Fang Yuan walked into the room. Qin Yue tidied up her belongings briefly, then turned back and smiled at Fang Yuan, "Did He Jianhui ask you to persuade me to go to the movies?"
Fang Yuan was slightly startled and asked, "How did you know?"
He Jianhui and Fang Yuan were talking quietly outside, so Qin Yue, who was inside, shouldn't have heard.
Qin Yue bit her lip and smiled, "I knew he was going to use this trick. I don't even know who he is."
Fang Yuan also smiled, "Then will you agree to it?"
"Yes! Why not? There's a free movie, why not? Besides, you can take this opportunity to blackmail him and make him bleed. He's got plenty of money anyway!" Qin Yue argued confidently.
Fang Yuan, somewhat smugly, "Yes, I'll also ask him to treat all the girls in Dormitory 441 to a movie and a late-night snack. It's his fault for wanting to woo our homeroom teacher!"
After that, the two smiled at each other.
He Jianhui's presence brightened Fang Yuan's mood. It's just like that; when you're too depressed, you tend to become sentimental and dwell on trivial matters. Spending more time with friends, communicating, and having fun naturally makes you feel more relaxed both physically and mentally.
After laughing, Qin Yue asked, "Fang Yuan, what's the matter with you coming to see me?"
Fang Yuan told Qin Yue everything Tang Tianyu and Li Rong had said to her.
After listening to Fang Yuan's retelling, Qin Yue pondered for a moment and said, "Fang Yuan, who do you think is lying?"
Fang Yuan shook her head. "I don't know. I think neither of their stories sound like lies. They're at least 70% to 80% believable. They're just falsified in certain details or key points."
"So what do you want?"
Fang Yuan smiled bitterly. "Forget it. Let's just let it go. I have a guess. Is there radiation in our dorm?"
"Radiation?"
"Yes, radiation. I think the strange things happening in girls' dormitory 441 might be hallucinations and auditory hallucinations caused by radiation exposure. Teacher Qin, do you know how to measure radiation?"
Qin Yue thought for a moment and said, "I heard there's radiation on the market." I'll look for a radioactivity tester after work. I'll bring it to your dorm room to test it.
"Okay, thank you, Teacher Qin."
"Anything else?"
Fang Yuan took out the movie ticket He Jianhui had asked her to pass on. "Haha, that's all."
Qin Yue took the ticket and asked with concern, "How are you feeling? Don't worry so much. I always seem to be preoccupied."
Fang Yuan smiled and said goodbye, "It's okay. I'm feeling much better now. I won't disturb Teacher Qin's rest. I'm going back to take a nap, too."
After leaving Qin Yue's house, Fang Yuan walked along the forest path in the medical school. The gentle sunlight filtered through the withered, mottled branches, glazing the grove with a warm, brilliant golden glow. Fang Yuan looked up at the sky. Countless birds darted and chirped in the trees, their dark gray shadows crisscrossing the pure, fairytale-like blue sky.
Fang Yuan stared at them for a long moment, lost in thought. These fragile yet adorable little lives lived simple yet joyful lives. Their needs are so simple: food to fill their stomachs and a nest to shelter them from the wind and rain. Then, they begin to chirp endlessly, letting others experience their joy.
If one day, facing life, she could choose, she would rather be a simple and happy bird than a complex and melancholic human.
Fang Yuan rested for a long time along the forest path before reluctantly returning to her dorm.
Fang Yuan slept soundly in her dorm. Perhaps because she was in a good mood, she slept so comfortably that she didn't even have a dream.
That night, she didn't go with the other girls in the dorm to watch Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" with Qin Yue and He Jianhui. Instead, she went to the library alone.
She had no mood to watch any movie, even a masterpiece. Besides, "House of Flying Daggers" was just a commercial film. She'd rather watch a Stephen Chow comedy. While equally absurd, at least it would make her laugh and temporarily forget the troubles of reality during the short time she spent watching it. She came to the library to ask Xiao Jing a question: Can people really foresee the future?
