Коллекция Хироми - Глава 11
When Yan Hao and Shen Zihan woke up in the morning, their dark circles were particularly noticeable. This led to Liao Guangzhi and Li Yuanbin questioning them all morning, insisting that they confess what they had been up to the night before.
Of course, neither of them would tell the truth, even if they were beaten to death. Shen Zihan had just made up a story that he went to the University of Science and Technology and that one of his fellow villagers was having a birthday party.
Li Yuanbin stared with his distinctive big eyes and said, "Goodness, you guys are really having a good time. Do you want to die today? There's a specimen test coming up!"
Shen Youhan shook his head and said while brushing his teeth, "Then let's have a competition. I might not necessarily do worse than you and Xuecai Baozi."
Yan Hao's class had about 120 students. They were divided into four groups. Yan Hao and Shen Zihan's group were the first to enter the examination room. Shen Zihan was assigned to the fourth anatomy classroom, while Yan Hao was assigned to the second anatomy classroom—the one with the most skull specimens.
As Yan Hao crossed that high threshold, he was suddenly reminded of his dream from the early hours of the morning, the dream so vivid and real. For a moment, he wondered—was he in reality, or still dreaming?
With encouragement from his classmates, Yan Hao found himself unconsciously entering the Second Anatomy Teaching and Research Office.
The grotesque heads and sinister skeletons inside still stared at him with the same gaze.
Besides these specimens, there was only one invigilator and five other students in the same examination room.
Having already reviewed the material beforehand, Yan Hao handed in his paper first without much effort. He figured getting more than 15 out of 20 points would be no problem.
Another reason he came out so early was that he didn't want to stay inside for even a minute longer.
Yan Hao had barely stepped out the door when Shen Zihan followed almost immediately. He grinned at Yan Hao and raised his right hand in an "OK" gesture.
Outside the building, there was a cacophony of voices, and a sea of white-clad students stood waiting for their exams. The two of them were immediately pulled aside by Liao Guangzhi and Li Yuanbin, who hadn't yet entered the exam hall, to provide them with information.
The day after the dissection specimen exam, Yan Hao developed a persistent high fever.
That night, something very strange happened in dormitory 406.
Liao Guangzhi later recalled that on the night they finished the exam, the four of them from the dormitory had a dinner party at "Tingyuxuan" to eat "Du Po Chicken" to celebrate overcoming the difficult exam. Yan Hao wasn't in a good mood during the meal; he drank two glasses of beer and then pushed the glass aside, just silently picking at his food. Although it was a bit strange, he seemed to be eating and drinking without any problems. Back in the dormitory, he washed his feet and went to bed before ten o'clock.
After Yan Hao fell asleep, Liao Guangzhi and his two friends, fueled by alcohol, played a few more rounds of "Dou Dizhu" (a popular Chinese card game). They didn't get into bed until the apartment building lights went out at 11 p.m.
Later, Liao Guangzhi described it to Shen Zihan and Li Yuanbin: "I was sleeping soundly, hehe, when I woke up needing to pee. As soon as I opened my eyes, oh my god, I saw a dark shadow standing in front of my bed. I thought it was a thief, so I didn't make a sound, just wanted to see what it was up to. But the shadow stood there for half a minute without moving. Just as I was about to shout, it turned around and left—it was walking abnormally, with its arms outstretched and its knees not bent. Have you ever seen zombies walking in movies? It's pretty much like that—like it was groping for something. It kept walking and walking until it reached our balcony. I couldn't hold back anymore, and I shouted 'Who's there?' while rushing out with a flashlight. The person's face slowly turned around, and it was Yan Hao! His face was expressionless, his eyes were still closed, and his hair was all messy. I was scared out of my wits."
Shen Zihan and Li Yuanbin were both involved in the subsequent events. Liao Guangzhi's loud shout woke them all up. When they got to the balcony, they saw Yan Hao standing by the sink, wearing only his underwear, muttering to himself.
Liao Guangzhi was shivering from the cold and stammered, "He...he, he's sleepwalking."
