The day turned gloomy from the evening; cicadas chirped under the windless trees in the stifling heat, and the air was laden with humidity. As night fell, the rain still hadn’t come, but the cicadas’ singing became even louder, resembling the prelude to distant thunder.
“It’s so stuffy today.” Li Junchi sat under the bed, filled a basin with cold water, and placed it on the floor. Every now and then, he took the towel off his body, dipped it in cold water, wrung it out, and draped it back over himself to cool down.
Ren Feiyu lay on the upper bunk, holding the most stylish rainbow-backlit handheld fan. Strong winds blew on his face as he refreshed the news on his phone. Puzzled, he asked, “What does ‘animal nature’ mean?”
Lin Wu, without a handheld fan, leaned against the bed railing, absorbing the faint breeze from the old-fashioned ceiling fan. At the same time, he carefully read the latest report that Ren Feiyu had only glanced at. “It says that these abnormal changes are not random or unpredictable; they occur along a specific animal nature.”
“Moreover, many anomalies have different animal natures?” Xia Yang sat in the middle of the room, facing the ceiling fan, hoping to catch some breeze. By now, he had read the detailed explanation in the report and was shocked. Reading from the news release, he continued, “Research has found that the animal nature displayed by different anomalies often varies widely.”
“Taking Mr. Li from Jilin, who single-handedly subdued several wild boars, and Ms. Zhao from Beijing, who can hold her breath underwater for 42 minutes, as examples. After Mr. Li was hospitalized, he exhibited some behavioral habits and preferences of bears, while Ms. Zhao’s abnormal conditions increasingly revealed amphibious animal characteristics.”
As Xia Yang read on, he started to get flustered, “This is the dead of winter, and we’ll not only have to brave the cold without proper clothes but also endure rolling in the snow for three days and nights—it’s crazy!”
For the past few nights, the four roommates hadn’t done anything else. As soon as they returned to the dormitory, they uniformly browsed their phones, checked the latest developments in abnormal body research, and discussed it until the lights went out. The steamy dormitory couldn’t deter their focus; their dedication to final exam preparation was at this level.
“People are just people; how could they turn into animals?” Ren Feiyu still found it hard to accept this reality.
“Don’t jump to conclusions, big brother,” Li Junchi said. “Didn’t you see what it said later? Although anomalies show animal characteristics, the original personalities and preferences of the anomalies haven’t undergone significant changes. At most, there’s just a slight addition of animal nature on top of the existing traits.”
“Look at it from another perspective,” Lin Wu said, “Humans are a kind of animal in the first place. Maybe these are ancient human features that are being reactivated in anomalies.”
Ren Feiyu asked, “So what kind of animal nature did I activate?”
This soul-stirring question suddenly silenced the air.
The news about “animal nature” had just been refreshed, and the three hadn’t had a chance to apply it to Ren Feiyu yet. Besides, Ren Feiyu had been behaving more like a normal person these days, with no signs of anomalies. Sometimes, Lin Wu and the others couldn’t help but wonder if the “strange fall” that night was just a collective hallucination.
“Why are you all silent?” Ren Feiyu waited anxiously for a while, hesitated for a moment, and decided to be honest. “Although I can’t recreate the heroic posture from that night, these days I’ve actually discovered some other abnormal conditions on myself…”
Lin Wu was surprised, “Oh?”
Li Junchi stared, “What?”
Xia Yang was confused, “What are you talking about?”
Now they were all ears, and their focus was restored. The dormitory that felt like a steamer couldn’t dampen their engagement; their commitment to studying for finals was only at this level.
“Don’t keep us in suspense,” Li Junchi said.
Ren Feiyu confessed, “Actually, my vision inexplicably improved. I used to squint to see the blackboard sitting in the last row of the classroom, but now I can see it clearly with just a glance!”
Lin Wu asked, “Is that all?”
Ren Feiyu continued, “Also, when jumping from a height, I secretly tried it a few times when I was alone, not the kind of diving down, I didn’t dare without you guys catching me, just a normal jump from a wall…”
Li Junchi urged, “And then?”
Ren Feiyu explained, “I found that when landing, my feet don’t hurt as much as before. I tried several times, and it was the same every time. So I think there might be automatic deceleration in my body, just not very noticeable, which is why we couldn’t discover it when we experimented that night.”
Xia Yang commented, “Well, you’ve indeed undergone a clear and indisputable mutation.”
Ren Feiyu defended himself, “…How long have you been suspecting me?”
“Who asked you not to say anything and act more normal than regular people?” Lin Wu criticized mercilessly while avoiding the dazzling light from Ren Feiyu’s seven-colored handheld fan. He covered his eyes and stared at Ren, “Even if you turn into the Hundred Beasts Chart, you’re still the most handsome guy in 333, got it?”
Ren Feiyu, with tears in his eyes, looked around at the entire 333, “I love you all…”
Lin Wu, Li Junchi, and Xia Yang, under the assault of the swirling rainbow lights, were speechless.
This radiant love.
Lin Wu quickly sat at the desk after getting off the bed, took out paper and pen, and listed the key points Ren Feiyu mentioned one by one: “Improved vision… automatic deceleration or buffering when landing…”
Sitting beneath the fan, Xia Yang moved his chair closer and said, “Don’t forget about the mid-air somersaults, remember the initial mid-air somersault…”
“If we base it on that night’s performance, it’s most similar to a cat,” Li Junchi, although not approaching, had his engaged heart flying over from a distance, “Isn’t it said that no matter how a cat falls, it can twist its body in the air to land correctly?”
