Chapter 8: 8

After listening to what President Wang had said, Wu Zhongyuan was not depressed but felt rather fortunate. He worried about having chromosomes from mammals and birds, but these two chromosomes are always much better than those inherited from insects and reptiles. President Wang walked to the car and opened the door for Wu Zhongyuan, 

"Here, get in the car."

It was an expensive Audi and Wu Zhongyuan looked inside the spacious and clean car but refused to get inside since he had dirt all over him. 

"I'd better go back by myself." President Wang did not answer, but pushed him inside the car and closed the door in an instant. 

The driver wisely lowered the glass of the rear window when Wu Zhongyuan seemed to have something to say to President Wang.

Wu Zhongyuan leaned out and asked, "President Wang, what effect do they have on me?" 

President Wang knew what Wu Zhongyuan was asking, but some things were inconvenient for the driver to know, so he kept his reply vague.  

"At present, it doesn't matter, they haven't done anything, they have been resting." Wu Zhongyuan didn't ask anymore, and after thanking him, the car drove off. 

Even though Wu Zhongyuan rode in a car before, he had never been in such a good car. It almost felt like he was sitting on a burning seat, because of his fear of dirtying other people's car seat cushions. He did not dare to lean back at will. 

The driver asked anything other than where Wu Zhongyuan wished to go and drove quietly. After half an hour, they arrived at the school gate. Wu Zhongyuan thanked the driver before getting out of the car with his bag, and walked towards the school with a blank mind.

The security guard who got beaten last night was on duty. He stared at Wu Zhongyuan in confusion and surprise when he saw the boy get out of the Audi. 

Wu Zhongyuan ignored the guard since he was physically and mentally exhausted. He just wanted to get back to his room and sleep. It was dinner time and the campus was packed with people. Some of his classmates saw Wu Zhongyuan and called him from a distance, inviting him to eat in the cafeteria, but Zhongyuan waved back at them.  Even though he was indeed a bit hungry, he wished to sleep more than to have a meal. He had to report his absence first before having a meal. 

So he went back to the dormitory, changed into school uniform, and went to the headteacher to cancel his leave. Since it was already dark and the light was not good, the headteacher did not notice his head injury. After canceling the leave he went to the canteen and called Lin Qingming's colleague. Since Lin Qingming didn't have a mobile phone, his emergency contact number was one of his colleagues. 

After confirming that Lin Qingming was back and went to mine, Wu Zhongyuan left the canteen. He was about to go to the dormitory when he heard someone call him. 

It was Huang Ping, who waved at him while standing outside the school gate.

Huang Ping came here for only one purpose, she must have been unable to contact Lin Qingming and wanted to know how they handled the matter. Maybe, she was more concerned about how Lin Qingming was doing, and Wu Zhongyuan said what he could say but hid something that she was not supposed to know. 

If he tells Huang Ping about something, she might leak it out. Huang Ping is beautiful and has good morals. But in addition to the lack of higher education, she had another disadvantage - she had a "best friend forever" who works in the factory and grew up in the same village. 

This is something Lin Qingming doesn't like about Huang Pin. In Lin Qingming's opinion, a woman with a best friend forever is immature and cannot keep secrets. 

Huang Ping finally felt relieved when she confirmed that Lin Qingming was all right.  She stuffed Wu Zhongyuan's hands with the snacks she brought and then left. Wu Zhongyuan didn't want Huang Ping's things, because Lin Qingming told him not to take anything from her, and also tell her nothing, including the cell phone number of his colleague at the mine. But Huang Ping couldn't meet Lin Qingming at all, so she would bring things every once in a while to please her future brother-in-law, which led many people to misunderstand that Huang Ping was his girlfriend.

When Wu Zhongyuan finally reached his room, he felt relaxed. His mind was empty, so he laid on his back and fell asleep.  Not long after he fell asleep, he was woken up by roommates who returned from their evening self-study and made a lot of noise. Although he was awake, Wu Zhongyuan did not open his eyes, as he thought about what happened during the day. 