Shen Zihan mustered his courage and called out, "Haozi!" Yan Hao didn't respond. The three of them could only rush over, one holding his head and the other lifting his feet, and with great effort dragged him back to the room.
After finally getting Yan Hao to sit down in the chair, Li Yuanbin said that he looked freezing cold and pulled a quilt from the bed to cover him up.
Yan Hao was still muttering to himself with his eyes closed. His expression was extremely strange, as if he were neither fully awake nor fully asleep.
Shen Zihan said, "This kid must be possessed." He ran to the sink, filled a bowl with cold water, took a mouthful, and then spat it into Yan Hao's face.
Yan Hao yelled "Ah!" and opened his eyes wide, groggily saying, "What, what are you doing?!"
"We should be asking you what you're doing!" Shen Zihan spat out the water he hadn't finished spraying and gritted his teeth at Yan Hao.
Yan Hao looked left and right and said, "You dragged me off the bed?"
"Haozi, have you had sleepwalking problems since you were little?" Liao Guangzhi asked. His expression looked as if he were talking to a stranger.
Yan Hao shook his head. After a moment of silence, he said, "Go to sleep. Sorry to bother you." Then he climbed into bed, buried his head in the pillow, and fell fast asleep again.
The remaining three exchanged glances. Li Yuanbin said, "He seems perfectly fine!" Shen Zihan said, "We'll ask that mother mouse another day." "Mother mouse" was a nickname Shen Zihan and the others had given Xiao Hui'er, but they only used it in front of Yan Hao for a bit of fun. Looking at their watches, it was already 4:15 a.m.
Nothing happened in the latter half of the night.
Shen Zihan discovered Yan Hao had a fever that morning. It was Friday. It was already 7:40, and Yan Hao was still in bed. Shen Zihan shoved his shoulder and shouted, "Haozi, aren't you coming out of the cave?" Yan Hao didn't answer, but instead turned over so his face was facing outwards.
Shen Zihan noticed a layer of fine sweat on his forehead, his lips were dry and chapped, and his face was flushed like a plateau. He touched his forehead—good heavens! It was burning hot, like a hand warmer.
Fortunately, Liao Guangzhi and Li Yuanbin hadn't left yet. The three of them hurriedly helped Yan Hao off the bed. Liao Guangzhi said he was the strongest, so he carried Yan Hao on his back and ran straight to the school hospital.
The three of them told the doctor that the onset of the illness was caused by Yan Hao sleepwalking last night, which led to him catching a cold and developing a fever.
Shen Zihan said, "You guys go to class, I'll stay here and watch over things this morning." He also reminded Alien Boy not to forget to call his mother during break.
Yan Hao continued walking down the long, dimly lit corridor. On both sides of him were all sorts of specimens and skeletons.
He could only hear the echo of his own footsteps. He could only see a white expanse of light in the distance, and it seemed as if there were people in the light.
He heard that voice he had heard before. Deep, summons-like, surging towards him like a tide. "Ce..."
The voice held a powerful magic, drawing him forward step by step.
Sometimes he felt as if his feet weren't on the floor, but floating as he moved forward.
"Who are you?" Yan Hao asked.
That familiar, breathy sound rang out again. "HA—"... "HA—"...
No, it doesn't look like breath! It's more like a word, a code. Yan Hao thought to himself as he walked.
Where are you taking me?
It was another "ha." The sound was slow and drawn-out, yet sinister and terrifying, sending chills down one's spine.
Are you saying "Heart"?
Silence reigned all around. Yan Hao saw the person in the light. His mind was becoming increasingly clear.
That person was someone he knew all too well—it was Shen Zihan!
At this moment, Shen Zihan was sitting next to Yan Hao's bed in the school hospital, taking care of him as he received an IV drip. Seeing Yan Hao struggling to open his eyes, he leaned forward and said in broken Sichuan dialect, "Damn it, you little brat, you've really put us through a lot. How could you have a fever of 41 degrees? You're so weak."