—The three-person research team quickly formed.
Xia Yang: “Cats have padded paws, which also fits the effect of cushioning the landing.”
Lin Wu: “But cats are very alert.”
Li Junchi: “It can’t be Da Yu; he’s too slow.”
Xia Yang: “And that night, didn’t he also glide? I watched him fall from the bed in a diagonal line to the center of the room. Cats don’t glide.”
Lin Wu: “If we talk about gliding, it’s left with birds or some specific animals capable of gliding. Let me check on my phone…”
Xia Yang: “Birds wouldn’t be suitable. Gliding is not the same as flying directly, right?”
Li Junchi: “Besides, birds are so agile. Remember our experiments with clothes and blankets later? Da Yu came down with a thud, not gracefully at all.”
“So, no information on animals capable of gliding?” Xia Yang couldn’t wait, squeezing next to Lin Wu, closely watching his phone screen that kept scrolling.
Lin Wu was already quite fast, smoothly switching between web pages, collecting information.
Only now did Xia Yang realize that Lin Wu wasn’t just casually checking a few web pages; what he wanted was rigorously gathered information.
Admiring this, he found that Lin Wu, wandering in the ocean of knowledge, seemed to be enjoying himself. With a deepening understanding of the knowledge points, he even started humming a little tune.
This time, Xia Yang truly hadn’t intended to eavesdrop, but the two were too close.
The cheerful Indian melody from Lin Wu’s humming suddenly entered his ears, “How cold it is~ playing with mud in the northeast~~ Although the northeast is not big~ I have no home in Dalian~~”
Xia Yang: “…”
How could he not regret getting so close.
“Enough,” the humming stopped, and Lin Wu, who had gathered a pile of information, finally had a more reliable conclusion, “It should be a type of gliding mammal, with a membrane-like cortical membrane on both sides of the body, allowing them to glide from the air. For example, flying squirrels or similar species, like the sugar gliders that many people keep as pets nowadays, are one of them.”
Li Junchi: “What common characteristics do they share with Da Yu, apart from gliding?”
Lin Wu: “They are timid.”
Xia Yang: “It’s Da Yu.”
Li Junchi: “That settles it then.”
Anyang who silently observed throughout couldn’t keep being well-behaved anymore, “Are you researching together, or are you teaming up to plot against me?”
Xia Yang’s phone suddenly gave a low battery notification. He stood up to go to his bed to find the charger.
Li Junchi felt a figure pass by in his peripheral vision, and when he looked up, Xia Yang was already on the bed. The ladder leading to the upper bunk, Xia Yang probably only stepped on it once; he leveraged it to jump up.
“Your skills are extraordinary,” Li Junchi teased, “How about we remove this ladder tomorrow?”
Xia Yang was proud, boasting on one side while plugging in the charger on the other. Just as he was about to connect his phone, a new message suddenly popped up at the top of the screen. It was a breaking headline just pushed by a news app—
Shocking Discovery! The outbreak of body mutations coincides completely with the global spread of dense fog at the beginning of the month!
Lin Wu, who also had the same app, saw the notification.
He instinctively clicked on it—
Details: This unexplained body mutation, similar to the dense fog at the beginning of the month, has swept the globe in a short period. Scientists have compared the global spread trend maps of both phenomena and surprisingly found a shocking overlap.
[Image 1] This is the trend map of the global outbreak of body mutations in the past half-month.
[Image 2] This is the trend map of the dense fog that swept the globe within three days at the beginning of the month.
Although the speeds of the two spreading events are different, a comparison reveals that the global outbreak of body mutations completely follows the trajectory of the dense fog at the beginning of the month.
Scientists from multiple countries express concern. If it is ultimately confirmed that there is a causal relationship between the two, then every person who was in the dense fog at the beginning of the month may not be able to escape. This body mutation might become a global catastrophe.
Lin Wu stared blankly at the end, and his mind went blank.
Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar outside the window, as if a suppressed giant on the other side of the sky was roaring angrily.
Strong winds blew, and the last summer rainstorm arrived.
“This rain is really heavy.” In Room 509, Yuan Sijie, who had just finished sending the message, put down his phone, closed the window halfway to allow ventilation but not let too much rain in.
“I checked the weather forecast. This rain is expected to last at least two days, then it will cool down,” Ge Liang said while sitting on the bed. He couldn’t help but lift his arms in celebration, “Oh my god, it’s finally cooling down—”
“Don’t say useless things,” Wang Ye urged him. “Continue with what you were saying.”
“Oh, right,” Ge Liang quickly lowered his head to look at the phone screen, continuing to enlighten, “‘Animal nature’ refers to the fact that each anomaly exhibits…”
In this dormitory, where the 34 members lacked curiosity and enthusiasm about the world, Ge Liang resolutely took on the responsibility of the “Daily News Science Popularization Master.” Information about body mutations was mostly disseminated by him every day, even more diligently than the little bees.
However, the usual consultation and exchange time was always supported by Yuan Sijie. Although the latter would also multitask and chat on WeChat, today Wang Ye became the main supporting role. Ge Liang strongly suspected that the progress of the new development in “animal nature” had captured the other party’s heart.
“So, it means that all mutants will have some kind of animal nature?” Wang Ye seemed to have understood.
“Yes,” Ge Liang said, “like motor nerves, habits, and preferences, all will tend toward the direction of that animal. But the degree shouldn’t be high; the original human behavioral habits still dominate.”
Wang Ye nodded, unusually contemplative.
After a while, he suddenly asked Ge Liang, “Then, what animal are you?”
