How they returned from the cafeteria to room 333 was a bit hazy for all four of them. When they finally realized, each person’s reaction was either lying flat on the bed in a daze or slouched in a chair with a vacant expression.
“My vibrant youth has just kicked off, and now it’s about to come to an end at the tender age of nineteen and a half, just like the fleeting beauty of summer flowers,” Xia Yang stared blankly at the dormitory ceiling. “I haven’t even experienced the flavors of life yet. I haven’t held hands, kissed, or gone for a fancy run with a partner on a windy night under the moon. I’m missing out!”
Lin Wu was initially anxious, but with Xia Yang’s lament, the oppressive atmosphere dissipated. “Your youth has already ‘blossomed like summer flowers.’ Isn’t it time for it to wither in autumn?”
“That’s it,” Li Junchi added, “autumn started last month.”
“I was just making an analogy!” Xia Yang sat up abruptly, “Brother, why aren’t you all worried at all? What if we wake up tomorrow and all of us have mutated!”
Lin Wu, who had a whirlwind of thoughts throughout the day, was gradually calming down. “Don’t panic. Didn’t the news say that the indicators for those abnormal individuals are fine? In other words, even if the worst happens, and we all mutate, it won’t affect our health.”
“Besides, we might not mutate at all,” Li Junchi looked at Xia Yang. “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” He then turned to Lin Wu. “Are you experiencing any strange reactions in your body?”
“Maybe you should ask me too…” After waiting for a while and not getting any attention, Ren Feiyu raised his hand, prompting himself.
Li Junchi turned slowly, squinting at him.
Ren Feiyu’s voice weakened. “I just said it casually…”
“Don’t cling to wishful thinking,” Xia Yang sighed heavily, countering Li Junchi. “We live, eat, and attend classes together with Dayu. We’re only missing sharing a bed at night. If Dayu mutates and we have nothing to do with it, can we justify this friendship, which has deepened like the Peach Blossom Spring where dragonflies perch on top?”
Li Junchi: “…”
Advertisement
Friendship or not, let’s start with these two lines of poetry.
“If Dayu really mutates, we probably can’t avoid it,” Lin Wu agreed with Xia Yang on this point. “But the problem is, we can’t be a hundred percent sure that Dayu will definitely mutate.”
“Are you serious?” Xia Yang raised his arm, twisting it in the air like a pretzel, trying to simulate Ren Feiyu’s falling posture from last night. “He’s almost done a 360° Thomas full rotation…”
Ren Feiyu swallowed hard and mumbled softly, “It wasn’t that extreme…”
“Think carefully,” Li Junchi suggested, turning his stool and moving it in front of Ren Feiyu. He sat down with a thud, facing him as if conducting an interview. “When you fell yesterday, did you feel anything in your body?”
“I really didn’t,” Ren Feiyu had answered this question last night. “My mind went blank at the time, and when I came to, I was already on the ground.”
“And now?” Lin Wu joined in. “Do you feel any strangeness or changes in your body?”
Ren Feiyu closed his eyes, trying very hard to “self-assess” for a long time but sadly shook his head.
Advertisement
Lin Wu stared at him intently, meditated for a while, and slowly revealed a smile full of brotherly affection. “How about we
try it again?”
Ren Feiyu: “??”
Ten minutes later.
Four cool mats, four bedspreads, four padded quilts, and all the thin and thick clothes for all seasons were gathered under Ren Feiyu’s bed, forming a thick and safe cushion.
Lin Wu, Xia Yang, and Li Junchi each stood guard on the periphery of the cushion in three directions. This way, if Ren Feiyu changed direction during the descent and glided out of the cushion, they could use their bodies to catch him.
After all, Dayu just jumped from the upper bunk, and the impact force from this distance wasn’t too high.
Everything was ready. The three of them looked up at Ren Feiyu crouching on the top bunk, and six bright eyes glittered. “Come on, from now on, imagine yourself as a rock star, and boldly jump into the sea of spectators below!”
