Feng Yi went to Wu Ji's house before heading home.
There were no rats at Wu Ji's home at the moment, but it was unpredictable at night, since the holes in the house hadn't been plugged yet, and they were still waiting for extermination services.
After learning about Feng Yi's skill in trapping rats, Wu Ji insisted on having Feng Yi stay overnight at his place.
"We must eradicate them to prevent future problems!"
Wu Ji was quite enthusiastic about the rat extermination, "The guest room is ready, and it's convenient since we live in the same building. If you're not used to the pillows here, you can bring down your own. Brother, my sleep depends on you!"
Feng Yi saw it as an opportunity to help out, agreed, and stayed overnight in the guest room Wu Ji had prepared on the 5th floor.
The apartment on the 5th floor was Wu Ji's parents', and Wu Ji's own apartment was on the 29th floor. Since the lower floors suffered more from the rat problem, the elderly couple had temporarily moved to the 29th floor.
Since settling on the 5th floor, Wu Ji hadn't had a good night's sleep, hating the rats to the point of itching teeth, but he was helpless to catch them—they couldn't be trapped or caught. If Feng Yi could trap a rat that night, it would be a form of revenge for Wu Ji.
However, on this night, from the 1st floor to the 10th, the rats seemed to have suddenly disappeared, and even the ones that had entered homes were particularly quiet. Middle and higher floors weren't as silent, but were much better than before.
He didn't get his revenge, but Wu Ji slept well that night for a change.
"Could it be the community's extermination efforts are taking effect?"
Residents in the homeowner's group were discussing this too. The situation in the entire community seemed to have improved a lot compared to the previous few days. Although other buildings were not as quiet as Feng Yi's, the change was still noticeable.
The community's rat extermination team was indeed eliminating a large number of rats daily, so no one thought about other possibilities. Everyone guessed that maybe the rats had fled the area upon seeing the intensified extermination efforts.
"The dark days are finally over!" Wu Ji was overjoyed.
"I didn't get to see you in action this time. I'll call on you again next time a rat enters. It's a waste not to use your skill—have you ever thought about opening an extermination company? I'd definitely invest in it!" Wu Ji looked at Feng Yi.
"I won't." After a thought Feng Yi asked, "What's your opinion on snakes?"
Wu Ji's expression instantly changed.
"No way, I can still fight against rats, but with snakes, my soul would probably leave my body!"
"You are born in the Year of the Snake, and you're this scared?" Feng Yi asked.
"Who decided people born in the Year of the Snake can't be afraid of them? I'm deathly afraid of snakes! As a kid, I stepped on one that was the same color as the surrounding grass. I didn't notice it until I stepped down, and if I had been any slower to jump away, it would have bitten me. Since then, I've had a psychological shadow!"
Even after so many years, recalling the incident still gave Wu Ji a scare, "Thinking about it now, I'd rather face rats."
So Feng Yi didn't bring it up again.
Upon returning home, he carefully checked his face in the mirror for any changes.
Overnight, Feng Yi felt that his sensory range had expanded again. If the space he could sense were a sphere with him at the center, the radius would be about the height of five floors.
If he wanted to, he could even sense how many people were above or below him, what they were doing. The perception wasn't clear, just a general sense.
He didn't deliberately sense his neighbors too much; that would infringe on their privacy. He decided to try it next time in the park.
In the following two days, the rat disturbance in the community visibly improved, and the curses from the residents at night decreased. It was as if even the barking of dogs had disappeared.
Walking around the community after dinner, residents smiled more, and the atmosphere in the homeowner's group chat had become more peaceful.
However, compared to the improving mood of others, Feng Yi felt depressed.
Something was off about him these last two days!
Everything was off!
For breakfast, he fried a pancake and before realizing, he shoved the whole thing into his mouth. He came to his senses just before choking and quickly spat it out.
Even when eating an egg, he almost didn't bother to peel it and nearly put the whole thing in his mouth. Although he caught himself in time, the experience left him sweating coldly.
One or two times could be called carelessness or an accident, but when such situations occurred repeatedly, they couldn't just be dismissed as mere distraction!
And there was more!
At lunch today, he found the sauce unusually pungent, causing him to sneeze repeatedly.
Initially, Feng Yi suspected the sauce was expired, but the packaging date was recent.
Thinking he had bought a defective product, he switched sauces, yet still found them incredibly irritable!
Everything he ate after that tasted strange.
Headache. Constant sensation of fever, yet the temperature was normal.
No matter which thermometer he used, it showed his temperature as normal.
Feng Yi couldn't stay calm any longer.
And it wasn't good to go to the hospital; the words of the old butler still echoed in his ears, imagining if he really found some non-human symptoms, he would probably be sent directly to a research institute.
So now, was his condition due to sickness, or was it as the butler had mentioned—some sort of strange change happening?
Feng Yi himself didn't know.
Should he consult a doctor or the butler?
He wondered if it was because he had too many things weighing on his mind, causing great mental stress, unrelated to what the butler had mentioned?
Even his sense of perception, which had worked fine just yesterday, was now blurred.
