The body, fragmented and torn, was wrapped in stomach acid and stones. It was being drawn back from somewhere into the opened corpse. The bloody corpse became whole again, and hot water rushed in from all directions, hair beginning to regrow on its body.
The world flickered. It turned out I was a chicken that had eaten a bug.
I was not a chicken. The chicken was happily reversing, a boy crying as he chased it. Everything in the world is like this; when you look at it from another perspective, it's entirely different. Because of the time reversal, the boy wasn't chasing the rooster, but was being chased by it.
This was probably the logical chain I was looking for...
A chicken chased a boy. The boy ran away. But because of this incident, his parents killed the chicken, scalded off its feathers with hot water, disemboweled it, and removed its gizzard. Inside the gizzard were stones and a bug. The bug had been crushed by its owner and thrown into the trash. The rooster found it by chance, ate it, and used the stones in its gizzard to break down the bug's corpse. Juice flowed everywhere, and the bug, in this way, transformed into strands of chaotic consciousness.
"Tang Nan, can you hear me?"
"Tang Nan, can you hear me?"
"If you can hear me, I'll count to three, and you'll wake up."
"One, two, three..."
I opened my eyes and was met first by Lin Han's anxious face.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" I asked Lin Han.
"You lost contact with Senior Uncle in your consciousness."
"What do you mean? I don't understand."
As I spoke, I turned my head and saw Teacher Wang Ren's face, full of confusion.
"If you don't believe the psychologist, the psychologist cannot hypnotize you."
"I don't not believe you."
"That's where the problem lies. You believe me, yet I failed to communicate with your subconscious, but you still fell asleep."
"Let's try again!"
As soon as I finished speaking, Lin Han exclaimed, something she rarely did: "Tang Nan, are you crazy? It took Senior Uncle a long time to wake you up just now. What if you don't wake up? What will I do?"
"But..."
Lin Han had never lost her temper with me before. I had never realized it; I was afraid of my wife! If Lin Han said no, I really hesitated to do it. I looked at Teacher Wang Ren for help.
"What did you see at that time?"
"A little boy was chased by a rooster, and then that chicken was killed and stewed."
As I said this, Teacher Wang Ren looked at me in astonishment, and Lin Han's expression was also strange. I could understand; after deep hypnosis, one would see corresponding events guided by the psychologist.
Yet, I saw something like this.
Seeing their expressions, I said with some embarrassment, "It seems like something like this happened in my memory? I was pecked by a chicken and cried. Later, a rural relative of mine slaughtered that chicken."
The more I explained, the more outlandish it seemed.
I suddenly remembered and quickly said, "The way I remembered this was in reverse, as if time was rewinding. Or it was as if I had reached some microscopic level, as if I could see bacteria. No, what I mean is, I saw it from the perspective of bacteria."
"This is called memory and consciousness transplantation and replacement."
Teacher Wang Ren stated.
"What do you mean?"
"It's like planting a virus into a computer. Once your consciousness is invaded, memory and consciousness transplantation and replacement will occur. Simply put, your mind has antivirus software working..."
I looked at Lin Han. She was even more bewildered than I was.
"I don't understand. Senior Uncle, can you explain more clearly?"
Lin Han and I said in unison.