Heart Dust

Chapter 3

Curiosity, coupled with coercion and enticement, made all members of 406 eagerly anticipate this course.

The first theoretical class was taught by Professor Lan Tianming, the head of the teaching and research office, in the large lecture hall. The hall was packed with more than two hundred students from the entire department.

Professor Lan had meticulously combed his hair—a few gray strands mixed in with his black hair. He wore a light gray suit and a checkered tie, exuding a scholarly air. It was said he had studied at Cornell Medical College, an Ivy League school, and his Mandarin was interspersed with numerous English words, which shocked and excited the new recruits. Professor Lan said in Mandarin with a Sichuan accent, "From now on, I'll be using English for over 60% of my classes. By next semester, I'll aim for all-English instruction." A collective gasp of amazement filled the large classroom of two hundred people. Yan Hao thought to himself, "Thank goodness I'm not one of the Four Great Constables, otherwise, what would become of me?" Shen Zihan, sitting next to Yan Hao, muttered to himself, "That damn English!"

The first lecture was just an introduction. After giving an overview of the nine major systems of the human body, and talking about the importance of anatomy and learning methods, Professor Lan waved his hand and said that it was time for free discussion. Everyone could ask questions freely, and he would answer them all.

There was a commotion in the classroom, probably because the freshmen hadn't yet adjusted to this "free discuss" teaching method at university. After a few whispers, surprisingly, no one raised their hand.

A moment of silence fell over the classroom. Professor Lan stood gracefully on the podium, his fists clenched, and smiled as he surveyed the class.

Finally, a boy with a center-parted hairstyle stood up and stammered, asking Professor Lan if there was a lot of memorization required in anatomy. He said he was a science student and was not good at memorizing things.

Professor Lan cleared his throat and replied, "That's a very good question. For the study of anatomy, memory is certainly necessary, but there's absolutely no need for rote memorization. Anatomy is a morphological discipline, and in terms of memorization, it's much easier than memorizing physiology and biochemistry in the future. With wall charts, specimens, and even 3D computer displays, everyone will naturally understand at a glance."

Professor Lan seems to have a good ability to calm people down; most of the tense expressions on everyone's faces have relaxed.

Then a short girl stood up, blushing, and said in a voice as thin as a mosquito's buzz, "Teacher Lan, I'm very timid. I heard that anatomy requires us to handle dead people, is that right?"

Professor Lan smiled slightly and said, "You mean a corpse? Of course! How can you understand the human body without specimens? Don't be afraid, the living are much scarier than the dead in this world."

Professor Lan's last philosophical and humorous remark elicited a knowing laugh from the lecture hall.

The girl was too embarrassed to sit down. Yan Hao, however, suddenly thought of the third ironclad rule: the living are more terrifying than the dead? Yes, in some ways, that's true. Look at world history—how many times have humans killed each other? Auschwitz alone killed over a million!

"But what if the dead are more than just dead people?"

Yan Hao was lost in thought when, unexpectedly, the last question that came to mind slipped out of his mouth.

Shen Zihan, sitting in the front row, turned around and winked at him with a mischievous grin. Yan Hao's face flushed instantly, and he realized that what he had just said was too impulsive and inappropriate.

Professor Lan clearly hadn't heard what Yan Hao had just shouted. He said, "That student—could you repeat the question?"

Yan Hao suddenly didn't know what to say, but Shen Zihan said loudly, "Teacher, he asked, what if a dead person is more than just a dead person?"

A burst of laughter erupted in the classroom.

Professor Lan was also stunned and said, "If a dead person is not a dead person, then he is a living dead person, such as what we often call a vegetative state person."

Shen Zihan actually took it seriously and responded to the professor's question: "Teacher, do humans have souls?"

Professor Lan clearly didn't want to dwell on this issue any longer. He waved his hand and smiled, saying, "I suggest you take philosophy and psychology courses; perhaps you'll find the answer there. As for anatomy, I only believe what I see."

The students in the classroom were clearly very interested in the topic, and they began to whisper among themselves. Yan Hao could only hear Professor Lan's words, "Seeing is believing," echoing in his ears.

Seeing is believing. Yes, seeing is believing. At that moment, Yan Hao seemed to have made up his mind.

At noon in the dormitory, no one seemed to be in the mood for a nap. Shen Zihan, in particular, was still basking in the pleasure of causing trouble that morning, enthusiastically discussing things like the pineal gland, the sixth sense, and near-death experiences with Alien Boy. Liao Guangzhi, who had started doing laundry, was later drawn into their conversation and even vividly recounted several ghost stories from his rural hometown. Yan Hao was relatively quiet, lying on his bed listening to his MP3 player, but seemingly paying attention to their discussion.

In the end, they were all drawn to one of Liao Guangzhi's stories.

