Chapter 24 - 004|Same or not(4)

Due to the overall environment, the statement that was once wildly circulated on the Internet - "The universe is vast, and so is our love" - was personally rewritten by Song Chunuan as:

"When you are surrounded, I will stand behind you with the unwavering strength to sweep away the millions of enemy troops."

These were the words spoken by Yu Yue to Ji Chen when they were first appointed as the immigration officers of Darwin Planet. After a decade of training camp life, they were the top two among everyone and knew each other as opponents the best. In their first encounter, they glimpsed each other's small weaknesses, which, honed by time and the opponent, turned into strengths. However, whenever Yu Yue challenged Ji Chen, and Ji Chen challenged Yu Yue, all weaknesses and invincibility remained unchanged.

They were the best opponents, as well as the most perfect partners, not only on the battlefield but also in life. Yu Yue, whose heart beat like a monkey, was attentive and saw beneath Ji Chen's strong exterior the lingering sense of wandering that never settled. Therefore, whether these words came from the opponent Yu Yue or the comrade Yu Yue, they both provided Ji Chen with a sense of stability. 

Whenever and wherever you need me, I will stand behind you and fight alongside you.

Zhong Shao and Yu Cheng sat in front of the green screen, making this declaration with unprecedented firmness and conviction, repeating it three times. They then paid their respects with the ceremonial gesture of an ancient Earth International Volunteer Military salute.

The filming session ended not too late, as Zhong Shao, Yu Cheng, and Lu Cheng gathered together again. 

An increase in public opinion erupted, bringing along more confusion.

—— How was the door to the unisex restroom opened from the outside when someone was inside?

—— With a four-year-old girl already having a sense of gender identity, will this incident have a negative impact on her?

—— Should there be a greater public awareness of the existence of "third restrooms"?

—— Are the equal rights and interests of minority groups once again being treated unfairly?

—— How does our society truly view "diversity"?

—— Why is there a difference in the reception of third restrooms domestically and internationally?

...

Within a moderate-sized community, rainbow flags began to flutter. At the same time, the media got information from the hospital that the victim had just finished surgery.

Upon receiving this information, the three individuals were reminded of one of the protagonists of the documentary "Divergence." 

This character is a queer who underwent a female-to-male (FTM) transition. At the age of fourteen, she became confused about her gender; at sixteen, she assured her gender identity, and by the age of twenty, she underwent her first gender reassignment surgery in Thailand. Over the next twelve years, she completed her transition and also found the girl they would spend their life with.

During the filming and interviews, they left a few words for the camera:

"After becoming aware of my gender, I felt a stronger urge to use the men's restroom, although I managed to control it. However, this did not prevent me from witnessing bullying in school restrooms. Interested individuals can find that the Ministry of Education once conducted a survey on bullying among 100,000 students, with school restrooms accounting for 70% of the incidents. Even though I have now immigrated and identify as male, in public places with gender-friendly restrooms, I still choose to use the unisex restroom. It always reminds me that being transgender is not a fetish, nor is it about gender incongruence. I am a girl, I am not a girl, I am a transgender."

Only those who have embarked on this challenging path and those who have walked it can truly understand what this journey signifies. Perhaps due to this precedent or because they are part of a broader community, the group is closely following the developments and the latest updates on the victims. 

Fortunately, as social news, the reporters stationed at the hospital and Tan Ye have a good public relations, allowing them to gather more relevant information than others.

The victim, named Chen Le, is a male-to-female transgender individual who has undergone tracheal reduction surgery and breast surgery. The assault in the unisex toilet resulted in severe injuries to her chest and genital area, necessitating not only breast reconstruction surgery but also the first stage of genital surgery, specifically an orchidectomy. Due to significant bleeding and the requirement for rare panda blood, Chen Le's condition was initially critical. Fortunately, the hospital has contacted a facility for gender reassignment surgery for Chen Le, ensuring that her autologous blood is available in the hospital's blood bank, and the city's blood centre promptly delivered 350cc of matched donor blood. With these arrangements in place, Chen Le successfully crossed this hurdle during surgery.

Almost simultaneously, Zhong Shao and Yu Cheng each posted a picture on their respective social media platforms. One displayed the symbol for a "unisex toilet," while the other featured a "gender-friendly restroom" designed by an award-winning Chinese designer. Despite the modest size of public restrooms, they play a crucial role in everyone's daily activities. Although they serve different social functions in various cultural contexts, designers and officials should not overlook any segment of the population within the designated user group.

The two individuals also show tacit approval by liking two posts. One post analyses why we need a "unisex toilet" from various angles, while the other discusses what we truly desire from the toilet revolution to the toilet bill. The former explains that in the current situation, the victims are not individuals pretending to have gender dysphoria/transgender individuals committing crimes by entering male/female toilets; the victims themselves are transgender individuals. To avoid affecting other restroom users or attracting curious looks, they enter gender-neutral restrooms to fulfil their biological needs. Returning to the source, the original intention of establishing unisex toilets was for these minority transgender groups. The latter focuses on comparing China's efforts to improve toilet sanitation and add third toilets to enhance people's health, environmental conditions, and humanitarian care, with the U.S.'s Bathroom Bill (BH2) requiring all school districts, colleges, and universities using federal government educational funding to allow transgender students to use restrooms according to their identified gender. It raises relevant questions such as how sexual minority groups can use public restrooms without facing discrimination and controversy to protect their mental health. The purpose of establishing third toilets, the humanitarian care of "toilet culture," questions whether it directly excludes minority groups from the population. 

During the public debate on the "original intention and changes of the third toilets," another piece of news suddenly trended. 

Instead of being merely news, it appeared more like a confession video. The video was posted 35 hours ago by a person using the pseudonym Little B, a young man appearing to be around twenty years old.