Chapter 484: The Value and Meaning of Film

Song Zhe hesitated for a moment, then stuck out his left hand first. "You try arm wrestling with my left hand first."

Although his left hand was not Song Zhe's dominant hand, after losing his right hand he had to start training his left, and since he was a swordsmanship teacher by trade, his left-hand strength was still considerable.

Xiao He obediently extended his left hand as well. "Sure."

A few minutes later, the defeated Song Zhe looked at his own hand with a complicated expression, then at Xiao He, as if trying to figure out how Xiao He could possibly be so strong.

Xiao He chuckled and swapped to his right hand. "Brother Song, you can try now, right?"

Song Zhe cooperatively put on his right prosthetic limb. "Then let's go."

Even with psychological preparation, the moment the mechanical hands met in a clasp, Xiao He felt a chill run through him.

That inhuman, icy metallic texture triggered an instinctive alertness, his muscles tensing reflexively, his whole body entering a heightened state of vigilance.

—Perhaps that is humanity's natural fear and caution toward the unknown.

Song Zhe reminded him.

Because such prosthetics can never fully replace a human arm or connect every nerve, Song Zhe lacked tactile feedback; he could not feel Xiao He's hand. He had to judge the arm's force by watching the muscles in Xiao He's arm and the expression on his face.

"Okay."

Xiao He tentatively increased his force, and the mechanical arm began to tip to the other side, but then Song Zhe applied more power, and the balance of victory slowly swung back toward him—

Xiao He immediately pressed harder to try to hold the losing side, but after roughly twenty seconds of straining until his face flushed, he chose to give up.

"OK, OK, I won't make things hard on it, and I won't make things hard on myself."

Xiao He let out a long breath and reluctantly released the mechanical arm, then shook his slightly numb palm.

He was no superhuman; facing steel and reinforced structure, even biting down hard would not budge the opponent.

"How does it feel?"

Pu Rong asked curiously, rolling up his sleeves, eager to try.

"It's okay. Actually, toward the end I was the one actively gripping; its fingers didn't exert force on me. It's more the whole arm's force, which makes it feel like trying to bend a rebar with your bare hands," Xiao He said.

When wrestling an opponent, fingers naturally add force and grip tightly, but a machine cannot do that. It relies on pure mechanical force, which left Xiao He with a helpless sensation of wrestling against cold steel every time he squeezed that metallic hand.

—It was, undeniably, a novel experience.

"I'll try, I'll try!"

Without hesitation, Pu Rong sat down to challenge as well.

In less than ten seconds, Pu Rong was defeated too.

Shu Han, being the older brother type, lacked that youthful urge to challenge. After watching for a while, however, he couldn't help but sigh, "Has technology really advanced this far? Technology really does change life."

"It is like that," Xiao He nodded. "If it continues to develop, sooner or later there will be perfected mechanical prosthetics that could help more people make up for... their losses."

The scene before him brought to mind the two factions of themes in Super Spacetime Confrontation.

At first, human mechanical modification was intended to change lives and make up for bodily loss.

But unfortunately, when technology develops to the extreme, the original intention of any technology will sooner or later be distorted by human fickleness.

If, at the end of the story, the protagonist defeats the villain from a future timeline and guides humanity onto another timeline and triggers the mecha era, could there one day still be a mecha rebellion and human annihilation?

Or perhaps annihilation itself is a constant rule of the universe; in the end even it might vanish. Humanity's brief, brilliant or long history might mean nothing to it—silent and irrelevant.

"I think this is a great avenue for public welfare outreach."

Xiao He suddenly proposed.

The others looked at him in confusion.

Meeting their gazes, Xiao He showed no hesitation; instead he wore a contemplative expression. "Sci-fi films inherently explore 'machines and humanity,' but we can link the film to real life, extend the film's themes beyond the screen, and translate distant discussions about future technology into tangible humanitarian concern in the present."

Machines should be 'empowerment' rather than 'dehumanization'; technology should improve life rather than lead to self-destruction.

They should focus on the present, not only on an ethereal future.

"I think this would be a very worthwhile public service topic. Maybe later we can discuss with the production team and allocate a small group to create an additional promotional short."

Although prosthetics like these already exist and can greatly improve the quality of life for disabled people, such prosthetics are hard to mass-produce and expand, so very few people can actually use them. Many more still face the barrier of physical loss.

Since they've already discussed future topics in the film, why not also address real-world issues, letting Super Spacetime Confrontation achieve a meaningful two-way resonance between the film dimension and reality? That would deepen the movie's theme, make the charity campaign more topical, produce a "1+1>2" effect, and at the same time help more disabled people in need.

After hearing Xiao He's suggestion, Pu Rong's mouth hung open. Shu Han and Song Zhe watched Xiao He with complicated expressions, apparently not expecting him to come up with such an idea.

If someone else had suddenly said something like that, people would probably think they were showboating or indulging in saintly pretensions.

But the one saying it was Xiao He.

Given his character, if such a thought had occurred to him, he certainly wouldn't be saying it lightly.

Super Spacetime Confrontation was an important project produced by Linghui Entertainment, and as the company's owner, Xiao He had the authority to make many decisions; his words carried weight.

After all—he was the one writing the checks!

"Damn, Brother Xiao, you really—"

Pu Rong stared at Xiao He for a long moment and at a loss for words, finally saying, "I support you!"

Their family ran a martial arts hall; when violent mechanical fights used to be more common, some family members had been left permanently disabled.

Although his family had come to terms with it, those losses could not be undone now. He just hoped more people could be reborn in the future and reclaim the lives they should have had.

Even if their current influence was tiny, even if the present environment lacked much goodwill, even if for many people such efforts seemed meaningless, as long as they did something they could remain true to their conscience.

Shu Han shrugged with a faint smile. "I'll follow whatever the boss decides. If needed, I'll be on call."

Song Zhe gave Xiao He a long, deep look; his lips moved, but he finally said nothing. He bowed his head in silence, stroking the cold surface of the mechanical arm as if touching his once-whole limb.

If it could be helped, no one would welcome such a tragedy.

But as a soldier, he felt no regrets.