Starting with dissecting ghost stories

At six o'clock in the morning, Shen Xing opened his eyes precisely on time.

After a quick wash, he returned to his bedroom and opened the drawer of his desk.

The petri dish wrapped in black electrical tape lay quietly in the corner, and through the transparent plastic lid, you could see the red meat strips inside curled up in a ball.

It stubbornly pointed toward the school, but the movement was very weak, like a dehydrated, dying earthworm.

The activity level is lower than last night.

It appears that time and distance outside the body are important variables affecting its activity.

After confirming that the tape was secure, Shen Xing locked the drawer again.

Until we figure out what's aggressive and what its recipe is, locking it up is the safest thing to do.

He picked up the USB drive from the table, took the DV camera, stuffed them into his briefcase, and then left the room with the bag.

The dining table was empty.

Shen Xing took out his wallet, pulled out a twenty-yuan bill, and placed it in a conspicuous spot on the corner of the table.

This is the tacit understanding between him and Shen Yuan.

Five yuan means you have to take care of your own breakfast; ten yuan means you have to take care of both breakfast and lunch; and twenty yuan means you have to eat out all day long.

At 6:15, he pushed his cart out the door.

Today's goal is to establish a control group.

If that wall in the school clinic is an "incubator," then he needs to figure out what kind of "egg" can hatch something.

Shen Xing rode his bike and circled the old town for a long time.

The small town was bustling with the lively atmosphere of everyday life in the early morning.

The newsstands along the roadside are covered with posters of F4 and TV dramas and movies, and the music stores are playing loud pop songs. You definitely won't find what you want here.

He then went to Xinhua Bookstore and browsed the art books section for a few minutes, only finding a few books on "Appreciation of World Famous Paintings" and a bunch of sketching textbooks.

Buying a single anatomical chart in this small city with one of the lowest GDP figures is as difficult as buying an imported scalpel at the market.

Shen Xing decisively gave up the idea of ​​finding the original.

He took the USB drive he had prepared in advance and went into a newly opened print shop.

"Color printing, A3 paper."

Using the boss's bulky computer, Shen Xing plugged in a USB drive and downloaded several pictures from the internet.

The first image is from "Dr. Dulp's Anatomy Lesson".

The second image is Rembrandt's "The Slaughtered Cow," the main subject of which is a dissected and hung cow carcass, in red and white.

The third image is a standard medical anatomy diagram of human muscles.

The fourth image is Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," a pure line drawing with no exposed human tissue.

These paintings are distinctly different, covering human figures, animals, and muscles. They include purely human-shaped tools that fully expose the human body and purely human-shaped art paintings that do not expose muscles at all, which can be used as control groups in the experiment.

With the hum of the printer, four sheets of A3 paper, still warm from the toner, were dispensed.

Shen Xing paid the money, stuffed the paper into his handbag, and rode his bicycle to school.

7:50, Yucai Middle School.

Shen Xing did not go directly back to the infirmary, but went first to the laboratory building opposite the administration building.

Upon arriving at the art room on the second floor, Shen Xing pushed the door open and entered.

Although it's called an art room, art classes are mostly taken over by other classes. Even when there are classes, teachers rarely bring students to the art room. It's in a semi-abandoned state, just like the computer lab used for computer classes.

The air in the art room smelled of dust.

He rummaged through the pile of junk at the back of the classroom for a while and found four discarded wooden picture frames.

The size is just right.

Shen Xing left with the picture frames, figuring he could just tell the art teacher later; after all, these frames had been there for who knows how long.

Back in the infirmary, Shen Xing began his "work".

Shen Xing lined up the four picture frames and began framing them.

Trim the edges with a utility knife, insert it into the frame, press on the back panel, and fasten the fasteners.

Ten minutes later, four new experimental samples were prepared.

He brought a ladder and hung the four paintings on that wall, arranging them in a row with the original painting.

From left to right: "The Slaughtered Cow", a diagram of human muscles, "Dr. Tulp's Anatomy Lesson", and "Vitruvian Man".

After completing all this, Shen Xing set up the DV camera, connected the power, and adjusted the focus.

The red recording indicator light is on.

To the naked eye, the wall looks like just a row of ordinary printed materials.

The DV screen was also very clean, with no noise whatsoever.

Shen Xing took out a new notebook and began to record the current time and the state of the DV footage.

