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Kapitel 26

"But these two things look a little different. Are you sure this is Tai Sui?" I asked, comparing the contents of the two boxes.

"Well, Heller International has a long-term project researching *Tai Sui*, with a dedicated laboratory and research group. Although I'm not a member, I have two friends working on this project, so I know a bit about it. Almost no two *Tai Sui* are exactly alike; their appearance, texture, size, and color will all differ. However, their composition is similar, slightly different from the cellular composition of ordinary organisms, somewhere between protozoa and fungi. Some experts believe it's a combination of slimy bacteria, while our research group tends to view it as a single organism. In short, it's not an exaggeration to say we only have a superficial understanding of this organism. Actually, *Tai Sui* is a general term; perhaps in the future, as research progresses, we'll further subdivide it into different categories."

“You guys actually specialize in researching this kind of thing…” I glanced at Guo Dong, who looked thoughtful.

Rembrandt's belongings included a type of rare fungus called "Tai Sui," and Heller International has a project specifically researching Tai Sui. This connection can lead to many speculations.

Could it be that he brought these two items into Xinjingyuan? Why would he bring such things in?

"Miss He, do you know what this means?" Guo Dong closed the lids of the two boxes, each with a label on it.

The label in front of He Xi was written with "C-H" in ballpoint pen, while the label on the box in front of me was "B-L".

"Is this your classification method for Tai Sui?" Guo Dong asked further.

“No, I don’t understand what that means.” He Xi shook her head.

Guo Dong glanced at He Xi again, as if to confirm whether she was telling the truth.

"We currently know too little about Tai Sui to classify it."

"Could you tell us more about Tai Sui? Since Heller International has been researching it for a while, they can't have come up empty-handed, can they?" Guo Dong said.

"In ancient Chinese records, Tai Sui is said to possess mysterious power and can influence people's fate. These vague speculations are of course not credible, but our preliminary research results show that this creature does indeed have many amazing properties. Based on dissection, sampling analysis, and other methods, we are convinced that Tai Sui has very strong bioenergy. In many cases, depending on the activity level of its cells, the power it contains far exceeds that of a bear. Well, that's not a good analogy; it should be said to far exceed that of an ant."

Indeed, ants can carry food many times their own body weight, making them much stronger than bears.

"The source of Tai Sui's energy is currently unclear. How do they absorb energy from nature—light, air, or water? We've conducted some sealing experiments. After sealing for a year, the Tai Sui were taken out and were still exactly the same as when they were first placed in the sealed box, showing no signs of aging or death. If you cut a Tai Sui or cut off a piece of it, it will heal quickly. It heals a little faster with water and soil, but it will still repair the wound even without them. That's why, in legends, Tai Sui flesh is inexhaustible. And under suitable conditions, Tai Sui will continue to grow."

"This rapid recovery ultimately comes down to energy. A large amount of energy enables cells to multiply rapidly. However, the Tai Sui does not seem to rely much on external energy. Even after the sealed experiment, the Tai Sui can quickly repair the wound. A friend of mine speculated that the Tai Sui may be able to generate energy on its own, or at least have an emergency energy production mechanism when external energy is unavailable, simulating the effect of nuclear fission at the level of biological macromolecules."

He is currently conducting related experiments, but hasn't made much progress yet.

I couldn't help but look at those two large lumps of flesh again, finding it hard to believe that such a strange and disgusting thing could actually be a creature containing such great energy.

"In fact, the biggest problem that has been troubling researchers is how such a large amount of bioenergy can appear in an organism of this form. We don't know if the Tai Sui can feel anything, and cutting it seems to have no effect. Such a clump cannot move, so why do they need to store so much energy in their bodies? Is it just to make it easier to grow back after a part of it is cut off? From the perspective of biological evolution, this makes no sense at all."

"Could they be capable of thinking? Isn't it said that mental work consumes more energy than physical work?" the expert said, stroking his chin as if deep in thought.

He Xi remained unmoved by the expert's showmanship, replying in the same tone: "The entire body of the Tai Sui is almost the same; no part of it has a structure like the brain. As for whether a brainless creature can think, that's a topic for fantasy novelists, not something researchers should waste their energy on."

Guo Dong glared at Da Ren, but I think that since he brought this subordinate out, he should be prepared for this.

I searched my memory and asked, "I remember that Tai Sui is also called 'visual flesh' because someone once discovered that Tai Sui has eyes or eye-like organs on its body. Are the Tai Sui you collected for research all like these two, just a lump of flesh?"

"The shapes differ, but none of them have been found to have structures that can be called organs. I know what you're talking about. The description of the 'Shirou' in the Classic of Mountains and Seas is that it is shaped like a cow's liver and has two eyes. There was a famous scholar in the Tang Dynasty named Yu Shinan. In his 'Cj. Bitang Shuchao', he recorded a piece of Tai Sui that he saw. It had no eyes, but it had feet, and there were thirty feet, and it also had arms. These are all records from ancient people. They were limited by their level of understanding, and such records have a high error rate."

