Thirteen prisons

Chapter 45 Consciousness
"What's going on?" Zhou Yuan opened his eyes.

"The dialysis machine isn't working." Lao Hu comforted him, "It's probably a machine problem."

"Probably not." Zhou Yuan knew a little better than Lao Hu, guessing that the coagulation function in his blood was too strong, which led to the poor fusion with those purifying drugs in the artificial kidney, resulting in a coagulation state?This is a characteristic of blood, so anticoagulants are added in appropriate proportions to artificial kidneys in dialysis machines.These have very strict and scientific operating procedures and ratios. Could it be that I am so unlucky?
"It's not a problem with the machine." Lu Ming's face was ugly: "The blood has coagulated at the opening of the blood vessel, and the circulation function of the instrument has failed. If the machine is turned off later, the coagulated blood will not only block the mouth of the instrument, what's more terrible is into your veins, and that would be fatal."

"What's the situation?" Zhou Yuan looked at Yan Yi puzzled.Yan Yi had also done dialysis on himself, but he also looked puzzled at this time, obviously he had never encountered such a situation.

"If you have to describe it, what is bleeding from your body is not blood, but cement." Lu Ming said with a gloomy face. The plan he formulated almost had an accident at the beginning, which made him unable to maintain his composure.

"Cement?" Zhou Yuan is completely unable to make a judgment now. He doesn't know whether this situation belongs to the category of normal medical accidents, or it is another special situation that only happened to him.

Yan Yi said: "Lu Ming's analogy is very vivid. Anticoagulants seem to have no effect on your blood. After leaving the body, it will slowly coagulate. We have added the maximum amount that human blood can withstand, and it is still not diluted. Any more doses would destroy your blood levels, and that would be dangerous."

He pointed to the dialysis machine: "I will only test the coagulated blood later."

Lu Ming frowned almost together, and asked Yan Yi: "Old Yan, has this ever happened to you?"

Yan Yi shook his head: "I have done no less than 10 times of dialysis for myself, and only once had a very slight blood coagulation phenomenon. I have never encountered Zhou Yuan's situation."

Lu Ming showed a rare sign of fatigue: "The only thing we can do is to suspend the treatment first. I have to think about it again."

Unexplainable phenomena appeared on his body again and again, and Zhou Yuan had given up hope for the so-called treatment.But even so, what happened next shocked him again.

Zhou Yuan and Lao Hu were woken up by Lu Ming in the middle of the night.

"What's the matter?" Seeing Lu Ming wearing a mask and rubber gloves with a livid face, Lao Hu first realized something was wrong.

"You come with me."

In the middle of the second floor, there was a small square table solitary, and a glass vessel was also solitary on the table at this time.

As soon as Zhou Yuan saw the contents in the glass dish, he lost all sleepiness, and cursed with trembling lips: "Fuck...this is..." At this moment, he didn't know what to say other than swearing.

There was a small mess of red vines in the glass dish, which was the red substance that had appeared on Lin Jing.

Yan Yi also stood in the house wearing a mask and gloves, beckoning Hu Dongdong not to approach, and gave him a mask.

"This is the residual clotted blood left in the dialysis machine during the day, yours." Lu Ming's voice was cold.

Those red silk threads are divided into many strands, which look like plant roots from a distance, but to Zhou Yuan, they are like a nightmare.

"Have you found any problems?" Lu Ming asked Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan shook his head, his mind is in a mess now.

Yan Yi explained: "It has a trend, all in one direction."

He was referring to the whole state of those traces.Zhou Yuan forced himself to pay more attention, and saw that those red silk threads were indeed heading in one direction collectively, just like sunflowers chasing light.

Old Hu first understood: "What's in that direction?"

"Amino acid." Lu Ming walked towards the small square table and said, "To be honest, I hope it's not what I think it is."

Only then did Zhou Yuan notice that Lu Ming was holding a needle in his hand.He carefully injected the amino acid into one side of the glass dish. After a few seconds, a shocking thing happened. The static red substance seemed to have been electrified, and at the same time it suddenly expanded a little longer, as if there was something there. Like life, "pounce" on those few drops of amino acids!
"See? Zhou Yuan, your blood is alive! It's eating those amino acids!"

"What does this mean?" Zhou Yuan's ears were buzzing, and his own voice sounded a little strange, hoarse and low and terrifying.

Lu Ming's face was ugly, but his tone was very calm: "I believe in science and believe that everything must be based on evidence. I don't want to believe this conclusion. But all these things that have happened so far are precisely what science and medical theories cannot explain. I used to think that my abilities were limited, but now I find that if those things are explained by the principle that your blood is alive, it can be completely explained."

When Lu Ming said this, he paused, as if he was waiting for Zhou Yuan to digest his words.

But Zhou Yuan was completely unable to think about it. What an absurd topic this was discussing: Is blood alive?

Even if I just think about it, I feel that this is really absurd and terrifying.

In this situation, Lao Hu still had a keen mind: "If this is the case, can we use amino acids to lure... that thing out of Zhou Yuan's body?"

Lu Ming shook his head: "It's useless."

