As soon as dawn broke, Zhang Xun woke up from the single bed in his small apartment that had not been touched for nearly a year. The fire in the fireplace was out, and the air still had a faint smell of rosin. He felt a pain in his head and a dry throat. He drank the water on the bedside table in one gulp, turned on the lamp, and entered the bathroom like a zombie to take a shower. The face that appeared in the mirror was thin and haggard, the eyes were heavily bruised, the whites of the eyes were bloodshot, and the chin was full of blue stubble.
He sighed, picked up the razor, shaved his chin, and patted his cheek so hard that he didn't look too scary.
In the past two days, he moved out of the Lab under the pretext of concentrating on reviewing the papers of the researchers participating in the mechanic assessment. He still goes to the Lab to meet Adam during the day, but returns to the apartment after ten o'clock. It's just that he did not review the paper, but spent the night studying the investigation report on recovered honey plague patients submitted to him by Zhang Shuo through James.
For more than a month, Zhang Shuo asked his cronies to take the questionnaires that Zhang Xun had attached to the report, and questioned them door by door. However, due to the urgency of time and limited manpower, the survey results were very scattered and there was no special person to sort them out. The information obtained was huge and complex, and Zhang Xun had to read it page by page by himself. For the past few days, Zhang Xun could only sleep for three hours a day, and during the day, he tried his best not to be suspicious. By now, he was exhausted.
But today was so important, he had to keep his head clear. He boiled a large pot of coffee for himself, poured it down like drinking water, stuffed some dry bread into his stomach, then put on a heavy coat, hat, scarf and gloves, and opened the door.
The twilight had not yet completely faded in the dark blue sky, and the rising sun from the east was lightly scattered on the sloping eaves. Zhang Xun breathed in the cold air, squinting at the sun, and suddenly remembered the scene of Adam waving his wings, facing the rising sun, and rushing to the sky on the Harvest Festival.
At that time, he was really happy, happy like never before.
All good things have an end. He thought of this inexplicably.
His heart was twisted violently by an invisible hand.
Zhang Xun took a deep breath, suppressed the surging emotions in his chest, and continued to trudge on the bad road that was half melting and half icy. In order to avoid all of Pan's extended sweeping robots, he had to take some long detours.
At such an early age, even those who were the first to go to work had not yet left the house. The narrow and winding streets are empty, and all the gray and old buildings seem to have not woken up. Zhang Xun made his way through the cobwebs of alleyways and finally stopped in front of a precarious low-cost apartment building on the outskirts of the third district. The wooden structure is loose and loose, covered with traces of erosion by wind, frost and years. Some windows were even shattered, not properly repaired, and covered with heat-insulating fabrics, shivering in the cold wind.
The corridor is so narrow that one has to turn sideways to pass, and it is full of old furniture and debris. There was a special rancid smell in the air, like rotten vegetable leaves, which Zhang Xun had never smelled before.
It is located at the junction of the third district and the second district, and it is a place where the poor live. As a member of the privileged class, Zhang Xun has hardly set foot here. He thought his own apartment was small enough, but when he saw the front door the size of a wardrobe door, and the distance between the doors, he could guess that the space inside would not exceed three Ten square meters, but often squeeze three to six people.
Zhang Xun had heard that due to the limited land resources in Paradise Lost, many old apartments had to divide the original large house into several smaller houses, which were rented to different families. The house transformed in this way is full of various safety hazards, and no one can escape once it catches fire.
But there is no way, people have to need somewhere to live.
He knocked on the door of a house hung with mistletoe, and a moment later a bloodless face of a man about his age appeared in the crack of the door.
"Hello. I was contacted by the trustee before..."
"You're Zhang Xun?" The man looked at him with a kind of amazement, with a sincere smile on his face, and opened the door while saying, "Come in!"
Zhang Xun then squeezed into the small room full of daily necessities. It can be seen that in the limited space, the owner of the house maximized his storage talents. Although there are many things, they are very orderly and maintained very clean. Rao is so, the smell is still strong.
Zhang Xun took off his hat and gloves, and the man named Lucas took it eagerly, hung it on the hanger behind the door, and enthusiastically led Zhang Xun to a faded printed sofa, "You are ours. Great benefactor! I don't have any good tea here, don't dislike it!" The man hurriedly went to the small stove next to him, lifted the steaming kettle into the teapot, and said while pouring, "I always wanted to thank you in person. And Adam, but you have saved so many people, you must be no less than our two little people."
"That's what we should do." Zhang Xun said uneasily, "please don't be busy, I just want to come to know some things. Your partner... Kevin, right, how is he doing recently?"