I shook my head: "Don't easily dismiss the records of our predecessors. Do you think it's possible that the abnormally active cells in the Tai Sui's body could be seen as having enormous internal power, which might cause the Tai Sui to mutate and develop structures capable of using this energy over time, such as eyes or hands and feet?"

"Such drastic changes can occur in the lifetime of a living organism?" He Xi smiled. "No matter how strong the internal and external factors are, this is unimaginable. Besides, this does not explain the necessity for Tai Sui to possess enormous biological energy. Is it just to allow it to change into a new form later? You don't believe there is a creator, do you? Biological evolution does not have a pre-determined purpose, unless it is man-made, like a computer that has reserved interfaces."

Everyone was shocked, even He Xi herself frowned.

Unless it's man-made?

Are they organisms created intentionally?

"But what if it's not evolutionary mutation, but just natural growth?"

Guo Dong frowned as he looked at Zhen Daren, who was giving him a headache.

"Growing naturally?"

"Yes, if the Tai Sui can live for a very long time, like ten thousand years, then it might just be a lump of flesh in its infancy. In order to continue growing, it would of course need energy. Once it grows to a certain size, it will have eyes, hands and feet."

"Then how can some have eyes but no feet, and some have feet but no eyes?" Guo Dong countered.

“This could also be a stage of growth, just like the first few weeks of a human embryo, which has a tail, but as it continues to grow in the mother’s body, the tail disappears.” I answered the question on behalf of the expert, but I couldn’t help but think of the strange embryo-like object inside He Xi’s body, and my heart sank.

“A very imaginative hypothesis.” He Xi nodded.

Guo Dong glanced at Zhen Daren and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

“Look, look, I told you I have an irreplaceable advantage in coming to the Special Affairs Department, right? Imagination, imagination! Hehe, hehe…” The expert’s smug and unrestrained laughter immediately forced Guo Dong’s smile back.

An ancient life form, a nascent Tai Sui? In such a vast world, this is not impossible.

I looked at the creature in the box and thought.

He Xi put the Tai Sui back in the box, and Zhen Daren immediately took it out to play with it again.

“Rembrandt came directly to Shanghai from Geneva, so he brought Tai Sui with him. Is he related to the Tai Sui research project?” Guo Dong asked He Xi.

He Xi shook her head.

"Such a heavy thing, it wouldn't have been brought around for no reason, would it? Maybe Rembrandt knew some special function of the Tai Sui, and this function was related to his purpose in coming to Shanghai?" another detective speculated.

"The Fan virus?" He Xi shook her head. "You're making too many connections."

“To work in their line of work, you have to be able to make wild guesses. Let me add that there’s another possibility: Rembrandt didn’t bring these Tai Sui with him when he went to Xinjingyuan,” I said.

"Did he find the Tai Sui in Xin Jing Yuan?" Guo Dong shook his head slightly. These speculations all failed to provide a truly effective starting point.

"This tumor looks disgusting no matter how you look at it, like the heart of an ogre." Zhen Daren put the Tai Sui back in the box and started studying the label again.

"Hmm, I don't know what CH means. BL? Does it mean gay men...?"

"What did you say?" He Xi immediately turned her head and asked.

"Uh, uh, BL, it's BOY LOVE, that's..." the expert stammered, grinning.

"Not BL, Ogre's Heart, Heart?"

I glanced at the Tai Sui and said, "It does look quite like a heart. Didn't you think these two things looked like internal organs at first glance?"

He Xi stared at the Tai Sui labeled BL and suddenly said, "Could you take this Tai Sui out?"

"I'll do it, I'll do it," Zhen Daren said, taking out the large Tai Sui and placing it on the ground.

This Tai Sui has an irregular shape, being flat with different shapes on the top and bottom. The top side, although slightly undulating upon close inspection, is generally flat, while the side touching the ground is noticeably curved.

He Xi looked at it for a while, then forcefully flipped the Tai Sui over so that the curved side was facing up, then stood up and took a step back.

We stood up with her. After squatting for a long time, when I stood up, I saw a flash of stars before my eyes.

“What does this look like to you?” He Xi asked.

"The mouse," the expert answered first.

"No, the previous one looked like a heart, but this one looks like..."

"Liver!" I blurted out.

Guo Dong and another detective immediately nodded. It really did look like a liver.

"To be precise, it resembles the right anterior lobe of the liver. This particular type of organ is designated BL, and the English word for liver is LIVER."

I immediately turned to look at another heart-shaped Tai Sui.

"HEART!" I murmured to myself, but Guo Dong said it out loud in an almost sighing tone.

A bold hypothesis flashed through my mind.

