Laboratory 2 looked more like a hospital ward than a lab. At the center of the room stood a bed fitted with railings and wheeled legs, resembling a typical hospital bed. At its head, a semi-circular device like an archway was mounted, festooned with wires connecting it to various machines nearby.
These machines, stationed firmly on the floor, boasted large displays and an assortment of buttons, reminiscent of the arcade games Hongxiao had played as a child. His senior colleagues, Wen and others, were seated before these consoles.
Only Jing sat beside the bed, a smaller device at his side.
"Professor Zhu, we are all ready!" Wen announced in her usual sweet tone.
Professor Zhu nodded, turning his attention to Hongxiao. "Today, you'll experience what it's like to be a subject, or what we call 'A'. Just relax; there's nothing you need to do. Lie down, place your head into the oscillator, close your eyes, and that's it. Zou Jing will monitor your brainwaves and reactions here, while Chen Wen and the others will adjust the oscillator to stimulate your brain to emit different frequencies of primary consciousness waves."
"So that's called an oscillator," Hongxiao thought. He didn't mind putting his head in it, though he wished Wen, or at least Jun, were sitting beside him, rather than Jing.
He climbed onto the bed and lay back under the arch. Jing attached several electrodes to his scalp, each tethered to a small machine. The electrodes felt cool and slippery against his skin, like there was some lotion.
Hongxiao could smell the cigarette scent on Jing's fingers. If it had been Wen or Jun, perhaps the scent would have been more pleasant.
"Now, close your eyes and relax," Jing instructed.
Lying there, with a burly man telling him to relax seemed somewhat amusing to Hongxiao. Nonetheless, he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, attempting to clear his mind.
A whooshing sound filled his ears as the oscillator powered up.
Hongxiao had feared that these brain-stimulating machines might turn his brain to mush. After all, Professor Zhu had mentioned they were still using random parameters to try and find a resonance with someone's consciousness somewhere in the world.
But now, his mind felt fuzzy, as if filled with a myriad of sensations yet simultaneously empty, akin to the buzz one feels just before becoming fully drunk—pleasant and muzzy.
Suddenly, a familiar melody reached his ears, though he couldn't remember where he had heard it before.
Then, a blurry figure appeared before him. At first, it was unclear, but as the jumbled colors settled, he saw the background of a red dress and cascading hair. The image then morphed into a woman's face, initially one of surprise, which quickly transformed into a radiant smile, sweet as Wen's voice.
Hongxiao wasn't sure if he had actually opened his eyes; he didn't recall doing so. Yet, the images before him grew sharper.
If this were merely a meditation or a recollection with his eyes closed, such vivid scenes would be impossible.
This was followed by a voice that seemed both singing and speaking, echoing the phrase, "All my secrets laid bare."
Suddenly, Hongxiao remembered he was part of a consciousness wave resonance experiment. Could it be that he had connected with someone who spoke these words?
Unlikely. The other person wouldn't be aware of the experiment to think, "my secrets have been discovered."
"Feifei, go take out the trash," a voice abruptly commanded.
The scene before him shook, and Hongxiao realized that the sweet smile, familiar melody, and lyrics all emanated from a television in view.
Then, walls, a door, and a dustpan sequentially appeared. Slowly, Hongxiao realized he was viewing the world through Feifei's eyes, who was now heading out to dispose of the trash.
Outside, the scene felt eerily familiar—wasn't this his grandparents' old house?
His grandparents lived in an old building assigned by their employer, a five-story structure. The ground floor housed about a dozen apartments, lined up side by side. His grandparents resided in the first one on the left.
Feifei seemed to live on the first floor too. He descended the steps in the middle of the balcony, carrying the dustpan to the trash bins at the building's left end. From the corner of Feifei's eye, Hongxiao glimpsed the last apartment where his grandparents lived.
Vaguely, two figures stood by the building.
Hongxiao wanted to turn and look closely, but Feifei seemed uninterested and continued straight to the bins.
"Is time so pressing?" an aged voice suddenly asked. Hongxiao recognized it as one of the figures. The voice sounded hauntingly familiar.
The scene shifted, and the two figures appeared clearly in view. Feifei had turned his head, drawn by the voice.
To the left of the last apartment, just before the boundary wall, was a perfect spot to avoid prying eyes.
My God, was that Grandpa?
Hongxiao could clearly see one of the figures: a slightly plump old man in a felt hat—his grandfather's familiar silhouette.
The other figure, slim and possibly female, was wrapped in a hooded cloak, her features obscured.
Yet within that darkness, a pair of eyes shone with a deep, clear, and familiar intensity.
Wasn't that the mysterious girl from room 301? What was she doing here? How could she be speaking with his grandfather?
Hongxiao felt breathless. He wanted to shout but couldn't move his lips.
It felt as though a massive weight pressed down on him, requiring all his strength to resist. He didn't know what he was resisting, or if resistance was necessary, as his sense of touch told him nothing physical was pressing down. Yet, he dared not stop resisting, fearing that any relaxation would crush him under this unseen force.
But resisting was so exhausting. He felt his will to resist fading bit by bit.
Suddenly, Wen's sweet voice called out, "Little assistant, what's happening?"