Lucas handed the teacup to Zhang Xun and sat on the opposite chair, his eyes flashing with happiness, "He is fine, even better than before he got sick. You may not know that he actually had alcoholism before he was infected. The problem is, sometimes... He drinks too much, and his temper becomes very grumpy. But after being cured, he hasn't touched a drop of alcohol."
Zhang Xun nodded, "Apart from that, does he have any other changes?"
"There are some, but they are all good changes, I can't believe it. He seems to be very... calm now, and sometimes even helps me with housework. He even quit smoking and doesn't go out at night. Messing around with those bastards... It seems that your antidote not only cured the plague, but also cured all other ailments." Lucas said, smiling a little embarrassedly, "The only thing that is a little strange is sometimes He would say things that I don't understand."
"What you don't understand?" Zhang Xun continued to ask, "Can you be more specific?"
"Let him tell you himself, he should be up already." Lucas said, then stood up, opened the curtain and entered the back room where he could only put down a bed. Not long after, another older, taller, bearded man came out.
If it was a person with such an image on the street, Zhang Xun would probably avoid it on purpose. It looks so much like a bandit after all...
What slightly contradicted his rough appearance was the generous smile he showed to Zhang Xun. He held Zhang Xun's hand apologetically, "I'm sorry, I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I've kept you waiting."
"It's okay, I've only arrived soon." Zhang Xun carefully looked at Kevin's appearance, and could not see the slightest trace of being infected with the plague. As Lucas said, there was something strange and aloof in Kevin's expression, not like the expression that a person working in an artificial meat shop would have.
As soon as Kevin sat down, he started gushing about how grateful he was to Zhang Xun and Adam for saving his life and changing his life. However, his words made Xun feel more and more panicked as he listened to another chapter.
"You said... you feel like you've been reborn. Can you be specific about how it feels?"
Kevin paused for a moment, as if to sort out his language, and said, "Since I've recovered, I feel like I've been opened up. Before I didn't even know I'd been a closed-minded, impulsive bastard, I've been Living in a box. But now, I feel like I'm out of that box. I sometimes even feel like I can feel something, something bigger than all of us, floating above my head. Sometimes that blob can be unsettling, but most of the time, it makes me… calmer."
"And what about those dreams you had? You said you must sleep more than eight hours a day now?"
"Yeah. Those dreams felt a bit like floating in the clouds. I felt like there were a lot of people around, but I couldn't see them. But I could see what was in their heads, a lot. It wasn't accurate, it was more like Yes... I feel it. But it's all messy. I don't quite understand what those dreams mean." Kevin shrugged, "But I like them, and they feel good when I wake up."
Kevin's tone was calm and serene, almost like those of devout religious believers. But according to Zhang Xun's information about Kevin's life, it is impossible for him to have such a temper.
This Kevin went to prison twice for intentional wounding and was violent after drinking alcohol. Now, his personality has undergone a major change. It's just that this kind of change is what people around him want, so no one will report to the investigation.
"I heard from Lucas, you used to be a heavy drinker, but you haven't touched alcohol since you recovered? Did you deliberately quit?" Zhang Xun asked.
Kevin shrugged casually, "Drinking is not good for my health, and my liver is not good, so I don't drink it."
"It's that simple? Quitting alcohol is a very difficult thing for many people, don't you have withdrawal symptoms?"
"No, I just don't want to drink, so I won't drink."
Zhang Xun nodded and forced a smile, "I'm happy for you."
After coming out of Lucas's house, Zhang Xun lowered his head and walked on the road alone. He felt that the surging emotions in his chest were about to be suppressed, and his body was shaking slightly, but it was not because of the cold.
By now, it was impossible for him to continue to lie to himself.
This is by no means a normal "sequelae"... According to the several patients he visited, they all had obvious personality changes to a certain extent. To the kind of dream that seems to be in the clouds.
All became lethargic and had to sleep more than eight hours a day.
To be sure, something is changing their brain structure, eliminating all the "viruses". More than just the virus of the honey plague…
Such a change may be considered good in the short term, a "magic medicine" that can cure the ugliness of human nature.
But what are those things that are eliminated by it? Are there really only those ugly things on the surface? Many human traits are not as simple as good or bad, but have complex evolutionary mechanisms. After all the weaknesses of human nature are eliminated, what is left
And such a dangerous "antidote to human nature" was developed with his own help.
Zhang Xun stopped abruptly and supported the wall with his hands. He felt dizzy and slightly nauseous. A sour feeling rushed to the nose and to the eyes.
He was still wrong.
The author has something to say: Thanks to the little angels who threw mines~~~: San Sansan, Lili, Xia Ran, Xia Ran, Hurry, Nicolekef 1
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution~~~: 1 bottle of Sinan and Lili