Ren Feiyu hadn’t seen a sea of people, only a mess of down jackets, thick sweaters, and three eager roommates.
He had a bad premonition that he had boarded a pirate ship.
Advertisement
“You guys must catch me…”
After repeated reminders, Ren Feiyu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and finally threw himself down!
“Bang—”
His body landed, perfectly hitting the cushion.
Lin Wu and the others were ready to catch him, but he didn’t even let his clothes touch them.
In this seemingly serene campus, the four friends found themselves in an unprecedented state of perplexity.
After three falls, Ren Feiyu descended straight down, following a standard trajectory with no somersaults or glides. Even when landing in the cushion pile, it was his upper body that led the way. The routine nature of the process made Lin Wu and the others start to question whether everything they witnessed last night was genuinely happening or if they collectively experienced a visual illusion.
Li Junchi: “Let’s go again, best of three rounds!”
Ren Feiyu: “…”
“Bang—”
Advertisement
“Bang—”
“Bang—”
“Isn’t that enough?” After falling into the cushion pile again, Ren Feiyu now felt as if there were golden feathers floating everywhere, “This is the seventh round and fourth win already…”
Four consecutive times, each one was a perfectly normal fall, and the situation from last night never occurred.
Xia Yang, who was originally a firm “mutation advocate,” was now a bit perplexed: “Could it be that this mutation disappears on its own?”
“It’s also possible, like a cold. Sometimes, even without medication, enduring it for a while can make it go away.” Li Junchi rubbed his chin, pondering further, “Or, as Lin Wu said, Da Yu might not have mutated at all. The situation last night might have another scientific explanation…”
Before Li Junchi could finish his sentence, he was abruptly interrupted by Xia Yang’s ringing phone. Someone sent a video call invitation to Xia Yang.
As a contemporary university student with an extremely simple social circle, skipping a voice call and directly initiating a video call invitation was a sign of one person for Xia Yang—his mom.
Xia’s Mom: “Darling, did you see the news about the unusual bodily conditions? Mom was so worried, afraid that something might happen to you at school. I couldn’t sleep all night worrying…”
Xia Yang: “You’ve been worried all night over the news from 5 p.m. today?”
Advertisement
Xia’s Mom: “Isn’t that just a way to describe it? You, my child, aren’t considerate at all!”
Xia Yang: “…”
Xia’s Mom: “What are you searching for under your pillow? Did you lose money?”
Xia Yang: “I’m looking for my Bluetooth earphones!”
Xia’s Mom: “Ah? Are you using it as a speaker with me? Well, yes, that’s right. Mom watched the news today, and there have been quite a few cases in Tianjin. Mom wanted to ask about the situation at your school.”
Xia Yang: “Why are you suddenly speaking Mandarin?”
As Xia Yang found his Bluetooth earphones and silenced his mom’s Mandarin broadcast, Ren Feiyu’s phone also rang.
However, Ren Feiyu’s call was from his mother, so he directly answered, “Mom…”
Lin Wu couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end of the phone, but judging from Ren Feiyu’s progressively lowering head and voice, it was evident that Ren’s mom and Xia’s mom had completely different communication styles.
“Yeah… I’m fine… I know… Okay… Good…” Ren Feiyu could speak a few words at the beginning, but later, it turned into single-syllable responses.
If it weren’t for the initial “Mom” he exclaimed upon answering the call, Lin Wu might have thought it sounded more like a phone call between a boss and an employee, with the boss continuously scolding and the employee meekly complying—an obedient office worker.
Li Junchi didn’t pay attention to Ren Feiyu and Xia Yang; he focused entirely on his own phone, waiting patiently. He refused to believe that while other moms were expressing concern for their sons, his mom would stay quiet all this time.
Five minutes later.
Yes, she dared to stay silent.
Feeling complicated, Li Junchi opened WeChat and took the initiative to send a voice call invitation to his own mom.
