing. What worried him more was that communication between the two groups was becoming increasingly difficult, with clear conflicts even starting to emerge.

In just a few short days, factions once again appeared among the Trisolarans: the radical faction pursuing evolution and the conservative faction resisting it.

"Elder," a conservative Elder said with concern, "these Nova People, they have become incredibly strange. I can't even believe they were once our compatriots."

"We can no longer understand their thoughts through mind-sharing. They are like, like, like another species."

Another Elder was equally uneasy: "That's not even the most terrifying part. Now, we can't even be sure if they are telling the truth. Since losing our mind connection, we've lost the ability to discern truth from falsehood."

These worries quickly became reality. In the commercial district of the underground city, some unsettling incidents began to occur.

A conservative Trisolaran named Karl angrily complained to the Elder Council: "Those Nova People tricked me! They said they could provide quality parts, but what I received were defective goods!"

"In the past, we never had to worry about such things! Through mind connection, we could directly confirm the other party's sincerity and the quality of the product!"

Similar complaints grew in number.

The Nova People began to use their mind-sealed characteristic to attempt lying and deception, which shocked and angered the Trisolarans, who were accustomed to complete transparency.

"They clearly knew the goods were problematic, yet they deliberately concealed it!" another victim accused, "This, this kind of deceptive behavior has never happened in our history!"

Indeed, in their long history, ever since conscious communication became possible, the Trisolarans had no concept of lies.

When everyone's thoughts were completely open to others, deception became meaningless.

But now, this concept had appeared.

As the Nova People population continued to increase, some Nova People began to display discrimination and humiliation towards the original Trisolarans.

In the public square of the underground city, a group of Nova People openly mocked passing Trisolarans: "Look at those ugly bugs! Still clinging to their outdated forms!"

"Yeah," another Nova People echoed, "those tentacles and arthropods are really too primitive. I don't understand why they're unwilling to evolve!"

A young Trisolaran girl was hurt by these remarks and ran home crying: "They said I was an ugly bug, said I should 'evolve' like them..."

This memory quickly spread throughout the entire Trisolaran species, the old species. But they could do nothing.

No matter how much they stirred up angry emotions, the Nova People would respond with a smile with one side of their mouth upturned.

It was a silent mockery.

This discrimination even spread to workplaces.

"They always give us the dirtiest and most exhausting tasks," a Trisolaran worker complained, "and they say things like 'this is for your own good, to promote evolution'."

"The most hateful thing is," another worker was equally indignant, "I dare say they absolutely know what we're thinking, but they deliberately pretend not to. This one-sided mind transparency is too unfair!"

The Nova People, however, would casually retort: "We are simply pursuing efficiency. The human form is indeed more suitable for delicate work; this is an objective fact."

But this explanation could not quell the anger of the Trisolarans, and the rift between the two groups deepened.

At an important resource allocation meeting, the conflict reached its peak.

The Nova People representative proposed: "Based on efficiency assessments, we should receive more resource quotas. The human form's work efficiency is over 60% higher than the traditional form."

The original Trisolaran representative immediately retorted: "But your population only accounts for 15% of the total! According to the principle of fairness, resources should be allocated proportionally to the population!"

The Nova People representative sneered: "Fairness? Is it fair to let inefficient forms occupy valuable resources? We should pursue the maximization of overall efficiency!"

The meeting reached a stalemate. Both sides stuck to their arguments, refusing to budge.

What made the original Trisolarans most uneasy was that they discovered the Nova People had begun to use a completely new form of communication in private: language and writing.

Indeed, the Nova People combined Chinese, the common language of the current Solar System and Trisolaris System, with languages and scripts from human history that only existed in goods sold by the Company, to create a new script and language.

However, to the people of the Eastern Federation and the Company, it sounded more like a dialect of the Eastern Federation. The script, on the other hand, gave a sense of déjà vu of small seal script.

This form of communication was completely closed to them; they could not understand it through mind-sharing.

This fundamental difference began to cause communication barriers between the two groups, and the core of this barrier lay in their distinctly different understandings of "memory" and "self."

Indeed, besides the concept of "deception," the greater divergence came from "memory" and "self."

For the Trisolarans, memory was never a private possession but a collectively shared wealth. An individual's experience could be instantly transmitted to all members of the species through mind connection, and important historical events would be jointly remembered by the entire species.

Because of this characteristic, their memories even possessed a certain degree of inheritance, which was also the reason why their technology was able to develop so rapidly.

This collective consciousness model shaped the Trisolarans' unique philosophical concept: the individual is part of the whole, and the self exists within the collective.

Concepts such as privacy, secrets, and personal space, which are crucial in human civilization, were almost non-existent in Trisolaran culture.

"Memory is meant to be shared," a conservative Elder emphasized at the meeting, "Our species has survived in harsh environments precisely because of our collective wisdom and shared memory."

In contrast, the Nova People began to develop completely different values.

After losing the ability to mind-share, they began to experience the concept of "privacy" and understand the meaning of "personal space." Memory was no longer shared wealth but a precious personal possession.

"Memory defines who we are," Kane said at a Nova People gathering, "Each person's memories are unique, and it is these unique experiences that shape unique individuals."

This fundamental philosophical divergence made it increasingly difficult for the two groups to understand each other.

The original Trisolarans believed the Nova People had become "selfish" and "closed-off," while the Nova People believed the original Trisolarans lacked "individuality" and "independent personality."