Liao Guangzhi said that a strange thing happened when his grandmother passed away last year. His grandmother had already been placed in the coffin, but on the eve of the funeral when the coffin was to be sealed, Liao Guangzhi's mother dreamed that the old woman told her she still had two hundred yuan on her person that she hadn't taken out. When Liao Guangzhi's mother woke up, she found it strange and actually opened the coffin again to check—and indeed, there was two hundred yuan in the old woman's inner pocket. It was money the old woman had left behind when she was making her own burial clothes.

The story left everyone looking at each other in disbelief. Seeing their skepticism, Liao Guangzhi swore that he had personally participated in the entire incident and that there was absolutely no falsehood in it. He added that if there was even the slightest inaccuracy, he would be willing to have a child born without an anus.

The alien said, "Boss, you definitely have to prepare to work in the proctology department in the future. Even if you can't get in through other channels, you can still help him get in through connections. Right?" The alien's Cantonese-accented Mandarin made Yan Hao and Shen Zihan burst into laughter. Liao Guangzhi pouted in annoyance and went to wash his own clothes.

Yan Hao grew up in a family of doctors, both of whom were government officials. From a young age, he was raised with atheistic beliefs. But Wang Yanyan's third ironclad rule kept him awake at night, haunted by his thoughts. Liao Guangzhi's experience at noon today also left him with indescribable feelings. Was it fear, doubt, or contradiction? He couldn't say. He only felt his mind was in turmoil, as if some unseen force was drawing him in. Just like his coming to this medical university—it wasn't his wish, but he had no choice.

These wild thoughts completely shattered Yan Hao's desire to live like a pig.

That noon, he couldn't sleep anymore. He simply went to the balcony and looked at the Department of Basic Medical Sciences building standing in the distance in the thin mist of early autumn, which looked somewhat eerie and mysterious.

The season of Frost's Descent had passed. A gust of biting cold wind made Yan Hao shiver involuntarily.

The first systemic anatomy practical class was scheduled after two overview sessions on the human musculoskeletal system.

Yan Hao and Shen Zihan both found anatomy too difficult to learn; even a single bone had so many points to remember. And the human body has 206 bones. Complex structures like the skull—the cavities inside the skull such as the sphenoid sinus, ethmoid sinus, and maxillary sinus—were enough to give them a headache. Actually, reading books was completely useless; the illustrations were all two-dimensional, and the colors were all black and white, making them even more daunting.

It seems that you really can't do without specimens!

The teacher's lectures didn't offer much room for elaboration; he basically just read from the textbook. After Professor Lan finished the introductory section, he disappeared without a trace. Rumor had it that he was a doctoral supervisor and that his undergraduate lectures were merely symbolic.

From any perspective, Yan Hao was eager to enter that mysterious place as soon as possible.

The Department of Anatomy at the medical university is located on the ground floor of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences building.

This is a seven-story building that has existed since the mid-1980s. The exterior walls are still painted with ordinary paint, and the windows are wooden frames.

Upon entering the building, there is a small lobby with two sliding iron gates on each side. The one on the left leads to the anatomy classroom, laboratory, and specimen preparation room; the one on the right leads to the teachers' offices.

After entering through the door on the left, there is a high threshold. Stepping through it, you enter a long corridor.

Along one side of the corridor were four large classrooms arranged in a row, each containing six long wooden tables. Beneath the tables were large drawers, mostly filled with various skeletal specimens: skulls, femurs, ribs, tibias, radius, and so on. However, they were clearly not from the same cadaver, and their ages varied. Many bones were damaged due to their age, exposing the porous, spongy bone inside. A blackboard at the front of the classrooms was used for demonstrations, and various charts were displayed around the perimeter.

On the other side of the corridor were three large rooms, which served as specimen rooms. Each room had glass jars around the perimeter containing various human organs preserved in formalin. From brain tissue to undeveloped fetuses, everything was there. In the center of each specimen room were three dissection tables where prepared cadaver specimens were placed. Some of these brownish-red specimens had been examined by several generations of students, becoming worn and indistinct. Many girls, after seeing the specimens for the first time, couldn't eat for two or three days and even vomited repeatedly.

But they are, after all, human specimens, so whenever you see them, they possess a certain intimidating power. Beneath the floor of these specimen rooms are several pools of cadavers, containing bodies being fixed and awaiting use. Unlike the anatomy classroom across the street, the smell of formalin here is much stronger.

Further down the corridor, next to the specimen laboratory, is the specimen preparation room. Students are not allowed here; only anatomical technicians prepare and process cadaver specimens here.

At the end of the corridor was another door leading to a secluded courtyard where discarded corpses and disposed waste were burned and destroyed. Those who had been inside said that the most gruesome and terrifying place was inside, with countless corpses reduced to charred remains or deformed. However, because the courtyard's gate remained tightly shut, it was all just a legend among the students.