With Li Junchi’s voice call connected, Room 333 became lively. Tianjin dialect, Northeastern dialect, and even within the Northeastern dialect, there were distinctions between “Harbin-style” and “Jilin-style,” creating a chaotic mixture of languages in the room.
The atmosphere was contagious, prompting Lin Wu to involuntarily open WeChat.
His parents’ two accounts were pinned at the top, and clicking on them would allow him to see their messages.
Even voice or video calls were straightforward; a simple press would suffice. However, when Lin Wu truly opened the chat interface and saw the past chat records, his overheated brain instantly cooled down.
In the end, he sent the same message to both of them: “Everything is normal at school.”
After sending it, he immediately exited and opened the “Book Mountain Humble Abode” app, subconsciously seeking other matters to divert his attention.
Unexpectedly, the forum was quite lively.
Thread: “Two students in the Material Science College have abnormal physical conditions and have been hospitalized!”
Thread: “What exactly counts as a physically abnormal condition? Are there any systematic criteria? Can they still eat?”
Thread: “Water Basin Challenge! Let’s see who can hold their breath the longest. I’m the first on video; if you dare, come and compete!”
Thread: …
After flipping through several pages, only the incident at the Material Science College seemed somewhat substantial.
Inside, it mentioned that two students from the Material Science College voluntarily reported having abnormal physical conditions. However, the poster wasn’t clear about the specifics of their abnormalities. They stated that these two individuals showed no unusual behavior in the dormitory, but as soon as they reached the hospital, they were required to be hospitalized. Hence, the physical abnormalities should be beyond doubt. This news shocked the students around them.
The other three finished their calls and brought back “hometown information” one after another —
Ren Feiyu: “The situation in Harbin is similar to Shenyang…”
Xia Yang: “It’s chaotic in Tianjin; everyone is rushing to the hospital!”
Li Junchi: “My mom said there’s trouble in our village too. Someone went up the mountain alone and took down several wild boars. When he came down, the hospital took him away!”
Lin Wu: “…”
It’s unknown what the hero’s feelings were at that moment.
Lights-out at eleven, yet the restless hearts of everyone couldn’t be calmed. The four engaged in a half-hour “lying-down talk” in the darkness before slowly falling asleep.
Before going to sleep, Lin Wu’s two messages finally received a reply.
Lin Wu: “Everything is normal at school.”
Mom: “Good.”
The next day, at the track and field.
Lin Wu had never seen such a grand scene at school.
Crowds of people, bustling, uproarious, surging… In short, any idiom describing a large crowd would fall short of describing this spectacular scene.
During last year’s opening sports meeting, only freshmen, sophomores, and some juniors were present in the stands, and even then, only about sixty percent of the seats were filled. Now, not to mention the stands, even the lawn and the track below were filled with students. Some colleges could only stand outside the track, listening to the president’s speech from a distance.
Exactly at eight o’clock, the president and a group of school leaders appeared on the rostrum right on time. Without any lengthy preamble, the urgently convened school-wide meeting directly addressed the main topic.
Firstly, the spreading situation of the mutation was extremely severe. Everyone must take it seriously, and once abnormal physical conditions are discovered, students and faculty must promptly report to the school.
Secondly, during the closure of the school, regular classes would continue, and the logistics department would ensure the operation of the cafeteria and supply from the supermarket.
Thirdly, currently, no adverse effects on health due to the mutation have been observed. Therefore, while maintaining a serious attitude, it is essential to keep a calm mind. Even if there is a real occurrence of abnormal physical conditions, there is no need for excessive panic.
Fourthly…
As Lin Wu listened to these points one by one, he truly felt that the situation had become serious.
In the past, regardless of what turmoil occurred in society, the campus acted like a fortress, always separating them from the outside world with a buffer zone. Even in the face of major events, it seemed to pass with laughter within the campus.
But this time, it was different.