The day passed unusually peacefully.

Apart from two students with abrasions and a teacher who came to get a throat lozenge, the infirmary was deserted.

Shen Xing sat at the table reading medical books, checking the DV footage every half hour.

Nothing much happened in the morning, noon, and afternoon. Apart from the changes in light that brought some different tones to the picture, the painting itself did not change at all, whether viewed through the DV camera or directly by Shen Xing.

Until 5 p.m.

As the sun set, its dim light bathed the white walls of the infirmary in a faded orange-red hue.

Shen Xing got up and closed the window.

As he passed the DV camera, his peripheral vision caught sight of the flip screen, and he stopped in his tracks.

On the screen, the originally clear still image now shows obvious noise.

Shen Xing immediately moved closer and adjusted the camera to zoom in for a close-up.

First, there's the one on the far left, "The Slaughtered Ox".

In reality, it was just a picture of a dead cow.

But on the DV screen, the dissected cow carcass was covered with a thin layer of pink noise that was barely perceptible to the naked eye.

The noise looked like a group of tiny microorganisms wriggling wildly on the red and white textured fat. If Shen Xing hadn't been observing the DV camera the whole time, he definitely wouldn't have noticed these anomalies at first glance.

Next is that diagram of human muscle anatomy.

The muscles of the entire mannequin were slightly blurred, as if this was the only part of the image that was slightly out of focus.

The Vitruvian Man on the far right remains unchanged.

Finally, Shen Xing moved the camera back to the center of the screen, showing "Dr. Tulp's Anatomy Lesson".

The flexor digitorum superficialis muscle that had been lifted by the hemostat had now turned into a glaring bright red mosaic on the screen, its jumping frequency far exceeding that of other paintings, though still not as bad as the mosaic in the DV camera footage last night.

Shen Xing straightened up, shifting his gaze from the DV camera to the row of paintings on the wall.

At least some patterns have been found.

Shen Xing picked up his pen and quickly jotted down notes in his notebook:

—The mutation has no strong connection with art or Rembrandt's paintings, and the prints are also valid.

—The core lies in the exposed flesh and blood, with no distinction between animals and humans.

—The smaller the muscle mass, the more obvious the noise in the image (it may also be more obvious closer to the center of the wall).

—It seems to have nothing to do with how long it is hung on the wall, but rather a strong correlation with the time period of "5 p.m."

Shen Xing put down his pen and looked at the screen on the DV camera again, feeling a little restless.

He looked at the painting, "The Slaughtered Ox".

If the Anatomy Class could grow a piece of flexor digitorum superficialis muscle, then could this cow be skinned into a whole piece of beef?

What about that anatomical diagram? Is it the kind that can be used to dissect a complete set of human muscle specimens?

What is the purpose of these distorted and deformed pieces of flesh that have been peeled off from electronic devices?

Is it simply biological tissue? Or some kind of mimicry monster?

If they are monsters, what is their diet?

Shen Xing looked down at the faint white scar on the back of his left hand, which was almost imperceptible.

I don't seem to have any rejection reaction to any flesh and blood sewn onto my body, so... what about these on the wall?

Shen Xing turned off the DV camera, put it away, and returned it to his handbag.

He didn't touch the paintings.

The current reaction is still in its early stages and has not yet reached the point of generating solid chunks of meat.

At least it should be able to reach the level of yesterday, where the changes in the image can be seen with the naked eye without the aid of a DV camera.

Maybe tomorrow morning, or maybe it will need to hang for a few more nights.

However, mere observation is no longer enough...

The reason I suppressed my feelings and didn't conduct the dissection experiment was because I was worried that there wouldn't be enough flesh and blood to study.

Now that it is almost certain that this flesh and blood can continue to be produced, dissection experiments or live animal experiments can be carried out ahead of schedule.

Shen Xing looked out the window.

The students on the playground had all left, and it was getting dark.

He packed his things and picked up his briefcase.

Tonight, besides dinner, there's something else important to do when I get home.

There were definitely no laboratory mice available here, let alone nude mice, so Shen Xing decided to settle for second best and go to the flower and bird market to buy some hamsters or baby rats for feeding snakes.

Shen Xing locked the door to the infirmary.

In the gradually darkening room, the figures in the paintings hanging on the wall seemed to be quietly watching his back as he walked away.