“These Tai Sui might be the ones Rembrandt discovered in Xinjingyuan.” I said, glancing at Guo Dong and the others before finally fixing my gaze on He Xi’s face.

"Guo Dong, you may not be very familiar with the symptoms of Fan syndrome, but when those people die, aren't their internal organs much larger than normal?"

"You mean?" He Xi was startled by my thought.

"Fan syndrome has turned some people's internal organs into giant fungus!" Zhen Daren said loudly, his eyes wide.

"No matter how surprised you are, this is the most reasonable hypothesis to date for explaining the origin of these Tai Sui. The liver is numbered BL, and the heart is numbered CH, which means there should be a Tai Sui whose number starts with the letter A!" I said, stating my thoughts in one breath.

B is the liver, C is the heart, so what is A? The kidneys? The stomach?

“It sounds incredible, but, but…” He Xi frowned, bent down and picked up the Tai Sui that looked like a heart, and turned it over.

"There really is one! I didn't notice it just now," He Xi exclaimed.

"What?" I leaned closer to look.

The spot He Xi was pointing to had a faint yellowish ring around it, which was almost invisible if you weren't paying attention.

“This is the pulmonary artery, and here is the pulmonary vein.” He Xi turned the Tai Sui over. “Look, the inferior vena cava. The location is perfect.”

"It really is a heart." My deduction was confirmed, but I still couldn't help but be shocked and horrified.

"Could this just be hardened internal organs after disease, and not some kind of Tai Sui?" Guo Dong asked.

In any case, Rembrandt's collection of diseased internal organ samples is more plausible than that of the Tai Sui.

"Do you have a knife?" He Xi asked.

The expert ran out and quickly came back in with a small knife.

He Xi took the knife and forcefully cut into one corner of the liver-shaped Tai Sui.

She struggled to cut it, and it took her a long time to cut off a small piece.

No matter how you look at the cut area, it has no connection to human tissue.

The inside is lighter in color than the outside, it's a yellowish-brown, and it has a lot of slime. It looks more like fungus than meat.

I've read some reports about Tai Sui (a type of rare fungus), and the way it's cut down really does resemble Tai Sui.

He Xi handed the small piece she had cut off to Guo Dong and said, "The inside looks very similar to the Tai Sui I've seen before. It's hard to imagine that this was originally liver tissue. If you want to confirm further, wait another day and see. If there are signs of recovery, then we can say that whatever this thing was before, it is now a Tai Sui."

"Take it back for testing," Guo Dong said, handing the slide to the thin detective.

He smiled at us and said, "I doubt we'll get any results from the tests. figuring out how this thing transformed from internal organs into its current form is going to be very difficult. Our primary task now is to find the first…… um, the Tai Sui. Where did it go? I think it might not be in this building anymore." Not here? "Rembrandt wouldn't have destroyed or discarded Tai Sui A. He put these two Tai Sui here, so there's even less reason for Tai Sui A to be hidden. Therefore, Tai Sui A must be in someone else's hands now. Rembrandt and everyone on the medical team are meeting for the first time—of course, we'll investigate further to confirm this. He only knows one person in Xinjingyuan." At this point, Guo Dong smiled kindly at He Xi. "I believe he didn't give the first Tai Sui to Miss He. So there are only two possibilities: one, Rembrandt gave Tai Sui A to someone living in the Xinjingyuan community; two, it has already been quietly transported out of Xinjingyuan."

"Transported out of Xinjingyuan?" I shook my head and said, "The entry and exit here are strictly controlled, how could he have transported it out?"

“I think your second guess is more likely. If we want to study this strangely formed Tai Sui, we have to move it out of the area. But the checks at the entrance here are really strict…” He Xi said thoughtfully.

"Li Ding, go and conduct a brief investigation into Rembrandt's actions during this period," Guo Dong said to the thin detective.

"Okay." Li Ding nodded and quickly walked out of the office.

The expert became extremely interested in the Tai Sui (a type of rare fungus), lying on the ground studying it intently. Guo Dong took out a cigarette, then realized he couldn't smoke it because of the hood, chuckled self-deprecatingly, and put it back. It seems that this outwardly calm veteran of the Special Affairs Division was quite emotionally turbulent when encountering a "special case" for the first time.

"I've seen that transcript. What do you think of what Rembrandt and you said?" Guo Dong asked me.

“Before we came here, He Xi and I were discussing this matter. Although Rembrandt has confessed to his cooperation with the Dagger organization and the theft of Cheng Gen’s internal organs, he may be hiding more.”

Guo Dong nodded: "That's what we think too. And the investigation into this thing," he pointed to the Tai Sui on the ground, "will tell us whether the outbreak of Fan's disease in Xinjingyuan was a random, isolated event."

I paused for a moment, then understood what Guo Dong meant. He's a veteran detective; I hadn't even considered that.