Yan Hao couldn't laugh; he only felt a splitting headache. He closed his eyes and rested for a while, then suddenly asked, "Big Fool, what's the English word for heart?"
Shen Zihan gritted his teeth and said, "You're really something, still dreaming about preparing for the CET-4. Are you delirious? You've even forgotten this word."
Shen Zihan opened his mouth wide and made a "HA——" sound.
Yan Hao seemed to nod. He stared wide-eyed at the ceiling, saying nothing.
On Saturdays and Sundays, Xiao Hui stayed with Yan Hao at the hospital. Shen Zihan and the other two took turns bringing them meals. Whenever Shen Zihan entered the ward, he would exclaim, "Look how well we've taken care of you two! Even the animals in the animal enclosure aren't this comfortable!" Then Xiao Hui would chime in with a laugh and a scolding.
According to Xiao Hui'er, Yan Hao has never had a sleepwalking problem since childhood. He rarely even talks in his sleep, let alone sleepwalks. Xiao Hui'er said, "His mother said that when he's asleep, he's like a pig."
But Yan Hao remained indifferent, lost in thought. Every now and then, he would mutter the English pronunciation of "heart." Xiao Hui'er said to Shen Zihan, "Look, look, he's probably delirious from the fever. I wonder what he's breathing out."
By the time Yan Hao's fever had completely subsided and he was discharged from the hospital, it was already Monday.
Monday morning's first two periods were again about "old maids'" physiology. After the bell rang, only Teacher Xia, carrying a pile of wall charts, walked into the classroom.
She walked confidently to the podium, smiled slightly, and said, "Professor Luo has a research project to report to the provincial government today. So I'll be teaching this class in his place. Let me introduce myself. My surname is Xia, meaning summer." Seeing a murmur in the classroom, she continued, "My name is Xia Tian, and I graduated from this university. So I'm an alumnus with you all."
Sitting next to Yan Hao, Shen Zihan whispered, "She's much better looking than that old spinster. Very pleasing to the eye. It's a pity they're in different classes at the same school!"
"This lesson, we'll be covering Chapter Three—Blood." She wrote the word "Blood" in large letters on the blackboard. Shen Zihan leaned closer and muttered, "Her voice is quite pleasant too."
Yan Hao was somewhat distracted, but as Shen Zihan kept fiddling with things, he began to pay more attention to Teacher Xia Tian, whom he had met once before. Indeed, she had an air of elegance on the podium, and her Mandarin was very standard.
"Blood is composed of plasma and blood cells suspended in it." Seeing that everyone seemed a little stunned, Teacher Xia smiled and said, "In class, we mainly use English to explain key terms. Your textbook is the People's Medical Publishing House edition, right? If it's the Peking University Medical Publishing House edition, there will be more English. Everyone studying Western medicine must have a solid foundation in English."
Needless to say, her English is very good.
Ever since Teacher Xia wrote the word "blood" on the blackboard, Yan Hao's mind has been filled with the blood swirling in the sink that morning, and the face in the blood—Teacher Xia's face!
"The basic components of blood plasma are a crystalline solution, including water and various electrolytes, small molecule organic compounds, and some gases dissolved in it." She wrote this long passage in one go, which shows that she had put in a lot of effort in preparing her lesson.
Yan Hao thought: In a doctor's eyes, blood is really just a liquid substance. But now he no longer believes that blood is truly just blood. Therefore, he cannot become a doctor.
Yan Hao's eyes were fixed on Teacher Xia Tian on the podium. She was poised and elegant, her white lab coat adding to her scholarly air and the unique grace of an intellectual woman. But Yan Hao's mind was on Teacher Xia Tian, who had been pacing sadly beneath the anatomy classroom window.
These two images were worlds apart in Yan Hao's mind—were they the same person? Or perhaps two sides of the same person? Like the face swirling in the blood, and the face before him with a faint smile and light makeup—how similar they were! Yet how incongruous they were!
Yan Hao's reverie was interrupted by Shen Zihan. He pinched Yan Hao's arm hard and whispered, "The teacher told you to stand up!"
