An Zhe raised his head and frowned at Lu Xun. He was unhappy, his eyes were red, and he didn't talk to Lu Xun. He reached out and grabbed Lu Xun's wrist, trying to pull it away.
But this person was much stronger than him, and An Zhe couldn't move it at all. After trying a few times, he simply turned his fingers into hyphae and wrapped them around Lu Xun's arm, pulling it out. But the soft hyphae was stronger than his human form, and it would even break with a little force.
"Don't pull." Lu Xun spoke in his ear, his voice was low.
An Zhe ignored him.
Lu Xun laughed softly, and his fingers touched the layers of snow-white hyphae, separated them, and put his fingers on the skin of An Zhe's abdomen again.
"Are there any more?" he asked.
"No more." An Zhe said in a vicious tone.
He had his spores taken away by this man once, so how could they be taken away for the second time? Especially now he really had no new spores.
The strange thing was that although the original spores were lost and there were no new spores in his body, the feeling of loss also left him. There was no longer a void in his body that could never be filled, and his spirit was no longer attached to the spores that were nowhere to be found - just like when he was born a long time ago. When he woke up, he was complete and could not be more complete.
An Zhe looked down at his mycelium, which was snow-white, soft, flexible, and with distinct roots. He was slightly startled, and stretched out his other hand to touch them, and then this hand was also held by Lu Xun. He couldn't help but think of the days in the research institute, when he locked himself in an empty room and carefully turned part of his limbs back into mycelium - after the human skin and bones disappeared, a tangled gray-black object was exposed. The original mycelium shrank and liquefied. Before long, its entire body would turn into a pool of black liquid, drying up on the board or in the corner. This is the way a mushroom dies. Every time this happened, he would turn them into human bodies as if he had received an electric shock, looking out the window at the endless night sky, looking at the dark night of his life. The great fear that every living creature felt when facing death enveloped him equally. He would feel the coldness deep into his bones, tremble, close his eyes, wait for it to slowly dissipate before walking out and living with the people in the institute like a normal human being.
Lu Xun didn't know about these things.
For some reason, this realization made his eyes sore. Thinking of the fear and despair at that time, he looked up at Lu Xun again, and his heart was filled with a stronger sense of grievance than before.
Lu Xun obviously understood his expression.
"Are you really crying?" The colonel raised his hand that was holding his shoulder and touched the corner of his eye: "What's wrong?"
An Zhe shook his head and said, "I won't give it to you anyway."
After that, he struggled to get rid of Lu Xun's grip, but was restrained in another way, and the two fell on the grass! He was pressed down by Lu Xun.
In mid-May, the slender and soft green grass covered him. This year's spring in Shenyuan came exceptionally early. An Zhe turned his head to the side and saw a clean, white and plump mushroom just stretched out its umbrella cover. Its gills had not yet fully unfolded, but it was believed that it would not be long before thousands of spores would come out from under the umbrella cover and spread out like mist.
Other mushrooms have many spores, but he only has one, and there are no more - he bit his lip.
At this time, he heard Lu Xun say: "Don't be afraid."
He didn't say anything, Lu Xun continued: "I don't want spores."
An Zhe: "Then what about my spores?"
"Do you want to know?"
"I want to know."
Lu Xun picked up a strand of his fungus.
"Other mushrooms have many spores." He asked: "Why do you only have one?"
An Zhe: "I don't know."
Lu Xun: "When did you know you were a mushroom?"
An Zhe thought about it seriously and said: "A long time ago."
"Was there an opportunity?"
"It rained."
"What else?"
"I broke off, but I don't want to die yet."
"Does it hurt?"
An Zhe shook his head.
Lu Xun said, "Anything else?"
An Zhe could only think of one thing: "It was raining."
Lu Xun seemed to think for a while, then asked him, "You can fuse many creatures, can you tell how many you have fused? Whether it is active or passive."
An Zhe shook his head. He did come into contact with many creatures, either actively or passively. He didn't know if he had acquired their genes. The only time he completely absorbed all the blood and tissues from An Ze's body, and subconsciously acquired the ability to become a human.
Then he heard Lu Xun say, "Have you seen a snake?"
An Zhe nodded. Of course he had seen a snake.
"Snakes shed their skin, and when their original outer skin is discarded, they crawl out of their original shells." Lu Xun said, "Many creatures do this."
An Zhe didn't know what Lu Xun wanted to say for a moment, he just listened.
"But Mr. Polly said that this is still very different from your life form. Some single-cell eukaryotic organisms have another characteristic," Lu Xun said lightly, "When the environment is bad, it will stop growing, and the remaining part of the body will form spores and sleep, and then resurrect in a suitable environment."
An Zhe frowned, he seemed to understand what Lu Xun said, but he still couldn't express it accurately.
"Besides, you are a fungus. Although you are not the same species as them, you are also a simple organism."
An Zhe felt that what Lu Xun said was not a good thing, so he pushed him away.
Lu Xun did not move, but just looked at him with a little smile in his eyes, and said, "Haven't you remembered yet?"
An Zhe looked at his mycelium and whispered, "You mean, I... my spores, grew into me?"
Strangely, he didn't feel surprised when he said this, or just said something ordinary.
He was lost in thought, thinking about the whole thing.
"Polly said that when you got rid of the basic form of mushrooms, you also gained new properties, or merged with the properties of other simple organisms to obtain a new life form. Spores, as a kind of cyst-like existence, became a backup life after your body decayed. So you regard it as more important than your own life, because it is indeed your life. You may have gained immortality in this way." Lu Xun said.
An Zhe slightly widened his eyes.
"Also," Lu Xun said, "When I first met Polly, he was in pain. At that time, the spores moved and fell on Polly. I think only you know him."
An Zhe nodded. He did have a vague impression of being close to the sad Polly, and he also had many memories of being close to Lu Xun.
——It's just that he didn't know what he was doing at that time.
He felt his complete body.
"I'm sorry." He said to Lu Xun sullenly.
If this is really the case, then he really blamed Lu Xun wrongly - he thought the worst of this man. And Lu Xun did not go against the wishes he left at that time and raised the spores.
"It's okay," Lu Xun leaned closer to him, and his cold green eyes, which had always been indifferent and emotionless, seemed to be surging with some unspeakable waves. He lowered his voice and said, "...you are alive."
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