Desire Home

Chapter 1: Alignment of Gene Mutation

Let the times start anew, let wishes emerge. Let the history that has happened be changed, let another possibility be written.

This is my hometown, which has changed.

Thursday, April 2020, 4. Qinguo (a country founded by the most industrious people in the world), Qichuancheng, Pinglin County Senior High School.

“Although the frequency of genetic mutations is low… in a culture containing 10 cells, millions of mutations may occur due to errors in DNA replication, potentially containing thousands of variant forms of E. coli genes.”

The 2019 version of the textbook has been put into use in some provinces and cities, but Qichuan City still uses the 2004 version. Regardless of which version of the biology textbook, the key knowledge is in bold. "Although gene mutation...variation form" is not in bold, it is not considered important and is almost not part of the exam content. The teacher reads it verbatim and then turns to the left.

Mu Zhengguang stared at the textbook and was distracted for a moment. The teacher talked about the next key knowledge "Gene Recombination", but his eyes were still on the left side of the book, on the past page.

Gene mutations and variant forms seem random, disordered, and unpredictable, but in fact they are certain. There must be one or more forces guiding, planning, and constraining all of this, although no one has ever seen the source of the power. Thinking of this, a trace of fear suddenly flashed through his heart: in front of the "source", no one is special.

Mu Zhengguang couldn't describe what kind of "fear" he felt at this moment.

When he was young, he mistakenly thought that the moon was only slightly higher than the treetops, and the stars in the sky were only slightly higher than the moon. Later, he learned what "kilometers" meant and the distance between the planets and the moon.

Looking up at the sky again, the moon is still as high and as bright as before. The tree has grown taller, but it is "farther" from the moon. The stars are twinkling as usual, embellishing the vast universe. This long distance is daunting.

His fear now was deeper and emptier than it had been then.

Mu Zhengguang tore off a blue sticky note. He copied down the original words in the textbook completely, and then folded it towards the adhesive side to form a square.

11:50, first and second year high school students finish school.

The elevated corridor next to the first-year high school teaching building is connected to an abandoned laboratory building. The laboratory building is not open to the public and this road is blocked, so there is almost no one on this road during school hours.

The overhead corridor is wide and bright, with excellent lighting, suitable for viewing the scenery and enjoying the breeze.

Xu Ying, wearing a dark blue school uniform jacket that was obviously too big for her, paused here for a while.

Pinglin High School has different uniforms for boys and girls. The boys' uniform jacket has a dark blue upper part, gray-white stripes, and a purple-black lower part. The girls' jacket has the upper part of the dark blue replaced with bright red.

Xu Ying leaned half of her body on the railing, with her arms spread out, and greeted Mu Zhengguang lazily: "Classmate, long time no see."

Four days ago, Mu Zhengguang ate a kind of pork bone that looked very similar to chicken legs at Xu Yingze's house. He was curious and wanted to know the name of this kind of pork bone. He told this question to his classmate Yingze, who asked his aunt about his question. The aunt said that it was a pig's inch bone.

Four days is not long. “Long time no see” was a joke from classmate Ying.

Mu Zhengguang approached, leaning on the railing opposite the man, and the two kept a friendly distance. He threw out the note: "It's not that long, I had dinner at your house last weekend. Um... why are you here too?"

Mu Zhengguang had reasons for his doubts: your classroom is close to the stairwell, which is farther from the corridor. Logically, I should have arrived first, and you would see me after you leave the classroom, walk towards me, and then we would meet. This is the only way.

Xu Ying did not open the note immediately after receiving it. Instead, she pinched the two diagonal corners of the square note with interest and slowly turned it in front of her eyes: "Because of intuition."

Mu Zhengguang didn't think of what to say for a moment. He saw broad and lush branches extending into the corridor, and passers-by could pick them with just a lift of their hands. The sunlight passed through the gaps between the leaves and fell on the ground, like bright pieces of paper. He pulled two leaves and folded them, but not to the point of crushing them: "Aren't you curious about what's written inside?"

"Guess? I just learned this today, genetic mutation?"

Mu Zhengguang was puzzled, surprised, and praised: "You guessed it right. What a strong intuition."

Xu Ying opened the note, glanced at it, folded it according to the original fold, and returned it to him: "It's not just intuition, there's also tacit understanding. You've been writing notes to me for so many years, I have both intuition and tacit understanding. Now it's my turn to ask a question. Excuse me, how many cats are there in Figure 83-5 on page 4?"

The word "tacit understanding" is simple to say, but it is based on the understanding of each other. When the two are in the same class, the important content is written on the note. When the two are not in the same class, the unimportant content is written on the note. He will say the important things in person.

Figure 5-4, cat's coat color variation caused by gene recombination.

Mu Zhengguang was delighted: "You already know what I want to tell you. I have also thought about the question you asked me. Since when did we have such a tacit understanding? It has been a long time.