How they returned from the cafeteria to room 333 was a bit hazy for all four of them. When they finally realized, each person’s reaction was either lying flat on the bed in a daze or slouched in a chair with a vacant expression.
“My vibrant youth has just kicked off, and now it’s about to come to an end at the tender age of nineteen and a half, just like the fleeting beauty of summer flowers,” Xia Yang stared blankly at the dormitory ceiling. “I haven’t even experienced the flavors of life yet. I haven’t held hands, kissed, or gone for a fancy run with a partner on a windy night under the moon. I’m missing out!”
Lin Wu was initially anxious, but with Xia Yang’s lament, the oppressive atmosphere dissipated. “Your youth has already ‘blossomed like summer flowers.’ Isn’t it time for it to wither in autumn?”
“That’s it,” Li Junchi added, “autumn started last month.”
“I was just making an analogy!” Xia Yang sat up abruptly, “Brother, why aren’t you all worried at all? What if we wake up tomorrow and all of us have mutated!”
Lin Wu, who had a whirlwind of thoughts throughout the day, was gradually calming down. “Don’t panic. Didn’t the news say that the indicators for those abnormal individuals are fine? In other words, even if the worst happens, and we all mutate, it won’t affect our health.”
“Besides, we might not mutate at all,” Li Junchi looked at Xia Yang. “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” He then turned to Lin Wu. “Are you experiencing any strange reactions in your body?”
“Maybe you should ask me too…” After waiting for a while and not getting any attention, Ren Feiyu raised his hand, prompting himself.
Li Junchi turned slowly, squinting at him.
Ren Feiyu’s voice weakened. “I just said it casually…”
“Don’t cling to wishful thinking,” Xia Yang sighed heavily, countering Li Junchi. “We live, eat, and attend classes together with Dayu. We’re only missing sharing a bed at night. If Dayu mutates and we have nothing to do with it, can we justify this friendship, which has deepened like the Peach Blossom Spring where dragonflies perch on top?”
Li Junchi: “…”
Advertisement
Friendship or not, let’s start with these two lines of poetry.
“If Dayu really mutates, we probably can’t avoid it,” Lin Wu agreed with Xia Yang on this point. “But the problem is, we can’t be a hundred percent sure that Dayu will definitely mutate.”
“Are you serious?” Xia Yang raised his arm, twisting it in the air like a pretzel, trying to simulate Ren Feiyu’s falling posture from last night. “He’s almost done a 360° Thomas full rotation…”
Ren Feiyu swallowed hard and mumbled softly, “It wasn’t that extreme…”
“Think carefully,” Li Junchi suggested, turning his stool and moving it in front of Ren Feiyu. He sat down with a thud, facing him as if conducting an interview. “When you fell yesterday, did you feel anything in your body?”
“I really didn’t,” Ren Feiyu had answered this question last night. “My mind went blank at the time, and when I came to, I was already on the ground.”
“And now?” Lin Wu joined in. “Do you feel any strangeness or changes in your body?”
Ren Feiyu closed his eyes, trying very hard to “self-assess” for a long time but sadly shook his head.
Advertisement
Lin Wu stared at him intently, meditated for a while, and slowly revealed a smile full of brotherly affection. “How about we
try it again?”
Ren Feiyu: “??”
Ten minutes later.
Four cool mats, four bedspreads, four padded quilts, and all the thin and thick clothes for all seasons were gathered under Ren Feiyu’s bed, forming a thick and safe cushion.
Lin Wu, Xia Yang, and Li Junchi each stood guard on the periphery of the cushion in three directions. This way, if Ren Feiyu changed direction during the descent and glided out of the cushion, they could use their bodies to catch him.
After all, Dayu just jumped from the upper bunk, and the impact force from this distance wasn’t too high.
Everything was ready. The three of them looked up at Ren Feiyu crouching on the top bunk, and six bright eyes glittered. “Come on, from now on, imagine yourself as a rock star, and boldly jump into the sea of spectators below!”