Yan Hao panicked and suddenly stood up, staring blankly at Teacher Xia.
"Student, I just said that the total blood volume of a normal adult is equivalent to 7% to 8% of their body weight. Tell me, if a person weighs 60 kilograms, how many liters of blood does he/she have?"
"Ah, twenty or thirty liters, I guess."
The classroom erupted in laughter.
Yan Hao looked completely bewildered.
Shen Zihan, sitting in his seat, shouted anxiously, "You idiot, sixty times seven percent is four point two liters!"
Teacher Xia waved her hand, signaling everyone to quiet down.
"It's 4.2 to 4.8 liters. Pay attention in class from now on and think critically." She gave Yan Hao a meaningful look.
Yan Hao sat down dejectedly. He thought to himself, "How did so many people manage to catch me?"
"You have such a huge capacity for blood! Let's bleed a little at noon! The second cafeteria has small clay pot dishes." Shen Zihan winked and leaned closer to say.
Teacher Xia gave them three lessons in a row, covering the entire "Blood" section of Chapter Three. Judging from the students' expressions in class, her lessons were very popular. Li Yuanbin remarked, "I hope that perverted old maid never, ever comes back."
After the theoretical part is covered, it's time for the lab sessions. The most important experiment in the blood section is blood type identification.
Entering a physiology lab is far less exciting than entering an anatomy classroom. It looks no different from a regular physics and chemistry lab. Here, they don't use corpses, only live animals—like the toads crawling all over the place and the quirky little white mice.
Yan Hao found his first physiological experiment extremely tedious—studying so-called cellular bioelectric phenomena. Those invisible and intangible resting potentials and action potentials, along with a whole host of vague concepts like polarization, depolarization, and repolarization, made him feel utterly hopeless about whether he could pass the "old maid's" final exam.
However, this experiment revitalized his spirits, partly because the reaction between antigens and antibodies in blood typing is visible to the naked eye, and partly because he would be serving as a mentor in the summer.
Despite the fact that Teacher Xia deliberately picked a fight with him during class, Yan Hao still had an unusual fondness for this young female teacher.
The bright sunshine in the physiology lab added warmth to the winter, temporarily dispelling the gloom in Yan Hao's heart. Medical students in white coats excitedly and curiously examined the bottles and jars on the table.
After the teacher explained the experimental steps and precautions in the summer, it was time for the students to conduct their own experiments.
Disinfect the middle finger with an alcohol swab, then prick the fingertip with a syringe needle, and then use a micropipette to draw out the blood.
Many of the female students made sweet, painful cries.
Yan Hao has good practical skills. He dislikes things that require rote memorization. He thinks that even if he were to become a doctor, he would only consider being a surgeon.
He continued opening the reagent bottles. Skillfully, he added a drop of anti-B serum, a drop of anti-A serum, and a drop of both anti-A and anti-B serum to the slide. Then, he added a drop of the red blood cell suspension to each drop of serum. He then gently shook the slide with both hands, watching as the red blood cells and serum mixed.
He moved swiftly. He noticed the approving look in Teacher Xia's eyes as she walked past him, giving instructions.
However, the expected agglutination reaction did not occur on any drop of antibody-containing serum.
Yan Hao waited for about ten minutes, then wondered doubtfully, "Could it be that I have type O blood?" Only type O blood would produce this non-agglutination reaction.
But in fact, Yan Hao's mother had already told him that his blood type was B—both his parents were doctors, so there was absolutely no mistake about that!
Moreover, when Yan Hao was hospitalized after fracturing his leg playing soccer in junior high, he received a blood transfusion. Before the transfusion, a cross-matching test was required, and he clearly saw that the blood type on the later form was listed as type B!
The problem is that, according to the blood type identification method in the textbook, the red blood cells to be tested for type B blood should agglutinate with both anti-B serum and anti-A and anti-B serum! Those that do not agglutinate are type O blood!
Yan Hao took out a new glass slide and repeated the experiment.