"Lu Hao and I have discussed this, and it should be five. One big cat, two kittens whose heads can be seen, and two bodies, also two kittens."

Xu Ying left the railing, walked into the shadow of the concrete pillar, and whispered, "I think there are five, too."

May 2020, 5, the beginning of summer, Tuesday.

This was a very unusual day, and anyone who witnessed it will remember it.

On the day side of the planet, at dawn, people still haven’t seen the morning glow. On the night side of the planet, the stars and the moon are lost, and the light doesn’t shine.

What’s even more terrifying is that at this time, everything is dark and the world is dark.

The sun, moon, stars, lightning, fire, fireflies, auroras, meteors, lava... even the light from street lamps and flashlights, all disappeared.

When Mu Zhengguang woke up, he couldn't see anything. He thought it was really dark today, and there was no light outside the window.

No! No, it shouldn't be this dark. And the alarm didn't go off!
Mu Zhengguang reached out and picked up the phone beside the bed. He pressed the button, but the light did not appear. Is the phone broken?
He quickly turned over and got out of bed without even putting on his shoes. He walked to the door, found the light switch button, pressed it, but there was still no light. Was there a power outage?

He fumbled around on the desk, found the desk lamp, pressed the button, but the light didn't come on.

Mu Zhengguang's heart was filled with horror. He grabbed the phone, held it quietly, then slowly walked to the window with the support of the wall and opened the curtains.

It turns out that the whole world is so dark. Is that impossible? My eyes are blind? That's impossible!
Mu Zhengguang "turned on" his phone. He remembered that there was a dialing app in the lower left corner of the screen, so he pressed it. If the phone was normal, then this interface would have call records. He randomly clicked on one of the numbers and "dial".

He waited for about half a minute. The room was dark and quiet the whole time.

Mobile phones, electric lights, desk lamps, the world is not normal, but eyes should be normal.

In the darkness and silence, Mu Zhengguang thought about many things. He sat at his desk, holding a pen, and wrote down the names of people he thought were important on the draft paper. Below the names were farewell words, and in the words were many past events.

The mysterious darkness makes the direction of life even more bizarre. It guides the thoughts of the world, and everyone thinks of the same word: "darkness".

The darkness lasted for nearly three hours from 5:05, during which all electronic devices were unusable. Some people said that if the darkness lasted longer, up to ten or twenty days, it would bring about a catastrophe.

When the "darkness" faded away, Mu Zhengguang had not finished what he wanted to write, but he no longer had the energy to continue.

Holding a pen and writing in the dark, thinking and recalling in fear, all of this consumes too much energy.

Finally, he turned the draft paper to the back of the last page, which was the end and the beginning.

He held the pen in his hand, sitting quietly, waiting until he could see the light again, until he could see the words he had written. The crooked words were randomly and scattered on the paper, conveying the most serious message and the deepest feelings. Those sentences were like farewells, prayers, eulogies, and wishes.

Mu Zhengguang felt a little embarrassed. He tore off the pages of paper, put them in the drawer and stopped looking at them. But he was still thinking about them. He even wanted to send those words to those people.

What if the world falls into darkness again?
Mu Zhengguang suddenly became alert. He quickly opened his mobile phone, found the person at the top of the page, clicked on it, and typed a few words, but he hesitated for a moment and did not send the message.

The other party sent a message, "Come to my house for dinner and go to school together."

Mu Zhengguang deleted those words and replaced them with only one word, "OK." He was filled with joy: my dear friend with the same ideals as mine, I am finally going to see you again.

Mu Zhengguang did not immediately go to his classmate's house for dinner. He called his grandparents, and then his parents. After doing these things, he opened the class group and saw two new messages, "It's been dark for so long" and "Do you still have class today?"

When he arrived at his classmate's house, the meal was not ready yet.

Xu Ying took him into the bedroom: "Classmate, do you have a note for me?"

Mu Zhengguang was stunned for a moment: "There is a note, but I didn't bring it."

If you don't bring it, you can't see it. Although you can't see the note he wrote, it's not hard to guess what he wrote. Xu Ying took a pen and wrote a sentence and showed it to him: "Have you also summarized your life?"

Mu Zhengguang stared at the piece of paper, which said "our wishes can come true". This wish seemed to have nothing to do with the summary of life? But this was not necessarily the case. Many years later, looking back, the future written at that time had become a summary of the past.

"Yes. Thank you."

A sound from the kitchen interrupted their thoughts.

When Mu Zhengguang heard his aunt calling "Yingying, it's time to eat," he subconsciously looked at Ying.

Xu Ying stood up and responded: "I know, I'm coming."

Mu Zhengguang watched his classmate walk towards the kitchen. He hesitated for a moment and followed him.

