Clown Game-Chapter 75 - (Non-main text - Featured on Sanjiang happy)
Chapter 75: (Non-main text – Featured on Sanjiang, happy) Containment item short story: The Origin Man_2
Chapter 75: (Non-main text – Featured on Sanjiang, happy) Containment item short story: The Origin Man_2
Doctor C took out a watch and pointed to the shortest hand, “In 24 hours, this needle will have turned two circles.”
The old man knelt up from the ground, trembling as he took the watch, staring at the dial emitting a cry like that of a wild beast, murmuring in an unintelligible language. His hair, drenched with tears, tangled together, revealing a face very similar to that of David Charles.
The sound of the old bus’s engine was drowned out by the heavy rain. The suburban roads were always muddy in this kind of weather. A six-hour bus ride and the pouring rain did not dampen David’s keen anticipation. A voice inside him was telling David that this talk would be key to unlocking the secrets of human origins. After the doorbell rang, Dr. C opened the door. No one knew how he had traversed half the globe in such a short time to meet David. Of course, no one would have thought that from the moment of David’s birth 55 years ago, he had been designated as a critically important containment item, code-named s-021.
David dispensed with all pleasantries, anxious to begin the academic discussion with Doctor C. The conversation became engrossing until Professor C expressed an idea about the origins of human intelligence, rendering David speechless with shock.
The evolution of life itself is directionless. Chance, over the long sweep of time, can become inevitability. The surviving beings pass on the genes of mutations to the next generation. Natural selection then shapes what seems like an evolutionary vector. But what if there was a guide already formed on the journey of evolution? An entity with a massive brain capacity and intelligence standing before a base-level life form, what then? David’s thought seemed to explode, for if this were the case, there would be no detours, no randomness. A guide would turn everything into inevitable outcomes, unraveling all mysteries. But another question arose: how had this guide come into being? David looked to Professor C for answers.
Professor C offered no explanation, but instead presented David with a choice: to abandon his current life in search of the ultimate answer to human origins or, like all others who had failed, bow his head in defeat on the path of knowledge. David had no doubt about this strange choice; the answer he had struggled with for a lifetime was before his eyes. He naturally would not give up and chose the former.
Professor C brought David to a wooden door at a corner. In the small room, they found a strange old-looking iron machine resembling an armchair in the center, the backrest embedded with a dial rusted and its needles almost falling off. Professor C gestured for David to undress and sit on it. With a trace of doubt, David complied. Professor C turned and pulled a switch reminiscent of last century’s electrical cut-offs. The dial began to move slowly, then faster, shaking the entire machine as though it were about to fall apart. David tried to stand up but was pressed down into the seat by an unseen force. A puff of dense smoke emerged, the shaking stopped, the machine fell apart, and David had vanished.
….
….
David slowly opened his eyes. He found himself on an unknown shoreline, the sunlight dazzling. Gigantic plants grew sparsely around him, and towering trees behind him had leaves big enough to cover a person completely. He stood up in bewilderment, staring at the calm sea, stunned. Afterwards, David walked along the coast for two whole days. The thriving ferns and the occasional sarcopterygian washed ashore forced David to accept that he was in a time some 3 million years ago. Moreover, he did not feel hunger, thirst, or even pain. After an attack by a mantis shrimp hidden under the sand, David discovered that its sharp pincers could not penetrate his skin.
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Doctor C returned to the room where the old man was detained. The old man was holding the watch, looking lost. Seeing Dr. C coming, the old man held up his right thumb that had just been bandaged and said, “I’ve broken it.” His eyes were filled with helplessness and fear. Doctor C sat down on the ground facing the old man and said, “Starting now, you will feel pain, get sick, grow old, and die. You can now tidy up your hair, change your clothes, and return to your home on Mephisto Street. Spend the remaining twenty or thirty years with your wife and finally die in the care of your children.” Upon hearing this, the old man stooped with sobs, tears and howls flowing between his fingers.
…
Loneliness is the most terrible punishment. David sat between the sea and the forest, surrounded by countless lives, yet unable to communicate with any. It had been three months since he arrived. He hadn’t had a drop of water, hadn’t slept a wink, yet his body showed no abnormalities. The brutal onslaught of solitude hammered at David’s fragile mind, but it could not drive him mad. No harm could leave a mark on his body, as though it was frozen at the second he sat in that strange chair. Another five months passed, and after a fierce sea breeze dispersed his strawman shelter, David broke down in tears. Then he sat by the shore, watching the sunrise and set. Time was untraceable; it could have been a month or ten years until he no longer regretted his choice, harbored no resentment towards Professor C, nor pondered the answer to human origins.
One day, as David still sat by the sea, thick layers of sand accumulated on him. A Qiong Ape approached, mistaking David for a rock. It fiddled with shells in the muddy sand until David opened his eyes and beheld the hairy monkey. A faint spark of life returned to his gaze. David suddenly stood up, shaking off the mud, and stared ecstatically at the Qiong Ape on all fours. Startled, the ape lept aside, warily watching this bizarre hairless monkey…