He walked to a long table next to him, and Lao Hu and Zhou Yuan looked along, only to find that there were five or six glass dishes on that table, all of which were filled with mutated red filaments of blood without exception.He dripped the remaining amino acids in the syringe into two of the glass dishes, but this time nothing happened.

"It's a weird phenomenon. After a time or two, the amino acids stop being attractive to them. It's a wild guess, but it's the only explanation."

Lu Ming took a deep breath, and then said with difficulty: "The blood is not only alive, but also conscious, and they sense danger."

"These things are exactly as I expected. The substances in the warehouse, those on Lin Jing's body, and those on your blood arm are all the same thing. But the only difference is that the blood cells in your body are more active than them. Hundreds of times stronger!"

"Enough." Zhou Yuan interrupted Lu Ming in a state of confusion.

He has been living in the shadow of dying at any time. After going through so many things, he can't be said to have adapted, but at least he has become numb to fear.I thought that after seeing the mutation in Lin Jing and guessing what happened to Lin He, there was nothing to be afraid of.

But now Zhou Yuan realized how naive he was.At this moment, from head to toe, he suddenly felt a huge sense of terror that he had never experienced before.

Blood is alive and has its own consciousness?How is this possible? How can there be two thinking beings in one person's body?

What exactly is a human being?Could it be that the blood flowing in all human beings is actually another kind of life?Zhou Yuan shivered.

"Zhou Yuan, I had some discussions with Lu Ming before, and we also reached some consensus." Yan Yi said suddenly.

"The form of life has been studied by human beings. From biology to philosophy, and even physics, there are different interpretations of the phenomenon of life. The most basic conclusion is that life is an exchange of matter and energy with the environment, and also It is the characteristic material system of metabolism, growth and reproduction, genetic variation, and response to stimuli. From this explanation, human blood can actually be considered a kind of life, because it meets at least three of them."

"However, with the development of science, it became more and more that this definition has great limitations. Because of those few characteristics, computers in modern society can do it. Therefore, the latest conclusion, based on this theory, Another feature that no object other than a biological body can have is covered, which is consciousness."

"That is to say, only with its own independent consciousness can it be called life."

Lu Ming continued: "What is consciousness? It is actually a psychological term. To put it simply. Consciousness is actually what you and I are born with. You can say it is the soul, that it is endowed by God to all things in the world, but You can't deny that its most basic, which no one can refute, is perception."

"Any creature has the ability to perceive, and the most basic perception is to absorb nutrients. Children eat milk, horses eat grass, and lions eat meat. This is an innate instinct. This is consciousness. Speaking of which, you I am interested in things like amino acids. I guess with Yan Lao, because amino acids are the most basic substances that make up living organisms."

"But why conscious blood can coexist with you, I know you are also very strange. But this can be explained by the symbiosis theory, it is one with you. The usual work of blood is to share resources with your body, we are now puzzled The only question is whether it is conscious or not."

"From the point of view that it will be exhausted without your body, it can't survive in the outside world, but it can prolong its activity by absorbing nutrients, such as amino acids or proteins. We just added nutrients to it. Combination experiments. Obviously, under the microscope, it can be seen that your blood has an amazing fusion of amino acids, the basic substances that make up life."

Zhou Yuan suddenly felt that the long speeches of the two of them were a bit ridiculous, as if explaining them in this way would allow him to accept such absurd conclusions?But Zhou Yuan not only couldn't laugh, his voice was trembling: "So, my blood is actually a parasitic creature in my body?"

"It can be said that, but if you want to talk about parasites, your brain is the real parasite. Functionally speaking, the brain does not produce nutrients by itself. It is usually the blood that nourishes the brain. Insufficient blood supply to the brain is actually what you are talking about. The truth is, what the brain needs is not blood, but the nutrients and oxygen contained in the blood." Lu Ming nodded solemnly.

Zhou Yuan really laughed this time, and the extreme sense of absurdity made the fear disappear: "Well, I am ashamed if I say that. I have lived so long, I never thought that I am just a parasite fed by my own blood. What about you? Are you like me, ready to be driven out by your own blood at any time?"

Yan Yi sighed: "Zhou Yuan, Doctor Lu means that your blood has a special ability to perceive amino acids, and once it leaves your body, although the activity is still miraculously maintained, you can feel it." It is an instinct of life, and its reaction is more like self-defense."

"Self-defense? It almost killed me." After Zhou Yuan said this, he was surprised to find that his subconscious had actually regarded the blood as alive.He waved his hand helplessly: "Forget it, it's all speculation anyway, the key is what should we do now?"

"Communication." Lu Ming said earnestly: "If it really has independent consciousness, it will have a way to communicate. After all, our inferences are forced. Detective novels often say that one sentence, when one thing, all explanations is invalid, then the rest, no matter how incredible, may be true. We have only one choice now."

Zhou Yuan felt that Lu Ming's words made sense. No matter whether this hypothesis was too open-minded, it was just a hypothesis before strong evidence appeared. It's just that he really didn't know how to communicate with the blood in his body, which was too far-fetched Le: "Okay, how to communicate then?"

Lu Ming said: "You relax first, don't think about anything these two days."