Xu Yingze was holding a large plate with scrambled eggs and tomatoes on it. Mu Zhengguang saw a large bowl of noodles on the stove, so he quickly took it up and walked out. Xu Yingze's mother Wang Hongyu took bowls and chopsticks from the cupboard and shared them with them.

The three of them sat down around the square table. Mu Zhengguang sat next to his classmate, closest to the door. His classmate's mother sat on the far left, closest to the kitchen.

Before dinner, Wang Hongyu and Mu Zhengguang exchanged a few simple pleasantries and then stopped talking. She didn't say much, but she had a lot of thoughts in her mind: You have known each other for ten years, and this is not the first time you have come to my house for dinner. But this is the first time you have come to my house for breakfast, and breakfast is not worth the money, not worth talking about.

Mu Zhengguang was very satisfied with his breakfast. The noodles were cooled and served with scrambled eggs and tomatoes. The two were mixed thoroughly and tasted rich and the temperature was just right.

After dinner, the two went to school together.

The campus is empty, as if it's a holiday.

Mu Zhengguang looked through the window at the scene in the classroom and felt a little uneasy: it was daybreak and time to go to school, but weren't there too few people coming? They could be counted on one hand!

Before entering the classroom, Xu Ying wanted to leave: "The first class has already started, and they haven't come yet. It seems that there is no class this morning. Let's go back."

Mu Zhengguang did not stop. No class this morning? What you said is shocking! Most of the students did not come, which does not mean there is no class in the morning. What if the teacher comes?
He expressed his point softly: "No hurry, wait a little longer."

"Okay, it's up to you."

"Yes. Go to the classroom first."

"Okay. Let me take your seat."

"My seat? Oh, I know." The aisle seat was given to Ying, and Mu Zhengguang sat in Lu Hao's seat, next to the window and the wall.

Xu Ying casually sighed: "Your seat is still so remote."

The seats in Class 19 of Senior 570 were arranged according to academic performance and family background. Mu Zhengguang's seat was near the window and the aisle. In the eyes of the class teacher, his academic performance was not outstanding. Among the more than 580 students in the class, he could only rank in the top 211, barely in the top . In previous years, people with his ranking could get about ~ points in the college entrance examination and could be admitted to the bottom universities.

Mu Zhengguang knew that Ying's grades were better than his and she always sat in the center of the classroom. Compared with the center, his seat was indeed far away, but he was not discouraged by it. He admitted the fact that his seat was far away: "The seats were symmetrically swapped from left to right, so it was a bit far away from the center."

Xu Ying took out her phone and put on headphones: "I won't disturb others' studies. I'll go check the news."

"Okay." Mu Zhengguang also brought his cell phone to school. If the "darkness" came again, he hoped to contact his family immediately after the "darkness" subsided, so it was necessary to bring his cell phone to school.

A few minutes later, Xu Ying pushed the phone in front of him: "News just came out. The video is not long, take a look. Here are the headphones."

Mu Zhengguang took the headphones and Xu Ying turned up the volume.

A young man stands in a flock of pigeons and makes pigeon-like sounds. The flying white pigeons follow the human's command and gather in various patterns in the air. At the end of the video, the man claims that he has acquired special language abilities and can communicate with animals.

Some people in the barrage said that they often saw this person feeding pigeons in the park, and the flock of pigeons formed a pattern, which was most likely an animal performance. They called on everyone not to believe in inexplicable language abilities.

Mu Zhengguang watched the video and had doubts: "Darkness" just retreated not long ago. Judging from the sky in the video, it was also in the morning, which should be the same time zone as us. Was it filmed today? Was it filmed just now? How did the video spread so quickly? Being able to drive thousands of pigeons, the "language ability" may not be fake. There are already very few people with super powers in the world, or people who are different from ordinary people. These people have officially entered people's sight? Where does the special language ability come from? From "Darkness"? There are too many people who have seen "Darkness", are there also many people who have gained the ability?

After the news was over, Xu Ying put her phone aside and asked, "What do you think?"

Mu Zhengguang looked at his classmates and chose his words with great care: "The story has already begun. From now on, people's instincts may be different."

Xu Ying clapped her hands lightly and said something that was not in line with her age: "This is probably a story that can change people's life and death."

Xu Yingze's conclusion is completely in line with the facts. This story has portrayed many deaths from the beginning. In the near future, there will be more plots of life and death.

The story begins, the story develops, the story ends, everything has been recorded.

At 9:05, the bell for the second class rang. The teacher didn't come and there weren't many students either. The two left the school, talked, and parted ways.

That morning, Mu Zhengguang read a lot of news.

Which hospital had a patient die, which road had a car accident, which plane crashed, which ship sank... everything on the ground, in the sky, in the water, it was all there. The scope was extremely wide and the impact was extremely profound, and at a glance it made people feel "boundless".

In addition, there are many kinds of "superpowers", such as fire control, diving, perspective, premonition... There are many kinds, and they are wonderful.

(End of this chapter)