Ren Feiyu hadn’t seen a sea of people, only a mess of down jackets, thick sweaters, and three eager roommates.
He had a bad premonition that he had boarded a pirate ship.
Advertisement
“You guys must catch me…”
After repeated reminders, Ren Feiyu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and finally threw himself down!
“Bang—”
His body landed, perfectly hitting the cushion.
Lin Wu and the others were ready to catch him, but he didn’t even let his clothes touch them.
In this seemingly serene campus, the four friends found themselves in an unprecedented state of perplexity.
After three falls, Ren Feiyu descended straight down, following a standard trajectory with no somersaults or glides. Even when landing in the cushion pile, it was his upper body that led the way. The routine nature of the process made Lin Wu and the others start to question whether everything they witnessed last night was genuinely happening or if they collectively experienced a visual illusion.
Li Junchi: “Let’s go again, best of three rounds!”
Ren Feiyu: “…”
“Bang—”
Advertisement
“Bang—”
“Bang—”
“Isn’t that enough?” After falling into the cushion pile again, Ren Feiyu now felt as if there were golden feathers floating everywhere, “This is the seventh round and fourth win already…”
Four consecutive times, each one was a perfectly normal fall, and the situation from last night never occurred.
Xia Yang, who was originally a firm “mutation advocate,” was now a bit perplexed: “Could it be that this mutation disappears on its own?”
“It’s also possible, like a cold. Sometimes, even without medication, enduring it for a while can make it go away.” Li Junchi rubbed his chin, pondering further, “Or, as Lin Wu said, Da Yu might not have mutated at all. The situation last night might have another scientific explanation…”
Before Li Junchi could finish his sentence, he was abruptly interrupted by Xia Yang’s ringing phone. Someone sent a video call invitation to Xia Yang.
As a contemporary university student with an extremely simple social circle, skipping a voice call and directly initiating a video call invitation was a sign of one person for Xia Yang—his mom.
Xia’s Mom: “Darling, did you see the news about the unusual bodily conditions? Mom was so worried, afraid that something might happen to you at school. I couldn’t sleep all night worrying…”
Xia Yang: “You’ve been worried all night over the news from 5 p.m. today?”
Advertisement
Xia’s Mom: “Isn’t that just a way to describe it? You, my child, aren’t considerate at all!”
Xia Yang: “…”
Xia’s Mom: “What are you searching for under your pillow? Did you lose money?”
Xia Yang: “I’m looking for my Bluetooth earphones!”
Xia’s Mom: “Ah? Are you using it as a speaker with me? Well, yes, that’s right. Mom watched the news today, and there have been quite a few cases in Tianjin. Mom wanted to ask about the situation at your school.”
Xia Yang: “Why are you suddenly speaking Mandarin?”
As Xia Yang found his Bluetooth earphones and silenced his mom’s Mandarin broadcast, Ren Feiyu’s phone also rang.
However, Ren Feiyu’s call was from his mother, so he directly answered, “Mom…”
Lin Wu couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end of the phone, but judging from Ren Feiyu’s progressively lowering head and voice, it was evident that Ren’s mom and Xia’s mom had completely different communication styles.
“Yeah… I’m fine… I know… Okay… Good…” Ren Feiyu could speak a few words at the beginning, but later, it turned into single-syllable responses.
If it weren’t for the initial “Mom” he exclaimed upon answering the call, Lin Wu might have thought it sounded more like a phone call between a boss and an employee, with the boss continuously scolding and the employee meekly complying—an obedient office worker.
Li Junchi didn’t pay attention to Ren Feiyu and Xia Yang; he focused entirely on his own phone, waiting patiently. He refused to believe that while other moms were expressing concern for their sons, his mom would stay quiet all this time.
Five minutes later.
Yes, she dared to stay silent.
Feeling complicated, Li Junchi opened WeChat and took the initiative to send a voice call invitation to his own mom.