After some thought, Feng Yi came up with a plan.
I went online, clicked on a platform with relatively more positive reviews, offering 24-hour real-time speedy consultations.
Feng Yi briefly described his symptoms.
Soon, an online doctor responded:
[Hello! Based on your description, you seem to be showing a delayed reaction to external stimuli and hypersensitivity, which could indicate some cognitive impairment...]
Blah blah blah a whole lot of words.
Feng Yi continued to ask with trembling hands, "So, how can it be improved?"
The online doctor replied:
[I recommend you come to our psychiatric department for a detailed examination.]
Seeing this response gave Feng Yi a sudden jolt of anxiety.
He switched pages and searched for the phrase "cognitive impairment" that the online doctor had mentioned, and then he saw—
[Schizophrenia patients have cognitive impairment... A slow or hypersensitive response to external information may be a sign of psychotic symptoms and a decline in cognitive function...]
Feng Yi felt a cold chill in his heart.
After much thought, not wanting to scare himself, he decided to call the old butler.
The old butler's voice sounded somewhat expectant: "Don't worry, this is normal. This is just an early reaction; your genes are evolving, and your body is adapting to this change. Don't put too much pressure on yourself, and take this time to go out and have fun, relax. Once this adaptation period is over, you might not be in the mood to go out anymore."]
After hearing this response, Feng Yi did not know whether to feel relieved or worried.
The relieve was that he didn't have a mental illness.
The worry was about the old butler's last remark, "Once the adaptation period is over, you might not feel like going out to have fun." What exactly did these "little changes" entail?
Carrying this extremely complex mood, Feng Yi still joined Wu Ji and their friends for the weekend farmhouse fishing activity.
They set out on Saturday morning.
This time they were heading to Yue Mountain Eco-Tourism Area, about a two-hour drive from Rong City.
Wu Ji drove his parents, and as for Feng Yi, he provided the car, with Qian Feiyang doing the driving.
He was "cognitively impaired" after all; it was safer not to drive.
Perhaps because of the increase in weekend travelers, the road out of the city got congested a few times, and once, when they stopped at a red light, Qian Feiyang turned on the mobile phone resting beside him to check the surveillance feed.
"Did you leave Octagon at home?" Feng Yi asked.
"It's just for two days, we'll be back tomorrow, no need to take him to the pet store. We have an automatic feeder and a self-cleaning litter box at home, and the surveillance is on, so I can check on him anytime from my phone," Qian Feiyang explained.
Feng Yi glanced at the screen; Octagon was lying on his back, sleeping on the living room sofa.
Qian Feiyang continued driving. "Blackie said that the farmhouse we're going to has a lot of fish to catch, but I don't know if that's true. I hope it's not like last time when we fished all day and caught nothing but loneliness. I'll just try for two hours. If I don't catch anything, I'm going to quit and take pictures instead."
Feng Yi asked him, "What do you think about snakes?"
Qian Feiyang didn't seem repulsed: "You know, as higher beings, humans have their preferences. Some like homeothermic animals, some like poikilothermic animals..."
"So?"
"I choose to pet cats."
Feng Yi didn't ask any further.
After a little over two hours, they arrived at their destination.
There were quite a few farmhouses nearby the scenery area of Yue Mountain, which actually did better business than the five-star hotels in the center of the area. Wu Ji had booked the rooms a week in advance.
After getting settled, Wu Ji's parents, being older, needed to rest and take it easy, while the three of them were brimming with energy.
"Let's go, time to fish!"
Wu Ji pulled up the fishing tips he had gotten from Uncle Liu of their community fishing group.
They rented what they needed and bought what they had to, and then Wu Ji, following the guide, led Feng Yi and Qian Feiyang to find a spot.
Uncle Liu had roughly marked a few spots for him. They were a little late that day, and the closer ones had been taken. But that was no problem, Uncle Liu had marked plenty, and the fishing area was large, so even on the busiest weekends, it didn't feel overcrowded.
This was actually part of the ecological scenery area, and the other side of it was a nature reserve where visitors were not allowed to enter at will.
They chose this farmhouse because it had the best scenery and was closest to the fishing area.
Having been in the city for too long and wanting to get closer to nature, they found it comfortable to spend weekends in such a place. If lucky, they could even encounter cute little animals like squirrels and foxes.
Some internet celebrities and video bloggers would occasionally come here to try their luck.
The weather was nice today, cloudy with a breeze, and the temperature was pleasant. Children were running around in the farmstead, but there were fewer at the fishing spot. Young adults in their twenties like Feng Yi and his friends were actually not so common here.
Feng Yi had bought a fisherman's hat when renting the fishing gear and was also wearing a mask. He did not stand out here; people had their own ways of sun protection, and quite a few were well-covered.
Finally finding a spot, Wu Ji rubbed his hands together eagerly.
"Let's have a contest, see who can catch a fish first!"
Qian Feiyang lacked enthusiasm, lazily acknowledging the challenge.
Wu Ji was exuberant: "Guess how many fish I'll catch today?"