Yan Hao still remembers the excitement they felt when they first put on their brand-new white lab coats and wore round hats that looked like those of chefs.

After dressing neatly, Shen Zihan posed in front of the bathroom mirror for over a dozen times, indulging in self-admiration for a full twenty minutes before reluctantly letting go of the alien who was in a hurry to relieve himself. Even Yan Hao, who had no interest in medicine, became refined and dignified after putting on this outfit.

After Liao Guangzhi finished dressing, they finally found someone to vent their inexplicable excitement on. It was simply because Guangzhi looked really...unusual—he was already dark-skinned, and with the snow-white coat on top, he looked exactly like a butcher at a meat stall in a market.

Yan Hao and Shen Zihan deliberately strolled up to Liao Guangzhi. Yan Hao, speaking in Sichuan dialect, asked, "Boss, how much is this meat?" Shen Zihan casually pinched Guangzhi's butt hard and replied in fluent Northeastern dialect, "Oh, this pork belly is pretty good, how about four yuan and fifty cents?"

Guangzhi was an honest man. He was stunned at first, but after listening for a while, he realized that the two boys were mocking and making fun of him. He grabbed a broom from the corner of the wall and swept it wildly, and dormitory 406 immediately became as noisy as if a pot had been boiled over.

My first anatomy lab class was on a sunny afternoon.

When Yan Hao and his group of four arrived at the entrance of the Basic Medical Sciences department, a large crowd had already gathered. The sheer white expanse was quite a sight. The bustling scene and the bright sunlight left Yan Hao somewhat disappointed. Even if there were ghosts here, they should have been too intimidated to utter a sound by this massive group.

As the crowd prepared to cross the threshold, Yan Hao took a deep breath, the cold, damp air and the pungent smell of formaldehyde hitting him. Even in broad daylight, the corridor inside the threshold was still lit. Large white banners with red lettering reading "No Loud Talking" and "Keep Clean and Hygienic" hung on both sides of the corridor, starkly glaring. This peculiar smell and atmosphere quieted the freshmen who had been playing around outside. Even Shen Zihan kept his head down, silent.

On the left side of the corridor, all the anatomy classrooms, numbered one through four, had their doors open. Yan Hao and Shen Zihan were both assigned to classroom number four, the innermost one. Directly opposite that classroom was the specimen preparation room.

In medical school, theoretical courses are taught by professors and lecturers, while lab courses are taught by lab technicians, lab assistants, and junior teaching assistants. With four classrooms, there are only four teachers teaching simultaneously. Each classroom has fewer than thirty students.

The instructor for Yan Hao and Shen Zihan was none other than Zheng Dazhi, a senior technician. He paced back and forth, surveying these newcomers with a condescending gaze. For Teacher Zheng, the content to be taught was already crystal clear. While he wouldn't say he had reached a state of consummate skill, his ability to deliver the lesson seamlessly and fluently was undeniable. The so-called advance lesson preparation and group lesson planning were merely a formality to appease the school's teaching evaluations and inspections.

In recent years, every time Zheng Dazhi looks at the young and energetic faces of these freshmen, a sense of sadness wells up in his heart. The school is like an iron camp with ever-changing soldiers, teaching the same courses to people of different eras year after year. Teacher Zheng Dazhi feels that he is aging exceptionally fast.

The anatomy practicum focused on hands-on practice, with little theoretical instruction. After taking attendance, Professor Zheng Dazhi closed the door and prepared to begin the lesson. This class involved identifying the structure and characteristics of the human skeleton using specimens. Besides a complete skeleton strung together with wire beside him, each table was set with the skeletal specimens to be studied in the lesson. They were piled haphazardly together, like small hills, gleaming with a cold, bluish-gray sheen in the sunlight.

Shen Zihan curiously touched a thick, long, yellowish femur with one finger and whispered to Yan Hao, "These are all real! Just like the ones we have!" Yan Hao rolled his eyes at him and said, "Nonsense! Maybe they're your ancestor's."

Zheng Dazhi cleared his throat and coughed, and the two men quieted down.

The twenty-minute theoretical instruction session ended quickly. Zheng Dazhi instructed the students to carefully identify the specimens using the textbook and wall charts, emphasizing that specimen identification would also be assessed and the score would be included in the total grade.

Yan Hao sat at the last row of tables by the window, opposite Shen Zihan, and to his right next to Ren Xuefei, the class's newly elected academic representative. In the first semester of university, class officers were generally appointed by the counselor—that girl deservedly earned the position based on her top score in the entire department on the college entrance exam.

Because of her fairly attractive appearance, Ren Xuefei had already caught the eye of many boys, who considered her a potential future partner. She and Yan Hao were both from Sichuan, and on the first day of school, she started helping the counselor with student registration and other tasks. Therefore, she was the first classmate Yan Hao met. After learning that Ren Xuefei was from the same hometown, Yan Hao liked to strike up a conversation with her whenever he had the chance.