Hongxiao opened his eyes to see Wen and Jun surrounding him.
He thought these two ladies looked especially gentle and kind today.
Jing's voice broke through, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Hongxiao sat up, supporting his head with his hands.
"We noticed a change in your brainwaves when we tuned to a certain frequency, and then your body stiffened, like you were having a nightmare," Professor Zhu said with concern.
"I think I tapped into someone's consciousness," Hongxiao responded.
"Really? Who?" Wen couldn't contain her curiosity.
"Feifei... I know him. Yue Pengfei. He's younger than me, a neighbor of my grandfather's, just a few houses down."
"How do you know it was his consciousness you connected with?" Jing asked, puzzled.
"His nickname is Feifei, and his sister's is Jiajia. I used to stay at my grandfather's house as a kid and often heard them calling out 'Feifei' and 'Jiajia.' Just now, I heard someone calling Feifei to take out the trash."
"And then you felt like you were the one taking out the trash?" Jun queried.
Hongxiao nodded.
"Where is your grandfather's neighbor now?" Jing inquired.
"I don't know. He should still be in high school, probably still in my hometown."
"That's great! If this is true, it means A and B can resonate across great distances!" Jing rubbed his hands together excitedly.
It seemed everyone in the lab was clear on what A and B represented. Perhaps these had become specialized terms through repeated discussions, Hongxiao mused.
"Did you sense anything else?" Jing pressed.
"I also heard a song. No, I saw a song playing on a TV. It seemed familiar. I remember hearing it often before evening self-studying classes in my senior year of high school."
"What song was it?" Wen asked.
Hongxiao felt Wen wasn't really chasing his recent conscious experience but was merely interested in what song he had liked in high school.
Such a typical response from his senior sister, always leaping from one thought to another.
"I can't remember the name," Hongxiao lied.
In truth, he had recalled the cheerful pop tune that had brought him much joy during the grueling days of his senior year. But he disliked revealing his personal feelings in front of a crowd, even if it was just about a song he enjoyed.
"Did you see that neighbor, or yourself, taking out the trash, and then it ended?" Jing seemed to probe the reason behind Hongxiao's nightmarish stiffening.
"I think I also saw my grandfather."
"Your grandfather is far away in your hometown, right?"
"My grandfather... passed away a few months ago."
Silence fell.
"Are we back in a memory trap?" Jing looked somewhat deflated.
"Sometimes when we stimulate the brain, it awakens dormant memories. So the subject, or A, might perceive some scenes. But those are just images from their own memories, not consciousness images sensed through resonance with B. We call this a 'memory trap,'" Jun explained, noting Hongxiao's confused look.
"But I don't remember ever seeing this scene of taking out the trash and seeing my grandfather. Besides, I did hear someone calling 'Feifei' to take out the trash."
Hongxiao was frustrated that his first experiment, with its mysterious and vivid scene, might be dismissed as merely a memory.
But he also knew this was partly because he hadn't mentioned the appearance of the mysterious girl from just two days ago. She couldn't possibly be in his past memories.
Yet he didn't know how to describe the girl. Appearing like a ghost at the door of room 301? Professor Zhu didn't see her, but he did?
Without knowing how to explain, Hongxiao always chose to remain silent.
"There are two possibilities. One, you've actually seen this scene before, but because it was insignificant, your brain selectively forgot it. Note that even forgotten memories are stored deep in the brain and can be reactivated under certain conditions. Two, you've never seen this scene before. The stimulation of your brain didn't awaken old memories but created a sort of hallucination, mixing up unrelated things you've seen before. Or even creating illusions. It's like how dreams are formed," Jing, the most senior researcher after Professor Zhu, began lecturing.
Hongxiao thought Jing's second possibility, the hallucination-dream theory, could have explained why Yue Pengfei, his grandfather, and the mysterious girl appeared together in this segment of consciousness.
So if the mysterious girl he thought he saw at the door of room 301 was an illusion, this new scene of she talking to grandpa was an illusion in illusion?
He couldn't help feeling disheartened.
Professor Zhu gently patted Hongxiao on the shoulder, a gesture of comfort and encouragement.
"It's okay!" Wen also comforted him with her sweeter voice.
"When we tried before, we either felt nothing or fell into memory traps, and the memories produced were vague. To generate a clear segment of consciousness, even if it's just your own memory or fantasy, is much better than what we experienced!"
"Yes, yes. You did better than all of us!" Jun agreed.
Hongxiao's affection for these two lovely ladies immediately deepened. He felt almost like these two had delivered much needed aid when he was trapped in a snowstorm.
"Maybe we shouldn't rush to conclusions," Professor Zhu suddenly spoke.
Everyone turned to look at the professor.
"Maybe I need to think more deeply, do some more theoretical exploration. Maybe we should find a way to test in practice what Hongxiao just saw, to determine if it's a memory, a hallucination, or a real segment of someone else's consciousness."
"But we don't need to draw conclusions today. It's Hua Hongxiao's first time as a subject, and he must be tired. Why don't we let him go back and rest for now?" Professor Zhu addressed the group.
Hongxiao readily agreed. His head was swirling with countless voices, and he longed to return to his dormitory for some sleep.