Xiao Jing didn't answer the question directly, but instead asked, "Do you know about the butterfly effect?"
Fang Yuan looked bewildered. Although she had been interested in the occult since childhood, given her environment and age, her understanding was limited to hearsay and a superficial understanding.
Xiao Jing knew this question was too complex for Fang Yuan, who had just reached adulthood, but he explained it to her in detail. "The butterfly effect was proposed by MIT meteorologist Lorenz. To predict the weather, he used a computer to solve thirteen equations simulating the Earth's atmosphere. To examine the results more closely, he extracted an intermediate solution, improved its accuracy, and sent it back. But when he came back to check it again after a cup of coffee, he was shocked: the originally small difference had turned out to be a huge difference! The computer was fine. So, Lorenz proposed that the occasional flapping of a butterfly's wings in the Amazon rainforest in South America could cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later. The reason is that the movement of the butterfly's wings causes changes in the air system around it, generating weak air currents. These weak air currents in turn cause corresponding changes in the surrounding air or other systems, triggering a chain reaction that ultimately leads to significant changes in other systems. He called this phenomenon chaos theory."
Fang Yuan seemed to understand.
"Actually, the butterfly effect is just a commonly used example of chaos theory. The American film "The Butterfly Effect" used this phenomenon to create a hit movie. It tells the story of a person who travels back in time to change their destiny. No matter how hard they try, or how perfectly they plan, a small, unexpected event can disrupt their plans."
Fang Yuan finally understood the clue. "Teacher Xiao, are you saying that human destiny is constantly changing and unpredictable?"
Xiao Jing smiled. "Modern science likes to use precise formulas to infer results. In reality, many animals in nature rely on intuition. In the face of the mysteries of nature, human science is still very limited and primitive. Some people with exceptional intuition can predict a person's future based on their past movements. But this so-called future is only a possibility. If even the slightest mishap occurs, it can deviate from the predetermined trajectory."
Fang Yuan was completely confused.
Xiao Jing glanced at the quartz clock hanging on the wall and said apologetically, "I'll discuss these theories with you next time. I have something to do now and need to leave for a while. I might not be back. Please put these books away before you leave."
"Okay."
At 9:30, Xiao Jing left the library in her thick windbreaker, leaving behind a pile of books returned by students.
She memorized the terms "butterfly effect" and "chaos theory" and wanted to study them in detail when she had the chance.
Time flies when people are busy. By the time Fang Yuan had put all the books back in their original places, it was already 10:20. Lights out in ten minutes.
Fang Yuan stretched and shook her aching neck. The library windows were gleaming brightly. She smiled at herself inside, then closed the door and left.
Not long after descending the stairs, the lights-out whistle sounded in the medical school, and the buildings sank into darkness one by one.
Fang Yuan quickened her pace. Although her part-time library employee ID exempted her from the lights-out whistle, she didn't want to run into the aggressive campus security guards. Being questioned and harassed was unpleasant. She'd heard that a girl was caught by the security guards on the forest trail after lights-out, flirting with her boyfriend. They were interrogated for a long time and later reported to the student affairs office with exaggerated details. Deducting points for violating school rules was a minor offense, but the girl's reputation was tarnished by them—they even claimed to have seen her undressing! Such unsubstantiated rumors, however quickly spread, left the perpetrators devastated.
The forest trail was quiet and chilly at night, the icy wind rustling the branches. At a fork in the road, Fang Yuan glanced towards the Red Building—the anatomy building she'd found so eerie during the day.
The Red Building was the oldest building in the Nanjiang Medical College complex. At that moment, it stood quietly, its aged vermilion color striking against the night sky of the medical school, like a fading hero, lonely yet proud among a crowd of fresh, young, bright-eyed faces.
Suddenly, Fang Yuan froze. Ahead of her, a figure, dressed in white and thin, was slowly approaching the Red Mansion. Wasn't that Li Rong?
He was leading her to the Red Mansion again?
Should she follow?