Chapter 32: “Are you willing to call me ‘Mom’?” “No.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t its fungus-washing water.
Cheng Ming took the hot water that the mycelia had brought from the water dispenser, drank most of it, and injected a nutrient supplement to replenish her lost energy. Fatigue washed over her again. She lay down and said softly, “Good night.”
Good night.
Xiao Ming wrapped the corner of the blanket tightly around her body.
Her vision turned from dark to bright. The brilliant fireworks entered her dream, blurring the line between reality and illusion.
Streams of molten gold streaked across the sky, tearing open the night sky and cutting the continents into pieces. Glowing microalgae surged from the cracks, the sea flooded in, cities fell, and the world was shattered. Finally, everything returned to a dead silence—
Cheng Ming woke up with a start.
An endless, suffocating silence lingered in her ears. It turned out that silence could also be a sound, huge, oppressive, and roaring, depriving her of her hearing.
So much so that before her vision had fully returned, she anxiously turned her head and fumbled, trying to confirm the existence of her “hair.”
“Xiao Ming?”
The lingering fear was submerged in her heart. She was afraid, afraid that what she remembered from waking up in the middle of the night was just a dream.
“Cheng Ming—”
It seemed to have just woken up as well, and responded in her mind in a daze.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” she suddenly interrupted, her tone a little sharp.
But she quickly realized it, took a deep breath, and lowered her voice, “Can you speak? I want to hear your voice.”
This world was too quiet.
After being quiet for too long, she had finally gotten used to the noise and was reluctant to return to that empty space where no one cared.
After a second’s interval, it spoke in time, “What’s wrong?”
The cool and smooth mycelia actively tucked themselves under her hand, wrapping around her index and middle fingers.
Cheng Ming panted lightly and looked up. The sky outside was already bright.
It was just that the break room was inside the building, with only a small window high up, so the brightness in the room was not obvious.
On the other side of the recliner was her usual seat for resting and working. There was a small silver object reflecting light there.
She threw off the blanket and moved to the table.
A makeup mirror stood quietly in the corner.
She turned the mirror and saw her own disheveled “long hair,” her pale face, and in the depths of her pupils, there seemed to be a faint, shimmering ice-blue… the fluorescence of the algaefungus.
Cheng Ming couldn’t help but raise her hand and touch the corner of her eye.
The thin flesh clung to the bone. It was clearly her facial features, her appearance, but in the blink of an eye, she would suddenly feel that the reflection was a little strange.
Perhaps, her parasitic partner was also following her gaze, quietly, secretly, observing her.
She looked at the person in the mirror, and it was almost the first time she had observed herself so carefully. Her eyes were round, and she looked like an approachable type. There was a very small red mole on the side of her nose bridge, which was somewhat charming up close.
She blinked again, and the mycelia-disguised hair clung tightly to her forehead and temples. A strand even slid to her lips and rubbed against them a few times, as if it were there and not there.
I’m here… it seemed to be its silent response.
Cheng Ming opened her mouth in a daze, and the strand of “hair” guiltily and nonchalantly drooped down.
Her fingertips touched the illusory image through the mirror. For some reason, an indescribable, strange impulse welled up in her heart… she really wanted to kiss “her.”
Before she could react, she had already done it. She propped herself up slightly and gently pressed her lips against the cold mirror.
The hot breath she exhaled outlined the full shape of her lips, and it liquefied into a hazy white mist on the surface of the glass, clearly showing what she had done.
She pulled back and stared at the mirror in a daze.
Perhaps for a long time, perhaps for less than half a second, she suddenly came back to her senses, and her cheeks burned.
She flipped her wrist, and smack! she quickly flipped the makeup mirror over on the table.
Bending over and burying her face in her arms, Cheng Ming’s entire face was covered by her sleeves, and she didn’t speak for a long time.
And what made everything even more strange was that Xiao Ming was also silent.
They were both quiet for a long time.
After a long while, it suddenly said, “Your heart is beating so fast.”
Cheng Ming: “Shut up!”
…
The physical fitness of a body that had been modified by a parasite was indeed incomparable. In the past, a small cold could easily knock her down for more than a week. Now, she had been working with a virus for more than a month, and after a good night’s sleep, she only felt that her spirits were high.
Her own crisis was resolved, and she had to catch up on the work she had left behind.
After checking the situation in the incubation room and making a round of the key laboratories, she replenished the reagents and exported the data. After finishing her daily tasks here, she immediately went to the West Building.
All her previous analysis of the virus had been focused on how to solve it, with the goal of obtaining immunoglobulin. Now, she needed to reorganize the complex data, pick out the useful information, and focus on the interaction between the virus and the algaefungus.
She was busy all day. Because there were basically no people in the research institute, and the access time was tight, Cheng Ming got off work on time for once and walked out of the building.
There was still a faint light in the west, and the dim orange-red light covered the streetlights on the side of the road.
Not long after she was discharged from the hospital, the Defense Center had lifted the level three alert. Thanks to the fact that most of the mutated creatures that had come ashore this time were short-lived, it had not delayed everyone from having a good New Year.
“The New Year should be spent with family.”
Just as she was feeling a little emotional, she heard Xiao Ming say this out of the blue.
It sounded like its refined summary of what it had learned about human society today.
This parasite’s perception of the outside world relied on her senses, but it didn’t affect it from slacking off while she was working.
The static range of human vision could reach up to 180 degrees, but what was ultimately seen was determined by the cranial nerves. After being processed by the visual center, a person could truly perceive the so-called image.