"and then?"

"There is no such rush. You must know that what we are facing may be a new species and new life. No one knows what its consciousness is like. It's like when you suddenly see an ant, even if you Knowing that it is alive, can you communicate with it immediately? Of course not, this requires research and exploration. First establish a basic connection, amino acid is actually one. Then get its response, so that the next step of communication can be carried out. The best way now is to let it understand that you have no malicious intentions."

"Damn!" Zhou Yuan said loudly, "I'm afraid I can't do this. Now that I think of words related to blood, I can't help feeling sick!"

"Don't worry, I will help you. You know that in psychology, people's behavior is often influenced by the subconscious. All your irritability now is because you know that you may die. So the mind and body will always be in a kind of anxiety , assuming your blood is really conscious, maybe it will feel your anxiety through your body or your brain. Or I can say that your fever is a mirror image of your blood to your anxiety. It Anxious too."

Looking at Lu Ming's seriousness, Zhou Yuan felt a little funny: "How did it do it?"

"There are also countless capillaries in the brain. Anxiety in thinking will affect metabolism. Blood is your factory that manufactures and carries nutrients. It is closely related to your body. If it is conscious, how can it not feel it? So relaxation is the first priority. Take the first step to see what changes will happen to your blood. Of course, I will draw a little out every day and make a test map to observe it. This is my way of communication. "

"Fine. I'll try my best."

Zhou Yuan glanced at Lu Ming, and suddenly said: "To be honest, I suspect that you are talking so much nonsense to comfort me. But I am really not afraid now, I just feel that all this is too nonsense."

There are still many questions.For example, did this situation happen to Zhou Yuan before with Lin He and Yan Aihua?If blood is alive, which category of life does it belong to?Why does it have an effect on others?Is it through infection or something else?
Especially the last question, only by figuring it out, can we use this as a breakthrough to deduce all the previous things.

These doubts are like countless streams converging in one place, but silting up, waiting to find a breakthrough before they can flow smoothly.

Zhou Yuan was suddenly very fortunate to have these people by his side.If it were someone else, maybe he would be sent directly to the medical research institute, covered with catheters, stripped naked for physical examination every day, or even killed directly as a monster.This is not alarmist talk. People are afraid. New species often bring not new vitality, but new threats.

Lao Hu remained silent from the beginning to the end, listening to them talking about this crazy topic, but at the end he used two words very simply to evaluate the speculation put forward by Lu Ming:
"madman."

The discussion came to an end temporarily, and Lu Ming and Yan Yi continued to be busy in the laboratory.

Lao Hu has to rush back to town, the first batch of horn root ointment is about to be ready, and needs to be watched.Anyway, Zhou Yuan had nothing to do for the time being, so he offered to help as well.

At this time, the sky is already bright, and the sun in the summer morning is not hot on the body, but rather warm.After going out, Zhou Yuan looked at the small town down the mountain from afar.Today seems to be the day of the market, and the noise of people is noisy and lively. Occasionally, there are people who are cooking for lunch, and the smoke is curling from the roof.On the surrounding mountains, the green trees and vegetation are mixed with the dust from the stone factory near the town. The chaos of white and green is very ugly, but the combination of these scenes has a strong atmosphere of human fireworks.

In the villages and towns below, would the blood on those people have the same problem as me?If the blood in everyone's body would give birth to consciousness, what would this small town look like?
Looking at the scene of the small town that he thought was normal on weekdays, and thinking about the problems that only appear in these sci-fi movies, Zhou Yuan had a very weird feeling.

"Zhou Yuan, what do you think?" At this moment, Lao Hu suddenly said.

Knowing that he was referring to the matter of "blood is alive", Zhou Yuan shook his head: "I feel like a dream. But what Lu Ming said seems to make sense. Only in this way can I explain what happened to me."

After walking a few steps, Lao Hu suddenly stopped: "Have you ever thought that the most correct choice now is to go to the hospital?"

"Lu Ming and Yan Yi are both doctors, but they are helpless..."

Old Hu interrupted him: "Just because they are doctors, isn't this kind of reaction very strange? I would rather believe such a weird guess than go to the hospital. I have a bad feeling. If this continues, you and Lin Jing may be in danger .”

Zhou Yuan knew that Lao Hu was worried about himself, but he still shook his head: "I don't want to be studied as a monster by others." This kind of worry is very likely to happen.

Lao Hu suddenly asked an irrelevant question: "Lu Ming graduated from Beijing Medical University, right?"

Zhou Yuan froze for a moment before nodding: "Yes, what's the matter?"

"Then why did he choose to come back to a small place like Beiyang City?" Lao Hu seemed to be talking to himself: "You also saw the enthusiasm he had when he was researching, this kind of person should stay in a big city to be able to It’s right to give full play to your abilities and realize your own value.”

Lao Hu's words sounded reasonable, but Zhou Yuan always felt that something was wrong, as if he was suspicious of Lu Ming, so he didn't know how to answer, so he just said perfunctorily: "Everyone has his own ambition."

Hearing what he said, Lao Hu sighed, and finally said nothing.

(End of this chapter)