With Li Junchi’s voice call connected, Room 333 became lively. Tianjin dialect, Northeastern dialect, and even within the Northeastern dialect, there were distinctions between “Harbin-style” and “Jilin-style,” creating a chaotic mixture of languages in the room.
The atmosphere was contagious, prompting Lin Wu to involuntarily open WeChat.
His parents’ two accounts were pinned at the top, and clicking on them would allow him to see their messages.
Even voice or video calls were straightforward; a simple press would suffice. However, when Lin Wu truly opened the chat interface and saw the past chat records, his overheated brain instantly cooled down.
In the end, he sent the same message to both of them: “Everything is normal at school.”
After sending it, he immediately exited and opened the “Book Mountain Humble Abode” app, subconsciously seeking other matters to divert his attention.
Unexpectedly, the forum was quite lively.
Thread: “Two students in the Material Science College have abnormal physical conditions and have been hospitalized!”
Thread: “What exactly counts as a physically abnormal condition? Are there any systematic criteria? Can they still eat?”
Thread: “Water Basin Challenge! Let’s see who can hold their breath the longest. I’m the first on video; if you dare, come and compete!”
Thread: …
After flipping through several pages, only the incident at the Material Science College seemed somewhat substantial.
Inside, it mentioned that two students from the Material Science College voluntarily reported having abnormal physical conditions. However, the poster wasn’t clear about the specifics of their abnormalities. They stated that these two individuals showed no unusual behavior in the dormitory, but as soon as they reached the hospital, they were required to be hospitalized. Hence, the physical abnormalities should be beyond doubt. This news shocked the students around them.
The other three finished their calls and brought back “hometown information” one after another —
Ren Feiyu: “The situation in Harbin is similar to Shenyang…”
Xia Yang: “It’s chaotic in Tianjin; everyone is rushing to the hospital!”
Li Junchi: “My mom said there’s trouble in our village too. Someone went up the mountain alone and took down several wild boars. When he came down, the hospital took him away!”
Lin Wu: “…”
It’s unknown what the hero’s feelings were at that moment.
Lights-out at eleven, yet the restless hearts of everyone couldn’t be calmed. The four engaged in a half-hour “lying-down talk” in the darkness before slowly falling asleep.
Before going to sleep, Lin Wu’s two messages finally received a reply.
Lin Wu: “Everything is normal at school.”
Mom: “Good.”
The next day, at the track and field.
Lin Wu had never seen such a grand scene at school.
Crowds of people, bustling, uproarious, surging… In short, any idiom describing a large crowd would fall short of describing this spectacular scene.
During last year’s opening sports meeting, only freshmen, sophomores, and some juniors were present in the stands, and even then, only about sixty percent of the seats were filled. Now, not to mention the stands, even the lawn and the track below were filled with students. Some colleges could only stand outside the track, listening to the president’s speech from a distance.
Exactly at eight o’clock, the president and a group of school leaders appeared on the rostrum right on time. Without any lengthy preamble, the urgently convened school-wide meeting directly addressed the main topic.
Firstly, the spreading situation of the mutation was extremely severe. Everyone must take it seriously, and once abnormal physical conditions are discovered, students and faculty must promptly report to the school.
Secondly, during the closure of the school, regular classes would continue, and the logistics department would ensure the operation of the cafeteria and supply from the supermarket.
Thirdly, currently, no adverse effects on health due to the mutation have been observed. Therefore, while maintaining a serious attitude, it is essential to keep a calm mind. Even if there is a real occurrence of abnormal physical conditions, there is no need for excessive panic.
Fourthly…
As Lin Wu listened to these points one by one, he truly felt that the situation had become serious.
In the past, regardless of what turmoil occurred in society, the campus acted like a fortress, always separating them from the outside world with a buffer zone. Even in the face of major events, it seemed to pass with laughter within the campus.
But this time, it was different.