Therefore, even if they shared their vision, they could “see” different things at the same time.
The phone was placed within its field of vision, and it swiped it with its mycelia. For as long as she had been organizing the data without any distractions, it had been browsing its phone with great interest.
“Why can’t you learn something serious?” Cheng Ming couldn’t help but joke. “You can take my place at work in the future.”
“…” Xiao Ming fell silent.
How could someone even want to exploit a mutated creature?
Returning to her apartment, Cheng Ming first checked her body.
Her skin could be rubbed at will, her nails were intact, and her “hair” was firm… After confirming that there were no abnormalities in any part of her body, she finally had time to pay attention to its condition.
“How are you feeling?” After getting dressed again, she sat down in a position that happened to be facing the mirror. She observed the reaction of the mycelia and asked nonchalantly, “Has the virus been completely cleared?”
“Yeah, it should be fine,” Xiao Ming paused. “And…”
“What?” she asked.
“Cheng Ming,” it often called her by her full name, but this time, in its slowed-down tone, there was a rare solemnity.
It asked her, “Do you want to see your mother?”
Each word was clear and common, but together, they formed an almost incomprehensible sentence.
Cheng Ming was stunned. The hand that had been casually fiddling with the bedsheet suddenly tightened, wrinkling the fabric.
“…What do you mean?”
“Do you still remember what your mother looks like?” it said, like a witch in a fairy tale who tempted girls with the promise of fulfilling their beautiful wishes, and guided her in a low voice, “Imagine her appearance, and close your eyes.”
She should have asked something more, but at this moment, she seemed to have a premonition. Her heart suddenly lost its rhythm, and she obediently closed her eyes.
The bright light faded, and along with the clamor of the night outside the window, bizarre patches of images overlapped before her eyes. She pieced together and outlined her mother’s face in her memory, from blurry to clear.
Until she heard a “okay.”
She opened her eyes, dazed and lost in thought.
She stared motionlessly at the mirror, seeing the most familiar yet most strange, the most yearned for yet the most timidly approached face. She stared fixedly, not daring to blink, not daring to breathe, and suddenly wanted to cry.
“Why…” she murmured.
Xiao Ming explained softly, “You have her genes. No one in this world is closer to her than you.”
Cheng Ming understood. Was this the ability of that mermaid monster? But she had clearly only killed it, not devoured it… no, this was solid proof that Xiao Ming was also a fish monster…
It seemed that every crisis could stimulate a new ability in it.
“I guess she would say to you…”
The “her” in the mirror’s eyes shifted, and she stared deeply at the her outside the mirror, as if she had crossed time and space, just to smile and say to her—
“Baby, Happy New Year.”
Cheng Ming blinked, and tears slid down. As they passed her temples, they were gently wiped away by the mycelia.
“What have you been watching?” After a long time, she broke into a smile through her tears. “Sometimes it really makes people feel that you’re like an AI. Whatever you’re fed, you can become.”
“This is called learning, not copying. You also started to understand this world by following Cheng Ran,” Xiao Ming did not admit it. “It just means that my learning ability is strong.”
“Oh…” Cheng Ming dragged out her tone, teasing it, “In that case, are you willing to call me ‘Mom’?”
“…”
Xiao Ming was concise, “No.”
“Just say it once.”
“No.”
Her tears had not yet dried, and her eyes were bright and shining as she held back her laughter, with a look of regret.
Sigh, this really wasn’t like an AI. It had its own temper.
…
“Cheng Ming! Here, here!”
In a narrow alley, Cheng Ming turned her head and saw a person waving at her from under a half-raised roller shutter door. They were tall and thin, wearing a big red scarf, and grinning, exuding a festive atmosphere from head to toe.
It was the fourth day of the new year, and the two of them had finally found some free time to have dinner together, old classmates who hadn’t seen each other for many years.
They hadn’t yet returned to work after the new year. The coastal area was originally sparsely populated, and most of the shops were closed.
Following the location given by the other, she had found this desolate alley and quiet residential area. Cheng Ming had thought that the navigation software had once again lived up to its reputation and failed her trust.
Han Xuhua pushed hard, and the iron roller shutter was completely rolled up, revealing a glass door with the words “Welcome” on it.
The interior was unexpectedly a different world. The shop was not small, and the wooden tables, chairs, and benches were neatly arranged. The front desk, back kitchen, and condiment station were all complete, and the strong aroma of hot pot ingredients rolled out.
“This is my second aunt’s shop,” she introduced.
This news was revealed unexpectedly.
Following Han Xuhua in, it was too late to back out. Seeing the smiling woman who came up to greet them from the inner room, Cheng Ming’s expression froze, and she was a little nervous. “Hello, Auntie.”
“Sit, sit!” The latter greeted her warmly.
While the other was turning around, she couldn’t help but shoot Han Xuhua a sidelong glance, silently blaming her for not making it clear beforehand.
Who would come to someone’s house for dinner empty-handed just a few days before the New Year.
Her second aunt took the menu and handed it over. She seemed to have seen the “sword fight” over here and said with a smile, “Don’t treat it as a relative’s house. Just like outside, you have to pay after you eat.”
Taking the menu, Han Xuhua, who was rolling up her sleeves and preparing to go all out, suddenly looked up, “Auntie, aren’t you saying it backwards?”
Pfft, this…
The effect was very good, and Cheng Ming also laughed, “Okay.”