Seeing her calmly examining a human skull, Yan Hao asked with interest, "Aren't you afraid? I don't feel very comfortable in here!"

Ren Xuefei didn't turn her head, staring at the specimen as she answered Yan Hao in a Sichuan accent, "What's there to be afraid of?"

Seeing Yan Hao and Ren Xuefei exchanging pleasantries, Shen Zihan added fuel to the fire by joking, saying, "Haozi is most afraid of mice in the dormitory. He'd tremble at the sight of a dead person."

Ren Xuefei chuckled and said, "And you call yourself a boy!"

Seeing that Shen Zihan was deliberately defaming him, and then being rebuked by Ren Xuefei, Yan Hao's face turned red and white. He could only retort casually, "Who said I'm afraid? I'm the famously bold Yan Hao."

Unexpectedly, upon hearing his words, Ren Xuefei turned her head and asked with a challenging smile, "Do you dare touch those corpses over there?" Yan Hao knew that "over there" Ren Xuefei referred to was the specimen preparation room and specimen laboratory on the right side of the corridor. His blood boiled, and he straightened his neck, saying, "Of course I dare! It's a piece of cake!"

Shen Zihan was yelling and fanning the flames, saying, "Then you can practice in a bit. You're not a man if you don't touch me."

Yan Hao snorted, striking a pose of a composed martyr: "Fine, wait for me after class! If I touch it, you'll have to treat me to twice-cooked pork, you big idiot."

He has never left this place.

He has been waiting for so many years.

Silently, steadfastly, and sometimes with a sigh of regret, these sighs echoed along the long corridor, mingling with the dim light.

Only in the dead of night could he boldly gaze upon this material world, the world he had once grown weary of. He could have left this place of right and wrong much sooner, but he only had one chance to finish what he hadn't yet accomplished.

There's only one chance. The possibility of getting the opportunity is extremely slim.

It is time, even necessary, to take some measures.

Despair gnawed at his heart like insects every day. And if there were no heartache, why would he cling to it so much?

All he possessed was a heart.

He sighed softly, a sigh as faint as the wind, which quickly melted away in the sunlight.

get out of class ended, and the students scattered like birds. Nobody wanted to stay in this awful place for even a minute longer.

The anatomy classroom quickly returned to its usual quiet, with countless bone specimens still scattered haphazardly on the tables.

The setting sun was like blood. Tiny rays of sunlight gradually retreated from the anatomy classroom. Finally, only three long, drawn-out shadows remained.

Yan Hao. Shen Zihan. And Ren Xuefei. They pretended they still had several specimens to examine and deliberately lingered there, not wanting to leave.

Coincidentally, the Department of Basic Medical Sciences was holding a faculty and staff meeting this afternoon, and none of the teachers showed up. Only a chubby female lab technician was left to clear the room. She leaned in and glanced into the classroom where Yan Hao and the others were, and said to them, "Hurry up and make sure the last one to leave locks the door." Then the only sound of hurried footsteps faded away.

For some reason, Yan Hao suddenly shivered.

Silence, a deathly silence. The skeleton beside the podium stood indifferently. Its two empty, deep-set eyes exuded an indescribable evil and ferocity.

Shen Zihan patted Yan Hao on the shoulder: "Brother, it's time for you to have your first intimate encounter."

Yan Hao pulled Shen Zihan's hand away, walked out, and the other two followed. At this moment, no one spoke.

Yan Hao walked all the way to the specimen laboratory near the corridor door, but the door was locked. He turned back and walked back, but the doors to specimen laboratories number two and three were also locked.

Yan Hao, on the contrary, became nervous.

The tension stemmed primarily from the fact that Shen Zihan hadn't stopped walking at all. Ever since making that somewhat absurd promise, Yan Hao hadn't stopped cursing this big, clumsy guy from Northeast China in his mind. If Ren Xuefei hadn't been there, he would have torn him to pieces.

Ren Xuefei, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly said, "Alright... stop looking. We're not allowed in there, didn't you see the sign?"

Following Ren Xuefei's finger, they all saw a warning sign hanging on the door of the specimen preparation room at the far end of the corridor: "Work Area; No Unauthorized Personnel Allowed."

Shen Zihan stood at the entrance of the specimen preparation room. Suddenly, he turned to Yan Hao and Ren Xuefei with a wicked grin, then gave the specimen preparation room door a thumbs-up. Yan Hao knew that he had no chance of escaping this trap.

Despite the tension, Yan Hao's steps never faltered. At this crucial moment, he had to face any danger, no matter what.

Unfortunately, the key issue is that Yan Hao doesn't know what what lies ahead means for him...

As soon as Yan Hao approached the door, he smelled a formaldehyde odor even stronger than in the hallway. He almost choked on it.