Shapeshifters

The next day at noon, seeing I had some time before my meeting with Ruan Xiwen, I decided to take a stroll around the archaeological site. This time, Zhang Qiang was not there, probably out for lunch. The site seemed almost unchanged, with no progress. The dug-up earth formed a small mound on the side, where a group of children were excitedly running up and down. I smiled, remembering my own mischievous childhood, and watched them with a touch of nostalgia. They dug out a few earthworms with small branches and toy shovels, then cheered. Some boys picked up the earthworms and made them race in front of them. One boy, frustrated by his earthworm’s slow movement, hit it hard with his shovel. The earthworm immediately sprang up, struggling, and the boy, in a cruel act, chopped it into four pieces. Earthworms don’t die when cut; each segment continued to wriggle, which is common knowledge, but the kids were astonished and gathered around in awe. I couldn’t help but smile, moving closer, as I had done similar things in my childhood. This didn’t mean I lacked compassion; it just showed my curiosity was strong. In a flash of insight, looking at the two pieces of earthworm on the ground, my mind raced with an exaggerated hypothesis: earthworms, with soft bodies, can’t be killed by a shovel strike — like cats with soft bones that can’t be killed by being run over by a truck or falling from a building; earthworms, when cut into pieces, continue to move — like cockroaches where each part can move independently; these earthworms, still trying to burrow back into the soil — like the fish that like to burrow in the sand. I merely put together the new characteristics of these three mutated species, and the conclusion was clear; they all matched the characteristics of earthworms. This couldn’t be just a coincidence. Could it be that the soft bones of cats, the undying nature of cockroaches, and the sand-burrowing behavior of marine fish were all mutations based on earthworms? I was amazed by this accidental discovery. This theory was quite reasonable, and earthworms indeed appeared near the Zhidan Garden site. Maybe I should now go catch a fish from Su Ying’s aquarium, and it might also be unkillable by a slap and undying when cut. But for now, this was just a hypothesis; I had no evidence. Even if Su Ying’s fish had changed, it wouldn’t prove my conclusion. And even if my conclusion was correct, it still wouldn’t explain the connection to the Zhidan Garden archaeology. In any case, I should meet with Ruan Xiwen first.