Since there has been no problem until now, he assumed that the gangster leader did not inform the police about the beating incident or where his master's tomb was kept. The only thing that bothered him right now was his medical situation. All these years Wu Zhingyuan only knew that he was an orphan adopted by his master, and wasn't interested in finding out what life he used to live before that. But what he experienced today made him want to search about his past. Since President Wang said that his two extra chromosomes belong to mammals and birds, respectively, he couldn't help but think about the strange human-shaped skeleton in the coffin that had a bird's beak. If the chromosomes are normal, a person will never grow a bird's beak, which means that the corpse also had a chromosomal abnormality, like him, and it might have related to him in some way.

His first assumption was that the corpse in the coffin must be his father, but when he remembered president Wang's words about his genetic sequence, he quickly rejected that idea. He had two extra chromosomes, the mammalian one was inherited from the father, and the bird's one was inherited from the mother. Since the skeleton in the coffin belonged to a male, it ruled out the possibility of his father.

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But this corpse is obviously related to him. Maybe, he might have stayed with this birdman when he was a baby and later, the birdman might have died for unknown reasons. Master must have buried the birdman and adopted him.

Even though it was rude to describe the corpse as a birdman, Wu Zhongyuan couldn't think of a more appropriate way to address it than the birdman. 

If he used to live with this birdman, then he might have had a very close relationship. 

Could this birdman be his uncle? 

Thinking of this, Wu Zhongyuan couldn't help but imagine a woman with a bird's beak in his mind, but he quickly drove this image out of his mind. First, he couldn't accept this image of his mother, and secondly, he's afraid that no man will like a woman with a beak, 

In fact, it is not impossible to determine what relationship he had with the strange corpse. Now that science and technology are advanced, he could obtain an accurate result if he dug out the skeleton for DNA testing.  

However, he doesn't want to take it this way for the time being. President Wang may explain the abnormal chromosomes as an accidental disease to the world. But once people know that there is a situation similar to him, he's afraid that it will arouse curiosity and interest in the research of relevant departments, and then wait to get arrested. The reason why his Master quietly buried the corpse back then was probably also for this reason. He wanted to protect the birdman and didn't want the world to know that he was different from others.

Regarding the strange corpse, there was another detail, that is, the corpse was buried without any clothes. This shouldn't be his master's actions, since he was a Taoist priest, and treated no different when someone is dead or alive.  So, it was impossible to leave the other party's clothes behind.

There is a chance he might find out something about his past if he asks his senior brother. Qingming weaned Wu Zhongyuan when he was adopted by his master. Babies have to be breastfed as soon as they are born and stop feeding them milk when they are one or two years old. Since Ling Qingming weaned him it possibly meant that he wasn't a newborn baby when he got adopted.  Lin Qingming should have been four or five years old at that time, so he might be able to remember something. But after thinking about it carefully, Wu Zhongyuan rejected his idea. His senior brother is very tight-lipped, not to mention that it is unlikely that he knows the truth. Even if he knew something, no one would hear a word from him if he kept his mouth shut. 

It is no wonder that he doesn't like Huang Ping, who spills out everything to a BFF.

After thinking for a while, Wu Zhongyuan rolled over and sat up to take the bag under the bed. 

He had the bundle of books left by the master, and he might be able to find some clues from them. 

Since the college entrance examination is coming soon, the students are busy reviewing their lessons, so the school doesn't have strict rules about turning off the dorm lights. 

He untied the strings that bound the books and began to read them one by one. 

The first book was "Tao Te Ching," an old manuscript. He looked over it, but when he found there was nothing special about it, he put it down. The second book is "Lao Tzu Xishengjing". 

When the master was alive, he did not teach the two of them to recite the sutra, so he did not know whether the writings in the book were true or not. 

When Wu Zhongyuan saw his classmate using a computer, he recited a sentence at random and asked the other to search it on the Internet to make sure it was scripture. 

A stack of books were Taoist scriptures which included the morning and evening class scriptures. Unfortunately, those were not rare books, and their recorded content can be found on the web.

There was also a small book, which recorded the Master's experience in practicing medicine.

It had some of the experiences of using the folk formula to cure diseases, when to use rat feces to cure sores, and when to use cicada to cure the night terrors of children.  

The book was so thick that it was impossible to read all at once. In addition to these, there are four other books, "The Secret Art of Popularity"  about light-weight kung fu, and "Practicing Qi and Strengthening Bones"  about practicing qi kung fu. 

These two kung fu books were the ones his master had taught him and his senior brothers when he was alive.

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