my country’s first female frozen human being. She once wanted to be “resurrected” and reunited with her family in 50 years. What’s going on now?

The ancients said, "If you are less than a hundred years old, you will always worry about a thousand years old." Lifespan has always been a topic of concern to people. From emperors and generals to traffickers and pawns, they all have an obsession with "immortality." Even if you are as open-minded as Su Dongpo, you will sigh when you are drunk, "It's just a drop in the ocean", let alone us ordinary people!

From ancient times to the present, in pursuit of immortality, people can be said to have made many jokes and left many legends. From the time Peng Zu revised the book of life and death and asked heaven to extend his life to 800 years, to the Qin Emperor and Han Dynasty who went to the East China Sea and sealed Mount Tai to seek immortality, they are still talked about today.

The word "alive" is an instinct engraved in human blood. Yu Hua said in "To Live" through the protagonist Fu Gui, "People live for life itself, not for anything other than life." This is the truth.

With the development of science and technology, people's pursuit of "living" has also changed from illusory alchemy, immortality, and alchemy to various high-tech methods, such as modifying gene fragments and freezing. People wait for ways to extend their lives.

"Freezing people" is a new technology that has emerged in the past two years. Strictly speaking, this technology does not "extend" human life, but preserves it as a spark of hope.

Why do you say that? Because many of the volunteers participating in this project are not old people who died of natural causes, but young adults who are terminally ill for various reasons but still unwilling to give up hope of living.

Zhan Wenlian, my country’s first female cryogenic project volunteer, is such a person.

The woman who has been “stubborn all her life”

Zhan Wenlian was born in Xinjiang in 1969. Her parents are not from Xinjiang, but educated youth who were assigned to work locally from a county in Jinan, Shandong Province when they went to the mountains and countryside. It wasn't until 1987, when 18-year-old Zhan Wenlian graduated from high school, that she followed in her parents' footsteps and left Xinjiang for the first time, setting foot on her hometown of Tushanghe County.

Originally, if things went well, a family of six, with their younger siblings, could safely settle down in their hometown. Unexpectedly, God failed to fulfill his wishes. While renovating a new house in her hometown, Zhan Wenlian's parents were both involved in a car accident. When Zhan Wenlian rushed to the hospital, she didn't even have time to see them for the last time.

The driver who caused the accident was just an ordinary local farmer. He killed Zhan Wenlian's parents, but he was unable to bear the subsequent liability for compensation.

In this way, Zhan Wenlian was alone, with her two younger siblings, standing in the crowded hall of the hospital, and could only swallow tears in her stomach.

The death of her parents made Zhan Wenlian’s world fall apart. But for her younger brothers and sisters, this strong girl stood up and used her thin body to support them again. Zhan Wenlian did not continue her studies, but entered a printing factory and became a worker.

At this time, her lover Gui Junmin gave her the courage to cheer up again.

Gui Junmin met Zhan Wenlian in Xinjiang. The two were childhood sweethearts and had a deep friendship. After graduating from high school, Gui Junmin was admitted to the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education and became a college student. After hearing about Zhan Wenlian's experience, Gui Junmin was so worried that he gave up the teaching position at a Shanghai university that the school had matched for him, and came to Shandong without hesitation to stand with Zhan Wenlian.

Seeing Zhan Wenlian's situation, he was greatly touched and decided not to return to Shanghai, but to stay with his lover. So, staring at the regretful eyes of his teachers and classmates, Gui Junmin gave up his well-paid college teaching position and became an ordinary public school teacher in Shanghe County.

Zhan Wenlian, with the company and encouragement of Gui Junmin, also cheered up and started living actively again. She picked up the dusty textbooks and began to learn financial related knowledge by herself. Soon, with her unremitting efforts, she passed the recruitment examination of the local Construction Bank and became a staff member from a workshop worker.

In this way, the two people thought about the same thing and worked hard in the same direction, and their lives gradually began to improve. Zhan Wenlian is conscientious and dedicated at work and has strong professional skills. She was quickly appreciated by her boss. Moreover, she is kind and enthusiastic, and many depositors like her very much. Once, a depositor left the 20,000 yuan he had just withdrawn on the counter because of carelessness.

In that era without surveillance, this huge sum of money could disappear without a trace at any time, but the careful Zhan Wenlian soon discovered it. In order to find the owner as soon as possible, she even helped contact him The media was notified, and when the owner hurried over, Zhan Wenlian handed the money intact to him. This incident once became a favorite story in Shanghe.

Because of her outstanding abilities, Zhan Wenlian was quickly promoted from the county branch to the Jinan headquarters of China Construction Bank. Gui Junmin, who had been promoted to vice principal at the time, gave up his well-paid position without hesitation and packed his bags with his wife.

Gui Junmin said: "Back then, I came to Shanghe from Shanghai for love. Now my wife is going to Jinan, and our family has to live together."

Frozen remains

Unfortunately, Gui Junmin's beautiful and simple expectations were interrupted by a sudden lung cancer.

In 2015, the son of Gui Junmin and Zhan Wenlian was 23 years old. After graduating from college, he found a very good job. The couple is also approaching retirement age. After dinner, the family of three often sit together lively and talk about their plans to travel across the country together in the future. But at this time, Zhan Wenlian, who had always been in good health, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer!

The doctor who examined Zhan Wenlian was a friend of Gui Junmin. He did not dare to tell Zhan Wenlian the bad news, so he had to secretly call Gui Junmin.

When the Gui army and people heard about it, they were shocked. Without telling his wife, he secretly consulted many hospitals across the country with the test reports. However, the replies he received were, without exception, that he had advanced lung cancer. Zhan Wenlian probably only has half a year left in her life.

Gui Junmin once contacted Japanese doctors, hoping that Zhan Wenlian could get better treatment, but Zhan Wenlian, who knew the truth, refused. This woman, who had suffered and been stubborn all her life, patted her husband on the shoulder and told him that in her last days, she hoped to be with her most valued relatives and friends.

She also said that she has been passionate about public welfare all her life. If she really passes away, she hopes to donate her body together with her cornea for scientific research so that life can continue from another angle.

Gui Junmin agreed with tears in his eyes.

Facing the grief-stricken Gui Junmin, ward director Lei Weifu gave him a suggestion: "If you can't let go of your wife, besides donating her body, there is another way to 'live'."

This "living" method is to freeze and preserve the body.

Lei Weifu said that Jinan is also currently studying the technology of freezing remains. If Zhan Wenlian’s remains are preserved in this way, perhaps in the future with the development of technology, Zhan Wenlian’s disease will not be If she is terminally ill, she can receive treatment and be "resurrected".

Zhan Wenlian and Gui Junmin accepted this suggestion. On May 8, 2017, Zhan Wenlian stopped her heartbeat and breathing, becoming the second Chinese person to be cryopreserved and the first female cryopreservation person in my country.

Today, Zhan Wenlian’s body is still kept in the laboratory, waiting for one day, perhaps a long time later, to be reunited with her family.